A Paris paper says: Amid those specimens of feminine archaeology, grouped
before the windows of the shops, you cannot fail to remark a pale young
woman, of small stature, and expressing herself in English with a silent
accent which gives to this language a charm hitherto unknown. A lady of
a certain age and a gentlemen who accompanied her, do not cease to regard
her, and according to a popular expression, have to "drink her words."
This young woman who has borne, for only six months, one of the most aristocratic
names of the three kingdoms, was called but a short time ago Tookoolitka.
Three years ago she inhabited with the Esquimaux (sic), her countrymen,
the Bay of Ookoviear, called by the English Grinnel's Bay, and which is
situated about the sixteenth degree of north latitude. In the place of the
rich costume she now wears with such ease and grace, her attire consisted
of a vest of seal skin, embroidered on the seams with red and white worsted
in arabesque; a pantaloon made of the same material, confined her small
waist and descended to the knee, leaving to be seen in all their exquisite
proportions, her legs and diminutive feet, cased in boots of pliant red
leather.
Finally her abundant hear of hair of jet black was tied at the top of the
head by a broad blue band made of the skin of the Isatis, and colored by
the unctuous juice of a certain kind of lichen. An adopted orphan of one
of her tribe, she passed the summer under a tufu or tent, made of the skin
of the reindeer, and nine months of the year in an igloo, that is to say,
in a house built of blocks of snow soldered together by the cold, and capped
by a dome of the same material. In the centre of the same dwelling, a stone
lamp, supplied with the fat of a seal, burning uninterruptedly during nine
months of the year - a long and dreary night. The light, among other things,
served in lieu of a fireplace for drying her clothes, penetrated by the
humid atmosphere, and for warming her hands, benumbed by the cold oftentimes
twenty degrees below zero.
The Esquimaux have no means of combating the rigors of a winter, like to
which ours is a summer. The debris cast upon these shores are never burned
by the natives for the purpose of warming themselves, but are employed by
them in making sleighs. In fact they leave unmolested the numerous heaps
of coal which Lady Franklin had caused to be put at different points, in
the hope that they might be of service to her husband, whom she believed
lost and wandering in these frozen regions. Three years ago, Lord Frederic
Fitz made***, as ensign, one of the crew of the George Henry sent in search
of Sir John Franklin. This ship was built expressly for the voyage, and
was constructed after the manner of the whale ships; for a ship with high
sides cannot navigate those frozen seas without great danger.
On the approach of winter the George Henry was suddenly frozen up in the
ice. This misfortune produced the most serious inquietude, the more so as
the stores of the ship were getting short, being now reduced to tainted
salt meat and the uncertain chance of the chase.
One day, or rather one night - for the night reigns nine months in the Ookoviear
Bay - a young girl, in a sleigh drawn by twelve dogs, came on the ice alongside
the George Henry, climbed with uncommon agility to the deck of the ship,
and commenced examining with the greatest curiosity, the "great wooden
house of the strangers." After having visited every corner she perceived
Sir Frederick stretched upon the captain's bed. Tears came to her eyes as
she saw the poor young man about to die without the hope of relief. she
immediately proposed by gesture to take the young man with her, and to nurse
him at her own house. The officers eagerly accepted this chance of relief
for their companion, improbable as his cure seemed to be, aiding Tookoolitka
- this was her name - to remove Frederic to the sleigh of the kind-hearted
girl.
She gave the signal for starting to the dogs, a peculiar slapping of the
tongue against the roof of the mouth, and drove rapidly away with the ensign.
Having arrived at her home after a two hours' ride, she entered a few minutes
after with a wooden vase filled with the blood of the sea-calf. To her great
surprise Frederick refused to drink. However he soon overcame his repugnance,
and "found it excellent" This is his own expression in the volume
published of his voyage. he partook every day, not only without distaste,
but even with avidity, of this medicament, and he felt his strength return
so fast that in three months after, dressed in their style, he rivaled them
in daring address, in driving a sleigh, chasing the sea-calves, scaling
the rocks, and carrying away birds' nests across shoals and broken ice,
not to mention that he managed in the most intrepid manner, with a single
oar, his long narrow bark made of skins, and called a Kias. Tookoolitka
accompanied him in all his excursions, and did not quit him for a moment.
Endowed with the marvelous facility of the people of the north in acquiring
foreign languages, she not only spoke English purely, but thanks to the
lessons of Frederick, she read and wrote it. About the month of April following,
the George Henry was disengaged from the ice, and preparing for weighing
anchor and returning to England. When Tookoolitka learned the news, she
retired to her tent of reindeer skins, pitched on the seashore. Frederick
came to her and found her bathed in tears. "Sister," said he,
for he called her habitually by this name, "Sister, my mother expects
you in England, come." Tookoolitka dried her tears, gave him her hand,
and accompanied him without hesitation on board the George Henry, which
arrived unexpectedly three months after in England. Some time after Lady
Fitz, who quit the young stranger for a moment, still prettier in the European
than in her native costume, presented her to Queen Victoria as her future
daughter-in-law. The Queen declared that she would sign with her own hand
the marriage contract between the officer of marines and Tookoolitka. "In
the meantime," added she, smiling "as this name is a little strange,
I ask of my young friend to renounce it and take that of Victoria."
Tookoolitka, now Lady Fitz, may be seen promenading in the Palais Royal,
offering the singular spectacle of an Esquimaux becoming an English lady
of distinction.
