INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 



statue to his honour, which now occupies the site of the old 

 Government House. 



Within a year of his return from Tasmania, Franklin left 

 England for the last time (May 19, 1845), m command of 

 the expedition which Government had, after much delibera- 

 tion, resolved upon for the completion of the discovery of 

 the North-West Passage. 



This was, perhaps, the proudest moment of Franklin's 

 life. He would not solicit the appointment, deeming it due 

 to his own long career of arctic experience that it should 

 be tendered to him if younger men had not the preference ; 

 but when sent for by the First Lord of the Admiralty, and 

 offered the command, in terms which showed that his former 

 laurels were still fresh in remembrance, he felt a proud 

 satisfaction which compensated him for many previous 

 trials. 



For his guidance in this momentous undertaking, Franklin 

 had Parry's and Ross's charts and narratives, and his own 

 Admiralty Instructions : but the charts, compared with those 

 which subsequent explorations have filled with well-defined 

 coast-lines, were little more than sheets of blank paper 

 particularly in that direction to which his efforts were to be 

 mainly directed. 1 He had to launch into the wide unknown 

 space, and find his way as best he might. His Admiralty 

 Instructions could aid him but little; suggested mainly 

 by himself, they were the result of the united deliberations 

 of the most eminent men who had already distinguished 

 themselves in earlier explorations, or who had made the 

 subject a field of earnest and careful study : amongst 

 the latter the late Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the 

 Admiralty, was the most conspicuous. 



1 See the sketch-map in Preface, at page ix. 



C 



