332 SIR JOHN ROSS'S VOYAGE. 



13th of August, in company with Lieut. Cator in the 

 Intrepid, Ross held communication with a party of Es- 

 quimaux near Cape York, who told him a story, the 

 purport of which, according to his interpreter, was that 

 in the winter of 1846 two ships were crushed in the ice 

 in the direction of Cape Dudley Digges, and afterwards 

 burned by a fierce tribe of natives ; and that their crews, 

 some of whom were described as wearing epaulets, 

 were subsequently killed by the natives. Although 

 Mr. Petersen, the interpreter attached to the Lady 

 Franklin, which lay a few miles off', wholly discredited 

 this story, and gave a translation of the Esquimaux com- 

 munication wholly at variance with the other, it was 

 thought of sufficient consequence by Capt. Austin to 

 merit an investigation. Meantime the further informa- 

 tion was received that a ship had passed the last winter 

 safely housed in Wolstenholme Sound. A party, taking 

 both interpreters, was accordingly sent to examine 

 Wolstenholme Sound ; and by them it was ascertained 

 that the ship which wintered there was no other than 

 the North Star, and that in all probability that circum- 

 stance was the whole foundation of the Esquimaux 

 story, whatever it might have been. Nevertheless, Sir 

 John Ross, who was long ago noted for "jumping at 

 conclusions/' still seems to have had a lingering belief 

 that in this wild tale he had learned the fate of the 

 Erebus and Terror. It was perhaps this belief which 

 led him soon after to announce his intention of return- 

 ing to England ; and even after his arrival there he is 

 said to have adhered to his theory that Franklin and his 

 companions perished in Baffin's Bay. He pressed on to 

 Cape Riley, however, before leaving the field of discov- 

 ery, and bore his part in the search there made for 

 traces of the missing navigators. 



There is little more to relate concerning his expedi- 



