LADY FRANKLIN. 413 Captain M'Clintock,, observing her agitation, tried to repress the enthusiasm of his men, but in vain. As she left the vessel she was saluted by the crew with three prolonged, thundering cheers. Her letter of instruction to Captain M'Clintock is so characteristic that I give it in full : '- My dear Captain M Clintock : " You have kindly invited me to give you * instructions,' but I cannot bring myself to feel that it would be right in me in any'way to influence your judgment in the con- duct 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 inde- pendently formed before I had the advantage of being thoroughly possessed of yours. But had this been other- wise, 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 survivor of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' would be to me, as it would to you, the noblest result of our efforts. " To this object I wish every other to be subordinate ; and, next to it in importance, is the recovery of the unspeakably precious documents of the expedition, pub- lic and private, and the personal relics of my dear hus- band and his companions. " And lastly, I trust it may be in your power to confirm, directly or inferentially, the claims of my husband's expe- dition to the earliest discovery of the passage, which, if Dr. Rae's report be true (and the Government of our country has accepted and rewarded it as such), these martyrs in a noble cause achieved at their last extremity
