Note 4 — Chapter IV · TRANSACTIONS AMONGST THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA; DISCOVERIES ALONG THAT COAST AND THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF ASIA, NORTHWARD TO ICY CAPE; AND RETURN SOUTHWARD TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. (continued 4)

Footnote 4:

(return)

Captain King has communicated the following account of an interview with the same family: "On the 12th, while I attended the wooding party, a canoe, full of natives, approached us; and, beckoning them to land, an elderly man and woman came on shore. I gave the woman a small knife, making her understand, that I would give, her a much larger one for some fish. She made signs to me to follow her. I had proceeded with them about a mile, when the man, in crossing a stony beach, fell down, and cut his foot very much. This made me stop; upon which the woman pointed to the man's eyes, which, I observed, were covered with a thick, white film. He afterward kept close to his wife, who apprised him of the obstacles in his way. The woman had a little child on her back, covered with the hood of her jacket; and which I took for a bundle till I heard it cry. At about two miles distant we came to their open skin boat, which was turned on its side, the convex part towards the wind, and served for their house. I was now made to perform a singular operation on the man's eyes. First, I was directed to hold my breath; afterwards, to breathe on the diseased eyes; and, next, to spit on them. The woman 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.