428 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
It is in our memoranda, that Capt. Ross set out on his expe¬ 
dition ; and, it is stated with the same strict attention to accuracy, 
that he returned from his expedition, his health unimpaired, and 
without the occurrence of any accident worthy of note. Of the 
discoveries made by Capt. Ross on this expedition, our memo¬ 
randa are wholly silent; but it is the property of great men to 
maintain a studied reserve respecting any grand conception, 
which may be whirling in their brain, and to keep their inferiors 
as much as possible in the dark, regarding the execution of any 
design, to which their genius may have prompted them. Of 
the result of the expedition to Shagerwak, just as much transpired, 
as of the descent of Hans Klein to the bottom of the Maelstrom, 
with this difference only, that the return of Capt. Ross was 
proved, by his personal appearance on the quarter deck of the 
Victory on the same evening : whereas, for ought we know to 
the contrary, Hans Klein is still prosecuting his discoveries, in 
that hitherto unexplored part of the world ; and which, we are 
informed, on his return, are to be published uniformly with 
Capt. Ross’ last voyage; by subscription, in quarto, and under 
the immediate sanction of His Majesty: as, from the latest 
accounts received from him, it was just about the time that Capt. 
Ross took possession of Boothia Felix, in the name of his said 
majesty, that Hans Klein, also, took possession of all the lands, 
which he had discovered at the bottom of the Maelstrom, in the 
name of his Britannic Majesty; and, great indeed would be the 
loss to the political, geographical and scientific community of 
England, if the history of two such valuable additions to the 
crown of Britain, occurring about the same period, should not 
appear simultaneously, as the Gemini in the zodiac of our 
national literature. 
Scarcely had Capt. Ross returned from his expedition, than 
Mr. Mc’Diarmid, accompanied by two Esquimaux, brought back 
Blankey, the mate, in a state of almost complete blindness, 
and totally unable to accompany Commander Ross any further 
on his expedition. The attack of this disease, for it could 
scarcely be called any thing else, began to assume an aspect of 
the most serious importance; five of the crew were on the sick 
list, as almost blind ; and it was well known, that several of the 
