Chap. I. INTRODUCTION. 17 



fleets in the Pacific, belonging to the only two 

 naval powers likely to engage in the enterprise 

 under consideration; and to either of whom, it 

 would afford a moral triumph to accomplish what 

 we had begun, but shrunk from completing. This 

 is no chimera. The shortest passage for any of the 

 homeward-bound ships of these two powers now in 

 the Pacific is through the Polar Sea. 



Franklin is now on his voyage, and whether he 

 succeeds in making good the passage or not, no- 

 thing, I am most certain, will be wanting on his 

 part, or on that of his gallant comrades, to accom- 

 plish all that human means and human intellect 

 can command. In the sentiments, with which this 

 brave veteran seaman closes the narrative of his 

 second Polar voyage, I most cordially concur, as I 

 am inclined to think most of those who read it will 

 likewise do : — 



" Arctic discovery has been fostered principally by Great 

 Britain ; and it is a subject of just pride that it has been 

 prosecuted by her from motives as disinterested as they are 

 enlightened ; not from any prospect of immediate benefit to 

 herself, but from a steady view to the acquirement of useful 

 knowledge, and the extension of the bounds of science. 

 Each succeeding attempt has added a step towards the 

 completion of northern geography ; and the contributions to 

 natural history and science have excited a general interest 

 throughout the civilized world. It is, moreover, pleasing 

 to reflect that the loss of life which has occurred in the 

 prosecution of these discoveries does not exceed the ave- 

 rage number of deaths in the same population at home 



c 



