“My outfit,” he writes, “for the voyage and the whole of my expedition, consisted of:—a boat, length twenty-eight feet, beam seven feet, depth twenty-nine and one-half inches, drawing eight inches of water when loaded with stores and a crew of six persons; one sledge; one half-ton of pemmican; two hundred pounds of Borden’s meat biscuit; twenty pounds pork scrap; one pound preserved quince; one pound preserved peaches; two hundred and fifty pounds powder; a quantity of ball, shot, and percussion caps; one rifle, six double-barrelled guns; one Colt’s revolver; beads, needles, etc., for presents; two dozen pocket-knives; some tin ware; one axe, two picks, files, etc.; tobacco and pipes; wearing apparel for self, and red shirts for natives; stationery and journal-books; watch, opera-glass, spy-glass; sextant, pocket sextant, artificial horizon, azimuth compass, common compass, two pocket compasses; three ordinary and two self-registering thermometers. Some navigation-books and several Arctic works, with my Bible and a few other volumes, formed my library.” The boat and fixtures cost one hundred and twenty-five dollars; meat, biscuit, pemmican, etc., about two hundred and fifty dollars; astronomical instruments, about one hundred dollars; guns and accoutrements, about two hundred and twenty-five dollars; clothing, fifty dollars; pipes and tobacco, twenty dollars; travelling expenses and express payments, seventy-five dollars; dog-team, bought in Greenland, fifty dollars. The other items making up the nine hundred and eighty dollars are all duly given. It will be seen that the balance left for minor, but necessary, expenditures was very small.
New London, Connecticut, is the port from which vessels mainly sail for the Arctic whale-fishery. Here was the place of business. Williams and Haven largely engaged in that enterprise. They relieved Hall of a great load of anxiety by a brief note, in which they said: “As a testimony of our personal regard, and the interest we feel in the proposed expedition, we will convey it and its required outfit, boats, sledges, provisions, instruments, etc., free of charge, on the barque ‘George Henry,’ to Northumberland Inlet; and, whenever desired, we will give the same free passage home in any of our vessels.”
On the 29th of May, 1860, the “George Henry” set sail, with a crew, officers and men, of twenty-nine souls. Accompanying as tender was a schooner, which had a history. She was now known as the “Amaret;” but under the name of the “Rescue” she had won fame in Arctic research, for in her Kane had made his first Arctic voyage. Hall always calls her by her old name, and the account of her loss forms a striking episode in his narrative.
132. KUDLAGO.
We have said that Hall’s expedition consisted of himself alone. But when he started he had with him a companion, who he hoped would greatly aid him. This was Kudlago, an Innuit, who had acquired some knowledge of our language in Greenland from whalers, had come to the United States on a whaling-vessel, and was now anxious to return to Greenland. But he fell sick on the voyage, and died on the 1st of July. His last words were, “Do you see the ice?” for he knew that the appearance of ice at this season would show that he was near his home. He died three hundred miles at sea, and was committed to the ocean, Hall reading the funeral service. A great iceberg—the slender one represented on page 48 of this volume—was drifting close by, and Hall named it “Kudlago’s Monument.”
On the 7th of July they reached Holsteinborg, the capital of the Danish colony of Greenland, a town consisting of twenty-four houses. The entire population of Greenland is estimated at about 2450, of whom 2300 are Innuits, and the remainder Europeans. Of the Innuits, 1700 live by sealing, and 400 by fishing; the others being mainly mechanics and sailors, besides twenty native catechists. Of the Europeans, thirty-one are “First and Second Governors;” twenty-four missionaries and priests; thirty-six clerks; the others mechanics and sailors. The forty-four native and European missionaries receive, in all, 13,600 Danish paper dollars, equal to about $8500 in specie. The head-schoolmaster has one hundred and twenty-five paper dollars; three others receive one hundred dollars each; three, twenty-five dollars; two, six dollars. Of these last, one teaches his own two children, who are the only ones in his district. There are also four women, who get a dollar a year each for teaching children their letters. The sixteen Government employés get from forty to ninety dollars a year, besides provisions for themselves and their families. Bread is baked for them every fortnight. The currency of the colony is paper, the “six-skilling” note being worth about three cents.
133. GREENLAND CURRENCY.
The native Greenlanders are by no means deficient in intelligence. Mr. Hall gives a fac-simile of a wood-cut representing a woman and child drawn and engraved by one of them who had received no instruction in art, and no education of any sort beyond that of the majority of his countrymen. The great festival of Greenland is the birthday of the King of Denmark, in which all the population, native and European, who can be assembled, take part, his Majesty furnishing the cheer. Hall gives a view of this celebration, taken from a drawing made by a native. The original drawing was full of character.