PREFACE. 



XV 



of America, with which the sea wherein he was 

 interred had a direct communication, was the 

 first real discoverer of the North -West Passage. 

 This great fact must therefore be inscribed upon 

 the monument of Franklin. 



The adventurous M'Clure, who has been 

 worthily honoured for working out another 

 North- Western passage, which we now know 

 to have been of subsequent date,* as well as 

 Collinson, who, taking the 'Enterprise' along 

 the north coast of America, and afterwards 

 bringing her home, reached with sledges the 

 western edge of the area recently laid open 

 by M'Olintock, will I have no doubt unite with 

 their Arctic associates, Kichardson, Sherard 

 Osborn, and M'Clintock, in affirming, that 

 " Franklin and his followers secured the honour 

 for which they died — that of being the first 

 discoverers of the North-West Passage." f 



* In 1850. 



t See a most heart-stirring sketch of the last voyage of Sir John 

 Franklin by Captain Sherard Osborn, in the periodical Once a 

 Week, of the 22nd and 29th October and 5th November last. Pos- 

 sessing a thorough acquaintance with the Arctic regions, this dis- 

 tinguished seaman has shown more than his ordinary power of 

 description, in pkcing before the public his conception of what may 

 have been the chief occurrences in the voyage of the ' Erebus ' and 

 ' Terror,' and the last days of Franklin, as founded upon an acquaint- 

 ance with the character of the chief and his associates, and the 

 record and relics obtained by M'Clintock. This sketch is pre- 

 faced by a spirited and graceful outline of all previous geographical 

 discoveries, from the day when they were originated by tlie father 



