OP A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



535 



induced them, in common with the rest of their nation, to call themselves, by 

 way of distinction Innuee, or mankind. One day for instance, in securing some 

 of the geer of a sledge, Okotook broke a part of it composed of a piece of 

 our white line, and I shall never forget the contemptuous sneer with which 

 he muttered in soliloquy the word " Kabloona !" in token of the inferiority 

 of our materials to his own. It is happy, perhaps, when people possessing 

 so few of the good things of this life can be thus contented with the little 

 allotted them. 



The men, though low in stature, are not wanting in muscular strength 

 in proportion to their size, or in activity and hardiness. They are good 

 and even quick walkers, and occasionally bear much bodily fatigue, wet, 

 and cold, without appearing to suffer by it, much less to complain of it. 

 Whatever labour they have gone through and with whatever success in pro- 

 curing game, no individual ever seems to arrogate to himself the credit of 

 having done more than his neighbour for the general good. Nor do I con- 

 ceive there is reason to doubt their personal courage, though they are too 

 good-natured often to excite others to put that quality to the test. It is true 

 they will recoil with horror at the tale of an Indian massacre, and probably 

 cannot conceive what should induce one set of men deliberately and with- 

 out provocation to murder another. War is not their trade ; ferocity forms 

 no part of the disposition of the Esquimaux. Whatever manly qualities they 

 possess are exercised in a different way, and put to a far more worthy pur- 

 pose. They are fishermen and not warriors ; but I cannot call that man a 

 coward who, at the age of one and twenty, will attack a polar bear single- 

 handed, or fearlessly commit himself to floating masses of ice which the next 

 puff of wind may drift for ever from the shore. 



If in short they are deficient in some of the higher virtues, as they are 

 called, of savage life, they are certainly free also from some of its blackest 

 vices ; and their want of brilliant qualities is fully compensated by those 

 which, while they dazzle less, do more service to society and more honour 

 to human nature. If, for instance, they have not the magnanimity which 

 would enable them to endure without a murmur the most excruciating tor- 

 ture, neither have they the ferocious cruelty that incites a man to inflict 

 that torture on a helpless fellow-creature. If their gratitude for favours be 

 not lively nor lasting, neither is their resentment of injuries implacable nor 

 their hatred deadly. I do not say there are not exceptions to this rule, 

 though we have never witnessed any, but it is assuredly not their general 

 character. 



