NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ESQUIMAUX.
I find that my journal is exceedingly meagre for the period of
our anxious preparations to meet the winter, and that I have omitted
to mention the course of circumstances which led us step by step into
familiar communication with the Esquimaux.
My last notice of this strange people, whose fortunes became afterward
so closely connected with our own, was at the time of Myouk's escape
from imprisonment on board the brig. Although, during my absence on the
attempted visit to Beechy Island, the men I had left behind had frequent
and unrestrained intercourse with them, I myself saw no natives in
Rensselaer Bay till immediately after the departure of Petersen and his
companions. Just then, by a coincidence which convinced me how closely we
had been under surveillance, a party of three made their appearance, as
if to note for themselves our condition and resources.
[Sidenote: Esquimaux Visitors]
When the three visitors came to us near the end of August, I established
them in a tent below deck, with a copper lamp, a cooking-basin, and a
liberal supply of slush for fuel. I left them under guard when I went
to bed at two in the morning, contentedly eating and cooking and eating
again, without the promise of an intermission. They repaid my liberality
by stealing not only buffalo-robes, the lamp, boiler, and cooking-pot
they had used for the feast, but Nannook also, my best dog. If the rest
of my team had not been worn down by over-travel, no doubt they would
have taken them all.
The theft of these articles embarrassed me. I was indisposed to take it
as an act of hostility. Their pilferings before this had been conducted
with such a superb simplicity, the detection followed by such honest
explosions of laughter, that I could not help thinking they had some law
of general appropriation, less removed from the Lycurgan than the Mosaic
code. But it was plain, at least, that we were now too few to watch
our property as we had done, and that our gentleness was to some extent
misunderstood.
I was puzzled how to inflict punishment, but saw that I must act
vigorously, even at a venture. I despatched my two best walkers, Morton
and Riley, as soon as I heard of the theft of the stores, with orders
to make all speed to Anoatok, and overtake the thieves, who, I thought,
would probably halt there to rest. They found young Myouk making himself
quite comfortable in the hut, in company with Sievu, the wife of Metek,
and Aningnah, the wife of Marsumah, and the buffalo-robes already
tailored into kapetahs on their backs.
A continued search of the premises recovered the cooking-utensils, and a
number of other things of greater or less value that we had not missed
from the brig. With the prompt ceremonial which outraged law delights in
among the officials of the police everywhere, the women were stripped and
tied; and then, laden with their stolen goods and as much walrus-beef
besides from their own stores as would pay for their board, they were
marched on the instant buck to the brig.
The thirty miles was a hard walk for them; but they did not complain, nor
did their constabulary guardians, who had marched thirty miles already to
apprehend them. It was hardly twenty-four hours since they left the brig
with their booty before they were prisoners in the hold, with a dreadful
white man for keeper, who never addressed to them a word that had not
all the terrors of an unintelligible reproof, and whose scowl, I flatter
myself, exhibited a well-arranged variety of menacing and demoniacal
expressions.
They had not even the companionship of Myouk. Him I had despatched
to Metek, "head-man of Etah, and others," with the message of a
melo-dramatic tyrant, to negotiate for their ransom. For five long days
the women had to sigh and sing and cry in solitary converse,--their
appetite continuing excellent, it should be remarked, though mourning the
while a rightfully-impending doom. At last the great Metek arrived. He
brought with him Ootuniah, another man of elevated social position, and
quite a sledge-load of knives, tin cups, and other stolen goods, refuse
of wood and scraps of iron, the sinful prizes of many covetings.
[Sidenote: Peace-Offerings]
I may pass over our peace conferences and the indirect advantages which
I, of course, derived from having the opposing powers represented in my
own capital. But the splendours of our Arctic centre of civilisation,
with its wonders of art and science,--our "fire-death" ordnance
included,--could not all of them impress Metek so much as the intimations
he had received of our superior physical endowments. Nomads as they
are, these people know better than all the world besides what endurance
and energy it requires to brave the moving ice and snow-drifts. Metek
thought, no doubt, that our strength was gone with the withdrawing party;
but the fact that, within ten hours after the loss of our buffalo-skins,
we had marched to their hut, seized three of the culprits, and marched
them back to the brig as prisoners,--such a sixty miles' achievement as
this they thoroughly understood. It confirmed them in the faith that the
whites are, and of right ought to be, everywhere the dominant tribe.
The protocol was arranged without difficulty, though not without the
accustomed number of adjournments for festivity and repose. It abounded
in protestations of power, fearlessness, and good will by each of the
contracting parties, which meant as much as such protestations usually
do on both sides the Arctic circle. I could give a summary of it without
invading the privacy of a diplomatic bureau, for I have notes of it
that were taken by a subordinate; but I prefer passing at once to the
reciprocal engagements in which it resulted.
On the part of the Esquimaux, they were after this fashion:--
"We promise that we will not steal. We promise we will bring you fresh
meat. We promise we will sell or lend you dogs. We will keep you company
whenever you want us, and show you where to find the game."
On the part of the white men, the stipulation was of this ample
equivalent:--
"We promise that we will not visit you with death or sorcery, nor do you
any hurt or mischief whatsoever. We will shoot for you on our hunts. You
shall be made welcome aboard ship. We will give you presents of needles,
pins, two kinds of knife, a hoop, three bits of hard wood, some fat, an
awl, and some sewing-thread; and we will trade with you of these and
everything else you want, for walrus and seal-meat of the first quality."
This treaty--which, though I have spoken of it jocosely, was really an
affair of much interest to us--was ratified, with Hans and Morton as my
accredited representatives, by a full assembly of the people at Etah. All
our future intercourse was conducted under it. It was not solemnised by
an oath, but it was never broken. We went to and fro between the villages
and the brig, paid our visits of courtesy and necessity on both sides,
met each other in hunting-parties on the floe and the ice-foot, organized
a general community of interests, and really, I believe, established
some personal attachments deserving of the name. As long as we remained
prisoners of the ice, we were indebted to them for invaluable counsel
in relation to our hunting expeditions; and in the joint hunt we shared
alike, according to their own laws. Our dogs were in one sense common
property; and often have they robbed themselves to offer supplies of food
to our starving teams. They gave us supplies of meat at critical periods;
we were able to do as much for them. They learned to look on us only as
benefactors; and, I know, mourned our departure bitterly.
[Sidenote: Celebration of the Treaty]
"_September 17._--Writing by this miserable flicker of my pork-fat lamp,
I can hardly steady pen, paper, or thought. All hands have rested after
a heavy week's work, which has advanced us nobly in our arrangements for
the winter. The season is by our tables at least three weeks earlier than
the last, and everything indicates a severe ordeal ahead of us.
"Just as we were finishing our chapter this morning in the 'Book of
Ruth,' M'Gary and Morton, who had been to Anoatok, came in triumphantly,
pretty well worn down by their fifty miles' travel, but with good news,
and a flipper of walrus that must weigh some forty pounds. Ohlsen and
Hans are in too. They arrived as we were sitting down to celebrate the
Anoatok ratification of our treaty of the 6th.
"It is a strange life we are leading. We are absolutely nomads, so far
as there can be anything of pastoral life in this region; and our wild
encounter with the elements seems to agree with us all. Our table-talk
at supper was as merry as a marriage bell. One party was just in from
a seventy-four miles' trip with the dogs; another from a journey of a
hundred and sixty, with five nights on the floe. Each had his story to
tell.
"_September 20._--The natives are really acting up to contract. They
are on board to-day, and I have been off with a party of them on a hunt
inland. We had no great luck; the weather was against us, and there are
signs of a gale."
My next extracts show the progress of our winter arrangements.
"_September 30._--We have been clearing up on the ice.
"Thanks to our allies the Esquimaux, our beef-house is now a pile of
barrels holding our water-soaked beef and pork. Flour, beans, and dried
apples make a quadrangular blockhouse on the floe; from one corner of it
rises our flagstaff, lighting up the dusky grey with its red and white
ensign, only on Sunday giving place to the Henry Grinnell flag, of happy
memories.
"From this, along an avenue that opens abeam of the brig,--New London
Avenue, named after M'Gary's town at home,--are our boats and square
cordage. Outside of all these is a magnificent hut of barrel-frames
and snow, to accommodate our Esquimaux visitors--the only thing about
it exposed to hazard being the tempting woodwork. What remains to
complete our camp-plot is the rope barrier that is to mark out our
little curtilage around the vessel; this, when finished, is to be the
dividing-line between us and the rest of mankind.
"There is something in the simplicity of all this _simplex munditiis_,
which might commend itself to the most rigorous taste. Nothing is wasted
on ornament.
"_October 4._--I sent Hans and Hickey two days ago out to the
hunting-ice, to see if the natives have had any luck with the walrus.
They are back to-night with bad news,--no meat, no Esquimaux. These
strange children of the snow have made a mysterious flitting--where or
how it is hard to guess, for they have no sledges. They cannot have
travelled very far; and yet they have such unquiet impulses, that, once
on the track, no civilised man can say where they will bring up.
"Ohlsen had just completed a sledge, fashioned like the Smith Sound
_kommetik_, with an improved curvature of the runners. It weighs only
twenty-four pounds, and, though I think it too short for light draught,
it is just the article our Etah neighbours would delight in for their
land-portages. I intended it for them, as a great price for a great stock
of walrus-meat; but the other parties to the bargain have flown.
[Sidenote: Search for Food]
"_October 5._--We are nearly out of fresh meat again, one rabbit and
three ducks being our sum total. We have been on short allowance for
several days. What vegetables we have--the dried apples and peaches,
and pickled cabbage--have lost much of their anti-scorbutic virtue by
constant use. Our spices are all gone. Except four small bottles of
horse-radish, our _carte_ is comprised in three lines--bread, beef, pork.
"I must be off after these Esquimaux. They certainly have meat, and
wherever they have gone we can follow. Once upon their trail, our hungry
instincts will not risk being baffled. I will stay only long enough to
complete my latest root-beer brewage. Its basis is the big crawling
willow, the miniature giant of our Arctic forests, of which we laid in a
stock some weeks ago. It is quite pleasantly bitter, and I hope to get it
fermenting in the deck-house without extra fuel, by heat from below.
[Sidenote: A Bear Encounter]
"_October 7._--Lively sensation, as they say in the land of olives and
champagne. 'Nannook, nannook!'--'A bear, a bear!'--Hans and Morton in a
breath!
"To the scandal of our domestic regulations, the guns were all
impracticable. While the men were loading and capping anew, I seized
my pillow-companion six-shooter, and ran on deck. A medium-sized bear,
with a four months' cub, was in active warfare with our dogs. They were
hanging on her skirts, and she with wonderful alertness was picking out
one victim after another, snatching him by the nape of the neck, and
flinging him many feet, or rather yards, by a barely perceptible movement
of her head.
"I lodged a pistol-ball in the side of the cub. Ohlsen wounded the mother
as she went, but she scarcely noticed it. She tore down, by single
efforts of her forearms, the barrels of frozen beef which made the triple
walls of the storehouse, mounted the rubbish, and snatching up a half
barrel of herrings, carried it down by her teeth, and was making off. It
was time to close, I thought. Going up within half-pistol range, I gave
her six buckshot. She dropped, but instantly rose, and, getting her cub
into its former position, moved off once more.
"This time she would really have escaped but for the admirable tactics
of our new recruits from the Esquimaux. The dogs of Smith's Sound are
educated more thoroughly than any of their southern brethren. Next to
the walrus, the bear is the staple of diet to the north, and except the
fox, supplies the most important element of the wardrobe. Unlike the dogs
we had brought with us from Baffin's Bay, these were trained, not to
attack, but to embarrass. They ran in circles round the bear, and when
pursued would keep ahead with regulated gait, their comrades effecting
a diversion at the critical moment by a nip at her hind-quarters. This
was done so systematically, and with so little seeming excitement, as to
strike every one on board. I have seen bear-dogs elsewhere that had been
drilled to relieve each other in the _melée_ and avoid the direct assault
but here, two dogs without even a demonstration of attack, would put
themselves before the path of the animal, and retreating right and left,
lead him into a profitless pursuit that checked his advance completely.
"The poor animal was still backing out, yet still fighting, carrying
along her wounded cub, embarrassed by the dogs, yet gaining distance from
the brig, when Hans and myself threw in the odds in the shape of a couple
of rifle-balls. She staggered in front of her young one, faced us in
death like defiance, and only sank when pierced by six more bullets.
"The little cub sprang upon the corpse of her mother, and raised a woeful
lamentation over her wounds. She repelled my efforts to noose her with
great ferocity; but at last, completely muzzled with a line fastened by a
running knot between her jaws and the back of her head, she moved off to
the brig amid the clamour of the dogs. We have her now chained alongside,
but snarling and snapping constantly, evidently suffering from her wound.
"_October 8._--When I was out in the _Advance_, with Captain de Haven, I
satisfied myself that it was a vulgar prejudice to regard the liver of
the bear as poisonous. I ate of it freely myself, and succeeded in making
it a favourite dish with the mess. But I find to my cost that it may
sometimes be more savoury than safe. The cub's liver was my supper last
night, and to-day I have the symptoms of poison in full measure--vertigo,
diarrhœa, and their concomitants.
"_October 10._--If I was asked what, after darkness and cold and scurvy,
are the three besetting curses of our Arctic sojourn, I should say,
Rats, Rats, Rats. A mother-rat bit my finger to the bone last
Friday, as I was intruding my hand into a bear-skin mitten which she had
chosen as a homestead for her little family. I withdrew it of course
with instinctive courtesy; but among them they carried off the mitten
before I could suck the finger.
"Last week I sent down Rhina, the most intelligent dog of our whole pack,
to bivouac in their citadel forward; I thought she might at least be able
to defend herself against them, for she had distinguished herself in the
bear-hunt. She slept very well for a couple of hours on a bed she had
chosen for herself on the top of some iron spikes. But the rats could not
or would not forego the horny skin about her paws; and they gnawed her
feet and nails so ferociously, that we drew her up yelping and vanquished.
"_October 13._--The Esquimaux have not been near us, and it is a puzzle
of some interest where they have retreated to. Wherever they are, there
must be our hunting-grounds, for they certainly have not changed their
quarters to a more destitute region. I have sent Morton and Hans to-day
to track them out if they can. They carry a hand-sledge with them,
Ohlsen's last manufacture, ride with the dog-sledge as far as Anoatok,
and leave the old dogs of our team there. From that point they are to try
a device of my own. We have a couple of dogs that we got from these same
Esquimaux, who are at least as instinctive as their former masters. One
of these they are to let run, holding the other by a long leash. I feel
confident that the free dog will find the camping-ground, and I think it
probable the other will follow. I thought of tying the two together; but
it would embarrass their movements, and give them something to occupy
their minds, besides the leading object of their mission.
[Sidenote: Intense Cold]
"_October 14._--Wilson and Hickey reported last night a wolf at the
meat-house. Now, the meat-house is a thing of too much worth to be left
to casualty, and a wolf might incidentally add some freshness of flavour
to its contents. So I went out in all haste with the Marston rifle, but
without my mittens, and with only a single cartridge. The metal burnt my
hands, as metal is apt to do at 50° below the point of freezing; but I
got a somewhat rapid shot. I hit one of our dogs, a truant from Morton's
team; luckily a flesh wound only, for he is too good a beast to lose. I
could have sworn he was a wolf.
"_October 19._--Our black dog Erebus has come back to the brig. Morton
has perhaps released him, but he has more probably broken loose.
"_October 21._--Hard at it still, slinging chains and planting shores.
The thermometer is too near zero for work like this. We swaddle our feet
in old cloth, and guard our hands with fur mits; but the cold iron bites
through them all.
"6.30 P.M.--Morton and Hans are in, after tracking the Esquimaux
to the lower settlement of Etah. I cannot give their report to-night: the
poor fellows are completely knocked up by the hardships of their march.
Hans, who is always careless of powder and fire arms,--a trait which I
have observed among both the American and the Oriental savages,--exploded
his powder-flask while attempting to kindle a tinder fire. The explosion
has risked his hand. I have dressed it, extracting several pieces of
foreign matter, and poulticing it in yeast and charcoal. Morton has
frost-bitten both his heels; I hope not too severely, for the indurated
skin of the heel makes it a bad region for suppuration. But they bring
us two hundred and seventy pounds of walrus-meat, and a couple of foxes.
This supply, with what we have remaining of our two bears, must last us
till the return of daylight allows us to join the natives in their hunts.
"The light is fast leaving us. The sun has ceased to reach the vessel.
The north-eastern headlands, or their southern faces up the fiords, have
still a warm yellow tint, and the pinnacles of the icebergs far out on
the floes are lighted up at noonday; but all else is dark shadow."
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