CHAPTER XI.

FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON.

1825, 1826, 1827.

Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea. By JOHN FRANKLIN, Capt. R.N., Commander of the Expedition.

THE mental and physical constitution of a thoroughbred English seaman is rarely found to give way to, or succumb under, misfortunes. He may suffer repeated shipwrecks, may be wounded in fight with the enemy, captured and thrown into prison, all or any of which will not deter him from, but rather increase his anxiety for, following up his profession, under the hope of more favourable auspices. Thus, in the true spirit of a seaman, Captain Franklin, in spite of the almost unheard-of sufferings he endured for a long continuance, mental and physical, brought on by extreme cold, debility, and famine, even to death's door-yet, with the full recollection of all these, could not resist the temptation of offering a plan, and also himself for the execution of it, to the Government, of a second expedition of the same kind, for the same purpose, and over the same country, as the one from which he had just

returned, and on which the extent of his sufferings had all but put an end to his existence.

"I was well aware," says this noble-minded officer, the sympathy excited in the British public by the sufferings of those engaged in the former overland expedition to the mouth of the Copper Mine River, and of the humane repugnance of His Majesty's Government to expose others to a like fate; but I was enabled to show satisfactorily, that in the proposed course similar dangers were not to be apprehended, while objects to be attained were at once important to the naval character, scientific reputation, and commercial interests of Great Britain and I received directions from the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst to make the necessary preparations for the equipment of the expedition, to the command of which I had the honour to be nominated."— Introduction, ix. x.

Many naval officers of distinguished talents anxiously offered their services; but his companions in misfortune were the first to be considered, and Lieutenant Back and Doctor Richardson were among the foremost to volunteer; the former already distinguished for his zeal and energy in all the contingencies of an exploring voyage, and the latter as surgeon and naturalist, it may be said of the first distinction, as he had proved himself to be, and moreover a gentleman of the most benevolent and humane disposition. The valuable services of these two officers on the former expedition can never be overlooked. To their energy of character and promptitude of action may undoubtedly, as Franklin records, be ascribed the safety of himself

and the remaining party. Richardson, not to forsake his former companion and fellow-sufferer, left a comfortable situation at home with a wife and family, so eager was he to complete the geography and the natural history of the American coast which borders the Polar Sea on its southern side. Lieutenant Bushnan, who had served with Ross and Parry in their Arctic voyages, and had distinguished himself as a draughtsman and surveyor, was selected as one of the expedition; but the premature death of this excellent young officer, distinguished by his skill in nautical astronomy, surveying, and drawing, was deeply lamented by Franklin; and Mr. E. N. Kendall, Admiralty Mate, and recently assistant surveyor with Captain Lyon, was also appointed to the same situation in the present expedition; lastly, Mr. Thomas Drummond, of Forfar, was appointed assistant naturalist on the recommendation of Professor Hooker and other eminent scientific

men.

In acceding to Captain Franklin's proposal, the Government was not unmindful of having sent out Captain Parry on his third expedition, in the preceding year, and that he might require information and assistance in the event of his proceeding along the American coast of the Polar Sea; that portion of it interjacent between Mackenzie River and Icy Cape being wholly unknown, as was also that between Mackenzie and Hearne's Rivers. The

main object of the present expedition was therefore to explore these two portions of that coast, and was so explained in the official instructions.

In the preparations for this arduous undertaking, Captain Franklin's experience had taught him, that birch-bark canoes were not the vessels calculated for rough and icy seas, and therefore three boats of a particular size and construction were ordered by the Admiralty to be made; and when finished and tried. at Woolwich, as to their qualities of sailing, rowing, and paddling, they were found to answer fully the expectations that had been formed of them. A third little boat, nine feet by four and a half, and covered with Mackintosh's prepared canvas, was made and called the Walnut Shell. The fatal stoppage at the crossing of Copper Mine River had suggested this; and we are told that, on the trial, several ladies fearlessly embarked in it, and were paddled across the Thames in a fresh breeze.

In the preparations nothing appears to have been omitted. Scientific instruments of all kinds, fowling-pieces and ammunition, marquees and tents, bedding, clothing, and water-proof dresses, flour, arrow-root, maccaroni, portable soup, chocolate, essence of coffee, sugar and tea, not omitting an adequate supply of that essential article for all North American travellers-pemmican. In short, whatever of use or luxury could be suggested was provided, to obviate, as Franklin said, any "appre

hension of similar dangers to those experienced on the former expedition."

When all was completed, on the 16th of February, 1825, Captain Franklin, Lieutenant Back, Dr. Richardson, Mr. Kendall, Mr. Drummond, with four marines, embarked at Liverpool, on board the American packet Columbia, for New York. It would be thought a waste of the reader's time to wade through a detail of their reception in America, and of their progress along the rivers, over the lakes and portages, with the numerous obstructions and difficulties they encountered, but rather to proceed at once to land them in safety at Fort Chipewyan on the 15th of July, 1825. Their early arrival it seems caused great surprise to its inmates, being only two days later than the time when Richardson and Hood had arrived in 1819, though they came only from Cumberland House, where they had wintered.

It will be sufficient to say that the whole party assembled on the banks of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake on the western side into the Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. On their arrival at its mouth, the explorers were to divide themselves, agreeably with their official instructions, into two parties; the one under Captain Franklin to proceed westerly, along the northern coast of America as far as Icy Cape, or to the entrance of Behring's Strait, where he was told he might expect to find H. M. Ship