Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/756

720 FEANKLIN shores of the Arctic Sea, while Lieutenant Parry was despatched with two vessels to Lancaster Sound. At this period, the northern coast of America was known at two isolated points only, viz., the mouth of the Coppermine River, discovered by Hearne, but placed erroneously by him four degrees of latitude too much to the north, and the mouth of the Mackenzie. Lieutenant Franklin, accom panied by a surgeon, two midshipmen, and a few Orkney- men, embarked for Hudson s Bay, in June 1819. His instructions left the route he was to pursue much to his own judgment, guided by the information he might be able to collect at York Factory from the Hudson s Bay Company s servants there assembled. Wintering the first year on the Saskatchewan, the expedition was fed by the Hudson s Bay Company; the second winter was spent on the " barren grounds," the party subsisting on game and fish procured by their own exertions, or purchased from their native neighbours ; and in the following summer the expedition descended the Coppermine River, and surveyed a considerable extent of the sea coast to the eastward. The survivors of this expedition travelled, from their start at York Factory to their return to it again, by land and water, 5550 miles. While engaged on this service, Franklin was promoted to be a commander, and after his return to England in 1822 he obtained the post rank of captain, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In the suc ceeding year he married Eleanor, the youngest daughter of Mr Porden, an eminent architect. In a second expedition, which left home in 1825 (his wife dying within the same year), Franklin descended the Mackenzie and traced the coast-line through 37 degrees of longitude, from the mouth of the Coppermine River, where his former survey commenced, to near the 150th meridian, and approaching within 160 miles of the most easterly point attained by Captain Beechey, who was co-operating with him from Behring s Strait. His exertions were fully appreciated at home and abroad. He was knighted in 1829, received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, was awarded the gold medal of the Geographical Society of Paris, and was elected in 1846 correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Though the surveys executed by himself and by a detachment under command of Dr Richardson comprised one, and within a few miles of two, of the spaces for which a parliamentary reward was offered, the Board of Longitude declined making the award ; but a bill was soon afterwards laid before par liament by the secretary of the Admiralty abrogating the reward altogether, on the ground of the discoveries contem plated having been thus effected. The results of these expeditions are described by Franklin and his companion Dr (afterwards Sir John) Richardson in two magnificent works published in 1824-29. In 1828 he married his second wife, Jane, second daughter of Mr John Griffin. His next official employment was on the Mediterranean station, in command of the " Rainbow," and his ship soon became proverbial in the squadron for the happiness and comfort of her officers and crew. 1 As an acknowledgment of the essential service he had rendered off Patras in the " war of liberation," he received the Cross of the Redeemer of Greece from King Otho, and after his return to England he was created Knight Commander of the Guelphic order of Hanover. In 1836 Sir John accepted the lieutenant-governor ship of Van Diemen s Land (now Tasmania). His government, which lasted till the end of 1843, was marked by several events of much interest. One of his most popular measures was the opening of the doors of the 1 The sailors, with their usual fondness for epithets, named the ship the "Celestial Rainbow" and "Franklin s Paradise." legislative council to the public. He also originated a college, endowing it largely from his private funds with money and lands, in the hope that it would eventually prove the means of affording to all parties secular and religious instruction of the highest kind. He requested Dr Arnold to select some one competent to take the direction of this institution; and the choice fell on the Rev. John Philip Cell. In his time also the colony of Victoria was founded by settlers from Tasmania ; and towards its close, transportation to New South Wales having been abolished, the convicts from every part of the British empire were sent to Tasmania. On an increase to the lieutenant-governor s salary being voted by the colonial legislature, Sir John declined to derive any advantage from it personally, while he secured the augmen tation to his successors. In 1838 he founded a scientific society at Hobart Town (now called the " Royal Society of Tasmania "), the meetings of which were held in Govern ment House, and its papers printed at his expense. He welcomed eagerly the various expeditions for exploration and surveying which visited Hobart Town under com mand of Captains Wickham, Stokes, Owen Stanley, and others. Conspicuous among these, and of especial interest to himself, were the French and English .Antarctic expedi tions of Dumont D Urville and Sir James C. Ross, the latter commanding the "Erebus" and "Terror," with which the name of Franklin was to be for ever so patheti cally connected. A magnetic observatory, fixed at Hobart Town as a dependency of the central establishment under Colonel Sabine, was an object of deep interest up to the moment of his leaving the colony. Thus pleasantly occupied, the years allotted to a colonial governorship drew to a close. Franklin had passed through phases of difficulty common to all governors of colonies remote from the imperial centre ; and it was impossible for an impartial and high-minded ruler to avoid collision with personal interests. But that his unflinching efforts for the social as well as the political advancement of the colony were already appreciated was abundantly proved by the affection and respect universally testified by the addresses which proceeded from every section of the community, and by the demonstrations from all classes on his de parture. A local newspaper, describing the scene in much detail, adds, " Thus departed from among us as true and up right a governor as ever the destinies of a British colony were entrusted to." That this was no evanescent feeling is attested by the fact that several years afterwards the colonists showed their remembrance of his virtues and ser vices by sending to Lady Franklin a subscription of 1700 in aid of her efforts in the search for their former governor, and later still by a unanimous vote of the legislature for the erection of a statue in honour of him at Hobart Town. Sir John found, on reaching England, that the confidence of the Admiralty in him was undiminished, as was shown by his being offered in 1845 the command of an expedi tion for the discovery of the North-West passage; this offer he accepted. The prestige of Arctic service and of his former experiences attracted a crowd of volunteers of all classes, from whom were selected a body of officers conspicuous for talent and energy. Thus supported, with crews carefully chosen (some of whom had been engaged in the whaling service), victualled for three years, and furnished with every appliance then known, Franklin s expedition, consisting of the " Erebus " and " Terror " (134 officers and men), with a transport ship to convey additional stores as far as Disco in Greenland, sailed from Greenhithe on the 19th of May 1845. The ships were last seen on the 26th of July in Baffin s Bay by a whaler which was moored to an iceberg in lat. 74 48 N. and long. 66 13 W. ; and at that time the expedition was proceed ing prosperously. Letters written by Franklin a few days