THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



The veil that so long concealed from our view the fate of Sir John 

 Franklin and others of our gallant countrymen engaged in the arduous 

 and hazardous task of exploring the Polar Seas, has been suddenly and 

 unexpectedly lifted, presenting a spectacle painfully distressing. 



On Sunday last, October 22nd, Dr. Rae, of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, arrived in England from the Arctic regions, where he had 

 been deputed to the survey of the western coast of Boothia, and in the 

 prosecution of this engagement, became possessed of the melancholy 

 facts recorded below. 



The following is Dr. Rae's Report to the Secretary of the Admiralty : 



•' Repulse Bay, July 29. 



" Sir, — I have the honour to mention, for the information of my 

 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that during my journey over 

 the ice and snow this spring, with the view of completing the survey 

 of the west shore of Boothia, I met with Esquimaux in Pelly Bay, from 

 one of whom I learned that a party of * white men, ' (Kablounans) had 

 perished from want of food some distance to the westward, and not far 

 beyond a large river, containing many falls and rapids. Subsequently, 

 further particulars were received, and a number of articles purchased, 

 which places the fate of a portion, if not of all of the then survivors of 

 Sir John Franklin's long-lost party, beyond a doubt — a fate as terrible 

 as the imagination can conceive. 



*' The substance of the information obtained at various times and 

 from various sources, was as follows : 



"In the spring, four winters past (spring 1850), a party of 'white 

 men,' amounting to about forty, were seen travelling southward over the 

 ice, and dragging a boat with them, by some Esquimaux, who were 

 killing seals near the north shore of King William's Land, which is 

 a large island. None of the party could speak the Esquimaux language 

 intelligibly, but by signs the party were made to understand that their 

 ship, or ships, had been crushed by ice, and that they were now going 

 to where they expected to find deer to shoot. From the appearance of 



