368 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS 
If, however, Capfc. Ross had one point in his favour, as touch¬ 
ing’the nuisance, the Esquimaux had nine in theirs,—and they 
had obtained possession, both perhaps de jure et de facto, (we 
believe that to be the jargon of the lawyers,) of the site of their 
village, and it w'as shrewdly hinted by one of the officers in the 
cabin, that if Capt. Ross called upon them to shew by what 
right they built their village within hail of his ship, they might 
call upon him to shew by what right he had intruded himself 
into their country, and had filled his flour-tubs with its produce, 1 
for which he had only given them in return, his rubbish. He 
might indeed have talked to them in high and commanding 
language of George the fourth—of Mr. Barrow of the admiralty 
—of Mr. Booth, his munificent patron—of the attachment of 
Lord Melville to him as being one of his own countrymen—of 
the power vested in him to blow up the whole of their village 
with his steam engine, that is, if the steam engine had not 
unfortunately for him, blown up itself—of the precise velocity 
of sound, which had been ascertained (not) by his own power of 
observation—of the true position of the magnetic pole—and 
lastly, of the exact altitude, measured by himself, of the Croker 
Mountains. On all, or any one of these important subjects, he 
might have edified and astounded the gaping natives, but not a 
block of snow' would they in consequence have removed from 
their huts, or resigned to him an inch of the sovereignty of their 
country. 
Nevertheless, the fear of losing some part of his property daily 
by theft, arose ever and anon, in the mind of Capt. Ross, like 
some malicious fiend to disturb the serenity of his midnight rest; 
strange visions hovered over his heated imagination, he again 
saw the wonderful figure of Poowutyook rising from the flour- 
tub, as the leader of the gang of thieves ; he saw in his fancy 
the remnants of his steam engine emancipated from their icy 
prison, and carried away by the mere force of thieving, to a 
latitude, where they would be made of much greater use, than 
they were ever found to be, whilst on board the Victory; he saw 
his own flour-tubs rifled of their contents, his schemes of 
profit and speculation, burst like the South Sea bubble, and 
