RAE'S EXPEDITION— 18^QA7. 397 



reached America, Simpson had been laid in the same prairie grave with his 

 victims or enemies, Legros and Bird. For some years after the startling 

 and melancholy death of Simpson, the project of completing the survey of 

 the north coast of America was held in abeyance, but in the spring of 1845, 

 when England was fitting out the " Erebus " and " Terror " for another great 

 effort to discover a North- West Passage, the directors of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company determined to resume the survey of the north shores of British 

 America ; and Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Company's 

 territories, offered the command of an expedition, to be organised with this 

 object, to Dr John Rae, then one of the traders in the Company's service. 

 Dr Eae gladly accepted the appointment, and the importance of his numer- 

 ous discoveries, both in this and in a subsequent expedition when he brought 

 home the first authentic intelligence of the fate of Franklin and his com- 

 panions, is the best evidence of his qualifications for the post. 



The new expedition, consisting of thirteen persons, including two 

 Eskimo interpreters, was to set out from Churchill, one of the Company's 

 stations about 200 miles north-north-west of York Factory on Hudson's Bay, 

 and was to proceed north in two boats along the west shore of the great 

 bay, and up Rowe's Welcome to Eepulse Bay. Thence they were to cross 

 over the isthmus connecting Melville Peninsula with the mainland .(which, 

 according to the Eskimo story told to Parry, was no more than a three days' 

 march), and, meeting the sea at the other side of the isthmus, were to track 

 the coast round to the east until they should connect their discoveries with 

 those of Dease and Simpson or of the Rosses. If Boothia should prove an 

 island, Rae, it was expected, would be able to follow round the coast east- 

 ward to Castor and Pollux River of Dease and Simpson ; if it should prove 

 a part of the mainland, on the other hand, it was hoped he would be able 

 to track the coast round to some point which had been visited by the Rosses 

 in the "Victory" in 1829-33, and thus complete the survey of the west 

 shores of Prince Regent Inlet. 



In October 1845 Rae had reached York Factory from the interior of the 

 Hudson Bay territories. He had experienced some difficulty in getting 

 volunteers, as a belief had got abroad that he and all his party, if they 

 escaped starvation from the scarcity of food in the region to which they 

 were bound, were certain to be frozen to death from scarcity of fuel. This 

 might be considered another instance of the alternative, " out of the frying- 

 pan into the fire," if the ideas of "frying-pans " and " fires " were not so 

 foreign to the subject and the situation. After the commencement of 

 October progress along the coast within the Arctic circle is hardly to be 

 hoped for, " nevertheless the boats that had been built for the expedition 

 were launched and put in order for sea. They were fine-looking, strong, 

 clinker-built craft, 22 feet long by 7 feet 6 inches broad, each capable of 



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