The Cecil Whig., 1886-01-16

band of savages, laughing heartily at
everything that had the appearance of
a joke, and imposing more work on
the muscles that held up the corners OF
their mouths into chronic grin than
any others in their lazy bodies. Their
object in visiting us, for they had been
chasing US through the fog all morning,
was to trade their merchandise Of fox
skins, polar bear robes, reindeer cloth
ing ard meat, whaebone and such
other things as we would be willing to
buy, or rather to trade, for the Eskimo
knows nothing Of the use of money and
but little more of the art of barter.
This was strongly shown in their method
of tra!ing with the whaling crew Of the
ship whereon my party was taking pas
sage to North Hudson's Bay. \ nice
polar bear robe was spread on the quar-
ter deck, one that you would expect a
furrier's c,erk to estimate was worth a
clear S15o. My breath was almost
taken away when the master of the ship
hauled out of his pocket half plug
of navy six (one-twelfth of pOund)
tobacco and offer it to him for the
white silky affair, and l had to lean up
against one of the davits when this
northern ninny accepted the offer with
a smile as if he had struck a special
sale bargain.
The white man got generous, how
ever, before he rolled up the skins and
added sixth of a pound of powder to
the bargain. Four saddles of reindeer
meat were had for half a cupful of
shot, that properly managed might have
secured four ducks, which in tnrn could
have been traded to this whaler for
lump of brown sugar, and the native
would have still been satisfied, even If
the white man had bitten 1t in Two and
handed him the smaller halt Twenty
five rusty musket caps were given for
five beautiful white fox skins and |
went into mathematical estimate with
logarithms and astronomy, which show
ed that man with a capital of box
of musket caps (four cents Wholesale
would, if he started into this business at
IS years of age and continued at it till
he felt like retiring at so, own the
whole earth by warranty deed, and have
chattle mortgage on the rest of the solar
system that is if the foxes held out.
They had brought three dogs with them
in the 00mlcR, which | wanted to pur-
chase for my explorations, and although
the surrounding circumstances would
have justified me in rendering handle
less palm-leaf fan that hung up in my
stateroom as a souvenir from my un-
known predecessor, broke loose from
the infatuation, and actually gave them
something approximately near their own
value. As a result one old fellow, who
had evidently not washed his face since
he was born, SO insisted on rubbing
noses with me in an affectionate man
ner to testify his appreciation of my
payments that, notwithstanding it was
interpreted as signifying eternal friend
ship, | almost repented of my weak at
tempt at generosity, and regretted that
l had not given them pipeful of to-
bacco for each dog, insted of a pound
package of it along with other articles.
A breeze springing up, ter-b2wit-ee
farewelD was exchanged and we parted
with all our Eskimo friends except their
odor, which hung over the ship as if it
had come to stay. | spent the next
few hours reading description of these
same savages and how they had to be
watched to prevent their stealing things
too loosely scattered about the ships
deck, and | thought there would be
very little left of even the deck if the
natives stole enough to keep even with
their trading LOSSES.
My second meeting was with the
Eskimo of North Hudson's Bay, and l
was extremely solicitous as to its re-
suit, for on them more than anyone
else would the success of my future
expedition depend in the assistance
they could render as dog drivers,
sledgemen, guides and hunters. | had
hoped that they were in Repulse Bay
far to the northward, as it gave me a
better route to King William Land,
where was to search for information
concerning Sir John Franklin's i'll fated
expedition, but the ships captain
thought they would BE- on the northern
shores Of the bay, where they had
come down to trade with the Ameri-
can whalemen plying their vocations in
these waters. | could not help think
ing at the time that If his trading was
good sample of all would not come
down from one pair of stairs to trade,
if | were an Eskimo but | am glad to
say that others were generally more
just, though it would require stretch
of conscience to accuse them of gen
erosity, except in few Commendable
cases. When the dreary coast line of
Northern Hudson's Bay loomed in
sight on the Sth of August nothing Of
the natives could be seen as we
searched the brown messy shores with
our telescopes. 1t afterward turned
out that their brown sealskin tents
were in full sight of the ships, but we
could not see them on account of
their being thrown against a back
ground of moss of the same color
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