Shall I tell you the place where these savages came from? No. I will only tell you that it lies in about 56 degrees North latitude, by 4½ West longitude; you may, if you please, find its name by looking in the map.
CHAPTER II.
THE STORY OF A LONG JOURNEY OVER THE ICE.
The Esquimaux live in the most northern parts of America, where there is hardly anything but ice and snow to be seen from year's end to year's end. They build their houses of snow, and make their longest journeys in sledges upon ice along the sea-shore.
You, who have been used to a very different kind of life, may wonder how they can enjoy themselves, or even endure existence in such inhospitable regions. But I can assure you they love their native country so much, that they could by no means be happy out of it; and their pleasures are real pleasures, though they would not be pleasures to you. And thus you may learn that God wishes everybody to be happy, and enables them to be so if they choose to act according to the light which He has given them, and not be ever struggling for something which they cannot, and therefore ought not, to possess.
And not only do the natives of these frozen countries endure perpetual frost and snow, but good men have chosen to go and live among them for the purpose of teaching the natives the doctrines of Christianity. I shall relate to you a most interesting narrative of some of these men who were Moravians, and it will give you a better notion of the character of these parts of the world, and of the sort of life men lead in them, than anything I could you of my own, for the story is extremely well told.