116 
MUTINY OF THE CREW OF THE JOHN. 
instil into the minds of Capt. Ross or his officers, that sentimeni 
of mutual confidence, which ought to subsist between all parties 
when engaged on an expedition of the peculiar nature of the pre¬ 
sent one, and where the most active co-operation was necessary, 
in order to insure even a comparative degree of success. The 
John had been engaged by Capt. Ross to carry out the stores, 
and having performed that service, she was to bring home what¬ 
ever was valuable belonging to the wreck of the Fury, and to 
complete her cargo with oil or any other commodity that could 
be obtained; in fact, she was to be considered in every respect 
as a trading vessel, without any relation to the object Of the 
expedition, no further than conveying the stores which were 
to be shipped into the Victory, on arriving at a particular 
point of their destination. 
The season was however too far advanced to expect any great 
success in the whale fishery, for the whaling ships had reached 
their fishing ground before even the Victory had sailed from the 
Thames; and therefore a suspicion began to arise in the minds of 
the crew of the John, that they would be required to winter in 
the Arctic Seas, at all events, that a great risk was run of being 
so beset in the ice, as to render a return in the course of that year, 
an object almost impossible to be effected. Whatever conveni¬ 
ences might have been made on board the Victory, for a winter 
sojourn in the arctic seas, it must be admitted that the John was 
not in any respect so equiped, as to divest from the minds of the 
crew, all apprehensions of the great sufferings which they would 
have to endure, were they to be obliged to winter amongst the ice, 
and especially as the John was not a vessel either in her make, 
construction, or defensive arrangements, able to contend with the 
dangers of a navigation amongst fields of ice, which the stoutest 
vessels are sometimes unable to surmount. The loss of the Fury, 
fitted out as she was with all the strength which naval architect¬ 
ure could bestow upon her, was to the crew of the John, a serious 
warning of the fate which would most probably befal them, 
were they obliged to winter amongst the ice, and totally bereft 
of any of those comforts which would be actually necessary, to 
enable them to survive the rigour of the climate. With these 
