414 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
one guns was fired, and a gill of rum was served out to each 
of the crew, to drink his majesty’s health. 
Whilst the preparations were making for firing the guns, 
Takkeelikkeeta was standing on the deck, close to the main 
hatchway, and, on the first explosion, coming as it did upon 
him unawares, he gave a jump, as high as the weight of his 
habiliments would allow him, and putting his hands to his ears, 
ran about the ship in the utmost fright and consternation. When 
the second explosion came, ignorant of the laws and discipline 
of the ship, he made no hesitation to betake himself down the 
companion hatchway, and bolted straight forward into the cabin, 
where Capt. Ross was sitting in the full enjoyment of his own 
company, which, to certain persons, is the most disagreeable 
company that can be selected. Capt. Ross, unused to such 
sudden visitations, in a place, of which he might be styled the 
autocrat, started, as if an apparition had come suddenly upon 
him, and greeted the intruder with one of those damnatory 
epithets, which form a part of the education of a sailor; but 
which, although 
It was spoken in the tongue, which’Shakespeare spake, 
was totally incomprehensible to the Esquimaux, who, seeing 
no other place of refuge at hand, squatted himself under the 
table, his hands still applied to his ears, and the utmost alarm 
depicted on his countenance^ Had a Polar bear taken possession 
of the cabin, Capt. Ross could not have shown greater indig¬ 
nation ; and in no measured terms abused the watch for allowing 
the unmannerly savage to intrude upon his privacy ; but it was 
a day of rejoicing, when some degree of relaxation in the dis¬ 
cipline of the ship was allowed; and, on the intelligence being 
conveyed to Commander Ross, of the place, where his young 
'protege had taken refuge, he repaired to the spot; but it was 
some time before the commander could be made to comprehend 
the cause, which had driven his young charge to take a refuge 
in a place, of which it was as great a crime to violate the sanctity, 
as of the dormitory of a nun. The firing had ceased ; and 
twenty-one charges of gunpowder had been wasted in raising a 
