iOvS LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
would have met with the same decided refusal from govern¬ 
ment, for although these expeditions might gratify the visionary 
and enthusiastic minds of some individuals belonging to the 
admiralty, the voice of the people began to be heard, touch¬ 
ing the expenditure of the sums of money which were necessary 
for their equipment, and the result of which foreboded nothing 
but discomfiture and disappointment, with the exception of 
enlarging the boundaries of the foreign possessions of the British 
empire, by the addition of a few thousand acres of snow and 
ice, and of formally taking possession of a country as an appen¬ 
dage to the British crown, which it is most probable no one will 
ever visit again : it is true indeed that Capt. Ross discovered 
that somewhere in the country of the Esquimaux (who, as their 
country has been formally taken possession of, though without their 
leave or knowledge, are now the lawful and grateful subjects of 
his Britannic majesty,) the mountains, or the vallies, or the interior 
of the earth, (he could not discover which) abounded with iron, and 
he certainly exerted himself most strenuously to bring a bit of it 
home with him, as a valuable addendum to the other natural 
productions of the country, with which his ship was laden; but, 
although a crowd of speculators could be found to expend their 
money foolishly and thoughtlessly, in the working of the South 
American gold and silver mines, yet from some most unaccounta¬ 
ble inattention and disregard to their own interests, not one 
could be found, who, on the return of Capt. Ross, could be in¬ 
duced to speculate in the iron mines of the north, notwithstand ¬ 
ing, the flattering prospect presented itself to them, of enjoying 
the monopoly without the fear of a rival. 
Notwithstanding the royal society, the geological society, the 
geographical society, and even the zoological society, were all 
more or less interested in the Arctic discoveries, not one of them 
seemed disposed to advance any portion of their funds towards the 
equipment of another expedition, and Britain would have to regret 
having lost the accession of the valuable country of Boothia to its 
dominions, had not a noble spirited individual stepped forward, 
and from his own private purse supplied the funds requisite for 
the fitting out of a vessel, which in despite of icebergs, and 
