ch. xxvi] The Franklin Expedition 
247 
they supposed. Much had to be left behind. The boat's 
cooking apparatus, shovel, pickaxe, canvas, blankets, 
even Hornby's sextant, a dip circle, the doctor's medicine 
chest, and a pile of warm clothing were left, the latter 
making a heap four feet high. 
Even thus lightened the boats were still much too 
heavy. Many of the men dropped and died; Crozier 
probably succumbed early at the cape which now bears 
his name, where a grave was found. A few reached Todd 
Island with one boat. The other had been left, full of 
a great variety of things, near Cape Crozier. The sur- 
vivors crossed the strait and reached the bay formed 
by the long promontory ending at Cape Richardson. 
A few wandered inland. All perished. When the ice 
loosened the Erebus sank. The Terror was drifted on to 
the American coast, and ransacked by the Eskimos. Then 
a gale drove her off the rocks into deep water, and she 
too sank. 
A veil should be drawn over the last struggles of 
brave men fighting cold, disease, and hunger. One likes 
to think that Captain Fitzjames, the chivalrous, the 
sympathetic, the dauntless leader, was perhaps the last, — 
that he tended them all and saw them all depart before 
him ; and that then 
His soul to him who gave it rose 
God led it to its long repose 
Its glorious rest. 
And though Fitzjames's sun has set 
Its light shall linger round us yet 
Bright, radiant, blest. 
