li INSTRUCTIONS AND DEPARTURE. Chap I. 



passage, wliicli, if Dr. Rae's report be true (and the 

 Government of our country has accepted and rewarded 

 it as such), these martyrs in a noble cause achieved at 

 their last extremity, after five long years of labour and 

 suffering, if not at an earlier period. 



I am siu-e you will do all that man can do for the 

 attainment of all these objects; my only fear is that 

 you may spend yourselves too much in the effort ; and 

 you must therefore let me tell you how much dearer 

 to me even than any of them is the preservation of the 

 valuable lives of the little band of heroes who are your 

 companions and followers. 



• May God in his great mercy preserve you all from 

 harm amidst the laboiu's and perils which await you, 

 and restore you to us in health and safety as well as 

 honour! As to the honour I can have no misgiving. 

 It will be yours as much if you fail (since you may faU 

 in spite of every effort) as if you succeed; and be 

 assured that, under any and all circumstances whatever, 

 such is my unbounded confidence in you, you will pos- 

 sess and be entitled to the enduring gratitude of your 

 sincere and attached friend, 



Jane Franklin. 



We were not destined to get to sea tliat 

 evening. The ' Fox,' hitherto during her brief 

 career, accustomed only to the restraint im- 

 posed upon a gilded pet in summer seas, seemed 

 to have got an inkling that her duty henceforth 

 was to combat with diflSculties, and, entering 

 fully into the spirit of the cruize, answered her 

 helm so much more readily tlian the pilot ex- 



