attracted to their neighbourhood, of which they gave the following
account in their journals: "On the 17th August, we heard that
Esquimaux were coming, and were about twenty English miles off. We
sailed on the 18th, very early, with Sir Thomas, to meet them, and
invited them, in the name of the governor, to Pitt's Harbour.[C] After
some hours we saw the first kaiak. As they approached, the savages
began to call out, in broken French, 'tous camarades oui hu!' which
the sailors answered in the same manner. Drachart allowed the first
shout to pass over; he then took one of them by the hand and said in
Greenlandish, 'Ikinguitigangut,' _i.e._ 'we are friends;' the native
understood, and answered, 'Ikinguitsgenpogui,' 'we are also thy
friends.' We then took some of them into the vessel. A man in a white
woollen coat, said he got it as a keepsake from Jensingoak, _i.e._
Jans Haven, and inquired where he was. At their earnest invitation Mr
Drachart went with them, and found upwards of three hundred assembled,
crying out incessantly, 'We are your friends--be not afraid--we
understand your words--where do you come from?' He answered, 'I have
words to you;' on which the whole adjourned to a green plain without
the camp, and sat down around him. He then told them, 'I come from the
Karalit in East Greenland, where at one time I had a wife, children,
and servants.' When they heard this, they cried out, 'These Karalit
are bad people,' thinking he meant the North Indians; but he said, 'I
come not from the north, I came over the great sea from the Karalit in
the east, of whom you have heard nothing, for it is very long since
they went away from this place. But they have heard of you, and
therefore Jensingoak came last year to visit you, to see if you are
Karalits, and I now see myself that you are; and I am sent to say,
that the Karalits in the east are your friends, that they know the
Creator of all things, who is our Saviour, and they wish you also to
know him.'