When I
related to them, as well as I was able, the massacre of the
Esquimaux recorded by Hearne, and gave them to understand that the
Indians spared neither age nor sex, it seemed to chill them with
horror, and I was almost sorry that I had told them the story.
_April 11._--We were now glad to begin making some show of
re-equipping the ships for sea; for though this was a business
that might, if necessary, have been very well accomplished in two
or three weeks, it was better to employ the men in occupations
having an evident and determinate object, than in those less
obviously useful ones to which it was necessary to resort during
the winter. We therefore brought down some of the boats to the
ships to repair, put up the forge on the ice, and built a snow
house over it, and set about various other jobs, which made the
neighbourhood of the ships assume a busy and bustling appearance.
I had to-day a visit from Okotook and Iligliuk, who, with their
son, came in upon their sledge from the distant huts. Being
desirous of entertaining them well, in return for their late
hospitality, we provided abundance to eat, and showed them
everything about the ship that we thought likely to amuse them. Of
all the wonders they had ever seen on board, there was nothing
which seemed to impress them so strongly with a sense of our
superiority as the forge, and the work which the armourer
performed with it.
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