LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS, 
36 i 
stolen property, and the day following that, on which the dog’ be¬ 
longing to Capt. Ross, and which had formerly belonged to Il¬ 
lictu, had been enticed away, two women came to the ship bring¬ 
ing the dog with them, and exonerating the son of Illictu from all 
blame in the transaction, as the fault was attachable to the dog, 
and not to the man. It was not to be attributed, they said, as 
a fault to the latter, that the dog preferred following his original 
master, instead of his adopted one, and if the man ran quickly 
away for fear of being benighted, and the dog, all the while, 
kept close at his heels, surely no blame whatever was attachable 
to him, much less could the charge of theft be laid to him. It 
was agreed to give the female diplomatist the full advantage of 
her arguments, but unluckily for her, the latter part of her ex¬ 
culpatory statement fell to the ground, for although certainly 
the charge of the theft of the dog could not be substantiated, 
yet it was discovered that the swivel had been taken from his 
collar, and Commander Ross gave them to understand that he 
should consider them, decidedly, as complete Tigliktokes , unless 
the swivel was returned, and he further informed them, that al¬ 
though he certainly considered them entitled to some reward for 
bringing back the dog, yet that it should be withheld, until the 
article that been taken from the animal was restored. 
The women did not seem to comprehend the system of pro* 
spective rewards, and, especially, if dependent on certain condi¬ 
tions and stipulations, which it was perhaps not in their pow T er 
to perform. They had executed their part of the duty by bring¬ 
ing back the dog, and therefore their reward was not to be 
made dependent upon the will and actions of another, over 
whom they possessed not, perhaps, the slightest controul. If the 
son of Illictu refused to give up the swivel, all their trouble in 
bringing back the dog would go for nothing, and therefore 
in their eyes it was not an act of justice to withhold from them 
the reward that was their due, on the conditional plea, that they 
were to bring back an article, which the present holder of it 
might not be disposed to relinquish. Plausible however as these 
arguments were, Commander Ross was peremptory in his de~ 
16 3 a 
