260 



FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 



manding officer ; and, as the objects of this expedition 

 have been fully explained to you, and you have already 

 had much experience on service of this nature, we are 

 convinced we cannot do better than leave it to your 

 judgment." 



He was instructed, also, in the event of reaching 

 Behring's Strait, to proceed to the Sandwich Islands 

 and Panama, and to put an officer ashore at the latter 

 place with despatches. 



The ships sailed from the Thames on the 19th of 

 May, 1845. The Erebus and the Terror received the 

 transport's stores, and dismissed her in Davis's Strait, 

 and then had abundant provisions of every kind for 

 three years, besides five bullocks. They were seen by 

 the whaler Prince of Wales, on the 26th of July, moored 

 to an iceberg, waiting for an opening through the long 

 vast body of ice which extends along the middle of Baf- 

 fin's Bay. They were then in latitude 74 48' north, and 

 longitude 66 13' west, not far from the centre of Baffin's 

 Bay, and about two hundred and ten miles from the 

 entrance of Lancaster Sound. 



