FIRST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
77 
John Sacheuse, an Esquimaux, native of South East Bay, Green¬ 
land, who, it appears, had concealed himself on board the Tho¬ 
mas and Ann of Leith, in the month of May, 1816. This man 
had been converted to Christianity by the missionaries, and the 
strong desire which he had to see the country those good men 
came from, had induced him to desert his own. He however 
declared it to be his intention to return, when he had learnt the 
scriptures and the art of drawing. He related several traditions 
current in his country respecting a race of people, who were 
supposed to inhabit the north, adding, that it was for the pur¬ 
pose of communicating with them, and converting them to 
Christianity, that he had volunteered in the expedition. 
On the 18th April 1818, the Isabella and Alexander sailed 
from Deptford, and on the 30th reached Lerwick, in Scotland. 
They were here joined by the Dorothea and Trent, and after be¬ 
ing replenished with water and provisions from his majesty’s 
ship Ister, Capt. Forrest, they prepared for sea on the 3d May, 
and having given three hearty cheers to the Dorothea and Trent 
the vessels sailed on their respective expeditions. 
After encountering some tempestuous weather, they fell in with 
the first iceberg on the 26th May, in latitude 58° 36', longitude 
31°. From a calculation made by means of comparison between 
two objects, it appeared to be about forty feet in height, and a 
thousand feet long ; imagination presented it under many gro¬ 
tesque forms ; at one time it looked like a white lion, and at 
another like a horse rampant, and served to amuse the sailors, 
who naturally enough shaped it into the lion and unicorn of the 
kings arms, and were accordingly delighted with the notion of 
good luck, which it seemed to them to augur. 
On the 1st June, land was discovered to the south of Coquin’s 
Sound, where Baffin was said to have landed on his return from 
his last voyage, and the navigation now become hazardous in the 
extreme from the number of icebergs, and the floating fields of ice 
On the 4th, the Isabella had a narrow escape in attempting to 
weather a piece of ice, but as good fortune would have it, she 
received no other injury than a slight graze on her weather bow. 
On the 9th, continuing their course northward, they made out 
