9S« 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
be increased, the greater would be the risk of the war being 
extended to an indefinite term, and the harmony of the settle¬ 
ment destroyed for ever. To say that any action of consequence 
was ever committed without a woman being remotely or imme¬ 
diately connected with it, were to give our enemies an indisput¬ 
able proof in their hands, that we know nothing either of woman 
or the world in which she moves. Who is she ? said the Schah 
of Persia to one of his attendants, who brought him the intelli¬ 
gence of the death of one of his subjects, who had his brains 
knocked out by falling from a scaffold.—Go and inquire, said 
the Schah, Who is she ? The messenger returned, and informed 
the Schah, that he had made the necessary inquiries and had 
learned, that the man overbalanced himself and fell from the 
scaffold —Who is she ? vociferated the Schah, bring me instant 
intelligence, or the bastinado is your lot.—The messenger re¬ 
sumed his inquiries, and on his return to the Schah informed him, 
that he had ascertained that one of the most beautiful women of 
his harem was passing by, and the man in attempting to obtain 
a glimpse of her, overbalanced himself and fell. I knew it, 
said the Schah, there never was a circumstance of any conse¬ 
quence that ever took place, in which a woman was not in some 
degree concerned. ft appears that this principle acts with 
equal force in the vicinity of Felix Harbour, as at the court of 
Ispahan, and although daily experience proves to us that a 
woman is often the fomentor of broils and quarrels, yet, that 
on the other hand, she is the most successful peacemaker that 
can be selected, except in cases of jealousy or infidelity, in 
which she is a person as fit and proper to be chosen a pacificator, 
as a tigress in the settling of a dispute between two lambs. 
The loss of the basin was undoubtedly one of a serious and 
mortifying nature ; it was looked upon as a kind of heir loom in 
the family, and more than all, from what utensil was the invi¬ 
gorating draught of the seals blood henceforth to be taken ?— 
these were circumstances undoubtedly calculated to raise the 
asperity of a more cold blooded being than an Esquimaux, but 
then on the other hand, was nothing gained, as a son of Erin 
would say, by the loss of the basin? the season foi salmon fish- 
