In that cold country I saw some Indians. They were dressed in skins.
I never saw such dirty-looking men and women before in all my life,
and I have never seen any such since. They had never seen a ship
before, I should think. I thought they did not know much more than
the white bears. Why, they would sell almost all the clothes they had
on, if we would give them a few pieces of glass, or a nail or two.
One of the women who came to the ship had a little girl about four
years old, and she said she would give us that girl, if we would let
her have a tin pan which she saw.
These Indians tie their children on their backs, when they have to
walk a great way. They licked the oil on the outside of our lamps,
just as a dog or a cat would have done. Oh, what dirty people! They
eat their meat raw. We killed a seal one day, and our captain gave it
to one of the young women. She took it, and bit it into pieces with
her teeth. Then she passed it round to the rest of the Indians, and
they all helped eat it.
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