LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
229 
Did Commander Ross ever assert an independence of your 
command ? There were circumstances of that nature arose, but 
I immediately took that part which prevented their recurrence. 
You uniformly asserted your own authority as the commander 
of the ship? Yes, in every case, when it came to a desperate 
case, I saw the necessity of taking* nobody’s advice, and acted 
on my own decision. I never asked him a question except on 
some rock, whether to go on this or that side: I refer to the period 
when we abandoned the ship; it was life and death with us then, 
and I found I was more called on to uphold my authority than 
I had been before, and I was always present with the people. 
In the other case it was necessary to give Commander Ross more 
command, because he was absent from me with part of the crew. 
There was one particular instance when the men demanded to 
know what I was going to do, and I said I w'ould not condescend 
to tell them, but they were to obey my orders, and that the first 
man that refused it must answer for the consequences, and I heard 
no more of it. 
He received no distinct authority from Mr. Booth ? None what¬ 
ever, he does not even know of my agreements with Mr. Booth, 
he never saw them. 
The expeditions he undertook were undertaken at your sugges¬ 
tion? Entirely of my suggestion, he did not even know Mr. 
Booth until I introduced him. 
Had Commander Ross refused to accompany you, should you 
have gone ? I should. 
Would Mr.Booth have consented ? Certainly he would. 
It is impossible to reconcile the evidenee of Capt. Ross and 
Commander Ross on any grounds of even comparative truth, and 
certainly had the latter been able to make out his case according 
to the testimony which he gave, there scarcely remains a doubt 
that the proposed grant would not have been recommended by the 
committee, for it w T ould have divested Capt. Ross of the principal 
feature of his claim. The following examination of Mr. Booth 
will shew that Commander Ross must have been actually labour¬ 
ing under a delusion, in supposing that any authority was dele- 
