LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
617 
“ Could your men have undertaken the journey 100 miles 
further ?’’•—“ Certainly not; they were quite exhausted when we 
arrived at Fury Beach ; we had our last day’s provisions.” 
“ I think you said, you had nothing 1 else to drink but water ; 
during how long was that?”—■“ Fifteen months.” 
“ You had cocoa to drink ?”—“ We had cocoa and burnt 
pease all the time.” 
It must be observed, that the men acknowledged that there 
was plenty of cocoa, but that it was withheld from them on ac¬ 
count of the want of water, at the same time that there was no 
lack of fuel, wherewith to melt the snow. 
“ There was no time when you had nothing but water?” 
Capt. Ross here evades the question, in the most artful man¬ 
ner, by answering ,—“ The water we had to get, by melting the 
snow ; we had to carry our fuel to melt the water.” This was in 
reality, no answer to the question proposed to him ; for there is 
a very essential difference between telling the committee, that 
there was a time when they had nothing but water, and not 
even that, and telling them, what he had told them before, that 
the water was to be got from the melting of the snow, for which 
purpose they carried the fuel along with them. 
It is these evasions, these direct and positive contradictions, 
as compared with the information transmitted from other quarters, 
that incline us to throw so much discredit upon the evidence 
of Capt. Ross. It was not indeed to be expected that Capt. 
Ross would, in any of his answers, so commit himself as to give 
rise to an extended examination of any particular circumstances : 
and he also knew well, that there was not another individual, 
to be called before the committee, who had been on the ex¬ 
pedition, excepting Commander Ross, and his evidence had no 
immediate reference to those minutiae of the voyage, on which 
Capt. Ross was questioned. It was, however, rather fortunate 
for the latter individual, that the committee, in the questioning 
of Commander Ross, confined themselves to such points, which 
did not immediately bear on the conduct of Capt. Ross towards 
his men : for, in general, when they did venture upon them, a 
direct contradiction was certain to ensue. 
