LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
363 
in the opinion which they entertained of this transaction. It was 
further the belief of Mr. Light, and some others of the crew, that 
no part of the proceeds of the sale ever reached the hands of 
those, to whom it was bequeathed. 
Early in the morning of the 23d, the two women, who had 
brought back the dog, came to the ship, bringing with them the 
swivel, which they threw down with an air of contemptuous 
indignation, as much as to say, “ take back your paltry article^ 
about which you have made so great a hubbub.” The next 
great question however to be considered, was the reward, and 
here the parties were not by any means likely to come to an 
amicable arrangement; the one expecting a very high reward, 
and the other determined to give a very low one; the former 
considering that they had performed an act of great honesty ; 
the latter considering that they had done no more than their 
duty, in restoring a property, w T hich did not belong to them. 
The ladies were peremptory in their exactions—the gentlemen 
were equally so in their refusal; the latter, in the opinion of the 
former, were mean, shabby fellows—the ladies in the opinion 
of the gentlemen, were nothing better than a pair of vile ex¬ 
tortioners, demanding a tribute on the part of Csesar, which 
w r as not due to Caesar, and, therefore, they resolved to exert the 
whole energy of their characters, in repelling so gross an impo¬ 
sition. A pair of fish-hooks were offered, they were not to be 
caught with such a trumpery reward—four needles were added, 
it was a superaddition of insult to meanness. It was however 
high time that an end should be put to this palaver, when, Capt* 
Ross, who, we doubt not must have acquired some knowledge 
of the female character, before he became the commander of the 
Victory,and who daily be-thought himself, that the useful stands in 
a woman’s eye, by no means in equal estimation with the orna¬ 
mental, whether she be a member of Almacks, or the native of 
an Esquimaux snow hut; drew from nis pocket a string of glass 
beads, estimated in the invoice at 4d. and presented the valuable 
gift to the ladies. Bright and cheerful were their counte¬ 
nances, as they took possession of the gewgaws, for one of them, 
be it said, sub silenlio , was about to take upon herself the cha- 
