628 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
Thus one of the committee, after having put a few unim¬ 
portant questions to Capt. Ross, respecting the proceedings on 
their journey to, and on their arrival at Fury Beach, proceeds 
to ask:—“ I need not ask you, whether all this period was 
(not) one of the greatest mental anxiety to you?’’—“ It certainly 
was; and the greatest difficulty 1 had was , in preserving dis¬ 
cipline among the men ?” 
We will contrast this evidence with that of Commander Ross, 
to whom the following question is put:—“ The preservation 
of discipline was perhaps a circumstance most necessary, on 
such trying occasions, for the preservation of the lives of all 
parties concerned : some cases of insubordination might have 
arisen probably ?’’—“ There were trifling circumstances of in¬ 
subordination , but very trifling .” 
“ Did not Capt. Ross himself, on all those occasions, exert 
a controlling power V' —“ They seldom went to Capt. Ross, 
they generally came to me.” 
“ Do you not recollect any case, in which Capt. Ross exerted 
his controlling power, under rather trying circumstances?”.—“ I 
remember one occasion, after we had abandoned our ship, in 
which Capt. Ross did exert his controlling power, but it was 
only on one occasion 
“Was not very prompt decision necessary on that occasion?'’ 
—“Yes, certainly.” 
“ State what Capt. Ross did upon that occasion?”—“/ was 
not present upon the occasion , and only heard of it; l am 
not aware of the circumstances .” 
We shall be able very shortly to state this particular occa¬ 
sion : but, in the interim, it is impossible to read this part of 
the evidence, without being forcibly struck, in the first place, 
with the contradictory'evidence ot the two officers; secondly, 
with the private knowledge, which some of the members of the 
committee possessed of particular occurrences of the voyage, 
and thirdly with the adroit manner, in which Commander Ross 
escapes out of the noose, in which he ran the greatest risk of 
being caught. 
It is most certain that he was not present on the occasion. 
