RETURNING TO ENGLAND. Ill 



measure, I addressed a letter to my officers, 1824. 

 requesting tlieir respective opinions on our Sept. 

 situation, without stating my own : and their 

 individual answers advised, ^^ that in conse- 

 quence of our loss of anchors, &c., we should 

 return to England without delay." 



I therefore bore up, after having informed all 

 hands of my plans ; and thus were all our present 

 hopes of discovery and reputation completely 

 overthrown ; our past difficulties of no avail, 

 and our only consolation, that to the latest 

 moment every exertion had been made for 

 the performance of the service on which we 

 had been sent. Individually, I felt most pain- 

 fully the situation in which I was placed, in 

 a ship but ill adapted, in her present over-loaded 

 state, to navigate in these or any other seas, 

 and my only support was in the hope that the 

 strictest investigation might be made into the 

 conduct of myself and those under my com- 

 mand, and that the Lords of the Admiralty 

 would again furnish me forth, and allow me 

 an opportunity of shewing, that the failure of 

 this expedition was not to be attributed to any 

 want of zeal on my part, or of support from my 

 most valuable officers and men. 



