OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



525 



their transactions with us. Among themselves, almost the only case in 

 which this sentiment can have any field for exertion, is in the conduct of chil- 

 dren towards their parents, and in this respect, as I shall presently have 

 occasion to notice, their gratitude is by no means conspicuous. Any thing 

 like a free gift is very little if at all known among them. If A gives B a 

 part of his seal to-day, the latter soon returns an equal quantity when he is 

 the successful fisherman. Uncertain as their mode of living is, and dependant 

 as they are upon each other's exertions, this custom is the evident and 

 unquestionable interest of all. The regulation does credit to their wis- 

 dom, but has nothing to do with their generosity. This being the case, it 

 might be supposed that our numerous presents, for which no return was 

 asked, would have excited in them something like thankfulness combined 

 with admiration ; but this was so little the case, that the cot/enna (thanks) 

 which did now and then escape them, expressed much less than even the 

 most common-place thank ye" of civilized society. Some exceptions, for 

 they were only exceptions and rare ones to this rule, have been mentioned as 

 they occurred ; but in general, however considerable the benefit conferred, 

 it was forgotten in a day ; and this forgetfulness was not unfrequently aggra- 

 vated by their giving out that their benefactor had been so shabby as to make 

 them no present at all. Even those individuals who, either from good beha- 

 viour or superior intelligence, had been most noticed by us, and particularly 

 such as had slept onboard the ships, and whether in health or sickness had 

 received the most friendly treatment from every body, were in general just 

 as indifferent as the rest ; and I do not believe that any one amongst them 

 would have gone half a mile out of his road, or have sacrificed the most 

 trivial self-gratification to have served us. Though the riches lay on our 

 side, they possessed abundant means of making some nominal return which, 

 for the sake of the principle that prompted it, would of course have been 

 gratifying to us. Okotook and Iligliuk, whom I had most loaded with pre- 

 sents, and who had never offered me a single free gift in return, put into 

 my hand, at the time of their first removal from Winter-Island, a dirty 

 crooked model of a spear, so shabbily constructed that it had probably 

 been already refused as an article of barter by many of the ship's company. 

 On my accepting this, from an unwillingness to affront them, they were 

 uneasy and dissatisfied till I had given them something in return, though 

 their hands were full of the presents which I had just made them. Selfish- 

 ness is in fact almost without exception their universal characteristic, and 



