“We were again on the march, and arrived at our home at half past eight P.M., all well, but so black and scarred on the face, from the combined effects of oil, smoke, and frost-bites, that our friends would not believe but that some serious accident from the explosion of gunpowder had happened to us. Thus successfully terminated a journey little short of six hundred English miles, the longest, I believe, ever made on foot along the Arctic coast.”
Of another trip made in May, Dr. Rae writes:—
“Our journey hitherto had been the most fatiguing I had ever experienced; the severe exercise, with a limited allowance of food, had reduced the whole party very much. However, we marched merrily on, tightening our belts,—mine came in six inches,—the men vowing that when they got on full allowance they would make up for lost time.”
By the last of August, 1847, the party returned to civilization, where Dr. Rae was awarded four hundred pounds by the Hudson Bay Company for his important services.
CHAPTER VI
Sir John Franklin.—Early life.—First land expedition of 1819-1821.—Journey from York Factory to Cumberland House.—Reach Fort Providence.—Winter at Fort Enterprise.—Explorations.—5550 miles.—Hardship.—Starvation.—Return.—Second land journey.—1825.—Winter quarters at Great Bear Lake.—Descent of the Mackenzie River to the Polar Sea.—1200 miles of coast added to map.—The last journey of Sir John Franklin, 1845.—The Erebus and Terror.—Last seen in Melville Bay.
No name holds more romantic association with Arctic history than that of Sir John Franklin. What a career, what love of adventure, what hardships endured with heroic fortitude, what leadership that could inspire others to passionate loyalty, and superhuman endurance under unspeakable trials, and what a fate!
Let us review briefly a life that stands in the foremost rank of naval history, not so much by great achievement, as by that particular charm of character, indefinable and subtle, that is based on those great qualities of tolerance, justice, loyalty, simplicity, and warm affections.
John Franklin, the youngest son of twelve children, was born in the small market town of Spilsby, Lincolnshire, April 16, 1786. He was early destined for the church and educated at St. Ives, and later at Louth Grammar School. A holiday jaunt with a young companion, twelve miles to the shores of the North Sea, with its overwhelming grandeur, changed his career and decided him for the life of a sailor.