then took both my hands, and pressing
them to his stomach, held them there for some time, while she related
some calamitous history of her family; pointing sometimes to her
husband, sometimes to a frightful cripple belonging to the family, and
sometimes to her child. I purchased all the fish they had, consisting
of very fine salmon, salmon-trout, and mullet; which were delivered
most faithfully to the man I sent for them. The man was about five
feet two inches high, and well made; his colour of a light copper; his
hair black and short, and with little beard. He had two holes in his
under-lip, but no ornaments in them. The woman was short and squat,
with a plump round face; wore a deer-skin jacket, with a large hood,
and had on wide boots. The teeth of both were black, and seemed as if
they had been filed down level with the gums. The woman was punctured
from the lip to the chin."--D.]

On the 14th, a party of men were sent on shore to cut brooms, which
we were in want of, and the branches of spruce trees for brewing beer.
Toward noon, every body was taken on board; for the wind freshening,
had raised such a surf on the beach, that the boats could not continue
to land without great difficulty. Some doubts being still entertained,
whether the coast we were now upon belonged to an island or the
American continent; and the shallowness of the water putting it out
of our power to determine this with our ships, I sent Lieutenant King,
with two boats under his command, to make such searches as might leave
no room for a variety of opinions on the subject.[5] Next day, the
ships removed over to the bay, which is on the S.E. side of Cape
Denbigh, where we anchored in the afternoon. Soon after, a few of the
natives came off in their small canoes, and bartered some dried salmon
for such trifles as our people had to give them.

[Footnote 5: Captain King has been so good as to communicate his
instructions on this occasion, and the particulars of the fatigue he
underwent, in carrying them into execution:

"You are to proceed to the northward as far as the extreme point we
saw on Wednesday last, or a little further, if you think it necessary;
land there, and endeavour, from the heights, to discover whether the
land you are then upon, supposed to be the island of Alaschka, is
really an island, or joins to the land on the east, supposed to be the
continent of America. If the former, you are to satisfy yourself with
the depth of water i