LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
trait in the character of an English sailor, to desert his com¬ 
mander in the hour of peril or distress, and instances are by no 
means rare in which he has clung to him whilst the ship has 
been gradually sinking, and nobly sharing with him the death of 
the brave. By the conduct of Capt. Ross a feeling of distrust 
was generated between him and the men, which if the opportun¬ 
ity had presented itself, might have broken out into the most 
alarming consequences; there was not one of his prohibitions 
that was not hourly and daily infringed ; they were founded on 
injustice and inhumanity, and the men therefore saw not in the 
infraction any dereliction of their duty. The whole aim of the 
men appeared to be, to get to the windward of their Captain; to 
obtain a seal skin clandestinely from the natives was to them a 
matter of great triumph, and so heartily did the natives appear 
to enter into the plans of the sailors, that they would frequently 
hide their articles of traffic behind a hummock of ice, until the 
opportunity presented itself of smuggling them on board, which 
generally took place when Capt. Ross was in his cabin at his 
meals, or whilst he was indulging in an afternoon’s siesta. A 
striking instance of this particular line of conduct on the part of 
the natives displayed itself on the 15th March, when a young 
Esquimaux brought a young seal to the ship for sale. From 
some reason not known at the time, Capt. Ross refused to buy it, 
and on one of the men offering to purchase it, who was literally 
without a cap to his head, he was immediately prohibited by 
Capt. Ross, and the Esquimaux was ordered to take the seal 
back w r ith him. This order was apparently strictly executed 
by the Esquimaux, but having reached some small distance from 
the ship, he stood still, and made certain signals to the men on 
board, which on observing them to be noticed, he laid the seal 
down behind a hillock of snow, and walked deliberately off. 
The men on board perfectly understood the drift of the actions 
of the Esquimaux, and they took the first opportunity of fetching 
away the seal, leaving the question of remuneration to be de¬ 
cided between them and the Esquimaux at their next meeting. 
It was in this manner that the system of diamond cut diamond, 
was acted upon between the commander of the Victory and his 
