The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-11-04

W. III Nllt lbl llt0 vi lllt llol NNll7
fury Franklin's expedition, with its
full complement of men, was lost near
the east coast of Victoria Land Some
of these men are accounted for by
journal entries Of officers who them
selves later persisted, and others by
graves and unburied skeletons along
the route toward Backs River, but
many are yet unaccounted for
"Franklin's men must have known
there was a boat route to the Hudson
Bay Company's posts on Mackenzie
River, for Franklins' own three expe-
ditions had discovered and mapped it
chiefly by boat voyages. Is it unlikely
then that some of his men attempted
this route? And even if they did not,
might not a few of his men have
found their way to the Eskimos or Vic
toria Land and have had sufficient
adaptability to learn Eskimo methods
tol sef-support?
"A readily apparent objection to
this hypothesis is that even Frankins
whole complement of men would be,
. if amalgamated with the entire body
of Victoria Land Eskimo, insufficient
to produce the markedly European
/ type actually found today The va
/ lidity of this objection can be judged
! only after we have a complete census
Of the island and know how far the
new type is present in some localities
above others.
"(c) Collinson's and McCmre's yes
sells wintered on the Victoria Land
coast all together three years. This
can hardly have had any influence, as
the presence of a whaling fleet of 500
men or so at Herschel Island for over
twenty years, and at Point Barrow
and Point Hope for longer than thai,
has failed to produce any such type.
In regard to the possibility of
Franklin's men having survived for a
time, there is the interesting contrib.
'utory evidence that there are at vari.
GUS places | have visited this year
people said to be named with the
names of white men One name in
particular we have found in practi,
cally every. COMMUNICATES. This
is at Herschel, and further west the
Eskimo pronunciation of the English
Ned
, "Of the other white men from whom
children have been named | have
: learned no particulars, but one man
f whose dead brother had been name,
Nerk, told me he had heard that tn,
! white Nerk had lived among our cour
"a trymen by the sea far away; that h
=. was an excellent man; that he neve
f would eat seal oil; that he froze t.
; death one winter, and that he Nigh
n perhaps not have frozen to death ha,
he been more ready to eat seal oil d
;. e., he starved to death, or rather froz
j because weak from hunger. This las
y detail is convincing to me, so far al
8 it goes, for have known a case of
h white man who for days refused hi
o doled-out ration of OIL and might cas-
# lily have lost his life for want of tn,
r strength which the oil enabled hi
T companions to maintain.)
e THE oldest person have seeI
h bearing the name 'Nerk' is a woman
t.. OF over twenty. AS children taxi
y names only after the death OF the pei
t, son from whom the name comes, tn
e white Nerk' must have died owe
t twenty years ago. Whether this won
an was named directly from the whit
man or from another Eskimo Cwho il
turn had his name from the whit
man | failed to learn, because of
general reticence about such matter
and because none of us had mastere
the local dialects to any extent at tn
time we saw this woman.
AS to identifying an English nam
with Eskimo pronunciation OF it, tina
is a different matter. To illustrate,
give below several names, with the Il
cation in which | have heard them $
pronounced The spelling is Burea
OF Ethnology, and none Of them is
nickname:
Point Mi-tji-mi for MI
Stevenson; Pure for Fred.
"Herschel Island-Mis-ha for Nj
Harrison; Makapuk for Macumber
Kar-ug for Cottle.
Coronation Gulf--Cau-na-pi-na 70
Horribly; Velvin.na for Melvill; m
own name was TAXI or sa-ki until, af
er long and persistent efforts by m,
self and my Eskimos, finally got tn
pronunciation to Nap-Pasin-na, frol
which form it can not be changed I
the better, apparently.
The question OF Victoria Ian
words from Old Morse leave untouc
ed, though / have some material fC
plausible identifcations."