OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS 
-By the Commissioners for executing the Office of 
Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland^ <fc. c^c. 
W HEREAS we have thought fit to appoint you to the command 
of an Expedition, for the purpose of endeavouring to discover a 
North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; you 
are hereby required and directed to put to sea in the Hecla, and, 
in company with the Griper, which, with her commander Lieutenant 
Liddon, has been placed under your orders, make the best of 
your way to the entrance of Davis’ Strait. 
On your arrival in this Strait, your further proceedings must be 
regulated chiefly by the position and extent of the ice ; but, on 
finding it sufficiently open to permit your approach to the western 
shores of the Strait, and your advance to the northward as far as 
