440 
THE ESQUIMAUX ESCORT. 
he will probably lose two of bis toes, perhaps a third. 
The rest have no special injury. 
“I cannot crowd the details of their journey into my 
diary. I have noted some of them from Dr. Hayes’s 
words; but he has promised me a written report, and I 
wait for it. It was providential that they did not stop 
for Petersen’s return or rely on the engagements which 
his Esquimaux attendants had made to them as well 
as to us. The sledges that carried our relief of provi¬ 
sions passed through the Etah settlement empty, on 
some furtive project, we know not what. 
“December 13, Wednesday.—The Esquimaux who 
accompanied the returning party are nearly all of them 
well-known friends. They were engaged from different 
settlements, but, as they neared the brig, volunteers 
added themselves to the escort till they numbered six 
drivers and as many as forty-two dogs. Whatever 
may have been their motive, their conduct to our poor 
friends was certainly full of humanity. They drove 
at flying speed; every hut gave its welcome as they 
halted; the women were ready without invitation to 
dry and chafe their worn-out guests. 
“I found, however, that there were other objects 
connected with their visit to the brig. Suffering and 
a sense of necessity had involved some of our foot¬ 
worn absentees in a breach of hospitality. While 
resting at Kalutunah’s hut, they had found opportunity 
of appropriating to their own use certain articles of 
clothing, fox-skins and the like, under circumstances 
which admitted of justification only by the law of the 
