2 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 



that my friend and former companion, Doctor 

 Richardson, had already made an application to 

 the same effect ; but that his offer, for various 

 reasons, not having been accepted, he had, 

 in consequence, as I was given to under- 

 stand, relinquished the idea. I was further in- 

 formed, however, by Mr. Beverly, who had been 

 the companion of Sir E. Parry in his perilous 

 journey over the ice from Spitzbergen towards 

 the Pole, that Mr. Ross (brother of Sir John, and 

 father of Captain James Ross) was anxious to find 

 an officer properly qualified to undertake the 

 conduct of a party through America, on the 

 plan proposed by Doctor Richardson ; which, 

 not having been adopted by the Government, 

 had been presented for consideration to other 

 quarters. 



I proceeded, therefore, without loss of time 

 to Mr. Ross, who read to me a petition which 

 he was about to send to the King, praying his 

 Majesty's gracious sanction to the immediate 

 despatch of an expedition for rescuing, or at least 

 ascertaining the fate of, his son and brother ; and 

 my name being forthwith inserted as the proposed 

 leader of the expedition, this petition was for- 

 warded through Lord Goderich, then Secretary 

 for the Colonies. The interval before an answer 

 could be returned was employed in collecting 



