Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/84

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EXPLORING EXPEDITION.
65

adieu, expressing the hope that when I returned I should find every cask of the George Henry overflowing with oil, and all her decks filled high with bone.

"We started from the vessel at 6.14 a.m. and arrived at Whale Island at 7. I found the Innuits, my friends Ebierbing and Tookoolito, expecting me. They seem to regret they cannot accompany me on this trip. I was glad to find Ebierbing improving. Having spent a few moments with them, I told them that, to make out my crew, I must have Koo-ou-le-arng, Ebierbing's aunt, if they could spare her. In ten minutes she was ready for the journey of two months. I called on Koodloo, who made all haste in preparing to accompany me. Jennie, Koodloo's wife, as I have said, could not be spared, as Ebierbing and Tookoolito thought her indispensable in her profession as an angeko for the former while he is sick.

"As we (Koodloo and I) had not succeeded in getting anything of consequence in the way of fresh provisions for Ebierbing and Tookoolito during my stay upon Whale Island, I left them the remainder of the can of pemmican on hand, also a small portion of the bread, coffee, and tea of the allotment to me for my Frobisher Bay trip. Captain B—— is to send a boat from the George Henry for these Innuits, also for Koodloo's wife and children, to remove them to the place where the other Innuits are, near the present position of the vessel."


* * * * * *

It was 8 a.m. when we left Whale Island, Rescue Harbour, under sail. My company consisted of Koojesse and his wife Tu-nuk-der-lien ("Belle"), Koo-per-ne-ung ("Charley"), and his wife Ak-chuk-er-zhun ("Susy"), Kood-loo, and the widow Koo-ou-le-arng ("Suzhi"). They were all in excellent spirits as well as myself. In about forty minutes a boat came alongside manned with Innuits, who were on their way across the bay for a tuktoo hunt.

From the ship to Whale Island, and also from Whale Island out into the bay, we encountered much ice that the