660 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
worthy man had been maimed in his service, and had become 
a burthen upon the personal labor of his messmates, was to be 
doomed to suffer one of the most horrid deaths, which the human 
imagination in its utmost stretch could devise. But that Capt. 
Ross was this man, we cannot, under any circumstances, bring 
ourselves to believe—that he could for a moment entertain even 
the thought of abandoning a helpless cripple in a desolate 
country, where not the slightest prospect presented itself of an 
escape, is so revolting to every idea, which we have formed in 
our minds of a human being, who, the same moment, was per¬ 
haps raising his hands to heaven in prayer, for his deliverance 
from the troubles, by which he was assailed, and who was in¬ 
voking that God, who, according to his own words, had guided 
and directed aV_ his steps, and who had provided effectual means 
his preservation; we repeat it, that a man, who could accom¬ 
plish such a diabolical act, as the one we have been describing*, 
must be stricken to the earth with shame and confusion, when 
he looks to that God, without whose knowledge not a sparrow 
falleth to the ground. 
We shall pass over this subject without any further comment^ 
our motive in the dicussing of it has not been to impute the 
commission of so barbarous an act to Capt. Ross, but to give 
him an opportunity of purifying his character from a stigma, 
which will otherwise cling to his name for ever, and purge it 
from that odium, with which it is at present mentioned, in those 
quarters where his actions, during the whole of the expedition, 
have been so freely canvassed. 
The chief employment of the men, during the whole of the win¬ 
ter, was patching, mending, and covering their wearing apparel 
with canvass, for, in regard to clothing, their prospect was of the 
most discouraging kind. The indigenous animals were but 
few, from which they could obtain any skins, as the foxes 
seemed to possess the sovereignty of the country, with now and 
then a wolf or a bear as an occasional visitor. The stock of 
skins and clothing, which Capt. Ross had been nearly three 
years in collecting, and which were at one time sufficient to 
equip the crew of a man of war of 74 guns, were all left in their 
