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EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTHERN COASTS. [1832.

CHAPTER V.

Recent Discoveries.

Captain Back's Overland Journey to the Arctic Sea, 1833–35. WHILE Captain Franklin, with that persevering energy which forms one of the prominent features in his character, was struggling against innumerable difficulties in surveying the northern coasts of America by land, as narrated in the last chapter, two expeditions, in addition to the one under the command of Captain Beechey, were fitted out and despatched from England to aim at the accomplishment of the same object by sea. The first, commanded by Captain Parry, sailed in 1824, with the view of exploring the bottom of Prince Regent's Inlet, through which, it was hoped, a passage might be found leading into the Polar Sea. It consisted of two ships, the Hecla and Fury-the first being commanded by Captain Parry, the second by Commander Hoppner. After spending a long, dreary winter in the arctic seas, they returned to England in the autumn of 1825, having abandoned the Fury, which was so severely damaged by the ice as to be quite unfit for sea.

The second expedition referred to was that of Captain Lyon, who sailed in the "Griper," in June 1825, and after a voyage, in which he and his gallant crew experienced the most dreadful sufferings and danger, returned to England the same year. As these attempts, however, were made by sea, and are described in another volume of this series, we pass them over without further detail, and hasten to notice the overland journeys which form more specially the object of the present volume.

From the year 1826 to 1833, no attempt had been made by land to continue the survey of the northern coasts of America. But about 1832 great anxiety began to be felt

1833.]

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.

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about the fate of Sir John Ross, who sailed from England in the year 1829, and had not been heard of since. He commanded a small vessel called the Victory, which was fitted out entirely at the expense of himself and the late Sir Felix Booth, for the purpose of continuing his northern discoveries, and enabling him to vindicate his reputation as an able and enterprising navigator, which latter had been somewhat doubted in consequence of the ill success of a previous voyage to Baffin's Bay.

It was accordingly resolved by the friends of Captain Ross to send an expedition overland to the shores of the Arctic Sea in search of him, and a fitting leader for it was found in the well-tried and experienced Captain Back, who no sooner heard of such a project being contemplated, than he hastened from Italy, where he happened to be at the time, and offered his services. Mr. Ross, the brother of Sir John, and father of Captain James Ross, drew up a petition to the king, "praying his Majesty's gracious sanction to the immediate despatch of an expedition for rescuing or at least ascertaining the fate of his son and brother;" and Captain Back's name being inserted as a leader, the petition was forwarded, and shortly after received the royal assent. A grant of £2000 was also made by government, while a public subscription soon placed at the disposal of Captain Ross's friends a sum that was more than sufficient to defray all the expenses of the undertaking.

So great was the anxiety felt by the public and private friends of the Arctic explorer, that everything was done that could be devised for the furtherance of the searching expedition. The Hudson's Bay Company, besides supplying a large quantity of provisions, two boats, and two canoes, gratis, took the expedition under their special protection, by issuing a commission under their seal to Captain

R

[FEB.

Back as its commander, thereby securing to him the effectual co-operation of all parties throughout their extensive territories. It was also deemed expedient on many accounts, but more especially to give Captain Back additional authority over the men under his command, that the mission should be taken under the direction of his Majesty's government; and accordingly he received the following instructions from the Colonial Office:-"The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having been pleased to lend your services to this office, that you may conduct an expedition now preparing to proceed to the Polar Sea in search of Captain Ross, you are hereby required and directed to undertake this service, placing yourself for the purpose at the disposition of the governor and committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, who have undertaken to furnish you with the requisite resources and supplies. You are to leave Liverpool early in the present month [February 1833], and proceed with your party by way of New York to Montreal, and thence along the usual route pursued by the Northwest traders to Great Slave Lake. You are then to strike off to the north-eastward, or in such other direction as you may ascertain to be most expedient, in order to gain the Thlew-ee-choh-desseth, or Great Fish River, which is believed either to issue from Slave Lake, or to rise in its vicinity, and thence to flow with a navigable course to the northward, till it reaches the sea. On arriving on the banks of this river, you are to select a convenient situation for a winter residence, and immediately appoint a portion of your force to erect a house thereon; but, if possible, you are to proceed yourself, with an adequate party, and explore the river to the coast the same season, erecting a conspicuous landmark at its mouth, and leaving notice of your intention to return the ensuing spring, in case Captain Ross should be making progress along this part of the

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FEB. 1833.

THE EXPEDITION SAILS.

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shore." After directing him to construct two boats, with which to proceed to the sea, and explore the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and especially to examine the coast around Cape Garry, where the Fury was wrecked, and on the stores of which it was known that Captain Ross in some measure relied, the instructions go on to say: "Devoting the summer, then, to the interesting search in contemplation, it is unnecessary to recommend to you to make it as effectual as possible, consistently with a due regard for the health and preservation of your party." "Subordinate to your object of finding Captain Ross, or any survivors or survivor of his party, you are to direct your attention to mapping what yet remains unknown of the coasts which you will visit, and making such other scientific observations as your leisure will admit, for which purposes the requisite instruments will be supplied to you."*

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Armed with this authority, as well as by that given to him by the Hudson's Bay Company, Captain Back, Mr. King (surgeon and naturalist to the expedition), and three men, two of whom had served in a former expedition under Captain Franklin, embarked in the packet-ship Hibernia, Captain Maxwell, from Liverpool, and on the 17th February 1833 sailed for America.

Eight months after their departure, Captain Ross and the survivors of his party, whom a merciful God had brought in safety through dangers and privations unparalleled in arctic story, arrived in England after an absence of four years and five months. During this protracted period they had made very important geographical discoveries; fixed the position of the northern magnetic pole, and experienced hardships and privations, and encountered dangers, that

Back's Journal, pp. 13, 16.

MARCH

fill us with admiration and wonder at the endurance and fortitude of the men who dared and overcame them all. Their little vessel, the Victory, having become unfit for use, had been abandoned, and the wanderers were at last providentially discovered by a whaler, the Isabella of Hull, which conveyed them from the icy regions, where they had been so long immured, to the sunny shores of their native land. Although the principal object of the expedition under Captain Back was thus obviated, yet the despatches containing the intelligence did not overtake him until after he had reached his winter quarters in the sterile and romantic regions of the north; so that, even had it been desirable, he could not have returned home. As it was, however, he received the intelligence early enough to prevent his wasting time in the now unecessary search; and he accordingly turned his undivided attention to the second object of the expedition.

Following, then, in the wake of our enterprising explorer, let us wing our way over the heaving surges of the wide Atlantic; let us track him and his gallant companions as they thread their way through the forests of Canada, and dive fearlessly into the wild unpeopled solitudes of the far north, casting a glance to the right and left as we go, and noting the wonders of a land, than which there is not another on this fair earth more fraught with interest, or more prolific of strange and wild adventure.

After spending a few days in Montreal, where he engaged three artillerymen for the service, Captain Back and his party went to Lachine, a small village on the banks of the Ottawa, a short distance below the confluence of that noble river and the St. Lawrence. Here they found that the Hudson's Bay Company's agent had made every preparation for their voyage; and here they were introduced to the first tangible bit of north-west life, in the shape of