LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
35(5 
and taking the advantage of a particular opportunity, darted off, 
calling the dog after him. The animal had not forgotten his 
early associates, and preferred them to those, into whose hands 
he had been transferred; seizing therefore the first chance, that 
had presented itself of emancipating himself from the dominion 
of his new governors, he followed the son of lllictu, and a 
general chase was the consequence. The English sailors, as 
the pursuers, were not exactly clad to fit them for swift running 
over hummocks of ice, nor from the comparatively inactive mode 
of life, to which they had been accustomed for the last five 
months, were they in sufficient breath to continue the chase for 
any length of time. On the other hand, it was a terrain to 
which the Esquimaux had been accustomed from his infancy, 
his seal skin shoes were well calculated to prevent him from 
slipping, and the sailors soon found that they had no chance of 
coming up to their competitors ; fearing also that the chase 
might lead them to such a distance from the ship as to pre¬ 
vent them reaching it before the darkness set in, they very pru¬ 
dently declined the chase, being well assured that the means were 
in their power of recovering the dog, by the simple refusal of deal¬ 
ing with the natives for any of their articles, until the animal 
was restored to them. The only circumstance, which the sailors 
had to fear on this occasion, was the anger of Capt. Ross on the 
loss of his dog, but when the affair was canvassed between them, 
one snapped his fingers; another took the quid from his mouth, 
and throwing it on the ground exclaimed, “ there and be d_d 
to him;” another set up a whistle somewhat similar to the lil- 
Jabullero of my Uncle Toby, and the last—but we will leave the de¬ 
scription of the precise gesture with which it was accompanied, to 
the knowledge of those, who are somewhat acquainted with the 
expressive mode of action adopted in general by a British sailor, 
when he wishes to make it known, that he cares not a thread of 
oakum for all the Captains in the royal navy, in which of course 
Capt. Ross must be included. The only thing they had to do was 
to tell the truth, leaving Capt. Ross to issue his manifesto, de¬ 
claring the whole Esquimaux nation under his high displeasure, 
until the animal was restored to him. 
