SEABCH FOB FRANKLIN. 221 



these he had acquired a reputation for daring and en- 

 durance, tempered with a sagacity and consideration foi 

 the lives of those under his charge, which made his name 

 even then a household word in the service. 



No one who has read the thrilling history of his retreat 

 on the second of these expeditions, across the wastes 

 which extend to the east of the Coppermine Eiver, can 

 doubt that, in this new field, every effort of which 

 humanity is capable would be made to win the goal, 

 and when that was no longer possible, to save the rem- 

 nants of his crew. 



And, above all, he was a sincere and earnest Christian. 

 " He had a cheerful buoyancy of mind, which, sustained 

 by religious principles of a depth known only to his most 

 intimate friends, was not depressed in the most gloomy 

 times." So writes Richardson, who knew him well, and 

 who, " during upwards of twenty-five years, had his 

 entire confidence, and in times of great difficulty and 

 distress, whea all conventional disguise was out of the 

 question, beheld his calmness and unaffected piety." 



With such a leader, the prospect of success seemed 

 doubly bright, and officers and men were alike sanguine 

 of a speedy and triumphant issue. The letters received 

 from them from the coast of Greenland spoke in the 

 warmest language of then* admiration of their commander, 

 and their happiness in serving under him. And Franklin's 

 own last utterance, as he sailed away into the night 

 which, for him and them, was never more to know a 

 dawn, was one of strong reliance on the hand of Him 



