536 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



When viewed more nearly in their domestic relations, the comparison will 

 I believe, be still more in their favour. It is here as a social being, as a 

 husband and the father of a family, promoting within his own little sphere 

 the benefit of that community in which Providence has cast his lot, that the 

 moral character of a savage is truly to be sought ; and who can turn without 

 horror from the Esquimaux, peaceably seated after a day of honest labour 

 with his wife and children in their snow-built hut, to the self-willed and 

 vindictive Indian, wantonly plunging his dagger into the bosom of the help- 

 less woman, whom nature bids him cherish and protect ! 



Of the few arts possessed by this simple people some account has already 

 been given in the description of their various implements. As mechanics 

 they have little to boast, when compared with other savages lying under equal 

 disadvantages as to scantiness of tools and materials. As carpenters they can 

 scarf two pieces of wood together, secure them with pins of whalebone 

 or ivory, fashion the timbers of a canoe, shoe a paddle, and rivet a scrap of 

 iron into a spear or arrow head. Their principal tool is the knife (panna,) and 

 considering the excellence of a great number which they possessed previous 

 to our intercourse with them, the work they do is remarkably coarse and 

 clumsy. Their very manner of holding and handling a knife is the most 

 awkward that can be imagined. For the purpose of boring holes they have 

 a drill and bow so exactly like our own that they need no further description, 

 except that the end of the drill-handle, which our artists place against their 

 breasts, is rested by these people against a piece of wood or bone held in their 

 mouths, and having a cavity fitted to receive it. With the use of the saw 

 they were well acquainted, but had nothing of this kind in their possession 

 better than a notched piece of iron. One or two small European axes were 

 lashed to handles in a contrary direction to ours, that is, to be used like an 

 adze (3,) a form which, according to the observation of a traveller* well 

 qualified to judge, savages in general prefer. It was said that these people 

 steamed or boiled wood, in order to bend it for fashioning the timbers of their 

 canoes. As fishermen or seamen they can put on a wool ding or seizing with 

 sufficient strength and security, and are acquainted with some of the most 

 simple and serviceable knots in use among us. In all the arts, however, 

 practised by the men it is observable that the ingenuity lies in the principle, 

 not in the execution. The experience of ages has led them to adopt the 



* Lcdyard. Proceedings of the African Association. Vol. i. p. 30. 



