190 EXTRACT FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 



the most of the wills Avhich the spectacle has arrayed in 

 your favour, or possibly softened the under-current which 

 has steadily, though unseen, been working against you. 

 Of such materials are British seamen composed. He 

 who knows how to lead, how to humour them, what can 

 he not execute ? 



In order fully to comprehend my feelings at this in- 

 stant, I extract from niy letter by Monsieur De Bray to 

 Captain Kellett, June 15, 1854 : " You will perceive, by 

 niy general correspondence, that I expected Collinson to 

 return with Mecham, and I asked the question of De 

 Bray before he made known to me this second piece of 

 luck or misfortune, as it may eventuate, on your part. 

 Success sharpens the arrow-points of our adversaries ; 

 and I see too much of the world around me, not to fear 

 that which reaches my ears now will be made in the 

 hands of designing men a source of annoyance hereafter. 

 Collinson, by my former suspicions, could not convey 

 more than one officer and five men unprepared to any of 

 the Hudson's Bay settlements ; and even then not with- 

 out some preparation to meet and aid him. I do not 

 think, having so far succeeded, he would desert his crew 

 and leave them to find their way hither ; he would lead 

 them himself; and if I am not wofully mistaken, he is 

 now coming fast on the traces of Mecham, or follow- 

 ing up Peel's Channel by the southern coast of Albert 

 Land. 



" We are not yet afloat every blast does mischief 

 and if we go on at the present rate, we shall blast a canal 

 towards Beechey Island before we get her a foot ahead ! 

 I am against 'powder ; but it is so frequently intimated 



