Chapter VII (3)

In point of intellect as well as disposition, great variety was, of course, perceptible among the different individuals of this tribe; but few of them were wanting in that respect. Some, indeed, possessed a degree of natural quickness and intelligence which, perhaps, could hardly be surpassed in the natives of any country. Iligliuk, though one of the least amiable, was particularly thus gifted. When she really wished to develop our meaning, she would desire her husband and all the rest to hold their tongues, and would generally make it out while they were puzzling their heads to no purpose. In returning her answers, the very expression of her countenance, though one of the plainest among them, was almost of itself sufficient to convey her meaning; and there was, in these cases, a peculiarly decisive energy in her manner of speaking which was extremely interesting. This woman would, indeed, have easily learned anything to which she chose to direct her attention; and had her lot been cast in a civilized country instead of this dreary region, which serves alike to "freeze the genial current of the soul" and body, she would probably have been a very clever person. For want of a sufficient object, however, neither she nor any of her companions ever learned a dozen words of English, except our names, with which it was their interest to be familiar, and which, long before we left them, any child could repeat, though in their own style of pronunciation.

Besides the natural authority of parents and husbands, these people appear to admit no kind of superiority among one another, except a certain degree of superstitious reverence for their _angetkooks_, and their tacitly following the counsel or steps of the most active seal-catcher on their hunting excursions. The word _nallegak_, used in Greenland to express "master," and "lord" in the Esquimaux translations of the Scriptures, they were not acquainted with. One of the young men at Winter Island appeared to be considered somewhat in the light of a servant to Okotook, living with the latter, and quietly allowing him to take possession of all the most valuable presents which he received from us. Being a sociable people, they unite in considerable numbers to form a settlement for the winter; but on the return of spring they again separate into several parties, each appearing to choose his own route, without regard to that of the rest, but all making their arrangements without the slightest disagreement or difference of opinion that we could ever discover. In all their movements, they seem to be actuated by one simultaneous feeling that is truly admirable.

Superior as our arts, contrivances, and materials must unquestionably have appeared to them, and eager as they were to profit by this superiority, yet, contradictory as it may seem, they certainly looked upon us in many respects with profound contempt; maintaining that idea of self-sufficiency which has induced them, in common with the rest of their nation, to call themselves, by way of distinction, Innue, or mankind. One day, for instance, in securing some of the gear of a sledge, Okotook broke a part of it, composed of a piece of our white line, and I shall never forget the contemptuous sneer with which he muttered in soliloquy the word "Kabloona!" in token of the inferiority of our materials to his own. It is happy, perhaps, when people, possessing so few of the good things of this life, can be thus contented with the little allotted them.

The men, though low in stature, are not wanting in muscular strength in proportion to their size, or in activity and hardiness. They are good and even quick walkers, and occasionally bear much bodily fatigue, wet, and cold, without appearing to suffer by it, much less to complain of it. Whatever labour they have gone through, and with whatever success in procuring game, no individual ever seems to arrogate to himself the credit of having done more than his neighbour for the general good. Nor do I conceive there is reason to doubt their personal courage, though they are too good-natured often to excite others to put that quality to the test. It is true, they will recoil with horror at the tale of an Indian massacre, and probably cannot conceive what should induce one set of men deliberately and without provocation to murder another. War is not their trade; ferocity forms no part of the disposition of the Esquimaux. Whatever manly qualities they possess are exercised in a different way, and put to a far more worthy purpose. They are fishermen, and not warriors; but I cannot call that man a coward who, at the age of one-and-twenty, will attack a polar bear single-handed, or fearlessly commit himself to floating masses of ice, which the next puff of wind may drift for ever from the shore.

Of the few arts possessed by this simple people, some account has already been given in the description of their various implements. As mechanics, they have little to boast when compared with other savages lying under equal disadvantages as to scantiness of tools and materials. As carpenters, they can scarf two pieces of wood together, secure them with pins of whalebone or ivory, fashion the timbers of a canoe, shoe a paddle, and rivet a scrap of iron into a spear or arrow-head. Their principal tool is the knife (panna); and, considering the excellence of a great number which they possessed previous to our intercourse with them, the work they do is remarkably coarse and clumsy. Their very manner of holding and handling a knife is the most awkward that can be imagined. For the purpose of boring holes, they have a drill and bow so exactly like our own, that they need no farther description, except that the end of the drill handle, which our artists place against their breasts, is rested by these people against a piece of wood or bone held in their mouths, and having a cavity fitted to receive it. With the use of the saw they were well acquainted, but had nothing of this kind in their possession better than a notched piece of iron. One or two small European axes were lashed to handles in a contrary direction to ours, that is, to be used like an adze, a form which, according to the observation of a traveller[012] well qualified to judge, savages in general prefer. It was said that these people steamed or boiled wood, in order to bend it for fashioning the timbers of their canoes. As fishermen or seamen, they can put on a woolding or seizing with sufficient strength and security, and are acquainted with some of the most simple and serviceable knots in use among us. In all the arts, however, practised by the men, it is observable that the ingenuity lies in the principle, not in the execution. The experience of ages has led them to adopt the most efficacious methods, but their practice as handicrafts has gone no farther than absolute necessity requires; they bestow little labour upon neatness or ornament.

In some of the few arts practised by the women there is much more dexterity displayed, particularly in that important branch of a housewife's business, sewing, which, even with their own clumsy needles of bone, they perform with extraordinary neatness. They had, however, several steel needles of a three-cornered shape, which they kept in a very convenient case, consisting of a strip of leather passed through a hollow bone, and having its ends remaining out, so that the needles which are stuck into it may be drawn in and out at pleasure. These cases were sometimes ornamented by cutting; and several thimbles of leather, one of which, in sewing, is worn on the first finger, are usually attached to it, together with a bunch of narrow spoons and other small articles liable to be lost. The thread they use is the sinew of the reindeer (_tooktoo =ew=all~o~o_), or, when they cannot procure this, the swallow-pipe of the _neiliek_. This may be split into threads of different sizes, according to the nature of their work, and is certainly a most admirable material. This, together with any other articles of a similar kind, they keep in little bags, which are sometimes made of the skin of birds' feet, disposed with the claws downward in a very neat and tasteful manner. In sewing, the point of the needle is entered and drawn through in a direction towards the body, and not from it or towards one side, as with our seamstresses. They sew the deerskins with a "round seam," and the water-tight boots and shoes are "stitched." The latter is performed in a very adroit and efficacious manner, by putting the needle only half through the substance of one part of the sealskin, so as to leave no hole for admitting the water. In cutting out the clothes, the women do it after one regular and uniform pattern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to generation. The skin of the deer's head is always made to form the _apex_ of the hood, while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the back of the jacket; and so of every other part of the animal which is appropriated to its particular portion of the dress. To soften the sealskins of which the boots, shoes, and mittens are made, the women chew them for an hour or two together and the young girls are often seen employed in thus preparing the materials for their mothers. The covering of the canoes is a part of the women's business, in which good workmanship is especially necessary to render the whole smooth and water-tight. The skins, which are those of the _neitiek_ only, are prepared by scraping off the hair and the fleshy parts with an _ooloo,_ and stretching them out tight on a frame, in which state they are left over the lamps or in the sun for several days to dry; and after this they are well chewed by the women to make them fit for working. The dressing of leather and of skins in the hair, is an art which the women have brought to no inconsiderable degree of perfection. They perform this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for several hours with a blunt scraper, called _si=ak~o~ot_, so as nearly to dry it. It is then put into a vessel containing urine, and left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the process. Skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus steeped; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together till they are quite soft and clean. Some of the leather thus dressed looked nearly as well as ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the pelt; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according to the art or attention of the housewife. Dyeing is an art wholly unknown to them. The women are very expert at platting, which is usually done with three threads of sinew; if greater strength is required, several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bowstrings. The quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising; and it is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it.

It may be supposed that, among so cheerful a people as the Esquimaux, there are many games or sports practised; indeed, it was rarely that we visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. One of these our gentlemen saw at Winter Island, on an occasion when most of the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, and in this Iligliuk was the chief performer. Being requested to amuse them in this way, she suddenly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together to keep it out of her way, and then stepping out into the middle of the hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. This exhibition, which they call _=ay=ok~it-t=ak-poke_, and which is evidently considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection, distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and would, I think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of countenance.

The next performance consists in looking steadfastly and gravely forward, and repeating the words _t~ab=ak-tabak, k~eib=o-keibo, k~e-b=ang-~e-n=u-t~o-~e~ek, kebang-enutoeek, ~am=at~am=a-amatama_, in the order in which they are here placed, but each at least four times, and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice, speaking them in pairs as they are coupled above. The sound is made to proceed from the throat in a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an approach. After the last _amatama_ Iligliuk always pointed with her finger towards her body, and pronounced the word _angetkook,_ steadily retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. The women sometimes produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally the word _=ikk~er~ee-ikkeree_, coupling them as before, and staring in such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the exertion. Two or more of them will sometimes stand up face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each other, keeping such exact time that the sound appears to come from one throat instead of several. Very few of the females are possessed of this accomplishment, which is called _pitkoo-she-r=ak-poke_, and it is not uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. A third part of the game, distinguished by the word _keit=ik-poke_, consists only in falling on each knee alternately--a piece of agility which they perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward nature of their dress.

The last kind of individual exhibition was still performed by Iligliuk, to whom in this, as in almost everything else, the other women tacitly acknowledged their inferiority, by quietly giving place to her on every occasion. She now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down loosely and bending her body very much forward, shook herself with, extreme violence, as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed, uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the unnatural sounds before mentioned.

This being at an end, a new exhibition was commenced, in which ten or twelve women took a part, and which our gentlemen compared to blind-man's buff. A circle being formed, and a boy despatched to look out at the door of the hut, Iligliuk, still the principal actress, placed herself in the centre, and after making a variety of guttural noises for about half a minute, shut her eyes and ran about till she had taken hold of one of the others, whose business it then became to take her station in the centre, so that almost every woman in her turn occupied this post; and in her own peculiar way, either by distortion of countenance or other gestures, performed her part in the game. This continued three quarters of an hour; and, from the precaution of placing a look-out, who was withdrawn when it was over, as well as from some very expressive signs which need not here be mentioned, there is reason to believe that it is usually followed by certain indecencies, with which their husbands are not to be acquainted. Kaoongut was present, indeed, on this occasion, but his age seemed to render him a privileged person; besides which, his own wife did not join in the game.

The most common amusement, however, and to which their husbands made no objection, they performed at Winter Island expressly for our gratification. The females being collected to the number of ten or twelve, stood in as large a circle as the hut would admit, with Okotook in the centre. He began by a sort of half howling, half singing noise, which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the latter soon commencing the _Amna Aya_ song hereafter described. This they continued without variety, remaining quite still while Okotook walked round within the circle; his body was rather bent forward, his eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two, as if to increase the animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus and rose into the words of the song. At the end of ten minutes they all left off at once, and after one minute's interval commenced a second act precisely similar and of equal duration; Okotook continuing to invoke their muse as before. A third act, which followed this, varied only in his frequently, towards the close, throwing his feet up before and clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a violent perspiration. He then retired, desiring a young man (who, as we were informed, was the only individual of several then present thus qualified) to take his place in the centre as master of the ceremonies, when the same antics as before were again gone through. After this description it will scarcely be necessary to remark, that nothing can be poorer in its way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well as everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word m~om=ek-poke. They seem, however, to take great delight in it; and even a number of men, as well as all the children, crept into the hut by degrees to peep at the performance.

The Esquimaux women and children often amuse themselves with a game not unlike our "skip-rope." This is performed by two women holding the ends of a line, and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third jumps over it in the middle, according to the following order. She commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the other, the rope passing once round at each jump. After this she performs a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line. One or two of the women performed this with considerable agility and adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and seemed to pride themselves, in some degree, on the qualification. A second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by its ends, and whirling it round in such a manner, over the heads of two others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each of these shall jump over it alternately. The art, therefore, which is indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling the rope than on the jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time, in order to be ready for the rope passing under their feet.

The whole of these people, but especially the women, are fond of music, both vocal and instrumental. Some of them might be said to be passionately so, removing their hair from off their ears, and bending their heads forward, as if to catch the sounds more distinctly, whenever we amused them in this manner. Their own music is entirely vocal, unless, indeed, the drum and tambarine before mentioned be considered an exception.

The voices of the women are soft and feminine, and, when singing with the men, are pitched an octave higher than theirs. They have most of them so far good ears, that, in whatever key a song is commenced by one of them, the rest will always join in perfect unison. After singing for ten minutes, the key had usually fallen a full semitone. Only two of them, of whom Iligliuk was one, could catch the tune as pitched by an instrument, which made it difficult with most of them to complete the writing of the notes; for if they once left off they were sure to recommence in some other key, though a flute or violin was playing at the time.

* * * * *

During the season passed at Winter Island, which appears to have been a healthy one with the Esquimaux, we had little opportunity of becoming acquainted with the diseases to which they are subject. Our subsequent intercourse with a great number of these people at Igloolik having unfortunately afforded more frequent and fatal instances of sickness among them, I here insert Mr. Edwards's remarks on this subject.

"Our first communication with these people at Winter Island gave us
a more favourable impression of their general health than
subsequent experience confirmed. There, however, they were not free
from sickness. A catarrhal affection, in the month of February,
became generally prevalent, from which they readily recovered after
the exciting causes, intemperance and exposure to wet, had ceased
to operate. A solitary instance of pleurisy also occurred, which
probably might have ended fatally but for timely assistance. Our
intercourse with them in the summer was more interrupted; but at
our occasional meetings they were observed to be enjoying excellent
health. It is probable that their certain supplies of food, and the
nomade kind of life they lead in its pursuit during that season,
are favourable to health. Nutrition goes on actively, and an
astonishing increase of strength and fulness is acquired. Active
diseases might now be looked for, but that the powers of nature are
providentially exerted with effect.

"The unlimited use of stimulating animal food, on which they are
from infancy fed, induces at an early age a highly plethoric state
of the vascular system. The weaker, over-distended vessels of the
nose quickly yield to the increased impetus of the blood, and an
active hemorrhage relieves the subject. As the same causes continue
to be applied in excess at frequent intervals, and are followed by
similar effects, a kind of vicarious hemorrhage at length becomes
established by habit; superseding the intervention of art, and
having no small share in maintaining a balance in the circulating
system. The phenomenon is too constant to have escaped the
observation of those who have visited the different Esquimaux
people; a party of them has, indeed, rarely been seen, that did not
exhibit two or three instances of the fact.

"About the month of September, the approach of winter induced the
Esquimaux at Igloolik to abandon their tents and to retire into
their more established village. The majority were here crowded into
huts of a permanent construction, the materials composing the sides
being stones and the bones of whales, and the roofs being formed of
skins, turf, and snow; the rest of the people were lodged in snow
huts. For a while they continued very healthy; in fact, as long as
the temperature of the interior did not exceed the freezing point,
the vapours of the atmosphere congealed upon the walls, and the
air remained dry and tolerably pure; besides, their hard-frozen
winter stock of walrus did not at this time tempt them to indulge
their appetites immoderately. In January the temperature suffered
an unseasonable rise; some successful captures of walrus also took
place; and these circumstances, combined perhaps with some
superstitious customs of which we were ignorant, seemed the signal
for giving way to sensuality. The lamps were accumulated, and the
kettles more frequently replenished; and gluttony, in its most
disgusting form, became for a while the order of the day. The
Esquimaux were now seen wallowing in filth, while some, surfeited,
lay stretched upon their skins, enormously distended, and with
their friends employed in rolling them about, to assist the
operations of oppressed nature. The roofs of their huts were no
longer congealed, but dripping with wet and threatening speedy
dissolution. The air was, in the bone huts, damp, hot, and beyond
sufferance offensive with putrid exhalations from the decomposing
relics of offals or other animal matter permitted to remain from
year to year undisturbed in these horrible sinks.

"What the consequences might have been had this state of affairs
long continued, it is not difficult to imagine; but, fortunately
for them, an early and gradual dispersion took place, so that by
the end of January few individuals were left in the village. The
rest, in divided bodies, established themselves in snow huts upon
the sea-ice at some distance from the land. Before this change had
been completed, disorders of an inflammatory character had
appeared. A few went away sick, some were unable to remove, and
others taken ill upon the ice, and we heard of the death of several
about this period.

"Their distance from the ships at once precluded any effectual
assistance being rendered them at their huts, and their removal on
board with safety; the complaints of those who died at the huts,
therefore, did not come under observation. It appears, however, to
have been acute inflammation of some of the abdominal viscera, very
rapid in its career. In the generality, the disease assumed a more
insidious and sub-acute form, under which the patient lingered for
a while, and was then either carried off by a diarrhoea, or slowly
recovered by the powers of nature. Three or four individuals, who,
with some risk and trouble, were brought to the ships, we were
providentially instrumental in recovering; but two others, almost
helpless patients, were so far exhausted before their arrival, that
the endeavours used were unsuccessful, and death was probably
hastened by their removal.

"That affection of the eyes known by the name of snow-blindness, is
extremely frequent among these people. With them it scarcely ever
goes beyond painful irritation, while among strangers inflammation
is sometimes the consequence. I have not seen them use any other
remedy besides the exclusion of light; but, as a preventive, a
wooden eye-screen is worn, very simple in its construction,
consisting of a curved piece of wood, six or seven inches long, and
ten or twelve lines broad. It is tied over the eyes like a pair of
spectacles, being adapted to the forehead and nose, and hollowed
out to favour the motion of the eyelids. A few rays of light only
are admitted through a narrow slit an inch long, cut opposite to
each eye.

"There are, upon the whole, no people more destitute of curative
means than these. With the exception of the hemorrhage already
mentioned, which they duly appreciate, and have been observed to
excite artificially to cure headache, they are ignorant of any
rational method of procuring relief. It has not been ascertained
that they use a single herb medicinally. As prophylactics, they
wear amulets, which are usually the teeth, bones, or hair of some
animal, the more rare apparently the more valuable. In absolute
sickness they depend entirely upon their Angekoks, who, they
persuade themselves, have influence over some submarine deities who
govern their destiny. The mummeries of these impostors, consisting
in pretended consultations with their oracles, are looked upon with
confidence, and their mandates, however absurd, superstitiously
submitted to. These are constituted of unmeaning ceremonies and
prohibitions generally affecting the diet, both in kind and mode,
but never in quantity. Seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in
one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied
to some, and the liver to others. A poor woman, on discovering that
the meat she had in her mouth was a piece of fried heart instead of
liver, appeared horror-struck; and a man was in equal tribulation
at having eaten, by mistake, a piece of meat cooked in his wife's
kettle.

"Personal deformity from malconformation is uncommon; the only
instance I remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance
was unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect
development of the palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the
mouth."

* * * * *

Whatever may be the abundance sometimes enjoyed by these people, and whatever the maladies occasioned by their too frequent abuse of it, it is certain that they occasionally suffer very severely from the opposite extreme. A remarkably intelligent woman informed Captain Lyon, that two years ago some Esquimaux arrived at Igloolik from a place near _Akkoolee_, bringing information that, during a very grievous famine, one party of men had fallen upon another and killed them; and that they afterward subsisted on their flesh, while in a frozen state, but never cooked or even thawed it. This horrible account was soon after confirmed by Toolemak on board the Fury; and though he was evidently uneasy at our having heard the story, and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet, by means of our questions, he was brought to name, upon his fingers, five individuals who had been killed upon this occasion. Of the fact, therefore, there can be no doubt; but it is certain, also, that we ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those who related it; and the occurrence may be considered similar to those dreadful instances on record, even among civilized nations, of men devouring one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by the sufferings of actual starvation.

The ceremony of crying, which has before been mentioned as practised after a person's death, is not, however, altogether confined to those melancholy occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness, and that of no very dangerous kind. The father of a sick person enters the apartment, and, after looking at him a few seconds without speaking, announces by a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony. At this signal every other individual present composes his features for crying, and the leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous howl, which lasts about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed abundant tears during the process. So decidedly is this a matter of form, unaccompanied by any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not relatives shed just as many tears as those that are; to which may be added, that in the instances which we saw there was no real occasion for crying at all. It must, therefore, be considered in the light of a ceremony of condolence, which it would be either indecorous or unlucky to omit.

I have already given several instances of the little care these people take in the interment of their dead, especially in the winter season; it is certain, however, that this arises from some superstitious notion, and particularly from the belief that any heavy weight upon the corpse would have an injurious effect upon the deceased in a future state of existence; for even in the summer, when it would be an easy matter to secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, the mode of burial is not essentially different. The corpse of a child observed by Lieutenant Palmer, he describes "as being laid in a regular but shallow grave, with its head to the northeast. It was decently dressed in a good deerskin jacket, and a sealskin prepared without the hair was carefully placed as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. The body was covered with flat pieces of limestone, which, however, were so light that a fox might easily have removed them. Near the grave were four little separate piles of stones, not more than a foot in height, in one of which we noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk handkerchief, in a second a pair of child's boots and mittens, and in each of the others a whalebone pot. The face of the child looked unusually clean and fresh, and a few days could only have elapsed since its decease."

These Esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of One Supreme Being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on this subject which may be dignified with the name of Religion. Their superstitions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the preternatural agency of a number of _to=orng~ow_ or spirits, with whom, on certain occasions, the _Angetkooks_ pretend to hold mysterious intercourse, and who, in various and distinct ways, are supposed to preside over the destinies of the Esquimaux. On particular occasions of sickness or want of food, the Angetkooks contrive, by means of a darkened hut, a peculiar modulation of the voices and the uttering of a variety of unintelligible sounds, to persuade their countrymen that they are descending to the lower regions for this purpose, where they force the spirits to communicate the desired information. The superstitious reverence in which these wizards are held, and a considerable degree of ingenuity in their mode of performing their mummery, prevent the detection of the imposture, and secure implicit confidence in these absurd oracles. Some account of their ideas repecting death, and of their belief in a future state of existence, has already been introduced in the course of the foregoing pages, in the order of those occurrences which furnished us with opportunities of observing them.

NARRATIVE

OF

AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE

NORTH POLE,

IN BOATS FITTED FOR THE PURPOSE, AND ATTACHED TO HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP HECLA,

IN THE YEAR 1827.

NARRATIVE