44 CAPTAIN M'CLURE's DESPATCHES. 



we should haye quitted Port Leopold, a uotice, containing information 

 of our route, will be left at the door of the house on Whaler's Point, or 

 on some conspicuous position ; if, however, on the contrary, no intima- 

 tion should be found of our havino; been there, it mav be at once sur- 

 niised that some fatal catastrophe has happened, either from being 

 carried into the Polar Sea, or smashed in Barrow's Straits, and no 

 survivors left. If such should be the case, which, however, I will not 

 anticii)ate, it will then be quite unnecessary to penetrate farther to the 

 westward for our relief, as by the period tliat any vessel could reach that 

 })ort, we must, from want of provisions, all have perished ; in such a 

 case I would submit that the officer may be directed to return, and by 

 no means incur the danger of losing other lives in quest of those who 

 will then be no more. As, however, it may occur (as was the case with 

 Sir John Ross) that the ice may not break up in Prince Regent's Inlet 

 during the whole summer, it is as well to provide against such a contin- 

 gency. If such should hap})en, it would be necessary to winter at 

 Port Leopold, unless apprised of the locality of any ship that might 

 be sent for our relief, which, I think, might be accomplished without 

 nny very great difficulty, as, although such vessel may not be enabled to 

 get for up the Straits, yet, as Admiralty Inlet Avould be pretty certain 

 of being clear of ice, she might proceed thither, and in some secure 

 bay freeze in ; and, when the Straits were firmly frozen over, about the 

 middle of October, a small travelling party could he despatched with 

 the intelligence ; the whole would then proceed to her, and although 

 rather late in the season, men working for their lives are not likelv to 

 be discouraged bv a little cold. 



Whatever may be the final termination of this long, tedious, but, I 

 hope, not unimportant voyage, I beg, sir, that you will assure their 

 Lordships, that in every stage I have been guided entirely by what I 

 have considered to be my duty in prosecuting to the utmost the object 

 for which the expedition was fitted out ; and, altliough we have not 

 succeeded in obtainins; any information which could throw the sli";htest 

 clue upon the fate of our missing countrymen, I hope that the services 

 performed in the tracing a very great extent of coast line, the discovery 

 of much new land — a portion inhabited by a sim})le and primitive 

 people not hitherto known — and, above all, the accurate knowledge of 

 that passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans which, for so many 

 hundred years, has baffled maritime Europe — ^its very existence being 

 almost considered sceptical — will be considered events sufficiently inter- 

 esting and important to elicit from their Lordships a favourable con- 

 sideration of our services. 



I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your most obedient humble Servant, 



ROiiERT M'CLURE, Commander. 



