The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America | Page 4

knives, tin kettles, and bits of old iron hoop. The women presented
image toys, made from the bones and teeth of animals, models of
canoes, and various articles of dress, made of seal skins, and the
membranes of the abdomen of the whale, all of which displayed
considerable ingenuity and neatness, and for which they received in
exchange, needles, knives, and beads. It was very clear that European
deception had reached them, from the manner in which they
tenaciously held their articles till they grasped what was offered in
barter for them; and immediately they got the merchandise in
possession, they licked it with their tongues, in satisfaction that it was
their own. The tribe appeared to be well-conditioned in their savage
state, and remarkably healthy. Some of the children, I observed, were
eating raw flesh, from the bones of animals that had been killed, and
given them by their mothers, who appeared to have a strong natural
affection for their offspring. I threw one of them a halfpenny, which
she caught; and pointing to the child she immediately gave it to him
with much apparent fondness. It has been supposed that in holding up
their children, as is sometimes the case, it is for barter, but I should
rather conclude that it is for the purpose of exciting commiseration, and
to obtain some European article for them. A few of the men were
permitted to come on board, and the good humour of the captain
invited one to dance with him: he took the step with much agility and
quickness, and imitated every gesture of his lively partner. The breeze
freshening, we soon parted with this barbarous people, and when at a
short distance from the ship, they assembled in their canoes, each
taking hold of the adjoining one, in apparent consultation, as to what
bargains they had made, and what articles they possessed, till a canoe
was observed to break off from the group, which they all followed for

their haunts along the shores of Terra Neiva, and the Savage Islands.
Having a copy of the Esquimaux Gospels from the British and Foreign
Bible Society, it was my wish to have read part of a chapter to them,
with a view to ascertain, if possible, whether they knew of the
Moravian Missionary establishment at Nain, on the Labrador coast; but
such was the haste, bustle, and noise of their intercourse with us, that I
lost the opportunity. Though they have exchanged articles in barter for
many years, it is not known whether they are from the Labrador shore
on a summer excursion for killing seals, and the whale fishery, or from
the East main coast, where they return and winter.
The highest point of latitude we reached in our course, was 62°
44'--longitude 74° 16', and when off Cape Digges we parted company
with the Prince of Wales, as bound to James's Bay. We stood on direct
for York Factory, and when about fifty miles from Cary Swan's Nest,
the chief mate pointed out to me a polar bear, with her two cubs
swimming towards the ship. He immediately ordered the jolly-boat to
be lowered, and asked me to accompany him in the attempt to kill her.
Some axes were put into the boat, in case the ferocious animal should
approach us in the attack; and the sailors pulled away in the direction
she was swimming. At the first shot, when within about one hundred
yards, she growled tremendously, and immediately made for the boat;
but having the advantage in rowing faster than she could swim, our
guns were reloaded till she was killed, and one of the cubs also
accidentally, from swimming close to the mother; the other got upon
the floating carcase, and was towed to the side of the ship, when a
noose was put around its neck, and it was hauled on board for the
captain to take with him alive, on his return to England.
AUGUST 3.--We fell in with a great deal of floating ice, the weather
was very foggy, and the thermometer at freezing point. The ship
occasionally received some heavy blows, and with difficulty made way
along a vein of water. On the 5th we were completely blocked in with
ice, and nothing was to be seen in every part of the horizon, but one
vast mass, as a barrier to our proceeding. It was a terrific, and sublime
spectacle; and the human mind cannot conceive any thing more awful,
than the destruction of a ship, by the meeting of two enormous fields of

ice, advancing against each other at the rate of several miles an hour.
"It may easily be imagined," says Captain Scoresby, "that the strongest
ship can no more withstand the shock of the contact of two fields, than