Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/69

50 straight to the very spot where she had been at anchor when overtaken by the hurricane which had wrecked her. The instant she was discovered, an exclamation burst from the crew that the very acme of bad-luck seemed to have reached them! They never could do anything until that curse was out of sight! Indeed, some of the expressions used about her were much stronger, and certainly, to others less interested in the Rescue than myself, her appearance so often, and apparently in such mystic form, was enough to cause annoyance, if not actual superstitious dread. All through that night great vigilance was needed in guarding the vessel, for the ice pressed tremendously upon her, and in the morning men were again at work cutting the floe. Finally they succeeded in separating a part that strained most upon the cable, and thus we escaped the greatest danger. On July 28th, in the morning, I went over to Whale Island and brought Tookoolito on board, to continue the work begun some time previous of getting up a vocabulary of the Innuit of these regions for collation with Parry's, compiled on his second voyage up Hudson's Straits. Tookoolito was very serviceable in this. She gave me valuable explanations of words, and also expeditiously interpreted into her own tongue portions of the "Progressive Reader" which I had previously presented to her. In reference to this really important matter, the following extract from my journal at the time may be here brought forward. I said:—

"Oh that such a noble Christianizing work was begun here as is now established in Greenland! What a valuable aid for it could be found in Tookoolito! Will not some society, some people of civilization, see to this matter ere this noble race pass away? ... It seems to me that the days of the Innuits are numbered. There are very few of them now. Fifty years may find them all passed away, without leaving one to tell that such a people ever lived."

At this time the men that had remained at the whaling