Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/349

 338

ONCE A WEEK.

[October 22,  1859.

THE LAST  VOYAGE  OP  SIB  JOHN  FRANKLIN.

BY CAPTAIN  SHERARD  OSBORN,  R.N.

Stopped by  the  Ice. (See page  Ml.)

“There is  yet  one  thing  left  undone,  whereby a great mind  may  become  notable,”  wrote  worthy Master Purchas — that  one  deed  was  the  discovery  of a north-west  passage  to  the  Indies. Many long  years afterwards, the  words  of  the  good  Dean  of  St.  Paul’s sounded like  a trumpet-call  to  his  countrymen, and many  an  aspiring  spirit  essayed  to  do  that deed whereby  bright  honour  and  immortality  were to be  won. The veil which  hid from human  ken the mysteries  of the  Arctic  zone was not  to  be rent  by  one  bold stroke; it was  to be  the  test  of British  persever- ance, patience, and hardihood.

The frozen  north would only  re- veal its wonders slowly and  un- willingly to the brave men  who devoted them- selves to the  task.

The dread  realms  of  frost  and  silence  were  only  to be  penetrated  by  the  labours  of  two  generations of seamen  and  travellers. The consummation  of the  discovery  of  the  north-west  passage  was  to  be obtained  but  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  a hundred heroes.

From 1815  to  1833  England  sent  forth  her  sons to the  north  in  repeated  expeditions  by  sea  and

land. The earnestness  of  many  eminent  public men, members  of  the  Royal  Society — such  as  Sir John Barrow  and  Sir  Francis  Beaufort — kept general interest  directed  to  those  regions,  in which  Frobisher,  Baffin,  Davis,  and  Fox  had  so nobly  ventured. There were  no  falterers; every call for  volunteers  was  nobly  responded  to  by officers  of  the  Royal  Navy; and  John  Franklin,

Richardson, John and James  Ross, Parry, Back,  and King, with  much devotion, toil, and suffering, forced open  the portals beyond which the  Eliza- bethan school of discoverers  had not been  able  to penetrate,  and added much  to our  knowledge  of the  geography and physical  con- dition of the  Arc- tic zone between Greenland and Behring’s Straits. Fifteen years  of  labour  hadfailed, however, to  solve  the  question  as  to  the  actual existence of  a water  communication  between  the Pacific and  Atlantic. Repeated disappointment had damped  public  zeal. Just at  this  juncture, between 1838  and  1843,  the  success  of  Captain Sir James  Ross  in  an  expedition  to  the  Antarctic Pole with  H.M.S.  Erebus  and  Terror,  as  well