562 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
(although they had their suspicions on the subject,) the great 
spirit had failed in keeping his promise—the seals were still kept 
from visiting the upper world, and the consequence of which 
was, that unless the spirit below, could by some means be 
brought to his senses, and forced to forego his hold upon the 
seals, the whole of the tribe would be reduced to starvation. 
Under this pressing exigency, to whom could they apply, with 
the greater hope of averting so great a calamity, than to the 
mighty Ajigekok on board “ the great house,” as the Victory was 
termed? for they were thoroughly convinced, that he had it in 
his power, to give the refractory spirit below, such a hearty 
drubbing, that he would be glad to relinquish his dominion, not 
only over the seals, but also, over all the other animals, which 
had thrown themselves under his protection. 
When an individual has once succeeded in impressing upon 
the mind of another, a sense of his superior dignity and import¬ 
ance, it becomes him to be very circumspect in adopting any 
line of conduct, by which, he might so far commit himself, as 
to excite a suspicion, that his dignity and importance had, in 
reality, as much substantiality in them, as the foam on the top 
of the billow, or the mist on the summit of the mountain. Jo¬ 
hanna Southcott succeeded in persuading a set of fools and 
idiots, that she was pregnant with young Shiloh. Mr. O’Connell 
Ins succeeded in convincing the people of Ireland, that he was 
certainly sent amongst them, by St. Paul, St. Peter, or St. Patrick, 
to frighten my lords Althorpe and Brougham into fits, w ith the 
power, that he possesses over two millions of the “ finest potato, 
fed pisantry” in the world ; and Capt. Ross has succeeded in 
convincing the committee of the House of Commons, that the 
benefits which science and navigation have derived from his last 
voyage, justly entitle him to £5000 from the public purse. 
Nowit is not to be supposed, that any one of this triumvirate (if in 
regard to the first-mentioned personage, the iricism be allowed us) 
would commit a single action, by which their dupes could be 
disabused of the opinion, which they had formed, although some 
certain suspicions will at times intrude themselves upon our 
