1854.] 



FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



91 



Science are at least of equal value to a nation's welfare ; that tliey 

 have at least an equal claim upon her gratitude, and I am sure that 

 they stand in no less need of encouragement and support. 



Nor have I any fear that the studj' of Science should ever become too 

 exclusive, that is, should make us too material, that it should overgrow 

 and smother those more ethical, more elevating influences whicli are 

 supposed to grow from the pursuit of Literature and Art. 



In the first place, the demands of Science upon the patient and 

 laborious exercise of thought are too heavj-, too severe, to make it 

 likely that it should ever become the favorite study of the many. In 

 Art and Literature, the mind of the student is often comparatively 

 passive, in a state of almost passive cnjoj-ment of the banquet prepared 

 for him by others ; in those of Science the student must work hard for 

 his intellectual fare. He cannot throw up his oars. 



And let his little bark, .attendant sail, 

 Pursue tlie triumph and partake the gale, 



but he must tug at the oar himself, and take his full share in the 

 labour by which his progress is to bo made. 



Nor, indeed, when I read the works of a AVhcwell, and a Herschel, 

 and a Brewster, a Hugh Miller, or a Sedgwick, and a huudi'cd others 

 the glory of oiu' daj's, can I see any reasoii for apprehending that the 

 study of Science deprives the mind of imagination, the style of grace 

 and beauty, or the character of its moral and religious tone, its eleva- 

 tion and refinement. 



And, now, ladies and gentlemen, I have done. Once more assuming 

 for a moment the character of a representative of this great town, I 

 welcome you, the British Association, a second time to Liverpool. It is 

 right that you and Liverpool should have frequent meetings, and should 

 cultivate an intimate acquaintance. There is no place which cau do 

 more for science if she pleases; none has opportunities so extensive of 

 becoming, by her ships and commercial agencies, by her enterprising 

 spirit and connexion with every soil and climate, the missionary of 

 science, — perhaps I should rather say, the importer of the raw material 

 of facts and observations, — the exporter of the manufactured results 

 arising from their scientific discussion. Ther? is no town which owes 

 more to science. Without science cau her vessels stir without danger 

 oat of sight of land, or walk the waters independent of wind or tide ? 

 AVithout science would they have docks to shelter them, railroads to 

 bring their produce to their docks, telegraphs to announce their move- 

 ments, manufactures to freight them to distant lands? I do not 

 believe that Liverpool is insensible to her obligations. This magnificent 

 reception is one evidence of the feeling, — but a still better is to bo 

 found in her liberal support to such institutions as the Public Libr.a- 

 rics and Museums, as her Collegiate Institution, and above all, to her 

 magnificent Observatory. 



Again I welcome the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science to the walls of Liverpool, fully assured as I am of the great 

 benefits, direct and indirect, which their presence will confer upon the 

 town, and of the deep sense which, I know the inhabitants entertain 

 of the Iionour conferred upon them by this repeated visit. 



Faf c of -Sir Joint Fmiikliii. 



nn. bae's letter to sir george simpson. 



York Factory, 4th August, 1854. 



Mv Dear Sir CiEORGe, — Your several lettcs, public and private, 

 of dates 15th .lune, and 1st December, 1853, and loth and lUth .luno, 

 1854. were handed mo on the 28tli ultimo, on my reaching Churchill, 

 and I rejoiced to learn tliat your health had benefited so much by 

 your visit to the north. 



Let me now allude to the Expedition affairs, I arrived here on the 3Ist 

 ult. with my sm.all party, in excellent health, but I am sorry to say 

 without having effected our object. At the same time, information 

 hag been obtained and articles purchased from the natives, which 

 places the fate of a portion, if not all of the then survivors of Sir 

 John Franklin's miserable party beyond a doubt — a fate the most de- 

 plorable — Death from starvation, after having had recourse to 

 cannibalism as a means of prolonging life. 



I reached my old quarters at Repulse Bay. on the 15th August, and 

 preparations were immediately commenceit for wintering. On the 1st 

 September I explained to the men our po.-^iti'ui. tlic stock of pro^^sions 



we had on hand, (not more than 3 months rations), and the prospects 

 we had of getting more, &c., &c., pointing out all the danger and 

 difficulty of our position. All readily volunteered to remain, and our 

 exertions to collect food and fuel went on witli unabated energy. By 

 the end of September, 100 deer, 4 musk ox, 53 brace of Ptarmigan, 

 and one seal had been shot, and the nets produced 190 salmon. 



Of the larger animals above enumerated, 49 deer and the musk ox 

 were shot by myself, 21 deer by Mistegan, (the deer hunter), 14 by 

 one of the men, 9 by Ouligbuck and 10 by the other four men. The 

 migration of the deer terminated about the midcUe of October, and 25 

 animals were added to our stock. 



On the 28th of October, the snow being sufiieiontly hard for building, 

 we were happy to exchange om- cold tents for the more comfortaljle 

 shelter of the snowhoxtses. The winter was very severe, but the 

 temperature in our snow-huts was never so low as in my winter 

 quarters of 1846-7. Up to the' 12th January we had nets set under 

 the ice in the lakes, the nets were taken up on that date as they 

 produced nothing. 



On tlio 31st of JIarch my spring journey commenced, but in conse- 

 quence of gales of winds, deep and soft suow, and foggy weather, we 

 made but very little progress. We did not enter Pelly Bay until the 

 17th. At this place we met with Esquimaux, one of whom, on being 

 asked if he ever saw white people, replied in tlie negative, Ijut said 

 that a large party, (at least 40 persons) had perished from want of 

 food, some 10 or 12 days' journej- to the westward. The substance of 

 the information, obtained at various times and from various som-ces, 

 was as follows : — 



In the spring, four winters past, (spring, 1850) a party of white 

 men, amounting to about forty, were seen travelling southward over 

 the ice, and dragging a boat with them, by some Esquimaux who 

 were killing seals on the north shore of King William's Land, which ia 

 a large island named Kei-ik-tak, by the Esquimaux. None of the 

 party could speak the native language intelligibly, but. by signs the 

 natives were made to understand that their ships or ship had been 

 crushed by ice, and that the " whites" were now going to where they 

 expected to find deer to shoot. From the appearance of the men, all 

 of whom, except one officer, (chief), looked thin, tliey were then supposed 

 to be getting short of provisions, and they pm-chascd a small seal from 

 the natives. 



At a later date, the same season, but previous to the disruption of 

 the ice, the bodies of about thirty white persons were discovered on 

 the continent, and five on an island near it, about a long days' journey, 

 (say 35 or 40 miles) to tlie N. W. of a large stream, which can be no 

 other tlian Back's Great Fish River, (named by the Esquimaux, Out- 

 koo-hi-ca-lik), as its description, and that of the low shore in the 

 neighbourhood of Point Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with 

 that of Sir George Back. Some of tlie bodies had been buried, 

 (probably those of the first victims of famine), some were in a tent or 

 tents, others under a boat that had been turned over to form a shelter, 

 and several lay scattered about in different directions. Of those 

 found on an island one was supposed to be an officer, as he had a tele- 

 scope strapped over his slioiildcr and his double-ban-elled gun lay 

 luidcrneath him. 



From the mutilated state of many of the corpses, and the contents 

 of the kettles, it is evident that our miserable countrymen had been 

 driven to the last resource — cannibalism — as a means of prolonging 

 Ufe. 



There appears to have been an abundant stock of ammunition, as the 

 powder was emptied in a heap on the ground by the natives, out of the 

 kegs or cases containing it, and a qimntity of ball and shot was 

 found below high water mark, having licen left on the ice close to the 

 beach. There must have been a number of watches, telescopes, com- 

 passes, guns, (several double-barrelled) &c., all of which appear to 

 have been broken up, as I saw pieces of these different articles with 

 the Esquimaux, and together with some silver spoons and forks, 

 purchased as many as I could obtain. .\ list of the most important of 

 these I inclose, with a rough pen-and-ink-sketch of the events, and 

 initials on the forks and spoons. The articles themselves shall bo 

 handed over to the Secretary of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company 

 on my arrival in London. 



None of tlie Esquimaux with whom I couvcrsed bad seen the 

 " whites," nor had they ever been at the phicc where the dead were 

 found, but liad their information from those who liad been there, and 

 those who had seen the party wlicn alive. 



