We found our new acquaintance as desirous of pleasing us as we were ready to be pleased; so that we were soon on good terms with them all.  While we were engaged in examining every part of their huts, their whole behaviour was in the highest degree orderly, respectful, and good-humoured.  They eagerly received the various articles that were given them, either in exchange for their own commodities or as presents, but on no occasion importuned us for anything, nor did the well-known sound of “pilletay” once escape from them.  We had also great reason to believe that these people possessed, in no ordinary degree, the quality of honesty; a quality the more desirable to us, as we had on shore, besides the house and observatory, all our boats and other articles, which, had they been disposed to pilfer, it would have required all our vigilance to guard.  If we dropped a glove or a handkerchief without knowing it, they would immediately direct our attention to it by pointing; and if the owner had left the hut before they discovered it, would run out after him to return it.  Numberless instances of a similar kind occurred in the course of our subsequent communication with them, some of which I shall hereafter have an opportunity of relating.

After remaining with them a couple of hours, and proposing to spend the following day among them, we set out on our return to the ships.  Being desirous of trying their disposition to part with their children, I proposed to buy a fine lad, named Toolooak, for the very valuable consideration of a handsome butcher’s knife.  His father, apparently understanding our meaning, joyfully accepted the knife, and the boy ran into the hut to fetch his mittens, which seemed to be all that he cared for in leaving his home.  He then set off with us in high spirits, and at first assisted in drawing a sledge we had purchased to carry our things; but as he began, by our additional signs, more clearly to comprehend our true meaning, he gradually relaxed in his zeal to accompany our party, and, being afterward overtaken by a number of his companions, he took an opportunity to slink off among some hummocks of ice, so that, when we arrived on board, Toolooak was missing.

On our reaching the ships, these people expressed much less surprise and curiosity than might naturally have been expected on their first visit, which may, perhaps, in some measure, be attributed to their being in reality a less noisy kind of people than most of the Esquimaux to whom we had before been accustomed.  Quiet and orderly, however, as they were disposed to be, this first visit showed them to be as fond of merriment as their countrymen are usually considered; for, on Captain Lyon’s ordering his fiddler up on the Hecla’s deck, they danced with the men for an hour, and then returned in high glee and good-humour to their huts.