GALLANT RESOLVE. 435 



mainder with the hope of extricating the vessel during 

 the summer of 1853 ; or, failing that, to proceed with 

 sledges in 1854 by Port Leopold, our provisions admit- 

 ting of no other arrangement. 



" Although we had already been twelve months upon 

 two thirds allowance, it was necessary to make prepara- 

 tions for meeting eighteen months more ; a very severe 

 deprivation and constitutional test, but one which the 

 service we were employed upon called for, the vessel 

 being as sound as the day she entered the ice ; it wouM, 

 therefore, be discreditable to desert her in 1853, when 

 a favorable season would run her through the straits 

 and admit of reaching England in safety, where the 

 successful achievement of the long-sought-for and almost 

 hopeless discovery of the north-west passage would 

 be received with a satisfaction that would amply com- 

 pensate for the sacrifices made and hardships endured 

 in its most trying and tedious accomplishment. This 

 statement was well received, and its execution will, I 

 hope, be carried out without difficulty.' 3 



It is due to Captain M'Clure to reproduce one passage 

 in the dispatch which he had prepared to send home 

 with the land parties he was about to forward in the 

 spring of 1853. 



"Should any of her majesty's ships be sent for our 

 relief, and we have quitted Port Leopold, a notice, con- 

 taining information of our route, will be left on the door 

 of the house at Whalers' Point, or on some conspicuous 

 position. If, however, no intimation should be found 

 of our having been there, it may at once be surmised 

 that some fatal catastrophe has happened, either from 

 our being carried into the Polar Sea, or smashed in Bar- 

 row's Strait, and no survivors left. If such be the case, 

 which, however, I will not anticipate, it will then 

 be quite unnecessary to penetrate further to the west- 



