I'HE PURSER IS CAUTIONED TO ‘‘LOOK SHARP.*’ 395 
than the best English could have done. I ended by 
giving it to her for thirty squirrel-skins, a reindeer-robe, 
and the contemned moccasins; and the reader must not 
accuse me of having weathered the unsophisticated 
beauty in the trade until he or she reads further and 
sees what little value they attached to their articles of 
traffic and how great a value to ours. 
We had been cautioned by various whalers as to the 
nature of the things they most longed for, and had taken 
the precaution, before leaving the ship, to load ourselves 
down with such. They consisted of the following ar- 
ticles; — fancy calicoes, cotton or silk handkerchiefs, 
needles and thread, brilliantly-coloured sowing-silk, (of 
which we had bought many pounds in China,) all kinds 
of old clothes, molasses, rice, tobacco, spirits, flannel, 
blankets; in short, almost every thing except money. 
It would have been amusing to have stood otf and 
watched the various groups as they carried on their 
trading. In the foreground, first and foremost in re- 
sources, stood the purser, with the Government at his 
back in the shape of endless supplies of flannel and 
tobacco, and the captain at his elbow urging upon him 
the necessity of securing bullocks and vegetables for the 
ebip’s company before they were T)onght np by tlie dif- 
ferent messes. Xow, as the bullocks were drifting about 
over the hills with natives already following them upon 
“fell murder intent,’* and as no vegetables had yet been 
discovered, the pursei' — very naturally — could not see the 
necessity for any further exertion on his part, and was 
evidently disposed to “ take it easy.” The elbow-jogging, 
therefore, only resulted in causing him to seat himself 
