They spared no pains to conciliate the natives of this part of the coast, who themselves made a show of a desire to maintain an amicable correspondence. But these demonstrations of friendship appear to have been designed only to put the English off their guard; for, when Frobisher had landed, he was suddenly attacked by a body of savages, who had concealed themselves behind a bank for that purpose. He retreated to the shore and eluded their machinations. The savages, however, still imagined that the strangers might be caught in the snare; and in order to entrap them, they scattered pieces of raw flesh along the shore, as they would have done to allure dogs. Finding this attempt fail, they had recourse to another stratagem. They carried a lame man, or at least one who feigned to be lame, down to the sea-side; and, having left him there, they went away and kept themselves entirely out of sight. They supposed that the English would make an attempt to carry off this lame man in order to serve them as an interpreter, or to procure some intelligence by his means. But Frobisher, who suspected some deception, ordered a shot to be fired over his head, when he instantly sprung up upon his legs and ran away with precipitate velocity. The savages now appeared in great numbers, and assailed the English with a shower of arrows and stones; but they were soon repulsed by a discharge of great and small guns. The native Greenlanders are represented as perfidious and cruel, neither to be softened by caresses nor moved by benefits. This, however, is the character of very imperfect knowledge and limited observation. They are described as plump in their appearance, active in their limbs, and with an aspect of olive hue. Some of them are reported to be as black as negroes. Their clothes are made out of the skin of the seal, and sewed with sinews. The women wear their hair loose, but throw it back behind their ears in order to show the face, which they paint blue and yellow. They wear no petticoats, but short trousers made of fish-skin, drawn one over the other; in the pockets of which they carry their knives, little mirrors, and the working materials, which they procure from foreigners or obtain from the wrecks which may happen upon their coasts. The shirts or chemises of both sexes are made from the intestines of fish, and sewed with fine sinews. They wear their clothes loose, and gird them with a belt made of fish-skin. They are disgustingly dirty, and covered with vermin. Their criterion of wealth is the number of bows and arrows, of slings, boats, and oars, which an individual may possess. Their bows are small, their arrows thin and armed at the end with a sharp point of bone or horn. They are expert in the use of the bow and the sling; and in killing fish with the spear. Their little boats are covered with sealskin, and can hold only one man. But they have larger boats formed of wood, covered with the skin of the whale, and which will carry twenty men.