OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
179 
tity of fat to burn in their lamps ; of this, the man alluded to, had, it seems, 
taken advantage, and used it as an article of diet in the manner described. 
Being determined immediately to check so pernicious a practice, I charged 
him with his offence in presence of the officers and ship’s company, pointing 
out to them, at the same time, the ingratitude with which he had repaid 
the care taken of him during his late illness. It gave me great satisfaction 
to find that the men were disposed to view this act with a degree of 
indignation little short of that which I felt it my duty to express on this 
occasion, some of them, as I found, having repeatedly spoken to him before 
upon the subject. Having, therefore, directed that the offender should be 
punished by wearing upon his back a badge, which would expose him for a 
time to the contempt and derision of his shipmates, I felt satisfied that 
no future instance would occur of an offence which might prove so fatal to 
the cause in which we were engaged. , 
Early on the morning of the 29th, the wind increased to a fresh gale from Mon. 29. 
the northward and westward, which continued during the day, with a heavy 
fall of snow and a tremendous drift that prevented our seeing to the dis- 
tance of more than twenty yards around the ships. The following day being Tues. 30. 
fine, I took my travelling party to the top of the north-east hill, in order to 
try the cart, which had been constructed for carrying the tents and baggage, 
and which appeared to answer very well. The view from this hill was not 
such as to offer much encouragement to our hopes of future advancement to 
the westward. The sea still presented the same unbroken and continuous 
surface of solid and impenetrable ice, and this ice could not be less than from 
six to seven feet in thickness, as we knew it to be about the ships. When 
to this circumstance was added the consideration, that scarcely the slightest 
symptoms of thawing had yet appeared, and that in three weeks from this 
period the sun would again begin to decline to the southward, it must be 
confessed, that the most sanguine and enthusiastic among us had some 
reason to be staggered in the expectations they had formed of the complete 
accomplishment of our enterprise. 
]820. 
May. 
