north, who seldom come farther south than
Nachrack 59 deg. --m. Saeglak lies between, and in winter is visited by
both in their sledges. Those in the north still retain the original
native furniture, wooden bowls, and whale-bone water buckets, large
and small lamps and kettles of bastard marble, and are more
unvitiated, therefore more to be depended upon than the others. They
of the south have obtained European pots and kettles of iron,
hatchets, saws, knives and gimlets, woollen cloths, sewing needles,
and various other utensils of iron; they are more treacherous, and
less to be trusted in their dealings.

So long as Newfoundland remained in possession of the French, the
traffic of Europeans with the Esquimaux went little farther than the
bartering of fish hooks, knives, or trifling wares, which they had
brought with them to the fishing for whale fins. But when that Island
fell into the hands of the English, they and the Americans, who
promised themselves great advantages from opening a trade with the
natives, brought with them a more extensive assortment of goods. The
traffic at first was mis-managed. In order to ingratiate themselves
with the savages, the traders both took and allowed greater liberties
than were calculated to preserve mutual good understanding. The
foreigners excited the cupidity of the natives, which, though easily
satisfied at the moment, soon became a constant, increasing, and
insatiable appetite; and when their whale-fins, furs, or blubber were
exhausted, and they could purchase no more of the articles they had
learned to prize, they first quarrelled with those friends who would
not make them presents of what they wanted, and then proceeded by
fraud or force to supply themselves. Having a thorough contempt for
the _Kablunat_, they imagined that they displayed a virtuous and
praiseworthy superiority, when they overreached, deceived, and stole
from them. The traders who entertained similar notions respecting the
Esquimaux, acted in a similar manner, and their intercourse soon
became productive of murders and robberies, in which the numbers and
cunning of the latter enabled them for a time to be the most
successful.

A band of Esquimaux from Avertok, a place not far from where the
settlement of Nain at present is, commenced their plundering
expeditions upon system, evincing a depraved ingenuity, converted now
to better objects. They went regularly to the south with whale fins,
which they bought u