OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



15 



we had just emptied, the very smell of which, as well as the appearance, 1821. 

 was to us almost insufferable. The disgust which our seamen could not ^ri, 

 help expressing at this sight seemed to create in the Esquimaux the most 

 malicious amusement ; and when our people turned away literally unable 

 to bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke among 

 themselves, run after them holding out a piece of blubber or raw seal's 

 flesh, dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting them to partake of it. Both 

 the men and women were guilty of still more disgusting indecencies, which 

 seemed to afford them amazing diversion. A worse trait even than all 

 these was displayed by two women alongside the Hecla, who, in a manner 

 too unequivocal to be misunderstood, offered to barter their children for 

 some article of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of 

 their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included in the in- 

 tended bargain. 



Upon the whole, it was impossible for us not to receive a very unfavourable 

 impression of the general behaviour, and moral character, of the natives of 

 this part, of Hudson's Strait, who seem to have acquired, by an annual inter- 

 course with our ships for nearly a hundred years, many of the vices which 

 unhappily attend a first intercourse Avith the civilized world, without having 

 imbibed any of the virtues or refinements which adorn and render it happy. 



Early on the morning of the 22d, a number of canoes repeated their visit Sund.22. 

 to us, the Esquimaux having hauled them upon a piece of ice to lodge for the 

 night. In the forenoon, an oomiak also came from the shore, and as no in- 

 tercourse with them was permitted till after divine service, they became very 

 impatient to barter their commodities, and walked on the ice alongside the 

 ship, with a number of trifling things in their hands, vociferating " pilletay " 

 to such a degree that we could hardly hear ourselves speak. Some more oil 

 was obtained in exchange for pieces of iron hoop, and, at a quarter before 

 noon, the wind coming more to the southward and the ice being somewhat 

 less close than before, we cast off and made sail up the strait. 



The wind and ice combined to favour us more and more as we proceeded, 

 the former both in strength and direction, and the latter by opening into 

 loose streams ; so that, for the first time since we entered Hudson's Strait, 

 we were now enabled to set all the studding-sails, with some prospect 

 of deriving advantage from them. The Hudson's Bay ships remained at 

 anchor some time after we made sail, and in the course of the evening we 

 finally lost sight of them. From this circumstance, as well as from the 



