viii PREFACE, 



days of Franklin, has fallen to tlie share of 

 his noble-minded widow. 



Lady Franklin has, indeed, well shown what 

 a devoted and true-hearted Englishwoman can 

 accomplish. The moment that relics of the 

 expedition commanded by her husband were 

 brought home (in 1854) by Eae, and that she 

 heard of the account given to him by the Esqui- 

 maux of a large party of Englishmen having been 

 seen struggling with diflSculties on the ice near 

 the mouth of the Back or G-reat Fish River, 

 she resolved to expend all her available means 

 (already much exhausted in four other' inde- 

 pendent expeditions) in an exploration of the 

 limited area to which the search must thence- 

 forward be necessarily restricted. 



Whilst the supporters of Lady Franklin's 

 efforts were of opinion, that the Grovernment 

 ought to have undertaken a search, the extent 

 of which was, for the first time, definitely 

 limited, it is but rendering justice to the then 

 Prime Minister* to state, that he had every 

 desire to carry out the wishes of the men of 

 science t who appealed to him, and that he was 



* Viscount Palmerston. 



t See the Memorial (Appendix) addressed to the First Lord of 

 the Treasury, headed by Admiral Sir F. Beaufort, General Sabine, 

 and many other men of science, and which, as President of the Royal 



