|
Capt. Cleveland Anthology: From the Writings of the Greenlanders
From the book:
Fortescue, Michael. From the Writings of the Greenlanders. University of Alaska Press, 1990. ISBN: 0912006439
On pp. 21-29, translated from a 1927 account by Greenlander Jakob Olsen of his travels with Knud Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition, George Cleveland is mentioned as:
"...a white American Trader called Mr. Cleveland - 'him with the big nose' as they said...
"We were given a warm welcome by the white man, Mr. Cleveland, and we were shown to our rooms in the big warm house. We spent the next day there enjoying the company, and we let our dogs rest a bit before the homeward journey. The scientists were to stay on at the white man's place until they could start their travels. We, however, were to go back so that we would be in our own house before Christmas.
"While we were there at Naujaat, some Itivleriarmuit came to trade: the shaman Aava [Aua] and his wife Orulu who were staying with his brother Ivalivarjuk. When they arrived, I looked forward to the trading because I wanted to see how it would be conducted. Well, toward evening they came in carrying a sackcloth bag filled with foxes. As they came in, the big white man asked them how many foxes they had. Since they didn't know, he counted them himself and told them how many there were. At last the bartering began. 'Namik, namik?' ['What, what (do you want)?'] the white man simply repeated. They would point to the merchandise they wanted, and taking it, would say, 'Qujannamik, alianai!' ['Thank you, great!'] Before they had collected in goods the equivalent value of the foxes they were selling, the trader said, 'Tagva quit nunguttualuit' ['There, the money's all used up'] and that was the end of the deal.
"This white man had three wives, all with husbands already, and he let them take turns coming in to him. He also had several children from his third wife. It was amusing to us that, whenever he wanted any of our goods, he had to have three of the same thing. He had his meals in the house along with his helpers and his wives and children. The people there called him 'Sakkuartuerneq' (the former harpooner) because he had at one time been a harpooner on a whaler when the English still came up there after whales, but has given this up owing to advancing old age. He had lived amongst them for more than 30 years and spoke the local language pretty well, although not really fluently. It was a pleasure to visit him because he wasn't at all 'high-falutin' and, although he was pretty old, he was lots of fun."