INSTRUCTIONS. 271 



we have thought proper to appoint you to the command of Her Ma- 

 jesty's ship Enterprise, and also to place under your orders Her 

 Majesty's ship Investigator, both of which vessels having been duly 

 fortified against collision with the ice, equipped for the Polar climate 

 by warm-air apparatus, and furnished with provisions for three years, 

 as well as a large supply of extra stores. You are now required and 

 directed, so soon as they are in all respects ready for sea, to proceed 

 to make the best of your way to Cape Virgins, in order to arrive at 

 Behring's Straits in July. 



2. At Cape Virgins, the Commander-in-Chief in the Pacific has been 

 desired to have a steam-vessel waiting for you, and by her you will be 

 towed through the Straits of Magellan, and the Wellington Channel, 

 and on to Valparaiso. 



3. At that port you will iise the utmost dispatch in watering and 

 refreshing your crews, and in fully replenishing your bread and other 

 provisions and stores ; and having so done, you will again use your 

 best exertions to press forward to the Sandwich Islands. 



4. There is only a bare possibility of your reaching those islands in 

 time to meet Her Majesty's ship Herald, under the command of Cap- 

 tain Henry Kellett ; but if that should be the case, you will receive 

 from him, not only every assistance, but much useful information 

 touching your passage to the Strait, and your further proceedings to 

 the northward. It is still more improbable that Her Majesty's ship 

 Plover should be there ; but wherever you may fall in with her, you 

 are hereby directed to take her and Commander Moore under your 

 orders. 



5. At the Sandwich Islands you will find additional orders from us 

 for your guidance, which we propose to forward from hence by the 

 Panama mail of next March ; but if none should arrive, or if they do 

 not in any way modify these directions, you will enforce the greatest 

 diligence in re-victualling your two vessels, in procuring, if possible, 

 the necessary Esquimaux interpreters, and in making all requisite pre- 

 parations for at once proceeding to Behring's Straits, in order to reach 

 the ice before the 1st of August. 



6. An examination of the several orders issued to Captain Kellett 

 will show that it is uncertain where he may be fallen in with. You 

 may probably find the ' Herald' and ' Plover' together. 



7. We consider it essential that after entering the ice there should 

 be a depot, or point of succour, for any party to fall back upon. For 

 this purpose the 'Plover' is to be secured in the most favourable quar- 



