xxii OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS. 



ice, when you are to take the first favourable opportunity of clearing 

 the Nautilus Transport of the provisions and stores she is charged with 

 for the Fury and Hecla ; and having so done you are to send the said 

 transport back to England, so as to prevent her incurring any risk of 

 receiving injury amongst the ice, reporting by that opportunity your 

 proceedings to our Secretary for our information. 



After having so cleared and despatched the Transport you are, with the 

 two ships of His Majesty under your orders, to penetrate to the westward 

 through Hudson's Strait, until you reach, either in Kepulse Bay or on 

 other part of the shores of Hudson's Bay, to the north of Wager River, 

 some part of the coast wliich you may feel convinced to be a portion of 

 the Continent of America. You are then to keep along the line of this 

 coast to the northward, always examining every bend or inlet which 

 may appear to you likely to afford a practicable passage to the westward, 

 in which direction it is the principal object of your voyage to endea- 

 vour to find your way from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean. 



In the event of your having consumed the open weather in the exa- 

 mination of the northern boundaries of Hudson's or Cumberland's 

 Straits, and of your having, at the close of the season, returned into 

 Davis' Strait or Baffin's Bay; or if you should have made no consider- 

 able progress to the westward or northward in any inlet you may have 

 found, it will be for you to consider, under all the circumstances of 

 the case, whether it may not be expedient that you should return to 

 England to replenish, refit, and refresh, rather than winter on a part 

 of the coast which you might reach again next season as early as 

 would be necessary for prosecuting your further inquiries. The judg- 

 ment Avhich you have she^\u in the conduct of the late Expedition 

 and the experience wliich you have acquired, induce us to trust this 



