Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/73

54 and Lupton Channel. The boat which I now had was not as good by any means as I should have wished, but I was obliged to make it answer. My crew were to be all Innuits. I had arranged for Ebierbing and Tookoolito, Koodloo and Jennie his wife, and probably Jennie, sister of Ebierbing, to be of the party, with Suzhi also, who was likely to be exceedingly useful, in consequence of her great strength, notwithstanding her weight, which was not less than 200 pounds. I expected to be gone two months, at the end of which time, if the vessel should still be hereabouts, I would again rejoin her to return to the States. I earnestly hoped to succeed in accomplishing all this. God willing, I was resolved it should be done. The vessel was expected to sail on the 30th. I therefore gathered up some of the things I designed taking with me on my boat voyage, and carried them on shore to Ebierbing's tupic. On Tuesday, the 30th, preparations were made to weigh anchor. The time had come for me to leave. I placed such other things as I required in the old, rotten, leaky, and ice-beaten whale-boat with which I was to make my voyage to the head of Frobisher Bay. I also compared my chronometer with the George Henry's; my two assistants, Jennie and little Ookoodlear, were in the boat to pull me on shore, and now nothing remained but to take leave of captain, officers, and crew. It was done. The farewell was uttered. The George Henry was under sail, and I set out on my way to Whale Island, to commence life in earnest among the Esquimaux. I took up my abode in the tupic of Ebierbing and Tookoolito, other natives, relatives of theirs, being with us and near by.

As I walked about—the only white man among them—my position seemed, and in reality was, strange. At last alone; the ship gone; all of my own people, my own blood, my own language, departed; and now, by myself, to do whatever work I could. Well, this was what I designed. I would not despond. It was good. Freedom dwells in the North—