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OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



409 



wife of Nuyakka, and reproaching her with the diabolical inhumanity of February 

 thus leaving her sister to perish, she made some excuse which I did not 

 understand, but treated the whole matter with a degree of levity and indif- 

 ference, of which it is painful to think any human creature capable on such 

 an occasion. Placing Kooeetseearioo on my sledge, I now set off for the 

 ships, in no very good humour with the humane qualities of the Esquimaux. 



On my return on board, strongly impressed with the misery I had just 

 witnessed, 1 naturally began to consider what could be done to relieve it, 

 and I well knew that I should not want assistance in executing any plan 

 that might with this view be adopted. The difficulties, however, were not a 

 few ; for besides the indelicacy of a sick, helpless, and perverse woman 

 being attended solely by men, it would be absolutely necessary to build a 

 separate apartment for her reception, as Innooksioo, we were well aware, 

 would not have remained in the hospital an hour after her admission there. 

 Indeed, it was not without some coaxing, and more threatening, that he 

 would allow Kooeetseearioo to be lodged under the same roof with him. 

 Determined, however, to make an effort to save this unfortunate wretch, who 

 was evidently doomed by her own country-people to a lingering but certain 

 death, a separate hut was erected, communicating with the passage of the 

 hospital, and a volunteer found among the ship's company to attend exclu- 

 sively to her ; while every other necessary arrangement was made for her 

 reception by the officers I have before mentioned as so humanely taking 

 upon themselves this trouble. 



On the following day Mr. Crozier went out to bring her on board, and on Frid. 21. 

 unroofing the hut to remove her to the sledge found, as we suspected, that 

 she had been robbed of almost every thing. ' When lodged in her new 

 apartment, where there was light and room to examine her condition, little 

 hope appeared of poor Kaga's recovery ; her debilitated state being such as 

 to imply the almost total exhaustion of the vital powers, and her body 

 reduced in the short space of a few days to a mere skeleton. To shorten a 

 story which there is little inducement to prolong, Kaga breathed her last 

 on the following day, which event there would have been no charity in Sat. 22. 

 lamenting, determined as her country people were to let her ultimately 

 perish. Nor was her removal to the ships at all to be regretted ; for if it 

 were only to give the body a decent and secure burial, something might be 

 considered as thus gained. On examination after death, she was found to 

 have lost every tooth in her upper jaw, and her gums and the roof of her 



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