858 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
course with the crew of the Victory, was confined within a very 
narrow compass. Their conduct in many respects was a direct 
and forcible contradiction to that of the creature of civilized life, 
but if tried by the standard, which is adopted by the latter, 
and to which he is called upon to conform by education and 
example, there is very little doubt as to which the preponderance 
would be awarded. The man of civilization is educated so as 
to have a distinct conception of the principle of right and 
wrong, of justice and injustice, of truth and falsehood—in 
despite, however, of that education, he acts in direct opposition 
to those principles, and, in fact, the whole tenor of his life ap¬ 
pears to be, how he can carry ori those actions with impunity, 
and safe from all detection: the Esquimaux is the confirmed 
child of nature, in its most rude and savage character—removed 
but one degree from the brute creation, forming almost the link 
between animal and human life, destitute of every notion of 
a retributive justice—amenable to no present nor future tribunal 
for any action, which he may commit, he appears in the great 
family of mankind, as divested of the major part of the rights 
of humanity, with the countenance of his God turned from 
him, and living in a nook of earth overlooked and forgotten by 
its Creator. 
That the sailors on their return to the ship, experienced the 
ebullitions of their commander’s anger on the loss of the dog, is 
an event of such a natural and certain consequence, that to 
relate it would be tantamount to the information, that thunder 
is always preceded by lightning, or that wherever there is 
light, there must of necessity be a shadow ; to relate, however, 
that these same ebullitions, stormy and tempestuous as they 
might have exhibited themselves, were as harmless in their con¬ 
sequences, as a drop of rain falling on the plumage of the 
cygnet, were an assertion, to which even a Quaker could affix 
his affirmation, without running the slightest risk of being 
called to account by his elders for a breach of moral conduct, 
which cannot be laid to the charge of any of the fraternity of the 
Pures, for the best of all reasons, that they are possessed of 
the most consummate cunning to prevent the detection of it 
