418 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
boy, be could only apply those secondary remedies, which were 
within his power ; but he gave the parents of the boy to under¬ 
stand, that little doubt existed of his ultimate recovery. This 
timely interference, on the part of Mr. McDiarmid, was, how¬ 
ever, of the greatest consequence to the little boy ; for these sa¬ 
vage creatures entertain such a repugnance to be troubled, in 
any of their hunting expeditions, with the aged, the infirm, or the 
sick, that rather than be encumbered with them, they frequently 
leave them behind, to endure the slow attack of death, with 
all the resignation, which they can summon to their power. 
No doubt was entertained, that such would have been the fate 
of the little boy ; for, being scarcely able to move a limb, he 
would have been obliged to be dragged along in a sledge, and 
this was a labour to them of greater consequence, than the 
mere life of the boy. 
It was the firm belief of the Esquimaux, that Capt. Ross was 
an Angekok, or conjuror of the very highest character; and it 
was an opinion, which he did not wish to eradicate from their 
minds, for it acted as a check upon their thievish propensities, 
on the principle, that, by his magical powers, he could immedi¬ 
ately discover the thief, and trace the stolen property wherever 
it w 7 as concealed. Fortune had indeed favored him, in many of 
his magical tricks; for, in several instances, when the Esqui¬ 
maux had applied to him, relative to the caption of a seal, and 
he had given them instructions to repair to a particular spot, 
where a seal was in waiting for them to be killed, and the event 
actually turned out, as he had predicted, it was not then to be 
wondered at, that they looked upon him as some superior 
being, to whom even the animals themselves owed subjection, 
and who were so far under his control, that he could by his man¬ 
date bring them from the depths of the ocean, to sacrifice them¬ 
selves, whenever it pleased him to condemn them. By means 
of his magnifying glasses, he had impressed the belief on the 
minds of the natives, that he could create animals a thousand 
times larger, than any that they had ever seen before ; and, as he 
had actually produced those creatures to their eyes, it was the 
height of folly in them to disbelieve their senses, or to dispute 
