Kalli, the Esquimaux Christian | Page 7

he was reading thoughtfully the text for the day. No notice was taken of this to him; and as for himself, never perhaps was any one more free from the least approach to ostentation.

Greenland Esquimaux Vocabulary
In the year 1853, Kalli rendered essential Service in the preparation of a Greenland Esquimaux Vocabulary, for the use of the Arctic Expedition of that year. The work was printed by direction of the Lords of the Admiralty, with a short Preface acknowledging the advantage of his assistance. Captain Washington, R.N., Hydrographer of the Admiralty, says in the Preface, "Every word has now been revised from the lips of a native. In the Midsummer vacation in 1852 Kallihirua passed some days with me, and we went partly over the Vocabulary. I found him intelligent, speaking English very fairly, docile and imitative, his great pleasure appearing to be a pencil and paper, with which he drew animals and ships. At the Christmas holidays, we revised more of the Vocabulary, &c."
A member of the Expedition afterwards visited St. Augustine's College and stated that the Vocabulary had been found to be of much service.

Visit to Kalli at College
The writer of this Memoir well recollects the circumstances of a visit which he paid with his family to St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, on a bright day, in August, 1853, when (it being the vacation) only three students remained in residence. These were 1. Kallihirua, 2. a young Hindoo by name Mark Pitamber Paul, and 3. Lambert McKenzie, a youth of colour, a native of Africa, sent to the College by the Bishop of Guiana. Kalli, who was the only one of these personally known to the author, did not at first appear. He had strolled out to witness a cricket-match in a field near Canterbury, but Blunsom, the College porter, said that he had promised to return by two o'clock, and that he was very punctual.
It is here due both to Blunsom and his wife, to say that they were most kind friends to Kalli, watching over him with the most thoughtful attention, and the tenderest care throughout.
As the Cathedral clock struck two, Kalli entered the College-gates. With hair black as the raven's wing, and eyes sparkling with good-humour, he made his appearance; and soon showed a desire to do the honours of the College. His dress was neat, like that of a young English gentleman, and he had a gaiety of look and manner, but far removed from foppery of apparel or demeanour. With true politeness--that of the heart--he accompanied the visitors over the Library, the Chapel, the Common Hall and the Dormitories of the College; each student having a small bed-room and study to himself.

His Amusements and Occupations
Kalli took great pleasure in exhibiting the carpenter's shop, a spacious crypt below the Library. Attention was there called to the wooden frame of a small house, in the construction of which, it appeared, he had borne a part. He said, when asked, that he should most probably find the knowledge of carpentering valuable some day, and that he should like to teach his countrymen the many good and useful things which he had learned in his College. He spoke little, and was evidently conscious of his imperfect pronunciation, but in answer to a question on the subject, he said he hoped to tell his people about religion, and the truths of the Gospel which he had been taught in England.
His amusements were of a quiet and innocent kind. He made small models of his country sledges, one of which, a very creditable performance, is in the Museum in the College Library, and a rough rustic chair, now in the College garden, is of his manufacture. He was fond of drawing ships, and figures of the Seal, the Walrus, the Reindeer, the Esquimaux Dog, and other objects familiar to him in the Arctic regions.
[Illustration: WALRUS AND SEAL.]
His sketches of animals and ships were very correct, and he used sometimes to draw them for the amusement of children.
When on board the "Assistance," he made a good sketch of the coast line of the region which his tribe frequented, from Cape York to Smith's Sound.
The use which he made of the needle must not be forgotten. For a year and a half, whilst at Canterbury, he went regularly for five hours a day to a tailor to learn the trade, and was found very handy with his needle. He proved to be of much use in the ordinary work of the trade.

Baptism of Kallihirua
We now come to an important event in the history of Kallihirua; his Baptism, which took place on Advent Sunday, Nov. 27th, 1853, in St. Martin's Church, near Canterbury. "The visitors present on the occasion," said an eye-witness[6], "were, the Rev. John Philip Gell (late Warden of Christ's College, Tasmania),