began to ask for everything he saw, and ex-boats were lying aground; for, armed as the pressed much displeasure on our refusing to Esquimaux were with long knives, bows, ar comply with his demands; he also, we afterwards learned, excited the cupidity of others by his account of the inexhaustible riches in the Lion, and several of the younger men endeavored to get into both our boats, but we resisted all their attempts. 66 6 rows, and spears, fire-arms could not have been used with advantage against so numerous a host; Franklin, indeed, states his conviction; considering the state of excitement to which they had worked themselves, that the first blood which his party might unfortunately have shed, would instantly have been revenged by the sacrifice of all their lives. They continued, however, to press, and made many efforts to get into the boats, while the water had ebbed so far that it was not "As soon as the boats were afloat and makknee-deep at the boats, and the younger men, ing to a secure anchorage, seven or eight of waiting in crowds around them, tried to steal the natives walked along the beach, entered everything they could reach. The Reliance into conversation with Augustus, and invited being afloat, was dragged by the crowd to him to a conference on shore. I was unwillwards the shore, when Franklin directed the ing to let him go,' says Franklin, but the crew of the Lion (which was aground and im- brave little fellow entreated so earnestly that movable) to endeavor to follow her, but the I would suffer him to land and reprove the boat remained fast until the Esquimaux lent Esquimaux for their conduct, that I at length their aid and dragged her after the Reliance.consented.' On his return, being desired to One of the Lion's men perceived that the man tell what he had said to them,' he had told who was upset had a pistol under his shirt, them,' he said— which it was discovered had been stolen from Lieutenant Back, and the thief, seeing it to be noticed, leaped out of the boat and joined his countrymen, carrying with him the great coat which Augustus had lent him. . "Your conduct has been very bad, and unlike that of all other Esquimaux. Some of you even stole from me, your countryman; but that I do not mind, I only regret that you should have treated in this violent manTwo of the most powerful men, jumping on ner the white people, who came solely to do board at the same time, seized me by the you a kindness. My tribe were in the same wrists and forced me to sit between them; and unhappy state in which you now are, before as I shook them loose two or three times, a the white people came to Churchill, but at third Esquimaux took his station in front to present they are supplied with everything catch my arm whenever I attempted to lift my they need, and you see that I am well clothed; gun, or the broad dagger which hung by my I get all that I want, and am very comfortside. The whole way to the shore they kept able. You cannot expect, after the transacrepeating the word teyma,' beating gently on tions of this day, that these people will ever my left breast with their hands, and pressing bring goods to your country again, unless you mine against their breasts. As we neared the show your contrition by restoring the stolen beach, two oomiaks, full of women, arrived, goods. The white people love the Esquimaux, and the teymas' and vociferation were re- and wish to show them the same kindness that doubled. The Reliance was first brought to they bestowed upon the Indians. Do not dethe shore, and the Lion close to her a few ceive yourselves, and suppose they are afraid seconds afterwards. The three men who held of you; I tell you they are not; and that it is me now leaped ashore, and those who remained entirely owing to their humanity that many in their canoes, taking them out of the water, of you were not killed to-day; for they have carried them to a little distance. A numerous all guns, with which they can destroy you party then drawing their knives, and stripping either when near or at a distance. I also have themselves to the waist, ran to the Reliance, a gun, and can assure you, that if a white man and having first hauled her as far up as they had fallen, I would have been the first to have could, began a regular pillage, handing the ar- revenged his death.' ticles to the women, who, ranged in a row behind, quickly conveyed them out of sight. "The language of course is that of Franklin, who however gives it as the purport of "In short, after a furious contest, when Augustus's speech, and adds, his veracity is knives were brandished in a most threatening beyond all question with the party. We manner, several of the men's clothes cut could perceive,' says Franklin, by the shouts through, and the buttons of others torn from of applause, with which they filled the pauses their coats, Lieutenant Back ordered his peo- in his language, that they assented to his arple to seize and level their muskets, but not to guments;' [that is, to his representation of the fire till the word was given. This had the de- superior power of those white men ;] and he sired effect, the whole crowd taking to their told us they had expressed great sorrow for heels and hiding themselves behind the drift- having given so much cause of offence.' He timber on the beach. Captain Franklin still said, moreover, that they had pleaded ignothought it best to temporize so long as the rance, having never before seen white men; that they had seen so many fine things entire- tion with the natives in the neighborhood of ly new to them, that they could not resist the the M'Kenzie, he appears to have been adtemptation of stealing; they promised never mirably imposed upon by them. Let us again to do the like again; and gave a proof of their get at a fact or two. sincerity by restoring the articles that had been stolen. And thus in an amicable manner was the affray concluded." He is told by a chief that the Esquimaux go so far to the westward to trade, instead of to the M'Kenzie, “because, at the latter place, the white man had given the Indians very bad DR. RAE's communication to us on the sub-water, which killed many and made others ject of his Report, which was begun last week, resumes and concludes as follows: foolish (drunk), and that they would not have any such water. From this it evidently appears that the Company lose annually many valuable skins, which find their way to the Colvill instead of to the M'Kenzie. When the Esquimaux have an object to gain, they will not hesitate to tell a falsehood, but they cannot lie with a good grace; "they Let us quietly examine the above statecannot lie like truth," as civilized men do. ments. It is well known that since the Their fabrications are so silly and ridiculous, M-Kenzie has been discovered, ardent spirits and it is so easy to make them contradict have not been admitted within the district, for themselves by a slight cross-questioning, that the natives. At present, and for many years the falsehood is easily discovered. I could back spirits or wines have not been allowed to give a number of instances of this, but shall confine myself to two. When Sir John Richardson descended the M'Kenzie in 1848, a great number of Esquimaux came off in their canoes; they told us that on an island to which they pointed, a number of white people had been living for some time; that they had been living there all winter, and that we ought to land to see them. Their story was altogether so incredible, that we could not have a moment's doubt or difficulty in tracing its object. They wished to get us on shore in order to have a better opportunity of pillaging our boats, as they did those of Sir John Franklin; for it must be remembered that the Esquimaux at the M'Kenzie and to the westward are different from any of those to the eastward. The former, notwithstanding the frequent efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company to effect a peace, are at constant war with the Louchoux Indians, and consequently with the "white men," as they think the latter, by supplying guns and ammunition to the Louchoux, are their allies. enter the M Kenzie or its neighboring district of Athabasca, as allowances for either officers or men in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, so that the natives might not have it to say that we took for ourselves what we would not give to them. We do not know, nor do I think that there are, any Russian trading posts on the Colvill. The true reason that these Esquimaux do not trade with the Hudson's Bay Company is, that the former_are constantly at war with the Louchoux. Frequent attempts have been made to effect a reconciliation between these tribes, but hitherto without success. Captain M-Clure tells us that the Esquimaux informed him that "they had no communication with any person belonging to the Great River" (M'Kenzie); yet, strange to say, he intrusts the very despatches in which this is mentioned, to natives of the same tribe, and indulges the hope that his "letter may reach the Hudson's Bay Company this year, (one thousand eight hundred and fifty). In another case, Captain M'Clure mentions that Another instance excited much interest in he gave a gun and ammunition to an EsquiEngland when it was first made known here. maux chief, to deliver a despatch into the It was reported to Captain M'Clure by an Es- hands of the Hudson's Bay Company. In any quimaux, that one of a party of white men had case, prepayment is acknowledged to be a bad been killed by one of his tribe near Point plan, but worst of all in that of a savage with Warren. That the white men built a house whom you are unacquainted, and on whom there, but nobody knew how they came, as they had no boat; and that they went inland. When asked "when this took place?" the reply was, that "it might be last year or when I was a child." How any one could place any faith in such a report as this, I am at a loss to discover. Any man at all acquainted with the native character, would in a moment set down this tale at its proper value; at least Sir John Richardson and I did-and the first is high authority. Indeed, throughout the whole of Captain or Commander McClure's communica you have no hold. Had the pay depended upon the performance of the service, the despatch might have had some chance of reaching its destination. I have had some opportunities of studying Esquimaux character; and, from what I have seen, I consider them superior to all the tribes of red men in America. In their domestic relationship they show a bright example to the most civilized people. They are dutiful sons and daughters, kind brothers and sisters, and most affectionate parents. So well is the first of these qualities understood among them, that a large family is considered wealth by a father made) is not a parallel case. In it the sufferand mother-for, the latter well know that ing party had generally something or other they will be carefully tended by their offspring, well clothed and fed, whilst a scrap of skin or a morsel of food is to be obtained, as long as a spark of life remains; and, after death, that their bodies will be properly placed either on or under the ground, according to the usage of the tribe. -- every few days to allay the cravings of hunger. They had pieces of old leather, tripe de roche, and an infusion of the tea-plant. Unfortunately, near the mouth of Back's Fish River, there are none of the above named plants, nothing but a barren waste with scarcely a blade of grass upon it. Much stress is laid on the moral character and the admirable discipline of the crews of Sir John Franklin's ships. What their state of discipline may have been I cannot say, but their conduct at the very last British port they entered was not such as to make those who knew it, consider them very deserving of the high eulogium passed upon them in Household Words. Nor can we say that the men, in extreme cases of privation, would maintain that state of subordination so requisite in all cases, but more especially during danger and difliculty. I do not stand alone in the high opinion I have formed of the Esuqimaux character. At the Hudson's Bay Company's establishments of Fort George on the east, and Churchill on the west, coast of Hudson's Bay, where the Esquimaux visit, they are looked upon in an equally favorable light The Moravian missionaries on the Labrador coast find the Esquimaux honest and trustworthy, and employ them constantly and almost exclusively as domestic servants. The report of the residents in the Danish settlements on the west shores of Greenland, is no less favorable; and We have, I am sorry to say, but too many although I have no special authority for saying recent instances of disagreement and differso, I believe that Captain Perring's opinions ences among the officers employed on the are similar. During the two winters I passed Arctic service. It is well known in naval at Repulse Bay, I had men with me who had circles that, in one vessel which has not yet been, at some time of their lives, in all parts arrived from the north, there will be two or of the Hudson's Bay Company's territories. three courts martial as soon as she reaches These men assured me that they had never home. To place much dependance on the obeseen Indians so decorous, obliging, unobtru- dience and good conduct of the comparatively sive, orderly, and friendly, as the Esquimaux. uneducated seamen, if exposed to the utmost Oh! some one may remark, perhaps they extremes of distress, when their superiors, have some private reason for this. without having any such excuse, have forgotNow, my men had not any "private reason ten themselves on a point of such vital imfor saying so. I firmly believe, and can al-portance, would be very unreasonable. Bemost positively assert, that no case of improper sides, seamen generally consider themselves, intercourse took place between them and when they have lost their ship and set foot on the natives of Repulse Bay during the two shore, as being freed from that strict discipline seasons I remained there--which is more, I to which they would readily submit themselves suspect, than most of the commanders of when on board. parties to the Arctic Sea can truthfully aflirm., A number of instances (principally ship- a wrecks), are brought forward to show that cannibalism has not been usually resorted to in cases of extreme want; that it is the exception, not the rule. Yet not one of those properly represent the probable position of Sir John Franklin's party. In all the cases above alluded to, the parties suffering were deprived of water as well as of food. We all know that when any one suffers from two painful sensations, but painful in different degrees, the more severe of the two prevents the lesser from being felt. Thirst causes a far more painful sensation than hunger, and consequently, whilst the first remains unappeased, the pangs of the other are very slightly, if at all, felt. In the case of Franklin's party, their thirst could be easily assuaged, and consequently the pangs of hunger would be felt the more intensely. Even Franklin's former disastrous journey (from the narrative of which large extracts have been As these observations have already attained much greater length than I at first anticipated, I shall refrain from mentioning, as I intended, one or two instances of persons fully as well educated as the generality of picked seamen usually are, and brought up as Christians, having, in cases of extreme want, had recourse to the last resource," as a means of maintaining life. I am aware of the difficulties I have to encounter in replying to the article on the Lost Arctic Voyagers." That the author of that article is a writer of very great ability and practice, and that he makes the best use of both to prove his opinions, is very evident. Besides, he takes the popular view of the question, which is a great point in his favor. To oppose this, I have nothing but a small amount of practical knowledge of the question at issue, with a few facts to support my views and opinions; but, I can only throw them together in a very imperfect and unconnected form, as have little experience in writing, and, like I many men who have led a wandering and stir- of all sorts of cross-questioning, is to me the ring life, have a great dislike to it. It is seldom clearest proof that the information they gave that a man can do well what is disagreeable to me was founded on fact. him. That the "white men" were not murThat my opinions remain exactly the same dered by the natives, but that they died of as they were when my report to the Admiralty starvation, is, to my mind, equally beyond a was written, may be inferred from all I have doubt. now stated. In conclusion, let me remark, that I fully That twenty or twenty-five Esquimaux appreciate the kind, courteous, and flattering could, for two months together, continue to re- manner in which my name is mentioned by peat the same story without variation in any the writer on the subject of the lost Arctic material point, and adhere firmly to it, in spite Voyagers. From Osburn's Monumental History of Egypt. Egyptians, the laws of God, proclaim it. Turn the course of the Nile, and not one blade of vegetation would ever arise in Egypt. The whole land the western desert, whence that noble river with would instantly relapse into the utter sterility of so fierce and painful a struggle reclaims it. In word, Egypt is the Nile, and the Nile is Egypt. ders furnish fruitful themes for contemplation The material phenomena of this land of wonand thought. The remembrance of the days we have passed there is very sweet. The most ancient traveller that ever visited Egypt and left the record of what he saw there, has condensed his own impressions of this land of wonders in the terse definition, "Egypt is the a gift of the Nile." We believe that in no other words can the peculiarities of this land be so exactly described. Egypt is the narrow strip which the world of waters of a huge tropical river, diffusing themselves, and diffused by man's labor of the north temperate zone, the latitude of Occupying precisely the extreme southern limit to the widest possible extent, can reclaim to pro- Egypt is that which on both sides of the Equator ductiveness from the sands of the African desert. will be found far drier than any other portion of Scarcely have the waters of the Bahr-el-abiad, or the earth's surface. The two perfectly distinct White Nile, which comes from the very heart of economics whereby the rains of the temperate Africa to the westward, become confluent with and torrid zones are administered, find no place those of the Bahr-el-azrek, or Blue Nile, which here; and it is only the presence of very high rushes from the mountains of Abyssinia cast- mountains, like the Himalayas in Asia, and the ward, when the northern progress of their united torrent is opposed by the sands and rocks of the great Sahara, and along a devious course of more than two thousand miles, the Nile flows on, receiving no single tributary into its bosom until it reaches the Mediterranean. Souan. Andes in South America; or the waters of some vast river, like the Mississippi of North America, or the Nile of Egypt, that can rescue land so situated from sterility. The barrenness which thus marks out all lands in these latitudes is renThus does this noble river diffuse fertility, and cumstances of its being situated in the midst of dered far more conspicuous in Egypt by the cir happiness, and life over vast tracts of country, the two great desert tracts of the world. The always expending its waters, never receiving a drifting sands of the Sahara stretch away westsingle drop of accession to them from the heaven ward from the Nile for more than four thousand above or from the earth beneath; so that when miles to the Atlantic. To the eastward, the barit reaches Cairo and the head of the Delta, the ren mountains of the Sinaitic peninsula and of bulk and volume of its tide is scarcely one half Arabia Petræa, and the salt sand-plains of Persia of that which roars among the rocks of Djebel extend in a direct line for more than three thouSilsili, and foams through the cataracts of As-sand miles. It is to this, its perfectly peculiar That the fertility of Egypt is dependant alto- topography, that Egypt is indebted for the exgether upon the Nile, is a truth so patent and other inhabited countries in the world, and for treme aridity which distinguishes it from all so palpable, that there is no understanding so that total absence of rain which is the proximate grovelling, no intellect so debased, among the sons of men, that he cannot perceive it. The sun writes it with his fierce beams upon the bleached rocks and arid sands of the surrounding desert. It is heard in the voice of the sandwind, as, full charged with burning dust, it rushes down the gullies of the mountains of Upper Egypt, and in the course of a very few minutes buries the feeble efforts of man to awaken to life and greenness a few spans of surface, deep beneath the hot sand drift. The very laws of nature, or to speak more truly with the modern cause of it. DANGERS OF THE WORLD. MR. GOUGH, THE TEMPERANCE LECTURER. audience with laughter at some childish piece of humor, such as few would have the boldness to attempt, or whether he melted them to tears by a sudden action upon the tenderest chords of pathos, the experiment was always successful. There can be no more convincing proof that the nation does not suffer the war mania to absorb its interest in all mundane matters, than the fact that the Temperance orator, Mr. Mr. Gough is not free from the common Gough, continues to attract crowded audi- vice of his order, that of quoting cases to the ences to listen to his vehement Alcoholics. A point, the greater part of which are (to use a man who plays upon one string, must play moderate expression), suspicious. One of well to attract many. Mr. Gough has played these will illustrate our meaning. Mr. Gough upon one string for these last eighteen months, knew of a "certain man,” a reclaimed drunkand the interest of the public in his perform-ard, one snatched from the brink of Gehenna; ances increases rather than abates. he had taken the pledge; prosperity smiled We use the word "performances" not at all upon him, and he became the husband of a in an invidious sense, for we believe Mr. doting wife. This wife disapproved of the Gough to be perfectly sincere, in spite of the pledge, coaxed him, but with no avail. Soon, suspicion which attaches to a speculation in a clergyman visits him to christen a child. which the orator receives the income of an After the ceremony, the clergyman calls for opera-singer for telling the faith that is in toddy. It is not forthcoming, and the master him; but we use it because no fitter one pre- of the house has to explain that he is an absents itself. We heard Mr. Gough the other stainer. The clergyman derides him, and evening, and the effect produced upon us was drink is at length sent for. The clergyman like that of an admirable dramatic representa- mixes the fatal potion, and hands it to him. tion. What other effect could be produced He drinks, and nine days afterwards dies a by a speech which required eighteen feet of raving maniac. So infatuated was he with platform for its delivery? The orator stamped the one tumbler of toddy, that he never stirred and stormed, and almost raved his energetic from his chair until he had drunk two bottles sentences, rolling forth a marvellous flood of of whiskey. And all this, told with a dramatic the most musical words over the heads of his power of action and of words that struck terastonished auditory. He jumped about, carry-ror into the hearts of the hearers, and forced ing always to, and oftentimes beyond, the lim- conviction in spite of the gross improbability its of the burlesque, the axiom of Demosthe- of the story. nes, that action is the chief requisite of the orator. In illustration of the same point, another story was told of "a certain man of genius," When he referred to the donkey that a "contributor to a great magazine," which, if kicked up its heels among the chickens, he it referred to Professor Wilson (and there was kicked up his heels too, acting the donkey to good reason to believe that it did), was flathe life. When he declared that he was grantly untrue. But, ever and anon, from ready to do battle against any defender of amid this astounding cloud of fog and vapor, alcohol, he tucked up his wristbands, and from this din of rabid vociferation, and grosquarred away at imaginary opponents with tesque, wild gesticulation, there appeared considerable pugilistic science and good-will. glimpses of true beauty-passages of most When he spoke of the drunkard, he imitated musical oratory, such as might have charmed his rolling gait over the stage. Even when a senate, or held an Athenian populace in he invented a parable, he acted it out to the awe. Burning and shining through the flimsy life, careless alike whether the action was dig- covering of his claptrap, there came, ever and nified and manly, or pushed far beyond the anon, the true fire of real genius; and one verge of puerility. That this was done with could not help feeling that Mr. Gough's were the greatest art and the most exquisite tact lips which the "live coal" had touched, and cannot be denied that is to say, tact dis- no amount of cant or platitude had sufficed played in the knowledge of human nature; to smother the inextinguishable spark.-The for not one of these practical jokes missed Critic. fire; and whether the orator convulsed his THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. The plan for building and equipping a railroad across the continent suggested by the Worcester Transcript, is as feasible as many that have been brought for ward in Congress : It is estimated that the whiskey drinkers of the United States could build the Pacific Railroad in a couple of years. The money they spend for chewers could buy the iron, and the money which whiskey might pay for the grading; smokers and the surplus two inches in the length of ladies' dresses cost, would supply the locomotives. |