Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/88

Rh author, when it is not probable that he was, taking all the circumstances into consideration. The stigma cast upon him burns to his very heart's core to this day. Even here his name is blackened by the public notoriety given him abroad as the man who fabricated falsehoods relative to the destruction of two ships near Cape Dudley Digges, and the violent deaths of the officers and men supposed to refer to Sir John Franklin's Expedition.

"Who of us that has not done an act worthy to be so generally condemned could stand up against this tide? Not one in a thousand would do it! Adam Beck is of the 999. He lives on the 'don't care principle.' He has lost all self-respect, for all shun him. I pity him from the bottom of my heart. Would that cheering words like those Sir John Ross were wont to utter when living could be whispered in his ear. Adam Beck is wretched—poor. He has an old, rickety, leaky boat, that some one has abandoned. That is all he has in this world, save the old skins on his back that once warmly covered him. I will strive to show him the respect due as a human being. Though he be an outcast, I know there is in his breast a chord that will vibrate to kindness and humanity.

"Saturday, July 14th.—This afternoon I started out for the mountains accompanied by Adam Beck. I had with me, swinging from my shoulders, my sextant and my glass, and in my pockets, tape-line, geological hammer, chisel, and other traps.

"After some distance we came to a river that it was necessary to cross, but for three miles we could find no practicable ford. At length I determined to strip and wade over, carrying my clothes and effects on my head. The water was intensely cold, and two winds met exactly in my passage, yet the scene was extraordinarily beautiful! The golden sand under my feet—the diamond-shaped waves caused by the angular breezes—the arctic sun pouring down its bright, warm rays from just above the peaks of Greenland's mountains, and reflected from the sparkling waters around me, will never be forgotten. F 2