363 



THE POLAR WORLD, 



Davis's Straits, after having entered the Polar Ocean at the Strait of Bering. 

 He had, however, been preceded by Lieutenant Cresswell and Mr. Wynniat, 

 who, on an excursion to Beechey Island in the summer of 1858, had there met 

 with and joined the " Phoenix," Captain Inglefield, who, accompanied by his 

 friend Lieutenant Bellot, had conveyed provisions to Sir E. Belcher's squadron, 

 and was about to return to England. During this expedition Bellot, whose 

 many excellent qualities had made him a universal favorite, was unfortunately 

 drowned by a fall into an ice-crevice during a sledge excursion. A stone monu- 

 ment erected before Greenwich Hospital reminds England of the gallant volun- 

 teer whose name is gloriously linked with that of Franklin in Arctic history. 



Years had thus passed without bringing any tidings of the " Erebus " and 

 " Terror " since the discovery of their first winter-quarters, until at last, in the 

 spring of 1854, Dr. Rae, of the Hudson's Bay Company, while engaged in the 

 survey of the Boothian isthmus, fell in with a party of Esquimaux, who infor^n- 

 ed him that in the spring of 1850 some of their countrymen on King William's 

 Island had seen a party of white men making their way to the mainland. None 

 of them could speak the Esquimaux language intelligibly, but by signs they 

 gave them to understand that their ships had been crushed by ice, and that 

 they were now going to where they expected to find deer to shoot. At a 

 later date of the same season, but before the breaking up of the ice, the bodies 

 of some thirty men were discovered on the continent a day's journey from 

 Back's Great Fish River, and five on a^ island near it. Some of the bodies 

 had been buried (probably those of the first victims of famine), some were in a 

 tent, others under the boat which had been turned over to form a shelter, and 

 several lay scattered about in different directions. Of those found on the island, 

 one was supposed to have been an officer, as he had a telescope strapped over 

 his shoulder, and his double-barrelled gun lay underneath him. The mutilated 

 condition of several of the corpses and the contents of the kettles left no doubt 

 that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last resource of canni- 

 balism, as a means of prolonging existence. Some silver spoons and forks, a 

 round silver plate, engraved " Sir John Fi'anklin, K.C.B.," a star or order, with 

 the motto, " ISTec aspera terrent," which Dr. Rae purchased of the Esquimaux, 

 corroborated the truth of their narrative. 



Thus it was now known how part of the unfortunate mariners had perished, 

 but the fate of the expedition was still enveloped in mystery. What had be- 

 come of the ships and of the greater part of their crews ? And was Franklin 

 one of the party seen by the Esquimaux, or had an earlier death shortened his 

 sufferings ? 



To solve at least this mournful secret — for every hope that he might still 

 be alive had long since vanished — his noble widow resolved to spend all her 

 available means — since Government would no longer prosecute the search— 

 and with the assistance of her friends, but mostly at her own expense, fitted 

 out a small screw steamer, the " Fox," which the gallant M'Clintock, already 

 distinguished in perilous Polar voyages, volunteered to command. Another 

 Arctic officer. Lieutenant Hobson, likewise came forward to serve Avithout pay. 



At first it seemed as if all the elements had conspired against the success of 



