LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS; 
557 
Perhaps all further comments are superfluous on this truly 
impolitic conduct on the part of Capt. Ross, which, was in itself 
one of the causes, which alienated from him the good will and 
esteem of his men, and rendered them actually incapable of 
performing the duties of the ship, with that energy and de¬ 
spatch, which, in some cases, was so essentially necessary. No 
doubt can be entertained, that it became the commander of a 
ship, and particularly of one, under the trying circumstances, in 
which the Victory was placed, to husband his resources, with 
the utmost spirit of economy; but, on the other hand, consider¬ 
ing the desperate situation in which Capt. Ross found himself; 
surrounded by the gloomy prospect of passing another dreadful 
winter amongst the ice, with the terrible certainty attached to 
it that on the approach of the milder season, he would have to 
abandon his ship, 
With the world before him, where to choose 
His place of rest, and Providence his guide ; 
it ought to have been his chief study, to have supported the 
spirits of his men by every means in his power, and not to have 
allowed them to droop from causes, which he could so easily have 
remedied. The fare of a felon, in an English prion, was in 
many respects superior to that, which fell to the lot of the 
crew of the Victory ; and if it had not been for the system of 
smuggling, as the sailors termed it, of a certain portion of the 
tame and other animals, particularly some parts of the musk 
oxen, that were killed, it is a question, whether the strength 
of the men, would have been so maintained, as to have enabled 
them to perform the common duties of the ship. Neither com¬ 
plaint nor remonstrance appeared to have any effect upon the 
disposition of Capt, Ross; in vain the men represented to him, 
that the fish, especially that, which was preserved in vinegar, 
was not fit for human consumption ; at all events, that they could 
not satisfy their appetite with it, as, before they had partaken 
much of it, it occasioned a nausea, and in some cases a violent 
dysentery; this mild representation was not met, however. 
