Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/426

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north with the other,—a practicable scheme of exploration could be inaugurated, and that its success as well as safety would be secured. To this end, I proposed to myself to establish a permanent hunting station or colony at Port Foulke; to collect about that place all of the Esquimaux; organize a vigorous hunt; and make that hunt yield whatever was essential for sustaining indefinitely an extended system of exploration toward the North Pole. In the practicability of establishing such a station, Jensen, whose experience in the Greenland colonies was extensive, fully agreed with me, and he was much delighted with the plan, accepting without hesitation my proposal to make him superintendent of it; Kalutunah was overjoyed with the prospect of bringing all of his people together; and, in this aspect alone, the scheme possessed much that was to me personally gratifying. My intercourse with this fast-dwindling race had caused me to feel a deep interest in them and to sympathize with their unhappy condition. The hardships of their life were telling upon them sadly, and, if not rescued by the hand of Christian philanthropy and benevolence, in less than half a century these poor wanderers of the icy sea will have all passed away.
 * —mooring one of them in Port Foulke, and pushing

My plans for the future did not, however, assume definite shape at the period of which I write, nor could they until the schooner should be set free.