Friendly Relations, However, Were Speedily Established, And As
A Cold Rain Was Falling, They Invited Us To Enter Their Hut.
It
seemed very small and was jammed full of oily boxes and bundles;
nevertheless, twenty-one persons managed to find shelter in it about
a smoky fire.
Our hosts proved to be Hoona seal-hunters laying in
their winter stores of meat and skins. The packed hut was passably
well ventilated, but its heavy, meaty smells were not the same to our
noses as those we were accustomed to in the sprucy nooks of the
evergreen woods. The circle of black eyes peering at us through a fog
of reek and smoke made a novel picture. We were glad, however, to get
within reach of information, and of course asked many questions
concerning the ice-mountains and the strange bay, to most of which
our inquisitive Hoona friends replied with counter-questions as to
our object in coming to such a place, especially so late in the year.
They had heard of Mr. Young and his work at Fort Wrangell, but could
not understand what a missionary could be doing in such a place as
this. Was he going to preach to the seals and gulls, they asked, or
to the ice-mountains? And could they take his word? Then John
explained that only the friend of the missionary was seeking ice
mountains, that Mr. Young had already preached many good words in the
villages we had visited, their own among the others, that our hearts
were good and every Indian was our friend.
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