LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
255 
they sailed from Woolwich, they were just as ignorant of* its 
contents, that is, as far as self-perusal could extend, as when 
they were received on board the Isabella: nevertheless Capt. 
Ross had the merit of following a good example, (and there is 
some desert attached even to the power of properly discrimin¬ 
ating between a good and a bad example,) for the very choice of 
the former pre-supposes the existence of a sound and superlative 
judgment in the individual, as it is not every man, who having 
two roads before him, the one leading to his goal, and the 
other diametrically opposite, that can from the very force of his 
own discrimination, select immediately the right one. 
Respecting the amusements provided on board the Victory, 
they were like angels’ visits, very few and far between, and when 
they did appear, they were also like those same angels’ visits, 
for a very few participated in them; it was a kind of Almacks, 
in which aristocratical pride and official pomposity bore the 
ascendancy over honest worth and plebeian virtue, and where a 
distinct and positive line was drawn between the commanders 
and the commanded, beyond which it was tantamount to mutiny 
to transgress. Capt. Ross himself was not a sociable character, 
but in extenuation of his reserve and haughtiness, it must be ad¬ 
mitted that the school in which he had been bred, namely, the 
quarter deck of a British man of war is not the one best adapted 
to teach a man urbanity and civility towards his inferior; every 
thing is there regulated by the iron power of authority, and in 
proportion as the individual stands in the scale of rank, he assumes 
the airs and consequence of his station, and thinks himself entitled 
to look down upon the grades beneath him, with superciliousness 
and pride. 
Capt. Parry and the officers under him, knew the exact time 
when they could unbend and assume the conduct of the familiar, 
without in the least compromising their authority or their rank, 
and in justice it must be said, that Commander Ross was not in 
any way inferior to them, in the occasional assumption of that 
truly politic and prudent character; but with Capt. Ross the case 
was different, he was trebly steeped in the starch of official 
dignity, the maintenance of which he considered to consist in 
