LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
239 
he carried that treatment to an unjustifiable length, and thereby 
exposed himself to the charge of great ingratitude, in having 
obtained from them all the information which they had to give 
him, relative to the geography of their country; in having got 
into his possession a profusion of their articles, natural and 
manufactured, with a very inadequate return; in having received 
from them, all the respect and kindness of which their savage 
nature was capable, and then treating them literally as if they 
were but a degree removed from the bears of their native land. 
One of these instances occurred on Sunday the 7th February, 
when as early as 9 in the morning, a party of the natives were 
seen approaching the ship; the thermometer was then stand¬ 
ing at 45° which is the lowest degree marked upon it, but reck¬ 
less of this intense cold, which, to use one of the terms of the 
sailors, was keen enough to cut them in two, the natives plodded 
along, and arrived at the ship about 11, just as the morning ser¬ 
vice was completed. Not one of them however was admitted 
on board, nor any refreshments offered to the poor shivering 
creatures, and to copy the words of the manuscript before us, 
“ it was heart breaking to see the poor women with their babes 
skulking under the lee of a snow wall, where a fortnight ago 
they were treated like kings and queens.” They remained in 
the immediate vicinity of the ship until 3 o’clock, and then al¬ 
lowing them \\ or 2 hours to reach their homes again, and the 
same space of time to travel to the ship, making altogether a 
space of 10 hours, that these creatures were exposed to the incle¬ 
mency of the weather, without the slightest sustenance or sup¬ 
port. Let not the advocates of civilization preach, that it has a 
tendency to humanize the heart, and to call all the finer chari¬ 
ties into active play: history and experience contradict the 
assertion, for there are often more genuine kindness and hospi¬ 
tality to be found in the wigwam of the Indian, than in the 
gorgeous palaces of the great, and we shall shortly have to adduce 
an instance of the conduct of the Esquimaux, in contrast with 
that of the English, which will not redound in the least to the 
credit of the latter. 
An experiment was tried on the 8th and 9th, for the purpose 
