CHANGE OF CHARACTER. 
121 
011 Ihe in-shore side of Littleton Island; and among 
the cairns around them that had served to conceal pro¬ 
visions or that now covered the remains of the dead. 
Were numerous implements of the chase. 
The huts which I saw near Refuge Harbor, in lat. 
33', were much more perfect, and had been in¬ 
habited very recently. From some of the marks which 
I have referred to in my journal, there was reason to 
suppose that the inmates might return before the open- 
ln g of another season. 
It was still otherwise with those that we met at 
ars uk and elsewhere farther to the south. These, 
though retaining signs of comparatively modern habi¬ 
tation, were plainly deserted homes. I met at Uper- 
na vik an ancient woman, the latest survivor of the few 
^ho escaped from these settlements during the general 
Pestilence. 
. r ^ l ° labors of the Lutheran and Moravian mis- 
eiiaries have been so far successful among these 
P jlple that but few of them are now without the 
^ e °f professed Christianity, and its reforming in- 
^ Oces have affected the moral tone of all. Before 
arrival of these self-sacrificing evangelists, murder, 
< Kt; hurial of the living, and infanticide, were not 
cr °d among crimes. It was unsafe for vessels to 
upon the coast; treachery was as common and 
jj cn honored as among the Polynesians of the 
1 h'i n seas. Crantz tells us of a Dutch brig that 
l7 hy the natives at the port of Disco, in 
’ an( I the whole crew murdered; and two years 
