Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Volume I Part 7

five miles, at half past four A.M.

The ice led us off very much to the eastward after leaving Pond's Bay; and the weather became calm, with small snow towards midnight. In this day's run, the compa.s.s-courses were occasionally inserted in the logbook, being the first time that the magnetic needle had been made use of on board the Hecla, for the purposes of navigation, for more than twelve months.

On the morning of the 3d we pa.s.sed some of the highest icebergs I have ever seen, one of them being not less than one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the sea, judging from the height of the Griper's masts when near it.

The vegetation was tolerably luxuriant in some places upon the low land which borders the sea, consisting princ.i.p.ally of the dwarf-willow, sorrel, saxifrage, and poppy, with a few roots of scurvy-gra.s.s. There was still a great deal of snow remaining even on the lower parts of the land, on which were numerous ponds of water; on one of these, a pair of young red-throated divers, which could not rise, were killed; and two flocks of geese, one of them consisting of not less than sixty or seventy, were seen by Mr.

Hooper, who described them as being very tame, running along the beach before our people, without rising, for a considerable distance. Some glaucous gulls and plovers were killed, and we met with several tracks of bears, deers, wolves, foxes, and mice. The c.o.xswain of the boat found upon the beach part of the bone of a whale, which had been cut at one end by a sharp instrument like an axe, with a quant.i.ty of chips lying about it, affording undoubted proof of this part of the coast having been visited at no distant period by Esquimaux; it is more than probable, indeed, that they may inhabit the sh.o.r.es of this inlet, which time would not now permit us to examine. More than sixty icebergs of very large dimensions were in sight from the top of the hill, together with a number of extensive floes to the northeast and southeast, at the distance of four or five leagues from the land.

While occupied in attending to the soundings, soon after noon, our astonishment may readily be conceived on seeing from the masthead a s.h.i.+p, and soon after two others, in the offing, which were soon ascertained to be whalers, standing in towards the land. They afterward bore up to the northward along the edge of the ice which intervened between us, and we lost sight of them at night. It was now evident that this coast, which had hitherto been considered by the whalers as wholly inaccessible in so high a lat.i.tude, had become a fis.h.i.+ng station, like that on the opposite or Greenland sh.o.r.e; and the circ.u.mstance of our meeting so few whales in Sir James Lancaster's Sound this season was at once accounted for by supposing, what, indeed, we afterward found to be the case, that the fis.h.i.+ng-s.h.i.+ps had been there before us, and had, for a time, scared them from that ground.

It was so squally on the morning of the 5th that we could scarcely carry our double-reefed topsails, while, as we afterward learned from the fis.h.i.+ng-s.h.i.+ps, which were in sight at daylight, there was scarcely a breath of wind at a few leagues' distance from the land. We coasted this low sh.o.r.e, as we had done in the preceding voyage, at the distance of two or three miles, having from twenty-three to twenty-nine fathoms water. We here met with another of our fis.h.i.+ng-s.h.i.+ps, which proved to be the Lee, of Hull, Mr. Williamson, master; from whom we learned, among other events of a public nature which were altogether new to us, the public calamity which England had sustained in the death of our late venerable and beloved sovereign, and also the death of his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent. Mr. Williamson, among others, had succeeded in getting across the ice to this coast as high as the lat.i.tude of 73, and had come down to this part in pursuit of the fish. One or two of the s.h.i.+ps had endeavoured to return home by running down this coast, but had found the ice so close about the lat.i.tude of 69 as to induce most of the others to sail back to the northward, in order to get back in the same way that they came. Mr. Williamson also reported his having, a day or two before, met with some Esquimaux in the inlet named the River Clyde in 1818, which was just to the southward of us. Considering it a matter of some interest to communicate with these people, who had, probably, not been before visited by Europeans, and that it might, at the same time, be useful to examine the inlet, I bore up, as soon as I had sent our despatches and letters on board the Lee, and stood in towards the rocky islet, called Agnes's Monument, pa.s.sing between it and the low point which forms the entrance to the inlet on the northern side.

At six in the evening of the 6th, being near the outermost of the islands with which we afterward found this inlet to be studded, we observed four canoes paddling towards the s.h.i.+ps; they approached with great confidence, and came alongside without the least appearance of fear or suspicion. While paddling towards us, and, indeed, before we could plainly perceive their canoes, they continued to vociferate loudly; but nothing like a song, nor even any articulate sound, which can be expressed by words, could be distinguished. Their canoes were taken on board by their own desire, plainly intimated by signs, and with their a.s.sistance, and they at once came up the side without hesitation. These people consisted of an old man, apparently much above sixty, and three younger, from nineteen to thirty years of age. As soon as they came on deck, their vociferations seemed to increase with their astonishment, and, I may add, their pleasure; for the reception they met with seemed to create no less joy than surprise. Whenever they received a present or were shown anything which excited fresh admiration, they expressed their delight by loud and repeated e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, which they sometimes continued till they were quite hoa.r.s.e and out of breath with the exertion. This noisy mode of expressing their satisfaction was accompanied by a jumping, which continued for a minute or more, according to the degree of the pa.s.sion which excited it, and the bodily powers of the person who exercised it; the old man being rather too infirm, but still doing his utmost to go through the performance.

After some time pa.s.sed on deck, during which a few skins and ivory knives were bought from them, they were taken down into the cabin.

The younger ones received the proposal to descend somewhat reluctantly, till they saw that their old companion was willing to show them the example, and they then followed without fear.

Although we were much at a loss for an interpreter, we had no great difficulty in making the old man understand, by showing him an engraved portrait of an Esquimaux, that Lieutenant Beechey was desirous of making a similar drawing of him. He was accordingly placed on a stool near the fire, and sat for more than an hour with very tolerable composure and steadiness, considering that a barter for their clothes, spears, and whalebone was going on at the same time near him. He was, indeed, kept quiet by the presents which were given him from time to time; and when this failed, and he became impatient to move, I endeavoured to remind him that we wished him to keep his position, by placing my hands before me, holding up my head and a.s.suming a grave and demure look. We now found that the old gentleman was a mimic, as well as a very good-natured and obliging man; for, whenever I did this he always imitated me in such a manner as to create considerable diversion among his own people as well as ours, and then very quietly kept his seat. While he was sitting for his picture, the other three stood behind him, bartering their commodities with great honesty, but in a manner which showed them to be no strangers to traffic.

If, for instance, a knife was offered for any article, they would hesitate for a short time, till they saw we were determined to give no higher price, and then at once consented to the exchange.

In this case, as well as when anything was presented to them, they immediately licked it twice with their tongues, after which they seemed to consider the bargain satisfactorily concluded. The youngest of the party very modestly kept behind the others, and, before he was observed to have done so, missed several presents, which his less diffident, though not importunate companions had received. As the night closed in they became desirous to depart, and they left us before dark, highly delighted with their visit.

As I had purchased one of their canoes, a boat was sent to land its late owner, as only one person can sit in each. Mr. Palmer informed me, that, in going on sh.o.r.e, the canoes could beat our boat very much in rowing whenever the Esquimaux chose to exert themselves, but they kept close to her the whole way. During the time that they were on board, we had observed in them a great aptness for imitating certain of our words; and, while going on sh.o.r.e, they took a particular liking to the expression of "Hurra, give way!" which they heard Mr. Palmer use to the boat's crew, and which they frequently imitated, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of all parties.

Soon after we had landed on the 7th, the old Esquimaux and one of his younger companions paddled over from the main land, and joined us upon the island. They brought with them, as before, some pieces of whalebone and sealskin dresses, which were soon disposed of, great care being taken by them not to produce more than one article at a time; returning to their canoes, which were at a little distance from our boat, after the purchase of each of their commodities, till their little stock was exhausted. Considering it desirable to keep up among them the ideas of fair and honest exchange, which they already seemed to possess in no ordinary degree, I did not permit them to receive anything as presents till all their commodities had been regularly bought. While we were waiting to obtain the sun's meridian alt.i.tude, they amused themselves in the most good-natured and cheerful manner with the boat's crew; and Lieutenant Hoppner, who, with Mr. Beverly, had joined us in the Griper's boat, took this opportunity of making a drawing of the young man. It required, however, some show of authority, as well as some occasional rewards, to keep him quietly seated on the rock for a time sufficient for this purpose; the inclination they have to jump about, when much pleased, rendering it a penalty of no trifling nature for them to sit still for half an hour together. To show their disposition to do us what little service was in their power, he afterward employed himself in sharpening the seamen's knives, which he did with great expertness on any flat smooth stone, returning each, as soon as finished, to its proper owner, and then making signs for another, which he sharpened and returned in the same way, without any attempt, and apparently without the smallest desire, to detain it. The old man was extremely inquisitive, and directed his attention to those things which appeared useful rather than to those which were merely amusing. An instance of this occurred on my ordering a tin canister of preserved meat to be opened for the boats' crews'

dinner. The old man was sitting on the rock, attentively watching the operation, which was performed with an axe struck by a mallet, when one of the men came up to us with a looking-gla.s.s. I held it up to each of the Esquimaux, who had also seen one on the preceding evening, and then gave it into each of their hands successively. The younger one was quite in raptures, and literally jumped for joy for nearly a quarter of an hour: but the old man, having had one smile at his own queer face, immediately resumed his former gravity, and, returning me the gla.s.s, directed his whole attention to the opening of the canister, and, when this was effected, begged very hard for the mallet which had performed so useful an office, without expressing the least wish to partake of the meat, even when he saw us eating it with good appet.i.tes. Being prevailed on, however, to taste a little of it, with some biscuit, they did not seem at all to relish it, but ate a small quant.i.ty, from an evident desire not to offend us, and then deposited the rest safely in their canoes. They could not be persuaded to taste any rum after once smelling it, even when much diluted with water.

I do not know whether it be a circ.u.mstance worthy of notice, that when a kaleidoscope or a telescope was given them to look into, they immediately shut one eye; and one of them used the right, and the other the left eye.

In getting out of their canoes, as well as into them, great care is required to preserve the balance of these frail and unsteady coracles, and in this they generally a.s.sist each other. As we were leaving the island, and they were about to follow us, we lay on our oars to observe how they would manage this; and it was gratifying to see that the young man launched the canoe of his aged companion, and, having carefully steadied it alongside the rock till he had safely embarked, carried his own down, and contrived, though with some difficulty, to get into it without a.s.sistance. They seem to take especial care, in launching their canoes, not to rub them against the rocks, by placing one end gently in the water, and holding the other up high, till it can be deposited without risk of injury. As soon as we commenced rowing, the Esquimaux began to vociferate their newly-acquired expression of "Hurra, give way!" which they continued at intervals, accompanied by the most good-humoured merriment, as we crossed over to the main land. There being now a little sea, occasioned by a weather tide, we found that our boats could easily beat their canoes in rowing, notwithstanding their utmost endeavours to keep up with us.

The two Esquimaux tents which we were now going to visit were situated just within a low point of land, forming the eastern side of the entrance to a considerable branch of the inlet, extending some distance to the northward. The situation is warm and pleasant, having a southwesterly aspect, and being in every respect well adapted for the convenient residence of these poor people. We landed outside the point, and walked over to the tents, sending our boats, accompanied by the two canoes, round the point to meet us. As soon as we came in sight of the tents, every living animal there, men, women, children, and dogs, were in motion; the latter to the top of the hill out of our way, and the rest to meet as with loud and continued shouting; the word _pilletay_ (give me) being the only articulate sound we could distinguish amid the general uproar. Besides the four men whom we had already seen, there were four women, one of whom, being about the same age as the old man, was probably his wife; the others were about thirty, twenty-two, and eighteen years of age. The first two of these, whom we supposed to be married to the two oldest of the young men, had infants slung in a kind of bag at their backs, much in the same way as gipsies are accustomed to carry their children. There were also seven children, from twelve to three years of age, besides the two infants in arms, or, rather, behind their mothers'

backs; and the woman of thirty was with child.

We began, as before, by buying whatever they had to dispose of, giving in exchange knives, axes, bra.s.s kettles, needles, and other useful articles, and then added such presents as might be farther serviceable to them. From the first moment of our arrival until we left them, or, rather, till we had nothing left to give, the females were particularly importunate with us, and "pilletay"

resounded from the whole troop, wherever we went; they were extremely anxious to obtain our b.u.t.tons, apparently more on account of the ornament of the crown and anchor which they observed upon them than from any value they set upon their use; and several of these were cut off our jackets to please their fancy. When I first endeavoured to bargain for a sledge, the persons I addressed gave me distinctly to understand by signs that it was not their property, and pointed towards the woman who owned it; though my ignorance in this respect offered a good opportunity of defrauding me, had they been so inclined, by receiving an equivalent for that which did not belong to them: on the owner's coming forward, the bargain was quickly concluded. The pikes which I gave in exchange underwent the usual ceremony of licking, and the sledge was carried to our boat with the most perfect understanding on both sides. In another instance, an axe was offered by some of the Griper's gentlemen as the price of a dog, to which the woman who owned the animal consented. To show that we placed full confidence in them, the axe was given to her before the dog was caught, and she immediately went away with a kind of halter or harness of thongs, which, they use for this purpose, and honestly brought one of the finest among them, though nothing would have been easier than to evade the performance of the contract. The readiness, however, with which they generally parted with their commodities, was by no means the effect of fear, nor did it always depend on the value of the articles offered in exchange; for having, as I thought, concluded a bargain for a second canoe belonging to the old woman, I desired the men to hand it down to the boat; but I soon perceived that I had misunderstood her, for she clung fast to the canoe, and cried most piteously till it was set down; I then offered a larger price than before, but she could not be induced to part with it.

The stature of these people, like that of Esquimaux in general, is much below the usual standard. The height of the old man, who was rather bent by age, was four feet eleven inches; and that of the other men, from five feet four and a half to five feet six inches.

Their faces are round and plump in the younger individuals; skin smooth; complexion not very dark, except that of the old man; teeth very white; eyes small; nose broad, but not very flat; hair black, straight, and glossy; and their hands and feet extremely diminutive. The old man had a gray beard, in which the black hairs predominated, and wore the hair rather long upon his upper lip, which was also the case with the eldest of the three others.

The grown-up females measured from four feet ten to four feet eleven inches. The features of the two youngest were regular; their complexions clear, and by no means dark; their eyes small, black, and piercing; teeth beautifully white and perfect; and, although the form of their faces is round and chubby, and their noses rather flat than otherwise, their countenances might, perhaps, be considered pleasing, even according to the ideas of beauty which habit has taught us to entertain. Their hair, which is jet-black, hangs down long and loose about their shoulders, a part of it on each side being carelessly platted, and sometimes rolled up into an awkward lump, instead of being neatly tied on the top of the head, as the Esquimaux women in most other parts are accustomed to wear it. The youngest female had much natural bashfulness and timidity, and we considered her to be the only unmarried one, as she differed from the other three in not being tattooed upon the face. Two of them had their hands tattooed also, and the old woman had a few marks of the same kind about each wrist. None of the men or children were thus distinguished.

The children were generally good-looking, and the eldest boy, about twelve years of age, was a remarkably fine and even handsome lad. They were rather scared at us at first; but kind treatment and a few trifling presents soon removed their fears, and made them almost as importunate as the rest.

The dress of the men consists of a sealskin jacket, with a hood, which is occasionally drawn over the head, of which it forms the only covering. The breeches are also generally of sealskin, and are made to reach below the knee; and their boots, which meet the breeches, are made of the same material. In this dress we perceived no difference from that of the other Esquimaux, except that the jacket, instead of having a pointed flap before and behind, as usual, was quite straight behind, and had a sort of scallop before in the centre. In the dress of the women there was not so much regard to decency as in that of the men. The jacket is of sealskin, with a short, pointed flap before, and a long one behind, reaching almost to the ground. They had on a kind of drawers, similar to those described by Crantz as the summer dress of the Greenland women, and no breeches. The drawers cover the middle part of the body, from the hips to one third down the thigh, the rest of which is entirely naked as far as the knee. The boots are like those of the men; and, besides these, they have a pair of very loose leggins, as they may be called, which hang down carelessly upon the top of the boots, suffering their thighs to be exposed in the manner before described, but which may be intended occasionally to fasten up, so as to complete the covering of the whole body. The children are all remarkably well clothed; their dress, both in male and female, being in every respect the same as that of the men, and composed entirely of sealskin very neatly sewed.

The tents which compose their summer habitations are princ.i.p.ally supported by a long pole of whalebone, fourteen feet high, standing perpendicularly, with four or five feet of it projecting above the skins which form the roof and sides. The length of the tent is seventeen, and its breadth from seven to nine feet, the narrowest part being next the door, and widening towards the inner part, where the bed, composed of a quant.i.ty of the small shrubby plant, the _Andromeda Tetragona_, occupies about one third of the whole apartment. The pole of the tent is fixed where the bed commences, and the latter is kept separate by some pieces of bone laid across the tent from side to side. The door, which faces the southwest, is also formed of two pieces of bone, with the upper ends fastened together, and the skins are made to overlap in that part of the tent, which is much lower than the inner end. The covering is fastened to the ground by curved pieces of bone, being generally parts of the whale; the tents were ten or fifteen yards apart, and about the same distance from the beach.

The canoe which I purchased, and which was one of the best of the five that we saw, is sixteen feet eleven inches in length, and its extreme breadth two feet one inch and a half; two feet of its fore end are out of the water when floating. It differs from the canoe of Greenland in being somewhat lower at each end, and also in having a higher rim or gunwale, as it may be termed, round the circular hole where the man sits, which may make them somewhat safer at sea. Their construction is, in other respects, much the same; the timbers or ribs, which are five or six inches apart, as well as the fore and aft connecting pieces, being of whalebone or drift-wood, and the skins with which they were covered, those of the seal and walrus. When the canoes are taken on the sh.o.r.e, they are carefully placed upon two upright piles or pillars of stones, four feet high from the ground, in order to allow the air to pa.s.s under to dry them, and prevent their rotting. The paddle is double and made of fir, the edges of the blade being covered with hard bone to secure them from wearing.

The spears or darts which they use in killing seals and other sea animals, consist, like the harpoons of our fishermen, of two parts, a staff, and the spear itself; the former is usually of wood, when so scarce and valuable a commodity can be obtained, from three and a half to five feet in length, and the latter of bone, about eighteen inches long, sometimes tipped with iron, but more commonly ground to a blunt point at one end, while the other fits into a socket in the staff, to which it is firmly secured by thongs. The lines which they attach to their spears are very neatly cut out of sealskins, and, when in a state of preparation, are left to stretch till dry between the tents, and then made up into coils for use. They make use of a bladder fastened to the end of the line, in the same manner as the other Esquimaux. Besides the spears, we purchased an instrument having a rude hook of iron let into a piece of bone, and secured by thongs to a staff, the hook being sharply pointed, but not barbed. While we were on the island (to which I had applied the name of Observation Island), it happened that a small bird flew near us, when one of the Esquimaux made a sign of shooting it with a bow and arrow in a manner which could not be misunderstood. It is remarkable, therefore, that we could not find about their tents any of these weapons, except a little one of five or six inches long, the bow being made of whalebone and the arrow of fir, with a feather at one end and a blunt point of bone at the other, evidently appearing to be a child's toy, and intended, perhaps, to teach the use of it at an early age.

The runners of the only sledge we saw were composed of the right and left jawbones of a young whale, being nine feet nine inches long, and one foot seven inches apart, and seven inches high from the ground. They are connected by a number of parallel pieces, made out of the ribs of the whale, and secured transversely with seizings of whalebone, so as to form the bottom of the sledge, and the back is made of two deers' horns placed in an upright position. The lower part of the runners is shod with a harder kind of bone, to resist the friction against the ground. The whole vehicle is rudely executed, and, being nearly twice the weight of the sledges we saw among the northern Esquimaux, is probably intended for carrying heavy burdens. The dogs were not less than fifty or sixty in number, and had nothing about them different from those on the eastern coast of Baffin's Bay, except they do not stand near so high as those of the lat.i.tude of 76. They are very shy and wild, and the natives had great difficulty in catching them while we were by, as well as holding them in when caught. Some of them have much more of the wolf in their appearance than others, having very long heads and sharp noses, with a brushy tail, almost always carried between the legs; while the bodies of others are less lank, as well as their noses less sharp, and they carry their tails handsomely curled over their backs: their colour varied from quite dark to brindled. The ravenous manner in which they devour their food is almost incredible. Both the old and young ones, when a bird is given them, generally swallow feathers and all; and an old dog that I purchased, though regularly fed while on board by a person appointed for that purpose, ate up, with great avidity, a large piece of canva.s.s, a cotton handkerchief, which one of the men had just washed and laid down by his side, and a part of a check s.h.i.+rt. The young dogs will at any time kill themselves by over-eating if permitted. The children appeared to have some right of property in the smaller puppies, or else their parents are very indulgent to them, for several bargains of this kind were made with them, without any objection or interference on the part of the parents, who were standing by at the time.

Within a few stones, irregularly placed in a corner of each tent, was a lump of oil and moss, and over each of these was suspended a small stone vessel of an oblong shape, and broader at the top than at the bottom, containing a large mess of seahorse flesh, with a great quant.i.ty of thick gravy. Some ribs of this meat were by no means bad looking; and, but for the blood mixed with the gravy, and the dirt which accompanied the cooking, might perhaps be palatable enough. I bargained with a woman for one of the stone vessels, giving her a bra.s.s kettle in exchange. Before she gave it into my possession, she emptied the meat into another vessel, and then, with the flap of her jacket, wiped out the remains of the gravy; thus combining with what our notions of cleanliness incline us to consider a filthy act, an intention of decency and a desire to oblige us, which, however inconsistent, it was pleasing to observe. Some of their vessels are made of whalebone, in a circular form, one piece being bent into the proper shape for the sides, and another flat piece, of the same material, sewn to it for a bottom, so closely as to make it perfectly water tight.

Their knives are made of the tusks of the walrus, cut or ground sufficiently thin for the purpose, and retaining the original curve of the tusk, so as to resemble the little swords which children have as toys in England. As they do not appear to have any instrument like a saw, great time and labour must be required in making one of these knives, which seem to answer most of the purposes to which they have occasion to apply them.

From the description given to us by Mr. Williamson, we found that these were the same persons who had been seen by the Lee's people; but we had several proofs of their having had some previous communication, directly or indirectly, with the civilized world; such as some light-blue beads, strung by themselves on thin leathern threads; and an instrument for chopping, very much resembling a cooper's adze, which had evidently been secured to a handle of bone for some time past, and of which the iron was part of an old file.

The short time we were among them, as well as the want of an interpreter, prevented our obtaining much of the information, which would have been interesting, respecting the language, manners, and number of this tribe of Esquimaux. They call the bear _nennook_, the deer _tooktook_, and the hare _ookalik_, being nearly the same words as those used on the eastern coast of Baffin's Bay. As it was considered a matter of some interest to ascertain whether they were acquainted with the musk-ox, a drawing of that animal was put before the men who were on board. The small size of it seemed, at first sight, to confound them; but, as soon as the real head and horns were produced, they immediately recognised them, and eagerly repeated the word _oomingmack_, which at once satisfied us that they knew the musk-ox, and that this was the animal spoken of by the Esquimaux of Greenland, under the same name, somewhat differently p.r.o.nounced.

To judge by their appearance, and what is, perhaps, a better criterion, the number of their children, there could be little doubt that the means of subsistence which they possess are very abundant; but of this we had more direct proof by the quant.i.ty of seahorses and seals which we found concealed under stones along the sh.o.r.e of the north branch, as well as on Observation Island.

Mr. Fife reported that, in sounding the north branch, he met with their winter huts above two miles above the tents on the same sh.o.r.e, and that they were partly excavated from a bank facing the sea, and the rest built round with stones.

We saw no appearance of disease among the seventeen persons who inhabited the tents, except that the eyes of the old couple were rather blear, and a very young infant looked pale and sickly. The old man had a large scar on one side of his head, which he explained to us very clearly to be a wound he had received from a _nennook_ (bear). Upon the whole, these people may be considered in possession of every necessary of life, as well as of most of the comforts and conveniences which can be enjoyed in so rude a state of society. In the situation and circ.u.mstances in which the Esquimaux of North Greenland are placed, there is much to excite compa.s.sion for the low state to which human nature appears to be there reduced; a state in few respects superior to that of the bear or the seal which they kill for their subsistence. But, with these, it was impossible not to experience a feeling of a more pleasing kind: there was a respectful decency in their general behaviour, which at once struck us as very different from that of the other untutored Esquimaux, and in their persons there was less of that intolerable filth by which these people are so generally distinguished. But the superiority for which they are the most remarkable is, the perfect honesty which characterized all their dealings with us. During the two hours that the men were on board, and for four or five hours that we were subsequently among them on sh.o.r.e (on both which occasions the temptation to steal from us was perhaps stronger than we can well imagine, and the opportunity of doing so by no means wanting), not a single instance occurred, to my knowledge, of their pilfering the most trifling article. It is pleasing to record a fact no less singular in itself than honourable to these simple people.

Having made the necessary observations, we went to the tents to take leave of our new acquaintance. The old man seemed quite fatigued with the day's exertions; but his eyes sparkled with delight, and we thought with grat.i.tude too, on being presented with another bra.s.s kettle to add to the stores with which we had already enriched him. He seemed to understand us when we shook him by the hand; the whole group watched us in silence as we went into the boat, and, as soon as we had rowed a few hundred yards from the beach, quietly returned to their tents.

The wind being contrary on the 8th, we made very little progress to the southward. The soundings continuing as regular as before, we stood in-sh.o.r.e to eleven fathoms, and put the trawl overboard for an hour or two in the afternoon, bringing up a great quant.i.ty of sea-eggs, a few very small oysters, and some marine insects, but nothing that could furnish us with a fresh meal.

The wind having fallen, we made little progress to the southeast till the morning of the 12th, when a light breeze springing up from the southwest, all sail was made to examine the state of the ice. On approaching the floes, however, we found such a quant.i.ty of bay-ice, the formation of which upon the surface had been favoured by the late calm weather, that the Hecla was soon stopped altogether; a circ.u.mstance which gave us, as usual, much trouble in extricating ourselves from it, but not very material as regarded our farther progress to the southward, the floes being found to stretch quite close in to the land, leaving no pa.s.sage whatever between them. The compa.s.ses now traversed very freely, and were made use of for the purposes of navigation in the ordinary way.

The fog continued so thick on the 16th as to oblige us to keep the s.h.i.+ps fast to the floe. In the afternoon the deep-sea clamms were sent down to the bottom with two thousand and ten fathoms of line, which were fifty-eight minutes in running out, during which time no perceptible check could be observed, nor even any alteration in the velocity with which the line ran out. In hauling it in again, however, which occupied both s.h.i.+ps' companies above an hour and a half, we found such a quant.i.ty of the line covered with mud as to prove that the whole depth of water was only eight hundred and nine fathoms, the rest of the line having continued to run out by its own weight, after the instrument had struck the ground. I have before had occasion to remark that, on this account, it is not easy to ascertain the actual depth of the sea in the usual manner when it exceeds five or six hundred fathoms.

The s.h.i.+ps were secured to a berg at six P.M. of the 18th, and the wind having freshened up to a gale from the N.W.b.N., with some swell, we were much annoyed during the night by the ice which drifted under the lee of it, and on which the s.h.i.+ps were constantly striking with a heavy shock, such as no others could have long withstood. This danger is avoided by s.h.i.+ps lying very close under the lee of a berg, but a much greater is thereby incurred from the risk of the berg's upsetting; a circ.u.mstance which is always to be apprehended in a swell, and which must be attended with certain destruction to a s.h.i.+p moored very near to it.

On the 24th and 25th we continued our progress to the southward, but without any success in approaching, or even getting sight of, the land; the ice being as close and compact as when we sailed along the margin of it in July of the preceding year. Soon after noon on the 24th we crossed the Arctic Circle, having been within it fourteen months and three weeks.

On the morning of the 26th we again stood to the westward as much as the ice would allow, but were soon obliged by it to keep away to the southward, precluding every hope of making the land on that part of the coast which it would have been most interesting to explore. In the afternoon, after various attempts to get to the westward, appearances became more unpromising than ever, the packed ice extending from N.b.E. round to S.W. There were, indeed, parts of the ice which, with constant daylight, a s.h.i.+p might have entered with some probability of success; but, with twelve hours'

night, the attempt must have been attended with a degree of risk which nothing but a very important object could justify. The wind had now freshened up from the N.N.W., and the mercury in the barometer fell with unusual rapidity, with every other appearance of an approaching gale. I was therefore under the necessity of admitting the conclusion that, under existing circ.u.mstances, the season was now too far advanced, and the state of the ice too unfavourable, to allow of any farther examination of the coast; and I determined, therefore, to make the best of my way to England. The boats were accordingly hoisted in, and the s.h.i.+ps made snug while in smooth water under the lee of the ice, and a course was then shaped to the E.S.E., in order to obtain an offing before we bore away to the southward.

On the second of October, in scudding before the wind under the main-topsail, a heavy sea struck the Hecla on the larboard quarter, rendering it necessary to press her forward under more canva.s.s, by which we lost sight of the Griper in the course of the morning. As soon as the weather moderated, we hove-to for her; but, as she did not make her appearance, having, as we afterward learned, been obliged to lie-to during the height of the gale, we continued our course out of the Straits, and did not again meet with the Griper till our return to England.

On the afternoon of the 16th, the sea being very high and irregular, and the s.h.i.+p pitching with considerable violence, the bowsprit was carried away close to the gammoning, and the foremast and main-topmast immediately followed it over the side. The wreck was quickly cleared; and, by the greatest activity and energy on the part of the officers and men, the mainyard and mainmast were saved, the latter having been endangered by the foremast falling across the stay, and the former by the wreck of the main-topmast and top-sail-yard lying upon it. Notwithstanding the continuance of the gale, and the uneasy motion of the s.h.i.+p for the next two days, we succeeded in getting up our jury masts so as to make sail on the evening of the 18th.

On the 29th we made Buchaness, and on the following day, the wind having come to the southward, so as to make our progress very slow, I landed at Peterhead, accompanied by Captain Sabine and Mr.

Hooper; having first, in compliance with their lords.h.i.+ps'

directions, demanded from the officers, petty officers, and all other persons on board the Hecla, the logs, journals, charts, drawings, and other doc.u.ments which the voyage had furnished, and directed Lieutenant Beechey to proceed with all possible despatch to Leith. Captain Sabine and myself proceeded without delay to London, where we arrived on the morning of the 3d of November.

SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTHWEST PASAGE

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

The discoveries made by the expedition to the northwest in the years 1819-20 being such as to afford a strong presumption in favour of the existence of a pa.s.sage from the Atlantic to the Pacific in that direction, his majesty commanded another attempt to be made to effect that object; and the lords commissioners of the admiralty were pleased once more to honour me with the command of an expedition, to be equipped at Deptford for that purpose. The Hecla having been found well adapted to this service, a second s.h.i.+p of precisely the same cla.s.s was now selected, and I received my commission for his majesty's s.h.i.+p the Fury, of three hundred and seventy-seven tons burden, on the 30th of December, 1820. The Hecla was recommissioned by Captain George Francis Lyon on the 4th of January following.

In our official instructions I was directed to proceed, as quickly as might be consistent with every precaution, towards or into Hudson's Strait until the ice was met with, when the Nautilus transport, which was directed by the navy board to be placed at my disposal, was to be cleared of its provisions and stores. We were then to penetrate to the westward, through Hudson's Strait, until we reached (either in Repulse Bay, or on other part of the sh.o.r.es of Hudson's Strait to the north of Wager River) some part of the coast, which I felt convinced was a portion of the _Continent_ of America.