Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/190

Rh but, O God, give me a thousand storms—worse, if they could be—rather than have the like thundering in my ears again! Her words, her looks, her voice, her tears, are in my very soul still. Here, one of the iron daughters of the rocky, ice-ribbed North, standing like an angel, pleading the cause of the true God, weeping for the sad havoc made and making among her people by those of my countrymen who should have been, and ever should be, the glorious representatives of freedom, civilization, and Christianity! It was too much; I was a child. I confess, I blushed for this stain upon my country's honour—not only this, but for the wickedness diffused almost throughout the unenlightened world by the instrumentality of whalers hailing from civilized lands.

"This I am ready to admit, that some commanders, some officers, and some crews of whaling ships are as they should be, exemplary men—men who take pleasure in doing good wherever they are—who seek to extend the bounds of civilization, planting philanthropic and Christian institutions where darkness and ignorance had before reigned universal. "Being now ready to return—three o'clock —Ebierbing kindly gathered a crew from among his friends to convey me aboard. Much seko (ice) had set into the cove, causing us great trouble and delay to get out. Once clear, a few strokes brought us alongside. "10 o'clock, night, thermometer 29°, barometer 29.525; wind south—fresh; cloudy."