CAPTAIN BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION— \%^^-^Z. 323 



CHAPTER V. 



OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION — AN INDIAN ENCAMPMENT — DISCOVERY OF GREAT 

 FISH RIVER — OLD FRIENDS — A PECULIAR LANDSCAPE— THE PLAGUE OF SAND- 

 PLIES — FORT RELIANCE ESTABLISHED — "RAISING THE DEVIL " — EXTREME 

 SUFFERING OF INDIANS. 



It is now well known that the casualties which take place on vessels engaged 

 in Arctic exploration are not greater in number — due precautions being ob- 

 served — than those which occur in other departments of the naval service. But 

 this fact had not been demonstrated forty years ago, and the prolonged absence 

 of Captain Eoss from 1829 to 1833 gave rise to the greatest uneasiness 

 throughout the country. At that time it was believed that no Englishman could 

 possibly survive the rigours of four successive Arctic winters. Indeed, the 

 general opinion in England with respect to the adventurers in the " Victory " 

 was that they must have perished during the winter of 1831. In 1832, the 

 probability, or rather the certainty, of their dreadful fate was the subject of 

 general and anxious conversation not only in England, but throughout the 

 Continent. England has always regarded the career of her great seamen 

 with the utmost solicitude, and if in this instance the country had been 

 mournfully forced to the conclusion that the explorers of the " Victory " 

 had perished, we may form some idea of the anxiety that must have been 

 felt by the friends and relatives of the missing men. Of these relatives, Mr 

 George Eoss, brother of the captain of the " Victory," and father of Com- 

 mander Eoss, the first officer, had a twofold interest in ascertaining the fate 

 of the explorers. 



Among naval men, and especially among those who had some experience 

 of Arctic navigation, the feeling of anxiety for Eoss and his companions, 

 and the desire to rescue them, or at least ascertain the conditions under 

 which they were compelled to succumb, were universal. Dr Eichardson, the 

 loyal friend and comrade of Franklin, made an application to Government, 

 ofiering his services as leader of a search expedition. His ofier, however, 

 was declined. Captain George Back, whose fortunes we have already 

 followed as mate in the " Trent," under FrankUn, and as the companion of 

 that great explorer in his first and second land expeditions, heard, while in 

 Italy in the spring of 1832, a report to the effect that Eoss and his com- 



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