Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1859-10-14
Sir John Franklin.

While the interesting discoveries re-
Gently made in the Arctic regions, by
Captain McClintock and the crew of the
yacht Fox, set at rest forever all hopes
and fears as to the fate of Sir John
Franklin and his brave comrades, they
stamp upon the records of Arctic investi-
cation melancholy tale Of suffering. and
an instance of fortitude and devotion to
duty almost without parallel. Stimula-
ted by the undying love of woman, the
hopeful nature, the unyielding energy of
fond wife, the little band of the Fox
set out to make the final search for the
remains Of the crews of the Erebus and
Terror, that history might at least be
able TO tell where and when they per.
ished. In this endeavor they were sue.
cessful. Falling in with such traces of
the missing ships, and such infor nation
from the Esquimaux as they required, the
Adventures were enabled to discover the
track of their predecessors, and follow
up the trail accurately, meeting at inter-
walls the mournful traces of their last
journey from the abandoned ships across
the desolate ~ snow and ice.
The records found by Captain McClin-
took at Point Victory, establish the fact
beyond question that Sir John Franklin
died in the midst of his faithful compan
ions, on the 1th Of June, 1847, and that
the ships were abandoned ten months
later, on the 22d Of April, 1913, more
than eleven years ago. Turning their
faces southwark, the surviving adventu,
rers, numbering hundred and FIVE out
of the original hundred and twenty-nine,
commenced their march over the ice to
wards region where they expected to
find deer shooting, and doubtless, also,
with view to carry out, if possible, the
object of the EXPEDITION, by ascending
Fish river. All the traces found of them
intimate that they were not short of pro.
visions, ammunition or fuel for, il or
around every cairn were evidence of
abundance yet they dropped away on
that desolate path, one after the other,
until the last one persisted. The skele-
tons of some were found lying in boats,
others bleached upon the SHOWS, sur
rounded by the relics of home and friends.
How long they held ont against the ter
rors Of their situation after the 25th of
April, 1848, the date of the record, will
never be known; enough, they persisted
one by one, and they have mouldered
where they fell, in the midst of silence
and desolation under the SHOWS of eleven
winters.
The fate of these gallant men, as now
ascertained, bears out the assertions
which DIR. Rae made after his search in
1854, that Sir John Franklin and his
crew were not the victims of Esquimaux
treachery, but had probably taken a
course to the southwark over the ice, and
persisted on the journey. All uncertainty
as to their fate being now set at rest, it
is presumable that the expedition of the
Foxis indeed the final one to the Attic
regions. With the discovery Of the
Northwest Passage or @pen sea by Capt.
Mcclure came also tue conviction that
it was impractcable for purposes of nav
igation. No discoveries have since been
made to afford any hope of better results
from Attic explorations, and we trust
that the solution of this twelve years
mystery WILDE the signal to abandon all
further attempts demanding SO heavy a
sacrifice of gallant aud chivalrous lives.
IN. Y. Herald.