6 ADMIEALTY INSTRUCTIONS. [1852. 



and to the eastward of Barrow Strait, whenever their stock of provision 

 shall have been reduced to twelve months' full allowance ; and com- 

 mending you, and those employed under you, to the providence of God, 

 we trust that success may crown your efforts, and that you may be the 

 means of affording succour to those of our countrymen whose absence 

 we have so long deplored. 



Given under our hands this 16th day of April, 1852, 



NORTHUMBERLAND. 

 HYDE PARKER. 

 PHIPPS HORNBY. 

 THOS. HERBERT. 



To SIR EDWARD BELCHER, C.B., ALEX. MILNE. 



Captain of Her Majesty's Skip Assistance, 

 at Greenhitke. 



By Command of their Lordships, 



W. A. B. HAMILTON. 



No. II. 

 By the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral 



of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, etc. 

 We have to inform you that we have despatched her Majesty's steam- 

 vessel ' Phoenix,' under the command of Commander Inglefield, with 

 the ' Breadalbane' transport, to Beechey Island, for the purpose of re- 

 plenishing the ships under your command with stores and provisions, 

 in case your supplies may have been so far reduced by the depot 

 formed at Melville Island and the various cachettes on the coast as to 

 prevent you from continuing further search for Sir John Franklin 

 during this season and the winter of 1853-54, if the information you 

 may have gained determine you to continue such further search. 



2. In communicating with you on the subject of your former orders 

 and the service on which you are employed, we are aware how im- 

 possible it is for us to send out any definite instructions with reference 

 to your future proceedings, when we are ignorant of the position in 

 which you may now be placed, or whether any traces of Sir John 

 Franklin's Expedition may have been found during last Autumn or the 

 Spring of this year, and what steps you may have considered it most 

 expedient to adopt. But if no trace of the missing ships have been 

 found beyond the Wellington Channel, and if it should appear that by 



