xlvi 



do no such thing, but intended to return home immediately. 

 He was ready to fight to the death in defence of his own country ; 

 but he did not see the sense of invading that of others when they had 

 enough of their own. The commander ordered him to be arrested ; 

 but, to his dismay, no one obeyed the order, and when he threatened 

 them they said they had all agreed with the spokesman, and would go 

 home — and so they did.* 



Captain Sabine's next service was on the Niagara frontier, where 

 he was favourably mentioned in despatches ; and was long the last 

 survivor of the battery, and was privileged to wear the word 

 " Niagara " on dress and appointments. 



He was in command of the batteries at the siege of Fort Erie in 

 1814. 



In the year 1816 he returned to England, and then he first began 

 to direct his attention to terrestrial magnetism and pendulum obser- 

 vations, at the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Browne, 

 F.R.S., 2, Portland Place, to whom he was indebted for first direct- 

 ing his thoughts to these sciences. This house was more or less 

 his home for many years ; there he met frequently Captain Henry 

 Kater, F.R.S., and became attracted forcibly to similar lines of 

 inquiry; and thence he started on his successive expeditions. He 

 had, however, doubtless studied practical astronomy previously, for in 

 1818 his reputation as a skilful observer was such that the President 

 and Council of the Hoyal Society recommended him for the appoint- 

 ment of Astronomer to accompany the Expedition, sent in search of a 

 north-west passage, under Commander (subsequently Sir) John Ross 

 in that year. 



His attention, however, was not solely directed to physics, for his 

 report on the biological results of the expedition appeared in vol. 12 

 of the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society,' and it embraced twenty- 

 four species of birds of Greenland, of which four were new to the 

 list, and one, the Larus Sabini, described by his brother Joseph, entirely 

 new. 



On his return Sabine was not long allowed to be idle, for on the 

 equipment of a second expedition in 1819, under Lieutenant- Com- 

 mander (subsequently Sir Edward) Parry, he was again selected to 

 accompany it. 



Parry, in the introduction to his Journal, published 1821, acknow- 

 ledges Sabine's labours in these terms : — 



"The various observations made on board the 1 Hecla' during the 

 voyage, have been carefully collected into tables, on the model of those 

 of Wales and Bayly, by Captain Sabine, to whom I am indebted for 

 the arrangement of nearly the whole of the Appendix, and for the 



* Captain Sabine learned these details afterwards in New York from some of the 

 officers present. 



