456 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROS9. 
regimen, that was prescribed. A slight indication of scurvy 
also manifested itself at this time, which excited greater alarm 
than any other complaint, with which the crew were afflicted : 
for the scurvy on board a ship, the small-pox in a Hottentot 
village, and the cholera in an Indian army, are similar in their 
mortal consequences. 
As Commander Ross did not return the same night, from his 
fishing expedition, some apprehensions were entertained, that 
an accident had befallen him, and accordingly a party were sent 
from the ship, to ascertain the cause of his protracted stay. 
Half way from the ship, however, he was seen advancing; his 
sledges so laden with fish, that the dogs, with the assistance of 
the men, could scarcely drag them along. It appeared, from 
the report, which he gave, that he threw the net in a second 
time, entirely for the benefit of the natives, and the number of 
fish caught, amounted to 2,360 : making altogether, in two hauls, 
the almost incredible number of 5,760 fish ! ! Commander Ross 
appropriated only 600 to himself; leaving the remainder to be 
disposed of by the natives amongst themselves, according to 
their own will and pleasure. This step, on the part of Com¬ 
mander Ross, was one of great kindness and humanity towards 
the poor creatures; for one of their chief means of subsistence 
during the winter, or, when the seals begin to get scarce, is 
their hoards of fish, which they may have caught during the 
summer; and two such hauls, as had been obtained by Com¬ 
mander Ross, was nearly sufficient to place the whole of the 
tribe out of the fear of suffering from want, for the whole of the 
ensuing winter, independently of the ample supply of food, which 
it furnished them for the present time. 
If the minds of the Esquimaux were inclined, previously to 
the capture of so many fish, to entertain the belief, that the 
strangers were beings of a supernatural cast, the late events 
were well calculated to confirm them in that opinion; for it was 
far beyond the limits of their conception, to comprehend, that 
the capture of nearly 6000 fish, at two hauls, could be accom¬ 
plished by any other beings than those, who had the subjects 
