1823.] of the Expedition under Capt. Parry. 171 



these brave men are rendering in order that her honour may be 

 promoted. Moreover, though it ought not to be doubted that 

 every thing relating to this expedition has been considered with 

 the calmest and most mature deliberation, yet we have seen 

 expeditions sent out, the calculations of which had for their basis, 

 not the probabilities of failure, but the bare possibilities of 

 success. Now success carries with it, or creates, its own 

 resources, and may well be left to itself. I may remark too 

 that, every other circumstance apart, the situation of Capt. Parry 

 is one unprecedented in the history of this country. It may 

 well, therefore, justify a degree of provident care that might 

 otherwise be accounted excessive. On the former expedition 

 difficulties were met with that had not been anticipated, and 

 in all undertakings of this sort, events occur which no judg- 

 ment can forecast. It is to prevent or to remedy misfortune, 

 then, that precautions are to be taken ; and the plan to be adopted 

 almost suggests itself. 



Let dispatches be forthwith sent to the Governors of Canada 

 and Hudson's Bay, and to the North- West Company, directing 

 them to equip different parties of natives to go in search by the 

 Copper Mine River, Mackenzie's River, and such other routes 

 as may be thought expedient. Let them take out plentiful sup- 

 plies of all kinds. Let the richest rewards be secured to them in 

 case of success, and to their families (by way of encouragement) 

 in case of disaster befalling them. The tribes who accompanied 

 Hearne think little of travelling to the mouth of the Copper 

 Mine River, and the esquimaux evidently migrate even beyond 

 Lancaster Sound. Let each expedition (and we would forward 

 twenty, if requisite) be accompanied, if thought proper, by one 

 or two adventurous individuals from this country as a check to 

 ensure their fidelity. The danger to them under the guidance 

 of natives would be nothing. Such expeditions might be 

 effected with ease and certainty in the course of one short spring 

 or summer. Capt. Parry himself when discussing the subject 

 of a north-west passage, expressly anticipates " the chance of 

 being enabled to send information by means of the natives, and 

 the comparative facility with which the lives of the people might 

 be saved in case of serious and irreparable accidents to the 

 ships." (Journal, p. 298.) 



The object being simply to search and obtain news, not to 

 survey (and this is of some consequence), a great extent of 

 ground may be gone over, and first rate scientific men are not 

 required. Not an instrument need to be taken out, excepting, 

 perhaps, a quadrant, or pocket compass, to determine latitudes 

 and courses. Repeated expeditions have of late years proceeded 

 to the mouth of Mackenzie's River and the Copper Mine River 

 in pursuit of less worthy objects. 



Where too would be the harm of ordering out, this very spring, 



