Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/758

722 F E A F E A season in arctic service. The alternative course permitted by Franklin s instructions had been attempted but was not pursued, and in the autumn of 1846 he followed that which was especially commended to him. But on his attempting to reach the coast of America, the obstruction of heavy ice, which presses down from Melville Island through M Clintock Channel (not then known to exist) upon King William s Island had finally arrested his progress. It must be remembered that in the chart carried out by Franklin this island was laid down as a part of the mainland of Boothia, and he therefore could pursue his way only down its western coast. The record that revealed all which has been briefly stated was written upon one of the forms sup plied by the Admiralty to surveying vessels, to be thrown overboard after the required data had been filled in. But upon the margin around the printed form was an addendum dated the 25th April 1848, which extinguished all hopes of a successful termination of their grand enterprise. The facts are best conveyed by the terse and expressive words of the record, which is therefore given verbatim : " April 25th 1848. H. M. Ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on 22d April, five leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls under the command of Cap tain F. R. M. Crozier, landed here in lat. 69 37 42" N., long. 98 41 W. Sir John Franklin died on the llth June 1847 ; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men." The hand writing is that of Captain Fitzjames, to whose signature is appended that of Captain Crozier, who also adds the words of chief importance, namely, that they would " start on to morrow 26th April 1848 for Back s Fish River." A briefer record has never been told of so tragic a story. Thus it was reserved for the latest effort of Lady Franklin to develop not only the fate of her husband s expedition, but also the steps of its progress up to crowning success, mingled indeed with disaster almost unprecedented. All of the party had without doubt been greatly reduced through want of sufficient food, and the injurious effects of three winters in these regions. They had greatly over rated their strength in attempting to drag with them two boats, besides heavily laden sledges, and doubtless had soon been compelled to abandon much of their burden, and leave one boat on the shore of King William s Island, where it was found, near the middle of the west coast, by M Clintock; it contained two skeletons. From the Eskimo we learn that the men dropped down as they walked, and often had to be left unburied. Although many relics were found in possession of the Eskimo, there seems no reason to believe that the retreating crews met with foul play. From all that can be gathered, one of the vessels must have been crushed in the ice and the other stranded on the shore of King William s Island, where it lay for years, forming a mint of wealth for the neighbouring Eskimo. M Clintock examined all the shores of the island with the greatest care, but found no trace of a stranded vessel. This is all we know of the fate of Franklin and his brave men. His memory is cherished as one of the most conspicuous of the naval heroes of Britain, and as one of the most successful and daring of her explorers. He is certainly entitled to the honour of being the first dis coverer of the North-West Passage ; the point reached by the ships brought him to within a few miles of that attained from the westward by the explorations of earlier years ; he had indeed all but traversed the entire distance between Baffin s Bay and Behring s Strait. On the monument erected to Franklin by his country, in Waterloo Place, London, the honour of discovering the passage is justly awarded to him and his companions, a fact which was also affirmed by the president of the Royal Geographical Society, when presenting to Lady Franklin in 1860 their gold medal. More recently a fine monument, erected in 1875 in West minster Abbey, commemorates the heroic deeds and fate of Sir John Franklin, the death (which occurred in that year) of Lady Franklin, and the inseparable connexion of her name with the fame of her husband. Most of the Franklin relics brought home by M Clintock were presented by Lady Franklin to the United Service Museum, while those given by Dr Rae to the Admiralty are deposited in Greenwich Hospital Captain Hall, so well known in connexion with the " Polaris " expedition, spent five years with the Eskimo, and made two journeys in endeavouring to trace the remnant of Franklin s party, bringing back in 1869 a number of additional relics and some informa tion confirmatory of that given by M Clintock. In 1878 a search expedition was sent out from America in con sequence of a tale told to Mr Barry, the mate of a whaler, by some Nechelli Eskimo met by him at Whale Point, Hudson s Bay. He obtained from these Eskimo some spoons bearing Franklin s crest. The Eskimo were understood to say that these were received from a party of white men, who passed a winter near their settlement, and all died. The white men, the Eskimo stated, left a number of books with writing in them, which were buried. The story has some points about it that make one inclined to doubt its accuracy. Still it is satisfactory that the search party has been sent out, and we can only hope that it will be rewarded by discovering some of the records of the unfortunate expedition. 1 (j. s. K.) FRANKS, THE. When, in the year 241 A.D., the sol diers of Aurelian, who just before had been on the north German frontier, marched out of Rome on their way to the Persian war, they sang (Vopiscus in Aiireliano, c. 7) a rough barrack song Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semcl occidimus ; Mille mille mille mille mille Persas quserimus;" and the words, caught up by the admiring mob, became a street boys ballad in those days of debased imperialism. Unless we give to Peutinger s Itinerary an earlier date than is probable, this street song marks the first appearance in history of the Frankish name. Ceesar, Tacitus, Ptolemy, are alike silent as to it, although they often speak of other tribes which occupied the very districts in which we after wards find the Franks. It is therefore probable, though Jacob Grimm (Geschichte der Deutschen Spracke, p. 518) says that the view has " only a moderate value," that Frank is the newest of all German names, and represents, somewhat vaguely, a group of tribes who dwelt about the lower and middle Rhine. The Frank lived in districts previously occupied by tribes bearing other names ; nor have we proof of any incursion of a strange tribe called Franks from north or east. The old Frankish legend that they came from the Danube to the Rhine probably arose from the fact that a colony of the Sicambrian cohort was planted by the Romans on the spot where Buda-Pesth now stands ; nor need we seriously consider the usual annalist statement that they were " reliquisa Troianorurn." The meaning and origin of the term also lends itself to the view above stated, the words "frank and free," usually grouped together, are in fact the same in origin and meaning (fri, frech, M.H.G.; frekkar, Scand,; friks, Goth. = audax, avidits ; then, by insertion of n, cp. linquo from root of liqui, we get frank). The two words thus grouped together form an epithet rather than a proper name : the " free Franks" are those tribes whose freedom suffered most attack ; the name probably came into being in the 3d cen- 1 The first portion of this notice is mainly from Sir John Richard son s article in last edition, and the whole has been revised by Miss Cracroft, Sir John Franklin s niece.