Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua
Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua (c. 1832/5–1856) (Qalasirssuaq in Inuit) was a young Inuit man engaged as a guide in Greenland for the search for the missing ships ‘Erebus’ and ‘Terror’, which had disappeared during their search for the North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was initially known on board as 'Erasmus York' or 'Caloosa'. After the expedition, ice conditions were considered too dangerous to permit his return home and so he returned with the crew to England in 1851. That November, at the suggestion of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Kallihirua was placed in St Augustine's Missionary College, Canterbury. There he learnt to read and write, had religious instruction, and trained as a tailor in Canterbury. He was baptised in November 1853, as Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua. Qalasirssuaq is the modern Inuit spelling of his given name and anglicized surname.[1]
Kallihirua was given a bound presentation copy of the Bible by Saint Augustine's College in 1853 (CCL W2/L-1-15)
- Portrait: https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-14286
- Further information: https://www.arcticcultures.org/2020/02/10/an-inuk-in-canterbury-on-the-archival-trail-of-kallihirua/
References
- ↑ Canterbury Cathedral library catalogue.