516 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
Ross, were so seriously indisposed, that they were all put into a 
steam bath, which was one of Capt. Jakyl’s patent. The illness 
o£ these men ought to have taught Capt. Ross a lesson, that a 
change in his conduct towards them, in regard to their diet, 
was an act of imperious necessity, but there are some characters 
upon whom all experience is lost, and who, having formed to 
themselves a particular line of conduct, persevere in it, in despite 
of the conviction, which daily and hourly imposes itself upon 
them, that it is founded on prejudice and error. 
On the 6th, the party that were to carry out the provisions to 
Commander Ross, made the necessary preparations for their de¬ 
parture, and in the afternoon a fatigue party got ready to take 
the sledge a few miles, for the purpose of alleviating the labor 
to those, who were appointed to take it to its destination. At 
7 o’clock in the evening, the steward and a few men set off with 
the sledge, and returned at 4 o’clock in the morning, leaving the 
travelling party to proceed with all expedition, to the place 
where the provisions were to be left for Commander Ross, for 
whom some apprehensions were felt that he might be greatly in 
want of them. 
Although Capt. Ross had projected another excursion, and he 
bad expressed his determination to set out on the 7th, yet the 
wind blew with such uncommon violence, and the weather on 
the whole appeared so very inauspicious, that he postponed his 
departure until the 9th, when he set out early in the morning, 
accompanied by five men and a sledge. Some notion may be 
formed of the opinion, which the crew entertained of these excur¬ 
sions of their commander, for they always spoke of them as cruises, 
thereby signifying, that he did not know where he was going to, 
nor how long he should be out. In another sense, they were de¬ 
signated as tramps, for the men were obliged to foot it over snow 
and ice, like a wandering gang of gypsies, the world their 
home, the heavens their canopy, and a lump of snow their pillow. 
On the 10th, a party of natives came to the ship from the 
south-west, who, on their way, had fallen in with Capt. Ross 
and his parly, two days before, and had supplied them with some 
salmon and cod-fish, which were the first that had been seen in that 
