Chapter XV: Book IV (4)

As soon as they were gone, I sent a boat to sound the head of the bay. For, as the wind was moderate, I had thoughts of laying the ship ashore, if a convenient place could be found where I might begin our operations to stop the leak. It was not long before all the Americans left the Discovery, and instead of returning to us, made their way toward our boat employed as above. The officer in her seeing this, returned to the ship, and was followed by all the canoes. The boat’s crew had no sooner come on board, leaving in her two of their number by way of a guard, than some of the Americans stepped into her. Some presented their spears before the two men; others cast loose the rope which fastened her to the ship; and the rest attempted to tow her away. But the instant they saw us preparing to oppose them, they let her go, stepped out of her into canoes, and made signs to us to lay down our arms, having the appearance of being as perfectly unconcerned as if they had done nothing amiss. This, though rather a more daring attempt, was hardly equal to what they had meditated on board the Discovery. The man who came and carried all his countrymen from the Resolution to the other ship, had first been on board of her; where, after looking down all the hatchways, and seeing nobody but the officer of the watch, and one or two more, he, no doubt, thought they might plunder her with ease; especially as she lay at some distance from us. It was unquestionably with this view that they all repaired to her. Several of them, without any ceremony, went on board; drew their knives; made signs to the officer and people on deck to keep off; and began to look about them for plunder. The first thing they met with was the rudder of one of the boats, which they threw over-board to those of their party who had remained in the canoes. Before they had time to find another object that pleased their fancy, the crew were alarmed, and began to come upon deck armed with cutlasses. On seeing this, the whole company of plunderers sneaked off into their canoes, with as much deliberation and indifference as they had given up the boat; and they were observed describing to those who had not been on board, how much longer the knives of the ship’s crew were than their own. It was at this time, that my boat was on the sounding duty; which they must have seen; for they proceeded directly for her, after their disappointment at the Discovery. I have not the least doubt, that their visiting us so very early in the morning, was with a view to plunder; on a supposition, that they should find every body asleep.

May we not, from these circumstances, reasonably infer, that these people are unacquainted with fire-arms? For certainly, if they had known any thing of their effect, they never would have dared to attempt taking a boat from under a ship’s guns, in the face of above a hundred men; for most of my people were looking at them, at the very instant they made the attempt. However, after all these tricks, we had the good fortune to leave them as ignorant, in this respect, as we found them. For they neither heard nor saw a musket fired, unless at birds.

Just as we were going to weigh the anchor, to proceed farther up the bay, it began to blow and to rain as hard as before; so that we were obliged to bear away the cable again, and lay fast. Toward the evening, finding that the gale did not moderate, and that it might be some time before an opportunity offered to get higher up, I came to a resolution to heel the ship where we were; and with this view, moored her with a kedge-anchor and hawser. In heaving the anchor out of the boat, one of the seamen, either through ignorance or carelessness, or both, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and followed the anchor to the bottom. It is remarkable, that, in this very critical situation, he had presence of mind to disengage himself, and come up to the surface of the water, where he was taken up, with one of his legs fractured in a dangerous manner.

Early the next morning we gave the ship a good heel to port, in order to come at and stop the leak. On ripping off the sheathing, it was found to be in the seams, which were very open, both in and under the wale; and, in several places, not a bit of oakum in them. While the carpenters were making good these defects, we filled all our empty water-casks at a stream hard by the ship. The wind was now moderate, but the weather was thick and hazy, with rain.

The natives, who left us the preceding day, when the bad weather came on, paid us another visit this morning. Those who came first were in small canoes; others afterward arrived in large boats; in one of which were twenty women and one man, besides children.

In the evening of the 16th, the weather cleared up; and we then found ourselves surrounded on every side by land. Our station was on the east side of the sound, in a place which in the chart is distinguished by the name of _Snug Corner Bay_; and a very snug place it is. I went, accompanied by some of the officers, to view the head of it; and we found that it was sheltered from all winds; with a depth of water from seven to three fathoms over a muddy bottom. The land near the shore is low; part clear and part wooded. The clear ground was covered, two or three feet thick, with snow; but very little lay in the woods. The very summits of the neighbouring hills were covered with wood; but those farther inland seemed to be naked rocks, buried in snow.

The leak being stopped, and the sheathing made good over it, at four o’clock in the morning of the 17th, we weighed, and steered to the north-westward, with a light breeze at east-north-east; thinking if there should be any passage to the north through this inlet, that it must be in that direction. Soon after we were under sail, the natives, in both great and small canoes, paid us another visit, which gave us an additional opportunity of forming a more perfect idea of their persons, dress, and other particulars, which shall be afterward described. Our visitors seemed to have no other business but to gratify their curiosity; for they entered into no sort of traffic with us. After we had got over to the north-west point of the arm in which we had anchored, we found that the flood-tide came into the inlet, through the same channel by which we had entered. Although this circumstance did not make wholly against a passage, it was, however, nothing in its favour. After passing the point above mentioned, we met with a good deal of foul ground, and many sunken rocks, even out in the middle of the channel, which is here five or six leagues wide. At this time the wind failed us, and was succeeded by calms and light airs from every direction; so that we had some trouble to extricate ourselves from the threatening danger. At length, about one o’clock, with the assistance of our boats, we got to an anchor, under the eastern shore, in thirteen fathoms’ water, and about four leagues to the north of our last station. In the morning the weather had been very hazy; but it afterward cleared up, so as to give us a distinct view of all the land round us, particularly to the northward, where it seemed to close. This left us but little hopes of finding a passage that way; or indeed, in any other direction, without putting out again to sea.

To enable me to form a better judgment, I dispatched Mr. Gore, with two armed boats, to examine the northern arm; and the master, with two other boats, to examine another arm that seemed to take an easterly direction. Late in the evening they both returned. The master reported that the arm he had been sent to communicated with that from which he had last come; and that one side of it was only formed by a group of islands. Mr. Gore informed me that he had seen the entrance of an arm, which, he was of opinion, extended a long way to the north-east; and that probably by it a passage might be found. On the other hand, Mr. Roberts, one of the mates, whom I had sent with Mr. Gore to sketch out the parts they had examined, was of opinion that they saw the head of this arm. The disagreement of these two opinions, and the circumstance already mentioned of the flood-tide entering the sound from the south, rendered the existence of a passage this way very doubtful. And, as the wind in the morning had become favourable for getting out to sea, I resolved to spend no more time in searching for a passage in a place that promised so little success. Besides this, I considered that if the land on the west should prove to be islands, agreeably to the late Russian discoveries[61], we could not fail of getting far enough to the north, and that in good time; provided we did not lose the season in searching places where a passage was not only doubtful, but improbable. We were now upward of five hundred and twenty leagues to the westward of any part of Baffin’s, or of Hudson’s Bay. And whatever passage there may be, it must be, or at least part of it must lie to the north of latitude 72°.[62] Who could expect to find a passage or strait of such extent?

Having thus taken my resolution, next morning, at three o’clock, we weighed, and with a gentle breeze at north, proceeded to the southward down the inlet; and met with the same broken ground as on the preceding day. However, we soon extricated ourselves from it, and afterward never struck ground with a line of forty fathoms. Another passage into this inlet was now discovered, to the south-west of that by which we came in, which enabled us to shorten our way out to sea. It is separated from the other by an island, extending eighteen leagues in the direction of north-east and south-west; to which I gave the name of _Montagu Island_.

In this south-west channel are several islands. Those that lie in the entrance, next the open sea, are high and rocky. But those within are low ones; and being entirely free from snow, and covered with wood and verdure, on this account they were called _Green Islands_.

At two in the afternoon the wind veered to the south-west, and south-west by south, which reduced us to the necessity of plying. I first stretched over to within two miles of the eastern shore, and tacked in fifty-three fathoms’ water. In standing back to Montagu Island, we discovered a ledge of rocks; some above, and others under water, lying three miles within, or to the north of the northern point of Green Islands. Afterward some others were seen in the middle of the channel, farther out than the islands. These rocks made unsafe plying in the night (though not very dark); and, for that reason, we spent it standing off and on, under Montagu Island; for the depth of water was too great to come to an anchor.

At day-break, the next morning, the wind became more favourable, and we steered for the channel between Montagu Island and the Green Islands, which is between two and three leagues broad, and from thirty-four to seventeen fathoms deep. We had but little wind all the day; and, at eight o’clock in the evening it was a dead calm; when we anchored in twenty-one fathoms’ water, over a muddy bottom; about two miles from the shore of Montagu’s Island. The calm continued till ten o’clock the next morning, when it was succeeded by a small breeze from the north, with which we weighed; and, by six o’clock in the evening, we were again in the open sea, and found the coast trending west by south, as far as the eye could reach.

CHAP. V.

THE INLET CALLED PRINCE WILLIAM’S SOUND.—ITS EXTENT.—PERSONS OF THE
INHABITANTS DESCRIBED.—THEIR DRESS.—INCISION OF THEIR UNDER LIP.—
VARIOUS OTHER ORNAMENTS.—THEIR BOATS.—WEAPONS, FISHING, AND HUNTING
INSTRUMENTS.—UTENSILS.—TOOLS.—USES IRON IS APPLIED TO.—FOOD.—LANGUAGE,
AND A SPECIMEN OF IT.—ANIMALS.—BIRDS.—FISH.—IRON AND BEADS, WHENCE
RECEIVED.

To the inlet, which we had now left, I gave the name of _Prince William’s Sound_. To judge of this sound, from what we saw of it, it occupies, at least, a degree and a half of latitude, and two of longitude, exclusive of the arms or branches, the extent of which is not known. The direction which they seemed to take, as also the situation and magnitude of the several islands in and about it, will be best seen in the sketch, which is delineated with as much accuracy as the short time and other circumstances would allow.

The natives, who came to make us several visits while we were in the sound, were generally not above the common height; though many of them were under it. They were square, or strong-chested; and the most disproportioned part of their body seemed to be their heads, which were very large, with thick, short necks, and large, broad, or spreading faces; which, upon the whole, were flat. Their eyes, though not small, scarcely bore a proportion to the size of their faces; and their noses had full, round points, hooked, or turned up at the tip. Their teeth were broad, white, equal in size, and evenly set. Their hair was black, thick, straight and strong; and their beards, in general, thin, or wanting; but the hairs about the lips of those who have them, were stiff or bristly, and frequently of a brown colour. And several of the elderly men had even large and thick, but straight beards.

Though, in general, they agree in the make of their persons, and largeness of their heads, there is a considerable variety in their features; but very few can be said to be of the handsome sort, though their countenance commonly indicates a considerable share of vivacity, good-nature, and frankness. And yet some of them had an air of sullenness and reserve. Some of the women have agreeable faces; and many are easily distinguishable from the men by their features, which are more delicate; but this should be understood chiefly of the younger sort, or middle-aged. The complexion of some of the women, and of the children, is white; but without any mixture of red. And some of the men who were seen naked, had rather a brownish or swarthy cast, which could scarcely be the effect of any stain; for they do not paint their bodies.

Their common dress (for men, women, and children are clothed alike) is a kind of close frock, or rather robe; reaching generally to the ankles, though sometimes only to the knees. At the upper part is a hole just sufficient to admit the head, with sleeves that reach to the wrist. These frocks are made of the skins of different animals; the most common of which are those of the sea-otter, grey fox, racoon, and pine martin; with many of seal skins; and, in general, they are worn with the hairy side outward. Some also have these frocks made of the skins of fowls, with only the down remaining on them, which they glue on other substances. And we saw one or two woollen garments like those of Nootka. At the seams, where the different skins are sewed together, they are commonly ornamented with tassels or fringes of narrow thongs, cut out of the same skins. A few have a kind of cape, or collar, and some a hood; but the other is the most common form, and seems to be their whole dress in good weather. When it rains, they put over this another frock, ingeniously made from the intestines of whales, or some other large animal, prepared so skilfully as almost to resemble our gold-beaters’ leaf. It is made to draw tight round the neck; its sleeves reach as low as the wrist, round which they are tied with a string; and its skirts, when they are in their canoes, are drawn over the rim of the hole in which they sit, so that no water can enter. At the same time, it keeps the men entirely dry upward. For no water can penetrate through it, any more than through a bladder. It must be kept continually moist or wet; otherwise it is apt to crack or break. This, as well as the common frock made of the skins, bears a great resemblance to the dress of the Greenlanders, as described by Crantz.[63]

In general, they do not cover their legs or feet; but a few have a kind of skin stockings, which reach half-way up the thigh; and scarcely any of them are without mittens for the hands, made of the skins of bears’ paws. Those who wear any thing on their heads, resembled in this respect our friends at Nootka; having high truncated conic caps, made of straw, and sometimes of wood, resembling a seal’s head well painted.

The men commonly wear their hair cropt round the neck and forehead; but the women allow it to grow long, and most of them tie a small lock of it on the crown, or a few club it behind, after our manner. Both sexes have the ears perforated with several holes about the outer and lower part of the edge, in which they hang little bunches of beads, made of the same tubulose shelly substance used for this purpose by those of Nootka. The _septum_ of the nose is also perforated, through which they frequently thrust the quill-feathers of small birds, or little bending ornaments made of the above shelly substance, strung on a stiff string or cord three or four inches long, which give them a truly grotesque appearance. But the most uncommon and unsightly ornamental fashion adopted by some of both sexes, is their having the under lip slit, or cut quite through, in the direction of the mouth, a little below the swelling part. This incision, which is made even in the sucking children, is often above two inches long; and either by its natural retraction when the wound is fresh, or by the repetition of some artificial management, assumes the true shape of lips, and become so large as to admit the tongue through. This happened to be the case, when the first person having this incision was seen by one of the seamen, who called out that the man had two mouths, and, indeed, it does not look unlike it. In this artificial mouth they stick a flat narrow ornament, made chiefly out of a solid shell or bone, cut into little narrow pieces like small teeth, almost down to the base or thickest part, which has a small projecting bit at each end that supports it when put into the divided lip, the cut part then appearing outward. Others have the lower lip only perforated into separate holes, and then the ornament consists of as many distinct shelly studs, whose points are pushed through these holes, and their heads appear within the lip, as another row of teeth immediately under their own.

These are their native ornaments. But we found many beads of European manufacture among them, chiefly of a pale blue colour, which they hang in their ears, about their caps, or join to their lip-ornaments, which have a small hole drilled in each point, to which they are fastened, and others to them, till they hang sometimes as low as the point of the chin. But, in this last case, they cannot remove them so easily; for as to their own lip-ornaments, they can take them out with their tongue, or suck within, at pleasure. They also wear bracelets of the shelly beads, or others of a cylindrical shape, made of a substance like amber, with such also as are used in their ears and noses. And so fond are they, in general, of ornament, that they stick any thing in their perforated lip, one man appearing with two of our iron nails projecting from it like prongs, and another endeavouring to put a large brass button into it.

The men frequently paint their faces of a bright red, and of a black colour, and sometimes of a blue or leaden colour; but not in any regular figure; and the women, in some measure, endeavoured to imitate them, by puncturing or staining the chin with black, that comes to a point in each cheek; a practice very similar to which is in fashion amongst the females of Greenland, as we learn from Crantz.[64] Their bodies are not painted, which may be owing to the scarcity of proper materials, for all the colours which they brought to sell in bladders were in very small quantities. Upon the whole, I have no where seen savages who take more pains than these people do to ornament, or rather to disfigure their persons.

Their boats or canoes are of two sorts, the one being large and open, and the other small and covered. I mentioned already, that in one of the large boats were twenty women and one man, besides children. I attentively examined and compared the construction of this with Crantz’s description of what he calls the great, or women’s boat, in Greenland, and found that they were built in the same manner, parts like parts, with no other difference than in the form of the head and stern, particularly of the first, which bears some resemblance to the head of a whale. The framing is of slender pieces of wood, over which the skins of seals, or of other larger sea-animals, are stretched to compose the outside. It appeared also, that the small canoes of these people are made nearly of the same form, and of the same materials, with those used by the Greenlanders[65] and Esquimaux, at least the difference is not material. Some of these, as I have before observed, carry two men; they are broader in proportion to their length than those of the Esquimaux, and the head or fore-part curves somewhat like the head of a violin.

The weapons and instruments for fishing and hunting are the very same that are made use of by the Esquimaux and Greenlanders, and it is unnecessary to be particular in my account of them, as they are all very accurately described by Crantz.[66] I did not see a single one with these people that he has not mentioned, nor has he mentioned one that they have not. For defensive armour, they have a kind of jacket or coat of mail made of thin laths bound together with sinews, which makes it quite flexible, though so close as not to admit an arrow or dart. It only covers the trunk of the body, and may not be improperly compared to a woman’s stays.

As none of these people lived in the bay where we anchored, or where any of us landed, we saw none of their habitations, and I had not time to look after them. Of their domestic utensils, they brought in their boats some round and oval shallow dishes of wood; and others of a cylindrical shape much deeper. The sides were made of one piece, bent round like chip-boxes, though thick, neatly fastened with thongs, and the bottoms fixed in with small wooden pegs. Others were smaller and of a more elegant shape, somewhat resembling a large oval butter-boat without a handle, but more shallow, made from a piece of wood or horny substance. These last were sometimes neatly carved. They had many little square bags, made of the same gut with their outer frocks, neatly ornamented with very minute red feathers interwoven with it, in which were contained some very fine sinews and bundles of small cord made from them, most ingeniously platted. They also brought many chequered baskets so closely wrought as to hold water, some wooden models of their canoes, a good many little images four or five inches long, either of wood or stuffed, which were covered with a bit of fur, and ornamented with pieces of small quill feathers, in imitation of their shelly beads, with hair fixed on their heads. Whether these might be mere toys for children, or held in veneration as representing their deceased friends, and applied to some superstitious purpose, we could not determine. But they have many instruments made of two or three hoops, or concentric pieces of wood, with a cross-bar fixed in the middle, to hold them by. To these are fixed a great number of dried barnacle-shells, with threads, which serve as a rattle, and make a loud noise when they shake them. This contrivance seems to be a substitute for the rattling-bird at Nootka, and perhaps both of them are employed on the same occasions.[67]

With what tools they make their wooden utensils, frames of boats, and other things, is uncertain, as the only one seen amongst them was a kind of strong adze, made almost after the manner of those of Otaheite and the other islands of the South Sea. They have a great many iron knives, some of which are straight, others a little curved, and some very small ones fixed in pretty long handles, with the blades bent upward, like some of our shoemakers’ instruments. But they have still knives of another sort, which are sometimes near two feet long, shaped almost like a dagger, with a ridge in the middle. These they wear in sheaths of skins, hung by a thong round the neck, under their robe, and they are probably only used as weapons, the other knives being apparently applied to other purposes. Every thing they have, however, is as well and ingeniously made, as if they were furnished with the most complete tool-chest; and their sewing, platting of sinews, and small work on their little bags, may be put in competition with the most delicate manufactures found in any part of the known world. In short, considering the otherwise uncivilised or rude state in which these people are, their northern situation, amidst a country perpetually covered with snow, and the wretched materials they have to work with, it appears that their invention and dexterity in all manual works, is at least equal to that of any other nation.

The food which we saw them eat, was dried fish and the flesh of some animal, either broiled or roasted. Some of the latter that was bought, seemed to be bear’s flesh, but with a fishy taste. They also eat the larger sort of fern-root, mentioned at Nootka, either baked or dressed in some other way, and some of our people saw them eat freely of a substance which they supposed to be the inner part of the pine bark. Their drink is most probably water, for in their boats they brought snow in the wooden vessels, which they swallowed by mouthfuls. Perhaps it could be carried with less trouble in these open vessels than water itself. Their method of eating seems decent and cleanly, for they always took care to separate any dirt that might adhere to their victuals. And though they sometimes did eat the raw fat of some sea animal, they cut it carefully into mouthfuls with their small knives. The same might be said of their persons, which, to appearance, were always clean and decent, without grease or dirt; and the wooden vessels in which their victuals are probably put, were kept in excellent order, as well as their boats, which were neat and free from lumber.

Their language seems difficult to be understood at first, not from any indistinctness or confusion in their words and sounds, but from the various significations they have. For they appeared to use the very same word frequently on very different occasions, though doubtless this might, if our intercourse had been of longer duration, have been found to be a mistake on our side. The only words I could obtain, and for them I am indebted to Mr. Anderson[68], were those that follow, the first of which was also used at Nootka in the same sense, though we could not trace an affinity between the two dialects in any other instance.

Akashou, _What’s the name of that?_

Namuk, _An ornament for the ear._

Lukluk, _A brown shaggy skin, perhaps a bear’s._

Aa, _Yes._

Natooneshuk, _The skin of a sea-otter._

Keeta, _Give me something._

Naema, _Give me something in exchange_, or _barter_.

Ooonaka, _Of_, or _belonging to me_.—_Will you barter for this
that belongs to me?_

Manaka,

Ahleu, _A spear._

Weena, _or_ _Stranger—calling to one._ Veena,

Keelashuk, _Guts of which they make jackets._

Tawuk, _Keep it._

Amilhtoo, _A piece of white bear’s skin_, or _perhaps the hair
that covered it_.

Whaehai, _Shall I keep it? do you give it me?_

Yaut, _I’ll go_; or _shall I go_?

Chilke, _One._

Taiha, _Two._

Tokke, _Three._

(Tinke)

Chukelo[69], _Four?_

Koeheene, _Five?_

Takulai, _Six?_

Keichilho, _Seven?_

Klu, _or_ _Eight?_ Kliew,

As to the animals of this part of the continent, the same must be understood as of those at Nootka, that is, that the knowledge we have of them is entirely taken from the skins which the natives brought to sell. These were chiefly of seals, a few foxes, the whitish cat, or _lynx_, common and pine martins, small ermins, bears, racoons, and sea-otters. Of these, the most common were the martin, racoon, and sea-otter-skins, which composed the ordinary dress of the natives; but the skins of the first, which in general were of a much lighter brown than those of Nootka, were far superior to them in fineness; whereas the last, which, as well as the martins, were far more plentiful than at Nootka, seemed greatly inferior in the fineness and thickness of their fur, though they greatly exceeded them in size, and were almost all of the glossy black sort, which is doubtless the colour most esteemed in those skins. Bear and seal skins were also pretty common; and the last were in general white, very beautifully spotted with black, or sometimes simply white, and many of the bears here were of a brown or sooty colour.

Besides these animals, which were all seen at Nootka, there are some others in this place which we did not find there, such as the white bear, of whose skins the natives brought several pieces, and some entire skins of cubs, from which their size could not be determined. We also found the wolverene, or quickhatch, which had very bright colours; a larger sort of ermine than the common one, which is the same as at Nootka, varied with a brown colour, and with scarcely any black on its tail. The natives also brought the skin of the head of some very large animal, but it could not be positively determined what it was, though, from the colour and shagginess of the hair, and its unlikeness to any land animal, we judged it might probably be that of the large male ursine seal or sea-bear. But one of the most beautiful skins, and which seems peculiar to this place as we never saw it before, is that of a small animal about ten inches long, of a brown or rusty colour on the back, with a great number of obscure whitish specks, and the sides of a blueish ash-colour, also with a few of these specks. The tail is not above a third of the length of its body, and is covered with a hair of a whitish colour at the edges. It is no doubt the same with those called spotted field-mice by Mr. Stæhlin[70], in his short account of the New Northern Archipelago; but whether they be really of the mouse kind or a squirrel, we could not tell, for want of perfect skins, though Mr. Anderson was inclined to think that it is the same animal described under the name of the _Casan_ marmot, by Mr. Pennant. The number of skins we found here, points out the great plenty of these several animals just mentioned; but it is remarkable, that we neither saw the skins of the moose nor of the common deer.

Of the birds mentioned at Nootka, we found here only the white-headed eagle; the shag; the _alcyon_, or great king-fisher, which had very bright colours; and the humming-bird, which came frequently and flew about the ship, while at anchor; though it can scarcely live here in the winter, which must be very severe. The water-fowl were geese; a small sort of duck, almost like that mentioned at Kerguelen’s Land; another sort which none of us knew; and some of the black sea-pyes, with red bills, which we found at Van Diemen’s Land, and New Zealand. Some of the people who went on shore, killed a grouse, a snipe, and some plover. But though, upon the whole, the water-fowl were pretty numerous, especially the ducks and geese, which frequent the shores, they were so shy, that it was scarcely possible to get within shot; so that we obtained a very small supply of them as refreshment. The duck mentioned above, is as large as the common wild-duck, of a deep black colour, with a short pointed tail, and red feet. The bill is white, tinged with red toward the point, and has a large black spot, almost square, near its base, on each side, where it is also enlarged or distended: and on the forehead is a large triangular white spot; with one still larger on the back part of the neck. The female has much duller colours, and none of the ornaments of the bill, except the two black spots, which are obscure.

There is likewise a species of diver here, which seems peculiar to the place. It is about the size of a partridge; has a short, black, compressed bill; with the head and upper part of the neck of a brown black; the rest of a deep brown, obscurely waved with black, except the under part, which is entirely of a blackish cast, very minutely varied with white; the other (perhaps the female) is blacker above, and whiter below. A small land-bird, of the finch kind, about the size of a yellow-hammer, was also found; but was suspected to be one of those which change their colour with the season, and with their migrations. At this time, it was of a dusky brown colour, with a reddish tail; and the supposed male had a large yellow spot on the crown of the head, with some varied black on the upper part of the neck; but the last was on the breast of the female.

The only fish we got, were some torsk and halibut, which were chiefly brought by the natives to sell; and we caught a few sculpins about the ship; with some purplish star-fish, that had seventeen or eighteen rays. The rocks were observed to be almost destitute of shell-fish; and the only other animal of this tribe seen, was a red crab, covered with spines of a very large size.

The metals we saw were copper and iron; both which, particularly the latter, were in such plenty, as to constitute the points of most of the arrows and lances. The ores, with which they painted themselves, were a red, brittle, unctuous ochre, or iron ore, not much unlike cinnabar in colour; a bright blue pigment, which we did not procure; and black lead. Each of these seems to be very scarce, as they brought very small quantities of the first and last, and seemed to keep them with great care.

Few vegetables of any kind were seen; and the trees which chiefly grew here, were the Canadian and spruce pine, and some of them tolerably large.

The beads and iron found amongst these people, left no room to doubt, that they must have received them from some civilized nation. We were pretty certain, from circumstances already mentioned, that we were the first Europeans with whom they had ever communicated directly; and it remains only to be decided, from what quarter they had got our manufactures, by intermediate conveyance. And there cannot be the least doubt of their having received these articles through the intervention of the more inland tribes, from Hudson’s Bay, or the settlements on the Canadian lakes; unless it can be supposed (which however is less likely) that the Russian traders from Kamtschatka, have already extended their traffic thus far; or at least that the natives of their most easterly Fox Islands communicate along the coast with those of Prince William’s Sound.[71]

As to the copper, these people seem to procure it themselves, or at most it passes through few hands to them; for they used to express its being in a sufficient quantity amongst them, when they offered any to barter, by pointing to their weapons; as if to say, that having so much of this metal of their own, they wanted no more.

It is, however, remarkable, if the inhabitants of this Sound be supplied with European articles, by way of the intermediate traffic to the east coast, that they should, in return, never have given to the more inland Indians any of their sea-otter skins; which would certainly have been seen, some time or other, about Hudson’s Bay. But, as far as I know, that is not the case; and the only method of accounting for this, must be by taking into consideration the very great distance; which, though it might not prevent European goods coming so far, as being so uncommon, might prevent the skins, which are a common article, from passing through more than two or three different tribes, who might use them for their own clothing, and send others, which they esteemed less valuable, as being of their own animals, eastward, till they reach the traders from Europe.

CHAP. VI.

PROGRESS ALONG THE COAST.—CAPE ELIZABETH.—CAPE ST. HERMOGENES.—ACCOUNTS
OF BEERING’S VOYAGE VERY DEFECTIVE.—POINT BANKS.—CAPE DOUGLAS.—CAPE
BEDE.—MOUNT ST. AUGUSTIN.—HOPES OF FINDING A PASSAGE UP AN INLET.—THE
SHIPS PROCEED UP IT.—INDUBITABLE MARKS OF ITS BEING A RIVER.—NAMED
COOK’S RIVER.—THE SHIPS RETURN DOWN IT.—VARIOUS VISITS FROM THE
NATIVES.—LIEUTENANT KING LANDS, AND TAKES POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY.—
HIS REPORT.—THE RESOLUTION RUNS AGROUND ON A SHOAL.—REFLECTIONS ON THE
DISCOVERY OF COOK’S RIVER.—THE CONSIDERABLE TIDES IN IT ACCOUNTED FOR.

After leaving Prince William’s Sound, I steered to the south-west, with a gentle breeze at north north-east; which, at four o’clock the next morning, was succeeded by a calm; and soon after, the calm was succeeded by a breeze from south-west. This freshening, and veering to north-west, we still continued to stretch to the south-west, and passed a lofty promontory, situated in the latitude of 59° 10ʹ, and the longitude of 207° 45ʹ. As the discovery of it was connected with the Princess Elizabeth’s birth-day, I named it _Cape Elizabeth_. Beyond it we could see no land; so that, at first, we were in hopes that it was the western extremity of the continent; but not long after, we saw our mistake; for fresh land appeared in sight, bearing west south-west.

The wind, by this time, had increased to a very strong gale, and forced us to a good distance from the coast. In the afternoon of the 22d, the gale abated; and we stood to the northward for Cape Elizabeth; which at noon, the next day, bore west, ten leagues distant. At the same time, a new land was seen, bearing south 77° west, which was supposed to connect Cape Elizabeth with the land we had seen to the westward.

The wind continued at west, and I stood to the southward till noon the next day, when we were within three leagues of the coast which we had discovered on the 22d. It here formed a point that bore west north-west. At the same time, more land was seen extending to the southward, as far as south south-west; the whole being twelve or fifteen leagues distant. On it was seen a ridge of mountains covered with snow, extending to the north-west, behind the first land, which we judged to be an island, from the very inconsiderable quantity of snow that lay upon it. This point of land is situated in the latitude of 58° 15ʹ, and in the longitude of 207° 42ʹ; and by what I can gather from the account of Beering’s voyage, and the chart that accompanies it in the English edition[72], I conclude, that it must be what he called Cape St. Hermogenes. But the account of that voyage is so very much abridged, and the chart so extremely inaccurate, that it is hardly possible, either by the one or by the other, or by comparing both together, to find out any one place which that navigator either saw or touched at. Were I to form a judgment of Beering’s proceedings on this coast, I should suppose, that he fell in with the continent near Mount Fairweather. But I am by no means certain, that the bay to which I have given his name, is the place where he anchored. Nor do I know, that what I called Mount St. Elias, is the same conspicuous mountain to which he gave that name. And as to his Cape St. Elias, I am entirely at a loss to pronounce where it lies.

On the north side of Cape St. Hermogenes, the coast turned toward the north-west, and appeared to be wholly unconnected with the land seen by us the preceding day. In the chart above mentioned, there is here a space, where Beering is supposed to have seen no land. This also favoured the latter account published by Mr. Stæhlin, who makes Cape St. Hermogenes, and all the land that Beering discovered to the south-west of it, to be a cluster of islands; placing St. Hermogenes amongst those which are destitute of wood. What we now saw seemed to confirm this; and every circumstance inspired us with hopes of finding here a passage northward, without being obliged to proceed any farther to the south-west.

We were detained off the cape by variable light airs and calms, till two o’clock the next morning, when a breeze springing up at north-east we steered north-north-west along the coast; and soon found the land of Cape St. Hermogenes to be an island, about six leagues in circuit, separated from the adjacent coast by a channel one league broad. A league and a half to the north of this island lie some rocks, above water; on the north-east side of which we had from thirty to twenty fathoms water.

At noon, the island of St. Hermogenes bore south-east, eight leagues distant; and the land to the north-west of it extended from south 1/2 west to near west. In this last direction it ended in a low point, now five leagues distant, which was called _Point Banks_. The latitude of the ship, at this time, was 58° 41ʹ, and its longitude 207° 44ʹ. In this situation, the land, which was supposed to connect Cape Elizabeth with this south-west land, was in sight, bearing north-west 1/2 north. I steered directly for it; and, on a nearer approach, found it to be a group of high islands and rocks, entirely unconnected with any other land. They obtained the name of _Barren Isles_ from their very naked appearance. Their situation is in the latitude of 59°, and in a line with Cape Elizabeth and Point Banks; three leagues distant from the former, and five from the latter.

I intended going through one of the channels that divide these islands, but meeting with a strong current setting against us, I bore up and went to the leeward of them all. Toward the evening, the weather, which had been hazy all day, cleared up, and we got sight of a very lofty promontory, whose elevated summit, forming two exceedingly high mountains, was seen above the clouds. This promontory I named _Cape Douglas_, in honour of my very good friend, Dr. Douglas, canon of Windsor. It is situated in the latitude of 58° 56ʹ, and in the longitude of 206° 10ʹ, ten leagues to the westward of Barren Isles, and twelve from Point Banks, in the direction of N. W. by W. 1/2 W.

Between this point and Cape Douglas, the coast seemed to form a large and deep bay; which, from some smoke that had been seen on Point Banks, obtained the name of _Smokey Bay_.

At day-break the next morning, being the 26th, having got to the northward of the Barren Isles, we discovered more land, extending from Cape Douglas to the north. It formed a chain of mountains of vast height, one of which, far more conspicuous than the rest, was named _Mount Saint Augustin_. The discovery of this land did not discourage us, as it was supposed to be wholly unconnected with the land of Cape Elizabeth. For, in a N. N. E. direction, the sight was unlimited by every thing but the horizon. We also thought that there was a passage to the N. W., between Cape Douglas and Mount St. Augustin. In short, it was imagined, that the land on our larboard to the N. of Cape Douglas was composed of a group of islands, disjoined by so many channels, any one of which we might make use of according as the wind should serve.

With these flattering ideas, having a fresh gale at N. N. E., we stood to the N. W. till eight o’clock, when we clearly saw that what we had taken for islands were summits of mountains, every where connected by lower land, which the haziness of the horizon had prevented us from seeing at a greater distance. This land was every where covered with snow, from the tops of the hills down to the very sea-beach, and had every other appearance of being part of a great continent. I was now fully persuaded that I should find no passage by this inlet; and my persevering in the search of it here was more to satisfy other people than to confirm my own opinion.

At this time, Mount St. Augustin bore N. 40° W., three or four leagues distant. This mountain is of a conical figure, and of very considerable height, but it remains undetermined whether it be an island, or part of the continent. Finding that nothing could be done to the W., we tacked and stood over to Cape Elizabeth, under which we fetched at half past five in the afternoon. On the north side of Cape Elizabeth, between it and a lofty promontory, named _Cape Bede_[73], is a bay, in the bottom of which there appeared to be two snug harbours. We stood well into this bay, where we might have anchored in twenty-three fathoms water: but as I had no such view, we tacked and stood to the westward, with the wind at N., a very strong gale, attended by rain, and thick hazy weather.

The next morning the gale abated, but the same weather continued till three o’clock in the afternoon, when it cleared up. Cape Douglas bore S. W. by W.; Mount St. Augustin W. 1/2 S., and Cape Bede S. 15° E., five leagues distant. In this situation, the depth of water was forty fathoms, over a rocky bottom. From Cape Bede, the coast trended N. E. by E., with a chain of mountains inland, extending in the same direction. The land on the coast was woody, and there seemed to be no deficiency of harbours. But what was not much in our favour, we discovered low land in the middle of the inlet, extending from N. N. E. to N. E. by E. 1/2 E. However, as this was supposed to be an island, it did not discourage us. About this time we got a light breeze southerly, and I steered to the westward of this low land, nothing appearing to obstruct us in that direction. Our soundings during the night were from thirty to twenty-five fathoms.

On the 28th in the morning, having but very little wind, and observing the ship to drive to the southward, in order to stop her I dropped a kedge-anchor, with an eight-inch hawser bent to it. But, in bringing the ship up, the hawser parted near the inner end, and we lost both it and the anchor. For although we brought the ship up with one of the bowers, and spent most of the day in sweeping for them, it was to no effect. By an observation, we found our station to be in the latitude of 59° 51ʹ; the low land above mentioned extended from N. E. to S. 75° E., the nearest part two leagues distant, and extended from S. 35° W. to N. 7° E., so that the extent of the inlet was now reduced to three points and a half of the compass; that is, from N. 1/2 E. to N. E. Between these two points no land was to be seen. Here was a strong tide setting to the southward out of the inlet. It was the ebb, and ran between three and four knots in an hour, and it was low water at ten o’clock. A good deal of sea-weed and some drift-wood were carried out with the tide. The water, too, had become thick like that in rivers, but we were encouraged to proceed by finding it as salt at low water as the ocean. The strength of the flood-tide was three knots, and the stream ran up till four in afternoon.

As it continued calm all day, I did not move till eight o’clock in the evening, when, with a light breeze at E., we weighed and stood to the N., up the inlet. We had not been long under sail, before the wind veered to the N., increasing to a fresh gale, and blowing in squalls, with rain. This did not, however, hinder us from plying up as long as the flood continued, which was till near five o’clock the next morning. We had soundings from thirty-five to twenty-four fathoms. In this last depth we anchored about two leagues from the eastern shore, in the latitude of 60° 8ʹ; some low land that we judged to be an island, lying under the western shore, extended from N. 1/2 W. to N. W. by N., distant three or four leagues.

The weather had now become fair and tolerably clear, so that we could see any land that might lie within our horizon; and in a N. N. E. direction, no land, nor any thing to obstruct our progress, was visible. But on each side was a ridge of mountains, rising one behind another without the least separation. I judged it to be low water, by the shore, about ten o’clock; but the ebb ran down till near noon. The strength of it was four knots and a half, and it fell upon a perpendicular ten feet three inches, that is, while we lay at anchor; so that there is reason to believe this was not the greatest fall. On the eastern shore we now saw two columns of smoke, a sure sign that there were inhabitants.

At one in the afternoon we weighed, and plied up under double-reefed top-sails and courses, having a very strong gale at N. N. E., nearly right down the inlet. We stretched over to the western shore, and fetched within two leagues of the south end of the low land or island before mentioned, under which I intended to have taken shelter till the gale should cease. But falling suddenly into twelve fathoms water, from upward of forty, and seeing the appearance of a shoal ahead spitting out from the low land, I tacked and stretched back to the eastward; and anchored under the shore in nineteen fathoms water, over a bottom of small pebble-stones.

Between one and two in the morning of the 30th, we weighed again with the first of the flood, the gale having by this time quite abated, but still continuing contrary, so that we plied up till near seven o’clock, when the tide being done, we anchored in nineteen fathoms, under the same shore as before. The N. W. part of it forming a bluff point, bore N. 20° E., two leagues distant; a point on the other shore opposite to it, and nearly of the same height, bore N. 36° W., our latitude, by observation, 60° 37ʹ.