LADY FRANKLIN'S INSTRUCTIONS 209 



tion, contributed liberally to the supplies, and sent on 

 board all the arms and ammunition and ice-gear and 

 every instrument that was asked for. 



Lady Franklin's instructions were so characteristic of 

 the noble-hearted woman whose name can never be for- 

 gotten in Arctic story that they must be given in full : 



"ABERDEEN, June 29, 1857. 



" MY DEAR CAPTAIN M'CLINTOCK, 



"You have kindly invited me to give you 

 * Instructions,' but I cannot bring myself to feel that it 

 would be right in me in any way to influence your judg- 

 ment in the conduct of your noble undertaking ; and 

 indeed I have no temptation to do so, since it appears 

 to me that your views are almost identical with those 

 which I had independently formed before I had the 

 advantage of being thoroughly possessed of yours. 

 But had this been otherwise, I trust you would have 

 found me ready to prove the implicit confidence I place 

 in you by yielding my own views to your more en- 

 lightened judgment ; knowing too as I do that your 

 whole heart also is in the cause, even as my own is. As 

 to the objects of the expedition and their relative im- 

 portance, I am sure that you know that the rescue of 

 any possible survivor of the Erebus and Terror would 

 be to me, as it would be to you, the noblest result of 

 our efforts. 



" To this object I wish every other to be subordinate ; 

 and next to it in importance is the recovery of the un- 

 speakably precious documents of the expedition, public 

 and private, and the personal relics of my dear husband 

 and his companions. 



" And lastly, I trust it may be in your power to con- 

 firm, directly or inferentially, the claims of my 



