680 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
boats for the purpose of unloading them, but all the crew were 
taken below, when such fare was set before them, as they had 
never partaken of for the three preceding years; at the same 
time that orders were given by Capt. Humphreys, of the Isabella, 
that clean linen should be distributed to the whole of the crew, 
in fact, every endeavor was made to render them every comfort, 
which their peculiar situation demanded. 
During the progress of Capt. Ross’ boats to the Isabella, they 
saw another ship, which was the William Lee, Capt. Parker, and 
when Capt. Humphreys saw the boats, he took them for the 
boats of the William Lee,, or he would immediately have hove 
his ship to; and, indeed, the fact of the report of Capt. Hum¬ 
phreys goes a great way to invalidate the statement of Capt. 
Ross before the committee of the House of Commons, wherein 
he states, that Capt. Humphreys took the course, which he did, 
up Lancaster Sound, for the purpose of finding out the hones of 
Capt. Rcss and his crew , as he did not expect to find them alive. 
Capt. Ross only believed that it was for the purpose of finding 
out what had become of him , that Capt. Humphreys directed his 
course for Lancaster Sound. Now this statement is at direct 
variance with ail probability. It was not likely, that Capt. 
Humphreys would find the bones of Capt. Ross floating towards 
him on an iceberg, followed in succession by a number of other 
little icebergs, bearing the bones of the remaining part of the 
crew. Where then was Capt. Humphreys to look for them? 
They could only be found by penetrating into the interior of the 
country, and this step was not likely to be taken by the com¬ 
mander of a whaling ship, who certainly had other fish to fry, 
than hunting at random over an immense tract of country, which 
did not offer him a single resource, on which he, or the persons 
accompanying him, could have subsisted for a day. Indeed, the 
members of the committee were themselves so struck with the 
improbability ofThe step reported to have been taken by Capt. 
Humphreys, that one of them asked Capt. Ross—“Is it likely the 
crew of a whaler would do that ? T o which Capt. Ross answered— 
“That he did it by means of telling them, that they would find 
whales there.” He, however, ventures upon the opinion, that 
