NORTHWARD BOUND. 543 



quently obliged to adopt a course of action for ourselves. One of two courses 

 was left for us to pursue — either to remain at the rendezvous until the 

 arrival of the ' Enterprise,' with the uncertainty of then meeting her owing 

 to the foggy state of the weather, in which case we should lose the first 

 season — or at once to proceed to the northward and enter the ice single- 

 handed. We resolved on the latter, and cheerfully prepared to encounter 

 all obstacles and dangers, with a firm reliance on a merciful Providence, and 

 full confidence in our resources." In adopting this course M'Clure ran 

 directly counter to the letter of the official instructions received from the 

 Admiralty ; but he was not a man to yield a slavish obedience to the home 

 authorities when he felt himself in command of a good ship stored for three 

 years, and with an undiscovered ocean ahead of him. The wonder is, that 

 Captain Kellett, who was the senior officer, did not interfere with M'Clure's 

 freedom of action. He does indeed appear to have mildly remonstrated, but 

 in the feeblest and most ineffectual manner. 



When the " Investigator " stood in to pay a formal visit to Cape Lisburne, 

 the " Herald " — ^although farewells and complimentary messages had been 

 signalled between the ships — still continued to follow astern ; and when, 

 having touched at the cape, M'Clure stood away boldly for the ice toward 

 the north-west, the " Herald " still followed, as if filled with apprehension 

 for the discovery ship. " This did not add to our comfort," writes Arm- 

 strong ; " for it may now be confessed, we still feared that Captain Kellett 

 would detain us, and that, on reflection, he might see the necessity of keeping 

 us at least some days to await the chances of our senior officer's arrival ; 

 but," continues Armstrong, " if the truth must he told, an opposite state of 

 the case was urged upon him. Captain M'Clure maintained (what nobody 

 believed) that the ' Enterprise ' was ahead of us, in support of which view 

 he retained the private letters he had for Captain CoUinson, for early 

 delivery." But the "Enterprise" had never been seen or heard of in the 

 Polar Sea during the whole season, and in point of fact, when the date of 

 her departure from the last port in the Pacific was taken into view, together 

 with the circuitous route she had taken, and her poor qualities- as a 

 sailer, it was clear as day to every one that she could not yet have passed 

 Behring Strait. But Captain M'Clure continued to assure Captain Kellett 

 that the " Enterprise " must have gone ahead, and that therefore the " In- 

 vestigator " ought to follow immediately. As the one gallant captain gave 

 this assurance to the other gallant captain, one can fancy that both of them 

 winked rather hard. Kellett's position was difficult and delicate. He wished 

 and thought it was right to detain the " Investigator ;" yet to stop a discovery 

 ship while the brief summer of the Arctic seas was waning, was to incur a 

 grave responsibility. At last, however, the captain of the " Herald " seemed 

 to have made up his mind, and on the evening of the 31st, he bore straight 



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