Page:The American encyclopedia of history, biography and travel (IA americanencyclop00blak).pdf/930

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architect of the king's stables at Brighton; and, at the end of the same year, submitted to Lord Bathurst 'a plan for an expedition over-land to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and thence, by sea, to the north-western extremity of America; with the combined object, also, of surveying the coast between the Mackenzie and Copper Mine Rivers;' an expedition which he was permitted to superintend, upon his showing to government, that 'in the proposed course, similar dangers to those of the former over-land expedition were not to be apprehended.'

CAPTAIN SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, K. H. C.

Accordingly, on the 16th of February, 1825, he embarked at Liverpool, having undergone 'a severe struggle between the feelings of affection and a sense of duty,' in taking leave of his wife, whose death, then hourly expected, took place six days after his departure. On the 29th of June, he arrived at the Methye River, and, in the following August, at the left bank of the Mackenzie, whence he proceeded to the mouth of that river, and, shortly after, found salt water; in commemoration of which, he landed on an island which he had discovered, and hoisted on a pole a silk union-*jack, sewed and given him by his wife, 'under the express injunction that it was not to be unfurled before the expedition reached the sea.' On leaving this island, which he called Garry's, and where he had deposited, beneath a signal-pole, a letter for Captain Parry, he commenced his ascent of the Great Bear Lake River, on the banks of which he remained till the summer of 1826, when, in spite of many dangers and obstacles, he proceeded to about half-way between Mackenzie River and Icy Cape, in latitude 70 deg. 26 min. N., and longitude 148 deg. 52 min. W.; at which point he calculated he could not with safety proceed further. His feelings at being compelled to return, he thus expresses in his journal: 'It was with no ordinary pain that I could now bring myself even to think of