384 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
in the ship during the night; and that Commander Ross, with 
Blankey the mate, should start at an early hour, on the fol¬ 
lowing morning. The names of the Esquimaux were Oobloo - 
raiak , the same personage whose wife had purloined his horn 
basin, and Alwak ; the former about 22 and the latter about 19 
years of age. According to custom, one of the crew read the 
bible to Capt. Ross, in the evening 1 , and the two Esquimaux 
formed part of the congregation. Edification, instruction, or 
amusement, however, being wholly out of the question with the 
two new members, they followed the example of some of the 
members of other congregations ; and considering that they had 
a long and fatiguing journey before them, they thought they 
could not employ their time more advantageously than in taking 
a senik, not knowing how long the business which was then 
transacting, might continue. Scarcely, however, had they rolled 
themselves up in a comfortable posture, than the reader had ar¬ 
rived at the end of the chapter, and the congregation broke up. 
The steward took upon himself the office of introducing the 
strangers to their berths for the night, but not until he had sa¬ 
tisfied their appetites with a baked piece of seal, which weighed 
9^tbs. before being put into the oven. This quantity was, how¬ 
ever, demolished uy tne iwo gluttons; and it was the firm be¬ 
lief of the steward, that had there been three or four pounds 
more, they would have been devoured, for not a particle of the 
9tbs. was left on the wooden platters from which they took their 
meal, and which they afterwards licked so clean, that the process 
of washing them scarcely appeared to be necessary. The steward 
put his visitors to bed at 9 o’clock ; it being a charge to which 
he did not testify any great partiality, on account of the respon¬ 
sibility, which was attached to it; for he had not forgotten the 
handy tricks of Poowutyook ; nor could he leave the strangers 
a moment by themselves, from the well-founded fear, that 
something would find its way into their capacious trow T sers, 
which did not belong to them, and for the loss of which he 
might perhaps be made accountable. He had also received 
instructions to pack up some provisions sufficient for the main¬ 
tenance of Commander Ross and the mate, on their approaching 
