CHAPTER TWENTY.
WINTER APPROACHES--ESQUIMAUX ARRIVE--EFFECT OF A WORD--A SUCKING BABY--PROSPECTS OF TRADE.
For many days after the ship's departure the work of completing the fortwent forward with the utmost rapidity, and not until the houses andstores were rendered weather-tight and warm did Stanley consider itadvisable to send out hunting and fishing parties into the mountains.Now, however, the frosts continued a great part of the day as well asduring the night, so it was high time to kill deer and fish, in order tofreeze, and so preserve them for winter's consumption.
Up to this time no further traces of Esquimaux had been discovered, andStanley began to express his fears to Frank that they had left theneighbourhood altogether, in consequence of the repeated attacks madeupon them by Indians. Soon after this, however, the fur-traders weresurprised by a sudden visit from a party of these denizens of the north.
It happened on the afternoon of a beautiful day towards the close ofautumn, that charming but brief season which, in consequence of itsunbroken serenity, has been styled the Indian summer. The men had allbeen dispatched into the mountains in various directions, some to fish,others to shoot; and none were left at the fort except its commandantwith his wife and child, and Oolibuck the Esquimau. Stanley was seatedon a stone at the margin of the bay, admiring the vivid alterations oflight and shade, as the sun dipped behind the mountains of the oppositeshore, when his eye was attracted towards one or two objects on thewater near the narrows. Presently they advanced, and were followed byseveral others. In a few minutes he perceived that they were Esquimaucanoes.
Jumping hastily up, Stanley ran to the fort, and bidding his wife andchild keep out of sight, put two pair of pistols in his pockets andreturned to the beach, where he found Oolibuck gazing at the approachingflotilla with intense eagerness.
"Well, Oolibuck, here come your countrymen at last," said Stanley. "Dothey look friendly, think you?"
"Me no can tell; they most too quiet," replied the interpreter.
Esquimaux in general are extremely noisy and full of animatedgesticulation on meeting with strangers, especially when they meet ondecidedly friendly terms. The silence, therefore, maintained by thenatives as they advanced was looked upon as a bad sign. The fleetconsisted of nine kayaks, and three large oomiaks full of women andchildren; and a curious appearance they presented at a distance, for thelow kayaks of the men being almost invisible, it seemed as if theiroccupants were actually seated on the water. The oomiaks being muchhigher, were clearly visible. On coming to within a quarter of a mileof the fort, the men halted to allow the women to come up; then formingin a crescent in front of the oomiaks, the whole flotilla advancedslowly towards the beach. When within a hundred yards or so, Stanleysaid, "Now, Oolibuck, give them a hail."
"Chimo! Chimo! Chimo-o-o!" shouted the interpreter.
The word acted like a talisman.
"Chimo!" yelled the Esquimaux in reply, and the kayaks shot like arrowsupon the sand, while the women followed as fast as they could. Inanother minute a loud chattering and a brisk shaking of hands was takingplace on shore.
The natives were dressed in the sealskin garments with which arctictravellers have made us all more or less acquainted. They were stoutburly fellows, with fat, oily, and bearded faces.
"Now tell them, Oolibuck, the reason of our coming here," said Stanley.
Oolibuck instantly began, by explaining to them that they had come forthe purpose of bringing about peace and friendship between them and theIndians; on hearing which the Esquimaux danced and shouted for nearly aminute with joy. But when the interpreter went on to say that theyintended to remain altogether among them, for the purpose of trading,their delight knew no bounds; they danced and jumped, and whooped andyelled, tossed up their arms and legs, and lay down on the sand androlled in ecstasy. In the midst of all this, Mrs Stanley rushed out ofthe house, followed by Edith, in great terror at the unearthly soundsthat had reached her ears; but on seeing her husband and Oolibucklaughing in the midst of the grotesque group, her fears vanished, andshe stood an amused spectator of the scene.
Meanwhile, Stanley went down and stepped into the midst of one of theoomiaks, with a few beads and trinkets in his hands; and while Oolibuckentertained the men on shore, he presented gifts to the women, whoreceived them with the most childish demonstrations of joy. There wassomething irresistibly comic in the childlike simplicity of these poornatives. Instead of the stiff reserve and haughty demeanour of theirIndian neighbours, they danced and sang, and leaped and roared, embracedeach other and wept, with the most reckless indifference to appearances,and seemed upon all occasions to give instant vent to the feelings thathappened to be uppermost in their minds. As Stanley continued todistribute his gifts, the women crowded out of the other oomiaks intothe one in which he stood, until they nearly sank it; some of themextending their arms for beads, others giving a jolt to the hoods ontheir backs, which had the effect of bringing to light fat, greasy-facedlittle babies, who were pointed to as being peculiarly worthy ofattention.
At length Stanley broke from them and leaped ashore, where he was soonfollowed by the entire band. But here new objects--namely, Mrs Stanleyand Edith--attracted their wondering attention. Approaching towards theformer, they began timidly to examine her dress, which was indeed verydifferent from theirs, and calculated to awaken curiosity and surprise.The Esquimau women were dressed very much like the men--namely, in longshirts of sealskin or deerskin with the hair on, short breeches of thesame material, and long sealskin boots. The hoods of the women werelarger than those of the men, and their boots much more capacious; andwhile the latter had a short stump of a tail or peak hanging from thehinder part of their shirts, the women wore their tails so long thatthey trailed along the ground as they walked. In some cases these tailswere four and six inches broad, with a round flap at the end, andfringed with ermine. It was, therefore, with no little surprise thatthey found Mrs Stanley entirely destitute of a tail, and observed thatshe wore her upper garment so long that it reached the ground. Becominggradually more familiar, on seeing that the strange woman permitted themto handle her pretty freely, one of them gently lifted up her gown tosee whether or not she wore boots; but receiving a somewhat promptrepulse, she began to caress her, and assured her that she did not meanto give offence.
By this time Frank and some of the men had joined the group on theshore, and as it was getting late Stanley commanded silence.
"Tell them I have somewhat to say to them, Oolibuck."
The interpreter's remark instantly produced a dead silence.
"Now ask them if they are glad to hear that we are going to stay totrade with them."
A vociferous jabbering followed the question, which, by Oolibuck'sinterpretation, meant that their joy was utterly inexpressible.
"Have they been long on the coast?"
"No; they had just arrived, and were on their way up the river to obtainwood for building their kayaks."
"Did they see the bundle of presents we left for them at the coast?"
"Yes, they had seen it; but not knowing whom it was intended for, theyhad not touched it."
On being told that the presents were intended for them, the poorcreatures put on a look of intense chagrin, which, however, passed awaywhen it was suggested to them that they might take the gifts on theirreturn to the coast.
"And now," said Stanley, in conclusion, "'tis getting late. Go down tothe point below the fort and encamp there for the night. We thank youfor your visit, and will return it in the morning. Good-night."
On this being translated, the Esquimaux gave a general yell of assentand immediately retired, bounding and shouting and leaping as they went,looking, in their gleesome rotundity, like the infant progeny of a raceof giants.
"I like the look of these men very much," said Stanley, as he walked upto the house with Frank. "Their genuine trustfulness is a fine trait intheir character."
"No doubt of it," replied Frank. "There is much
truth in the proverb,`Evil dreaders are evil doers.' Those who fear no evil intend none.Had they been Indians, now, we should have had more trouble with them."
"I doubt it not, Frank. You would have been pleased to witness theprompt alacrity with which the poor creatures answered to our cry ofChimo, and ran their kayaks fearlessly ashore, although, for all theyknew to the contrary, the rocks might have concealed a hundred enemies."
"And yet," said Frank, with an air of perplexity, "the Esquimaucharacter seems to me a difficult problem to solve. When we read theworks of arctic voyagers, we find that one man's experience of theEsquimaux proves them to be inveterate thieves and liars, while anotherspeaks of them as an honest, truthful people--and that, too, being saidof the same tribe. Nay, further, I have read of a tribe being all thatis good and amiable at one time, and all that is bad and vile atanother. Now the conduct of these good-natured fellows, in reference tothe bundle of trinkets we left at the mouth of the river, indicates adegree of honesty that is almost too sensitive; for the merest exertionof common-sense would show that a bundle hung up in an exposed place topublic view must be for the public good."
"Nevertheless they seem both honest and friendly," returned Stanley,"and I trust that our experience of them may never change. To-morrow Ishall give them some good advice in regard to procuring furs, and showthem the wealth of our trading store."
When the morrow came the visit of the Esquimaux was returned by theentire force of Fort Chimo, and the childish delight with which theywere received was most amusing. The childishness, however, was onlyapplicable to these natives when expressing their strong feelings. Inother respects, particularly in their physical actions, they were mostmanly; and the thick black beards and moustaches that clothed the chinsof most of the men seemed very much the reverse of infantine. Thechildren were so exactly like to their parents in costume that theyseemed miniature representations of them. In fact, were a child viewedthrough a magnifying glass it would become a man, and were a man viewedthrough a diminishing glass he would become a child--always, of course,excepting the beard.
Bryan became a special favourite with the natives when it was discoveredthat he was a worker in iron, and the presents with which he wasoverwhelmed were of a most extraordinary, and, in some cases, perplexingnature. One man, who seemed determined to get into his good graces,offered him a choice morsel of broiled seal. "No, thankee, lad," saidBryan; "I've had my brickfust."
Supposing that the broiling had something to do with the blacksmith'sobjection, the Esquimau hastily cut off a slice of the raw blubber andtendered it to him.
"D'ye think I'm a haythen?" said Bryan, turning away in disgust.
"Ah, try it, Bryan," cried La Roche, turning from an Esquimau baby, inthe contemplation of which he had been absorbed--"try it; 'tis ver'goot, I 'sure you. Ver' goot for your complaint, Bryan. But come,here, vitement.--Just regardez dat hinfant. Come here, queek!"
Thus urged, Bryan broke away from his host (who had just split open theshinbone of a deer, and offered him the raw marrow, but withoutsuccess), and, going towards La Roche, regarded the baby in question.It was a remarkably fine child, seemingly about ten months old, with around, rosy, oily face, coal-black hair, and large, round, coal-blackeyes, with which it returned the stare of the two men with interest.But that which amused the visitors most was a lump of fat or blubber,with a skewer thrust through it, which its mother had given to the childto suck, and which it was endeavouring to thrust down its throat withboth hands.
"Come here, Oolibuck; pourquoi is de stick?"
"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed Oolibuck. "Dat is for keep de chile quiet; and destick is for no let him choke; him no can swallow de stick."
"Musha! but it would stick av he did swallow it," said Bryan, turningaway with a laugh.
In the course of the day Stanley and Frank conducted the natives to thefort, and having given them all an excellent dinner and a few gifts ofneedles, scissors, and knives, led them to the store, where the goodsfor trade were ranged temptingly on shelves round the walls. A counterencompassed a space around the entrance-door, within which the nativesstood and gazed on wealth which, to their unsophisticated minds, seemeda dream of enchantment.
Having given them time to imbibe a conception of the room and itstreasures, Stanley addressed them through the interpreter; but asreference to this worthy individual is somewhat hampering, we willdiscard him forthwith--retaining his style and language, however, forthe benefit of his fellow-countrymen.
"Now, you see what useful things I have got here for you; but I cannotgive them to you for nothing. They cost us much, and give us muchtrouble to bring them here. But I will give them for skins and furs andoil, and the tusks of the walrus; and when you go to your friends on thesea-coast, you can tell them to bring skins with them when they come."
"Ye vill do vat you vish. Ye most happy you come. Ye vill hunt verymush, and make your house empty of all dese t'ings if ye can."
"That's well. And now I am in need of boots for my men, and you have agood many, I see; so, if you can spare some of these, we will begin totrade at once."
On hearing this, the natives dispatched several of their number down tothe camp, who soon returned laden with boots. These boots are mostuseful articles. They are neatly made of sealskin, the feet or solesbeing of walrus hide, and perfectly waterproof. They are invaluable tothose who have to walk much in ice-cold water or among moist snow, as isthe case in those regions during spring and autumn. In winter the frostcompletely does away with all moisture, so that the Indian moccasin isbetter at that season than the Esquimau boot.
For these boots, and a few articles of native clothing, Stanley paid thenatives at the rates of the regular tariff throughout the country; andthis rate was so much beyond the poor Esquimau estimate of the relativevalue of boots and goods, that they would gladly have given all theboots and coats they possessed for what they received as the value ofone pair.
Overjoyed at their good fortune, and laden with treasure, they returnedto their camp to feast, and to sing the praises of the _Kublunat_, asthey termed the fur-traders.