Chap. III. CAPTAIN DAVID BUCHAN. 61 



suspected ; but there was another reason, as we 

 learn from Captain Beechey. " Captain Buchan 

 abstained from publishing his own journal from 

 a feeling that the matter it contained was not of 

 sufficient interest to engage the attention of the 

 general reader;" and Beechey further says, " I 

 regret also that my immediate commander, Sir 

 John Franklin, has not had leisure to attend to 

 the publication of a voyage in which he bore 

 so conspicuous a part." He too, it may be sus- 

 pected, declined from a feeling of delicacy, so 

 long as the commander of the expedition was 

 living, and might consider the time gone by after 

 his death. Lieutenant Beechey having preserved 

 materials for arranging into the shape of a journal 

 at some future time, and having put them in order, 

 submitted it to Captain Buchan, who returned it 

 with this observation : — That " all the most pro- 

 minent features of the expedition were brought 

 forward in perfect accordance with his views :" and 

 he adds, — " My only regret in not having published 

 the proceedings of our attempt to reach the Pole, 

 is the privation of making the public acquainted 

 with my entire approbation of the conduct of the 

 officers and seamen I had the honour to com- 

 mand." 



What delayed the appearance of the narrative of 

 a voyage made in 1818, to the year 1843, Captain 

 Beechey does not say ; it could not be diffidence of 



