Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/76

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POST CAPTAINS OF 1822.
67

the Hudson’s Bay ship, to England. On the 18th of June, Captain Franklin arrived, in a canoe, at Cumberland House, where he had the happiness of meeting the indefatigable Doctor, after a separation of nearly twelve months. From thence they proceeded, by way of Montreal, to New York; and there embarked, on the 1st September, for Liverpool; at which place we find them landing, from the packet-ship James Cropper, on the 26th of the same month. The rest of the expedition, with the exception of two men, one of whom had died from consumption, and another been accidentally drowned, arrived at Portsmouth, under the charge of Commander Back, exactly a fortnight afterwards.

We should here mention, that the reception Captain Franklin met with at New York, both in 1825 and 1827, was kind in the extreme. Their baggage and stores were passed through the custom-house without inspection; cards of admission to the public scientific institutions were promptly forwarded to them; and every other mark of attention was shewn by the different authorities, as well as by private individuals; indicating the lively interest which they took in his enterprise. During his last sojourn in that city, the Recorder and a deputation of the Corporation did him the honor of presenting him with a splendidly bound copy of “Colden’s Memoir on the New York Canals,” and the medal which had recently been struck to commemorate the completion of the Erie canal.

Soon after his return to England the Geographical Society of Paris voted him their gold medal, value 1200 francs, which is adjudged annually, and with the liberality worthy of an enlightened nation, to the individual, whether native or foreigner, who shall have made the most important acquisitions to geographical knowledge in the course of the year preceding: he was, at the same time, elected a corresponding member of that institution.

On the 29th April, 1829, Captain Franklin received the honor of knighthood. In July following, the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him in a convocation at Oxford. And, on the 23rd Aug. 1830, he was appointed to