Shortly after these men had arrived, a large _oomiak_, or woman's boat, made its appearance, containing six or seven females and four men, the oldest of the latter, as is usual among them, steering the boat with a rude oar of wood. The women could not be induced to land upon the floe, but held up skins and small narrow strips of well-tanned leather to exchange, loudly vociferating _pilletay_ (give me) the whole time. There were in this boat several skins of oil and blubber, which I tried hard to purchase, but nothing could induce the old man to part with more than one skin of it; for what reason I could not tell, except that he hoped, by perseverance, to obtain a higher price. On my desiring our men to hand out a second skin of oil, as an equivalent for which I put into the old man's hand a second knife, he resisted most vehemently, pushing our men aside in the boat with a violence I have never seen the Esquimaux use on any other occasion. One of the younger men then came forward, and was lifting up the stretcher of their boat to strike our people, who were good-humouredly laughing at the old man's violence, when I thought it high time to interpose, and, raising a boat-hook over the head of the Esquimaux, as if about to strike them, soon brought them into a cooler mood; after which, to prevent farther altercation, I ordered our people out of the boat. We had by this time succeeded in purchasing all the oil brought by the first canoes; and as the old fellow, who was commanding officer of the _oomiak_, obstinately persisted in his refusal to sell his, I ordered him away, when he immediately rowed to the Hecla, and, as I was afterward informed by Captain Lyon, sold his oil for less than he might have obtained at first. Four other _oomiaks_ afterward came from the shore, from which we were distant five or six miles. Each of these contained from fourteen to twenty-six persons, the majority being females and young children. Upon the whole, not less than one hundred of the natives visited the ships in the course of the evening.