PARKER AND THE "TRUE-LOVE."— NIKTJ JAR THE PILOT. I55 



With a few good strokes of the oars, we soon entered the snug 

 little cove where the Parkers had taken shelter. In a moment 

 or two after passing the steamer we were standing on the deck 

 of the True-love, most kindly welcomed by Captain Parker, senior, 

 and shortly afterward by his son, who came on board. I there 

 found "Blind George," who immediately recognized my voice, 

 calling me by name, and saying, "How do you, Mitter Hall?" 

 and then, without waiting for reply, adding, " Pretty well, I tank 

 you!" 



I was, indeed, right glad to again meet this noble but afflicted 

 Esquimaux. The four times I had seen him at Cornelius Grinnell 

 Bay caused him to be much impressed upon my memory, and 

 now, strangely, here he was, and actually in presence of Nikujar, 

 who was his former wife, before Ugarng took her away and made 

 her his. Ugarng, however, could support the woman, and poor 

 blind George could not ; hence the latter had to submit, and be 

 content with an occasional visit of their only child, as an idol 

 which he cherished even more than his own life. 



Captain Parker soon took me into his cabin, and had an ex- 

 cellent breakfast spread on the table. After this, conversation 

 turned upon many subjects of a most interesting nature. He had 

 brought his ship, guided by an Esquimaux pilot — Ebierbing — 

 from Mountelik, in Northumberland Inlet, to Cornelius Grinnell 

 Bay, through a channel 128 miles long, and not above one to two 

 miles broad, behind a line of islands facing the sea. The steamer 

 towed the sailing ship, as no vessel of their size could pass up or 

 down such a channel unless with a fair wind. In the channel 

 the flood tide runs south, while elsewhere it runs north. Captain 

 Parker said the scenery was most magnificent, and there was 

 plenty of salmon, deer, and other game. Altogether it was a trip, 

 as he expressed it, that I would have been delighted with. 



Among the many incidents related to me by Captain Parker, 

 one or two may be worth recording here. He said that in 1833-4 

 he had been down Prince Regent's Inlet as far as Cape Kater, in 

 company with the Isabella, Captain Humphreys, who rescued Sir 

 John Ross and his companions after their four years' abode in an 

 icy home. Parker had seen Ross's boats while on their way to 

 escape, but supposing them to be the Isabella's, took no especial 

 notice. In Regent's Inlet, he said, there were hundreds of whales 

 between Cape York and Cape Kater. He had caught five off 

 Cape Kater, and twenty -three more between there and Cape 



