The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-29 00:00:00

Island, the ultimate limit of their western progress.
From this they set sail on the 13,h, with the intention
of returning to the United States, but were locked
in, near the mouth of Wellington Channel. Here
commenced those perilous adventures, anytbing com-
parable to which, were never encountered and stir.
vived. By force of the northern icedrift they were
helplessly drifted to 75 deg. 25 min. N. lat., and
thence drifted again into Lancaster Sound, some-
what, we should say, in a south•easterly direction.
The agitation of . the ice elevated the Advance
nearly seven feet by the stern and keeled her 2 feet 8
inches starboard. In this position she remained with
some slight changes fur five consecutive months. And
while in it the depth of winter closed its frozen terrors
around the expedition. The polar night fell upon them,
and for eighty days no ray of solar light broke upon
them. The thermometer (Fahrenheit) ranged 40 de-
grees below zero, and sometimes sank to 46. Early in
this awful night (November sth), the Rescue was
abandoned, for the purpose of economizing the fuel,
and the crews of both vessels determined to brave their
fate together. They every moment expected the
embracing ice would crush the vessel to atoms, and
consequently stood prepared, sleeping in their clothes
with knapsacks on their backs, to try chances on
the ice, mid storm, and terror, and night. For this
terrible trial they had made every preparation, had
provision sledged and everything in readiness which
might be useful for such a journey. They were then
90 miles from the land, and so certainly did they ex-
pect that they should make this alarming trial, that
on two occasions (Bth December and 23d January),
the beatsetactually lowered and the crews assem-
bled on tlieltki to await the catastrophe.
During this period the scurvy became epidemic,
and assumed an alarming character. Its progress
defied all the usual remedies, and only three men
escaped the attack. Captain De Haven was himself
the greatest sufferer. The constant use of fresh
water obtained from melted ice, active mental and
physical exertion, and the care of Divine Providence,
arrested any fatal result; and the disease yielded to
a beverage composed of a sort of apple, tea, and lemon
juice. After entering Baffin's Bay, Jan. 13, the ice
became fixed, and the little expedition became sta-
tionary and fast in the midst of a vast plain of ice, 90
miles from any land. The stores, materials, and cord-
age were stowed away in snow-houses, erected on the
ice, and a sort of encampment was formed, with all
the appearance, if not the solidity, of terra firma.
The tables of ice varied from three to eight feet in
thickness.
Nor was this situation of peril and awe without its
attractions. Auroras, Parhelia (mock suns), and
mock moons, of the most vivid lustre succeeded one
another without intermission, and as day approached
the twilights, streaking the northern horizon, were
vividly beautiful. At length the God of Day showed
his golden face (18th Feb.) and was hailed with three
hearty American cheers. Gradually his influence
was felt, and the waxen-like colour of the com-
plexion, which the long night had superinduced, gave
place to freckles and tan. The disease, too, quickly
disappeared.
Oa the 13th of May the Rescue was re-occupied.
The disruption of the ice was sudden and appalling.
In twenty minutes from its first moving, the vast field,
as far as the eye could reach, became one mass of
moving floes, and the expedition once more drifted
southward. By a continued providential assistance,
it passed the perils of Lancaster Sound and Baffin's
Bay, and on the 10th of June emerged into open wa-
ter, lat. 65 deg. 30 min. N., a little south of the Arc-
tic circle, being thus released from an imprisonment
of nearly nine months, during which they helplessly
drifted 1,060 miles. While in Lancaster Sound the
roar of the rolling water and tumbling ice exceeded
all earthly tumult, and was sometimes so loud and
stunning as to render both voice and hearing useless.
Capt. De Haven's first care on his escape was to
repair damages and restore the health and vigour of
the crews. With that object he visited Greenland,
where he refitted. After a short delay, with una-
bated courage and unflinching purpose he once more
bore northward. On the 7th of July the expedi-
don spoke some whalers, and on the Bth passed the
whaling fleet by the Dutch islands, there arrested by
the ice. By the 11th the expedition reached Baf-
fin's Islands, and entered through vast masses of loose
ice. Here the Prince Albert joined. They conti-
nued in company till August 3d, warping through the
ice, when the Prince determined to try the southern
passage. De Haven persevered in his course until the
Bth, when he became completely entangled in floes
and bergs. Here again the expedition encountered
perils of the most alarming kind. The floating ice
broke in the bulwarks, and covered the deck in
broken masses like rocks tumbled pell-mell by a
mountain torrent. The more than iron endurance of
the gallant ships was severely tested by the crush of
the closing ice, but they rose to the pressure as if
defying the elemental strife, bafthd its fury, and
somewhat disabled, but still without a plank yielding
in any vital part, rode safely in an open road on the
19th day of August.
Here, finding the north and west already closed
against them, the American expedition set their sails
and bore homeward, after having dared and suffered
and overcome difficulties and dangers such as scarcely
if ever beset the path of the mariner.
It is supposed the English expedition wintered at
or near Fort Martyr, and thence prosecuted their
voyage westward. The American expedition, there-
fore, was in a position more favourable to the search.
It was in a far higher latitude, and the so-called polyna
(open sea) could not have been far distant, but the
inevitable drift into the waters of Lancaster Sound
was fatal to its spring progress, and fatal to the chances
whioh its enterprise had won.
The officers and crews of the other vessels of the
expedition were all in good health and spirits up to
the 13th of September, 1850.
The Advance parted with her consort in a heavy
gale off the banks. Tne latter has since arrived.
The Advance brings several fragments from the en-
campment of Sir John Franklin, a pair of fine Esqui-
maux dogs and some articles of curiosity.
Thus ends this noble expedition, without discover-
ing any satisfactory index to the fate of Sir John
Franklin ; but at the same time without any evidence
to preclude further hope. Sir John might have won
the point which the Advance was baulked of by the
fatal drift into Lancaster Sound. If so, and it is not
impossible, there is no reason to doubt the possibility
of himself and crew surviving in those regions where
nature has adapted the resources of life to the rigours
of the climate.

The gratification of officers and crew on once
more reaching their native land is in no small degree
enhanced by the recollection that in no ecene, no
matter how trying, was their trust in and mutual
love for each other interrupted; and Captain De
Haven retains the most lively recollections of the gal-
lant, unflinching conduct of officers and crew.

CHARGE of MURDER on the HIGH SEAS.
At the Southampton Police-court, on Friday, a
fine-looking sailor, named Joseph Nichols, was
charged with the murder of Charles Phillips, a black
sailor, iii the Bay of Monte Video.
Henry Brooks, late chief mate of the Christina
Murray, of Kincardine, deposed that the ship was, on
the 21st of July, in the Bay of Monte Video at
anchor. The prisoner at the bar, Joseph Nichols,
was a sailor on board the brig, and so was Charles
Phillips, the deceased. On the 21st of July, at eight
o'clock at night, he set the watch and went below.
By Mr. Fall—The man he left in charge was some-
what drunk; his name was Isaac Thomas.
At half past nine he was asleep, but the captain
called to and woke him, there being a noise above,
and told him to go on deck. He went up, and found
about four men on the main hatchway, making a
noise and singing out. The prisoner, Charles Phil-
lips, and Isaac Thomas were part of them. He told
them to go below, and they went forward. He
ordered Thomas down below because he was the
worst amongst them. Phillips said he could put
Thomas down himself. Nichols said, " No, you
won't put him down." Phillips then struck Nichols
in the face, and Nichols said that Phillips had cut
him in the face. Witness looked in Nichols's face,
but he did not see any cut. Nichols then called out,
"Boy, Owen, bring up my knife." Owen was in
the forecastle. Witness then stepped back to the
windlass, fearing he might get stabbed. The boy
came up the forecastle hatch. Witness called to the
boy " not to bring up the knife just now on any so
count." Witness did not see that he did bring one
up. Phillips and Nichols both came from the
forecastle hatch towards the larboard forerig in
fighting together. They fell down
struggling
'
together, and Phillips rose up and said
" I'm stabbed." The captain was below writing
w
when witness came up. Thomas
wasas
lying on the
w
forecastle hatch drunk. Witnessthree or four
yards from them. The second mate was drunk. The
crew were eight in number. Phillips was unable to
stand, and witness took hold of him
by the arm, and
supported him aft towards the companion. This was
about half-past ten o'clock. Witness found the blood
running over his left hand quite warm. When he
got as far as the companion Phillips said, " I am dying
fast, Mr. Brooks." Witness sat him down on the back of
the hatch, and called for a light, and tried to find where
the wound was, but could not till the light came up.
Before the light came up, Phillips fell back and
breathed heavily three times, and expired. There were