I was directed to hold my breath; afterwards, to breathe on the diseased eyes; and, next, to spit on them.  The woman then took both my hands, and pressing them to his stomach, held them there for some time, while she related some calamitous history of her family; pointing sometimes to her husband, sometimes to a frightful cripple belonging to the family, and sometimes to her child.  I purchased all the fish they had, consisting of very fine salmon, salmon-trout, and mullet; which were delivered most faithfully to the man I sent for them.  The man was about five feet two inches high, and well made; his colour of a light copper; his hair black and short, and with little beard.  He had two holes in his under-lip, but no ornaments in them.  The woman was short and squat, with a plump round face; wore a deer-skin jacket, with a large hood, and had on wide boots.  The teeth of both were black, and seemed as if they had been filed down level with the gums.  The woman was punctured from the lip to the chin.”—­D.]

On the 14th, a party of men were sent on shore to cut brooms, which we were in want of, and the branches of spruce trees for brewing beer.  Toward noon, every body was taken on board; for the wind freshening, had raised such a surf on the beach, that the boats could not continue to land without great difficulty.  Some doubts being still entertained, whether the coast we were now upon belonged to an island or the American continent; and the shallowness of the water putting it out of our power to determine this with our ships, I sent Lieutenant King, with two boats under his command, to make such searches as might leave no room for a variety of opinions on the subject.[5] Next day, the ships removed over to the bay, which is on the S.E. side of Cape Denbigh, where we anchored in the afternoon.  Soon after, a few of the natives came off in their small canoes, and bartered some dried salmon for such trifles as our people had to give them.

[Footnote 5:  Captain King has been so good as to communicate his instructions on this occasion, and the particulars of the fatigue he underwent, in carrying them into execution: 

“You are to proceed to the northward as far as the extreme point we saw on Wednesday last, or a little further, if you think it necessary; land there, and endeavour, from the heights, to discover whether the land you are then upon, supposed to be the island of Alaschka, is really an island, or joins to the land on the east, supposed to be the continent of America.  If the former, you are to satisfy yourself with the depth of water in the channel between them, and which way the flood-tide comes.  But if you find the two lands connected, lose no time in sounding; but make the best of your way back to the ship, which you will find at anchor near the point of land we anchored under on Friday last.  If you perceive any likelihood of a change of weather for the worse, you are, in that case, to return to the ship, although you have not performed the service you are sent upon; and, at any rate, you are not to remain longer upon it than four or five days; but the sooner it is done the better.  If any unforeseen or unavoidable accident should force the ships off the coast, so that they cannot return at a reasonable time, the rendezvous is at the harbour of Samganoodha; that is, the place where we last completed our water.