866 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
tunities would be offered them of putting their pilfering dispo¬ 
sitions into practice, without the means of detecting them Some 
parts of the unfortunate steam engine were still imbedded in the 
ice, and many articles were lying dispersed on the outside of the 
ship, which would form a valuable prize to the natives, and 
which, there existed little doubt, would be stolen by them on 
the very first opportunity which presented itself. It was, indeed, 
strongly suspected by Capt. Ross, as well as by the majority of 
the crew, that the natives had established themselves in their new 
quarters, for no other purpose than to carry on a predatory war¬ 
fare against the moveable property of the ship ; for as they must 
nearly, if not wholly, have exhausted their own stores of cloth' 
ing, and other vendible articles, no other resource was left in 
order to enrich themselves with the hooks, needles, old instru¬ 
ments, and broken pieces of iron, which appeared to them to be 
inexhaustible in the Victory, than to station themselves in the 
immediate vicinity of the ship, and help themselves to whatever 
commodity might fall in their way, or which their perseverance 
might enable them to discover. It is certain that Capt. Ross 
might attempt to remove the intruders, by informing them, that 
as he had formally taken possession of the country, in the name 
and on behalf of his Britannic majesty, they had no right to form 
a settlement in any part of it, without the express permission of 
his said majesty, or his representative, who was no other person 
than Capt. Ross himself; but the great difficulty presented it¬ 
self in making them understand who his Britannic ma est / 
was, or who conferred on him, or on his representative, the 
right of calling a country his own, which had belonged to them, 
and their forefathers ever since there was a sun in the heavens, 
an ox on the land, or a seal in the waters. This was a difficulty 
which appeared to Capt. Ross of a very insuperable nature; he 
was conscious that the fee simple of the land was vested in 
the natives, and although they had not built their huts exactly 
on Terra Firma, but on the ice, which might be considered 
a kind of neutral ground, and, claimed by any one, who might 
feel a disposition to become the proprietor of so extensive a 
territory ; yet he was not a jurist sufficiently learned in the law 
