LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
377 
attention of his Britannic majesty’s deputy to a very serious 
omission, which was then committed, and which consisted in 
forgetting 1 to take possession of the ice, as well as the land, and 
to which gross and unaccountable omission might be ascribed the 
truly perplexing embarrassment in which they were then involved. 
Had the Esquimaux built their huts on the land, then they 
might be dealt with as the vassals of his Britannic majesty, to 
whom that land belonged; but as they had built their huts on 
the ice, he could not discover by any law, which had ever been 
promulgated by Grotius or Puffendorf, or which had been en¬ 
acted by the British parliament, by which the new settlers could 
be ejected from the present place of their abode. It is true, that 
the glaring omission, which had been committed, might in some 
degree be rectified by the assembly then present, proceeding 
with the customary forms, to take possession of the ice in the 
name of his Britannic majesty; but then they should be involving 
themselves in the dilemma of subjecting the Esquimaux to the 
consequences of an ex post facto law ; which, it is very probable, 
they never could be made to comprehend. He acknowledged, 
that the whole case was beset with great difficulties ; and that 
it required all the talent and skill of their commander, the full 
possession of which no one was disposed to dispute, in order to 
overcome them, without at the same time compromising his own 
character, and that of his Britannic majesty, as wedl as that of 
the English nation in general. Having therefore briefly stated 
his opinion of the inexpediency, and, in some measure, the injus¬ 
tice of adopting the plan proposed by his two honorable friends, he 
should himself submit a proposition to them, which if carried 
into effect, might be the means of bringing the business to an 
amicable issue, and ultimately of removing the nuisance, which 
had so suddenly and unfortunately appeared amongst them; and 
to which solely is to be attributed the excessive degree of alarm, 
which at this moment was depicted on the countenance of our able 
and highly esteemed commander. Having, to a certain degree ad¬ 
mitted the right of the Esquimaux to build their huts on the ice, 
the next important question to be discussed is, the motive, which 
could have induced them to commit such an extraordinary act 
16. 3 c 
