A YANKEE OUTWITTED. 



55 



good-humored Steny. I here show a fac-simile of it to my read- 

 ers. Sterrj, seeing the "sex skilling" on the bill, thought it to 

 be six shillings Yankee currency, and accordingly himself ad- 

 dressed the Esquimaux in native tongue. " How many plugs 

 for this?" said he. "Four" answered Sampson. Now this, if 

 each had understood the other, would have been clear, straight- 

 forward, and a bargain. But Sterry, though well talking Esqui- 

 maux on the west side of Davis's Straits, was not so proficient in 

 it at Greenland, where there is a material difference. Accord- 

 ingly, Sampson's reply he took to mean four pounds of tobacco, 

 which amounted to thirty-two plugs. This, even at the " six shil- 

 lings" Yankee currency, was a pretty " steep price," for the to- 

 bacco was worth at least one dollar and sixty-eight cents. How- 

 ever, for certain reasons connected with an extreme thirst then 

 raging throughout both Sterry and Smith, it was concluded to let 

 the tobacco go that the money might be had. Smith, therefore, 

 went to his chest and got what Sampson wanted. As the plugs 

 of tobacco were counted over to the Esquimaux, his eyes ex- 

 panded with immense delight and astonishment. He hastened to 

 his kyack with the " godsend," and hurried to the shore, the rich- 

 est native man in Holsteinborg. Immediately he communicated 

 to his friends the immense wealth that had befallen him from his 

 "sex skillings;" how he had asked only four plugs of tobacco 

 from the white man on board the ship, and he had got eightfold. 

 It was enough. What California was to Americans, so was the 

 barque George Henry now to the Esquimaux of Holsteinborg. 

 Kyack after kyack came with its dignified Esquimaux, each load- 

 ed with a large complement of the fortune-making "sex skilling." 

 Sampson, who had so quickly got rich, was among the new-com- 

 ers, eagerly seeking for more. But, alas for the hopes of men, 

 especially when founded on bank bills ! A speculation had al- 

 ready commenced in town on the "skilling notes." They ran up 

 above par to 300, 400, and, at one time, 800 per cent. ! And when 

 the Esquimaux, to some scores of persons, arrived on board, they 

 found themselves partly ruined instead of being enriched. Our 

 Sterry and Smith had discovered their mistake, and thus many 

 an Esquimaux, who, like several white men, had invested his all 

 in that sort of paper currency at high figures, found himself al- 

 most beggared. Directly Sampson came on board, he was met 

 by Smith at the gangway, and the following took place, to the 

 dismay of the numerous new traders : 



