518 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
least variation of the vane, as if their existence depended upon 
it. The consequences were well known to all the men, if they 
should be obliged to winter in their present harbour; for no 
other fate then awaited them, than to travel to Fury Beach the 
following spring, with the distressing uncertainty upon their 
minds, whether they should find the stores as they had left them; 
as on board the Victory, the stock of provisions was barely 
sufficient to last till the following May, supposing the men to 
be on full allowance. It was, however, foreseen by the men, 
that if they wintered in their present harbour, some diminution 
would take place in their allowance, with the view of husbanding 
a sufficiency, to enable them to travel to Fury Beach in the spring. 
It must, however, have been rather a severe trial for the feelings 
of the men, to know that the officers were on full allowance, 
even to actual luxuries, when they were stinted in almost every 
individual article. 
It is a trite truism, that the fate of individuals, and even 
sometimes of empires, depends upon a trifle ; and having no 
right to question the veracity of the following statement, it may 
with justice be said, that the fate of the Victory was sealed by 
the unpardonable obstinacy of one individual. During the time 
that the Victory was in Victory Harbour, a watch was kept 
night and day, for the purpose of keeping a look-out for the ice, 
the thermometer, and other minutiae belonging to the ship. In 
consequence of the wind blowing from the south-west, it was 
the opinion of all on board, that the ice would make a move ; 
and so anxious was Mr. Light for this event, that he could 
scarcely get a wink of sleep, but turned out of his hammock, 
every hour, to ascertain the state of the ice. At 3 o’clock, in 
the morning of the 1st September, Mr. Light went on deck, and 
was rejoiced to see the bay clear of ice : nor was there any 
to be seen in an easterly direction, for the distance of two or 
three miles. Richard Wall at that time had the watch, and 
Light used every argument to persuade Wall to inform either 
Capt. Ross or Commander Ross of the circumstance. The 
refusal of Wall to convey to either of the officers, a piece of 
information of such vast importance, was certainly a gross 
