In fact, they had made a very narrow escape, a storm having come on just as they landed on the first island.

The fact of these people having crossed Hudson’s Strait on so rude and frail a conveyance, strongly corroborates, I think, the opinion that America was originally peopled from Asia.  The Asiatic side of Behring’s Strait affording timber sufficiently large for the purpose of building boats or canoes, there seems nothing improbable in supposing that, when once in possession of that wonderful and useful invention—­a boat, they might be induced, even by curiosity—­that powerful stimulus to adventure—­to visit the nearest island, and from thence proceed to the continent of America; and finding it, perhaps, possessed of superior advantages to the shores they had left, settle there.  My voyageur was evidently induced as much by curiosity as by the desire of procuring a canoe, to visit the south side of Hudson’s Strait, where the passage is as wide as between the island in Behring’s Strait and the two continents.

At an early period of the winter I was gratified by the arrival of despatches from the civilized world.  The packet was found by the Indians at Esquimaux Bay, whither I had sent them, and forwarded to me by Mr. Erlandson’s two men.  By his letters I was grieved to learn that starvation stared him in the face; the fishing, that promised so well when I passed, having entirely failed, and no deer were to be found.  He wrote me, however, that he would maintain his post while a piece of parchment remained to gnaw!

The Governor’s letters conveyed the thanks of the Governor and Committee for my “laudable exertions;” while his Excellency intimated, in language not to be misunderstood, that my promotion depended on my successful management of the affairs of Ungava, “which he regretted to find were still in an unpromising state.”

What effect this announcement had on my feelings need not be mentioned—­after a painful servitude of eighteen years thus to be compelled to make renewed, and even impossible exertions ere I obtained the reward of my toil, while many others had reached the goal in a much shorter time without experiencing either hardship or privation,—­the injustice I had suffered, or the deceit that had been practised on me.  As a balm to my wounded feelings, my correspondents in the north informed me that seven clerks had been promoted since I left Norway House.

Many of the Esquimaux referred to in a preceding page passed the winter in this quarter, not daring to return in consequence of an hostile rencontre they had had with some of their own tribes on their way hither.  The quarrel, like most Indian quarrels, originated in an attempt to carry off women:  both parties had recourse to arms, and a desperate struggle ensued, in which our visitors were completely defeated, with the loss of several lives.