Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/196

 for they wore some of our cast-away moccassins. Our escort here declined going any farther, and demanded an axe for their canoe, the very price paid for one by Mr. Elson on the other side of Point Barrow. I immediately gave them one of our axes, together with all the tobacco we had left; and my bowman was in the act of shoving off, when the strangers, nine in number, seized the canoe, with the intention of dragging it ashore. On my pointing my gun at them they desisted; but quick as thought they snatched their bows and quivers, expecting to take us by surprise. When, however, they saw the whole crew ready for the combat, they lowered their tone of defiance; and I remarked with a smile, that, as sometimes happens in more civilized communities, the most blustering, turbulent fellow was the first to shew the white feather. The rascal's copper physiognomy fairly blanched, and his trembling hand refused to lay the "cloth-yard shaft" to the bowstring, as the others had done. When the threatened fray was blown over, I explained, as well I could, to the aggressors, that the visit and intentions of the whites were altogether friendly; but we parted in mutual distrust. We followed the outside of the reefs enclosing Fatigue Bay. They are intersected by several broad deep channels, that