INTRODUCTION. 



The discoveries made by the Expedition to the Xorth-west in the 

 years 1819-20, being such as to afford a strong presumption in favour of 

 the existence of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific in that direc- 

 tion, while they served also to point out the most probable means of its 

 accomplishment. His INIajesty, on the representation of Lord "S'iscount 

 Melville, commanded another attempt to be made to effect that object ; 

 and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were pleased once 

 more to honour me with the command of an Expedition, to be ecjuipped 

 at Deptford for that pui-pose. The Hecla having been found well 

 adapted to this service, a second ship of precisely the same class was 

 now selected, and I received my conunission for His Majesty's ship the 

 Fury, of three hundred and seventy-seven tons burthen, on the 30th 

 of December 1820. The Hecla was re-commissioned by Captain 

 George Francis Lyon, on the 4th of January following. 



The officers who accompanied the former Expeditions having volun- 

 teered their services, their Lordships Avere pleased to re-appoint such 

 as the present estabUshment would admit. The same preference was 

 likewise given to such of the former crews as were considered fit for 

 this service ; and a great number of other seamen also coming forward 

 to enter, the ships were speedily well manned. The Reverend George 

 Fisher, who had accompanied the Expedition to Sj^itzbergen in 1818, 

 was now, at the recommendation of the President and Council of the 

 Eoyal Society, appointed Astronomer ; and it being in every respect 

 desirable that a Chaplain should form a part of our establishment. 



