I 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
were well devised; but peculiar drawbacks seemed 
to attend their efforts, and before the beginning of 
1850 they had all abandoned the search, almost with- 
out attaining the first threshold of inquiry. 
Their failure aroused every where the generous 
sympathies of men. Science felt for its votaries, hu- 
manity mourned its fellows, and an impulse, holier 
and more energetic than either, invoked a crusade 
of rescue. That admirable woman, the wife of Sir 
John Franklin, not content with stimulating the re- 
newed efforts of her own countrymen, claimed the 
co-operation of the world. In letters to the President 
of the United States, full of the eloquence of feeling, 
she called on us, as a " kindred people, to join heart 
and hand in the enterprise of snatching the lost navi- 
gators from a dreary grave." 
The delays incident to much of our national legis- 
lation menaced the defeat of her appeal. The bill 
making appropriations for the outfit of an expedition 
lingered on its passage, and the season for commenc- 
ing operations had nearly gone by. At this juncture, 
a noble-spirited merchant of New York, of whom as 
an American and a man I can hardly trust myself to 
speak, fitted out two of his own vessels, and proffered 
them gratuitously to the government. Thus prompt- 
ed by the munificent liberality of Mr. Grinnell, Con- 
gress hastened to take the expedition under its charge, 
\ and authorized the president to detail from the navy 
such necessary officers and seamen as might be will- 
ing to engage in it. 
Though I accompanied this expedition as its sen- 
ior medical officer, I had no claim to be considered 
as its historian. Such a province belonged strictly to 
our commander; but he having declined making any 
