494 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
thought of any subterfuge, by which he could evade the payment 
of the well-earned wages of his men. 
\ The circumstances, however, under which the men found their 
complaint against Capt. Ross, are not well understood; for the 
money, advanced by the lords of the Admiralty, has nothing to 
do with the claim, which they still have upon Capt. Ross, 
and which has excited such a degree of ill blood, that there is 
scarcely one of the crew, who would sail with him again, on an 
expedition, of which he possessed the command. 
It is true, as Capt. Ross has stated it, that the officers and 
sailors, after the abandonment of the ship, could not, by law, 
claim the wages for their services, as they were virtually no 
longer seamen, nor employed in the navigation or care of the 
vessel; it was, therefore, for the payment of this deficiency 
between the pay, to which they were entitled previously to the 
\ abandonment of the ship, and that, to which they were not 
entitled, by law, after its abandonment, for which Capt. Ross 
pleaded so strenuously to the lords of the Admiralty; but the 
men affirm, that they are, by agreement, entitled to double pay, 
after they were put on short allowance, and to this Capt. Ross 
demurs, that as the short allowance began after the abandon¬ 
ment of the ship, when, by law, they were not entitled to any 
pay at all, it would be a most difficult thing for them to substan¬ 
tiate the point, that they were entitled to double pay, especially 
as the services, for which they claim this double pay, were per¬ 
formed on land, and not on board the ship. There is very little 
dojubt, that if the men carry their case into a court of law, the 
verdict will be against them; but there is such a thing as equity, 
which will grant what the law denies; and as the Admiralty, in 
behalf of Capt. Ross, has paid the men the wages, that were not 
lawfully their due, it would become Capt. Ross, out of the 
5000/, which the country has exclusively awarded him, to pay the 
men the sum, which he agreed to pay them; for, let him carry 
it in his remembrance, that had it not been for their unshaken 
fortitude, and their daring spirit through the trials, which they 
had to undergo, he never would have reached his native country. 
