LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
369 
not a seal skin, nor a pair of trowsers left to tell him of his 
former riches. 
It is an acknowledged principle by all Philosophers and Phy¬ 
sicians, that great evils require great powers of counter-action ;—* 
violent diseases require violent medicines, and therefore a consult¬ 
ation was held in the cabin of the Victory, as to the most politic 
measures, that could be adopted, under the existing circumstances, 
which threatened wholly to change the aspect of their affairs— 
to throw a disheartening gloom over their prospects, and mate¬ 
rially to alter the established discipline of the ship; for in the 
latter case,it would be necessary to appoint an additional watch, 
particularly by night, in order to keep a proper check upon the 
predatory disposition of the natives. 
The means of prevention are generally commensurate with the 
extent of the alarm; and therefore in order to justify the proceed¬ 
ings, which were adopted on this momentous occasion, it will be 
necessary to give an accurate account of the number of persons, 
who had so unceremoniously, and unexpectedly located themselves 
in the immediate vicinity of the Victory, to the great trouble and 
annoyance of its civilized inmates. 
The chief subjects of the establishment of an Esquimaux are 
his dogs and sledges; they are to him what the rein-deer is to 
the Laplander, or the camel to the Arabian : they constitute the 
dowry of his wife; the inheritance of his children; the instru¬ 
ments of his support, and the principal objects of his care and 
solicitude. An Esquimaux without a dog and sledge, maybe 
considered in the character of a direct pauper; he is a kind of 
dead weight upon the community, and it is only under peculiar cir¬ 
cumstances that a character of this kind is tolerated amongst them ; 
the law of primogeniture has no existence amongst the Esqui¬ 
maux ; for having neither rank, nor titles, nor dignities, nor aris- 
tocratical pride to support, they leave to the civilized European 
all the glories and advantages of hereditary birth, and look with 
contempt upon those factitious institutions, which confer titles and 
property upon a fool, merely because it has pleased Heaven to 
send him into the world before his brother. On the death of the 
father of a family, his property is divided amongst his children. 
16 . 3 is 
