BURIAL AT SEA. 



41 



could eat no more. As he expressed a desire to be on deck, a 

 tent was erected there, that he might enjoy the sunshine and 

 the air. But nothing availed to save him. The following day 

 he was again taken below, and never again left his berth alive. 

 He died about half past four on Sunday morning. His last words 

 were, " Teik-ho se-ho? teik-Jco se-Jco ? " — Do you see ice? do you 

 see ice ? His prayer was that he might arrive home, and once 

 more look upon his native land — its mountains, its snows, its ice 

 — and upon his wife and his little ones ; he would then ask no 

 more of earth. We had sighted the Labrador coast on our way, 

 and after that we sailed several days without seeing ice. Kud- 

 lago kept incessantly asking if we saw the ice, thinking, if so, we 

 must be near to his home ; but, poor fellow, he was still far away 

 when his final moments came. He died in lat. 63° N., when near 

 the coast of Greenland, and about 300 miles from his native 

 place. 



Suitable preparations were soon made for his burial in, the sea, 

 and as I had always thought a " burial at sea" must be a scene of 

 great interest, the one I now witnessed for the first time most 

 strongly impressed itself upon me. Never did I participate more 

 devoutly in what then seemed to me the most solemn scene of my 

 life. There before us was the "sheeted dead," lying amidships 

 on the gangway board, all in readiness for burial. The whole 

 ship's company, save a solitary man at the wheel, had assembled 

 in sorrowful silence around our departed friend, to pay the last 



respect we could to him. By the request of Captain B , 



who was bound by strong ties of friendship to Kudlago, I had 

 consented to take an active part in the services. I therefore pro- 

 ceeded to make such remarks as were deemed proper for the oc- 

 casion. These were succeeded by my reading portions of appro- 

 priate exhortations from the " Masonic Manual," after which I 

 read a prayer from the same excellent work. In this all seemed 

 deeply, solemnly interested. 



During these services the breezes of heaven were wafting us on 

 — silently, yet speedily to the north. At a given signal from the 

 captain, who was standing on my right, the man at the helm luff- 

 ed the ship into the wind and deadened her headway. William 

 Sterry and Eobert Smith now stepped to the gangway, and hold- 

 ing firmly the plank on which was the shrouded dead — a short 

 pause, and down sank the mortal part of Kudlago, the noble Es- 

 quimaux, into the deep grave — the abyss of the ocean ! Oh 



