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SIR JOHN FRANKLIN

~TrTff-(^^.w^^.'

PRINTED BV

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE

LONDON

THE LIFE

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, R.N

By H. D. TRAILL

AI/THOR OF 'the NEW LUCIAN' ' WILLIAM III' ' THE MARQUIS OF SALISUURY '
' LORD STRAFFORD ' ETC.

With Maps, Portraits, and Facsimiles

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1896

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PREFACE

Thk exploits of Sir John Franklin are written so
large across the map of the Arctic Ocean and its
coasts; the circumstances of his tragic end have
rendered his name and achievements familiar to so
many Englishmen not otherwise specially conversant
with the subject of Polar exploration ; the story oi his
voyages and discoveries has so often been related as
a part of the general history of English adventure,
that the appearance of this biography, nearly half a
century after his death, may seem to require a few
explanatory words.

It has been felt by his surviving relatives, as it
was felt by his devoted wife and widow, that to the
records, ample and appreciative as many of them have
been, of the career of the explorer there needed the
addition of some personal memoir of the man. What
Franklin did may be sufficiently well known to his
countrymen already. What he was— how kindly and
affectionate, how modest and magnanimous, how loyal
in his friendships, how faithful in his allegiance to

if f.

^3R

[6] LIFK OF SIR JOHN KlfANKIJX

duty, how dcc'pJy and unaffectedly religious — has
never been and never could be known to any but
his intimates. Hut that knowledge ought not to be
confined to them. The character of such men as
Franklin is^ in truth, as much a national possession
as their fame and work. Its influence may be as
potent and its example as inspiring ; and it has been
felt by those responsible for the production of this
volume that some attempt should at last be made to
present it to his fellow-countrymen.

It was the long-cherished desire of Miss Sophia
Cracroft, niece of Sir John Franklin, and constant
and attached companion of Lady Franklin, to perform
this labour of love herself, and it supplied the animat-
ing motive of her unwearied industry in collecting
the mass of documents hitherto unpublished which
have been employed in the p''eparation of this work.
Failing health and almost total loss of sight, however,
prevented the accomplishment of her purpose, and
eventually her executors, Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Austen
Lefroy, have entrusted the work to the present writer.

Both to them and to him it is a source of much
satisfaction that this Biography should issue from the
house of Mr. John Murray, whose father was the
publisher of Franklin's two Narratives of his Arctic
Explorations and the personal friend of their author
and Lady Franklin, and who has himself taken a
warm interest in the present undertaking.

In dealing with Franklin's achievements as an

niKi'ACE [7J

explorer aini)lc assistance was accessible; to me in
already published works. The story of iiis first two
Arctic expeditions — Lhi; former a tale of unexampled
toil and sufferings heroically endured — has been told
with admirable clearness, simplicity, and modesty by
Franklin himself. In i860, after the return of the
Fox from her famous and successful voyage, the
late Admiral Sherard Osborn, himself an active and
distinguished member of one of the earlier search
expeditions, published a little volume of a hundred
pages, entitled * The Career, Last Voyage, and Fate
of Franklin,' containing a condensed but masterly
sketch of his hero's earlier discoveries and a most
graphic and moving descrij:)tion of his last ill-starred
adventure. The particulars of Sir Leopold McClin-
tock's search for and discovery of the sole extant
record of the crews of the Erebus and Terror
have been gathered from that gallant officer's pain-
fully interesting narrative of his voyage. L, still
more important and indeed invaluable help has been
derived by me from the able and exhaustive mono-
graph on Franklin contributed to the ' World's Great
Explorers ' series by Admiral A. H. Markham,
himself an Arctic officer of distinction, whose ready
kindness, moreover, in advising me on an obscure
point in the history of Franklin's closing hours and
in perusing the proofs of the chapters dealing with
his last expedition I desire most gratefully to acknow-
ledge.

■^

I- I

[8] LIFE OF SIR JOHN FEAXKLIX

Nor can I close this record of my obligations
without expressing my tl^anks to Miss Jessie Lefroy
for such a lightening of my labours by the methodical
arrangement of documents as only those who have
suffered from the lack of such assistance in examin-
ing and digesting voluminous masses of manuscript
material can fully appreciate.

H. D. T.

London, 1895.

•1 I

n !

CONTENTS

I. Eari.v Vkars Afloat, 1786-1807 .
II. Service in Two Hemispheres, 1807-1815

III. The Dorothea and the Trent, 1815 -1818

IV. First Arctic Expedition, 1818 1821
V. The Fight with Famine, 1821 1822

VI. Husband and Widower, 1822-1S25 .
VII. Second Arctic Expedition, 1825-1827
VIII. Three Years of Repose, 1827-1830 .
IX. A Mediterranean Command, 1830 -1833

X. Before Patras, 1832- 1S34

XI. Lady Franklin's Travels, 1831 1833 .
XII. Unwelcome Leisure, 1834-1S36
XIII. A New Appointment, 1836 ....

\1\'. Tasmania, 1836- 1842

XV. The Colonial Governor, 1836 1S42

XVI. Tasmanian Incidents, 1842

XVII. Franklin and Montagu, 1841-1844
XVIII. Franklin and Downing .Street, 1842 1844
XIX. .\ Return to the Sea, 1844 .

3'
49
66

84
107

138
156

176

195
211

229
241
257
271
288
307
323

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CONTENTS

CHAI'TBB

XX. The Last Voyage, 1845.

XXI. 'Towards no Earthly Pole,' 1845-1848

XXII, The Searches for the Lost, 1848-1854

XXIII. The 'Record' found, 1854-1859 .

XXIV. A Devoted Widowhood, 1859-1875 .
XXV. Character and Career, 1786-1847

Index

PACE

377
397
4'7
428

446

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Sir John Franklin, from a drawing by

^'=^"''" • • •, • • . . . . Frontispiece

Map CO ::'ustrate Franklin's Overland Journey . to face p. 66

Facsimile Pages of Sir John Franklin's Note-
book; .....

,,104

Portrait of Lady Franklin from a drawing by Mile.

I^°™'y • • ,,138

Facsimile of Last Record of H.M.S. Erebus and

-^^^^ - r ,,363

General Map of North America, to illustrate Frank-
lin's Explorations at end

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LIFE

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT
I 786- I 807

The name of Franklin has none of that obscurity of origin
which sometimes perplexes a biographer at the very threshold
of his work. Its blood and history unmistakably proclaim
themselves. The ' franklin ' was the old English freeholder —
the man who held direct of the Crown, and was frank, or free
from any services to a feudal lord. He was, in fact, the original
type of the small independent country squire, and so con-
tinued to be until, at any rate, the time of Chaucer, whose
delightful description of the * Frankeleyn ' pilgrim in the
Prologue to the ' Canterbury Tales ' distinctly stamps him as of
this rank. By Shakespeare's day, however, it is clear that his
status had somewhat declined. More than one reference to a
'franklin' and a 'franklin's wife' in the Shakespearian drama
shows clearly enough that the word no longer designated any
one of sufficient importance to have it written of him that * at
sessions ther was he lord and sire ; ' still less that ' ful ofte
tyme he was knight of the schire.' We may take it as cer-
tain, in fact, that before the Elizabethan period the title of
'franklin' had become identified with the order of well-to-
do substantial yeomen ; and though by that time of course
the process of converting the description of men's rank or
calling into their surnames had long since completed itself,

I ^1

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E\RLY YEARS AFLOAT

CH. I.

there were in continuing existence, no doubt, many English
families whose surname still represented their status. There
were still Franklins by name who had originally been franklins
by position. The famous American statesman and natural
philosopher claimed descent from ' a family which had been
settled for four centuries at Ecton, in Northan' ptonshire ; '
and it was from this same sturdy order of Englishmen, for
many an age the pillar of the country's prosperity in peace
and its right arm in war, that John Franklin, the fam.ous
Arctic explorer, sprang.

The family nad been East Anglian from as far back as it
was possible to trace it. A sister of John Franklin's, who had
been at pains to investigate its history, states that her forbears
came originally from the county of Norfolk. Her inquiries
were not successful enough to enable her to fix the period of
migration, but there is evidence dating from the early years
of the eighteenth century that the family was at that time
settled at Sibsey, near Boston, in Lincolnshire, on an estate
which had even then been in their possession for several
generations. The wealthier yeomanry of those flourishing
times took rank almost as a small local squirearchy, whose
members were not always among the most provident of men ;
and at least two generations of the Sibsey Franklins seem to
have lived up to this position with an only too dramatic
success. The family tradition, at any rate, is, that John
Franklin, the grandfather of the explorer, following paternal
example, so greatly reduced the ancestral patrimony as
to leave little more at his death than ' a moderate sub-
sistence for his widow ; ' and, forced to rebuild their fortunes,
the Franklins passed, as many a good English house has
done before and since, from the ranks of the country gentry
into those of trade. John Franklin's widow, 'a woman,'
writes one of her descendants, 'of masculine capacity and
great resolution of character/ rose to the occasion. She
apprenticed her eldest son Willingham to a grocer and
draper in Lincoln, and as soon as he was out of his inden-
tures removed with him to the market town of Spilsby, where
she opened a little shop, and, 'not content with acting as

1786

BIRTH

housekeeper for her son, superintended the business in every
department which admitted of female supervision with the
utmost activity and success.' Thanks to hei assistance and
to his own energy, Willingham prospered in his trade, added
to it in due time a banking business, married the daughter ot
a substantial farmer in 1773, and, six years later, had accu-
mulated sufficient capital to acquire the freehold of his house
and shop in the town, and tc purchase a small property a few
miles off as a place of retreat for his old age. It was in the
house at Spilsby, on April 15, 1786, that John Franklin first
saw the light.

He was the fifth and youngest son and the ninth child of
a patriarchal family of twelve. The second and third of his
four elder brothers (the fourth died in infancy) rose, like
himself, to distinction in the public service. Willingham
Franklin, the second son, who was seven years John's senior,
was sent to Westminster and Oxford, becoming scholar of
Corpus, and afterwards Fellow of Oriel. He was called to the
Bar from the Inner Temple, and was in 1822 appointed
Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court at Madras, where, two
years later, his career was prematurely cut short by chole.a.
James Franklin, the 1:hird son, entered the East India
Company's service as a cadet in 1805, served with credit in
the Pindari war, and singled himself out as an officer of
considerable scientific attainments. He was employed on
important Indian surveys, and after his retirement from the
service was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died
in 1834 at the age of fifty-one.

Of Franklin's seven sisters, two died unmarried : one of
them in comparatively early years, the other, Miss Elizabeth
Franklin, at an advanced age. Of the five married sisters,
two also died before attaining their thirtieth year. Sarah
Franklin, the younger of them, had become the wife of
Mr. Selwood, and was the mother of the two ladies who
married two brothers of a name destined to become illustrious
throughout the English-speaking world, and the younger of
whom still survives as the Dowager Lady Termyson, widow
of the late Poet Laureate.

f!l

■J

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

oil. I.

A third sister, Hannah, married Mr. John Booth, and
their daughter Mary became the wife of Franklin's staunch
comrade and friend, Sir John Richardson.

It was, perhaps, with his sister Isabella, the sixth
daughter of the family, that John Franklin was the most
closely linked in after life. She married Mr. Thomas
Robert Cracroft, and it is to the pious labours of her daughter
Miss Sophia Cracroft, seconding and prolonging those of
Lady Franklin, whose devoted friend a-^d lifelong com-
panion she was, that I am indebted for the copious materials
on which this memoir is based.

Henrietta, the youngest daughter, married the Rev.
Richard Wright, and died some ten years ago in extreme old
age, leaving a son, the present Canon Wright, Rector of
Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

The early life of a boy with half a dozen elder brothers
and siste:s is in most families much the same. He becomes
the fag of the one, the pet of the other, and by turns the pride
and the plague of their common parents. In John Franklin's
case the fagging may have been remitted ; but there is
distinct evidence of the petting, which, moreover, was no
doub<- encouraged and justified by the fact that, like many
children destined to a vigorous manhood, he was a singularly
weak and ailing infant, whose prospect of being reared at all
was during the first two or three years of his life considered
extremely doubtful. Though undoubtedly of an affectionate
and generally docile disposition, John, his brother-in-law Mr,
Booth records, was ' not noted, like his brothers and sisters,
for neatness and orderliness ; ' and the combination of this not
uncommon failing with a certain harmless propensity — which
indeed may even have been the germ of a virtue — led to
unpleasant consequences. It was, in fact, the cause of at
least one incident which was without precedent in the family,
and which is spoken of even in the records of a later genera-
tion almost with bated breath. On the landing of the
staircase in the house at Spilsby, as probably in many a
similar spot in many another English household of that
Spartan age, there hung a whip ; * but such was the dutiful

1795

EAULY YEAKS

obedience at all tines paid by the children to their parents'
that from an instrument of correction it had declined into a
mere emblem of authority. It was reserved, however, for the
future explorer to show that, like the sword of the magistrate,
it was not borne in vain. Opposite to the Franklins' house
stood that of the Rev. Mr. Walls, the owner of Boothby
Hall, a gentleman of * ample private fortune,' at whose door
the carriages of callers were constantly to be seen. Upon
the youngest son of the Franklin family the sight of these
arriving and departing visitors exercised an irresistible
fascination. Naturally, however, his parents, having regard
to that unfortunate want of ' neatness and orderliness ' above
mentioned, were unwilling to exhibit John as a sample of the
Franklin household, and he was 'strictly forbidden to go
over the way and stare at this daily spectacle.' But the
child ' seemed utterly incapable of putting a curb on his
curiosity.' The conclusion of the painful story is almost
visible already. A boy of untidy appearance, intensely
interested in the fashionable arrivals at the house of a
neighbour, and, in defiance of parental injunctions, determined
to assist at them : we have here the plot of a domestic
tragedy ready made. After repeated commands, repeatedly
disobeyed, the emblem of authority became once more an
instrument of correction ; the whip which hung on the
landing was taken down — and used. But, ' though the boy
was in no way rebellious on any other point, neither entreaty
nor whipping could prevent his punctual attendance at the
opposite door whenever a carriage drew up.' It was not
exactly the explorer's thirst for discovery, yet perhaps it may
have had its latent affinities with that passion. It was
certainly gratified with all an explorer's determination. With
his mind intently directed towards his childish object, and
his will resolutely bent on attaining it, it seems clear that
John Franklin accepted his punishment as a mere unplea-
sant incident of the enterprise, an experience to be submitted
to and disregarded, like the Polar cold, or the winter darkness
of the Arctic Circle.

But, indeed, there is evidence enough that he was a lad

:!!

•I!

EAULY V1:aU8 AI'LOAT

CH. I.

! i

i i

full of adventurous aspirafions. There was almost as much
of earnest as of jest in the endeavour to outdo the projects of
his playfellows, which an a iccdotc of his boyish years records.
The family storj' goes that, after each of them had specified
the particular feat of strength or heroism which he intended
to perform on attaining manhood, nothing less ambitious
would satisfy young Franklin than the construction of a ladder
whereby to • climb up to heaven.' Gravitation and statical
laws were possibly recognised even then as obstacles ; but
obstacles only existed to be overcome.

To a lad possessed by so early and extravagant a longing
to do battle with the forces of Nature, it is a critical moment
when he is first confronted with that mighty adversary in
its most impressive and defiant form. The turning-point of
his career is usually reached on the day when he receives
his first challenge from the sea.

To Franklin it was not long in coming. At the age
of ten he was sent to school at St. Ives, whence he was
shortly afterwards transferred to that nursery of Lincoln-
shire worthies, at which Charles and Alfred Tennyson were
many years after also educated, the Grammar School at
Louth ; and one day, during his earlier time at this school,
he started off with a playmate to pay his first visit to
the coast His native town of Spilsby, though but a few
miles inland, had no connections, by trade or otherwise,
with any East Anglian port, and there had been nothing
therefore in his surroundings to inspire him with curiosity
as to maritime matters or with interest in a seafaring life.
But that drop of brine which is in the blood of every Eng-
lishman, and which has driven many a youth from the
very heart of the Midlands to make his lifelong home upon
the ocean, must have stirred in young Franklin's veins.
Setting out from Louth one holiday with this young companion,
he made his way to Saltfleet, a little watering-place some
ten miles off, and there looked for the first time on that world
of waters on which he was to play so memorable a part.

That one look was enough. The boy returned home
as irrevocably vowed to a sailor's life as though he had

l^iUO

Tin: SJ'KJ.L OF THE SEA

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Eng-

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lanion,
some
world

been dedicated by some rite of antiquity to the god of the
Sea. His father — like nine English fathers out of ten —
objected. That curious spirit of parental resistance to what
ever has been, and, it is to be hoped, ever will be, the
natural and irresistible vocation of so many thousands of
English sons, was strong within him, John was his
youngest— how often it is the youngest! — the Benjamin of
the flock ; and it would be a hard matter to part with him,
for all his ' want of neatness ' and his undue curiosit)-
about the visitors over the way.

Mr. Franklin's attitude, in fact, towards his son's mari-
time aspirations was simply that adopted before and no doubt
since his time by innumerable British fathers similarly situ-
ated. It seems only to have differed from the traditional
paternal posture in that it was taken up with more intensity
of conviction and maintained with more persistency than in
the average case. Not many a father, that is to say, would
go so far perhaps as to declare, with the eld .r Franklin, that
' he would rather follow his son to the grave than to the
sea ; ' though many, no doubt, have resorted to the means
adr -)ted by him for testing the reality and seriousness of
the boy's inclinations. John, after all, was but twelve years
old. How many lads of that age, especially during the
school term — a very important point — had been soized with
what they imagined to be a passion for a .seafaring life,
but what was in reality only a distaste for the restraints of
the class-room or a want of sympathy with the usher ! Mr.
Franklin accordingly had recourse to a test which fathers in
like case have not infrequently applied, with, from their own
point of view, complete success. After two years' resistance
to his son's importunities he sent him for a cruise on board a
merchantman trading between Hull and ^ jsbon, no doubt in
the expectation that from that most efficient of hospitals for
the treatment of the sea-fever from which John was supposed
to be suffering, he would be able to report himself as ' dis-
charged cured.' But, so far from yielding to this rough remedy
— even rougher in those days than in these — the malady
became more acute. The boy returned from his voyage

•ih'

It. ft

EAIUA' YEA US AFLOAT

CM. I.

confirmed in his longing for <i sailor's life ; and, this fact once
ascertained, Mr. I'Vanklin, Hkc a wise man, gave way. A
berth was .soon obtained for him as a ' first-class volunteer '
on board the Polyphemus, Captain Lawford, and in the
autumn of 1800 his eldest brother Thomas was sent up to
London with him to procure his outfit and sec him off. Duties
of this kind arc not always dear to the heart of an elder bro-
ther, and when he is a young man of twenty-seven, actively
engaged in business, and full, as was the ca.se here, of grave
business anxieties, .some little impatience with the delays of
his mission is perhaps excusable. This, at any rate, seems the
probable explanation of Thomas's curious proposal to ' place
John at school ' while awaiting the return of the Polyphe-
mus, then engaged in ' demonstrating ' off Elsinore, to Yar-
mouth Roads, ' I fear,' he writes to his father, ' that it will be
impossible for me to save Monday ' — that is, to return by
that day. ' If it is possible I shall do it, for never was I
so tired of doing nothing, yet continually running after
this nasty cloaths-buying business, which to-morrow I shall
compleat.' Still, he speaks with a proper fraternal pride of
the result of his labours, and admits that ' the dirk and
cocked hat, which are certainly very formidable, are among
the most attractive parts of his dress.'

It was not till the end of October that the Polyphemus
arrived in port, and that Mr. AUenby, the friend with whom
John had been placed in London, was able to tell his father,
' I have just seen your delightful boy off in the Yarmouth
coach, inside ; paid all for him and gave him ten pounds in
his pocket. This I thought necessary, as he has his bedding,
&c., to buy at Yarmouth, and if he is admitted to a mess with
the officers he will have to subscribe to it.' He adds, with
what reads like a mild sidelong rebuke of the impatient
Thomas : • I hope that Mr. T. Franklin is gone to Yarmouth
to meet him. If not, I hope he will go, as he will not have
to attend him again on the same b'-'-sines«5- In future I have
no doubt but he will fight his own way.' The first letter
written by the lad as an officer in His Majesty's service
gave every indication that he would. For this is t^r;

H t^

ibui

BOUND roil THE IJALTIC

bright, boyish, spirited fashion in which the young middy

writes : —

II. M.S. Polypheiiuis, V'arnumth Roads: March li, l8oi.

Dear Parents,— I take this opportunity to inform you that we
were yesterday put under sailinj^ orders for the Baltic, and it is ex-
pec'.ed that we shall certainly sail this week. It is thought we arc
goinj- to Elsineur to attempt to take the castle, but some think we
cannot succeed. I think they will turn their tale when they
consider we have thirty-five sail of the line, exclusive of bombs,
frigates, and sloops, and on a moderate consitleration there will be
one thousand double-shotted guns to be fired as a salute to poor
Elsineur Castle al firat sight.

Then follows a passage which is interesting as showi.ig
that exploration was more in the boy's thoughts even then
than the excitement of war : —

I am afraid 1 shall not have the felicity of going out with Captain
Flinders [who was preparing a vessel for a survey of the Australasian
coast], for which I am truly sorry, as we in all probability will be out
above four months ; but if we do return before the Investigator sails,
I will thank you to use your interest for me to go. You cannot
hesitate asking Captain Lawford to part with me when you con-
sider the advantages of it. Look at Samuel Flinders, who has the
promise of getting his commission to go out with his brother. . . .
[whereas, in our present service], if we take any ships or make any
prize money, it will be two years before we receive it, and very little
will fall to my share.

I will thank you when you write to Anne and Willingham to tell
them of our expedition up the Baltic, by which some of us will * lose
a fin ' or ' the number of our mess,' which are sailor's terms.

I will give you the names of the ships which are going with us,
and of those which remain in Yarmouth under the command of
Admiral Dickson. [Here follows a list of Sir Hyde Parker's fleet.]
I think we shall play prett/ well among the Russians and Danes
if they go to war with us.

Please to remember me to my brothers and sisters.

I remain your affectionate son,

John Franklin.

Excuse my bad writing, as we expect it is the last boat. The
ships that remain in Yarmouth are the Princess of Orange, the
Texill (54), the Leyden (68), and two or three others for a guard.

Remember me to dear Henrietta, and tell her when I get a ship
she shall be my housekeeper. Also to Isabella.

'i\

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EARLY YLAU8 AFLOAT

CH. I.

The youthful prophet was right. The ' salute to poor
Elsineur Castle ' shook Europe, and echoes ♦ihrough our
history to the pr::sent hour. In less than three weeks after
these words were written young Franklin was bearing a part
in what the greatest of our naval heroes pronounced 'the
most terrible ' of the hundred battles he had fought.

The British fleet sailed from Yarmouth on March I2,
under Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson as his second in com-
mand, and arrived off Zealand on the 27th. Entering the
Sound, in spite of the opposition of the Governor of
Cronenbcrg, who, after protesting against their entrance,
opened fire upon them from his batteries as they sailed
through that channel on March 30 with a fair wind from the
N.W., our vessels bore up towards the harbour of Copen-
hagen. Menacing indeed was the armament upon which
the lad's eyes rested when, after a four hours' sail up the
Sound, the Polyphemus came to anchor with the rest of the
squadron opposite this famous and formidable port. The
garrison of the city consisted of ten thousand men, with whom
was combined a still stronger force of volunteers. All that
was possible had been done to strengthen the sea-defences,
and the array of forts, ramparts, ships of the line, fireships,
gunboats, and floating batteries, was such as might well have
deterred any other assailant but the hero of the Nile. Six
line-of-battle ships and eleven floating batteries, with a large
number of smaller vessels, were moored in an external line
to protect the entrance to a harbour flanked on either side
by two islands, on the smaller of which fifty-six, and on the
larger sixty-eight heavy guns were mounted. Four other
sail of the line were moored within, across the harbour mouth,
while a fort mounting thirty-six powerful pieces of ordnance
had been constructed on a shor.l, supported by piles. These
were so disposed that their fire would cross that of the
batteries in the citadel of Copenhagen and on the island of
Amager. It seemed hardly possible that any ships could
pass over the centre of the deadly circle and live.

Nor were these armaments the only obstacles which con-
fronted the British fleet. The channel, by which alone the

1801

BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN

harbour could be approached, was little known and extremely
intricate ; all the buoys had been removed, and the sea on
eitner side abounded with shoals and sandbanks, on which if
any of the vessels grounded they would instantly be torn to
pieces by the fire from the Danish batteries. The Danes
themselves considered this particular barrier insurmountable,
and Nelson himself was fully aware of the difficulty of sur-
mounting it ; for a day and a night were incessantly occupied
by the boats of the fleet, under his orders, in making the
necessary soundings and replacing by new buoys those which
had been taken away. Despite these precautions, however,
and despite all that British seamanship could do in the way
of skilled navigation, the harbour shoals proved formidable
antagonists when the actual attack was made on the morning
of April 2. Of the twelve line-of-battlc ships which made
fearlessly for the entrance of the harbour, amid the joyous
cheers of their crews, on that memorable day, no fewer than
three went aground and stuck immovable, expos';d to the
withering Cue of the Tre Kroner batteries and unable to render
any effective aid in the attack.

The Polyphemus was in Nelson's division, and was one of
those which escaped this untoward mishap. The Edgar, under
Captain Murray, led the division, and it was the Agamemnon,
the ship immediately behind her, which was the first to go
aground. The Polyphemus, which had been the last but three
of the line, was signs lied to advance out of her turn. Then
followed the Monarch, the Ardent, and other vessels. The
two that shared the fate of the second vessel in the division
were the ships which had been in the immedia<-e rear of
Franklin's, the Bellona and the Russell. Nelson followed in
the Elephant, and only saved his vessel and the remainder of
his division by a swiftly conceived and executed change of
course.

Pressing onward, however, with the rest of his force, which
had been warned by the fate of the Agamemnon to alte *
their course, and pass inside instead of, as had been in-
tended, outside the line taken by their leading vessels, the
nine remaining vessels reached their stations, and at forty-five

!■!

EARLY YEARS AI LOAT

OH. I.

1 .i^

i ■

! i

minutes past ten the action commenced, becoming general by
half-past eleven.

The Polyphemus was soon at it hammer and tongs ; and
was among the vessels which, during those four furious hours,
had the hottest work. Here is an extract from her official
log:— ..--/,■:. , '■ .. ■., ,-',:. '.

At X0.45 the Danes opened fire upon our leading ships, which
was returned as they led in. We led in at 11.20. We anchored by
the stern abreast of two of the enemy's ships moored in the channel,
the Isis next ahead of us. The force that engaged us was two ships,
one of 74, the other of 64 guns. At half-past eleven the action
became general, and a. continual fire was kept up between us and
the enemy's ships and batteries. At noon a very heavy and constant
fire was kept up between us and the enemy, and this was continued
without intermission until forty-five minutes past two, when the 74
abreast of us ceased fir-ng ; but not being able to discern whether
she had struck, our fire was kept up fifteen minutes longer, when we
could perceive their people making their escape to the shore in
boats. We ceased firing and boarded both ships and took possession
of them. Several others were also taken possession of by the rest
of our ships ; one blown up in action, two sunk. Mustered ship's
company and found we had six men killed and twenty-four wounded,
and two lower-deck guns disabled.

Such was the result of the triple duel between the
Polyphemus and the Danish block-ships Wagner and
Provestien, assisted by the Tre Kroner battery. The
cannonade all round was tremendous, nearly two thousand
guns on both sides concentrating their fire upon a space not
exceeding a mile and a half in breadth. For three hours had
the engagement continued without showing any signs of
.slackening in its firing ; when Sir Hyde Parker signalled to
Nelson a permissive order to retire, and there occurred the
often related, but recently questioned,' incident of Nelson's
putting his telescope to his blind eye. Sir Hyde's motive
was a generous one. He had seen with concern the grounding
of the three ships, and their almost helpless exposure to the
Danish cannonade. ' The fire,' Southey reports him as saying,
' is too hot for Nelson ; a retreat must be made. I am aware

' See Professor J. K. Laughton's Nelson.
millan.)

• Men of Action Series.' (Mac-

1801

BATTLE OF COPEXHAGEN

of the consequences to my own personal reputation, but it
would be cowardly in me to leave Nelson to bear the whole
shame of the failure, if failure it should be deemed.' Doubtless,
too, he knew his man well enough to feel confident thct if
Nelson saw the slightest chance of continuing the contest with
success — and the chance must have been slight indeed which
did not satisfy Nelson — he would disobey the order. Figu-
ratively in fact, if not literally speaking, he foresaw the
legendary application of the telescope to the blind eye, and
his foresight proved accurate. Nelson failed to 'see' the
signal, and, nailing his own colours to the mast, prolonged the
desperate fight for another hour, jntil, the rapidity and pre-
cision of the British fire having at last proved irresistible,
the Danish replies began at two o'clock in the afternoon to
abate sensibly in vigour. Ship after ship struck amid the
cheers of our sailors, and before three the whole force of the
six line-of-battle ships and the eleven floating batteries which
had formed the front line of defence were either taken, sunk,
burnt, or otherwise destroyed. Finally, the resistance of the
enemy having now been completely broken down. Nelson
sent proposals for an armistice, which were accepted, and the
attacking squadron drew off to rejoin Sir Hyde Parker's ships
in the centre of the Straits. The loss on board the British
fleet was very severe. It was no less than 1,200 killed and
wounded, a larger proportion to the number of seamen
engaged than in any other general action during the whole
war. On the side of the Danes, however, it was much greater,
the total number of killed, wounded, and prisoners amounting
to 6,000.

The condition indeed of the enemy at the close of the
action presented a heart-rending spectacle. White flags
were flying from every mast that was yet erect, and guns of
distress booming from every hull that was still afloat. The
sea was thickly covered wilh the floating spars, and lurid
with the light of flaming wrecks. English boats thronged
the waters endeavouring to render all the assistance in their
power to their wounded and drowning enemies, who as fast
as they could be rescued were sent ashore ; but great numbers

(■;

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■■RP

EARLY VEARS AFLOAT

CH. I.

i',

'Mm

perished. It was not till daybreak on the following morning
that Nelson's ilae-ship, the Elephant, which had gone aground
in returning to Sir Hyde Parker's squadron, v/as got afloat
and the prizes carried off.

Thus ended this murderous battle, one of the most
obstinately contested in tl 3 annals of the British Navy. For
the boy Franklin it was a baptism of fire indeed ; and
even in those days of the Great War, when Englishmen
thought nothing of sending their children almost from the
nursery to the cockpit, the case of this lad of fifteen who
passed with such startling abruptness from the sleepy peace
of a Lincolnshire country town to the thunder and slaughter
of the dreadful day of Copenhagen can hardly have had many
parallels. There could, at any rate, have been no more
dramatically appropriate opening to a life of peril and adven-
ture destined to be crowned by a tragic death.

Tiie horrors of the scene produced, as well as they might,
a deep impression on young Franklin's mind ; and a kinsman
records having been told by him in later years that ' he saw
a prodigious number of the slain at the bottom of the
remarkably clear water of that harbour, men who had
perished on both sides in that most sanguinary action.' But
exultation over the victory and pride at having borne a part
in it were, of course, more enduring sentiments in the young
midshipman's mind. He was genuinely attached to his pro-
fession and happy in its pursuit ; and even from the few
written records which have been preserved of this early period
of his career one can gather details which shape themselves
into an attractive, if imperfect, picture of the lad. The
weakliness from which, as already mentioned, he had suffered
in his infancy had long since disappeared. Even in his
school days he was remarkable, relates a reminiscent of that
time, Mr. Tennyson d'Eyncourt, ' for his manly figure and
bravery,' and his ' flowing hair;' and both then and afterwards
he appears to have struck observers by a peculiar earnestness
and animation of countenance. The characteristic which had
impressed Mr. Tennyson d'Eyncourt in the face of the school-
boy is noted, curiously enough, almost in the same words, by

1801

THE YOUNG EXPLORER

an officer who met him when on the verge of manhood, and
who subsequently testified to the accuracy of the observation
by at once recognising him again after a lapse of forty years.
This witness also speaks of him as a youth ' with a most
animated face.' It was doubtless the immature and unde-
veloped form of that fine expression of energy and daring
which distinguishes his later portraits. In other physical
respects, too, the boy appears to have been * the father of the
man ; ' for ' the round-faced, round-headed ' lad with an
evident tendency to ' put on flesh ' who is described elsewhere
in the last-quoted of these accounts might very well ripen
into the portly and full-bodied Franklin of middle age.

His ways and disposition were evidently full of charm.
From many slight but sufficient indications, traceable even in
the scanty reminiscences of this far-off time, one can plainly
discern those winning qualities which afterwards endeared
him, beyond all leaders that one has ever heard of, to his
companions in adventure. There is the same frankness of
speech and bearing, the same open and affectionate c'isposi-
tion, and no doubt, too, the same hot but generous temper,
which in after years made him at once so quick to resent a
slight and so ready to forgive it.

His fear lest the despatch of the Polyphemus to the
Baltic should make him lose the chance of joining the
exploring expedition to the South Seas proved fortunately
groundless. Had he been too late to join it, the whole course
of his career might have been altered. He might quite
possibly have settled down into the life of the ordinary naval
officer and never have acquired that passion for geographical
discovery which afterwards bore such brilliant fruits. But
the hope expressed by him in the letter above quoted was
realised. The Polyphemus was ordered home with the rest
of the Baltic fleet in the summer of 1801 ; and a berth was
obtained for Franklin on board the Investigator, which started
for the Southern Hemisphere on July 7 of that year. Her
commander, Captain Matthew Flinders, who had married an
aunt of Franklin's, was a sailor of first-rate capacity, and had
already won high distinction as an explorer in the seas to

ill

' ^k' f Ji

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

cii. t.

which he had now been despatched on no less ambitious an
enterprise than that of effecting a survey of the entire sea-
board of Australia. There could have been no better school
or schoolmaster for a youth of John Franklin's bent and
aspirations. He was proud of his commander's achievements,
and attached to him both by relationship and regard. The
character of his duties was in many respects novel, and his
voyage, he was aware, would procure him an amount ot
training in navigation and practical seamanship which he
could not have acquired with anything like the same expedi-
tion in the regular service of the navy. Of the spirit in which
he entered on his duties we may judge by the following ex-
tract from a letter of Captain Flinders to the elder Franklin : —

It is with great pleasure that I tell you of the good conduct of
John. He is a very fine youth, and there is every probability of his
doing credit to the Investigator and himself. Mr. Crossley has
begun with him, and in a few months he will be sufificient of an
astronomer to be my right-hand man in that way. His attention to
his duty has gained him the esteem of the first lieutenant, who
scarcely knows how to talk enough in his praise. He is rated mid-
shipman, and I sincerely hope tha*- an early opportunity after his
time is served will enable me to show the regard I have for your
family and his merit.

By October of 1801 the Investigator had reached the Cape
of Good Hope, and from that station Franklin wrote his
father a letter describing the incidents of the voyage. They
had touched at Madeira on the way out, and the lad's account
of that island and its people abounds in evidences of an
observant faculty beyond his years. Now, as always, he
was studying more than the mere routine of his profession, in
the scientific branches o^ which, however, he was obviously
n;aking good progress. He was, indeed, acquiring a i_roficiency
for which he did not obtain quite his fair amount of recogni-
tion ; for it would seem that Sam Flinders, his captain's brother,
was in the habit of entrusting to him a considerable share of
the duty of taking observations without being equally careful
in distributing the credit of the results. To this 'exploitation'
of himself young Franklin thought it wise to submit, though
not without privately recorded protests ; and it is with some

180:?

Till-: YOUNG EXPJ.ORER

natural feelings of resentful relief that later on he chronicles
the fact of Sam's having exchanged his berth on the Investi-
gator for a post which his brother had succeeded in obtaining
for him on board another vessel.

The elder Flinders did much, however, to atone for the
unsatisfactory conduct of the younger. He instructed his
nephew pretty steadily in navigation and relieved him when
at sea of day watches, Franklin reports, in order to en-
able him to attend his captain ' in working his timepieces,
lunars, &c. ; ' so that, on the whole, the eager young sailor
had no reason to be dissatisfied with his opportunities of
self-improvement. The example of the fine seaman and
enthusiastic explorer under whom he served must indeed, for
a lad of Franklin's araent temperament, have been an educa-
tion in itself Throughout his whole life he cherished the
warmest admiration for the character of Matthew Flinders,
and in later years he gladly welcomed the opportunity of
paying an enduring tribute to his old commander's memory
in that very region of the world which his discoveries had
done so much to conquer for civilisation.

In the summer of 1802, when, after having surveyed the
whole of the southern coast of the Australian continent from
King George's Sound in Western Australia to Port Jackson,
the Investigator was refitting in that harbour, Franklin wrote
his mother a letter full of that dutiful simplicity of filial affec-
tion which was so marked a feature in his character. ' I take
this opportunity,' he says, in the quaintly ceremonious manner
of the time,

of returning my most sincere thanks to my worthy parents for
their care of me in my younger days, for my education, and lastly for
the genteel and expensive outfit for this long voyage ; and if a due
application to my duty and anxiety to push forward in my profession
will repay them, they may rely on it as far as I'm able. . . . My
father, I trust .viid hope, is more easy about the situation in life I
have chosen. He sees it was not either the youthf j! yhim of the
moment, or the attractive uniform, or the hopes of getting rid of
school that drew me to think of it. No ! I pictured to myself both
the hardships and pleasures of a sailor's life (even to the extrem.e)
before ever it was told to me ; which I find in a great measure to

i„

! t

I 1

! !

EARLY YEA J IS AFLOAT

CH. I.

agree. My mind was then so steadfastly bent on going to sea, that
to settle to business would be merely impossible. Probably my
father, like many others who are unacquainted with the sea, thinks
that sailors are a careless, swearing, reprobate, and good-for-nothing
set of men. Do not let that idea possess you, or condemn all for
Believe me, there are good and bad men sailors. It is

some.

natural for a person who has been living on salt junk for several
months when he gets on shore to swag about. Picture to yourself a
man debarred from all sorts of comfortables such as mutton, beef,
vegetables, wine, and beer. Would he not after that bar was broke
begin with double vigour ? But I have said enough on this subject.
A line in answer to this would satisfy me.

Later on in the letter he reverts to a matter which was
seldom absent from his mind — the necessity of steady endea-
vour to perfect himself in his profession : —

Thank you for that good and genuine advice in your letter. . .
The first thing which demands immediate attention is the learning
perfectly my duty as an officer and seaman. It would be an un-
pardonable shame if after serving two years I was ignorant of it.
The next, the taking and working of astronomical observations
which (thank God !) by the assistance of Captain Flinders I am
now nearly able to do. Then French : many is the time I have
envied the hours spent in play instead of learning. Now I feel the
want of a knowledge of French, for there are two ships of that nation
engaged in discovery here and I'm not able to converse with them
in French, but am obliged to refer to unfamiliar Latin.

Writing a few months later to his sister Elizabeth, he
gives a detailed account of his reading, interspersed with
criticisms, amusing in their youthful air of profundity, on the
subjects of his study : —

The following are the books which I read in my leisure hours
(inform me, do you approve of them ?) : — * Junius's Letters.' What
astonishing criticisms ! What a knowledge of the State affairs at
that time ! But he was at last mastered by Home Tooke, who had a
right cause to handle. ' Shakespeare's Works.' — How well must that
man have been acquainted with man and nature ! The beautiful
sympathetic speeches he makes them use ! Of comedies, the
' Taming of the Shrew ' and the ' Merry Wives of Windsor ' are his
masterpieces. Of tragedy, 'Macbeth' and 'King John.' History
of Scotland, from the Encyclopaedia, 'Naval Tactics,' 'Roderick
Random,' 'Peregrine Pickle,' sometimes Pope's Works. And, ex-
clusive of navigation books and Latin and French, geography

V:i

1802

MR. TYCIIO BKAIlfi

»r' are his

sometimes employs a good deal of my time, as was the request of
my brother Thomas in his last letter.

He winds 'ip with a piece of information most interesting
to a sister —

I am grown very much indeed, and a little thinner, so that I shall
be a spruce and genteel young man, and sail within three points of
the wind, and run nine knots under close-reefed topsails, which is
good sailing —

and also admirably well adapted to bewilder the female
mind, as was no doubt its intentic , with its shower of un-
familiar nautical expressions.

The pursuit of literature, however, could only have been
the occupation of a not very abundant leisure ; for it is cer-
tain that Franklin was kept pretty fully employed during his
stay at Sydney in assisting to promote the scientific objects
v,f the voyage. An observatory was set up on shore, to which
all the chronometers were removed, and where all the neces-
sary observations were taken. It was placed under the charge
of Samuel Flinders, to whom Franklin was attached as
assistant ; and his services in that capacity were thought at
least sufficiently worthy of recognition by the local authorities
to have earned for him the humorous appellation of ' Mr
Tycho Brah^ ' from Governor King, then presiding over the
colony of New South Wales.

A few days after the letter last quoted was written, the
vessel resumed its voyage, which, however,"was destined to be
cut short by unforeseen causes before its object was fully
attained. Unfortunately, it turned out that the scientific
curiosity of the Admiralty had not, like charity, begun at
home. Before commissioning the Investigator to survey the
coast of New Holland it would have been better to more
carefully survey the Investigator. After rounding the north-
east point of the continent and entering the Gulf of Car-
pentaria, the extensive coast-line of which was examined
and duly delineated on the chart, the old vessel began to
' exhibit unmistakable signs of decay ; ' and it was discovered
on examination that her timbers were in so rotten a con-

C 2

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

OH. I.

dition that it was not considered likely that she would hold
together ir ordinary weather for more than six months, while
in the event of her being caught in a gale she would in all
probability founder. Her commander, it is true, was not un-
prepared for this discovery. Evidence of her general unsea-
worthiness had come to light, indeed, before she had reached
Madeira on her outward voyage ; but, as Captain Flinders
characteristically put i*:, he had been ' given to understand
that the exigencies of the Navy were such that no better ship
could be spared from the service, and his anxiety to complete
the investigation of the coasts of Terra Australis did not
admit of his refusing the one offered.' Admirable, however,
as is the spirit of a naval officer whose ardour in adventure
will not permit him to decline the offer of a rotten ship if a
sound one is not to be had, one cannot feel equally im-
pressed with the conduct of naval authorities who send him
out in such a vessel to explore the entire seaboard of Australia,
with an injunction * not to return to England until that work
is satisfactorily accomplished.' As it was, Captain Flinders
had all his work cut out for him to return, not to England,
but to Sydney, which port he succeeded in reaching in June
1803, after an anxious and perilous voyage round the west
coast of Australia. At Sydney the Investigator was again
examined, and the experts by whom she was examined
having reported her * not worth repairing in any country,' she
was ultimately converted into a storehouse hulk, and it was
arranged that Flinders, with a portion of his officers and crew,
should return home in the Porpoise, in order to report the
facts of the case to the Admiralty and endeavour to obtain
another vessel in which to continue the work of Australian
exploration.

The breakdown of the Investigator was, however, but the
first of the series of misadventures which Franklin was
destined to meet with in this his maiden cruise as an explorer.
Six days out of Sydney the Porpoise, making for the newly
discovered Torres Strait with two merchant vessels under its
pilotage, struck upon a reef— a fate which was shared by one
of its consorts — the other making off, one regrets to record,

1803

WRECKED

without rendering any assistance. The disaster occurred
towards nightfall, and, the ships fortunately holding together
until the morning, their crev;s managed to effect a landing,
with such of the provisions and stores of the two vessels as
they were able to save, on a sandbank some nine hundred feet
by fifty, about half a mile from the \vr ick. Their positivm here,
however, was sufficiently critical. The nearest known land
was two hundred miles off, and Sydney, the only place from
which assistance was to be hoped for, they had left nearly
four times that distance behind them. It is needless to say
that they faced the situation with the cheerful pluck and
resourcefulness of their nation and calling. Tents wer'*
erected with the salvr^ed sails; a blue ensign with the union-
jack down was hoisted on a tall spar as a signal of distress ;
an inventory of stores was taken and found sufficient to last
the ninety-four castaways, if properly husbanded, for a period
of three months. A council of officers was then called, and
it was decided that one of the six-oared cutters should be
despatched to Sydney, under the command of the indomitable
Flinders, to obtain relief. Accordingly, on August 27, accom-
panied by the commander of the lost merchant ship and
twelve men, and having stored his small boat with provisions
and water for three weeks, that officer set out on his doubtful
and hazardous voyage of seven hundred and fifty miles.
Week after week passed, and at length, on October 7, when
their stores were beginning to run low and the castaways were
within measurable distance of the date at which it had been
resolved that if no help came they would themselves make a
desperate dash for the mainland of Australia in two boats which
they had constructed out of materials saved from the wreck,
they caught the welcome sight of a sail. It was Flinders return-
ing from Sydney in the Rolla, bound for Canton, accompanied
by the two Government schooners Cumberland and Francis.
Franklin, with the bulk of the shipwrecked crew, embarked on
board the first-named vessel ; his captain, anxious to get home
as soon as possible to report his discoveries and prepare his
charts for publication, preferred to return to England at once
in the Cumberland. It was a fatal choice. The vessel

1 s <'<

.tii. — ~

r WM

KAULY VKAUS AFLOAT

OH. I.

1 1

' i

f
i

touched at the Mauritius on its way home, and there, by one
of those many acts of downright brigandage which disgraced
the name of France at the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens,
he was made a prisoner by the French Governor of the island
and detained for no less than six and a half years. He lived,
this much-enduring U'ysses, to return to England and to
write an account of his memorable voyage ; but the volume
and the charts accompanying it, which he had lost his liberty
in hurrying home to publish, only issued from the press, by a
truly tragic coincidence, on the very day of his death.

Franklin had gone to Canton in the Rolla to await a
homeward-bound ship, but there were yet further adventures
in store for him before reaching England. A squadron of
sixteen Indiamen was on the point of sailing, under the com-
mand of Commodore Nathaniel Dance, of the H.E.I.C.S. ;
and the officers and men of the Investigator were distributed
among its vessels, Franklin's berth falling to him on board
the Earl Camden, which flew the commodore's flag. They
carried arms, did these merchantmen of John Company, as
indeed such vessels mostly did in those troublous times ; but
their guns, from thirty to thirty-six in number, were of light
calibre, and the gallant vessels relied rather upon the 'brag'
of their appearance than on their real fighting power ; for
their hulls were painted in imitation of line-of-battle ships and
frigates, the more easily to deceive the enemy's cruisers and
privateers. They could hardly hope, however, to escape the
attentions of a powerful French squadron by devices of this
kind ; and it was with such a squadron that they were fated
to fall in. Its commander. Admiral Linois, was not otherwise
than a brave and capable officer, and the five vesi"' ^.ider
his command, consisting of the Marengo, a line-of-bat le ship
of 84 guns, La Belle Poule, 48, two other vessels of 36 and
24 guns respectively, and an eighteen-gun brig under Dutch
colours, were no doubt considerably more than a match in
fighting power for the fleet of Indiamen. Yet this did not
prevent the Admiral and his squadron from getting quite
comically the worst of one of the most singular encounters in
the whole of our naval history. Linois, having received news

1804

A (iAMK OF 'lUtAU

of the sailing of the Indiamcn from Canton, put to sea at once
from Batavia, and came aciohs his intended captures as they
were entering the Straits of Malacca. Their behaviour,
however, was contrary to all maritime precedent. A witty
countryman of the Admiral has in two often-quoted lines
expressed the scandalised astonishment with which the hunter
would naturally regard resistance on the part of a usually
fugitive quarr - ♦

vJet animal «st tres nicchant :
Lo(squ'on attaque, il se defend —

■t

i^V

and Linois found to his surprise that these particular
merchantmen were animals of just this vicious temper.
Instead of making all sail to escape their pursuers, t'ley
formed in order of battle, and showed every sign of preparing
for a regular engagement. It was late in the afternoon ; and
the phenomenon was so perplexing that the French Admiral
not unnaturally thought he might as well take a night
to consider it, and decided to postpone the attack till the
following morning. Under cover of the darkness *^hc English
ships might, no doubt, have made their escape without difficulty,
but Commodore Dance had no intention of thus spoiling so
pretty a quarrel. His ships lay to for the night ; and Linois
finding them in the same position next day began to suspect
that they must consist partly of men-of-war, and continued
to hold aloof. Thereupon Dance gave orders for his ships to
continue their course under easy sail. The French Admiral,
encouraged by this movement, pressed forward with the
design of cutting off some of the rearward ships. Upon
this, however, the English Commodore instantly faced about,
and young Franklin, who was acting as signal-midshipman,
was ordered to run up the signal : ' Tack in succession, bear
down in line ahead, and engage the enemy.'

Whether in the King's uniform or out of it, Jack in
all ages of our history has asked nothing better ; and as
quickly as this manoeuvre could be executed the two squadrons
engaged. The action was short and sharp, if not exactly
decisive. After three-quarters of an hour of it the French

! I

■' ;f<

i i^

I i n

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

CH. I.

ceased firing and drew off, whereupon the insatiable Dance
actually gave the signal for a ' general chase,' and the
astonished seas beheld the unique spectacle of sixteen English
merchantmen in hot pursuit of a French squadron of war.
The Commodore gave chase for ' upwards of two hour^,' and
then, rightly concluding that he had done enough for honour,
recalled his pursuing ships, proceeded on his homeward
course, and duly arrived in Eng!-xnd to be rewarded with a
well-merited knighthood. It was one of the most dashing
feats of ' bounce ' on record, and deserves to rank with that
other and better kn'^wn exploit of heroic impudence which
has for generations been celebrated in many a gruff forecastle
chorus to the refrain of the * Saucy Arethusa.'

How Franklin's services on this occasion were appreciated
by his commander the following extract from a letter, written
by Sir Nathaniel Dance a year later, will show. Addressing
Mr. William Ramsay, an official of the East India Company,
he says :

I beg leave to present to the notice of the Hon. Court, Mr.
Franklin and Mr. Olive, midshipmen in His Majesty's Navy, who
were cast away with Lieut. Fowler in the Porpoise, and who were, as
well as that gentleman, passengers for England on board the Earl
Camden. Whatever may have been the merits of others, theirs in
their station were equally conspicuous, and I should find it difficult
in the ship's compiiny to name any one who for zeal and alacrity of
service and for general good conduct could advance a stronger claim
to approbation and leward.

On August 6 the Earl Camden arrived in the English
Channel, and for the first time after a prolonged interval of
enforced silence the young sailor was able to communicate
with his family. His prolonged cruise had been full of trials
and not free from disaster, but he dwells in his usual mood
of cheery contentment on its compensating gains : —

Although mishaps seem to attend every companion of the voyage
— viz. a rotten ship, being wrecked, the worthy comma;, der oetanied,
and the great expense of twice fitting out — yet do we cheer ourselves
with a well-founded idea that we have gained some knowledge and
experience, both professional and general, even while visiting the
dreary and uncultivated regions of ^^ew Holland.

1804

THE 13ELLER0PH0N

e Dance
and the

English

of war,
ur^,' and

hononr,
)meward
i with a

dashing
/ith that
:e which
Drecastlc

»reciated
, written
dressing
Dmpany,

Durt, Mr.
avy, who
I were, as
the Earl
theirs in
difficult
acrity of
;er claim

English
erval of
lunicate
of trials
1 mood

voyage
etaiiicd,
urselves
igf) and
ting the

His father had in the meantime retired from business to
the ••'^treat which he had provided for himself many years
before, and thus the son overwhelms him with inquiries : —

I have formed many and various conjectures concerning the
Enderby House and enjoyments, and of the residences and situa-
tion of my dear brothers and sisters, particularly of VVillingham, not
having heard of or from him since i8ci, nor from Spilsby since June
i8o2. Sensible of the pleasure the receipt of letters will afford,
particularly from home, I trust some kind person will not fail
answering this by return, and mention how every member of the
family is — whether any of the Spilsby friends are dead, whether the
old town looks gay, whether you have received Captain Palmer's
account of the Porpoise's wreck, dated January lo, 1804, and how
my old acquaintances in and about Spilsby are. Some of them have,
I expect, paid the debt of Nature.

A truly characteristic midshipman's account of information-
arrears.

On August 7, 1804, Franklin was discharged from the
Earl Camden, and on the following day he was appointed
to H.M.S. Bellerophon, Captain Loring, which now historic
vessel, after a six weeks' leave spent with his family and
friends, he joined on September 20. And, just as he had
left home for the first time to fight in the great battle of
Copenhagen, so now, at the end of his first short leave of
absence, he quitted England to take part, after only a few
months' longer interval, in the still more memorable struggle
of Trafalgar.

The winter of 1804 was spent in blockading the French
fleet in the harbo'^r of Brest, a new experience for Franklin
in naval operations. In April of the following year Captain
Loring was succeeded in the command of the Bellerophon by
Captain James Cooke, whom the midshipman, in that tone of
kindly patronage which not infrequently marks the gun-room's
criticism of the commanding officer, describes to his mother
as seemi»^g ' very gentlemanly and active ; ' adding, ' I like his
appearance much.' The weary blockade was still continuing,
though spring was ripening into summer ; and Franklin, seizing
an opportunity at Cawsand Bay for an ' epistolary conversa-

■l 'i ii

m
If'

'J6

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

CH. I.

tion with my relatives previous to our departure to resume this
station,' goes on to say : —

We have victualled and stored our ship for six months, for the
purpose of being in perfect preparation to chase the Brest fleet,
should any of them think of moving this summer. There are twelve
sail of us which have fitted for foreign service ; but I believe for no
better reason than the above. Some rumours have sent us out to
the West Inoies, others off Cadiz, and some to the East Indie.= ; but
certainly without foundation.

Then his thoughts revertmg to his father's newly adopted
country life, the young sailor continues in youth's diverting
vein of didactic reflection : —

I trust my father keeps his health and spirits. The farm at this
season of the year must afford him much amusement. The green
fields, the app: caching harvest, all tend to gladden the heart of the
farmer, who measures, as it were, every ray of sun and drop of rain,
and is able to tell that this does good and that harm.

Later on in the letter he adds : —

The Devonshire fields promise good crops. I hope Lincolnshire
does likewise. Days begin to grow long and the shore very pleasant.
I have been on shore once and enjoyed a long walk. To us
Channel-gropers, believe me, a walk on shore, even in the detestable
borders of the seaport, is charming.

Cadiz proved, after all, to be the destination of the
Bellerophon. She sailed in the summer for that port, and
remained there for some time under Lord Collingwood's
-rders, when she was detached with three other ships to
r nvoy the transports and troops despatched i'rom England
.»> Malta with secret orders, supposed, as Franklin says, to
be ' for landing in Egypt should Bonaparte endeavour to
march any force towards our Indian settlements.' Returning
from this duty, the squadron was ordered to blockade the
port and harbour of Carthagenc*, wherein lay six line-of-
battle ships which by some accident had been prevented from
joining the combined fleets of France and Spain, then in the
West Indies, with Nelson hunting for them in vain.

Events meanwhile were rapidly working up to the dramatic
climax of Trafalgar. From the same letter, concluded three

1805

FRANKLIN AT IRAFALGAR

days later, Franklin reports the great Admiral's return to
Cadiz after the final abandonment of his West Indian chase ;
and a little later Collingwood's command was taken over
from him by Nelson, and the British fleet, consisting of twenty-
seven sail of the line and three frigates, was concentrated off
the Spanish coast. Yet another month, and on the ever-
memorable October 21 it closed with those of France and
Spain in that tremendous conflict which was to shatter
Napoleon's hopes of conquest and leave the British flag
supreme on every sea.

The Bellerophon, as all the world knows, was in the thick
of the battle, and Franklin, again appointed to the post of
signal midshipman, was in the hottest of the fire that swept
her decks. The following account of one of the most dramatic
incidents of the action was afterwards given by him to his
brother-in-law, Mr. Booth : —

Very early in the engagement the Bellerophon's masts became
entangled with and caught fast iiold of a French line-of-battle
ship [apparently L'Aigle]. Though the masts were pretty close
together at the top, there was a space between them below, but not
so great as to prevent the French sailors from trying to board the
Bellerophon. In the attempt their hands received severe blows, as
they laid hold of the side of the ship, from whatever the English
sailors could lay their hands on. In this way hundreds of French-
men fell between the ships and were drowned. While the Bellerophon
was fastened to the enemy on one side, another French man-of-war
was at liberty to turn round and fire first one broadside and then
another into the English ship. In consequence 300 men were killed
on board the Bellerophon. At last, after a very sharp contest, the
French ship which was at liberty received such a severe handling
that she veered about and sailed away ; but still a desultory yet
destructive warfare was carried on between the two entangled ships,
until out of forty-seven men upon the quarter-deck, of whom Franklin
was one, all were either killed or wounded but seven. Towards the
end of the action only a very few guns could be fired on either of
the ships, the sailors were so disabled. But there remained a man
in the foretop of the enemy's ship, wearing a cocked hat> who had
during the engagement taken off with his rifle several of the officers
and men. [It was a shot from one of these sharpshooters in the
rigging of the Redoutable, it will be remembered, that struck Nelson
down.] Franklin was standing close by, and speaking to a midship-
man, his most esteemed friend, when the fellow above shot him and

i ':

. m

I! if

■}

■

{ , 1

S ;

(

■ ,;

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

CH. I.

he fell dead at his comrade's feet. Soon after, Franklin and a
sergeant of Marines were carrying down a black seaman to have his
wounds dressed, when a ball from the rifleman entered his breast
und killed the poor fellow as they carried him along. Franklin said
to the sergeant, ' He'll have you next ; ' but the sergeant swore he
should not, and said that he would go below to a quarter of the ship
from which he could command the French rifleman, and would never
cease firing at him till he had killed him. As Franklin was going
back on the deck, keeping his eye on the rifleman, he saw the fellow
lift his rifle to his shoulder and aim at him ; but with an elasticity
very common in his family he bounded behind a mast. Rapid as
the movement was, the ball from the rifle entered the deck of the
ship a few feet behind him. Meantime, so few guns were being dis-
charged that he could hear the sergeant firing away with his musket
from below, and, looking out from behind the mast, he saw the rifle-
man, whose features he vowed he should never forget so long as he
lived, fall over headforemost into the sea. Upon the sergeant coming
up, he asked him how many times he fired : ' I killed him,' said the
sergeant, ' at the seventh shot.'

Franklin h'mself escaped without a wound. Throughout
the greater part of the fight he had been stationed on the poop,
and he was one out of only four or five in that quarter of the
ship who emerged unscathed from the struggle. But even
upon him it left its mark in an injury invisible indeed but
not unfelt. ' After Trafalgar,' says one of his relatives, ' he
was always a little deaf.' To the last day of his life he bore
about with him this troublesome reminder of that furious
cannonade.

The Bellerophon returned to England in December of
1805, Franklin carrying with him a certificate from Lieutenant
Cumby,wlio had succeeded to Captain Cooke's command when
that gallant officer fell, to the effect that he had performed the
duties of signal-midshipman ' with very conspicuous zeal and
ability.' His stay in England, however, was destined to be
only a short one. The Bellerophon remained at Plymouth
no longer than was necessary to refit, and make good the
injuries sustained in the action ; after which she put to sea
again, and for the next eighteen months was employed in
cruising between Finisterre and Ushant. Franklin's connection
with the famous vessel was soon to come to an end. On

.■/J

I ' i

■ L i . i« :i ..

1807

DRAFTED TO THE BEDFORD

>!'

October 27, 1 807, he begins a letter to one of his sisters with
the remark that she will probably be surprised at the new
address from which he writes. Two days before he had been
drafted from the Bellerophon on to the Bedford, 'commanded
by Captain Walker, a smart, active officer, and the ship, ' judge,
will be a fine ship. Report says she is going foreign, but it
must receive some authentication before I can believe it.
Indeed, I hope she may.'

His hopes were realised ; but the foreign service on which

he was despatched turned out to be in disappointing contrast

with the exciting experiences of the recent past. He could

hardly expect, however, that these would be indefinitely

prolonged. The pace, indeed, had been too good to last ; and

there could not have been many midshipmen in His Majesty's

service who had, even in those stirring times, come in for so

large a share of adventure in so short a period as had fallen

to the lot of John Franklin, It was but six years since he

had entered the Navy, a lad of fifteen, and before completing

his twenty-first year he had smelt powder in two of the

greatest naval battles of our history, explored a continent,

suffered shipwreck, and played his part in one of the most

singular and, in its almost comical way, most brilliant exploits

in the annals of our maritime warfare. Thus his courage and

fighting quality had been splendidly tested ; he had had his

training in seamanship on half the waters of the globe ; he had

learnt energy and resource in the stern school of disaster ; and

he had had admirable opportunities for studying navigation

and the scientific branches of his profession in general under

one of the most capable and painstaking of commanding

officers. Fortune had favoured him with many advantages,

but to have made the most of them was his own merit. His

passionate love of his calling had never abated, and his ambition

Lo perfect himself in all its duties had never flagged. There

is no doubt that, thanks in part to his favouring stars, but still

more to his own great gifts as a seaman, he had even at this

early period of his career already qualified himself for a position

of command. By the time he attained his majority he was

'fit to go anywhere and do anything.' But the good luck

■ t

^ I

EARLY YEARS AFLOAT

OH. I.

which had hitherto attended him was now about to bid him
adieu for some time to come. Some years were to pass before
he again escaped from the dull outine of duty into the
field of warlike adventure, and yet a good many more years
before he found his way to that special sphere of maritime
enterprise in which his true vocation lay.

. ,*■

l- -

: } ■

1807

-I

CHAPTER II

SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES
1807-181S

In the concluding chapter of Sou they 's ' Life of Nelson ' the
author of that classic biography, by way of illustrating the
fame of his hero and the confidence reposed in him by
his countrymen, ventu: ^t upon the daring hyperbole that
'the destruction of the French and Spanish fleets, and the
total prostration of the maritime schemes of Napoleon, hardly
appeared to add to our security or strength, lor, while Nelson
was living to watch the combined squadrons of the enemy,
we felt ourselves secure as now, when they were no longer in
existence.' Still, after all, ' stone dead hath no fellow,' and
we can hardly doubt that the annihilation of the French fleet,
saddened though our glorious victory was by the death of
Nelson, was generally regarded by the English nation as
preferable to any other arrangement

The only class among them who might conceivably have
preferred a less complete triumph were the officers of the
British Navy. For the last quarter of a century, with few
and brief intermissions, they had been as well supplied with
opportunities for the practical study of their profession, both
in seamanship and in fighting, as any sailors could desire.
But Nelson had made such a ' clean job ' of it at Trafalgar as
to CMt off the main source of these opportunities at a stroke.
By ?'./eeping the enemies of Great Britain off" the face of the
sea he left her defenders for many years to come without any
efficient training school in naval warfare.

It was Franklin's good fortune to have joined the British
Navy in time to share its last five years of glorious activity ;
had he entered it in 1806 instead of 1801, he would have

1UI

SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES

CH. II.

' k

i I'

■f

been condemned to commence, as he was now to continue,
his career by undergoing as long or a longer spell of un-
eventful and monotonous duty. The record of his service
afloat from the end of 1807 to the beginning of 18 13 is in
effect the history of a continuous patrol. The first mission
of the Bedford after Franklin joined her as ma.ster's mate — a
rank, however, from which he was promoted in a couple of
months to that of acting lieutenant — was to convoy the
fugitive royal family of Portugal, driven from Lisbon by the
French invasion, to Rio Janeiro, and for no less than two
years the vessel remained stationed in South American
waters. She returned tv England in the summer of 18 10,
but for only a very briei period, for the unlucky Walcheren
expedition was on foot, and for the next two years she was
employed in the not much more exciting duty of blockading
Flushing and the entrance of the Texel.

During this period, therefore, the external and public side
of the young sailor's life claims but little of a biographer's
attention, which may be devoted mainly to such details of
his private history and domestic relations as serve to illus-
trate his personal character. To the Franklin family circle
the years which we are now approaching were far from being
unmarked by important events. One at least of these events
had all the memorable qualities of disaster. Early in the
century the commercial affairs of the bank in which Thomas
Franklin had embarked much of his own capital, and in which
a good deal of his father's savings were also invested, took an
unfortunate turn. Thomas became involved in business trans-
actions with one Walker, whose honesty seems to have been
open to something more than suspicion ; and the consequent
pecuniary difficulties in which he found himself entangled led
ultimately to the failure of the Spilsby Bank. The shock of this
calamity brought the son to the grave in 1 807 at the early
age of thirty-four, besides hastening the death of his mother
a few years later ; and it communicated itself in a sufficiently
perceotible fashion even to John himself overseas. During
the twelve or thirteen years of embarrassment due to these
misfortunes, Franklin received no money whatever from

1808

OFF llIO JANEIRO

home. His scanty pay was all he had to subsist on, and his
position in such circumstances must have been one of no
little difficulty and discomfort. But the adversity of the
family only served to bring into stronger relief the fine
qualities of the youngest son. His letters of this period are
full of cheerful courage, and testify throughout to a deep filial
affection, which was further illustrated in the touching little
incident, recorded by his brother-in-law, of his laboriously
saving the sum of 5/. out of his midshipman's pittance and
remitting it to his parents as his mite of relief to their
embarrassed finances.

Most tiresome, perhaps, of all the duties of this mono-
tonous period were those of the squadron detailed to dance
attendance upon the exiled Prince Regent of Portugal and
his Court. They were as dull as the manciiuvres of a
blockade, without any of its sustaining hopes of a possible
engagement. In a letter to his sister from the Bedford,
cruising off Rio Janeiro, in December 1808, one sees how
eagerly he caught at any piece of political news from home
which might seem to promise an earlier close of his dis-
tasteful commission : —

By a corvette from Lisbon despatched purposely to the Prince we
learn that the capitulation entered into by General Dalrymple [the
Convention of Cintra] is done away, and that a considerable number
of the French army are prisoners. This, we hope, may excite the
Prince to a desire of return, an event we all anticipate. There,
again, I think I hear you say : ' Sailors are always dissatisfied : for
instance, my brother and his companions, when living in one of the
most luxuriant countries under heaven's canopy, where the least
exertion in husbandry or agriculture is overpaid by superabundant
return, and whose very bowels contain the richest mines of gold and
silver.' This remark as to the characteristic of sailors may be true,
yet I assure you in this case it is excusable in those obliged to remain
among perhaps the most ungrateful inhabitants of the earth, for whom
it is impossible to have the slightest esteem or respect, subject to
their bigotry, and observers of their lethargy and indecision, with
the greater considerations of a dear, expensive market, and unhealthy
crowded towns.

Still, there were occasional diversions, and one such
adventure of Franklin's on the island of Madeira, whither he

I II

^'^l

^1 ,il I p

SKllVICE IN TWO IIKMISIMIKKES

CM. II.

> iL

' .

had been sent to reclaim two deserters from the Bedford •vho
had beei' captured by the Portuguese authorities, is so well
and graphically told by him in his despatch to his command-
ing officer, Captain Mackenzie, that the amusing story had
best be given in his own words : —

In obedience to your directions (he writes) I herein state the
conduct of Sergeant Joachim Francisco Uramio, who had possession
of the two deserters from H.M.S. Bedford, whom you sent me to
claim on the 25th August, 1809.

After leaving the ship with the person who gave the information
of these men being taken, I went to the captain of tiie regiment by
whom the informer was despatched, and begged he would give orders
that the men might be delivered to me. He sent a guide with the
necessary instructions for the sergeant, whom [the guide] we took on
the boat and proceeded to the spot.

Immediately on entering the village we saw the deserters, appa-
rently unguarded. One was assisting in thatching the sergeant's
house, the other drunk. I inquired for the sergeant, but it was some
time before I saw him, and then he was just rising from his bed, and
drunk also. I desired my interpreter to say those men had deserted
from the Bedford, that I was a lieutenant of the ship, and sent to
claim them by my captain, having also got the necessary orders for
their discharge from his captain. He arose, and very insolently told
me I could not have them, that he had an order from his colonel to
take them on board, as well as a letter from Captain Mackenzie, and
that he meant to carry them the next day. Seeing the facility there
was for their escaping in the night, I pointed out that I had full power
to give any receipt he wished, and that, having come far from the ship,
I did not wish to return without the men. He then grew more
violent, and said : ' Your commander may command his ship but not
the shore,' still persisting in not giving them up to me. Finding all
remonstrance vain on my part, I begged the guide to repeat the
orders he had received from his captain respecting the release of the
two men, and at that repetition he waxed furious, and told him he
did not care for the captain, that he ought not to have acquainted
the English of the two men being in his possession, and that he
would put both the captain and the guide to death.

(Sergeant Joachim Francesco Uramao must evidently have
been very drunk indeed.)

After these expressions I thought it necessary to remind the
sergeant that I should inform you of his conduct, and was assured of
your forwarding the complaint to his superiors. He then cooled

i 5

I'll. II.

ford 'vho
s so well
:)mmand-
tory had

state the
possession
cnt me to

iforniation
igirnent by
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e with the
ve took on

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id sent to

orders for

lently told

colonel to

enzie, and

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full power

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repeat the

ase of the

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mind the
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CAPTURE OK A DESERTEIl

down, and promised to let the men go if I would permit him to
accompany them. This being my original intention, I of course
assented. He prepared himself, and ordered a canoe to follow him.
i'hat, I suppose, was about three o'clock. He afterwards went to
another part of the village and stayed a considerable time. Being
far distant from the ''hip, and night coming on, I became impatient,
and requested his c /mpanions would hasten him and point out the
necessity of our going immediately. After two or three messages he
returned, and positively refused either to let the men go or accom-
pany them himself, using the strange language that ' the English did
not command tliere, and that he did not care for his captain,' &c.,
which was expressed with such gestures as greatly to irritate my feel-
ings as well as those of the men whom I had ordered up. I desired
the interpreter to request that he would give me a decisive answer
whether he meant to release the men to me or not, and also impress
again on his mind that I was fully empowered to give a receipt, and
at the same time to assure him of my firm determination to acquaint
you with every circumstance.

After this explanation he resigned the deserters up to me (by the
advice of many of his neighbours), under the idea of accompanying
them. On our passage over the hill he told me that I might take
him to the Prince, but that he did not care for that. The Prince
did not pay him, and he was under no obligation to serve him,
with many other incoherent expressions, which I did not attend to.
I took hir.: in the boat and left him with the captain, whom I called
on to acknowledge the receipt of the men. I beg leave to mention
that this happened in the presence of Mr. St. Quintin, and of some
men whom I took over the hill to guard the prisoners back, and they
can testify to the prisoners' violent conduct.

Asa specimen of quiet tenacity combined with judgment,
temper, and self-command, the successful taming of this
intoxicated Portuguese sergeant must be admitted to be a
pretty creditable performance for a young naval officer of
two-and-twenty.

The records, however, of these tedious years of patrol-
work abound in evidences of Franklin's impatience with
the life of inaction to which he was condemned. With
the despatch of the Bedford on the Walcheren expedition
he was visited by a delusive gleam of hope ; and his letters
from the Texel throughout the twenty-four months of the
blockade bear amusing witness to his eagerness to come
to blows. Surely, surely the enemy must be ' spoiling for

D 2

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8ERVICK IX TWO HKMISPIIKUKS

CIC. II.

a fight ' as much as himself. ' Our fleet consists of tiftccii
of the line but two are kept off the mouth of the Tcxel,
and two are always in the Downs ; the enemy have
seventeen in readiness and two more about to join. It
is generally supposed they will push for Brest. Surely
such a force will not be kept stationary and useless in the
Scheldt' No, they would come out and give their enemy a
chance at them. But then again occurs the dcpressin;^
thought that there is yet a third pc^sibility. They might
come out only to give the blockaders the slip and sneak
away. ' I fear they will wait for longer nights, and, by taking
advantage ' — a mean advantage Franklin evidently thinks
it — 'of a stiff breeze., run along shore and give us a run-
ning chase, and perhaps avoid a general action. However,
let us hope for the best and wait with patience.'

This virtue, as we all know, was not rev/arded. The
inactivity of the French naval r amanders «u sea was as
masterly as that displayed, according to the famous epigram,
by Lord Chatham and Sir Michard Strahan on land ; and
long before his two years of blockading duty had expired
Franklin had probably given up all hopes of coming to close
quarters with the enemy's fleet. In i8i2 we find him drawing
up memorials of his services for transmission to the Admiralty,
and endeavouring to procure his exchange into another ship,
the frigate Nymphe, with the desire, as he puts it, of ' seeing
the varieties of the service.' His efforts, however, were in
vain ; he was fated to remain in the Bedford until the re-
turn of that vessel to England.

With the commencement of 1813, however, a welcome
change occurred. The war with America had broken out,
and orders were received for the Bedford to convoy a fleet
of merchant vessels to the West Indies. This duty dis-
charged, she was given another nine months' spell of |
blockading duty off" the Texel and Scheveningen ; but in
September of 18 14 she was again sent with a convoy to |
the West Indies, whence she was ordered to New Orleans
to assist in the operations about to be undertaken against the |
Americans. The attack on New Orleans had been decided

cir. Ti.

)f fifteen
e Tcxel,
Tiy have
join. It
Surely
:ss in the
enemy a
cpressin^f
ey might
nd sneak
3y takinfi
y thinks
s a run-
However,

cd. The
a was as
epigram,
ind ; and

expired
T to close

drawing
dmiralty,
ther ship,
)f ' seeing

were in
il the re-

welcomc

Dken out,

oy a fleet

duty dis-

spell of

; but in
:onvoy to
1 Orleans
^ainst the
n decided

1814

UKFOUE NMW OHi.KANH

on, and Franklin, doubtless to his great delight, was one of
the party sent out to execute the preliminary operation of
clearing Lake Borgne of the American gunboats which
had assembled there in force for the protection of the port.

The operations of our military forces befoie New
Orleans are not among the most brilliantly succe^ lul ex-
ploits of the British arms ; but the part played th rein by
the naval contingent can be recalled perhaps with ess dis-
satisfaction than any others of their incidents. This is
especially true of the attack delivered upon the gjnboats
at Lake Borgne, which, whatever may be thought of It
from the strategical point of view, was certainly executed
with a dash and determination highly creditable to the arm
to which it was entrusted.

But a word or two should first be said on the strategical
position of New Orleans itself, a port and town in which, for
reasons best known to our commanders, we gave ourselves
about as hard a nut to crack as could have been picked up
anywhere along the whole eastern seaboard of North America.
The first of the causes which contributed to its safety from
attack was the shallowness of the river at its mouth and the
cxt-cme rapidity of its current. After flowing on in a vast
sheet of water varying in depth from one hundred to thirty
fathoms, the Mississippi divides, before entering the Gulf of
Mexico, into four or five mouths, the most considerable of
which is, or was in those days, obstructed by a sandbank
continually liable to shift. Over this bank no vessel drawing
more than seventeen feet of water could pass ; once across,
there was no longer any difficulty in floating, but it was
dangerous to anchor on account of the huge logs which were
constantly carried down the stream, some on its surface, others
sunken, and borne along by the undercurrent within a few feet
of the bottom.

In addition to these formidable natural obstacles to invasion,
the mouth of the river was defended by a fort which, from its
position, might well have been deemed impregnable. It was
built upon an artificial causeway, and surrounded on all sides
by impassable swamps extending on either bank of the river

•^'n

SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES

CH. ir.

>i I

"I ;iS

ll 'I

to a place called the Detour dcs Anglais some twenty miles
from the city. Here two other forts were erected, one on
each bank, and, like that at the river's mouth, encircled by a
marsh traversable for the garrison only by a single narrow
path from the firm ground beyond. If, therefore, an enemy
should contrive to pass both the bar and the first fort, he
woul 1 inevitably be stopped here ; to land being impossible
because of the nature of the ground, and further ascent of the
river being prevented by its here making so sharp a curve that
vessels were in those days com} ell'^d to await a change of
wind before they could r"ake ai y further way. Moreover,
from Detour des Anglais onwa d to the city the ground,
though broken here and there to 5ome extent by arable land,
was still swampy, and, even where there was foothold, con-
taining no broken ground or any other cover for military
movements.

To attack New Orleans, then, from the river was out of
the question, and the only mode of approaching it was by
way of the lake, or rather gulf, for it was a salt-water inlet,
which deeply indented the shore to the east of the Mississippi
mouths. Even this mode of assault, however, had its diffi-
culties. The shores of the lake were themselves so swampy
as hardly to supply footing for infantry, far less for the dis-
embarkation and transport of artillery. To effect a landing
it would be necessary for an attacking force to avail itself of
the creeks or bayous which run up from the lake towards
the city, but of these there were not more than one or two
that could be so used. The Bayou of St. John was one, but
was too well defended ; another, the Bayou Calatan, was
afterwards actually employed for the purpose. The idea of
the British commander was to effect a landing somewhere on
the bank of the lake after a rapid and, it was hoped, an un-
perceived transit of its waters, and thence to push on and
seize the town before any effectual preparation could be made
for its defence. With this view the troops were transferred
from the larger into the lighter vessels, and these, under convoy
of such gun-brigs as the shallow water would float, began on
December 13, 18 14, to enter Lake Borgne. They had not

\\:- '%

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18U

ATTACK ON THE ULNBOAT.S

proceeded far, however, before it became apparent that the
Americans were aware of their intentions and were fully-
prepared to meet the attack. Five large cutters, armed with
six heavy guns each, were seen at anchor in the distance, and,
as all endeavours to land till these were captured or driven
away would have been useless, the transports and the largest
of the gun-brigs cast anchor, while the smaller craft gave chase
to the enemy. The American cutters, however, were specially
built for operations on the lake, and quickly * got the heels ' of
their pursuers, whose draught of water rendered effective pur-
suit impossible. Yet to leave these pests to hover round the
Ikitish force in a position to cut off any boats which attempted
to cross the lake would have been fatal. It was, therefore,
determined to capture them at all costs, and, since our
lightest craft could not float where they sailed, a flotilla of
launches and ships' barges was got ready for the purpose. It
consisted of fifty open boats manned with a force of one
thousand officers and men, and most of them armed with
carronades. The command of this force was given to Cap-
tain Nicholas Lockyer, and Lieutenant Franklin probably
led a division or subdivision of the attack. About noon of
December 13, writes a chronicler of the campaign, the late
venerable Chaplain-General of the Forces and well-known
author of ' The Subaltern,' the Rf'v. G. R. Gleig, who was
himself attached to the British expeditionary force before
New Orleans, and therefore describes the scene with almost
the authority of an eye-witness. Captain Lockver came in
sight of the enemy moored fore and aft, with their broadsides
pointing towards him.

Having pulled a considerable distance, he resolved to refresh his
men before hurrying them into action ; and, therefore, letting fall
grapplings just beyond reach of the enemy's guns, the crews of the
different boats coolly ate their dinners. As soon as that meal was
finished and an hour spent in resting, the boats again got ready to ad-
vance. But unfortunately a light breeze which had hitherto favoured
tliem now ceased to blow, and they were accordingly compelled
to make way only with the oars. The tide also ran strong against
them, at once increasing their labour and retarding their progress ;
but all these difficulties appeared trifling to British sailors, and.

I I- .

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SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES

cir. II.

► 'K

giving a hearty cheer, they moved steadily onward in one extended
line.

It was not long before the enemy's guns opened upon them, and
a tremendous shower of balls saluted their approach. Some boats
were sunk, others disabled, and many men were killed and wounded ;
but the rest, pulling with all their might, and occasionally returning
the discharges from their carronades, succeeded after an hour's labour
in closing with the Americans. The Marines now began a deadly
discharge of musketry ; while the seamen, sword in hand, sprang up
the vessels' sides in spite of all opposition, and, sabreing every man
that stood in the way, hauled down the American ensign and hoisted
the British flag in its place.

One cutter, however, which bore the commodore's broad pennant,
was not so easily subdued. Having noted its pre-eminence, Captain
Lockyer directed his own boat against it, and, happening to have
placed himself in one of the lightest and fastest sailing barges in the
flotilla, he found himself alongside of the enemy before any of the
others were near enough to render him the slightest support. But,
nothing dismayed by odds so fearful, the gallant crew of this small
bark, following their leader, instantly leaped on board the American.
A desperate conflict now ensued, in which Captain Lockyer received
several severe wounds ; but after fighting from the bow to the stern,
the enemy was at length overpowered, and, other barges coming up to
the assistance of their commander, the commodore's flag shared the
same fate with the others.

In this warm little affair Franklin vas himself wounded ;
and, indeed, though the victory was complete and gave the
British forces undisputed command of the lake throughout
the rest of the campaign, it had to be pretty heavily paid
for. Three midshipmen and fourteen men were killed, while
the captain, three other lieutenants besides Franklin, three
master's mates, one lieutenant of Marines, seven midshipmen
(two mortally), and sixty-one men were wounded. The
American loss was slight by compari.son. For his share in
this action Franklin received a medal and was honourably
mentioned in despatches.

Would that the later operations of this disastrous campaign
had been more worthy of its brilliant beginning, and that its
military chiefs had performed their part with as much skill
and success, instead of only with as much bravery, as their
naval supporters ' The expedition against the cutters had

cir. II.

ne extended

n them, and
Some boats
d wounded ;
lly returning
lour's labour
;an a deadly
i, sprang up
every man
and hoisted

ad pennant,
ice. Captain
ing to have
arges in the
: any of the
'port. But,
!" this small
; American,
^er received
) the stern,
3mingup to
shared the

*voundec! ;
gave the
iroughout
vily paid
led, while
lin, three
Jshipmen
d. The
share in
nourably

:ampaign
i that its
luch skill
as Lheir
ters had

1814

LANDING THE TROOPS

carried our boats many leagues up Lake Borgne. Another
day passed before the crews could get back to their ships,
and it was not till the 15th that the fleet again weighed
anchor and stood up the lake. It was soon found, however,
that not even by the lake route was it possible to carry the
troops up to a point at which a landing could be with any
advantage effected. Ship after ship ran aground ; those
which still floated became more and more overloaded with
the men transferred to them, till at last even vessels of the
lightest draught stuck fast, and boats of necessity had to be
lowered to carry the troops a distance of more than thirty
miles. The distresses of such a method of transport were
greatly enhanced by an unlucky change of the weather, heavy
rains having set in, and finally, after an exposure of ten hours
in their new and confined transports, each division was landed
at a small uninhabited island in the lake, where it was
determined to collect the whole force preliminary to its
debarkation on the main land. Pine Island, as it was called,
apparently from its growing a few stunted firs near the
water's edge, consisted principally of swamp, with a com-
paratively small piece of firm land at one end, on which the
troops were collected. With the exception of alligators,
which abounded in its pools and creeks, it contained no living
creatures but water-fowl, too shy to be shot. It did not even
yield fuel sufficient to supply its wretched tenants with fires.

In these miserable quarters the British army was as-
sembled without tents, huts, or any sort of shelter from the
inclemency of the weather, which, though rainy in the day-
time, became sharply frosty after sunset, so that the saturated
uniforms of the soldiers were frozen hard at night, an ex-
perience naturally fatal to the negroes attached to the service
of the expedition, who perished in considerable numbers in
their sleep. The only food which could be supplied to the
force in the gameless condition of the island was salt meat
and ship biscuit moistened with a little rum. For Franklin
and his comrades these hai dships were in one sense aggravated,
if in another sense perhaps relieved, by the severest physical
toil. Night and day boats were pulling from the fleet to the

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4!i

SERVICE IX T^^•0 HEMISPHERES

CH. It.

island and from the island to the fleet. It was not till the
2 1 St that the last of the troops were got on shore, and, as
there was little time to inquire into ' turns ' of labour, many
seamen were four or five days continually at the oar.

On the 22nd General Keane, the commander of the ex-
pedition, reviewed his forces, and formed an advance guard
of 1,600 men to start on the morrow for the mainland. Their
destination was Bayou Calatan, the creek already spoken of,
which lay at no less a distance than eighty miles from Pine
Island. Nothing, indeed, is more surprising or, though it
compels admiration, more calculated to suggest Marshal
Canrobert's historic utterance than the vastness of the space
which, with no base to speak of and haidly any transport
worthy of the name, our forces had to cover in this remarkable
expedition before they could even get within striking distance
of the enemy. One cannot but suspect that, however
' magnificent ' were these operations considered as feats of
human resource and endurance, they could not possibly be
' war.' As in the later case, however, which called forth the
French general's criticism, the British soldier and sailor never
' reasoned why.' There were not boats enough to transport
more than one-third of the army at a time, so that the
advance guard had to take its chance of being attacked in
detail and cut off before its supports could arrive. Chancing
this, however, as they were bound to do, the force started off
on the 23rd under a sky of lowering clouds, soon to descend
in torrents of rain, and to be followed by the usual frost at
r'ght ; and, after a voyage of some twenty-four hours, pursued
under the exhausting and depressing conditions to which
they had become habituated, they reached the mouth of
Bayou Calatan, where they surprised and easily captured the
small and unsuspicious picket posted there, and by nine o'clock
on the morning of the 24th they at last set foot on the main-
land of America.

Bayou Calatan emerges from the lake about ten miles
below New Orleans ; and, as the nature of the ground on
which the advance guard had landed afforded good cover,
they naturally proposed to lie concealed until they could be

1 ^ L •

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1814

A UE.\TII-TRAP

joined by the remainder of the force. Encouraged, however,
by the reports of deserters who came in, assuring them that
there were not more than five thousand men under arms
throughout the State, among whom not more than twelve
hundred were regular soldiers, and that the whole force was
at present several miles on the opposite side of the town,
expecting an attack on that quarter and apprehending no
danger on this. General Keane resolved to push on into the
open. His forces accordingly made a march of several miles
in the direction of New Orleans, hit off the main road leading
to the city, and finally halted on the neck of land on which it
is built, and which at chat point was not more than a mile
broad, having a marsh on the right hand and the Mississippi
on the left, with the New Orleans road running parallel,
and a lofty dyke between river and highway. Into a more
complete death-trap this unlucky advance guard could hardly
have been led. About seven o'clock in the evening a large
schooner stole up the river and opened a deadly fire of grape
upon them from eighteen guns. There is a grim mixture of
the comic and the tragic in Gleig's account of what followed :

Against this dreadful fire we had nothing whatever to oppose.
The artillery which we had landed was too light to bring into com-
petition with an adversary so powerful ; and, as she had anchored
within a short distance of the opposite bank, no musketry could
reach her with any precision or effect. A few rockets were discharged,
which made a beautiful appearance in the air ; but the rocket is an
uncertain weapon, and these deviated too far from their object to
produce even terror among those against whom they were directed.
Under these circumstances, as nothing could be done aggressively,
our sole object was to shelter the men as much as possible from the
iron hail. With this view they were commanded to leave the camp-
fires and to hasten under the dyke. Thither all accordingly re-
paired without much regard to order and regularity, and, laying our-
selves along wherever we could find room, we listened in painful
silence to the pattering of grape-shot among our huts, and to the
shrieks and groans of those who lay wounded beside them.

■ ft

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Worse still, the attack of the schooner, as they were soon
to discover, was only one part of the enemy's concerted
plan. After lying for almost an hour in this condition, a

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SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES

CH. II.

straggling fire from their piquets attracted their attention,
and, while each man was speculating as to what these new
sounds might portend, they were ' succeeded by a fearful yell
and the heavens were illuminated on all sides by a semi-
circular blaze of musketry,'

It was now clear that we were surrounded, and that by a very
superior force ; and, therefore, no alternative remained but either to
surrender at discretion or to beat back the assailants. The first of
these plans was never for an instant thought of, and the second
was immediately put into force. Rushing from under the bank, the
85th and 95th flew to support the piquets ; while the 4th, stealing to
the rear of the encampment, formed close column and remained as a
reserve. But to describe this action is altogether out of the question,
for it was such a battle as the annals of modern warfare can hardly
match. All order, all discipline, was lost. Each officer, as he was
able to collect twenty or thirty men round him, advanced into the
middle of the enemy, when it was fought hand to hand, bayonet to
bayonet, and sword to sword, with the tumult and ferocity of one of
Homer's combats.

Unfortunately, there was no Olympian god to interfere in
their behalf They had to hold their ground by sheer desperate
fighting, and they succeeded in doing so. The Americans ulti-
mately drew off, leaving them in pos.session of the field. ' Our
loss, however, was enormous. Not less than 500 men (nearly
a third of the force) had fallen, many of whom were our finest
soldiers and best officers, and yet we could not but consider
ourselves fortunate in escaping from the toils even at the
expense of so g. ' ^ sacrifice.' That the toils which it
required so great a sacrifice to escape from need never have
been entered at all is, of course, but too unhappily evident.
On the arrival of General Keane's supports on the following
day with artillery of sufficient strength, the obnoxious
schooner was attacked and blown up, the river cleared of the
enemy, and the position generally made good ; all which, but
for the precipitate forward march of the advanced guard,
would certainly have been accomplished at a far smaller loss
than that of 500 men.

With the arrival of the main body came a new com-
mander, General Sir Edward Pakenham, of Peninsular fame,

1,1

1814

A ROMAN WORK

just despatched from England to succeed General Ross, who
had fallen at Baltimore, and under his command the army
advanced in two columns to within six miles of New Orleans,
where again preparations for defence had been made. The
American army, under General Jackson, an officer destined
both to military and to political celebrity in the later history
of his country, was posted behind an entrenchment, having
the left bank of the Mississippi for its right extremity and
stretching to a dense and impassable forest on the left. The
line was strengthened by a ditch about four feet deep which
ran along its front, and was defended by flank bastions, which
enfiladed its whole extent, and on which a formidable array
of heavy ordnance was placed. On the right bank of the
Mississippi, which is there nearly half a mile broad, a battery
of twenty guns had been constructed.

This formidable line of entrenchments being evidently
much too strong to be carried by a coup de main, several
attempts were made to approach it in strict scientific
fashion. But it was soon found that the enemy's guns were
so superior in weight and numbers that nothing was to be
expected from this species of attack. The position on the
right bank of the Mississippi was evidently the point on which
to direct their efforts, but how to approach it "i There was
only one way of doing so — a most ambitious and laborious
method ; but those blundering heroes shrank from nothing.
Again the services of the naval arm, to which they already
owed so much, were called in, and the task committed to
them was no less a one than that of cutting through the
entire neck of land from the Bayou Calatan to the river, and
constructing a canal of sufficient width and depth to admit
of boats being brought up from the lake in order to convey
an attacking force across the Mississippi. This Roman work
was executed with a spirit worthy of the legions of Caesar.
The men were divided inio four companies, and toiled night
and day at their appointed task. It was not till after a sharp
but indecisive engagement with the enemy on January i that
the order was given, and by the 6th the work was completed.
A general attack on the American position was then planned

• J I'

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SERVICE IN TWO HEMISPHERES

CH. ir.

•i.

for five o'clock on thn morning of the 8th. Colonel Thornton,
with a force of 1,400 men, was to cross the Mississippi during
the previous night, capture the right bank battery, and turn
its guns against the enemy on the other side of the river. In
this foiiorn hope — for the singularly imperfect dispositions of
the adventure almost entitle it to that name — the young
lieutenant of the Bedford bore a gallant part.

On the night of the 7th, Colonel Thornton, with a force of
1,400 men, moved stealthily down to the bank of the river ;
but there were no boats awaiting him. Hour after hour
passed before they came, and only a portion of them arrived
at last. The soft banks of the canal had given way, choking
up the channel and impassably obstructing the passage of the
heavier boats. Instead of a flotilla for 1,400 men, the Colonel
found himself provided with transport for only 350. But
what did that matter? Three hundred and fifty men are not
fourteen hundred, but they are three hundred and fifty. The
Colonel had undertaken to cross the river and carry the enemy's
position on the opposite side, and it was absolutely necessary
that this part of the plan should be carried into execution.
Accordingly, dismissing 1,050 of his force, the Colonel put
himself at the head of 250 men of his own regiment (the 85th),
a division of fifty sailors, of whom Franklin was one, under
Captain Rowland Money, and as many Marines, and crossed
the river.

Instead of reaching it, however, at midnight, dawn was
already breaking when, as they set foot on the landing-place,
a rocket soared into the air from the opposite bank and added
wings to their speed. Pakenham had already begun the
attack. He had either not received intelligence of Thornton's
enforced delay or had disregarded it. With an impatience
which proved fatal to the enterprise, he had determined to
advance without awaiting the concert of his comrade on the
other shore. Scaling-ladders and fascines, however, are no less
desirable appliances in an attack on parapeted works than
boats for the transit of rivers ; and Pakenham was without the
one, as Thornton had been without the other. The troops
actually had to be halted under the enemy's guns while the

.-.A-'^

*!».

1814

BLUNDERING BRAVERY

scaling-ladders were sent for ; but the fire was soon so terrible
that the head of the column, riddled through and through,
fell back in disorder.

The remainder of this shocking — and splendid — story may
be told in the words of Alison : —

Pakenham, whose buoyant courage ever led him to the scene of
danger, thinking they were now fairly in for it, and must go on, rode
to the front, rallied the troops again, led them to the slope of the
glacis, and was in the act, with his hat off, of cheering on his fol-
lowers, when he fell mortally wounded, pierced at the same moment
by two balls General Gibbs also was soon struck down. Keane,
who led on the reserve, headed by the 93rd, shared the same fate ;
but that noble regiment, composed entirely of Sutherland High-
landers, a thousand strong, instead of being daunted by the carnage,
rushed with frantic valour through the throng, and with such fury
pressed the leading files on that, without either fascines o: ladders,
they fairly found their way by mounting upon each other's shoulders
into the works. So close and deadly, hov/ever, was the fire of the
riflemen when they got in, that the successful assailants were cut off
to a man.

At last. General Lambert, to whom the death of Pakenham
and the disablement of Gibbs and Keane had transferred the
command, finding that it was impossible to carry the work
and that the slaughter was tremendous, drew off the remnant
of his shattered troops.

Meanwhile, the attack on the right bank battery had been
brilliantly successful. The enemy on that side outnumbered
Thornton's force by three to one and was strongly entrenched.
The assailants had not a Fi.igle piece of artillery nor any
means but such as Nature provided of scaling the rampart ;
but they prepared without a moment's hesitation for an
assault. The 85th extended its files across the entire line of
the enemy, the Marines formed in rear of the centre as a
reserve and at the sound of the bugle Money's little band of
sailors . hed forward with a shout upon the guns. For an
instant they wavered under the heavy discharge of grape and
canister which met them, but, recovering themselves, they
pushed on, and, the 8sth dashing forward to their aid, the
whole force swept into and over the works like a wave. The

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SKIIVICE IX TWO IIEMISPIIRRKS

cir. ir.

».

Americans biokc and fled, leaving the British in possession of
their tents and of their eighteen pieces of artillery. Just at
the moment, however, when they were about to turn these
guns against the enemy, news reached them of the repulse of
Pakenham's attack, and with it the disappointing order to
abandon a captured position which Lambert's forces were not
strong enough to hold. Deeply dispirited, we may imagine,
by these evil tidings, the winners of this barren victor\-
rejoined their defeated comrades on the opposite bank of the
river. The whole force retreated on the night of the i8tli,
and in another ten days they were re-embarked.

Franklin's .share in this sharp engagement, in which his
commander, Captain Money, was desperately wounded, though
he himself escaped without a scratch, was an important ad-
dition to the young ofificer's list of services, and he was in
consequence of it recommended officially and very warmlj',
though in the result, as will be seen, ineffectually, for pro-
motion. The Bedford, which does not .seem to have taken
part in the subsequent and more successful operations against
Fort Boyer, near Mobile, in February 1815, set sail for home
in March of that year, and reached Spithead on May 30. She
was paid off on July 5 following, and, though Franklin had
served on board of her uninterruptedly for five years, he was
reappointed to another ship two days afterwards. He joined
the Forth as first lieutenant, under Captain Sir William
Bolton, ^nd remained until she al.so was paid off in the
following September ; the only incident worth recording of
this short period of service being the employment of the
vessel to convey the Duchesse d' Angoulemc to France on her
return to her native country at the Restoration.

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i 1815

CHAPTER III

THE DOROTHEA AND THE TRENT
1815-1818

It is noteworthy, as showing the natural bent of the born
explorer, that during these years of inaction it was upon mari-
time discovery rather than naval warfare that Franklin's mind
was fixed. It was not to Copenhagen and Trafalgar, but to
the shores of Australia and the waters of the Southern Ocean,
that his thoughts reverted. His heart was evidently with
the crazy old Investigator, mouldering ingloriously as a store-
house hulk at Port Jackson, rather than with the Polyphemus
and the Bellerophon, ' twin thunderbolts of war ' though they
were. He Icnged for fresh employment in the work of ex-
ploration ; yet, while all his inquiring and adventurous in-
stincts urged him in this direction, his legitimate professional
ambitions acted to some extent as an opposing influence.
The difficulty of his position is strikingly brought out in
an interesting letter, written in August 18 14, in which one
sees his shrewd common-sense almost amusingly at odds
with his enthusiasm. He had previously written to Mr.
Robert Brown, who had sailed with him as naturalist in the
Investii^ator, deploring the fact that Captain Flinders's
narrative of his voyage had not reached the public till the
very day of its author's death, and reflecting in a somewhat
depressed tone on the unlikelihood of any official recognition
being given to the services of the younger officers under
Flinders's command. Mr. Brown had remarked in his reply
on the possibility, and even probability, that another voyage
of discovery would soon be thought of, and had intimated
that he might have an opportunity of suggesting the employ-
ment of his correspondent thereon, ' provided I were certain

Tin-: DOUOTIIEA AND THE TUKXT

CH. III.

I (

i'l!

iftpir

that you would have no objection, or rather that you wouUI
prefer, to embark again in this line of the service.' To this
Franklin answers : —

I am extremely obliged also for ycyur communication that it is
possible another voyage may he thought of, and particularly grateful
for the kindness you have evinced by retjuesting my views on the
subject of being employed therein. I have no hesitation in assuring
you they are decidedly in favour of that service ; but I should hope,
were an offer ever made to me, it would be accompanied by pro-
motion. To embark on an expedition of that nature without some
grounds for sanguine expectation, when an absence of five or six
y , -s may be calculated upon, and a total separation from any chance
of improving your interest, is a most serious consideration ; and per-
haps on return, with a constitution much shattered, you may find the
patrons and friends of the voyage either removed or unable to pro-
cure you the appointment you have anxiously sought. These, my
dear sir, are objections, you will readily admit, I think, which ought
to have some weight, and even might be used (without the impu-
tation of being inclined to cavil) as an argument why they should
give me promotion previous to starting.

In the end, however, disinterested enthusiasm wins.

I will, however, confess these disadvantages would not discourage
me, so interested do I feel in that service ; and could I suppose it
probable that a responsible office in such a voyage would be offered
me, I should think it my duty to devote my greatest attention to
those studies which would fit me for the better performance of it.

Again, it was but a few weeks since he had forwarded to
the Admiralty a statement of his services and testimonials
from his various commanding officers in support of an ap-
plication for promotion, and he feared to appear importunate
by applying again so soon.

By December 1814 he had added to these services and
strengthened their resulting claim by his share in the brilliant
dash at the gunboats of New Orleans and in the subsequent
attack on the forts. But in the next year, unfortunately for all
young ambitions in either service, came the Peace of Vienna ;
and then to Franklin's renewed application for promotion
came the curt official answer from Lord Melville that, ' having
read the petition of Lieutenant John Franklin/ he was sorry
he could not hold out any expectation of his advancement

1818

ARCTIC KX.l'LOUATlON

fi]

at an early period. ' As the Navy,' added the First Lord,
* is now placed on a peace establishment, all promotion must
in consequence cease, excepting in the few cases that may
occur on the foreign stations.'

Neither promotion nor renewal of active service seemed
in prospect, and there was no;hin;^ for the young officer but
to submit as patiently as might be to that which his restless
spirit always found it hardest to bear — inaction. The next
three years were spent principally with members of his
family in Lincolnshire and elsewhere ; and though, no doubt,
he was continually on the look-out for any signs of change
in the official horizon, there is no trace among the corre-
spondence of these years of any renewed application to the
Admiralty. The opportunity which at last came to him,
and by which his future career was practically determined,
came, as far as can be ascertained, unsought.

It is not very easy to discover why at this particular
moment the spirit of Arctic exploration should suddenly have
taken possession of the Ministerial mind. The then Secretary
of the Admiralty, Sir John iJarrow, was, it is true, an ardent
creographer, and specially interested in the subject of Polar
research. He had carefully collected all the reports bearing
on its conditions and possibilities, as affected mainly by the
state and situation of the ice in high northern latitudes ; nd
with this information as a basis he drew up an elaborate
scheme for the exploration of the Arctic regions. This,
warmly supported by the President and Council of the Royal
Society, was subm.itted to the Lords of the Admiralty, by
whom it was also approved. But many a Secretary might
have piped to a Government as inspiritingly without inducing
that Governnient to dance. The three years of inaction may
have begun to bore even Whitehall itself ; or the favour with
which Sir John Barrow's idea was received by the public may
have insensibly influenced the official mind ; or some other
unknown or now forgotten impulse may have been in opera-
tion. This only is certain, that an interest in Arctic discovery,
which had slept for nearly half a century in Ministerial
bosoms, suddenly awakened. It was five-and-forty years

! ;

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E 2

:( ;

THE DOROTHEA AND THE TRENT

CH. in.

*♦.

■W

( < ■

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1

since the Racehorse, under Captain Phipps, and the Carcass,
under Commander Lutwidge, bearing the young Horatio
Nelson and his fortunes, set sail from Sheerness with orders

o proceed to the North Pole, or as close to it as ice and
' '■her obstructions would permit, and reached a latitude of

,o° 48', returning three months later in the same year, 1773.
And now, in 1818, a British Government had again made up
its mind to another attack on the same problem, and had even
indeed resolved to combine it with another project. The Ad-
miralty now contemplated the despatch of two expeditions —
one with the object of endeavouring to discover a passage round
the northern and north-western coasts of America from the
Atlantic to the Pacific ; the other for the purpose of attempt-
ing to reach the North Pole. What is more, they proceeded
to give what to the English mind has always seemed the best,
perhaps the only, proof that a man or a Government means
business. Where the private citizen ' backs his opinion ' with
a bet, the State is expected to support the undertaking which
it patronises by the offer of a reward.

So many, moreover, of our national enterprises leave their
mark in some form or other on the Statute Book, that the
history of this revival of English interest in Arctic exploration
would not have been complete unless it had included an Act
of Parliament in its records. The recitals of this enactment
bear ample witness to the fact that the impulse which gave
birth to it was no new one in our history. Among the refer-
ences to past legislation which are to be found in 58 George
III. c. 20, 'An Act for more effectually discovering the
longitude at sea and encouraging attempts to find a Northern
Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and to
approach the Northern Pole,' is one from which it will be
seen, to the surprise perhaps of most people, that the last-
mentioned project had engaged the attention of the Imperial
Legislature more than seventy years before. As far back as
1745 an Act had been passed offering a reward of 20,000/.
to the owner or owners of any ship or vessel which should
first find out and navigate a 'North- West Passage through
Hudson's Straights to the Western and Southern Oceans of

Us',- J

■^

1818

ADMIRALTY INSTRUCTIONS

America ; ' and thirty-one years later ' a sum of 5,000/. was
offered to any person who should approach by sea within one
degree of the Northern Pole.'

This last provision was extended in the Act of 18 18 by a
clause providing that ' for the encouragement of oersons who
may attempt the said passage or approach the Northern Pole,
but not wholly accomplish the same,' it should be competent
for certain commissioners appointed under the Act to propose,
by memorial to the King in Council, ' to direct and establish
proportionate rewards to be paid to such person as aforesaid
who shall first accomplish certain proportions of the said
Passage or Approach.' In pursuance of this, a scale of reward
was subsequently fixed by 0'"dei in Council according to which
any vessel that first succeeded in reaching the 83rd parallel
of latitude would be entitled to a reward of i ,000/. ; double
that sum would be granted for crossing the 85th parallel ;
3,000/. to any vessel that should reach 87° N. ; 4,000/ for
attaining the 88th parallel, and 5,000/ for the Pole.

It was apparently regarded in ofificial as well as unofificial
circles as not at all improbable that the largest of these rewards
would be actually earned. Indeed, one cannot resist a slight
feeling of amusement at noting, after a lapse of nearly eighty
years, the tone of easy familiarity with which the Admiralty of
that period spoke of the North Pole — a tone which almost
recalls ti,e well-known pleasantry about a certain famous
critic's attitude towards the Equator. ' Should you reach the
Pole, your future course must mainly depend,' &c. ' If . . .
the weather should prove favourable, you are to remain in the
vicinity of the Pole for a few days, in order to the more accu-
rately making the observations which it is to be expected
your interesting and unexampled situation may furnish you
with.' Interesting and unexampled indeed ! ' On leaving
the Pole you will endeavour,' &c. ' Should you, either by
passing over or near the Pole or by any lateral direction, make
your way to Fehring Straits, you are,' &c. Such are the
constantly recurring phrases of the instructions issued by
the Admiralty, and probably framed by Sir John Barrow
himself, for the conduct of this expedition ; and their confident

aui,

, I

THE DOROTHEA AM) THE TRENT

CU. III.

handling of their obscure subject is to be attributed not only
to the imperfect acquaintance even of the best geographers of
that day with the terraqueous conditions of the Polar regions,
but also no doubt to the glorious belief then prevalent, a sur-
vival from the great war, that there was no exploit under
heaven which the British Navy and its sailors could not
perform, in all probability at the first attempt.

The Admiralty, it must be admitted, set about the work
in a spirit of thoroughness. Though their Lordships spoke
familiarly of the object of their attack, they did not actually
expect that they could, so to speak, stroll into the Arctic
citadel at any point they might choose to select. They
deemed it advisable, as we have seen, to organise two
distinct plans of assault and to approach the stronghold
from two different sides. Four vessels were accordingly
prepared for the service, two of which, the Isabella and the
Alexander, under the command respectively of Captain Ross
and Lieutenant Parry, were to proceed by the western route
through Baflfin's Bay ; while the other two, the Dorothea and
the Trent, were to take what is called the Spitzbergen route
due northwards. For the command of the second expedition
the Admiralty selected Captain David Buchan, R.N., who
had a short time previously distinguished himself in charge of
an expedition into the interior of Newfoundland. The vessel
on which he hoisted his pennant was the Dorothea, a ship of
370 tons burden, and Lieu* nant I'Vanklin was placed under
his orders in command of the smaller Trent, a brig of 250
tons. Both th( se vessels were hired into the service for the
occasion, and ere taken into dock, where they were ren-
dered — or, unfor mately, supposed to have been rendered
— as strong as w ood and iron could make them. Captain
Buchan's instructions were to make the best of his way into
the Spitzbergen seas, and thence to endeavour to force his
ships northward between Spitzbergen and Greenland. If
successful in reaching the Pole — a contingency which, in the
then state of knowledge as to the condition of the seas in the
highest latitudes, was evidently quite within official contem-
plation — the commander of the expedition was, if the weather

■^TS

CIt. III.

1818

ADM I II A LT Y IXSTItUCTION S

j»' -*

Ot»

was favourable, to remain, as we have seen, for a few days in
the vicinity of the Pole for the purpose of making observa-
tions. On ' leaving the Pole ' they were to shape their course
for Behring Strait, or, if this proved impracticable, to sail
round the north end of Greenland and return home by
Baffin's Bay and Davis Straits. If the Dorothea and the
Trent were unable to reach the Pole, but if it seemed possible,
without accomplishing that feat, to hit off a course afford-
ing any prospect of reaching Behring Strait, Buchan and
Franklin werr directed to take it, ' recollecting that, although
it is highly desirable in the interests of science and the
extension of natural knowledge that you should reach the
Pole, yet that the passage between the Atlantic and the
Pacific is the main object of your mission.' And this
elaborately framed document goes on to give minute
instructions for the conduct of the two commanders in the
event of their discovering and navigating the North- West
Passage. They are then to make the best of their way to
Kamschatka, call on the Russian Governor for the purpose
of delivering to him duplicates of all the journals and other
documents which the voyage may have produced, for imme-
diate transmission overland to London, proceed thence to the
Sandwich Islands or New Albion or some other place in the
Pacific Ocean to refit and to refresh their crews, winter
there, and in the spring repass Behring Strait once more,
and return home to England by the way they had come. It
is true, a discretion is allowed them as to the attempt of this
last-mentioned feat. They are maturely to consider and
weigh the prudence of making it. 'If your original passages
should be made v.ith facility, and you see reason to believe
that your success was not owing to circumstances merely
accidental or temporary, and that there is a probability that
you may be able, also, to accomplish the passage back, it
would be undoubtedly of great importance that you should
endeavour to make it ; but if, on the other hand, it shall have
been attended with circumstances of danger or difficulty so
great as to persuade you that the attempt to return would
risk the safety of the ships and the lives of the crews, you in

■';'»,_

! :| 3

ill iji

Sli

THE DOROTHEA AND THE TRENT

CH. ITI.

this case are to abandon all thought of returning by the
northern passage, and are to make the best of your way
homeward by Cape Horn.' And this portion of a tolerably
comprehensive, not to say ambitious, itinerary concludes with
certain orders as to concerted action between the two expedi-
tions of which the cardinal injunction is to ' fix with Captain
Ross, to whom the other expedition is entrusted, upon a
rendezvous in the Pacific '

One more extract must, however, be made from it by the
quotation of a passage having reference to a contingency
which was in fact realised : —

In the event of any irreparable accident happening to either of the
ships, you are to cause the officers and crew of the disabled ship to
be removed into the other, and with her singly to proceed in prose-
cution of the voyage or return to England according as circumstances
shall appear to require. Should, unfortunately, your own ship be the
one disabled, you are in that case to take command of the Trent ;
and in the event of your inability, by sickness or otherwise, to carry
these instructions into execution, you are to transfer them to the
lieutenant next in command, who is hereby required to execute them
in the best manner he can for tne attainment of the several objects
in view.

On April 25 the two vessels sailed out of the Thames,
after an experience of the popular feeling in the matter which
shows in how lively a fashion the enterprise had impressed
itself on the public imagination of that day. Thus, writing
to Mrs. Cracroft on April 6, Franklin says : —

I hope we shall have left the Nore by this day week. We all go
in the highest spirits, and indeed it would be ungrateful to feel other-
wise, encouraged as we have been by the kind interest and attention
of all ranks of society. It would be quite impossible for me to convey
to you the amazing interest our little squadron has excited. Deptford
has been covered with carriages and the ships with visitors every day
since they were in a state to be seen. Indeed, their coming in such
shoals has greatly retarded our equipment. We have, in fact, moved
further down the river to prevent that general influx, and shall now, I
hope, be enabled to get our ships in tolerable order before sailing
further.

It was not, however, mere vulgar curiosity alone which
drew so many visitors to the Dorothea and Trent.

1818

BUCHAN'S EXPEDITIOX

£7

You would be surprised to hear the number of persons this voyage
has led me to become personally known to, some of them persons of
considerable rank and all men of scientific eminence. They have
most of them submitted some queries to be solved by us, or sugges-
tions for us to be guided by, and all have expressed earnest wishes
for our success. ... It really seems quite ridiculous to find myself
placed among these parties, when I consider how little I know
of the matters which usually form the subject of their conversations.
At present, however, the bare circumstance of going to the North Pole
is a sufficient passport anywhere. What a fortunate person must I,
therefore, consider myself to be to have it, and thankful indeed to
my good friends who procured it for me ! I only hope I may have
the opportunity of evincing my gratitude by an ardent exertion of
earnest endeavours in the cause they have so much at heart.

And the letter concludes, as was Franklin's affectionate wont,
with much kindly and playful talk of his little nieces Sophy
and Isabella : —

I hope you will endeavour to keep upon their minds the remem-
brance of Uncle John, or rather make them familiar with my name ;
and I trust it will not be long ere they may have an opportunity of
becoming familiar with my countenance also ; which, if they see me
after it has been reddened and hardened by a Polar winter, they
will not, I think, at the age they will then be, easily forget.

He then goes on to give a lively description of his Arctic
outfit, which included, we learn, 'a beautiful mask for the face
in the most severe weather and noses for the more mild.'

The only first-hand account of this voyage is contained in
a volume published five-and-twenty years later by Captain
Beechey, who sailed as Franklin's first lieutenant in the Trent.
It is a most spirited narrative of a voyage the interest of
which as a series of maritime adventures considerably ex-
ceeded its scientific results. The Dorothea and Trent failed
to get any nearer to the Pole than between the 8oth and 8ist
parallels of latitude, at which point their progress was arrested
by an impenetrable barrier of ice ; and a subsequent attempt
to force a passage westward, in pursuance no doubt of the
alternative plan prescribed in their instructions, was equally
unsuccessful.

But, considered as a record of manifold dangers and diffi-

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THE DOROTHEA AND THE TUENT

CH. III.

culties encountered with unflinching courage and overcome
by brilliant seamanship, the story of their voyage must always
hold a high place in the history of Arctic adventure. The
Admiralty, as it turned out, had made a contribution of its
own to the trials of the voyagers by providing them with one
unseaworthy ship. Even before leaving Lerwick a leak was
discovered in the sides of the Trent, and it was with difficulty
that the vessel was sufficiently patched up to proceed on her
journey. Twice were they beset in the pack, the first time
for thirteen days, and the second for three weeks ; and on the
former occasion it was discovered that a workman, of a type
better known perhaps in these days than in those, had also,
though with a guilt more deliberate than that of his superiors,
lent a hand to their destruction. A dockyard shipwright had
murderously left out a bolt in the process of construction and
concealed the defect by smearing the hole with pitch.

This, however, is somewhat to anticipate the history of a
voyage which, short as it was, abounded in incidents. The
two vessels made Magdalena Bay, on the north-west coast
of Spitzbergen — not without having experienced some very
rough weather on their northward voyage — by the beginning
of June, and resolved to wait for a few days in order to give
time to the loosened ' pack ' of the previous winter to com-
plete the process of its dispersal. But in the course of the
survey and exploration of the Spitzbergen coast — an experi-
ence which first inspired Franklin with his henceforth insa-
tiable passion for Arctic travel — the commander of the Trent
had a narrow escape of his life, from a danger which the
explorers had probably not included in their calculations be-
fore starting. Icebergs they knew of as a source of Arctic
peril, but they had no doubt mentally contemplated them
only as in actual existence and not as in process of creation ;
nor had it occurred to them that to assist at the birth of an
iceberg from its mother glacier was so hazardous an under-
taking as they found it. Twice did they witness this act of
Titanic parturition, a picturesque and animated account of
which is given by Captain Beechey in his ' Voyage of Dis-
covery towards the North Pole : ' —

1818

BIIITII OF AN ICEI3E1IG

fi9

On two occasions we witnessed avalanches on the most magnificent
scale. The first was occasioned by the discharge of a musket at
about half a mile distance from the glacier. Immediately after the
report of the gun a noise resembling thunder was heard in the direc-
tion of the iceberg, and in a few seconds more an immense piece
broke away and fell headlong into the sea. The crew of the launch,
supposing themselves to be beyond the reach of its influence, quietly
looked upon the scene, when presently a sea rose and rolled towards
the shore with such rapidity that the crew had not time to take any
precaution, and the boat was in consequence washed up on the beach
and completely filled by the succeeding wave. As soon as their
astonishment had subsided they examined the lioat, and found her
so badly stove that it became necessary to repair her in order to
return to the ship. They had also the curiosity to measure the dis-
tance the boat had been carried by the wave, and found it ninety-six
feet.

On the second occasion they were much nearer the scene
of the convulsion, and might easily have been overwhelmed
by the avalanche in its descent : —

Lieutenant Franklin and myself had approached one of these
stupendous walls of ice, and were endeavouring to search into the
innermost recess of a deep cavern that was near the foot of the glacier,
when we heard a report as of a cannon, and, turning to the quarter
whence it proceeded, we perceived an immense piece of the front of
the berg sliding down from a height of two hundred feec at least into
the sea, and dispersing the water in every direction, accompanied by
a loud grinding noise, and followed by a quantity of water, which,
being previously lodged in the fissures, now made its escape in num-
berless small cataracts over the front of the glacier. We kept the
boat's head in the direction of the sp" , and thus escaped the disaster
which had befallen the other boat, for the disturbance occasioned by
the plunge of this enormous fragment caused a succession of rollers,
which swept over the surface of the bay, making its shores resound
as it travelled along it, and at a distance of four miles was so con-
siderable that it became necessary to right the Dorothea, which was
then careening, by immediately releasing the tackles which confined
her.

The piece that had been disengaged at first wholly disappeared
under water, and nothing was seen but a violent boiling of the sea
and a shooting-up of clouds of spray like that which occurs at the
foot of a great cataract. After a short time, it raised its head full a
hundred feet above the surface, with water pouring down from all
parts of it, and then labouring as if doubtful which way it should

i! • I

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THE DOROTHEA AND THE TRENT

OH. III.

J] . I

! .'S

fall over, and, after rocking about some minutes, it at length became
settled.

We now approached it, and found it nearly a quarter of a mile
in circumference and sixty feet out of the water. Knowing its spe-
cific gravity, and making a fair allowance for its inequalities, we
computed its weight at 421,660 tons.

On June 7 the expedition quitted Magdalena Bay after
five days' stay, but found the ice outside in much the same
condition as when they had left it. They stood along its
margin searching for an opening, but in vain, and soon after-
wards they were driven by the wind into the pack. Here
they remained beset for several days, and in a position at
times of no little danger.

On one occasion, the Trent, though she appeared to be so
closely wedged up that it did not seem possible for her to be
moved, was suddenly lifted four feet by an enormous mass of
ice getting under her keel ; at another time the fragments of
the crumbling floe were piled up under her bows, to the great
danger of her bowsprit. Nor was the Dorothea in less immi-
nent peril. The point of a floe came in contact with her side,
where it remained a short time, and then, glancing off", im-
pinged upon the larger mass of ice to which the vessel was
moored. The terrible pressure to which she had been sub-
jected was then demonstrated by the rending asunder of the
larger mass ; while the point of the floe was broken into
fragments, which were speedily heaped up in a pyramid
thirty-five feet in height, upon the very summit of which
there appeared a huge mass bearing the impression of the
planks and bolts of the vessel's bottom. And all this time,
while the roaring of the sea upon the edge of the pack and
the stormy sky showed plainly that it was blowing a gale at
sea, ' the ships were so perfectly becalmed that the vane at
the masthead was scarcely agitated.' The silent tightening
of the fearful grasp in which the vessels were held was the
only sign of the elemental war outside.

The summer being now pretty well advanced, the ex-
plorers began to perceive that if any progress northward was to
be made that year it must be begun at once. Captain Buchan

lU- '

1818

AN ARCTIC GALE

accordingly resorted to the laborious experiment of dragging
the vessels through the ice wherever the smallest opening was
to be found. Iron hooks having been driven into the ice, large
ropes were attached to them, and by dint of working these
with the windlass and removing obstructions in the channels
with the ice-saws, they succeeded, after several hours of labour,
in reaching a tolerably clear lane of water, where, with the aid
of their sails, they ran a few miles to the northward. The
following two days were spent in the same toilsome work,
after which they found, to their cruel mortification, that they
had all the time been contending against a current flowing
from the north so strongly as to carry the pack in a south-
ward direction at a greater rate of speed than that of their
own northward advance over its surface. At the end of two
long days of toil they found that they were actually eleven or
twelve miles lower in latitude than they had been at the be-
ginning of the period.

On July 19, Captain Buchan came definitely to the con-
clusion that it was vain to attempt further progress to the
northward. The only course open to them was to abandon
the endeavour to reach the Pole, and, regaining the open sea
as quickly as possible, to try a westward course. They were
now, however, about thirty miles distant from the open sea,
and it was only after nine days' incessant labour in warping
the ships in the required direction that they had at last
the satisfaction of finding themselves in clear water, and were
able to turn their ships' heads to the west. But here the
f^ravest peril which they encountered, and the one which put
their courage and the resources of their seamanship to the
severest test, assailed them. Hardly had they entered on
their new course when a furious gale sprang up, and to escape
immediate destruction they were driven to the unusual and
almost desperate expedient of taking shelter in the pack.
One of the largest hemp cables was cut up into lengths of
about thirty feet, and with these pieces, together with some
walrus hides and iron plates, a sort of shield was constructed
round the hull of the ship to protect it against damage from
the huge blocks of ice with which it would have to come into

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THE DOROTIIKA AND THE TRENT

CH. III.

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contact. While still a few fathoms from the ice, they searched
with anxiety for a place that was more open than the general
line of the pack, but in vain ; all parts appeared to be equally
impenetrable, and to present one unbroken line of breakers,
on which immense pieces of ice were heaving and subsidini^
with the waves, and dashing together with a violence which
nothing apparently but a solid body could withstand. To
continue in the stirring words of Beechey's narrative : —

No language, I am convinced, can convey an adequate idea of the
terrific grandeur of the effect now produced by the collision of the
ice and the tempestuous ocean. The sea violently agitated, and
rolling iis mountainous waves against an opposing body, is at all
times a sublime and awful sight ; but when, in addition, it encounters
immense masses of ice which it has set in motion with a violence
equal to its own, its effect is prodigiously increased. At one moment
it bursts upon these icy fragments, and buries them many feet be-
neath the wave, and the next, as the buoyancy of the depressed body
struggles for reascendency, the water rushes in foaming cataracts over
its edges, while every individual mass, rocking and labouring in its
bed, grinds against and contends with its opponent until one is either
split with the shock or upheaved upon the surface of the other.
Nor is this collision confined to any paiLicular spot ; it is going on
as far as the sight can reach ; and when from the convulsive scene
below the eye is turned to the extraordinary appearance of the ' ice
blink ' in the sky above, where the unnatural clearness of a calm and
silvery atmosphere presents itself, bounded by a dark, hard line of
stormy clouds — such as at this moment lowered over our masts, as if
to mark the confines within which the efforts of man would be of no
avail — the reader may imagine the sensation of awe which must
accompany that of grandeur in the mind of the beholder.

Then follows a striking piece of testimony to the un-
shaken nerve, or, one might better say, to the buoyant bravery
of Franklin, on whom the mere imminence of deadly peril
seems always to have produced an exhilarating effect : —

At the instant when we were about to put the strength of our
little vessel in competition with that of the great icy continent, and
when it seemed almost presumption to reckon on the possibility of
her surviving the unequal conflict, it was gratifying in the extreme to
observe in all our crew the greatest calmness and resolution. If
ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried, it wa3 assuredly on this
occasion ; and I will not conceal the pride I felt in witnessing the
bold and decisive tone in which the orders were issued by the com-

1818

lUNNIXa FOR THE PACK

niander of our little vessel, and the promptitude and steadiness with
which they were executed by the crew.

A few minutes more and they were within a few yards of
the tossing, jostling herd of icebergs into which they were
about to plunge : —

Each person instinctively secured his own hold, and, with his
eyes fixed upon the masts, awaited in breathless anxiety the moment
of concussion. It soon arrived ; the brig, cutting her way through the
light ice, came in violent contact with the main body. In an instant
we all lost our footing, the masts bent with the im[)etus, and the
cracking timbers from below bespoke a pressure which was calculated
to awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel staggered under
the shock, and for a moment seemed to recoil ; but the next wave,
curling up under her counter, drove her about her own length within
the margin of the ice, where she gave one roll, and was immediately
thrown broadside to the wind by the succeeding wave, which beat
furiously against her stern, and brought her lee side in contact with
the main body, leaving her weather side exposed at the same time to
a piece of ice about twice her own dimensions. . . . Literally tossed
from piece to piece, we had nothing left but patiently to abide the
issue, for we could scarcely keep our feet, much less render any
assistance to the vessel. The motion was so great that the ship's
bell, which in the heaviest gale of wind had never struck by itself,
now tolled so continually that it was ordered to be muffled, for the
purpose of escaping the unpleasant association it was calculated to
produce.

By dint of crowding on more sail, Frankh'n succeeded in
forcing the Trent further into the pack, where its masses of
ice were less violently agitated, and in a few hours the gale
subsided. Open water was reached on the following morn-
ing, and the two vessels, for the Trent's consort had also
weathered the storm, sought refuge in Fair Haven, a bay on
the northern shore of Spitzbergen. Franklin and Buchan then
proceeded to examine their wounded ships. They proved, as
might have been expected, to have sustained fearful injuries
in this glacial tournament. The Trent was much mauled,
but the Dorothea was the worse sufferer of the two. She was
indeed so desperately damaged on her port side that it was a
wonder she had been able to keep afloat.

Exploring was obviously at an end for her ; it was felt

THE DOROTHEA AND THE TRENT

CH. ITT.

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that she must cither at once rcturTi to Enpjiand or be aban-
doned. Franklin tried hard to persu.ide his superior officer
that the Trent was still fit for service, and pleaded earnestly
for permission to pursue their enterprise ; but Captain Ikichan,
no doubt wisely, declined to listen to his impetuous comrade.
His official instructions, indeed, hardly permitted him to
accede to Franklin's request. These instructions, it may
be remembered, expressly enjoined him, in the event of his
own ship bcinpj disabled, to take command of the Trent ; but
in that case what was to be done with the Dorothea ? Had
any ' irreparable accident ' happened to her, it would, it is true,
have been his duty to ' cause her officers and crew to be re-
moved ' to her companion vessel, and either to proceed with
that vessel ' singfly in prosecution of the voyage, or to return
to England as circumstances should appear to require.' But
the Dorothea was not irreparably damaged ; .she was perhaps
sufficiently seaworthy to accomplish the return journey to
England, though not to face new dangers in the Arctic seas ;
and he did not, therefore, feel justified in abandoning her. If,
however, he had taken command of the Trent and sent his
own vessel home in charge of her first lieutenant, he felt that
' he would incur the appearance of wishing to escape the
danger to which his crew would be exposed.' Nor, it seems,
was he even prepared to take the responsibility of separating
the two ships in order to allow Franklin to continue the
expedition alone in the Trent, the condition of the Dorothea
being, in his opinion, so dangerous as to render it unadvisable
for her to undertake the homeward voyage unaccompanied
by her consort. He finally determined, therefore, that both
ships should desist from the prosecution of their enterprise
and return home together.

There remained only the question whether something more
might not yet be accomplished by a boat journey over the
ice ; but upon consulting with Franklin, and examining into
the resources of the ships for such an undertaking, they were
found so inadequate that the project was speedily given up.
Captain Buchan was, therefore, reluctantly compelled to
abandon all further attempts at discovery, and to proceed to

181H

TIIK KETUUN

Kngland as soon as the necessary repairs of the Dorothea
should be completed. Franklin no less reluctantly yielded,
and, after employing the remainder of their time at the
anchorage in magnetic observations and a thorough sur-
vey of the neighbouring coast of Spit/.bergen, the commanders
of the Dorothea and Trent put to sea on August 30, and
arrived at Deptford on October 22, after an absence of
almost exactly six months.

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FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CH. IV.

CHAPTER IV

FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

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It is difficult for us of the present age — an age which has, so
to speak, grown almost blase oi Polar exploration, and which has
moreover seen even this romantic form of adventure partially
vulgarised by association with the tactics of the advertiser — to
realise the admiring interest which Arctic voyages aroused
in the minds of our countrymen of the early nineteenth
century. Nor is it easy to frame any adequate conception of
the strength of that spell which they cast over the adven-
turous spirits of the British Navy, restless as they were with
the excitements, and fired rather than satiated with the
triumphs, of a long and glorious war. The Arctic Ocean had
for some of them taken the place of the Spanish Main for
the sailors of Elizabeth, and the Pole seemed to them like
that fabled El Dorado that so bewitched the contemporaries
of Drake and Raleigh. To Franklin, exploration had alwayr.
appealed more powerfully than even war itself, and the
stimulating yet not wholly satisfactory experiences of his
voyage with Buchan had inflamed his passion for Arctic
discovery to a still higher pitch of ardour. It was with
intense satisfaction that he now found even the chilly atmo-
sphere of the Admiralty warming gradually to the work.
The reports of the leaders of the two expeditions were con-
sidered and discussed in official quarters, and ere long it was
decided by the Government to continue the work of explo-
ration to the westward by Baffin's Bay, while a party was to
be sent overland to explore the northern coast of Arctic
America. The command of the former expedition was en-
trusted to Lieutenant Paxry, who had already seen service as

Jtap to illustrate

tapt*? Franklin's first land journey

KoRTH America.

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ARCTIC AMERICA

second in command of the earlier expedition under Captain
Ross. The vessels selected for the service, the Hecla and
the Griper, sailed on May ii, 1819, with instructions to
proceed up Baffin's Bay, and to endeavour to reach the
Pacific through any channel that might be discovered to the
westward.

The other expedition, which, it will be observed, was
an entirely new departure in point of method, was placed
under the command of Franklin. Its instructions were to
proceed by land from the north-western shore of Hudson's
Bay, across the vast tract of country lying between that
bay and the shores of the Arctic Sea, to a point at or near
the mouth of the Coppermine River. Thence the explorers
were to endeavour to make their way in an easterly direction
along the north coast of the continent, and if possible to
cffiH t a jimction with Parry as he voyaged westward from
the northern extremity of Baffir's Bay.

It was a service well calculated to kindle Frarklin's ready
enthusiasm. The land journey lay tuiough a country in
those days blank upon our maps, sa»*; where it was threaded
by a couple of thin lines traced in the previous century — the
routes of Hearne and Mackenzie, two adventurous servants of
the Hudson's Bay Company, who, one in 1 770 and the other in
1789, had succeeded in making their way across it to the sea.
It was along the route taken or supposed to have been taken
by the former of these pionc ers that Franklin was directed to
advance ; but Hearne was a very inaccurate observer, and the
correctness of his sui\eys had been much questioned ; some
even doubted whether he had ever reached the sea at all.
None knew, in fact, what might be the difficulties and dan-
gers of the shadowy track that the expedition was to
follow, through what inhospitable regions the travellers
might have to pass on their way to the Arctic Ocean, or
what obstacles might oppose themselves to the progress of the
expedition in the attempt to continue their journey by water
when that ocean was reached. Above all, it was impossible
-as the event only too terribly showed- to know hov*' far it
would be found practicable to retrace their steps to their

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FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CK. IV.

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base of operations or to measure the risk which in the attempt
to do so they would incur of perishing from cold, hunger,
and fatigue. The enterprise, in fact, on which Franklin was
then sotting out, though it is nowadays perhaps the least
known, was yet undoubtedly the greatest of his achievements.
Its geot^raphical gains arc apt to be forgotten ; and in the
now well-filled maps of Arctic America the strip of coast
line which lie reclaimed from the region of the unknown by
this expedition cuts no very great figure. Yet is the history
of this adventure in reality as much more glorious than
that of many explorations more fruitful in discoveries of
importance, as heroism is more glorious than material success.
For it is a tale of indomitable courage, and oi" unflinching
endurance, than which none more splendid and inspiring is
to be found in all the long and illustrious record of the great
things done and suffered by the men of our race.

How deeply sensible was Franklin himself of the uncer-
tainty of its issue, we may judge by the following extract
from a letter to his sister, Mrs. Cracroft, which characteris-
tically reflects the simple piety of his nature, and that temper
of trust in the Divine guidance and of resignation to the
Divine will in which he entered upon any important under-
taking of life. After detailing the instructions which he had
received from the Admiralty, and estimating his probable
period of absence at about two years and a half, by which
time, he thinks, ' we shall either have ascertained the practi-
cability or impracticability of reaching northwards,' he con-
tinues : —

Experience, however, has taught me never to indulge in too
superior hopes either of success or reward ; but I will hope and pray,
through the assistance of an Almighty Providence, that each indi-
vidual among us may be enabled to do his utmost with cheerfulnefis
and zeal, having his mind anxiously devoted to the cause. . . . May
that Almighty power protect and guide us, Who alone can order all
things, and doth as seemeth best to His infinite wisdom ! May we
trust in Him, and endeav'our to do our utmost ! This mu.st be our
prayer, and, I trust, will be that of all our friends.

Franklin's companions on this adventurous expedition
were, fortunately for its prospects, resolute and trusty men.

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1819

FllANKIJN'S PLANS

Foremost among them was Dr. John Richardson, a Navy
surgeon and a keen and well-trained scientific inquirer. An-
other was George Back, who himself subsequently rose to
fame and honours as an independent Arctic explorer. He
had served with Franklin in the Trent, and had so well ac-
quitted himself that he was at once selected by his former com-
mander to accompany him on this new venture. Robert Hood,
destined to a tragic end, was another ; and in a lower grade
John Hepburn, an old man-of-war's man, to whose staunch
fidelity and heroic self-sacrifice some members of the expedi-
tion were indebted for the actual preservation of their lives.
The plan which Franklin was commissioned to carry out was
of a comprehensive nature. After reaching Hudson's Bay he
was to travel northward with the object of astronomically de-
termining the position of all capes, headlands, bays, harbours,
;ind rivers, and also to sketch the trend of the coast-line of
North America between the eastern extremity of that con-
tinent and the mouth of the Coppermine River, with liberty to
select, according to circumstances, the best route to enable
him to reach the shores of the Arctic Sea in the shortest
possible time.

Whether the departure Lf this expedition excited as much
popular interest as that of its forerunner in the previous year
we do not learn ; but, havinr; regard to the circumstances of
its despatch, and the higher expectations entertained of its
result, the public feeling on the subject is hardly likely to
have been less pronounced. Some enterprising caterer for
the amusement of the metropolis had, it seems, conceived
the idea of presenting the incidents of the previous voyage
for the instruction and entertainment of his fellow-citizens in
the form of a panorama — an exhibition which Franklin, still
embarrassed, like most of the distinguished men of his time,
by a species of modesty which many of the celebrities of our
own day have successfully overcome, regarded, it is evident,
with mixed feelings. Writing to his sister some six weeks
before his departure, he says : —

The panorama opens for public exhibition this day. There can
have been but few visitors, for it has rained unceasingly. I have not

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FFRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CH. IV.

seen it for some weeks, when it was about half finished. I do not
expect to see it again, since my likeness is said to be strong. I shall
not venture to approach very near Leicester Square, for fear the
passers-by should say, ' There goes the fellow in the panorama.' I
have just learnt that Sir Joseph Banks has seen it, and approves of
it highly.

On May 23, 18 19, the expedition set sail from Gravcsend
in the Hudson's Bay Company's ship Prince of Wales ; but bad
weather and adverse winds rendered their progress slow, and
it was not till June 3 that they reached Stromness, in the
Orkney Islands. Here Franklin endeavoured to engage an
adequate crew of boatmen to assist him in ascending the rivers
of the Hudson's Bay Territory ; but owing (he says in a
letter to his father from this port) to ' the great demand
for them at home, which at this time affords them full occu-
pation,' the recruits whom he was able to obtain were only
four in number.

Here Franklin again reviewed the prospects of his enter-
prise, and, as can easily be perceived, with growing doubts of
its feasibility : —

I have read a copy of Hearne's original journal. The details are
somewhat similar to his printed book, but given in an embell shed
style ; and, though I am not prepared to go the length of some per-
sons and doubt his statements altogether, I yet think he has left a
tolerably wide field for observation, and if we are so fortunate as to
search beyond him, I hope we may r.dd something to the geography
and natural history of that unknown part of the globe. Though we
do not permit ourselves to indulge in sanguine hopes of success, our
fervent prayers, I hope, will be offered up for the blessing and assist-
ance of an Almighty Parent on our humble endeavours. From every
estimate I can at present form I think the service in any case will
occupy near three years. By October 1821 I shall calculate on bend
ing my steps homeward ; but long before that period, and indeed
by every opportunity that offers, you may rely on my informing you of
o'jr proceedings.

On the i6th the Prince of Wales again i)nt \n sea for what
was lo prove its eventful and perilous vnya^^r to the shores of
Hudson's Bay. 'We had,' writes jtH tuminnndrr,

a very narrow escape fro\u uhlpwreck on the outward pas.sage, and
actually struck thrice on dangerous rocks, and once against i\\\ iruUii^

1819

A NARllOW llSC'ArE

of great height and extent. The blows caused the ship to leak so
much that we were apprehensive of the vessel keeping afloat, and,
indeed, in this state of uncertainty, pumping and baling to the utmost,
we remained for six-and-thirty hours. Then the carpenters were
enabled to stop the leak.

Despite these mishaps, however, their voyage does not
seem to have been prolonged much beyond its estimated
time. On August 30 the Prince of Wales anchored ofT York
Factory, where the members of the expedition landed. Here
they made a stay of over a week collecting stores, and there-
with equipping one of the large tran. ^jort boats of the
Hudson's Bay Company, in which they were to continue their
journey. On September 19 they resumed it, and after a
weary march of from seven to eight hundred miles they
reached Cumberland House, on the Saskatchewan River, on
the 23rd of the following month. Some three weeks pre-
viously Franklin had had a narrow escape from drowning.
He lost his' footing on a rock on which he was standing en-
gaged in an attempt to force the boat up a rapid, and was
carried some distance down the swirling torrent before he
was able to stay his helpless descent by grasping the branch
of a willow, to which he held fast until rescued from his
hazardous position by his companions.

F>anklin, as we know, was not disposed to underrate the
difficulties of his task, yet the event proved that even his
carefully considered and liberal estimate of the amount of
time which would be required for its completion fell short of
the mark. He had spoken, we have .seen in his last letter,
of nearly three years as representing its probable duration,
but, as a matter of fact, it exceeded that period by nearly five
months. More than two whole years had, in fact, expired, and
two dreary winters had been passed, before they reached
the shores of the Arctic Ocean and could begin their attempt
to survey the coast. Nor was this due to material difficulties
alone, though these, it is true, were (enormous. Their com-
modious but unwieldy transport boat, heavily laden with
.stores, made naturally slow progress, and though it was pos-
sible by unloading to traverse rapids of a not too impetuous

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FIKSr ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CH. IV.

and precipitous character, it was, of course, necessary to
circumvent actual falls by way of ' portage,' Twenty-one
statute miles is Admiral Markham's computation of the
united length of all the portages crossed by them in less
than one-third of their journey, and, as each portage had to
be traversed seven times in order to transfer their goods
across, this involved nearly one hundred and fifty miles of
walking.

Rut the difficulties, it must be repeated, were not material
alone. The voluminous letter-books of correspondence relat-
ing to the earlier stages of the expedition are somewhat
weary reading, and would be wearier still were it not that
Franklin's dogged pertinacity and immovable self-control
rebuke the reader's impatience ; but one gathers from it dis-
tinctly enough that the leader of the expedition had to
contend not only with Nature, but with human nature also.
The local authorities of the Hudson's Bay Company were
well affected enough towards the undertaking ; and there is
no positive ground for affirming anything else of the officials
of the other great trading body, the North-Western Company,
which in those days divided jurisdiction with it over this vast
and wild region of the world. But, unfortunately, the two
companies, or some of their officers, were by no means well
affected towards each other ; and, inasmuch as supplies had
often to be ordered through the servants of one company to
be supplied by those of its rival, their mutual jealousies were a
constant source of inconvenience, not to say a continual
menace of disaster.

It cannot perhaps be affirmed that either association, or
indeed that anybody in particular, was responsible for the
first serious di-sappointment which awaited Franklin at Fort
Cumberland, where he found, to his extreme concern, that
the guides, hunters, interpreters, rtfn] f/t^rs whose services
he had hoped to obtain, were nof tO h^ had on any
terms. Still, it is pretty evident that he mu^ h4ve relied
upon expert assurances /m thii^ point, »nd tha* ' sfyme one
had blundered.' And the ltAund(^/ was the mote s€ri//u»
because it appeared to Franklin U/ fet oi/Jy remcdii^ble by un-

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1820

THE THAXSPOKT DIFFICL'LTY

dcrtaking a journey of nearly a thousand miles in the dead of
winter in order to reach a station at which this indispensable
assistance could be secured. Accordingly, on January i8,
1820, leaving Di. Richardson and Hood to pass the remainder
of the winter at Fort Cumberland and bring on the stores and
provisions as soon as the rivers were open for navigation,
Franklin, Back, and Hepburn set out in a couple of dog
sledges, and with only fifteen days' supplies, for Fort Chipe-
wyan. Travelling in a temperature that froze the mercury
in the thermometer and ' the tea in our teapots before we
could drink it,' they reached Carlton House, an intermediate
post, by February i, and, after remaining there a week to
recruit, resumed and completed their daring journey to Fort
Chipewyan on March 26.

Here they remained during the rest of the long, lingering
winter, making such endeavours as they could to complete
their preparations for a forward mo\ emcnt as soon as the year
was sufficiently advanced. But their efforts met with but
partial succes.s. For again the wretched rivalry between the
two trading companies which disputed the country intervened.
They were rejoined by Hood and Dr. Richardson as soon as
the state of the rivers permitted the transport of the stores in
their keeping, but it was in vain that Franklin strove to sup-
plement them adequately with additional supplies ; and when
the expedition at last resumed its northward march, it was
with but a scanty supply of p(;wder and little more than one
day's provisions. Franklin coldly reports the fact in one of
his periodical despatches to Mr. Goulburn, Under-Secretary
of State for the Colonies, with what seems a merely formal ex-
pression of regret. Writing on July 17, the day before start-
ing, he records the arrival of Dr. Richardson anc' Hood three
days before, and observes that the additional si.pply of men
they brought with them had enabled him to make a selection
of • active, good men for our service, and to complete the
arrangements for leaving this place to-morrow morning for
H<*rt iM'iivldciice.' But he adds: 'Our progre > thither, I
K'girt III ^\\y^ will h' mIcuiu than I at first apprfhendtd, from
the UBUBMsiii' we shall be under of hunting and fi.^hing on the

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I-TUST AlJfTIC i:xri';i)ITI()N

CII. IV.

way, as wc have been unable to procure any provisions from
cither of tiic forts here.'

Hunting and fishing on the way ! This, indeed, was to
' make adventure support adventure.' But ' the necessity ' of
so doing — as, indeed, the fact itself of starting on a journey of
many hundred miles unprovided, or practically unprovided,
with anything to eat on the way — is here referred to quite m
the matter-of-fact manner of a man reporting an untoward
but not at ail unnatural circumstance. The truth probably
was that nv mishap of this kind, however serious, was any
longer regarded by the members of the expedition as other-
wise than in the natural order of affairs. They had already
had a year's experience of the .sort of thing that was to be
expected. But they did not yet know, nor were they to
experience until a good deal later, the worst of its conse-
quences. Accommodating themselves, however, in the mean-
time with their usual cheerful stoicism to the situation, they
proceeded to hunt and fish their way along the chain of lakes
and rivers which lay between them and the Coppermine
River. The Great Slave Lake was reached in a few days, and
by the 29th of the month they arrived at Fort Providence, a
station at its north end. After a stay here of three or four
days they resumed their journey, and were joined on August 3
by a band of Indians with their canoes, who had arranged
to meet them at that point and accompany them northward,
hunting game for them on the way. Their services in this
capacity may have slightly expedited the progress of the
explorers ; but it was not till the 20th of the month that the
next lake in this seemingly interminable chain was reached,
and then, to his intense mortification, Franklin found that it
was impo.ssible to proceed further that year. The first days
after their arrival were spent in constructing winter quarters
on the south-west side of Winter Lake ; log huts were erected
to house the officers and men of the expedition and their
stores, and the name of Fort Enterprise was given to the
new post. But while thus providing for a winter sojourn
Franklin had not at first abandoned the hope of proceeding
on his journey, and even of reaching the sea, before the year

I8t»()

I'lJANKf-IN AM) HIS INDIANS

was out ; and the persistence with which he endeavoured to
convert his Indian companions to his views in the matter is
so characteristic that his report thereon to Mr. Goulburn
should perhaps be transcribed entire : —

I sent for the Indians, who had hv.v.n despatched on hunting excur-
sions, and communicated my intentions to them. You can judge, sir,
of the extreme mortification and disappointment which ail the oflficers
experit;nced to find the leader and the party were not only opposed
to the proposal, but positively refused to accompany us. They re-
presented the very attempt as an act of madness, and insisted that
the winter had already conunenced, because the weather was then
stormy and there had been a sudden change in the temperature.
From this determination no argument or persu.ision, which you may
be assured were plentifully applied, could turn them. But I will
transcribe the Icjader's own words on this occasion, as the best means
of conveying l;is sentiments. The attempt, he said, would be highly
imprudent and dangerous. The winter season had already commenced,
as we saw, which would soon be followed by severe weather, and that
in consequence the lives of those who embarked on such an under-
taking would be forfeited.

It would require six days to get to theCop[)crmine River, and five
more to where wood would be found ; until the expiration of which
time we could not expect to have fires, since there are no trees what-
ever after leaving this lake. They only travelled the road in summer
when the moss is dry, which could not be expected during the fre-
quent rains of this season ; and, in fact, he concluded the discouraging
recital by maintaining that it would require forty days to get to the
sea, and that under those circimistances neither he nor the hunters
would accompany us. It was then mentioned to him that all these
sentiments differed widely from his former account given at Fort
Providence and along the route, and that up to this time we had been
encouraged in the expectation that the party not only could go towards
the sea, but should be accompanied by himself and the hunters. But
this speech had no effect in altering his opinion or determination, nor
those of the rest of the hunters, who are entirely under his guidance.
It was then pointed out to him that even the sight of the river would
be desirable, and he was informed that we were provided with instru-
ments which would infallibly point out when the cold set in, and
faithful promise was made to return on the first warning of a change.
But to this he answered that the cold weather had already com-
menced, and repeated that in this part of the country the transition
from such weather to great severity was immediate, and that m this
respect it was unlike countries more to the southward.

It was then communicated to him that the sun wouid in a few

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FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

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days be darkened (alluding to the eclipse expected on September 17),
and that it was desirable to observe the phenomenon as far north as
possible. He nov; began to feel hurt at our persisting to urge him, and
added with great warmth : ' I have said everything I can to dissuade
you from making such a rash attempt. It appears as if you wished
to lose your own lives and those Indians who might accompany you.
However, if you are determined to go, since we have brought you
hither, it shall not be said that we permitted you to die alone. Some
of iiiy young men shall also go, but the moment they embark we shall
suppose them all gone, and begin to deplore their loss as dead men.'
I could only answer to this forcible appeal by assuring him that I
looked with the utmost solicitude to the safety of my men, Indians
as well as Canadians, and that it was far from my wish to expose the
life of a single man, and repeated the promise to return on seeing the
river, if the weather should then prove too cold. These sentiments
appeased his warmth, but he then produced another reason which, I
confess, had weight — that this is the season when the reindeer jkins
are in the best condition for clothing, and that his party must prepare
their underdresses, and also some skins for the Canadians, who could
not live here without them ; and he justly remarked that if the oppor-
tunity was now lost it could not be regained, and that the consequence
might be that some men would be starved to death, especially the
Indians, who were not strong or capable of bearing severity of
weather if slighiiy clothed, like Canadians or Europeans. Perceiving
that all efforts were in vain to make him waive his objection, I left
him for the night without declaring any resolution, and I learnt the
next morning that after I was gone he spoke of returning back to
Fort Providence when he had collected provisions for our winter con-
sumption, thinking, since his advice was not followed, that he was
useless here. I deemed this information more important than any
other, considering the uncertainty of the Indian character, because it
is certain that his going would cause the whole tribe to remove, and
thereby be destructive to the prospect of our getting pemmican made
in the spring, which is indispensable for our future proceedings.
Therefore, with great reluctance and concern, I thought it proper to
relinquish the plan of proceeding towards the sea, and instead pro-
posed that a party should go to see the [Coppermine River, and] find
out the shortest path for the conveyance of our stores to its banks in
the spring, and gather other information that might facilitate our
progress at that time.

This reduced programme was successfully fulfilled. A
party was sent out on August 29, under the direction of Hood
and Back, who succeeded in reaching its banks in three days,
just half the time estimated by the Indian chief, and, after

1S20

A VVIxXTER OF MEDITATION

/ 1

travelling down its course for one day and in the reverse
direction for four days, returned to Fo»-t Enterprise, which
they regained on September 12, a fortnight from the date of
their departure.

After this the party settled down with such patience as
they could muster to their long confinement in the prison of
a northern winter. This trial is, it is well known, the hardest
to be borne by the Arctic explorer ; it is the one which most
searchingly tests the inward resources of his nature. Upon a
man of Franklin's deeply religious temperament its effect may
be easily anticipated. During these long hours of enforced
inaction bis mind naturally turned inward, and in a letter of
this period to his sister, Mrs. Wright, he makes her the con-
fidant of his pious and prayerful meditations. The language
in which he expresses himself belongs essentially to a bygone
age of religious thought ; for, though the spirit of devotion
be eternal and unch; ngeable in the heart of man, its modes
of expression are as transient as all human inventions. It is
the habit of our own day for even the most devout souls to
maintain a reserve in their communications on spiritual con-
cerns with those nearest and dearest to them which would
have been unintelligible, which would even perhaps have
seemed reprehensible, to religious men and women of the
early nineteenth century. Even in these sacred matters there
are changing fashions of human speech ; and, just as our later
language of piety would have seemed to Franklin cold and
lifeless in Its restraint, so his «^wn utterances would be apt in
their effusiveness to convey to a reader of these days an im-
pression of the extravagant and unreal. But no one who
makes due allowance for such differences in the form of
expression can doubt that these outpourings came from the
very depth of Franklin's heart : —

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I shall not enter at any length (he writes) into the subject of our
pursuits and proceedings here, but rather devote this sheet to the
more interesting communication respecting my present sentiments on
religion, which I think will be equally, if not more, gratifying to you,
my dear sister ; and before I enter upon them I would humbly offer
my grateful thanks to Almighty God that the peculiar circumstances

FIRST AKCTIC EXPEDITION

C'H. IV.

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of my situation, arising from want of society and full occupation, have
led me to seek that consolation from the perusal of religious books,
which I have found — especially in the Holy Bible — abundantly sup-
plied. To this sacred volume I have applied for grounds of hope,
comfort, and support, and never in vain ; and I am fully convinced
that therein, and therein only, can be found the treasures of heavenly
love and mercy. I have been amazed at the state of ignorance under
which I laboured with respect to its blessed contents. Neither the
order, connection, or regularity of God's mercies to the Jews were
known to me. Consequently, His goodness and the grandeur of the
deliverances vouchsafed to them were not duly appreciated by me.
But an attentive perusal of His Holy Word, with fervent application
for His assistance, will open all these mysteries to the inquiring mind,
and lead you through them to see the mighty work of redemption
by the death of His Blessed Son for all mankind. Truly rich and
valuable are the precepts and doctrines our Blessed Saviour taugh*:,
and amazing His love for all mankind. Surely that heart must be
awfully impenitent which can read the recital of His sufferings un-
moved or without feeling a sincere desire to repent and pray fer-
vently for that heavenly grace which He faithfully promised to all who
firmly believe on Him and seek to do His will. Serious reflection will
soon convince the sinner of his guiit and of his inability to do any-
thing of himself; for every day's experience proclaims to him with a
powerful voice that he is weak, irresolute, and unprofitable, and con-
stantly exposed to the attacks of sin and Satan. If, haply, under
this conviction he should inquire. How, then, can I be saved ?
would it not be joy unspeakable for him to find that the Gospel
points out the way ? Christ, who died for the salvation of sinners, is
the way, the truth, and the life. Whoso cometh unto Him in full
purpose of heart shall in no wise be cast out. Can anything be more
cheering than these assurances, or better calculated to fill the mind
with heavenly impressions, and lift up the heait in grateful adoration
to God ? This is the commencement of the Christian joy which, if
it beget a live faith that worketh by love, producing the fruits of obedi-
ence, will lead to everlasting life. But he should remember that our
Blessed Lord's example hath shown, and every portion of His Holy
Word declareth, that the Christian's life must be a continual warfare
against the world, the flesh, and the devil ; he must never relax his
efforts, but strive continually against his evil passions and pro-
pensities, and pray constantly that he may be strengthened by the
power of grace to surmount them.

Very interesting, too, is it to find that among the religious
works by which Franklin was most impressed in these hours of
lonely meditation was the book which is understood to have

""^^

1820

BACK'S GALLA^'T JOURNEY

first awakened the religious emotion in the mind of Dr. John-
son, and from which men of the most diverse temperaments
have derived spiritual support and stimulus — Law's ' Serious
Call to a Holy Life.' Of this and of Doddridge's ' Rise and
Progress of Religion,' he writes : —

I admire their systematic manners of devotion, and by thc'r argu-
ments am convinced of the necessity and advantage of more method
and regularity in meditation and prayer than is usually observed.
. . . How different are my sentiments on these books to what they
were on first reading them ! Then I could find neither beauty nor
force in their language or reasoning ; but now I think they abound
in both, and, if read with a serious desire to gain information on the
.nost important subjects of life, nmch fruit may be gathered from
them. I would recommetid them most earnestly to all my dear
relations, and I doubt not they would derive benefit and instruction.

So the long and dreary winter wore on ; but it had not
half run its course before the little party were threatened with
a more formidable foe than either cold or solitude. The rein-
deer, which had at first been plentiful enough to supply them
with food, unexpectedly shifted their ground shortly after the
establishment of the expedition in its winter quarters, and
some considerable time before the end of the year the explorers
found themselves threatened with the exhaustion of their
supplies. Their stock of provisions fell so low that at last it
became absolutely necessary to communicate with Fort Chipe-
wyan, v^^ith a view to the replenishment of their stores. For
this arduous and perilous service Mr. Back volunteered. He
was accordingly despatched in the month of November, and,
after unexampled labours and privations — he travelled more
than 1,100 miles on snow-shoes, protected at night by only a
single blanket and a deerskin against a temperature frequently
down to —40°, and on one occasion as low as — 57'^, and some-
times without food for two or three consecutive days — the
gallant young officer returned on March 15, having success-
fully executed his commission.

Nor at this, any more than at other stages of its course,
were the difficulties of the enterprise due solely to the opposi-
tion of Nature. The letters exchanged between Franklin

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FIRST ARCTIC EXPEDITION

Clf. IV.

and the ' partners ' of the North- Western Company at Fort
Chipcwyan are somewhat painful reading. The correspon-
dence starts with an official despatch from Back at Fort
Providence, complaining of the non-arrival of stores entrusted
to the Company's servants for transport, and containing the
strong statement that he has discovered through other channels
a great lukewarmness on the part of the North-Western
Company ab.solutcly amounting to * a denial of further ser-
vices to the expedition.' This naturally drew indignant re-
monstrances from Franklin, addressed respectively to Mr.
Smith and Mr. Keith, the two agents, and provoking from the
latter a rejoinder in the same tone. Mr. Keith, in fact, roundly
lectures him on the impropriety of imputing to the Company
any want of goodwill towards the expedition. It hetray.s,
says he, ' an unguarded precipitation and want of discernment
little corresponding with your experience and high station
and character in life.' Franklin, it seems evident, had been
a little hasty, and in his subsequent letters he shows himself
anxious to disclaim the injurious construction placed upon
his words. Much allowance should in any case be made for
a man in want of supplies in the depth of an Arctic winter,
and chafing under the vexatious delays and miscarriages of
many months.

There is an end to everything, however, even to an Arctic
winter; and at 2 P.M. on June 14, 1 821, the expedition was
at last able to leave Fort Enterprise behind it and set out
for the sea. The party consisted of Franklin and his four
English officers, a couple of Eskimo -nterpreters, who had
been respectively chri.stened Augustus and Junius by .some
unknown humourist, and about a dozen Iiidians and half-
breed Canadian voyageurs. Their means of travel and trans-
port consisted of two large canoes and several sledges. Before
their departure arrangements were made by Franklin with
one of the Indian chiefs, named Akaitcho, probably the chief
with whom he had held the discussion above quoted, for
depositing a supply of provisions at Fort Enterprise during
their absence, with a view to the contingency of their having
to pass another winter at the station. Little did they suspect

< ■.': *.. "

1821

ON THE ARCTIC COAST

at the time what terrible and wellnigh fatal issues were
dependent on the due execution of that order.

The progress of the party was at the outset tediously slow,
as they had to cross many stretches of barren land and.
several high and rugged hills, each man having to carry
or drag a weight of some i8o pounds; and it was not till
July I, or seventeen days after their departure, that they
at last reached the long-desired waters of the Coppermine
River. For another fortnight they made their way down its
stream, their course often obstructed and their safety some-
times endangered by large masses of floating ice, until, on
June 14, Franklin had the high satisfaction of recording in
his journal : ' To-day Dr. Richardson ascended a lofty hill
about three miles from the encampment, and from its summit
obtained a distant view of the sea from NNE. to NE. by E.
A large promontory bore NNE. The surface appeared to be
covered with ice. He saw the sun set a few minutes before
midnight from the same elevated situation.' Another week's
voyaging brought them to the mouth of the river, and on
June 21 the adventurous explorers found themselves afloat
upon the Arctic Sea.

The remaining history of their outward voyage belongs
to those records of geographical discovery to which it con-
tributed so interesting, and for those days so important, a
chapter ; and it does not fall within the scope of this memoir
to relate it in any detail. It may suffice to quote the lucid
and succinct account which has btien given of it by Admiral
Markham : ' The coast along which the explorers sailed in
their small and frail barks was a sterile and inhospitable
one ; cliff succeeded cliff in tiresome and monotonous uni-
formity, the valleys that intervened being covered with the
dt^bris that fell from the cliffs, to the exclusion of any kind of
herbage. Occasionally their progress was temporarily im-
peded by ice, while a strong " ice-blink " was invariably seen
to seaward. It must not be forgotten that the expedition
was navigating a rock-bound coast fringed with heavy masses
of solid ice, that rose and fell with every motion of a rough
tempestuous sea, threatening momentarily to crush the light,

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FIRST AIICTIC EXrEDITIOX

CH. IV.

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frail canoes, fit only for lake or river navigation, in which
Franklin and his party were embarked. This voyajje along
the shores of the Arctic Sea must always take rank as one
of the most daring and hazardous exploits that has evei
been accomplished in the interest of geographical research.
Following all the tortuous sinuosities of the coast-line, and
accurately delineating the northern shore of North America
as they pushed onwards in an easterly direction, naming all
the principal headlands, sounds, bays, and islands that were
discovered, tho expedition reached a point on August i8, in
latitude 68° 19' N. and longitude 110° 5' W., on the coast of
North America, where Franklin reluctantly came to the con-
clusion that they had reached the end of their journey, and
must return from the interesting work on which they were
engaged, and for the following reasons. In the first place,
they had only three days' pemmican left, and the Canadian
voyageurs had consequently manifested a very decided reluc-
tance to continue the work of exploration, believing, and not
unnaturally, that great difficulty would be experienced at that
time in replenishing their fast decreasing store of provisions.
In the second place, the gales of wind which were so preva-
lent, were, they thought, sure indications of the break-up of
the travelling season, and, therefore, that in itself appeared
sufficient reason for them to be thinking of wending their
way in a southerly direction. The absence of all traces of
Eskimo, from whom they had calculated on obtaining sup-
plies of food, was also discouraging; while the amount of
time that had already been occupied in exploring the various
bays and sounds that lay in their route was so great that it
entirely precluded all hopes of reaching Repulse Bay before
the winter.

' Although on the chart the position reached by the ex-
pedition, which was very appropriately named Point Turn-
again, was only six and a half degrees of longitude to the east-
ward of the mouth of the Coppermine Fiver, so tortuous and
winding was the contour of the newly discovered coast that
they were actually obliged to sail and paddle in their canoes
a distance of 555 geographical miles in order to accomplish

1821

POINT TURNAGAIN

the journey ; this would be about equal to the direct distance
between the Coppermine River and Repulse Bay It was,
therefore, obvious th"t the only prudent course that could be
pursued was to return as soon as possible, in order to reach
the Indians, who had been directed to procure a supply of
provisions for the expedition before the next winter should
set in.

' From their researches up to this point, Franklin had
arrived at the conclusion (subsequently proved to be a well-
founded one), that a navigable passage for ships along the
coast by which they had travelled was practicable, and,
although he was disappointed in not meeting his friend
Captain Parry and his vessels, he felt convinced that they
stood an excellent chance of satisfactorily clearing up the
long-unsolved problem of a North- West Passage.'

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THE 1-IGIIT WITH FAMINK

CH. V.

CHAPTER V '

THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE
1821-1822

With the commencement of the return journey we resume a
more detailed narrative ; for, if the outward voyage belongs
rather to the province of geographical history, and has, as such,
been dealt with in the fullest detail by other writers on this
subject, the story of the awful struggle back to Fort Enter-
prise is in a more emphatic sense the property of a biographer
of Franklin, and has never, perhaps, been circumstantially
related, save by one whom his own modesty forbade to do
full justice to the splendid heroism of the exploit.

It is natural to inquire why Franklin took that decision
to return to Fort Enterprise by a different route, which
was fraught with such disastrous and wellnigh fatal conse-
quences for the expedition ; but it appears from his journal
that he had no choice. His original intention had been to
return as he had come, by way of the Coppermine River, but
his very scanty stock of provisions, and the length of the
voyage to the mouth of that river, in the very forward state
of the season, • rendered it necessary,' he says, * to proceed to
a nearer place ; and it was determined that we should go
hence to Arctic Sound, where we had found animals very
abundant, and entering Hood's River,' so named, of course,
after Franklin's young officer, ' to advance up the stream as far
as it was navigable, and there construct small canoes out of
the longer ones. We had already experienced that the country
between Cape Barrow and the Coppermine River was m-
adequate to supply our party, and it seemed probable that
it would be still more impracticable now. Besides, we must
expect the frequent recurrence of gales, which would cause

1821

THE LAST MEAL OF MEAT

much detention, if not danger, in proceeding along this very
rocky part of the coast.'

So, then, it was resolved, and so done. The fateful de-
cision to return by way of Hood River was taken, it seems,
on August 23, and two days later the explorers reached the
mouth of the stream to which they had determined to com-
mit themselves and their fortunes. ' Our pemmican,' writes
Franklin, ' was now reduced so low that we could only issue
a few mouthfi Is to each person.' Already, indeed, the grave
apprehension seems to have occurred to them that they might
not live to tell the tale of their adventures. In crossing
Riley's Bay ' a tin case was thrown overboard, containing an
outline of oui proceedings hitherto, and the latitude of the
part we turned back from, with a request that it might be
forwarded to the Admiralty if picked up.' For another ten
days they pursued their way up the Hood River, but on
September 3 it became evident that they must abandon it.
It was bearing far too much to the westward, and their
observations told them that to follow its course would lead
them away from the direct route to Fort Enterprise, their
destination. Accordingly, on the day named, they definitely
resolved to quit its banks, and to strike across the country in
a south-westerly direction. Henceforth their journey had to
be performed almost entirely on foot over a stony and barren
country, but they carried their canoes with them against the
event of having to cross any lakes or riven that might lie
on the route, or that flowed in the right direction. And at
this point begins a story of unexampled sufferings and of
unrivalled fortitude — an ordeal extending with rare and brief
intermissions over a period of more than two months.

' We sat down to breakfast at 10.30 on September 4,'
writes Franklin in his manuscript journal ; ' and this,' he adds
quietly, ' finished the remainder of our meat' Henceforth, and
until they should arrive at the distant station where they
hoped to find provisions stored for them, they were to be
dependent on what they could find in that inhospitable region
for their daily food ; and they did not find much. Later in
the day the hunters ' saw several reindeer, principally males,

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THE FIOIIT WITH FAMINE

OH. V.

going to the southward, but could not get them.' To add to
their discomforts, a violent storm of wind and rain set in and
lasted for the better part of three days. The party, while it
was at its height, remained in their tents, but on the third day
they determined to push on. They feared from this sudden
and totally unexpected change in the weather that winter had
begun in earnest, and thought that by delay they would be
exposed to increased difficulties, which they would be loss able
to combat when reduced to a more weakly state by the pangs
of hunger. Orders were accordingly given for a start, but it
was no easy matter to carry them out. ' The tents and bed-
clothes were frozen, and even our garments were stiffened by
frcst and exposure to the keen wind, which blew so piercingly
that no one could keep his hands long out of his mittens, and
the men, therefore, had great difficulty in arranging their
packages. We had no means of making a fire, the r.ioss, at all
times difficult to kindle, being covered by the ice and snow.
On being exposed to the air I became quite faint with hunger,
but on eating a small piece of portable soup I was soon suffi-
ciently recovered to move on with the party. We commenced
our cheerless march at lo A.M. The ground was covered with
snow a foot in depth, and we had to pass across swamps and
marshy places, sometimes stepping up to the knee in water,
and at others on the side of a slippery stone which often
brought us down. The men who carried the canoes had a
most laborious task. They even frequently fell down, either
prostrated by the violence of the wind or by the insecurity of
their steps.' One of these accidents ht.d a very serious result.
* The best canoe was so damaged as to be rendered wholly
useless. This was indeed a serious misfortune to us, as the
remaining canoe had been made through mishap too small,
and we were doubtful whether it would be sufficient to trans-
port the party across any river.' But it is an ill wind that
blows nobody any good. * As the accident could not now be
remedied, we determined on turning the materials to the best
account. We made a fire of the bark and timbers, and cooked
the remainder of the soup and arrowroot.' The meal, though
scanty enough for men who had been three days fasting,

1821

« 'ri7

rUIPK DK ROCHE'

seemed lo allay their hunger and refresh them. ' We pro-
ceeded in the afternoon over some gravelly hills and across
small marshy meadows, and encamped at 6 r.M. A few par-
tridges were killed, and half a one was issued to each person.
This, boiled with a small quantity of tripe de roc/ie, formed our
supper. A few willows were collected from under the snow,
which served to cook our meal and thaw our frozen shoes so
that they could be changed.'

As the Arctic delicacy above referred to is destined 1o
play a very prominent though iiot very agreeable part in the
subsequent narrative, it may be as well to pause at this first
mention of it to give a brief account of its character and
properties.

Tripe de roche, then, is simply a lichen peculiar to these
latitudes, and known to botanists, by reason of its circular
form and the surface of the leaf being marked with curved
lines, as Gyrophora. It is described, with some excess of
scientific politeness, as ' edible ; ' the fact being that it can be
eaten,, thoup^h with extreme difficulty and distaste, by most
people, and by others not at all. Hood, as will appear later,
belonged to the latter class. Dr. Richardson's account of its
qualities and effects is highly unfavourable. ' We used it,' he
says, 'as an article of food, but, not having the means '^f
extracting the bitter principle from it, it proved nauseous to all,
and noxious to several of the party, producing severe bowel
complaints.'

On this wretched stuff and what remained to them of
their ' bag ' of partridges they subsisted for the next three
days ; and on the loth, when matters were again becoming
serious, they espied, to their great joy, a herd of musk-oxen
grazing in a neighbouring valley.

The party instantly halted, and all the hunters were sent out. We
beheld their proceedings with the utmost anxiety from the brow of a
hill for nearly two hours, and many, I have no doubt, offered fervent
prayers for their success. At length they fired, and, to our infinite
satisfaction and relief, we beheld an animal fall to the ground, and a
second badly wounded, which escaped from them and fled with the rest
of the herd. This success infused spirit into our breasts, and animated
every countenance. We hastily proceeded to join the hunters, but

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

OH. V.

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before our arrival the animal was skinned and cut up. Our appetites
were so keen that the raw intestines were eaten on the spot, and pro-
nounced to be excellent. The men requested we might encamp.
The tents were quickly pitched ; some willows which peeped above
the snow were speedily gathered, a fire made, and supper cocked,
which was eaten with avidity, the first hearty meal we had had since
the morning of September 4. Two of the hunters went afier the herd
after supper, but could not come up with them.

The flesh of the mu«k-ox lasted them for three days ;
and on the fourth they were reduced to their fungoid diet
once more. Their journey, too, was now interrupted by dis-
couraging obstacles. On the 13th they found their way
barred by a vast lake, and were compelled to coast its rocky
shores all that day and part of the next, in the vain endeavour
to find a suitable crossing-place. Finding at length that it
appeared to terminate in a river at a few miles from their last
night's encampment, they resolved on proceeding thither.
' Here,' writes Franklin, * I cannot forbear mentioning an act
of kindness performed by Perrault, one of our Canadian
'voyageurSf which won the deepest gratitude from every
officer. When they were assembled round a small fire, and
on the point of starting, he presented each of us with a small
piece of meat which he had saved from his own allowance.
This act of generosity, so totally unexpected, and coming at
such a seasonable time, crew forth tears.'

Hardly had this touching incident occurred, when gun-
shots we'-e heard in the direction the party were proposmg to
advance, and soon afterwards the voyageur Credit appeared
with the welcome intelligence that he had killed two deer.
Once again, then, they had been lescued from starvation ; but
it was, on the whole, a day of more disaster than good
fortune. The canoe in which Franklin attemptd to cross the
river was upset, and, although he himself escaped and made
his way v/ith difficulty to the opposite bank, the portfolio
containing the greater part of his astronomical and meteoro-
logical observations was irrecoverably lost. The fate of the
canoe itself was for some time in doubt, and ' I cannot,'
n^cords Franklin, ' express my sentiment on viewing the
melancholy scene. Standing, as I did, perfectly alone, un-

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1821

LAST CANOE BROKEN

provided either with gun or ammunition, separated from my
companions by the fatal stream, and conscious that if the
canoe should be destroyed or rendered so ineffective as to be
unable to carry the party across, I never could regain them,
my relief and joy can easily be imagined when I perceived
the canoe was safe. The officers were so kind as to embark
a person to make a fire for me by the first conveyance.'
They afterwards moved a little higher up, and the whole party,
with their baggage, effected a crossing in safety, though the
canoe filled with water at every traverse.

This was September 14, and for another week they
struggled slowly on, subsisting mainly on tripe de roche^ with
the occasional addition of a chance partridge or two, though
they were reduced on one day of exceptional straits to devour-
ing some fragments of deer skin and bones, the leavings of
the wolves that had killed the animals in the pre^ ious spring.
So they fared till the 26th, when again they were lucky enough
to shoot five small deer, and to fill their bellies for the first
time for many days with a subs^iantial meal. But the leader
of the party could have found little in these chance strokes of
good fortune to relieve the anxiety which his ever-darkening
prospects must have inspired. A new cause of disquietude
had now presented itself in the demoralisation of the Canadian
voya^eurs. Peltier, who had received several severe falls in
carrying the remaining canoe, refused to be burdened with it
any longer, and it was handed over to Vaillant, one of his
comrades. The man seemed at first to be managing it so
well that Franklin left him a little in the rear, and went on to
join the party in advance ; but some time afterwards, on
going back to search for the men, who were long in coming
up, Franklin found to his horror that they had left the canoe
behind them. It had been, they alleged, so completely
broken by another fall as to be rendered incapable of repair
and entirely useless. ' The anguish this intelligence occa-
sioned may be conceived,' he writes, ' but it is beyond my
power to describe it. Impressed, however, with the necessity
of taking it forward, even in the state in which these men
represented it to be, we urgently desired them to fetch it ;

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V.

1821

but they declined going, and the strength of the officers was
inadequate to the task. To their infatuated obstinacy on this
occasion a great portion of the melancholy circumstances
which attended our subsequent progress may perhaps be
attributed.' But the wretched voyageurs had, it is evident,
got completely out of hand. ' The men now seem.ed to have
lost all hope of being preserved ; and all the arguments we
could use failed in stimulating them to the least exertion.'

On the 26th of the month they at last struck the Copper-
mine River, and, as their shortest way to Fort Enterprise was
t(. cross to the opposite bank as soon as possible, the loss of
^he canoe was now severely felt ; for, thougii the current was
swift and there were two rapids in this part of its course, it
could have been crossed in a canoe with ease and safety.
The river was carefully examined for a ford, but in vain.
Then it was suggested that a raft might be made of the
willows growing in the neighbourhood, or even that the
framework of a boat might be constructed with them and
covered with the canvas of the tents ; but both those
schemes had to be abandoned through the obstinacy of the
interpreters and the most experienced voyageurs, who de-
clared that neither raft nor boat would prove adequate to the
conveyance of the party, and that they would only be losing
valuable time in making the attempt. The far<- w.is that the
men did not believe they had reached the Coppermine River,
and it needed all the repeated and confident assurance of their
officers that they were within forty miles of Fort Enterprise
to rouse them from their despondency. They at bst began
to look more favourably on the boat-building scheme, but it
was found that there were no willows tall enough to form the
frame of a sufficiently large canoe. The alternative of the
raft had to be definitely adopted, and a search was made
along the border of Point Lake, which they had reached by
this time, for timber suitable to the purpose. The search was
fruitless. It led them only to an arm of the lake stretching
so far away to the north-east that the idea of rounding it and
travelling over so barren a country was * dreadful,' the more
so as it was to be feared that other arms equally large might

1821

HEROISM OF RICHARDSON

obstruct their path, and that the strength of the party would
fail long before they could reach the only part where they
were certain of finding pine wood, a point twenty-five miles
distant in a direct line.

' While wc halted to consider of this subject and to collect
our party, the carcase of a deer was discovered in the cleft of
a rock into which it had fallen in the spring. It was putrid,
but it was little less acceptable to us on that account in our
present circumstances, and, a fire being kindled, it was devoured
on the spot.' Refreshed by this horrible meal, the voyageurs
took a more favourable view of the willow considered as a
raft-building material, and declared their belief that it would
be quite possible to cross the stream on a willow-built raft
The party accordingly having returned about a mile towards
the rapid, encamped in a willow copse, and the work of con-
struction was at once set about.

The day following (September 29) was signalised by an act
of such splendid and indeed reckless devotion, that, though
Franklin himself was not the hero of it, the course of this
narrative must be arrested for a moment in order to record it
in his own words : —

The men commenced at an early hour to bind up the willows in
faggots for the construction of the raft, which was completed by
seven o'clock, but as the sticks were green the raft was not sufiSciently
buoyant to support more than one man. We hoped, however, that if
a line could be carried across by this person, the whole party might
be transported over the river by hauling the raft backwards and for-
wards. Several attempts were made by Belanger and Benoit to
convey the raft across, but ineffectually for want of oars. Whenever
they had got a short distance from the shore they could not reach
bottom with the longest pole we could construct (by tying all the tent-
poles together), ?.nd then their paddle, which was the only substitute
for an oar we had, was inefficient to prevent the raft from being driven
into the shore again by the current and a strong breeze, which blew
from the opposite side of the river. During these trials all the men
had suffered extremely from the coldness of the water (the tempera-
ture being 38°), in which they were necessarily immersed, and having
witnessed these repeated failures we began to consider the scheme as
hopeless. At this time, Dr. Richardson, prompted by a noble and
humane desire to relieve his suffering companions, proposed to swim
across the river with a line, and when landed to haul the raft over ; but

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V.

this service had near cost his valuable life. He launched into the stream
Mrith the line round his middle, but when he hac. got a short distance
from the land his arms became benumbed with the cold and he lost
the power of moving them. Still he persevered, and, turning on his
back, had nearly gained the opposite shore, when to our infinite alarm
we beheld him sink. Happily, the direction he had previously given
to haul upon the line was understood, and by our doing so he again
appeared upon the surface and was then gently dragged to the shore.
He could just articulate when landed. We placed him between blankets,
which were arranged before a fire near the spot, and fortunately he
was in a state to give some general directions respecting the manner
of treating him, and by the blessing of God, and to our great relief,
he recovered strength gradually, and after a few hours could converse.
We regretted then to learn that the skin of the left side of his body
was deprived of feeling owing to the too great heat of the fire, and I
am sorry to add he suffered from that inconvenience some months.
When he was about to step first into the water he placed his foot on
a large dagger-like stone, and received a gash to the bone, but this
misfortune did not prevent him from attempting to execute his
generous undertaking.

Then follows this piteously graphic detail : —

I cannot forbear to mention how shocked every one was at seeing
his debilitated frame when he had undressed, a perfect skeleton of
skia and bone. The sight drew from each person an involuntary
sigh, and from many of our Canadian voyageurs the pathetic exclama-
tion, ' Ah ! que nous sotnmes maigres ! '

A new and more efficient raft was constructed, but the
wind, which had been rising, was now too high to allow of
their using it. To add to their discomfort, heavy snowfalls
set in, and for three days they were detained in their food less
condition, living on scraps of leather and tripe de roche, and
unable to cross the river which lay between them and their
homeward ro>'ite. At last the gradual conversion of the
voyageurs advanced a further stage. They had risen from
the conception of a pinewood to that of a willow raft, and
one of them now went further and ' proposed to make a canoe
of the fragments of painted canvas in which we wrapped our
bedding. The proposal met with an eager assent, and after
two days spent upon it the work was pronounced finished.
The canoe was brought to the beach, where all the party were

1821

GROWING FEEBLER

assembled in anxious expectation. St. Germain embarked in
it amid the heartfelt prayers of his comrades for his success,
and contrived to reach the opposite shore. The ranoe was
then drawn back again by the rope attached to it, and another
person transported ; and in this manner, by drawing it back-
wards and forwards, the whole party were conveyed over
without any serious accident.'

On their reaching the southern bank of the Coppermine
River, which at this part of its course flows nearly east and
west, the variable spirits of the voyageurs revived in an extra-
ordinary manner. Each of them shook the officers by the
hand, declaring that they now considered the worst of their
difficulties over, and they did not doubt of reaching Fort
Enterprise in a few days even in their feeble condition.
Franklin, however, as he was not liable to their fi .s of pro-
found depression, so did not share their excessive elation.
Judging it to be impossible that the entire party could hold
out against famine for the long period of time it would take
them to reach Fort Enterprise in their debilitated state, he
despatched Back, who was the youngest and most robust of
the party, to the Fort with three of the voyageurs to bring
back supplies with all possible speed from the store which he
had engaged the Indians to deposit at that station. He
himself, with Richardson, Hood, Hepburn, the eight remain-
ing voyageurs, and an Iroquois named Michel, struggled on
in the rear. Snow had been falling heavily and lay deep on
the ground, making their progress distressingly slow.

Mr. Hood, who was now very feeble, and Dr. Richardson, who
attached himself to him, walked together at a gentle pace in the rear
of the party. I kept with the foremost men, to cause them to halt
occasionally until the stragglers came up.

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They supped that night off tripe de roche and some scraps
of roasted leather. The distance completed by them had
been only six miles. In the course of the next day two of the
Canadians, Credit and Vaillant, fell out of the party, and one
of their companions came up with the main body bringing
the sad tidings that they were unable to proceed further.

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V.

i W

Some willows being discovered in a valley near to us, I proposed
to halt the party there while Dr. Richardson went back to visit them.
I hoped, too, that when the sufferers received the information of a fire
being ki idled at so short a distance they would be cheered, and use
their utmost efforts to reach it ; but this proved a vain hope. The
Doctor found Vaillant about a mile and a half in the rear, much ex-
hausted with cold and fatigue. Having encouraged him to advance
to the fire, after repeated solicitations he made the attempt, but fell
down in the deep snow at every step. Leaving him in this situation,
the Doctor went about half a mile further back to the spot where
Credit was said to have halted, but, the track being nearly obliterated,
it became unsafe for him to go further. Returning, he passed Vaillant,
who, having moved only a few yards during his absence, had fallen
down, was unable to rise, and could scarcely answer his questions.
Being unable to afford him any effectual assistance, he hastened on to
inform us of his situation.

Another of the voyageurs, J. B. Belanger, then volunteered
to go back to Vaillant and bring up his burden. On his
return with it he stated that he had found the poor fellow
lying on his back, benumbed with cold and incapable of being
roused. The stoutest men of the party were earnestly
entreated to bring him to the fire, but they declared them-
selves, as indeed might well be the case, unequal to the task.

A consultation was now held among the officers. Franklin
felt that the time had come when the resolution which all no
doubt had foreseen and all dreaded must at last be definitely
taken. It had become only too clear that the remnant of the
little party which had dared and suffered so much together
must separate. The Canadians were too weak to bear their
burdens further. They begged that they might be allowed
to throw them down in order that they might make their way
to Fort Enterprise before their strength failed them altogether.
Franklin could not but feel that their prayer was irresistible,
and that they must be relieved of their loads if their lives
were to be saved. Hood, moreover, was now almost too
feeble to advance further, and Dr. Richardson offered to
remain behind with him and a single attendant, together with
any other member of the party who might wish to halt, at the
first place at which sufficient wood could be found and enough
tripe de roche for ten days' consumption. Franklin in the

182]

THE PARTY SEPARATE

meantime was to proceed as expeditiously as possible with
the other men to the Fort, and send back to them an
immediate supply of provisions. The greater part of the
ammunition was also to be left behind with Richardson and
Hood, as it was hoped that this deposit might be an induce-
ment to the Indians to venture a :ross the Barren Lands to
their relief. 'This proposal,' writes Franklin, 'was acceded
to on my part, though the idea of even a temporary separation
from my friends in affliction was extremely distressing to my
feelings ; but this would be the only arrangement which
could contribute to the safety of the party.'

The morning of the next day was mild, with a light
breeze from the south, a change of temperature encouraging
to the minds of men who contemplated encamping ; and on
arriving at a cluster of pines a few miles from their last
night's resting-place, a tent was pitched, and Dr. Richardson,
Hood, and Hepburn prepared to take up their quarters in it.
The offer was again repeated that any of the men who felt
themselves too weak to proceed at a quick pace should
remain behind, but none accepted it. Franklin accordingly
set off with seven of the voyageurs, and the party toiled
painfully on through deep snow for about four miles and a
half, when they were obliged to encamp ; but by this time two
of his companions were utterly exhausted. Belanger, one of
the voyageurs, burst into tears and, declaring he could go no
further, begged to be permitted to go back and join the
officers in the rear on the following day. The Iroquois Michel
soon afterwards joined in the request. Franklin consented
to their returning if they felt as weak the next morning, but
endeavoured, with that cheery and indomitable pluck which
seems never to have failed him for a moment throughout the
whole awful ordeal, to dispel the gloom which this incident
had thrown over the party by assuring them that it was but
a short distance from the Fort, and that in all probability
they would reach it in a few days. No tripe de roche was to
be found, and supper consisted of a so-called tea made of
herbs. The next morning, Belanger and Michel, not having
recovered any of their strength, were sent back again with

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THE FIGHT Wira FAMINE

OH. V.

m' -l:

a letter from Franklin to Dr. Richardson informing him of
a more eligible encampment in a pine wood a little further
on than the halting-place which had been selected. Perrault
was the next to give in and to be sent back, and later in the
day Antonio Fontano broke down, and begged, and was
permitted, to return. The number of Franklin's companions
was now reduced to four — Peltier, Semandr^, Benoit, and
Adam. With them he walked on about a mile further, and
then encamped for the night under a rocky hill whereon some
irtpe de roche was seen growing ; but the weed was frozen so
hard upon the rock that the men could not gather it, and
were obliged to sup again on the ' country tea ' and some
pieces of fried leather.

Next day, however, they were enabled to collect some of
the lichen, and to enjoy the first meal they had had for four
days past. On October lo the famine-stricken men were
mocked by the appearance on a neighbouring hill of a herd
of reindeer, which they were too feeble and too cold to follow.
Again no tripe de roche could be found, and once more the
country tea and a few strips of fried leather had to serve
them for supper.

At last, on October ii, five days after quitting the com-
panions they had left behind them. Fort Enterprise came in
sight, and as fast as their exhaustion would permit they
hurried forward to enter it. But here the most cruel of all
their disappointments awaited the starving wanderers. They
staggered into the Fort to find it entirely empty ! There was
no store of food ; no trace of the Indians who had been so
straitly charged, and had so repeatedly promised, to pro-
vide it ; no letter from Mr. Wentzel, the official of the North-
western Company, who had travelled part of the way with
them, to direct them to any spot where provisions might be
found. Even at this appalling moment, however, Franklin's
first thought was for others. ' Under these distressing cir-
cumstances,' he says, ' my mind was instantly filled with a
fearful anxiety for our suffering companions who had been
left in the rear, whose safety entirely depended on our sending
speedy relief from this place. The whole party shed tears, for

1821

A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT

it was impossible to divest our minds of the melancholy
apprehension that the lives of our companions would in all
probability be forfeited.' For their sole comfort they found
a letter from vir. Back, dated the same day, and informing
them that he /as going to search for the Indians, but was of
course doubtful whether he should meet them, as he had
no direction t. • follow, and that, if he failed, he intended to
proceed to Fort Providence, should the strength of his party
permit, and thence send succour to us. It was evident,
however, that any relief from Fort Providence would not only
be long in reaching Franklin's party, but could not be
sufficiently ample to afford succour to their companions
behind.

The first thing, however, was to replenish, however
scantily, their own fast-waning fuel of life. Food, if food it
could be called, was sought and found, but they were now to
partake of the poorest, not to say the foulest, of all their
many miserable meals. They lighted in an outhouse on some
rotting deer skins, the refuse of their last winter's sojourn at
the Fort ; they grubbed up some old bones from an ash-heap,
and these, with tripe de roche, ' we considered would support
us tolerably well for a time.' The bones, though quite acrid
from decomposition, were ' pounded and boiled with the trtpe
de roche and made a very palatable mess.' It was devoured
in a temperature ranging from 1 5° to 20° below zero. Their
bodily condition was now truly distressing. They were so
weak and emaciated as to be unable to move except for a
few yards at a time ; they were afflicted with swellings in
their joints, limbs, and other parts of their bodies ; their eye-
balls were dilated ; they spoke in hollow, sepulchral tones
and their mouths were raw and excoriated, as a result of the
fare on which they had subsisted. Adam in particular was
suffering terribly, and grew daily worse.

After nine more days spent under these fearful privations,
Franklin resolved to set out, with the voyageur Benoit and
the Eskimo Augustus, in search of the Indians, and, equipped
with snow-shoes, they started forth on the 20th. On the day
after his departure, however, he was unfortunate enough to

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V.

break one of his snow-shoes, and, fearing lest the accident
should retard the progress of the party, Franklin returned to
Fort Enterprise after giving Benoit careful instructions as to
the course he was to pursue. Another week dragged on its
course under the same wretched conditions. Adam and
Semandrc were now unable to rise from their beds, and Peltier
was often too weak to assist his leader in gathering tn'/>e de
roche and in searching for bones, which were now becoming
more and more hard to find. Nothing, however, could shake
Franklin's invincible fortitude or provoke from him a single
word of complaint. On the 27th he writes in his journal : —

I have this day been twenty-one years in H.M. service, and
exposed to many hardships in my professional career, but was never
placed in such a melancholy and affecting situation as the present.
However, with sincere praises to Almighty God for His past goodness
and protection, I will humbly confide in His gracious mercy and hope
for deliverance from this severe trial.

Two days afterwards, to the great surprise and, for a
moment, the unmixed joy of the leader, who had almost
given them up for lost, Dr. Richardson and Hepburn crawled
painfully into the Fort. But Franklin's gratification at their
safety was soon to be dashed by the tale of horror which they
had to unfold. Poor Hood was dead, murdered, it wa^
supposed, and it was Richardson's own hand that had exe-
cuted justice on his murderer. Of the whole party that had
remained behind and had been reinforced by those of Frank-
lin's detachment whose strength had failed them, and who
had been compelled to return, but these two now survi/ed.
Perrault and Belanger, the voyageurs who had fallen out of
the advance party, were the first to be missed. They were
never again heard of, and, though the manner of their death was
never conclusively ascertained, there is the strongest ground
for suspicion that they were killed by Michel in order that
the wretched man might appease the pangs of famine by
devouring their bodies. Before, however, their absence had
<jiven much anxiety, a more sinister cause for suspecting
Michel had arisen. On the morning of Sunday, October 20,
Richardson, who had gone out on an expedition to gather

1821

MURDER OF HOOD

lichen, leaving Hood ' sitting before the tent at the fireside
arguing with Michel,' and Hepburn employed in cutting
down a tree for firewood at a short distance off, heard the
report of a gun, and shortly afterwards the voice of Hepburn
calling to him in tone s of great alarm, to ' come quickly.'
Hastening back to the catnp, he found Hood lying lifeless,
shot through the head. Michel, who was standing near him,
being questioned as to how it had happened, declared that he
had not been present at the moment, and that Hood, whether
intentionally or by mischance, had shot himself. But the
character alike of the wound and of the weapon entirely
precluded belief in the story. The shot had entered the
back part of the dead man's head, and passed out at the
forehead, and the muzzle of the gun had been applied so
close as to set fire to the nightcap behind. The gun itself
was of the longest kind supplied to the Indians, and could not
have possibly been placed by Hood himself in a position to
inflict such a wound. Hepburn, moreover, averred positiv ily
that Michel was not absent when the gunshot was discharged,
but, on the contrary, was standing on the precise spot from
which the fatal shot could have been fired. According to
Hepburn's statement, Hood and Michel were speaking to
each other in an elevated, angry tone, the former being then
seated at the fireside and hidden from him by intervening
willows ; but on hearing the report he looked up and saw
Michel ' rising up from before the tent-door, or just behind
where Mr. Hood was seated, and then going into the tent
Thinking that the gun had been discharged for the purpose
of cleaning it, he did not go to the fire at first, and when
Michel called to him that Mr. Hood was dead a considerable
time had elapsed.'

This last circumstance in itself sufficed to demonstrate
the falsehood of Michel's account of the matter ; for his ex-
planation of his alleged absence was that Hood had 'sent him
into the tent for the short gun,' an errand which would only
have taken a few minutes to execute, so that he must, on his
own showing, have for some considerable time withheld the
fact of Hood's death from his companions. Strong, however,

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THE FKSIIT WITH FAMINE

CH. ♦.

as were their suspicions, they dared not at the moment openly
evince them, and not a word was said to Michel to reveal
their belief that he was guilty of the deed. The man, how-
ever, ' accused himself by excuse,' repeatedly protesting that
he was incapable of such a crime, and at the same time taking
great care to prevent Richardson and Hepburn from being
left alone together. liut inasmuch as this chapter of tragic
incidents was closed by an act of stern justice and self-pro-
tective necessity, which did not, however, escape the censures
of the ' armchair critic ' at home, it is desirable to let Dr.
Richardson himself complete the narrative in his own words.
Resolved to push on to the Fort at all hazards, he and his
party had struck their camp on the morning of the 2^rd,
* thick snowy weather and a head wind ' having delayed their
departure till that day. Hepburn and Michel had each a
gun. Richardson carried a small pistol, which Hepburn had
loaded for him : —

In the course of the march Michel alarmed us by his gestures
and conduct, was constantly muttering to himself, expressed ar un-
willingness to go to the Fort, and tried to persuade me to go south-
ward to the woods, where he said he could maintain himself all the
winter by killing deer. In consequence of this behaviour and the
expression of his countenance, I requested him to leave and to go to
the southward by himself. The proposal increased his ill-nature ; he
threw out some obscure hints of freeing himself from all restraint on
the morrow ; and I overheard him muttering threats against Hepburn,
whom he openly accused of having told stories against him. He also
for the first time assumed such a tone of superiority in addressing me
as evinced that he considered us to ha completely in his power, and
he gave vent to several expressions of hatred towards the white people,
or, as he termed us in the idiomof the voyageurs, the French, some of
whom he said had killed and eaten his uncle and two of his relations.
In short, taking every circumstance into consideration, I came to the
conclusion that he would attempt to destroy us on the first opportunity
that offered, and that he had hitherto abstained from doing so from
his ignorance of the way to the Fort, but that he would never suffer
us to go thither in company with him. In the course of the day he
had several times remarked that we were pursuing the same course
that Mr. Franklin was doing when he left him, and that by keepi ng
towards the setting sun he could find his way himself. Hepburn and
I were not in a condition to resist even an open attack, nor could we

1821

AN ACT OF JUSTICE

101

by any device escape from him. Our united strength was far inferior
to his, and, beside his gun, he was armed with his pistols, an Indian
bayonet, and a knife. In the afternoon, coming to a rock on which
there was some tripe de roche, he halted, and said he would gather it
whilst we went on, and that he would soon overtake us. Hepburn
and I were now left together for the ♦irst time since Mr. Hood's death,
and he acquainted me with several circumstances which he had ob-
served of Michel's behaviour, and which confirmed me in the opinion
that there was no safety for us except in his death, and he offered to
be the instrument of it. I determined, however, as I was thoroughly
convinced of the necessity of the dreadful act, to take the whole
responsibility upon myself, and on Michel's couiing up I put an end
to his life by shooting him through the head with a pistol. Had my
own life alone been threatened, I would not have purchased it by
such a measure ; but I considered myself as entrusted also with the
protection of Hepburn's, a man who by his humane attention and
devotedness had so endeared himself to me that I felt more anxiety for
his safety than for my own. Michel had gathered no tripe de roche, and
it was evident to me that he had halted for the purpose of putting his
gun in order with the intention of attacking us, perhaps while ve were
in the act of encamping. I have dwelt in the preceding narrative
on many circumstances of Michel's conduct, not for the purpose of
aggravating it, but to put the reader in possession of the reason that
influenced me in depriving a fellow-creature of life.

Nothing, of course, could have mitigated the painful shock
which Franklin received from the tidings of Hood's tragic
end. It was the manner of his death rather than his loss
which was so agitating to his leader, who, as appeared after-
wards, had already abandoned all hope that his young com-
rade's life would be preserved. He seems to have been the
only one of the party whose digestive organs obstinately
revolted against the miserable food on which his companion
could just manage to keep body and soul together , and dis-
covering, as Franklin did when he reached Fort Enterprise,
that this would have for an indefinite period to be the sole
food of the party he had left behind him, he gave up Hood
for lost. This, as will be seen hereafter, he brings out quite
clearly, though with much tenderness and delicacy, in his
reply to a subsequent communication from the bereaved
father. But to return to our narrative.

Hepburn, just before reaching the Fort, had had the good

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THE FIGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V,

luck to shoot a partridge. The starving men hurriedly tore
the feathers from the bird, held it for a few minutes hefore the
fire, and then, dividing it into equal portions, greedily devoured
it. It was the first morsel of flesh they had tasted for thirty-
one days, unless 'the small gristly particles' occasionally found
adhering to the bones on which they had helped to support
their lives could be so described.

From what inward reserves of strength and spirit the three
Englishmen contrived to sustain themselves during the awful
week that followed must ever be a mystery to ail who have read
the harrowing story. From the first, however, it was evident
that whatever it was possible to do for the preservation of the
party, by cutting wood for fires and preparing their scanty
meals of animal refuse, would have to be done by Franklin
and his two English companions. The three Canadians were
all of them too weak to move. Adam, the interpreter, had
been for some time disabled, and Peltier and Semandr^ were
now equally helpless. Both complained of sore throats, pro-
duced by the acridity of the bone soup, and Semandre had
the cramp in his fingers. The former felt the cold extremely
piercing in his reduced state of body, and half a blanket was
served out to him to repair his flannel shirt and drawers,
which occupation, observes Franklin quaintly, ' afforded some
amusement to him and Semandre in the evening and revived
their spirits.' But on November 2 the end came. On the
morning of that day both men were obviously at the point of
death. Peltier ' sat up with difficulty and looked piteously,
exclaiming frequently, " Je suis faible ! Je suis faiblc ! "' and
spoke often of the increased soreness of his throat. At length
he slid down from the spot on which he was sitting on
to his bed, which was placed near the fire, as if to sleep, and
remained for two hours without our apprehending him to be
in immediate danger, until we were alarmed by hearmg a
rattling noise in his throat. On Dr. Richardson examii^ng
him he was found to be speechless.' It was the speechless-
ness of death. Semandre lingered through the day, complain-
ing always of increasing cold and weakness, and expired at
daylight on the following morning. Dr. Richardson and

i821

AT THE POINT OF DEATH

103

Hepburn removed the two men's bodies from the room, ' but
were quite unable either to inter them or carry them down to
the water.'

Stili, they remained the strongest of the four men to whom
the party was now reduced ; for Franklin, with his customary
candour, admits that they had ' outstayed ' him, and that
during these last days the task of vvood-cutting devolved wholly
upon them, Franklin himself having only just strength
enough to hunt for deerskins under the snow. After another
two days, however, the strength even of the indefatigable pair
began rapidly to decline. Yet, their le-^der adds, ' they were
full of hope, and went to their labour of gathering wood cheer-
fully.' But on Tuesday, November 6, it became evident that
they were on the verge of absolute exhaustion. ' To cut one
log of wood is an occupation for half an hour to Hepburn, and
to carry it into the house occupied Richardson almost the
same time, though the distance does not exceed twenty yards.
I endeavoured to render the men some assistance in this
employment, but my aid was feeble. It is evident, however,'
continues Franklin, with a rebound of his marvellously elastic
spirits, ' that if their strength diminishes with the rapidity it
has done for the last three days, I shall be the strongest in a
day or two.'

With this last utterance of an inexhaustible courage
this last manifestation of a pride of endurance which had no
doubt been not a little wounded by his companions supe-
riority in physical strength, the long-drawn tale of suffer-
ing fitly closes. On the following day relief came. The
manner of its arrival is described in Franklin's published
narrative of the expedition ; but an infinitely more touching
record of it can just be deciphered on the soiled and dogs-
eared page of the little paper-covered pocket journal that
lies before me. Regularly, religiously, day by day through-
out that grim struggle with death, its entries follow one
another with methodical precision, and in the dim, blurred
pencil-marks that record that heartfelt cry of thanksgiving
on the page which has here been reproduced in facsimile
one almost seems to be listening to the faint and broken

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THE ?IGHT WITH FAMINE

CH. V.

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utterances of the famine-stricken and almost dying man. On
Sunday, November 4, he had written, so far as it is possible
to decipher the entry :

May the devout prayers of the congregations on behalf of the
afflicted find . . . before the Throne of Mercy.

Then follows, on the page which has been reproduced, an
account of the incidents of the two following days — of their
failure to discover any trt/>e de rocke or bones ; of their meal off
fried skins and tea ; of the increasing weakness of the Doctor
and Hepburn : ' eats little, and was getting this day quite dis-
pirited.' And then at the bottom of the page :

Wednesday, Nov. 7. — Praise be unto the Lord ! We were this
day rejoiced by the appearance of Indians with supplies at noon.

The trembling hand that penned these now barely legible
lines is long since dust ; and the dingy and crumpled little
book that contains them would, but for the pious care which
has preserved it, have perished years ago. But it was found
among certain papers sealed and described in its owner's
handwriting as ' The Original Notes of Capt. Franklin, written
during the most distressing part of his last residence at Fort
Enterprise in 1821 — much defaced by being worn in his
pocket ; ' and it has, of course, been cherished as among the
most sacred of their possessions by his relatives. Nor is it
possible, even for those who can only claim the kinship with
him of a common humanity, to look unmoved upon this
silent companion and daily confidant of a hero throughout
the long agony of his fight with famine.

Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.

Dull indeed must be the imagination that does not feel its
pathos, and sluggish the sympathies that it fails to stir.

It was to the gallant and devoted Back that they owed
their lives. His sufferings since he separated from the party
on October 4 had been no less severe than theirs. For days
together he and the three men with him had supported life
* on an ol . pair of leather trousers, a gun-cover, and a pair of
old shoes, with a little tripe de roche that they succeeded in

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FACSIMILE PAGES OF SIR JOHN FRAr

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1822

RELIEF

106

scraping off the rocks.' On the 26th, one of his companions
died of exhaustion ; but the survivors, knowing that the lives
of the party they had left behind them depended on their
exertions, still pressed on. On November 4 they fell in with
Akaitcho and his Indians, and at once despatched them to
Fort Enterprise to Franklin's relief. The supplies they
brought with them consisted of some dried deer's meat and a
few tongues, on which the sufferers would have fallen like
famished wolves had it not been for the warnings of Dr.
Richardson. Yet never perhaps was the well-known admoni-
tion, * Do as I say, but not as I do ' — that soundest counsel
of the professional adviser, alike in medicine and in morals —
more amusingly illustrated ; for Franklin admits in his official
narrative that Richardson was himself ' unable to practise the
caution he so judiciously recommended,' and there is evidence
in their private journals that the Doctor suffered more severely
from distension than any other member of the party.

The Indians, to do them justice, endeavoured to the best
of their ability to atone for their so nearly fatal neglect.
The interpreter Adam, who was undoubtedly within a few
hours of death when the relief arrived, owed his speedy con-
valescence to their attentive care ; and they did their utmost,
by procuring game and fish, and in other ways, to minister
to the wants of the whole of the exhausted party. In little
more than another week, so wonderful is man's recuperative
power, their energies were sufficiently restored to enable them
to proceed. On November 16 they quitted the station
which had been the scene of their miseries, and on the
nth of the following month they reached Fort Providence.
Hence, after resting a few days, they went on to Moose Deer
Island, where they passed the remainder of the winter. On
May 26, 1822, they started homeward, and, reaching York
Factory about the middle of July, took ship for England,
where they arrived in October, after an absence of three years
and a half and journeyings by land and water of more than
5,500 miles.

Very shortly after their arrival, Franklin, who had in his
absence been promoted to the rank of commander, was

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OH. V.

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advanced to that of post-captain, and was about the same
time unanimously elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, in
recognition of his services to the cause of geographical science.
Those services, it is true, had been considerable, and well
deserved the rewards, official and unofficial, which they had
won. But the debt of the English nation —nay, of the whole
human race — to the heroic explorers was far greater than that
of the geographer ; and the shores of the Coppermine River,
the Barren Lands of Arctic America, and the rude shelter of
Fort Enterprise, are sacred and memorable in human history,
not as the mere monuments of a scientific conquest, but as
the scene of labours and sufferings which have inspired the
world with a new conception of the powers of human endu-
rance, a new glory in the unconquerable soul of man.

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1822

107

CHAPTER VI

HUSBAND AND WIDOWER
1822-1825

In the first quarter of the present century the position of a
' lion ' was not to be so cheaply won as it is now, nor, even
when recognised as such, was the noble animal pursued by
nearly as many hunters or with anything like the amoun; of
spirit as is the case to-day. Franklin's exploits, however, even
apart from their gallantry and hardihood, were of too novel
and picturesque a character not to create a sensation even
among the comparatively sedate public of 1822. There is
abundant evidence at this period of his life that he had be-
come a conspicuous figure in London society, a welcome guest
at many dinner-tables, an object of interest and admiration
in many drawing-rooms. Doubtless he received notice and
courtship enough to have turned the head of any less
modest and simple-minded man ; but Franklin was in no
danger of being thus spoilt. He was, indeed, protected from
any such danger, not only, as has been said, by his modesty,
but also by his ambition. There is, perhaps, no more
effectual safeguard against undue vanity over past achieve-
ments than an ardent desire to add greater exploits to
their number. The honourable discontent which such a
desire, until gratified, generates is essentially antagonistic to
that mood of mind in which alone complacency can flourish ;
and the passion for Arctic discovery gave Franklin no rest.
Immediately on his arrival in England he set to work to
prepare that well-written and spirited narrative of his expe-
dition which has been so frequently quoted above, and which
was, in fact, published by Mr. Murray in the following year.
, It must have been while he was engaged in preparing this

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HUSBAND AND WIDOWER

CH. VI.

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volume for publication that he received the letter above
referred to from the father of the unfortunate young man who
had fallen a victim to the murderous impulse of the half-
insane Indian, Michel ; and Franklin's reply to it is so
eminently illustrative of his genuine kindness of heart that
it deserves quotation almost in full. The elder Hood, in the
postscript of a pathetic letter of thanks to Franklin for the
terms in which he had spoken of his murdered comrade in
the official despatch reporting the circumstances of his death,
appends a question respecting ' what perhaps the dreadful cir-
cumstances of the moment scarcely permitted,' namely, the
interment of his son's remains. ' May I trouble you,' he adds,
• to inform me what time he first began to be ill, and whether
in your opinion, if that infernal villain had not perpetrated his
shocking crime, he might probably have survived until the
period of relief ? '

In his reply to this letter, Franklin, after dwelling upon the
excellent qualities of the ill-fated young officer, proceeds : —

You will, therefore, readily imagine I looked with painful solici-
tude at the possibility of losing such a valuable member of our small
society, which, I lament to say, was too awfully apparent at the time
of my arrival at Fort Enterprise, when I experienced the indescribable
disappointment of finding the house destitute of provisions. On my
separation from your son, he remarked that he never should be able
to move the distance of our house [from where he then was], about
thirty-six miles, without being drawn on a sledge. I think, however,
his strength was then sufficient to have gone two or three days fur-
ther at an easy pace ; buc then, in all probability, he must have
halted, as by going on we advanced into a country where the soil
was sandy and lichens — our only food at the time — were less abun-
dant. This unpalatable nourishment, however, from which the
others derived some degree of support, was seldom taken by him,
save in the smallest quantity, on account of the constant irritation
which the eating of it produced in his bowels. He might, too, as
were others far stronger in appearance, have been completely ex-
hausted in the following day's march by the increased exertions
required to wade through the deeper snow we came to. He had been
in a very weakly state upwards of a month preceding his death, and
I am informed by Dr. Richardson and Hepburn that at the time
when the ever-to-be-deplored crime was committed by Michel the
afflicted sufferer was in such a perfectly debilitated state of body that

1822

A KINDLY LETTER

109

he could scarcely walk twenty yards without support. Under cuch
circumstances, it was to be feared that his earthly career would have
terminated in a short time had not the awful event taken place-
especially as it would have been totally out of my power to have sent
relief immediately forward on its reaching me at Fort Enterprise on
November 7, owing to the few persons with me at the house being
almost in a similar deplorably weak condition.

To the other, the more difficult and distressing question put
to him, Franklin replies, and doubtless could only reply very
little ; but that little is put with much tact and good feeling : —

With respect to the interment of his body, I am certain the
strength of the survivors was inadequate to the labour of opening a
sufficient space of the perfectly frozen ground ; but I have little
doubt of their having covered the body with snow and stones. Dr.
Richardson, however, will be able to give you information on that
point.

And the letter concludes with the following testimony to
Franklin's affectionate regard for his lost comrade : —

Among the last conversations which I had with your excellent
son Robert, he mentioned his brother to me, and particularly re-
quested I would endeavour to find him out and cultivate his friend-
ship. He spoke most highly of his talents and application, and he
did me the kindness to request, if ever I should be employed on any
other expedition, that he might accompany me. With this, his last
request, I should feel it a peculiar pleasure in complying, providing it
should meet your and his brother's wish. At least, I beg you to be
assured that I shall seek the earliest opportunity of meeting your
surviving son, and be desirous to show by every act in my power liow
sincerely I wish to extend to him the friendship I entertained for his
departed brother.

Not much addition is needed to this picture : the young
officer, at the point of death from starvation in the Arctic
wilderness, anxiously soliciting employment for his brother in
the same dangerous service, and his leader conveying the
proposal of this opening for ' your surviving son ' to the be-
reaved father, with perfect confidence in his assumption that
the offer, whether ace nted or not, will be welcome. They
were a Spartan race, the Englishmen of those days. May
their descendants prove worthy of them !

But the enthusiasm which Franklin thus confidently

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imsnANI) AND WIDOWER

CH. VI.

attributed to the father of his murdered comrade was not
more ardent, after ail, than the passion which glowed within
his own breast. If it did not occur to him that bereavement
could discourage it in another, it was because he was
conscious that the last extremities of danger and suffering
had not one whit diminished it in himself. Less than a
year had gone by since he was undergoing one of the most
appalling trials of human fortitude that man has ever
endured and survived. He had passed through experiences
which would have seemed to many a man sufficient for a
lifetime, nay, which may almost be said to have compressed
the agonies of a lifetime into a few terrible weeks. Who could
have wondejcd if his sole desire had been for long repose and
for a gradual release from hideous recollections hovering
around his pillow in nightmares of horror-haunted dream ?
Yet nothing could have been further from the actual fact.
The man who, in the winter of 1821, had been starving upon
acrid lichens and putrid offal in the Arctic wilds was actually
again exploring those deadly regions in imagination in the
summer of 1822, Such leisure as was left him by the pre-
paration of the Narrative he employed, not in contemplating
his past triumphs, but in planning future conquests. Even
in this very year we find him making proposals to the Admi-
ralty for a new expedition to the coasts of Arctic America
by a somewhat different route.

Ntvertheless, these pre-occupations of his were not so
absoihmg as to exclude another of a very important kind.
Even the busiest of men contrive somehow to find the
leisure necessary for falling in love, and still more for
prosecuting the courtship which is the natural sequel to that
incident. There are reasons for thinking that the first step —
if a ' fall ' can be so described — had been taken by Franklin
several years before. It is, at any rate, highly significant
that to a small group of islands discovered by his expedi-
tion in the Arctic Sea he s.iould have given the name of the
Porden Islands. Flinders, and Buchan, and Hood, who stood
sponsors for the newly discovered capes, or bays, or rivers, of
those latitudes, can at once be identified as former commanders

18S9

MIS8 roilDEX

or present comrades. Hut there was no member of the
expedition bearing the name given to these islands, whereas
there was a certain Miss Kleanor Anne I'ordcn, the daughter
of an eminent architect, and with some considerable reputa-
tion as a poetess, who had celebrated the earlier voyage of the
Dorothea and Trent in an admiring sonnet. Not only so, but
after making Franklin's acquaintance, probably in her capaciiy
as the sonneteer, she addressed to him a short poem, the
authorship of which was no doubt made known to him, though
veiled from the public under the name of ' Green Stockings.'
The lines arc supposed to be addressed by an Eskimo girl to
the adventurous Engli.^hman, and begin as follows : —

Yes, yes, thou art gone to the climes of the East ;

Thou hast welcomed the sun as he springs from the sea,
And thou car'st not, though sorrow lie cold on my breast,

Though the night of the grave may be closing on me.
And though he may beam in those changeable skies,
Where he dawns bui: to set, and descends but to rise,
Though on wonders I dream not his lustre may shine,
Yet he warms not one bosom more constant than mine.
And what if the daughters of Albion be fair,

With their soft eyes of azure and tresses of gold ?
To the flow'rs of the meadows their charms I compare ;

They bloom in the sunshine, but shrink from the cold.
But I through the snow and the forest would guide thee.
On the smooth-frozen lake I would gambol beside thee ;
With thongs of the reindeer thy buskins would weave.
And dress thy light meal as thou slumber'st at eve.

But frown not ; thou knowest that such moments have been.

Though cruel and false, thou could'st calmly depart.
Thy comrade too truly has pictured the scene

And my form : but thine '^ 't is drawn on my heart.

Think not in thy green isle soi. „ fair one to view.
For with tempest and storm shall my vengeance pursue.
My bidding- at noonday shall darken the air.
And the rage of my climate shall follow thee there.

And thus the love-sm.itten 'Green Stockings' concludes : —

Return ! and the ice shall be swept from thy path ;

I will breathe out my spells o'er the land and the sea.
Return ! and the tempest shall pause in his wrath.

Nor the winds nor the waves dare be rebels to thee.

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HUSBAND AND WIDOWER

CH. VI.

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Spread thy canvas once more, keep the Pole Star before thee,
'Tis constancy's type and the beacon of glory ;
By the lake, by the mountain, the forest and river,
In the wilds of the North, I am thine, and for ever !

As will be perceived, it is eminently in the taste of the
time — a tirne^ it need hardly be added, in which English
minor poetry was not at its best. But Miss Porden's intel-
lectual abilities would be unfairly measured by her power of
expressing her thoughts and emotions in a language which
but few, and they of the highest poetic genius, had at that
time mastered, though it is in these days handled v.'ith com-
parative ease and fluency even by many who have neither
thought nor emotion to express. One would prefer not to
judge her even by her epic poem in two volumes entitled
' Coeur de Lion ; ' though the fact that she wrote a ' scientific
poem ' called * The Veils,' which procured her the unusual
honour of being elected a member of the French Institute, is
enough to prove that, whatever the form of her poetic utter-
ances, she must have had considerable clearness of mental
vision and even some vigour of mental grasp. A far better
estimate, however, can be formed of her from the letters from
which some extracts will be given hereafter, and which show
her to have possessed a most alert intelligence, a keen eye
for character and situation, and no inconsiderable fund of
humour.

Franklin's wooing of this lady was no long business.
They became engaged to each other in the summer of 1823,
and in August 19 they were married. It was in every re-
spect save one — but that unfortunately a most important
respect — a happy union. Mrs. Franklin's health, always very
delicate, began to fail rapidly within a year after the marriage.
The fatal signs of pulmonary disease revealed themselves,
and it soon became too sadly evident that the young wife's
days were numbered. In the early months of their wedded
life, however, the gravity of her case was not apparent.
Franklin, writing to one of his sisters in December 1823,
describes her merely as ' somewhat of an invalid,' and at that
time, probably, her happiness was unclouded by any appre-

1823

A NEW EXrEDlTION

113

hensions. How thorough a sympathy existed between the -,
he goes on to show ; for, after speaking of the steps which
he had then just taken to procure the despatch of another
Arctic expedition, he continues : * All my proceedings in
this matter have been made with the entire concurrence and
indeed assistance of my wife, who, you are aware, is as warm
in the cause of Arctic discoveries as I can possibly be. Her
mind, indeed, is so thoroughly English that she would cheer-
fully make any sacrifice to promote our national character,
ar.d more particularly where my professional fame is con-
cerned.' Little could he have foreseen at that moment how
great vv^ould be the sacrifice actually required of her, and with
what fortitude and devotion it would be met. „

The nature of his plans could not, he adds, be communi-
cated to his correspondent at the present stage, but he pro-
mised her that she and the rest of his family should receive
the earliest intelligence respecting them if they were sanc-
tioned and likely to be adopted. The scheme proposed by
him, which was as a matter of fact accepted by the authorities
at the Admiralty, differed from that of the former expedition
in that the projected route of approach to the Arctic Ocean
was to be by way not of the Coppermine, but of the Macken-
zie River. On reaching its mouth the party were to divide,
one portion of it proceeding along the coast to the westward,
while the remainder took an eastward course along it as far
as the Coppermine River, so as to connect the new survey of
the North American shore with the discoveries of the earlier
exploration. Concurrently with the despatch of these two land
parties it was decided, as in the former case, to send out a
naval expedition also ; but in this instance the programme of
11819 was to be reversed. The vessel commissioned for the
service, H.M.S. Blossom, under the command of Captain
Beechey, Franklin's old lieutenant on the Trent, was to enter
the Arctic Ocean not as did Parry's vessel from the eastward
by way of Baffin's Bay, but through Behring Strait on the
west ; and it was to aim at effecting a junction with Franklin's
westv/ard-bouiid coasting party at some point between that,
strait and the mouth of the Mar':enzie River. In the event

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HUSBAND AND WIDOWER

CH. vi.

of such junction being effected, the Blossom was to convey
him and his party either to Canton or the Sandwich Islands,
as might seem advisable, or to carry out any other instructions
Franklin might think proper to issue.

Many months, however, had yet to elapse before the pre-
parations for the departure of the two expeditions were com-
pleted. For Franklin of course they were months full of
business, involving probably not a little separation from his
young wife, whose health was ah"eady beginning to decline,
and who in the spring of 1 824 was expecting the birth of her
first, and, as it proved to be, her only child. Several letters
from her to her sisters-in-law during this period have been
preserved — letters which testify abundantly to the bright
liveliness of her temperament, yet are not ^x'*-h: a pathetic
interest of their own. Incidentally they show the keen
public interest which the new project of Arctic exploration
had aroused, and the more vigorous ' lionising ' to which
Franklin was being subjected in consequence. ' I am much
better than I have been,' writes his wife to her sister-in-law,
under the light of one of those delusive gleams of hope
which so cruelly mock the victims of consumption, ' and
begin to be a little more useful about the houL;e ; but I do not
get out yet either on my own legs or any other, and my
cough is often extremely troublesome. I have been flattered
from week to week with the promise of a wonderful r' \nge
in me ; but hitherto it has been all flattery. I am not < ? ; l'\
however, and I shall do very well with the help o" « J'
patience. Your brother is very kind and takes great cart .>f
poor little me, so that I have not been dull after all, and my
friends are now beginning to rally round me. I only wish
they would suspend their invitations a little while till I am
able to accept and enjoy them.'

The cheerful courage with which the frail and failing
woman looks forward to a prospect which had evid'.ntly dis-
turbed the composure of her correspondent comes cut very
strikingly in the following passage : —

I perceive the idea of your brother's engaging in another expedi-
tion has quite frightened you, and you will set me down as either

1824

BIRTH OF A DAUGHTER

having no feeling or not caring a straw for him because I cannot share
in your fears. I am, however, better off than I had expected to be,
for I always looked to his leaving me this spring, and now I shall
have his society nearly a twelvemonth longer — time enough for us
to get tired of each other according to some people's opinion, but I
see no signs of such an event at present. I think I can venture to
assure you that, so far as human calculation can extend or human
prudence can provide, there is no danger of his again encountering
the sufferings of his last journey. The fatigue and want of the com-
forts of civ .Used life which must be inseparable from all travels into
uncolonised countries, he must of course be prepared to meet, but I
trust that he is endowed with every mental and bodily requisite to
surmount them ; and what would you think of any man who scrupled
to encounter these inconveniences in the path of duty and honour ?
. . . Let me beg of you, therefore, to dismiss your apprehension;*.
If evil should come, it will coine soon enough. We have no occasion
to cloud the present hour by anticipating it ; and should the enter-
prise be successful, I am sure you love your brother too well not to
wish that he may have the happiness and honour of achieving it. At
any rate, he is still under the care of the same Providence which has
once so wonderfully sustained him, and, as I said before, every human
precaution will be taken.

On June 3, 1824, Mrs. Franklin gave birth to a daughter,
who was christened Eleanor, after her mother. The event, as
so often happens in such cases, sensibly accelerated the pro-
gress of her malady, and from that date, no doubt, the proba-
bility if not the imminence of the fatal issue was no longer to
be concealed from the suftbrer's husband and her friends.

Her own hopefulness, however, was invincible, and a letter
of hers of more than three months' later date from Tunbridge
Wells is quite touching in its vivacity and high spirits : —

I am getting stout and well, and mean soon to be strong enough
to look better after your brother, and try to keep him in some sort of
order.

(In an earlier letter she had written : ' I suppose the news-
papers have told you how the ladies pulled your brother to
pieces at Captain Par y s ball. He was in such request that
I wonder they left a b t of him for me.')

Such a flirt as he is ! The like was never known. Only think of
his being one of a party to gallant sixteen young ladies (ladies are
always young, you know), who, not contented with making a mono-

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HUSBAND AND WIDOWER

CH. VT.

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poly of the carriages in the neighlourhood (so that poor I, who was
left at home, could hardly procure a wi etched one), actually stormed
the house of a gentleman whom they did not know, a few miles off,
and insisted on eating their picnic meal in his dining-room ! John
Bull grumbled a little at first, as might be expected ; but as John Bull
is always good-natured at bottom, and, moreover, easily taken in,
he yielded at last at the thought of these sixteen lovely damsels
getting wet through in an impending shower, at the doleful picture of
coughs and colds which was drawn by Lady EUenborough's butler-
for she was leader of the storming party. Well, as I said, the poor
gouty old gentleman's heart was softened, and, what is more, his wife
was neither angry nor jealous. The young ladies were allowed to do
as they liked — namely, to make themselves quite at home on his terri-
tory. So they wandered on the margin of his lake, which had been
the original attraction, and sang songs in his sylvan avenues till the
despairing nightingales dropped down dead with envy, and the moon
rose a full hour before the time to look at what was going on. I
understand your brother's sweetness of voice and delicacy of taste were
particularly admired in a tender Italian duet with one of the Misses
L. He has had a good deal of practice lately in singing to baby, and
were it not for the approaching expedition I should expect to see him
come out as a successor to Braham.

Then follows an amusing anecdote of another distinguished
man : —

Mr. Chantrey, the sculptor, who has been residing here some time,
came down from London last Saturday, and on Sunday discovered
that he had left the keys of his cellar and strong box behind. Nothing
remained but to go back to London for them. Monday morning
came, all the coaches full, so what does he do but order a post-chaise
and set off ! At Seven Caks he finds a gentleman in despair at being
able to procure no conveyance to town when he was summoned by
earnest business ; so Mr. Chantrey in his generosity volunteers to
take him on. So far, so good ; but half a mile further he found his
keys in his breeches pocket, and, being ashamed to tell the tale of his
own folly, actually went on to London for the sake of keeping faith
with his travelling companion. Men of genius do strange things. . . .
Not a word about baby yet ! Not a word of sober common-sense !
Well, I can't help it. I have dealt in dismals so long that I am deter-
mined not to be serious again until after your brother is gone ; nor
then, either, if I can help it.

No apology, it is to be hoped, is needed for these some-
what lengthy extracts. The letters from which they are
taken afford us our only glimpse into the inner life of the

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1824

A TRAGIC SITUATION

117

bright and hapless young creature over \v'hom the grave was
so soon to close. A situation more intensely tragic than that
in which Franklin was placed at this moment it would be
impossible to imagine. As the date of his departure drew
nearer and nearer, so also did it become more and more evi-
dent that the hour was as fast approaching when his beloved
wife must herself begin, in words destined years afterwards to
be graven on his own cenotaph, her * happier voyage, towards
no earthly Pole.' It was plainly as much a question of days
with one event as with the other ; and in this grim race be-
tween Death and Duty the unhappy husband found himself
almost longing for the victory of the former, in order that he
might be with his wife to the end. The following letter to his
brother-in-law, Mr. Sellwood, written less than a week before,
reflects a state of feeling which would render it almost too
painful for extract, were not the distressing situation so relieved
and ennobled by the quiet heroism of the dying woman : —

Hannah's last letter to Mr. Booth will have apprised you of my
dearest Eleanor being in a very alarming state. The disease has
continued its rapid progress, and she is now to all appearance nearly
at her last extremity ; but such has been her muscular strength that
she has rallied frequently, and it is not improbable she may linger
even through this day. I seize an interval of repose to commence
this letter to you in this room, where I have been watching all the
night. You, my dearest friend, have experienced the awful trial I
have got to witness, and can fully enter into my feelings and truly con-
dole with my afflictions. Great as my loss must be, it is assuredly
some alleviation to reflect that it is possible it may please ihe Al-
mighty to remove her from this transitory scene before I 1: ke my
departure, and, though short the time of my stpy, I may hxve the
opportunity of arranging for the care of our dear infant. . , . It is
impossible to imagine any person mori resigned than she has been,
and is especially -i-mce the paroxysms have subsided. She has desired
me to pray for h^r in express words during the night, and abouc three
hours since asked me to read the chapter of Corinthians used for the
funeral service. All her private arrangements have been made with
perfect calmness and self-collection, and now her mind is perfectly at
ease. She only says ' God's will be done ! ' It is, too, extremely
satisfactory to me that she expressed before the whole party her
decided wish that I should not delay in going on the expedition, that
it has ever been her desire, and that she is not of opinion that the

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118

HUSBAND AND AVIDONVER

cu. vr.

circumstance of my going has hastened the crisis of her complaint,
which she now thinics has been long in progress, and certainly advanc-
ing by rapid strides since our return from Tunbridge Wells.

The end, however, was not nearly so close at hand as
appeared. In a few hours the patient rallied. The doctors*
Franklin reported later, 'saw symptoms of amendment. Other
measures were immediately adopted. The medicine pro-
duced the effect looked for, and I thank God my dearest wife
has been since improving, and that even now there are hopes
of her recovery, faint as they may be and as I shall consider
them. She said to-day, " It would be better for me that
you were gone." It is delightful how happy the state of her
mind is.'

By the middle of the month of February the expedition
was at last ready to .start. All the details connected with its
equipment had been personally superintended by Franklin,
who also made the necessary arrangements with the Hudson's
Bay Company's officials for the conveyance of his people,
stores, and provisions to Great Bear Lake. In accordance
with his wishes, three boats were specially constructed in
such a manner as to combine seaworthiness and stability
with such lightness as should render them sufficiently easy of
transport over the numerous portages and various rapids that
would be met with before reaching the Arctic waters on which
they were to be launched. The largest of these boats was
twenty-six feet long, and was capable of carrying eight people ;
the other two, each constructed to hold seven men, were
twenty-four feet in length. The two companions who had
played so gallant a part in Franklin's former adventure, Dr.
Richardson and Lieutenant Back, were again associated with
him, and Mr. Kendall, an officer who had served in Parry's
last expedition, and was afterwards to become Franklin's
nephew by marriage, was also of the party.

It is not necessary for the purpose of the present memoir
to give so detailed an account of this second expedition as
has been given of the first. Less dramatic in its incidents,
and attended with far less formidable difficulties and dangers,
it is proportionately less illustrative of the personal character

1826

DEATH OF MRS. FRANKLIN

119

and qualities of i>.^ commander, and its results, though of high
scientific value, belong rather to the general history of geo-
graphical exploration. Except, therefore, a' "-hose stages of
its course at which it is marked by occurrences bearing on
the history of Franklin's private life or throwing additional
light on his individuality, the narrative of it in these pages
will have to be more or less concisely summarised.

One such occurrence, however, and that of a tragic nature,
confronts us, as was indeed but too evidently and sadly pre-
destined, at its very outset. The officers of the expedition, who
had been preceded by the men and stores, left England on
February i6, 1825, and on the 22nd, less than a week after,
Mrs. Franklin breathed her last. It was not, however, until
near the end of April that the sorrowful news overtook her
husband ; and, grave as had been the apprehensions with
which he had left her, the tidings came upon him — as all such
tidings do, however men may think themselves prepared for
them — with an overwhelming shock.

It was the more severe since it would seem that that
pathetic power of self-deception which love bestows had actu-
ally been strong enough since Franklin's departure to revive
in him hopes of his wife's ultimate recovery. He wrote letter
after letter to Mrs. Franklin, then, alas ! no more, which
breathe, in many passages at any rate, a spirit of confidence
and even of cheerfulness, which may of course have been
partly, but could not have been wholly, assumed. It was in
this strain that he wrote to her during his outward passage, a
very pleasant and favourable one as he describes it, in the
American packet-ship Columbia. 'I have every hope,' he
says, * that it w'll please God to restore you to health, and
that we shall meet after the lapse of a few short ycar^ to
unite in thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty, and to
enjoy each other's and our dear ch'ld's society.'

Again, on March 22, after his arrival at New York, he
writes describing the town in his usual lively fashion, and
incidentally gives us a glimpse of the interior of an American
theatre of those days. * It is a neat house and happened to
be well filled. Some of the gentlemen, however, sat with their

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HUSBAND AND WIDOWER

CH. VI.

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hats on in the boxes by the side of the ladies. So much for a
young country, and for liberty and independence ! ' And the
letter ends : ' I often think how you and cur little girl are
getting on, and am always so sanguine as to hope you are
well. ... I long lu hear from you, and it is unfortunate that
the next packet has not arrived, which will no doubt bear
letters from you or some one of the family.' A third letter is
from Albany, full of travelling incidents and giving a descrip-
tion of the Falls of Niagara. And then comes the last he
ever wrote to her before learning the fatal truth. It was
written from Penentanguishene, a lonely outlying British sta-
tion on Lake Huron, r.nd is dated April 22 : —

I am sure you will be rejoiced to learn that v,e arrived safely at
this place, to which you may remember a part of our stores were for-
warded from Montreal. The Canadian voyageurs had not reached York
Factory at the time of the departure from thence. I therefore left Mr.
Back to bring them up. Part of these men have already come up, Mr.
Back and the remainder we expect to-day, so that we shall probably
commence our voyage this evening or to-morrow. We are first to
cross Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and at ^ort William, on the
north side of the latter lake, we embark in the proper travelling canoes,
which are of a smaller size than those we now use.

Penentanguishene is the most northerly of our naval stations, and
the key to Lake Huron. At the close of the war they were pre-
paring to build a frigate of thirty-two guns, but its construction was
deferred when the peace was concluded, and the establishment was
then reduced. We have found, however, very comfortable quarters
in the house of the lieutenant commanding. There are a lieutenant
of the army with his wife, and a surgeon and his wife stationed here ;
these form a social party and cause the time to pass very pleasantly
... I do not think, however, that either you or I would relish such
a secluded life. If we couM convey our library, it would be the
very place for me to get through it.

I should have rejoiced at having you by my side on our journey
from New York. There were many scenes which you could have
described so well, and I am sure it would have given you sincere
pleasure to have witnessed the industry of the American character
evinced by the number of the towns and villages which have sprung
up within a few years, and where there was every appearance of pro-
sperity and comfort. Many of the best-informed Americans whom we
met complain, and I think with justice, of the misstatements that
have been made of their country by English travellers, though they

1826

NEWS OF BEREAVEMENT

121

comfort themselves with the reflection that the greater part of these
men are per^^ons who in their own country are considered as de-
sperate adventurers, and who have in consequence been excluded
from good society. I certainly have no partiality either for thj
Americans or for their Constitution, but it is impossible not to admire
their industry. . . .

I was in hopes that before we left this place I should have received
a letter to inform me that you continued to improve. The packet
from Liverpool must have had a long passage to New York, or I
should have had that gratification. I shall embark, however, with
every hope that the Almighty has been pleased to restore you to
health before this, and that you are now in the enjoyment of every
comfort. I daily remember you and our dear little one in my
prayers, and I have no doubt yours are offered up on my behalf. . . .
She must be growing very entertaining, and I sincerely trust she will
be a source of great comfort to us, especially to you in my absence.
With what heartfelt pleasure shall I embrace you both on my return !
I suppose Captain Beechey has sailed before this time, and hope that
he will be the bearer of a letter from you or from some of the family
if you should have been unequal to writing. . . . Your flag is yet snug
in the box, and will not be displayed till we get to a more northern
region. Mr. Back and the men have arrived.

Here the letter breaks off abruptly, and then in an agitated
handwriting are added the words :

Seven o'clock p.m. The distressing intelligence of my dearest
wife's death has just reached me.

This was actually the second letter which he had written
that very day in the same resolutely hopeful tone. Or, at any
rate, there is a letter of his of the same date — though it may
possibly have been penned by him in fact a day earlier, and
left open, as was the fashion in that age of rare and costly
communication, until the last moment before despatch, in
order to make it carry the very latest news — in which, writing
to his sister of his wife, then nearly two months in her grave,
he dwells on her prospects of recovery in that tone of hope-
fulness to which fate and man's ignorance sometimes lend so
terrible an irony : —

I had expected during our stay here to have received the letters
which Mrs. Kay and Hannah promised to write for some days after
my departure from London, to acquaint me as to the state of Eleanor ;
but the packet appears to have had a long passage from Liverpool, as

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IIUSHAND AND WIDOWER

CH. VI.

they have not come to hand. I cherish the hope that it hath pleased
the Almighty to assist her with His protection, and that she is now
restored to health. The last days of my stay at home were indeed
sorrowful, and I thank the Almighty for enabling me to support them,
and that the morning of my departure was brightened by the hope of
my dear wife's recovery. . . . The struggle which my dear Eleanor
then had convinced me that her health is very precarious, and that in
consequence she needs all the care and attention that my family can
give her during my absence.

And this letter, too, concludes with the same sad post-
script : —

Seven p. m. I have just received through the newspaper an account
of the death of my dearest Eleanor. You can imagine my distress,
as I had hoped from the change which had taken place two days
before my departure that her life might have been spared. But it
hath pleased the Almighty in His wise dispensation to remove her
from me, and I trust she is now associated with, the spirits of the just
made perfect. I feel deeply for my dearest child, though I know she
will receive from Isabella (Mrs. Cracroft) a mother's anxious love, yet
to a tender female a mother's loss is irreparable. I earnestly pray
God to protect her, and that she may be brought up in His love.

1826

123

CHAPTER VII

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION
J825 1827

Penentanguishene, on Lake Huron, the place from which
these sorrowful letters are dated, is some 1,500 miles as the
crow flies from Fort Cumberland, the originally intended
rendezvous of the expedition, and on the day after it was
written P'ranklin and his party set off in two canoes which
had been deposited at that place in the preceding autumn.
Following the great north-westward -stretching chain of lakes —
that is to say, up Rainy Lake, the Lake of the Woods, and Lake
Winnipeg — and issuing thence into the Saskatchewan River,
they made their way to Fort Cumberland, which was reached
on June 15. Here they learned that their boats, which had
arrived before them, had left on the 2nd of the month ; and,
accordingly, after one night's stay at the fort, they proceeded
on their voyage. On June 29 they overtook the boats and
the remainder of the party, who had travelled vid York
Factory, and on July 15 they reached Fort Chipewyan,
whence, after a stay of two days, they pursued their way to
Fort Resolution, on the Great Slave Lake. At that station
they remained a few days, making the necessary arrange-
ments with the Indians for the supply of provisions for the
winter, and August 2 saw them embarked in their canoes on
the Mackenzie River. Two days' journey down its stream
brought them to Fort Simpson, and yet another four days'
travel to Fort Norman. Here, as there still remained a few
weeks of the travelling season, the party, under Franklin's
instructions, divided. Back, accompanied by an officer of
the Hudson's Bay Company, wav directed to proceed to Great
Bear Lake, and there to const -^uct winter quarters for the

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SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

OH. VII.

expedition. Dr. Kichardson was despatched at his own
request to explore the northern shore of the lake ; while
Franklin himself, taking with him Kendall, a crew of six
Englishmen, a native guide, and his old friend the Eskimo
interpreter, started in one of the boats for the moiith of the
Mackenzie River, with the view of examining the condition
of the ice in the Arctic Ocean, and forming an estimate of
the prospects of a successful voyage along its shores in the
following year.

The parties separated on August 9, and so well was
Franklin served by the new English-built boat he had brought
out with him, that by the 14th of that month they had reached
the Polar Sea. Franklin had brought out with him a silk
union-jack worked by his dying wife, which, according to
her wish, was not to be displayed until her husband and his
companions had gained the coast. That moment having
now arrived, he unfolded the flag ' planted it on the shore,
and then that piquant mixture of ties which goes to the

making of the typical sailor's nature comes out in his
characteristic comment on the incident. ' Here,' he writes,
* was first displayed the flag which my lamented Eleanor
made, and you can imagine it was with heartfelt emotion I
first saw it unfurled ; but in a short time I derived great
pleasure in looking at it' All the affection of the husband
speaks in one half of the sentence, all the buoyant spirit of
the born adventurer in the other ; while there is all the charm
of Franklin's character in the perfect simplicity and candour
with which he combines the revelation of the two. No one
could have been less justly accused of levity or shallowness
of feeling ; but he was of those with whom sorrow, however
profound and genuine, finds instant relief in the thought of
action, and it is by these, and perhaps by these alone, that
all the greater practical work of the world is done.

By September 5 all three exploring parties had returned
and had established themselves in their winter quarters at
Fort Franklin, the station constructed by Back on Great
Bear Lake, and so named by him in compliment to his absent
leader. The long Arctic winter passed after its usual tedious

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182/5

IN WINTEU QUA.IITEHS

195

fashion, diversified by no incident of interest, but b'esscd for
that very reason with a good fortune akin to that of the
nation which 'has no history.' Despite the lowness of the
temperature, which fell on one occasion to 49° below zero of
Fahrenheit, or 81° of frost, they seemed to have suflered little
from it, and the supplies of game and fish procured for them
by their Indian hunters were fairly abundant. Writing to one
of his sisters on November 8 from Fort Franklin, he says : —

We are snugly seated in our winter quarters, the name of which I

am sure will please you. They form three sides of a square, the

centre house being occupied by the officers, the buildings on its left

by the men, and on its right is s. store, the whole surrounded by

wooden stockades, which serve to keep the drift away from the yard.

Our house contains a spacious hall, and on each side of it are two

apartments which are fitted up according to the taste and means of

the occupiers. Dr. Richardson ^nd myself aie in one of these, which

is neatly whitewas ' d and ornamented with books, instruments, clothes.

and beds. The latter are the principal features of elegance — mine in

particular, as Wilson, the piper, who is my servant, has fitted it up d la

tente with the lining of our marquee, and, that no space may be lost, the

interior is decorated with my dirk, pistol, glass, cap, writing-case, and

sash. My limbs repose nightly on a well-stuffed bed, covered with

leather, between good, warm blankets, and, as you may suppose, I

sleep soundly. The season of darkness is daily advancing, and in the

height of winter we must not expect to have more than five hours'

light, so that we may have sleep to our hearts' content. We generally,

however, sit up till midnight, reading or employed otherwise, and rise

about eignt o'clock, have our breakfast directly, dinner at half-past

five, and tea at nine. The evening is passed away often in a game

at chess or some sport, and the day devoted to business. We are

about to establish a school for the instruction of the men ; and on

Sundays Divine Service with sermons is held twice, and it is a real

gratification to find the men joining on these occasions with great

fervency and attention.

I sincerely pray, through the blessing of God, that these oppor-
tunities of offering praise and thanksgiving to the Almighty, and of
hearing His Holy Word, may lead to our present and eternal benefit.
I wish to have the impression deeply seated in my mind, as well as in
those of my companions, that the Almighty can alone support and
help us in our present pursuits, and that He ordereth each event of
our lives. . . . You must not suppose, my dear sister, from my writ-
ing in this manner that I am gloomy ; for I assure you that I am
more calm, cheerful, and happy than I have been for some time, and,

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126

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CK. VII.

indeed, than I expected to have been under the severe trial I have
had to sustain. I feel the dispensations of the Almighty to have been
appointed in infinite wisdom, and, therefore, I pray for power to bear
them with humble resignation and reverence. Had my poor wife's
life been prolonged, I find it must have been attended with con-
tinual and very acute suffering. Surely, then, the fondest desire of
the heart could not mourn beyond the first days of grief at her
removal from this weight of woe to a state of eternal rest.

To this same month of November 1825 belongs a letter
from Franklin to the eminent geologist, Mr. (afterwards Sir
Roderick) Murchison, in which he gives an interesting
account of the fare, occupations, and amusements, mental and
physical, of the imprisoned men : —

We have, as yet, had no severe weather, nor do I think we are
likely to have the temperature so low as at Fort Enterprise. We are,
in fact, much less elevated in this secondary formation than when in
its vicinity, where the rocks are entirely granitic. Until the day
before yesterday we had comparatively little snow, and this is the
first day that our dogs have been used in dragging sledges. Four
trains of two dogs each were despatched for meat this morning. We
endeavour to keep ourselves in good humour, health, and spirits by
an agreeable variety of useful occupation and amusement. Till the
snow fell the game of hockey played on the ice was the morning's
sport. At other times Wilson's pipes are put in request, and now
and then a game of blind man's buff; m fact, any recreation is en-
couraged to promote exercise and good feeling. I wish you could
pop in and partake our fare. You would be sure of a hearty wel-
come, and you should have your choice of either moose, or reindeer,
or trout weighing from forty to fifty pounds. But you must bring
wine and bread if you wish either for more than one day.

Nor were intellectual occupations of a graver, not to say
of a severe discipline wanting to the party, as will be seen
from the following passages, in which one notices, not with-
out amusement, that Franklin's criticisms of literary classics
were marked in his fortieth year by considerably more diffi-
dence than he was wont to display at the age of sixteen : —

I have been delighted with Dante, and so have my companions :
but i must confess there is frequently a depth of thought and reason-
ing to which my mind can hardly reach. Perhaps these poets will
be better comprehended in perusal. It seems clear that Milton, as
well as other poets, has borrowed ideas from his comprehensive
mind.

1826

THE ESKIMO CAMP

127

It was not till June 24, 1826, that they were able tt start
on their sumrrier expedition, the plan of which was thus
arranged : — Franklin and Back were to explore the coast to
the westward of the mouth of the Mackenzie River, while Dr.
RichaiJson, accompanied by Mr. Kendall, was to r-.ake an
eastward journey from the same point to the mouth of the
Coppermine River, returning to Fort Franklin before the
next v/inter set in, M«-. Dease, an officer of the Hudson's Bay
Company attached to the expedition, remaining at that
star;ion to look after the supplies. On July 3 the Franklin
and Richardson parties separated at a bifurcation of the
Mackenzie River, and on the 7th the former party reached
its mouth. Here they met with what was perhaps the
solitary incident of their journey — an attack on the boats,
with a view to plunder, by a tribe of Eskimos some 300
strong. It was subsequently ascertained that this attempt at
pillage was part of an organised plot to massacre the whole
expedition ; but it was foiled by the cool courage and steady
self-control of Franklin and his men.

The affair seems, however, to have had at the outset a
sufficiently unpremeditated appearance. On arriving at the
mouth of the Mackenzie River, the expedition came somewhat
unexpectedly upon an Eskimo encampment — a crowd of
tents pitched on an island in the bay into which the river
opened, and with many Eskimos strolling about among them.
Franklin immediately prepared to open communications with
them agreeably with his instructions. A selection of articles
for presents and trade being made, the rest of the lading was
closely covered up, the arms were inspected, and every man
was directed to keep his gun ready for immediate use.
Franklin had previously informed Back of his intention to
open communication with the Eskimos by landing among
them, accompanied only by Augustus, the interpreter ; and
Back was now instructed to keep the boats afloat, and the
crews with their arms ready to support their leader in the
event of the natives proving hostile, but on no account to fire
until he was convinced that his safety could be secured in no
other way. Having received an impression from the narra-

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128

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

OH. Vlt.

tives of different navigators that the sacrifices of life which
had occurred in these interviews with savages had been
generally occasioned by the crews mistaking noise and
violent gestures for decided hostility, Franklin thought it
advisable to exp!''in his views on this point to all the men,
and peremptorily forbade their firing until he set the exam-
ple or until they were ordered to do so by Back. They were
also forbidden to trade with the natives on any pretence,
and were ordered to leave everything of that kind to the
officers.

On approaching the island the water became shallow,
and the boats grounded about a mile from the beach. The
explorers shouted and made signs to the Eskimos to come off,
and then pulled back a little way to await their arrival in
deeper water. Three canoes at once put off from the shore,
and immediately afterwards others were launched in such
quick succession that the whole space between the island and
the boats was covered with them. Franklin had counted as
many as seventy-three, when the sea became so crowded
with them that he could proceed no further in his reckon-
ing. The three foremost canoes were paddled by elderly
men, apparently selected to open the communications. As
soon as they were within hail Augustus explained to them
in detail the purport of the visit, and told them that if his
leader succeeded in finding a navigable channel for large
ships, a trade highly beneficial to t)>em would be opened.
They were delighted with the intelligence and repeated it to
their countrymen, who testified their joy by tossing their
hands aloft and raising a deafening shout of applause.

After the first present, Franklin resolved to bestow no
more gratuitously, but always to exact something, however
small, in return. The three elderly men readily offered the
ornaments they wore in their cheeks, their arms, and their
knives in exchange for the articles given them. Up to this
time the first three canoes alone had ventured near the boats,
but the crowd soon increased to 250 or 300 persons, all
anxious to share in the lucrative trade they saw established,
and pressing eagerly forward to offer for sale their bows,

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1826

ATTACKED BY ESKIMOS

arrows, and spears, which t. ey had hitherto kept concealed
within the canoes. Franklin endeavoured in vain amid the
clamour and bustle of barter to obtain some information
respecting the coast, but, finding the natives becoming more
and more importunate and troublesome, he determined to
leave them, and therefore directed the boats' heads to be put
to seaward.

Hitherto the Eskimos had shown no unfriendly disposi-
tion ; but at this juncture an accident happened which, in a
quite unforeseen fashion, altered the whole aspect of affairs.
A canoe being accidentally upset by an oar of one of the
boats, its owner was plunged into the water with his head in
the mud, and apparently in danger of being drowned. He
was extricated from his unpleasant position by the crew, and
taken into the boat until the water could be baled out of his
canoe, Augustus throwing his own great-coat over him, as he
was shivering with cold. At first he was exceedingly angry,
but soon became reconciled to the situation, and, looking
about, discovered that the boat was full of what he regarded
as concealed treasures. He soon began to ask for everything
he saw, and expressed high displeasure at the refusal of his
demands. He proceedr I, moreover, so to excite the cupidity of
his fellows by his account of the inexhaustible riches contained
in the boats, that several of the younger men attempted to
join him. While resisting the attempt, one of the crew ob-
served that the man who had been rescued from the mud
had a pistol under his shirt, and was about to take it from
him, when Franklin ordered his follower to desist, thinking
that the weapon might belong to him. It had, in fact, been
stolen from Back, and the thief, perceiving the attention
directed to it, jumped out of the boat and joined his country-
men, carrying with him Augustus's great-coat.

The water had now ebbed so far that it was not knee-
deep at the boats, and the younger men wading in crowds
around them attempted to steal evprything within their
reach ; slyly, however, and with so muca dexterity as almost
to escape detection. This mode of procedure, however being
found unsatisfactory, they seized on the boat under Back's

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180

SECOND AliCTIC EXPEDITION

CH. VII.

command, the Reliance, and set to work to drag it ashore,
upon which Frankhn gave orders to his own boat, the Lion,
to follow it. But the Lion had stuck fast aground and re-
fused to move, on .seeing which the Esin'mos lent a friendly
hand, and both boats were dragged ashore.

This was the signal for an organised attempt to plunder
them. A numerous party stripped to the waist, and with
drawn knives ran to the Reliance, and, having hauled her up
as they could, began a regular pillage, handing the articles to
the women, who, ranged in a row behind them, quickly con-
veyed the thefts out of sight. Back and his crew strenuously
but good-humoured ly resisted the attack, and re.' ued many
things from their grasp ; but they were overpowered by
num.bers, and had even some difficulty in preserving their
arms. Franklin and his crew were also beset, though by
smaller numbers, but by sitting tight on the covered cargo,
and belabouring the natives with the butt-ends of their muskets,
were able to prevent any article of importance from being
carried away. ' In the whole of this unequal contest,' says
Franklin, ' the self-possession of our men was not more con-
spicuous than the coolness with which the Eskimos received
the blows dealt out to them with the butts of the muskets.
But at length, being irritated by the repeated failure of their
attempts, several of them jumped on board and forcibly en-
deavoured to take the daggers and shot-belts from about the
men's persons.' Franklin himself was engaged with three of
them who were trying to disarm him, and was only just in
time to prevent one of his men from discharging the contents
of his musket into the body of an Eskimo who had struck
at him with a knife. In short, what had begun as a sort of
half-friendly rough-and-tumble ' bear fight,' complicated with
petty larceny, was now threatening to develop into a massacre,
when suddenly the whole of the Eskimos took to flight and
hid themselves behind the canoes and drift timber on the beach.
It appeared that, the Reliance having been again got afloat,
Back wisely judged that the moment had arrived for more
active interference, and ordered his men to level their muskets,
which had produced this sudden panic. Happily, the Lion

1826

A DANGEROUS SCUFFLE

131

floated soon after, and both were retiring from the beach when
the Eskimos, having recovered from their consternation,
launched their canoes and were preparing to follow, but
Franklin desired Augustus to say that he would shoot the
first man who came within range of his musket, upon which
they halted.

The scuffle had lasted for several hours, but with such
spirit had the contest been waged on Franklin's side that the
only things of any importance which the natives succeeded
in carrying off were the mess canteen and kettles, a tent, a
box containing blankets and shoes, one of the men's bags, and
the jibsails. The rest of their booty could well be spared,
and the articles of which it consisted would in fact have been
distributed among them if they had remained quiet. In con-
cluding his account of the affair Franklin writes : —

I cannot sufficiently praise the fortitude and obedience of both
boats' crews in abstaining from the use of their arms. In the first
instance I had been influenced by the desire of preventing unneces-
sary bloodshed, and afterwards, when the critical situation of my party
might well have warranted me in employing more decided means for
their defence, I still endeavoured to temporise, being convinced that
so long as the boats lay aground and we were beset by such
numbers armed with long knives, bows and arrows, and spears, we
could not use firearms to advantage. The howling of the women and
the clamour of the men proved the high excitement to which they
had wrought themselves ; and I am still of opinion that, mingled as
we were with them, the first blood we had shed would have been
instantly revenged by the sacrifice of all our lives.

His methods undoubtedly were very different from those
of the modern explorer, who, even if he had hesitated from
prudential motives to fire on the Eskimos while surrounded
by them, would in all probability have returned the next
morning and ' read them a lesson ' from a safe distance with
Remington rifles.

This episode at an end, the expedition was at last able
on July 14 to take the sea, unobstructed at any rate by
liuman obstacles. But icebergs now took the place of
I'lskimos, and for four or five days longer they were con-
demned to inaction. At the expiration of this time the ice

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132

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

OH. VII.

H)'

cleared sufficiently to permit a passage for their boats, and
they were able to push on. But their progress was disap-
pointingly sluw. The favourable promise of navigation which
the Arctic Ocean had held out the previous year proved
wholly delusive. Their way was continually being barred by
ice, sometimes for days together ; they were frequently
delayed by gales and fogs, and their boats were sadly knocked
about by floating ice-blocks, from which they sustained con-
siderable damage. On July 27 they reached what Franklin
describes as the most westerly river in the British dominions,
as it was close to the (of course imaginary) line of den^.arca-
tion between Great Britain and Russia, in those days, tt will
be remembered, mistress of Alaska. This river Franklin
named the Clarence, ' in honour of His Royal Highness the
Lord High Admiri*l. Under a pile of drift timber whi'^;h we
erected on the most elevated point of the coast near its mouth
was deposited a tin box containing a royal silver medal, with
an account of the proceedings of the expedition, and the
Union flag was hoisted under three hearty cheers, the only
salute that we could afford.'

At this point they found more open water than they had
yet met with, and their spirits accordingly rose. Not, how-
ever, for long, for their difficulties recommenced almost
immediately, and reached their climax at a spot which they
vindictively christened Foggy Island. It is a question, indeed,
whether the partial failure of their enterprise was not more
due to fogs than ice ; for the prevalence of the former
obstacle lost them many of the precious days in which they
might possibly have managed to overcome or ra her circum-
vent the other. Nothing was more remarkable than the
difference of conditions which had prevailed in this respect
between the present and Franklin's former expedition. ' We
were only,' he says, ' detained three times in navigating along
the coast in 1821 to the east of the Coppermine Pi.iver ; but
westward of the mouth of the Mackenzie hardly a day passed
that the atmosphere was not at some time or other so foggy
as to hide any object from view for a distance of four or five
miles.' It was no doubt due, as Franklin suggests, not only to

1826

FRANKLIN'S ' FUllTIIEST ' WESTWAKD

133

the swampy character of the land, but to the Rocky Moun-
tains preventing its moisture from being carried off.

Nevertheless, and in spite of all obstructions, whether of
fog or ice, the expedition struggled gallantly on, until at
length, on August i8, after having traced the coast line for
374 miles, Franklin came with much reluctance to the con-
clusion that it would be imprudent to pursue their journey
further. The autumn was wearing on, and as yet they had
only traversed half the distance between the mouth of the
Mackenzie and Icy Cape. At the same rate of speed it
would take them at least another six weeks to make that
headland, and by that time the winter would be setting in and
Captain Beechey, with whom Franklin was endeavouring to
effect a junction, would in all likelihood have put the Blossom
about and be sailing southward. Beechey, as it happened, was
at this very moment off Icy Cape, the furthest point of his
voyage, and had despatched a boat to the eastward to look
out for Franklin's party. This boat arrived on August 25
within little more than 160 miles of the point at which
Franklin a week before had resolved to turn back. Tanta-
lising, however, as was this near approach which failed to
become a meeting, it would not have been possible for the
two parties to meet. Franklin could not have covered
the intervening distance between August 18 and 25, and he
a. ^li^ men therefore could not have arrived at the ' furthest '
of the Blossom's boat before it returned to the ship. As it
was, he of course knew nothing of the despatch of this boat.
He had simply to weigh the probability of his own expedition
being able to effect a junction with the Blossom herself
during the short remaining period of the travelling season.
And this question he was, of course, bound to consider by the
light of his previous and terrible experiences, and of the know-
ledge gained therefrom of the climate, the food supply, and
the reasonable weather forecasts for the time of the year.

The decision which he arrived at was so i:nportant, and the
abandonment of his hope of joining hands with Beechey and
thus completing the exploration of the entire American coast
from the Mackenzie westward to Behring Strait was so

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184

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

CH. VII.

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bitter a disappointment, that it seems best to allow Franklin
to state his reasons for his resolution in the words of his own
* Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar
Sea : ' —

The preceding narrative shows the difficulties of navigating such a
coast even during the finest part of the summer ; if, indeed, any
portion of a season which had been marked )y a constant succession
of gales and fogs could be called fine. No opportunity of advancing
had been let slip after the time of our arrival in the Arctic Sea ; and
the unwearied zeal and exertion of the crews had been required for
an entire n onth to explore the ten degrees of longitude between
Herschel iLianJ and our present situation. I had, therefore, no
reason to suppose that the ten remaining degrees could be navigated
in much less time. The ice, it is true, was now broken up and the
sea around our present encampment was clear ; but we had lately
seen how readily the drift ice was packed upon the shoals by every
breeze of wind blowing towards the land. The summer, bad as it
had been, was now nearly at an end. And on this point I had the
experience of the former voyage for a guide. At Point Turnagain, two
degrees to the south of our present situation, the comparatively warm
summer of 1821 terminated on August 17 by severe storms of wind
and snow ; and in the space of a fortnight afterwards winter set in
with all its severity. Last year, too, on the i8th and following days
of the Tiionth, we had a heavy gale at the mouth of the Mackenzie,
and appearances did not indicate that the present season would prove
mc J favourable. The mean temperature of the atmosphere had
decreasea rapidly since the sun had begun to sink below the horizon,
and the thermometer had not lately shown a higher temperature than
37°. Ice of considerable thickness formed in the night, and the num-
ber of flocks of geese which were hourly seen pursuing their course to
the westward showed that their autumnal flight had commenced.

While a hope remained of reaching Behring Strait, I looked
upon the hazard to which we had on several occasions been exposed
of shipwreck on the flats or on the ice as inseparable from a
voyage of the nature of that which we had undertaken ; and if such
an accident had occurred, I should have hoped, with a sufficient
portion of the summer before me, to conduct my party in safety back
to the Mackenzie. But the loss of the boats, when we should have
been far advanced, and at the end of the season, would have been
fatal. The deer hasten from the coast as soon as the snow falls ; no
Eskimos had lately been seen, nor any winter houses to denote
that this part of the coast was much frequented ; and if we did meet
them under adverse circumstances we could not with safety trust to
their assistance for a supply of provisions ; nor do I believe that.

1826

ACCEPTS FAILURE

185

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even if willing, they would have been able to support us for any length
of time.

Till our tedious detention at Foggy Island we had had no
doubt of ultimate success ; and it was with no ordinary pain that
I could now bring myself even to think of relinquishing the great
object of my ambition, and of disappointing the flattering confidence
that had been reposed in my exertions. But I had higher duties to
perform than the gratification of my own feelings ; and a mature
consideration of all the above matters forced me to the conclusion
that we had reached that point beyond which perseverance would be
rashness and our best efforts must be fruitless. , . .

In the evening I communicated my determination to the whole
party ; they received it with the good feeling that had marked their
conduct throughout the voyage, and they assured me of their cheer-
ful acquiescence in any order I should give. The readiness with
which they would have prosecuted the voyage was the more credit-
able because many of them had their legs swelled and inflamed from
continually wading in ice-cold water while launching the boats. . . .
Nor were these symptoms to be overlooked in coming to a determi-
nation ; for though no one who knows the resolute disposition of the
British sailor can be surprised at their more than willingness to pro-
ceed, I felt that it was my business to judge of their capability for so
doing, and not to allow myself to be seduced by their ardour, however
honourable to them and cheering to me.

Had Franklin known, he added, that a party from the
Blossom had been at the distance of only i6o miles
from him, ' no difficulties, dangers, or discouraging cir-
stances should have prevailed on him to return ; ' but,
taking into account the uncertainty of all voyages in a
sea obstructed by ice, he had no right to expect that the
Blossom had got so far eastward from Behring Strait as the
point which she had actually attained, still less that any
party from her had got to a point which, as a matter of fact,
in an attempt to repeat the feat the next summer, their Soat
failed to reach by lOO miles. Anyhow, the decision to rcc. n
was taken and acted upon, and never in his life perhaps did
Franklin display truer and finer moral courage than when,
despite his burning zeal for discovery and his not unworthy
thirst for fame as an explorer, he thus unhesitatingly laid
aside his ambitions and quietly accepted disappointment.

They were back again at Fort Franklin by September 21

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130

SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION

OH. VII.

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and were rejoiced to find that the eastward expedition had been
perfectly successful, having traced nearly 900 miles of undis-
covered coast-line between the Mackenzie and Coppermine
Rivers, and regained the station on Great Bear Lake full
three weeks before the return of Franklin's party. In the
course of their exploration they had discovered a large bay,
which they had named after their distinguished leader ; and it
may not be out of place here to quote the warm eulogy which
Dr. Richardson afterwards pronounced on his chief .1 his
published narrative of the transaction : —

In bestowing the name of Franklin on this remarkable bay, I paid
an appropriate compliment to the officer under whose orders and by
whose arrangements the delineation of all that is known of the
northern coast of the American continent has been effected, with the
exception of the parts in the vicinity of Icy Cape discovered by
Captain Beechey.

It would not be proper, nor is it my intention, to descant on the
merits of my superior officer ; but, after having served under Captain
Franklin for nearly seven years in two successive voyages of discovery,
I trust I may be allowed to say that, however high his brother-officers
may rate his courage and talents, either in the ordinary line of his
professional dut" or in the field of discovery, the hold he acquires
upon the affecti ns of those Uiider his command by a continued series
of the most conciliatory attentions to their feelings and a uniform
and unremitting regard to their best interests, is not less conspicuous.
I feel that the sentiments of my friends and companions, Captain
Back and Lieutenant Kendall, are in unison with my own when I
affirm that gratitude and attachment to our late commander will
animate our breasts to the latest period of our lives.

This is only one among many similar tributes to the
attractive personal qualities of this great explorer. The roll
on which Franklin's name is inscribed has received many
additions since that now distant day when these words were
written, but of how few of those who have carried on his
work of discovery could they have been written with equal
truth ! In the gifts and attainments which go to the making
of the successful explorer Franklin has had many rivals ; but
in this remarkable power of enlisting the enthusiastic loyalty
and devotion of his followers he has far excelled the majority
of his si'.ccessors, has been equalled by few of them, and sur-
passed by none.

1827

THIi IIETUIIN HOME

187

The winter of 1826 had of course to be spent, like the
preceding one, at Fort Franklin, and early in the following
year preparations were made for a return to England. Leav-
ing instructions for Back, now promoted to the rank of com-
mander, to proceed to York Factory with the remainder of
the party as soon as the ice should break up, Franklin left
the Fort accompanied by five men.

Fort Simpson was reached on March 8, Fort Resolution
on the 26th, Fort Chipewyan on April 1 2, and the party were
at Fort Cumberland by June 18. Thence Franklin proceeded
to Montreal and New York, whence he took ship to England,
where he arrived on September 26, 1827, after an absence of
over two years and seven months.

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138

THREE YEARS OF UEl'OSE

tic. VIII.

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CHAPTER VI II

TIIKKE VEAKS OF RErOSE
1827-1830

This second Arctic voyage, though naturally enough it im-
pressed itself less upon the popular imagination than the first,
was felt in official no less than in scientific circles to have
established Franklin's claim to more distinguished honours
than had previously been bestowed upon him. It had, in-
deed, been rich in solid additions to our knowledge of the
earth's surface. Its geographical result, taking Franklin's
and Richardson'.s exploration together, was the discovery
and exact delineation of more than 1,200 miles of the
coast of the American continent up to that time absolutely
unknown. The geological, magnetic, meteorological, and
other scientific observations made by the various members
of the expedition, and given in full in the appendix to
Franklin's ' Narrative,' were also of the highest value and
interest, and were so recognised by the Admiralty and the
learned societies. Franklin himself believed, and with justice,
that he had accomplished yet more, and that his inability to
effect a junction with Beechey was rather a failure in form
than in fact Writing to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Kay, from
Fort Frankuii in September 1826, he had said : —

I have reason to think that the Government will be perfectly
satisfied with our proceedings ; indeed, a great deal has been accom-
plished, and I think there will no longer be a doubt remaining in
the mind of any reasonable man as to the existence of a North- West
Passage, especially if Captain Beechey gets round Icy Cape.

Nevertheless, some delay of a not quite explicable cha-
racter was interposed to the official recognition of Franklin's
service ; and France, indeed, by presenting him with the

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1828

MISS JANE GRIFFIN

139

gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society, may be said
to have recognised them before his native country. It was
not till the spring of 1829 that he was knighted, nor till the
Slimmer of that year that, in company with Sir Edward Parry,,
he received the justly prized honour of the degree of D.C.L.
at the hands of the University of Oxford.

The previous year, however, was marked by an incident
of even greater interest, his engagement to the lady who
became his second wife. In this, as in the former case, we
may find the first shadow of this coming event projected on
the map of the Arctic regions, and trace the name of the
future bride in the nomenclature of Franklin's latest dis-
coveries. It seems evident that the attractions of Miss Jane
Griffin must have caught Franklin's observation at some time
between his first and the second expedition, and have led to
his commemorating her in the bestowal of the name of Point
Griffin on a promontory discovered by him on the American
coast to the west of the Mackenzie River. Never, at anj rate,
was conquest easier to understand. The portrait of this lady,
taken only some few years before the date of her first ac-
quaintance with Franklin, shows a countenance not only
beautiful of feature, but alive with a vivacity and animation
which add indescribably to its charm. The sweetness of
nature, the bright intelligence, and the playful humour which
were united in this remarkable woman, and which rendered
her conversation and still renders her correspondence delight-
ful, look forth unmistakably from this presentment of her by
a skilled artistic hand. A man of a far less impressionable
nature might not have been proof against her combined fasci-
nations of person, temperament, and mind. No wi^nder the
susceptible Franklin found them impossible to resist.

Nor is it at all extraordinary th.at the attraction should
have been mutual. In point of age and social position they
were equally matched ; and as the hero of memorable and
daring adventures Franklin was surrounded by an air of
romance which was likely to prove captivating to a woman of
imagination. That winning personality, too, which so much en-
deared him to his followers could hardly fail to impress itself

140

THREE YEARS OF REPOSE

CH. Tin.

on Miss Griffin. It was in the main, no doubt, a chrrm of
spirit and address, and of what we are accustomed to describe
indefinitely but expressively as ' ways ; ' yet it is clear that it
was not unassociated at this time of his life with the advan-
tages of a pleas'ng exterior. ' His features and expression,'
says one of his relations describing him at about this period,
' were grave and mild, and very benignant ; his stature rather
below the middle height ; his look very kind and his manner
very quiet, as of one accustomed to command others.' In a
word, he was emphatically a man well calculated to win
that mixture of respect and admiration which in women
of intelligence and force of character who have left mere
girlhood behind is always more or less likely under favouring
circum^rtances to beget a warmer sentiment.

Miss Griffin was the second daughter of Mr. John Griffin,
of Bedford Place, a solicitor of high standing in his profession.
Her elder sister, to whom she was sincerely attached, and who
was the recipient of many of her most interesting letters,
became the wife of Mr. Simpkinson, a successful barrister,
subsequently Q.C. and Bencher of his Inn. It was no doubt
a special recommendation to Franklin's affections that Miss
Griffin had been a personal friend of his first wife and took
an almost motherly interest in his orphan daughter.

The engagement was one of but a few months' duration,
but they were months of busiest occupation for the ever-active
Franklin. It seems probable that the stimulating results of the
last expedition — incompletely successful yet so tantalisingly
near complete success — may have quickened the maritime
instincts of the Duke of Clarence, then Lord High Admiral.
It is, at any rate, certain that before Franklin had been a year
in England we find him drafting, 'by His Royal Highness's
command,' a plan for the ' completion of the survey of the
northern coast of America.' Two, and only two, portions of
coast, he pointed out, and those of no very great extent as
compared with the amount already delineated, remained to be
explored — one to the eastward, lying between the Fury and
Hecla Strait of Parry and Cape Turnagain (Franklin's own
furthest of 1821); the other within Russian territory, to the

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1828

ANOTHER PLAN

141

westward, being in fact the i6o miles of coast which divided
Point Beechey (Franklin's furthest westward from the Mac-
kenzie River in 1826) and the discoveries of Captain Beechey
to the eastward of Behring Strait.

As regards the former and, as he says, the most interesting
of these portions, Franklin's idea was to send two boat de-
tachments across Melville Peninsula from a ship stationed
in Repulse Bay, one to proceed westward to Point Turnagain,
and the other northward to the Fury and Hecla Strait,
Cockburn Island, and Prince Regent's Inlet in the same
season. The first part of this scheme would no doubt have
been impracticable. At the time when Franklin conceived it
it was not known that the American coast westward of
Melville Peninsula took an immense trend to the north-
westward, forming the promontory now known as Boothia
Felix, which, until the discovery of Bellot Strait, was sup-
posed to be continuous with North Somerset Land, and to
survey which, therefore, by a boat expedition would have meant
coasting round some thousand miles of shore before the
explorers could get back even to the mere latitude of Cape
Turnagain.

But the interest of the plan lies in its supplemental
proposal, at once bold and ingenious, to sen J another party
under an experienced guide through the interior of America
to the cast' '■n side of the Great Slave Lake. Of the prospects
of discovery which such a party would find before them
Franklin writes as follows : —

*!!•■■!

, 1

The Northern Indians have described a river which, passing near
th-i east end of this lake, flows into the Polar Sea. Though we could
not learn the exact position of its mouth, yet we found sufficient testi-
mony to warrant the conclusion that it lies to the eastward of Point
Turnagain. The land party, being provided with two boats or canoes,
might descend this stream and trace the coast from its mouth west-
ward to Point Turnagain. If the distance to that point proves incon-
siderable, the party should return and continue eastward along the
coast until it met the party from Repulse Bay, or to such time as
would allow of their reaching their winter quarters. If the junction
did take place, the land party might accompany the others to the
ship.

Si,

r *

; 1

142

THREE YEAKR OF REPOSE

CH. VIII.

Franklin then proceeds to set out his companion scheme
for the exploration of the westerly portion o*" the unexplored
coast, and concludes : —

I have thus endeavoured to state my opinions regarding, these
surveys as briefly as the objects would admit, reserving the details
relative to the kind of boats to be used and the general equipment of
the ships until it is your Royal Highness's pleasure to honour me with
your further commands on these points. They are the result of the
closest reflection and most mature consideration of the subject, and
I humbly offer them under the full impression that, if these attempts
were directed to be made, they would lead to a successful termination.
I may further add that if the boats did succeed in passing along the
shore, as I have proposed, the question of a North-West Passage
would be satisfactorily determined, as the whole of the coast between
Behring Strait and the outlet into the Atlantic would then have been
traced and the sea actually navigated.

Should these suggestions meet the approbation of your Royal
Highness, and be in consequence ordered to be put into execution,
I hope your Royal Highness will permit me to solicit the honour of
an appointment to one of them.

Whether they met the Duke's private approbation or not,
there 'is nothing to show, but their official rejection could
hardly have been more speedy and summary than it was.
Franklin's memorandum is dated June 17, and within twenty-
four hours he received a reply from an Admiralty official,
who had been ' commanded by His Royal Highness to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday's date,
and to acquaint you that His Royal Highness does not in-
tend to recommend any more Northern expeditions to His
Majesty's Government.'

For punctuality, directness, and decision, this letter left
nothing to be desired, and Franklin was now free to make
arrangements for a visit to a foreign State, his interest in
which had possibly been quickened by his recent invasion of
its most remote dominions. Accordingly, and withiu less than
a fortnight after receiving the above-quoted communication
from the Admiralty, he applied to that department in the usual
form for permission to proceed to Russia, and a six months'
leave having been granted him, subject to the customary
restrictions as to not ' entering into the service of any foreign

1828

INTKIIVIEW AVrni THE CZAPJXA

143

Power or State,' he left England for what proved to be a
very interesting visit to the Russian capital. The curiosity
as to his personality which his achievements as an explorer
had aroused throughout Europe was as strong in Courts and
palaces as elsewhere ; and when Franklin, through our re-
presentative in St. Petersburg, solicited the honour of a
presentation to the Empress of Russia, she graciously replied
that she would in his case depart from the usual etiquette
attending introductions to Her Majesty, and invited him to
dine at the palace on ' the 19th of September at two o'clock,'
and bestowed a further mark of her favour by including in
the invitation a Russian Admiral of Franklin's acquaintance,
in order that some one might be at hand to expla n to her
every point relative to the English explorer's recent voyage.
Of this dinner-party he gives a minute and interesting
account in his diary. The Emperor was greatly interested in
his voyages, and plied him with many questions on the
subject. After dinner he was introduced to the Grand Duke,
destined to a troubled reign and a tragic end as the Czar
Alexander II. At his departure the young heir-apparent,
then about ten years old, took leave of him in the following
stately fashion : —

'I am happy, Captain Franklin, in having had the pleasure of
seeing you, and should I ever visit England it will afford me much
pleasure to renew my acquaintance with you.' Finding as we were
leaving the room that we were going into the library, he requested
the permission of his tutor to accompany us, which was granted. A
map of North America was spread out, and the librarian begged of
me to point out our route from New York, and the discoveries along
the coast, and put many other questions, to which the Grand Duke
listened very attentively. It was evident, too, that many of these
were put for his instruction, as they related to other parts besides the
line of our voyage. A French translation of my first narrative was
then brought out, and I was told that it was from this work, which
she had read twice, that the Empress gained her information.

Then follows a pleasant ' touch of nature,' author's and
explorer's: — .' ^ s

I confess I felt a regret that she had only read this voyage com-
pressed in a small octavo — which was without plates — and I imme-

1 ■ t

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144

THREE YEARS OF REPOSE

CH. VIII.

diately said I would have the honour of forwarding a quarto edition of
that as well as of the last narrative. The Grand Duke then drew
foith a set of plates belonging to the voyage of Captain Ross, and
begged me to explain them, which I of course did, dwelling, by the
way, on the modes used to break the ice so as to admit the ships, on
the killing of bears, and other subjects to which the pictures had
reference.

After another brief interview with the Empress, who
'begged that if I returned to Russia I would give her the
opportunity of seeing me again,' the visitor finally took his
leave. In reviewing the incidents of the visit, he recalls only
one question put to him bearing upon politics, which was
when the Empress-Mother asked him how the Emperor was
liked in England. For an ' only question,' it was a pretty
awkward one for an Englishman to answer in 1828. Franklin
does not record his reply. Nor does he refer further to the
Czar Nicholas, except to relate of him a rather striking little
anecdote. The Emperor himself seemed, he remarked, to be
fond of the Navy, ' especially of ship-building, from his having
ordered many new ships to be built.' On his being told that
the wood was green, and that his ships could not be expected
to last if hastily put together, he made the somewhat ominous
reply, ' Never mind ; if they will hold together five years they
will answer my present purpose.' Before that period had
passed Franklin was to find himself placed as an English
naval officer in a situation in which it is not improbable that
this Imperial utterance, with all the sinister import which
might attach to it, recurred to his mind.

Meanwhile the future Lady Franklin, as might be expected
from a woman of her energetic disposition, had not been
content to remain inactive in England, to the neglect of such
an opportunity as now presented itself of enjoying a foreign
tour in the society of her intended husband. It had been
Franklin's wish that she should accompany him to Russia, but
for reasons which will appear below she had declined to do so ;
and the letter in which she refers to this matter is through-
out so pleasantly illustrative both of her own winning qualities
and of her admiring affection for Franklin, that the following

1828

A LOVE LETTER

145

passages may well be extracted from it. As much may be
learned of a man's personality from the character and depth
of the sentiment with which he was able to inspire such a
woman as Miss Griffin as could perhaps be gathered from any
words or acts of his own. The letter is superscribed ' At sea,
July 26.* It appears to have been written very shortly after
quitting England for the shores of the Baltic : —

My dear Captain Franklin, — I give you early proof of thinking of
you because I begin to feel very uncomfortable, and in a short time
I may perhaps be fit for nothing during the remainder of the voyage.
I know also that the post goes out from Hamburg on Tuesday, and
that after our arrival at the hotel on Monday evening we shall have
no more than just time enough to look after carriages and horses to
convey ourselves and our baggage to Liibeck, particularly as we
shall be obliged to leave Hamburg early on Tuesday morning. . . .
Our condition is somewhat better than it was yesterday evening, for
the captain has so far kept his promise as to remove one tier of boxes
from behind the sailcloth, and the others have been lashed together,
so that another tier of berths has been developed, though the stern
windows remain invisible and closed. I care as little about these
minor inconveniences as most people, or rather can submit to them as
well, if they are necessary and inevitable, but not otherwise ; and
whenever I think I am imposed upon my spirit rises, and I struggle
harder to resist than perhaps is quite consistent with that meek .",nd
resigned spirit which men endeavour to teach us is not only becoming
but obligatory, and which we poor women endowed with acute
sensibilities, though with less energy and much less power than men,
often find to be our surest and safest way to happiness.

Do not be alarmed at these moralising reflections drawn from the
consideration of the boxes and the cabin windows. You are of a
much more easy disposition than myself, in spite of that energy and
firmness of mind which, when the occasion calls for it, you can dis-
play as well or better than most men, and without which you never
could have won my regard. It must be my province, therefore,
when we travel together in France or elsewhere, or even on our
lengthened journey through life, to combat those things which excite
my more sensitive temper ; while it must and shall be yours, as my
beloved and most honoured husband, to control even this disposition
whenever you think it improperly excited, and to exert over me in
all things that influence, or, if it must be [substituted for, ' if you
please,' as perhaps going less imprudently far in the way of con-
cession], that authority which it will be your privilege to use and
my duty to yield to. But do I speak of duty? You are of too

146

TiniEE YEARS OF REPOSE

CH. VIII.

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manly, too generous, too affectionate a disposition to like the word,
and (lod forbid I should ever be the wretched wife who obeyed her
husband from a sense of duty alone without finding her greatest
delight in yielding to his wishes in all things. Do not fear, therefore,
that as long as my respect and esteem for you remain unimpaired,
and consequently my affection uninjured, so long will my conjugal yoke
sit most lightly and easily upon me, and that ring of which I now
bear the emblem on the wrong finger will be (as I sometimes fancy
it looks like) not the badge of slavery, but the cherished link of the
purest affection.

Need I call you my dear (again?) after this? I think you can
afford that I should spare myself the use of all such epithets : or
perhaps you might have liked an epithet or two the more, and my
serious observations the less. If you are a very prudent man, how-
ever, you will put this letter by and turn it to account at some future
time when I am in a rebellious mood ; and upon this consideration
I think you ought to feel infinitely obliged to me for furnishing you
with so valuable a document. How soon shall I repent of it myself ?
I cannot pretend to say, but at present my silly heart reminds me
that I have given you some little cause for reproach against me by
opposing your original inclination to be of our party throughout the
journey, and I want you to feel that never, never more, after our bonds
are tied, shall I wish to be separated from you, or to differ from or
to thwart your strongly expressed inclinations. In the present case,
however, my objection to your first proposal arose from a strong
sense of impropriety in the arrangement, as well as from a conviction
that we should all be placed in a number of awkward and disagreeable
situations during long and rough voyages and journeys which it would
be extremely unpleasant to me to partake in and impossible to
avoid. . . . You yielded to my feelings with a forbearance which
obliged me, and I thought to compromise matters a little, and to
avoid many other inconveniences, by suggesting that the marriage
could take place abroad — a circumstance perfectly natural, since
there was not time enough between the time when you first explained
yourself to me and the moment fixed for our departure for it to take
place beforehand. . . . When we gave up this last arrangement,
nothing remained for us but to be absent from one another till our
return in October (for I was ill-behaved enough not to wish you to
join us at all during our journey), or to delay our setting off and be
united first.

Having recalled the reasons why this last plan was un-
acceptable, she continues : —

Besides, I do not now feel the same alarm as to the journey. By
your disinterested zeal and kindness we are furnished with every

1828

AN INQUISITIVE TOURIST

147

facility that can insure a safe and prosperous expedition, and, there-
fore, when I regret that you cannot now accompany us, and look
forward with pleasure to our meeting at Petersburg, it is not
altogether or alone from the want I feel of your present and future
services as because I grieve that you a^e disappointed now, and
rejoice that you are looking forward to something that will please
you hereafter. . . . Come, then, to St. Petersburg, and in the mean-
time do not suppose it possible that I can feel otherwise \.\vxr\ painfully
your absence. I should rejoice to see with you the same things for
the first time, to help or be helped by you in every little difficulty, to
become acquainted together with the same people, to be the objects of
the same hospitality and kindness, and to witness with pride and
sympathy that your claims to interest and esteem are acknowledged
in a foreign land as well as in your own. I shall be far from wishing
you tc give up going to Moscow, even should it involve your later
return to England and the consequent derangement of all our plans.
It would be a matter of great concern, and even compunction to me,
should you have any after regrets on the subject.

In another letter, written ' At sea, in the Gulf of Finland,'
in which the formality of her former commencement, ' My
dear Captain Franklin,' is exchanged with a view to ' local
colour ' for ' My dear Ivan,' while for heiself she adopts
the Russianised signature of 'Jane Ivanovna,' Miss Griffin
amusingly hits offone of Franklin's most characteristic traits : —

The only ground of anxiety I have that you should not be in
time is founded upon the possibility of your not learning at Ham-
burg the mistake in your further calculations. This would have been
highly improbable, since, though no German scholar, you would have
found merns enough there of asking questions ; and since my visit
with you to the Elstree Reservoir I cannot doubt of your always
being inquisitive enough. You recollect that it was remarked of you
there that they should not have supposed it possible that any reservoir,
be it as deep or as wide as it might, could have afforded room for
such varied and innumerable interrogations.

Both Franklin and his future wife ha^J returned from their
Russian tour by the early autumn of 1828, and in the month
of October of this year he paid a visit worth recording to his
old commander, Captain Cumby, who had retired from the
Navy and was living the life of a country squire at Hughing-
ton, near Darlington. Franklin arrived there on the ever-
memorable 2 1st, which it was his host's annual custom to cele-

L 2

I '

! '

■i

1 1

148

THREE YEARS OF REPOSIC

CH. Till.

brate, and in a letter of the following day to Miss Griffin,
then staying for her health at Malvern, he gives the following
interesting account of the rejoicings. A'ter describing how
all the young people of the village had been paraded and
feasted in honour of the day, he continues ; —

On the church steeple, the flag under which the old Bellerophon
fought was waving, with many of its shot holes still unclosed, and
you can well conceive the delight it afforded to me, especially as the
preservation of it in the hour of battle was one of the particular
parts of my duty as signal officer on the occasion. Twice it was
lowered by the enemy's shot, but again speedily re-hoisted in triumph ;
and lest the enemy might suppose from its being even for a moment
lowered that it was done intentionally, another flag was sprc; d along
the rigging by an intrepid seaman under the most galling fire, which
was continued throughout the action in that position. With the
exception of Mrs. and Miss Cumby, the Captain's eldest son, and the
vicar and hi rother, the party consisted of naval men. The most
interesting pei bon was the Rev. Dr. Scott, Lord Nelson's chaplain,
in whose arms, I believe, our noble commander-in-chief breathed
his last sigh. He gave us a variety of anecdotes of Nelson, ante-
cedently to this battle, relating to the chase which he made after the
enemy to the West Indies.

Franklin's v^edding with Miss Griffin took place on
November 5, 1828, at Stanmore Church, ' very prettily situated
in one of the most picturesque villages near London,' and, it
is to be gathered from a letter to his sister, under auspices
as happy in every respect as became a marriage of such
obviously mutual affection and esteem. The bride and bride-
groom, who were married from the house of the former's sister,
left it in the evening for Ascot Place, ' the mansion of a
considerable estate belonging to the Manor of Ascot and the
property of one of Mr. Franklin's cousins.' Here they re-
mained for a week, and then quitted England to finish the
honeymoon in Paris.

Franklin's fame as a contributor to geographical science
had preceded him, and he found himself the recipient of
marked attentions from Parisian society, both learned and
fashionable. He had taken with him a letter of introduction
to the Duke of Orleans, two years later to become the King of

1828

A LETTER EIIOM LOUIS PHILIPPE

149

the French, who responded to his presentation of it by in-
viting him to dinner on the following day. ' The scientific
men,' he writes to his sister, ' of whom Baron Cuvier is the
head, have been no less kind to me, and I have enjoyed a very
high treat in becoming known to the savants of France with
whose names I have long been familiar. I have dined with
Baron Cuvier and been at some of the public scientific meet-
ings ; I have also dined with our Ambassador (Lord Stuart),
M. Delessert, and Baron Rothschild, the great Parisian banker,
whose dinners, in point of style and luxury, almost equal
Oriental splendour.' In these honours and festivities, however,
Mrs. Franklin, he observes, was not able to participate, ' it not
being the custom for ladies to be invited to dinner.' Soirees
were the special form of entertainment provided for them by
the fashion of the time. * She has been invited to one at
Madame Rothschild's on Saturday, and also to one at Madame
Cuvier's, and I hope more invitations will follow for her, for,
though there may not be anything particularly agreeable in
these soirees, yet they are among the sights of Paris.' Three
visits, he says, have been paid to the theatres, of which there
were then fifteen in the French capital, and the irrepressible
explorer declares his intention of ' making the round of them *
before hi'' return home. One of these visits was almost of a
State character, as the following letter, interesting on other
grounds, will show : —

Neuilly : Friday morning, December 5, 1828.

Dear Sir, — Accept my best thanks for the highly valued present
you are so good as to make to me of the narrative of your second
journey to the shores of the Polar Sea. Its value is still much in-
creased by being indebted for it to its celebrated author.

My sister offers her best thanks for the note, also for the lines so
well adapted to the circumstance, and both will be placed in the
collection of Autographes of her friend le Marquis de Dolomieu.

Permit me to enclose an order for the Duchess of Orleans's box
this evening at the Opera, which we have thought might be agreeable
to Mrs. Franklin and to yourself. The box is roomy, and may hold
twelve persons.

I remain, with great regard, dear Sir,
Your affectionate

Louis-Philippe d'Orl^ans.

.; i! !

1/50

TIIUEE YEARS OF llEI'OSE

c». virr.

;H,

The note and autograph above referred to were sent in re-
sponse to a request made to Frankhn on the previous evening
when he dined with the Duke at Ncuilly. The conversation,
as recorded in his diary, turned principally, like that of the
Imperial dinner party at St. Petersburg, on the exploits and
sufferings of the distinguished guest. One subject, however,
of a less personal character appears to have come up in the
course of the evening on which the interchange of views
between guest and host is worth noting : —

'The Duke,' writes Franklin, 'likewise conversed with me
respecting the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and the Columbia River, on
all which subjects he had a perfect knowledge, gained, as he said, by
reading. He thought, as I do, that it was probable the Canadas
must eventually be independent, and if this concession were granted
with grace, the change would be beneficial in point of trade to Eng-
land. He thought, however, and justly, that it would be necessary
for us to retain Nova Scotia, for the sake of Halifax as a naval
position.'

There is almost as much virtue in an ' eventually ' as in
an ' if,' since no prediction which it qualifies can of course be
pronounced erroneous at any earlier date than the morning
of Doomsday. All one can say is that, though nearly seventy
years have passed since this conversation, the ' event ' referred
to seems both to Englishmen and Canadians further off
to-day than it did then.

Of the banquet at the great financier's Franklin writes
with more mixed feelings : —

There I saw magnificence and luxury in its utmost extent. To
describe the dinner or even to name th>? wines is quite beyond my
power. The party, however, was but so-so ; and the only person
I felt a delight in meeting was M. Hauseman, the Professor of

Geology at Gottingen, who is on his way to England. Baron

was of the party, the editor of the , who is considered a

charlatan by the savans of Paris, in which opinion I should coin-
cide from his conversation with me, which certainly did not show
a person of any great research or genius. There was a Count Mol^
(whom I had met before at Baron Delessert's) and two other barons,
but they all appeared to be like their host, money-making men.
The conversation at dinner, as usual at the French table, was carried
on with the next person to you. I was seated on the left of Roth-

rzliT!^ ^" j cj-:—^

1829

KNICJIITKI)

101

schild by invitation, l)ut I considered myself more fortunate in having
Professor Hausenian on my left, with whom I principally conversed.
For a time, however, the liaron addressed himself to me, and having
heard a little of the nature of our voyages, of which he was till then
ignorant, he became much interested, and asked many questions.
The cloven foot, however, was shown by his incjuiry, ' What did the
British Government give you for all that ? '

After dinner we had coffee as usual, and, several gentlemen having
gathered round nie, Madame la Haronne begged I might be invited
to come near her. She then talked to me, but not with much know-
ledge of the nature of my voyage, th^^ 'i she had evidently read a
part of the narrative. She was, however, desirous of gaining infor-
mation, and this from a woman, though her lips owed their pretty
tint to a coating of rouge, sufficiently encouraged me to say whjit I
could for her amusement. Her remark that the Indians, from my
description of their moral character, were well fitted for becoming
Christians surprised me not a little when I looked on her decidedly
Jewish visage.

A few days later Franklin was presented to Madame la
Dauphinc, the Duchesse d'Angoulemc of 1815, who learned
with interest that he had been second in command of the
British ship of war which had been placed at her service to
convey her back to France at the close of her long exile.

The beginning of the year 1829 saw the Franklins back
again in London and established for the time at a house in
Devonshire Street, Portland Place. In April of that year, as
has been already above recorded, he made that transforming
obeisance to the Sovereign from which he • rose up Sir John,'
and in the following July he stood side by side with his
gallant colleague and competitor in Arctic enterprise. Captain
Parry, in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, to receive the
not too lavishly bestowed distinction of Honorary D.C.L.
The deeds of the two explorers formed the subject for the
Newdigate Poem of that year, and were celebrated by the
prizeman, Mr. T. L. Claughton, afterwards Bishop of Truro,
in verse which, though not inferior in smoothness to the
average prize poem, undoubtedly partakes more of the frigi-
dity than of the grandeur of its Arctic theme.

The new knight and D.C.L. was the last man to rest
content with his honours or to look forward to a life of repose

\)i

M ,1

1 u

lfi2

THREE YEARS OF REPOSE

en. VIII.

after his toils and sufferings. He was already longing again
for active emp oyment, if not in the work of exploration
— and the curt letter from the Admiralty in the previous year
had extinguished that hope altogether — then in any public
service which would afford room for the exercise of his
organising abilities and his conscious faculty of command.
Nay, it is evident enough that mere prolonged physical
inaction was irksome to him, and that his body no less than
his mind craved imperatively for exertion. His indeed was
une of those not uncommon cases in which the outer belies the
inner man. One of the royal ladies to whom he was
presented in Paris had with some naivete expressed her
surprise at the plump and comfortable appearance of the
traveller who had unccrgone such incredible privations in the
course of his adventures. The paradox, it need hardly be
said, was only apparent ; but we can understand the Duchess's
difficulty in associating the portly naval ofticer before her
with the idea of a prolonged diet of deer-hide and tripe de
roche. Incidentally it appears from the correspondence
between Sir John and Lady Franklin that his weight at this
period of his career was fifteen stone, which for a man of no
more than middle height and but forty-three years of age is
very considerably above the average. Nothing, howf^ver, is
more delusive than the common tendency to connect mere
bodily bulk with indolence and love of physical repose. The
obese Napoleon, gorged with empire, who struck down
Prussia at Jena and Austria at Austerl'tz, was a man of the
same untiring energy of body as the le&n and hungry soldier
of the first Italian campaign. And there is no reason to
doubt that not only at this period of his life, but for a good
many years afterwards, Franklin's physical activity and his
power of sustaining fatigue and privation were, his bulk not-
withstanding, unimpaired.

Nevertheless, he was not disposed to accept any form of
active eniployment which might be offered to him by any
body of employers, no matter whom. On the contrary, he
felt, and rightly felt, that as a naval officer some fitting
occupation should be found for him in the service not

.v^

1829

AN OFFER DECLINED

163

merely of the country but of the Crown. Thus he records in
the early summei of 1829 that he had just declined a 'very
tempting and flattering offer from the Australian Company
to manage their concerns in New South Wales.' The re-
muneration proposed, 2,000/. a year, was for those days
ample, and the work attached to the office must have had
many attractions for him. But his resolve not to separate
himself from the service to which he had devof " himself for
now nearly thirty years was unalterably fixed. He looked
to the Admiralty or to some other department of the Stste
to find him employment, and after another year and a half of
patient, or more probably perhaps of impatient, waiting he
obtamed it.

In the meantime, however, he never doubted the wisdom
of refusing all solicitations to engage himself to any private
body of employers. ' I felt,' he writes to his wife concernii!g
this Australian offer, ' that such an occupation would with
draw me from my profession for some years to come, and
might materially injure my future prospects in the service-
Besides, having now been so Tiany years employed in land
service, I am particularly ai xious to avail myself of the first
opportunity of getting into active naval employment' The
appointment Jeclined by Franklin was afterwards offered
to and, at the urgent instance of many of his friends, accepted
by Sir Edward Parry.

Franklin was not now to be exposed to any more
temptations of this kind to quit the regular line of the service.
Events in Europe during the closing years of this decade had
already given some unexpected and indeed, so far as the
British Government were concerned, undesired employment
to the British Navy ; and though it was not Franklin's fortune
to be among the officers engaged in the singular battle of
Navarino--that affair of which a noble admiral of the period
humorously remarked that ' it was a capital fight, only we
knocked down the wrong man ' — the internation 1 crisis out
of which it had arisen created not long afterwards a neces-
sity for increased activity among His Majesty's s-'it)s >n '^.e
Mediterranean. The nascent kingdom of Greece, it was gene-

) t

«'«i

THREE YEARS OF REPOSE

CH. VJII.

rally admitted in European Courts and Cabinets, required
watching by the Powers. It was also thought in certain
quarters (though this was not so generally admitted) that
some, or at any rate one, of the Powers required watching by
th >thers. By the middle of the yeai 1 830, one, if not both,
of these causes for increased activity in the Mediterranean
was thought to have become urgent ; and in ' prospecting '
round for experienced and highly capable officers to employ
in a service which was certain to be important, and might
in conceivable circumstances become extremely difficult,
the eye of the Admiralty fell upon Sir John Franklin.
His application for employment lay before them with
the high claims attached to it, and, since there is no evi-
dence in his correspondence to show that he recalled their
attention to it, they may actually have remembered him of
themselves.

Be that as it may, he was selected for a command.
On August 23 he received the long-looked-for and eagerly
welcomed official notice to the effect that ' My Lords Com-
missioners of the Admiralty having appointed you Captain
of His Majesty's ship the Rainbow, at Portsmouth, it is their
Lordships' direction that you or your agent repair imr/ie-
diately to this office, and that you report to me the day on
which you shall have joined the ship.'

The prospect of new employment was hardly more
welcome to Franklin himself than to his ambitious and
energetic wife. Her correspondence of this period shows
signs that she was almost as much bitten with the longing
for Arctic exploration as he. Parry, too, she reminds him,
was meditating new voyages of discovery, with Lady Parry's
concurrence and even encouragement. The idea was never
to be realised, and the magnificent exploit of 1827 was
Parry's last attack upon the Pole. There, in lat. 82° 45',
was, in Othello's words, ' his butt, and very sea-mark of his
utmost sail.' And not a bad one either, considering that it
remained the seamark of the whole human race for nearly
fifty years. But if there were to be no m.ore Arctic expe-
ditions for the present, it was at least something that Franklin

iHm

A 'CAllEER OF VANITY'

165

should have got afloat once more, ' I look back,' wrote Lady-
Franklin to him, ' with almost remorse on our career of vanity,
trifling, and idleness' — that is to say, from November of 1828
to August of 1830, a year and nine months, and part of it a
honeymoon. To less restless spirits it docs not seem so very
shocking.

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A MEDITERRANEAN COMMAND

CH. IX.

CHAPTER IX

A MEDITERRANEAN COMMAND
1830-1833

The mission on which Franklin was now dcHpatched presents
so striking a contrast to any of his previous employments as
a naval officer tnat it is desirable to suspend the progress of
this narrative for a while in order to take a brief survey of
the task before him and to point out its singularly difficult
conditions. And, as a preliminary step to this process, it will
be necessary to recall as concisely as may be the incidents of
a now forgotten chapter of European history.

Greece, in the year 1830, had just succeeded, by the aid
of the two Western Powers acting in formal concert but not
in wholly confidential i.lliance with Russia, in throwing off
the yoke of the Sultan and establishing its independence.
Navarino, that * untoward event,' as the victory was so frankly
described by one of the victors, had been fought and won —
or rather blundered into and out of — two years before. The
Porte had formally consented a few months before to the
erection of Greece into an independent kingdom ; and
nothing remained but for the Powers to choose an eligible
European prince for the new throne, to secure his acceptance
of the honour, and to induct him into his scA'ereignty. But
the second of these three steps was found to present un-
expected difficulties. The first choice, or meditated choice,
of the kingmakers was Prince John of Saxony, but the
crown was declined by him with thanks. Leopold of
Coburg, the next to be selected, shoveH a disposition to ac-
cept the offer, and the negotiation? foi- ttic Kvt.iai completion
of the arrangement oad, indeed, ->p::.d omc prv?gr'jss when
the Prince, partly through r^Ii,'p,jro\<:i c. jO v?.e cf the con-

It' I

1830

CAPO D'ISTRIA

167

ditions which were to be imposed upon him, and partly
influenced, it is supposed, by the change in his prospects
consequent on the death of George IV. — an event which
brought his sister, the Duchess of Kent, within one remove
of the Regency which would fall to her as the mother of
her present Majesty, then a child of eleven — revoked his
provisional assent, and the Greek crown once more went
a-begging. Meanwhile the somewhat rotten reins of such
government as Greece possessed remained in the hands of
Capo d'Istria, an active and astute intriguer, of Greek origin
indeed, but who had spent fifty years of his previous life as
a minister of the Czar of Russia, a period during which he
devoted himself incessantly, and in the end successfully,
to the work of diplomatically undermining the authority
of the Porte over its Hellenic subjects. Upon the definitive
overthrow of Turkish rule he had contrived to get possession
of the machinery of executive control in the newly liberated
country, and to obtain an informal recognition of his de facto
presidency.

Capo d'Istria possessed considerable ability, which, no
doubt, seemed greater by comparison with the noisy and
frequently ferocious mediocrities whom the Revolution had
raised up around him. He appears to have been a man of
sincere patriotism, and of disinterested if somewhat narrow-
ideals. But he overrated, says a well-known historian of
these events, alike ' the influence of orthodoxy in the Ottoman
Empire and the power of Russia in the international system
of Europe,' an error natural in a politician whose experience
of mankind had been acquired either in the confined and
corrupt society of Corfu, or in the artificial atmosphere of
Russian diplomacy. Other drawbacks he had whicii could
not but detract in some measure from his efiiciency as an
administrator. Italian was his mother tongue, and, though
he could speak Greek fluently enough, he was unable to write
it, and both in conversation and in despatches he was in the
habit of using French. ' For a statesman, he was far too
loquacious. He allowed everybod}' who approached him to
perceive that on many great political questions of importance

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A MEDITERRANE V COMMAND

CII. IX.

i I I

to Greece his ideas were vague and unsettled. At times he
spoke as a warm panegyrist of Russian absolutism, and at
others as an enthusiastic admirer of American democracy.'

The Western Powers, it may be imagined, were more
impressed by the panegyrics than by the admiration. The
circumstances of his election were such as naturally induced
the English Government to regard him as the nominee of
Russia, and his own policy and declared opinions encouraged
the belief that he was no friend to this country. Fifteen
years earlier, at the European settlement which followed upon
the victory of Waterloo, he had exerted himself, and had
been allowed to employ all the influence of Russia, to re-
establish that Ionian Republic which had been created in
1 803, and at the downfall of which in 1807, by the annexation
of the islands to the French Empire, he had transferred his
services to the Czar. He never forgave the Government of
Great Britain for having insisted on retaining possession
of the Ionian group, and on holding complete control over
their government as a check on Russian intrigues among the
Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire. And the view
taken by the English Ministers of his sympathies and ten-
dencies was confirmed by the part which he was believed to
have played in the negotiations which led to Prince Leopold's
withdrawal. It was in May 1830 that this event took place,
and when Franklin received his appointment to the Medi-
terranean service four months later the relations between
the British Cabinet and the Greek President were those of
mutual distrust.

The situation in Greece, however, was destined to be yet
more gravely complicated by a tragic incident which took
place towards the close f^f the following year. On October 9,
183 1, Capo d'Istria was assassinated by the brothers Mavro-
michales, two political opponents with whom, it was alleged,
he had treacherously and oppressively dealt ; and with his
death Greece entered on a period of almost absolute anarchy.
A few hours after his murder a governing commission, con-
sisting of three members — Agostino Capo d'Istria, brother
of the murdered President, and two other prominent poli-

1831

A DIVIDED ASSEMBLY

1C9

ticians, Kolokotrone and Kolctti — was appointed to exercise
the executive power until the meeting of the National
Assembly. But the so-called Constitutional party, who hi
opposed the autocratic rule of the late President, were little
inclined to submit to the improvised junta who proposed to
carry on his policy. They prepared to resist it not only in
the Assembly, but, in case they should be defeated there, in
the field. The Capodistrians were strong in the Morea, in
which — at Argos — the Assembly met, and their party suc-
ceeded in obtaining a considerable majority at the elections.
But they were supposed to have derived much additional
strength from the open support given them by the Russian
Admiral Ricord ; and that they themselves v/ere not deficient
in the faculty of self-help is evident from the fact that in
certain places where they were in a minority they succeeded
in securing the return of their candidates by military force.
The irregularity of these elections did not, of course, invalidate
them, for the simple reason that the Capodistrians possessed
a majority in the Assembly, and had no superstitious scruples
about using it. Both parties circulated the most odious
calumnies against their opponents, the Capodistrians accusing
the French and English of being privy to the murder of the
President, and the Constitutionalists alleging that the mur-
dered man had himself bribed ' six traitors ' to murder the
leader of the Opposition.

The art of ' working ' a popular assembly in such a way
as to give a constitutional and even democratic air to the
manoeuvres of the men who have ' got hold of the machine '
was less thoroughly comp'-ehended in those days than it
is in these. If the Capodistrians understood packing a
House, they evidently did not understand ' running ' it after it
was parked. Probably there w;is not enough ready monej- for
the work, and the eligible jilaces were all filled. Anyhow, they
found it impossible to ujimanu the minority. Loud complaints
were made that the olcctionH \v\\\ boiM' illegally controlled by
military force, and thai a foive exerted in favour of Russian
domination. A lar^c body of members accordingly protested
against the competency of the Assembly to proceed to busi-

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A MEDITERRANEAN COMMAND

CIt. IX.

ncss, and were for their pains driven from Argos by a body
of troops which the Provisional Government, fearlessly braving
the calumnies of their opponents, had placed under the
command of a Russian officer. The seceders repaired to
Megara, formed themselves into a National Assembly, and
declared themselves to be the only legal representatives of the
Greek nation.

This, of course, made two bodies of ' only legal repre-
sentatives,' each of them naturally animated with deadly
hostility to the other. Geographically speaking, they were
very unequally matched, the Morea alone adhering in general
to the Provisional Government, while the population of all
the rest of the mainland and of the Archipelago supported
the Assembly of Megara. Nor were the insurgents long in
demonstrating their superiority in physical force. Marching
into the Morea, they easily overthrew the feeble rule of the
younger Capo d' I stria and his two colleagues, and proceeded
to establish a commission of seven members, to discharge the
nominal functions of an executive till the Great Powers should
have settled the destinies of the independent State which they
had created.

And nominal indeed those functions were. They seem, in
fact, to have consisted for some time to come in issuing
admirably rhetorical manifestoes and proclamations from
Napoli di Romania (the ancient Nauplia, at the head of the
Argolic Gulf), which were read, doubtless with much interest,
on the walls of that city, but received not the slightest
attention outside them. The party of revolution, like other
revolutionary parties before and since their time, possessed
precisely sufficient strength to overthrow the government
agafinst wliich they rose, but were unfortunately left with-
(mt a margin of power wherewith to establish any really
/Withofitativc government of their own. Conscious of this
dcificicncy, they devoted the remainder of their energies to the
wofV of farming out the revenues among their friends and
favour^/^s at half their value ; the resull ol which financial
operation was to leave an army nf 8,ooo men without any
pay or other • visible means of subsistence' than that of

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1831

THE COMMISSION OF SEVEN

161

preying upon their fellow-countrymen — an industry to which
they immediately adapted themselves with all the versatility
of their race.

The situation, as it appeared to Mr. Finlay, an historian in
thorough sympathy with the cause of Greek independence
is thus described : —

The Roumeliots, after overthrowing Agostino's government, daily
lost ground. The Commission of Seven was either unable or un-
willing to reward their services. The soldiers soon determined to
reward themselves. They treated the election of the Commission as
a temporary compromise, not as a definitive treaty of peace, and
they marched into different districts in the Morea to take possession
of the national revenues as a security f the-r pay and rations.
Wherever they established themselves, they lived at free quarters in
the houses of the inhabitants, or were authorised to collect arrears
due from preceding farmers. These proceedings gave rise to in-
tolerable exactions. The chieftains often paid their followers by
allowing them to extort a number of rations from the peasantry, and
defrauded them of their pay. Some drew pay and rations for a
hundred men without having twenty under arms. Numbers of
soldiers were disbanded, and roved backwards and forwards, plun-
dering the villages and devouring the sheep and oxen of the peasants.
. . . Eight thousand Roumeliots were at this time living at free
quarters in the Morea, and it was said that they levied daily from the
population to the extent of upwards of 20,000 rations.

The financial administration [of the Commission] was not cal-
culated to moderate the rapacity of the troops. They raised money
by private bargains for the sale of the tenths, and the proceeds of
these anticipated and frequently illegal rates were employed to reward
personal partisans, and not to discharge the just debts due to the
soldiers for arrears of pay. A small sum judiciously expended would
have sent many of the Roumeliot troops to their native mountains,
whither, as peace was now restored, they would have willingly returned
had they been able to procure the means of cultivating their pro-
perty. The troops were neglected, while favoured chieftams were
allowed to become farmers of taxes.

These proceedings were naturally found very oppressive by
the inhabitants //f M/* ' ountry : multitudes fled for security
to the Ionian Island*^ w>/>'^ th^- peasantry sought protection
against tie military mar*«4«f» by abandoning the villayp
for tht f//rtres«, and sometim<i A/^n the field for th«' cave.

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The representatives of Great Britain, France, and Russia,
the three Powers to whom Greece owed its existence, found
it much harder to protect than it had been to create their
offspring. They stood helpless before this scene of anarchy,
hesitating to act, .ind, when at last forced into action,
taking it without effect. France had already landed troops
in the Morca, antl the Allies therefore possessed, nomi-
nally at any rate, the power to intervene by force of arms
for the pacification of the distracted country, but their
intervention, when it did take place, only made confusion
worse confounded. Before the Commission had held power
for a month they felt their position so insecure that they
found it necessary to invite the French troojjs to occupy
Nauplia and Patras as the only means of assuring their
personal safety and the prolongation of their power. The
former measure was successfully accomplished ; but before
the French arrived at Patras the place had been seized by
the Capodistrians.

Nothing could have been simpler than the mode of its
capture. The Greek troops by which it was garrisoned
were well affected to the Commission, as they had previously
been to the Capodistrians, and as, to do them justice, they
would have been to any political party or person who would
guarantee them their pay. But this the Commission had
most unwisely allowed to fall into arrear ; it was even
rumoured that they were to be disbanded ; and ' while they
were brooding over this report' they heard that French
troops had been invited to garrison Patras, a piece of intelli-
gence which seemed to render their prospect of payment
more uncertain than ever. In the mood produced by it, it
was not difficult to convince them that patriotism forbade
the surrender of an important place of arms to the foreigner.
The Commission had accused the Capodistrians of selling
Greece to the Russians ; the Capodistrians now retorted by
accusing the Commission of selling Nauplia and Patras to the
French. Upon this hint the Greek garrison mutinied, and
deposed their commander, who refused to sign a manifesto
justifying the revolt ; and a patriot of the name of Zavellas,

1H32

SEIZUKE OK PATRAS

who had fou^Oit with bravery against the Turks in the war of
hberation, but whose political position at this moment is
more than usually hard to define, was invited by them to
assume the chief command at I'atras. Zavellas, who was at
the head of 500 irrcfrulars, and who would not have been
a Greek if he had declined an oppi)itunity of making him-
self master of the persons and property of the inhabitants
of a flourishing seaport, accepted the offer with alacrity,
and, hastening to Patras, entered it before the arrival of the
French. When they made their appearance he transmitted to
their commanding officer a formal protest against the authority
of the governing Commission, and refused to obey the order
to admit the French into the fortress. The French com-
mander, considering that, as the Allies had despatched him to
Patras for the purpose of maintaining order, it ould hardly
be consistent with his mission to come to blows with any
party who should have succeeded in obtaining the undisputed
mastery of the place, withdrew his troops, leaving Zavellas in
peaceable possession.

Having thus brought down to the summer of 1832 the
turbulent history of this distracted little kingdom, we may
once more return to Franklin. It has been necessary to enter
with some minuteness into the course of local politics at Patras
in order that the extremely delicate part which he had to
play in connection with that port, its trade, and its inhabitants,
may be rendered intelligible. His duties in the Mediterra-
nean, however, had commenced more than eighteen months
before the latest of the events just recorded. It was on
August 30, 1830, that he was appointed to the command of
the 26-gun frigate Rainbow, and on November 1 1 of the same
year that she put to sea.

A backward glance at the chronology of the events con-
cisely summarised in the foregoing pages may be necessary
in order to recall the situation when Franklin's mission
commenced. Prince Leopold's resignation of the sovereignty
was now an incidi nt some three months old ; and the political
disquietude of the new kingdom had approached just so
much the nearer to actual anarchy, while the relations of the

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A MEDITERRANEAN COMMAND

CH. IX.

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two Western Powers with their Eastern ally were just so
much the further from those of mutual confidence. President
Capo d'Istria, it seemed, was more and more openly showing
a hand, which was the hand of Russia ; and indeed, before
Franklin had been many months in the Mediterranean,
Russia herself had, by the conduct of her naval oflRcers, given
the strongest colour to the suspicion that she was playing a
game of her own. In the summer of 183 1, the municipality
cf the island of Hydra, which had revolted against the Presi-
dent, and which he was meditating how to reduce to submission
by naval operations, suddenly turned the tables on him by
seizing the greater part of the Greek fleet, then lying disarmed
in the port of Poros.

Upon this. Capo d'Istria appealed to the Russian Admiral
Ricord, then at Nauplia with his squadron, the French and
English commanders being absent, to come to his assist-
ance, an appeal to which the Admiral responded by sailing
straightway to Poros and summoning the insurgents to sur-
render the ships and the arsenal to the Greek Government.
The demand was refused, but before any action was taken
on either side the French and English naval commanders
chanced to put into the port on their way back to Nauplia,
and on learning the condition of affairs agreed with Ricord
and Miaulis, the insurgent leader, that the status quo should
be maintained until they had had time to go to Nauplia and
procure instructions from the diplomatic representatives of
the Allies. This, however, was much as though two cats should
go off to consult the wishes of the dairyman, leaving a third
cat bound by an honourable undertaking to maintain Sl status
quo with the cream bowl. The arrangement had its natural
result. Before the French and English commanders could
execute their mission Admiral Ricord prepared to attack
the port, a movement to which the insurgents responded by
blowing up the finest of the ships in their possession to
prevent their capture. Meanwhile, the troops of Capo d'Istria,
who were besieging the fort from the land side, vushed into
the town and sacked it for twenty-four hours under the eyes
and guns of Admiral Ricord and his squadron.

1831

VISIT TO ATHENS

165

Franklin himself was at a considtrable distance from the
scene of these operations ; for the Rainbow during the year
1831 was stationed mainly at Corfu. But the English naval
commander with whom tliC Russian Admiral had kept such
peculiarly Punic faith was Captain (afterwards Sir Edmund)
Lyons, an intimate friend and frequent correspondent of
Franklin's ; and this circumstance may have deepened the
resentment and distrust of Russia with which the affair of
Poros generally inspired English naval officers in the Medi-
terranean. Later on it will be seen that the captain of the
Rainbow was himself to have a taste of his friend's experience,
and to find himself called upon to exert all his tact and
vigilance for the defeat of Russian intrigue.

For the present, however, and for some time to come, the
duties imposed upon him were light enough. His first desti-
nation in the Mediterranean was Malta, from which station
he was at the end of January ordered to Nauplia, and while
here he had an opportunity of paying a visit to Athens. This
visit produced upon him, as it has upon so many other men
before and since, a disenchanting effect. He had been des-
patched with his vessel to the Greek capital as the bearer
of letters to Ismail Bey, the Turkish Commissioner for the
affairs of Greece, and after executing his mission he seems
to have ' done ' the city and its antiquities with as much
thoroughness as an unofficial tourist. Athens he found 'a
mass of ruins, not having more than three houses habitable '
— a result of the different bombardments which it had under-
gone at the hands of both Turks and Greeks. Nor did he
omit to record the injuries which it had suffered at the hands
of that third nationality whose name Macaulay united in a
famous passage with those of the other two. ' It must be
confessed,' he writes to Lady Franklin, ' that the pleasure we
feel on looking at this famous edifice (the Parthenon) is min-
gled with a kind of indignation at the wanton rapacity of the
Elgins and other mutilators of the sacred Temple.'

But the disillusionising experience of his visit to the Greek
capital had begun earlier still, as regards the Greek people
and their political leaders. The prepossession in their favour

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A MEDITERIIANEAN COMMAND

CH. l.\.

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which nearly all Englishmen of that date entertained had
been seriously shaken before he left Nauplia for Athens : —

I was formerly a Philhellene, a warm admirer of their cause, but
I must confess the short residence I have had at the seat of govern-
ment has somewhat cooled my ardour, since I have found that the
leading Greeks, instead of uniting and dcng their utmost to restore
the agricultural and other useful occupations of the country, seem to
be squabbling for power and places of trust, and all of them, either
statesmen or would-be statesmen, soldiers or would-be soldiers^
strolling about the streets of Naples, apparently idle, or occupied only
by dress and parade.

His impression, too, of the very foremost of these statesmen,
the President himself, was no less unfavourable, though on
different grounds. After mentioning the civilities he haa
received from the foreign Ministers and the ' leading per.sons
here ' in general, he adds : —

Capo d'Istria, however, is to be excepted, for he neither deigned
to return my call nor to take any notice of me , but I do not feel
this, as he is apt to treat others in the same way, and is an excessively
unpopular man, and, it is said, most thoroughly dislikes the English,
whom he considers as the main bar to the accomplishment of his
arbitrary and selfish wishes. I have been told that his measures
have been generally disapproved of by the Greeks, as it is likely
they would be, on account of his having removed the most influential
of the Greeks (and especially those who were the first promoters of
the Revolution) from all places of trust and power, and put in minions
and creatures of his own. The country of Maina is in insurrection
against him.

It was, indeed, by the hand of a Mainote that, a few months
after these words were written. Capo d'Istria was to fall.
Franklin, however, had left Nauplia some time before the
assassination took place. He was ordered back to Malta
about the middle of March 183 1, whence, after a stay of some
six weeks, he was despatched to Corfu, where he remained for
nearly a year. It was not till the Governing Commission
which had succeeded in wresting the reins of government
from the feeble hands of the younger Capo d'Istria and his
colleagues had proved themselves incapable of maintaining
order, and the whole of liberated Greece was being desolated

^JS *,'.•..,

1831

015DEUED TO PATRAS

107

by anarchy, that the services of the Rainbow were called into
active requisition But in the spring of 1832, as has been
related in the s'lmmarised narrative of events with which
this chapter opens, matters were at their worst. ' Liberated
Greece was at that moment anything but free. The Turks
had been expelled from the country, but the people were
giroaning under worse oppressors and a heavier yoke. The
whole substance of the land was devoured by hosts of soldiers,
sailors, captains, generals, policemen, Government officials,
secretaries, and political adventurers, all living idly at the
public expense, while the -agricultural population was dying
of famine.' It was at the crisis of this miserable state of
things that the Rainbow was ordered, for the protection of
life and property, to the port of Patras, shortly afterwards to
become the scene of the events above recorded, and that
Franklin was to have the opportunity of showing those high
diplomatic qualities of firmness and tact which won for him
the warm commendation of his official superiors. Meanwhile,
however, he remained at his station off Corfu exchanging
letters with Lady Franklin, not yet started on those Medi-
terranean travels of which she reported her experiences and
impressions to her husband and sometimes to her sister in
that picturesque and animated style which lends such un-
failing charm to her correspondence. The state of her health
at that time was causing some concern, and she was staying
at Brighton for its benefit. But she was full of eagerness to
be with her husband at the earliest moment, and their letters
to each other often reveal an amusing game of cross purposes ;
Lady Franklin suggesting every expedient possible or ima-
ginable for rejoining him, and the less impulsive Franklin
gravely pointing out the impediments, professional and other,
to her various plans. During the early months of 1831 she
had other subjects to occupy her mind.

The new King had just been paying a visit to Brighton,
attended by the usual gaieties at the Pavilion : —

People here are living with their eyes staring, and their mouths
gaping towards Royalty. There has been a party at the Palace of
eight or nine hundred people, and Miss Langton was at it. The

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A MEDITERKANEAN COMMAND

CH. IX.

■(■ If

King talked to her a good deal, and she mentioned your name. ' I
know him,' said the King ; ' he is a very amiable man, but he is more
than that, a man of great ability and an excellent sailor.' Miss
Langton said, ' Lady Franklin is here.' ' Show her to me. Let me
speak to her. Bring her up to me.' On Miss Langton's explaining,
he said he was sorry I was not there, and must come next time.
* Give her my commands that she come to the children's ball, and
biing her little girl with her.' So Ella and I are going, thus flatteringly
invited, and my only discomfort is that I have no one to go with.

On February i8, in reply to a letter from Franklin, who
had been giving her some account of Maltese society, she
writes : —

You describe everybody alike, as being so amiable and agreeible,
that I cannot tell one from the other, and by that means do not care
for any of them. Suppose you try your hand next time on some
spirited sketches of character and portrait-painting. I know you
£^an, if you will. As it is, they all go in a bag together, and tumble
out all alike. I am much pleased, however, with all you say about
Dr. C, and am willing to give him credit for every merit you endow
him with. Pray give him, therefore, my special remembrance. I
never disliked him, nor did I ever think so meanly of him as you
imagine, and in the midst even of his lackadaisical manner there was
a degree of brightness and drollery in his eyes which belied it. . . .
I read your long letter to my aunt, and I think it amused her to
think what a good husband I had got. How could she be so foolish?
I had half a mind to tell her that you dearly loved writing long
letters, and that you wrote long letters and the same things to every-
body ; but I stopped myself, for fear that she should more than half
believe me. Indeed, though, my dear, you are a very wonderful
man, for you can wrice about the same things to everybody, with a
patience which surprises me. What an irritable, impatient creature
am I in comparison ! For I could not write about the same thing
twice over, even to you, and consequently nothing is so terrible to
me as to have the news of a marriage or anything else which requires
detail to spread about among expectant relations and friends. I
should like to have a copying machine, and dash off the sheets by
the dozen. . . . Captain Rideout told me he had not been near the
Admiralty lately. He considered it perfectly useless. They were
doing and undoing, and there was nothing but fluctuation and con-
fusion. I think you are a happy man to be where you are. I hope
yOu will have an opportunity of confirming Sir Pulteney Malcolm's
good opinion of you, and that you will be in the good graces of the
new Admiral, Hotham. How is he related to the nice deaf old man

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1832

THE ALLIED SQUADRON

169

who was as much pleased or obUged by your gentlemanly and kind
refusal, as he would have been by some ruder captain's consent ? Oh,
what a coaxing, smooth-tongued rogue you are ! I have got his
letter by me, and was looking at it the other day. Who would think,
my dear, that you had lived among the Polar bears ?

But now at last the period of ' active' service in something
more than the nommal and technical sense arrived for
Franklin. The critical spring of 1832 had come; the Allied
Powers, their diplomacy quickened by the spectacle of the
ever-deepening demoralisation of the Greek people, had
agreed on the nomination of Prince Otho of Bavaria to
the newly created throne, and, in response to the repre-
sentations addressed to them from Greece itself, were pre-
paring to exert themselves in real earnest for the pacification
of the country. In the last days of March or the first of
April Franklin was ordered from Corfu to Patras, and his
first despatch from that port to the naval Commander-in-Chief
in the Mediterranean shows the official instructions he had
received and the steps which he had already taken in exe-
cution of them. The Roumeliot insurgents were meditating,
or believed to be meditating, an attempt to cross the Gulf from
Lepanto, with a view to the seizure of either Drepano or
Vostitza, and the Governor of Patras had appealed to the
Allied Powers to use their naval forces for the protection of
the Morean coast. No doubt there was all the vagueness
which usually prevails in such cases as to the precise scope
either of the request or of the assent to it, or possibly of both.
There was, at any rate, all the opening which in such cases fre-
quently presents itself for the suggestion by one of the Allies
of a more * active ' policy than was agreeable to the others.

Franklin's first step on his arrival off Patras was to
compare notes of instructions with his French and Russian col-
leagues, and he of course found, on conferring with them, that,
so far as words went, * their unanimity was wonderful.' They
were all three agreed, that is to say, that they were to confine
themselves to the exertion of ' moral influence ; ' and Franklin
was ' happy to find ' that, on the question of the particular
mode in which this influence was to be exerted, the senti-

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170

A MEDITERRANEAN COMMAND

cii. ix.

ments of the French commander, Captain Fournicr, were in
entire accord with his own. Captain Leroff", however, of the
Russian brig, 'appeared from his questions and observations'
to place a somewhat different construction on these two
important words. This officer ' intimated the wish if not the
intention to detain every boat that might be found carrying
provisions or othc supplies without having papers signed by
the proper Greek authorities ; ' and he further thought that if
the Roumeliots i.hould attempt to cross the gulf, the * moral
influence ' to be brought to bear upon them should take the
form of ' opposing the'"* passap;c by force.' Captains Franklin
and Fournier, however, did not feel themselves called upon in
their view of their duties to take even the former and milder
step, while, as to the latter, ' we at once declared that it would
be contrary to our instructions.'

No urgent necessity for taking 'concerted' action on
this variously construed mandate was, for the present, to
arise. A question of more immediate concern to Franklin as
a British naval officer presented itself instead. On April 1 2
a complaint was addressed to Mr. Crowe, our Consul at
Patras, and by him transmitted to Franklin, to the effect
that a demand for ' an arbitrary and illegal contribution had
been made on several Ionian merchants,' subjects, of course, at
that time of the British Crown, by the Governor of Patras,
and that, on their refusal to pay, a party of soldiers had been
quartered on their houses, with orders to seize upon their pro-
perty for the maintenance of the troops until the money was
paid. One of them having goods to land from a vessel, the
duty on which nearly amounted to the sum demanded, made the
payment required. Another persisted in his refusal, with the
result that the fifteen soldiers quartered upon him turned his
wife and family out of their rooms, seized upon some butter
belonging to him and sold it, demanded wine, and ' abused the
family with the most insulting language.' A third recalcitrant
had ten soldiers in his house, who ' took his cloak and two
guns and put them in pledge for wine and victuals,* and two
others were similarly treated.

On being informed of these high-handed proceedings,

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1882

WHEN GREEK MEETS BRITON

171

Franklin immediately waited upon the British Consul and
found him in the act of writing to protest against them.
Having waited the return of the bearer of this letter, and
finding that no immediate answer was to be given to it,
Franklin called upon the Governor, ' to demand an explanation
of these extraordinary proceedings, and to insist that either the
soldiers should be withdrawn or the parties complaining
should be permitted to embark their goods and families and
place themselves under my protection if they chose to do
so.' The account of the interview which followed is given
in Franklin's despatch book, with remonstrance and reply in
parallel columns, and the d-'amatic contrast which it presents
between dogged British pertinacity and inexhaustible Levan-
tine shiftiness is decidedly amusing : —

Sir John Franklin states that he called officially on the Governor
to say that he had received an official communication from H.M.
Consul, informing him tliat an arbitrary and illegal contribution had
been levied on some Ionian merchants, and that, upon their re-
fusing to comply with it, military force had been used to compel
them ;

That he felt it his duty to demand that the soldiers be immedi-
ately removed from the lonians' houses, and that, if the merchants
chose, they should be permitted to embark their families and effects,
and place them under his protection, and that time should be allowed
to communicate with H.M. Resident and Admiral at Nauplia on
the subject.

The Governor explained that he had received a communication
from H.M. Consul on the subject, to which he would reply ;

That he could not allow the embarkation of the effects or remove
the soldiers until the lonians paid the sums which had been assigned
to them in the contribution.

Sir John Franklin hoped that the Governor was prepared for the
responsibility he would incur from the measures of force which it
might be necessary to resort to in consequence of force having been
used ;

That the Residents and Admirals of the Allied Powers had recom-
mended a system of conciliation, and every effort to maintain tran-
quillity, that he regretted extremely such measures on the part of the
Government here, which had quite a contrary tendency, and that it
pained him to reflect on what might be the result of the measures he
might be compelled to adopt in consequence of the refusal of the
Governor.

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A MEDITEKUANEAN C()MMA^M)

CH. IX.

He again requested that the soldiers might be removed until com-
munication could be had with the Resident and Admiral on the
subject.

The Governor stated that this contribution was not levied on the
lonians alone, that it was on the merchants generally, and that they
were in all forty individuals, among whom were only seven lonians,
and that he would not remove the soldiers until the money was paid.

This, of course, amounted in substance to an admission that
the levy was compulsory, and to a contention that the
lonians were liable to it in common with the Greeks of the
new kingdom.

Sir John Franklin said that this town was not in presence of an
enemy, or menaced by an enemy, to warrant any such contribution,
and that it was extremely ungracious to act in such a manner towards
the subjects of one of the Allied Powers who had sent vessels to this
place for its special protection and the maintenance of tranquillity,
and who had also abstained from taking any part in the disputes
between Greek and Greek.

He again begged the Governor to reflect on the responsibility he
would incur by persisting in the refural to remove the soldiers or to
permit the embarkation of the lonians, with their families and effects

The Governor said that this was not a contribution, but a volun-
tary loan agreed upon at a public meeting, that eight lonians had
paid and only two had refused, and that he would not remove the
soldiers until the money was paid.

Here it will be observed that the tax has now become
a ' benevolence,' and that, though ' only seven lonians '
were subject to it, eight have paid it, leaving over a mere
insignificant fraction of ' two ' who refused to pay. The
English of this very ' Greek ' statement was, as appeared from
the result of later official inquiries, that the demand had been
in fact made upon five lonians, of whom two had paid and
three had refused.

Sir John Franklin said that if such a measure had been intended
to be a general one it should have been announced by proclamation,
and communication made to H.M. Consul of the same.

The Governor replied that he did not think it his duty to have
made such communication, as the measure had been agreed upon
at a meeting of the Greek and Ionian merchants, who voluntarily
offered to lend the Government the money, and that only two had
now refused what they had previously consented to.

1832

QUIET PERTINACITY

178

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Here, again, the Governor's Greek is thus ' Engh'shcd '
in the Vice-Consul's subsequent report : ' A meeting at the
Municipah'ty was held of the merchants of this town yesterday,
April II, and one or two Ionian merchants were summoned
to attend, but none complied.'

Sir John Franklin said that if the Governor did not feel it his
duty to make the communication generally known, common courtesy
required that he should do so to the representatives of the Powers
who had taken so great an interest in the trancjuillity and welfare of
Greece.

He again required the removal of the soldiers, or permission for
the embarkation of the families and effects of the lonians. Sir
John Franklin hoped it was not true that the soldiers had taken
possession of their effects.

The Governor repeated that he did not think it necessary to make
any communication when the arrangement had been voluntary, and
when eight out of ten had paid the sums subscribed ['subscribed' is
a happy word], and two only were refractory.

And that it was not true that soldiers had taken possession of the
effects of the lonians.

Sir John Franklin stated tha>' he had not been informed that
eight out of the lonians had paid the sums, or consented to pay,
that he would consult with the Consul on the subject, but that he
felt it his duty to protect the two who objected to pay, and to demand
permission to embark their families and effects if they chose, and for
them to come under his protection.

The Governor said that he would have consented to the demands
of the Consul and Sir John if the measure had been taken for the
lonians alone ; but in this case the lonians had agreed with the
Greeks to advance to the Government the money, and two only
were refractory.

That he would allow the embarkation of their effects, except as to
such value as would cover the amount they had to pay.

It would seem here from the use of the word ' advance »
that this singular impost had undergone a further modifica-
tion. Having developed from a tax into a ' benevolence,' it
had now blossomed out into a ' loan.' Had the Governor
been pressed a little harder, he might perhaps have repre-
sented it as a ' bounty ' from the Government to the Ionian
merchants. Meanwhile it was at least satisfactory to find
that the Governor's second enumeration of these persons,

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174

A ArKDITKKUANEAN COMMAND

f'll. IX.

i«r

tliough it corresponded to tiothiiig in the facts, had undergone
no further change.

Sir John Franklin stated that he felt the same duty to protect
QWQ British or Ionian subject as he would have done to protect 500 ;
that he regrctled extremely that the harmony and good under-
standing which II. M. Resident at Nauplia held with the Provisional
(lovernment of (Ireece, and therefore expected to be observed by
all other authorities, was so opposite to the conduct of the authorities
here as to produce on his part the remonstrance he was compelled
to make ; and again begged the Governor to reflect on the respon-
sibility he incurred, and the consequence which might result from the
continued refusal to allow the embarkation of the property and families
of the lonians, or the removal of the soldiers from their houses.

He again desired that the Governor would remove 'he soldiers
until communication could be made through the Residents to the
Provisional (Government on the subject.

The GoDcrnor replied that he wished the harmony and good under-
standing might be preserved, and gave his thanks to the Allies that
they had sent vessels here for the protection of the town.

He agreed to permit the embarkation of the effects of the lonians,
as they had other property to secure the payment of the money they
had to pay ;

But that he would not remove the soldiers until they paid the
money, or until he had an order from the Provisional Government on
the subject.

Sir John Franklin stated again that the views of the Allies were
to preserve tranquillity in Greece, but that the measures resorted to
by the Governor had a directly contrary tendency.

At this point the Governor seems to have made the only

' hit,' such as it was — and it consisted, as will be seen, in what

lawyers call 'taking advantage of his own wrong' — which he

succeeded in scoring during the whole interview. He coolly

replied

that he had taken this step for the purpose of preserving tranquillity
by supplying the wants of the troops, who might otherwise pillage the
town, and from this the lonians as well as the Greeks might be the
sufferers.

His measures, in fact, preserved tranquillity in the sense

that levying 'blackmail' prevents breaches of he law by

acts of brigandage. He concluded with the declaration —

wholly unwarrantable, of course, in international law — that he

* considered the lonians on the same footing as Greek subjects,

and liable to the same fiscal regulations.*

1h;}2

A SUnSTANTIAL VK'TORY

175

Sir John Franklin demanded whether the embarkation ot the
families and effects of the two who refused might be considered as
permitted.

The Governor answered in the affirmative.

Sir John Franklin then demanded a passport for a courier t<
NaupUa.

The Governor w^s ready to grant it.

Sir John Franklin again expressed his regret at being obliged to
make such a remonstrance against a violation of the rights of the
Ionian subjects ; and could not express the pain which the reflection
on the consequences which might result gave him. He would consult
with the Consul on the subject of the conference, and hoped that the
(lovernor would give an answer to the Consul's letter.

The Governor was equally sorry at the circumstance, but could
not withdraw the demand [for the contribution]. lie would forthwith
send a reply to Mr. Crowe.

Thu.s ended thi.s singular interview, technically, no doubt
in a drawn battle ; but as the Ionian n'lcrchants, with their
goods and families, were removed under the protection of the
British flag, the substantial gains of victory may fairly be said
to have restec! with Franklin. In the covering despatch
forwarded to the Admiralty with the above-quoted report of
this conference, Franklin adds that the Governor, in at last
assenting to the removal of the merchants, ' intimated,' dryly
enough, ' that their houses would remain.' What happened to
this portion of their property, or what indeed was the sequel of
the incident generally, does not appear ; but some time, pro-
bably, before the courier despatched to Nauplia could have re-
turned with instructions from the Residents, stirring events had
occurred at Patras, and the authority of the Governor had, no
doubt, come to an end. It is, at any rate, certain that after a
few days' delay — during which period, however, he seems to
have actually removed the two merchants from their houses to
the citadel — he fulfilled his undertaking to Franklin. From a
despatch of the i8th it appears that, on the receipt of, intelli-
gence to the effect that there had been some change in the
members of the Government at Nauplia, the Governor of Patras
had released the Ionian merchants from their confinement in
the citadel without enforcing the payment of the contribution
which had been demanded of them.

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176

BEFORE PATRAS

CH. X.

CHAPIER X

BEFORE PATRAS
I 832-1 834

Affairs at Patra.s were now rapidly approaching a crisis.
April 19, the date of the seizure of the town by Zavellas
and his irregular-?, as above narrated, was now near at
hand ; and the shadow of ine coming event is plainly
visible in Franklin's communications with his official chiefs.
On the 17th the uneasy authorities, civil and militaiy, of the
town made a formal application to the French and British
naval commanders to land troops for the preservation of
order, meaning thereby, of course, the maintenance of their
own tottering rule. They wished these troops, as they put it,
to act in concert with the regular garrison to repress any
predatory action against the town which, it was feared,
might oe made by the irregular troops. Franklin and
Fournier immediately sought an interview with the Civil
Governor, and satisfied themselves that, having regard to the
suspicious movements of the irregulars, there was good ground
for the Governor's apprehension that they would take advan-
tage of the approaching Easter festivities to enter the town
under pretence of joining in the celebration, but in reality to
plunder the inhabitants. The military commandant, who
entered during the interview, added, it is true, that, now that
he had procured the means of paying the troops of the
garrison 'up to a certain time' he could rely upon them
for the defence of the citadel and, ' perhaps,' of the town,
though he must admit that the landing of a force from
the allied ships would give greater encouragement to the
troops, and entire confidence to the inhabitants of the
town. It appeared to the two naval officers that, notwith-

1832

TROOPS LANDED

177

standing the confidence of the military commandant, the troops
of the garri?on, even though assured of their pay ' up to a
certain time/ might not be proof against the temptation to
provide for a more remote future, and that ' if the pillage
once commenced on the part of the irregular soldiery, those of
the garrison would join them.* They therefore determined
on acceding to the petition of the inhabitants to land some
men from each ship of the allied squadron. Before doing so,
however, Franklin took the two following very judicious
precautions. In the first place, he framed and furnished the
oflficers and msn of the landing party with a very carefully
drawn and minute code of instructions as to the proceedings
to be taken and the rules to be observed by them during the
period of the occupation ; and, in the next place, he prepared
the following proclamation for issue by the civil authorities
of Patras to the inhabitants of the town : —

The captains of the snips of the Alliance, in compliance with
the wishes of the inhabitants, and at the request of the authorities
of Patras, are about to land some troops. This debarkation has no
political object whatever, and is only done to prevent all kinds of
disorder. The captains, therefore, trust that the inhabitants and the
military will conduct themselves ir such a manner as not to render
necessary the employment of force on theu part for the maintenance
of tranquillity.

Given under my hand, on board the Rainbow, at Patras, this
17th of April, 1832. (Signed) John Franklin, Captain.

rit

On the same day the English and French troops were
landed. They consisted of 47 seamen and 23 Marines from
the Rainbow, and 15 seamen and 16 Marines from the
Pelican. The French landed 40 seamen, thus bringing up
the total force to 141 men, exclusive of officers.

The next step was to seek an interview with the disquiet-
ing Zavellas, and to prevail upon him, if possiblCj to restrain
the exuberant cupidity of his irregulars. The patriot >vas
gracious to the point of condescension, but showed no great
eagerness to impart information nor any conspicuous readiness
to pledge himself to a strictly pacific action. Probably he was
already meditating the coup which he struck a few days later.

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BEFORE PATRAS

CH. X.

He was, however, quite willing to give all due and beconi-
ing assurances that the preservation of peace and tranquillity,
not only in Patras, but throughout Greece, was the object
nearest to his patriotic heart. None of his men, he said,
should come into the town, unles^^- it might be some few who
had families there and who might come in to purchase pro-
visions. On the French Consul, who av-ted as interpreter, re-
peating the request that he would keep his men away, the
General dramatically — or melodramatically — answered : ' The
word of a Zavellas is to be depended upon. I am a soldier, and
have never been known to break my trust. I am well known.
I am that Zavellas who headed the Suliote rising. I am
kr ^wn in history.' The French Consul asked him how mar y
men he had, to which the historic soldier made the not very
direct answer that they were divided about Vostitza and the
vicinity : —

French Consul : But let us know the exact number.

General Zavellas : About 700 men.

French Consul: How many men have you here, as it is neces-
sary we should know, that we n^ay be able to perceive if any more
arrive ?

General Zavellas : They are all oflScers who live in this place and
have their families here.

French Consul : But what may be their number ?

General Zavellas : About fifty (with some hesitation) ; with their
retmue, 200.

The General went on to say that all the Allies could do was
only to secure a temporary tranquillity, and that until the Prince
arrived to occupy the throne of Greece they might take his
word for it that Greece would never be quiet. The Consul
then, by way of encouraging the hope of an early pacification,
informed him that a commission was being formed to manage
the government of the country until the arrival of the sovereign,
which commission, the General might rely upon it, would do
all in its power to secure the orderly administration of affairs.
General Zavellas, however, v/as so rude as to reply that
'Greece had had enough of commissions. He knew what
they were ; they had no means of enforcing their power.
Give them money, give them money, and then something

1832

A GREEK PATRIOT

179

might be done.' The Consul said that every one should be
perfectly disinterested and merely look to the general welfare
of Greece. The General said that ' when he fought the
Turks, then it was that he looked to the general welfare of
Greece.' The Consul then told the G neral that the Residents
of the Allies would be provided with a loan of money to issue,
but ' they did not yet know to whom it should be given, as
it was their desire only to apply the loan to the interests of
Greece.' The General answered that ' it was of little import
to whom the money was given provided it made its appearance
in the country.' He did not add ' to be scrambled for,' but
his meaning is sufficiently clear without that addition.

Franklin had another interview with this notable on the
following day, to suggest that, in the peculiar circumstances
of the situation, he should direct his irregulars to refrain from
celebrating Easter, as they were accustomed to do, by firing
volleys of musketry, which he promised to do.

The action taken by the allied squadron achieved its object.
Order reigned in Patras throughout the Eastertide festival. The
irregulars did not celebrate the festival by pillaging the town,
and the townspeople gradually recovered their confidence. But
after the lapse of some ten or twelve days a change took place
in the aspect of affairs which compelled the two commanders
to reconsider their policy. The attitude of Zavellas had become
more and more threatening, and in the last days of April his
•designs were unmistakably disclosed. A communication was
addressed by the civil authorities of Patras to Franklin and
his colleague, Captain Dupont, who had succeeded Fournier in
the command, to the effect that Zavellas had definitely refused
obedience to the orders of the Governing Commission, that he
had disobeyed the directions transmitted to him through the
•Governor of Patras to retire his troops to a dista ice from the
town, and that it was his intention, as they were positively
informed, to seize the citadel, provision it by levying con-
tributions on the villages, and hold it and the town which it
dominated until the arrival of the King-designate of Greece
in his new dominions.

Upon consideration of this grave intelligence, Franklin

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BEFORE TATRAS

CH. X.

and Dupont came to the conclusion that no course was open
to them but to re-embark their troops. It was out of their
power to land any force sufficiently strong to prevent the en-
trance of Zavellas and his irregulars into the town if he chose
to make the attempt with the whole strength of his following.
It was known, too, that he wa? conspiring with the garrison,
and it was probable, as indeed the event proved, that its
troops would throw in their lot with him on his making his
appearance. And lastly, most important consideration of
all, the orders given to the allied captains expressly forbade
their making any promise of material support to one party
or threat of coercion to the other, and that no circumstance
whatever, except insult to their respective flags, was to
authorise or induce them to use force. Consequently^
though it may well be believed with some reluctance, the
two officers resolved to issue a proclamation to the people
of Patras, stating that, in view of the present tranquillity of
the town, and of the fact of the men being required for
their duties on board, it had been decided to re-embark
them. This proclamation was issued on April 30, and, the
step announced, it was at once executed.

There could be no question of its wisdom, or indeed, having
regard to the numerical inferiority of the troops of the allied
squadron — 150 men against some seven or eight hundred — of
its necessity either. But that Franklin regretted the restraint
imposed upon him by circumstances it is easy to see ; and it
is pretty certain that, with a clearer mandate of intervention
and a more adequate force, he would not have hesitated ta
make himself master of the town, and thus secure the ' pre-
servation of tranquillity ' in the most effectual of all ways
This appears clearly enough in the disappointment afterwards
evinced by him at the retreat of the French contingent sent
to take possession of the town on May 19. In an extremely
interesting despatch some months later to the Commander of
the Mediterranean fleet he shows, in answering a series of
inquiries which Sir Henry Hotham had addressed to him, how
actively he and his colleague had exerted themselves to facilitate
the French occupation of Patras. Captain Dupont had sent

1832

ZAV ELLAS IN PATIIAS

181

two couriers by different routes to meet the Commander of
the French troops, to apprise him of the exact state of Patras,
and to communicate to him their Joint opinion as to the
quarter from which they could most advantageously for
themselves, and most effectively supported by the guns of the
squadron, advance upon the town. ' You will imagine my
disappointment,' he writes, ' at hearing the French General's
determination, which was first communicated to me on my
going on board his ship, taking M. Rufifa with me, who had
informed me only a little before that he could at once place
300 men at the General's disposal and 500 in five days, which
I thought of importance he should know.' But the French
General had committed the signal and singular blunder of
preceding the force under his command, and, writes Franklin :
* I repeat my conviction that if the French General had not
thus come, Patras would have been at once given up to the
French troops. His having made the demand for the sur-
render of the fortress before the troops were on the spot
appears to me extraordinary, and I was not surprised at the
answer Zavellas returned to his letters. His ordering the
troops to retire when within six hours' march of Patras was
still more inexplicable to me, and I am sure it had the effect
of emboldening Zavellas and his followers to persevere in
their opposition.'

Regrets, however, were vain. Diplomatic timidity and
military irresolution had allowed this Greek condottiere to
make himself master of a leading commercial seaport of
Greece, of the lives and goods of its inhabitants, and of a con-
siderable amount of property or proprietary interests belong-
ing to the subjects of other States. Thenceforth, therefore,
until the final or what was supposed to be the final settlement
of the Greek question by the arrival of Prince Otho of
iJavaria and his Council of Regency in the early months of
the following year, the position of Sir John Franklin was one
demanding the exercise of sleepless vigilance, inexhaustible
patience, infinite tact, imperturbable temper, and unfailing
promptitude. The situation, in fact, was really almost comic
in its perplexity and involution ; and even in its worst and

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CH. X.

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most irritLting entanglements there are many signs that
Franklin was not insensible to its humorous aspects. His
despatches, which are models of the clear and businesslike
style befitting such documents, and his private letters^
abounding in shrewd observation and reflection, to Sir Henry
Hotham are, for the next six months, so interesting as to make
selection difficult. But the difficult is here the unavoidable
also ; for they fill several manuscript books of correspondence
and would, in type, go far to fill a considerable volume, which
indeed they deserve.

Let us briefly survey the situation in which the captain
of the Rainbow now found himself. In front of him lay a
considerable commercial seaport in the hands of a captain
of Greek irregulars and his men, whose proceedings, so far as
they menaced the lives or properties of British subjects or
the honour of the British flag, it would be his duty to restrain
if possible by * moral influence,' but if not, then, in circum-
stances incapable alike of prediction or of definition, by the
use of material force. Behind the town, so to speak — that is
at the seat of the Central Greek Executive so called — stood a
Provisional Government, which Franklin was instructed to
co-operate with and assist in the exercise of an authority
recognised and obeyed precisely by that portion of the Greek
people whose self-interest or indifference induced them to do
so, and by nobody else. In his own rear — that is to say, at the
source of that international authority which was then nomi-
nally directing the affairs of Greece — were three Great Powers,
agreed indeed as to the future of the new kingdom, but quite
unable to grapple with its present disorders, and two of them
filled with a profound and not unreasonable distrust of the
third. By his side were two naval colleagues, of whom one,
the French commander, was to be relied on for loyal co-opera-
tion, but the other was vehemently, and indeed on the
strongest grounds, suspected of intriguing with the Greek
political faction whose adherents were then in possession of
the town.

Were it necessary to add a finishing touch to this picture
of confusion, the following passage from one of Franklin's

1882

A CONFLICT OF RULERS

183

private letters to Sir Henry Hotham's secretary would supply
it:—

I heartily wish the authorities on whom the termination of the
Greek affair rests would speedily decide on what is to be done.
Nothing can be more wearying for the mind and temper than to
witness the vacillating measures which have been recently fol-
lowed in these matters. There ar^ chree places, for instance, within
sight of this anchorage occupied by persons acknowledging three
different authorities : Patras by Zavellas, in avowed opposition to
the Government ; Missolonghi by Grivas, professing to be acting for
the Government, but really, I believe, for himself ; and Lepanto,
divided between the troops of Lambro Vecchio, who have faithfully
adhered to the Government, and a party professing to be rather
inclined to the Government but opposed personally to the views of
the commandant, Lambro Vecchio.

The case, it will be here seen, was even worse than Franklin
put it ; since the anti-Lambro faction may fairly be regarded
as a fourth party. And, considering that they occupied ' the
lower town ' with their opponents ' holding the citadel,' this
duality might at any moment become important — especially
to the non-combatant population of Lepanto.

It was not long after the seizure of Patras by Zavellas that
Franklin's minor difficulties began. The critical position of
its civil population, especially thi^ women and children, and
the rough measures taken by the commander of the irregulars
for their embarkation and expulsion, caused him much anxiety.
But a more serious complication arose some weeks later, when,
in response to a communication received from the Governor
of Missolonghi, Franklin intercepted and seized a Greek pirate
vessel which had recently committed depredations at that
port, and detained its captain, a man named Chrysanthos
Morartachis, on board the Rainbow. The pirate, it seems,
was an adherent ot Zavellas, who had the impudence to
demand his release. To this application but one answer of
course could be returned. After refusing in duly decided
terms to listen to it, Franklin and Dupont, in a joint letter to
Zavellas, went on to remark that since the principal object
of their being sent to this place was to prevent all kinds of
disorder and robbery by sea, he could not be surprised at

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BEFORE PATRAS

CH. Z.

their employing all means in their power to arrive at that
object : —

But (they significantly continue) we also assure you that we will
seize upon all boats under your orders, which under pretext of serving
you employ their forces in robbing and pillaging merchant vessels of
any nation whatever. If, on account of our not being able to release
to you the pirates we have taken, you do not think yourself able to
answer for the accidents and insults which may occur under the head
of reprisals, we also, sir, cannot answer for the calamities which may
befall this town, the whole responsibility of which will be placed
upon you ; for be assured that the least insult offered to the flags or
subjects of our respective Powers will be at once resented with all our
force, and with so much more reason as we have right on our side.

This resolute language had apparently its desired effect.
Za'vellas made no further attempt to obtain the release of the
pirates, who were in due course handed over to the Government
at Missolonghi.

A little later, however, Franklin was even more nearly
' coming to blows,' as he put it in a subsequent despatch, with
the master of Palras. A Greek Government schooner was
passing or approaching the port when Zavellas, without notice
to the allied vessels or to any merchant ships in the neigh-
bourhood, opened fire upon her from the guns of the citadel.
None of the shots took effect, but instant preparations had of
course to be made against the contingency of one of the ships
of the Allies being struck. The crew of the Rainbow were
signalled to their quarters in readiness, in that event, to return
the fire ; and ' though I should have deeply regretted the con-
sequences to others,' wrote Franklin privately to Sir Hen»y
Hotham, ' if we had been forced to the measure, I yet think
a broadside or two would have been a just punishment to him
and his soldiers for their insolence in firing upon a Greek
Government schooner that was close to two of the ships
without informing the captainsof the Alliance of their intention.
The only apparent reason of this dishonourable action was
that the comr^iaiider of the schooner preferred to consult with
the Allies before he gave an answer whether or not he would
go on shore to communicate with Zavellas.' Franklin, however,
adds his suspicion that Zavellas was glad of somf! such oppor-

1832

A STRAINED ALLIANCE

185

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tunity to employ his captains and soldiers. Several of the
former, it was reported, had expressed much disappointment
at not receiving any pay for themselves or their men when
they knew that the General had recently collected money
from the villages. ' There is nothing like the excitement of
a battle for putting aside such causes of irritation.'

But there was a more constant cause of anxiety to the
English and French commanders than even the doings and
designs of Zavellas ; and that was the attitude of their Russian
colleague. From the very commencement of their patrol
duty before Patras, Captain Zanetzky's behaviour had been
unsatisfactory. His attitude towards Zavellas and the faction
supporting him — foremost among whom was the Prince de
Wrede, a Bavarian, who had held the post of military com-
mandant under the Administrative Commission, but had
subsequently struck up an open alliance with the insurgent
general — was more than suspicious. His whole conduct, in
fact, suggested that, instead of loyally co-operating with the
other two officers of the Alliance, he was pursuing a purely
Russian policy under the direction of his commander-in-chief
at Nauplia, the too notorious Admiral Ricord. Hence his
relations with his colleagues in the roadstead of Patras became
daily more and more strained.

They must have reached a pitch of considerable tension
when such a despatch as the following could be addressed
by the English and French commanders to their Russian
colleague : —

Sir, — Two nights in succession, and at different hours, the boats
of the brig of H.I.M. of Russia under your command have been
seen hovering round their Britannic and French Majesties' ships.
We, the commanders of these ships, beg to be made acquainted
with the meaning of this unusual proceeding, which we refrain from
qualifying with a name till we have received your explanations. We
also wish to be informed why your boats do not answer when hailed.
If it has been your intention to row guard round this roadstead, we
think that you ought to have informed us in an amicable manner of
this desire, as we are in alliance with yoki, and are here, like yourself,
to maintain good order. But if the rowing of your boats by night
relates to your own particular protectionj why, we ask, do they not

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186

BEFORE PATRAS

CH. X.

confine themselves to the neighbourhood of your own brig, and not
pull clo.se round our ships, which need no protection of the kind? It
is not our wish, Sir, to prevent your boats rowing about at night if
you think it advisable, but we desire that they should not be sent into
such situations as to present the appearance of watching our ships,
and, above all, we require that their officers and men should be
instructed to answer when hailed.

You must be well aware that every sentinel has the right to
fire at any person approaching him by night without answering his
challenge, and you must also know very well that no ship of war
permits boats to pass by night within her buoy without being satis-
fied with their answer.

If our sentinels have not already fired upon your boats for refusing
to answer them when hailed, it is because we have prevented them
doing so fro!n pure good feeling towards our allies, and until we
could obtain an explanation from you as to the very unusual course
of proceeding of which we hereby inform you.
We are. Sir, with consideration,

(Signed) John Franklin, Captain of the Rainbow.
C. DuPONT, Captain of the Corndlie.

The ' concert of Europe ' does not seem in a very har-
monious condition when the sentinels of two of the Allied
Powers have been brought so near to firing on the boats of
the third. Captain Zanetzky, of course, explained that it was
out of solicitude for the safety of the Rainbow and the
Corn^lie that his boats had been sent to row round these
vessels.

Some three weeks afterwards we find Franklin compelled
to complain to his superior officer of Zanetzky's refusal to act
with his colleagues in the matter of an application made to
them by the Governor of Missolonghi ; and yet a few weeks
later the French and English captains came to something so
like a personal rupture with the Russian that Admirals Sir
Henry Hotham and Baron Hugon ' had to seek satisfaction
for the wounded susceptibilities of their ofificers by means of

' Of this gallant sailor the Prince
de Joinville, in his recently published
Memoirs, relates the following anec-
dote : • At Navarino, where he com-
manded the Armide, he came up and
lay with true fraternal chivalry between

the Turkish ships and a British frigate
that had suffered very much from their
fire, which same service the British cor-
vette Rose rendered him in return and
with equal gallantry towards the close
of the engagement.*

1832

CAPTAIN ZANKTZKY

187

a formal representation to Admiral Ricord. Zanetzky had
asscrteti that signals had been seen from the Russian brig to
have been made from the Rainbow, which were answered
from the shore ; and he had persisted in the assertion, after
Franklin had given him an assurance that this was not the
case. Upon which, says Franklin, 'I told him that after the
imputation he had made on myself and my officers it was
impossible any private communications could be kept up with
him.'

Zanetzky was shortly after this relieved of his command,
and Franklin, in a despatch to Sir Henry Hotham, records his
satisfaction at the approaching departure of an officer ' who
has countenanced the insurgents in every way, and has been the
promoter of dissension in the Alliance from the day of his
anchoring at Patras.' Yet the essential kindliness of his
nature comes out in the little incident which he then records
in a private letter to Sir Henry Hotham, written two days
after the unpleasant interview of which he had given ai
account in his last official despatch : —

I told Captain Zanetzky that I could not avoid contrasting Sep-
tember 3, 1828, with that of 1832. On the former day I had the
honour and pleasure of being present at all the ceremonies and re-
joicings at Moscow on the anniversary of the coronation of the
Emperor of Russia, and I dined with the Governor-General, Prince
Galitzin, at the Palace, where were assembled all the dignitaries of the
Church, as well as the nobles of Moscow and its immediate vicinity.
But in 1832, on the same anniversary, I was not even reminded of the
event, nor was either a British or a French flag displayed on board
his brig. ... I further told him that, as I had been honoured on
my visit to Russia by the condescension and kind attention of the
late Empress-Mother, and had been introduced by Her Majesty, in
the absence of the Emperor, to her elde"*: son and to all the younger
branches of Her Majesty's family, I should have had great pleasure
in paying my congratulation on board his brig on the last anniversary
if he had informed me of the day. Captain Zanetzky was evidently
much affected by these observations, and immediately replied to me
that he had acted on that occasion by his Admiral's orders. 'I
wished to have asked you,' he said, ' but I could not. In fact, in
everything I have done I have implicitly followed the instructions of
my Admiral.' After this frank avowal I could not for any considera-
tion have used another warm expression in speaking to him. I felt,

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«K1'()IIE PATRAS

CH. Z.

indeed, that any oliiker who is obliged to act under such shameful
orders is to be pitied, though I could not exonerate him from the
dujlicity he has practised on almost every occasion of our meeting.
But his duplicity is liglu compared with that of Admiral Ricord, and
I really shall rejoice if the means be afforded of exposing his con-
duct to the world, and shall feel not a little pleasure if any part ot
the clue to this exposition has been furnislied from the accounts of
his underhand working in this place. The i)roceedings of the Russian
party in this quarter of Greece have been so manifestly in favour of
the opponents of Government that a child might have discerned
them.

But in no incident in Franklin's service in the Gulf cf Patras
is the comedy of the situation or his own remarkable adroitness
in dealing with it so effectively illustrated as in a certain
episode which may be shortly described as the ' affair of the
currants of Vostitza.' Vostitza, situated some score of miles
nearer to the head of the Gulf of Corinth, was, and perhaps is,
extensively interested in currants. The storehouses of its
local merchants, many if not most of them British Ionian sub-
jects, were generally full to overflowing in the export season
with vast quantities of the fruit awaiting embarkation, and in
the autumn of 1832 there were at least two thousand tons of
it ready to be shipped, and representing a sum of no less than
ninety-six thousand pounds in export duty. Hitherto it would
seem that matters had been amicably arranged between the
producers, the merchants, and the military masters of the
town by the simple process of paying the duties to the Com-
mandant of the Garrison, General Fotomara, for application
to the payment of his troops. Under this arrangement the
soldiers had been entirely fed and a portion of their pay pro-
vided for them ever since the revolt of Zavellas. Where the
Provisional Government ' came in ' does not appear, but inas-
much as they were practically powerless to protect their
nominal subjects or the foreign merchants trading in the town,
they had perhaps no right to come in at all. Fotomara and
his soldiers represented law and order in Vostitza, or so
much of these blessings as its inhabitants enjoyed, and in
return for the revenues appropriated to them they did at
least prevent the citizens from being plundered by anybody
else.

1832

TITR CUIIUANTS 01' VOSTITZ.V

180

This happy state of affairs, however, was now threatened
with disturbance from two causes — the appearance, namely,
of two other claimants to the currant duties. One of these
was a commander of irregulars of the name of Hadji F'ietro ;
the other was the Provisional Government. The latter sent an
emissary commissioned — or reputedly commissioned, for he
could apparently produce no credentials— to receive the duties
on behalf of the Minister of Finance ; the former proposed
to himself the simpler method of marching his troops into
the town and crying ' halves ' with the soldiers of the
garrison. The situation, therefore, had become critical alike
for the proprietors, for the merchants, and for Fotomara ; the
commandant foreseeing a distinct probability of being de-
prived of his soldier's pay, and the proprietors and merchants
contemplating the even more unpleasant prospect of find-
ing the duties demanded from them twice if not three times
over. In these circumstances a pressing appeal was made to
Franklin to come and ' protect the currant trade,' and in re-
sponse to it the Rainbow promptly made its appearance off
the port of Vostitza. The applicant most interested in his
intervention was a Mr. Robinson, a British merchant with a
large stock of currants ready for exportation, and the em-
barrassed recipient of ' an order purporting to come from
the Minister of Finance,' directing that he was to ' retain ' on
that official's behalf ' the duties ' payable in respect of them.

Before, however, Mr. Robinson's case could be dealt with,
Franklin received a visit on board the Rainbow from the
Abbot and two priests of the convent of Megaspelion, situated
in the plain of Vostitza, outside the town, who begged him to
prevent the soldiers of Hadji Pietro from seizing on some
currants belonging to the convent which were ready for
shipping in a fortnight. Ascertaining that the fruit was in
a storehouse some miles away from the town, and at some
distance from the seaside, ' I was under the necessity of in-
forming these reverend gentlemen that the duties of the cap-
tains of the Alliance were confined to occurrences afloat, and
that, however much we lamented the probability of the sol-
diers unjustly seizing upon their currants or those of any

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CH. X.

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other proprietor, ve could not prevent them without hmding
a force for that purpose, which we were not authorised to do.
" But," replied the Abbot, " cannot you say they are yours and
that you have bought them ? " " Certainly not," I told him, " if
that was not true. Besides," I said, "all officers in the Navy
are forbidden to trade while on active service." I thought,'
he gravely adds, ' that such a desire from the Abbot of a con-
vent did not speak well for the morality of these priests.'
P inding they could not gain Franklin's assistance, 'they begged
to be shown round the ship before they left it.'

Meanwhile Fotomara had taken prompt and decisive
action. Thrusting himself, with all the dashing strategy of
Napoleon in the campaign of 1814, between the two other
rival claimants to the currant duties, he resolved to stave
off one of his compef itorr. by force, and to forestall the other
by negotiation. He despatched a body of troops to hold
the passes against Hadji Pietro, a movement which was
successfully executed, and at the same time called upon
the propriet' 10 to advance him the money required for his
soldiers, on the ' security ' of duties which had been already
•attached' by the Minister of Finance. Franklin was upon
this invited by Mr. Robinson to come on shore and re-
monstrate, which he consented to do. To continue the
narrative in his own language : —

I pointed out to Fotomara the illegality of such a proceeding,
because the duties could not be paid to him or to any other person but
the head of the Customs, who alone had the power of giving a clear-
ance to the /essel that received the fruit, and that the proprietors
must consequently lose all the money they now were called upon to
advance. He contested this point fof a long time, and did not, in
fact, relinquish for some time the hope of persuading me that his
order directing the Custom-house officer to discharge the loans from
the proprietor, as he received the dues from the merchant, would be
sufficient. I told him, however, that his order would be of no value,
and that the taking of money from the proprietors under any such
delusive idea as he cherished would be a robbery. I reminded him
that his soldiers had hitherto borne a good character, and that their
■conduct in preserving this province in a state of quietness would
certainly be strongly represented by the primates and proprietors to
the Regency of their King, whose arrival might be looked for in a

1832

A DIPLOMATIC FEAT

191

fortnight, and that their representations could not fail to procure for
h'm the countenance and favour of the Regency. I told him also
that the conduct of the soldiers formed a laudable exception to that
of almost every other corps in the Morea, whose course had been
marked with outrage and pillage, and had brought down on them the
hatred of all the peaceable inhabitants and peasantry ; and then asked
whether it was not most unwise to put his character ?t risk at this
time by any act of oppression towards the proprietors and inhabitants.
He seemed to assent to my observations, though he did not v, ithhold
the remark that those corps had, by the forcible means they had used,
got more money than his. ' Perhaps that might be the case,' I
replied ; ' but you may be assured a day of retribution for their bad
conduct is near ; and besides, if it were not, can the possession of
money be desirable that is wrung from the poor inhabitants in such
a lawless manner ? ' Fotomara concluded by telling me he would
inform the captain and soldiers of all that I had said, that for his own
part he was persuaded my advice was the beet to follow, and that he
thought the soldiers would take the same view of if. And if they
found the proprietors unwilling to advance the money to them they
would not press the matter further, but would wait with patience to
receive the dues. As to any imposition being laid on the British
merchants respecting the duties, he said that was quite out of the
question. I assured him that I would never allow that to be made,
or their warehouses to be touched. I told Fotomara I should return
immediately after the English packet arrived at Patras. Mr. Robmson
thought the conversation would have a good effect.

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Mr. Robinson was right. Six or seven weeks later he
was able to report that some two thousand tons of cur-
rants had been shipped from Vostitza, representing dues to
the amount of 96,000*. Franklin's ingeniously persuasive
methods, as displayed in this curious negotiation, show
clearly enough that Lady Franklin's playful compliment to
her ' smooth-tongued ' husband was not undeserved. The
matter was hardly one of international importance, but it
affords perhaps the most striking example of his diplo-
matic skill. There is a homely adage which affirms the
impossibility of getting ' butter out of a dog's mouth,' but it
was hardly a lesser feat to have rescued so large a sum of
money from an impecunious commandant of Greek soldiery
in the year 1832. The affair of the currants was the indirect
means of bringing Franklin into contact with a young man

III

192

BEFOHE PATRAS

CH. X.

[

destined afterwards to become a somewhat prominent figure,
both in society and in the world of letters. His host's refer-
ence to him is worth quoting, however, for other reasons than
that of the interest attaching to the person upon whom it
bears : —

I cannot say Mr. Milnes particularly pleased me. He appeared to
me to be one of those young travellers who, from a hasty passage through
Greece, have drawn conclusions which the longer residents and better
informed persons know not to be correct. These young gentlemen
have for the most part come from the Universities full of the history
of ancient Greece, and therefore strive to make the modern history
bend to those descriptions, and to think we do not understand the
Greek character. His exalted idea of the Greeks of the present day
was much shaken by hearing and seeing what is passing in this neigh-
bourhood, from whence sprung all the commotion that keeps the
Morea in a state of agitation. I brought him from Vostitza to Patras
in thib ship, and then procured him a passage in an Austrian brig of
war to Corfu, so that he tumbled upon his legs. He spoke of having
seen you (Lady Franklin) daily at Athens, and of spending every
evening in the society where you are, though I did not imagine he was
a person after your taste.

Certainly the affair of the currants was calculated to shake
the future Lord Houghton's 'exalted idea' of the Greeks.
There was no flavour of the Homeric age about it, except
perhaps in a certain faint suggestion of Ulysses. But how
perennial a type is that of the academic politician here shown
to be I And how well do we remember, as how much did we
suffer, from the same class of ' young gentlemen,' in the years
1876-1878!

The /escue of Mr. Robinson's property was the last
incident of any interest in Franklin's two years of patrol-
work in the Gulf of Corinth. Early in the following year,
or, to assign its precise date to so long-looked-for an event,
on February i, 1833, King Otho landed at Nauplia from the
British frigate Madagascar, in which Franklin's friend, Captain
Lyons, had conveyed him from Brindisi, and Greece was
restored to .emporary quietude. Zavellas, whose exactions,
Franklin nott i, had become heavier for the last few monthsj
in pursuance perhaps of an 'old-age pension scheme' of
strictly personal application, appears to have evacuated Patras

CH. X.

1833

OFFICIAL COMMENDATIONS

193

without resistance ; and, shortly after, the Rainbow was
withdrawn from that port. It was not till December 1833
that she returned to England : but, as her period of active
employment in the Mediterranean here ends, this chapter of
Franklin's career may fitly conclude with the following testi-
monies to the value of his services, borne by the two persons
best able to appreciate them. Admiral Sir Henry Hotham,
the Commander-in-Chief, and Mr. Crowe, H.M. Consul at
Patras. The Admiral writes : —

In the concluding operations of the service you have so long and
?o ably conducted in the Gulfs of Patras and Lepanto I have great
satisfaction in repeating the approbation which I have already at
different times expressed of your measures in the interests of Greece
and in the maintenance of the honour and character of the English
nation and of H.M.'s Navy on that station, wherein you have entirely
fulfilled my instructions and anticipated my wishes. I also take this
opportunity of commending the judgment and forbearance which
you have exhibited under circumstances of lepeated opposition and
provocation. To ycur calm and steady conduct may be attributed
the preservation of the town and inhabitants of Patras, the protec-
tion of commerce, and the advancement of the benevolent inten
tions of the Allied Sovereigns in favour of the Greek nation.

The Consul's letter, conceived in still warmer terms, was
as follows : —

My dear Sir John, — While I beg leave to offer you my congratu-
lations upon being at length released from the anxious and wearisome
duty that has detained you before this town for the last twelve
months, I cannot refrain at the same time from expressing the regret
I feel upon my own account in losing your society and that of your
officers, which has so agreeably relieved a period that would otherwise
have been of unmitigated annoyance and vexation.

The humane object of your mission is now completely fulfilled.
You have the satisfaction to witness the termination of the miseries of
the inhabitants of this city, and of the misrule and violence that so long
and heavily oppressed them — violence restrained from the worst and
grossest excesses only by your presence, and awed into respect by the
dignified calm which you ever preserved under circumstances of great
iiiitation.

But for your forbearance the city just rising from its ruins had
ceased to exist. You now see tranquillity and order restored to
its homes, and a few days have been sufficient to reanimate the
activity of commerce.

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BEFORE PATllAS

CH. X.

Patras owes you a deep debt of gratitude, and, I trust, feels the
obligation. For myself, I hope I need not assure you that I can
never forget your unvarying kindness, and I am sensible of the high
value of the friendly and cordial regard which you have continued to
bestow upon me. For weeks together your ship afforded a home —
a kind home -to my family, and the Rainbow will ever be remem-
bered by them with the feelings which home excites.

She was indeed regarded as something more than a home
by others besides the family of the British Consul. The
happiness and good feeling prevailing on board of her were
proverbial on the Mediterranean station ; and the sto- / goes
that 'she was called the Celestial Rainbow,' and that 'the
sailors used to describe her as FranKlin's Paradise.' It only
remains to add that her commander, on his return to England,
was made a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order of
Hanover in recognition of his services in the Gulf of Patras,
and that King Otho of Greece shortly afterwards conferred
upon him the Cross of the newly-founded Greek ' Order of
the Redeemer.'

•%

1831

I'.W

CHAPTER XI

. LADY franklin's TRAVELS

1831-1833

The years of Sir John Franklin's active service in the
Mediterranean were years of almost equal activity for his
spirited and energetic wife in various other parts of the world.
They were not, indeed, separated throughout the whole of
this period, for they spent the winter of 1831-32 together
at Corfu. But the rest of the time was passed by Lady
Franklin mainly in the East, and the letters which constantly
passed between them during the two or three following years
reflect so valuable a light on their relations with each other,
besides abounding on the '.vife's side with bright impressions
of travel and lively sketches of character and manners, that
no apology is perhaps required for temporarily interrupting
the progress of this narrative for the purpose of giving
extracts from their correspondence with each other.

Lady Franklin's desire to visit Greece and the East was
as ardent as might be expected in a woman of her exceptional
abilities and strong intellectual curiosity, and it was evidently
somewhat of a disappointment to her that she was unable to
accompany her husb&nd to his first destination in the Medi-
terranean. Her husl)and, however, naturally felt, and she
herself was too sensible not to perceive also, that it was un-
desirable, even if no official objection interposed, for the newly
appointed captain to take his wife out with him to the station
at which he was to commence his duties. The winter of 1830
and the first six months of the following year were accordingly
spent by Lady Franklin in London and Cheltenham. It
was an anxious time in England, as is well known, and her

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196

LADY FRANKLIN'S TRAVELS

OH. XI.

:.l

letters, as has already been shown, reflect the then prevalent
apprehensions of an imminent outbreak of European war
over the eternal Eastern Question, as well as the widespread
uneasiness with which the bulk of the educated classes in this
country regarded the agitation for Parliamentary reform.
Here and there it finds expression from Lady Franklin in
language at which it is easier to smile in these days than it
was in those. ' Funded property does not seem,' she writes,.
' to be thought very secure. I think I told you that Fanny
[her sister], by an express article in her marriage settlement,
is enabled to invest part of her fortune in the purchase of
land or stock in the British Colonies, thus contemplating a
comfortable retreat in case of revolution.'

Lady Franklin, of course, has much to tell her husband
about the health and progress, bodily and mental, of her little
step-daughter ; and it may be worth while to extract the
following brief passage from one of her letters, for the relief
of an anxiety of which each successive generation of civilised
mankind appears to become the inevitable victim. After
referring to a somewhat serious illness from which the child
had just recovered, Lady Franklin adds : —

She is now quite well enough to walk for an hour every day, and
I shall soon return to her books, though I care at all times but little
for these compared with the strengthening of her health and the
cultivation of her feelings. Her learning will come in due time, and
much better /afe than ear/y. At any rate, I shall have the comfort
of thinking that I have not stultified her understanding nor cramped
either her physical or mental energies, as seems to be the fashion in
the present day, and which makes physicians (rightly, I fear) say that
the next generation will present more weak and disordered intellects
than ever afflicted mankind before.

Our anxieties in these days about the woman of the future
are of a more varied, and indeed, to some extent, of a
mutually incompatible character, though whether they aggra-
vate or neutralise each other on this last account it were hard
to say. As n:atters stand, however, we are divided between
the two apprehensions — one, that the girl of the present is
being ruined as the woman of the future by mental over-

1831

AN UNCOMFORTABLE MEETING

197

pressure, and the other that she is being as fatally unfitted
for it by excessive bodily exercise.

The severe and indeed dangerous illness of her step-
daughter of course arrested for a time Lady Franklin's
attempts to arrange for rejoining her husband, but after the
child's recovery other anxieties of another kind arose, ' I am
told,' she writes, ' that the Reform Bill is almost forgotten in
London in consequence of overwhelming fears respecting the
cholera morbus. It seems to be the prevailing opinion of the
first physicians that it will visit this country, and you will see
from the papers that the Government have taken some strong
measures respecting quarantine and that a Board of Health is
established. The prevailing complaint now in London is not
however the cholera, but an influenza attacking the chest,
accompanied by fever, and the sickness is sometimes fatal.
We are better off here at present, and I linger to the last
moment before venturing to take Eleanor back to the heated
summer atmosphere of this now sickly city.*

It was to be Lady Franklin's last month in England for
several years. After a few .nore weeks passed in anxious
consultation and debate with her husband as to routes and
methods of transport, Lady Franklin, accompanied by her
father and her friends, the Kirklands, left Portsmouth on
August 7, 1 83 1, in a steam-packet bound for Cadiz and
Gibraltar, whence, after a stay of some weeks in Spain and a
visit to Tetuan, Mr. Griffin, who was of advanced age, and
felt unequal to the fatigue of further travel, returned to Eng-
land, the party pursuing their journey to Malta, where Lady
Franklin had promised herself the pleasure of rejoining her
husband. A slg?!al disappointment, however, was in store
for her. The Rainbow was under orders for Corfu, and
Malta imposed a strict quarantine upon vessels coming from
Gibraltar, so that the first meeting between husband and
wife after nearly a year's separation took place under the
unsatisfactory conditions thus described in a letter to her
sister: —

We spent forty-eight hours at Malta, sleeping on board the
steamer in order to save the trouble and expense of a stay at the

108

LADY FRANKLIN'S TRAVKLS

CII. XI.

-H HI

lazaretto, and accepting the hospitality of our companions, who had
established themselves in its desolate and spacious halls, for our
meals. . . . My fiist communication with Sir John was by means of
a letter brought me by Commissioner Briggs, which turned me sick
and even continues to do so when I inhale its peculiarly offensive
fumigation. Then he came alongside with his yellow flag and his
yellow-cuffed guardians, and then I was put into a boat with my
yellow flag and guardians (and to make the livery more complete I
put on my yellow scarf also), and we were both landed on a narrow
platform Jn front of the lazaretto, and narrowly watched on each side
lest we should approach too near during half an hour's conversation.
The next day Lieutenant Aplin got permission to take Colonel
Cochrane in his boat to look at Valetta Harbour, and I was landed on
a rock with my guardians, and Sir John came off in a boat with his,
and we had another conversation. They tell me it was two hours
long. However this may be, the fatigue of standing a long while in the
heat (though it was not so very hot), and of speaking at the top of
my voice to make Sir John hear, united with the blinding effect of
the bright water and the dazzling buildings, so overcame me that I
was fit for nothing but my wretched berth on my return to the ship,
and have been fit for nothing ever since we left Malta, the motion
of the ship and the mosquitos which we brought away from the
lazaretto aggravating my fever.

Corfu, however, was at last reached, and a house taken
there, in which her husband, when not occupied with his
duties on board the Rainbow, resided with her. Here is
Lady Franklin's lively description of her quarters : —

We are now installed in our new dwelling at Mr. Crawford'j,
which is in a pleasant situation on the esplanade, facing the most
romantic-looking rock that ever Nature or even fancy created,
crowned by a citadel and lighthouse. We have a suite of four
sitting-rooms in front, partly elegant, partly comfortable, but more
than half shabby, having wretched stained and cracked walls, so
thickly covered with spots of broken plaster that they look as if the
young Crawfords had made it their business to discharge their arrows
at them daily till a given portim was completed ; doors that seem
falling off their hinges, chairs, tables, and sofas of various forms,
most of which are groaning under the weight of all the newspapers,
reviews, and other periodicals, maps and prints which bestrew them,
and dirty open bookcases crammed with books which cannot always
be drawn forth from their homes without bringing a variety of novel-
looking and flourishing insects along with them. A dirty green baize
covers the floor, and here and there a rich little Persian carpet forms

i'lWiiiiTiilWIT

1881

' YOUNG ENGLAND '

19U

a brilliant spot on the surface. The character of the whole is shabby
elegance and somewhat dirty (certainly very dusty) comfort. The
bedrooms at the back are more bare and less attractive. We have
not yet proved their intrinsic merits.

The following extract from one of her letters to her sister,
Mrs, Simpkinson, is in the satirical vein which it sometimes
pleased her to adopt. The peculiar traits of character which
she dwells upon in the personage whom she here sketches
are already familiar enough to the world, but his personality
still remains one of vital and enduring interest, and Lady
Franklin's remarks have a right to be quoted as partaking,
however slightly, of the historic quality of their subject : —

Young Disraeli's follies on board the Hermes are of a piece
with his and his companion's conduct here two years ago. They are
quite a by-word at Corfu, the names of D'Israeli, Clay, and Meredith
never being mentioned but to be laughed at. They apologised for
being too late for dinner, because the scenery of the island did not
enable them to think of such things ; accepted with hesitation an
invitation to one of the regimental messes, saying it was a trying
thing to dine at a mess ; avowed their utter inability to dine in any-
thing but a large room, and with Sir Frederick Adam (who lives in
what is called the Palace) behaved as if they thought their host was
a very insignificant person indeed compared with themselves. Mr.
Clay wore long ringlets down his cheeks, and was dressed in a com-
* plete suit of blue lined with velvet, with blue buttons and blue
spurs ! Being asked by Sir Frederick what men deserved who drank
port wine, he replied, ' They deserve to be sent to England.'

It is difficult to resist the suspicion suggested by the fore-
going description of * Mr. Clay's ' hair and costume that
Lady Franklin has confused the identity of two of the young
men. The third, Mr. Meredith, came, in the course of the
very tour here spoken of, to a sudden and untimely end, to
which reference is made hereafter.

Lady Franklin was as much charmed as are most of its
^'isitors with the scenery of the island, especially with its mag-
nificent olive groves — • trees as large and varied in their forms
as the timber trees of a deciduous forest,' looking * as old as
the Creation, and as different from the dapper little olive trees
planted in ranks in the South ^f France as are the wild
Greek and noble-looking Albanian (whose picturesque and

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200

LADY FRANKLIN'S TRAVELS

OH. XI.

flowing costume is caught occasionally emerging from their
shades) from the sprucely dressed gentry who display their
Sunday coats on the promenades of that well-dressed naiion
on ^jourdefHe'

But the unquiet England of 1831 was not to be forgotten
even in this Levantine paradise. News of its disturbed con-
dition reached them there from time to time, and produced
its natural result : —

Sir John grows more anti-Radical and aristocratic in proportion as
the people grow wild, and his are the most popular sentiments on
board the Rainbow. The great mass of the society here being
military, it is not to be expected that they either are very fond of the
lawless rule of the mob, and the two regiments which are about
leaving us, the i8th and 51st (to be replaced by others), feel, I
believe, that they have no very pleasant prospects before them in
returning to England at this moment.

Another of the letters of this date, a letter written by Lady
Franklin to her father, from whom, it may be remembered, she
had parted at Gibraltar, contains the following reference to a
melancholy passage in the early life of the famous statesman
whom the writer had previously criticised with her usual viva-
cious freedom in the letter above quoted : —

It was some satisfaction to me to see young D'Israeli on board,
for though you may not be the companions best suited to each other,
yet the sight of a familiar face and the identity of the scenes you had
both recently visited relieve, I thought, the dulness of separation and
departure. I thought young D Israeli was looking very ill, and was
told at Gibraltar that, though he assumed occasionally his usual
vivacity, he was in fact in exceedingly depressed spirits, owing to
the recent death of his friend and travelling companion, young
Meredith, of whom report had spoken [as engaged to Miss D'Israeli],
and whose marriage with her, since the difficulty occasioned by the
late uncle's objection, might be supposed likely to take place.

In March 1832 Lady Franklin, having paid a visit to
Malta, obtained a complimentary conveyance thence to Egypt
in the Concord, an American corvette, to whose commander,
Captain Perry, she took a strong liking, amusingly qualified
at times by a certain patriotic jealousy to which the officers'
remarks gave occasional provocation.

^/WMh

1832

MEIIEMET ALI

201

From Egypt she writes, giving an interesting account of
an interview with a ' person of some importance in his day,*
the famous Mehemet Ali : —

We had this day the good fortune to be introduced to the Pasha
on board the Concord. He was accompanied by Mr. IJoghoz (his
first dragoman and Prime Minister), by Suleiman Aga (the last of the
Mamelukes), and several other dignitaries. The yards were manned,
salutes fired, and all the men called to quarters. The Pasha never
receives ladies unless they disguise themselves in a man's dress, and
the only European lady whom I have heard of as doing this is the
wife of Colonel L., who seems a very extraordinary person. She is
young and handsome, bold and romantic, and with these qualities
has set off alone with only her janissary and two native servants for
Thebes and the Cataracts. Captain Perry invited me and Mrs. K. to
come on board, having previously informed the Pasha that we were
the ladies whom he had brought out in the ship, so that we might be
supposed to be living there. He seemed embarrassed, notwithstand-
ing, at the first sight of us, and though advancing towards the cabin,
drew back and turned round. Thinking better of it, however, he
desired to be introduced to us, which being done, we took seats in
his presence, as did also the Captain.

Here is Lady Franklin's word -sketch of this formidable
personage : —

Mahomed Ali is a little and rather vulgar-faced man about 62
years of age, with an extremely quick little eye in perpetual motion,
and a mouth expressive of humour and satire. Some people think
they see in it the cunning and ferocity which mark the sagacious
and bloody murderer of the Mamelukes ; and I am rather of their
opinion, though in this it is not the English residing here who are
my partisans, for with one accord they and, I believe, all the Franks
residing here are disposed to palliate his crimes, and to regard him
with admiration and respect, rnd something like affection. Interest
may have something to do with this, but cannot account for it
altogether. He is certainly a man beyond his country and his times.
His dockyard has risen out of barren sands within three years, and
his ready adoption of every improvement, as far as the means he has
to work with admit, shows a character of no ordinary stamp. Ibrahim
Pasha is thought to be a worthy successor of him.

Perhaps the part of this year's travel from which Lady
Franklin derived the highest pleasure was her tour in the
Holy Land. As everybody, however, who has made it knows.

203

LADV KUAN KLIN'S TUAVKLS

CII. XI.

it is not an unmixed pleasure to the traveller, and so she
found. * I wisheil you yesterday at Jericho,' she writes to
Mrs. Simpkinson, 'the first time perhaps that any one has
ever wished you there, and certainly the first time you have
ever been wished therewith so friendly a meaning. But now
that I know what it is to be at Jericho, I will not wish my
crudest enemy, if there be such a person in the world, ever
there aj^ain.'

It was not, therefore, in order to herd with us under a filthy shed
with our horses and Bedouins, obliged to cling close under the dwarf-
walls of the most wretchetl of villages in order to be safe from
robbers, devoured by mos(|uitos, so entirely lame in one inflamed
leg in consecjuence that I was obliged to be carried whenever I
moved or got up, and suffering much in head and stomach besides
fronj having been eight hours on horseback under a hot and un-
shaded sun, that I wi.^hed you at Jericho. I should have been con-
tented had you seen us an hour before daybreak the next morning,
mounting our horses to leave, my foot and leg much relieved by the
poultice that had been applied to it in the night, and my head and
stomach relieved by starvation and the freshness of the morning air.

The extraordinary elasticity, mental and physical, to which
this rapid recover} testifies affords a singular commentary on
Lady Frankli.n's repudiation, quoted a few pages further on,
of her character for energy of spirit and vigour of body : —

I was mounted on my English saddle, with a white handkerchief
on my head over sundry under-caps, the flaps of which are pinned
in general over my face, partly in compliance with the custom of the
country, which hides women's faces from view, and partly to save my
face f -m the sun. I was attended by Owen [her maid] mounted
astridf , nd by our faithful Egyptian servant, Achmet, by the guide
of the Latin Convent at Jerusalem, by the Convent janissary, by
our own janissary, granted us by Ibrahim Pasha the younger at the
camp at Acre, by three others sent by the Governor of Jerusalem,
and by twelve Bedouin Arabs, including their chief, three of whom
were mounted on horseback with long spears or lances, and eight on
foot — wild-looking creatures i.-j striped blankets and coloured hand-
kerchiefs on their heads, with muskets slung at their backs and
swords or scimitars in their hands.

You should have seen our mounted guard as we crossed the
desert plain of Jericho towards the Jordan, to which we were
ac}y.anc,ing, playing in their wild spirits at the game of war, exciting

1H3L>

IN TIIK HOLY LAM)

SOS

one another by wild screams, firing off their muskets and pistols,
balancing and thrusting their lances at full gallop, wheeling, pur-
suing, receding, sweeping across our path, yet always with the
nicest care avoiding being in our way. 'J'hen you should have seen
the bright sun rise above the mountains of Moab beyond Jordan
in front of us, and in another hour seen us arrive at the river's bank
shaded with trees, and seen me with Owen, conducted by Achmet
(all, as you may suppose, becomingly dressed, and with our guard
keeping a respectful distance), walk into its rapid current and bath'
in the sacred stream, dipping my wrought mulher-of-pearl shells ai
the same time, and beads and crosses, and filling my bottles and
phials with the water.

Then you should have followed us again through the desert plain
for about an hour and a half to the Dead Sea. seen me carried out
upon some stones that placed me fully in its transparent waters, and
heard me choke and shudder at the intense nauseousness of the sip
I took, and seen me fill a large can with the detestal)le water, for as
rash and for much wiser folk than myself to sip and to analyse.

It was between ten and eleven o'clock before our jaded beasts
arrived that night at the gate of Jerusalem, which had been left open
for us. This excursion, which was one I had always set my heart
upon, though I doubted my power of accomplishing it, was rendered
much more fatiguing than it might have been by our exposure to
the heat, though this was tempered by such beautiful mountain
breezes that the suffering from it was at the time infinitely less than
you might suppose.

^'\i

Franklin's correspondence with his wife was, from the
nature of the case and the pressure of his naval duties, of a
less constant character ; but his rare opportunities of com-
municating with her were always taken advantage of, and it is
interesting to perceive from occasional passages in his letters
how unwavering, amid all the absorbing preoccupations of his
naval duties and the anxious wo*-i of diplomacy and maritime
police, was his attachment to .lis old love of exploration.
One may well suspect that for many an hour of his bodily
imprisonment in Levantine waters his enlarged spirit was
ranging the Polar Seas. It was just then a time well caU
culated to test the constancy of an Arctic explorer's passion.
Sir John Ross and his nephew had been three years absent
on that voyage in which all but the most sanguine believed
that they had perished, and from which they did not return

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LADY FRANKLIN'S TRAVELS

CH. XI.

till after a fourth winter, like men risen from the dead. A
search expedition was being organised in the autumn of 1832,
and Back, it was said, was to be appointed to take command
of it. ' But he has not written to me,* writes Franklin to his
wife, ' and I have not the particulars of it. I am persuaded,'
he adds, 'from the letters which passed between the Treasury
and Richardson, who offered to go for half his former pay,
that it will be settled on a most limited and economical scale.'

|!?l 1

I shall be delighted to hear of his success, though I shall not be
sanguine of it. He probably may learn where poor Ross met his
fate, for I believe that to be sealed ; but I don't expect him to add
much to the discovery of the northern regions.

I have written twice to Barrow, expressing my desire to command
any ship or expedition to be despatched to the North Coast of America,
and I am sure he has that friendship for me that he has borne my
wishes in view. The present Government will not, I am convinced,
allow of money being spent on any expedition that would permit me
or any other captain to command. A ship being sent is quite out of
the question in these economical days, .ind I much question whether
I could bear the fatigue and anxiety of service by land without doing
great injury to my constitution. I would try, however, if anything
were to offer, and, if in England, should, I hope, be successful in
my application. ... I think my occupations at Patras may have
brought me quite as much under the notice of the Admiralty and of
the Government as the being employed on discovery. It has been a
new field for me, and one in which I have had to act very much on
my own responsibility in cases of difficulty not unconnected with
the law of nations.

The Admiral's approbation of his conduct, though no
immediate benefit resulted from it, might perhaps tell in his
favour at some future day : —

The Admiralty, in their economical rage, are doing such remarkably
odd things, and making so many clippings and alterations, that either
promotion or employment seems to be hopeless even to persons of
great influence. I cannot, therefore, hope any great exception should
be made in my favour, though I believe (call it vanity, if you please)
that Sir Thomas Hardy or Sir Pulteney Malcolm (who has much to
say in the present naval alterations) would assist my views in case of
anything turning up for which they thought me fitted, providing
always, with them as with other public men, that it did not interfere

1832

AN ATTIC TOUR

with any of their plans for the increase of their own political interests
or those of their immediate friends.

In the autumn of 1832 Lady Franklin was in Greece, and
from Athens in November of that year she made one of the
most interesting and most enterprising excursions of her
Greek tour. It was made in company with a somewhat
curious party of travellers, whose peculiarities, as well as the
incidents of their companionship, she describes with her usual
liveliness and spirit : —

We saJ'pd on the 6th of November from the Pirseus in a little
Hydtiote cutter belonging to a party of French military officers (one
of whom had his wife with him), who had only on the preceding day,
hearing of my wish to get away, come in a body, and in the most
frank, cordial, and persuasive manner offered me a share of their
accommodation, adding that they were going by Eleusis, Megara,
and Corinth, and my only expense would be a dollar api(.ce for my
party for this digressive excursion. I also of course added to the
stock of provisions, which, after all, have only just lasted, such in
particular was their enormous consumption of tea, sugar, and rum !
Of these three ingredients, they regularly at breakfast and tea made
a great boiler full, which was handed round and round again in a
metal pot.

This, however, was only one of their somewhat disconcerting
habits ; for, continues Lady Franklin :

Kind as was their reception of me, it was impossible to be blind
to theii' defects. Their noise and boisterousness, their incessant
taking of God's name in vain [Lady Franklin perhaps attached a
rather too serious English significance to the colloquial ' Mon Dieu ! '
of the Frenchman], their gross and unblushing infidelity, glorying as
they all did in the purest atheism, went far to counteract their
amiable qualities. Of these, their extreme good-nature, the absence
of selfishness in their dealings with one another, their desire to obtain
and their willingness to communicate knowledge, their unconquerable
vivacity and good-humour in all circumstances, were most remarkable.
They all herded together in a small hold, where everything was cooked,
besides giving up their cabin to us three females. It had a spacious
locker all round, and in the middle of it we could stand upright and
dress without beinp seen when a capote was thrown over the ladder-
hole. As t' all the rest, there are many reasons why it is pleasanter
to travel with Frenchmen than with Englishmen with only ufficient
accommodation, and such I experienced on this occasion.

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LADY FRANKLIN'S TRAVELS

CH. XI.

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Their 'desire to obtain and their willingness to impart
knowledge ' was thus amusingly illustrated : —

My French friends had all and each a journal, and it one of them
had nothing to say he begged and borrowed from another or copied
from books. This took up a good portion of their time, and was
the only time when they were at all quiet. Their journals, which
were generally of a quarto or folio size, were always in their hands
whenever they landed, whether on foot or en horseback ; and the
first bit of hewn stone they saw, down it went in the book. Perhaps
part of it was buried in the earth, like a mutilated statue we saw at
Eleusis ; no matter, they wrote down its length, breadth, and thick-
ness. ' Voyons ! ' said they, ' that must be a torso.' They measured
their pencils' length across it and said, ' Write down " The statue
was fourteen feet high." '

At Eleusis I took on shore Cell's ' Attica,' ' which, i a' ^ joatained
some account of it. They immediately fell rapaciously upon my
book, and the first hut we came to they made me sit down in the
middle of the room, surrounded by a number of wondering Palikari,
•and translate it into French, while they stood around with their
books, copying and revising with much care from my dictation.
Three pages I had to go through in this way ; and thus an hour was
spent before we began to look about us, though we were to return
to the ship before we could get any breakfast.

The young lady of the French party, the officer's wife
above referred to, ' also never moved without her paper in
one hand and her pencil in the other ; ' and here the shrewr"
Englishwoman lays a ready finger on a point of characterist;.,
difference between the French and the English form oi
mauvai'se Jionte : — . . ,_

She did not care much about it, but she and her husband
would have been ashamed for her to have neglected it. Her shame
would have been misplaced, but surely the ridicule which attaches in
England, or with some people in England, to be seen doing that
before others which no one is ashamed of doing in private is scarcely
less justifiable.

The eldest of our party, M. I'lntendant La Cour (a man of abuiit
fifty years of age), was possessed of a good deal of esprit^ and was ;.
poet. He excused himself from going to Eleusis, because dunng

~;~ ' Of Dardan tours let dilettanti tell,
I leave topography to classic Gell.
^-.-^--^ — Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,

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1832

THE PIEKIAN SPRING

207

the night, he said, it being very hot so that he could not sleep, he
had been making some verses on Salamis, which we had passed the
evening before. ' C'est bien peu de chose, Madame,' said he ;
*mais, cependant, je crois y avoir mis quelque verve, et quelque
chose de frappant.' ' Therefore,' added he, ' I will stay on board
to put the last stroke to it and to look after your breakfast. At the
Acrocorinthus we all knew that the classic Pierian spring is by some
authors (as ^liny) supposed to have been here, while others fixed it
at Parnassus.

Asked by M. La Cour for her own opinion on the point
Lady Franklin was humorously equal to the occasion : —

I said that for us it must certainly be at the Acrocorinthus, unless
he would agree to my proposal to go down the Gulf of Corinth and
visit you at Patras, and in that case, en passant, 'Je le remettrai,'
I said, * au Parnasse.* ' Mais, que c'est charmant, cela ! ' replied the
Intendant ; ' c'est une veritable muse, Madame, qui vous a inspire
cette idde.' As he understands a little English, I asked him if he

kne»' the lines —

A little learning is a dangerous thing :
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

0' 1 their being explained to him he was in raptures. ' Oserai-je
vous I emander, Madame, de me mettre cela en ^crit?' Ke should, per-
haps, be able to turn it to account in some happy moment of his own.
We came to the Pierian spring, and the young and cle^ er Dr. Ducis
was holding the little wooden bowl to my mouth while I swallowed a
thirsty draught, when he suddenly exclaimed, with great vehemence,

* Arretez, done, Madame, arretez ! ' I looked up somewhat alarmed.

* Bien ! ' exclaimed he, looking slyly in my face ; * car nous en avons
plus besoin que vous.' Such are some of the truly French charac-
teristics of my French friends.

' So you sec,' she concludes triumphantly, ' I have been
to Corinth in spite of the robbers and in spite of my disap-
pointment at not going down the Gulf.'

To the tourist of these luxurious days, who may be apt
to underrate the amount of ' roughing it ' for which every
traveller of either sex, robust or delicate, had to be prepared,
the following graphic account of a melancholy experience of
Lady Franklin's may well be commended. Touching at
Myconi on her way to meet her husband at Syra, she found
a young Englishman of her acquaintance whom she had left

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208

LADY FRANKL1N3 TRAVELS

CII. XI.

but ten days before at Candia lying desperately ill in the
lazaretto. He had been reduce^', he said, to this state by
* the villainous conduct of the I'urks on board his vessel,'
where, although he had bargained for a place of better class,
he had been compelled to sleep on deck exposed for ten
successive nights to most tempestuous weather, with nothing
but his cloak to protect him. The vessel having put into
Myconi to take refuge from the gale, he had had himself pi'*:
ashore, but as, according to the despotic regulations of the
Greek Government, no quarantine could be performed and no
pratique obtained except at the islands of Syra and Hydra,
even his present confinement would avail him nothing, but
would have to be followed by another term of seclusion in
the former of those islands, to which he was bound : —

, 'r

III

SIS-

He had engaged (he said) a boat to take him to Syra, but was
not yet able to move. By degrees he seemed to recollect how strange
it was that I should be standing before him in conversation, and he
blessed the circumstances, whatever they were, that brought me there.
I told him I regretted that I could not stay with him, but if I did
so I should probably miss you at Syra, whither (as he knew) I had
returned in order to meet you, but probably I should do as much
good by returning to Syra and stating his case to our excellent Con-
sul there, and procuring him as good quarters as could be had at the
wretched lazaretto here ; but I advised him noL to attempt moving
till he was a little better, which I trusted the medicine I should leave
with him would make him. He eagerly took my medicine, and
showed me his tongue, that I might see how very ill he was ; but
could not ask me to feel his pulse, since I should then have put
myself in quarantine with him, for there were witnesses of our
actions. He asked me if I had ever seen so altered a man. I left
him a candle and a few utensils, and strongly recommended him to
the care of the Vice-Consul, as a gentleman well known and highly
respectable, and well able to pay for whatever he wanted, and I
begged the Vice-Consul to procure him a nurse instantly. It went
against my feelings and almost againsc my conscience to leave him
even thus ; but if I stopped I missed you, and it was no use my
stopping unless I shut myself up with him in his single room, which
had only the earth for a floor, and where, if I contracted his quaran-
tine, I should myself become a person whom no one could approach.
I had but lately come out of the Syra lazaretto — that is to say, out
of a shed of gaping planks a foot wide from each other in several

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1832

A FORLORN DEATH

209

places, without a door to close the entrance, wiih the wet earth for
a floor, swarming with water-rats, and with the rain coming down
upon my bed through the roof of planks. I had been obliged to
have the doctor immediately on leaving this shameful hole, and had
scarce yet recovered from the effects of it.

At Syra, Lady Franklin immediately sought the assist-
ance of the British Consul, and a boat was sent to fetch the
sick man to the island. He arrived there some days later,
worse than when she had left him — too ill, in fact, to be
removed from the boat to a little chapel on the islet rock,
which the Consul had kindly exerted himself to procure for
him and thus save him from the unnameable horrors of the
lazaretto.

I was too unwell on the first day after his arrival to go near him,
but Mr. Hill, of Athens, who happened to be here and saw him, told
me that Mr. Lyons said I was ' an angel,' the best woman he had
ever met in the world. There was he at Myconi, he said, sick and
alone, when all at once I appeared before him and gave him medi-
cines and comforted him.

' He was thought,' interjects Lady Franklin with a touch
of her characteristic irony, ' to be a little light-headed.'

The next day I went alongside his little boat, but he was dozing
in the confined hold, and I did not see him. Two or three days
afterwards, having remarked to Mr. Jedder, the Church missionary
here, that I could get no one to tell me exactly how Mr. Lyons was,
and had been too unwell to go myself, he replied, ' I buried him
yesterday ! ' They had concealed it from me because I was myself
unwell and in low spirits ; and thus the poor man died in the hold
ol his tiny boat without a familiar face or friend near him, and only
a lired Greek servant to watch his last moments. Mr. Wilkinson
(ti e Consul) did everything that was possible, but he was speechless
fo:; some time before he died, and it was useless for him to shut him-
se'f up in quarantine in a hole a few feet in extent with a man dying
of malignant fever. I would have given a great deal, however, to
have been near him, so that he might have been conscious of it in
his dying hour. I was the only human being here whom he could
be said to know, and this reflection, together with the feeling that
perhaps had I stayed with him at Myconi I might have saved his
life, has made me feel the wish of paying the only atoning tribute to
his memory, by having a stone erected at my own expense over the

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CH. XI.

^^-4--— ^-

humble grave in the ground where he iies. It will cost but a trifle,
yet I did not venture to prnpose it to Mr. Wilkinson without diffi-
dence, knowing that most corumon minds would sneer at the romance
(to give it the prettiest name) of such an action.

With this pathetic story, so dimply and touchingly related,
these extracts from Lady Franklin's correspondence may fitly
close.

^■:

1834

211

CHAPTER XII

UNWELCOME LEISURE

1834-1836

At the earliest moment after his arrival in England Franklin,
as in duty bound, presented himself at the Adniralty, where,
of course, he was warmly received. He had just been dis-
playing an exceptional amount of that quality which the
official, and especially the ' permanent ' official, mind is wont
to prize more highly in a British officer than any other human
virtue — the quality of discretion. The First Lord was not
on that occasion visible, but the staff of the department
'welcomed me,' says Franklin, 'most kindly, and each one
spoke of the difficulties of my pos' ' ton at Patras.* An interview,
however, of a far more interesting character, and with ar
infinitely more august personage, was awaiting him, and its
circumstances must be related as he relates them in a letter
to his wife : —

These preliminary duties performed, I went to Brighton and
wrote to Sir Herbert Taylor that I had come down to pay my most
dutiful respects to His Majesty by leaving my name in his book.
About two hours afterwards I received a note from Sir Herbert to
say that His Majesty would give me an audience at five the same
evening, and that I was to dine at the Pavilion at seven I was, of
course, punctual to the time named, and was with the King three-
quarters of an hour, and most closely questioned as to the present
state of Greece, Turkey, and Syria.

His principal aim seemed to be to ascertain the state of feeling
towards the Russian interest in each of these parts, and the means
taken to thwart or encourage it. He inquired particularly about the
position and strength of the forts of the Dardanelles, the public
feeling at and about Constantinople and on the coast of Syria. He
asked many questions about the harbours near the Dardanelles, of
their fitness to receive and shelter fleets, of the distances from one

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212

UNWELCOME LEISURE

oil. XII.

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part of the Archipelago to others, about the present state of Candia,
about Ibrahim Pasha, and the opinion generally entertained in Syria
as to being under the Egyptian Government. And, in fact, it was
evident his mind was dwelling on the prospect of war, which then
attracted general attention, but which was thought improbable. He
asked what k.nd of person the King of Greece was, and said he
sincerely hoped Greece would be established as an independent
kingdom. He spoke of Sir Henry Hotham, of the intrigues of the
Greek Capitani, which he said there was no doubt were fomented by
the Russians ; but he stopped me when I was proceeding to describe
the manner of Ricord's conduct to Sir H. Hotham, and that of his
captain to me, evidently showing that these were subjects he could
not enter upon, though he gave me to understand he had been made
acquainted with them. . . . On his rising and my retiring, the King
thanked me for the information I had given him on several points
upon which he required it, but had not met witu any officer able to
give it him so clearly ; and he further added : * This has been an
interesting conversation to me. I shall see you (he further said) at
dinner.'

I was there punctually at seven, and met a brother-officer (Lord
Byron) as the lord-in-waiting. Sir Peregrine Maitland and Lady
Sarah arrived soon afterwards (the former I had known in Canada),
and in a short time the rest of the visitors appeared, and the mem-
bers of the household, among whom there was interchange of con-
versation. The Queen entered the room with her attendants at a
quarter after seven, followed by the Princess Augusta. She bowed
to the gentlemen, who stood in line, in passing, and spoke to the two
ladies who were visitors. The King appeared shortly afterwards.
. . . Dinner being announced, the King desired the Duke of Dorset
(the chamberlain, I believe) to lead out the Queen, and he offered
his arm to the Princess Augusta. The Austrian Princess then fol-
lowed, and the others according to their rank, each gentleman with
a lady as long as any remained. I had none, and several others
were so situated. I got agreeably placed next Lord Byron; thougli
at the bottom of the table. Opposite me was Miss Wilson (maid of
honour), whom my neighbour teased a good deal in directing her to
look to every part of tlie table that she might find out Sir John
Franklin, whom she much wished to see and had heard was at
table.

The table was magnificently served — all the ornaments of gold.
The King drank wine twice with me in company with my neighbours.
The Queen withdrew at the time other ladies do at other tables, and
the gentlemen in due time after. The Austrian Princess sat on the
Queen's left, and the Duke of Dorset on her right ; the Princess
Augusta on the King's right, and Lady Saraa Maitland on his left.

lid of
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1834

A ROYAL DINNER PARTY

213

The conversation was free, each with his neighbour, and the whole
party very agreeable. On the King's rising to join the ladies, the
gentlemen followed. He took his seat at a raised table, where also
sat the Queen, the Princess Augusta, and the Duchess of Gloucester
(who did not dine), the Countess of Mayo, Lady Sarah Maitland,
and I^dy liyron. The Queen and Princess were working, and con-
versation appeared to be lively among them, the King joining in it.
At another table sat the maids of honour and three of the King's
daughters, generally working ; and at other tables gentlemen and
ladies played cards. All were allowed to amuse themselves as they
liked. None went to the royal table unless called, and the only
person thus honoured was the Austrian Princess, who sat by the
Queen. . . . The King did not speak to me in the drawing-room,
nor to any other gentleman. Nor did the Queen speak to me. She
looked closely at me, and I on two occasions caught her looking at
me from her work-table with her spectacles. She is shy, and would
perhaps have spoken if I had been near her. I only observed her
speak to two of the visitors, except the Austrians. The King having
at my audience yesterday asked whether I intended to make any
stay in Brighton, I mentioned my wish to go to town the following
day to see my child, if he had no further commands. He replied
that it was quite proper I should go, and I accordingly left the next
day.

Another interview of some interest, political and personal,
took place a day or two later between Franklin and Sir James
Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Grey's
rapidly expiring Administration. Sir James, he says, * kept
me half an hour in close conversation, though there were
many waiting to see him,' and the nature of the Minister's
questions witnesses clearly enough to the keen anxiety of the
official mind and to the threatening European situation
which occasioned it. Franklin was most minutely interro-
;5ated as to Russian influence in Greece, the condition of
Syria, the character of Ibrahim Pasha, and the opinion enter-
1 ained of him by the Syrian population ; whether, for instance,
being a Mussulman and an acknowledged soldier, Franklin
thought that * in case of any overthrow of the Sultan by the
Russians as a consequence of any insurrection ' the Maho-
medans of Syria would object to rally round Ibrahim if they
were encouraged to do so ; to which Franklin discreetly
replied that, given that encouragement and an assurance of

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

OH. XII.

Iffes

protection against the monopolies and exactions of Mchemet
All, he thought they would not object.

He was then questioned, as he had been by William IV.,
with regard to the Dardanelles and its defences, the strong and
weak points of the forts, the best means of taking them and
of getting a fleet up the Straits. The Minister was especially
searching in his inquiries as to the supposed state of feeling
among the people generally at Constantinople, and what was
likely to be the effect * if the Russians were to march down
among the mass of people not military or under the immediate
influence of the Sultan. The Divan and higher classes, he
thought, might be, and probably were, bought over by Russia.'
Franklin replied, stating his impression that the people
generally were not inclined to the Russian occupation, and
that they would display this sentiment in action if warmly
encouraged and assured of support.

It is worth remarking, as an illustration of the feeling in
England towards the ' interesting people ' in whose afl"airs
Franklin had been for the last three years immersed, that
hardly a question appears to have been asked him at this
interview about the condition and prospects of the Greeks.
What were the probable designs of the Czar, and what the
state of feeling among the Mahommedan subjects of the
Porte, were the sole questions of any interest to the minis-
terial mind at that moment. And rot to the ministerial mind
alone. On all hands it is the same story — a story which
Franklin tells his wife not without a touch of mild disappoint-
ment in this same letter. We have seen already that he was
no anatical Philhellene, but it is evident that even he could
hav>.' wished for a little more sympathy with the Hellenic
caust' than he found : —

You have been prepared to expect that Greece and its aflFairs
occupy a very small portion of the public thought in England. The
feeling is that of absolute indiflFerence. The King, Sir James Gra-
ham, and Mr. Backhouse, the Under-Secretary of State, are the
only persons who have spoken a word to me about them, and their
conversation related to the political bearing of the subject with
reference to Russia and to my transactions at Patras, which I may
here mention seem to have attracted great attention. Though I

I8;u

(iUKECE AND PIIEEKS

ilS

thoroughly detest the modern Greeks, and would not for any con-
sideration live among them, except from necessity, I take an interest
in the welfare of Greece, and shall continue to do so, and therefore
do not relish this indifference towards them.

An interest in the welfare of a country is, of course, not
quite consistent with a thorough detestation of its inhabitants,
but Franklin cviucntly meant no more than \vc all mean
when we pronounce these sweeping judgments upon whol<*
communities of men. Tlicy never amount to more than a
hasty generalisation from certain conspicuous specimens of
the nation condemned, and, on reflection, are usually felt, even
by those who pronounce them, to be not wholly just. They
are not perhaps wholly unjust, inasmuch as the ofifensivcness of
the aforesaid • prominent citizens ' is usually due to character-
istics common to the entire nation. The injustice consists
in treating the exceptional exaggeration of these qualities
as if it were no less common than the qualities themselves,
Franklin, of course, knew well that behind the horde of greedy,
lawless, and lying Greek adventurers with whom he had come
principally in contact there was to be found, as there is in
most countries, a community of honest, quiet, industrious, un-
sophisticated cultivators and traders, with all the virtues that
the adventurer had ' shed ' and with the vices which he had
developed still dormant in the germ. These and not their
unworthy leaders were the real people whom Franklin had
been endeavouring to help, and it was their ' welfare ' he was
really thinking of.

Thus he concludes his account of his interview with Sir
James Graham : —

Before I left him I said I hoped he would allow me to take this
opportunity of representing to him that I was extremely anxious to be
actively employed ; that during a professional life of thirty-four years I
had scarcely been out of active employment, and therefore could not
look upon the prospect of inactivity with any complacency. I was
quite ready for any service. I knew (I continued) that there were many
applicants with equally strong claims, yet I thought it due to my
professional character to urge mine, on which alone I had to depend.
Sir James answered that he feared he could not meet my wishes at
present ; ' but if there was any stir,' he added, ' the case would be

(Ilii

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210

UNWKLCUMK LEISUliE

CK. XII.

different. I should then, perhaps, be able to call for your services.
I am well acquainted with your merits, and have received the
strongest testimonials respecting your judgment and talents from Sir
II. Hotham and Sir Pulteney Malcolm, and particularly in trans-
acting the difticult affairs of Patras, and, believe me, I shall bear them
in mind, and be happy to employ you when I can.'

To a First Lord overwhelmed wLh applications such urgency
on the part of an officer who seemed to think that to have
been scarcely out of active employment for thirty-four years
was a reason for seeking, not repose, but renewed occu-
pation, may well have seemed a little embarrassing if not
unreasonable. But Franklin had no notion of allowing any
such considerations to abate his insatiable thirst for work.
His pertinacity, indeed, in hunting up the authorities seems
almost to have astonished himself. For he continues, in his
delightfully simple fashion : —

On reading all these details, you will fa* Tiy dearest, that your shy,
timid husband must have gathered som > on his way home, or

you will be at a loss to account for his extraordinary courage. What
will you say on learning that I have done all but the truly official
part, principally because I knew you would have wished me to do so
if you had been present, and therefore for your sake ?

Meanwhile Lady Franklin was still on her travels. About
the time of his arrival in England she wrote to him from
Alexandria, which she was about to quit in a few days' time
for a trip up the Nile. There had been talk of her husband's
joining her, but with her usual good sense and solicitude for
his professional interests she declined to entertain a proposal
which it is evident had been made mainly for her gratification.
On January 8 she writes : —

It will be a good and sufficient reason v hy vou should not come
here (and that applies equally to your com 'i g to Napoli or anywhere
else), that by being at home you may be it, the way of other employ-
ment. There are some signs of a stir in the times — signs of war, and
much talk, I am told, of various scientific expeditions. I should be
301 ry you were out of the way of profiting by any of these oppor-
tunities, and if you stayed at home on this account I would instantly, on
my return from the Nile, embark on a ship straight for England. . . .
It would be equally unjust if you thought it was indifferent to me to

1884

AUCTIC AMMITIONS

217

part from you or otherwise than exceedingly painful ; but your credit
and reputation are dearer lo nic than the selfish enjoyment of your
society. Nor indeed can I pro|)erIy enjoy your society if you are
living in inactivity when you might be in active emjjloy.

Then, reverting to a subject which was never long absent
from Franklin's mind, and which his wife had trained herself
to discuss with him in his own spirit, she continues : —

With respect to the expeditions, I regard them as affording a means
of distinguishing yourself in your own peculiar line, which nocommand
of a ship on any station in these times can by any probability present.
The charj4Cterand position you possess in society, and the interest — I
may say celebrity — attached to your name, belong to the expeditions,
and would never have been acquired by the career you have run,
however fair and creditable, in the ordinary line of your i)rofession.
I am unable to judge, however how far you feel equal 'io your former
exertions, settiti iside accidental sufferings, which, it is to be hoped,

never need occi.r again. I would not have you go, to be like ;

and God forbid you should go to the ruin of your health, if you should
feel to be unequal to any of your former exertions. A ship expedition,
however, does not seem liable to the objection, and a freezing
climate seems to have a wonderful power in bracing your nerves and
making you stronger. Mr. Thurburn tells me that an expedition is
contemplated to the south, and that a north-west passage is still
thought a feasible object. Now, young Ross cannot do both these at
the same time, and if both are undertaken some one will step in to
do the one while he undertakes the other, 'i'hey tell me Parry is
on his way home, and he will be working hard for the vacancy, or
perhaps Richardson. I wish him well, and young Ross also. They
are both fine fellows, and I grudge them nothing of their well-earned
fame. But if yours is still dearer to me, even they could forgive me. . .
I hope what I say will not displease you, and you must not think T
undervalue your military career. I feel it is not that, but the other,
which has made you what you are.

There are some of your friends who regret that you ever swerved
from discovery to the beaten way of the majority of your profession.
Is not Captain Beaufort of this opinion? I am not, however.
You did not ask for a ship in the Mediterranean till you had again
proposed yourself for aroiher expedition, but it was not thought
worth while. Now it is revived again. Have you thought of talking
or consulting with Captain Beaufort on the subject ?

The trip up the Nile was to be unavoidably delayed for
some weeks, and in the meantime Lady Franklin continued

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218

UNWELCOME LEISURE

CH. xir.

her stay in Alexandria, sharpening her critical wits on the
official and other native society in which she moved. She
saw much of the entourage of the masterful Pasha, her
description of whom has been quoted above. It ^vas at the
time of the troubles in Candia, when the defection of Osman,
a trusted serant of Mehemet Ali's, was the theme of general
conversation — * a crime,' writes Lady Franklin in her em-
phatic way, ' of the blackest dye, because he had been raised
from nothing by the Pasha, and educated in Europe by him,
loaded with riches and favours, and was in his confidence,'
His sudden desertion, coupled with the wanton barbaiities he
had recently been committing in Greece (where he put to
death some thirty people in the dififere.it towns and villages
after they had at his summons dispersed quietly to their
homes), excited the suspicion which the friends of Mehemet
AH would have been glad to see confirmed, that these acts
of cruelty had been committed without the sanction of the
Viceroy. ' I am sorry to say, however,' adds Lady Franklin,
* that Mehemet AH does not disavow those executions, and
thus deserves to draw down on himself the bitter consequences
of such cold-blooded tyranny. I heartily wish that Candia
may be wrenched from his grasp, for if it is not, and he
deals with the poor Greeks in this manner, the island will
soon be depopulated.'

Franklin's hopes of speedy employment, in so far at least
as they were founded on the contingency of what Sir James
Graham called a ' stir,' were but shortlived. Before the end
of February we find him writing to Lady Franklin that the
' hostile appearances ' which were prevalent at the time of his
audience of the King and interview with the First Lord of the
Admiralty ' have been since removed,' though there is just a
chance, he seems to think, that the thawing of the Baltic may
again restore the warlike aspect of things by encouraging
Russia to ' hold a higher tone than she has thought it prudent
to do while her fleets were blocked in by ice.' On this
account he does not think it advisable to ask the Admiralty
for any prolonged leave of absence, which he would have to
do if he were to accompany Lady Franklin on to Syria and

1834

HOPES DEFERRED

219

Greece, and to return by the Continent overland. More-
over, he evidently could not abandon the hope, which has
beguiled so many another deserving officer, that his deserts had
attracted the special notice of his official superiors. ' Sir James
Graham at the Drawing Room the other day showed me a
marked attention by leaving his wife's side to come forward
and shake me by the hand, which I did not observe him to
do to any other captain, though there were numbers around
me.' And he goes jn to relate how the Secretary had paid
him a s'milar compliment, and introduced him to his
daughters. ' These,' he adds, ' I admit, are in themselves
trifles, though they show that I at least am not undeserving
of being noticed in such a public place.' A more substantial
recognition, and one which gave greater pleasure to his kindly
heart, was the promotion by the Admiralty of two warrant
officers at his request, and the provision of new berths for ' all
the young mids of the Rainbow, mainly on account of the
credit the ship had attained.' Their Lordships, moreover,
' had expressly appointed Kay (his first wife's nephew) to the
Edinburgh in lieu of a candidate of stronger official interests,
on my directing their attention to his merits and pointing
out by letter the distinguished manner in which he had passed
his examination.'

Having received all these proofs of the attention of the
Admiralty to his professional claims, and having fully made
known to them his earnest wish to be employed, it would
surely be unwise of him, Franklin writes, to ask for a
lengthened leave of absence, the very request for which
might almost be taken to imply a change in his wishes with
respect to active employment. At the same time, he did not
himself regard the prospects of active service, at any rate of
the kind which he preferred to any other, as hopefully as his
wife. She had, he thought, been misinformed as to the pro-
bability of another expedition being sent to the North-west.
' The younger Ross,' he writes, ' has received an official reply
from the Admiralty, saying that their Lordships had no inten-
tion of sending another expedition at present.' Nor had he
ever heard the slightest hint of a South Polar expedition, of

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

en. XII.

which he felt sure he should have been iqformed through
Captain Beaufort if anything of the kind had been in contem-
plation. ' We may rest assured/ he adds, with, as the event
showed, an undue confidence in the possibility of forecasting
the operations of the official mind, ' that there will be no more
land journey after Back's return.'

You are quite right in thinking a cold climate would suit me. It
always has done, and I would rejoice in being sent on some service to
such a climate, but not to go for the mere desire of travelling, and
still less for the mere empty shadow of increasing my fame. I know
that my character has been appreciated by the officers of my profes-
sion, and others higher in station, whose good opinion I am proud to
have obtained, and you may rely upon it that they do not fancy me
to be so overcome with "^he love of repose as not to be ready and
most willing to obey any call for my services, to whatever part of the
world they may lead me.

Lady Franklin had in one of her lormer letters referred to
a Foreign Enlistment Bill then under consideration in Parlia-
ment, the result of which, if passed, would be, she seemed to
think, to enable Franklin, if all prospect of employment by
the Admiralty should fail him, to take service temporarily
under some foreign Government. It may be interesting to
cite his views, which were the general professional views of
his day, on a question not perhaps regarded as quite so free
from doubt in our own time. Observing on the fact that
Lady Franklin seemed desirous of directing his attention to
that field of activity, he continues : —

You will perhaps be surprised to learn that all officers of rank
who take such a step are considered by the heads of our profession
as mere adventurers. ... I cannot agree with Mr. Thurburn that, if
a man distinguished himself in foreign service, it would aid him
when he returned to his own. I know, on the contrary, that there is
not a single instance of an officer who has been employed on foreign
service of late — since, in fact, such service has been solely a money-
getting adventure — who has returned to his own, or rather who has
been aftcwards employed in his own profession ; and, therefore, if ever
I were to accept employment in a foreign service, I should consider
the act as putting a finish to all claims beyond the receipt of my half-
pay from my own, and in so doing I should only be guided by what
has happened to all the others. Except Lord Cochrane and Sartorius

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1834

DEATH OF JAMES FRANKLIN

221

and Napier, I know not any person of the rank of a captain who has
been in foreign service. And how many of junior rank have been com-
pelled to quit foreign service by the neglect of their petty employers
and disgust at the treatment they have received ! Your friend, Captain
H., you see, had no idea of it after he was posted, nor, I will venture
to say, will there be found above one or two in our whole ' Navy List *
who would. I cannot conceive a more humbling position than to
place an officer of acknowledged merit in our service to be subjected
to the whims and caprices of either Egyptian or Turkish rulers, or
the equally unprincipled rule of Dom Pedro's or Miguel's advisers.
The Dutch is the only foreign service that, in my opinion, a British
officer of the rank of a captain could enter with credit to himself.

The year 1834 v/as saddened for Franklin by the death of
his last surviving brother, Jamc-., who had returned from
India in broken health and had now but a few months to live.
He had led an active and distinguished life in India, and was
a conscientious officer and a man of blameless reputation ;
but during his closing days he seems to have become a prey
to a religious melancholy almost as dark and despairing as
that of Cowper. John was unremitting in attendance at his
brother's bedside, and in endeavours, at last, it would seem,
successful, to console and cheer him. He has left many notes
of their conversations — notes not intended and not fitted for the
public eye, but abounding in evidences of deep fraternal affec-
tion and full of a hn-ilthy and manly piety, which is all the
more striking by its painful contrast with the morbid spiritual
condition he was endeavouring to relieve. James Franklin
died on August 31, 1834, leaving one daughter, whom his
brother virtually adopted and who accompanied him abroad
on his next official employment, and remained a member of
his household until her marriage.

In the autumn of 1834 Lady Franklin returned from, her
travels and took up her residence with her husband at a
house in Gower Street, Bedford Square, where they appear to
have stayed some months. That weary wait tor employment
which has been the cause of so much heart-sickness to spirited
officers in all piping times of peace, was still going on. ' You
ask me,' he writes to Miss Franklin, whose affectionate sis-
terly anxieties as to his prospects hac. been accompanied by

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

ClI. XII.

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inquiries after political news, ' how His Majesty and his people
get on together.' (It was four months after that historic coup
of William IV., the dismissal of the Melbourne Ministry by
an exercise of the prerogative.)

I think the people generally are much pleased with the King,
though there are several who are not satisfied with his Ministers [the
short-lived First Administration d Sir Robert Peel]. The Whigs
who held the government before have joined with the Radicals to give
every opposition they can to Sir Robert Peel's Ministry, and they are
expected to have a struggle for the majority on the subject of the
Tithes in Ireland. But though the Ministry may be defeated on that
question, it does not follow that they will go out, and I believe every
sincere wisher for the welfare of the country desires that they may
remain in office, since they are doinggreat good and have the confidence
of the country generally with them.

Alas for the desires of the sincere well-wishers ! The sorely
pressed Ministry were thrice defeated in the course of the
next fortnight on the Tithe question, and at the third defeat
resigned.

You ask. secondly, what my prospects are. At present I have
no employn.ent in view, though I have made application for it in
common with many others. Having been recently afloat, and there
being but few ships in commission, I cannot expect to be preferred
before many other officers of merit. I keep, however, on the watch
for anything that may offer.

Franklin did not, however, consider it necessary to main-
tain a watch of such extreme vigilance as would keep him
perpetually within half an hour's walk of the Admiralty. In
the course of the summer of 1835 he indulged himself and
his wife with the distraction of a tour in Ireland. They had
excellent introductions to many notable people both of the
social and the scientific world, and merely as an expedition
of pleasure their visit was a complete success. But Franklin's
untiring intellectual curiosity and thirst for mformation made
it impossible for him to regard any sojourn in a new country
from the point of view of mere amusement, and his well-filled
notebooks attest the diligence with which he endeavoured
to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the rural and

1835

AN TT?,ISH INDUSTRY

223

economical conditions of Irish life. The success with which
he applied himself to this task was soon to receive public
proof Experience of his past services had, no doubt,
satisfied the official mind chat his shrewd observation and
sound judgment would make his opinion worth having on a
question of Irish maritime industry, even after but a brief visit
to the country. He was invited to give evidence before
the Royal Commission then engaged on the Irish Fishery
Inquiry, and made several practical recommendations of con-
siderable value. Like most other students of the peculiarities
of the Irish people, as illustrated in their industrial habits,
he had been equally impressed by the excellence of the
Irishman's natural gifts and by his singularly ineffective
employment of them. The West Coast population evidently
struck him as a race of potentially admirable fishermen, who,
as a matter of fact, did not know how to fish. He recom-
mended accordingly, as ' politic means of improving the
fisheries,' the stationing of 'substantial fishing vessels by
Government on the Western Coast, to be manned with
experienced fishermen and provided with a complete outfit of
nets and other fishing gear, such vessels to be placed on
several parts of the coast, two in company, to instruct the
local fishermen in the best modes of fishing.' The commander
and the mate of each of these ships would be the actual
instructor, their crew of pupils being selected from the boat-
men of the adjacent coasts ; and Franklin laid much stress on
che point that these instructors should also be ' experienced
seamen,' in order that the local fishermen might be taught to
navigate square-rigged vessels into harbour, thus combining
with the fishing industry the avocation of a scientific pilot.
His idea, in fact, was that when the full benefits of the system
of training were realised, every fishing vessel on the western
coast might contain two fishermen capable of acting as pilots,
whereby not a little saving of life and property might, he
thought, be effected, inasmuch as many ships could then take
shelter in western Irish harbours, to which vessels in distress
had hitherto been unable for want of pilotage to resort.

Franklin, it is hardly necessary to say, was perfectly well

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

en. XII.

aware that nothing effectual could be done for Ireland, then
as now, without a draft upon the British Treasury, and he
did not suggest the establishment of these model vessels as a
substitute for pecuniary assistance, but as a precaution against
that futile squandering of aids and benevolences furnished at
the cost of the British taxpayer which has been the sole
outcome of so much of our legislative and administrative
philanthropy where Irish industry is concerned. The witness
' does not believe,' run the minutes of evidence, ' that by the
presence of the model vessels fishermen would be enabled to
equip themselves properly for the sea-fishing, but he considers
these vessels necessary for guides, by which any means placed
within reach of the fishermen may be judiciously applied.'

Events had already shown, and were now to prove
even more decisively, that there was some ground for the
apprehension felt by Franklin as to the possibility of his
falling out of the line of Arctic explorers if he sought other
forms of naval employment. When, however, he accepted
his Mediterranean mission, it certainly did not look as if there
were much to be gained by waiting tiU it should please the
Government to despatch another expedition to the Polar
regions. Arctic exploration was distinctly at a discount
at that moment in the official mind. With the return of
Parry's third and most famous expedition in 1827, when he
reached a latitude of 82° 45' and established a * record ' which
was not to be beaten for nearly half a century — that is to say,
not until Sir George Nares's party outdid it by half a degree
in 1875 — the British Government seemed to think th .t they
had done enough for honour. Parry's gallant attempt had
cost a sum of 9,900/., which, though far from excessive, con-
sidered relatively to the splendid results achieved by it, was
yet quite sufficient to chill the exploratory ardour of an
average Chancellor of the Exchequer. No doubt, too, the
British public, always liable to temporary qualms of conscience
as to the value of adventurous enterprises in terms either of

1833

3[()IIK AllOTIC PllOJECTS

226

money or of human life, were not disposed to encourage any
further undertakings of a dangerous and costly kind. After
every great outburst of his maritime spirit John Bull is apt to
fall into the mood of Sindbad and Gulliver, and to vow that
he will never go to sea any more.

It was during one of these periods of reaction that
Franklin had accepted his Mediterranean appointment, and
the years which had elapsed had wrought no change in, at
any rate, the attitude of the Government. On the contrary, it
is natural to suppose that certain memorable incidents of
Arctic adventure in 1829-33 ^^Y have done something to
confirm them in it. But unfortunately for British Govern-
ments, their involuntary relation to this business of exploring
the desolate parts of the earth is, after all, much the same as
their equally involuntary relation to the no less characteris-
tically British activity of penetrating its inhabited but un-
friendly regions. They may discountenance exploring raids
upon Nature as earnestly as they discountenance attempts
to open up territory inhabited by savage tribes ; but in both
cases they are expected to help the adventurers out of a
mess. Thus, when in 1829 Sir Felix Booth fitted out the
Victory and sent out Captain John Ros.s, accompanied by
his afterwards even more famous nephew James, to seek the
North- West Passage, the Government had no means of fore-
seeing that, after a voyage most fruitful in scientific results
and resulting in the discovery of the Magnetic Pole, the
gr" : /essel would be frozen up for no less than three solid
years in its winter quarters, and that they would be called
upon to send, and would send, an expedition to its relief.

Yet so it had been. In the year 1833, just at the close
of Franklin's protracted struggle with Greek heroes at Patras,
the British Government had to despatch a party under the
command of Captain Back, with orders to proceed by the Great
Fi.sh River to the northern shore of Arctic America, whence he
was to endeavour to reach Cape Parry, where it was anticipated
that intelligence of the missing expedition might be obtained.
For it was known that Captain Ross in some rreasure relied for
support, in case of unduly prolonged absence, on the stores

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

OH. xn»

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that had been landed from the Fury when that vessel was
unfortunately wrecked in 1823. The Rosses, however, had
already been picked up, and were being brought home by a
whaler when the search party reached Arctic latitudes ; and
thereupon, in pursuance of his instructions — for, to do the
Government justice, they seem to have thought that, whether
he succeeded in rescuing the Rosses or not, he might as well
do some exploring while he was on the spot — Back proceeded
to trace the course of the Great Fish River, which has since
borne his name as an alternative title, to its mouth. This
work was completed on August 16, 1834, when his expedition
reached its most northerly point on King William Island.

His success did much to rekindle scientific interest in
the survey of ^he Arctic coast of America, and it is not
impossible that the appetite of the Government itself for Polar
discovery may have come to them, according to the French
saying, en mangeant. It is, at any rate, certain that, at the
instance of the Royal Geographical Society, they consented
to attempt the completion of the survey of the North American
coast between Cape Turnagain, Franklin's furthest eastward
from the Coppermine River, and the point reached by Back
from the Great Fish River, which debouches still further to
the east. The connection of these two points would have
completed the exploration of the American coast-line from
Behr-.g Strait to a meridian of longitude which had been
alrv-ndy crossed by Parry travelling westward at a higher
latitude. In other words, it would have caused the eastward
line of exploration from Behring Strait and the westward
line from Baffin's Bay to overlap, and have left nothing but a
gap of some four degrees of latitude to be bridged over in
order to complete the North-West Passage. Considering
that n ore than half of the sixty odd degrees of longitude that
divide Behring Strait from King William's Island had been
explored by the two parties sent out under Franklin's com-
mand in 1 8 19 and 1825, the leader of those expeditions
would seem to have been naturally designated for the duty
and the honour of completing the surve_y . The claims of Back,
however, were at once too strong and too recent to be over-

1836

CRUISE OF THE TERROR

387

Icom-
[tions
[duty-
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looked ; and Back accordingly was selected. A not un-
generous envy of his old comrade's good fortune is, I think,
discoverable in Franklin's correspondence of this period ; and
his feeling in this matter was possibly strengthened by the
fact that, much as he admired Back's high courage and ad-
venturous spirit, he does not seem to have formed an equally
favourable estimate of his abilities as an explorer. It was
wholly foreign, however, to his frank and friendly charac-
ter to cherish either disappointment with respect to the
leadership of the expedition or misgivings as to its results.
When Back sailed from England in the Terror, that strenuous
and indefatigable challenger of Arctic and Antarctic dangers,
he was sped upon his enterprise by no one with a more
cheery enthusiasm than by the former leader who had sus-
tained and been sustained by him fifteen years before in their
deadly struggle with frost and famine in the Barren Lands.

it turned out an ill-fated and fruitless expedition. The
Terror left England on June 24, 1836, but was beset by ice
in Hudson's Strait in the following September, and for the
next ten months drifted helplessly in the pack. When at
last released she was found to have sustained such severe
injuries that all thought of further navigation northward had
to be abandoned, and her head was turned homeward.

Thus Back describes his experiences in a letter to Franklin
of the following year, the opening passages of which give
pleasant testimony to the strong attachment subsisting between
the two men. After warmly congratulating Franklin on his
success in the new sphere cf duty upon which by that time
he had entered, the writer goes on : —

I know that John Barrow informed you of my arrival, after a most
trying time, among the ice, which was so close as to preclude the pos-
sibility of gaining ground, I overtook the Bay ship in the Strait, and,
had it been practicable, would have gone to the south of Southan ">ton
Island ; but there was not the smallest chance, and, therefore, kee^ 15
north, our advance was satisfactory enough until close to Frozen
Strait, There the northern and western ice came down in large floes
and packs, the detached pieces being old and heavy. Finally, we
were frozen in at sea, and for some time were drifted about with the
entire body without much injury ; at length we were nipped, and

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UNWELCOME LEISURE

CH. XII

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subsequently the ice came in masses, throwing up pyramids and
causing a devastation scarcely to be imagined, until long rolling
waves from ten to thirty feet produced such confusion and havoc
that the stern-post and twenty feet of the keel were forced over three
and a half feet to port, the eighteen-inch square beams bent, bulk-
heads fell down, and lastly the ship was pressed upon the surface of
the ice forward. There she suffered for four months and even-
tually got clear from the ice in August, just completing the year from
the day of entering in. Two chain cables were passed across the
ship to keep her together across the Atlantic, and often she was near
sinking. At length she got to Lough Swilly, and the following day
she settled down by the head and was beached. Being patched up,
she was towed round to Chatham and paid off. . . . This ' .siness
has shaken me much.

As well it might. But there was good work left not only
in the future Sir George Back, but in the stout ship which
had struggled home with him, staggering under her wounds,
across a thousand leagues of sea. The Terror was refitted
and, as all the world knows, made ready for further exploring
service. Two more journeys was the gallant ship to make
to the two opposite poles of the world before the end of her
days ; nor till she had seen the midnight sun shining in mid-
winter on the icebergs of a new continent in the furthest
southern waters was she to take her last voyage northward
and leave her tough old bones in the Arctic pack.

-•*» UBiii

1836

229

CHAPTER XIII

A NEW Al'I'OINTMKNT
1836

No doubt it was the feeling of having dropped out of the h'nc
of explorers that lent an additional stimulus to Franklin's
desire for active service in some other form. A year cr a
year and a half ashore was always a sufficient spell of the
landsman's life for him. Early in 1836 we find him stirred
by the same longing after some outlet for his restless energies
that had agitated him so often at former periods of his
career. In these quiet times, however, and with his favourite
avenue of adventure closed to him, he no doubt felt it vain to
hope for any opportunity for service afloat, and it was in a
spirit of complete readiness for official employment of any
sort that he now proceeded to address the Governm.cnt.

His claim to what he sought from them was undoubtedly
strong. Even those who have followed his career thus far in
these pages will perhaps hardly realise how strong it was
until they see his many and varied services brought together
in a concise statement, such as is embodied in the following
formal application from him to the Board of Admiralty: —

I entered H.M. service in October 1800 on board the Polyphemus
(64), Captain (now Admiral) Lawford, and was in that ship in the
battle of Copenhagen, 1801. I soon afterwards joined the Investi-
gator, Captain Flinders, and was employed for the greater part of the
three following years in the survey of the coast of Australia. On
that ship being condemned as unfit for the further prosecution of
that service, I was sent with the officers and crew into the Porpoise,
Lieutenant (now Captain) Fowler, late the first lieutenant of the Investi-
gator. That ship and another being wrecked in company on a coral
reef on the east coast of New Holland, their united crews, consisting
of ninety-four persons, had to remain upwards of eight weeks on a
desolate bank of coral, not of greater circuit than a quarter of a mile,

ill

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A Ni:\V AITOINTMKNT

oil. XIII.

subsisting on the provisions obtained by great exertions from the
wreck of the Porpoise, ("aptain Minders returned to Port Jackson,
upwards of six hundred miles, in an open boat, and, having freighted
a merchant vessel, brought her to our relief, and also a schooner, in
which he i)roceeded to the Isle of France. I accompanied Mr.
Fowler and the crew in the merchant vessel lo Canton, where we
were distributed among the different liast India ships for a [)assage
to England. 1 had the good fortune of having continued with my
commander on board the ICarl Camden, Cai)tain Davies, and was
appointed to the charge of the signals on the occasion of the East
India Fleet beating off the scjuadron of Admiral Linois, which was
lying in wait to intercept the fleet on its homeward passage.

On my arrival in England I joined the liellerophon (74), ur (*?r
the command of Captain Loring, and waj employed in the Channel
Fleet, and, secondly, of Captain Cooke, who was killed in the battle of
Trafalgar, in which action I was entrusted with the responsible charge
of the signal depaicment on board the Hellerophon. In the year 1807
I joined the JJedford (Captain the late Rear-Admiral Walker), and
in a month afterwards was promoted to be acting lieutenant of
the ship on the occasion of the royal family of Portugal embarking
for the Brazils, whither the Bedford accompanied them. I was con-
firmed a lieutenant in February 1808, and remained in the same ship
on the Brazil station upwards of two and a hall years ; then on the
North Sea station ; and had the honour of being in the Bedford when
she formed one of the scjuadron under the conmiand of His present
Majesty when the Allied Sovereigns were escorted by H.R.H. the
Duke of Clarence to this country.

On the conclusion of the war the Bedford was despatched with
other ships of war to convey troops for the attack on New Orleans,
and on the occasion of the capture of the American gunboats on Lac
Borgne I commanded the boats of the Bedford, and was so fortunate
as to be the first person on board one of their vessels. I received a
wound on this service. I was subsequently employed for nine weeks
in the boats and with the army on shore, and had the gratification
of being mentioned in the official despatches of General Lambert.

The day the Bedford was put out of commission I was appointed
first lieutenar' of the Forth (48), then ready to convey H.R.H. the
Duchesse d'Angouleme to France, and remained in tha< ship till she
was put out of commission.

My next appointment was to the command of the Trent, as second
to Captain Buchan, who was sent to attempt the Pole by steering
directly north between Greenland and Spitzbergen, and I afterwards
had the honour of commanding two expeditions by land to the Polar
Sea, which gave me full occupation from 1819 to the close of 1827.
At the close of this service I was honoured by having a knighthood
conferred on me by His late Majesty.

,,|i»».v

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AI'l'LIES FOU EMPLOYMENT

981

In 1830 I had the gratification of being appointed to the com-
mand of the Rainbow, and was en^jloyed upwards of three years in
the Mediterranean, under the command of Sir Pulteney Malcolm and
the late Sir Henry Hothani, during the whole of which, except about
two months, 1 had the honour of being entrusted by these dis-
tinguished officers with a detailed command. To one of these ser-
vices I may be permitted perhaps more particularly to allude, on
account of the importance attached by Sir H. Hotham to the care-
ful execution of his orders, and because I know that the Admiral
transmitted the whole of my correspondence connected with this
service to the Admiralty, with repeated testimonies of his own appro-
bation at my conduct, which documents are now either at the
Admiralty or the Foreign Office. 1 mean the being stationed before
J'atras for eleven months as senior officer of the allied vessels while
the garrison was held by an insurgent force, which at length I had
the happiness of seeing delivered over to the troops of the King of
(Ireece. This service procured for me the official approbation of the
Admiralty, notified through my Commander-in-Chief, as well as letters
of thanks from the British Consul and the Agent of Lloyd's, ond the
honour of the Golden Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, which
was sent me after my return to England by His Majesty King Otho.

There seem.s an undesigned touch of the ironical in
Franklin'.s observation that the official documents recording
the commendations of his superior officers arc now ' either at
the Admiralty or the Foreign Office.' Much the same difficulty
as attends the tracing of such testimonies to their depart-
mental depositary has often before this been experienced in
finding the recognition which it is hoped that these eulogies
may insure. Governments are always officially grateful for
services rendered to the State ; but the trouble with many
deserving public servants is to discover the department — or it
may be the pigeon-hole — in which that sentiment is kept.

Searches in the present instance seem to have been
successfully instituted, and the ministerial gratitude was dis-
covered. Indeed, in the .spring of 1836 it had already begun
to dawn upon the then Government that a naval officer of
high distinction and proved ability had been for three years
condemned to ' rust unburnished,' while the strongest desire
of his heart was, now as ever, to * shine in use.' The Colonial
Office was, it seems, the first department to open its eyes, and
its authorities then at once proceeded in thoroughly character-

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A NEW ArPOlNTMENT

cir. xiii.

istic official fashion to asce'-tain what was the most unim-
portant post that the aforesaid distinguished officer could
be prevailed upon tc accept. Accordingly, the following
correspondence passed b ^wcen the Colonial Secretary, Loi i
Glenelg, and Sir John Franklin : —

Colonial Office : March 19, 1830.

Dea*- Sir, —I request to know if you retain the inclination which
you once expressed to accept of some colonial ofnce. The Govern-
ment of Antigua is now vacant, and if it should suit your views, I
should have great pleasure in placing your name before His Majesty.

I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

Glenelg.

The reply of Franklin is notable for the homely simplicity
with which he admits obligations to a counsellor whom a false
pride might have prevented too many men in those days from
acknowledging : —

My Lord, — I cannot sufficiently thank your Lordship for the very
kind manner in v.-hich you have noticed the conversation I had the
honour of having with you on the subject of some colonial appoint-
ment, and I feel much flattered and gratified by the offer your Lord-
ship has been pleased to make me of the Governorship of Antigua ;
but, as Lady Franklin is out of town, I will venture to defer giving
my answer for a few days, till I have had the opportunity of con-
sulting her.

I have the honour to be

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

John Franklin.

Such a consultation was likely to have but one result. It
is true that the great self-governing British colonies of our
own time had not in those days risen into that importance
which now dwarfs all our colonial possessions by com-
parison ; but even in the fourth decade of the present century
Antigua must have held quite a third-rate position among the
dominions of the Empire. Nowadays it does not even furnish
a governorship to the Official List. Although the seat of
government and residence of the Governor of the Leeward
Islands, it is itself merely one of the ' Presidencies ' of that
r;rcup, and its President holds the office in commendam, so to
speak, with the colonial secretaryship of the Islands, at an

1836

AN OFFER DECLINED

233

addition of only 50/. a year to his official salary in the last-
mentioned capacity. In 1836 it was assuredly no great catch
for an officer of Franklin's distinction, as indeed he subse-
quently pointed out with his usual sailor-like bluntness to the
Colonial Secretary himself.

Lady Franklin was against acceptance of the offer, and all
the official acquaintances whom he consulted on the subject,
among whom was his intimate and valued friend Captain
Beaufort, the well-known Hydrographcr to the Admiralty,
concurred in her opinion. It was a lieutenant-governorship
not in direct correspondence with the Colonial Office, and the
salary, 1,200/. a year, was inadequate, Franklin was assured by
those well acquainted with Antigua, to the social requirements
of the position. Captain Beaufort, to whom Lady Franklin's
letter of advice was shown by her husband, described it as
' the letter of a woman of most excellent sense, judgment, and
feeling ; ' and added that, if he had ever entertained the least
doubt as to the advisability of declining the appointment as
soon as he knew that it was only a lieutenant-governorship,
that letter would have decided him. He recommended his
friend at once to call on the Colonial Secretary and lay before
him the considerations which compelled a refusal of his offer.
On this advice Franklin acted in the characteristic fashion
described as follows in a letter to his wife : —

Accordingly, I went to Lord Glenelg (who received me with much
cordiality), and began by saying that the gratitude I owed him, and
the desire I had on every account to accept his kind offer, had made
me take the time for consideration which I had done, and that it
was with regret that the information I had gained had led me to the
decision I should have to convey to him. I mentioned the inade-
(luacy of the salary for keeping up the station as I should feel it my
duty to do. He said he was aware of this inadequacy, and expressed
his regret at being unable to improve it. I assured him, '.lowever,
that this was by no means a primary consideration with me, and
that I was even prepared to spend a part of my private income in
this service (and that, too, with your consent) if other circumstances
had been equally favourable in the appointment ; but that the point
upon which my decision had rested was the not having to com-
municate with the Colonial Office directly, and that every official
communication of mine must go through the Governor, which Lord

t »• »

''ii li

:;;l!' '

234

A NEW ArPOINTxMENT

CH. XIII.

iS *

4!'

Glenelg admitted was the case. I had been accustomed, I told him,
to holding positions of responsibility and command, and I mentioned
the duties entrusted to me during my station in the Mediterranean ;
and I trusted that he would not consider me presuming in thinking,
as did also many of my brother-officers, that I ought, in justice to
my professional reputation and character, to look to some more
responsible appointment than that of lieutenant-governor of an island
where the chief could by any means, at any time, in six or eight
hours, come in person to direct the affairs if he chose to do so.
This seemed, I said, to be little more than being first lieutenant of a
ship of the line. -

The candour and straightforwardness of this behaviour
had a good effect. ' Depend upon it,' said Captain Beaufort,
when infornied of what had passed, 'you have taken a
step that will increase Lord Glenelg's respect and regard for
you ; ' and the observation was speedily confirmed. Little
more than a fortnight after this interview, Franklin received
the offer of the governorship of Van Diemen's Land.

The terms in which it was conveyed were most flattering,
and the dignity, independence, and amenities of the post gave
it so marked a superiority over that which had been previously
offered him, that Franklin felt he had no choice but to accept
it. If anything could have made him hesitate, it would have
been the doubt whether acceptance would definitely cut him
off from naval employment in the future ; and on this point
Captain Beaufort reassured him in convincing if colloquial
language. ' As for the idea,' he said, ' that the Admiralty might
consider you as put on the shelf by accepting this appoint-
ment, depend upon it that is " all my eye." You may rely on
their being glad to employ you later if you wished and they
have a ship to give.'

The following letter from Dr. Arnold, whose acquaintance
Franklin had made through the Stanleys, the family of the
young ofificcr who had served under him in the Rainbow, de-
.scrves quotation as showing how high an estimate of Franklin
had been formed by men as appreciative of the moral aspects
of character as the famous Head-master of Rugby : —

Rugby: May I, 1836.
My dear Sir, — As Mrs. Stanley is going in a day or two to London,
and is likely soon to see you, I avail myself of the opportunity to offer

I' 1 I

XIII.

1836

LETTERS FROM DR. ARNOLD

235

Itance
If the
de-
Inklin
Ipects

you my congratulations on your appointment to the governorship
of Van Diemen's I^nd. I am not so sure, however, how far this
appointment may be a subject of congratulation to yourself, as I am
sure that it is to the settlement and to the public service ; and, feel-
ing as I do the immense importance of infusing good elements irto
an infant society, it is to me a matter of most sincere rejoicing that a
growing settlement like Van Diemen's Land will have the benefit of
your management and character. But I am told that the climate
and the country are agreeable, so that I hope that neither yourself
nor Lady Franklin will dislike your new situation. Mrs. Arnold unites
with me in the kindest remembrances to Lady Franklin, and in every
good wish to you both for your health and happiness.

And a couple of months later an offer from Franklin to
find some colonial employment for two of Dr. Arnold's sons
drew from him the following letter, valuable not only for its
characteristic expression of the writer's general views of life,
but for the new light which it throws upon his inclinations
with regard to his own future : —

The business part of your letter I attended to immediately by
writing at once to say that I should have much pleasure in receiving
your nephew after the Christmas holidays. ... I delight to receive
boys of good character and promise, and yet the pleasure is ningled
with a proportion of anxiety ; for of all the painful things connected
with my employment nothing is equal to the grief of seeing a boy
come to school innocent and promising, and tracing the corruption
of his character to the influence of the temptations around him in the
very place which ought to have strengthened and improved it. And
yet this doc:s happen sometimes, though certainly in most cases those
who come to si iiool with a character of positive good are improved
and benefited. It is the neutral and indecisive characters which are
at to be decided by the temptations of school — as they would be,
in ict, by any other temptations.

\nd now let me thank you most heartily for your truly kind offer
with regard to .ny boys. I shall be truly thankful to be allowed to
bear it in mind as my younger boys grow up ; and if either of them
were disposed to try his fortune in a new settlement, it would be an
unspeakable comfort to me to be able to send him to Van Diemen's
Land while you were Governor, and to recommend him to your kind-
ness and to Lady Franklin.

But I sometimes think that if the Government would make me a
l)ishop or the principal of a college or a school, or both together, in
such a place as Van Diemen's Land, and during your government, I
could be tempted to emigrate with all my family for good and all.

!i'^

III

,. I -i

v^"

23G

A NEW APPOINTMENT

cu. xiir.

There can be, I think, no more useful, no more sacred task than
assisting in forming the moral and intellectual character of a new
society. It is the surest and best kind of missionary labour ; but
our colonial society has been in general so Jacobinical in the truest
sense of the word — that is, every man has lived so much to and for
himself, and the bonds of law and religion have been so little acknow-
ledged as the great sanctions and securities of society— that one shrinks
from bringing up one's children where they must in all human proba-
bihty become lowered, not in rank or fortune, but in what is infinitely
more important — in the intellectual and moral and religious standard by
which their lives would be guided. . . . Feeling this, and holding our
West Indian Colonies to be one of the worst stains on the moral history
of mankind, a convict colony seems to me to be even more shocking
and more monstrous in its very conception. I do not know to what
extent Van Diemen's Land is so ; but I am sure that no such evil
can be done to mankind as by this sowing with rotten seed and
raising up a nation morally tainted in its very origin. Compared
with this, the bloodiest exterminations ever effected by conquest were
useful and good actions. If they will colonise with convicts, I am
satisfied that the stain should last not only for one whole life, but for
more than one generation ; that no convict or convict's child should
ever be a free citizen, and that even in the third generation the offspring
should be excluded from all offices of honour or authority in the colony.
This would be complained of as unjust and invidious ; but I am sure
that distinctions of moral breed are as natural and as just as those of
skin or of arbitrary caste are wrong and mischievous. It is a law of
God's Providence which we cannot alter, that the sins of the father
are really visited upon the child in the corruption of his breed and
in the rendering impossible many of those feelings which are the
greatest security to a child against evil.

Forgive me for all this, but it really is a happiness to me to think
of you in Van Diemen's Land, where you will be, I know, not in name,
nor in form, but in deed and in spirit, the best and chief missionary.
My wife joins me in kindest, may I venture to say in most affectionate,
good wishes to yourself and Lady Franklin.

Nothing, perhaps, could better illustrate the peculiar
hardness of the philosophic Radicalism of that day than the
views of this excellent and most kind-hearted man on the
subject of the * convict's stain.' The very same political creed
which led some of those who held it into excesses of mawkish
sentimentalism on questions of penal discipline was capable,
in a mind like Arnold's, of begetting a theory of hereditary
contamination which as regards its shock, both to the reason

Jbm

to think

name,

sionary.

Itionate,

1836

A COUNTY DINNER

237

and the sympathies, might compare fitly with the strictest
caste rules of the Hindoo. This tendency, however, of his
particular school of thought has perhaps been observed before.
To LhcGe who have noted it, it will be of more interest to
learn that even in 1836, only six years from his lamented
death. Dr. Arnold could look longingly from his work at
Rugby to a colonial bishopric.

Among the congratulations which poured in upon
Franklin on his appointment to the governorship of Van
Diemcn's Land was one to which he attached a value that
the people of other countries would no doubt find some diffi-
culty in understanding. The county is to the English-
man much what the clan is to the Scotchman, and the
sentiment of * local patriotism,' so to speak, which the one
is capable of inspiring is no inadequate substitute for the
feeling of tribal unity which is the strength of the other.
Next to the approval of his Sovereign and his country, and
not so very far behind it, the typical Englishman of the
provinces will usually rate the applause of his county ; and
the strength of this feeling came out quaintly enough in
Franklin's acknowledgment of that traditional compliment,
the public dinner given in his honour by his Lincolnshire
brethren. The occasion was in one respect convenient, for
Franklin was at the time staying in the county for the
purpose of being present at the wedding of his niece, Miss
Louisa Selwood, to the Rev. Charles (Tennyson) Turner, who,
he writes, ' is described to me as being very good in temper
and disposition,' and whose ' two brothers, the eldest and
the third, Alfred (the poet), dine here to-daj , and also the
eldest sister, as being very desirous to make my acquaint-
ance.'

On June 1 1 the complimentary dinner came off at Horn-
castle. ' I felt very nervous in the forenoon,' says Franklin,
to whom no doubt the anticipation of returning thanks was
far more discomposing than the prospect of a battle with an
Arctic gale, ' but this passed off before I had to make my
speech, which I can assure you was very favourably received.
I had also,' he adds, ' to return thanks for you (Lady Franklin)

V 1

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238

A NEW APPOINTxMENT

CH. XITT

on your health being drunk, and for Dr. Richardson and
Hepburn and Back. Great enthusiasm was shown. There
was a large proportion of clergymen, with the Archdeacon at
their he;(d. The bells were ringing most of the day. Boys
and girls had a holiday, and in the evening there was a grand
display of fireworks. The latter, however,* he continues
with amusing scrupulousness, ' was accidental, that evening
having been previously fixed upon by the exhibitor.' Spilsby,
his native town, had not associated itself with this tribute, its
inhabitants preferring, instead of going to the dinner, to
subscribe for a piece of plate, which was duly presented to
their distinguished fellow-townsman, and by him duly ac-
knowledged.

The sturdy local patriotism which animated him found
characteristic expression in his reply to the toast of his health.
No one evidently would have more warmly repudiated the
description so repeatedly given of his native county by
that well-known authority. Master Roger Wildrake, of
Squattlesea Mere, as ' the moist county ' of Lincoln. ' Some
say,' exclaimed Franklin, that ' it is a county of fens ; he
would tell them to look at its fertile fields, to view its flocks,
its crops of grain, and its general character ; and, even with
respect to the fens, what a mighty triumph had science and
industry achieved in their drainage ! Lincolnshire men,' he
continued, ' were frequently called web-footed ; he had no
objection to be called web-footed; but let him ask them
in what county would they find richer fields or richer crops,
landlords more generally residing on their properties, the
tenantry more respectable and intelligent, and the labourers
more comfortable and contented .■• '

The same note was struck with even more decision by
the speaker to whom it fell to propose the toast of ' Prosperity
and Success to Van Diemen's Land.' There was another
quality of the county besides its fertility, to wit its salubrity.
It had to be shown that it could grow men and women as
well as cereals. It had been said, remarked the Rev. J. B.
Smith, that 'because of its damps and fens Lincolnshire was
an unhealthy county — that it is a sickly clime wherein health

'*m

1836

A COUNTY ORATOR

crops,
the

on by
perity
nother
ibrity.
en as

J. B.
e was

ealth

withers and energies decay. In short, I verily beh'eve in the
opinion of some, and those, too, of rank and education, that to
settle in Lincolnshire would be tantamount to coming to a
premature grave.' A glance at the vital statistics of the
county was sufficient, he held, to refute this groundless
aspersion, and the reverend orator then went on to deal with
the still graver charge that the minds as well as the bodies of
Lincolnshire men were apt to undergo deterioration, that ' our
mental energies are blunted and stunted in their growth here
in the foggy Boeotia of England— that, in point of fact, we are
half a century behind the rest of our country in intellectual
advancement.' But how stood the case ? With a good
county history before him any one could almost complete the
speech from this familiar outline for himself, ' To whom are
we indebted for the invention of the chronometer? Gentle-
men, it was Lincolnshire Harrison — Harrison of Barrow.
Or again, in the department of natural history, where shall
we look for a more splendid name than that of the late Sir
Joseph Banks, whose persevering genius won its way to the
proud distinction of President of the Royal Society ? He, too,
gentlemen, was a native of the Bceotian clime of Lincoln-
shire. Or if,' continued Mr. Smith, artfully preparing his
climax, ' we look to the department of astronomy, that noble
science, which affords ample scope for the most enlarged
capacity, the most gigantic intellect — who, we ask, was the
master genius before which all others bowed and acknow-
ledged the prince of science } Who, gentlemen, but the
immortal Newton — Newton, whose name will last as long as
the sun and moon endure ; and need I say, gentlemen, that
Sir Isaac Newton was a Lincolnshire man } (Tremendous
cheering, lasting some minutes).'

Dry, fertile, healthy above the average of English
counties, and pre-eminent over all of them as the mother of
illustrious sons, such was Lincolnshire by the time the
dinner party at Horncastle broke up, and such, we are glad
to think, is the character which could be as triumphantly
vindicated for every county in England whose inhabitants
meet together on any convivial occasion to sing the praises

:( \

t>40

A NEW APPOINTMENT

CH. XIII.

v.ai

:' I

of their home. Smile as we may, and indeed must, at some
of the more effusive manifestations of this sentiment, it is one
on the prevalence and force of which we cannot but congra-
tulate ourselves. After all, the debt of national to local
patriotism is not inconsiderable.

A sheaf of friendly communications poured in on the new
Governor of Van Dicmen's Land during the months imme-
diately preceding his departure. One might almost think
that everybody of Franklin's kcquaintance, besides a good
many who were merely acquainted with his acquaintances,
had a son or a brother or a nephew to place in the colony,
for whom it was desirable to solicit the good offices of its
future administrator. It was impossible, of course, that he
could comply with all the requests made to him, though his
good-nature made him desirous of serving as many people
as he could ; and in some few instances, no doubt, the service
was reciprocal.

Such reciprocity Franklin had reason to hope for in the
case of the gentleman who had been recommended to him
for the office of private secretary, and whom, as is shown in
his correspondence with Lady Franklin immediately after his
appointment, he took special pains to secure. But we shall
hear more of Captain Mackonochie later oh.

At length the day for their departure came, and in the
late autumn of 1836 the Franklins took their last farewell of
their friends, and set out in the Fairlie for their new home in
the Southern Hemisphere.

Franklin's reputation had preceded him, and there was no
doubt more than the average sincerity in the sentiments
which found expression in the colonial addresses presented
to him on his arrival. Certainly no administration could
have commenced to all appearance under fairer auspices. It
remains only to trace the history of the untoward events by
which this hopeful prospect was so soon to be overcast.

1836

241

CHAPTER XIV

TASMANIA
I 836- I 842

The island of Tasmania, then and for some years afterwards
known as Van Diemen's Land, was the first of our separate
Australasian colonies to be ' shed ' by the parent settlement
of New South Wales. Tasman, its Dutch discoverer, first
sighted it in December 1642, and he it was who encumbered
it with its original name out of compliment to his patron,
then Governor-General of the Dutch possessions in Batavia.
Until 1798 it had been regarded as an integral portion of
what was then called New Holland, but in that year Flinders
discovered and sailed through the strait which divides it
from the Australian continent, and named it aftc»- ^is fellow
voyager. Dr. Bass. On September 12, 1803 — during those
very six weeks which the midshipman destined afterwards to
be its Governor was spending with his shipwrecked mess-
mates on the reef — the first settlement of the island was made
by Lieut:jnant Bowen, acting under instructions from Governor
King, of New South Wales. Like all the earlier of our Aus-
tralasian settlements, it was planted in the first instance with
an eye to the convict rather than to the colonist, and for two-
and-twenty years its administration for penal and other pur-
poses was conducted from Sydney. In 1825, however, it was
definitely severed from New South Wales, and erected into
a separate colony. Colonel (afterwards the distinguished Sir
George) Arthur being appointed its first Lieutenant-Governor.
The period of eleven years which elapsed between this
appointment and Franklin's .succession was fruitful in the
creation of difficulties for the second occupant of the post.
It v/as comparatively easy to manage the island as a convict

III!

WiM

242

TASMANIA

OH. XIT.

5 i ' i

'Ml t i.

settlement ; to govern it as a home of free settlers, and that,
too, at such a time of national ferment as was the decade
following on the Reform Act of 1832, was altogether another
matter. Between 1825 and 1837 the stir of new ideas, philan-
thropic and others, had created a strong and growing feeling
against the punishment of transportation, and the sht.rp con-
flict in which the mother country was destined to be involved
with its Australian Colonies might already have been almost
foreseen.

But the political troubles which were brewing for the new
Lieutenant-Governor were insignificant in comparison with
those of a private nature. Tasmania under the administra-
tion of Franklin's predecessor had become a seething cauldron
of personal animosities and quarrels. It is, of course, un ea.sy
matter to assume in all cases of this kind that the Governor
is to blame ; but such an assumption is not to be entertained
in the pres( ' instance without special risk of injustice. The
experience o, his successor, a man differing widely from
him in many important points of temperament and demean-
our, goes far to show that the fault lay much more with
colonial society than its rulers. Colonel Arthur's manners
are said to have been too reserved ; Franklin's were certainly
the reverse. The former, if we may trust a fairly impartial
colonial critic, ' avowed hostility to liberal ideas.' The latter,
though a Tory, as we have seen, in his politics, showed,
at any rate at the commencement of his administration, a dis-
tinct leaning towards popular principles of government. On
the whole, it seems eminently probable that even if the home
Government of the day had been fortunate enough to find a
Governor who combined the highest virtues of the Christian
with the profoundest sagacity of the statesman and the most
consummate tact of the man of the world, that paragon would,
long before his official time had expired, have found himself
by the ears with one or more of the cliques into which the
hungry, jealous, self-seeking, and essentially parochial society
of Tasmania, like that of most infant colonies, was divided.

If anything had been wanting to foment the petty passions
of the community and to stir up strife among them, it would

182C-3fl

TASMANIAN JOIUNALISM

243

have been found in the rapid rise and prop;ress after the
separation of Tasmania from New South Wales of its local
press. When Arthur arrived to assume the governorship of
the colony, Hobart Town, its capital, boasted but two perio-
dical prints ; bcforche quitted office their number had risen to

ilf

over nail a dozen, and he had become embroiled with them
all. One knows what the journalistic style even of the
mother country was like in the late twenties and early
thirties ; or those who do not know may prepare startling
moments for themselves by consulting a file for that period
of any of the most staid and dignified ' dailies ' of the present
time. Add a dash of the colonial vivacity to the editorial
style of the early century, and it may easily be imagined that
the resulting journalism becomes sufficiently remarkable.
Tin- Howcrs of its rhetoric were harmless enough. ' We
esteem ourselves a beacon (capital letters) placed by Divine
graciousness on the awfully perilous coast of human frailty.
We contemplate ourselves as the winnov/ers (capital letters)
for the public. We desire to encourage the cloudless flames
of rectified communion, rejecting each effusion, however
splendid, of degenerate curiosity and perverted genius, of
misanthrophic {sic) ascerbity {sic) and calumnious retrospec-
tion.' When, on the other hand, the Tasmanian journalist
wished to pelt an enemy with something harder than flowers,
this was the style : ' I charge Mr. A., late overseer of the
Government farm, with stealing or embezzling a quantity of
hay, the property of the Crown ; and one J. B., the overseer of
Colonel Arthur's farm at the Marsh, with receiving the hay.
I al.so charge Mr. X., late superintendent of the Government
garden, with embezzling, and Captain Y. with receiving, four
Norfolk pines, value 20/., the proj^erty of the Crown. I have
another distinct charge against Captain Y. and one against
Captain Z. for stealing or receiving certain building material,
the property of the Crown.'

Thus did Tasmanian journalism treat human vessels
wrecked or alleged to have been wrecked on that ' awfully
perilous coast of human fra.'lty,' from which its beacon had
failed to warn them. The specimens are taken from Mr.

R 2

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244

TASMANIA.

OH. ZIV.

Ii /

John West's brightly written and well-informed 'History of
Tasmania,' and there is much quiet humour in the author's
explanation of these jimrnalistic excesses. 'The violence of
periodical writings resulted partly/ he says, ' from the paucity
of topics, and was mainly a necessity of trade. The limited
field of discussion huddled all disputes into a squabble. The
writers could not forget the names of their antagonists ; they
espoused with vehement zeal the trivial quarrels of this or
that functionary. Officers who were dismissed supplied
anecdotes of those left behind which were worked up in every
form. The want of ideas and information would have with-
drawn many writers from the combat had they not possessed
CAPITALS, exclamat'ons (! ! !) and dashes ( — ), officered by
epithets of horror, as an army of reserve. These attempts to
impart energy to weakness and terror to insignificance gave
to the articles of many old newspapers the aspect of auction
bills rather than political disquisitions.'

Ignorance animated by self-interest and disguised by typo-
graphy : such was the prevailing note of Tasmanian journalism
at this period. And for the play of self-interest there was here^
as in all new societies, abundant room. There were few men
who had not still their fortunes to make, or were above compet-
ing for official help to the making of them. Every man might
claim or forfeit benefits that the Government could bestow,
and thus there were multitudes who suffered from those un-
satisfied expectations which so easily assume the shape of
personal grievances. A grant of land desired by one man is
given to another ; a valuable convict servant is denied to this
applicant and assigned to that. Here a trader complains
that his mercantile tenders are always rejected, while some
commercial rival mysteriously engrosses the custom of the
Crown. There some youthful stranger is invested with the
honour of a justice of the peace, while colonists of long
standing are passed over.

The accusation of favouritism was in those days a con-
stantly reiterated charge against colonial Governors. Its
popularity is not surprising for the simple reason that it is a
charge which establishes itself. To convict a Governor of ap-

I I

1826-36

A llOTliED OF DISPUTE

346

pointing none but friends or dependents to public offices is an
c.isytask to those who know how to set about it. The accuser
has only to point out that the very fact of any man's appoint-
ment by the Governor to a public office proves him to have
been either a dependent or a friend. The reproach of
nepotism is of more limited application ; for even though the
dispenser of patronage may not be one of those ' kinless loons '
of Englishmen who provoked the contempt of the seventeenth-
century Scot, yet the number of every man's relations is
necessarily finite. If, however, H" is of those who decline to
disqualify an otherwise eligible candidate for office on the mere
ground of consanguinity with himself, he must certainly be
prepared for attack. On neither of these grounds had the
late Governor escaped it. His enemies had accused him of
filling vacant places with his friends ; and the undoubted
ability of two officials whom he left behind him on his retire-
ment in high appointments, was not permitted by his de-
tractors to excuse the fact that they were his relatives.
The attacks upon him increased in animosity until the news
arrived that he was to be recalled, the Colonial Secretary
informing him that the Crown, having allowed him to re-
tain his office for the unusual period of twelve years, now
intended to name his successor. Upon this the virulence
of his enemies .somewhat abated ; but the half-hearted re-
cantations which follow when the object of men's abuse is
about to lay aside all power to help or harm are not worth
much. The retiring Governor was acclaimed by many on his
departure, but signs of hostility mingled with the demonstra-
tion ; and no one who knew the state of society in the colony
could haVe doubted that, had any unforeseen circumstance
restored him to his post, the smouldering ashes of quarrel
would have again burst forth into flame.

Such was the hotbed of dispute in which Sir John
Franklin was about to fix his official abode. His nomination
of course was highly acceptable to the colony ; his profession,
career, and character being alike regarded as auspicious.
His achievements and sufferings as an explorer were of course
well known to the colonists ; and they could not but have felt

i*\'.

246

TASMANIA

CII. XIV.

Ml/.

it as gratifying to their local patriotism.^as well as carrying
with it a touch of rorriance, that a man whose name was
associated witl' Australian Hiscovery, and who was actually
in those regions wlicn the first party left Sydney to colonise
their island, should have been selected for its Governor. His
reception accordingly was enthusiastic. Crowds gathered
everywhere to greet him, and on his entry into Launceston^
the second town of the colony in point of importance, he was
escorted by 300 horsemen and seventy carriages. Compli-
mentary addresses poured in from every district ; and the
hearty frankness of the new Governor's replies was con-
trasted with the official coldness ascribed to his prede-
cessor.

Misled by these delusive signs of peace and harmony,
Franklin took a steo which, though eminently natural and
creditable to his generosity of character, was destined to sow
••he seeds of future trouble. Having sent home, as he felt it
his duty to do, a highly favourable report of the state of the
colony and the disposition of its inhabitants, he received
from the Colonial Secretary a reply expressing satisfaction at
r.uch a confirmation of his estimate of Franklin's predecessor.
This despatch Franklin laid on the table at the mext meeting
of his Legislative Council, and drew up a minute of his own
expressing his concurrence with Lord Glenelg's high opinion
of Colonel Arthur's services.

That was enough for the Opposition. The late Governor
had, as has been already noted, left two nephews behind him
in official posts. Captain Matthew Forster was chief Police
Magistrate, and Captain Montagu, a man of marked ability
and destined to play a chief part in the embittered conflicts
of the future, filled the .still more important office of Colonial
Secretary. Even if Franklin had distrusted them, which for
a man of his open and candid nature was impossible, he would
have had no choice but to accept them as coadjutors. But that,
with the two nephews at his side, he should have pronounced
a culogmm on the uncle, was a circumstance from which no
thorough- going opponent of the late Governor was willing to
draw any conclusion but one. It was clear to an enlightened

\ ■'

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1837

A GENIAL bPEECII

247

press that Franklin was about to become, if indeed he were
not already, a mere tool in the hands of the ' Arthur faction.'
If any confirmation of this suspicion were needed, it was
surely to be found in the monstrous fact that the new
Governor did not immediately reverse all the acts of his pre-
decessor. Colonists aggrieved by the late Governor appealed
to his successor for redress, and whenever Franklin discovered
that they had no equitable claim, and that in fact Colonel
Arthur's decision had been just and deserved to be ui^held,
he actually die not hesitate to uphold it. "vhat could be
clearer proof that the policy of the uncle survived in the
nephews, and that it was to their insidious influence that the
appellant owed the rejection of his appeal ?

But even before these unworthy suspicions had attained
to anythin<T like their subsequent growth, it had already
dawned upon Franklin that Van Diernen's Land was not
exactly the spiritual Agapemone which at a first glance it
had appeared,

' In answer,' records Mr. West, ' to an address from Rich-
mond which deplored the absence and invoked the restoration
of social peace, he expressed his anxiety with touching
ardour : " With my whole h jart I agree with you. Let us be
divided, then, if we cannot be united, in political .-sentiments,
yet knit to^i^ether as friends and neighbours in everything be-
side. Let us differ where honest men 'nay differ ; and let us
agree not in undervaluing the points of political dissent, but
in respecting the motive which may produce it, in cherishing
domestic virtues which will be found to characterise indivi-
duals of every party, and in making the generous sacrifice of
private feelings for the general good, rather than aggravating
the importance of grievances which must render such forbear-
ance impossible." These sentiments, not less charming for
their amiable spirit than happy in expression, are important
as maxims of political life, and they depict the main diffi-
culty of the Governor's position.'

They do more ; for it may here be added, though it would
be anticipating the course of this narrative to awell upon the
point at any length, that the wisdom and geniality of these

i i-'"i#.

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248

TASMANIA

CH. zrv.

ill

i ilj

spntiments on the part of the new Governor only deepen the
perplexity which the untoward course and issue of his six
years' administration can hardly fail to produce in the mind
of the impartial student, and which must always leave its
explanation to some extent a matter of conjecture. The diffi-
c'llties of the situation have already been indicated ; but one
I .^ht have thought that, serious as they were, they could not
but be smoothed away or brushed aside by a hand at once so
firm and gentle as that which had now grasped the reins of
colonial administration.

Franklin himself was, at any rate, as full of hope in these
early days of his career as throughout he was full of zeal.
Writing to congratulate Captain Cumby on a naval appoint-
ment which had just been conferred upon him : —

I am glad (he says) to have my thoughts turned once more to-
ward ships and the course of my profession, in which my heart
delighteth. I begin, however, to find my present duties more con-
genial to my taste than I expected they would have so soon become ,
and if it were not that I have to deal with subjects of saoh a discor-
dant character, and with persons who have no common ground of
action, and, therefore, each pursuing his individual interests, <^^here
would be much in my duty that would prove highly agreeable. You
will not, perhaps, be surprised that the management of the convict
discipline is not considered by me as the most unpleasant part of my
task, in consequence of it having been reduced to a system by my
predecessor, which, though not altogether unexceptionable, cannot
be easily amended, and works to the effect of giving security to pro-
perty and an appearance of decorum even beyond what you find in
most large towns in our own country. The most irksome part of my
task is to adjust the various claims of settlers respecting the measure-
ment of their lands, the tracing out of roads through the districts to
the satisfaction of conflicting parties, and the assignment of prisoners
as servants. The revival of old and oft-refused claims for grants of
land is another source of continual application. The consideration
of the very numerous petitions presented by the wives and families of
prisoners for assistance, and of many who have come hither as emi-
grants, burdened with families, for employment and relief, forms part
of the daily routine of my business. When I add to this catalogue
that the society here has been torn by dissension and divided by
party spirit, and that the press is a most licentious one, living on and
delighting in personal scandal, you will be inclined to say with a friend
of mine : ' I don't envy you your berth.' Vet, let me tell you, I am

1837

CAPTAIN MACKONOCHIE

249

f.ir from Ijeing either unhappy at or discouraged by the prospect before
me. I indulge the hope that, through the blessing ot God, I shall
be able to go steadily forward in my duty, cheered by the prospect
of finding the measures I may introduce beneficial to the colony, and
that peace and happiness may follow in their train. I certainly have
the assistance of some able men, who are the principal ofiticers of the
Government, and form the members of the Fyxecutive Council ; and
I really have found them readily accjuiesce in, and even suggest,
measures and improvements difiering entirely from some of those of
my predecessor, to whom they are strongly attached. They are
called by some here a ' faction,' but I have not had the slightest
ground to consider them so. The Legislative Assembly is to meet
in the course of a few days, and I have then to make my first apjxuir-
ance before that body, which consists only of fourteen members, all
of them appointed by the Crown. I shall have to propose but few
bills to them at present, as we are in expectation of receiving a new
bill for the government of these colonies which might set aside all
we now do.

Franklin's first ' thorn in the flesh ' was his private secre-
tary, Captain Mackonochic, a gentleman whom he had specially
sot*j;^t out for the appointment and for whom he entertained
A high regard, but who, unfortunately, suffered from the
m^alady -most inconvenient for a man in his peculiar position
—of ' views' ''>n penal discipline. Before Captain Mackonochie
had held \\\% post for many months, he felt moved to write a
' private and confidential letter ' of criticism on the existing
system, in which, in the most unguarded terms, he spoke of
the law dealt to the convicts in this country as one ' which in
Scotland is called Jedburgh justice, or " hang first and try
afterwards." ' The opinion thus expressed, and suKsequcntly
used to spice an article on the subject in one of the colonial
newspapers, was not unnaturally regarded as reflecting on the
whole character of the judicial administration from the
Governor downwards, and particularly disrespectful, reckless,
and unbecoming in the Governors private secretary, who, ex
officio^ is considered to be the organ and echo of his own
sentiments.

Captain Forster, the chief police magistrate, urged that
the letter should be published, a step which wou'/|, of cour.se,
have compelled Captain Mackonochie's resignation ; but the

M f 1

250

TASMANIA

CU. XIV.

! t<

' M

Governor objected, on the ground that it would excite the
convicts, irritate the magistrates, and convert the displaced
official into 'a hero and martyr of the Radical party,' The
situation was, moreover, domestically complicated by the fact
that the private secretary and his family were inmates of
the Franklin household ; and Sir John's reluctance ' to cast
them, as it were, on the wide world without office or home
was a feeling,' writes his wife, ' which, when at the height of
his utmost indignation, always calms and softens him.' In
the result. Captain Mackonochie's transfrrossion was over-
looked, an act of lenity of which Franklin had cause to repent,
while his escape was attributed to Lady Franklin's mediation,
an impression which she herself had equal reason to regret.

The incidents, however, which led t(j the final rupture
with Captain Mackonochie are so closely connected with the
qiiestion of penal discipline and of Franklin's policy with
respect to it, that it is desirable to defer the account of them
until the time arrives for treating of that subject as a whole.
Another public question, and one with respect to which
F'ranklin played a most active and beneficent part in his
capacity of Governor, has a prior claim to be considered. It
was a period of awakening interest in the cause of education,
and one of the earliest projects which engaged the mind of
the new Governor was that of founding a colonial college.
Four years earlier his predecessor had meditated the same
undertaking, but the scheme proposed by him had encoun-
tered serious obstacles, and was allowed to drop. The first
step taken by Franklin towards the realisation of his project
was to seek the advice of Dr. Arnold ; and the letter addressed
by him to that eminent head-master displays so much or-
ganising ability, as well as such close and acute study of the
social conditions of the colony, that a considerable portion of
it appears to deserve unabridged quotation : —

The charge (he v/rote) which I wish co i,T,po>-„ c you is to select
for me a well-qualified nerson to be 'f\;a'! mnstt cr i/Wncipal of a
public school of the highest class, whi(ii u'c. ;• > pre,?a!ii j^o establish
in ilobart Town, and which is to ' - jrim^'i '.^.('ap \ d u ne present
limited wants of the colony, bu c"<pable ui c; sanding into a more

n.-

1837

A SKETCH OF THE COLONY'

261

iresb^d

ch or-

of the

tion of

select
b.l of a

Itahlish
present
more

liberal institution when the developed energies and increased popu-
lation of the colony shall demand it. Under the character of a
university we contemplate its conferring at some distant period the
privileges of practising in law and medicine within the colony, if not
of qualifying for the pulpit, considering as the chief motive for this
that it would be a great inducement for parents to give their sons a
good and prolonged education if they could then be enabled to secure
for them its substantial rewards. In its infant state we trust to suc-
ceed in eliciting and cultivating native talent in whatever stations of
life it may be found, and in fitting our growing inheritors of wedth
to spend with credit the fortunes their parents have amassed, and to
become ca[iaVjle of acting an honourable and patriotic part as magis-
trates and legislators of their native or adopted land.

Then follows this comprehensive and informing survey of
Tasmanian society at this stage of its history : —

Perhaps I cannot give you a better preliminary guide to the
selection I wish you to be kind enough to make than by describing
briefly the condition of the population. It consists in all of about
44,000 souls, of whom about one-half are free immigrants and free
native-born youths. On the Queen's late birthday party, when its
(so-deemed) presentable persons ere invited to (iovernment House,
from nine hundred to one thousand cards to as many families or indi-
viduals were issued throughout the island ; but this has hitherto been
exclusive of the class of shopkeeper, not a few of whom are wealthy
and very respectable. Many of the settlers or landed proprietf rs
are worth 2,000/. and 3,000/. per annum, some 4,000/, and a few from
four up to eight and ten thousand. In this free community (for I
leave entirely out of the question that class so influential in New
South Wales, called there by some ' emancipists ' and by a late writer
' the felonry ') there is a high degree of intelligence and activity of
mind ; in individuals much sterling probity, charity, and virtue ; and
in religious classes and self-incorporated societies much zeal for the
physical and spiritual welfare of their neighbours, according to the
particular understanding they may have of the means adapted to the
purpose.

But there is another and less pleasing .side to the picture : —

On the other hand, there exists throughout the community gene-
rally a great lack of neighbourly feeling and a deplorable deficiency
in public spirit. Each man eagerly seeks his own individual advan-
tage, with little or no reference to his neignbours, or is always
suspected of doing so. An extraordinary degree of irritability dis-
tinguishes the insular temperament, and all these anti-Christian pecu-
liarities are fostered by a press wtiich, though in the hands merely

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.'32

TASMA.ri/i

CH. XIT.

».#

of a few well-known individuals, some of whom are despicable in
character and conduct, exerts a certain degree of vicious power over
the public mind, which nothing but its interference with the privacies
of domestic life, the origin, habits, and peculiarities of individuals, and
the consequent dread of its vengeance or even its unprovoked malice,
can possibly account for.

Thus a peculiar and elevated character of mind is called for in the
man who, placed at the head of the Department of Education in this
college, will become eminently exposed thereby to public or rather
printed animadversion. He must be possessed of no common degree
of prudence and firmness. With a single eye to the public good, he
must give but little regard to calumny in pursuing it. Nowhere
must a man set public opinion at first so completely at defiance as in
Van Diemen's Land. He must resolve to live down imputations on
his character and conduct, not expecting otherwise to overcome them.
Such a person as this, however, would be supported and countenanced
by the best part of the community, even though he were in some
points open to censure. His office would be honoured, and his
position would be honourable. •

On the * conscience ' question, then as now and ever a
burning one, Franklin vi^ritcs with that combination of sincere
piety and sound common-sense which one would have
expected : —

I may add that such an institution as we are endeavouring to pro-
vide for has been in contemplation some years ; the hindrances have
been the difficulty of finding a competent master in this quarter of the
globe, and the still greater difficulty of obtaining any unanimity of
opinion upon the principles on which it should act and the religious
doctrines that should be taught in it. On the last point the utmost
diversity of opinion prevails. The arguments on it are such as must
be familiar to you on either side of the question, and need not be
repeated. I believe, however, that it is the feeling of the vast
majority of the community that the most important of all knowledge
should not be the only knowledge which is set aside as uncertaiti or
l^roblematica' I, f < > one, and as the head of the community, cannot
consent that religious instruction should be excluded, and religion it-
self thereby; as I conceive, dishonoured. . . . Though I have not
stated that the person selected should be a clergyman, or even a
member of the Church of England, yet I believe (putting my own
predilection on that head entirely out of the question) that it would
be more genenilly acceptable that he should be such than otherwise.
Nearly three-fourths of the community are of that persuasion. He
should also, I think, be a member of one of the English universities.

M Mi f ?

,'m

1837

EDUCATIONAL SCHEMES

258

On the subject of the rehgious instruction to he adopted in the pro-
posed school, I would only say that, while the instruction communi-
cated must be founded on a strictly religious basis, and while it will
be the desire of the Government that the instruction should be as
little exclusive as possible, he will never be called upon to teach or
authorise the teaching of any doctrine which he may show to be repug-
nant to the tenets of the Church — in the present instance that of
England— of which he was a member.

Dr. Arnold 3 response to this appeal was most gratifying,
and the mission entrusted to him admirably executed. For
the principal of the contemplated college his choice fell upon
the Rev. J. P. Gell, sometime pupil of his own, who, after a
successful career of seven years both as organiser and Vcacher,
and, in truth, pioneer of the higher education in the colony,
returned to England to become the husband of Sir John
Franklin's daughter and only child, Eleanor, and, as the
venerable Rector of Buxted, in Sussex, still survives.

It is, however, one thing to choose the principal of a
college with sound professional judgment, and another thing
to frame its charter with administrative wisdom. Dr. Arnold
was an eminently able and justly celebrated preceptor ; but
as a politician he belonged to the peculiar school of doctrinaire
liberalism then dominant, and shared its essentially unpractical
and unworkable theories as to the adjustment of competing
denominational claims. It is anticipating matters a little to
quote in this place the letter which follows ; but to read it in
immediate succession to the preceding one will, perhaps, give
a fuller conception of Franklin's sturdy common-sense and
independence of judgment. High as was his respect for
Arnold's ability in the educational sphere, he was not in the
least overawed by his name and reputation in criticising
Arnold's proposals as an arridcmic legislator. The Head-
master of Rugby had been requested by Lord John Russell,
who had succeeded to the ('ol(ini;il Office, to draft the charter
of the new college ; anil the lesult hinl l)een a scheme of the
most 'enlightened' and unpiavliial kind, and containing
a fantastic pioviMlon for appointing a Principal, 'turn and
turn aUmt,' from the Anglican and \\\v SinU h I'rcsbytcrian
comnuu\ions. IJgaiUca Ihi.s, ll inopo^d an exqiiisitc arrange

i
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111

^P"

'264

TASMANIA

cii. XIV.

.i^

ment for securing what was considered to be the just
representation of each of these two religious bodies on the
teaching staff. A more telHng contrast between the methods
of the academic legislator and those of the practical states-
man could hardly be found than in Franklin's blunt, straight-
forward, not disrespectful, but wholly destructive criticisms of
this notable scheme : —

I have need to crave your indulgence if, after having requested
your aid in this matter by suggesting that a reference should be made
to you, I now presume to tjuestion any one of the principles on
which you have proceeded in complying with my request. I cannot hut
blame myself that, in a case in which I have such strong convictions,
and in which, though I have no other advantage, I have that of some
experience of the state of this colony, I did not foresee the con-
clusions to which you might possibly arrive, and against which I
might at least have stated my objections. I did, however, in a letter
to J-ord John Russell — written, if I recollect righdy, a few months
after requesting a charter - deprecate the introduction of any change
from the terms on which the first principal was selected, in case any
such liability to change should appear to be involved in the liberal
principles advocated for the foundation. I was not unmindful of the
argument of the Scotch, that in a British colony they are entitled to
an equality of rights ; but this argument is virtually superseded by the
fact that in this colony there are f/in-e Established Churches, the Church
of Rome being one. In consistency with this unhappy Act of Sir
Richard Bourke's [a former Governor of New South Wales, by whom
this extraordinary arrangement had been recommended to the
Colonial Office], we ought to have the headship of the college divided
between the three Churches of England, Scotland, and Rome, a mode
of reconciling matters which I need not say would be self-destruction.
It has appeared to me that the only way to manage this difficulty is to
give up the ground of ecclesiastical establishment altogether (a ground
always offensive also to a large body of Dissenters who belong to no
establishment), and to give the ascendency, if such an invidious word
muii ht used, to the Church of the majority — such an ascendency
irAtirftrififi in nothing with the equal privileges of all the members of
the coW^e to refrain from joining in any religious ceremonies which
rbey (Aj^a Ut, or to observe any religious excrrjai} which they had
the fnear>s (/ attending.

'Denominatiotialisni tempered by the conscience clause'
i« familar enough to us in these days as the governing prin-
ciple of the State-i'idcd voluntary school system, and indeed

1837

THE CnURCII OF THE >[AJ()RITY

as the only practical principle on which the competing reli-
gious claims of majorities and minorities can be adjusted
in educational matters ; but in the second quarter of the
nineteenth century the principle was by no means so well
established as it is to-day, and it is interesting to note that it
is not the schoolmaster-politician but the sailor-administrator
who is the first to arrive at it. * Would there be any difficulty,'
Franklin continues, ' in stating in terms that the Principal
should always be a member of the Church of England as long
as that Church is the Church of the majority — I mean the
majority of the students, not of the population ? It api^ears
to me that it is necessary for the uniform, steadfast, and
independent conduct of the college that the Principals one
after another should be of one Church, and if of one, it would
be most fair that it should be the Church of the majority.'

Then, passing to the even more pedantic proposal with
reference to the teaching staff, he proceeds : —

But if I feel a strong objection to the headship of the college being
first of one Church, then of another, I have even a still stronger one
to the special provision which it is proposed to make for the keeping
up of two religious denominations within the walls of the college
itself, and which, it appears to me, would be a provision for secta-
rianism and faction, the influence of which might embarrass and
coerce those even for whose exclusive benefit it was intended. Might
it not be better [continues Franklin, with undesigned but not the less
searching irony] to make learning and character the sole qualifications
for members of the college, rather than take any notice of denomina-
tional distinctions as qualifications for instructing the students in reli-
gious knowledge? The master and fellows, or by whatever name they
are called, chosen on the latter principle would, I fear, scarcely fail to
regard themselves as the representatives of their sect, and, hke the
members for boroughs in the Imperial Parliament, would feel that they
were bound to Ji/fy'/cate beyond all other interests tlxr interests of
their constituents, and f///^* *» the organs of a party. 'I he Principal
would then be driven to (»^4 «# :'V.f' f presentative of his part^, thus
losing his dignified and profKY lf//»kuni ; while among tin- students
themselves would be engendered a //ri-^ Of clanship ;»'«! jwrty stHPf
which wouPj i."- fOufi4 most tyrannic:al j</^/,ejriu |}ic numcficMj power
exisied; and most fM*Jtt >n |the yiastkur puny.

Franklin (hen gm m, t^ ijjilii Mt |iiilion by an

I i ■

I .

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'2m

TASMANIA

en. XIV.

I i t

argument which lor us in these days has an almost painful
coy,ency : —

If at home our mixed nationality is still a source of jealousy and
divided feeling, why Jiould it be cherished at the uttermost extremity
of the globe, in a country, too, where the present genervitions,
strongly attached as they ire to the soil, are more apt to regard them-
selves as Tasmanians than anything else?

Why, in other words, export Particularism from the mother-
country to a colony which has shown no inclination thus far
to manufacture that article for itself? There could be no
sounder or more statesmanlike advice, and it availed. The
later history of the college, however, was not a fortunate
one. It became unhappily entangled in a complication of
inter-local and denominational jealousies ; the Imperial
Government withdrew its support, and the scheme fe.l
through. The colony had for the time to content itself with
the establishment of a high school under the management of
Mr. Gell, to the funds of which Franklin made a donation of
500/. before leaving the island, while Lady Franklin made the
munificent gift of 400 acres of land on which she had founded
a museum, in trust for the benefit of any collegiate institution
that might afterwards be established. But the failure of the
larger educational project was no fault of Franklin's. His
management of the matter throughout was characterised by
admirable good sense, fair-mindedness, and consideration for
others. The responsibility for the defeat of his excellent
intentions certainly does not rest in the smallest measure on
Franklin's shoulders.

, : li

1 1

1837

S67

CHAPTER XV

THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR
1836-1842

It was not, however, in regard to educational matters alone,
or even chiefly, that the period between 1832 and 1841
was so great a day for the proud possessor of the newest
' views.' We have seen from an above-quoted letter of
Franklin's to his old friend and commander, Captain Cumby,
that they were expecting from the Govcrnincnt a Hill for the
future administration of the Australian Colonies as well as
for the reorganisation of the convict system. In due time
the project of the proposed legislation arrived, and all too
faithfully indeed did it reflect the latest English Liberal ideas,
exported ' in bulk,' after the fashion of the reformers of those
days, for wholesale application to a community absolutely
unfitted to adopt them. Thus, the reconstruction of the
English municipal corporations being a triumph still fresh in
the minds of Liberal politicians, nothing would contcul them
short of the assumption that the materials of local self-
government are necessarily and of the very nature of things
to be found in all quarters of the English Empire, however
remote, and among all societies, however rude. What, then,
could be more hopeful, more rich in promise of future
blessings, than to create municipal corporations by a stroke
of the pen in — among other Australian settlements— the
island of Tasmania ?

Common-sense, 'lowever, and practical knowledge ulti-
mately prevailed. The absurd project was dropped, and no
more was heard of i representative system on the English
model until a good many years later, when these Australasian
communities were more fitted to receive them. But ' the ten-

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268

THE COLONIAL GOVEIINOU

CH. XV.

Ull]

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pound householder,' who figured as the electoral unit in this
abortive proposal, puts the finishing touch to it. In England
the ten- pound householder, after, so to speak, undergoing an
education in the duties of citizenship extending over about six
centuries, had only within the last six years been admitted to
political power. Tasmania, on the other hand, had only come
into existence as a British settlement some thirty odd years
before, and the political education of a large portion of its
inhabitants had been acquired in that too elementary school
of citizenship to which admission could be obtained by incur-
ring a sentence of transportation for life or for a term of
years. But the Reformers of the ' Thirties ' seem to have been
quite satisfied with the amount of resemblance bctw een the two
communities. Popular suffrage was a good thing ; elective
municipal corporations were good things ; representative
assemblies, large or small, and as many of them as possible,
were good things — for England. Therefore they would be
equally good things for a half-fledged colony, with a scattered
population of settlers too busy to govern themselves, and a
large sprinkling of reclaimed or half-reclaimed convicts, only
too anxious for the opportunity of governing other people.
As to the qualification, why, ten pout:ds was ten pounds all
the world over. One wonders how many similar projects of
political theorists at home have in the course of our history
been quietly killed by that practical good sense and adminis-
trative wisdom which have fortunately been seldom wanting
to us in the more remote parts of our Empire.

The other proposal of the Colonial Ofifice was of a less
speculative and experimental kind, and had reference to a
question on which there was room for legitimate difference cf
opinion among men of sound judgment and ripe experience
in colonial affairs. It has been observed already that the
controversies connected with the subject of the transportation
system — controversies bearing partly upon economical ques-
tions, and partl}'^ on the various branches of the difficult
problem of penal discipline — had been maturing with some
rapidity during the years immediately preceding Franklin's
appointment. In the year 1837 Sir William Molesworth

i 'I

1837

TllANSPORTATIOX

L>.-,9

obtained the appointment of a Select Committee of the House
of Commons to investigate the whole question of transporta-
tion and penal discipline in general. Many witnesses were
examined by this body and a large mass of evidence was
accumulated, much of it of course, as was tc be expected in
such a case, of a violently partisan and exaggerated character.
Franklin had from the first been a steady though moderate
and fair-minded supporter of the existing system, and the
criticisms of the evidence which were embodied by him in a
letter to Sir Edward Parry, who, on the strength of his Aus-
tralian experience, had been examined before the Committee,
and which he afterwards substantially repeated in a despatch
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, form a document
of high interest and value.

He protested, to begin with, against the unmeasured terms
in which som.e of the witnesses had decried the discipline
exercised in the colony under his admin stration. ' It is one,'
he said, 'of coercion, certainly; but that coercion is tempered
with compassion and v/ith the most earnest desire for the
amendment of the offenders.' To the assertion that * the con-
vict is beyond endurance miserable ' — or, at any rate, to the
inference sought to be drawn from that sweeping proposition
— he opposed an indignant denial. ' When convicts are in
that state of misery it is attributable, not to the laws and
treatment to which they are exposed, but to their own deter-
mined perse /erance in a course of ha'-dened wickedness, and
the same man would be in a similar unhappy condition any-
where.'

But to appreciate the significance of the more important
observations of this document, it will be necessary to take a
brief review of the history of a now almost forgotten incident
of our then system of penal discipline in the Colonies.

Among all the questions incidentally connected with the
main subject of transportation, none perhaps was more keenly
debated than that of ' assignment ' — the practice, that is to say,
of allotting a convict after a certain term of penal discipline
to the service of a master, under conditions varied from time
to time by statutory enactment or administrative regulation.

S 2

*>
*i»*

i; 1

11 ;

mg^tmm-

i^l^^P

260

THE COLONIAL GOVERrsOR

cir. XV.

It existed in our American settlements for a period of more
than fifty years of the eighteenth century, and was intro-
duced in Tasmania by Governor King in 1804. Under the
system then established the master was bound by indenture
to retain the servant for one year, a penalty of a shilling being
imposed upon him for every day which fell short of that
period. The quantity of work to be done was prescribed —
contingently, however, on the nature of the soil, the state of
the weather, and the strength of the workman. Wages were
fixed at 10/. per annum for a man and 7/. for a woman. To
restrict the habit of change, a rule was established by a sub-
sequent Governor (Macquarrie) that no convict should be
returnable to the authorities except for infirmity, sickness, or
crime ; but when the supply exceeded the demand the condi-
tion was evaded, and the result, of course, was an accumulation
of convicts on the hands of the Government. Theoretically,
the advantages to the colonists of this virtually unlimited supply
of labour appeared considerable ; but in practice this was not
the case, for a large proportion of the Dnvicts, coming from
the manufacturing districts of Great Britain, were utterly
ignorant of agriculture and required a tedious training before
they paid the expenses of their support

So far, however, as these cases were concerned, the prin-
ciple of the system was sound enough. In theory at any rate
all three parties — the employer, the convict, and the State —
derived a benefit from the arrangement. The first obtained
labour on moderate, perhaps on exceptionally easy terms
the second regained his freedom and an opportunity, if he
wished to reform, of earning an honest living; the third saved
the present expense of the convict's maintenance and took
the best means of preventing his return upon their hands in
future. But in other directions the system was liable to gross
abuse. Thus it was the custom to allot to the superior
officers, magistrates, and constables, in proportion to their
rank, a certain number of men who were subsisted from
Government stores, the State thus continuing to defray the
keep of men who by the hypothesis were fit for freedom. For
instance, a skilled mechanic assigned on these terms was, of

1804-37

' ASSIGNMENT '

261

course, a highly valuable acquisition to his master, who
allowed him to 'hire his own time' at from 5j. to i/. accord-
ing to its estimated weekly value, and while receiving this sum
from his servant at the same time drew Government rations
for his support. Other assigned servants rented farms and
paid their masters in produce ; and when these ' Government
men,' as they were called, were unable to make good such an
engagement with their masters, they were liable to be thrown
back into their former position. Tickets of leave, on the
other hand, were freely given to those incapable of much
service to the Government or its officers ; such as were useful,
Avhatever might be their conduct, were detained, often for an
indefinite period. Under a system so irregular, great prac-
tical injustice was inflicted, while advantages were enjoyed by
artisans who could hire their time, and who, obtaining large
profits from their trades, indulged in every form of vice and
licentiousness. A writer in the ' Edinburgh Review,' whose
style bears a strong resemblance to that of Sydney Smith,
thus satirically illustrates the system : ' A little wicked tailor
arrives, of no use to the architectural projects of the Governor ;
he is turned over to a settler who allows him his liberty for
5^. a week, and allows him to steal and snip what, when, and
where he can. The nefarious needleman writes home that he
is as comfortable as a finger in a thimble ; that, though a
fraction only of humanity, he has several wives and is filled
every day with rum and kangaroo. This, of course, is not
lost upon a shop-board, and for the saving of fifteen pence a
day (to Government) the foundation of many criminal tailors
is laid.'

Sometimes the inequalities of treatment which seemed
inseparable from this system took a shape of almost comical
flagrancy. Thus a convict named Clapperton, who had been
assigned to a private master, and had risen to a position
of trust in his service, was guilty of large embezzle-
ments, for which he was tried by Captain Forster, the chief
magistrate, and received a ssntence of fourteen years' imprison-
ment. Clapperton, however, had the good fortune or the
merit of being a skilful cook, and the Colonial Secretary, who

262

THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR

CH. XV.

iVi

if^l

I',

was then in want of a chef^ having first inquired whether the
man's services would be required in the Governor's kitchen,
and having been informed by Sir John's private secretary that
he would ' waive the precedence,' forthwith engaged the con-
vict in that capacity himself On the way to his destination
Clapperton thought it would be only neighbourly to call at
his late master's and acquaint his former fellow-servants with
the stroke of luck which had befallen him. This became known
to the master, who thus found that the prosecution he had
instituted had had no other result than that of adding to the
domestic comfort of an official friend. He accordingly brought
the case to the notice of Sir John Franklin, who at once in-
terposed his veto on the projected arrangement, and sent the
man to labour on the roads. It is hardly surprising that a
case of this kind should have caused some public sensation,
and provoked unfavourable criticism of a system which * sent
one man to toil in the chains and another to wear the livery of
the second officer of the Government.'

That system, however, had a right to be judged not by its
incidental abuses but by the modes of its ordinary operation.
Anomalies of the precise description of the above could
evidently be got rid of at a stroke by the simple expedient of
abolishing assignments for domestic service. The question
was whether, on the whole, and subject to the correction of
these and other miscarriages, assignment was or was not a
practice conducive to the material interests of the free settlers
and the moral welfare of the convicts themselves. And
Franklin, after a careful and dispassionate study of that ques-
tion, had no doubt that it should be answered in the affirmative.
Thus he writes upon the subject generally : —

I have entirely forbid the transfer of convicts, by which they could
be removed from one service to another at the mere wish or con-
venience of the master. I have also forbid allowing convicts on
assignment being hired out by the master to work for any other
person, the master securing a certain portion of the wages, which I
found to be a practice carried on to a considerable extent, though
the act was punishable by fine. I have from the first discontinued
the practice of assigning husbands to their wives, and servants to
persons holding tickets of leave, though it is possible, notwithstanding

18:^8

'ASSIGNMENT'

268

all my ciirc, this may have been done in some few instances since
my order was issued.

But this increased strictness of discipline was not unaccom-
panied by reasonable efforts at reformation.

Whenever the abstracts of petitions for indulgence are presented
to me for consideration, which is done weekly in special cases, and
monthly in general cases, I devote myself to the examination of
each case, and, whenever I find that the prayer of the petitioner can-
not be immediately granted, I state in writing the reason, and point
out his prevailing offence, and also fix a certain period of probation
for him to conquer the habit ; and, if he does, the indulgence is then
granted to him at once. My observations are directed to be for-
warded to the petitioner through the master ; and I know that these
warnings have had a beneficial effect on the conduct of the prisoners.
The door of hope is thus proved to be open, and they perceive that
the recovery of indulgence depends upon their own conduct. When
the conduct of the applicant has been particularly good, I cause my
notice of it to be conveyed to him. What is this but one of those
' moral appliances ' of which the present system is said (by the Com-
mittee) to be wholly devoid ?

Little recognition, however, of this or any other meriv of
the existing system was to be expected from that body.
Their report reached Franklin after he had sat down to pen
the above remarks, and his judgment upon it is that, though
drawn up with much care and ability, he ' cannot look at it in
any other way than as a one-sided view of the question.'
Evidence relating to a wholly bygone state of things, and
abounding in horrors which were matters of ancient history,
appeared to have formed the main basis of the Committee's
conclusions, later modifications and amendments of the
system being entirely ignored. The system of assignment,
denounced as ' slavery ' by a class of politicians, themselves
the slaves, in those days as in these, of words, was to be
abolished on the strength of its nickname. Its evils were
thrust into the foreground and perpetually insisted on ; the
good effected by it was minimised or denied. Nor had there
been any pretence of a desire to consider what improvements
it might be susceptible of ' I am not its bigoted advocate,*
wrote Franklin, ' and would cheerfully assist in devising a plan
by which the master and the man might mutually choose each

t -.

) 1

964

TILE COLONIAL GOVERNOR

ca. XV.

ll ^

u-\

other, and the latter receive moderate wages ; but I cannot
reconcile myself to the idea that this or any other system is
to be overturned by evidence which, if not altogether untrue,
has been grossly exaggerated and misstated as regards this
colony.'

And what was to be substituted for this maligned and
misrepresented method of reformatory discipline ? Peniten-
tiary systems, which, whether silent or social, did not appear
to PVankhn to be ' the best schools for inducing practical
habits of labour and industry after the prisoners are released
from them,' and in this respect were, in his judgment, much
inferior to the employment of convicts in agricultural pursuits,
in the felling of timber, and in mechanical labour apart from
the towns. It must, indeed, have been difficult for a Governor
of Tasmania in those days, and especially for one so eager for
the material development of the country as was Franklin, to
regard with patience such a wanton waste of human energy
as the penitentiary system involved. Unreclaimed Nature, all
around him, was crying aloud for the thews and sinews of
reclaJmable or irreclaimable man.

Franklin's pleadings for the system of assignment were
vain. Peremptory instructions were sent to him and to the
Governors of the other Australian colonies to discontinue it.
His address to his Legislative Council at the opening of its
session in 1 840 records the official mandate, accompanied by
such reassurances to the anxious employers of labour as
Franklin felt able to offer. The assignment of 'domestic
servants for purposes of luxury ' had been put an end to the
year before, and a month previously the practice of assign-
ment for any purpose had, in the towns of Hobart and
Launceston, ceased to exist. These changes would not,
Franklin points out, reduce the number of prisoners who
would become eventually available for purposes of field labour.
On the contrary, it would ultimately increase that number by
the addition to it of the convicts no longer assignable for
purposes of luxury anywhere, or in the towns for any purposes
whatever. But under the new system all convicts were on
arrival placed in the public works, in what were called proba-

^i^^ml

1838

AX l.MIHWSinLE SECRETARY

266

tionary gangs, for a minimum period of one year ; and the
consequence of this arrest of the supply of labourers, coming
as it did at a time when there happened to be a specially
urgent demand for them, had been so seriously felt that the
Governor was compelled, without the sanction of the Secretary
of State, to authorise the grant of a bounty for the encourage-
ment of immigration.

To trace the vacillating policy of the Home Government,
as Colonial Secretary succeeded Colonial Secretary and one
theory of punishment ousted another, to be itself displaced by
a third, is beyond the province of this work. The loyal but
ineffectual endeavour of Franklin to work the new probation-
ary system successfully belongs rather to the general history
of penal discipline than to a biography of the man, and the
subject, indeed, has only been pursued thus far because his
treatment of it so strikingly illustrates the soundness of judg-
ment and the shrewd common -sense which he brought to his
administrative work. Unfortunately, however, it was also in
connection with this subject of penal discipline that he became
involved in the hrst of that series of personal differences with
those about him which marred the whole subsequent course of
his official career.

An early ' difficulty * which arose between him and his
private secretary has already been noticed ; a much more
serious one was to follow. Captain Mackonochie in truth was,
if not an ' impossible ' private secretary, at any rate a private
secretary in an impossible position. Officially attached to
the service of the Governor, he was, or regarded himself as,
in his unofficial capacity an emissary of an English society
for the improvement of penal discipline to inquire into and
to report upon the results of the system of transportation.
He had, in fact, been furnished by this society with a list
of no fewer than sixty-seven questions on which they de-
sired to receive a statement of his views. The impossi-
bility of thus dividing himself into two persons, and of
loyally serving one master without breaking faith with the
other, would have been apparent to any one not accustomed,
like too many ' friends of humanity ' at large, to neglect his

Ifi

ttl

rTT

2«6

THE COLONIAL GOVEKNOIl

CH. XV.

'■ ii h

obligations to individual members of the race. Captain
Mackonochic presumably did not perceive it. He set to
work to execute his unofficial commission, and with such
industry did he pursue his inquiries that at the expiration ot
three months from his arrival in the colony he felt himself in
a position to pronounce a sweeping condemnation of the
system of penal discipline prevailing in the colony. Such, at
least, was the substance of the report which he drafted and
despatched to the society for whom he was acting. Of its
manner we may judge by the following extract from the far
from unfriendly criticism of Mr. West : — ' Without circum-
locution or reserve he spoke of the officers concerned in
convict management as blinded by habit, as empirics who
could patch and cauterise a wound, but were involved in
the hopeless prejudices of a topical practice, and much
too far gone to comprehend improvements founded on
scientific principles. His deviations from the tone of philo-
sophical discussion were not numerous, but they were marked.
The chief police magistrate he compared to the lamplighter,
by whom gas is detested. In praising that officer's adminis-
trative talent, he observed that he belonged to the martinet
school, and that his estimate of human nature depressed it
below its worth.'

A summary of this conciliatory document — which by
condensing rendered more flagrant the charges against the
colonists and more revolting the description of the prisoners —
found its way, by a process to be hereafter explained, to the
Colonial Office, and was handed by Lord John Russell to the
committee then inquiring into the subject of transportation.
Its next appearance was in an English newspaper, and it was
in that form that it first came under the eye of Sir John
Franklin. The report on which it was founded had indeed
been laid before him, and his opinion of it was, as might have
been expected, of a strongly adverse character. It contained,
in his judgment, afterwards avowed in correspondence with
its author, ' so many incorrect and even reckless assertions
as to the condition and treatment of criminals, and so much
offensive interpretation of the character of the free population,

..T

^IR^

1838-40

AT NOIIFOLK ISLAND

207

^, ^

that I could not but feel apprehensive and even somewhat
indij^nant at the probability of its being made public.' The
appearance in the English press of a summary which unavoid-
ably emphasised these objectionable qualities, and placed the
Lieutenant-Governor's private secretary in a position of con-
spicuous if not contemptuous hostility to his chief and all the
principal officials of the colony, left Franklin with but one
course open to him— to dismiss Captain Mackonochie from his
post. There was, however, no personal rupture between them ;
the letters exchanged by them with reference to the incident
which had rendered this painful step necessary are couched
in terms of mutual respect and even regard ; and for some
time after ceasing to be Franklin's private secretary Captain
Mackonochie continued with his wife and family to reside at
Government House. But for conclusive proof that the action
taken by his chief was not only justifiable but inevitable, we
need look no further than the admissions of the displaced
official himself Indeed, his very explanation of the particular
proceeding by which the crisis was precipitated revealed a
total incapacity to appreciate the true relations between the
Governor of a colony and his private secretary.

Enough, however, of this unfortunate episode. It only
now remains to trace the history of a sequel which demon-
strated both the genuineness of Franklin's goodwill towards
his former secretary and the practical value of the latter's
disciplinary theories. Supported by an influential school of
reformers at home, but also no doubt materially assisted by
the good offices of a Governor whose recommendations
would naturally derive additional value from the fact of the
personal differences between them. Captain Mackonochie
was shortly afterwards appointed Commandant of Norfolk
Island, which had been selected, by way of halfway house to
the abolition of transportation, as the sole future destination
of transported convicts. He took up his new appointment
apparently with full leave and licence to experimentalise on
the lines of his own theories. Less than a year, however,
sufficed to alarm the Home Government so thoroughly that
they would at once have recalled Captain Mackonochie had

!i |- *

t i

^} i.

('. •'

'I' Mi

I '

208

TIIK COLONIAL GOVERNOR

CM. XV.

'^ f' :

i It

they been provided with a successor. In little more than two
years his methods resulted in catastrophe.

It was on May 24, 1840, the occasion of the young Queen's
birthday, that the ' system ' of the new Commandant received
an illustration which scandalised colonial opinion and proved
startling even to the boldest philanthropists of the mother
country. A proclamation had been issued by Mackonochie
describing the festivities by which he proposed to celebrate
the anniversary. He had resolved, writes Mr. West, whose
.sympathy with his motives is not a whit less conspicuous
than his consciousness of the absurdity of his methods, ' to
forget the distinction between the good and bad, and to make
no exception from the general indulgence ; but he entreated the
men to remember that on the success of this experiment his
confidence would greatly depend ; he warned them to suppress
the first tokens of disorder, and by retiring to their quarters
at the first sound of the bugle prove that they might be
trusted with safety. On the morning of that day the signal
colours floated from the staff, crowned with the union-jack ;
twenty-one guns collected from the vessels and from the
Government House were mounted on the top of a hill and
fired a royal salute. The gates were thrown open, and
1,800 prisoners were set free and joined in various amuse-
ments, of which Captain Mackonochie was a frequent
spectator. Eighteen hundrf d prisoners sat down to dinner,
and at its close, having received each a small quantity of
spirits and water, they drank a health to the Queen and
Mackonochie. Three times three for Victoria and the Captain
rent the air. They then renewed their sports or attended
a theatrical performance. New scenery, dresses, music, and
songs contributed to the hilarity of the party. The per-
formances were The Castle of Andalusia^ in which the comic
powers of the prisoners were exhibited to their companions ;
a variety of glees and songs ; the tent scene in RicJiard III. ;
The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar ; [this, perhaps, by way
of compliment to the Captain], and finally the National
Anthem. At the termination no accident had oc rred, the
gaol was entirely unoccupied, no theft or disorder had dis-

1810-1:

A CONVICTS' TREAT

26t>

inner,
ty of
and
ptain
nded
, and
per-
;omic
ions ;

■///. ;
way
ional
the
dis-

graced the day, and thus the notions of Mackonochio seemed
to be ilhistratcd by the experiment.'

The effect of this extraordinary performance was, the
writer dryly continues, to give a violent shock to the ' long
habit of connecting the notions of crime and punishment
with those of guilt ond misery,' and, in fact, of drawing that
' distinction between the good and the bad ' which Captain
Mackonochie had tesolvcd to ' forget ' in honour of the day.
The novelty of the system 'gave to the policy of NorfoU
Island the air of delirium ; the disciplinarians of the ancient
ri'gime raised their hands with astonishment. The place,
once of all most hateful, painted by fancy, became an elysium ;
employment enlivened by plays, rum, and tobacco, was
described as a cheering vicissitude in a life of crime.' It was
not, however, difficult to sec, adds Mr. West — and certainly it
is not difficult even at this distance of time for a reader to
guess — ' that a reaction would follow, and that any untoward
accident would produce a recoil.' For a time, however, all
went well. ' It is said that the prisoners at Norfolk Island
deeply sympathised with their chief, and that they combined
in a society for mutual reformation.' But the paper which con-
tained the outlines of the plan was headed, we are told, with
the surely somewhat ominous motto of the Irish Liberator : —

Hereditary bondsmen ! know ye not

Who would be free themselves must strike the blow ?

They struck the blow on June 21, 1842, when twelve con-
victs who had been told off to assist in unloading stores
from the Governor Phillip, made an attempt to seize the
vessel. A desperate struggle, in which several lives were lost,
ensued ; but the mutineers were at length mastered and
conveyed to Sydney in the vessel they had attempted to
capture. Sentenced to death, they ' met their fate with
fortitude, and their last words were in grateful remembrance
of Mackonochie.'

By the following year the pendulum of policy had swung
back again. Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South
Wales, announced in an address to the Council that after
one year and a half's trial of the new discipline it was to be

t /

ni.

M "»

1*^;

sro

THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR

CH. XV.

1<-Ji

~( ^

abandoned. The prisoners then in Norfolk Island were
transferred to Van Dieinen's Land ; and the former settle-
ment, from being a school of reform, was converted into a
limbo of the irreclaimable. The ' mark system,' which had
been a capital feature of Captain Mackonochie's scheme, had
signally failed. In theory it had seemed a felicitous idea to
allow men to purchase discharge from a seven years' sentence
by accumulating 6,000 marks for good behaviour, and from a
life-sentence by 8,c>oo. But in practice it proved fruitful in
abuses. Convicts found means of accumulating marks with-
out fulfilling the irksome condition of good conduct. Convict
clerks falsified the accounts, and men transferred their marks
to each other for a consideration. Moreover, they were
awarded, as indeed it must have been difficult to avoid
awarding them, for merits other than moral. Clever me-
chanics obtained them by their skill, the strong earned them
by their strength, and both alike obtained an advantage over
their less able or able-bodied fellows whose behaviour may
have been in no respect inferior to theirs.

Captain Mackonochie's recall, which is said to have been
in contemplation from the moment the ne\ys of the birthday
festivities of 1 840 reached the Home Government, was delayed
for several years by the difficulties of finding a qualified
successor ; but in 1 844 he was at last recalled. He left the
island, we are told, ' regretted by the prisoners,' but follcwed
probably by feelings of a less tender character on the part of
the colonists. He was unquestionably a benevolent and
well-meaning man, but so was Mr. Walter Shandy ; and if
we could conceiv^ that philosopher suddenly elevated to the
government of a province, and empowered ^o apply his pet
theory of ' Christian names ' or any other of his eccentric
crotchets to a portion of his subjects, he could hardly have set
to work in a spirit of more opinionated self-confidence or of
rasher contempt for the informations of common-sense and
experience than did Captain Mackoncchie in Norfolk Island.
His administrative record in that settlement certainly
afforded an ample ex post facto justification of Frankli-'s
conduct in summarily closing his official career i.~ Tasmania.

vpp^

1842

271

kli"''s
ania.

CHAPTER XVI

TASMANIAN INCIDENTS
1842

It wa^ characteristic of the insatiable adventurer that even
within the comparativeh' narrow limits of his Australasian
island he contrived to lose himself and an exploring party ;n
the hitherto unthreaded bush, from which, indeed, they did
not ultimately emerge into known or habitable regions until
after his alarmed subjec<:s had despatched at least one expe-
dition for his discovery and relief.

Macquarrie Harbour, a port on the west coast of Tasmania,
named after a former Governor of New South Wales, was the
'objective' of the arduous and prrilous march, on which Sir
John Franklin, with his wife, his niece, and their companions,
s-^t forth in the spring of 1842. The harbour, originally em-
ployed as a penal settlement, had been abandoned eleven
years before in consequence of its difficult approach. Not easy
of access even by sea, it was by land altogether inaccessible,
being divided from the settled districts by a strip of country
some eighty or ninety miles in width, and consisting of
impervious forests, rugged mountains, tremendous gullies,
impetuous rivers, and treacherous morasses. It is true that in
the earlier portion of Colonel Arthur's governorship prisoners
were .still sent thither from other parts of the island as a
punishment, but the difficulty of keeping up its supplies by
sea was so great that its use as a convict station was at last
discontinued. In the meantime, prisoner after prisoner had
endeavoured to make his escape from it by way of the interior
only to perish in the bush, or, as happened in two or three
instances, to emerge from it so utterly worn out by fatigue and
famine that the wretched fugitives were glad to surrender them-

\ >

■■ •(

I i

■^fw

mK^

in,. ^,. j

*'.

>' fi

272

TASMANIAN INCIDENTS

CII. XVI.

selves on their arrival at the first human habitation. Some-
times the rash attempt had results even more terrible. In the
year 1822 a party of eight men escaped from Macquarrie Har-
bour, of whom all but one perished, or were destroyed to satisfy
the hideous cravings of their famine-maddened companions.
The survivor, a man named Pearce, who had ultimately
fallen in with some bushrangers, with whom he was taken
and sent back to Macquarrie, actually made a second attempt
at escape with a fellow-prisoner of '"he name of Cox. For
the first and second day they strayed through the foi ast, on
the third they made the beach, and travelled towards Port
Dalrymple until the fifth, when they arrived at King's River.
They remained three or four days in an adjoining wood, to
avoid soldiers who were in pursuit of them, and were all the
time from the period they started without a morsel of food.
Overcome by famine, each watched for an opportunity to
surprise and destroy the other, neither daring to snatch a
moment's slumber lest he should never wake. Cox was the
first to give way to exhaustion ; he fell asleep, and Pearce
despatched him with an axe. On the departure of the
soldiers, the miserable wretch slunk from his retreat, and,
living on the mutilated remains of his companion, spent a
day and a night in the place which they made their encamp-
ment. Then, overcome with horror at his useless crime, he
returned to the settlement, and, declaring himself weary of life,
surrendered, confessed his guilt, and was tried and executed.
It was into the region so darkly associated with these
tragedies that Franklin and his little party fearlessly plunged.
Their purpose was to thread their way through scrub and
forest and mountain gorge, over river and torrent, and
round morass and swamp, to a point near the mouth of the
Gordon River, where a little schooner, the Breeze, was to
wait in readiness to convey them the rest of the way to Mac-
quarrie Harbour. They started in beautiful weather and in
a season, the best possible for their purpose, of unusually
prolonged drought ; but before they had got far on their
journey the atmospheric conditions underwent a complete and
most untoward change. Heavy rains set in, flooding the

'ih*.

■V'*>

1842

LOST IN lliE BUSH

273

rivers and rendering the swampy ground impassable. For a
week they were confined to their tents in a sheltered nook
under a snowy mountain, and later on were compelled to
make another considerable stay on the banks of a swollen
river, waiting for provisions to reach thetn, and for a double
canoe, now rendered absolutely necessary for their further
conveyance, to be rudely fashioned out of the neighbouring,
pines. During the weeks of their enforced sojourn in tlie
Tasmanian wilderness the travellers were entirely lost to the
outer world. Neither sound nor sign of them seems to have
reached Hobart Town, and the sinister reputation of the
region in which they had disappeared tended of course to
deepen public alarm.

In truth, the difficulties they encountered after the rains
set in were sufficiently formidable. The swollen river, which
formed the main obstacle to their progress — the ' Franklin '
their surveyor had christened it — was some seventy or
eighty yards wide, and quite impossible, therefore, to be
bridged, like the others they had thus succeeded in crossing,
by means of fallen trees. Their pioneering party was, in
consequence, compelled to construct a rude kind of raft,
which they had fastened by a rope across ^he river.

On our arrival (wrote Lady Franklin to her sister) the flood had
carried away the warp, but the raft remained. On this, after the
rise had subsided a little, two men (prisoners) volunteered to cross, a
measure necessary to be effected as soon as possible, as the Breeze,
which was waiting for us to take us back by sea, was to leave by
order on the i8th, ?.nd if gone we should have had to make our
retreat by land with increased difficulties through the country we had
already traversed. The two men on the raft were whirled round in
an eddy as soon as they pushed from the shore, and, unable to cross,
were carried down the river over some rapids and disappeared from
our eyes round a bend of the stream. Sir John declared, however,
he had no doubt of their safety (they had been Thames and Bridge-
water bargemen), and in half an hour afterwards their voices were
heard on the opposite side ' coo-ee-ing ' (the universal colonial cry
learned from the natives), and, having given us that notice of their
existence and safety, they darted deep into the forest on their mission,
which was to arrest the Breeze in its departure.

The efforts of the two trusty convicts were successful.

) !f:|i

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274

TASMANIAN INCIDENTS

CH. XVI.

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They stopped the schooner when on the point of sailing, and
the Franklin party eventually made their way to it in safety.
But the pluck and loyalty of these criminal pioneers were
virtues common to all their fellow-convicts engaged in this
service. Few stranger or more paradoxical scenes have
perhaps been ever witnessed even in a penal settlement than
that which Lady Franklin here goes on so graphically to
describe. After enumerating the members of their party,
eight in all, she continues : —

The crew of the Breeze consists only of five persons, and a
stranger to the country (particularly if he was a member of the
former Transportation Committee) would take it for granted that
twenty stout able-bodied convicts (chosen expressly for this service,
because they are such) would find it an easy matter to overcome the
resistance of thirteen persons, of whom two are women, and, taking
possession of the Breeze, carry her oflF as masters and free. No such
idea probably entered any of their heads. With the exception of try-
ing whenever they could to get more than their share of our scanty
provisions, which probably many free men of their rank in life would
have done equally at home in similar circumstances, they have
behaved admirably well, and we have all encamped together at night
within a few yards of each other in open tents, without a guard and
without a firearm among us, or a single instrument of defence
against the axes and tomahawks which were continually in their
keeping. You may think it was because the Governor was of the
party, and that they all had much to Ao/>e from him, even though
under the circumstances they could have little to fear ; and this is
true, for they all look for indulgence for this service — that is to say,
some alleviation of sentence according to law — and were promised it
on good behaviour ; but, as far as safety be concerned, the bense of
security would have been enjoyed just as much, I believe, by any
other set of travellers as ourselves.

The safe return of the party was welcomed with the
greatest relief by the colonists, who had, in fact, almost given
them up for lost. New South Wales took an even more
despairing view of the situation than Tasmania ; Sir George
Gipps afterwards writing to Franklin to say that at Sydney
the only difference of opinion as to their fate was as to
whether they had been starved or drowned. They had
indeed been at various times in very real danger of both
these fates and, had the schooner sailed without them, it is

1842

RELIEF PARTIES

27o

but too probable that none of the party would ever have seen
Hobart Town again.

Nor does this talc of perilous adventure end with their
return. On their arrival at Hobart Town they found that a
party of six prisoners had been sent out in search of them,
and, as nothing had been heard of these men for some time,
it became necessi;ry to despatch a third expedition for the
rescue of the rescuers, who, as it turned out, were themselves
only narrowly saved from death by starvation. Arriving at
Macquarrie Harbour after the Franklin party had left, they
pursued their way along the coast in the expectation of
finding traces of the explorers at some point on the shore.
They consumed all their provisions, and, being at last
stopped by a river which they had not strength to ford, they
retraced their steps. After having been reduced to such
straits for food that they had to devour their leather knap-
sacks, they at last regained a little canoe which they had
constructed and left behind them, and got to a deserted island
in Macquarrie Harbour, where they found potatoes growing
wild from those originally planted there ten years before.
After a few days' rest, four of the men with a small store of
potatoes embarked again in their canoe for the Gordon River,
where they left it. Plunging into the forest, they came to
the Franklin, and crossed it in a canoe abandoned there
by the Franklin party, which unfortunately filled and sank
with their store of potatoes during the passage. Here provi-
dentially, at a moment when, according to their own account,
they could not have held out another day, they fell in with
the second relief party and were saved.

The two men left on the island were rescued by a boat sent
from a ship which had been driven ashore. They, too, were
reduced to the last extremity ; their scanty stock of potatoes
was almost exhausted, and they were on the point of building
themselves another canoe with the view of attempting an
escape from the island when the relief arrived. ' For myself,'
writes Lady Franklin, ' I have suffered mentally very much
indeed on the subject. It would have been a bitter pang for
life if these poor fellows had perished in their attempt to

4 ,

276

TASMANIAN INCIDENTS

CII. XYI.

* .

rescue us. . . . Their image haunted me day and night, and
you would be surprised to see how much this with other
anxieties since our return from Macquarrie Harbour has
worn and aged me.'

To a slightly earlier date in Franklin's administration
than that of this too exciting journey belongs the following
letter, interesting in right not indeed of its contents but
of its author, the minutest scrap of whose correspondence is
justly valued by the world : —

Park Lane: Feb. 13, 1841.

My dear Sir John, — Hearing at I^dy Blessington's, a few nights
back, that her brother, Mr. Power, was about to embark for the seat
of your government in an official character, I could not resist
availing myself of the occasion to communicate with a very old and
very valued friend. I trust that Lady Franklin and yourself find
health in the Tasmanian breezes, which, I hear, are very renovating,
and I only hope the magic power of steam may some day, and
perhaps soon, permit me to pay you a visit. In that case I shall
have the pleasure of introducing you to Mrs. Disraeli, a lady who
passed her Christmas last year at Bradenham in reading ycur
adventures towards the Coppermine River, and who would be very
much gratified in making the accjuaintance of the hero of both Poles.
You will be glad to learn that your old friends at Bradenham are well ;
but my father, I deeply lament to say, though with apparently an
unbroken constitution, has been stricken with blindness, for him a
peculiarly dreadful visitation.

Last year, on our road between Augsburg and Munich, I met Mr.
Griffin and Mrs. Simpkinson. He really seems younger than ever. lean
only wish her the good fortune to seem as young as she always does.

We are apparently in this country on the eve of a change of
government, which renders the world of politics turbid and excited.
I hope, whoever may be in power, the colonial interests of this
country will be maintained ; and I know no better mode than ap-
pointing governors as able and efficient as yourself

You will find Mr. Power a very amiable man. I have always
heard him highly spoken of, and can personally answer for his agree-
able manners. Pray make my kindest remembrances acceptable to
Lady Franklin, and believe me ever.

My dear Sir John, yours very faithfully,

B. Disraeli.

Among other pleasant incidents of this chequered Tas-
manian time is to be numbered the Governor's renewal of

jfi

1838

JOHN HEPBURN

St 4

relations with the staunch comrade of his first Arctic expe-
dition, John Hepburn. On his return to England in 1822
Franklin used his best exertions to procure from the naval
authorities some fitting recognition of his late follower's ser-
vices. A letter is extant addressed by him to Admiral Sir
Byam Martin, then Comptroller of the Navy, in which
he most warmly advocates Hepburn's claims — ' the only
English seaman,' as he says, 'who accompanied me to the
shores of the Arctic sea, and who, during the whole time he
was attached to the expedition, conducted himself with a
degree of intelligence and zeal that called forth my repeated
encomiums.' His conduct ' during a period of extreme diffi-
culty and distress,' adds his late commander, ' was so humane
and excellent as to merit the highest promotion that his
situation in life entitles him to. When the officers were un-
able to advance any further he alone remained with them
voluntarily, and at the imminent hazard of his own life. To
his exertions at a period when his bodily weakness was
extreme, Dr. Richardson and myself are indebted, under
Providence, for our lives.'

Lord Bathurst, before whom a more detailed statement of
Hepburn's services had been laid, had recommended him to
the notice of the First Lord of the Admiralty for promotion ;
and Lord Melville, also sensible of his merits, had expressed
his intention of speaking to the Comptroller on the subject of
procuring some situation for him. Franklin, indeed, had
previously had an interview with Sir Byam Martin, the sub-
stance of which was by desire reduced to writing in the letter
from which the above extracts are taken. We may take it
that the application was successful, but that Hepburn's
employment was either not permanent or not permanently
satisfactory. It is, at any rate, certain that he reopened
communications with Franklin some fifteen or sixteen years
later, after the latter's appointment to his colonial post, and
that, Franklin having responded with his usual kindness,
Hepburn came out to Tasmania to be provided by the
Governor with some more profitable situation than he could
obtain in England. Some time afterwards the following

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378

TA8MANIAN INCIDENTS

CH. XVI.

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correspondence, excellently illustrative of Franklin's untiring
goodness of heart, took place between them. ' My dear
Hepburn,' the Governor writes to him with all the bonJtomie
of a sailor addressing an old shipmate,

I heard yesterday that you are not satisfied with your situation,
and that you have expressed disappointment with your prospects in
this country and some regret at having left England. This infor-
mation has given me much concern ; for though, as you remember,
I did not urge you to come out with me, but at first discouraged
your cjuitting England, I yet felt happy after you had decided, in
the hope of being able to procure for you some comfortable situation.
I appointed you, in consequence, to the very first that was vacant,
the Superintendent of Government House, and when the present
situation became vacant, which was more lucrative and of a higher
class, I immediately offered it to you. I have had some reason to
fear it is a situation the duties of which are not exactly suited to
your taste ; but I have not had any other vacant which you are better
qualified to fill, or that at all equals your present office in emolument
and advantages. At one time, when I thought it not improbable
there might be a vacancy in the situation of Harbour Master, you
will recollect that I asked whether that appointment would suit you,
and that you thought you were not now qualified to fill its duties
with any degree of satisfaction to yourself or to the public. My first
desire ever has been, and still is, to show my regard and esteem for
you ; and I beg of you to let me know what situation you consider
yourself better qualified to fill, or that would be more agreeable to
your feelings, and I would endeavour to place you in such a position
when a vacancy and opportunity occur. I cannot make situations,
you must well know ; and I cannot know your wishes unless you
communicate them to me. You must, therefore, write to me as soon
as possible, and inform me as to your present feelings and wishes, and
you may rely on the unaltered desire of my heart to prove myself
your true and sincere friend, John Franklin.

Hepburn's answer, with due correction of the old sailor's
somewhat breezy orthography, was in these terms : —

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's
letter of the 15th inst., which I did not receive until last night, having
been missent from Campbelltown to Launceston. I beg leave to
state that your Excellency has been misinformed respecting the
complaints said to have been made by me. In place of having
expressed disappointment at my prospects in this country or regret
at leaving England, I beg to assure your Excellency thiit it is quite

I' i\) !*i

183«

JOHN IlEPUUltN

271)

encys
having
ave to

g the
laving
regret

quite

the reverse with me ; and, since I have been in the countr)', T have
added more to my stock of this world's riches than I did for the pre-
ceding twelve years. That I ever expressed dissatisfaction with my
present situation is also untrue. I am sensible that everything has
been done here to make me comfortable. I acknowledge for the
first six months that I often did feel at a loss for words to express
my disapprobation of the conduct of boys when brought before me.
From this circumstance alone I did feel uncomfortable and dissatisfied
with myself, and supposed t' it I was not a suitable person for such
a responsible situation. But in no other way have I ever had
occasion to complain. I well remember your Excellency's anxiety to
serve me before I left England, and I trust that I shall never be found
ungrateful for the kindness I have received, or so deceitful to a kind
benefactor as to make complaints in any quarter except to your Excel-
lency. If it were not presuming too far, I would beg to be confronted
with the individual who has thus so basely misled your Excellency.
I am perfectly satisfied with my present situation, it suits me very
well ; my only fear is not suiting it. My wish is to remain until I
can save about two hundred pounds. Then, if my wife will come
ou»', we shall have enough to stock a small farm, should such be in
your Excellency's power to grant. I have received a letter from Her
Majesty's Paymaster-General containing four forms, one of which I
enclose herewith for your Excellency's inspection, being fearful that I
am doing wrong in receiving a pension while I hold such a lucrative
Government situation. Captain Booth has sent for me within the last
hour, and read a letter from the Colonial Secretary offering an appoint-
ment at George Town, which I believe would suit me very well ; and
I feel very thankful for your Excellency's kindness. Captain Booth
has in the kindest manner expressed his satisfaction with my services
here ; but, being very comfortable where I am, I beg to decline to
accept it. And I have the honour to be, &c.

Before taking final leave of these unofficial or semi-official
passages in Sir John Franklin's career in Tasmania it still
remains to record two of its most memorable incidents — one
of them touched with all the romance of past adventure and
of the memory of a cherished comradeship, the other fraught,
for us at any rate, if unconsciously to all the actors in it. with
the more tragic interest afterwards lent it by a fatal future.

No one could fail to be impressed by the singular chance
which had brought Franklin, at the age of fifty, to occupy
a post of authority in that very region of the world which,
as a lad of fourteen, he had assisted to explore. The
memory of those far-off days in the Investigator — days full of

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TASMANIAN INCIDENTS

CH. XVI.

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young enthusiasm, and not free from youthful mischief — must
have many a time recurred to his mind ; he may often have
smiled at the recollection of the thoroughly middy-like trick
by which he secured to himself the honour of annexing the
Australian continent, symbolically at any rate, to the British
Empire. The Investigator had lost one of its boats, which
capsized and disappeared with its crew of seven men and a
young officer, as it was returning to the ship. Franklin and
several others were landed and sent out on the ' Heads ' to
watch for the appearance of any corpse that might be washed
up on the rocks. Each carried a flag, which was to be un-
furled as a signal in case any such object should come in view.
The temptation so obviously suggested to an ambitious
middy by finding himself on the shore of a newly discovered
continent with the union-jack in his hands was too much
for the youthful Franklin. To have first descried or to
have failed to descry the floating body of one of his drowned
messmates was a mere detail : the really important thing
was to be the first to unfurl the British flag on the coast
of New Holland. It was accordingly not long before that
beloved emblem was fluttering proudly in the breeze. In
another moment a boat was lowered from the Investigator
and was seen approaching the shore. It became necessary
for Franklin either to discover one of the lost sailors, or to
admit that the supposed signal had been in reality only in-
tended to proclaim the annexation of the Australian con-
tinent to the British Empire. He chose the former alterna-
tive, and, pointing to a white object on the shore at some
distance, he asked the officer in command of the boat whether
he did not think that ' that white thing ' was a dead body.
The officer looked with interest at the crack in the rocks
which was thus brought to his notice, and thought that it was
a dead body. Indeed, he was for a short time pretty sure it
was, while Franklin was ' sure of nothing but of the sweet
consciousness that he had realised the longing of his boyish
ambition.' No doubt, as his wife adds, ' it was a very young
trick ; ' but a daughter of sixteen is not, or in those days was
not, apt to be critical of her father's youthful escapades, and

1841

THE riJXDERS MEMORIAL

281

il is therefore not surprising to hear that, ' though not of the
first order of merit, it seemed very much to Eleanor's taste.'
When, however, she told one or two people that ' her papa was
the first who had unfolded the British flag in this part of the
world when first discovered by Flinders, they looked almost
incredulous.' That great navigator seemed to the South
Australians almost as far removed from them as Tasman from
the people of Tasmania. They looked upon him as a being
not only of another generation, but of another century.

It was to Lady Franklin, while on a visit to South Aus-
tralia, that the idea of erecting a memorial to Flinders on the
scene of his greatest exploring triumph first suggested itself ;
and after a journey from Port Lincoln to Adelaide, the project,
she says, ' had become an absolute mission in her eyes.' For
in the near neighbourhood of this port, rising in an insulated
and conical form to a height of some thousand or twelve
hundred feet from the shore, stood the rock which the explorer
had ascended to take the bearings of the gulf. This eminence,
named by him after the town of Stamford in his native
county, was obviously the very spot designated alike by
nature and history for a monument to his memory. There
was, however, a difficulty about the appropriation of a site.
Land could not be purchased in anything smaller than eighty-
acre lots ; and to purchase such an extent of mountain, all
stone and scrub, for the sake of securing an area of only a
few feet, seemed a rather imperfect adjustment of means to
ends. Colonel Gawler, however, the then Governor of South
Australia, obligingly disposed of the difficulty by promising
to make the site of the monument a Government reserve.
Thus sanctioned and aided. Lady Franklin and her party
started from Adelaide in a small schooner of about lOO tons,
and, having landed at the foot of Stamford Hill, they ascended
it, identified Flinders's bearings, and marked the spot.

The captain of their little vessel, himself a Lincoln-
shire man, was much interested in the expedition, and ' bore
on his back up the rugged ascent the heavy box containing
the azimuth compass ' required for the identification of the
spot ' on which Flinders (from whose ponderous quarto we

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TASMANIAN INCIDKNTS

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were f rovided with the necessary extract) fixed his theodo-
lite.' The captain's wife played an involuntary, though to her
not an unpleasing part in the ceremony, as Lady Franklin
thus amusingly relates : —

Poor Mrs. Blackbourne's pocket-handkerchief was seized by me
by mistake, for when I found a white rag was wanted, I put back my
hand without turning my head to the person close to me, who I
thought was Eleanor, saying, ' Give me your handkerchief, my dear,'
and did not discover my mistake till the titterings and looks around me
made me turn round. Mrs. Hlackbourne's blushes and pleased looks
convinced me I had committed a very venial mistake, and I therefore
made no difticulty in retaining my spoil. Since my return to Hobart
Town, I have sent the young person, who was then a bride of three
weeks old, a cambric handkerchief of surpassing fineness, trimmed
with deep lace, in room of the one she so obligingly allowed to be
raised upon Stamford Hill, and in remembrance of that pleasant visit.

The next step was to decide upon the character of the
memorial to be raised. ' Sir John,' Lady Franklin reports,
' is extremely well satisfied with my doings, and has not even
asked me what the memorial is to cost, which, indeed, I am
not able to tell till I get the opinion of Mr. Frome (the
Surveyor-General) on its dimensions ; but I hope it will not
be extravagant, if the stone on the spot is made use of

Its cost appears to have been 250/. ; its form that of an
obelisk, bearing the foliowing inscription from the pen of Mr
Cell :—

THIS PLACE,

FROM WHICH THE GULF AND ITS SHORES

WERE FIRST SURVEYED

ON THE 26TH OF FEU. 1802 liV

MATTHEW FLINDERS, R.N.,

COMMANDER OF H.M.S. INVESTIGATOR,

AND THE DISCOVERER OF THE COUNTRY NOW CALLED

SOUTH AUSTRALIA, WAS

ON l-JIH JAN. 1841,

WITH THE SANCTION OF LT.-COL. GAWLER, K.H.,

THEN GOVERNOR OF THE COLONY, SET APART FOR,

AND IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE

GOVERNMENT OF CAPT. G. GREY

ADORNED WITH, THIS MONUMENT

TO THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS NAVIGATOR

HIS HONOURED COMMANDER

BY JOHN FRANKLIN, CAPTAIN R.N., K.C.H., K.R., LT.-GOVERNOR OF

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

1840

ANTAIICTIC EXrKDlTlUX

28a

The second of the two intcresti'ni; events above referred to
as marking the closing years of Franklin's administration was
the despatch of the Antarctic expedition under Captain Ross.
It may be im.igined with what sympathetic enthusiasm this
project was regarded by the famous explorer of the otiier
Tole, and with what zeal and ardour he devoted himself to
its furtherance, flobart Town was for some time the head-
(juarters of the two officers commissioned to execute it ; it
was there that they made, or at any rate completed, the
preparations for their journey ; and it was thence they started
upon their voyage. The officer in chief command was the
Governor's intimate and attached friend, and received from
him every assistance which it was in his power to render in the
work of equipment for their arduous enterprise, aservice which
is amply acknowledged by Sir James Ross in his ' Voyage of
Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic
Regions during the Years 1839-43.' ^" the report which
the Council of the Royal Society had been requested by the
Government to furnish, and which was appended to Captain
Ross's instructions, much stress was laid upon the making
of magnetic observations in Van Diemen's Land. When
the expedition arrived at Hobart Town on August 16, 1840,
the first thought of its commander was to procure the construc-
tion as soon as possible of the permanent observatory which
he was instructed to erect there. His satisfaction may be
imagined when he discovered the zeal with which the Governor
had thrown himself into the project, and learned that the
materials of which the building was to be constructed accord-
ing to a plan sent out from England had been for months in
readiness. Nothing remained but to select a site, which was
done on the following morning ; and by the afternoon a party
of 200 convicts were at work digging the foundation, shaping
the blocks of freestone which were to be its base and the
solid pillars oi the same materials which were to support
the instruments, and bringing the prepared Jtimbers from the
Government store.

This was a pretty expeditious commencement of a public
work, and its progress was marked by equal despatch. Under

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Franklin's daily personal superintendence the building of the
observatory proceeded so rapidly that the whole was com-
pleted and roofed in, the stone pillars fixed upon the solid
sandstone rock, the instruments placed upon them, and all
their delicate adjustments completed by August 27 — a space of
nine days, surely the quickest thing on record in observatory-
building. Sir James Ross writes : —

I should be doing injustice to my own feelings were I to neglect
to express my admiration of the cheerful enthusiasm which the con-
victs employed in the building displayed throughout the work. As
an instance of this, I may mention that after they had been labouring
from six o'clock on Saturday morning until ten at night, seeing that a
few hours' more work would complete the roofing in, they entreated
permission to finish it before they left off ; but as it would have
broken in upon the Sabbath morning their request was very properly
refused. This is only one of several such instances of disinterested
zeal in the cause, for from their unfortunate situation they could not
derive any benefit from their addilional labour, and must have on the
occasion uoove mentioned suffered much fatigue from their unusually
prolonged exertions.

There was less, one may suspect, of ' disinterested zeal in
the cause ' of science on the part of the convicts than of
eager desire to please a Governor to whom they were devo-
tedly attached. It was a case of ' personal magnetism,' not
of the cosniical variety.

Nor were Frankliii's services to tiie expedition confined to
superintending the construction of their observatory. He
took an active part, as of course he was well qualified to do,
in assisting and furthering the observations. On September
23 it became necessary, too, for Ross to avail himself of ' the
aid of volunteers under Sir John Franklin, who in his zeal for
the advancement of science took his share of the duties of
that day.'

That the voyage was net lacking in adventure will appear
from the following passage of a letter dated Falklands, May
2, 1842, and addressed to Franklin by an oiificer of the expe-
dition : —

You will be glad to hear of our safe arrival after our this time truly
desperate cruise— forty-six days beset in the packed ice, not getting

I! I

not

1040

A DANGEROUS COLLISION

S85

clear until February 2. Notwithstanding both ships losing ♦•heir
rudders, fitting new ones, we yet penetrated to 78° 1 1' S. and 160° W.,
tracing 1 50 miles of our last year's barrier further to the eastward, still
preserving the same appearance. No land did we see ; our soundings
were from 190 to 200 fathoms along the walls ot it. Heavy ice and
rapidly forming young ice obliged us, on February 20, to bear away
along the pack edge, tracing 1,100 miles of the most desperate work,
and no ships ever had a more narrow escape from total destruction
than we had in running our longitude down in the 60th degree. On
March 13, in 147° W„ blowing a gale of wind with a heavy sea, and
pitch dark, a little past midnight, Captain Rcss on deck, while close
reefing the main-topsail, a very large iceberg was seen close to us on
the starboard bow.

The ship running before the wind, her helm was put a-star-
board to avoid the threatened danger, when at that moment
an iceberg appeared on the larboard bow of her consort, and,
on the latter immediately porting her helm, the two ships came
into violent collision, the bowsprit of the former being carried
away and their topmasts and foreyards remaining entangled
for upwards of ten minutes.

No words of mine can convey an idea of the truly awful situation.
Each crash you would have thought must be the last. H jwever, after
tearing the strengthening piece from the bows, the two ships parted
company. We set the fragments of our main-topsail and fore-and-aft
sailu to try to weather the berg, which now towered fully 150 feet over,
and drifted for more than half a mile along its perpendicular face,
^'he heavy sea dashing against it fell off on board ; it was only the
violent drawback of the sea that kept us off. Had we once struck
upon it the ship must have been dashed to pieces.

It may be imagined with what interest Franklin ac-
companied his friends in imagination on their adventurous
voyage, and how often he must have longed to exchange the
storms of the Hobart Town Council Chamber for those of
the Antarctic Sea. The results of the cruise are matters of
geographical history, but Franklin's account of them in a
letter to his wife, then in New South Wales, may here be
given : —

I write to inform you of Ross's return after a successful voyage
within the Antarctic Circle, being anxious that you should receive the
intelligence as early as possible. He proceeded from hence to the

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TASMAXIAN INCIDENTS

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Auckland and Campbell Islands, where he procured the magnetic
observations which he wished, and thence set forth to the southward.
The ships entered the Antarctic Circle on January i. The sea was
there much encumbered with ice, and stormy weather caused other
obstructions to their progress. However, Ross discovered land in
the 70th degree south, which he traced to the 78th, and there, in the
meridian of about 176° E., his further progress in that direction
was stopped by a barrier of ice steep as a wall and about 150 feet in
height. This he then skirted in the hope of finding some opening
for his ships, but none was to be seen, and at last he was obliged by
the formation of the new ice, which threatened to enclose the ships, to
retreat to the northward. He was defeated in his attempts to effect
a landing on the main shore ; but he succeeded on two small islands,
one of them far to the south, which I believe he has named Franklin,
from the name being attached to two specimens of rock brought from
it which are on the table in the drawing-room. Ross, however, with
his diffidence, has not even spoken to me about the island. The sea
was so free from ice when he was sailing south beyond the 71st
parallel that Ross was sanguine of passing over the pole of the earth
when the unlucky barrier appeared. Near the extremity of their
southern limit they discovered two volcanic mountains of great height,
one of them emitting flame and smoke, which Ross has very appro-
[)riately called ' Erebus ' and the other ' Terror.' They saw land over
the ice as far as 79° S.

By the observations which Ross obtained to the south, to the
north-west, and in the direction of the Magnetic Pole, he has been
enabled to fix the position of it with as much accuracy as if be
had been so fortunate as to reach the spot. He could not get within
160 miles of it. In sailing to the N.W. of his own discoveries in
returning, the ships ran for eighty miles over mountains and other
land which the American Exploring Expedition had laid down
in their charts, and thus has stamped the proper value on their pre-
tended discoveries in this quarter. ... In fact, he has had complete
success in his first undertaking, and I am happy to say without a
single casualty or accident having occurred, '''he officers, crews, and
ships are all in perfect condition. When the ships were first reported
to be in sight, I felt most anxious and set oflF as soon as possible to
meet Ross. My mind, however, was relieved before I got on board
by the crew manning the yards and giving three hearty cheers. Ross
was delighted to find that the officers at the observatory had been as
energetic and persevering at their duties as his own companions, of
which he r reived proof on landing by Kay laying before him the
registers ot their very numerous obser /ations brought up to the pre-
ceding hour and ready to be at once forwarded to England. The
only disappointment Ross has felt was at your absence at the time

1841

THE TRONY OF THE UNKNOWN

L>87

to the
been
if be
within
ries in
other
down
ir pre-
mplete
thout a
vs, and
ported
ble to
board
Ross
)een as
ons, of
m the
le pre-
The
time

of his return, and in his expression of regret he was heartily joined
by all his officers as well as by his own circle. However, we look
forward to your early return, and I hope the ships will remain till
you do.

The ships remained at Hobart Town for more than another
month, and their stay there was signalised by an incident
which, though slight m itself, cannot fail to strike any one at
all curious of dramatic coincidence. It was singular enough
that the Erebus and Terror, those two companion vessels which
had done so much and were destined to do yet more battle
with the Arctic ice, should have been selected for a service
which brought them, at the other Pole of the world, into such
close contact with the last commander that the Erebus was
ever to have ; but this strange accident was to be yet more
strikingly emphasised. During the sojourn of the explorers
at the port of Hobart Town the hospitalities customary in
such cases were exchanged between ships and shore, and
among the Franklin papers of the year 1841 is still preserved
one of those usually * trivial, fond records ' of past festivities
to which later events have lent a pathetic significance. It is
the invitation card to a ball which was given on board the
Erebus by the officers of that ship and of the Terror, and
which the Government House party duly honoured with their
presence. Virgil himself could have asked for no more grimly
ironic commentary on his apostrophe of the

Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque future !

than this light-hearted meeting of Crozicr and Franklin, host
and guest, on the deck of the doomed vessel which five years
later was to bear the elder and accompany the younger to their
Arctic grave, and to leave her own stout timbers, so gaily
trodden throughout that warm southern night by the tripping
feet of the dancers, to be slowly crushed in the cruel clutch
of the ice-pack amid the iron fastnesses of the Pole.

. ■HJ|ii| J»lU,-.iJiWiJ—iJ.i^iUJPlW

288

FRANKLIX AND MONTAGU

CFI. XVII.

»'i

CHAPTER XVII

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU
1841-1844

It was the warning counsel of Greek wisdom to * call no
man happy till he is dead ; ' and what is true of the natural
life has assuredly no less apt an appl! .ation to an official career.
Safely to attribute happiness to the record of an Austral-
asian governorship — especially in the uneasy times of our
colonial history half a century ago — it was imperatively
necessary to await its end. To any one who had watched
Sir John Franklin's administration from a distance, who had
noted the useful public works in which it abounded, the
energy and success with which he promoted the material and
moral development of the colony, the esteem and even affec-
tion which he won from the colonists as a community, it
might have seemed incredible that a career in many ways so
prosperous should be destined to so stormy a close. Nor
even for one who most carefully follows the course of the
events detailed in the course of this and the succeeding
chapter is it easy, if indeed it is possible, to master the whole
secret of their explanation. That the Governor was sur-
rounded by factious and intriguing subordinates, that his policy
was sustained with little loyalty, and often thwarted by petty
spite on the part of those from whom he had a right to
expect co-operation, that his chief adviser was a man of
obstinate and masterful will, who may have cherished, as he
was suspected of cherishing, ambitions inconsistent with
faithful service to his chief — all this is patent enough as
matter of actual fact, but is insufficient as explanatory ma-
terial. These difficulties of his administration were known
to Franklin from the first ; he had to reckon and to grapple

1841

FRANKLIN'S POSITION

389

I • *.r

with them from the very outset of his term ; and it is not at
first sight easy to understand how it was that after contend-
ing with them not unsuccessfully for a space of five years
they should at last have overcome him.

Had he been other than the man which he had already
proved himself to be, his failure would have been comprehen-
sible enough. Many a man distinguished in the domain of
action has b^rore this proved himself utterly destitute of the
qualities necessary to success in counsel. Energy and daring
do not always go hand in hand with tact and discretion ; the
faculty of command is not invariably accompanied by the
power of persuasion ; a high and resolute spirit is often asso-
ciated with an overbearing temper. But Franklin was no
mere imperious martinet, no headlong and headstrong auto-
crat, deaf to criticism and impatient of opposition, and riding
roughshod over the opinions and susceptibilities of those
around him. On the contrary, he had already in his Greek
mission proved his possession of all the moral and intellectual
weapons of the diplomatist ; he had shown his power of
bringing an untiring patience, an imperturbable temper, and
an inexhaustible ingenuity to the accomplishment of objects
which he was forbidden to attempt, or could not hope to
achieve, by force. How came it, then, we are constrained to
ask ourselves, that he failed in a task for which the principal if
not the sole and sufficient instrument might have been sup-
posed to be simply skill in the management of men ? How
was it that he was unable to handle hostile and insubordinate
colonial officials with the adroitness which he displayed in
dealing with slippery Levantine adventurers and intriguing
Muscovite colleagues ?

No complete answer to these questions is now perhaps
forthcoming, but a reply practically sufficient for its purpose
and far from discreditable to Franklin may be deduceo, it
seems to me, from a comparison or rather a contrast between
the circumstances of his Tasmanian administration and those
of his Mediterranean command. It was not merely that in
the Gulf of Patras he had the advantages whi jh he lacked at
Hobart Town — untrammelled authority and a free hand ; that

1^ (

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to i

290

FRANKLIN AND M0NTA(5U

OH. XVII.

' I

'«^?.

in the former case his duty was to act with promptitude and
decision, and take the judgment of his official superiors after-
wards, while in the latter case action could not always or
even generally be taken until the views if not the wills of
advisers had been consulted and objections of the captious and
sometimes perhaps even insincere or malicious order had been
laboriously refuted or in the last resort overruled.

To these new conditions of public service he could doubt-
less have accommodated himself It was not the difference
between the circumstances of the two missions which led
to their unhappy divergence of result ; it was the difference
between the moral attitudes which he respectively assumed
towards them. The Greeks, official or insurgent, were ap-
proached by him in the neutral spirit and frigid temper of the
diplomatist. The objects which he sought to attain — the
protection, that is to say, of British interests, and, so far as
possible, the preservation of international order — were sub-
stantially identical with the ends which every commander of
a British war-ship has a standing commission to keep in view.
It was no more of a tax upon Franklin's patience to watch
the shifts and stratagems of Hellenic cunning, nor any
heavier demand upon his vigilance and dexterity to counteract
them, than he would have found it to have to await the
proper moment and select the best position for an attack
upon an enemy's ship.

But he was unable, and it was a generous inability, to
approach his colonial colleagues as he approached the Greeks.
He could not bring himself to regard them as so many human
instruments to be used for certain definite purposes, as so much
flesh-and-blood material to be moulded into, or as nearly as
possible into, certain desired shapes. That is the way in
which men are regarded by the ideal 'manager of men,' but
to observe such bloodless 'counsels of perfection ' as these was
utterly beyond John Franklin's power. It needed a colder
heart and a less sympathetic temperament than his to be
able to treat his colleagues on the council board after any
such ungenial plan. No man was ever less fitted by nature
to act on the more cynical portion of the famous advice of

1841

FRANKLIN'S TOSITION

291

him who has counselled us always to ' treat a friend as if he
might become an enemy, and an enemy as if he might
become a friend.' To the latter recommendation, indeed,
he would have promptly and cheerfully responded, but the
former principle he would have regarded as morally hateful,
and, for himself at any rate, practically impossible of applica-
tion.

How, indeed, he would have asked himself, could he pos-
sibly apply it to any of the men around him .-* Were they not
all English gentlemen like himself, all servants of the British
Crown, under the same obligation as himself to promote the
interests of the colory and the Empire by every means in
their power, and, above all, to see that, in the memorable
words of the Duke of Wellington, whatever else happened, the
government of his sovereign ' should be carried on ' > It
was foreign to his nature to believe that any conscientious
difference of opinion on questions of policy could ever array
such men in personal hostility to himself, and it would be an
insult to them to assume the necessity of treating them with
the cautious reserve of a chief who saw a possible enemy in
every one of them. So far from that, the kindly and open-
hearted nature of the Governor but too strongly prompted
him to extend not only his confidence but his friendship to
any of those about him who seemed to invite it without too
critically considering whether they were worthy of it. It
was instinctive with him to seek to establish cordial and
even affectionate relations with those under his control.
Such a mode of government has its advantages, but it is also
not without those dangers which proverbially attend the
intrusion of ' sentiment ' into ' business.' So long as the
official machine runs smoothly, the chief who cultivates
intimacy with his staff is no c^oubt served with a zeal and
devotion which can never be commanded by one who, as the
phrase is, ' keeps them at a distance.' But in the event of
* difficulties ' arising between him and them the pre-existing
intimacy is apt to react upon the situation with disastrous
effect. Feelings of private injury add a sting to the irritation of
public controversy ; the warmth engendered by argumentative

I V.

i- iI't'3

292

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. XVII.

collision is inflamed by a sense of ill-requited friendliness and
by resentment at real or fancied ingratitude ; and the oflficial
dispute at last assumes the bitterness of a personal quarrel.

The influence of such a revulsion of feeling seems plainly
traceable in the history of Franklin's difference with the
most powerful and highly placed of his colleagues, and in-
deed, though in a less degree, in his conflicts with the other
officials of whom he fell foul. In every instance one can
plainly perceive that the irritation, never more than slight
with sensible men, which a mere conflict of wills is apt to
produce was indefinitely intensified by the smart of wounded
susceptibilities, and that in each case the Governor's impulse
was to regard his opponent not merely as a troublesome col-
league, but to a certain extent as a faithless friend. It thus
became impossible for him to take a tolerant view of those
mere tactical devices of controversy which disputants whose
personal feelings are not engaged find it easy to permit to
their adversaries. To Franklin such strategy, purely defensive
as it was, appeared only an additional cause of offence.
Himself the soul of candour, a ' plain-dealer,' to use an old-
fashioned term, of the most uncompromising kind, he was
angrily impatient of any conduct in others which seemed to
him to savour of obliquity or chicane, and it did not .«^ jem to
occur to him that, as human nature is constituted, it is idle
to expect absolute and unreserved self-disclosure from an
opponent who is fighting for a victory on which his official
position and prospects depend.

Thus, from resenting tactics which less sensitive men
might have tolerated, Franklin went on to take that further
step which is always so easy to a zealous and conscientious
administrator in such circumstances. He began to feel a
stronger and stronger indignation on behalf of the public
service, struck at, as he conceived, in his own person. The
men who were making this ' dead set ' at him were also
obstructing the government and imperilling the welfare of
the colony committed by his Sovereign to his charge. Once
convinced of this, his mere professional instincts and the
training and traditions of his life impelled him to decided

1841

LADY FRANKLIN

S98

courses. It was almost inevitable that the civil Governor
at loggerheads with his colleagues should have at last come
to regard himself as a naval commander confronted with
mutineers, and to deal with opposition in a manner so
summary as to a certain extent to justify the criticism that
he mistook his council chamber for the quarter-deck of a
man-of-war.

No account, however, of these Tasmanian troubles would
be adequate which did not include some estimate of Lady
Franklin's innocent share in aggravating them. For innocent
it was, in the strictest sense of the word, at least if a right to
such a description can be earned by the absolute unselfish-
ness of motives which began and ended in a benevolent desire
to promote the moral and material interests of the colony,
and a wifely ambition to contribute to the success and credit
of her husband's rule. That her zeal was never in any in-
stance untempered by discretion it would be too much to say.
Prudence so unfailing and invariable amid circumstances
often of extreme difficulty is not given to mortal man, still
less to mortal woman. But this at least may be said in Lady
Franklin's case, that her entanglement in the dispute between
her husband and his colleagues was not the result of any un-
guarded word which may have fallen from her or incautious
act into which she may have been betrayed. By this I mean
that, though a connection might be plausibly traced between
such word or act and the events that followed, it is assuredly
not the fact that the avoidance of the indiscretion would have
saved her from the entanglement. From that nothing would
have saved her, except perhaps (for even thus much is not
certain) an avowed and inflexible refusal to express, or even to
admit having formed, an opinion of her own on public affairs.
Even this, it must be repeated, would not have absolutely in-
sured her against misrepresentation, for it is always possible for
vhose whose interest it is to do so to insist that the wife of a
Governor is ' a power behind the throne,' and even to find proof
of the charge in the very fact that she, as they would put it,
' ostentatiously ' disclaimed all concern with political afifairs.
Had Lady Franklin confined herself with the utmost strict-

*' ■ W

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294

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

OH. XVII.

/ .. »

I J

|l .1

i >..

ness to the ceremonial duties of her position, she could not
have concealed the fact of her brij^ht intelligence, of her keen
interest in social questions, and of her eager desire for informa-
tion on all colonial matters. Still less would her husband have
consented to disguise his high opinion of her judgment or
his readiness to consult it. It would always have been known,
or at any rate suspected, and by persons who would not hesitate
to treat suspicion as knowledge, that she shared the Governor's
counsels ; and those who desired, as more than one of the
colonial officials did desire, to embarrass or to wound their
chief by representing her influence as supreme, would have
had little difificulty in finding or inventing evidence on which
to found the charge.

That charge is, in truth, one of the most embarrassing,
not to say the most offensive, which can be brought against
either of the two parties v/ho are its object. To say of any
person in high authority that his policy is dictated by his
wife, is to level at him an imputation to which he cannot
submit without confession of weakness and incapacity, yet
which a man of generosity finds it impossible to repel with
the indignation which, had he only himself to consider, he
would probably display. Franklin was far too magnanimous
to throw his denial into such a form as might imply that he
excluded Lady Franklin from all participation in his public
cares, while she herself must have suffered acutely in feel-
ing that this magnanimity necessarily weakened him for
defence. Nay, she was no doubt conscious that she had
in fact endeavoured, within the limits of legitimate persuasion,
to impress her own views of certain social questions upon her
husband's mind ; while her concurrent consciousness that she
had never exceeded these limits, and, indeed, that beyond
them she would have been powerless to deflect the course of
Franklin's policy, made the misrepresentations of the malicious
peculiarly hard to bear. We have already seen how improper
a use had been made of her name, though in that case, doubt-
less, with no unworthy purpose, by Captain Mackonochie, and
how stern a rebuke he had provoked from the Governor in
consequence. Lady Franklin was guiltless of anything save

1341

TUOUIJLE IIUKWINU

liU.'i

not

an abstract sympathy with the private secretary's ultra-
humanitarian views as a reformer of prison discipline, an
unfeigned esteem for his personal character, and a feeling of
tenderness for a family who were in some sense her guests,
and who had at any rate lived for months vvith her in the
intimacy of a common household. It was in response to
these sentiments, and to these alone, that she had laboured
to prevent the final rupture between him and her husband,
and had used her good offices at an earlier stage of their
intercourse to soothe those natural feelings of resentment
which Mackonochie's singular disregard of the obligations of
his confidential post had created in Franklin's mind. Yet
she had had reason to repent even this act of simple friendli-
ness, and she was fated to learn that conduct of equally
innocent motive could be even more unwarrantably perverted.

Franklin, it is true, was to have no more trouble from
private secretaries. Captain Mackonochic was succeeded by
Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Elliot, then only just commenc-
ing the distinguished career which he was aflerwards to
pursue through various diplomatic offices to that important
post of Ambassador at Constantinople, which he served with
such marked and memorable ability in the Eastern crisis of
1876-77. Between Elliot and the Franklins relations of the
highest mutual esteem and confidence at once established
themselves, and were not long in developing into those of
close personal attachment. Nor did the intimacy cease with
the private secretary's relinquishment of his office a couple of
years later and his return to England to enter the diplomatic
service. A correspondence was for some time maintained by
him with his former chief, to whose character and capacity he
took occasion many years later to bear a testimony which
will be cited in a later page of this volume.

But trouble was brewing for the Governor elsewhere, and
in more quarters than one. Reference has been already made
to the singular and almost ludicrous acrimony of the quarrels
which raged from time to time in the official circle of the
colony. The gentleman w ho then filled the office of Attorney-
General had come into violent collision with one of the judges

■i t ■ I

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r-f

H »*»»«» B- . « B <M« W m nv ^

9oe

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CIt. ZTU.

'; t

^r>

il ii

a short time after Franklin's arrival. He was said to have
'eaten sandwiches ' in the judicial presence, to the derogation or
delay of the proceedings ; and the judge, among other words
of reproof, had thus addressed him : ' Sir, in your official
capacity I shall always treat you with the courtesy and re-
spect due to you. Were you elsewhere I should treat you,
after your conduct, with less courtesy than a dog.' The diffi-
culty was settled by the transfer of the Attorney-General to
another colony, but his successor failed to hit it off with his
colleagues, and later on the legal business of the Government
was somewhat embarrassed by the circumstance of its two
law officers not Lcjing on speai<ing terms with each other. In
the legislative session of 1839 the superior of these two func-
tionaries felt it his duty to oppose one of the measures
brought forward by the Governor, the principle of which had
been also dei^ounced by the Solicitor-General as ' iniquitous
and unprecedented ; ' but upon the resignation of the Attor-
ney-General his colleaj'ue accepted his place and voted for
the Bill. His defence of this conduct was that he had ex-
pressed the former opinion in ignorance of its details ; but
so much public indignation was excited by his remarkable
change of front that Mr. Solicitor himself soon deemed it ex-
pedient to follow Mr. Attorney into retirement, and both
officials had to be replaced by successors.

A dif'hulty, however, of a still graver nature awaited
Franklir: <a connection with this measure, the principle of
which, it must be admitted, was legitimately open to dispute.
The Bill was supplemental to another which had just pre-
viously passed the Council for prohibiting private distillation,
and which had included a provision for the compensation of
the distillers at an amount to be settled by a committee.
To this mode of settlement the Chief Justice, as was perhaps
natural, took strong objection ; and the Government, being,
on the other hand, unwilling tc accede to his proposal that
the claims of the distillers should be referred to a jury, yet
anxious that the enactment should not be delayed, had passed
it with a substituted section simply affirming the general
principle that compensation should be paid. To apply this

1880

THE COLONIAL TREASURER

principle, however, to the actual circumstances of the case
turned out to be no easy matter. The laxity of the distilla-
tion laws had enabled the manufacturers in many instances
to realise illicit profits by paying duties on a lower denomi-
nation of cereals than those actually employed by them in
their trade. Their past gains could not of course be ques-
tioned, but Franklin strenuously and reasonably objected to
allow the rate of compensation to be based on a rate of
profits which had been only maintainable by defrauding
the revenue. So far, no doubt, he carried all his colleagues
with him ; it was on his proposed method of giving legislative
effect to his views that differences arose. A resolution was
introduced to the effect ' that any applicant having been
proved, to the satisfaction of this Council, to have been in the
habit of distilling contrary to law, has by such practice de-
stroyed any claim he might have otherwise had to compensa-
tion.' This resolution, peihaps because it was only a resolution,
passed the Council. When, however, it was followed by what
was called a Feigned Issues Bill — that is to say, a measure
providing, by means of an action at law between two hypo-
thetical litigants, for the judicial determination of the question
whether any individual distiller applying for compensation
had or had not increased his profits by the illicit practices
above mentioned — Franklin failed to carry his colleagues
with him. The lawyers on the Council, together with all the
non-official members, opposed it, and the Bill was ultimately
lost.

It was, however, opposed also by a member of the Council
who was neither legal nor unofficial but was in fact as
closely concerned in the financial administration of the colony
as the Governor himself This was Mr. Gregory, the colonial
treasurer, whose conflict with his chief on this question soon
reached an acute stage. It could hardly, indeed, have been
otherwise ; and the only matter for surprise in the whole
business is the apparent assumption of the dissentient
minister that his official position, after his difference with the
Governor had proved to be an irreconcilable one, was for a
moment tenable at all. The policy or even the equity of

|! %f^

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FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. XVI r.

1 «:: .1

! 1

Franklin's proposed measure was not the question. There is
undoubtedly a good deal to be said for the objec^-ors, whose
contention presumably was that, though a distiller's past viola-
tions of fiscal law might properly and indeed ought obviously to
be taken into account against him in assessing his losses by
the extinction of his trade, they did not and could not justify
the Government in fining him to the extent of the whole
profits, lawful as well as unlawful, which that trade had brought
him in. But the merits or demerits of the measure no more
affected the question as between Franklin and Gregory than
it would have affected similar questions arising in the mother
country between a Prime Minister and a member of his
Cabinet. In each case the duty of such a member, either to
support the policy of his chief or to resign his office, would
be plain ; and probably nothing but the personal animus
which seems to have been engendered by every official differ-
ence of opinion in Tasmania prevented Mir Gregory from
seeing this. Franklin's rough manuscript memoranda of his
various interviews with the Colonial Treasurer are still in
existence, and they show conclusively enough that he spared
no pains to dissuade that officer from taking up a position of
active hostility to the policy of his chief It would even
appear that the Governor, on the advice of his Executive
Council, went the somewhat illogical length of acquiescing in
Mr. Gregory's opposition to the Bill, provided that he would
be content to confine that opposition to a silent vote, and
would refrain from addressing the Council against the Bill.

All these efforts were, however, vain, and Franklin at
last conceived it to be his imperative duty to suspend the
Treasurer from his office, and to report the case and his
action upon it to the authorities in Downing Street, by whom
it was, apparently after some hesitation, approved. They
could hardly of course have done otherwise under the circum-
stances. Franklin's case was too good in the merits for tnat.
Still it is, I think, evident that the authorities in Downing
Street were a little taken aback by the vigour of his action,
and that they would have preferred his proceeding by the
more leisurely and ceremonious method of suspending the

Ifl

^1 ; 11

1841

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY

29i>

legislation first, and the hostile official only after reference to
and permission from the department.

The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Montpju, was an antagonist
of a different and more formidable kind. He was a man of
marked administrative ability, engaging manners, and a con-
siderable gift of nersuasive speech ; but his disposition was
masterful and ambitious, and he was quick to resent any
slight to his dignity or any check to his influence as the
officer next in colonial rank to the Governor. That he would
eventually come into conflict with Franklin was certain ; i;hc
wonder is thai the collision was delayed so long. What
seems to have precipitated, or to have helped to precipitate
it, was a visit paid by Mr. Montagu to England. His leave
of absence was granted to him on private grounds, but his
chief, whose unqualified confidence he then possessed, was of
opinion that his presence in England ' might be of infinite
advantage to the colony if he had legitimate access to the
Colonial Office, and had means of making available his know-
ledge and experience in colonial aftairs, and especially on
the subjects of emigration and convict discipline.'

The result, however, was disappointing. It was said by
Mr. Montagu's friends in the colony, and the admissions of his
brother-in-law and locum tenens, Captain Forster, lent credit
to the statement, that he did not intend to return to Tasmania
at all unless he failed to obtain a certain appointment else-
where, of which he was ambitious, and which he had gone
to England to seek. All this time, however, Franklin was
receiving from him most positive announcements of his in-
tention to return. This, and the fact that Mr. Montagu
continued to keep his relative informed of his interviews with
and advice to the Secretary of State on the contemplated
changes in the convict system, while he withheld all informa-
tion on these points from the Gcernor, tended to produce a
certain strain in the relations between them ; and though, on
his return to the colony in the summer of 1841, Franklin
attempted, ' after some necessary explanations,' to re-establish
the old froting of cordiality, it seems clear enough that the
attempt was but imperfectly successful.

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it-

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FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. IVII.

I ,'"

About six months later the crisis came. Franklin had
removed from the post of district surgeon (which included
the medical charge of prisoners within certain limits) a young
man who was represented to him as having carelessly and
inhumanly neglected his duty in a particular case. The
principal medical officer recommended that he should be
severely reprimanded. The Colonial Secretary, through
whom the report came to the Governor, added the recommen-
dation that he should be dismissed. After examining the
papers, Franklin concurred in the advice offered him, and
annotated the documents with some severe animadversions on
the surgeon's conduct. Facts, however, which were subse-
quently brought to his knowledge convinoeH iv that he had
acted with some precipitancy, and, ' not having yet learnt,' as
he afterwards characteristically observed, ' that it is a greater
blunder in a ruler to repair than commit an error,' it was a
relief to his mind to receive a memorial from some of the
most respectable inhabitants of the district in question —
headed by the very foreman of the coroner's jury, who had
previously passed some severe strictures on the surgeon's
conduct — expressing the sense entertained by the neighbours
and frie.ids of Dr. Coverdale of his general humanity and
skill, and their desire to retain his professional services. To
the revision of the original sentence Mr. Montagu ' Oered
the most strenuous opposition. He pressed his ..; ' to
withhold his reply to the memorial until he had re tp '
considered a memorandum which the Colonial Secrc /. y
desired to address to him on the subject. With this request
Franklin, of course, complied, but when on receiving this
paper he found Mr. Montagu's arguments insufficient, and,
moreover, founded in part on mistaken data, he adhered to
his decision, of which Montagu had, as usual, to be the
official organ of conveyance. It was this reversal of a
decision recomm'i"'Jed by him which brought about the
rupture.

After absenting himself for several days and sending his
papers to the Governor without note or comment, contrary to
his usual custom, Franklin found it necessary to send for

1841

THE COVERDALE CASE

301

him on business which was to be transacted in the Legislative
Council. At the close of this interview Montagu in a very
deliberate and formal manner declared that evil consequences
would ensue from the step which had been taken with respect
to Dr. Coverdale ; that great excitement prevailed in the
district of Richmond ; that the petition was an entirely-
political movement ; that he knew how it was ' got up ; ' that
Dr. Coverc Je's punishment was stated to be /it's (Montagu's)
act, and that to restore him was to degrade his (the Colonial
Secretary's) office ; and, most important notification of all, as
the event proved, that Franklin ' must not in future expect the
same assistance he had hitherto rendered, though he should
keep within the line of his official duty,' and that he ' feared
that Franklin's official labours would thus be greatly aug-
mented.' He concluded by expressing a hope that the
evil consequences which he apprehended might not take
place.

Franklin replied in effect that he shared the hope, and
united to it the expectation, that they would not ; that he
knew nothing of any agitation whatever in the Richmond
district, nor why there should be any ; that he neither knew
nor cared whether the petition was ' got up ' as alleged or
not ; that he saw no reason why Mr. Montagu's office should
be ' degraded,' or his usefulness diminished, or his chief's
labours ir. creased ; but if that were to be the case, that he
hoped he should be able to bear it. ' My reply,' continued
Franklin in the subsequently published ' Narrative,' from
which I have been quoting, ' might certainly have been
couched in less forbearing terms, but, hoping that Mr.
Montagu was labouring under some delusion and would
soon see the folly and impropriety of these 'die and disre-
spectful observations, I treated the subject as an ebullition of
personal feeling of which he would soon himself be ashamed.
Mr. Montagu's, however, were no idle threats. From that
day, or more correctly speaking, perhaps, from the day when
he reluctantly transmitted my answer to the petition, the
current business of my office assumed a very different aspect.
Mr. Montagu absented himself as much as he could from

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302

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. XVIT.

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personal attendance ; the papers he forwarded to me were no
longer accompanied by the necessary information which had
to be elicited step by step from the Colonial Secretary's
ofificc ; needless questions were referred to me ; every effort
was made to overwhelm me if possible with the investigation
of minute details, and to make me feel that my dependence
on Mr. Montagu's ordinary services was not to be broken with
impunity.'

Matters, in fact, had by this time reached a stage at which
any man of a colder and more calculating nature than
Franklin's would have seen that a choice between two
courses was open to him. Confronted as he found himself
by a hostile and indeed secretly mutinous subordinate, with
whom further official co-operation was impossible, such a
Governor would either have reported the whole affair to
Downing Street and requested the authorities to transfer his
secretary to some other post , or, if he found the situation
created by Montagu so intolerable that his summary dis-
missal or suspension was imperatively called for without
awaiting the sanction of the Colonial Office to the step, ho
would at least have taken care to provide himself with a good
casus belli by putting his refractory minister in some definite
official issue conspicuously in the wrong.

Franklin took neither of these courses, or at least adhered
to neither. He tried forbearance without forbearing long
enough ; and when he at last took action he injudiciously per-
mitted a complaint of an unofficial, or, at an> rate, of a not
strictly official character against Montagu to be mixed up
with the cause of dissatisfaction which already existed. And,
gravest imprudence of all, this complaint was founded upon
the always doubtful and generally quite unprovable charge of
having countenanced anonymous attacks in a newspaper.
The 'Van Diemens Land Chroni:le ' began to publish
articles reflecting, in the offensive tone characteristic of the
colonial press of those days, on the conduct of the Governor,
and generally supporting the Montagu side in the quarrel ;
and the ' Van Diemen's Land Chronicle ' was a recently
founded newspaper, for which on its establishment the

1842

NEWoi Ai-ER ATTACKS

803

Colonial Secretary had undoubtedly solicited Government
patronage. Its editor and some of its principal writers were
known to be his personal friends. On the appearance in its
columns, therefore, of these attacks, it began to be said by the
Franklin party that the Colonial Secretary was ' using the
newspaper directly or indirectly to abuse and degrade the
Lieutenant-Governor and his family.' It is a question,
perhaps, whether it would have been wise even for Franklin
himself to call Montagu's attention to these reports : it was
certainly not advisable that such a step should be taken by
any third person acting on his own initiative. Sir John's
then private secretary, who seems to have been a gentleman
of considerable officiousness and a somewhat plentiful lack ot
discretion, wrote on his own account, and premising that he
had no authority from his chief, to invite from Montagu a
denial of these imputations. The Colonial Secretary ' first
evaded any direct reply,' and then (and it must be owned not
unnaturally) * expressed his resentment at the interference.'

This correspondence took place during a few days of
Franklin's absence from the seat of government. On his
return it was laid before him by Mr. Henslowe, when no
doubt the most judicious mode of dealing with it would have
been to lay it quietly on one side, and perhaps at the same
time to administer a gentle rebuke to the private secretary for
his excess of zeal. Franklin, however, as has been already
stated, was somewhat over-sensitive, and his wife even more
so, to newspaper abuse, and, ' the Colonial Secretary having
taken no steps to repudiate the insinuations referred to in the
correspondence,' he deemed it impossible any longer to over-
look or delay notice of the very singular position in which
Mr. Montagu appeared to have placed himself. He accord-
ingly addressed a memorandum to Montagu reminding him
of the conversation in which he had solicited, or had, at any
rate, been understood by his chief to solicit. Government
patronage for the ' Van Diemen's Land Chronicle,' calling
attention to the scurrilous articles against the Governor and
his family which had appeared in its columns during the last
month, and inquiring whether the Colonial Secretary had

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FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. XVII.

'taken any steps to uphold under such circumstances the
dignity of my Government.'

To Franklin's great astonishment, Montagu informed him
in reply ' that he had no recollection whatever of anything I
had said respecting the newspaper/ except that he (Montagu)
had conveyed a request from the editor that Lady Franklin
would send him for editorial purposes the literary and other
periodicals she was in the habit of receiving from England,
and had further made a voluntary communication to the
Governor of the editor's intention to support the Government
in his newspaper. Consequently, Montagu went on to say,
it was entirely out of his power to ' withdraw assistance he
had never given,' or to ' assist the dignity of the Government '
by any step of the kind suggested. And, to trace the dis-
agreeable affair to its close, as described in the words of
Franklin's ' Narrative : '

The climax of Mr. Montagu's language in the correspondence
which passed on this subject was contained in the following insulting
remark in his letter of January 17:' But I trust your Excellency
will also pardon me for submitting to you — and I beg to assure you
that I do so under a deep conviction of the necessity of supporting
my statement — that while your Excellency and all the members of
your Government have had such frequent opportunities of testing my
memory as to have acquired for it the reputation of a remarkably
accurate one, your oflficers have not been without opportunity of learn-
ing that your Excellency could not always place implicit reliance upon
your own.'

Unwilling to bandy more words with Mr. Montagu, I paused on
the receipt of the letter, and, having again patiently reviewed the events
of the last few months, and considered the little prospect there was
of any real and healthy confidence being re-established between us,
I felt that without detriment to the public service and dishonour to
myself I could not retain Mr. Montagu as Colonial Secretary, and
accordingly used the powers vested in me of suspending him from
office until Her Majesty's pleasure should be known. This deter-
mination I conveyed to Mr. Montagu on January 25, 1842, exactly
three months after his announcement of his intention to withhold
the assistance he had previously rendered to me as Governor.

The ' insulting imputation,' as Franklin, not without
reason, describes it, was the worst blunder Montagu had

1842

SUSPENSION

806

made, and with his usual acuteness he saw the necessity of
hastening to repair it.

On the eve of the day named by himself for handing
over the business of his office to his successor, and six
days after his suspension had been made known to aim, he
apologised for the expression above quoted, which he begged
to withdraw, and disavowed any intention of disrespect.
Franklin conveyed to him his appreciation and acceptance of
this apology, but, his decision having been formed on public
grounds and on the whole of Montagu's conduct, he felt that
he could not reverse it for an act of tardy reparation
addressed especially to his personal feelings. ' This act of
Mr. Montagu's enabled me, however,' he adds, ' to inform him
of my intention to recommend him to the Secretary of State
for employment as an able and experienced officer whose
services might be useful to the Crown in any country but in
Van Diemen's Land. The Secretary of State,' continues
Franklin, ' is well aware how amply I redeemed this pledge.'

So amply indeed, and with such effect, did he redeem it,
that Mr. Montagu, as will ^^t seen, obtained immediate
transfer to an official post of equal if not of higher rank and
emolument ; but the giving of such a pledge must neverthe-
less be regarded as a generous error. Mr. Montagu's ' ability '
and ' experience ' were unquestioned ; but it was another
matter to say of an officer who had for the past three months
been executing his threat of withholding from his chief * the
assistance he had hitherto rendered him,' that * his services
might be useful to the Crown in any country but in Van
Diemen's Land.' They might or they might not be, accoid-
ing as he got on or not with his official superior. Franklin's
own case against hnn was that under existing circumstancci^'
Mr. Montagu was so much the reverse of ' useful ' that he felt
it impossible, without ' detriment to the service ' of the Crown
and ' dishonour to its representative,' lo retain him as Colonial
Secretary. To admit his usefulness ' in any country but in
Van Diemen's Land ' was equivalent — or was sure to be
understood as equivalent — to an admission that the indi-
viduality and personal characteristics of the Governor had

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S06

FRANKLIN AND MONTAGU

CH. XVII.

something to do with the Secretary's contumacy. It would,
in fact, have been only too easy for an unfriendly criticism to
attribute it to a conscience-stricken acknowledgment on the
part of the chief that he had dealt too harslily with his sub-
ordinate, and to a desire to make him such amends as lay in
his power by recommending him for official employment
elsewhere.

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1842

307

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CHAPTER XVIII

FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET
I 842- I 844

Mr. Montagu was not the man to accept dismissal from
any official post in a meekly submissive spirit. He had
influential friends in England, and, as he believed, the ear of
the Colonial Office, and he at once made his preparations for
an energetic appeal against Franklin's decision. He lost no
time in leaving for home, in order to plead his own cause on
the spot, and, by the same ship which took him to England
the Governor addressed his despatches to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies announcing the suspension of his
officer, and giving a detailed account of the incidents which
had led to it.

Meanwhile, the quarrel, as often happens in such ca.ses,
had become complicated with and embittered by other and
irrelevant topics of dispute. Lady Franklin's name had
been drawn into it, Mr. Montagu asserting that it was
she who had attempted to agitate or had, at any rate,
favoured the agitation of the Richmond district, in favour
of the medical officer whose reinstatement had led to the
breach between the Governor and the Colonial Secretary.
The charge was, of course, indignantly repudiated by Lady
Franklin, and no doubt was destitute of any other basis than
local gossip seizing upon private expressions, not always
withheld perhaps from unsuitable audiences, of her sympathy
with a young man who had been treated with undue severity
Mr. Montagu, however, persisted in and doubtless believed the
imputation ; it was taken up, more suo, by his partisans in the
colonial press, and for both husband and wife it constituted,
as may well be imagined, the most painful part of the affair.

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FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET on. xviii.

Another and minor difference arose between the suspended
Secretary and his chief on conflicting allegations of fact. The
Director of Public Works had been censured by T'ranklin for
having without his authority engaged in very costly improve-
ments of a church for which the Governor had sanctioned
only some necessary and simple alterations. Captain Cheyne,
the officer thus rebuked, pleaded Mr. Montagu's sanction.
Mr. Montagu denied that he had given it, and declared that
he had ' never seen ' the authority on which the Director had
commenced the work. After his departure for England the
plans were found and shown to have been approved and
signed by the late Colonial Secretary. There is no reason to
suspect him of anything worse than a lapse of memory ; but
when two men are at daggers drawn mutual suspicions arc
easily excited, and Franklin despatched these plans and the
details of the incidents connected with them to the Colonial
Office, as a separate head of complaint against his suspended
subordinate.

The contest between them, however, was an unequal
one. Montagu was on the spot, that is to say, in Downing
Street, Franklin thousands of miles away. The latter was
personally unknown to the higher official staff of the
Colonial Department ; the former had but recently been
conferring with them on colonial matters, and had produced
upon them that favourable impression as to his personal
abilities which no man knew better how to create. And
lastly, in the minister at the head of the Department Mr.
Montagu had the good fortune to find a statesman whose
brilliant political powers blinded and still to some extent
blind the public to those grave defects of character with
which his intimates had too good reason to be acquainted.
He was not at all the sort of minister who, if he happened
at a first impression to form a strong view of the merits
of a particular case, would be at all likely to reconsider it on
any grounds of conscientious scruple or from any sense of
judicial duty. Nor was it in his haughty and imperious
temper to consider the feelings of others as to his mode of
signifying the conclusions at which he might have arrived.

«p

1842

A SEVEHi: DESPATCH

809

l^ord Stanley, as it happened, took a very strong view of the
Franklin-Montagu dispute in Mr. Montagu's favour, and this
view found ultimate embodiment in a despatch which was not
only in itself so remarkable a document, but received so large
an addition to its importance from the truly extraordinary
circumstances of its promulgation, that it will be necessary to
(juote it entire. It is dated from Downing Street, Sep-
tember 13, 1842, nearly eight months after Mr. Montagu's
suspension, and is in these words : —

Sir, — I have received the series of despatches enumerated in the
margin, reporting the various occurrences which led to the suspension
from office of Mr. Montagu, tht Colonial Secretary of Van Diemen's
Land, and to the arrival of that gentleman in this country.

This voluminous mass of papers has occupied much of my time,
and has engaged my deliberate attention. In proceeding to announce
to you the decision at which I have arrived I shall not attempt to
enter with any minuteness into the various details and circumstances
of the transactions to which they refei. Unfortunately, the merits of
the question are so much darkened by the redundancy of the dis-
cussions in which it has been involved that any addition to their
length and number would increase rather than dissipate the obscurity.
I shall, therefore, confine myself to a brief recapitulation of the charge
preferred against Mr. Montagu, and to a statement of the conclusions
which I have adopted respecting each of them first. You have
represented in substance (I purposely abstain from the quotation of
the pages over which the complaint is spared) that Mr. Montagu had
acquired an influence and authority in the affairs of your Government
far exceeding that which properly belonged to his office ; that this
influence was maintained by means which, if not culpable, were at
least objectionable, and was used in such a manner as to render his
continued employment incompatible with the freedom and indepen-
dence of action which the Lieutenant-Governor ought to maintain.

I am not disposed to controvert, but rather to adopt, your opinion
that various circumstances had concurred to place in the hands of
Mr. Montagu a degree of authority which, if not balanced by great
energy and decision in his immediate superiors, would probably tend
to invert the relation which ought to subsist between them. But I
find no reason to impute to Mr. Montagu the blame of having
acquired the power by any unworthy means or dishonest acts ; or of
having employed it for any sinister purpose or in an unbecoming
spirit.

2nd. It is represented that when you overruled Mr. Montagu's
advice in the case of Dr. Coverdale, Mr. Montagu manifested

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IKANKLir: AND DOVVNINU STREET cii. xvni.

his discontent l)y words, and by a course of conduct unbefitting his
position and yours, disresi)ectfully intimating that the r.eal which
he had till then exhibited in the performance of his duty would
be relaxed ; and carrying that intimation into effect under such cir-
cumstances as to justify the belief that it was his design to embarrass
you by suddenly exposing you to what he esteemed insuperable
difficulties.

I am not able entirely to acquit Mr. Montagu of having, in refer-
ence to Dr. Coverdale's case, employed some language which you
not unnaturally regarded as a menace or of having ceased to render
you his efficient services in the same cordial and zealous spirit which
till then he had been accustomed to evince towards you. It may be
difficult to condemn a public servant who faithfully and ably performs
whatever lies within the strict range of his duty for not advancing
further and yielding the aid which public spirit would prompt, or
which a stronger personal regard for his employer would suggest.
But the abrupt abandonment of a cordial co-operation for a service
confined within the exact limits of positive duty may be the subject
of a legitimate reproach, and from this reproach Mr. Montagu is not,
I think, altogether to be exempted.

3rd. Mr. Montagu is charged with having made an improper use,
in the course of these proceedings, of the nr ^^e of a lady the most
intimately allied to yourself.

I pass as rapidly as possible from such ^ .c, confining myself

to the single remark that the imputation does not appear to me to be
well founded.

4th. The next ground of accusation is Mr. Montagu's neglect to
take proper notice of articles insulting to yourself and your family
which appeared in a newspaper established under his auspices, and
for which he had obtained your patronage, and his having, by his
conduct, given countenance to the opinion that he had some personal
connection with these injurious paragraphs.

After fully weighing every part of this case, I entirely acquit Mr.
Montagu of all connection with the offensive articles in question, or
with the authors of them, or of having omitted to do anything which
from his position in reference to yourself and your Government might
reasonably have been expected of him to prevent and discourage
them.

5th You complain of the language addressed by Mr. Montagu to
your private secretary and to yourself on the subject of these news-
paper paragraphs as having been wanting in the respect which it was
his duty to observe towards you, and as having in one instance con-
veyed an insulting imputation on your credibility.

On this part of the case also I think that Mr. Montagu is
entitled to be entirely acquitted of blame. He did indeed make

1849

A SEVEllE DEai'ATClI

■k

811

use of an Inadvertent expression in one of his letters to you, Init tlur
frankness and earnestness with which the error was acknowledged,
and with which your forgiveness was solicited, seem to me to have
been an ample atonement for an unfortunate selection of words ; for
such, and not any intentional insult, was the real character of the
ofTence.

6th. It is imputed to Mr. Montagu that he made an improper
appeal against your suspension of him to the public at large through
the local newspapers at the very moment when he was contemplating
a return to this country to prefer his appeal to myself

I think that he has fully exculpated himself from this accusation.

Finally, you represent that Mr. Montagu authorised the expen-
diture of large sums of public money in erecting the tower and spire
of a church, not merely without your authority, but with a studious
intention of keeping you in the dark on the subject.

Here again I think that Mr. Montagu is entitled to be completely
absolved of the fault imputed to him. He had no notice of the
charge before leaving Van Diemen's Land, but he has since repelled
it to my entire satisfaction.

The result of my consideration of the whole subject is, as you will
see, to relieve Mr. M( :agu from every censure which impugns the
integrity or the propriety of his conduct, while I am compelled to
admit that the circumstances of the case are such as to render his
restoration to his oflfice in Van Diemen's Land highly inexpedient.
It was, therefore, gratifying to me to have it in my power to offer
him an equivalent which, while it would mark my undiminished
confidence in his disposition and ability to render effective public
service, would direct his talents to a field of labour in which they
could be exerted without the inconvenience which must attend his
resumption of his duties as Colonial Secretary at Van Diemen's
Land.

I offiered for his acceptance the vacant office of Colonial Secretary
at the Cape of Good Hope, and he has cheerfully accepted it. It
cannot be too distinctly understood that Mr. Montagu retires from
the situation he has so long filled with his public and personal
character unimpaired, and with his hold on the respect and confidence
of Her Majesty's Government undiminished.

Mr. Bicheno has been appointed to succeed Mr. M-ntagu at Van
Diemen's Land, and his arrival may be expected shortly after your
receipt of this despatch.

I am not aware it could answer any useful purpose to enter more
fully into the merits of this protracted controversy. But, reluctant
as I am to employ a single expression which is likely to be unwelcome
to you, I am compelled to add that your proceedings in this case of
Mr. Montagu do not appear to me to have been well judged, and

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FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET oh. xviii.

that your suspension of him from office is not, in my opinion, suf-
ficiently vindicated.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

Stanley.

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A despatch of such uncompromising not to say brutal
severity can seldom have been addressed by a Cabinet
Minister to a Colonial Governor ; out the harshness of its
terms is not more conspicuous than its signally unjudicial
spirit. That Lord Stanley arrived at a conclusion adverse to
the Governor and declined to approve his action, no reasonable
supporter of Franklin could perhaps have complained. The
point was distinctly an arguable one -nd a Minister might in
perfect good faith and with fullest deliberation have held that,
the Governor having overlooked or condoned the Secretary's
extraordinary intimation of his intention to reduce the amount
of assistance his chief might expect from him, no adequate
cause for his suspension had subsequently arisen. But Lord
Stanley was not content with pointing out the insufficiency of
the grounds on which the Secretary was actually suspended ;
he went out of his way to extenuate conduct on the Secre-
tary's part which would have been amply sufficient to justify
any Governor in suspending him.

His observations on this are almost absurdly lenient.
Thus : ' I am not able entirely to acquit Mr. Montagu of having
used language which you not unnaturally regarded as' (it
would have been highly unnatural to regard it as anything
else than) ' a menace.' And again : ' It may be difficult to
condemn a public servant ' for not going beyond the line of
strict official duty ; but ' the abrupt abandonment of a cordial
co-operation for a service confined within the exact limits of
positive duty may be ' (not, as one might expect to read, the
cause of a total disorganisation of the work of the Government,
oi a possible administrative collapse, but merely, and mildly)
' the subject of a legitimate reproach.' Surely the real
question was not so much as to the propriety of ' cordial
co-operation ' or the inconvenience of its ' abrupt abandon-
ment,' but as to the meaning and effect of a formal notice on

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1842

LOUD STANLEY

SIS

the part of an officer who hitherto had cordially co-operated
with his chief that he intended to do so no longer. It is
impossible to draw any such hard-and-fast line between the
course of conduct demanded by public duty and that which
is suggested by private goodwill as Lord Stanley assumed ;
and a Colonial Secretary who deliberately warns a Colonial
Governor that he no longer intends to pursue the latter course
of conduct is likely sooner or later to deviate from the former.
There can, at any rate, be little doubt as to the action which
would have been t .ken by any man of less forbearing or of a
more col lly calculating temper than Franklin on receiving a
formal notice from a subordinate that his services would in
future be unwillingly instead of ungrudgingly performed.
Such a man would immediately have called upon his lieu-
tenant for explanation or withdrawal, and, failing this, would
have pointed out to him that if his sentiments towards his
chief had really become such as to preclude him from co-
operating with him as cordially as heretofore, it was his
manifest duty to resign.

Lord Stanley's prepossession, however, in favour of the
subordinate officer is conspicuous in every paragraph of the
despatch. He may have been right in disregarding a complaint
so indefinite as that Montagu had ' acquired an influence and
authority ' in excess of that ' which properly belonged to his
office,' and he may have been justified in acquitting him of
having acquired this power by 'any unworthy means or
dishonest acts, or having employed it for any sinister purpose
or in an unbecoming spirit.' But it was gratuitously offensive
on Lord Stanley's part to suggest, as he quite distinctly does,
that the Colonial Secretary encroached upon the authority of
the Governor because he was the stronger man of the two.
Nor, considering the person to whom the despatch was
nominally addressed, do the elaborate testimonial to Mr.
Montagu's high official qualities and the emphatic assurance
of Her Majesty's Government's undiminished confidence in
him with which the Secretary of State concludes appear
particularly well placed. As addressed to his late chief it is
hardly explicable, except on the assumption of a deliberate

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FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET ch. xviit.

intent to humiliate the Governor by whom this warmly
eulogised official had been suspended.

But it was in truth only nominally that the despatch was
addressed to Franklin at all. It might just as well have been
sent as an enclosure in a covering letter to Mr. Montagu ; for,
incredible as it may seem, its contents were not only made
known to that gentleman, but had been freely circulated by
him among his friends in the colony months before they came
to the Governor's knowledge. ' The ink,' as Franklin puts it
in the ' Narrative,' was ' scarcely dry on his Lordship's despatch
before its import was mentioned by a relative of Mr. Montagu's
in the hall of the Admiralty ; it was sent to Mr. Montagu,
who, it will be recollected, was then on the spot, four days
after its date, unaccompanied by any injunction of privacy,
but, on the contrary, bearing on it the stamp of being Mr.
Montagu's own authorised property, to be used as he thought
proper.' The natural result of handing a copy of it to him
without any precautions, an act eminently characteristic of
Lord Stanley's haughty want of consideration for the feelings
and interests of others, was that the recipient felt, as he after-
wards wrote in formal vindication of his conduct, that he had
a right to show it to whom he pleased. ' I imagined it was
sent to me for that purpose, to enable me to satisfy those
who were aware of my suspension from office that I had
obtained a complete and honourable acquittal. I did not
hesitate to distribute many copies for that purpose in
England. . . . For the same reason I sent two copies to Van
Diemrn's Land — one to Mr. Forster, and one to Captain
Swanston. I requested them to .show it to my friends and
to those who took an interest in my case ; but I stipulated
that no newspaper was to have one word of the despatch
communicated to it'

Unfortunately, however, for official decency, the despatch
obtamed nearly as much publicity as though it had been
circulated through the press. By some untoward mischance,
which was to repeat itself with even more serious consequences
later on, the Colonial Office proved slower in its communica-
tion with Tasmania than did private correspondents. Docu-

i ':%]

1843

AN ADMINISTRATIVE BLUNDER

815

mentary evidence existed, Franklin declares, in his possession
that Lord Stanley's despatch was known to be in the colony
before he himself received it on January i8, 1843, and he had
besides the testimony of a resident at Port Phillip to its
having been publicly read at a dinner table in that colony, at
any rate at a date prior to his (PVanklin's) own receipt of it.
Immediately on its reaching the Governor, the friends of Mr.
Montagu threw aside even the very slight reserve that they had
maintained ; and Mr. Swanston, the late Colonial Secretary's
agent and manager of the principal bank in Hobart Town
placed a copy of the despatch for general inspection on his
office table. Its contents became the leading theme of every
local newspaper, and were made the text for commentaries
abounding, as Franklin bitterly complained, in ' every species
of vulgar insult.'

But the cup of indignity was not even yet full, nor had
the Secretary of State as yet exhausted his ingenuity in the
selection of inconsiderate and oppressive methods of per-
forming what should have been a painful dut)'. To a high-
spirited man like Franklin, the mere tenor of the despatch
would in any case, and apart from the needless affront
inflicted upon him in the manner of its communication, have
appeared to suggest but one possible course of action. ' On
receipt of it,' he wiites, ' I hastened to request of Lord
Stanley that he would lose no time in appointing my
successor, unless he was enabled to give me the assurance of
possessing what the despatch seemed to render so equivocal,
the continued confidence of Her Majesty's Government. But
long before this conditional resignation could reach England
my successor was on his voyage out,' and, as will be after-
wards seen, he arrived in the colony four days before Franklin
received the official notice of his recall.

The vast absurdity of this last administrative blunder
almost dwarfs the monstrosity of the outrage. Lord Stanley
did many remarkable things in his life besides taking his
famous political ' leap in the dark,' but one may well doubt
whether he ever rivalled the feat o»~ ippointing a Colonial
Governor to fill a chair which had not yet been vacated. It

lii'N

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316

FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET ch. xviii.

•I ■!

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was a ' supersession ' of the occupant in the strictest etymo-
logical sense — a supersession in the sense in which the Arch-
bishop of York understood the word when in the famous
mediaeval struggle between the northern and southern
archiepiscopates for precedence he asserted his claim to the
place of honour on the right of the Sovereign by the direct
method of seating himself in his brother of Canterbury's
lap.

Sir Eardley Wilmot, the new Governor, a worthy country
squire and excellent chairman of quarter sessions, was the
last man in the world to covet the aggressive ro/e of the
Archbishop of York, and was probabh' much more distressed
by the consequences of this gross departmental b' indering
than Franklin himself He had come out in the Cressy,
convict ship, the captain of which, as though entering into the
spirit of these irregular proceedings, missed the entrance to
the port and landed him 'on an unfrequented part of the
coast,' This was on the evening of August 17. On the
following night he entered Hobtjrt Town, but he brought with
him no communication from Lord Stanley as to his appoint-
ment, nor any official explanation of his arrival. On the
20th of the month, however, the Gilmore, convict ship, arrived,
with the duplicate of a despatch from the Secretary of State
announcing to Franklin the appointment of a successor in
the government of the colony ; and on the following day he
received by the Eamont, merchantman, the precious original
itself, bearing date February 10. It had been entrusted to
a vessel described by Franklin in a subsequent despatch
to the Colonial Office as ' a notoriously slow sailer,' ar
expression the use of which, he afterwards admitted with his
usual good-humoured candour, was ' a weak point in his
remonstrance upon the unbecoming mode of his recall, as it
certainly savoured more of the captain than of the governor.'
The vessel in this case had been obliged by stress of weather
to put back, and had been detained for no less than six weeks
in Ireland. No care, however, was taken to send on the
duplicate of the despatch by any of the intermediate sailings
prior to the departure of the Gilmore, and in any case to

; i iSl'

1843

A BELATED DESPATCH

817

appoint a new Governor within a fortnight of the date of the
despatch announcing his predecessor's recall, and to allow only
a few weeks at the utmost to the former for winding up
his public and private business in the colony, was a gratuitous
experiment in the art of * running things fine ' which well
deserved to meet with the discreditable fiasco in which it
resulted.

The recall despatch was of the following strictly official
tenor, its precise and methodical arrangement of dates pre-
senting rather a ridiculous appearance in the light of subse-
quent events. ' Sir,' wrote the Secretary of State,

as your administration of the government of Van Diemen's Land
will at the time of your receipt of the despatch have continued for
more than six successive years, and as after the lapse of that period
the general regulations of the public service will probably have induced
you to anticipate the appointment of a successor, I trust that I shall
not subject you to any serious inconvenience by the announcement
that such a change may be shortly anticipated.

I am not at present able to state with precision at what time your
successor in the government of Van Diemen's Land will sail from this
country to assume that office, but I think it most probable that his
departure will not be delayed for more than six weeks or two months
beyond the present time. The interval will, I hope, be sufficiently
long to enable you to make, with satisfaction to yourself, all the
domestic and official arrangements incident to the transfer into other
hands of the office you at present occupy.

The unseemly hurry in which the change of governors
was at last effected reflects no little discredit on the Colonial
Office, because Franklin's recall had, it seems, been resolved
upon when Montagu's successor, Mr. Bicheno, was despatched
to Tasmania in December 1842 ; it was indeed, in Franklin's
belief, a matter of notoriety in England at that time. Yet Mr.
Bicheno was the bearer to him of no communication, either
official or confidential, of the impending change. On the con-
trary, the new Colonial Secretary brought out some impor-
tant despatches respecting the changes which Lord Stanley
was about to introduce into prison discipline. In these des-
patches Franklin was addressed as the person who was at once
to commence initiatory steps for this purpo.se, and his zealous

(I::

318

FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET ch. xviii.

f h

i| i i '

it? .-•

solicitude was bespoken, or rather (apparently) assumed,
for the due execution of the duties confided to him. Lord
Stanley subsequently explained his proceedings in the matter
as dictated by a desire that Franklin's recall at the expiration
of the usual term of colonial government should not have the
appearance of being connected with the Secretary of State's
disapproval of Mr. Montagu's removal. All, then, that can
be said is that Lord Stanley's measures did grave injustice
to his motives, and that they fully warranted Franklin in
declaring, as he did, that, having regard to the embarrassments
and humiliations which were inflicted upon him by the course
actually adopted, he considered that his ' immediate recall
would have been a much less injury.'

It was most unfortunate, too, that a Minister anxious to
divest his action of a punitive appearance should have omitted
the customary and indeed almost conventional expression of
the satisfaction of the Sovereign with the Governor's services.
This slight also was tardily and not too graciously apologised
for, but undoubtedly it afforded only too just provocation for
Franklin's bitter remark that the acknowledgments usually
conveyed from the Crown in such cases were, under all the
circumstances, scarcely perhaps to be expected. The Secre-
tary of State, he said, had already stated in the case of
Mr. Montagu that ' it could not be too distinctly understood '
that that officer ' retired from the situation he had so long
filled with his hold on the respect and confidence of Her
Majesty's Government undiminished,' and, ' the inferior officer
thus complimented, what terms remained for the Governor ? '

On the day when the original of this despatch arrived —
that is to say, four days after the disembarkation of the in-
complete Governor on the ' unfrequented part of the coast ' —
he was in a position to take the oaths of office and was duly
sworn in. Franklin, however, was not yet, on his part, in a
position to turn out, but was obliged to remain still ten
days longer in Government House, unable, in spite of the
exertions of the utmost diligence, to remove his family and
dispose of his effects in a less time. During this period Sir
Eardley Wilmot resided with the Colonial Secretary, and

f i.

in a
ten
)f the
y and
d Sir

and

1848

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE

319

paid a visit to Launceston, where there was an official residence.
At its close Franklin shifted his quarters to the house of the
Brigade-Major, where he remained for another two months
busily occupied, until such time as the Rajah, in which he had
engaged his passage, could complete the lading of her cargo
at Port Phillip.

The intervening weeks were passed amid circumstances
strangely unlike those which usually attend the departure of
a superseded Governor. They were weeks of continuous
leave-taking, and of preparations spontaneously made by the
colonists of all classes for speeding Franklin in almost a
triumphal fashion on his homeward journey. Letters of
respectful and cordial sympathy poured in upon him from all
sides. Addresses were presented to him from the bishop
and clergy of the new diocese of Tasmania, from landholders
and occupiers of land in various parts of the colony, from
popular bodies like the Mechanics' Institute of Hobart
Town, from scientific associations like the Royal Society of
Tasmania. Even the colonial press relented towards him,
and one enthusiastic editor expressed his wish ' that Sir John
had remained twenty years longer.' A brother officer of
Franklin, Captain Parker King, wrote to congratulate him
in bluff" sailorly fashion on having stuck to his post. ' I was
delighted that you remained for your successor. All the blue-
jackets have done so. 'Tis only the soldiers,' adds this par-
ticulai- blue-jacket, ' who have walked off", afraid of being
la^.j-^oned and insulted after the honour of government was
taken oft" their shoulders. I was told you wouldn't stay. I
said you would, and I was right ; and so were you.' Even
among those who took no side in the Franklin-Montagu
quarrel, or whose leanings may actually be supposed from
their position to be against the late Governor, many were
shocked at the extreme harshness of Lord Stanley's despatch.
Lady Franklin, in a letter to her sister, records a humorous
utterance of Mr. Bicheno on being .shown in the Colonial Office
a copy of the despatch about to be sent to Sir John Franklin.
Well might he exclaim, ' Hallo! Is this the vay you snub the
Governor ? What, then, has a Colonial Secretary to expect ? '

( t

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820

FIJANKLTX AND DOWNING STPEKT cii. xvnr.

if ►

''^ 11

\'\m.

Franklin's final leave-taking of the colony was more like
the departure of a Governor summoned to receive some
special honour at the hands of the Crown than that of a
censured and virtually recalled official. On the afternoon of
the day of the embarkation a dense crowd lined the streets
through which he had to pass to the vessel. Every head
uncovered when he issued from the house in which he had
been staying, and his progress on foot to the water's edge was
a veritable triumphal march. ' As thrfr beloved Governor
passed from among them,' writes an eye-witness, in language
of which the sincerity speaks for itself, ' many could recall to
memory his goodness, his charity, his honest, firm uprightness
of purpose ; And the recollection was now apparent when his
power had ceased, when their object was no longer the
Governor invested with the patronage and the panoply of
office, but the man.' And the same observer goes on to give
a more minute description of the scene : —

Sir John was dressed in full uniform as a captain in the Royal
Navy, and wore the stars of the several orders which have been con-
ferred upon him for distinguished services rendered to his country
rnd the cause of scientific discovery. He halted occasionally for
an instant to acknowledge the enthusiastic cheers which burst forth
from the assembled multitude. The procession was swelled by new
arrivals at every step, the cheering being renewed at intervals as the
moving mass received fresh accessions. Handkerchiefs were waved
from verandahs and open windows along the line of route, and there
were few who felt entirely unmoved at the scene before them, a loyal
and generous people paying a heartfelt tribute of affection to a truly
good man with whom their destinies had been bound up for years.

Near the point of embarkation a captain's guard of honour
(fifty men) had been stationed, soldiers of a famous Brit'sh
regiment which had served through the Peninsular campaign
and bo.'" the name of its glorious battle-fields on its colours.
Th*- . presented arms as Franklin approached, and a shout
from sea and land rent the air as the departing Governor
turned round to address the throng of assembled colonists
in a few words of kindly farewell. They were very few, for
he was much overcome by the manifest tokens of public
affection which had been showered upon him, and, shaking

cii. xviir.

1844

A TRIUMPHAL EXIT

S2I

hands with those around him, prepared to enter the barge which
was to convey him to the Flying Fish, circumstances having
prevented him from availing himself of Sir Eardley Wilmot's
offer of the Government vessel, the Rajah.

But as those near him retired numbers took their places, and
anxiety was visible on every face once again to touch his hand. So
many were the crowds succeeding crowds anxious for this last honour
that there was a considerable d jlay. At length the signal was given,
the oars fell into the water, the battery fired a salute of thirteen guns,
a cheer burst from the assembled multitude and was echoed back
from the shipping and the boits, which filled with spectators and
crowded to accompany him to the vessel. Sir John Franklin bowed
his acknowledgment';, and the barge, surrounded by a perfect flotilla,
pulled towards the Flying Fish, which lay in the stream.

And the character of the departing Governor is summed
up by the same writer in these words : —

Thus departed from among us as true and upright a ruler as ever
the interests of a British colony were entrusted to. It has been said,
nay, insisted upon, that he was not popular, and every effort was made
by a few vindictive enemies to make it appear that he was not so. Even
a portion of the press, we shame to confess it, was either forced or
lent itself to the delusion. But has it, or have they, been successful ?
Let the proceedings above described be their answer ; let them hear
it in the voices of that crowded multitude, and learn how futile are
the attempts of malice when opposed to honesty of purpose. It is
difficult to corrupt or destroy the moral principle of a whole com-
munity, and until that is done appreciation of rectitude in another
must ever hurl back denial upon those who say that the people he
governed did not admiie the honesty of Sir John Franklin.

Like all men, he had his failings and his errors ; he trusted too
implicitly when he should not. He believed that the honour and
honesty which influenced his own a'^tions and his own conduct
would influence others. He trusted and was deceived, but it was to
his virtues, not his errors, that he owed his enemies. Had he for-
gotten what was due to the colony he governed, and to himself, had
he consulted the advantage of a few, disregarding that of the many,
Sir John Fianklin would have perhaps found a few dubious supporters,
but he w ould never have seen the sight which cheered him on b ■^-
departure with the consciousness of duty performed and a popu
larity none can gainsay.

From the moderation and the evident effort after critical
impartiality with which this judgment is expressed, it may

'BB

•1*

J ■ - -

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JMIf:

822

FRANKLIN AND DOWNING STREET cii. xvni.

• -t 1

safely be taken as representing the best opinion of the
colonial community themselves, far better judges of the
character, career, and services of their late Governor than it
is possible for any biographer to make himself, with his much
fewer opportunities and at this distance of time. It is, there-
fore, with no little satisfaction that I record its substantial
confirmation of the view already expressed in these pages,
and arrived at altogether independently of the evidence which
it supplies.

• I s

1 »»

)fl

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f .ii

mil'

i844

323

fii

CHAPTER XIX

A RETURN TO THE SEA
1844

* The remaining part of my story must be quickly told.' So
writes Franklin in the ' Narrative,' from which, with all due
allowance for its being an ex-parte statement, I have gathered
most of the facts of this unfortunate affair; and a biographer
cannot do better than follow his example. It is impossible
to dismiss the matter altogether at the close of its colonial
stages, for that would be to leave the history of Franklin's
struggle with Downing Street incomplete ; but the final pas-
sages of the conflict shall be related with all possible brevity.

Immediately on his arrival in London, during the first days
of June 1844, Franklin called on Lord Stanley in Downing
Street, and left with him a note requesting the honour of an
interview. A letter, which appeared to have been waiting
his arrival, was then placed in his hands, and proved to be
a stiff ofificial reply to his last despatch of self-vindication,
informing him that the Secretary of State ' did not think it
consistent ' with the relative position held by himself and
the late Governor of Tasmania to ' take notice,' as Franklin
puts it, ' of my charges and insinuations,' and stating that ' he
would not make to his subordinate ofificer explanations which
he used to Her Majesty the Queen and to Parliament alone.'

On June 18, however, Franklin succeeded in obtaining the
personal interview which he sought. At this interview his
Lordship ' said little and listened patiently ; ' but the result
was unsatisfactory. The Secretary of State assured Franklin
— as indeed he had already assured him by despatch — that
his recall was unconnected with Mr. Montagu's suspension ;

Y 2

. 1

il I

321

A RETURN TO TIIR SEA

CH. XIX.

It"

1 i' i

but this, of course, was not at all the form of solace for which
his visitor's wounded feelings craved. ' I assured his Lordship,'
said Franklin, ' that it was not of my recall at the usual
period, and .still less at a period beyond even the usual one,
that I should have thought of complaining had it not been
for the circumstances which preceded and attended it ; neither
was it his Lordship's disapproval of a particular act of my
government, of which he was the official judge, that I felt
I had a right to arraign, but because no rea.sons whatever
were given me for that disapproval, because Mr. Montagu's
assertions had in every case been preferred to mine, and the
grounds for such a judgment withheld from me ; moreover,
because the terms in which that judgment was conveyed
could not but be exceedingly painful and injurious to me ;
yet, being such, they had been given to Mr, Montagu, who
had no right to them, without any shadow of consideration
for me, and had been by him, as might have been expected,
made public'

This last — at any rate for us of to-day — is the point.
Upon all personal and upon most official disputes there is
always room for difference of opinion, and it is quite possible
that among the readers of the foregoing narrative there may
be those who agree with Lord Stanley that Franklin's pro-
ceedings in the case of Mr. Montagu were ' not well judged,'
and that his suspension of that officer was ' not sufficiently
vindicated.' But, as to the character of the treatment which
the censured Governor received from the Secretary of State,
and as to the discredit which that treatment reflects upon
Lord Stanley, there can be among men of good sense and
good feeling but one opinion. No such man cjuld withhold
his sympathy from a public servant who has such a complaint
to make as is embodied in the following word ? : * i took the
liberty of remarking to Lord Stanley that I believed the act
of giving to an inferior officer a transcript of the exact terms
in which his superior was censured was without a parallel in
the annals of his office.'

Into the many aggravations of this original grievance
it is unnecessary to enter — not, indeed, because they were

' <i

1844

AN IltUlTATLXa INQUIUY

830

unsubstantial, but because they do not strictly belong to that
side of the affair o which alone 1 desire to confine myself —
the treatment, th it is to say, of Sir John Franklin by the
Colonial Office, Some of them, such as that connected with
the dispute between the Governor and the Secretary as to
the authority for the expenditure on St. George's Churchi
arose from Lord Stanley's having erroneously, but perhaps
pardonably, accepted Mr. Montagu's version of the facts as
correct. Another, and that a very outrageous offence — the
private circulation throughout the colony of a manuscript
book containing defamatory statements about the Governor
and his wife, and ' purporting to be minutes of conversation
which Mr. Montagu had had with Lord Stanley before the
despatch zvas tvritten ' — must, so far as it concerned the
Colonial Office at all, be regarded as one among the
natural consequences of the original indiscretion and incon-
siderateness with which the Secretary of State acted in the
delicate matter of receiving and adjudicating upon the
complaint of a displaced official against his chief One
incidental affront, however, for which Lord Stanley was
directly responsible, it would be wrong to omit. Shortly
after the departure of Mr. Montagu for England, Sir John
and Lady F'ranklin made the adventurous expedition related
in a preceding chapter, and in May of 1842 a Tasmanian
newspaper published a ridiculous story about the Governor's
having granted a free pardon to the convicts who had acted
as ' Lady Franklin's palanquin-bearers.'

Upon this being brought to Lord Stanley's notice he
immediately addressed a despatch to Franklin, in which,
after the usual conventional expression of disbelief in ' the
unworthy motives attributed to you,' he requested the
Governor to furnish him with * an explanation of the unusual
course which appears to have been taken with respect to
these pardons,' and to inform him ' whether there is any
truth in the assertion that some of the convicts had been
thrice convicted in the colony.' There was no truth in
the assertion, nor had there been anything unusual in the
course pursued, which indeed was prescribed by and taken

\\i

A RETUliX TO THE SEA

CH. XIX.

! ^

H ,J

in strict conformity with statute. Of the men to whom
the indulgences were granted, some would have 'oltained
them within only a fc ■ months ' in the natural order of
events ; and all had, in the Governor's opinion, meri*- d
thcin, not fof th<_ir services as Lady Franklin's ' palan .1-
b'_arers,' but for the energy, patience, courage, and loyalty
which they had displayed on a most toibome, difficult, and
even dangerous expedition undertaken in the interests of
the colony and the Empire. Of the sixteen who obtained
tickets of leave, eight had previously established a claim to
indulgence by uniform good behaviour. The two who
received free pardon, one of whom was within about ten
weeks of the expiration of his sentence, had risked their lives
in effecting a crossing over a rapid and swollen river, and
thereby rescuing the whole of the party from an exceedingly
perilous situation ; and one of the men who received a con-
ditional pardon ' had suffered the loss of an eye in his
exertions to force a passage through the thick scrub.' At
any other moment, perhaps, it might have been less irritating
to be called upon to furnish these explanations, but to
receive the official demand for them — as, in fact, happened
— by the same mail as that which brought the despatch of
censure must have been felt as intensely provocative, even by
the most patient of men. ' No wonder '■ — Franklin naturally
said to himself — * no wonder the Secretary of State believes
my displaced officer's story in preference to my own, when he
can attach importance enough to the scandalous tittle-tattle
of a colonial newspaper to make it the subject of a formal
request for explanation.'

He gained nothing by his interview with Lord Stanley.
Seven weeks passed without bringing him any nearer the
redress which he sought, and on August 3 he addressed a
letter to the Secretary of State, with a respectful reminder that
he was still anxiously awaiting the result of his application.
And with a view to simpiif /ing Lord Stanley's consideration
of his claims he submitteri seven heads of request to the
Minister, bearing respectively on the various points upon
which he felt that he had a right to solicit some more

1844

FRANKLIN'S CLAIMS

827

satisfactory declaration than he had yet received. Omittinfr
those which relate to collateral and more or less irrelevant
controversial issues, Franklin's requests reduce themselves
to the following five : —

1. I submitted how indispensable it was for me to be assured by
his Lordship of his belief that in my suspension of Mr. Montagu I
was actuated solely by a desire of the public good, and not by per-
sonal or private motives.

2. I trusted that if the explanation I had been called upon to
give of my conduct in granting certain rewards to meritorious con-
victs which had been called in question on the authority of a local
newspaper appeared satisfactory to his Lordship, I might be favoured
with a communication to that effect.

3. I solicited the written expression of Lord Stanley's assurance
that my recall was unconnected with Mr. Montagu's suspension, and
that the circumstances attending it were unintentional.

4. I reminded Lord Stanley of his personal assurance to me that
the omission of any expression of approbation in the despatch
announcing my recall was not intended for censure, and expressed
my conviction that if the anxious efforts I had made worthily to keep
the high trust which had been reposed in me during the usual period
of a colonial government were appreciated by him, as they had
expressly been by the great body of the colonists, this indispensable
testimony would be supplied.

Lastly. I requested that a copy of any communication embodying
those points with which his Lordship might be pleased to honour me
should be transmitted to the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's
Land, with directions that it should be laid before the Legislative
Council at their next sitting.

Anxious that a reply which would have such important
consequences for him should not be too hastily given,
Franklin requested that Lord Stanley would cither grant him
another interview or would, if that course were preferred,
allow him to instruct his friend Mr. Robert Brown to attend
at the Colonial Office as his representative. Loro Stanley
selected the latter alternative, and received Mr. Brown, who
appears from his manuscript memorandum to have stated his
friend's case with equal skill and propriety. On the follow-
ing day Franklin received a letter from Lord Stanley which,
at an earlier stage, might have had some mollifying effect.
But matters had now gone too far, and one can hardly feel

: 1 .

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828

A RETURN TO THE SEA

CH. XIX.

'i^

■'I

(

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much surprise that to a man still smarting under ^he clumsy
indignities which had been inflicted upon him in the method
of his removal, the terms of this amende should have seemed
cold and grudging. The following reply to it brings the
ofificial stage of this most disagreeable controversy .o a
welcome close : —

My Lord, — I should have had the honour to acknowledge earlier
your Lordship's letter of the 13th inst. if I had not considered it right
to wait for some time after your Lordship's receipt of mine of the same
date.

It is with infinite pain that I am under the necessity of stating to
your Lordship that the terms of your Lordship's letter are inadequate
to afford me the satisfaction I expected from you ; and I regret that
the more because your Lordship, having partially conceded to me a
few of the points I had the honour to lay before you, though in
language little conciliatory to my feelings, would appear to have
anticipated a different result.

This may be a sufificient reply to the question your Lordship has
been pleased to refer to me respecting the communication of your
Lordship's letter to Sir Eardley Wilmot. As far as my own wishes are
concerned, I can have no desire that a copy should be forwarded to
Sir Eardley Wilmot.

It would have been satisfactory to me to have been permitted to
point out to your Lordship the grounds of my inability to accept your
Lordship's letter as a reasonable reparation for the injuries I have
received, but your expressed desire that the correspondence should
terminate forbids my doing so.

It may not be superfluous for me in the meantime to state that
neither in Van Diemen's Land, where the injuries I have received in
my government are best understood, nor in this country, where, as
well as in the colony, the unprecedented act has been witnessed of
the publication in the newspapers of a despatch condemnatory of a
Governor who was still in the exercise of his functions, can your Lord-
ship's letter, either in its substance or its terms, produce an impression
which can at all counteract the evil that has been inflicted.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

John Franklin.

Many men would at this stage have, from sheer weari-
ness, allowed the controversy to drop. But Franklin could
no more resign himself to defeat in Downing Street than
in Lancaster Sound. Whether the obstacle which barred his
way was a literal or a figurative iceberg, it was not in his

■■■

CH. XIX.

clumsy
nethod
seemed
igs the
.o a

;e earlier
d it right
the same

tating to
idequate
igret that
I to me a
lOUgh in
to have

Iship has
I of your
vishes are
rarded to

nitted to
:ept your
I have
should

tate thai
ceived in
where, as
lessed of
tory of a
)ur Lord-
pression

>iKLm.

wean-
could
et than
rred his
in his

1844

THE ' NARRATIVE '

329

nature to rest until he had exhausted every means of making
his way past it towards his goal. In the present case he was
making for the ' open waters ' of justice, which he saw, or
believed he saw, distinctly ahead of him, and it would have
taken a good deal to make him abandon the attempt to reach
them. To appeal to the public, after the fashion of the
present day, against the treatment which he had suffered
would have been invincibly repugnant to one in whom the
scruples of the time were strengthened by his naval training
and traditions. But at least, he thought, he could set himself
right with the members of his own profession, and with the
official world in general. He accordingly set to work in the
autumn of 1844, and no doubt immediately after the last
interchange of letters with the Secretary of State, to compose
for private circulation the ' Narrative ' from which so many
extracts have been made. From the first, no doubt, he
availed himself of Lady Franklin's assistance in the purely
literary part of his labours, and it seems probable that when,
later on in the year, the preoccupations connected with the
projected Arctic expedition withdrew him from his ' apologia,'
it passed entirely into Lady Franklin's hands. There are
evidences to this effect in the cor'-Capondence between them ;
and in any case the ' Narrative ' was not o,.t of the printer's
hands and ready for the private circulation for which alone
it was ini'^nded until a few weeks before Franklin .started on
his last journey.

It is a distinctly able piece of work, lucid and well
arranged, temperate in tone, strictly fair in its dealings
with facts, and on the whole as reasonable in spirit as could
be expected in the ex parte statement of one of the comba-
tants in a long and embittered dispute. But whether it was
worth while to prepare it, or whether it won over any judg-
ments among those before whom it was laid, is exceedingly
doubtful. Franklin sought the opinions of several of his
oldest and most trusted friends as to the expediency of
circulating it, and, as invariably happens with all such
applications, each of them replied in accordance not so
much with his view of the facts (on which indeed there

III

r'l \

330

A RETURN TO THE SEA

CII. XIX.

I .'

; :;l

' M

mil'

^^Hh

was no difference of opinion) as with his own individual
temperament.

Sir John Richardson took up his cause with enthusiasm,
assisted him in his correspondence with Lord Glenelg and
others on the subject of dispute, and abounded in suggestions
as to the most effective mode of prosecuting his claims. Sir
James Clarke Ross, on the other hand, though equally con-
vinced of the justice of his friend's position, recommended
him to waste no more time on the affair, and to dismiss it and
its vexations from his mind. His letters on the subject are
models of cool-headed good sense ; but there are times when the
very plenitude of this quality has an irritating rather than
a soothing effect upon the recipient of the counsels which it in-
spires, and this, no doubt, was just such a time with Franklin.

Alien to the general character of Franklin's career as was
this unpleasant passage, one cannot, unfortunately, dismiss it
as a pure irrelevance. On the contrary, there is reason to
believe that it was not without its share in determining
the events of his future life for the brief span which still
remained to it, and indirectly, therefore, in devoting him to
his heroic death. This appears strikingly enough in a letter
from his wife to Sir James Clarke Ross, written after the
project of a new Arctic expedition had been mooted, but
before its commander had been decided upon.

It is a subject (she writes) on which I have the most conflicting
feelings, but if you who are the right person do not go [Sir James
had already written to Franklin that he should ' certainly decline
the command ' if offered to him], I should wish Sir John to have it in
his power to go and not to be put aside for his age. . . .

I do not think he would wish to go unless he felt himself equal to
it ; but what most weighs on my mind is this, that at the present crisis
of our affairs, and after being so unworthily treated by the Colonial
Office, I think he will be deeply sensitive if his own department
should neglect him, and that such an appointment would do more
perhaps than anything else out of the Colonial Office to counteract
the effect which Lord S.'s injustice and tyranny have produced. I
dread exceedingly the effect on his mind of being without honourable
and immediate employment, and it is this which enables me to support
the idea of parting with him on a service of difficulty and danger
better than I otherwise should.'

1 t,'

1844

A NEW ARCTIC PLAN

881

Of Franklin's almost passionate eagerness to obtain
command of the projected expedition there is abundant
evidence in his correspondence. Apart, indeed, from his
desire to get back to his old and proper work of adventure,
and to exchange vexatious bickerings with his fellow-men
for that nobler strife with Nature for which he was so much
better fitted, the prospects of the new enterprise were specially
tempting to his ambition. During his absence from the field
of Arctic exploration, important additions had been made to
his own discoveries. The gap of 1 60 miles of North American
coast line, which was left after the expedition of 1825-28
between Beechey's furthest eastward and his own furthest
westward, had been bridged over by Dease and Simpson, two
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1837 ; and the
same resolute explorers had carried Franklin's furthest east-
ward of 1 82 1 still further to the east by surveying the coast-
line from Cape Turnagain to the Great Fish River. Nothing,
in short, was lacking to the completion of the North-West
Passage but the discovery of a channel less than 3CX) miles
in length to cor.nect the already overlapping lines of ex-
ploration traced respectively by Parry westward along the
74th parallel of N. latitude and by Dease and Simpson
eastward along the 70th. It was, indeed, the fascinating
effect of this situation which impelled P>anklin's old friend,
Sir John Barrow, then Secretary of the Admiralty, in concert
with Captain Beaufort, the Hydrographer of the department,
and other men well known either as Arctic voyagers or
generally as leaders in geographical or other forms of science,
to propose another Government expedition, and to exert him-
self as energetically as he did to procure its despatch.

In the course of the month of January, Franklin was
formally requested to consider and report to the Admiralty
on the practicability and prospects of the proposed expedition,
and sent the following reply : —

My Lord,— In obedience to your Lordship's command, I lose not
a moment in giving my written opinion on the question your Lord-
ship did me the honour of putting to me this morning.

I. As to whether I considered the question of a N.W. Passage as

ill

ini

I'flff

1 ?■;

D''

'i ' \

i I

\ I'k

, 1 1

i i

Pill

i: >i

hi,) I

882

A RETURN TO THE SEA

CH. XIX.

one which ought again to be entertained ; to which I have no hesita-
tion of answering in the affirmative, for the following reasons :

The discoveries of Parry and Ross have narrowed the parts in
which the passage should be sought, namely, that space between Cape
Walker and Banks's Land of Parry, where I should recommend the
trial first to be made, and in case of the [)assage not being lorced in
that direction, then to the northward by the Wellington Channel.
The ships commanded by these officers had not the advantage of
steam, and I need hardly say that the benefits to be derived from
the aid of such a power are incalculable.

Having pointed out to your Lordship to-day, I will not dwell
further on this matter than to say that the addition of steam to the
ships is, in my opinion, indispensable.

It is gratifying also to know that it may be efficiently applied to
the ships without destroying their capacity for stowing the requisite
stores and provisions.

If the proposed expedition should unfortunately not be entirely
successful in effecting a passage, it must contribute to our geogra-
phical knowledge, and it cannot fail to make important additions to
the series of magnetical observations which are now carrying on in
every part of the world.

I conceive that the greatest impediment from ice will probably be
met between longitude 95° and 125°. The latter meridian being
passed, I should expect to find the ice less heavy and such as may be
penetrated with comparative facility. We know of no islands to the
north-west of 120°.

Should there be any who say of these Arctic expeditions. To what
purpose have they been? I would desire them to compare our
present map of that region and of the northern coast of America
with that of 181 8, when these expeditions commenced. They will
find in the latter only three points marked on the northern coast of
America, and nothing to the northward of it. Surely it cannot be
denied that so large an addition to the geography of the northern
parts of America and the Arctic regions is, in itself, an object worthy
of all the efforts that have been made in the course of former
expeditions.

I have the honour to be, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

John Franklin.

. ' r

Franklin from the first was keen in obtaining the com-
mission to command it, and, on ascertaining that Sir James
Ross was not competing with him for the honour, he sought
the good ofifices of that distinguished navigcitor in support of

f^H

1844

A REPUDIATION

888

his own application, and was most loyally seconded by him.
Jealousy, however, is a weakness to which Arctic explorers
are certainly not less liable than other people, and Franklin
had, or thought he had, cause to suspect that a former comrade
of his was opposing his claim. In a conversation with Ross
on the question of the fittest appointments, ' he (Lord Hadding-
ton) spoke of my age,' writes PVanklin indignantly to his wife,
' and of my suffering greatly from cold. Ross expressed his
astonishment at the latter reason, for he had never heard it
even hinted at before, which, if it had been the case, must
have been spoken of by some one or other of the officers and
men who served under him ; while, as for his age, he knew
from actual observation that he was as active and vigorous
as he had ever been, both in body and mind.' Franklin
hastened to confirm this at an interview with Captain Beaufort.
If his age was objected to him, all he could say was that, as
to bodily health and energy, he was as fully competent to
undertake the duty as he ever was. ' Then, hinting at my
suffering from cold, but most carefully avoiding the mention
of my having heard that it was supposed I did, I told him
that I believed no one in the expeditions I had commanded
suffered less than me. Besides, I had mentioned to Richardson
my wish to go, who approved of it, and would certainly have
advised me not if I was so very susceptible to cold.'

What this ' susceptibility * amounted to will be seen in a
later chapter. The charge, due to a misconception, needed
medical testimony to refute it. Franklin accordingly asked
for and obtained the following certificate to his powers from
his old friend and companion in hardship. Dr. Richardson.
' My dear Franklin,' wrote that staunch ally, then filling an
appointment at the Haslar Hospital, Chatham,

I was rather surprised at your desiring my opinion with respect
to your age, strength, and power of withstanding cold, in reference to
the prospect of your obtaining command of a Polar expedition. It
surely cannot be for your own satisfaction, for I firmly believe that
you would not undertake such a command unless you considered your-
self fully capable in physical as well as in mental power to perform
all the duties it involves. To satisfy others, however, I shall have no

< :

884

A RETURN TO THE SEA

CII. xtx.

hesitation in signing a certificate stating that I believe your con-
stitution to be perfectly sound, and your bodily strength sufficient for
all the calls that can be made upon it in conducting a squadron even
through an icy sea. When you were a younger man I had ample
opportunities of witnessing the way in which you stood the fatigues
of a land journey, such as few who had spent their previous lives at
sea as you had done would have sustained ; for it is a fact that
seamen in general march badly. Your recovery from the effects of
the privation and hardship was more rapid than my own.

As to your power of endurin^i cold, Back and Kendall can testify
as well as myself. I think I am correct in saying that you were not
once frost-bitten in the course of both land expeditions, including six-
winters spent in the country and a journey of some thousands of
miles through snow and ice in the most intense cold.

From Captain Beaufort, Franklin went on to see Sir John
Barrow, to whom he had repeated what he had said to the
Hydrographer, and then back again to Beaufort to repeat the
conversation with the Secretary. The Council of the Royal
Society were approached on the subject, and sent a strong
recommendation of Franklin to the First Lord of the
Admiralty, who forwarded it to the Prime Minister. These
energetic efforts, which occupied the closing days of December
1844, were crowned at last with success. On February 5 he
received the much-desired summons from Lord Haddington,
and waited upon that Minister at the Admiralty.

The following account, so graphic and animated that it
would be a pity to spoil it by paraphrase, is given of this
important interview in Lady Franklin's diary notes : —

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1845. — Sir John went to Lord Haddington at
the hour appointed. Lord H. said he had sent for him for the pur-
pose of telling him that Sir R. P. (Robert Peel) had approved of
expedition — that he naturally looked to Sir John, whose experience
and judgment entitled him to command it, but said, ' Have you really
thought seriously of the nature of the undertaking at your age, for,
you know, I know your age : you are 59.' ' Not quite,' said Sir John.'
Lord Haddington asked if his constitution was able to bear it. ' You'll

' The popular story to the effect of the interview is of course conclusive ;

that Lord Haddington said, ' You are
60,' and that Franklin replied briskly,
' No, no, my lord, only 59,' is the better
of the two, and I am sorry to have to
reject it ; but Lady Franklin's record

and, moreover, her husband would
never have owned even to 59 in that
conversation, when he was still two
months from attaining that age.

mW\

I. XIX.

■ con-

mt for
n even
ample
itigues
ives at
:t that
fects of

I testify
ere not
ding six
ands of

ir John
to the
)eat the
2 Royal
, strong
of the
These
cember
ry 5 he
iington,

that it
of this

[ington at

Ithe pur-

kroved of

tperience

|?ou really

age, for,

>ir John.'

Vou'U

tonclusive ;
Ind would
]59 in that
still two

|ge-

1846

THE APPOINTMENT OIJTAINED

336

examine me,' said Sir J. ; he repeatedly said this. Lord H. said he
felt great responsibility in the matter (meaning. Sir J. says, that if Sir
J. broke down he would be reproached for having appointed so old
a fellow). He said that Sir J.'s services had been very arduous ones
from an early age. * I know all your services ; they have been very
various, and latterly you have been on a civil service which must
have caused you great care and anxiety.' Sir J. replied that no
anxieties of his present service could equal that. However, it was
bodily wear and tear that Lord H. thought of. * I cannot,' he said,
' conceive anything more trying ; I know time has made great inroads
on my constitution. Everybody knows how arduous were your land
expeditions, and how you got through them, but you are not so young
as you were.' Sir J. replied that if he did not think himself ecjual to
it he should not wish to go. When he heard of the expedition from
Barrow and others he wrote to Richardson (Lord H. said he knew
him), and Richardson declared his fitness. Lord H. said he did not
want any other person's testimony to his fitness, ' only your own.'
Sir J. said, had it been a walking expedition he should not have
undertaken it, being a much stouter man than he was. He might
have delayed it. In a ship it was different. Lord H. saici in one of
the propositions there was a scheme of going to the Pole. Sir J.
said in that case he should select the best officer of his jjarty for the
purpose. Lord H. said he was glad to hear that, and would take
care that he had the best officers.

Sir J. said at one time, ' I've nothing to gain by it.' To this Lord
H. did not reply. Sir J. said his manner was exceedir^^jy kind ; it
seemed to be done out of tenderness to Sir J. and a sense of respon-
sibility in himself.

At close Lord H. said : ' We'll consider the conversation as not
having passed ' (or something to that effect) ; ' it requires a litile con-
sideration. In a day or two you will hear from me.'

Two days later he received a letter from the Admiralty
informing him definitely of his appointment to the coveted
command.

• 1

I i [

886

THE LAST VOYAGE

CII. XX.

i 1 ,,;,

'I >

t :

ui n

v(. '

I rt

CHAPTER XX

THE LAST VOYAGE
l84S

The ships commissioned for the service were Franklin's
old friends of the southern latitudes, the Erebus and Terror.
The former was to be under his own command. To the
latter ^f^. had succeeded, with the support of Sir James
Ross, in procuring the appointment of Captain Crozier, the
officer who h;i :ommanded the same ship in the Antarctic
expedition a few years before. Commander James Fitz-
james, an accomplished officer, to whose admirable letters
we owe the best account we possess of the earlier inci-
dents of the expedition, was appointed Franklin's second
in command, while with him were associated Lieutenant
Graham Gore and Mr. Charles F. Des Voeux, who were
both of them destined to play an important part in the
actual work of discovery. The complement of each ship
was sixty-seven officers and men, and they carried stores
and provisions as for an anticipated absence of three years.
In accordance with Franklin's suggestion, they had been
furnished with auxiliary steam power, and were the first
vessels to carry the screw-propeller into the Arctic seas. As
compared with those of the present day, their fifty horse-
power engines were pathetically weak. But many another
vessel before them had faced the direst dangers of Arctic
exploration, and yet returned unscathed. The memorable
voyage of the Rosses in 1830-33 was example enough of this.
TheErebus and Terror were exceptionally well found according
to the appliances of the time. They were excellently officered
and manned. They started on their enterprise with every

1845

THE riiOPOSEl) ROUTE

887

advantage that human skill, bravery, and experience could
superadd to material equipment. No adventure could have
seemed less likely than theirs to be fated to so tragic an issue.

Nor did any Arctic explorers ever start in a spirit of more
buoyant confidence than did these doomed men. ' Should you
heai nothing till next June,' wrote Fit/.james from the last point
from which communication was possible, ' send a letter vui
Petersburg to Petropaulovski, in Kamschatka.' So sanguine
were this officer's expectations that the North-West Passage
would be discovered and navigated after the first winter, and
that by the summer of 1846 they would have made their
way into Pacific waters. Alas ! at that date they were either
still confined to their first winter quarters or were already
advancing towards that deadly embrace of the ice-pack from
which they were never to escape.

Franklin himself appears to have been at first as hopeful
as Fitzjames, and, indeed, to have contemplated at least the
possibility of accomplishing his work in an even shorter time
than the calculation of that officer. ' If we could but pene-
trate to the westward of 125° W.,' he wrote to Mr. (now
Sir Henry) Elliot, at the time of his departure, ' I should
not fear of getting through the remainder to Behring Strait
this season.' But he adds : ' We are quite prepared to winter,
and arc taking with us provisions for three years.' Inciden-
tally, this letter shows that the route which he originally
suggested to the Admiralty, but which he did not ultimately
take, was still in contemplation. He intended, he writes, * to
follow the track of Parry through Lancaster Sound and
Barrow Strait, but instead of continuing on to Melville
Island we purpose turning off to the south-westward after
passing Cape Wal ker (the extremity of Parry's North Somerset
Island), and endeavouring to effect a passage by that course
of proceeding as direct as we can to Behring Strait. The
space to the south of Banks Land and the islands which are
close to the main coast of America is entirely unknown. We
are as yet ignorant whether it be occupied by detached islands
or by a large extent of land stretching north from the coast
of America. This, in itself, is a geographical question desirable

' 1

■i

r 1

888

TTIK LAST VOYAnE

rn. XX.

"4 *•

i i i

»l

■'r-

• *

to be settled. We hope, however, to find it in that state
which will admit of a passage to the westward.' He goes on
to say that, should they be checked in the course they first
intended to pursue, they would ' try to get to the north of
Melville Island through the Wellington Channel or some
other channel on the north side of I^arrow Strait.' As wc
now know, this plan of procedure was entirely changed. The
first summer was spent in an unsuccessful attempt to pene-
trate Wellington Channel, and in the following year the
Erebus and Terror took not a south-westerly, but an
almost due southerly course, through I'eel Strait, between
Prince of Wales's Island and North Somerset Land, steering
straight towards the north coast of America and the line
of exploration of Simpson and Dcase.

The former of these variations is less easy to understand —
unless, as has been conjectured, they were stopped by ice
at the mouth of Barrow Strait — than the latter. Vor the
latter would only have been a reversion to a former pre-
ference of his own. This southern course, declares Captain
.Sherard Osboni, writing in i860, ' was that of Franklin's pre-
dilection, founded on his judgment and experience. There
are many in England who can recollect him pointing on his
chart to the western entrance of Simpson Strait and the
adjoining coast of North America and saying, " If I can but
get down there, my work is done ; thence it's plain sailing to
the westward." ' It is clear, however, that at the moment of
his departure he favoured ^le idea of the south-westerly
course in the direction of Banks Land, to the south of which,
sure enough, there is a channel, as Sir Robert McClure after-
wards proved. But Franklin was evidently quite confident
that whether by this route or another the expedition would
reach its goal. It was one of those occasions on which his spirits
always rose. Canon Wright, then a schoolboy full of the
healthy schoolboy's hero-worship, retains a vivid recollection of
Franklin's farewell visit to Mrs. Wright on the eve of this fatal
voyage, and recalls the cheery raillery with which he put aside
his ambitious young nephew's entreaty to be allowed to accom-
pany him. ' No, my boy,' said he, ' we are not allowed to

nl/

Ill

1845

rAIJENVKLLH

Ud9

take any cats with us that can't catch mice' One can
ahnost sec the discomfiture of the youthful volunteer and the
kindly twinkle in the stout old sailor's eye.

As the time, however, drew rjear for his departure, that
stronjj but sober piety which was so marked an clement
jn his character was deeply stirred, and its spirit breathes
impressively throuf^h his various letters of adieu to those
near and dear to him. On the night before the vessels
sailed from Greenhithe he took solemn and prayerful leave of
his father-in-law, then a very aj^ed man, though not without
the expression of a hope, so complete had been Mr. Griffin's
recovery from a recent illness, that they might meet again
after his return. ' I wish,' he adds, ' that you could see the
ship now. She is about as clear as she will be at sea, and
<iuite ready for sailing ; the officers and the crew all fine
young men and in excellent spirits. This day we had the
happiness lA joining together on board in Divine worship,
to praise God for His past mercies and to implore His guiding
and protecting providence. In this spirit we all hope to
begin, continue, and end our voyage.'

A melancholy interest attaches, indeed, to all the letters
written by him on the eve of his departure for this fatal
voyage. All, or almost all, of them have been preserved,
not only of course those received from him by his wife
and daughter, his father-in-law, and his sisters, but also his
friendly and hearty leave-takings of old friends like Mr.
Robert Brown and Sir James Ross. Their number, indeed,
when considered as an addition to the voluminous correspon-
dence on matters connected with the expedition and his
preparations for it, which he had to keep up incessantly for
the last two or three months of his stay in England, affords
striking testimony to his extraordinary energy. In the midst
of it all he seems to have been for some time prostrated
by an attack of a malady of which the terribly debilitating
effects are better known in these days than they were in those ;
but his elasticity of spirits and mental if not physical recu-
perative powers triumphed even over the depression of in-
fluenza. His letters of farewell begin at Greenhithe ; one or

i^ 1

:¥

i I

fit

ih'. ii'i 111 • '

f} '!. 1 1'

THE LAST VOYAGE

en. XX.

two arc sent from Aldborough, on the Suffolk coast, a port
into which the two ships put for a day or two under stress of
weather ; fronn Stromncss he wrote several, and the last under
his hand — the lir.al message received from him ere he pas'^ed
into that dark shadow which was so long in being dispersed —
is dated from Whalefish Island, off Disco, on the Greenland
coast.

Thus he writes to Lady Franklin, under date of June 7,
1845, from Stromncss: —

I was delighted last evening, on my arrival at this anchorage, to
receive your very interesting letter, with those from Eleanor and
Sophy, and the papers accompanying them. It was especially grati-
fying to me to rind that you were not alarmed by the reports which
the newspapers had given of our position at Aldborough, though they
appear to have caused the Admiralty to send me an o'der, if the NIC.
winds continued, that 7 should immediately proceed down Channel.
This was dated May 23, and sent to Harwich for Captain Stanley to
bring to me. He, however, did not overtake the ships before the
afternoon of the 29th, then to the north of Aberdeen. The return
to the Channel course was, in that position, out of the question ;
indci^d, the taking the course we have done has never been a
question after leaving Aldborough. We have had only one other
strong breeze, and that off the Faroe Islands, in which during thick
weather we separated from the Rattler and the transport. The old
Erebus and l^error, however, managed very well together, and were
making tolerable progress when we were joined by the Bla;',er, and
afterwards rejoined by the Rattler (the two steam-tugs). It is satis-
factory to perceive that the Erebus and Terror sail so nearly together
that they will be good company-keepers. The transport sails better
than either, but we must keep her close in hand going across the
Atlantic. Our squadron is now anchored around us, and by to-
morrow afternoon will, I hope, have finished the little fittings we
require, and be ready to sail. I purpose retaining the two steamers
to tow us about thirty or forty miles off the land, when we must part
with them, but we shall be thankful for the assistance they have
given us.

You will be glad to learn that the most experienced Davis Straits
seamen here and at Peterhead declare that we are quite m time. This
intelligence ought to please Beaufort and Sir James Ross. What a
kind note the latter has sent me ! ... His conduct towards me has
been k d throughout as regards this expedition, and he has acted as a
Tiian ouglilto do who is convinced that I should have spurned taking
the least advantage of him by proposing my services had he the greater

t 1. I

'^'

1845

FRANKLIN ON IIIS OFFICERS

341

desire to have gone. I was aware, for he told me, that the sugges-
tion was made to him that if he would go the next year the expedition
might he postponed for that time, and also that a baronetcy and a
good service pension were spoken of as an inducement for him ; but
I suspected then, and believe now, that each of these propositions was

suggested to him by and as considerations and rewards

which would follow his acceptance of the command, and that they
had received no express authority to make theni as j)rom.ises to be
immediately fulfilled. However, he richly deserves these honours for
his past services. I agree with him in the opinion that the navigation
of the Arctic Sea is not near so full of danger as that of the Antarctic,
nor, as far as I can learn, of the Spitzbergen Sea. It is very consolatory
to me that you i\,x* my dear girl and Sophy have -.en correct views
of the nature of our service. It is one unquestionaoly attended with
difficulties and dangers, but not greater than those of former voyages ;
and we may trust in God's merciful support and protection if we seek
it, putting forth at the same time our earnest endeavours to over-
come them. I am flattered by S.'s reasons for his supposing me so well
fitted for the command of the expedition ; even in some respects, you
tell me, he thinks, better than Ross. I think perhaps that I have I lie
tact of keeping the officers and men happily together in a greater degree
than Ross, and for this reason : he is evidently ambitious and wishes
to do everything himself. I possess not that feeling, but rdUHJder
that the commander of any service, having established his character
before, maintains it most by directing the exertions of his officers and
studiously encouraging them to work under the assurance that their
merits will be duly brought f irward and appreciated. S.'s remark
is a just one, that my office s are from a different class of society and
better informed men than on any former expedition. So says Parry ;
and certainly, if we call to mind those others who were with Ross,
there was scarcely one with the exception of Hooker above the
ordinary run of the service. However, I feel my responsibility the
greater from having these men to govern, and pray God to aid me in
this work. I have the satisfaction of perceiving that they all defer
to my opinion, even on points not immediately connected with our
present pursuits. Fitzjames even looks surprised when it comes out
that I have been in this or thut kind of service, of wliich he had not
previously been informed.

Then follows this interesting and, as it must have been
afterwards felt to be, consoling testimony to the efficiv'jncy
and high qualities of his officers : —

The more I see of Gore, the more convinced am I that in him I
have a treasure and a faithful friend. I am particularly pleased with

til

. V

'M2

THE LAST VOYAGE

en. XX.

\i:

''■ i

the manner iti which he commenced ond continues making ihe
siietchcs for you. I expect to derive ve.) great assiiitancc '""om him
if we have to winter, from his previous knowledge of the Terror when
encumbered with ice. Stanley, who is often with us, tells me he is a
very v-duable fellow to have near you. I like the ice-master, Raid,
and so do the other officers. As he begins to feel himself approach-
ing the scene of his labours, he opens out and becomes communi-
'";Uive on the subject of ice and its motions.

Crozier has not had the opportunitie;3 of being much on board, on
account of the weather ; but when he does come he is cheerful and
happy, and seems to think we are making good progress. He could
not bear the thought of going down Channel. Captain Smith, of the
Rattler, has been uniformly attentive. Both he and his friend Mr.
Smith, the great improver if not the inventor of the screw, a pas-
senger on board, are quite delighted with the manner and speed in
which, against wind and swell, the Rattler has towed the Erebus and
Terror together. Yesterday she towed the Erebus alone in calm
weather near six and a half miles an hoi r. This was proved on
repeated trials. . . .

Let me now assure you, my dearest Jane, that I am now amply
provided with every requisite for my oas.sage, and that I am entering
on my voyage comforted with every hope of God's merciful guidance
and protection, and that He will bless and comfort and protect you,
my dearest, my very dear Eleanor, dear Sophy, and all my other
relatives. Oh, how much I wish I could write to each of them to
assure them of the happiness I feel in my officers, my crew, and my
ship !

Mo.st heartily were these feelings reciprocated. Crozier,
as we know, was an old friend of Franklin's, had enjoyed his
hospitality in Tasmania, and had profited by the enthusiastic
and untiring help rendered by him to the Antarctic expedi-
tion. But the other officers, who had but just made their
commander's acquaintance, had already become equally at-
tached to him, and their letters of this period bear abundant
testimony to the respect and affection which their com-
mander inspired. Thus Fitzjames writes of him : —

I like a man who is in earnest. Sir John Franklin read the
Church service to-day and a sermon so very beautifully that I defy any
man not to feel the force of what he would convey. The first Sunday
he read was a day or two before we sailed, when T^ady Franklin and
his daughter and niece attended. Every one was struck with his
extreme earnestness of manner, evidently proceeding from real
conviction

e.'WwCilSSS^

^ wui

184;-,

OFFICERS OX TIIEIH CAPTAm

848

A<;ain : —

Sir John is delightful, active, and energetic, and even now per-
severing. What he /tas fieen we all know. I think it will turn out
that he is in no ways altered. He is full of conversation and inte-
resting anecdotes of his former voyages. I would not lose him for the
command of the expedition, for I have a real regard, 1 might .say
affection for him, and believe this is felt by all of us.

In a later letter he writes : —

Sir John is full of life nnd energy, with good judgment and a
capital memory — one of the best I know. His conversation is
delightful and most instructive, and of all men he is the most
fitted for the command of an enterprise requiring sound sense
and great perseverance. I have learnt much from him, and consider
myself most fortunate in being with such a nuui, and he is full of
benevolence and kindness withal.

Here again i.s valuable testimony to his powers as well as
to his attractions :-

We are very happy and very fond of Sir John Franklin, who im-
fMves very much as we come to know more of him. He is anything
but nervous or fidgety — in fact, I should say remarkable for decision
in sudden emergencies ; but I should think he might be easily
persuaded when he has not already formed a strong opinion.

Another and a younger officer with whom Franklin was
no less popular sings his praises equally warmly if with some-
what too much of the irreverence of youth ; and we ought
also perhaps to take his years into account as qualifying
what seems a rather exaggerated estimate of his commander's
advanced age. In one of Mr. Couch's letters, beginning
appropriately enough in the familiar schoolboy tone, we find
the following : —

Old Franklin is an exceedingly good old chap — all are quite
delighted with him and very clever. He is quite a ///V/w/. We have
Church morning and evening on Sundays, the evening service in the
cabin to allow the watch that could not attend in the forenoon. We
all go both times. Gives sei luons out of his sermon books, and I can
assure you adds a great deal himself. They say they would .sooner
hear him than half the parsons in England, i-.j has three [officers, of
course, not parsons] every day to dinner with him, and when the
weather permits the captain and officers of the 'i'crror. He ordered

344

THE LAST VOYAGE

CH. XX.

^fl

f f'!

I i

ii I

I Mi

stock and wine to be laid in enough for four every day, and for a
cabin-full twice a week for three years. So you see what a liberal
old man he is.

The coast of Greenland was reached by the brRinning of
July, and the work of provisioning the ships with the stores
which had been conveyed in the transports now commenced.
The voyage had, as usual, a rapidly restorative effect upon
Franklin's health. In his last letter from this stiitif»ii to his
sister, Mrs. Wright, after describing the morale and spirit of
his officers in enthusiastic terms, he continues : —

I rejoice likewise to say that the coming to sea has entirely
removed my cough, and that my health is s(j good that the officers
often exclaim that I am quite a different-looking person since I
sailed. When they first became known to me I was suffering from the
severe influenza which first sent me to Brighton.

To his friend Mr. Robert Brown, under a date a few days
earlier than the above-quoted letter, he had written in the
same buoyant strain : —

Here we are, having been one month from Stromness. Busy as
bees, and, like those useful animals, laying in plenty of storey. We hope
to get our portion from the transport this evening, and then we shall
have on board three complete years of provisions and fuel. The
ships, however, are very deep, which is of little consequence, as the
sea is for the most part smooth when there is much ice, and by the
time we get to Behring Strait or through the winter we shall be in
good sailing trim and have room to stretch out our limbs, which we
have hardly room now to do, so perfectly full is every hole and
corner.

The Danish authorities are all absent from Disco making tlieii
tours of inspection, so that I have not been able to make inquiries as
to the ice at the fountain head ; but I have conversed with an intelli-
gent man, a carpenter, who is in charge at a station near the r ichor-
age, and learnt from him that, though the last winter was unusually
severe, the spring was not later than usual, and that the ice
broke away from the land here about the close of April. He had
also understood that the ice had separated from the land as far north
as 73*^ lat. early in June, from, which circumstance he considers that
we shall have a favourable passage to Lancaster Sound -which is the
limit of his knowledge. . . .

What I most ("oa*- respecting rriy ".'•'(>: is i;h.'!.t, f ' ^e do not return

at the time she has fixed in her xvn)

nny bcc/'-.,'^ very anxious.

:9^".

1845

LAST LETTER

845

and I shall in such a case be greatly obliged to my friends to remind
her that we may be so circumstanced at the ena of the first winter
and even of the second as to wish to try some other part in case we have
not jireviously succeeded, and, having abundance of provisions and
fuel, we may do that with safety. In order to prevent too great
anxiety either on her part or that of my daughter, they should be
encouraged not to look for our arrival earnestly till our provisions
get short. . , . Our next chance of writing may be by a whaler, if we
chance to meet any ; if not, this note must convey to you the senti-
ments of affection and esteem which I feel for you. May God bless
you !

From Whalefish Island, in Disco Bay, came the last letter
which his wife was ever to receive from him. It covers
sixteen closely written sidc^ of quarto paper, and is indeed
a methodically kept journal of his stay at this last station of
equipment and preparation for his voyage — a stay extending
over some ten or twelve days. He was sti'l at sea, about
thirty miles from the coast of Greenland, when, on July r,
the entries on these faded, long-t«-easured sheets commence : —

I begin the month in your service. Our voyage hitherto has
been favourable. The passage across the Atlantic ^vas, as usual,
attended with strong breezes, and these generally from the west and
south-west, so that making on way across we were led to the north
and even carried within sixty miles of Iceland before we could get past
Cape Farewell, but we did not see Iceland. It would have been
contrary to the long experience of Greenland seamen if we had gone
round Cape Farewell unattended by a gale. We had a very stroi g one
from the south, with much sea, which drove us rapidly past the Cape
on the 22nd of June, and continued to favour us till the 25th of June,
when the gale gave place to calm. The weather, which had been thick,
now became clear, and we obtained our first view of the shores of Green-
land, distant about forty miles ; the astronomical observation toM us it
was land in the neiglibourhood of Lichtenfels. Here, to our surprise,
we found a bank of forty fathoms water, on which we caught many
codfish. Kere also we communicated with an E;iglish brig which
had sailed from Shetland the same day we left the C)rkneys, and had
come out to procure salmon in some of the fiords. . . . From the
last date to this time we have been generally in sight of the coast,
advancing gradually to the north,, aided by light winds, as also we
are now doing.

The Calm weather and smooth water had been specially
favourable to the cUedgings of Mr. Good-sir, who was attached,

II ' ! '

-'fPli'^

^ 'F-

'1 "

»'-

,!i

846

THE LASl VOYAGE

CH. XX.

it shovld have been mentioned, to the Erebus in the capacity
of naturalist.

I I

.*•,

' ' i

The magnetic observations are likewise carried on with zeal and
energy by Fitzjames, who never omits an opportunity of obtaining
them. Each officer, in fact, directs his attention to some point or
other of inquiry or observation, and it is this mode of fixing their
energies specifically that I have encouraged in them, and shall con-
tinue to do so, as it is the best means of the expedition obtaining
results on [scientific] points. I impress at the same time upon them
the assurance that these individual exertions will prove their best
claim to the favourable notice of the Admiralty. Of this they are all
aware, so likewise are they that I shall have pleasure in bringing their
services duly before the proper authorities. I shall be excused by
you if I add that it is gratifying to me to know that they have the
confidence in me that I shall do them justice. . . . We have, however,
as yet seen but very few icebergs, and none of large size. The land
we have seen is generally bold and picturesque, with openings that
indicate the entrances into the different fiords which indent the
whole coast. There appears less snow on the lower parts of the hills
than I had expected to see there. We hope to hear from the Danisli
commandant at Disco what had been the prevailing winds during
the winter and spring, and in what state he supposes the ice to be
now to the north and north-west, and where the whalers are.

After I had issued such written orders as I thought necessary for
the internal discipline and arrangements of the ship, a.s well as the
instructions to the officers respecting the various observations which
they would be required to make, and for their general guidance, I
devoted myself to the preparation of a r_ ode of signals to be used
between the Erebus and Terror when amongst the ice after partin:?
from the transport, and in this duty I was mainly assisted by Parry's
signals in a similar situation, which he had most kindly lent me.
Indeed, I had little more to do than to introduce into his code some
signals that are related to the steam machinery with which we are
furnished. These first duties over, I have employed my time in
carefully reading again the voyages of the earlier navigators as given
in Barrow's co!fL,tion of them, and still better in the numbers of the
' Cabinet Library,' article ' Polar Seas and Regions.' You will con
elude, of ' ourse, that Parry's voyages have not been overlooked, nor
Ross's (Sir John, I mean), in this examination, and yesterday I spent
the morning most agreeably in reading the letters which you had
kindly collected and put into my writing desk, some of which I
find to fontain opinions and discussions of Richardson and myself
on the very objects of my present expedition which will be \iseful to
me. The despatches of Dease and Simpson to the Hudson Bay Com-

9^mi

1840

LAST LETTEIl

847

ill

pany, and the letters of Richardson and myself to the Geographical
Society and Beaufort, on which Back's last expedition was based, are
also among them ; these likewise will be serviceable to me. These
readings I consider matters of duty, but I occasionally take up some
of the interesting little volumes with which you furnished my library.
I have begun, since leaving England, reading a chapter of the Old
Testament with the commentaries of Henry upon it, which I hope to
continue. The Sunday is by all observed properly. We have Divine
service on the main deck every forenoon, and in the evening of that
day all those who choose, and are not on watch, may attend tlic
service in my cabin, which in fact all do, and a most interesting
assembling of ourselves together it has proved and will, I trust, prove
in future to be. It is a source of sincere gratification to me when I
think upon your prayers ascending with Eleanor's and mine for our
mutual protection, and for God's blessing on each other. The heart
is refreshed and comforted by such thoughts, and strengthened for
the faithful discharge of our relative duties. . . .

/ufy 4. — We arrived at the anchorage in Whalefish Island at four
this morning, which, but for thick and blowing weather, we should
have reached on the evening of the 2nd, thus making one month's
passage from Stromness. We made our appearance off Lievely, the
residence of the Governor of Disco, on the evening of the 2nd,
though we could not communicate with him. The next day proved
beautifully fine, which afforded us an opportunity of examining ihe
state of the ice in the Waysgat Passage before we came in here. It
was satisfactory to find from this news that the ice thereabout had
broken up, though enormous masses were floating about.

As Parry has described our anchorage, so have we found it to
be, a most snug place for clearing the transport (which is now along-
side for that purpose) as well as for the magnetical and astronomical
observations which have very soon commenced, under Crozier and
Eitzjames, on the same spot which Parry occupied in 1824. I
accompanied Mr. I,e Vesconte to the top of the highest land, that we
might procure a view of the groups of islands and rucks in this
neighbourhood, and take bearings for placing them on the chart.
Nothing can be more sterile than these islands are, a mere collection
of rocks with a few mosses and swamp-loving plants in the water-
courst ■!>. MoHcjuitoes, however, are most abundant and of large si/e.
I have not yet heard many complaints made as to their biting.

/h/v 5. -This is n Danish Htntinn, nt which live several Escjuimaux.
The officer in charge ol lliciit Is now absent at Eievely, where the
Governor-in-Chief rcHidof*, ho (hiU I can give no account of the
estajlishu\ent al piv^kUt. The Esquiinaux viwwc off before we
enterv^l the h.irboui, and two of them piloted the Erebus to the
anchorage by keeping their cnnues jtiMt aheiul of the »)iip. 'I'hU

t ti

y48

THE LAST VOYAGE

CH. XX.

morning we had a visit from their wives and children. All of them
had clean-washed faces, and hair neatly combed and put up. Their
dresses were likewise clean and good, some of them of sealskin and
the others of cotton. All the grown women had handkerchiefs on
their heads, procured, I presume, from the Danes. 'I'he Danish
Government, or perhaps merchants of that country, have several
colonies on this side of Greenland, at which they procure furs, seal-
skins, and oil from the natives. At each of these establishments,
I believe, are missionaries for the religious instruction of the
Esquimaux, several of whom are Moravians. Mr. La Trobe could
perhaps give you more information than I can as to the latter esta-
blishments. The Esquimaux who have been on board appear to me
cleaner in their dress and persons than those I have before met,
which shows, I think, that attention is paid to them in this respect. I
have to-day employed two of them to convey a letter which I have
written to the Governor at Disco. One man would not undertake to
go across the bay (twenty miles) alone. Each went in his own canoe ;
it, in fact, holds but one.

Sunday, July 6. — The messengers returned this afternoon with a
letter from the ofificer in charge at Lievely, who communicated to me
that, not understanding English, he had been unable to read my letter.
He, however, referred me to the coxswain of a boat which had crossed
over from Disco, whom he begged me to acquaint whether he could
render me any assistance from Disco. This man I saW; as well as a
still more intelligent person, a carpenter, and from the latter received
the information that, from the last winter having been severe and the
winds high, and from the ice having broken up hereabouts early in
May, our prospects, he thought, were favourable as to getting to
Lancaster Sound. He had heard that our whalers were off the
Woman's Islands in 74° N. VV^e, of course, shall rejoice to find his
opinion correct, as the getting into I^ancaster Sound early and across
the barrier of ice in Baffin's Bay will be great points attained. It
seems the Governor of Lievely is absent on leave. The inspector is
also away, at some other station, and there is a supercargo only in
charge ; $0 that in all probability I shall gain no further information
tha*i we have gained already from these parties.

I went after church to-day on shore to visit the Esquimaux' huts
and tents, which with one dwelling-house have received the designa-
tion (A a station. Jt belongs to the Danish Government, and there
arr bek/nging to it f3o Esquimaux, all of whom except thirty are
awaf <^-atct»ing seals. J have already mentioned llicir being rnnifort-
i^bly €keSfSed and apparently well taken caii: ul by the Danes, and I
wa« delighted that many of iheiu read their Bibles, and that the
children »no taught at sihool to read and perhaps to write. One of
the turf-built huts, which I observed to be fitted up with seats and

184iS

LAST LF/rrEU

849

forms, was pointed out to me as the schoolroom. There was
nothing to invite your staying long in a seal-catching station, and,
therefore, I stayed but little longer in many of these huts than to ask
the questions I wished to have answered. The parties I iirefor seeing
alongside of the ships apart from the odours that surround their
residences.

Motiday, July 7.— Still busily employed clearing the transport,
which we shall not be able to empty to-day. We are cramming the
ships as full as possible ; both care and time are requisite to make the
best stowage. This necessary delay is favourable for the magnetic
and other observations which are carrying forward on shore, and it
will be satisfactory to Colonel Sabine to know that the results by the
observers from both ships accord very well. I ha\e no doubt Crozier
and Fitzjames will write to him on magiu lie matters. I shall also
write to him. I shall also write to Richardson, and send him tracings
of two rare fish which Mr. Ooodsir thinks he will be glad to
have . . .

I yesterday saw Fitzjames making a sketch of the harbour, of
which he intends sending you a copy. Mr. Gore has made a very
faithful drawing for you of our parting with the Blazer and Rattler,
and of them cheering the Erebus, which he has kindly framed also,
. . . My own contribution to your Arctic stores is a pair of sealskin
boots, made by one of the Esquimaux, and I send Eleanor and
Sophy pockets for holding a watch, also made of sealskin, as specimens
of the female work. Lieutenant Griffiths, the agent of the transport,
will kindly take charge of them for you. I shall ask him to call at
Bedford Place, for the purpose of seeing you or some member of the
family. He is an intelligent person, and will give you full particulars
of our progress hitherto. . .

I had written thus far when Mr. Gore brought mp in the sketch
of our present anchorage for you, taken from the opposite side to
that by Captain Fitzjames. The two ships together are the Erebus
and transport, and the single one the Terror. It is a correct
representation of the land and of our position. Almost immediately
afterwards Captain fitzjames brought me his ski Ich to look at,
which he will himself send you. This is taken from Boat Island, in
which I'arry took his observations, as our officers are now doing. It
will, therefore, be an interesting momonto of the scene to show him.

I feel mu< b j(raX)fif^'] by the kind feelings of the officers towards
you, and I am sure ii^-j*- w nothing they would not rio to please you.
Hitherto I have invited fh*M' iritb regularity to dinner -Fitzjames
daily — an/^ J shall continue f// A/t »0 until we get to th«i jic, ui In ^
situati//n when rw^ither i nor the/ ^nv be able to spare the titne for
sitting dowrr to dsrrix'r. t ?j>s»ve gf/t ^,f: m»*tcr of thie tf«n9|>oii j|j
sf)are what wiiM' h* </nM; mganuidcc/fffJt, which amoimts to 7/, «/. . 1 j

■■.H t

1' ■■■ 4i

1 mm i

ill

■;

ill

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THE LAST NOYACiK

Olf. XX.

hi,''

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A t

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Tuesday, July 8. — Stll unloading the transport. If we do not
quite complete this job to day we shall be able to do so early to-
morrow, and at least to ascertain whether one if not both ships can
carry all she has on board for them. Of this we ;ire certain, that the
two ships will have on bo.nd thrc • yrars' supply of provisions, fuel,
iind clothing.

And then, with that solicitude for the mental repose of
those he was leaving behind him, which was never long absent
from his mind or utterances, he continues : —

I mention this the more particularly that you may not have the
slightest apprehension respecting our welfare, though we should have
to winter twice ; and with respect to this point let me entreat you and
Eleanor not to be too anxious, for it is vory possible that our pro-
spects of success and the health of our nfficers and men might justify
our passing a second winter in these regions. If we do not succeed
in our attempt, we shall try in other places, and through God's bless-
ing we hope to set the question at rest. Parry, Ross, and Richardson
will be the best persons to consult on every occasion that you may feel
anxious, each of whom will give you the result of their judgment and
experience and advise you in every way. . . .

Wednesday, July (). — I had this evening the pleasure of knowing
that all our stores had been received on boa/d from the transport ; but
the difficulty now is where they are to be stowed. A very large
jiortion of them will have to be secured on deck, but, as we have very
little sea in these high northern parts, that will not matter.

Friday, July ii. — Another lovely day, in which we are fully occu-
l)ied in filling up every hole and corner of the ship with stores. The
transport will soon remove from alongside to make her own prepara-
tions for sailing, and in order to leave us room to swing the ships and
find the deviations of the needle on each point of the compass — as
was done at Greenhithe. I have written to Sabine and Parry, to each
of my sisters, to Sophy, your sister Mary and your aunt, and I think
every other letter which appears to me of importance to write. . . .
The transport has removed from us and will sail to-morrow.

Saturday, July 12. — This is another lovely and clear day, which
makes me desirous of getting away, which I think we shall do lo-
night, for both ships are now busy in swinging to obtain the dip and
deviation of the compass, which is our last operation in harbour.

I have just written the sketch of my official letter to the Admiralty
for Mr. Osmer to copy. Fitzjames has seen the draft and approves
of it. It is short, and only gives those points the Admiralty wish to
receive. . . . Mr. Osmer has begged me to present the kind remem-
brances of all the officers to you. Be assured that you have their best

cir. XX,

do not
iarly to-
lips can

that the
lis, fuel,

:^ose of
I absent

have the
)uld have
; you and
our pro-
;ht justify
: succeed
id's bless-
ichardson
u may feel
;ment and

f knowing

sport ; but

k'ery large

lave very

uUy occu-
res. The
prepara-
ships and
npass — as
ry, to each
I think
ifrite. . . .

1846

LAST WOTIDS

801

wishes, and I feel confident of having thcircordial co opcralioii. This
observation may also be applied to Crozier and the officers of the
Terror. I hope Crozier has wi iiten to you, and I have no doubt
that he was der'rous of doing it.

I trust that I have not omitted any point that you wished to be
informed upon. If so, exercise your own excellent judgment if it
relates to any of our personal matters. This also I particularly wish
you to do with regard to my .lear Eleanor and Gcll, if the latter should
come home and get settled before my return. They will both prove
blessings and comforts to you and to me. I have written to each of
my dearest friends to comfort and assist you with their best counsel.
To the Al"\ighty care I commit you and dear I'.lcanor. I trust He will
shield yo^ under His wings and grant the continual aid of His Holy
Spirit. Again, that God may bless and support you both is and will
be the constant prayer of your most affectionate husband,

John Franklin.

And with this last message of benediction to those
nearest and dearest to him, the voyager set sail for the
Eternal Shore.

"11:

\iii

■^ ')i

lay, which
ill do lo-
e dip and
hour.
Admiralty

approves
ty wish to
id remem-

their best

^^.

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'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

CH. XXI.

CHAPTER XXI

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE
1845-1848

One more glimpse of the two vessels and of their devoted
crews was yet to be given to the world. They were seen
and spoken with by a whaler tv/elve days after their depar-
ture from their anchorage in Disco Bay, and Captain Dannet's
record of the fact was duly published in England three months
later. A London newspaper of October 27 printed the sub-
joined extract from the log of the whaling ship in question : —

Sir John Franklin's Expedition — Prince of W^alcs, Davis Straits.

Melville Bay : July 26, 1845.

At 8 P.M. received on board ten of the chief officers of the ex-
pedition under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, of the
Terror and Erebus. Both ships' crews are all well, and in remark-
able spirits, expecting to finish the operation in good time. They
are made fast to a large iceberg, with a temporary obsc-vatory fixed
upon it. They were in latitude 74° 48', longitude 66" 13' W.

It was to be many years before any human hand should
lift the veil of mystery which descended between the explorers
and their countrymen when the Erebus and Terror faded
from the view of the whaler as she sailed southward through
Baffin's Bay. Nor, indeed, was that veil ever to be completely
raised at all. Such certain, or at any rate such historic,
knowledge as we possess of the movements and fortunes of
the two ill-fated vessels is scanty in the extreme. The only
evidence under the hands of the crews themselves consists of
the manuscript entries and marginal inscriptions on an Ad-
miralty ' bottle paper,' not found till fourteen years later ; and
by a curious mischance this solitary and fragmentary record
actually contains a demonstrably mistaken assignment of the

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1845

HOPES OF THE EXPLORERS

853

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date of a year. For the rest, the particulars of the tragic
story have had to be filled in from the more or less probable
conjectures founded oy other Arctic explorers on this narrow
basis of ascertained Tact.

At the very outset of the narrative we are met by the
necessity of furnishing a hypothetical explanation for an
ascertained but unexpected fact. It is known from the docu-
ment above mentioned that the route already taken by the
expedition during the summer of 1845 was other than that
contemplated by Franklin except in the last resort. And
this, too, although there was not only nothing to foreshadow
the necessity of this change of route, but, on the contrary,
there was substantive ground for anticipating that the original
plan would be found practicable. Writing from Whale-
fish Island on July 11, Fitzjames reports under date of the
6th of that month : ' A man just come over from Lievely, a
Dane who has married an Eskimo, says that they believe it
to be one of the mildest seasons and earliest summers ever
known, and that the ice is clear away from this to Lancaster
Sound. Keep this to yourself, for Sir John is naturally very
anxious that people in England should not be too sanguine
about the season. Besides, the papers would have all sorts of
stories not true. I do believe that we have a good chance of
getting through this season if it is to be done at all.* The in-
formation thus quoted must have been welcome hearing to
Fitzjames, for in his diary a few days before we find the entry :
' In talking to Sir John Franklin, whose memory is as good
as his judgment appears to be correct, it appears that one
great difficulty is to get from whtre we are to Lancaster
Sound ; Parry was fortunate enough in his first voyage to
sail right across in nine or ten days, a thing unheard of before
or since. In his next voyage he was fifty-four days toiling
through fields of ice, and did not get in till September, yet
Lancaster Sound is the point we look to as the beginning of
work. If we are fortunate we shall be there by August 1,
which will be time enough ; sooner would probably put us
among the clearing ice.'

Nevertheless, it seems certain that their Danish informant

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304

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

CH. XXI.

must have been mistaken, and that this reputedly ' mildest of
seasons and earliest of summers' turned out, in fact, to be
specially unfavourable to Arctic navigation. On July 26,
three weeks after this was written, and only five days before
the date when Fitzjames hoped to be at the mouth of Lan-
caster Sound, we find the Erebus and Terror moored, as has
been seen, to an iceberg in Melville Bay — that is to say, still on
the Greenland coast, and with all the breadth of Baffin's Bay
between them and the point which they looked to as 'the
beginnin^j of their work.' The only possible inference is that
the ice had proved to be unusually late in clearing, and that
the start to cross had had to be deferred till several weeks
alter the normal period of the year.

What sort of a passage they made of it is not known, nor
at what date they reached Lancaster Sound ; but their ex-
periences after entering that waterway were presumably dis-
appointing. It is not stated in the record to which reference
has been made that they found it impossible to proceed
further westward than Wellington Channel, but it is difficult
to imagine any other cause for Franklin's turning to the
northward instead of holding on his course through Barrow
Strait. His instructions from the Admiralty were to traverse
that strait and then bear to the south-westward, and he him-
self, in a letter already quoted, declared in the most distinct
manner that he should only enter Wellington Channel in
the event of finding westward or south-westward navigation
impracticable.

The point is of so much importance, and the course taken
by the ships during their first season — which, so far as regards
the search for a north-west passage, was a season lost — may
have so momentously affected the ultimate fate of the
expedition, that it is desirable to recapitulate as briefly as
possible the plans and resolutions discussed in the last
chapter. In Franklin's original proposal to Lord Had-
dington, it was observed, it may be remembered, that ' the
discoveries of Parry and Ross have narrowed the parts in
which the passage should be sought ' to ' that space between
Cape Walker and Banks's Land of Parry where I should

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1845

THE PllOPOSED ROUTE

356

'the

recommend the trial first to be made, and in case of the
passage not being forced in that direction, then to the north-
ward by the Wellington Channel.' But, as we afterwards saw
from his letter to Mr. Elliot, he had, after further considera-
tion and inquiry, modified his original proposal. To have
kept a straight course from Cape Walker to Banks Land
would have led them to the channel afterwards discovered
by McClure, if indeed the route to it had been traversable ;
but the difficulties likely to be met with in these waters
had evidently occurred or been represented to him, and his
thoughts were now turned in a more south-westerly direction.
He spoke of endeavouring to proceed as directly as possible
to Behring Strait by taking a course to the south-westward
after passing Cape Walker. The space to the south of
Banks Land and the islands which are close to the main
coast of America is, he wrote, ' entirely unknown.' ' We are as
yet ignorant whether it is occupied by detached islands or
by a large extent of land stretching north from the coast of
America. This in itself is a geographical question desirable
to be settled. We hope, however, to find it in that state
which will admit of a passage to the westward.' The former
of these two hypotheses was of course the correct one.
Banks Land, as we know, is divided from the American con-
tinent not by a group of detached islands, but by a large
extent of land stretching north from the coast of America —
to wit, that vast rhomboidal mass, to the northern, the south-
western, and the south-eastern parts of which the names of
Prince Albert Land, Wollaston Land, and Victoria Land have
been respectively given. In this direction, again, if they had
been able to take it, it is conceivable that success might have
awaited them ; for they would perhaps have struck Prince of
Wales's Strait, into which McClure penetrated some years
later in his eastward voyage from Behring Strait, and so have
reversed the course of the first actual navigator of a north-west
passage.

The question, however, is not as to what would or might
have been the results of taking a south-westerly-to-southerly
course, but as to what were the expectations based by

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TOWAItDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

OH. X '.

Franklin on the selection of such a route. And it is clear
that these expectations were so strong as to make it pretty
certain that nothing short of positive necessity would have
induced him to abandon a plan thus hopefully regarded, and
to exchange it for one which he had consistently spoken of
as the less eligible alternative. In short, the whole probabilities
of the case appear to favour the view, since generally accepted
by Arctic authorities, that it was the absolute compulsion of
the impassable, encountering him in Barrow Strait, which
deflected Franklin's course to the north-westward in the
season of 1845. He had, in fact, to choose between ex-
ploring Wellington Channel and going into winter quarters
even before the autumn had set in.

What their experiences were during the few weeks of the
season still remaining to them we have fairly sufficient means of
judging. They must have sailed northward until what is now
known as Grinnell Land rose ahead of them, and must then
have turned to the westward into Penny Strait. No doubt
their idea was, as suggested by Admiral Sherard Osborn, to
try for a north-about passage round the Parry Islands, and
they continued to pass up the strait as far as progress was
possible in the hope of reaching an open or navigable sea.
But they doubtless found, as (writes Admiral Osborn) 'we
found in 1852, a wide expanse of water much choked up with
ice extending from the head of Wellington Channel to the
westward for hundreds of miles.' Thus, again baffled, the
ships' heads were turned southward, and, holding on this
course, the explorers found that the land to the west of Wel-
lington Channel was insular, and that the strait which they
had now entered divided it from what has since been known as
Cornwallis Island. Through this waterway they continued
to pursue their course, and eventually found themselves once
more in Barrow Strait at a distance of about one hundred
miles west of the point at which they had quitted it, thus effect-
ing the first of those contributions to geographical knowledge
which the various expeditions afterwards despatched in search
of the missing vessels were so largely to increase.

It is probable that by the time they issued from Corn-

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1845-46

BEECIIEY ISLAND

357

walHs Strait it was too late in the year for further operations.
They accordingly retraced their course to the eastward in
search of eligible winter quarters, which they found at
IJeechey Island, in a bay near the mouth of the Wellington
Channel, on the south coast of the much larger insular mass
known as North Devon. Here they made such preparations
for the long and dreary season which lay before them as the
experience of their commander suggested and as their means
allowed. No doubt the winter was spent, under the circum-
stances, comfortably enough. They had well-found ships, a
beloved and trusted leader, and the unabated inspiration of
their hopes. A few eager spirits might have been disap-
pointed by the comparatively slight progress which had been
made ; but the more experienced among the party could
hardly have shared the exaggerated expectations of their too
sanguine shipmates, and the time had been far too short to
have raised any presumption, even in the least hopeful minds,
against their future success. At the worst, they had had a
bad exploring season, and better luck was to be looked for in
the coming year. Moreover, their labours even thus far had
not been altogether fruitless. In their passage up Wellington
Channel and down the new strait to the west of Cornwallis
Island they had explored and mapped out 300 miles of new
coast-line ; and, above all, they had already reached a point
divided from the southern line of exploration by no more
than 250 miles of hitherto untra versed water. For it was but
this distance which separated them from that portion of the
American coast along which Dease and his companions had
made their eastward way some dozen years before ; and the
crews of the Erebus and Terror had already, it may be, in
imagination, traversed this intervening belt of the unknown
and reached that point on the chart to which Franklin had
once pointed, with the words, ' If I can but get down there,
my work is done ; thence it's plain sailing to the westward.'

In the course of the winter of 1845-6 the explorers lost
three of their number, two seamen who died in January, and
a marine, whose death followed a few months later. They
were buried on the island, and the discovery of their graves

858

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

CH. xxr.

;

(■'I

five years later supplied the' first clue — not, however, to be
successfully followed till long after — to the course taken by
the lost expedition.

As soon as the season of 1846 was suflficiently advanced,
which would not be, it is thought, until July or August, the
ships resumed their voyage to the westward, but were not
now to proceed so far in that direction as Franklin had
thought they might be compelled to do. It was not necessary
for them, as in the plan he had sketched out for Lord
Haddington, to make for ' the space between Cape Walker
and Banks's Land of Parry.' The event shows that Franklin
only suggested this south-westward route because at that
time no passage leading more directly southwdid was
known. It was due southward, as has been said, that his
gaze was perpetually turned, for, the straighter the course he
could take towards the north coast of the American continent,
the sooner would he reach the already explored waterway
which led to Behring Strait. He had not much westing to
do in the summer of 1846 before coming upon the southward-
leading channel of which he wab in search. He came upon
it before reaching Cape Walker, or indeed before attaining
the longitude of the northward-leading channel from which
he had emerged in the autumn of the previous year. This
new and welcome avenue to the south divided North
Somerset, which had been hitherto supposed to extend at
least as far as Cape Walker, from what is now known as
Prince of Wales's Island, and its entrance has since received
the name of Peel Sound, while that of Franklin Strait has
been given to its southerly portion.

Down this channel, then, they shaped their course, full, no
doubt, of exultation at having found a passage which seemed
to lead so directly to their wished-for goal. The weather,
however, and the conditions of navigation generally must
have been highly unfavourable, judging from the small pro-
gress made by them, or rather from the short period during
which, as was afterwards learnt from their only discovered
record, they were able to advance. For it appears from this
document that their voyaging of 1846, and indeed their

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1840

IIKSICT IN THE PACK

350

earthly voyaging altogether, was brought to a close on
September 12 in that year, so that, acci>rding to all calcula-
tions, they could not have had more, and may have had con-
siderably less, than two clear months of travel. During this
period they succeeded in accomplishing only between two and
three hundred miles of southing from the entrance of Peel
Sound, though every mile of the coast-line on either hand
represented so much addition to geographical knowledge.
Emerging from the mouth of Franklin Channel into the
wider — one fears that they could hardly be called the open —
waters to the southward and skirting the western shores of
Boothia Felix, the Erebus and Terror held on their toilsome
way until the early days of September. But on the 12th of
that month the gallant struggle of the two vessels came to an
end for ever. The ice closed immovably round them in lat.
70° 5' N. and long. 98° 23', and from that day forward its
deadly embrace was never for a moment relaxed. For the
awful period of 587 days from early September in 1846 until
late April in 1848, the hapless crews were held fast in an icy
prison, from which at last the desperate remnant of them
broke out only to die.

To winter in the pack is, of course, no very uncommon
experience in Arctic travel. Nay, to be inextricably beset
for more than one winter was not unheard of. It happened,
as we know, to the Rosses in their extraordinary Arctic
adventures of 1829-33. For three years the Victory was
frozen up in her first winter quarters on the east coast of
Boothia Felix, although every attempt was made to release
her, till in 1832 she had to be abandoned, when her crew,
making their way northward up Prince Regent Inlet in the
vain hope of falling in with some stray whaler, would in all
probability have perished of starvation had they not been
supported through their fourth winter by the stores and pro-
visions which had been landed by Parry at a point on the
eastern shore of North Somerset from the wreck of the Fury
in those waters eight years before. The escape, however, of
the Rosses and their return to England in 1833 amazed their
friends like a resurrection from the grave. It was without

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TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE

CU. XXI.

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precedent in the history of Polar exploration, nor has anything
like it ever since occurred. The Victory, again, was a small
vessel, carrying not many mouths to feed and victualled for
four years. The stores of the Erebus and Terror could only
last for three winters, and to have their movements thus
arrested in the autumn of 1 846 would throw the whole of
their remaining work on the short exploring season of the
following year. Unless by the end of 1847 they had either
found their way through into the Pacific or had reached some
point on the Arctic coast of America at which they could
winter in the comfortable certainty of being able to make
Behring Strait in the following spring, they would have, they
knew, to return home, if they ever returned at all, defeated in
their search for a north-west passage.

Their anxieties, however, were not confined to the future
alone ; for their present situation must, to men familiar with
the aspects of Arctic icefields, have given rise to grave mis-
givings. The ice-stream in which they had found themselves
after passing the southern point of Prince of Wales's Island
is one of the most powerful and dangerous in all the Polar
regions, as more than one of the search expeditions were
afterwards to find. Admiral Sherard Osborn writes, in his
* Narrative of the Last Voyage of Franklin : ' —

. *

I ..

If we open a chart of the Arctic Regions, it will be observed that
westward of the Parry Islands and Baring Island there is a wide sea
whose limits are as yet unknown, and the ice which encumbers it
has never yet been traversed by ship or sledge. All those navigators,
CoUinson and McClure in their ship, and McClintock and Mecham
with their sledges, who have with much difficulty and danger skirted
along the southern and eastern edge of this truly frozen sea, mention
in terms of wonderment the stupendous thickness and massive pro-
portions of the vast floes with which it is closely packed. It was
between this truly polar ice and the steep cliffs of Banks Land that
Sir Robert McClure fairly fought his way in the memorable voyage
of the Investigator. It was in the narrow and tortuous lane of water
left between the low beach line of North America and the wall of ice
formed by the grounded masses of this fearful pack that the gallant
CoUinson carried, in 1852 and 1853, the Enterprise, byway of Behring
Strait, to and from the further shores of Victoria Land ; and it was
in the far north-west of the Parry group that McClintock and Mecham,

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184G

SITUATION OF THE SHIPS

361

with their sledges, in 1853 gazed, as Parry had done five-and-thirty
years before, on that pack ice to which all that they had seen in the sea
between Prince Patrick Land and ihe Atlantic was a mere baga'.i,l'e.

The vastness of these ice masses is not due to any special
intensity of cold in these latitudes, but to the want of any
large direct communication between that portion of the Polar
Sea and the warmer waters of the Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans. The channels connecting it with the latter are ex-
ceedingly tortuous and much barred with islands ; its only
connection with the former is by Behring Strait, the waters
of which are ' so shallow that the Polar ice, which has been
found to draw as much as sixty and eighty feet of water
and to have hummocks upon it of a hundred feet in height,
generally grounds in it until thawed away by the action of
the Pacific Gulf Stream.'

Still, of course, this ice-sea sullenly obeys the law by which
the Polar waters are ever drifting towards the torrid zone, and
although the accumulation of ice every winter exceeds its
dissolution, its masses are ever slowly moving towards the
south. The march, however, is so slow as to resemble rather
the movement of a land glacier than of a Polar pack. Its
frozen billows are seldom if ever broken by lanes of water, still
less by clear spaces of sea ; indeed, so compact and impene-
trable is it that as yet no navigator has ever succeeded in
crossing any of the ice-streams issuing from this ocean of deso-
lation. ' One of these impenetrable ice-streams flows down
between Melville Island and Banks Land, impinging with
fearful force upon the exposed shores of Prince of Wales's
Land and the islands across Barrow Strait, curves down what
is now called McClintock Channel, until it is fairly blocked
at the strait between King William and Victoria Land.'
Here the southern edge of the ice-stream comes in contact
with the warm waters flowing northward from the rivers of
the continent of America, and undergoes a constant and rapid
disintegration, the rear of the ice-stream ever pressing forward,
while its vanward masses are being constantly melted away.

It was in the grip of this slow-moving but unrelenting
enemy that the ships of the expedition were caught fast.

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'TdWAims NO KAUTIIIA' POLE'

CII. XXT.

Had the pco^raphy of tho rcj^ioii in which they first came
within its clutch been as accurately known in those days as it
is now, they could have avoided it. For to the south-eastward,
between Boothia Felix and Kinj^ William Land, lay a clear
and promising path of exit from the ice, a channel which
would have led them to the American shore, whenc"; they
could have resumed their westward course through Simpson's
Strait, liut in that day the only known passage to the coast
of America lay to the south-westward, through the hopeless-
looking ice-stream above described, and there was no alterna-
tive to entering it. The explorers had already traversed
more than 200 of the 300 miles which separated Barrow
Strait from the mainland of the American continent, and they
might hope with good fortune to accomplish the remainder
of the journey before the winter overtook them. But it was
not to be. On the date and at the point above mentioned, the
pressure of the pack became too strong for further progress,
and just as King William Land hove in sight — that is to say,
some twelve miles north of Cape Felix, its most northerly
point — the Erebus and Terror were immovably be.set

Helpless as were the vessels in that Titanic ice-stream, they
had not even the most limited choice of halting place ; and
winter quarters more cruelly inhospitable could hardly have
fallen to their lot.

Sixteen years previously Sir James Ross had stood upon Cape-
Felix. He travelled on foot in the early spring of 1830 from Victoria
Harbour in the Gulf of Boothia, and explored the northern coast of
King William's I^and, and, standing on the 29th of May on this very
Cape Felix, remarked with astonishment ihe fearful nature of the
oceanic ice which was pressed upon the shores, and he mentions
that in some places the pressure had driven the floes inland half a
mile beyond the highest tide-mark. Such were the terrible winter
quarters of these lone barks and their gallant crews ; and if that
season of monotony and hardship was trying to them at Beechey
Island, where they could in some measure change the scene by
travelling in one direction or another, how infinitely more so it must
have been with nothing round them but ice-hummock and floe-
piece, with the ships constantly subjected to pressure and ice-nip,
and the crews often threatened during the depth of winter with the
probability of having their ships swallowed up in an Arctic tempest,

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1846-4/

GRAHAM GORE'S RECORD

863

when the icefields would rear and crush them down one against the
other under the influence of the awful pressure from the north-west.

From this supreme danger, however, they were preserved,
and the winter of 1846-47 seems to have run its course
without casualty. With the arrival of the spring, and, of
course, long before the season of navigation to which the
imprisoned men looked forward had commenced, a land
exploring party was organised, and on May 24 Lieutenant
Graham Gore and Mr. Des Vceux, mate, both of the Erebus,
left the ships, and with a party of six men started in sledges
for the shore of King William Land. After a four days'
journey they reached Point Victory, so named after his gal-
lant vessel by Sir James Ross, who was the first to explore
King William Land, and who here reached his furthest west-
ward. Under the cairn raised on the spot by that distinguished
navigator, Lieutenant Gore deposited the ••ecord which has
been so often referred to and was for more than ten years
to lie undiscovered. It was in these terms : —

28 of May,
1847,

H.M. ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in
lat. 70° 05° N. and long. 98° 23' W., having win-
tered in 1846-7 [a mistake, as has been remarked, for
1845-6] at Beechey Island in lat. 74° 43' 28" N., long. 91° 39' 15" W.,
after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77°, and returned
by the west side of Cornwallis Island.

Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition.
All well.

Party consisting of two officers and six men left the ships on
Monday, May 24, 1847.

Cm. Gore, Lieut.

Chas. F. Des Vceux, Mate.

Thence it is to be presumed the party pushed onward in
the direction of Cape Herschel, which or its vicinity there is
no reason to doubt that they succeeded in reaching. Here
they could have sighted the American coast, and would
indeed have been surveying, in the intervening waterway, that
very point on the chart which Franklin had touched with his
finger while uttering the memorable words already quoted, to
the effect that from that point it was ' all plain sailing to the
westward.'

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864

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE

CH. XXI.

The reader must be reminded that the doings of Gore and
his party after reaching Poin<^ Victory — the extent of their
advance beyond that point, their rate of travel, the date on
which they turned back again, and the time which it took
them to regain the ships — are all matters of which no records
exist. All that can be said of them is of necessity conjectural,
but conjecture can, as in this case, happily base itself on so
broad and firm a foundation of probability that we are war-
ranted in treating its conclusions as virtually certain. We
know, for instance, that the despatch of Gore and his comrades
could have had no other object than that of ascertaining by
ocular evidence that the American coast, and with it that
line of navigable water-way which led, as past explorers had
shown them, along the northern shore of the continent to
Behring Strait, was actually within the calculated distance from
those ice-locked ships which it was hoped that the coming
summer would set free. We know, further, that they could
have reached a point of land on King William Island from
which this goal was visible, and that thence it would be possible
for them to return to the ships before, and well before, a cer-
tain day which was thenceforward to become sacred in the
calendar of Arctic adventure. We may be sure that, having
fulfilled the object of their mission, they would make their
way back with all practicable speed to bear the eagerly
awaited tidings to Sir John Franklin. Surely, therefore, we
have ample warrant for presuming that possibilities which
could so readily be realised, and which there was every
inducement to endeavour to realise, were realised in fact.

The journey from the ships to Cape Victory had occupied
four days, but it must be borne in mind that the party were
then travelling over rough hummocky ice, across which it
would of course be impossible for them to make rapid pro-
gress. On reaching the shore they would have the smooth
land to travel over, and could easily accomplish the distance
to Cape Herschel in another three days, or, in other words, by
May 31. 'Their return journey,' writes Admiral Markham
in a private letter, which he kindly permits me to quote, ' with
a lightened sledge and over a road known to them would not

1847

THE LAST WEEK

866

probably occupy them more than half the time of the outward
journey, say four days, so that they could easily get back to
the ships by about June 4 or 5.'

The importance of ascertaining these dates is very great,
because at the date last mentioned the honoured and beloved
leader of the expedition had but a week to live. The nature
of the malady of which he died is not stated in the subsequent
brief record of his death, but the sad event is unfortunately
but too easy to account for by wha<- may almost be called
natural causes. Sir John Richardson was no doubt amply
justified two years before in testifying professionally to his
old comrade's bodily vigour and capacity for resisting cold ;
but a doctor of course can only bear witness to present con-
ditions and appearances, and found upon them one of those
medical forecasts which unforeseen events may often falsify.
It is easy to believe that there may have been some deep-
seated element of weakness in Franklin's constitution which
escaped his friend's discovery. He had led a life of almost
unbroken activity and exposure since the age of fifteen, and
he was now in his sixty-second year. It appears, too, from
the correspondence of some of his officers, that certain traces
of that natural infirmity which comes with advancing age
were visible even in the earlier days of the voyage ; and these
had presumably become more noticeable as time went on.
Two Arctic winters in succession are trying to the health
and spirits even of men in the prime of life ; and the second
of the two in Franklin's case must have been spent in cir-
cumstances exceptionally calculated to increase the severity
of the ordeal. For although the commander of the expe-
dition may not latterly have shared — nay, certainly did not
.share — the over-sanguine hopes of his younger officers, and
in all probability was quite prepared to find his south-west-
ward route impassably obstructed in the first year (he must
indeed have had a presage of it soon after entering Lancaster
Sound, if not before crossing Baffin's Bay), it could hardly
have been other than a keen disappointment to him to meet
with a repetition of these experiences in the following year.
The winter of 1845-46 may have passed cheerfully enough at

|i 1

I i

^\m

mmm

366

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

CH. XXI.

Beechey Island, but the winter of 1846-47, spent in the pack
off Cape Felix after weeks of laborious and baffled effort, with
some two-thirds of their food supply exhausted, and the
prospect of ultimate success growing ever more uncertain,
must have moved with a much slower and heavier step.
Whether it depressed that unconquerably buoyant spirit
which a quarter of a century before had sustained his fainting
fellow-travellers on the Barren Lands, we do not know ; but if
it did, one can only say that years must have effected a total
and indeed an abrupt revolution in Franklin's temperament.
Such sudden changes are not indeed unknown in advancing
years ; but we have no warrant for supposing this to have
been the case here. Ample explanation of the sad event which
was to follow is to be found in the advanced age — advanced, at
any rate, for Arctic exploration — of the commander, and in the
hardships necessarily undergone by him during a sojourn of
some three-and-twenty months in Arctic latitudes.

Anyway, the end had come at last ; the long day's work
was over, and the worker's rest was drawing nigh. The hour
was near when those most moving words of the Shakspearian
lyric, too reposeful to be sad, would be fitly addressed to this
strenuous toiler through all the weathers of life : —

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages ;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.

But a part, the dearest part, of Franklin's wages, next to
that which was to be denied him — the ' wages of going on,
and not to die ' — would have been the knowledge that the
most cherished object of his life had been accomplished, and
that the North-West Passage had been discovered. This
knowledge we have every reason to believe was vouchsafed
to him. The sledge party under Graham Gore had ample
time, as has been already pointed out, to reach the neighbour-
hood of Cape Herschel, and, having thence sighted those
shores and waters which, once seen, would have assured them
of the virtual success of their mission, to make their way
back to the ships a full week before their leader's death.

•■"^

1847

DEATH OF FRANK LIN

3<]7

We have reasonable ground of assurance, therefore, that
Franklin's dying hours were cheered by the welcome tidings
of which Graham Gore was the bearer, and that he passed
away in the calm and happy consciousness that the toils and
sufferings undergone by himself and his gallant companions
had not been endured in vain.

On June 1 1 he died, and was laid to rest beneath the
ice-boulders of his Arctic prison. Like that of another
leader who perished in a less gloomy wilderness, and on the
borders of a fairer Promised Land, his sepulchre no man
knoweth to this day. That ' vast and wandering grave,' the
Polar pack, received the wanderer's remains, to be slowly
carried with the breaking up of the winter towards those
shores which, in the prime of his manhood, he had been
the first to conquer from the unknown. Distressing as are
such deaths and burials to the contemporaries of the dead,
they are clothed for the men of a later generation with a
dignity of tragic fitness which rebukes regret. Having lived
as he had lived, it is well that Franklin should so have died
and so been buried. England has given ungrudgingly of her
bravest sons to the most distant and desolate regions of the
globe, nor has any race a better title to repeat, and in a more
literal sense, that lofty utterance of the Athenian orator,
' The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.'

way
;ath.

Even to a biographer of Franklin whose direct concern
with the ill-fated expedition comes, of course, to an end with
the death of its heroic commander, it is impossible to part
company at this point with his gallant band of surviving
comrades. Years were to pass before the story of their fate
could be laboriously built up on a basis of more or less
plausible conjecture. But, on the whole, we are able to trace
with sufficient certainty all its material details.

The crews, then, of the two imprisoned vessels, the
command of which had, by the death of Franklin, devolved
upon Captain Crozier, must have watched with intense
anxiety the slow and halting advance of the Arctic summer,

' I

HBP

S68

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE'

CH. XXI.

■\h I

during which their utmost exertions would have to be put
forth to release themselves. And desperate, doubtless, were
their efforts to effect their liberation when at last the navi-
gating season arrived. ' We may be sure,' writes Admiral
Markham, ' that everything was done with this end in view
that could possibly be accomplished. Ice-saws, we may
reasonably suppose, were in constant use ; powder was doubt-
less employed in futile endeavours to break the frozen bonds
that held their ships so securely, and every expedient, we
may be certain, was resorted to that science or human in-
genuity could devise ; but all were fruitless ; the ships
remained fixed and immovable.'

It is true that, though the ships were stationary, their
prison itself was moving. With the advance of summer the
usual thaw set in on the southern edge of this frozen sea,
and they felt themselves drifting southward with the whole
body of the pack. Hope for a time revived in their despair-
ing hearts ; for should this movement continue long enough
they would be carried down to the American continent, where
their chances of rescue and succour would be materially
increased. But their rate of progress was terribly slow. For
all prospect of extrication which it held out, the drift of this
Arctic ice-stream might as well have been the secular crawl ot
the Alpine glacier. From a comparison of the bearings of the
Erebus and Terror between the beginning of their besetment
in the ice and their ultimate abandonment by their crews, the
movement of this frozen stream has been computed at a rate
of about a mile and a half per month !

Throughout the weeks of alternating hope and fear
during which the vessels thus drifted slowly southward from
70° 5' N. to 69" 46' N., every man among their crews must have
borne about with him the haunting thought that this was for
them their last year of attempted navigation, and that should
the present summer fail them, there would be nothing for
it but enforced abandonment of their trusty ships, and an
exchange of the at least familiar danger of the ocean for the
unknown perils of the shore. Upon Crozier and Fitzjames
the weight of their responsibility must have borne heavily.

1847

THE THIRD WINTER

809

Both were trained and experienced seamen, and one at
least had faced similar dangers in the seas both of the
Northern and the Southern Poles. But nothing could make
amends to them for the loss of a leader who had been battling
with the perils and privations of the Arctic voyager when
they themselves were in the nursery, and who, above all,
had possessed a knowledge of the northern coast of America,
and a hard-won experience of the dangers and difficulties
of land travel in those regions, with which his comrades, if
driven, ..j they threatened to be, to the abandonment of their
vessels, could ill dispense. Another winter in the pack and
Franklin's lieutenant would be forced to stake the lives of
his crews in a desperate attempt to make his way to some
place of safety and succour by an overland journey through
one of the most savage and forbidding tracts of country on
the face of the earth.

Anxiously indeed must they have watched the moving
ice-stream in the late summer and autumn of 1 847, counting
the hours ere the winter should set in, and praying for but one
narrow lane of water through which the ships might hope
to make their way into the open sea. Ten, twenty miles are
passed over with the drifting ice, and still they are beset.
But now there are only sixty frozen miles between them and
the open sea off the American coast ; nay, less, for could they
but once succeed in rounding that western point of King
William Land which is seen projecting into the ice-stream,
they would find clear water under their keels. September 1 847
came in, and found them still captive. The new ice was
forming fast, the drift of the ice-stream slackened, grew
slower and slower — stopped. They were fast for another
winter, the third since they had left their homes !

And now their situation must have appeared to them de-
sperate indeed. It was too late in the season to think of
quitting their ships and attempting to reach the American
coast in the hope of being able to make their way by the
Great Fish River to the nearest of the Hudson's Bay posts-
They knew from Franklin's awful experience of a quarter of
a century before that game was not to be obtained during the

B fi

i|i

' ' s '4

370

TOWARDS NO EAUTIILV POLE'

CH. XXI.

,. '

1 T ..■

winter months in the l^arren Lands of the continent, and
were, therefore, well aware that in the event of their being
unable to reach one or other of these posts starvation must be
their inevitable fate. Nothing, however, remained for them
but to wait out another dreary winter and to take to the land
in the spring. Slowly and painfully the months of darkness
wore away, and the sun of 1848 rose upon a party weak-
ened in numbers as well as in strength. Cold, privation,
and disease had done their work, and no fewer than nine
officers and twelve men, besides those who died on Beechey
Island, had now succumbed. Among them was Lieutenant
Graham Gore, the gallant young officer who had traced the
first entry on that record which was to be found years after-
wards under its lonely cairn. He had been promoted at home
to the rank of commander, a barren honour but too soon
to be carried with him to the grave. The survivors now
numbered 105, but many of them must have been reduced by
weakness and disease, and some, it is only too sadly pro-
bable, were in a helpless condition. Nevertheless, the start
must be made. The choice between a lingering death by
famine and this almost desperate enterprise of escape was
peremptory. By the month of July or August in the year now
dawning upon them their stores would be exhausted, and, even
if a warmer summer should now at last loosen the pack and
render navigation once more possible, the relief would come
too late. Accordingly on April 22, 1848, the crews of the
Erebus and Terror, having prepared and packed their sledges,
bade adieu to the two gallant and ill-fated vessels which had
for three years sheltered them, and set out upon their journey
towards the American coast.

Near at hand as was now the time when their provisions
would be exhausted, it has yet been a cause of some surprise
to Arctic travellers that they should not have delayed their
departure a little longer. ' It is estimated,' according to
Admiral Markham, ' that they were not able to carry away
with them provisions for more than about forty days, so that,
even had they succeeded in reaching the continent of
America, they would have been without food for some con-

1848

SHIPS ABANDON lOD

1 come

siderable time, as their provisions would have been expended
long before they could possibly hope to find game in suffi-
cient quantity to supply their party with food, for, as a rule,
the animals do not begin to frequent the Barren Lands of the
continent before the latter end of the summer. It would
therefore, it seems, have been better for them to have deferred
the abandonment of their ships until the month of May, when
they would have had warmer weather for travelling,' and
when the period at which the party might hope to have been
self-supporting would have been nearer at hand. To the
reasons for their actual decision, however, no clue will ever now
be discoverable. It may have been that they found their
food supplies waning even faster than they had expected,
or it may have been that men whose nerves had been
overstrung by months of weary waiting, and whose hearts
were sick with hope deferred, had become impatient to ex-
change the slow torture of suspense for the relief of action,
even though action should end only in death.

In addition to the provisions and stores with which their
sledges were laden, they carried also, each secured on a
separate sledge, a couple of whale boats. That they must
have found themselves too heavily weighted, at any rate for
their then physical condition, is made evident by the fact,
long afterwards discovered, that at Point Victory, a distance
of only fifteen miles from the ships, they lightened their sledges
by abandoning everything that could possibly be spared, or
that might be considered superfluous, carrying with them but
those articles that were absolutely and essentially necessary
for their sustenance. Years later McClintock and Hobson
found the spot strewn with a heterogeneous mass of articles —
' clothing in great quantities, stores of various descriptions,
blocks, shovels, pickaxes, red, white, and blue ensigns, and
even the brass ornaments of a marine's shako, the fragment
of a copper lightning conductor, and a brass curtain-rod.'
That so many useless articles should have been packed on
the already heavily laden sledges seems explicable only on
the assumption that they were taken for the purpose of barter
with the natives, and only abandoned through the fear that

1 %

. !
I

, !

\.\

]( B 2

^ 2

srs

•TOWAUDS NO KAIITIILY POLE'

cH. xxr.

the weight of these encumbrances mi^ht prevent the party
from reaching the territory frcciuented by the Eskimo at all.

Their halt at Point Victory was further signalised by an
act of vast importance to their countrymen and to the history
of Arctic travel. Lieutenant Irving, of the Terror, here found
the record which Graham Gore hail left on the spot nearly a
year before, and to the precise whereabouts of which he had,
no doubt, taken care to leave directions behind him at his
death. Removing it from the cairn in which it had been
placed by their late comrade, Crozier and I'^it/James unrolled
it and wrote on its margin as follows : —

Apri/ 25, 1848. — H.M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted
on April 22, five leagues NNW. of this, having been beset since Sep-
tember 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under
the command of Captain F, R. M. Crozier, landed here in latitude
69° 37' 42" N., longitude y8° 41' VV. A paper was found by Lieu-
tenant Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir
James Ross in 1831, four miles to the northward, where it had been
deposited by the late Commander Gore in June 1847. Sir James
Ross's pillar has not, however, been found, and the paper has been
transferred to this position, which is that on which Sir James Ross's
pillar was erected. Sir John Franklin died on June ii, 1847, and
the total loss by death in the expedition has been, up to this date,
nine officers and fifteen men. Start on to-morrow, 26th, for Back's
Fish River.

The curious fatality of error which seems to have attended
the entries on this record was illustrated in this instance by
the elision of the word ' May,' originally and rightly assigned
as the date of the deposit of the paper by Graham Gore, and
the substitution of the word ' June.' The mistake, however,
is fortunately of no importance, because its correction appears
at the foot of the record itself, where, as we have seen,
May 24 is entered in Gore's own handwriting as the date of
his quitting the ships. And that he did not inadvertently
write May for June can again be proved from the document
itself, which shows by Gore's entry that Franklin was alive
and well at the time he left the ships, and by Crozier's
entry that ten days before June 24 their commander had
passed away. Why Gore's record was transferred from Ross's

\_.

1H48

CUOZIEirS HKCOIID

373

cairn to the site of Ross's pillar four miles to the south-
ward there is nothing; to show. Hut by a itranye and
pathetic coincidence the point on the western shore of King
William Island, on which this record of the abandonment of
the ships and of the death of their commander was deposited,
had nearly twenty years earlier received the name of Franklin
Point from Sir James Ross, its discoviirer, and it was actually
within sight of this and the adjoining headland, named by
the same explorer Cape Jane Franklin, that his old friend
and comrade breathed his last.

Disencumbered of their superfluities, the crews started
afresh with a lightened load, but hardly, it is feared, with
lighter hearts. From Victory Point to Cape Herschel would be
about fifty or sixty miles as the crow flies, but to make their
journey thither round the deeply indented coast line of King
William Island, as the sombre relics of their wanderings
afterwards proved them to have done, was to triple its length.
If we look at their route in that sketch-map, ' showing the
line of retreat,' which years of patient and heroic endeavour
at last rendered it possible to draw, we see a sinuous and
serrated littoral, covered with familiar names since bestowed
upon it by pious followers in the track of the lost — by such
names as Crozier Bay, Fitzjames Island, Terror Bay, Graham
Gore Peninsula, and marked here and there with the grim word
* skeleton.' The long-delayed discovery of these remains will
be more appropriately recounted in another chapter. Here
one can only endeavour to piece together the more or less
conjectural story which these scattered remnants of mortality
have rendered it possible to construct.

The helplessness of a certain number of the crews is
proved by the fact, which these melancholy evidences only too
clearly establish, that before the expedition had proceeded
many miles in their toilsome march it was compelled to
separate into two parties. We must suppose it to have
become apparent to all that if the abler bodied of the travel-
lers were obliged to accommodate their rate of progress to
that of the sick and feeble, all alike must inevitably perish,
and that the only hope of salvation for any of them was

* .

;

tmmm

SMHBI

;J74

' TOWALDS NO EARTHLY POLE '

CH. xxr.

•} ?

that the weakest should return to the ships while the strongest
pushed on in the hope of finding and bringing back succour
to the rest. Better it was thought that those who could hold
oat no longer should take refuge on board their vessels, where
at least was some shelter for them from the rigours of the
Arctic climate, than that they should die of cold on the bleak
shores of King William Island. The few days' prolongation
of their lives might just afford the chance of assistance
reaching them, and,* if not, they would at least perish by what
seemed to the imagination, though perhaps the very reverse
was true in reality, a less appalling death. Probably the cold
would have despatched the unhappy men more sw'ftly and
painlessl}/ on the plains than starvation on board their
beleaguered ships ; but men in their position do not reason
thus, or at any rate not for others, and probably, if the
weaker members of the party had lost all hope for themselves,
their stronger comrades hopec for them.

We know, at any rate, that this separation of the party
did take place, and that one division of it did make an effort
to return to the Erebus and Terror. That was proved beyond
doubt by the tragic discovery which will be related in another
chapter. The other detachment pushed on probably in much
diminished, and, we may be only too sure, in continually
diminishing numbers. Many of them must have failed to
gtt even as far as Cape Herschel. Those who did reach
that point may have left some record of their having done so
which never reached civilised hands. They would have been
close to the cairn erected by Simpson in 1839, and it is natural
to suppose that if they had the wherewithal to record the fact
they would have done so. But nothing of the kind was
found here or anywhere else, either on King William Island
or the mainland, on the route to the Great Fish River. It is
conjectured that some of them did sue ied in crossing
Simpson Strait and gaining Adelaide Peninsula, but, if so, it
could only have been a miserable remnant, spon themselves
to perish. Not one of them is known to have gained the
estuary of the river for which they were making. The points
reached by individual members of the band have here and

1848

FATE OF THE CREWS

875

there been ascertained by the subsequent discovery of their
bleaching skeletons, and, for the rest, the sad story had to be
fitted together years afterwards from the statements, partly no
doubt historic, but more than half legendary, of the natives.

Six, eleven, twenty- one, and thirty-two years afterwards,
information which by the last of these dates at any rate must
have become mere tradition, was collected from these people.
According to them, a party of about forty white men were
seen during the spring (as we must suppose) of the year 1848
travelling southward, dragging sledges and a boat. They
were very thin and appeared to be in want of provisions.
None could speak the Eskimo language, but by signs they
gave the natives to understand that their ship or ships had
been destroyed by the ice, and that they were journeying to
where they hoped to get deer or other food. From the
same source came all the tidings, if that word be not too
definite, that were ever obtained of the two lost vessels.
Eskimos told of a ship that was * crushed by the ice off the
north shore of King William Island ; but all her people
landed safely, and went away to the Great Fish River, where
they died.' They spoke also of a second ship, which ' had
been seen off King William Island,' and hid ' drifted on
shore at the fall of the same year.' Their account of this
vessel was curiously circumstantial. They described her as
apparently intact when first seen by them, with one boat on
her deck and four others outside ; and they further declared
that on board one of the ships was the body of • a tall man
with long teeth and large bones.' But no vestige of either
ship was discovered by any of the search parties, and the only
possible inference is that the pressure of the pack gathering,
winter after winter, on that iron coast became at last too
tremendous for their vessels to hold out against, that they
were broken up, and their fragments swept southward by the
ice-stream towards the American coast.

In 1869 'Captain Hall was informed by the natives he
met in King William Island that the graves of two white
men were found in the vicinity of the Pfeiffer River, and that
there was another white man's grave on a long low point

■ {■

^mi

876

'TOWARDS NO EARTHLY POLE

CH. XXI.

4-i

jutting out into the sea some five or six miles to the eastward.
The remains of five white men were also discovered on a
small island called Todd Islet, about two or three miles off this
point. He was further informed that in a bay to the west
of Point Richardson, which has subsequently been named
Starvation Cove, a boat covered with an awning and contain-
ing the remains of thirty or thirty-five men was found. It
was also reported that a tent had been seen in the vicinity of
Terror Bay, " the floor of which was completely covered with
the bodies of white men." ' Point Richardson is on the main-
land of the American continent, and Starvation Cove could
have been reached in a boat from Todd Islet, .)n the southern
shore of King William Island, and about twenty miles off.
Terror Bay is on the island, and full sixty miles to the west
of Starvation Cove. If dead were found in considerable
numbers at both places, it would seem as if the southward
party had again divided and that the weaker had again been
left behind. Then the last and toughest of the travellers, the
thirty or thirtj'-five, dragged themselves painfully round the
southern coast of King William Island to Todd Islet, left five of
their number dead there, struggled across in their boat to Starva-
tion Cove, where they themselves at last succumbed to famine.
These details, however, though possessing unhappily but
too much plausibility, rest, it must be remembered, on hearsay
alone. The discoveries in 1859 of Graham Gore's record, a
boat with two skeleton occupants, and another skeleton many
miles distant from it, and, twenty years later, of the grave and
remains (identified by a medal) of Lieutenant Irving, consti-
tute all the material proofs of these tragic deaths that have
ever been brought to light. For all other knowledge of the
fate of our unfortunate fellow-countrymen we have to fall back
on the fragmentary statements of the natives, and to recon-
struct in imagination that shadowy and wavering line of
wanderers, ' very thin and appearing to be in want of pro-
visions,' who were seen by the nomad Eskimos as they dragged
their boat and sledges slowly southward in the summer of
1848, and who, in the piteous words of an old Eskimo woman, -
* fell down and died as they walked along.'

id46

377

CHAPTER XXII

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST
1848-1854

Tidings of the explorers were no doubt hopefully looked for
by their friends and families during the year 1846, but the
unbroken silence gave rise, we may presume, to disappoint-
ment rather than anxiety. The history of Arctic expeditions
is very various, and the dates at which communications may
be expected from them are of necessity incapable of being
even approximately determined. News of them might quite
conceivably come to hand within a few months of their enter-
ing the Arctic circle, or, on the other hand, a delay of a year
or more in hearing from the absent voyagers need not of itself
give rise to serious apprehensions. In this case, moreover,
there was a special cause in operation to mitigate uneasiness.
It will be remembered with what earnestness in his last letters
to his wife and his sisters Franklin had entreated them not to
five way to premature alarms. Again and again, as we have
seen, he endeavoured to familiarise them with the possibility
of a two years' absence, and had bade them not to expect
him, or not with any anxiety, until a second winter had come
and gone. All depended, he constantly told them, on the
amount of progress made by the expedition in the seasons of
1845 and 1846. If their work were not accomplished by the
end of the summer season of the latter year, but there should
nevertheless seem to be a fair prospect of completing it in a
third season, and the officers and crew should be continuing
in good health, such a state of matters, he had impressed
upon them, 'might justify our passing a second winter in
these regions. If we do not succeed in our attempt, we shall
try other places.' Indeed, in his farewell letter to Mr. Robert

878

TI)^ SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. xxir.

< i

Brown, he had put the matter even more strongly still. He
begs his friends to remind his wife that • we may be so
circumstanced at the end of the first winter and even of the
second, as to wish to try some other part ; ' and he adds that
Lady Franklin and his daughter ' should be encouraged not
to look for our arrival earnestly till our provision gets short.'

Now they were, as we know, provisioned for three years
when they left England in May 1845, so that, strictly con-
strued, these words of Franklin would have amounted to an
injunction to those he had left behind him tr await the ex-
piration not of a second merely, but of a third winter before
allowing themselves to feel anxious as to his fate. Such a
literal construction of his language, however, was of course
inadmissible. Even though provided with supplies of food
to last until the early summer of 1848, no exploring expedi-
tion would voluntarily have passed the winter of 1847-48 in
Arctic latitudes, for the obvious reason that their provisions
would be exhausted before '.he opening of the navigation
season of the following year. Hence, their non-appearance
in temperate latitudes at some time or other before tie third
winter would amount to a virtually certain indication that
their ships were either lost or immovably beset in the ice.
In the latter case it would have become a question with them
of the possibility, not of extricating their vessels in time to
resume and complete their work of exploration by a home-
ward journey through a discovered north-west passage, but of
effecting their escape from their icy prison to save their lives.
For before midsummer their stores would have been ex-
hausted, and usually it is not till several weeks later that the
ice-floes begin to move and the grip of the pack relaxes.

When, therefore, the second twelvemonth was approach-
ing its completion, when the spring of 1847 was ripening into
summer, yet no word reached England from the adventurers
who had sailed in May 1845, and who were known to be sup-
plied with only stores and provisions enough to last them
another year, even men not given to alarm began to feel
anxious. Pressure was brought to bear on the Government
to procure the despatch of supplies to various parts of the

1847-48

SEAKCH PARTIES OF 1848

379

North American continent, wherever there seemed any pro-
babihty of falling in v :th the missing men, and the prompt
organisation of a search for them was also urged. The
Admiralty, as is the way of public departments, elected to do
the easier thing first, and to put off the other ; and arrange-
ments were made with the Hudson's Bay Company for the
stocking of their most northern stations with a large supply of
provisions — seventy-four days' rations for 120 men — in readi-
ness for the explorers in the event of their having abandoned
their ships for an attempted retreat by land. The Company's
officers at their various posts were also instructed to warn
the Indians to look out for and assist any surviv'ng members
of the party that they might happen upon. Large rewards
were offered by the Government to the masters and crews of
all ships employed in the whale fishery in Baffin's Bay if
they should ' succeed in obtaining any information or record
of the progress of the Erebus and Terror through Lancaster
Sound, and to the westward ; ' to which was added a reward
of 2,000/. offered by Lady Franklin herself for information as
to her husband's fate.

Thus passed the year 1847. In the following spring the
Government proceeded to organise the first of the many
expeditions which were despatched in search of the illustrious
navigator and his crews. It consisted of two vessels, the
Enterprise, of 471 tons, and the Investigator, of 420 tons
burden, with Captain Sir James Clark Ross in chief com-
mand and Captain Bird in command of th second ship.
Tne former officer's Arctic record has often been referred to
in these pages ; the latter had taken part in Parry's memo-
rable attempt to reach the North Pole in 1827. A second
expedition, under the command of Franklin's old comrade
Sir John Richardson, accompanied by Mr. John Rae, an officer
of the Hudson's Bay Company, of whom more hereafter, was
despatched with directions to proceed overland through the
Hudson's Bay Territory, to descend the Mackenzie River and
examine the coast thence to the Coppermine River, as also
the southern and western shores of Wollaston Land. And
yet a third expedition, consisting of the Herald, under Captain

'A.

•AH

*^.

380

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. ixir.

V ;

■ i

>.|

1 :

I L

V^.': ■

[ 1

Kellett, and the Plover, under Commander Moore, was sent
to Behring Strait, with instructions to proceed as far as pos-
sible to the eastward, and to endeavour to communicate with
the party under the command of Sir John Richardson.

But a word must here be said about Richardson's second
in command, a man of remarkable gifts as a traveller, and
one whose indefatigable labours have given him, apart from
his services in connection with the search for Franklin, a fore-
most place among explorers of the Arctic coasts. John Rae,
by birth an Orkney man and educated at Edinburgh Univer-
sity for the medical profession, had, at the age of barely
twenty, obtained the post of surgeon to a ship of the
Hudson's Bay Company, in whose service he had been for
twelve years, when, in 1845, he was placed by them in com-
mand of an expedition in two small boats to the Arctic seas,
to endeavour to complete the survey of some 7CXD miles of
coast, forming the shores of a large bay left unexplored by
Parry in 1822-23. Setting out from York Factory in 1846
with this modest equipment, a party of ten men, and only four
months' provisions, Rae accomplished a voyage of 900 miles,
during which much dangerous obstruction by ice was met
with, and, reaching latitude 66° 32' N., in Repulse Bay, which
was intended to be the starting point of the suivey, spent
there a very severe winter, during which the temperature
often fell to 35° and 40° below zero. Early in April foot
journeys were commenced and carried out to the extent of
over 1 ,300 miles, whereby 700 miles of new coast line were
surveyed, thus practically uniting the surveys of Ross on
Boothia with Parry's explorations at Hecla-and-Fury Strait.
Such a record as this was naturally calculated to catch the
eye, and arouse the admirat'on, of an old Arctic traveller
like Sir John Richardson, and Rae had not long reached
London in 1 847 when he received from him an ofifer of the
post of second in command of the expedition which Sir John
was personally organising for the search after his missing com-
rade and friend. The offer was accepted, and, the boats
and crews having been sent out to York Factory in 1847,
Richardson and Rae left England in the early spiing of 1848,

VHP

1848

RAE'S EXPLORATIONS

881

and in the course of the season the two explorers made a
thorough examination of the Arctic shores of America, from
the Mackenzie River eastward to the Coppermine, without
finding any clue to the missing expedition. They wintered
at Fort Confidence, on Great Bear Lake, and in the spring of
1849 Richardson returned to England, while Rae remained
behind for the purpose of returning to the sea by the Copper-
mine River, and crossing thence over the strait which divides
the continent from Wollaston Land, and which had been
rendered impassable the previous season. In 185 1 Rae was
appointed to the command of another search expedition to
the Arctic coast, with no other instructions than to take the
route he thought best. In the course of this expedition :ae,
accompanied by two other men, made a sledge journey of
over i,cxx) miles, searching every corner along the shore of
Wollaston Land. The whole coast eastward of the Copper-
mine River, as also that of Victoria Land, was alsp examined,
and the Victoria Strait, the actual channel in which the Erebus
and Terror had been finally beset four years before, was dis-
covered and named. Rae and his companions attained
indeed to about the latitude at which the ships were icebound,
though, coasting along the shore of Victoria Land, he was of
course divided from that of King William Island, off which
they were finally abandoned, by a distance nf some four or
five degrees of longitude. Rae returned by way of the Lakes
and Fort Winnipeg, having covered either by boat, sledge, or
snowshoes, a distance of 5>38o miles during his eight months
of continuous travel. For this and for his survey of 1 847 he
was rewarded in 1852 with the Founders' gold medal of the
Royal Geographical Society.

From 1848 onward, for a period of some six years without
intermission, and intermittently for some eleven years, the
search for Franklin was prosecuted — at first oflficially, after-
wards by private enterprise, at last by Lady Franklin alone.
F'rom first to last the number of search expeditions despatched
from this country and America amounted to as many as
thirteen, without reckoning overland journeys, and the Arctic
Ocean was entered by no fewer than twenty-four different

4 ti

882

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. XXtT.

I.ili '

I ''

vessels (including repeated voyages of the same vessel) in the
course of this long and fruitless quest. The wide range of
hitherto unexplored land and water which their crews
traversed and the immense value of their contributions to
geographical science will appear in the course of this narra-
tive ; but an examination of the area of their travels only
makes their prolonged failure to raise the veil of obscurity
which shrouded Franklin's fate the more remarkable. It
would be an almost pardonable exaggeration to say that they
discovered nearly everything except what they sought.

That they missed it for so long was partly due to sheer
perversity of luck, but in some measure also to perversity of
official instructions. In the case of the first three expedi-
tions, the former agency was alone at work. No one could
have known that the Erebus and Terror might not in this,
the third year of their absence, be ncaring the end of their
journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in that case
cither Kellett or Richardson might very well have fallen in
with them at some point on the North American coast
between Behring Strait and the mouth of the Mackenzie
or even of the Coppermine River, and have been able, no
doubt, to render them valuable assistance. As to Sir James
Ross, who left England with his two ships on July 12, 1848,
he was not, indeed, able to make much progress in the course
of that year, being compelled by the ice which he encountered
in Barrow Strait to seek winter quarters in Port Leopold, on
the north-east coast of North Somerset. But in the follow-
ing spring the eastern and western coasts of Prince Regent
Inlet were thoroughly explored by the expedition, and in
particular a certain point on the western coast was reached
by them, at which there was some reason to think that they
might fall in with the missing crews, and to which, indeed, it
is by no means improbable that their commander seriously
considered the question of directing his course after the
abandonment of the ships. The point in question was Fury
Beach, the scene of the wreck of Parry's ship of that name in
1825. It must have been known to Crozier, who had served
in Parry's expedition, that there was here a large store of

^f'

J 848-49

ROSS AND McCLlXTOCK

888

provisions which had been landed from the Fury at the time
of her loss. Fuiy Beach, however, was seventy or eighty
miles north of the point at which the Erebus and Terror
were beset. To have made for it would have involved some-
thing like an actual retracing of the course of the expedition,
and, having regard to the possibility that the provisions might
have been discovered and appropriated by the Eskimos,' one
can hardly wonder that Crozier declined the responsibility of
such a return upon his footsteps, and decided to push on
towards the south.

Even as it was, however, Ross really hit upon the right
track, and, had he been able to follow it up, he would have
solved that problem which had to wait nearly another ten
years for its solution. For in this same spring of 1849 he
sledged along the eastern coast of Peel Strait as far south
as latitude 72° 38' N., or but little more than two degrees
from the point at which the Erebus and Terror wintered in
1846-47, and less than three from the spot at which, after
their slow drift of some twenty miles with the moving ice-pack
in the summer of 1847, they had in the following spring been
abandoned. Had Ross, then, and his companion McClintock
been able to make their way but two hundred miles further —
a trifle to that indefatigable sledger who afterwards covered
thousands of miles by this mode of travel in repeated search
expeditions — the latter would have anticipated his discoveries
of 1859. For in lat. 69° 46' or thereabouts lay the two dere-
lict vessels, and on the coast of King William Island, a few
miles to the SSE. of that point, was the cairn and the re-
cord which would have cleared up the mystery as to the
fate of their crews. That any of them could then have been
rescued is no doubt extremely improbable. Franklin had
been dead two years, and it was more than a year since the
vessels were abandoned. That thin and straggling line of
famine-stricken men which has left sombre traces of its-^lf
along the route to the American coast, must ere this have

' As a matter of fact, these stores
and provisions were found by Admiral
Markham 'in a perfect state of pre-

servation ' in 1873, nearly fifty years
after their original deposit.

S84

THE SEAUCIIES FOR THE LOST

CIl. XXII.

/ I

<: .ii

f:S

ceased its march for ever. The last of those heroic fighte.-s
with death in the most terrible of his shapes must have
' fallen down and died as he walked along.' But the ships were
probably still there, or not far off, even if the ice-pack should
have carried them a little further south, and the discovery
of the ships would have guided them to the cairn. England
and the lost men's families would have known in 1 849 instead
of 1859 the whole sad truth, and the toil, the expenditure,
and, above all, the vain yearnings of years would have been
spared. But it was not to be. Ross and McCHntock had
nearly exhausted their store of provisions, and were forced
to return to Cape Leopold without discovering any traces
of what they sought. Nor must we forget to reckon on the
otiicr side of the account that, had they then and there suc-
ceeded in clearing up the mystery, our Arctic explorers
would have lost that stimulus to adventure which was for the
next seven or eight years to impel them upon enterprises
redounding to the maritime glory of their country and extend-
ing the dominion of geographical science over vast tracts of
land and ocean hitherto unexplored.

The return of Sir James Ross and Sir John Richardson
unsuccessful from their respective missions in the autumn of

1 849 was rightly and laudably regarded by the Government
of the day as a summons to fresh exertions. In the year

1850 no fewer than six separate expeditions were despatched
in quest of the lost explorers— two of them of a fully official
character, and manned by officers of the British Navy ; a
third subsidised by the Government ; and the other three
privately organised. The Enterprise was again sent out, this
time under Captain ColHnson, while Commander McClure,
who had served in it as a first lieutenant under Ross in its
late expedition, was appointed to the command of the Investi-
gator. The route of the two vessels was, however, on the
second occasion reversed. They were to approach the field
of search from the west instead of from the east ; and they
sailed from England for Behring Strait in January 1850,
with orders to enter the Arctic Ocean through that chan-
nel, and thence to proceed with all speed to the eastward,

^rmmmssm

imo

TIIM I IIIST FIND

88r>

examining Melville Island, Banks Land, Wollaston Land,
Victoria Land, or otherwise according to the discretion of
Captain Collinson. Their voyage was a famous one in Arctic
history, but its details must for the present be reserved.

Less important in its geographical results, but far more so
in its relation to the primary object of these undertakings, was
the expedition despatched four months later under Captain
Austin, in command of the Resolute, and Captain Erasmus
Ommanney, commanding the Assistance, whose instructions
were to carry out an exhaustive search through Lancaster
Sound in the direction of Melville and the Parry Islands. It
was to this expedition, assisted by the efforts of two whaling
brigs, under the command of Captains Penny and Stewart,
which had been despatched by the Government with orders to
undertake the examination of Jones Sound and Wellington
Channel, that the first discovery of any traces of their lost
countrymen was due. The three other search parties, how-
ever, though but one of them rendered any service, and that
merely as a bearer of intelligence, must not pass unnoticed.
One of them was fitted out by an American citizen,
Mr. Henry Grinnell, and was manned by officers and men
of the United States Navy ; Lady Franklin at her own
expense equipped another, the Prince Albert, a schooner of
ninety tons, captained by Commander Forsyth, and instructed
to explore the shores of Prince Regent Inlet ; and, finally,
the veteran Sir John Ross, then in his seventy-fourth year,
started off for Baffin's Bay and Lancaster Sound in a small
vessel called the Felix, accompanied by a still smaller one, a
yacht of twelve tons, the two equipped and fitted out partly
at the cost of the Hudson's Bay Company and partly by pri-
vate subscript." :>n.

The expedition under Captain Austin's command was not
long in meeting with its good fortune. His ships wintered at
Griffith Island in Barrow Strait, but before seeking their
winter quarters they made the first discovery which had as
yet rewarded these manifold and extensive investigations. It
is to the Assistance and its commander that the honour of
this welcome ' find ' belongs. At Point Riley, the headland

c c

ii H

1 I

886

TIIK SKAIM'FIKS FOR THE LOST

CH. XXII.

on the south shore of North Devon which forms the eastward
arm of the natural harbour completed by Ileechey Island on
the west, Captain Ommanney lighted upon conspicuous and
unmistakable traces of a winter encampment, and soon after-
wards, on Heechoy Island itself. Captain Penny found, each
marked with simple headstone and epitaph, the graves already
referred to of the three lost members of the expedition — the
two seamcp and the marine. I-'urther examination revealed
the exact spot at which the ships had been laid up, and even
yielded evidences of the manful and cheerful fashion in which
the crews had whiled away the monotony of the winter.
• The ruins and traces which they left behind them,' wrote
Admiral Sherard Osborn, himself a member of the expedi-
tion, ' all attest it'

The observatory, with its doul)le embankment of earth and stones,
its neat finish and the lavish expenditure of labour in pavement and
pathway ; the shooting gallery under the cliff ; the seats formed of
stones ; the remains of pleasant picnics in the form of empty bottles
and meat tins strewed about ; the elaborate cairn on the north point
of licechey, a pyramid of eight feet high and at least six feet long on
each side of the base, constructed of old meat-tins filled with gravel,
all tell the same tale of manful anxiety for physical employment to
distract the mind from suffering and solitude. On board the ships
we picture to ourselves the Arctic school and theatre ; the scholars
and dramatists exerting themselves to kill monotony and amuse or
instruct their comrades. There are not wanting traces at Cape Riley
to show how earnestly the naturalists Goodsir and Stanley laboured
to collect specimens ; now was there time to arrange and note their
labours. There is more than one site still visible of tents in which
the magnetical observations were obtained ; now was the time to
record and compare such observations. And in addition to the
charming novelty of a first winter in the frozen sea, the officers in so
scientific an expedition had abundance of employment in noting the
various phenomena which were daily and hourly occurring round
them.

A word here in further reference to the meat- tins above
mentioned, which were labelled ' Goldner's Patent,' for on
them hangs a scandalous and hideous tale. Seven hundred
of these articles were counted, and must have contained, it is
calculated, a considerably larger quantity of such food than

I8r>{)

AX IMMORTAL COXTIJACTDll

887

the crews could possibly have consumed durin^^ their first
winter ; and froin the fact that an enormous number of these
tins supplied to the Navy were subsequently found to contain
putrid meat, it is inferred that many or most of those tins
discovered on Beechey Island had been condemned on the
same ground. If this inference be well-founded, the loss of
so large a proportion of what would be considered fresh in
contradistinctioti to salt provisions would be most se. i< )U •;, and
might ' so cripple their resources as to lead in all probctuility
to the disastrous fate of the expedition.' Such, at least, is
Admiral Markham's belief; his brother-officer, Admiral
Osboni, contents himself with the less circumstantial but
no less significant observation : ' Sad it is to record it, but
nearly all their preserved meats were those of the miscreant
Goldner.' And though the renown of contractors for exploits
of this kind is historic, the man who supplied putrid meat to
the crews of an Arctic expedition certainly seems to merit an
infamy as lasting in human memory as the fame of the victims
whom he supplied with poison because it was more profitable
than supplying them with food. He is, at any rate, welcome
to the humble effort here made to ' plead against oblivion for
his name.'

It must, however, be admitted that the relics discovered
at Beechey Island gave evidence of other elements of weak-
ness than that created by the villany of a contractor. Ex-
ploring parties had evidently been despatched by Franklin in a
northward direction along the eastern shore of Wellington
Channel, where the marks of encampments and the trails of
sledges were frequent. But in Admiral Osborn's view they
told a somewhat d'«'^"" ting tale : —

It was sad to remai «;, from the form of their cooking-places and
the deep ruts left by their sledges over the edge of the terraces which
abound in Beechey Island, how little Franklin's people were im-
pressed with the importance of rendering their travelling equipment
light and portable, both as a means of exploration while their ships
were imprisonf,d and to enable them to escape if their ships were
destroyed. The anxiety for their fate expressed by many in Captain
Austin's expedition when remarking upon the fearful expenditure of
labour which must have been entailed on Franklin's men in dragging

c c 2

1 I

) '

388

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. XXII.

: r

about such sledges as they evidently had with them, has been [i860]
only too fully verified. The longest journey made by sledge parties
from the Erebus and Terror at Beerhey Island, so far as we know,
did not exceed twenty miles. Franklin's experience of travelling in
the Hudson Bay Territory was evidently at fault in the rugged and
desert region in which he wao now sojourning, and he had no
McClintock at his side to show him how by mechanical skill and
careful attention to weights and equipment sledges ought to be con-
structed, on which men might carry boats, tents, clothing, food, and
fuel, and travel with impunity from February to August, and explore,
as he himself had done in that time, 1,400 miles of ground or frozen
sea. However, no anxieties then pressed on the minds of tho^e
gallant men ; ' large water ' was all they thought of ; give them that,
and Behring's Strait in their ships was still their destination.

Immediately on the discovery of Franklin's first winter
quarters, the Prince Albert, the vessel equipped by Lady
Franklin, hastened home with the intelligence. The other
ships remained to winter, as has been said, in Barrow Strait,
but not before a thorough, though futile, search had been
made in every nook and corner of Beechey Island for some
record or document from which a clue to the intended course
of the Erebus and Terror in the summer of 1846 might be
obtained.

Nor, it may be imagined, with their recent discover-es to
encourage them, were they likely to remit their efiforts during
the following year. The spring and summer of 185 1 were
spent in the industrious exploration of the surrounding
territory in every direction, both by sea and land. Captain
Penny sailed up Wellington Channel to the northward, and
no fewer than five sledge expeditions were despatched by
Captain Austin to the south and west. One of these, under
Lieutenant McClintock, explored to the westward as far as
Melville Island ; two others, under Ommanney and Sherard
Osboin respectively, prosecuted a south-westward search from
Cape Walker along the south and wert coasts of Prince of
Wales Land. A fourth, travelling in the same direction,
namely, by way of Cape Walker, ascertained the insularity of
the land from which that headland projects, and which is
now known as Russell Island. And, finally, an expedition

•mm

CH. XXII-

been [i860]
edge parties
s we know,
travelling in
rugged and
he had no
al skill and
t to be con-
g, food, and
and explore,
nd or frozen
ds of tho.e
e them that,
ion.

irst winter
by Lady
The other
TOW Strait,
had been
d for some
ded course
) might be

;cover'cs to

Drts during

185 1 were

irrounding

Captain

iward, and

)atched by

lese, under

i as far as

d Sherard

earch from

Prince of

direction,

sularity of

which is

expedition

isra

ON THE WRONG TRACK

389

i.n

again unconsciously hitting -off, like that of Sir James Ross,
the route taken by the missing ships, pursued a course along
the western shore of Peel Sound as far south as 72° 49', or
within 1 50 miles of t' .e spot at which the Erebus and Terror
were abandoned.

It will be observed, however, that while for the second
time the track of the explorers had been struck by a
sledging party which, as it happened, had not the uest
chance of following up its clue to the wished-for goal, the
maritime operations of the expedition, which alone could
have brought theni within sight of the deserted vessels — if,
mdeed, their timbers still held together — were again mis-
directed. It is true that both Wellington Channel and a
route to the southward and westward of Cape Walker were
mentioned in Franklin's instructions, but both in those
instructions, and still more distinctly in Franklin's own
letters from which quotations have already been made, the
former of these two routes is treated as the ' second best ' of
two alternatives. The Erebus and Terror, it is repeatedly
insisted upon, were only to make for Wellington Channel in
the event of their finding their westward progress obstructed in
Barrow Strait. Yet both now and afterwards we find search
parties invariably shaping a northward or north-westward
course after entrance into Barrow Strait, instead of, as one would
have expected, holding on in a westerly direction with the
hope of finding an opening to tho south. It may be that the
despatch of sledging parties along the shore of Ppp' Sound
was regarded as sufficient provision against the possibility of
Franklin's ships having found and threaded this southward-
leading channel, since it was perhaps assumed that tiiey
would in that case find the route of the missing vessels
indicated by cairns ; and, indeed, the total absence of this
familiar form of Arctic beacon has always puzzled the most
experienced inquirers. Cairns are easily constructed from
material always at hand. They form conspicuous landmarks,
and their importance as such, writes Admiral Markham,
'was well known to Franklin and his officers. If they had
been erected, the direction for the search would have been

890

THE SEARCHES FOll THE LOST

cir. xxiT.

U I,

,m !

indicated, and an enormous amount of labour would have
been saved, while a successful issue of the search would
possibly have been the result. The only reason that can be
advanced for this apparent neglect of what has always been
regarded as one of the most important duties of an Arctic
explorer is the supposition that the channels were com-
paratively clear of ice when the Erebus and Terror passed
through, and that it was in consequence deemed inexpedient
to delay the progress of the vessels by stopping to build
cairns — a «erious omission, however, for their absence ne-
cessitated the expenditure of much invaluable time besides
a great waste of money in the prosecution of a long and
fruitless search.'

On the return of the P-incc Albert in 1850 with the news
of the discoveries on '?^'^c' _^ Island, Lady Franklin's hopes
of ascertaining h<ir husband's fate were naturally quickened.
The vessel was again despatched in the following year, under
the command of Mr. Kennedy, and numbering, it is pleasant
to record, the veteran John Hepburn among its crew. The
voyage led to the discovery of Bellot Strait, the channel
separating Boothia Felix from North Som.erset ; and by
traversing which Mr. Kennedy of course found himself in
Franklin Strait, and therefore on Franklin's track. Had
he turned to the southward, another 510 miles' sail would
have brought him to the fatal spot. But no ; the same in-
vincible determination to set th hre to the northward
governed the movements of Keni; li r s it had those of the
searchers who had preceded, ana oi . rr who were to follow
him. Issuing from Bellot Strait — so niuj-ed after the gallant
and unfortunate young officer of the French Navy who had
volunteered for this service, in the course of which he lost his
life by drowning — the Prince Albert's course was directed up
Franklin Strait to the north-east poin:: of Prince of Wales
Land, which the lost explorers had only skirted and never
touched at, and where, therefore, no traces of them could
possibly be discoverable, Mr. K^:nnedy returned to England
in 1852, and in the course of the same year Lady F'ranklin
fitted out a screw steamer, the Isabel, which also returned

I'7"fl

CU. XXIT.

18.")2 .

BELCHER'S EXPEDITION

891

unsuccessful after an (apparently) somewhat aimless three
months' cruise in Baffin's Bay.

In 1852, moreover, another attempt was made by Govern-
ment on the larger scale. The four ships of Captain Austin's
squadron, the Assistance and Resolute, with the two steam
tenders Intrepid and Pioneer, were again refitted and sent
out under Captain Sir Edward Belcher, flying his pennrnt in
the Assistance, in chief command, and with Captains Kellett,
McClintock, and Sherard Osborn in command of the three
other vessels of the squadron. Here, again, the instructions
given to the commander were to sail anywhere except in the
direction which Franklin might have been known to have
taken. He was to despatch one of the vessels with its steam
tender up Wellington Channel, which it was perfectly under
stood that Franklin was not to enter save in the last resort ;
while the other vessel and its steamer were to push westward
towards Melville Island, a route which Franklin had been
specially warned to avoid in consequence of the obstructing
ice masses which had been met with and reported upon by
Parry in those waters, and which, as we have already seen, he
had fully determined to avoid.

There was, however, a better reason for prescribing this
course to Sir Edward Beirh«r than there had been for the
instructions given to the commanders of previous expeditions,
for in truth it was not in search of P>anklin alone that he had
been sent out. That earlier search-party, the expedition of
Collinson and McClure, in the Investigator and the Enter-
prise, of whose memorable adventures I have hitherto delayed
to speak, had now been absent more than two years, and fears
for their safety had begun to be entertained. Sir Edward
Belcher's movement to the westward was therefore no doubt
prescribed to him, in part at least, with the view of rendering
assistance to these vessels, which it was supposed might have
reached positions on Melville Island.

One of them, as it turned out, was sorely enough in need
of aid, and the course of this narrative must be arrested
for a moment to trace the history, so famous in our Arctic
annals, of the Investigator's great cruise. Sailing from

(■I »

■5 I

-■y^S' .

392

tl4

' II

i-ltvi

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. XXII.

England on January 20, 1850, the Enterprise and her consort
passed through the Straits of Magellan, and, touching at the
Sandwich Islands, proceeded at once to Behring Strait ; but
shortly after entering the Pacific the two vessels accidentally
parted company, never to sight each other again during the
whole remainder of the voyage. Passing through the Strait,
the Investigator sailed along the north coast of America as
far as longitude 130° W., when McClure shaped his course to
the north-eastward and discovered a chai.nel between Banks
Land and Prince Albert Land now known as Prince of
Wales Strait. This, leading as it does to waters which had
been already entered by other explorers from the eastward,
may be regarded as the last link of the North- West Passage.
McClure, however, was to discover not one but two such
passages during his three years' sojourn in the Polar Seas.
Having wintered in Prince of Wales Strait, the Investigator
retraced her course to the southern point of Banks Land,
and in the course of the next season her captain succeeded in
completely circumnavigating this island (as it proved ;.o be)
and discovering a path of re-entry into known waters by a new
channel, now called McClure Strait, between Banks Land and
Melville Island, which is in fact a second north-west passage.
The gallant Investigator was not fated to complete the
course herself; for in 1851 she was frozen up hard and fast
in the Bay of God's Mercy, on the north coast of Banks
Land, where she remained immovably fixed for two entire
winters. In the summer of 1853, had relief not reached them,
McClure had resolved to abandon his ship and attempt a
retreat on the Mackenzie or Coppermine Rivers ; but, fortu-
nately, that desperate and in all probability fatal undertaking
was not actually forced upon them. They had happily taken
the precaution to deposit at Winter Harbour, on Melville
Island, a record of their plight, and the providential dis-
covery of this by McClintock in 1852, during a sledging
expedition over Melville Island, led to the institution of a
successful search for the imprisoned ship in the following
year. The Investigator, still ice-beset in the Bay of God's
Mercy, had to be abandoned where she lay. Her captain and

1850—53

McCLUKE'S GREAT CRUISE

893

crew v„. ^ transferred to the Resolute, and, after a fourth winter
spent in the Arctic Reg'ons, they were conveyed to England
vid Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay, the first navigators
who had ever crossed from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean
by way of the north coast of America. In recognition of
this great achievement the sum of 10,000/. was awarded by the
English Government to McClure and his crew.

Their rescue, however, was the only success achieved by
the expedition under Sir Edward Belcher. Occupied as they
were in industriously scouring land and sea to the north )f
Barrow Strait in search of a party of explorers who had
been specially directed to take a course to the south-west
of that channel, their efforts were not likely to be very
fruitful, and it is scarcely necessary to describe them in
detail. Suffice it to say that their whole voyage, besides
being one of useless toil, was specially marked out for
misfortune. The Assistance and Pioneer got frozen up in
Wellington Channel in 1853, and had there to spend their
second winter ; and the Resolute and Intrepid, also caught by
the ice, were compelled to winter in the pack in Melville
Sound. In the following year, Sir Edward Belcher, for some
unexplained reason, ordered the abandonment of all four
ships, the officers and crews of which were conveyed to
England in other vessels. A court-martial was in due course
held upon the officers concerned, and resulted in their acquittal ;
but Sir Edward Belcher's sword was returned to him without
comment, and the evidence revealed painful dissensions be-
tween the commander and some of his captains.

The discouragement caused by this failure would, in any
case, no doubt have considerably cooled the Ministerial
ardour for the search ; but, as it happened, the return of Sir
Edward Belche/ coincided with the arrival of a highly im-
portant piece of intelligence, which had the effect of reducing
the temperature of the official mind to zero. In the year
1853, Dr. Rae, whose share in the earlier searches has already
been recorded, proposed to the Hudson's Bay Company to fit
out a boat expedition for the purpose of tracing the west coast
of Boothia as far north as Bellot Strait, and thus uniting the

iii

1 :

S94

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CII. XXII.

U ; ■ !

• I

i, .

i V

I i:-

surveys of Sir James Ross with those of Dease and Simp-
son. The proposal having been accepted, Rae left England
early in 1853, and in the course of that and the following
year accomplished the object of his mission. The two
surveys were united, and King William Land was proved
to be an island instead of being, as had been supposed, an
integral portion of the American continent. But in the
course of effecting this addition to geographical knowledge
Rae made another discovery of far more popular interest.
An ironic destiny had decreed that, after all the years that
had been spent in fruitless attempts to disc'er the fate of
the Franklin expedition, the first authentic intelligence of its
disastrous issue should have been obtained by an explorer
engaged upon a different service altogether.

In April 1854, Rae's sledge party, then in Pelly Bay,
on the coast of King William Land, happened upon some
Eskimos, and from these he obtained the first informa-
tion detailed in the previous chapter as to the fate of the
Franklin expedition. Nor do the particulars thus gleaned
by him lest solely upon the memory or veracity of his native
informants. They were supported by evidence of incon-
testable character in the shape of actual relics of the missing
men.

Justly considering that the information he had lighted
upon greatly outweighed the importance of the survey on
which he had been engaged. Dr. Rae hastened home to
England, where he arrived on October 22, 1854, and im-
mediately proceeded to the Admiralty with his report, the
full text of which was also forwarded to the * Times,' and
appeared in its columns on the following day. It commences
by a statement of the circumstances under which Rae had
lighted on his discoveries during the journey undertaken
by him over the ice and snow that spring, with the view of
completing the survey of the west shore of Boothia. In the
course of this journey ' I met,' he says, ' with Eskimos in
Pelly Bay, from one of whom I learnt that a party of white
men had perished from want of food some distance to the
westward, and not far beyond a large river containing many

•SSSSm

mill ii.,

._., 4-.'!JU«liL, II

1864

RAE AND THE RELICS

395

falls and rapids. Subsequently, further particulars were
received, and a number of articles purchased, which place
the fate of a portion if not all of the then survivors of the
1 lanklin long-lost party beyond a doubt.'

Rae then went on to give the substance of the information
obtained by him at various times and from various sources^
and which was as follows : —

In the spring four winters past (spring 1850) a party of white
men amounting to about forty were seen dragging a boat with them
by some Eskimos who were killing seal near the north shore of
King William Land, which is a large island. None of the party
could speak the Eskimo language intelligibly, but by signs the
natives were made to understand that their ship or ships had been
crushed by ice, and that they were now going where they expected
to find deer to shoot. From thf. appearance of the men, all of whom,
except one officer, looked thin,* they were then supposed to be getting
short of provisions, and they purchased a small seal from the natives.
At a later date the same season, but previously to the breaking up
of the ice, the bodies of some thirty persons were discovered on the
continent and five on an island near it, about a long day's journey to the
NW. of a large stream which can be no other than Back's Great Fish
River, as its description and that of the low shore in the neigh-
bourhood of Point Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with that
of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies had been buried (probably
those of the t it victims of famine) ; some were in a tent or tents ;
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 shoulders and his double-
barrelled gun lay underneath him.

}

There must, Rae thought, ' have been a number of watches,
compasses, telescopes, guns (several double-barrelled), &c., all
of which appear to have been broken up, as I saw pieces of
these different articles with the Eskimos, and, together with

^ili

' Owing no doubt to the haste in
which this statement had necessarily to
be prepared for publication, a mistake
has here crept in. I om kindly per-
mitted by Mrs. Rae, the widow of the
distinguished explorer, to quote the
following correction of it from her late

husband's Journal : • From the appear-
ance of the men, a// 0/ 7c>/io/n looked
thin, and with the exception of an
officer (chief) were hauling on the drag-
ropes of the sledges, they were supposed
to b"^ short of provisions. '

«■

806

THE SEARCHES FOR THE LOST

CH. XXII.

(

^11 1 '

1 11 Ti

some silver spoons and forks, purchased as many as I could
get.' These latter, of course, were by far the most important
of all the explorers' melancholy ' finds,' for their armorial
bearings and initials stamped them as coming from the pos-
session of the perished oflfit:ers of the expedition. Among
them was ' one round silver plate, engraved " Sir John
Franklin, K.C.B." (a mistake of the engraver for K.C.H.),
and ' a star or order with motto, " Nee aspera terrent.
G. R. III. MDCCCXV."'

The only point at which the accuracy of this information
can be questioned is that of the year in which the survivors
of the expedition were seen by the Eskimos. ' In the spring
four winters past,' is an assignment of date which is in itself
ambiguous ; but on no construction of it docs it seem possible
to accept it as correct. I .ae, as we have seen, interpreted it
' spring 1850,' but further consideration satisfied him that his
informants had mistaken the date ; and it is indeed incredible
that any members of a party which had abandoned their
ships in such extremities in April 1848 could have been
still alive two years afterwards.

There is, however, not much difficulty in supposing that
the Eskimo recollections of the precise year were at fault.
Dr. Rae, indeed, records a curious instance of their defective
memory for dates ; for they declared that an interview which
he had had with them in 1 847 had taken place ' five ' instead
of seven years before. But, in any case, no difficulty of
this description could detract from the value of the silent
testimony above described. In whatever year the explorers
had perished, there could be no longer any doubt as to
their fate. Proof of it had come at a moment when almost
every oiie regarded such proof as impossible. Fate, indeed,
remained ironical to the last. A leading article in the
* Times 'of Saturday, October 21, 1854, contained thefol' wing
sentence : — ' It would have been well-nigh as reasonable to
look for the discovery of La P^rouse ' (lost seventy years
before) ' as for any traces of poor Franklin and his followers.'
Within forty-eight hours from the publication of these words
Dr. Rae's ' copy ' was in the ' Times ' office, and in the' next
issue of the paper his statement was given to the world.

KumB

:h. XXII.

I could
portant
rmorial
he pos-
Among
r John

C.CH.),
terrent.

rmation
urvivors
e spring
in itself
possible
)reted it
that his
[Credible
ed their
ve been

ing that
at fault,
iefective
w which
instead
culty of
le silent
xplorers
Dt as to
1 almost
indeed,
in the
or wing
lable to
y years
>llowers.'
je words
he' next
ild.

1854

897

CHAPTER XXIII

THE 'RECORD' FOUND
1854-1859

The effect upon the Government of this important change in
the situation was such as those acquainted with Governments
would have expected. A reward of 10,000/. had been already
offered by them to any one bringing the first information of
the fate of the Franklin expedition ; and Rae, who had made
his discoveries and returned to England in complete igno-
rance of the fact, derived his first knowledge of it — together,
significantly enough, with a suggestion that he should apply
for the reward — from the First Lord of the Admiralty
himself. He and his party, said Sir James Graham, were
entitled to it, and ' he would stand in his own light if he did
not put in a claim for it.'

Beyond all doubt it had been fairly earned. The intelli-
gence which Rae had brought home with him, attested as it was
by the mute evidence of the relics in his possession, undeniably
answered the description of authentic * first information of
the fate of the Franklin expedition.' But the question
whether Rae was entitled to the reward promised for it
was quite distinct from the question whether the Government
were entitled to interpret ' first ' as equivalent to * final and
complete' information, and justified in abandoning all fur-
ther efforts to supplement it. But the Admiralty was in
want not so much of a justification as of a plausible excuse.
The failure of Sir Edward Belcher's costly expedition, and
the abandonment of four fine ships of the Navy — one of which,
however, the Resolute, wa? later on, after an almost miracu-
lous drift in the ice-pack into Baffin's Bay, recovered by the
American Government, and presented to our own — had been

..I)

;r-. mt9im ie.wwt'w—

398

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

CH. XXIIT.

> s

' a heavy blow and sore discouragement ' to the hopes and
expectations not only of the Government but of the public at
large. The country was engaged in a European war, the cost
of which was accumulating in rapidly mounting millions ;
and on the whole we caimot wonder that the Ministerial
mind should have been quick to seize on what must have
seemed an unexpectedly happy chance of getting quit of a
troublesome business. The ten thousand pounds reward had
been so fully and fairly earned by Dr. Rae, that they felt they
would have a good answer to Parliamentary and other critics ;
and to pay it over to him promptly would be purchasing
their relief from further calls upon the Exchequer at a com-
paratively cheap rate.

To Lady Franklin this view of their duty was far from
commending itself. To her it seemed that ' information as
to the fate ' of her husband and his companions, or such infor-
mation as the country ought alone to be satisfied with, should
be of a more definite character than a story gathered from
the lips of wandering Eskimos, even supported, as no doubt
this was, by morally conclusive proof of the fact — which,
indeed, hardly needed proving nine years after the departure
of the explorers — that they had all perished. Some light on
the causes which led to the loss of the ships, and on the time
and manner of the deaths of their gallant commander and
their crews — it was this for which Lady Franklin craved, and
for which in her devotion to her husband's memory, and her
pride in his achievements, she firmly believed and maintained
that her countrymen were craving also. She had already
fitted out four ships almost entirely at her own expense, and,
as the event proved, she had no thought of shrinking from
further sacrifices in the same cause. But she held, as, indeed,
did the naval and scientific world in general, that only an
expedition furnished with the appliances and supported by
the resources at the command of the Government had any
chance of attaining the desired end. Protesting, there-
fore, against the payment of the reward to Dr. Rae — at
any rate, as definitively exhausting Ministerial responsibility
in the matter — she laboured untiringly during the next two

^"smmma^x

"TT"

CH. XXIII.

pes and
)ublic at
the cost
nillions ;
nisterial
ust have
uit of a
vard had
felt they
r critics ;
rchasing
t a corn-
far from
lation as
ich infor-
h, should
red from
no doubt
— which,
eparture
light on
the time
der and
ved, and
and her
.in^ained
already
nse, and,
ng from
, indeed,
only an
orted by
had any
there-
Rae — at
nsibility
ext two

•( i

1854-56

LADV FIIANKLIX'S APPEAL

39U

years to bring the Government to a sense of their duty to the
nation.

She was not without warm support from the leading
scientific men of the day, and from naval officers who had
distinguished themselves in Arctic service. On June 5, 1856,
a memorial, signed by many names of the highest weight in
the world of science and of exploring adventure, was presented
to Lord Palmerston, new at that time in the office of Prime
Minister, urging the necessity of further research ' to satisfy
the honour of our country and to clear up a mystery which
has excited the sympathy of the civilised world.' And some
months later the prayer of this memorial was further empha-
sised by the following dignified and touching letter to the
Prime Minister from Lady Franklin herself: —

60 Tall Mall : Dec. 2, 1856.

My Lord, — I trust I may be permitted, as the widow of Sir John
Franklin, to draw the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the
unsettled state of a question which a few weeks ago was under their
consideration, and to express a well-grounded hope tliat a final effort
may be made to ascertain the fate and recover the remains of my
husband's expedition.

Your Lordship will allow me to remind you that a memorial with
this object in view (of which I enclose a printed copy) was early in
June last presented to and kindly received by you. It had been
signed within forty-eight hours by all the leaoing men of science
then in London who had an opportunity of seeing it, and might have
received an indefinite augmentation of worthy names, had not the
urgency of the question forbidden delay. To the above names were
appended those of the Arctic officers who had been personally
engaged in the search, and who, though absent, were known to be
favourable to another effort for its completion. And though that
united application obtained no immediate result, it was felt, and by
no one more strongly than myself, that it never could be utterly
wasted.

I venture also to allude to a letter of my own, addressed to the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in April last, and a copy of
which accompanied, I believe, the memorial to your Lordship, wherein
I earnes«-y deprecated the premature adjudication of the reward
claimed by Dr. Rae, on the ground that the fate of my husband's
expedition was not yet ascertained, and that it was due both to the
living and the dead to complete a search which had hitherto been
pursued under the greatest disadvantage for want of the clue which

lit

,i*

■ii ,j^ §

■if i i

At'

'? ■

400

Tin-: ' UICi.'OHI)' FOUND

rit. xxiii.

was now for thi; first time in our hands. , . . The memorialists had,
as yet, received no reply, and accordingly the President of the Royal
Society put a question respecting the memorial in the House of
Lords at the close of the session, which drew from one of Her
Majesty's Ministers (Lord Stanley), after some preliminary observa-
tions, the assurance that Her Majesty's Government woula give the
subject their serious consideration during the recess. I may be
permitted to add that, in the conversation which followed. Lord
Stanley expressed hi iiself very favourably disposed towards the
proposition made to him by Lord Wrottesley, that in the event of
there being no (lovernment expedition, I should be assisted in fitting
out my own expedition ; an assurance which Lord Wrottesley had
the kindness to communicate to me by letter. ... I have cherished
the hope, in common with others, that we are not waiting in vain.
Should, however, the decision of the (iovernment unfortunately
throw upon me the responsibility and the cost of sending out a vessel
myself, I beg to assure your Lordship that I shall not shrink either
from that weighty responsibility or from the sacrifice of my entire
available fortune for the purpose, supported as I am in my convic-
tions by such high authorities as those whose opinions are on record
in your Lordship's hands, nd by the hearty sympathy of many more.

But before I take ur nyself so heavy an obligation, it is my
bounden duty to entrea' Majesty's dovernment not to disregard

the arguments which have led so many competent and honourable
men to feel that our country's honour is not satisfied while a mystery
which has excited the sympathy of the civilised world remains
uncleared. Nor less would I entreat you to consider what must be
the unsatisfactory consequences if any endeavour should be made to
quench all further efforts for this object.

It cannot be that the long-vexed question would thereby be set
at rest, for it would still be true that, in a certain circumscribed area
of the Arctic circle, approachable alike from the east and from the
west, and sure to be attained by a combination of both movements,
lies the solution of our unhappy countrymen's fate. While such is
the case, the question will never die. I believe that again and again
efforts would be made to reach the spot, and that the Government
could not look on as unconcerned spectators, nor be relieved, in
public opinion, of the responsibility they had prematurely cast off. . . .

It would be a waste of words to attempt to refute again the
main objections that have been urged against a renewed search as
involving extraordinary dangers and risking life. The safe return of
our officers and men cannot be denied, neither will it be disputed
that each succeeding year diminishes the risk of casualty ; and, indeed,
I feel it would be especially superfluous and unseasonable to argue
against this particular objection, or against the financial one which

i..""^- ■.-.-

nr. xxiM.

isno

LADY FRANKLIN'S APPEAL

401

1 i

generally accompanies it, at a nionient when new expeditions for the
glorious interests of science, and which every true lover of science
and of his country must rejoice in, are contemplated for the interior
of Africa and other parts which arc less favourable to human life
than the icy regions of the North. . . . Even were the expenditure
greater than can reaj^ nably be ex[)ected, I submit to your I^ordship
that this is a case of no ordinary exigency. These 135 men of
the Erebus and Terror (or, jjcrhajjs, I should rather say the greater
part of them, since we do not yet know that there are no survivors)
have laid down their lives, after sufferings doubtless of unexampled
severity, in the service of their country as truly as if they had perished
by the rifle, the cannon ball, or the bayonet. Nay, more ; by attaining
the northern and already surveyed coasts of America, it is clear that
they solved the problem which was the object of their labour, or, in
the beautiful words of Sir John Richardson, that 'tliey forged the
last link of the North west Passage with their lives.'

Surely, then, I may plead for such men that a careful search be
made for any possible survivor, that the bones of the dead be sought
for and gathered together, that th;ir buried records be unearthed or
recovered from tlv hands of the Eskimos, and, above all, that their
last ivritten words, so precious to their bereaved families and friends,
be saved from destruction. A mission so sacred is worthy of a
Government which has grudged and spared nothing for its heroic
soldiers and sailors in other fields of warfiue, and will surely be
approved by our gracious Queen, who overlooks none of her loyal
subjects suffering and dying for their country's honour.

The final and exhaustive search is all I seek on behalf of the
first and only martyrs to Arctic discovery in modern times, and it is
all I ever intend to ask.

But if, notwithstanding all I have presumed to urge, Her Majesty's
Government decline to complefe the work they have carried on up to
this critical moment, but leave it to private hands to finish, I must
then respectfully request that measure of assistance which I have
been led to expect on the authority of Lord Stanley as communicated
to me by Lord Wrottesley, and on that of the first Lord of the
Admiralty as communicated to Colonel Phipps in a letter in my
possession.

It is with no desire to avert from myself the sacrifice of my own
funds, which I devote without reserve to the object in view, that I
plead for a liberal interpretation of those communications ; but I owe
it to the conscientious and high-minded Arctic officers who have
generously offered me their services that my expedition should be
made as efficient as possible, however restricted it may be in extent.
The Admiralty, I feel s' re,, v 11 not deny me what may be necessary
for the purpose, since, if I d^ ul I can with my own means, any

D D

|i'

mi '■

-z::iJia>

■^miili_y(mi]ii awm^ioii^wm--

402

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

CH. xxin.

I;:

deficiencies and shortcomings of a private expedition cannot, I
think, be laid to my charge. . . .

I commit the prayer of this letter, for the length of which I must
beg much to apologise, to your Lordship's patient and kind considera-
tion, feeling assured that, however the words of it may fall upon the
ear of some who apparently judge of it neither by the heart nor
by the head, you will not on that, or on any light ground, hastily
dismiss it. Rather may you be impelled to feel hat the shortest
and surest way to set the unfortunate question at rest is to submit it
to that final investigation which will satisfy the yearnings of surviving
relatives and friends and, what is justly of higher import to your
Lordship, the credit and honour of the country.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

Jane Franklin.

The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, K.G.

No final answer was given to this eloquent appeal for an-
other three months ; but in April, 1857, Sir Charles WocJ.the
First Lord of the Admiralty, wrote informing Lady Franklin
that the members of Her Majesty's Government ' having come
with great regret to the conclusion that there was no prospect
of saving life, would not be justified, for any objects which, in
their opinion, could be obtained by an expedition to the
Arctic seas, in exposing the lives of officers and men to the
risks inseparable from such an enterprise.'

On receipt of this answer the devoted widow lost not a
moment in taking independent action. She immediately
entered into negotiations for the purchase of a screw steam-
yacht. By the middle of the month she had written to Captain
McClintock to take command of the expedition, and in less
than a week she was able to telegraph to him, * Your leave is
granted ; the Fox is mine ; the refit will commence immedi-
ately.' The Fox was immediately placed in the hands of
her builders to be strengthened and adapted to Arctic service,
with the intention of getting her ready to sail by July i.
Provisions for twenty-eight months were embarked, including
preserved vegetables, lemon juice, and pickles for daily con-
sumption, and preserved meats for every third day ; also as
much of the ' stoutest ale ' as room could be found for. The
Government, to do them justice, did their best to atone for
their refusal to despatch another expedition of their own by

CH. XXIII.

cannot, I

ch I must
considera-

upon the
heart nor
id, hastily
e shortest

submit it
f surviving
rt to your

lNKLIN.

al for an-
V^ocJ,the
Franklin
ing come
prospect
which, in
1 to the
m to the

ost not a
nediately
\v steam-
) Captain
id in less
■ leave is
immedi-
lands of
c service,

July I.
ncluding
aily con-
also as
Dr. The
itone for

own hy

1857

EQUirMEXT OF THE FOX

403

* contributing liberally,' wrote Captain McClintock, ' to our
supplies. All our arms, powder, shot, powder for ice-blasting,
rockets, maroons, and signal-morta.s were furnished by the
Board of Ordnance. The Admiralty caused 6,682 lbs. of
pcmmican to be prepared for our use.' They ' supplied us
with all the requisite ice gear, such as saws from ten to eight-
een feet in length, ice-anchors a^d ice-claws ; also with our
■winter housing, medicines, seamen's library, hydrographical
instruments, charts, chronometers, and an ample supply of
\rctic clothing, which had remained in store from former ';xpe-
ditions. The Board of Trade contributed a variety of meteoro-
logical and nautical instruments and journals, and I found th&
I had but to ask of these departments for what was required,
and if in store it was at once granted.' The President of the
Royal Society voted 50/. from their donation fund for the
purchase of magnetic and other scientific instruments. The
expenses of fitting out the expedition, including the original
purchase-cost of the yacht, 2,000/., amounted to some 6,000/.,
of which, however, about half was met by private subscrip-
tion, the list of subscribers containing many well-known and
interesting names. Thackeray figures in it as a contributor.
Dickens had energetically supported Lady Franklin's appeal
to the Government through his then newly founded periodical.
Household Words. The crew, all told, numbered only twenty-
six souls. Captain McClintock's second in command was
Lieutenant Hobson, R.N., and with him was associated Cap-
tain (now Sir Allen) Young, then of the mercantile marine,
who was an enthusiast for Arctic exploration, and who had
not only subscribed handsomely to the expedition, but had
actually abandoned a lucrative appointment to accept a
subordinate post in it. Thus manned and provisioned this
little yacht of 170 tons went forth to achieve a work which
had baffled the efforts of many powerful ships of the navy,
with all the resources of a great maritime department at their
backs.

The Fox was punctually got ready for sea by the day
fixed, and two days before that date Lady Franklin wrote to
her captain what he described as ' the only written instruction

'? ;

i> ij 2

4C-i

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

CH. XXIII.

iKj

;^i, if

he could ever prevail upon her to give him,' in the following
admirable letter : —

My dear Captain McClintock, — You have kindly invited me to
give you ' Instructions,' but I cannot bring myself to feel that it
would be right in any way to influence your judgment in the conduct
of your noble undertaking ; and, indeed, I have no temptation to do
so, since it appears to me that your views are almost identical with
those which I had independently formed before I became thoroughly
possessed of yours. But had this been otherwise, I trust you would
have found me ready to prove the implicit confidence I place in you
by yielding my own views to your more enlightened judgment ;
knowing, too, as I do, that your whole heart also is in the cause, even
as my own is. As to the objects of the expedition and their relative
importance, I am sure you know that the rescue of any possible sur-
\ivor of the Erebus and Terror would be to me, as it would be to you,
the noblest result of our efforts.

To this object I would wish every other to be subordinate ; and
next to it in importance is the recovery of the unspeakably precious
documents of the expedition, public and private, and the personal
relics of my dear husband and his companions.

And, lastly, I trust it may be in your power to confirm directly or
infeicntially the claim of my husband's expedition to the earliest dis-
covery of the passage which, if Dr. Rae's report be true (and the
Government of our country has already accepted and rewarded
it as such), these martyrs in a noble cause achieved at their last
extremity after five long years of labour and sufl'ering, if not at an
earlier period.

I am sure you will do all that man can do for the attainment of all
these objects ; my jnly fear is that you may spend yourselves too
much in the effort, and you must, therefore, let me tell you how
much dearer to me even than them is the preservation of the valuable
lives of the little band of heroes who are your companions and
followers.

May God in His great mercy preserve you all from harm amid
the labours and perils which await you, and restore you to us in health
and safety as well as in honour ! As to the honour, I can have no
misgiving. It will be yours as much if you fail (since you may fail
in spite of every effort) as if you succeed ; and be assured that under
any and all circumstances whatever, such is my unbounded confidence
in you, you will possess and be entitled to the enduring gratitude of
your sincere and attached friend,

Jane Franklin.

The first year's voyage of the gallant little yacht was
unfortunate. All went well till she reached Melville Bay ;

WW H W J W WSIII IWWII

CH. XXIII.

following

ted me to
eel that it
le conduct
ition to do
ntical with
thoroughly
you would
lace in you
judgment ;
:ause, even
leir relative
3ssible sur-
i be to you,

inate ; and
ly precious
le personal

directly or

earliest dis-

e (and the

rewarded

their last

not at an

iment of all
rselves too
you how
\e valuable
nions and

larm amid
IS in health
m have no
3U may fail
that under
confidence
ratitude of

AN KLIN.

'acht was
ille Bay ;

1857-58

LADY FRANKLIN'S MEMORLVL

405

but, in attempting to cross it, she found her way blocked by
large masses of ice, though it was still but mid-August, and
in a fe ' days she was fast beset — and McClintock had to
face the grim prospect of passing the very first winter of the
expedition in the pack. For no less a period than 242 days
the Fox was frozen fast, and drifted helplessly to the south-
ward for nearly 1,200 geographical miles. It was not till
April 25, 1858, that she was released from the grasp of the
ice, and, again pushing northward, succeeded this time in
crossing the bay and effecting an entrance into Lancaster
Soimd.

Beechey Island was their first destination, and this they
reached in the month of August, bringing with them a
marble tablet, which had been sent out by Lady Franklin
with an American search party for erection at the first winter
quarters of her husband's expedition, but which the Ameri-
cans, prevented by circumstances from executing their mission,
had been obliged to bring back with them and deposit at
Godhavn in Disco. The inscription is as follows : —

TO THE MEMORY OF

FRANKLIN
CROZIER, FITZJAMES

AND ALL THEIR

GALLANT BROTHER OKI'ICERS AND FAITHFUL

COMPANIONS WHO HAVE SUFFERED AND PERISHED

IN THE CAUSE OF SCIENCE AND

THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY

THIS TAHLET

IS ERECTED NEAR THE SPOT WHERE

THEY PASSED THEIR FIRST ARCTIC

WINTER, AND WHENCE THEY ISSUED

FORTH, TO CONQUER DIFFICULTIES OR

TO DIE

TO COMMEMORATE THE GRIEF OF THEIR

ADMIRING COUNTRYMEN AND FRIENDS

AND THE ANGUISH SUI5DUED BY FAITH

OF HER WHO HAS LOST, IN THE HEROIC

LEADER OF THE EXPEDITION, THE MOST

DEVOTED AND AFFECTIONATE OF

• -— -"f-— HUSBANDS

'< I

* A/' ^ so He bringeih them unto the
haven where they wouhi he '
1855

MinUa

406

THE 'RECOIIU' FOUiND

CII. XXIII.

\\t'

This tablet Captain McClintock duly erected ' upon the
raised flagged square in the centre of which stands the
cenotaph recording the names of those who perished in the
Government expedition under Sir Edward Belcher.'

Quitting Beechey Island in the middle of August,
McClintock entered Peel Sound, but only to find, after
steaming down it for some five-and-twenty miles, that his
way was impassably blocked by ice. F'e was accordingly
forced to retrace his course to Barrow Strait, and to try a
southward route by Prince Regent Inlet instead of that by
way of Peel Sound. Down this new channel they accordingly
proceeded, and, after a perilous adventure in the floating ice,
which came near to dashing her on the rocks, the little yacht
succeeded in making her way westward through Bellot
Strait, and was, at the end of September, 1858, laid up snugly
enough in winter quarters at Port Kennedy — a haven lighted
upon by McClintock at the eastern end of the strait, and
named by him after the original discoverers of the water-
way.

The winter was spent in making arrangements for the
thorough exploration of the coast of Boothia as the first work
of the following spring. It was a winter of extraordinary
severity, the thermometer ranging on Christmas Day from
76° to 80° below freezing-point, and the mean temperature
for the month of December being cs low as — 33° — only
6° above the freezing-point of mercury. In January and
February the weather still continued ibnormally cold, even
for these regions ; but on the 1 7th of the latter month it
was thought to have sufficiently moderated to allow of the
expedition's starting out, and on that day McClintock and his
sledge party set out for Cape Victoria.

Early in March they reached an Eskimo village, from the
inhabitants of which they obtained some news and several
relics of the lost expedition. Among the latter were some
spoons and forks, a silver medal, part of a gold chain, several
buttons, and knives made of the iron and wood of the wreck,
as well as bows and arrows fashioned out of material obtained
from the same source.

' i

'^1

1858-59

ESKIMOS INTERROGATED

407

None of the Eskimo had seen any of the expedition,
though one averred that he had ' seen their bones upon the
island whore they died.' He was understood to say that the
boat was crushed by the ice. On the following day, however,
more definite information was obtained. An Eskimo from
whom they bought a spear told their interpreter distinctly that
* a ship having three masts had been crushed by the ice out in
the sea to che west of King William Island ; but that all
the people landed safely ; he was not one of those who
were eyewitnesses of it; the ship sank, so nothing was
obtained by the natives from her ; all that they have got,' he
said, 'came from an island in the river.' The spear staff
appeared to have been made from the gunwale of a r:Tht
boat. This information substantially bore out the reports of
Dr. Rae, and accounted for the disappearance of one of the
ships ; but it gave no clue to the whereabouts of the other,
nor to the direction whence they came. One thing, however,
it rendered tolerably certain, namely, that the crews did not
at any time land on the shore of Boothia.

McClintock now returned to the yacht, having in his
twenty-five days' journey travelled 420 English miles and
completed the discovery of the coast line of continental
America, adding thereby 120 miles to our charts. On
reaching the Fox he assembled his little crew and acquainted
them with the results of his expedition, went on to point out
that there still remained one of the ships unaccounted for,
and that, therefore, it was necessary to carry out all the
projected lines of search.

On April 2 McClintock and Lieutenant Hobson started
off again, upon what, in the case of the latter officer, was to
be the eventful journey of the expedition. King William
Island, practically the only land not yet examined in
which search seemed at all likely to be rewarded, was the
object in view. By the end of the month they had reached
Cape Victoria, where they separated, Hobson marching
direct for Cape Felix, while McClintock kept on a more
southerly course. Though less important as regards its 'finds'
than that of his comrade (to whom, indeed, he is understood

408

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

cii. xxin.

{<i(

■Mh

I, I

(

■

■■ \

{
■ i

i
h

1
i

i
1

to have generously yielded the most promising field of search
with a view to procuring him his promotion), McClintock's
journey was far from being fruitless. In the course of it he
succeeded in acquiring many relics of the Franklin party,
and covering, as he did, the whole of the west shore of King
William Island, and making his way thence to the ice at
the entrance of the Great Fish River, he had the satisfaction
of knowing that he had traversed the whole route taken by
Franklin's unfortunate followers, and that, had they left
behind them any cairn or other record of their passage, he
could not have failed to discover them. Montreal Island
having been carefully examined, McClintock crossed over to
the mainland in the neighbourhood of Point Duncan, and on
May 19 set out on his return journey.

It seemed then as though it were vain to hope for the
discovery of any traces of the missing men themselves.
McClintock had already satisfied himself, from his interroga-
tion of the Eskimos, that the wreck of one of the ships, or
rather its last fragments, might still be seen at a point off
the west coast of King William Island, but nearly all of it
had been carried off by the natives, and it was probable that
the five days' journey necessary to reach it would not be
adequately repaiu. Still, it was evident that nothing was
to be gained by pushing further to the south, and the only
course open to McClintock was to retrace his steps. Re-
gaining the shore of Simpson Strait some miles to the west
of Point Richardson, the party crossed over to King Willie ;
Island, and took their way along the south coast, making for
Cape Herschel. Here their first grim discovery awaited
them.

We were now upon the shore, aiong which the retreating crews
must have marched. My sledges, of course, travelled upon the sea-
ice close along the shore ; and although the depth of snow which
covered the beach deprived us of almost every hope, yet we kept a
very sharp look-out for traces, nor were we unsuccessful. Shortly after
midnight of May 25, when slowly walking along a gravel ridge near
the beach which the winds kept partially bare of snow, I came upon
a human skeleton, partly exposed, with here and there a few fragments
of clothing appearing through the snow. The skeleton— now per-

ClI. XXIII.

if search
lintock's
of it he
n party,
of King
e ice at
isfaction
aken by
hey left
jsage, he
lI Island
I over to
1, and on

: for the

jmselves.

iterroga-

ships, or

point off

all of it

able that

not be

ling was

the only

3s. Re-

the west

Willie.:

iking for

awaited

ing crews
n the sea-
low which
/e kept a
ortly after
idge near
me upon
fragments
-now per-

lIBHt

1869

THE SKELETON OF THE STEWAIID

409

fectly bleached — was lying upon its face, the limbs and smaller bones
either dissevered or gnawed away by small animals.

A most careful examination of the spot was, of course, made, the
snow removed and every scrap of clothing gathered up. A pocket-
book afforded strong grounds for hope that some information might
be subsequently obtained respecting the unfortunate crews and the
calamitous march of the lost crews, but at the time it was frozen hard.

It was brought home to PIngland and every effort made
to decipher the letters found in it ; but only a few detached
sentences could be made out, and these not referring to the
proceedings of the expedition.

The victim was a young man, slightly built and perhaps above the
common height ; the dress appeared to be that of a steward or officer's
servant, the loose bow-knot in which his neck handkerchief was tied
not being used by seamen or officers. In every particular the dress
confirmed our conjectures as to his rank or office in the late expedi-
tion—the blue jacket with slashed sleeves and braided edging, and the
pilot cloth greatcoat with plain covered buttons. We also found a
clothes brush near and a horn pocket-comb. This poor man seems to
have selected the bare ridge top as affording the least tiresome walk-
ing, and to have fallen upon his face in the position in which we found
him.

A melancholy commentary on the words of the old
Eskimo woman, ' They fell down and died as they walked
along.' The cairn erected by Simpson in 1839 at Cape
Herschel was then inspected ; but though McClintock was
then and afterwards convinced that the doomed men had left
some record, he found nothing, and he believes — a belief
confirmed by the displacement noticeable in the stones of the
cairn — that the deposit, whatever it was, had been removed by
the Eskimos. Twelve miles bej'ond Cape Herschel he was
met by the joyful intelligence that, thanks to the keen eyes
and good fortune of his comrade their mission had attained
its end — the discovery of a written record under the hand of
the lost. Beneath a cairn which Hobson had erected as its
depositorj^ McClintock found a paper left for him by his
comrade, informing him of the discovery of Graham Gore's
record at Point Victory, the contents of which have already
been set out. Its importance, of course, could hardly be over-
estimated ; for not only did it virtually confirm the reports

I
II

w^ ^

I^H! l>u

f i' iJ Li

, ' ' T 1

*' :' 1 '^

f f ^

k i

ilf'

5' s

^^ «

tio

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

ClI. XXIII.

received from the Eskimos as to the fate of the expedition,
but it fixed the precise date and place of Sir John Franklin's
death, and conveyed to his widow the melancholy consola-
tion of the assurance that he had been mercifully spared the
long-drawn agony which his surviving comrades must have
endured.

Lieutenant Hobson's note contained the further informa-
tion that he had found quantities of clothing and articles of
all kinds lying about the cairn, as if the unhappy men,
aware that they were retreating for their lives, had there
abandoned everything which they considered superfluous.

On May 29 McClintock and his party reached the
westernmost point of King William Island, which he named
after Captain Crozier. Thence the coast line was found to
turn sharply away to the eastward, and, following it, the
party encamped early on the morning of May 30 alongside a
large boat, another sad relic of the expedition, which Hobson
had found and examined a few days before ; but he had failed
to discover record, journal, pocket-book, or memorandum of
any description. This boat, which was mounted on a sledge
of unusual weight and strength, McClintock afterwards care-
fully examined, but for the moment they were in no mood
for minute observation, ' for there was that in the boat which
transfixed us with awe.' It contained portions of two human
skeletons.

One was that of a slight young person, the other of a large, strongly
made, middle-aged man. The former was found in the bow of the
boat, but in too disturbed a state to enable Hobson to judge whether
the sufferer had died there. Large and powerful animals, probably
wolves, had destroyed much of the skeleton, which may have
been that of an officer. Near it we found the fragment of a pair of
worked slippers . . . the lines white with a red margin ; the spaces
red, white, and yellow. They had originally been eleven inches long,
lined with calfskin with the hair left on, and the edges bound with
red silk ribbon. Besides these slippers there were a pair of small,
strong shooting half-boots. The other skeleton was in a more
perfect state, and was enveloped with clothes and furs ; it lay across
the boat under the af ^r thwart. Close beside it were found five
watches, two double-barrelled guns, one barrel in each loaded and
cocked, standing muzzle upwards towards the boat's side. It may

OH. XXIII.

pcdition,
ranklin's
consola-
ared the
ust have

informa-
rticles of
py men,
ad there

JOUS.

:hcd the
le named
found to
g it, the
)ngside a
. Hobson
lad failed
indum of

a sledge
rds care-
lo mood

at which
o human

e, strongly
ow of the
e whether

probably
nay have

a pair of
:he spaces
ches long,
3und with

of small,

a more

lay across

Dund five

aded and

It may

1859

THE BOAT AND ITS DEAD

411

be imagined with what deep interest these sad relics were scrutinised,
and how anxiously every fragment of clothing was turned over in
search of pockets and pocket-books, journals, or even names. Five
or six small books were found, all of them scriptural or devotional
works, except the 'Vicar of Wakefield.' One little book, * (-hristian
Melodies,' bore an inscription on the title-page, from the donor
to G. G. (Graham Gore?). A small Bible contained numerous
marginal notes, and whole passages underlined. Besides these books,
the covers cf a New Testament and Prayer Book were found.

Unhappily, too, the boat contained ominous evidences
of that te'Tible overloading of the sledges, which Sherard
Osborn had had cause to suspect from the signs discovered
by him at Bcechey Island. Among an amazing quantity of
clothing and toilet articles, McClintock found ' twine, nails,
saws, files, bristles, waxends, sailmakers' palms, powder,
bullets, shot, cartridges, wads, leather cartridge-cases, knives
— clasp and dinner ones — needle and thread cases, slow match,
several bayonet scabbards cut down into knife sheaths, two
rolls of sheet lead, and, in short, a quantity of articles of one
description and another truly astonishing in variety, and such
as, for the most part, modern sledge travellers in these regions
would consider a mere accumulation of dead weight, but
slightly useful and very likely to break down the strength of
the sledge crews.'

The only provisions found in the boat were a small quan-
tity of tea and nearly forty pounds of chocolate. These articles
alone would, of course, have been insufficient to support life in
an Arctic temperature ; but neither biscuit nor meat of any
kind was found. There was, however, no lack of fuel, for a
drift tree was lying on the beach close at hand, where it had
probably lain for twenty or thirty years. In the after part
of the boat were discovered a number of spoons and forks
marked with the initials or crests of various officers of the
expedition, eight of them bearing the crest of Sir John
Franklin, and having been probably, McC "tock conjectures,
issued to the men, as the only means of saving them, as relics
of the lost commander. No doubt, indeed, the other officers
did the same with their own plate, as not a single iron spoon
such as sailors always use was found.

■

412S

THE 'RECORD' FOUND

cii. xxni.

The most surprising thing to the discoverers was the posi-
tion of the sledge on which the boat was cradled. It was ttirned
towards the N.E., or in the reverse direction to the line of
retreat. The spot at which it was discovered was about
50 miles as a sledge would travel from Point Victory, and
therefore 65 miles from the position of the abandoned ships.
On the other hand, it was 70 miles from the skeleton of the
steward and 150 miles from Montreal Island, the limit of
McClintock's .southward search. Moreover, it was in the
depth of a wide bay, where, by crossing over 10 or 12 miles
of very low land, instead of following the indentation of the
coast, a saving of some 40 miles would be effected.

A little reflection led me to satisfy my own mind, at least, that
the boat was returning to the ship ; and in no other way can I
account for two men having been left in her, than by supposing the
party were unable to drag the boat further, and that these two men,
not being able to keep pace with their shipmates, were therefore left
by them, supplied with such provisions as could be spared to last
until the return of the others from the ship with a fresh stock.

Whether it was the intention of the retroceding party to await the
result of another season in the ships, or to follow the track of the
main body to the Great Fish River, is more a matter of conjecture. It
seems highly probable that they had purposed revisiting the boat,
not only on account of the two men left in charge of it, but also to
obtain the chocolate, the five watches, and many other articles which
would otherwise scarcely have been left in her.

The same reasons which may be assigned for the return of the
detachment from the main body will also serve to account for
their not having come back to their boat. In both instances they
appear to have greatly overrated their strength and the distance
they could travel in a given time.

Whether all or any of the remainder of this detached
party ever reached their ships is uncertain. It seems clear,
at any rate, that none of them returned to the boat, or
other skeletons would have been discovered in the neighbour-
hood ; and if the Eskimos spoke the truth in declaring that
but one human body was found on board the ship that drifted
on shore, the inference is that the remainder of the sledge
party, probably some twenty or thirty men, must have
perished in the attempt to traverse those fifty miles of land

CH. XXIII.

the posi-
as tcirncd
ic line of
as about
:tory, and
aed ships,
on of the
; limit of
IS in the
• 12 miles
Ion of the

least, that
way can I
)posing the
;e two men,
erefore left
red to last
ock.

to await the
;rack of the
njecture. It
y the boat,

but also to
tides which

urn of the
count for
tances they
le distance

detached
ems clear,
boat, or
eighbour-
aring that
lat drifted

le sledge
lUst have
25 of land

l8r,9

ciioziKirs i{i:c()iii) fouxd

41»

which lay between them and the ships, and that the Arctic
wolves had left no trace of their remains.

A duplicate of Gore's record, deposited in 1847, was found
by Lieutenant Ilobson on the south side of Back Bay ; that is,
on the opposite shore of the inlet to that in which the former
— for, being at a point somewhat nearer the place in which
the ships were beset, we may suppose it to have been the
earlier deposit of the two — was discovered. It of course adds
nothing to our information, and is only interesting as showing
the same mistake as its companion paper with reference to
the year in which the Erebus and Terror wintered at Beechey
Island. Both papers had evidently been filled in and sealed
up at the same time, and that this was before Graham Gore
left the ships is to be inferred from the fact that neither
seems to have originally borne any entry of the date at
which they were deposited. When, the year afterward, the
record was opened by the retreating party, this date. May
28, was filled in by Captain Fitzjames, as may be gathered
from the colour of the ink, which resembles that of I'itz-
james's marginal additions and not that of Graham Gore's
original entries. The ascertainment of this point has an
importance which McClintock hardly seems to have attached
to it when he composed his narrative ; for, incidentally, it
proves that Graham Gore's party, or some of them, made
their way back safely to the ships with the news, as we may
fairly assume, of their having sighted the wished-for shores
and waters. This would not have been proved by the mere
circumstance that Crozier and Fitzjames seem to have known
the whereabouts of Gore's record, for it might have been
arranged before he started that a cairn should be erected
and a record left on the first point of land which he reached
after traversing the ice-pack. But it would have been im-
possible for the shipmates whom Gore and his party left
behind them to have known the exact date at which they
reached Point Victory, unless some of them had returned
with a full report of their journey and its results.

The two papers had been soldered up in tin cylinders, but
when discovered they were already much damaged by rust,.

' ■'

!,'

{

1 i-P '"r

If :!]

414

TIIK 'RECORD' FOUND

CH. XXIII.

and in a very few years woukl have been illegible. The
cylinder opened by l-'it/James to get at the paper within and
add to it the information which gives it its principal value,
bad not been soldered up again. Trobably thj retreating
party had not the means of doing so. It was found on the
ground among .some loose stones which had evidently fallen
from the top of the cairn. Its preservation under the cir-
cumstances was providential. Indeed, its very existence is
a matter for congratulation, for it does not .seem to have
been intended, in McClintock's opinion, that any record at all
should be deposited after the abandonment of the ships ; and
our gratitude to the men who left it ' ought,' he adds, ' to be
all the greater when we remember that the ink had to be
thawed, and that writing in a tent during an April day in the
Arctic regions is by no means an easy task.'

A great quantity and variety of things lay strewn about
the cairn, in further lamentable testimony to the disastrous
overloading of the party — articles such as it had evidently
been found impossible to carry further than the short distance
of fifteen miles, which was all that the party had then covered.
' Among these were four heavy sets of boat's cooking stoves,
pickaxes, shovels, iron hoops, old canvas, a large single block,
about four feet of a copper lightning rod, long pieces of
hollow brass curtain rods, a sinall case of selected medicines
containing about twenty-four phials, the contents in a won-
derful state of preservation,' and certain nautical and mag-
netic instruments. The clothing left by the party formed
* a huge heap four feet high ; every article was searched, but
the pockets were empty and not one of all these articles was
marked.'

Two other cairns and many relics were found by Hobson
to the north of this position, and though throwing no further
direct light on the fate of the expedition, they were indirectly
valuable as showing that no paiL of the coast between Cape
Felix and Cape Crozier had been visited by Eskimos since
the landing of the crews in 1848. None of the cairns had
been disturbed, nor had any of the numerous articles strewn
about, which would be invaluable to the natives, been touched.

CH. XXIII.

•Ic. The
thin and
lal value,
ctrcating
d on the
tly fallen
r the cir-
stcnce is
to have
ord at all
lips ; and
Is, • to be
lad to be
lay in the

vvn about

disastrous

evidently

•t distance

n covered.

ng stoves,

gle block,

pieces of

medicines

in a won-

and mag-

y formed

ched, but

tides was

Hobson
lo further
indirectly
een Cape
mos since
aims had
2S strewn
I touched.

1850

KKTIIKN OF McCLINTOCK

418

Hence it m.iy be confidently inferred that the evidence
of the Eskimos as to 'the white men falling and dying as
they walked along' applies only to the shore line south-
ward and eastward from Cape Crozier, where, of course, no
traces of them were permitted by these eyewitnesses of their
death to remain. ' It is not probable that such fearful
mortality wc ild ha\'e overtaken them so early in their march
as within eiglity miles by sledge route from the abandoned
ships — such being ficir distance from Cape Crozier ; nor is it
probable that we could h.ive passed the wreck had she existed
there, as there are no off-lying islands to prevent a ship
drifting in upon the beach, while to the southward they are
very numerous, so much so that a drifting ship could hardly
run the gauntlet between them so as to reach the shore.'

McClintock's mission was now fully accomplished. He
had set at rest all doubts as to the fate of the expedition ; he
had obtained for the widow of its gallant commander the
conclusive evidence so long sought, so passionately yet
patiently striven for, of the time and manner of her husband's
death ; and, finally, he had brought back with him what she
hardly less valued, definitive proof that Franklin and his
companions were actually the first to discover, though not to
accomplish in their ships, the passage from the Atlantic to
the Pacific Ocean. The bows of the gallant little Fox m'ght
now be turned homeward ; her two years' battle wi.n the
Arctic seas was over, and she would winter in more hospitable
waters.

By the end of July they had reached Godhavn on their
southward journey, where letters from England reached
them. Lady Franklin and Miss Cracroft had both written
to Captain McClintock in the previous March. They had
travelled, as he remarks, even ' more than we have, having
visited almost all the countries bordering the Mediterranean
and Black Seas, posted through the Crimea, and steamed up.
the Danube.' Nineteen ^ays later McClintock landed at
Portsmouth and reported himself to the Admiralty. The
Arctic medal was presented to such of the crew as had not

■ I

416

THE 'RECOEU' FOUND

CII. XXIII.

already received it for Arctic service. A month later the
commarnlcr o^ the expedition received the official acknow-
ledgment from the Admiralty of ' the important services '
peiformf^d by him 'in bringing home the only authentic
inteli.jj-ence of the death of the late S' John Franklin, and
of the fate of the crew^ of the Ereb' id Terror.' And in
the year following, Her Majesty, by coiiferring upon Captain
McClintock the honour of knighthood, which the gallant
officer still lives to enjoy, expressed her just appreciation of
what was not the least brilliant of those Arctic exploits which
have added lustre to her reign.

■i

■■■i

en. xxiii.

h later the
al acknow-
it services '
' authentic
anklin, and
r.' And in
ion Captain
the gallant
reciation of
Dloits which

1869

417

CHAPTER XXIV

A DEVOTED WIDOWHOOD
1859-1875

Lady Franklin's task was done. The self-imposed duty
to wh.ch she had devoted so many long years of yearning,
and of the heart-sickness of hope deferred, was at last accom-
plished. Few, save herself, had been found to believe, durin^r
the latter part of the period, that it was possible. There
was proof enough, thought the world in general, that her
gallant husband and his companions were all dead Had not
authentic and unmistakable relics of the ill-fated band been
brought home by Dr. Rae, including some at least, such as
Frankim s own decorations of honour, which it was certain
that their owner would never have parted with while life
remained. What more was needed ? Was it proof of the
time and manner of that death of which on'y the bare fact
had been established? But such proof might never have
existed at all. Circumstances might have prevented the lost
explorers from leaving behind them any record of their ad
ventures, or of the deaths by which their party had been
thinned. Even if they had done so, how shadowy was the
hope that that record was still in existence! Why should
not the wandering Eskimos, into whose hands all the other
relics had fallen, have obtained possession of this also ? And
if they had, was it not certain that they would have destroyed
It or thrown it away as worthless ? Was there any use in
spending more and more money and risking more and more
valuable lives in so visionary a chase ?

So spoke, of course, the world of ' common-sense ' and in
tones which naturally gained in decision and emphasis with

E E

418

A DEVOTED WIDOWHOOD

CII. XXIV.

. t

mirh

i ^

I,!

every year that passed, especially after Dr. Rae's discoveries
had satisfied every one of the fact of death. There was
nothing to oppose to it but the love, the devotion, the un-
quenchable faith of one solitary woman. She had clung long
after others had abandoned it to the belief tha'c her husband
was still living ; and when this hope was abandoned, and she
had, as we have seen, to appeal lo the Government in the
avowed character of Sir John Franklin's ' widow,' she was
then to cling with equal tenacity to the conviction, long re-
linquished by others, that .somewhere, beneath some undis-
covered cairn on the frozen coasts of Arctic America, lay the
precious record of the lost.

The passionate embrace in which she clasped and held to
her heart the faith that her husband was still living, when few
doubted that he was dead, is most pathetically illustrated in
the letters .she has left behind. The commander of every
search expedition which left our shores between 1848 and
1853, carried one or other of these letters with him, some-
times containing an enclosure from her niece. Miss Cracroft,
always bearing messages of love and hope from her step-
daughter. Time after time they were returned to her, even
aij the north wind might have blown back the forlorn cry of
the bereaved ; but they were preserved with sacred care.
The same original was often re-copied and .sent out in sub-
stantial!}' identical terms a second and a third time, and the
very reiteration of the same utterances of love, and longing,
and resignation is unspeakably sad. The first of these letters,
dated May 8 and 9, 1848, lies now before me, tnc wrapper
which originally enclosed it bearing the superscn tion, to
' Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. : H.M.S. Erebus. To the
care of Sir James Ross.' This went with the first search
expedition that was sent out, and, written at a time when, of
course, there was still good ground for hope that Franklin
might be still living, its dominant note is one of pain at the
thought of the suffering which he might then, it was thought,
be actually enduring, but from which, as we know, he had
been released eleven months before. ' May it,' writes the
unconscious widow —

CII. XXIV.

1848

FUOM THE LIVING TO THE DEAD

419

's discoveries
There was
tion, the un-
ci clung long
her husband
mcd, and she
iment in the
3w,' she was
ion, long re-
some undis-
erica, lay the

and held to
ng, when few
illustrated in
ier of every
in 1848 and
1 him, some-
liss Cracroft,
)m her step-
to her, even
"orlorn cry of
sacred care.

out in sub-
ime, and the
and longing,
these letters^

ic wrapper
3cri tion, to
•us. To the

first carch
me when, of
lat FrankHn

pain at the
vas thought,
low, he had
writes the

may it be the will of God, if you are not restored to us earlier,
that you should open this letter, and that it may give you comfort in
all your trials. I feel sure that you must all have suffered much, and
perhaps, when you are met with, it may be in a state of great exhaus-
tion, and your numbers even may be diminished, and many a bitter
trial you may have had to bear. May you have found your refuge
and strength in Him whose mercies you have so often experienced
when every human aid was gone. If the prayers of all who love you
have availed with that merciful God whose ear is ever open to the
cry of all who trust to Him, you will yet be spared to us. But we
know that His ways are not always such as we can adore without the
subjection of many human feelings to the exercise of the humblest
and deepest faith. I try to prepare myself for every trial which
may be in store for me ; but, dearest, if you ever open this, it will be,
I trust, because I have been spared the greatest of all. Next to you
I think of dear Captain Crozier. I trust you have never been forced
to separate, and that you have been a mutual comfort to each other.
. . . We have not had any serious uneasiness about you till lately.
I felt sure you meant to have returned last autumn, though your letter
to me from Disco contemplated the possibility — at least the words
were capable of this interpretation — of staying out a third winter,
and everybody thinks you would not return till forced by the want
of provisions. Sir James Ross thinks you have been sent by your
instructions to a part where you could hardly fail of being inextricably
entangled in the ice, somewhere about 73° N. and 105° W. Indeed,
I believe he thinks you can never unassisted get out of it.

Here, it should be noted, are traces of that singular mis-
conception of Franklin's mtended route which for so long
led the search parties astray, and through which so much
invaluable time was lost. Longitude 105° W. is some
seven or eight degrees west of the point at which Franklin
turned to the southward, and is thus far nearer to Melville
Island and that part of the Arctic Ocean which Franklin —
it must, or should, have been well known to Ross and all
other commanders of searching parties — had been expressly
counselled to avoid.

Lady Franklin goes on to speak of her stepdaughter
Eleanor's approaching marriage to Mr. Gell ; of Sir John
Richardson, then about to marry a third wife ; of the pre-
parations for Sir James Ross's departure on the search ex-
pedition, and many matters relating to friends and family

K K 2

1 : '4

420

A DEVOTED "WIDOWHOOD

CU. XXIV.

M.-'l't i

\Kv tn

which she thought would interest her long absent husband.
She concludes : —

God bless you, my own dearest love. How ardently we pray for
you you will not doubt. It was settled between us and the Bishop of
Tasmania, who has lately left us, that on July i6 next prayers should
be put up in Van Diemen's Land in every church and chapel for you
and all the expedition. It would have been a less trial to me to come
after you, as I was at one time tempted to do, but I thought it my
duty and my interest to remain ; for might I not have missed you, and
would it have been right to leave Eleanor ? Yet, if I had thought you
to be ill, nothing should have stopped me. God bless you again.
You will be welcomed back with joy and honour by your friends
and family and country, most of all by your affectionate and devoted
wife.

In May 1850 the substance of the letter went out a
second time to the Arctic seas by the hand of the vetcian
Sir John Ross, who had, as he put it, * given his word,' and
had ' publicly stated that he would come to look for Franklin '
if he was absent longer than three years. By this time even
Lady Franklin could no longer believe that the explorers
were still on board their ships.

We are all prepared to hear that you have been forced to abandon
them, or that one of them is lost. If you are only restored to us
in any way, enfeebled as you may be, I shall bless God for the mercy.
If you live to read this and receive my fondest blessing, I will thank
Him still. I desire nothing but to cherish the remainder of your
days, however injured and broken your health may be, but in all
cases I will strive to bow to the Almighty will and trust in His mercy
for reunion in a better world.

The letter came back to the writer in the following year ;
but ere it reached her the expiring flame of hope had been
rekindled in her bosom by the discoveries at Beechey
Island, and she despatched it again in 1851 under cover
with the following : —

The enclosed letter was brought back to me this autumn by Sir
John Ross on his return froin Lancaster Sound. To our extreme
disappointment all the ships sent out in search of you by the Govern-
ment returned also. These included four under Captain Austen,
and two, called the Lady Franklin and the Sophia, under Captain
Penny, the whaling captain. Captain Austen during last spring sent

18.50-53

FROM THE LIVING TO THE DEAD

421

Inder cover

off travelling parties to Melville Island (where /felt sure you would
not be found, at least on the south side) and also south-west of Cape
Walker, where they judged no ship could ever have passed. Captain
Penny took another direction and went up Wellington [Channel]
with sledges, and convinced himself you had gone that way in open
water. They all had previously found your winter quarters in 1845-6
at Beechey Island. Penny had not materials to pursue his search
another year, so returned home this autumn as well as the rest, and
now another expedition is to start in the spring to pursue the course
through Wellington Channel. The little ' Prince Albert ' private
expedition is attempting to reach James Ross Strait and Simpson
Strait to search for you in that direction.

This was the expedition under Mr. Kennedy, which resulted
in the discovery of Bellot Strait.

On the other, the Behring Strait, side, Captain Collinson and
Captain McClure have passed through Behring Strait eastward towards
Melville Island, but I fear in too low a latitude to fall in with you
and too near the coast of America to be able to get along.

Lastly, the bearer of this letter, Lieutenant Pirn, R.N., has gone
out alone, supported by the Russian authorities, to seek for you on
the north and east coasts of Siberia and the islands to the north,
where, if God in His great mercy should bless his endeavours, you may
open this letter full of consolation and joy to your broken-down and
suffering heart. I hope you have never for a moment thought that
your country had forgotten you or left you to your fate. You have
felt sure that /could never rest till we had some tidings of you. It is
my mission upon earth, my heart's sole thought, the one only object
and occupation of all my faculties and energies. Dearest husband, I
live only for you.

Eleanor and her husband are going on well in the same position
in London. . . .

Sophy lives almost constantly with me and is to me as a daughter ;
without her aid I should never have been able to get through the
work which God has assigned me, that of striving for your rescue.

Again in 1852, and yet again in 1853, this pathetic letter
from the living to the dead went forth upon its fruitless quest,
to return again and yet again to its writer. In 1854 Dr.
Rae came back with the relics obtained from the Eskimo,
and then at last Lady Franklin ceased to write. That brave
and stubborn faith, the nobler through its very unreason, with
which for eight long years she had clung to the belief in her
husband's survival, had broken down at last. Thenceforward

i r

(

422

A DEVOTKI) WIDOWIIOOT)

CII. XXIV.

she seems to have spoken of herself as the ' widow,' and no
longer as the ' wife ' of the illustrious explorer ; but the
energies which had been so untiringly exerted heretofore in
the attempt to rescue were not relaxed, but simply diverted
into another channel, and she strove, as has been seen, with
a no less heroic resolution to obtain proof of the time and
manner of her husband's death. The story of her faithful and
unresting labours has an eloquence of its own, to which these
letters can add but little ; and if, therefore, though almost
too sacred for the public eye, they are for the first time
printed here, it is much more on account of their pro-
foundly touching interest than with any idea that their
publication is necessary to put the tongue of malignant gossip
to shame and silence.

In this connection, and as evidence of the feeling with
which Lady Franklin was regarded by that kinswoman of
her husband s, who was her constant companion and confidante,
and had better opportunities than any other human being of
correctly estimating the depth of her conjugal affection, the
following letter from Miss Cracroft should here be added. It
was written for consignment to the search party sent out in
1850 by Mr. Grinnell.

, 4

.*.

'\^

i ■;

My dearest Uncle,— If this reaches you it will be given by our
American friends, for friends we must call any who aid in restoring
you to us in safety. It is believed to be without a precedent that a
nition should send forth an expedition to rescue from danger
and from death the people of another, and that this noble in-
stance of liberality, this glorious example is afforded, is due to my
dearest aunt. You will find that she is spoken of with great
enthusiasm by the Americans, and well may it be so, for she has moved
them to do great things. Last year she wrote a letter to the
President, and received a reply calculated to excite not only admira-
tion but the strongest hopes that the Government would immediately
send out an expedition to seek for you. This letter and the reply
was republished from the American papers into our own and it (my
aunt's) was spoken of in the House of Commons by Sir Robert
Inglis as the most admirable letter ever addressed by man or woman
to man or woman. It has everywhere excited the deepest sympathy
and admiration. Unhappily, last year the American Government
were unable to fulfil their benevolent intentions, Congress was not

>i^

. s

en. XXIV.

iw,' and no
r ; but the
erctofore in
ply diverted
1 seen, with
le time and
faithful and
which these
ugh almost
; first time
their pro-
that their
jnant gossip

feeling with
iswoman of
1 confidante,
lan being of
iffection, the
) added. It
sent out in

;iven by our
in restoring
:edent that a
from danger
noble in-
due to my
with great
le has moved
etter to the
only admira-
inmiediately
d the reply
and it (my
Sir Robert
n or woman
St sympathy
Government
ss was not

18m

A DEVOTED LIFE

423

then sitting and it was besides (in April) too late to begin preparations,
no vessels fitted for the service being obtainable.

Meanwhile my aunt kept up frequent communications with the
United States, and particularly with a Mr. Silas Burrows, who formed
our acquaintance in England last summer. Her letters to himself
were seen by Mr. Henry Grinnell, of New York, one of the merchant
princes of that city, and so strongly influenced his mind that he pro-
posed heading a subscription for fitti.ig out a private expedition with
5,ooo dollars. Soon after he raised it to io,ooo dollars, and, upon
seeing my aunt's next following letter, within a fortnight after the
first I have alluded to, he made his contribution 15,000 dollars.
Upon hearing of his first donation my aunt wrote to thank him for it,
and when he read this letter he immediately augmented her contribu-
tion to the splendid gift of 30,000 dollars, selected his vessel and his
officers who belong to the United States navy, and, with probably
some assistance, will send them off early in May in search of you.

You must not suppose that my aunt has attained this wonderful
result by using entreaties or by beseeching help. It has been ac-
complished by the force of dignity, simplicity, and earnestness,
united to a most extraordinary extent in herself

And to these qualities may in very great degree be attributed
the universal sympathy now experienced in England, for there is not
a woman in the kingdom so universally honoured and esteemed as
your wife. I cannot express to you how entirely I honour and love
her, and to be permitted to endeavour to comfort her and share her
sorrow is a privilege which I value above every other. Her devoted-
ness, her perseverance, and entire acquaintance with every part of the
question of search for you, combined wich her extraordinary mental
endowments, have given her an influence which is really wonderful,
and of which people in general see only the results. It is only for
one who, like myself, has witnessed her efforts, to recognise and ap-
preciate them, though there are some who do so nearly to the utmost,
and these are your nearest and dearest friends. Full and complete
indeed will be her reward if you are restored to her in safety, com-
pensation even for all she has suffered.

Not much more remains to be written of this brave and
devoted life, despite the length of years from this date to
which it was yet to run. For it was one long dedication to
Franklin's memory, and its history would resolve itself, so
far as the purposes of this narrative are concerned, into a
record of daily solicitude and effort for the preservation of
that memory to the world. Assisted in this task by Miss
Cracroft, the attached and faithful companion of her closing

424

A DEVOTED WIDOWHOOD

CH. XXIV.

tM.

years, whose love and admiration for her found such eloquent
expression in the letter given above, Lady PVanklin spent
the remainder of her life in the diligent collection of those
materials for a memoir of her husband which have been
employed for the purposes of this volume. In this mass
of epistolary and other matter, numbering more than two
thousand documents of various descriptions, is included all
the correspondence, not only of, but with, her husband of
which Lady Franklin could obtain originals or copies. Every
scrap of 'vritten paper which had felt the touch of his hand,
and which bore, even in the remotest degree, on the incidents
or interest.': cf his life, was carefully treasured up, often, it is
evident, as a relic rather than a document. His various
commissions in the navy, the official instruments attesting the
successive honours conferred upon him, the roughest drafts
of his memoranda as commander of ships or leader of
expeditions, the maps and plans employed by him on his
voyages and journeyings, the note-books, diaries, letter-books,
and what not, to which he, the most regular and laborious of
chroniclers, committed a record of the discharged duties or
the encountered dangers of the day — everything, down even to
his ' reader's ticket ' at the British Museum, and, as we have
seen, the card of invitation to the ball on board that ship
in which he was to die, has been religiously preserved. The
papers relating to his midshipman days on board the
Polyphemus and the Bellerophon are, of course, the fewest in
number, and equally of course belong in most instances to
the class of relics, rather than of memoires pour servir, but
their human interest is often none the less for that, and the
tender light which is thrown on the nature of her who
preserved them by (for instance) the worn and faded, but
carefully arranged and labelled, packet of papers which now
lies before me inscribed with the words, ' Sir John Franklin's
French Exercises,' gives them a value of their own.

Nor was the diligent collector of these records less solici-
tous for the perpetuation of her husband's memory in other
ways. Everything which appeared in any public form about
him was regularly read and became the subject of her com-

CH. XXIV.

18r>9-()o

MOi\UMENT.S TO l-ltANKLIN

425

ment or correction. She was especially interested in the
bioj^raphical accounts of her husband which appeared from
time to time in various publications, one of which was
contributed by his old friend Sir John Richardson to the
eighth edition of the * Encyclopaedia l^ritannica,' and she
interested herself earnestly in the proposal of I'Vanklin's
Lincolnshire fellow-citizens to erect a statue in his honour.

' I read with deep emotion of the disinterested honour proposed
to be paid by the City of Lincoln,' she writes, addressing the town
clerk of that municipality, 'to the memory of my dear husband, and
I hope I may be permitted, without intruding myself too much on
your attention, to express the gratitude I feel at the generous expres-
sion of your esteem for your departed countryman. Had that humble-
minded but heroic man ever contemplated any higher reward in his
hard career of service than the consciousness of having fulfilled his
duty to the utmost, he would have desired no higher honour than the
tribute you dedicate to him and to those beloved companions of his
toil and danger whose honour and imerests he ever identified with
his own.

I strive to think that, though these martyrs in their country's
service knew not of the fraternal hands that were stretched out to
save them, they yet must have felt assured, living and dying, that
their memories would be embalm'^d in the hearts of their country-
men, and that whether the discovery which they sealed in death were
ever revealed to the world ot not, yet that their name would be
inscribed among those which will i\e\fr be forgotten.

Again I thank you for thus realising, and more than realising, the
dreams which perhaps helped to iill ^.heii dying hours. It will be to
the lasting honour of the county of n>y beloved husband's birth that
it originated the generous movement which I trust will spread as
widely as you kindly contemplate. May I beg the favour of you to
convey to those gentlemen who, with you, have originated or are
co-operating in it, my grateful sentiments ?

Yet how her sorrow for her husband was tempered by
pride in his achievements, and in what a spirit, worthy of
ancient times, she could still bring herself to look upon that
national work which had cost her all that was dearest to her
in the world, is well seen from the letter she wrote to Sir
Roderick Murchison, when projects of Polar exploration
were again afoot in 1865.

Although I have little doubt you know from some of our friends
that they have written to me on the subject of the expedition, yet I

I 'i

"^T .Jp-

f'.ll

ill:

426

A DEVOTI'I) \\1D0WII0()I)

(11. XXIV.

)., ill

V i.

(r J.

i ■

.'?!

cannot leave it to them alone to tell you how very deeply I sympathise
with the proposed effort, and how earnestly I wish it may be realised.
For the credit and honour of England the exploration of the North
Pole should not be left to any other country. . . .

I am sending you these '.ines because I do not wish you to think it
I)Ossible that my interest c.ui flag in anything connected with Arctic
enterprise ; and though at first sad memories of the past made me
feel some sickness of heart at the revival of the question, I hove
struggled against that weakness and overcome it. . . . It would in-
deed be unreasonable and much to be deplored if the fate of my dear
husband and his companions were to be made an official objection to
Arctic exploration. They met with the unhappy end which has often
befallen the pioneers of tentative and dangerous enteri)rises, but they
rest alone in their awful calamity. Every succeeding expedition
sailed with better ships, better e(iuii)inents, better charts, better sup-
ports, and with ever-increasing knowledge ; and thus it has hap-
pened that no naval service on the face of the globe exhibits on the
average so few casualties as that in the Polar Seas. You have justly
said that ' in the proposed expedition no such calamity can be dreaded,
for it has no analogy to the case of Franklin.'

The project of erecting a memorial to the great explorer
in his native county was not unfittingly modified by the
substitution of his actual birtliplacc for the City of Lincoln
as the site of the proposed statue ; and in the market square
of Spilsby it was duly erected, and now stands. A local
tribute of honour, however, would have been a wholly in-
adequate recognition of a fame which was world-wide, and
it would have been a shame to England if one who had
added lustre to her name had been left without any token of
her gratitude visible among the monuments of her capital.

This national duty was at last fulfilled. A sum of 2,000/.
was voted by Parliament for the erection of that monument
which now stands in Waterloo Place to the memory of ' the
great navigator and his brave companions who sacrificed their
lives in completing the discovery of the North- West Passage,
A.D. 1847-1848.'

Lady Franklin felt, however, that the fame and services of
her husband were entitled to record in that national shrine
in which it has always been the ambition of the noblest
Englishmen to obtain a resting-place for their ashes, or a
perpetuation of their names. One of the last, if not the very

<«4 I

,11

(•II. XXIV.

y I sympathise

ay be realised.

of the North

you to think it
id with Arctic
)ast made me
cstion, I hove
. It would in-
ate of my dear
al objection to
hich has often
)iises, but they
ng expedition
'ts, better sup-
is it has hap-
ixhibits on the
ou have justly
an be dreaded,

reat explorer
lified by the
y of Lincoln
larket square
ids. A local
a wholly in-
rld-wide, and
inc who had
any token of
er capital.
;um of 2,000/,
it monument
mory of ' the
acrificcd their
Vest Passage,

1865-7/5

LADY riJANKLIN'S DKATIF

437

last, of her labours on behalf of her husband's memory was
the erection of a marble monument of Sir John I'ranklin in
Westminster Abbey, which was unveiled in July 1875, only a
fortnight before she herself passed away at the age of eighty-
three. She had wished to write the epitaph itself, but she
died before she had time to perform that final work, and it
was her husband's nephew by marriage, the late Poet Laureate,
who afterwards, as all the world knows, added to it that
inscription which has given a second immortality to the
liero whom it celebrates :

Not here ! the white North hath thy bones, and thou,

Heroic sailor soul.
Art passing on thy happier voyage now

Towards no earthly pole.

Hardly less beautiful were the words appended to it by
Dean Stanley in record of the event so pathetically close in
sequence to it— Lady I^-anklin's death. The monument to
Franklin was, it runs, ' erected by his widow, who, after long
waiting and sending many in search of him, herself departed
to seek and to find him in the realms of light.'

£*i

id services of

Ltional shrine

the noblest

ashes, or a

not the very

428

C'HAKAlTKU AM) CAUKMU

CM XXV.

i: i

i»

\^^

CHAPTER XXV

CIIARACTKR AM) CAUEKK

1786-1847

Personal reminiscences of Franklin have become rare and
difficult to obtain. Born fourteen years before the close of
the last century, he has naturally left no surviving contem-
poraries in the strict sense of the word, and nearly all even of
those who ever came into contact with him after they them-
selves had reached years of maturity have now sunk into the
grave. The companions of his adventures and sufferings,
some of whom were considerably younger than himself and
outlived him many years, have all long since passed away.
Sir John Richardson, the one man, perhaps, who knew him
best and was the most closely attached to him by ties both
of friendship and affinity, is no more. Sir George Back has
been dead nearly twenty years and Sir James Clark Ross
more than thirty. Sir Edward Parry, the object of Franklin's
lifelong regard and generous admiration, did not even live to
witness the discovery of the last record of his friend.

Of his relatives, the children and grandchildren of his
brothers and sisters, many still survive, but even to the elder
of the two generations of boys and girls their sailor uncle was
but a mysterious and heroic figure, seldom, and then only for
very brief periods, revealed to them in the flesh. Hence their
recollections of him, though often interesting and touching,
are necessarily among the memories of the very young.
They remember him, that is to say, from a day when the
oldest among them was not much over ten or twelve years of
age and he himself not much under fifty. Those relatives of
blood or affinity who had reached adult years before he left
England for the last time, and who might have preserved the

!». ! '

CJl XXV.

1780-1847

Mil. GKLL'S UICMINISCENCES

4-29

e rare and
e close of
^ con*em-
all even of
hey them-
ik into the
sufferings,
imself and
sed away,
knew him
r ties both

Back has
ark Ross

ranklin's
en Hve to

n of his
the elder
uncle was

only for
nee their
ouching,
young,
vhen the

years of
latives of
re he left
rved the

impressions left by him upon mature minds, had been, with
a single exception, separated from him by many thousand
miles of .sea during the time when such impressions might
have been forincd. The one exception is that of the Rev.
Philip Gell.who, then a young man fresh from the University,
made Franklin's accpiaintance within the last ten years of the
explorer's life, and lived for four or five of those years in close
and sympathetic intercourse with his future father-in-law.
Mr. Gell has, at the request of the writer, been good enough to
supply the following vivid and intcrcs<:ing reminiscences of
Franklin during his Australasian career.

' It is fifty years since I'Vanklin bade me his last farewfill,
and the tcvv letters I had from him afterwards were on family
matters. But I wish I could send you some photographs as
they are still imprinted on my memory of his manner and
actions. I first felt his attraction on the day I found myself
(a boy) kneeling by his side in Rugby Chapel to take the
Communion at Arnold's hands. And only seven years later,
in a .sequestered anchorage of Tasmania, that sorrowful face,
so kind and true, looked on me for the last time as he was
leaving for ICnglaud.

' I remember sharing a small tent with him on one of his
expeditions, and being much impressed, as I was falling asleep
in the deep darkness of the primaeval forest, by hearing his
devotions before he lay down on his bed of ferns. Forgetful,
apparently (he was deaf), of any one's presence, he spoke
aloud and softly at the Throne of Grace with affecting inter-
cessions for tho.se dear to him ; and his prayers were those of
a child.

' His mode of handling infants was delightful. He was a
very strong man, and the little ones seemed to revel in his
arms ; and he, on his ,part, seemed to " follow their innocency,"

'When, in 1840-41, the Antarctic expedition put into
winter quarters, under his congenial care, his grave delight
at their presence, and his interest in their ways and doings,
made them twice the men they were before, and nerved them
for their grand discoveries. He would sit up all night with
the young officers at their magnetic observatory, taking his

■

1
I

P '4

f<;:'1

iUH

ll , i

' r ■ t

480

CHARACTER AND CAREER

CIl. XXV,

turn at the instruments, and in the three-minute intervals of
observation trying to read Shakespeare, mingled with jokes
and stories of the sea.

A miniature Vice-regal Court was in those times a curious
appendage of a Crown colony. On high days and holidays
ill's way was worth observing. Humour would sparkle in
his eye as certain of his grandees rendered their ungainly
homage. Yet he " honoured all men ; " and all honoured him.
And when the outside multitude drew him home in his
carriage, he took it like a sailor in a breeze of wind, and they
liked him all the more. No one ever heard that they did so
to other Governors. His presence seemed to satisfy a want.

' When attending him on board a newly arrived convict
ship from England, I heard him speak to the prisoners with
such candour, firmness, and kindness, that it really seemed
as if he felt more than ttiey — which perhaps he did. C.^>
:ainly they liked him for it, and began, some of them, to love
him.

' Chicanery he could not away with ; it made him ill, and
so paralysed him that when he had to deal with it he was
scarcely himself.

' More than once his health was shaken under the burden
of three thousand convicts, annually thrown upon his hands
from England. There were elements of violence and cor-
ruption to be controlled, fierce, dangerous, and foul. And
truly it was sickening work.

* Almost as paralysing, to a man of his temper, v/ere the
vagaries of sundry weak and wilful officials, who had made
their way into the service of the Crown.

' Ana he found another source of hopeless sorrow in the
fate of the perish'ng Aborigines. One evening his reception
rooms at Government House were filled by local magnates,
and showy uniforms, and bright daughters of the colony, with
music and singing, when a man in livery came up to his
Excellency, bearing a sheet of gum-tree bark, half as large
as himself. It had been brought that night from the depths
of the forest, a hundred miles away ; the forest which it was
hoped and believed had been long since cleared of blacks.

' IWllblL. .

1768-1847

MR. GELL'S REMINISCENCES

431

The bark bore the charcoal picture of a kangaroo, freshly
made by a native. An anxious future of bloodshed and
reprisals rose before the company. The word on every lip
was, "Catch them." But the Governor remained sorrowful
atid silent ; as one who dealt with an insoluble problem.

* There was a wild girl taken in the woods, where
her father and mother had perished ; and when she was
brought before Sir John he pointed to her, saying, " What
name ? " She wore nothing but a necklace of small bright
shells, strung on a sinew. Thinking that he asked after that,
she said, " Methinna " — native for necklace. So he gave her
i.he name, and entrusted her ;.; the care of his own daughter.
Soon a scarlet tunic was provided ; and the little one proved
a good girl, though her tempestuous passions sometimes
shook the order of the schoolroom at Government House.

' His comfort in the darkest days was his early walk with
his daughter in the beautiful Government garden. She
much resembled him in the nobler pointb of his character ;
his devotion, fortitude, and self-sacrifice ; his endurance, his
generosity, and care for his followers and dependents ; and
she shared his heavenward aspirations. As the)- walked
together, Methinna would De darting about, or climbing the
trees with hand and toe, native fashion, peering down with
wild bri,'/ic eyes out of the lofty foliage upon the two best
friends she had in the world.

' Like his old friend, Sir Edward Parrj-, he was an im-
pressive reader. When his last ship was in commission, the
Bishop (Stanle)') of Norwich would come on board on a
Sunday to " hear " the captain. And what the Bishop liked,
the officers and men liked too. Here is a last letter home
from one of his men :

\ ,v Erebus, May 25, 1845.

We had church this mornipg, and Sir John Franklin read lu us a
very beautiful sermon. Sir John took his text from the xviith chapter,
I Kings, i6th verse, 'And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did
the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord.' Sir John
called tlie ship's rom{)any's attentiuu to that part of the sermon : and
the whole of the ship's company were very nuch pleased with Sir
John's appropriate text, and united in this point of view with Sir John,

iljli

.■^ -**?"

! tl'/

489

(1IARA(TER AND CARKKR

CII. XXV.

to accomplish our object which we have in view. And that with the
help of the Almighty, I verily believe [we shall]. I have just received
orders to pass the word for all th?*^ wish to attend divine service to
go aft into Sir John's cabin at 8 o'clock this evening. And, my
dearest Anne, I shall always go as long as I am able. I could remain
for hours to hear him.'

f i

4 1/

\) .

One or two anecdotes derived from the recollections of the
Rev. Canon Wright, the .son of Sir John Franklin's youngest
sister, Henrietta, have already appeared in the text. Their
narrator has now kindly enabled mc to supplement them
with the contribution following : —

' In reply to your letter asking for any personal reminis-
cences I might have of Sir John Franklin I am sorry to say
that these are necessarily very few. I have a dim recollection
of his coming to my father's house at "VA'rangle just before he
went out to Van Diemen's Land in 1836, and, tho«i3gh I was
then the merest child, I can see him now in rmagination
standing before the fire in the dining-room, rather deaf but
engaged in earnest conversation with my father and mothci
about other members of the family, in whom he manifestctl
the greatest interest. The next and only other time 1 saw
htm was at Boston, at the house of Mr. Millington (my
father's brother-in-law), who kindly invited Sir John's rela-
tives in Lincolnshire to meet him there, a tew day^s before he
left England, in May 1845. Just then I was fired with the
English boy's idea of becoming a sailor, and so, in my sim-
plicit}% I begged my mother to ask him whether he could
take me with him on the approaching expedition. I ex-
pressed my readiness to go even as ^ poicder-mo)ike)\ though
exactly what the duties of a powder-monkey were I had no
very definite knowledge, except that they wee of an inferior
description. I remember very distinctly his reply ; placing
his hand on my shoulder he said, " No, my boy, ! cannot
take you. We must have in this service no cats that can't
catch mice. Do your duty and what your mother tells yo'i,
and when I come back I will .see what can be done for you."
The dear old sea captain has never returned ; but on my part,
God helping me, I have tried to follow out his last instruc-

'«.d«MiMMRjHMV1»T«1'-

CH. XXV.

liat with the
ust received
; service to
And, my
3uld remain

ions of the
5 youngest
xt. Their
nent them

il reminis-

)rry to say

eco) lection

t before he

^^.^^h I was

Tiagination

er deaf but

uid mother

manifested

time 1 saw

nf:jton (my

ohn's rcla-

before he

with the

n my sim-

he could

I ex-

•ej\ though

2 I had no

an inferior

; placing

, I cannot

that can't

tells yov,

for you."

n my part,

st instruc-

178(5-1847 CANON AVRICIIT'.S RECOLLECTIOXS

438

tions, and to my doing so I owe whatever of success in life I
may have attained.

• I have, not unfrequcntly, heard my mother sp:ak of Sir
John Franklin in earlier days. They were nearly of the same
age, and as children often together. When he was a small
boy he used to make it his practice to attend all the weddings
and funerals that occurred in Spilsby Church, and hence it
may be, as vvel) as from the religious tone of his character, that
it was thought that he would be favourably disjjosed to taking
Holy Orders, and the living of Holton Beckering, near VVragby,
was obtained for him under that expectation. On one occa-
sion he and his playmates were competing with one another
as to the position of future distinction which each should aim
at. This one would be content with the occupation of a
country squire, with carriages and horses, etc., that one with
some great military achievement against the French ; but
John, as the discussion went on, perceiving that the whole
field of earthly ambition was rapidly being swept from his
grasp, impatiently exclaimed, " And /'// get a ladder and c/nni
to Heaven ! " Verily it would seem that even at that early
age he had caught the spirit of Glaucus, when he tells Diomede
in the 6th Book of the Iliad that he had learnt

Alsv apicTTSiisiv, Koi vTrslpo-^ov sfi/xsvai aXXxov.

' The boys of the IVanklin family were generally considered
to be the "defenders of the right" at Spilsby, and some
amusing stories have been^told of their prowess in this respect

' Mrs. Drummond Rawnsley, a daughter of his brother,
Sir Willingham Franklin, Judge of the Supreme Court of
Judicature at Madras, luld me shortly before she died that
after her confirm.ation she met with Sir John Franklin in
London, who asked her whether she had ever attended the
Holy Communion, and on her replying in the negative, he said,
with the air of one who considered that a most important
standing order had been broken, " Why, my dear, this is all
wrong ; you must be prepared to go with me on Sunday
morning next. I shall come for you.' And he came, and
with him she made her first Communion.

F F

434

CIIAIlACTEl} AND CAIIEEII

CII. XXV.

^l'-.-

' I have asked my cousin, Lady Tennyson (who was also
my godmother, and therefore older than myself), whether she
has any Interesting recollections, but like my own they arc
not many. She replies : " I am sorry I can contribute nothing
which seems to me worthy of Mr. Traill's Biograph}-. My
uncle was a great deal with my father during my mother's
lifetime, but, of course, I rcnutnber nothing of th/s, since I
lost my mother when I was only three years old. My first
recollection of him is that, when carried in my nurse's arms
to her funeral, I touched his shoulder and asked, ' What are
they doing ? ' My last is when, just before his latest Arctic
expedition, I saw him at Somerset House, and, if my memory
fail not, he said, ' Remember. iMnily, if I do not return when
I am expected, I havo made for the open sea at the Pole."

* Personally I have always had the warmest admiration
of Sir John Franklin's character, based not only on what I
have heard from those who knew him well, but also on a large
correspondence of his which has come into my possession.
He seems to have been always so brave and generous, so
able, unselfish, and affectionate, so unshrinkingly true in his
duty to God and man.'

Mrs. G. B. A. Lefroy, a surviving sister of Miss Sophia
Cracroft, so often referred to in the foregoing pages, writes as
follows :

' With respect to the suggestion that 1 may be able to
supply some personal reminiscences of my uncle, Sir John
Franklin, I regret very much that I can add but little worth
publishing. He was so seldom on shore, and for such short
intervals, and although my mother, Mrs. Thomas Cracroft
(who was left a widow at an early age), and her children were
always objects of his interest and most afiectionate care, I
cannot remember his ever staying with us except for a few
weeks at Castle Hedingham, Essex, soon after his return from
Tasmania and shortly before he obtained the command of
the Erebus and Terror. Although he was very fond of the
companionship of children and young people, 1 recollect that
his usually grave and serious manner rather awed us, although
he liked a joke and had a most loving and affectionate nature.

!i|M:

»-■ «; ;

1786-1847 MRS. LEFUOY'S llECOLLECTIOXS

435

He was quick in reproving faults of habit and manner, and
would not hesitate to try to correct them by good advice,
which I suppose is not always palatable to children. Some
of my sisters had the very objectionable habit of biting their
nails, which he could not endure, and when taking a walk
with him round the garden and into the country, in which he
delighted, they avoided, if possible, taking his hand, that they
might escape the detection of a bitten nail which would bring
down a reproof.

' He was a devourer of books of every kind, and nothing
pleased him more than to be let alone. When thus employed
and oblivious of all around him, he would pass many a happy
hour undisturbed.

' He disliked notoriety and never sought it. He was never
so happy as when afloat. Soon after his return from one of
his early Arctic voyages, my mother told me he joined her at
Brighton. The Court was then resident there at the Pavilion,
and the place crowded. My unclj attracted a good deal of
observation when out of doors, aiid this he avoided as much
as possible. On one occasion, h^vvever, from the midst of a
crowd who recognised him, a voice called out, " That's the
man who ate his shoes," much to his amusement.

' To iiiu.strate his determination of character, a few weeks
before he left England on his last voyage he took a house in
Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, for the purpose of taking
leave of his friends and of making acquaintance with the
officers selected to accompany him. He was there attacked
by a severe influenza cold, the first illness, I believe, he ever
had, although he never took to his bed but went about as
usual, and was much occupied in preparations for final
departure. His medical attendant recommended him to
leave off his lifelong habit of taking snuff. He undertook
to do this, andi although I suppose he could scarcely have
realised the great strain such a sudden abandonment of the
habit would entail, he never wavered in his determination or
shrank from the scli'-denial. He used to endeavour to supply
the loss of the stimulant with strong smelling salts and harts-
horn, and so he persevered and never resumed the old-

F K 2

436

CHARACTER AND CAREER

CH. XIV.

fashioned ibit of those days. Would an habitual smoker
of these days siiovv as much self-denial and determination?

' I heard from my sister that a few days before he sailed on
his last voyage his wife, the late Lady Franklin, was putting a
finishing touch to a union-jack he was to take with him, and,
as he lay on the sofa, she threw it over him, which distressed
him, and he exclaimed, " Oh Jane ! what have you done ? "
alluding, of course, to the popular superstition which has
arisen from the use of the union-jack as a shroud for the
bodies of those who are buried at sea.' *

Among those still spared to us who knew Franklin vv^ell
in the later years of his life was, it may be remembered, the
distinguished diplomatist Sir Henry Elliot. In an article
contributed by him to a monthly review a few years ago,
on the subject of Admiral Markham's then recent mono-
graph on the great explorer. Sir Henry speaks of himself
as • having, as a very young man, lived for three years as one
of the family in the home of Sir John Franklin, for whom,' he
adds, he had ' the affection of a son for his father.' How true
a description of the feeling with which his sometime private
secretary regarded Franklin, the correspondence which passed
between them after the former's quitting Tasmania to enter
the diplomatic service amply proves, and Franklin's recipro-
cation of this filial sentiment no less fully deserves to be
described as paternal. No breath of dis-agreement ever seems
to have ruffled the tranquillity of relations which only good
nature, good sense, and tact on both sides could have main-
tained for three years in unbroken smoothness. Not many
more men are angels to their private secretaries than are
heroes to their valets ; and that the youth of twenty, necessarily
inexperienced in his duties,should have lived to look back on his

' Mrs. Lefrnyrtdds this (urioup little
anecdote in illustration of the manners
of the forties : ' A large party of rela-
tions and friends went down to Grcen-
hithf, to see the last of the Erebus and
Terror, and to share in the final fare-
wells and the sanguine hopes for a
si'cedy return. On their way home the

party passed through Greenwich Park
during the notorious Cireenwirh Fair,
and one of the party, a great friend and
admirer of my uncle, the late Bishop of
Norwich (Stanley), was knocked down
and had his pockets emptied, and all
were glad to escape.'

! V

CH. XXV.

1 smoker
lation ?
sailed on
putting a
him, and,
distressed
I done?"
/hich has
d for the

nklin well
bered, the
an article
/^ears ago,
:nt mono-
)f himself
irs as one
whom,' he
How true
ac private
ich passed
to enter
s recipro-
[ves to be
ver seems
inly good
ve main-
lot many
than are
[ecessarily
;ick on his

jnwi

.ich Park
rh Fair,

lu fncnd anil

^te Bishop of

ocked down

lied, and all

1786-1847 Sm HENRY ELLIOT'S TESTLMONY

487

intercourse with the busied and worried, not to say 'badgered,'
governor of a not easily governable colony with the feelings
which animate Sir Henry Elliot's retrospect, speaks highly for
the qualities both of the secretary and of the chief ' Franklin's
great characteristic,' he writes, * was his thoughtfulness for
others and his complete absence of thought for himself ; deeply
religious, his duty to God and man was at all times his sole
and only guide ; and when he had once decided what that
duty was, no earthly consideration could turn him a hair's
breadth from it. Of a singularly simple and affectionate
nature, identifying himself with the interests and welfare of
those over whom he was placed, he won their love in an extra-
ordinary degree, and although of highly sensitive feelings, he
was never known to be provoked to use a harsh or hasty
word ; and with such a combination of kindness and resolu-
tion Captain Fitzjames might well describe him as "of all
men the most fitted " to command an expedition sucli as
that in which they both lost their lives.'

The univ^ersal sentiments of respect and affection with
which he inspired the people of that colony, his administration
of which had so untoward a close, have been already noted in
the account of his departure ; and the enthusiasm with which
the colonists bade farewell to him was no momentary emotion.
It may be doubted whether any colonial governor has ever
left behind him more enduring memories of regard. The
generous contribution which was so readily made by the
people of Tasmania to the search expeditions was only one
of many and \arious testimonies to their grateful recol-
lection of their former ruler. Nearly ten years after his
departure the historian of the colony, whose work has
been so frequently quoted in the foregoing pages, paid a
tribute to his character and services which is all the more
valuablr from the candour with which the writer dwells
upon Franklin's inability, as he considers it, to cope with the
difficulties of an office ' for which his former pursuits had not
piupHltHJ hin\.' ' His manner (says Mr. West) was often
pmburraNhiil and hesitating, and presented a contrast to the
quiet vigour of his more able but not more amiable pre-

1
I

!i-J

ill

'i >

438

CHARACTER AND CAREER

ni. XXV.

dcccssor.' Ikit 'the administn-ition of the former was
eminently disinterested. He had no private speculations or
secret agents, and his measures were free from both the taint
and the reproach of corruption. His expenditure greatly
exceeded his official income, and while the plainness of his
establishment and entertainments was the topic of thought-
less censure, the charities of his family were scattered with a
liberal hand.' The writer might have added that Franklin
declined an increase of salary voted him by the colonial
Legislature.

Another witness, of the same profession as this writer, the
Rev. T. L. Ewing, writing from Newtown Parsonage, assures
Lady Franklin that her ' husband's name is never mentioned
here without an endearing epithet. So true is it that people
only value their blessings rightly when they have lost them.'
And how his memory lived in the hearts of the humblest and
most despised class of the community, the following most
interesting letter from Commander Pasco to Lady Franklin
in 1858 will show : —

The circumstance which has induced \ne to write direct to you
instead of to Miss Cracroft as usual, is tha; of meeting an old man
yesterday as I was travelling through the bush about ten miles from
this place down the Murray.

Overtaking a wtary traveller on foot, with his bundle of bedding
on his back, and learning on enquiry that he had walked up from the
Darl'ng, a distance of at least 200 miles, I could not help offering
to dismount ana give him a lift for a few miles ; which he declined
for himself but accepted for his jzw?i^, as he termed his bedding. We
jogged along talking of his long journey, which he made light of.

I soon ascertained that he had been a prisoner, and in reply to my
question, how long he had been free, he said, ' Oh, that dear old
gentleman Sir John gave me my free pardon for going to Macquarie
Harbour with him.' 1 did not at once discover to him that I had
any knowledge of that event, but let him relate to me the details of
the journey. I cannot tell you liow my heart warmed towards the
old man as he enlarged on your and our beloved and revered
absent one. Especially was I .struck with the vivid impression left on
the man's mind by the nplni "'i nf his chief to encourage and support
those of the parly who nilj^iu nppear to despond. ' Oh sir ! ' he said,
'ytiu should hint' seen him rlirering us up when smoiiiered in snow
under the "Frenchman's cap." " Come, come, my boys !" he would .say,

i t

oil. XXV.

1780-1847 AN EX-CONVICT ON THE (UWElJNOli

439

ler was

;itions or
the taint

greatly
ss of his
thought-
id with a
Franklin

colonial

ritcr, the
2, assures
leiiUoncd
it people
(st them.'
blest and
ing most
l^^-anklin

ect to you
I old man
miles from

af bedding
from the
3 offering
declined
ing. We
ht of
ply to my
dear old
lacquarie
lat I had
details of
wards the
revered
ion left on
d support
he said,
d in snovk'
would say,

" this is nothing at all, you should laugh at this ! " And when we got
on short tucker (to use old Smith's own phrase for provisions) there
was a doctor chap who wanted to cut us short and keep a full allow-
ance for tiiu gentry and Lady I'lanklin (fur she was there too), but
Sir John said, " No, no ; let us go short, if you like, and give it to the
men who do the work," for,' said Smith, 'there was one gentleman
with a hammer who used to load us with big stones [doubtless some
ardent geologist of the party], but Sir John was always our friend.'

1 could fill a quire with his anecdotes, including some of yourself
being borne in a sort of sedan they rigged up for you ; but sometimes
you let your maid have a spell. I let him run on with his tale, and I
cannot describe his astonishment on hearing how near I was to the
party when it (piitted Macquarie Harl)our. Sniitli has beeu many
years shepherding in the neighbourhood, and is on his way to a new
station.

It is satisfactory to find that he made such good use of
the liberty obtained for him fourteen years before. He was,
of course, one of the men whose release had been maliciously
commented upon by the Tasmanian press, and in his account
of the ' rigged-up sedan ' we find the germ of the calumnious
legend which represented l^'ranklin as dispensing the royal
favour, as a sort (jf Oriental satrap, to the bearers of his wife's
* palanquin.'

The honour in which his name was so long held in this
distant part of the globe is in some sort typical of his general
fame. In the enduring vitality of their affection for Franklin
the people of Tasmania were only supplying, as his country-
men at home had supplied, an impressive illustration of the
grand truth that it is not in what men do but in what they
are that their greatness lies. Franklin's government of the
colony had been marred by contentions and had closed in
storm ; but the instinct of its people told them that the man
was greater than his work. And so, in a certain sen.se, he had
shown himself in every undertaking of his life. Mr. A. H.
Beesly has justly remarked in his interesting monograph on
t^/? famous explorer, pubh.shrd some years ago, that the whole
^jfM'^V'/Vf his exploratioiiH i» a record, if not exactly of failure,
yet my/Mf^ ntid everywhere of inipufiut success, In 1819-22
he accom|/'«h6d a maritime journey o{ great scientific value
under fxtrd(jf4'^ar/ difficulties, jnid lounlll ||h \\i\y lntlUc by

440

CIIARACTEU AM) CAUEElt

CII. XXV.

jl. i

.1 I

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i ■ '"M:

tut ■

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land through appalling privations ; but he did not succeed,
as he had hoped, in completing the survey of the coast of
Arctic America eastward from the mouth of the Coppermine
River. In 1 825-27 he made another large addition to the sum
of geographical knowledge to the west of the Mackenzie ; but
he failed to effect the desired junction with the voyagers from
Behring Strait. In 1S45 he set forth in quest of a north-west
passage, and succeeded only in discovering a route which he
did not live to traverse. Yet the fame which he won for
himself could not have been brighter of lustre or mv^re assured
of perpetuity if he had explored the whole coastline of
Arctic America to the eastward in 1821 and to the west-
ward in 1826, and had sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific
in 1845. His countrymen, .1 id the entire civilised world,
have recognised that the great though imperfect exploits of
the traveller were outshone by the heroic qualities of the man,
and out of the wealth of their own admiration they have made
good his ' inheritance of unfulfilled renown.'

He was moreover endowed, and in a pre-eminent degree,
with a quality which does not always accompany greatness —
the quality of charm. To the abundant evidences of his
many endearing characteristics which have been cited in the
course of this narrative it would be superfluous to add. No
leader ever li\cd who commanded a more enthusiastic de-
votion from his followers. From the comrades whom he
sustained with his indomitable spirit in the frozen wilds of
Arctic America to the convicts who responded so heartily to his
cheery encouragement in the Tasmanian bush, the attraction
of his personality seems to have been felt alike by all. The
fervent piety of his deeply religious nature was never obtruded
by him, never became, as it has too often become with men
of a less genial and humane temperament, a repellent influence
upon those who were not in sympathy with his devout spirit.
There was no touch of self-rightcousncss or spiritual vanity
about him. In this respect he differed as widely as possible
from that peculiar type of officer, well-meaning of motive, but
injudicious of method, who used to be known in the army as
a ' preaching colonel.' Though far from being ashamed of his

1786-1847

FRANKLINS PIETY

441

religion or uiuvilUng to testify in its behalf before the world —
an old messmate of his told his sister that he always con-
sidered th It Franklin 'first introduced religion into the gun-
room ' of the Bedford — his piety was throughout his life
of the sober and practical order natural to an Englishman
born and brought up in the Church of England during
that long period of what certain excitable persons would
call 'stagnation,' which divided the two great 'revivals' of
the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century from each
other. It had no affinities with either the ecstatic or the
ascetic form of the religious emotion, and it was certainly free
from any tt ndency to give undue prominence to faith over
works. It was emphatically the piety of a man of action and
endeavour, of him to whom, though the evening n( vcr fails to
bring the hour of spiritual self-communing and meditation,
the day seems best spent in untiring struggle with the hostile
forces of Nature, best dedicated to that labour which itself is
praj'er. In a word, it was the piety which supported Have-
lock in his swift and splendid march over the burning plains
of India, and Gordon in his lonely vigil at Khartoum ; the
piety which, through generations of our history, has carried so
many strenuous English workers by land and sea through a
life of perils to an heroic death.

And in Franklin's case, as in theirs, it was fused and
interpenetrated with that patriotism which to Englishmen is
itself a religion, and to too many among them the only one
they have. Cradled in the traditions of the most glorious era
of our naval history, it seemed as natural a thing to him that
English sailors should lead the van of maritime exploration
as that English ships of war should command the seas. He
was devoted, as we have seen, from his midshipman days to
the duties, scientific as well as practical, of his calling, and as
for the sea itself, the ardour of his passion for it never abated.
That ' love at first sight ' was also a love for life ; the spell
which was thrown over the schoolboy on the beach at Salt-
fleet remained unbroken to ihe end. ' He was never so
happy,' says Mrs. Lefroy, ' as when afloat.' It is almost
amusing to note how soon at all periods of his career the

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442

rilAllACTEU AXU CAIIEER

CH. XXV.

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III

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landsman's life began to pall upon him— how little of it he
really wanted, and how long a way that little went. Next
to ' active employment,' the one perpetual need of his nature,
the sea and the seaman's life were the objects of his strongest
craving. Rather than remain idle he would govern a colony
willingly enough ; but far rather than govern a colony would he
have taken command of a ship for some adventurous voyage.
All the sailor in his nature came out in the eager enthusiasm
with which he welcomed Ross and Crozicr to Hobart Town,
the almost boyish delight with which he threw himself into
their work, the wistfulness with which he watched the fading
of their sails in those mists of the unknown Antarctic into
which he would so fain have followed them.

With these instincts, moreover, he united the whole tra-
ditional character of the sailor — that character which is dearer
than all others to the national heart. Never has it been repre-
sented in a more typical example. The bluff, straightforward
honesty, the hearty kindliness, the invincible buoyancy of
temperament, the quick impetuosity — they were all there in
Franklin ; and we somehow seem to recognise their latent
presence under whatever uncongenial conditions of circum-
stance and environment. One is certainly conscious of their
suppression during much of the history of his Tasmanian
governorship. That Franklin's intellectual gifts were by :-o
means inconsiderable, his official correspondence shows. His
shrev/d mother wit and sound judgment, his spirit of hep.lthy
contempt for the mawkish, restrained as that spirit was by
genuine goodness of heart from lunninginto harshness, would
have made him, under happier conditions, the ideal ruler of a
penal settlement; for convicts, like children, know well enough
how to distinguish the firm kindness which wins their respect as
well as their love from the weak amiability which, while they
practise on it, they despise. And Franklin, with a freer hand,
would have been an excellent and successful administrator
all round. As a benevolent despot of the early Anglo-Indian
type, he would have been admirably well placed ; as, indeed,
he would have been in any other post entailing a maximum of
practical activity with a minimum of consultation and debate.

1788-1847

Ills FOliTITUDE

443

.:%•

tarctic into

He was a governor born to govern, as has been said, ' from
the saddle' rather than from the council room ; and even
his ablest and most carefully drafted memoranda on trans-
portation, trade, local government, and other colonial matters,
leave the impression that the writer would far rather be illus-
trating his views in p.actice than explaining them on paper.
Among the variety of untoward causes which led to his later
administrative troubles, one may perhaps include a touch of
impatience with an uncongenial situation and its distasteful
duties.

Foremost, however, and most conspicuous among his
qualities was his extraordinary fortitude. Richardson, him-
self a man with immense powers of endurance, was wont to
the end of his days to speak of it with wondering admiration
as without parallel among the hardy race of Arctic explorers
to which they both belonged. It was so much the more
marvellous, he was in the habit of saying, because F'ranklin
owed least of all men to any peculiar advantages of bodily
constitution. The capacity to resist extreme cold is very
unequally distributed among native? of the milder regions of
the earth, and Franklin had not more, but less, than the normal
share. His circulation was slow and his vitality, therefore,
easily lowered. He suffered all his life, and even in England,
from cold hands and feet. Temperament had in his case to
be called in at an unusually early stage to supply the lack of
temperature, and long before his comrades had exhausted
their physical powers of resistance to the rigours of the
Arctic climate, Franklin had been drawing upon moral
resources alone. Yet this was the man, this ' chilly mortal,' of
the sluggish blood and benumbed extremities, who, from the
deadliest of all his struggles with frost and famine, brought
home so untamed a courage and so unshaken a rc\solve that
ere a year had passed he was longing to renew the battle, nay,
eagerly soliciting the order to measure himself once more
against these cruel foes.

But though he loved adventure for adventure's sake, though
he revelled, as strength and daring always revel, in the strife
with difficulty, it was another and a rarer impulse which sent

444

CHARACTER AND CAREER

CH. xjur.

■*;

1» }

^'S'^f^n

him to his death. His highest and truest claim to the rank
of a national hero is that he was filled with that spirit which
is even more national than the love of adventure, more English
even than the passion for the ' great waters ' — the thirst for
the discovery of the unknown. ' They cannot help it, these
Arctic fellows,' said Lord Brougham, when he was told that
Franklin, on the verge of sixty, had set out in quest of the
North-west Passage ; ' they cannot help it ; it is in the blood.'
But it has been in the blood, not of ' these Arctic fellows '
alone, but of their countrymen for centuries past ; in the blood
of Drake and Hawkins, of Cook and Flinders, of Speke and
Livingstone and Stanley. In the veins of Franklin it glowed
with an unquenchable and lifelong ardour. Neither advancing
age nor the distractions of a new career had any power over
it. That blank space on the map of Arctic America haunted
him incessantly for twenty years ; that unbridged gap of
300 miles between the overlapping routes of Dease and
Pai/y would not let him rest. And thus it was that, in the
evening of his life, at a time when most men's thoughts would
be turning to repose, he set forth once more, another Ulysses,

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

The great lines of the poet who was afterwards to write his
epitaph, might almost seem to have been inspired ten years
before by a prophetic prevision of that Homeric figure for whom
' old age had yet its honour and its toil,' and who, more
truly than any man then living, could re-echo that eternal heart-
\,ry of the explorer in every field of search, that

all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravelled world whpse margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.

It was at the call of this insatiable longing that he went
forth to die, and it is for his loyal obedience to that summons
that the nation has placed him unhesitatingly among its heroes.
It is the one form of romantic service — for our patriotism we
can defend as ' practical ' — which Englishmen appreciate. The

1^X^6-1847 HIS TLACE IN OUR HISTORY

446

only war which they will wage ' for an idea ' is the war against
the forces of nature for the prize of an undiscovered world.
How purely ideal is this warfare we have shown again and
again— in our indifference alike to the cost at which it is
prosecuted and to the material value of its gains. That
North-west Passage, on which the hearts of our Arctic voyagers
were so long set, was at last discovered ; and its discovery
was wholly useless to the commerce of the world. Half a
century has nearly passed since then, yet this shadowy channel,
varying yearly with the caprices of the seasons and the driit
of the Polar pack, remains, and will remain, untried. No trader
will ever pick his difficult way through those silent ice-fields
from the Atlantic to the Pacific waters. For all its worth to
mankind, as measured by material standards, the much-desired
passage might as well have been the visionary Eldorado that
seemed to beckon to our seafaring ancestors of three centuries
ago. But, even as the spirit of the great Elizabethan mariners
lived again in the breast of John Franklin, so his place is with
them in our history, and his memory will live with theirs.

(f5>l

! .

London. 6'ianforcCs Geo^Rsb^

* /

Laildoni John Murra

Xaildon; John Murray.

{

I I

li 1

INDEX

; If

ADAM

AOAM, Sir Frederick, lOO

— the interpreter, 06, 105

Aga, Suleiman, 201

Altaitcho, an Indian chief, 80, 105

Allenby, Mr., 8

America, war with, 36

Angoideme, Ducliessc d', 48, 151

Antitjua, governorship of, 232

Aplin, Lieutenant, 198

Arctic explorations, rewards for, 52

Arnold, Dr., estimate of Krankli'i,
234 ; draft of charter for new college
in Tasmania, 253

Arthur, .Sir George, first lieutenant-
governor of Tasmania, 241, 242, 244

Assistance, the, 385, 391 ; a'nandoned,

393
Athens, Franklin's impression of, 165

Augusta, Princess, 212

Augustus, the Eskimo interpreter, 80,

97. 127 . , , ^

Austin, Captam, ni command of the

Resolute, 385 ; the first discovery,

386
Australia, survey of the southern coast

of, 17

Back, Captain C.eorgc, 69, 73, 76 ;
his journey to Fort Chipewyan, 79 ;
obtains supplies, 104 ; joins the
second expedition, 118; promoted
to the rank of commander, 137 ;
sent to the relief of Captain John
Ross, 225 ; traces the course of the
tlreat Fish River, 226 ; fruitless ex-
pedition in the Terror, 227

Backhouse, Mr., Under-Secretary of
State, 214

Banks' Land, 354

Barrow, Sir John, Secretary of the
Admiralty, 51, 331; his scheme for
the Arctic exploration, 51

Bass, Dr., 241

his monograph

Fdward, expe-
Franklin, 391

IIUCHAN

Bathurst, Lord, 277

Bavaria, I'rince Olho of, nominated
to the crown of Greece, 169 ; lands
at Nauplia, 192

Bayou Calatan, 42

Beaufort, Captain, 217, 233, 331

Bedford, the, 29

Beechey, Captain, 'Voyage of dis-
covery towards the Nortli Pole,' 57 ;
his account of the avalanches, 59;
in command of II. M.S. Blossom,
113; off Icy Cai)e, 133

— Island, winter ([uarters at, 357 ; dis-
covery of relics on, 386 ; inscription
erected at, 405

Beesley, Mr. A. II.,

on Franklin, 439
Belanger, J. B., 94
Belcher, Captain Sir

ditit>n in search of

rescues Commander McClure, 393 ;

abandons the ships, 393
Bellcrophon, H.M.S., 25
Bellot Strait, discovery of, 390
Bcnoit, 96

Bicheno, Mr., 311, 317, 319
Bird, Captain, 379
Blackbourne, Mrs., 282
Blessington, Lady, 276
Blossom, H.M.S., 113, 133
Boghoz, Mr., 201
Bolton, Captain Sir William, 48
Booth, Sir Felix, 225

— Mr. John, 4
Boothia Felix, 141
Borgne, Lake, 37
Bowen, Lieutenant, 241

' Brahe, Mr. Tycho,' appellation of,

Briggs, Commissioner, 198
Blown, Mr. Robert, 49, 327, 344
Buchan, Captain David, R.N., in

command of the Dorothea, 54, 56 ;

abandons the enterprise, 64

Ilh

IXDE.V

^:n

miRROWS
Hurrows, Mr. Siliis, 423
Hyron, Lord, 212

Caikns, absence of, 3S9

Ciinndian Tnya^eurs, 80 ; dcinoralisalion
of the, 8()

('anoo, roDstruction of n, 92

Ciipc WalkiT, 354

Chantrey, Mr., the sculptor, anecdote
of, 116

Cheyne, Captain, 30S

Clapperton, casi- of tlie convict, 261

Clarence Kiver, 132

Claughton, Mr. T. L., 151

Clay, Mr., 199

Colmrg, LeoiH)!d of, .accepts the crown
of Cretre, 156; withdraws his con-
sent, 157

('ochrane. Colonel, 198

Cock burn Island, 141

t'ollingwood, Ix)rd, 26

Collinson, Captain, in command of
the Knterpriso, 3S4, 391

Cooke, Captain James, in command of
11. M.S. Ik-llerophon, 25

Copenhagen, battle of, 10-14

Coppermine River, 81, 90

Corfu, residence at, 198

Cornwallis Island, 356

Couch, .Mr., 343

Coverdale, Dr., case of, 300

Cox, his attempt to escape from
Macqunrrie harbour, 272

Cracroft, Miss Sophia, 4; her letter on
the depth of L.idy Franklin's affec-
tion, 422

— Mr. Thomas Robert, 4

Crawford, Mr., 198

Credit, a Canadian 7'oyai^eur, 88, 93

Crews al)andon the Krei)us and Terror,
370 ; their halt at Point Victory, 372 ;
separatiim of the party, 373 ; fate,
374 ; discovery of remains, 376

Crossley, Mr., 16

Crowe, Mr., Consul at Patras, 170 ; his
testimony to the value of Franklin's
services in Creece, 193

Crozier, Capt., in command of the
Terror, 336; succeeds to the com-
mand of the e.xpedilion, 3O7

Cvimby, Capt., 28, 147 ; letter from
Franklin on his duties in Tasmania,
248

Cuvier, Barcn, 149

Dalrymple, General, 33
Dance, Commodore Nathaniel, victf
over French squadron, 22-24

FORT
Danncl, C.ipt., eMract from his record

of meeting Franklin's expedition, 352
Du-se, Mr., 127
Delessert, M., i.;9
Des V(eux, Mr. Ciiirles F., 336, 363
D'Kyncourt, Mr. Tennyson, 14
Dickens, Charles, supports Lady Frank-
lin's appeal in ' Household Words,'

403
Disco Iby, 340, 345. 352
Disraeli, Mr., descrilied by Lady

Franklin, 199, 200; his letter to

Franklin, 276
Distillation, Hill for prohibiting private,

296
Doddridge, his ' Rise and Progress of

Religion,' 79
Dolomieu, Marquis de, 149
Dorothea, the, 54
Dorset, Duke of, 212
DuiKjnt, Capt., 179

EAR!, Camdf.n, on board the, 22

Elliot, Sir Henry, 337; private secre-
tary to Franklin, 295 ; his testimony
to him, 436

• Encyclopivdia Hritannica,'l)iograi)hical
account of Franklin, 425

Enterprise, the, 379, 384, 392

Erelnis, the, 287, 336

— and Terror beset in the ice, 359,
368 ; abandoned by the crews, 370

Eskimo encampment, 127

Eskimos, information olitained from,

, 395. 407

Ewing, Rev. T. L. , on Sir John
Franklin, 438

FKir.NEP Issues Bill, 297

Finlay, Mr., on the situation in Greece,
161

Fitzjames, Commander James, 336 ;
his testimony to Franklin, 342 ; re-
port of the season, 353

Flinders, Capt. Matthew, 9 ; Com-
mander of the Investigator, 15; im-
prisoned by the French, 22 ; memo-
rial, 281 ; cost and inscription, 282

— Samuel, 9, 16, 19
Foggy Island, 132
Fontano, Antonio, 96
Foreign Enlistment Rill, 220
Forster, Capt. Matthew, chief police

magistrate of Tasmania, 246
Forsyth, Commander, 385
Fort Chipewyan, 73, 79, 123, 137

— Cumberland, 72, 123, 137

— Enterprise, winter (juarters at, 74

)•; (■

from his record
• oxpcclilion, 352

on Sir John

FORT

I'ort Franklin, winti-r (|ii;irters at, 124,

•35

— Norman, 12 }

— Providence, 74

— Kcsohition, 12.}, i.?7

— Simpson, I2J, IJ7
Kotomiirft, (icncial, 188
I'ournicr, Capl., 170
l''ox, the, e(|ui|)ment of, 402
Franklin, Miss Flizabeth, j

— Miss I iannah, 4

— Miss llenriitla, 4

— Miss Isabella, 4

— James, 3 ; death, 221

— Sir Johu, I ; ancestors, 2 ; birth,
3 ; early life, 4-6 ; at school, 6 ;
lon^inf; for u sailor's life, 6 ; first
cruise, 7; on board II. M.S. I'oly-
lihemus, 9 ; at the battle of Copen-
hagen, 10-14; appearance, 14, 140,
152 ; disposition, 15 ; on boaril the
Investij^alor, 15 ; opportunities of
self-improvement, 16; extracts from
his letters, 17-I9, 26, 56, 68; ship-
wrecked, 20 ; on board the Earl
Camden, 22 ; encounter wiib the
F'rench squadron, 23 ; appointed to
11. M.S. Hellerophon, 25; at the
battle of Trafalpir, 27 ; drafted on
to the Bedford, 29 ; lieutenant, 32 ;
life of inaction, 32-36, 51 ; the VVal-
cheren expedition, 35 ; attack on
New Orleans, 36-48 ; wounded, 40 ;
joins the Forth, 48 ; his application
for promotion, 50 ; in command of
the Trent, 54 ; at Ma^dalena Bay,
58 ; danger from icebergs, 59-63 ;
return to England, 65 ; in command
of the land exploration of Arctic
America, 67 ; plan of the route, 69 ;
.sails from (iravesend, 70 ; escape from
drowning, 71 ; jealousy of the two
companies, 72 ; journey to Fort
Chipewyan, 73 ; inadecpiate sup])lies,

73 ; at Fort Providence, 74 ; winter
quarters at Fort Enterprise, 74-80 ;
advice of the Indians, 75, 76 ; letter
to his sister on his religious senti-
ments, 77, 78 ; correspondence with
the North-Western Company, 80 ; at
the Coppermine River, 81 ; at Point
Turnagain, 82 ; his return to Fort
Enterprise by a different route, 84-96 ;
sufferings through want of food, 85-
104 ; loss of his observations, 88 ;
demoralisation of the Canadian voya-
geurs, 89 ; loss of the last canoe, 89 ;
construction of a raft, 90 ; a canoe,
92 ; separation of the party, 94 ; reach
rort Enterprise, 96 ; absence of

INDEX 14ft

FR.\NKI,IN

Indians and food, 96 ; fi^arful priva-
tions, 97 ; at the point of death, 103 ;
arrival of supplies, 104; in iMiglaiid,
105 ; iiromoli'd commander, 105 ;
post-captain, 106; electeil F. U.S.,
106; letter to Mr. Hood, 108: en-
gagement and marriage, 112; plans
for nesv ex|)edition, 113; birth of
daugh'er, 115; letter on the illness
of his wife. 117; depaiture, I18;
news of his wife's death, 119, 121 ;
at New York, 119; last letter to
his wife from Pencntanguishcne,
120; winter ijuarlers ai Fort l''rank-
lin, 124-126, 135; letter to his
sister, 125 ; -- to Sir K. Murchison,
126 ; attacked iiy Eskimos, 127-131 ;
prevalence of fogs, 132 ; al)an(lons
the hope of joining Cap.^. Beechey,
133 ; reasons for iiis decision to return,
134; in England, 137; knighted,
139, «5' ; engagement, 139; plan
for the completion of survey of coast
of America, 140-142; rejection of
his scheme, 142; visit to Russia, 143 ;
letters from Miss Crifhn, 145-147 ;
visit to Capt. Cunil>y, 147 ; wedding,
148 ; reception in Paris, 149; din'-s
with the 1 )uke of Orleans and Baron
Rothschild, 150 ; receives the degree
of D.C.L., 151 ; offers of employ-
ment, 152 ; apjwinted captain of
II. M.S. Rainbow, 154, 163; sta-
tioned in the Meiliterranean, 165 ;
im|)ression of Athens, 165 ; of the
Grci , 166 ; ordered to Patras, 167,
169; report of the interview with
the Governor, 171- 1 75 ;withZavellas,
177-179; lands troops at Patras, 177 ;
re-embarks them, 180 ; difficulties
of his position, 181-183 ; seizes a
pirate vessel, 183 ; desjjalch to the
Russian colleague, 185 ; letter on
Capt. Zanetzky, 187 ; diplomatic skill
in the affair of the Vostitza currants,
188- 191; opinion of Mr. Milnes,
192 ; testimonies to the value of his
services, 193 ; correspondence with
his wife, 203, 216, 233 ; audience and
dinner with the King, 211-213; in-
terview with Sir J. Graham, 213-216 ;
wish for employment, 216, 218, 229 ;
views on foreign service, 220 ; death
of his brother, 221 ; tour in Ireland,

222 ; evidence on the fishing industry,

223 ; statement of his varied services,
229-231 ; offered the governorship
of Antigua, 232 ; — of Van Uiemen's
Land, 234 ; letters from Dr. Arnold,
234-236 ; congratulations on his ap-

G G

460

INDEX

FRANKLIN

(lOLDNER

"i 'tt

pointment, 237 ; comiilinicntary din-
ner at Horncastle, 237; speeches,
J38 ; dopaiUire, 240 ; enthusiaslic
reception in Tiismania, 246 ; report
on the stale of the coU)ny, 246 ;
anxiety for pi u'o, 247 ; letter to Cajit.
Cuml)y on his (hities, 248 ; scheme
of foundinj; a colonial collej^e, 250 ;
letter to Dr. Arnold, 250-253 ; his
criticism of the charter, 254-256 ; on
the system of jvnal discipline exer-
cised under his adniinis! ration, 259 ;
on the practice of ' assij;;nment,' 262 ;
endeavour to w';rk new probationary
sys'em, 265 ; dismissal of Capt.
Mackonochie, 267 ; starts for Mac-
fjuarr'e harlxiur, 272 ; lost in the
bush, 272-274 ; relief parties, 275 ;
letter from Mr. Disraeli, 276 ; advo-
cates Hejiburn';' ^laimtoemploymenl,
277 ; corres])on(lence with him, 278 ;
his youthful irieks, 280 ; the Flinders
memorial, 281, 282: consfruclion of
the oiiservatory, 283 ; account of
Capt. Ross's expedition, 285-287 ;
festivities on Ixyard the Erebus, 287 ;
difficulties of his administration, 288 ;
reasons for his failure, 289-2^5 ;
quarrels Ijetween the Attorney and
.Solicitor-Oencral, 295 ; the Distilla-
,tion Bill, 296; o|)position of Mr.
Gregor)', 297 ; susjx-nsion, 298 ;
strained relations with Mr. Montag'i,
299-305 ; decision in ihe Coverdale
ca.'.e, 300 : newspajier attacks, 302 ;
suspends Mr. Montagu, 304; error
of hisrecomnvndation,305; des]>atch
from Lord Stanley, 309-312 ; its
publicity, 314 ; delay in its reception,
314 ; resignation, 315 ! mode of his
recall, 315-318; preparations for
departure, 319: leave-taking, 320;
view of his character, 321 ; interview
with Lord Stanley, 323 ; statement
of his c!.iims ft)r redress, 327 ; reply
to Lord Stanley, 328 ; his ' Narra-
tive,' 329 ; projected expediticm, 331 ;
repiy to the Admiralty, 33 J ; repu-
diates his susce))i::bility to cold, 333 ;
interview with Lord Haddington,
334 » -'.ppointed (o the command of
the Erebus, 336 ; pro^wsed route,
337. 354; \<il^^rs of farewell, 339;
fnmi Strf/mness, yo ; on the ipialilies
of his officers, 341 ; testimonies to his
powers and attractions, 342-344;
last letter from Whalefish Island,
345-351 ; selects the north-westward
route, 354 ; winter quarters at Heechey
Island, 357 ; discovers the southward

Iea(iing channel, 358; set fast in the
j<"<^. 359' despatch of a land exploring
party, Z^3 > illness, 365 ; ileath, 367 ;
monuments, 426 ; piety, 440 ; love
of the sea, 441 ; fortitude, 443
Franklin, Lady, her letters to Sir John,
167-160; illness of her step-
daughter, 196 ; meeting with her hus-
band at Malta, 198 ; account of an
interview with Mahommed AH, 201 ;
tour in the I'oly Land, 201-203 ; in
(Greece, 205 ; her travelling com-
panions, 205-207 ; illness and death
of a young Englishman, 207-210 ; in
Alexandria, 216. 218 ; return home,
221 ; pro])osal to erect a memorial
to Captain ^"limlers, 281 ; her share
in the Tasvuanian troubles, 20j ;
sympathy with Captain Mackono-
chie, 295 ; equips the schooner Prince
All>ert, 385 ; fits out the screw
steamer Isabel, 390 ; her appeal to
Lt)rd Palmerston, 399-402 ; equip-
ment of the Fox, 402 ; contributors,
403 ; instructions (o Captain McC'lin-
tock, 404 ; her repeated letters to
the dead. 4;8-42i ; approaching
marriage of her step-daughter, 419 ;
collection of letters Ike, 424 ; letter
to Sii R. Murchison, 425 ; death,
427

— Mrs., her delicate health, 112;
bright temperament, 114; birth
of daughter, 115; extracts from her
letters, 114-1 ib; death, 119

— Miss Sarah, 3

— Thomas, 8 ; deith, 32

— Willingham, 2, 3

— Strait, 358
Frome, Mr., 282

Gawi EK, Colonel, Governor of South

Australia, 281
Geil, Rev. J. P., Principal of Tasmani.i

College, 253 ; his inscription to

Captain Flinders, 282 ; reminiscences

of Franklin, 429-432
Georj^e IV., death of, 157
Germain, St., 93
Gibbs, General, 47
Gipps, .Sir ( leorge. Governor of N. S.

Wales, 269, 274
Gleig, Rev. C. K. , his account of the

attack on New Orleans, 39
Glenelg, Lord, Colonial Secretary,

offers the governorship of Antigua

to Franklin, 232
Gloucester, Duchess of, 213

— Goldncr's Patent,' the putrid meat-

tins of, 38O

ri!

INDEX

451

GOODSIR

LINCOLNSHIRE

lor of South

utrid meat-

Goodsir, Mr., 345

Gore, Lieutenant (Irahaiti, 336, 341 ;

deposits his ' record ' at Point Victory,

363 ; death, 370 ; discovery of his

record, 409
Goulburn, Mr., Under-Secretary of

State for the Colonies, 73
Graham, Sir James, First Lord of the

Admiralty, intervie'.v with Franklin,

213
Great Bear Lake, 123

— Fish River, 226

— Slave Lake, 74, 123, 141
Greece, independence of, 1 56 ; murder

of the President, 158; the Constitu-
tional party and tlie Capodistrians,
159; formation of the Commission
of Seven, 160 ; proceedings o'' the
Roun-.eliot soldiers, 161 ; mutiny of
the garribon at I'atras, 162 ; Zayellas
assumes the command, 163 ; insur-
gents of Port Poros, 164 ; anarchy,
167 ; restored to temporary quie-
tude, 192

Gregory, Mr., the Colonial Treasurer,
297 ; his opposition to Franklin's
measure, 298 : suspended, 298

Griffin, Mr., 197, 276, 339

— Miss Jane, 139; letters to Captain
Franklin, 145- 147 ; wedding, 148

Griffiths, Lieutenant, 349
Grinnell, Mr. Henry, 385, 422

— Land, 356

Haddington, Lord, his interview

v/ith Franklin, 334
Ilali, Captain, 375
Hardy, Sir Thomas, 204
Hauseman, M., Professor of Geology,

150

Hearne, route of, 67, 70

Henslowe, Mr., 303

Hepburn, John, 69, 73, 390 ; corre-
spondence with Franklin on his situa-
tion, 278

Herschel, Cape, first discovery at, 408

Hill, Mr., 209

Hohson, Lieutenant, R.N., 403, 407 ;
discovers the 'record,' 409; the
duplicate, 413

Hood, Roi)ert, 69, 73, 76 : murdered
by Michel, 99

— River, 85

Hotham, Admiral Sir Henry, 168, 180,
182, 186, 212; his tes;imony to the
value of Franklin's services in Greece,

193
Hudson's Bay, 67 ; — Company, 72

Hugon, Baron, 186

Icebergs, description of, 59

Ice-stream, the power and danger of
an, 360

Icy C,-pe, 133

Investigator, the, 379, 384 ; sails for
Australia, 16; refitting in Port
Jackson, 17; breakdown, 19, 20;
abandoned, 392

Ireland, tour in, 222

Irish Fishery Inquiry, Royal Commis-
sion on, 223

Irving, Lieutenant, discovers Graham
Gore's record, 372

Istria, Agostino Cap< • d', 1 58

— Capo d', President of Greece, 157 ;
character, 157; assassination, 158;
appeals to Admiral Ricord for assist-
ance, 164.

Jackson, General, 45

Jedder, Mr., church missionary at Syra,
709

Joinville, Prince de. Memoirs of, anec-
dote of Baron Hugon, 186 noce

Keane, General, 42

Keith, Mr., agent of North -Western

Company, 80
Kellett, Capt., in command of the third

expedition in search of Franklin, 379,

Kendall, Mr., 118

Kennedy, Mr., in command of the

schooner Prince Albert, 390
Kent, Uuchess of, 157
King Capt. Parker, 3:9

— CJovernor, 19, 241

— William Lanil, proved to be an
island, 394

Koletti, 159
Kolokotrone, 159

Lambert, General, 47

Lancaster Sound, 354

Lanj^ton, Miss, 167

Laughion, Prof. J. K., 'Nelson,' 12

no(e
L;iw, his ' Serious Call to a Holy Life,'

Lawford, Capt., 8

Lefroy, Mrs. G. B. A,, her reminis-
cences of Franklin, 434-436

Leroff, Capt., 170

Lincolnshire, speeches on the county
of, 238 ; proposal of the citizens to
erect a statue of Franklin, 425

4^3

INDEX

.,( ,

i'lit i

LINOIS

Linous, Atlniiral, coinniaiuler of the

I'rench squadron, 22
Lockycr, Capt. Nicholas, 39
Luring, Capt., in coniniancl of 11. M.S.

Hellorophon, 25
Louth, {grammar school at, 6
Lyons, Sir lliluiuml, 165, 192
— Mr., illness and ileath, 207-209

Mackknzik, Capt., 34

— River, 113, 123, 127
Mackonochie, Caj)!., private secretary

to Franklin, 240, 249, 265 ; his views
on the system of penal (liscijiline,
249, 266 ; disinissal, 267 ; ajipointed
commandant of Norfolk Isl.-^nd, 267;
result of his system, 268, 269 ; re-
called, 270

Macqnarrie harbour, 271 ; its inac-
cessibility, 271 ; escape of convicts,
272

Magnetic Pole, discovery of the, 225

Maitland, Sir Peregrine, 212

— Lady Sarah, 212
Malcolm, Sir I'ulteney, 168, 204
Markham, Admiral, 72, 364, 368, 387;

his account of Franklin's voyage along
the shores of the Arctic Sea, 81

Martin, Admiral Sir Hyam, 277

Mavromichales, the l)rothers, assassinate
Capo d'Istria, 158

Mayo, Countess of, 213

McClintook, Capt., 383, 3S8, 391 ; in
command of the F"ox, 402 ; instruc-
tions from Lady I'ranklin, 404 ;
erects insciiption at Beechey Island,
405 ; winter quarters at i'ort Ken-
nedy, 406 ; information obtained
fro.ii Eskimos, 407 ; discovery of a
skeleton, 408; of a boat, 410;
clothing and provisions, 411, 414;
on the position of the luiat, 412 ; his
mission accomplished and return,
415 ; knighted, 416

McClure, Connnander, in command of
the Investigator, 384, 391 ; di -
coveries, 392 ; rescued by Sir E. Bel-
cher, 393

— Strait, 392

Mehemet Ali described by Lady

Franklin, 201, 218
Melville Hay, 354

— Lord, 277 ; his curt answer to Frank-
lin, 50

— Peninsula, 141
Meredith, Mr., 199, 200

Michel, an Iroquois, 93 ; murders
Hood, 99 ; killed by Dr. Richard-
son, lOI

PALMERSTON

Millington, Mr., 432

Milnes, .Mr., 192

Ministry, defeat of the, 222

Missolonghi, (iovernor of, 183, 186

Mole, Count, 150

Molesworih, Sir William, 258

Money, Capt. Rowland, 46 ; wounded,
48

Montagu, Capt., Colonial Secret.iry,
24*) ; his strained relati<ms with
Franklin, 299 ; on the Coverdale
case, 300, 301 ; the ' Van Diemen's
Land Chronicle,' 302 ; suspended,
304 ; his apology, 305 ; leaves for
England, 307 ; appointed Colonial
Secretary at the Cape of Cood
Hope, 311

Moore, Commander, 380

Moose Deer Island, 105

Morartachis, Chrysanlhos, a (ireek
pirate, 183

Murchison, Sir Roderick, letters to,
126, 425

Murray, Cajit., 11

— Mr., 107

Narks, Sir George, 224

•Narrative of a Secon<' Expedition to
the Shores of the Polar Sea,' extract
from, 134

Navarino, battle of, 153

Nelson, Lord, at the battle of Copen-
hagen, 10-14 ; Trafalgar, 27,

New Orleans, campaign against, 37, 38

Norfolk Island, 267 ; treatment of the
prisoners at, 268 ; result of the ' mark
system,' 270

North-West Passage, discovery of, 364,
366; the last link, 392

North-Western Company, 72 ; corre-
spondence with I'Vanklin, 80

Norwich, Bishop of, 431, 436 noie

Ommanney, Cnpt. Erasmus, in com-
mand of the Assistance, 385, 388

Orleans, Duke of, 148 ; letter to Capt.
Franklin, 149

OslK)rn, Admiral Sherrard, 338, 356,
391 ; extract from his ' Narrative of
the last Voyage of I'ranklin,' 360 ; on
the discovery of traces, 386

Osmer, Mr., 350

Pakenham, Gen. Sir Edward, 44 ;

death, 47
Palmorston, Lord, letter from Lady

Franklin, 399-402

' .

INDEX

ioS

PARKKR

Parker, Sir Ilydc, in command of the
British Fleet, lo

Parry, Sir Edward, 54, 139, 151, 259 ;
in command of the Arctic expedi-
tion, 66 ; his ' record,' 224

Pasco, Commander, liis letter on Frank-
lin, 438

Patras, Governor of, interview with
Franklin, 171-175

Pearce, his attempts to escape from
Macquarrie harbour, 272

Peel Sound, 358

Pelly Bay, 394

Peltier, a Canadian voyaj^ttr, 89 ;
death, 102

Penentanguishene, a British .station on
Lake Huron, 120, 123

Penny, Captain, 385, 388

— Strait, 356

Perrault, his act of generosity, 88

Perry, Captain, 200

Phipps, Colonel, 401

Pietro, Pladji, 189

Pim, Lieutenant, R.N., 421

Point (Griffin, 139

Point Victory, Ciraham Core's ' record'

deposited at, 363
Polyphemus, H.M.S., 8; enters the

Sound, 10
Porden, Miss Eleanor Anne, iii ; her

poems. III, 112

— Islands, 1 10

Porpoise, the, strikes on a reef, 20
Port Kennedy, winter tpiarters at, 406
Portugal, I'rince Regent of, 33
Power, Mr., 276
Prince Albert, the schooner, 385, 388,

390

— of Wales" Island, 358
Strait, discovery of, 392

Rar, Dr. John, 379 ; remarkable gifts
as a traveller, 380 ; explorations,
380, 381 ; expedition in 1853, 393 ;
obtains information from Eskimos,
394 ; question of the reward, 397

Raft, construction of a, 90

Rainbow, H.M.S., 154

Ramsay, Mr. William, 24

Rawnsley, Mrs. Drummond, her remi-
niscences of I'lanklin, 433

Repulse Bay, 82, 141

Resolute, the, 385, 391 ; abandoned,

393
Richardson, Sir John, 4, 69, 73, 330 ;
his account of Iripf lie rothe, 87 ; act
of heroism, 91 ; kills Michel, 100 ;
joins the second expedition, 118;
his eulogy on Franklin, 136 ; on his

STUART

powers of enduring cold, 333 ; in
command of the second expedition
in search of Franklin, 379 ; his return
to J-'ngland, 381, 384; biographical
account, 425

Ricord, Admiral, supports the Capo-
distrians, 159; summons the insur-
gents of Port I'aros to surrender, 164

Rideout, Captain, 168

Robinson, Mr., British mercliant at
Vostitza, 189

Ross, Ceneral, 45

— Captain Sir James Clarke, 54, 56,
330 ; Antarctic expedition, 283 ; on
the construction of the observatory,
384 ; collision with an iceberg, 285 ;
result of the cruise, 285-287 ; in
command of the expedition in search
of Franklin, 379 ; explorations, 382 ;
unsuccessful result, 384

— Sir John, 203, 225, 385
Rothschild, Baron, 149
Ruffa, M.. iPi

Russell Island, 388

— Lord john, 253, 266
Russia, Empress of, 143

— Grand Duke of, 143

Saxony, Prince John of, declines the
crown of Greece, 156

Scott, Rev. Dr., 148

Search expeditions, despatch of, 379 ;
number of, 381, 384, 385

Selwood, Mr., 3; letter from Frank-
lin, ii7

— Miss Louisa, marriage, 237
Semandre, 96 ; death, 102
Simpkinson, Mr., 140

— Mrs., 276; letters from Frankhn,
197, 199, 202

Smith, Capt , 342

— Rev. J. B., on the county of Lin-
colnshire, 238

— Mr., agent of the North-Western
Company, 80

— Mr., 342

Spilsby, failure of the bank, 32 ; statue

of Franklin erected at, 426
bpitzbergen coast, exploration of the,

Stanley, Lord, his despatch to Frank-
lin on Capt. Montagu, 309-312; its
unjudicial spirit, 312-314 ; his mode
of recalling Franklin, 3'5-3i8 ; in-
terview with him, 323 ; inquiry into
the convict pardons, 325

Stewart, Capt., 385

Stuart, Lord, 149

454

INDEX

TASMANIA

Tasmania severeii from New South
Wales in 1S25, 241 ; animosities
ami (juarrels of the community, 242 ;
its local press, 243 ; legislavive pro-
posals of the Government, 257 ; the
•ten-pound householder,' 258 ; trans-
portation system, 25S ; practice of
' assignment,' 259-264 ; — discon-
tinued, 264

Taylor, Sir Ileri)crt, 211

Tennyson, I.ady, her recollections of
I'ranklin, 434

Terror, the, 227, 287, 336

Thackeray, W. M., contributes to the
fitting out of the Fox, 403

Thornton, Colonel, 46

Thurburn, Mr., 217, 220

Tithe questifm, 222

Trafalgar, battle of, 26-28

Transixjrtation, system of, in Tas-
mania, 258; i)ractice of ♦assign-
ment,' 259 264; — discontinued,
264

Trent, the, 54

Tripe <ie roche, its character and pro-
perties, 87

Turnagain Point, 82

Turner, Rev. Charles (Tennyson),
marriage, 237

Union Jack planted on the shores of

the Polar Sea, 124
Uramao, Sergeant Joachim Francisco,

ZAVELLAS

Vaili.ant, a Canadian voyageiir, 89,

93
\ an Diemen's Land, governorship of,

234
« — Chronicle,' articles against

Franklin in the, 302
Vesconte, Mr. Le, 347
Vienna, peace of, 50
Vostitza, currants of, 188-191

Wai.kkr, Capt., 29

Walls, Rev. Mr., 5

Waterloo Place, monument erected to
the memory of Franklin, 426

Wellington channel, 354, 356

Wentzel, Mr., 96

West, Mr. John, his ' History of Tas-
mania,' 24/,, 247, 266, 268 ; his
tribute to Franklin's character, 437

Westminster Abbey, marble monument
of Franklin unveiled, 427

Whalefish Island, last letter from
Franklin, 340, 345

Wilkinson, Mr., Consul at Syra, 209

William IV. , interview with Franklin,
211

VVilmot, Sir Eardley, api^ointed Gover

nor of Tasmania, 3 1 6
Wilson, Miss, 212

— the pijier, 125

Wood, Sir Charles, F'irst Lord of *he
Admiralty, 402

Wright, Rev. Canon, Rector of Con-
ingsby, 4 ; on Franklin's farewell
visit to Mrs. Wright, 338 ; his re-
miniscences, 432

— Rev. Richard, 4
Wrottesley, Lord, 400

York Factory, 71, 105
Young, Sir Allen, 403

Zanktzky, Capt., his relations with
the English and French commanders,
185 ; relieved of his command, 187

Zavellas, General, assumes the com-
mand at Patras, 163; interviews with
Franklin, 177- 179; his threatening
attitude, 179; fires upon a Govern-
ment schooner, 184; evacvates
Patras, 192

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