Voyages in Search of the North-West PassageHakluyt, Richard
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Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage
Hakluyt, Richard
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Northwest Passage; Voyages and travels
At length one of them, pointing up to the sun with his hand,
would presently strike his breast so hard that we might hear the blow.
This he did many times before he would any way trust us. Then John
Ellis, the master of the _Moonshine_, was appointed to use his best
policy to gain their friendship, who shook his breast and pointed to the
sun after their order, which when he had divers times done they began to
trust him, and one of them came on shore, to whom we threw our caps,
stockings, and gloves, and such other things as then we had about us,
playing with our music, and making signs of joy, and dancing. So the
night coming we bade them farewell, and went aboard our barques.
The next morning, being the 30th of July, there came thirty-seven canoes
rowing by our ships calling to us to come on shore; we not making any
great haste unto them, one of them went up to the top of the rock, and
leaped and danced as they had done the day before, showing us a seal
skin, and another thing made like a timbrel, which he did beat upon with
a stick, making a noise like a small drum. Whereupon we manned our boats
and came to them, they all staying in their canoes. We came to the
water's side, where they were, and after we had sworn by the sun after
their fashion they did trust us. So I shook hands with one of them, and
he kissed my hand, and we were very familiar with them. We were in so
great credit with them upon this single acquaintance that we could have
anything they had. We bought five canoes of them; we bought their
clothes from their backs, which were all made of seal skins and birds'
skins; their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all being commonly sewed
and well dressed, so that we were fully persuaded that they have divers
artificers among them. We had a pair of buskins of them full of fine
wool like beaver. Their apparel for heat was made of birds' skins with
their feathers on them. We saw among them leather dressed like glover's
leather, and thick thongs like white leather of good length. We had of
their darts and oars, and found in them that they would by no means
displease us, but would give us whatsoever we asked of them, and would be
satisfied with whatsoever we gave them. They took great care one of
another, for when we had bought their boats then two other would come,
and carry him away between them that had sold us his. They are a very
tractable people, void of craft or double dealing, and easy to be brought
to any civility or good order, but we judged them to be idolaters, and to
worship the sun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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