LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
563 
notice, that, when the voyage of Captain Ross, as written by 
himself, makes its appearance, some of the members of the afore¬ 
said committee will look at each other, with a sheepish stare of 
wonder and astonishment. 
Judging* from the foregoing cases, we may be warranted in 
drawing the conclusion, that Capt. Ross would not commit a 
single action, which could tend to alter the opinion, which the 
natives had imbibed, touching his supernatural powers, and 
the consequent controul, which he held over the animals in their 
submarine residences. He was, however, placed in a very tick- 
lish situation ; for, if he proceeded to put his supernatural powers 
into action, the chances were greatly against him, that one 
additional seal would come out of its hole, to be run through the 
body by a spear, or to have a bullet shot through its head, and 
then his influence, as a mighty Angekok was, like Wolsey’s 
greatness, gone for ever. On the other hand, if he did not put 
his supernatural powers into action, he would appear in the eyes 
of the natives, as the instrument of their starvation ; for, although 
he might not be the immediate cause, yet if he had it in his 
power to prevent it, and refused to do it, he was directly an 
accessory to all the sufferings they might endure, and eventually 
perhaps to their very death. This is a striking proof of the 
great danger, which a man runs, in taking' upon himself a 
character, which does not belong to him, or the duties of which 
he is unable to perform. 
If Capt. Ross had confined himself in his official capacity, as 
the commander of the Victory, to the nautical affairs of his ship, 
and to the great object of his expedition, and left Angekoking 
to those, who were deeper initiated in its mysteries, it amounts 
almost to a certainty, that he w r ould not have found himself in 
the strange dilemma, in which he was now placed. It is, 
however, the characteristic of superior minds, to emancipate 
themselves from an embarrassment, with a certain tact and 
readiness, which the ignoble mind can never reach ; the doit 
will let an opportunity pass, which the individual, whose mind 
is upon the alert, will greedily seize upon, and which may 
