86 
FIRST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
ascertained to be an island, and was called Bushman’s Island, in 
compliment to the person who discovered it. It was found to be 
utterly desolate, but some piles of stone, resembling- in their 
appearance and arrangement, the usual graves of the Esquimaux, 
shewed that it had been inhabited. On the return of the party, 
taking advantage of a light breeze from the N. N. E., the ships 
proceeded, but they had made very little progress, when the 
crews were surprised by the appearance of several men on the 
ice, who were hallooing, as was imagined, to the ships. The 
first impression was, that they were shipwrecked sailors, pro¬ 
bably belonging to some vessel, which had been crushed in the 
late gale. On approaching the ice, however, they were disco¬ 
vered to be natives, drawn in rudely fashioned sledges by dogs, 
which they continued to drive backwards and forwards with 
wonderful rapidity. On arriving within hail, Sacheuse called 
out to them in his own language, some words were heard in 
return, to which a reply was again made in the Esquimaux, but 
neither party appeared to be in the least degree intelligible to 
the other. For some time they regarded the ship in silence, but 
on its tacking, they set up a simultaneous shout, accompanied 
with many strange gesticulations, and went off in their sledges 
with great velocity towards the land; after they had attained 
the distance of a mile or more, they halted for about two hours; 
this was no sooner observed, than a boat was sent to the place, 
with a stool of four feet in height, on which, various presents, 
consisting of knives and articles of clothing were left. This 
however failed to attract the attention of the natives; and a se¬ 
cond boat was therefore sent, with directions to leave one of the 
Esquimaux dogs, with some strings of blue beads around his 
neck, near the same place. 
It being necessary to examine if there were a passage in this 
place, the ships proceeded towards the head of the pool, which 
was about four miles off; trusting in the mean time, that the 
natives would return to the same spot. No opening was however 
found, and they therefore returned after an absence of ten hours. 
The dog was found sleeping on the spot where he was left, and 
