viii PREFACE. 



heard of the account given to him by the Esquimaux of 

 a large party of Englishmen having been seen struggling 

 with difficulties on the ice near the mouth of the Back 

 or Great Fish River, she resolved to expend all her available 

 means (already much exhausted in four other independent 

 expeditions) in an exploration of the limited area to which 

 the search must thenceforward be necessarily restricted. 



Whilst the supporters of Lady Franklin's efforts were of 

 opinion that the Government ought to have undertaken 

 a search, the extent of which was, for the first time, defi- 

 nitely limited, it is but rendering justice to the then Prime 

 Minister 1 to state that he had every desire to carry out the 

 wishes of the men of science 2 who appealed to him, and that 

 he was precluded from acceding to their petition by nothing 

 but the strongly expressed opinion of official authorities, 

 that after so many failures the Government were no longer 

 justified in sending out more brave men to encounter fresh 

 dangers in a cause which was viewed as hopeless. Hence 

 it devolved on Lady Franklin and her friends to be the 

 sole means of endeavouring to bring to light the true history 

 of her husband's voyage and fate. 



Looking to the list of Naval worthies who, during the 

 preceding years> had been exploring the Arctic Regions, 

 Lady Franklin was highly gratified when she obtained the 

 willing services of Captain M'Clintock to command the 



1 Viscount Palmerston. 



2 See the Memorial (Appendix) [First Edition] addressed to the First 

 Lord of the Treasury, headed by Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, General 

 Sabine, and many other men of science, and which, as President of the 

 Royal Geographical Society, I presented to the Prime Minister; and 

 also the speech of Lord Wrottesley, the President of the Royal Society, 

 who, in the absence of the lamented Earl of Ellesmere, brought the 

 subject earnestly under the notice of the House of Lords on the 18th of 

 July, 1856. 



