96 PROPOSED ARCTIC EXPEDITION. [June 23, 1856. 



" * I am really in doubt as to the preservation of human life. I well know 

 how glad I would have been, had my duty to others permitted me, to have 

 taken refuge among the Esquimaux of Smith Strait and Etah Bay. Strange 

 as it may seem to you, we regarded the coarse life of these people with eyes of 

 envy, and did not doubt but that we could have lived in comfort upon their 

 resources. It required all my powers, moral and physical, to prevent my men 

 from deserting to the Walrus Settlements, and it was my final intention to 

 have taken to Esquimaux life, had Providence not carried us through in our 

 hazardous escape.' 



" But, passing from speculation, and confining ourselves alone to the question 

 of finding the missing ships or their records, we would observe that no land 

 expedition down the Back Kiver, like that which, with great difficulty, re- 

 cently reached Montreal Island, can satisfactorily accomplish the end we have 

 in view. The frail birch-bark canoes in which Mr. Anderson conducted his 

 search with so much ability, the dangers of the river, the sterile nature of the 

 track near its embouchure, and the necessary failure of provisions, prevented 

 the commencement even of such a search as can alone be satisfactorily and tho- 

 roughly accomplished by the crew of a man-of-war, to say nothing of the 

 moral influence of a strong armed party remaining in the vicinity of the spot 

 until the confidence of the natives be obtained. 



" Many Arctic explorers, independent of those whose names are appended, 

 and who are now absent on service, have expressed their belief that there are 

 several routes by which a screw vessel could so closely approach the area in 

 question, as to clear up all doubt. 



" In respect to one of these courses, or that by Behring Strait, along the coast 

 of North America, we know that a single sailing vessel passed to Cambridge 

 Bay, within 150 miles of the mouth of the Back Kiver, and returned home 

 unscathed ; its commander having expressed his conviction that the passage in 

 question is so constantly open, that ships can navigate it without difficulty in 

 one season. Other routes, whether by Regent Inlet, Peel Sound, or across 

 from Repulse Bay, are preferred by officers whose experience in Arctic matters 

 entitles them to every consideration ; whilst, in reference to two of these 

 routes, it is right to state that vast quantities of provisions have been left in 

 their vicinity. 



" Without venturing to suggest which of these plans should be adopted, we 

 earnestly beg your Lordship to sanction without delay such an expedition as, 

 in the judgment of a committee of Arctic voyagers and geographers, may be 

 considered best adapted to secure the object. 



" We would ask your Lordship to reflect upon the great difference between, 

 a clearly defined voyage to a narrow and circumscribed area, within which the 

 missing vessels or their remains must lie, and those former necessarily tenta- 

 tive explorations in various directions, the frequent allusions to the difficulty 

 of which, in regions far to the north of the voyage now contemplated, have 

 led the majority of persons, unacquainted v^th geography, to suppose that 

 such a modified and limited attempt as that which we propose involves further 

 risk, and may call for future researches. The very nature of the former expe- 

 ditions exposed them, it is true, to risk, since regions had to be traversed which 

 were totally unknown ; while the search we ask for is to be directed to a cir- 

 cumscribed area, the confines of which have been already reached without dif- 

 ficulty by one of Her Majesty's vessels. 



** Now, inasmuch as France, after repeated fruitless efforts to ascertain the 

 fate of La Perouse, no sooner heard of the discovery of some relics of that 

 eminent navigator than she sent out a searching expedition to collect every 

 fragment pertaining to his vessels, so we trust that those Arctic researches 

 which have reflected much honour upon our country, may not be abandoned at 

 the very moment, when an explanation of the wanderings and fate of our last 

 navigators, seems to be within our grasp. 



