MACCLUUE, SIR ROBERT. 



MA.CCULLOCH, DR. JOHN. 



Paris and London polyglots, but no ancient Latin version exists. Its 

 canonical authority has been maintained by some of the fathers and 

 by the Greek church ; but the Western churches have never received 

 it. Its historical value is but small. 



4. The Fourth Book of Maccabees contains an account of the mar- 

 tyrdom of Eleazar and the Seven Brethren (2 Mace, vi., vii.), and of 

 the attempt of Heliodorus to plunder the Temple. (2 Mace, iii.)' It 

 is found in Greek in the Alexandrian and Vatican manuscripts, and in 

 some editions of the Septuagint. It is generally supposed to be the 

 same as the treatise of Josephus, 'De Maccabaeis," or 'De Imperio 

 Rationis.' It is praised as a composition by Jerome and Augustine, 

 but it has never been received into the canon. 



5. The Fifth Book of the Maccabees only exists in Arabic and Syriac. 

 Calmet supposes it to have been written in Hebrew, and thence trans- 

 lated into Greek. It extends from the attempt of Heliodorus to 

 plunder the Temple to within a few years of the birth of Christ. It 

 must have been written after the taking of Jerusalem by Titus, for it 

 refers to that event (chaps, ix. and xxi.) The author is unknown. 

 Some suppose it to have been compiled from the acts of the successive 

 high-priests. 



(The Five Books of the Sfaccabeei, by Henry Cotton, D.C.L., Oxford, 

 1832; Calmet's Dictionary and JJiaertatimi ; the Introductions of 

 De Wette, Eichhorn, Bertholdt, and Jahn.) 



* MACCLURE, SIR ROBERT JOHN LE MESURIER, Knight, 

 Captain R.N., was born January 28, 1807, in the town of Wexford, 

 Ireland. His f.itber was Captain MacClure of the 89th regiment, who 

 served with General Abercrombie in Egypt, and who died four months 

 after his marriage with the daughter of Archdeacon Elgee, rector of one 

 of the parishes of Wexford. General Le Mesurier, hereditary Governor 

 of the Isle of Aldemey, having been an intimate friend of the late 

 Captain MucClura, became godfather to the posthumous child, and 

 having then no children of his own, undertook to educate and provide 

 tor him. After remaining four years with his mother at the residence 

 of his maternal grandfather, Robert MacClure was removed to the 

 house of General Le Mesurier, where he remained till he was twelve 

 years of age. The wife of General Le Mesurier, after having been 

 childless upwards of twenty years, gave birth to three sons in sus- 

 cession. The general however did not neglect his godson. He sent 

 him to Eton College, and thence to the Royal Military College, 

 Sandhurst. From Sandhurst however Kobert MacClnre, with three 

 other youths, deserted, and went to France, and General Le Mesurier, 

 finding that he preferred the naval profession to the military, 

 obtained for him the appointment of a midshipman on board Nelson's 

 old ehip the Victory. He afterwards served on board the Hastings, 

 74, on the Home Station ; in the Niagara, on the Lakes of Canada ; 

 and in the Pilot, on the coast of North America and the West 

 Indies. 



In 1836, Robert MacClure having served six years as a mate, and 

 passed bis examination for the rank of lieutenant, volunteered to join 

 the exploring expedition tinder Captain Back, then about to sail for 

 the Arctic Seas. This expedition left England June 14, 1836, and 

 reached Lough Swilly on the north coast of Ireland, on its return, 

 September 3, 1837. Mr. MacClure was then promoted to a lieutenancy, 

 and appointed to the Hastings, which W.IR to convey Lord Durham 

 to Canada. He had for some time the superintendence of the dock- 

 yard of Quebec. He was afterwards appointed to the Hastings 

 receiving ship at Havanna on the coast of Cuba, where he remained 

 till l4fj. He was subsequently employed in the Coast-Guard. In 

 1848 he volunteered to accompany Sir James Ross in his expedition 

 in search of Sir John Franklin and his crew, and was then made first 

 lieutenant. That expedition ret sail June 12, 1848, and reached 

 England on iU return in November 1849. Lieutenant MacClure 

 was then promoted to the rank of commander. 



The Board of Admiralty having resolved to send out another expe- 

 dition, consisting of two ships, in search of Sir John Franklin, Captain 

 Collineon, the senior officer, was appointed to the command of the 

 Enterprise, and Captain MacClure to that of the Investigator. The 

 two commanders were directed to pass through Behring's Strait, and 

 then endeavour to reach Melville Island by sailing in a direction east 

 iiinl north. The two ships tailed from Plymouth January 20, 1850, 

 provisioned for three years. They were parted by a gale in the Straits 

 of Miigalhaens, and never met again. Captain Collinson reached the 

 Sandwich Islands, and left them a few days before Captain MacClure 

 arrived there. Tho Enterprise was so much impeded by ice and 

 f&gs as to be unable to get to Behring'i Strait, and Captain Collinsou 

 was obliged to go to Hong-Kong to pass the winter. Captain Mac 

 Clure left the Sandwich Islands July 4, 1850, passed through the 

 Aleutian Islands July 20th, and on the 27th of July had got through 

 liehring's Strait into Kotzebue Sound. Meantime Captain Kellett, in 

 the Herald, had passed through Bebring's Strait with instructions for 

 Captain Collinson, and not having met with him was returning south- 

 ward when he saw the Investigator off Cape Lisburne sailing in the 

 opposite direction. Captain Kellett was the chief officer on that 

 station, and deeming the attempt to proceed farther with a single 

 ship too hazardous, directed the Investigator to return ; but Captain 

 MacClure, taking the responsibility upon himself, resolved to proceed 

 forward. 



On the 5th of August the Investigator rounded Point Barrow, on 



the 10th passed the mouth of the Colville, and on the llth reached 

 Jones's Island. Struggling on through narrow bauds of water between 

 the pack-ice and the coast, the Investigator passed the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie River on the 21st of August, and Cape Bathurst on the 1st 

 of September. Continuing his course eastward iu shallow water, 

 Captain MacClure reached the small islands off Capo Parry on the 

 6th, and then changing his course to about north by east, on the 7th 

 was off the southern end of Baring's Island (as Captain MacClure 

 afterwards named it), a bold headland rising perpendicularly to the 

 height of more than 1000 feet. The pack-ice was resting against the 

 west side, but the eastern side was comparatively clear of ice. 

 Captain MacCluro therefore, steering north-eastward, on the 9th 

 discovered the west side of a country which he named Prince Albert's 

 Land, there being a passage between it and the east side of Baring's 

 Island, which he named Prince of Wales's Strait. Sailing up this 

 strait, which has a general direction south-south-west and north-north- 

 east, the Investigator from the llth to the 30th of September was 

 beset with ice in such quantities as several times to have narrowly 

 escaped destruction. The ship was at last frozen in on September 30th, 

 in 72 50' N. lat., 118" 42' W. long., not far from the northern 

 extremity of the strait, and there remained during the winter. 

 Captain MacClure went out with au exploring party, and ascertained 

 that Prince of Wales's Strait opened into Barrow's Strait, on the 

 southern shore of which the party pitched their tent in 73 31' Jf. lat., 

 114 39' W. long. The northern entrance to the strait has been 

 named Investigator Sound. Here then was the first discovery of a 

 North- West Passage. The north-western coast of Baring Island was 

 explored in the spring, and found to bu the land seen by Captain 

 Parry, and by him named Banks' Land. On the 14th of July 1851, 

 the ice opened without pressure, and the Investigator was again 

 afloat. Great exertions were made to pass into Barrow's Strait, but 

 after many fruitless attempts, on the 15th of August strong winds 

 from the north-east driving large masses of ice before them, not only 

 arrested the progress of the Investigator, but drove her back. Thus 

 baffled, Captain MacClure resolved to retrace his course southward, 

 and then, rounding the southern eud of Baring's Island and keeping 

 near the coast, endeavour to make his passage northward along the 

 western side of the island. After escaping many dangers, and sur- 

 mounting obstacles which only the most scientific and practical sea- 

 manship combined with invincible resolution could have surmounted, 

 the Investigator was navigated into Barrow's Strait, and found at last 

 a haven of refuge, which was named Mercy Bay, where in the night 

 of the 24th of September 1851, sha was frozen up, in 74 6' N. lat., 

 317 54' W. long., on the north-western shore of Baring's Island, with 

 Barrow's Strait in front and Melville Island opposite. The discovery 

 of a second North-West Passage was thus accomplished. In April 

 1852, a party crossed over the ice of Barrow's Strait to Melville 

 Island, and there deposited a document giving au account of Captain 

 MacClure's proceedings and of the position of the Investigator. The 

 ice did not break up in the summer of 1852. Provisions becoming 

 scarce, and the health of the crew giving way, Captain MacClure, on 

 the 30th of March 1853, as the only chance of escaping death, told 

 off the crew into two sledge parties, one to proceed northward to 

 Melville Island, and thence eastward to Beechy Island, and the other 

 southward towards the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Meantime 

 Captain Kellett, in the Resolute, had reached Melville Island from 

 the Atlantic, had found the document deposited there in April 1852, 

 and as soon as it was practicable, in April 1853, despatched a sledge- 

 party to Mercy Bay with provisions and comforts, under Lieutenant 

 Pirn, who was himself the first to meet Captain MacClure on the ice 

 not far from the ship. Part of the crew returned to England with 

 Captain Kellett, but Captain MacClure with a few of them remained 

 with the Investigator, which, however continued frozen up, and they 

 returned to England in 1853 with the expedition under Captain Sir 

 Edward Belcher. 



Captain MacClure, after his return, received the honour of knight- 

 hood, aud a reward of 5000/. for his discovery of the North-West 

 Passage, which had been sought for in vain during three centuries by 

 other nations as well as by Great Britain. 



MACCULLOCH, DR. JOHN, was born in Guernsey on the 6th of 

 October 1773. He was descended from an ancient Scottish family, the 

 MacCullochs of Nether Ardwall, in Kirkcudbrightshire, a younger 

 branch of the MacCullochs of Myretown. He was the third sou of 

 James MacCullocli, Esq., and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas de Lisle, 

 Esq., one of the jurats of the royal court of Guernsey. In his child- 

 hood John MacCulloch was thoughtful, aud foud of being alone. He 

 taught himself to write, and wrote Latin exercises at au age when 

 many children have barely acquired a knowledge of the alphabet. 

 His family having removed to Cornwall, the first school John Mac- 

 Culloch was sent to was the grammar-school at Plympton. He was 

 afterwards removed to one at Penzauca; and thence, in 1787, to the 

 grammar-school at Lostwithiel, where he remained three years. 



In 1790 he went to prosecute his medical studies at Edinburgh, 

 where he obtained his diploma of physician, at the age of eighteen. 

 He subsequently entered the artillery as assistant-surgeon, and ou the 

 5th of April 1803 accepted the situation of chemist to the Board of 

 Orduance. In 1807 he resided at Blackheath, where he practised as 

 .1 physician. Hia application while pursuing his studies at Edinburgh 



