lood, she
made several efforts to ward off the friendly blow."... "My own
situation and the terror of my mind at beholding this butchery,
cannot easily be conceived, much less described; though I summed up
all the fortitude I was master of on the occasion, it was with
difficulty that I could refrain from tears; and I am confident that my
features must have feelingly expressed how sincerely I was affected at
the barbarous scene I then witnessed; even at this hour I cannot
reflect on the transactions of that horrid day without shedding
tears."

There were other Eskimo on the opposite shore of the river. Though
they took up their arms to defend themselves, they did not attempt to
abandon their tents, for they were utterly unacquainted with the
nature of firearms; so much so that when the bullets struck the
ground, they ran in crowds to see what was sent them, and seemed
anxious to examine all the pieces of lead which they found flattened
against the rocks. At length one of the Eskimo men was shot in the
calf of his leg, which put them in great confusion. They all
immediately embarked in their little canoes, and paddled to a shoal in
the middle of the river, which being somewhat more than a gunshot from
any part of the shore, put them out of the reach of our barbarians.

"When the savages discovered that the surviving Eskimo had gained the
shore above-mentioned, the Northern Indians began to plunder the
tents of the deceased of all the copper utensils they could find; such
as hatchets, bayonets, knives, &c, after which they assembled on the
top of an adjacent hill, and, standing all in a cluster, so as to form
a solid circle, with their spears erect in the air, gave many shouts
of victory, constantly clashing their spears against each other, and
frequently calling out _tima! tima!_[6] by way of derision to the poor
surviving Eskimo, who were standing on the shoal almost knee deep in
water."

[Footnote 6: "_Tima_ in the Eskimo language is a friendly word similar
to _what cheer_?"--Hearne.]

"It ought to have been mentioned in its proper place," writes Hearne,
after describing further atrocities, "that in making our retreat up
the river, after killing the Eskimo on the west side, we saw an old
woman sitting by the side of the water killing salmon, which lay at
the foot of the fall as thick as a shoal of herrings. Whether from the
noise of the fall, or a natural defect in the old woman's hearing, it
is hard to determine,