CHAPTER XIX 



The First Franklin Expedition 



JOHN FRANKLIN, the afterwards famous Sir John Franklin, 

 was born at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1786, one 

 of a family of ten. His father intended him for the clergy, 

 but as the boy grew older his disposition seemed to unfit him de- 

 cidedly for this profession. He was a restless lad, with the spirit 

 of the rover born in him, and manifested early in life a strong predi- 

 lection for the sea, Admiral Nelson being the idol of his heart, 

 while he read with avidity all the books he could obtain dealing 

 with sea life and adventure. Living not far from the coast, the 

 scent of salt water filled his nostrils, and the sight of the open sea 

 was familiar to his eyes. 



These influences and the romantic yarns spun to him by any 

 old sailor he chanced upon exerted over him the spell which was to 

 mould his later life. The long stretch of moving water, which 

 rolled between him and the sky-line, was the home of all that was 

 wonderful and glorious; the ships which sailed over it were, to his 

 enthusiastic mind, floating homes of mystery, adventure and beauty. 

 Beyond the sea lay the lands where the coco-palms grew, where 

 Indians hunted and fought, and where roamed mighty beasts of 

 strange and fantastic shapes. Over the sea, also, lay the realms of 

 ice and snow, of which more marvelous tales were told than of the, 

 golden islands of the Southern Seas. As a result a great yearning 

 came upon him. The life on shore, in peaceful, steady-going Lin- 

 colnshire, was too dreary and hopeless ; nowhere could he be happy 

 save on that boundless ocean, with room to breathe, and surrounded 

 by all the glamour of romance. 



(253) 



