INTRODUCTION. 
The discovery of a north- vrest passage to the Pacific had for some 
years occupied the attention of the British government and of the 
public at large, and several brilliant attempts had been made both by 
sea and by land to ascertain the practicability of its navigation, which, 
though conducted with a zeal and perseverance that will transmit them 
to the latest posterity, had, from insurmountable difficulties, failed of 
success. 
In 1824, His late Majesty having commanded that another attempt 
should be made by way of Prince Kegent’s Inlet, an expedition was 
equipped — the last that sailed upon this interesting service — and the 
command again conferred upon Captain Parry, whose exploits have so 
deservedly earned him the approbation of his country. At the same 
time Captain Franklin, undaunted by his former perilous expedition, 
and by the magnitude of the contemplated undertaking, having, with 
the promptness and perseverance peculiar to his character, proposed to 
connect his brilliant discoveries at the mouth of the Coppermine River 
with the furthest known point on the western side of America, by 
descending the Mackenzie River, and, with the assistance of his intrepid 
associate. Hr. Richardson, by coasting the northern shore in opposite 
directions towards the two previously discovered points. His late Ma- 
jesty was also pleased to command that this expedition should be simul- 
taneously undertaken. 
From the nature of these services it was nearly impossible that 
either of these expeditions could arrive at the open sea in Beering’s 
Strait, without having nearly, if not wholly, exhausted their resources; 
