372 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
beauty is more often the cause of the loss of virtue, than the 
means of preserving its immaculacy. 
Sterne has said that he could draw a moral from the knock¬ 
ing of a tenpenny nail with a hammer, although we candidly 
confess our inability to discover where to look for it, but we 
have taken an opportunity of deducing a moral from the domes¬ 
tic arrangements of an Esquimaux bachelor, which we hope 
will not be lost upon those of our fair country-women, whose 
mirrors have reflected the beauty of their countenance, and 
let them carry with them the conviction, that beauty unless 
attended by her twin sister virtue, assumes a hideous aspect, 
and rather than be considered a blessing, it should be looked 
upon as one of the greatest evils, with which heaven could af¬ 
flict them. 
Had the colony of the Esquimaux consisted only of the deco¬ 
rous, and well-behaved persons already mentioned; the slumbers 
of Capt. Ross would have run no risk of being broken in upon 
by the intrusive visits of the midnight marauders; the remnants 
of his steam engine might have quietly submitted themselves to 
the process of corrosion by rust, without the fear of being meta¬ 
morphosed into blubber bowls and drinking cups, by the inge¬ 
nuity of the natives; the tubs crammed with jackets, hoods, 
trowsers, mittens, boots, and slippers might have remained 
undisturbed in the hold, in social fellowship with each other; 
the discipline of the ship might have been carried on according 
to the system hitherto adopted, nor would the rubicundity of 
the countenances of the associates of the Victory’s cabin been 
so suddenly changed to the ghastly paleness of fear and tribu¬ 
lation. 
It was, however, written in the book of fate, (but those, who 
wrote it, could not have had any regard for the feelings of 
Capt. Ross, nor the slightest commisseration for the situation 
into which their indiscreet measure so lamentably impelled him,) 
that, amongst the settlers on the ice, there were four individuals, 
who, if their characters for integrity and probity were to be 
estimated according to their physiognomy, might be supposed 
