LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
515 
as an act of unkindness or ill breeding, if they conducted him 
to the appointed spot, by a circuitous route. Capt. Ross had, in 
his own fatherland, often heard the adage, “ that all ways 
lead to Rome and, judging by analogy, he was positive, that 
ali the ways in the Esquimaux country led to Nichilli: but it 
was certainly an act of gross misconduct on the part of the Es¬ 
quimaux, not to designate it by a severer name, to take such 
a circumbendibus to Nichilli, that the body of Capt. Ross was 
exposed to all the rudeness and severity of their climate, for nearly 
six days longer than there was, in reality, any occasion for, as, 
instead of arriving at Nichilli , on the 21st, their arrival did 
not take place until the 27th ; and this delay was solely to 
be attributed to the circumvolutionary disposition of their guides, 
who, instead of proceeding in a straight line to the destined 
spot, went in a curvilinear direction, until, at one time, they 
were at a greater distance from Nichilli, than they were when 
they set out from the ship. To speak of a man keeping his 
temper on an occasion of this kind, were to invest him with 
the equanimity of Job himself; and therefore it was, perhaps, 
not at all unlikely that the sudden and unexpected return of 
Capt. Ross was, in a certain degree, owing to some offence, 
which he had taken for the conduct, which had been observed 
towards him, and which perhaps determined him, as early as 
possible, to close his acquaintance with a set of people, who, 
either from wantonness or ignorance, had been the instruments 
of exposing his person to six days additional buffeting with 
drifts of snow, showers of sleet, the merciless pelting of hail, and 
the violence of the northern gales, which threatened every mo¬ 
ment to capsize his sledge, and plunge him three feet deep in 
the snow. 
On the departure of Capt. Ross from Nichilli , he left Com¬ 
mander Ross with 17 days provisions, and a farther supply was 
to be left him at a certain place, to meet him on his return. 
At 7 o’clock on the morning of the 2nd, the operation was 
performed on Taylor’s foot, and in half an hour the man was laid 
in his cot, with every prospect of doing well. 
On the 3d, the whole of the party who had accompanied Capt. 
