Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/69



UPERNAVIK.—HOSPITALITY OF THE INHABITANTS.—DEATH AND BURIAL OF GIBSON CARUTHERS.—A LUNCH ON BOARD.—ADIEU.

We put to sea early in the morning of the 12th, and in the evening of the same day were at Upernavik. The entrance to the harbor is somewhat unsafe, owing to a reef which lies outside the anchorage; but we were fortunate in obtaining a native pilot at Pröven, and ran in without accident. This pilot was a character in his way. It seems that he had been converted from his heathen ways, and rejoiced in the benefits of baptism and the name of Adam. Dressed in a well-worn suit of seal-skins, Adam had about him little of the sailor trigness; yet, though not a Palinurus, no pilot in all the world had ever a higher appreciation of his personal importance. His appearance, however, was not calculated to inspire any great degree of confidence in his skill; and the sailing-master plied him so incessantly with questions that he at length grew impatient; and, concentrating his vanity and knowledge into one short sentence, which signified plainly, "I am master of the situation," he informed that officer that there was "plenty water all de times, no rocks altogeder," and retired with every mark of offended dignity. He was correct in his information, if not in his English.

We found the Danish brig Thialfe lying snugly