t times bring back some very trifling article that had been given them,
tendering it as a sort of expiation for the theft of another much more
valuable. When a search was making, they would invent all sorts of lies
to screen themselves, not caring on whom besides the imputation fell;
and more than once they directed our people to the apartments of others
who were innocent of the event in question. If they really knew the
offender, they were generally ready enough to inform against him, and
this with an air of affected secrecy and mysterious importance; and, as
if the dishonesty of another constituted a virtue in themselves, they
would repeat this information frequently, perhaps for a month afterward,
setting up their neighbour's offence as a foil to their own pretended
honesty.

In appreciating the character of these people for honesty, however, we
must not fail to make allowance for the degree of temptation to which
they were daily exposed, amid the boundless stores of wealth which our
ships appeared to them to furnish. To draw a parallel case, we must
suppose an European of the lower class suffered to roam about amid
hoards of gold and silver; for nothing less valuable can be justly
compared with the wood and iron that everywhere presented themselves to
their view on board the ships. The European and the Esquimaux, who, in
cases so similar, both resist the temptation to stealing, must be
considered pretty nearly on a par in the scale of honesty; and, judging
in this manner, the balance might possibly be found in favour of the
latter, when compared with any similar number of Europeans taken at
random from the lower class.

In what has been hitherto said, regard has been had only to their
dealings with _us_. In their transactions among themselves, there is no
doubt that, except in one or two privileged cases, such as that of
destitute widows, the strictest honesty prevails, and that, as regards
the good of their own community, they are generally honest people. We
have, in numberless instances, sent presents by one to another, and
invariably found that they had been faithfully delivered. The manner in
which their various implements are frequently left outside their huts is
a proof, indeed, that robbery is scarcely known among them.

In the barter of their various commodities, their dealings with us were
fair and upright, though latterly they were by no means backward nor
inexpert in driving a bargain. The absurd and ch