“Natives of Oonalashka, and their Habitations”: The Resolution and the Discovery had a second visit to Samgoonoodha, English Bay, Unalashka between October 3-26, 1778. The people encountered were ready to trade and invited the English into their houses. The countryside provided many herbs such as wild peas or celery and plenty of fowl.
Most of Webber's field drawings of Alaskan subject matter can be dated to Cook's first stay at Samgoonoodha harbour. With his portraits, Webber concentrated on the appearance of the native people; the broad cheek bones and slanting eyes, bringing out some of the facial characteristics of Mongolian people.
The houses of the Alaskans varied in size according to the rank of the owner. The more important persons lived in smaller houses of their own, whereas the common folk habited rather large huts. The place which Webber depicts is such a family hut, a feature indicated by the presence of children, who apparently belong to two different families. Webber thus depicted a social aspect of local life, which also held an emotional appeal, for both the baby in the cot, tended by its mother, and the young child next to her kneeling mother add a warm human note to the scene.
