﻿30 INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE ADMIRALTY. 1848. 



munication will be made to the Hudson's Bay Company 

 to ascertain the most expeditious route to forward your 

 rccal. 



" We consider it scarcely necessary to furnish you with 

 any instructions contingent on a successful search after 

 the above-mentioned expedition, or any parties belonging 

 to it. The circumstances of the case, and your own local 

 knowledge and experience, will best point out the means 

 to be adopted for the speedy transmission to this country 

 of intelligence to the above effect, as well as of aiding 

 and directing in the return of any such parties to 

 England. 



" We are only anxious that the search so laudably 

 undertaken by you and your colleagues should not be 

 unnecessarily or hazardously prolonged ; and whilst we 

 are confident that no pains or labour will be spared in the 

 execution of this service, we fear lest the zeal and anxiety 

 of the party so employed may carry them further than 

 would be otherwise prudent. 



" It is on this account you are to understand that your 

 search is not to be prolonged after the winter of 1849, 

 and which will be past on the Great Slave Lake ; but 

 that, at the earliest practicable moment after the breaking 

 up of the weather in the spring of 1850, you will take 

 such steps for the return of the party under your orders 

 to England as circumstances may render expedient. 



" It must be supposed that the instructions now af- 

 forded you can scarcely meet every contingency that may 

 arise out of a service of the above description ; but re- 

 posing, as we do, the utmost confidence in your discretion 

 and judgment, you are not only at liberty to deviate from 

 any point of them that may seem at variance with the 

 objects of the expedition, but you are further empowered 



