May 25, 1857.] OBITUARY. 379 



memorial of the lively interest he took in that chivalrous expedi- 

 tion of our old associate, Sir James Brooke. After a preliminary 

 sketch of the preceding wretched condition of Borneo, condensed 

 from the descriptions of Sir Stamford Eaffles, he painted, with the 

 hand of a skilful master and a warm friend, all that the adventurous 

 Irish gentleman was accomplishing. Every old memher of the 

 Ealeigh Club and of this Society, recollecting the deep interest 

 we felt in the successful voyage of the little schooner of the Yacht 

 Club, fitted out by Mr. Brooke, will re-peruse with gratification the 

 lines, which indicated that the young explorer of that day was des- 

 tined to become the Eajah of Sarawak, and to receive not only our 

 gold medal, but his due reward at the hands of his Sovereign. 



Then, in his analysis of Arctic and Antarctic researches, Lord 

 Francis Egerton gave long ago earnest that he was worthy to 

 become our leader. In his review of the narrative of discoveries on 

 the north coast of America, made by the officers of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, in which the enterprising Simpson lost his life, we 

 find him evincing those large views and kindly feelings which led 

 him invariably, in subsequent years, to countenance and support 

 those expeditions in the search after Franklin, which have shed so 

 much lustre upon our country. 



Again, when commenting in 1847 upon the memorable Antarctic 

 discoveries of Sir James Boss and the natural history collections of 

 Dr. J. Hooker, we see how emphatically he dwelt upon the exploits 

 which he anticipated from our Arctic heroes when he penned these 

 lines : — 



" With interest which accumulates by the hour do we watch for 

 the return of those two vessels, which are perhaps even now 

 working their way through Behring Strait into the Pacific. Should 

 the happiness be yet allowed us of witnessing that return, we are 

 of opinion that the Erebus and Terror should be moored hence- 

 forth on either side the Victory, floating monuments of what the 

 Nelsons of discovery can dare and do, at the call of their country in 

 the service of the world." * 



This was one only of the many soul-stirring paragraphs indited 

 by my noble friend on a subject so near to his heart — one on 

 which he never abandoned hope, as proved not only by his signing, 

 with many of us, last year that petition to the Government, which 

 is printed in our Proceedings,t praying for the final search of a 



* Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxxi. p. 167. 



f Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, No. iv., p. 95, June, 1856. 



