138 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



they generally went out cruising for whales just when they 

 pleased, came back when they pleased, and did as they pleasecL 

 If one or several took an idea to go off deer-hunting, or for any 

 other object, away he or they would go. They would be inde- 

 pendent in the fullest sense of the word, and restraint was what 

 they could not brook. 



We Americans talk about " freedom and independence," but 

 we are far behind these Northerners. While we are pleased with 

 shadows, the dusky sons of an arctic clime enjoy the substance. 

 They will do as they please, without any one having the acknowl- 

 edged right or power to say to them, " Why do you so ?" 



I could say much, very much upon this subject, but perhaps it 

 may be considered out of place, therefore leave it for another op- 

 portunity. Still, I must make one remark. The Esquimaux 

 really deserve the attention of the philanthropist and Christian. 

 Plant among them a colony of men and women having right- 

 minded principles, and, after some patient toil, glorious fruits must 

 follow. I can not realize the fact that here is a people having 

 much of nobleness and even greatness in their composition, yet 

 un visited and apparently uncared-for by the missionary world. 

 Nothing, however, could be done toward their good until a course 

 is adopted similar to that pursued by the King of Denmark with 

 Greenland. It is a painful, but too evident fact, that the Esqui- 

 maux on the west of Davis's Straits are wofully debased, and fall- 

 en from their original virtues — though possessing many still — ow- 

 ing to the visits of reckless white men on their coasts. In Green- 

 land the case is different. There, under the Danish king's con- 

 trol, Christian colonies, churches, schools, store-houses, and stores 

 of every needful variety, are to be found interspersed from Cape 

 Farewell to Upernavik, and the inhabitants comfortable and hap- 

 py. Priests and catechists, schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, are 

 educated to their several posts, and are well paid for their serv- 

 ices from his majesty's coffers. Danes emigrate to the land, mar- 

 ry and intermarry with the Esquimaux. Knowledge and virtue, 

 industry and prosperity, are the results. And, notwithstanding 

 the expenses for the support of all this, including the salaries of 

 inspectors, governors, and several scores of employes, yet the net 

 proceeds of this apparently desolate land exceed ten thousand 

 dollars, federal money, per annum ! This is well for Greenland. 

 Paying for all her imports ; paying the expenses of some ten ships 

 annually from and to Copenhagen ; paying all the other expenses 



