Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/170

Rh The foundation still remained, and was of "lyme and stone." It was about twelve feet in diameter, and every portion of it was covered with aged moss. From appearances, some of the stones had been turned over, as if done by Innuits seeking treasure. A few feet east of this house was a sort of stone breastwork, such as the natives erect for shelter when hunting, and also a pile of stones, which might have been made, as I thought, by Frobisher's men, to cover some memorial left by them when trying to escape in their ship.

Much of the island was covered with shingle, and this, on the north side, was so compact, and of such even surface, that it reminded me of the small cobble-stone pavements in cities. I collected as many relics from these ruins as we could possibly carry, and, with Koojesse, returned to the boat. On our way he said to me,

"The men who built the ship, and started with it, all died—died with the cold." I asked him how he knew this; and he replied that "all the old Innuits said so."

This agreed precisely with what old Ookijoxy Ninoo told me the previous winter in the oral history she then communicated to me, and I felt convinced that all the evidences before me could refer to no other than Frobisher's expedition, and the men left behind by that explorer. She said that the five men built a ship, and found so much ice that they could not proceed, and finally all froze to death. This island is generally called "Kod-lu-narn" because white men lived on it, and built stone houses, and also a ship. The ship was built for the object of escaping from this region. In the previous winter, while passing on our way from the ship to Oopungnewing—an island three miles southwest from Kodlunarn—Koojesse had pointed out this latter island, and said that white men once built a ship there. I gave little heed to his statement at the time, because I knew that to build a ship such materials were required as the regions thereabout