These volumes cover three separate expeditions with an autobiography, and can be found on the Hathi Trust. McCormick was the surgeon on Ross’s Erebus (1839-1843), also something of a zoologist who also was involved in the Franklin Search in the 1850s.
Volume I:
p. 215, somewhere in South Sea Islands: The rapidity with which the general diffusion of the Scriptures had taken place throughout the various tribes in the interior, he states as most remarkable, and effected entirely by converted natives from the Bay of Islands. Native Prayer Books were general amongst them; and, as a substitute for a church bell, they jingled together pieces of metal at their meetings for public worship.
p. 239, among Maoris in NZ, an interesting account of a debate between Catholics and Protestants with Maoris present, the point being to convince the natives “which of the two creeds it might be most desirable to become converts to.” No conclusion seems to have been reached, but he says that the Roman Catholic priests were demanding.
Volume II:
The second volume consists of his account of the search for Franklin on the Forlorn Hope, and finally his Autobiography.
p. 8, on the Whale-fish Islands in Greenland, May 31, 1852, and visiting a humble hut of the village “governor”, a Dane: The furniture of this apartment consisted of a broad bench of boards, loosely covered with a few sealskins, occupying one side of the room as a bed-place, and on the other side a small deal table and a chair, with an old guitar suspended from the wall, which was papered with Danish newspapers and the solitary Dutch prayer-book constituted the library of this poor, simple-minded recluse. He told me that he was married to an Essquimaux woman, which would be a barrier to his return to his native land, “Huskey” women not being permitted to be naturalized in Denmark. He had resided here two years.
p. 174, in a section of suggestions for preserving health in Polar Regions: During the dark and monotonous season of winter, active exercise in the open air, on the floe or on the land, is the very best preservative of health, aided by proper attention to diet; the mind being at the same time engaged in rational occupations, reading, writing, sketching, or whatever may be the bent of individual task.