346 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
he had merely taken an allowable step to satisfy the cravings of 
nature, and so far from that being imputed to him as a crime, he 
onlv considered it as a recommendatory feature in his character, 
that he was able to supply his own wants, without giving his friends 
the slightest trouble on the occasion. In the midst however of 
these cogitations, a new light burst upon him, which went in a 
great degree to show him that the late extraordinary act of the 
Kabloonas was in reality nothing less than one of direct kindness. 
When he emerged from his refectory, his seal skin vestments 
had imbibed such an extraordinary quantity of the farinaceous 
matter, that their original colour was nearly lost, andt herefore for 
the purpose of restoring it, no other method could be adopted 
than to divest them of the extraneous substance, which they had 
acquired, and which could not be done more efficaciously or expe¬ 
ditiously than by giving them a good beating. The temperature 
of the air was not such as to admit him divesting himself of his 
garments, and therefore no other expedient could be resorted to, 
than to beat them whilst they were still on his body. As a proof 
of the rectitude of this opinion, at every stroke such a volume of 
dust came forth as threatened to suffocate all the bystanders, and 
to make them appear as if they had been in the same situation as 
himself. There was another circumstance which tended strongly 
to confirm him in this opinion, which was, that the stick was ap¬ 
plied solely to his back, as being the only part which he could not 
cleanse himself; it was in his own power to purify the fore part, 
and therefore any labor bestowed there by the Kabloonas must 
be undoubtedly thrown away. Happy is the man, whether he be 
an Esquimaux or a European, who can conform himself to the 
accidents and circumstances to which his destiny may expose him, 
who, like the optimist, places a favorable construction on events 
though accompanied with disaster and distress—who looks with 
composure and complacency on the attacks of adversity, and 
sees in the calamities of life the mere common fate to which 
flesh is heir to. 
Poowutyook had satisfied his appetite, and he had also satisfied 
his mind that it had been done consistently with the rights of man, 
although neither Paine, nor the exhumer of his bones had ever 
