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That Captain Ross's reputation has suffered any damage in its hull we cannot for a moment admit ;- that it was slightly ruffled in its topsails is sufficiently recorded in his own volume. The ever-blowing and the ever-veering breath of calumny-the moral sirocco which blows on all characters, and from every point of the compass was likely to find the Arctic Hero more susceptible of its blight than its victims of the temperate zone; and we can excuse Captain Ross for feeling too sensitively its malign influence. The truth is, that Captain Ross committed no fault to justify any attack upon his fame: The experience of all subsequent expeditions, and especially that of the last, proves how difficult it is to trace the line of an ice-bound coast, and how impossible, in some states of weather, to pronounce upon its continuity. Captain Ross himself discovered that Creswell bay was at least thirty miles deeper than where the land had been laid 'down' by Captain Parry; and if, in the higher walks of enquiry, we were to assail the reputation of eminent men who have stood on the very threshold of great discoveries, and have most inexplicably missed them, we should vilify almost every name that adorns the history of science.

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Such were the circumstances under which Captain Ross undertook his voyage. The novelty of his plan, and the ground upon which he looked for success, consisted in employing a steam-vessel, with a small draught of water; and he accordingly purchased the Victory, which had been used as a steam-packet between Liverpool and the Isle of Man, and replaced the old paddles by the superior ones of Mr Robertson's construction. After being strengthened and enlarged by Mr Fearnall, she was able to carry 150 tons, including the engine, with the necessary complement of provisions. The high pressure engine was the patent of Braithwaite and Erickson. The paddle wheels could be hoisted out of the water in a minute; and instead of having a flue, the fires were kept in action by bellows. Stores of provisions and fuel were supplied for a thousand days, and instruments of every kind were procured. Captain Ross selected his nephew, James Clark Ross, as second in command, Mr Thom was appointed purser, and Mr Macdiarmid surgeon, the whole ship's company amounting to 24 persons.

As it was necessary to carry stores for several years, Captain Ross purchased at Greenock a whaler, built of teak, called the John, with a crew of fifty-four men. The chief object of this purchase was to carry to Prince Regent's inlet the stores which could not be accommodated in the Victory; and, in order to defray the expense, the John was to fish by the way and bring home some of the stores of the Fury. Captain Ross thought it expe

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dient also to have a secondary vessel of as large a tonnage as his own could conveniently manage; and through the kindness ' of the Admiralty he obtained a decked vessel of sixteen tons bur'den (the Krusenstern), which had accompanied a former expedition; and also two boats made of mahogany which had been used by Captain Franklin.'

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Thus equipped, and carrying with him the good wishes of the nation, Captain Ross sailed, in the Victory, from Woolwich on the 23d of May, 1829, to meet the John, under the charge of Mr Thom, in Loch Ryan, which he reached on the 11th of June. His arrival was marked by the mutiny of the crew of the John, who not only refused to accompany him on the stipulated conditions, but attempted also to seduce from their allegiance several of the Victory's crew. These brave men, however, resisted all attempts to mislead them: They resolved to proceed alone, and to renounce all the advantages which they had anticipated from the assistance of the whaler. The officers and men of this ship would have received the punishment which they merited in the contempt and indignation of their countrymen, but Providence called them to a more summary tribunal, and inflicted a more awful punishment.

It was but in the following year that the John, under the same master and officers, and with the same crew, barring one or two exceptions, sailed to Baffin's bay on a whaling expedition. From causes which have never come to light, a mutiny took place on board, attended by the death of the master, Comb, but under circumstances which have not yet been rightly explained, as far as I can understand. The mate, with a boat's crew, were expelled at the same time; and having never since been heard of, are supposed to have perished in the ice. The ship, then put under the command of the Spikesoneer, was afterwards lost on the western coast, when most of the crew were drowned; the remainder being saved by a whaler which was accidentally passing.'

After increasing his crew by three volunteers, Captain Ross again set sail on the 14th June; but it was only to encounter new disasters. The Victory was assailed on the same day with a storm of unusual severity, and while two seamen were on the topgallant-yard furling its sail, the head of the foremast gave way with a terrible crash; but being fortunately caught by the rigging, the two men had time to escape from their perilous position. During the continuance of the gale, the Victory split its jib at midnight of the 15th, and upon searching for the storm jib ro replace it, they found nothing but the rope, the canvass having been cut off, and stolen by some plunderer before they left the Thames. Having repaired their crippled mast, and obtained additional security for their rigging, the demon of misfortune again

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appeared amid the noise and vapours of their crazy steam machinery. The boilers squirted out clouds from their opening joints; the pumps creaked and laboured; and the bellows moaned with asthmatic inspirations. The moral as well as the physical strength of Captain Ross and his heroic shipmates was thus severely tried; but, notwithstanding the united hostility of Boreas and Braithwaite, they were able, on the 23d of July, to reach the hospitable Danish settlement of Holsteinberg, in lat. 66° 58, N. and 53° 54′ W. long.

This settlement consisted of the houses of the governor and clergyman, a church, two storehouses, a bakehouse, and about forty Esquimaux huts. The governor, Kull, and Mr Kijer, the clergyman, treated Captain Ross with great kindness; and Captain Ross was not only supplied with useful stores and provisions, but obtained from the wreck of the Rockwood whaler a mizenmast, which replaced his own damaged foremast. The articles which he obtained from the Rockwood were, of course, paid for; but the generous Dane would accept of no return for the greater part of the useful articles which he had furnished.

On the 27th July, Captain Ross quitted the shore of Greenland, shining with that bright verdure from which it derives its name; and, after crossing Baffin's bay, he entered Lancaster sound on the 6th of August. This event naturally leads him to the defence of his former conduct, to which we have already had

occasion to allude.

Sir Edward Parry remarks, that Lancaster sound had “obtained a degree of notoriety beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it." This language is somewhat ambiguous, at least; and either from this cause, or others, it has been inferred by some of those persons who took an interest in the discoveries and proceedings of that voyage, that Sir Edward's opinion was opposed to mine, when we were employed together on that first expedition. Under such a conclusion, the same persons ought also to have perceived, that as a matter of course, he must have then expressed that difference of opinion to me, since this was his duty as my associated though junior officer; and thence, I presume, they will have further determined, that in acting as I did, I pro ceeded in opposition to his declared opinion.

If this be the case, it is necessary that those persons should be undeceived; for he did not at that time make any such opinion known to me, and I am therefore bound to conclude that he did not entertain it. He could not have believed that there was a passage through Lancaster sound, or he would have told me that he thought so; for it would be to suppose him capable of gross misconduct as an officer were imagine, that when he was my second in command, he suppressed any opinion that could concern the duty in which we were both engaged; above all, that he concealed an opinion which, on account of its very

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high importance, it was the more strongly his duty to have communicated. Nor is there a single officer belonging to either of the ships, who, if he now says that he differed from me in opinion at that time, is not equally censurable, since it was incumbent on all to have stated to me what they believed or thought on that leading object of the expedition.

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It is possible that I may not, even now, influence or alter the conclusions to which I have thus alluded, since it is in human nature to adhere to judgments once formed, and so long uncontradicted; but I can here, on the very spot itself, where every recollection seems but that of yesterday, reassert, with the most perfect confidence, that no officer then expressed any belief that there was a passage through this opening, or even suggested a hint to that effect. So far from this, I was led to infer, by the general remarks on board of my own ship, and by the expressions of those who considered that they had more especially a right to be consulted, that I had, according to their opinions, already proceeded, not merely far enough, but too far.

It is further true, and I must repeat it in this place, that even if the opinion of my second in command had been, what by many it has been supposed, the reverse of my own, which it was not, I was perfectly justified by my instructions, and by the circumstances in which the expedition found itself, in acting as I did. Those orders were clear and decisive: not only was the season passed for penetrating further through the ice, but it was my imperative duty, as it is with every officer in command, even if I had not received the orders to which I have referred, to attend to the preservation of the ships and their gallant crews.'

After passing Cape York and Cape Warrender on the 10th, the expedition entered Prince Regent's inlet on the 12th, and on the 13th of August, after they had passed the coast surveyed by Captain Parry, they discovered a fine harbour, with a safe anchorage, which was called Adelaide bay, in consequence of having been discovered on the birthday of her present Majesty. Being in the immediate vicinity of the place where the Fury was wrecked, Captain Ross resolved, without delay, to search for the wreck of the vessel, and to avail himself of the rich stores which Captain Parry had left behind him. A strong current had driven the Victory to the south of this interesting spot; but, after laborious exertions, they succeeded in reaching it, and gratifying that deep curiosity which was felt by the whole of the crew. The tents left by Captain Parry were descried at a distance: Only one of them seemed entire, and the rest exhibited merely their poles and their ropes, with a few tattered shreds dangling from their summits. The following interesting account of the examination of the spot itself will gratify the curiosity of our readers:

We found the coast almost lined with coal; and it was with no

common interest that we proceeded to the only tent which remained entire. This had been the mess tent of the Fury's officers; but it was too evident that the bears had been paying frequent visits. There had been a pocket near the door where Commander Ross had left his memorandum book and specimens of birds; but it was torn down, without leaving a fragment of what it contained. The sides of the tent were also in many places torn out of the ground, but it was in other respects entire.

Where the preserved meats and vegetables had been deposited, we found every thing entire. The canisters had been piled up in two heaps; but though quite exposed to all the chances of the climate, for four years, they had not suffered in the slightest degree. There had been no water to rust them, and the security of the joinings had prevented the bears from smelling their contents. Had they known what was within, not much of this provision would have come to our share, and they would have had more reason than we to be thankful for Mr Donkin's patent. On examining the contents, they were not found frozen, nor did the taste of the several articles appear to have been in the least degree altered. This was, indeed, no small satisfaction, as it was not our luxury, but our very existence, and the prospect of success, which were implicated in this most gratifying discovery. The wine, spirits, sugar, bread, flour, and cocoa, were in equally good condition, with exception of a part of the latter, which had been lodged in provision casks. The lime-juice and the pickles had not suffered much; and even the sails, which had been well made up, were not only dry, but seemed as if they had never been wetted. It was remarkable, however, that while the spun yarn was bleached white, all appearance and smell of tar had va nished from it.

We proceeded now to the beach where the Fury had been abandon ed, but not a trace of her hull was to be seen. Having often seen, however, what the moving masses of ice could do on this coast, it was not difficult to guess in general what we could not explain in detail. She had been carried bodily off, or had been ground to atoms and floated away to add to the drift-timber of these seas. At any rate, she was not to be found; we had seen no appearance of her during the ten miles that we had coasted within pistol-shot of the shore to the southward of this place, and we now examined it for two miles to the northward with no better success.

We therefore returned on board, and made preparations for embarking a sufficiency of stores and provisions to complete our equipment for two years and three months, being what we expected to want on the one hand, and to obtain on the other. I need not say that it was an occur rence not less novel than interesting, to find in this abandoned region of solitude, and ice, and rocks, a ready market where we could supply all our wants, and, collected in one spot, all the materials for which we should have searched the warehouses of Wapping or Rotherhithe—all ready to be shipped when we chose, and all free of cost; since it was the certainty of this supply, and a well-grounded one it proved, that had formed the foundation of the present expedition.

• Yet all that we could possibly stow away seemed scarcely to dimi

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