274 
LAST VOYAGE QF CAPT. R09S. 
north east, about the distance of fifty seniks, to which their tribe 
were annually in the habit of resorting during the summer, for 
the purpose of catching some large fish of the salmon kind, while 
on the banks the rein-deer were found in great abundance. With 
that proneness that is natural to the human mind to believe that 
which we wish to be true, no great degree of faith was attached 
to the report of these Esquimaux, and principally because they 
differed from the report which had been given by Okkaru, but 
when it is considered that their method of expressing themselves, 
was scarcely intelligible to those to whom it was addressed, 
accompanied at the same time by a great difficulty on their part 
in making the natives comprehend what they meant; it is very 
possible that the discrepancy in their different reports was not so 
great as it might at first appear to be; at all events, taking the in¬ 
formation which had been received on the whole, it was by no 
means encouraging to the adventurous mariners, who began to 
suspect that they were in a cul de sac, and that instead of at¬ 
tempting to penetrate further westward, their most prudent plan 
would be to retrace their course, and seek for the ultimate 
object of their voyage in another quarter. 
On the 5th March, the whole tribe of the Esquimaux amounting 
to 70, deserted their winter habitations, and separated in different 
parties or divisions, one directing their course to their summer 
station about ten miles distant from the ship, and another to a 
chain of islands that lay from the ship in the direction of N. N. E. 
Two women left one of the parties and came to the ship with 
some articles of peltry, and having obtained their price for them 
they returned highly satisfied. 
Mr. McDiarmid having ascertained that the natives, in con¬ 
formity with their general custom, had left the corpse of Illictu 
behind, he, accompanied by another of the officers, repaired to 
the huts, but the corpse was not to be found. It was now conject¬ 
ured, that the information which had been given them, of the 
corpse being still in the hut, was given with the design of mis¬ 
leading them, for although comparatively speaking, they cared 
very little about it, yet on account of the enquiries, which had 
been made respecting it, by certain parties belonging to the ship, 
