CONFIDENCE IN THE CREW 123 



heard every day, I was certain that these necessary 

 incentives were present ; although, as far as most of the 

 men were concerned, our object was still the protracted 

 one of drifting for years in the Arctic ice. The ex- 

 tension of the plan the far more imminent battle with 

 the ice-floes of the South was still undreamt of by the 

 majority of the ship's company. I considered it neces- 

 sary to keep it to myself for a little while yet until 

 our departure from the port w r e were now making for: 

 Funchal, Madeira. It may possibly appear to many 

 people that I was running a pretty big risk in thus put- 

 ting off till the last moment the duty of informing my 

 comrades of the very considerable detour we were to 

 make. Suppose some, or perhaps all, of them had 

 objected! It must be admitted that it was a big risk, 

 but there were so many risks that had to be taken at 

 that time. 



However, as I got to know each man during these 

 first few weeks of our long voyage, I soon arrived at the 

 conviction that there was nobody on board the Fram 

 who would try to put difficulties in the way. On the 

 contrary, I had more and more reason to hope that they 

 would all receive the news with joy when they heard it; 

 for then their whole prospect would be so different. 

 Everything had gone with surprising ease up to this 

 time; in future it would go even better. 



It was not without a certain longing that I looked 

 forward to our arrival at Madeira : it would be grand to 



