x\i Preliminary Chapter. 



''rescue" is the key to the Second also, geographical discovery being 

 but a subordinate motive. Hall's first voyage had been rewarded by 

 discoverv, and he was thus stimulated to return to the North. But up 

 to the time of his preparations for the North Polar Expedition in 1870, 

 there was probably no day in \yhiili liis thoughts were not upon 

 Franklin's men and King William's Land ; and even then his expecta- 

 tion was to resume the search on his return from the Pole. For this 

 problem only he declined Lady Franklin's proposal that he should go 

 «.ut a tldrd time for the Records of the Expedition. 



The following Letter on this subject, written on her receiving in 

 is/):) a newspaper account of some of Hall's Arctic work, shows her 

 impartial judgment and her confidence also in his character and plans. 

 In this connection it will be remembered that Lady Franklin, after 

 being compelled on McClintock's return to abandon the lingering hope 

 of her husband's safety, still held her thoughts on the recovery of the 

 Records as the clue to the history of his last years and as establishing 

 the claim that he was the discoverer of the Northwest Passage. The 

 in(piiries which she here makes of Hall were answered by his letter 

 of a later date, and are met in full by the statements in Chapter XIII 

 ot tliis Narrative. 



