LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
345 
ignorance of the existence of any law, which prohibits a human 
being, when he is hungry, from satiating his appetite with the first 
food that may present itself, and even if it were the moiety of a 
hare, destined to be jugged for the gratification of the appe¬ 
tite of the commander of the Victory. Sacheuse could never 
be made to comprehend the principle of human economy 
which gives a man the right to call a thing his own, which an 
hour before was, abstractedly speaking, the property of every 
one. The hare before it was killed by Commander Ross was as 
much the property of Poowutyook as of him who had killed it 
and although he was no learned civilian nor casuistical lawyer, 
Poowutyook argued the matter profoundly with himself, the 
result of which was, that as the hare was every man’s property 
before it was killed, it was equally so afterwards. At all events 
he was fully persuaded in his own mind, that he had only fol¬ 
lowed the laws of nature in the satisfaction of his hunger, and 
therefore any idea of punishment was far removed from his 
thoughts. It is however wisely said that, a child should be 
brought up in the way it should go, and it was also necessary 
that Poowutyook should be made acquainted, as soon as possible, 
with the forms and ceremonies of civilized life, and as an induct¬ 
ion thereto, it was considered proper that his back should be 
visited by a dozen stripes from a stick, which was generally the 
assistant of Capt. Ross in mounting the hummocks of ice, and 
accordingly the operation was performed, although not exactly 
with the brutal severity, which distinguishes the flagellation of a 
British soldier. It was however a proceeding which Poowutyook 
could not possibly comprehend, for it did not form a part of the 
civilization of the country in which he had been brought up, to 
punish an individual for an act, to which, according to his be 
lief, no moral wrong was attached. Consistently with this prin 
ciple, he could not regard the act, which the Kahloonas had just 
performed as an intention to punish him,—but then—if not that 
what possibly could it be?—Was it a custom? a ceremony? a 
kind of masonic probation on his introduction amongst them \ 
It is true that he had heard the word Tigliktoke pronounced, but 
that was an epithet, which could not possibly apply to him, 
.15. 2 y 
or 
