332 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



stancy and perseverance in situations the most arduous, the 

 most distressing, and sometimes the most hopeless that can 

 befall human beings ; and it furnishes a beautiful example 

 of the triumph of mental and moral energy over mere brute 

 strength, in the simple fact, that out of fifteen individuals 

 enured from their birth to cold, fatigue, and hunger, no less 

 than ten (native landsmen) were so subdued by the aggra- 

 vation of those evils to which they had been habituated, as 

 to give themselves up to indifference, insubordination, and 

 despair, and finally, to sink down and die ; whilst of five 

 British seamen, unaccustomed to the severity of the climate, 

 and the hardships attending it, one only fell, and that one 

 by the murderous hand of an assassin. A light buoyant 

 heart, a confidence in their own powers, supported by a firm 

 reliance on a merciful Providence, never once forsook them, 

 nor suffered the approach of despondency, but brought them 

 safely through such misery and distress as rarely, if ever, 

 have been surmounted." 



The five persons mentioned were Captain John 

 (now Sir John) Franklin, at this time commanding 

 an expedition, not for attempting the discovery of 

 a North- West Passage, but to supply the means of 

 facilitating one, and to extend the geography of a 

 part of the Polar regions very little known ; Doctor 

 Richardson, a naval surgeon, now Medical Inspec- 

 tor of the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar; " To 

 Doctor Richardson, in particular/' Sir John says, 

 " the exclusive merit is due of whatever collections 

 and observations have been made in the department 

 of natural history ; and 1 am indebted to him in no 

 small degree for his friendly advice and assistance 

 in the preparation of the present Narrative. The 



