FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH
The northern shores of North America were not yet explored, and
Franklin proposed another expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie
River, where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east
and half to the west. Nothing daunted by his recent sufferings,
Franklin accepted the supreme command, and amid the foremost
volunteers for service were his old friends, Back and Richardson. The
officers of the expedition left England in February 1825, and,
travelling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland
the following June; a month later they were at Fort Chipewyan on the
shores of Lake Athabasca, and soon they had made their way to the banks
of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the
Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. They
decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake; but Franklin could
never bear inaction, so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the
Great River with a small party in order to prospect for the coming
expedition.
So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River, as it was
called, that Franklin, "in justice to his memory," named it the
Mackenzie River after its "eminent discoverer," which name it has
borne ever since. In a little English boat, with a fair wind and a
swift current, Franklin accomplished three hundred and twelve miles
in about sixty hours. The saltness of the water, the sight of a
boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were
encouraging signs. They had reached the Polar sea at last--the "sea
in all its majesty, entirely free from ice and without any visible
obstruction to its navigation."
On reaching the coast a silken Union Jack worked by Franklin's dying
wife was unfurled. She had died a few days after he left England, but
she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his
country, only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at
the Polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze of these desolate shores,
the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the
King.
"You can imagine," says Franklin, "with what heartfelt emotion I first
saw it unfurled; but in a short time I derived great pleasure in looking
at it."
It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the
weather in August was "inconveniently warm," so on 5th September,
Franklin returned to winter quarters on the Great Bear Lake. During
his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up to
accommodate some fifty persons, including Canadian and Indian hunters
with their wives and children. In honour of the commander it had been
called Fort Franklin, and here the party of explorers settled down
for the long months of winter.
[Illustration: FORT FRANKLIN, ON THE GREAT BEAR LAKE, IN THE WINTER.
From a drawing in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_,
1828.]
"As the days shortened," says Franklin, "it was necessary to find
employment during the long evenings for those resident at the house,
and a school was established from seven to nine for their instruction
in reading, writing, and arithmetic, attended by most of the British
party. Sunday was a day of rest, and the whole party attended Divine
Service morning and evening. If on other evenings the men felt the
time tedious, the hall was at their service to play any game they might
choose, at which they were joined by the officers. Thus the men became
more attached to us, and the hearts and feelings of the whole party
were united in one common desire to make the time pass as agreeably
as possible to each other, until the return of spring should enable
us to resume the great object of the expedition."
April brought warmer weather, though the ground was still covered with
snow, and much boat-building went on. In May swans had appeared on
the lake, then came geese, then ducks, then gulls and singing birds.
By June the boats were afloat, and on the 24th the whole party embarked
for the Mackenzie River and were soon making their way to the mouth.
Here the party divided. Franklin on board the _Lion_, with a crew of
six, accompanied by Back on board the _Reliance_, started westwards,
while Richardson's party was to go eastwards and survey the coast
between the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Copper Mine. On 7th
July, Franklin reached the sea, and, with flags flying, the _Lion_
and the _Reliance_ sailed forth on the unknown seas, only to ground
a mile from shore. Suddenly some three hundred canoes full of Eskimos
crowded towards them. These people had never seen a white man before,
but when it was explained to them that the English had come to find
a channel for large ships to come and trade with them, they "raised
the most deafening shout of applause." They still crowded round the
little English boats, till at last, like others of their race, they
began to steal things from the boats. When detected they grew furious
and brandished knives, they tore the buttons off the men's coats, and
for a time matters looked serious till the English showed their
firearms, when the canoes paddled away and the Eskimos hid themselves.
With a fair wind the boats now sailed along the coast westward, till
stopped by ice, which drove them from the shore. Dense fogs, stormy
winds, and heavy rain made this Polar navigation very dangerous; but
the explorers pushed on till, on 27th July, they reached the mouth
of a broad river which, "being the most westerly river in the British
dominions on this coast and near the line of demarcation between Great
Britain and Russia, I named it the Clarence," says Franklin, "in honour
of His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral." A box containing a royal
medal was deposited here, and the Union Jack was hoisted amid hearty
cheers.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION CROSSING BACK'S INLET. From a
drawing, by Lieut. Back, in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar
Sea_, 1828.]
Still fogs and storms continued; the farther west they advanced, the
denser grew the fog, till by the middle of August, winter seemed to
have set in. The men had suffered much from the hard work of pulling
and dragging the heavy boats; they also endured torments from
countless swarms of mosquitoes. They were now some three hundred and
seventy-four miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie River and only
half-way to Icy Cape; but Franklin, with all his courage and with all
his enthusiasm, dared not risk the lives of his men farther. "Return
Reef" marks his farthest point west, and it was not till long after
that he learnt that Captain Beechey, who had been sent in the _Blossom_
by way of Behring Strait, had doubled Icy Cape and was waiting for
Franklin one hundred and sixty miles away.
On 21st September, Fort Franklin was reached after three months'
absence. Dr. Richardson had already returned after a successful coast
voyage of some eight hundred miles.
When he had left Franklin he had, on board the _Dolphin_, accompanied
by the _Union_, sailed along the unknown coast eastward. Like
Franklin's party, his expedition had also suffered from fogs, gales,
and mosquitoes, but they had made their way on, naming inlets, capes,
and islands as they passed. Thus we find Russell Inlet, Point Bathurst,
Franklin's Bay, Cape Parry, the Union and Dolphin Straits, named after
the two little ships, where the _Dolphin_ was nearly wrecked between
two masses of ice. They had reached Fort Franklin in safety just before
Franklin's party, and, being too late to think of getting home this
year, they were all doomed to another winter at the Fort. They reached
England on 26th September 1827, after an absence of two years and a
half.
Franklin had failed to find the North-West Passage, but he and
Richardson had discovered a thousand miles of North American coast,
for which he was knighted and received the Paris Geographical
Society's medal for "the most important acquisition to geographical
knowledge" made during the year. It was a curious coincidence that
the two Arctic explorers, Franklin and Parry, both arrived in England
the same month from their various expeditions, and appeared at the
Admiralty within ten minutes of one another.