SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 634, 30 August 1851, Page 3

SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

[From the Morning Post.] COMMANDER PULLEN’S EXPEDITION. The following is an extract from a letter by Lieutenant Hooper to a relative at home ; it is date f. “ Fort Good Hope, McKenzie River, “Tuesday, July 16, 1850. “ In my letter of the 28th clt., I told you of our intended second trip to the sea, and that we were just returning from Great Slave Lake to Fort Simpson to prepare for the voyage st that place. A quarter of an hour after that letter was sealed, we were on onr road, the epistle also proceeding in the opposite direction. We reached Fort Simpson on the 3rd inst., and until the 10th werie busily engaged getting our boats and all matters in readiness, which with few hands and small resources, took up much time. • On that day we quitted Fort Simpson and descended the river to Fort ?Jurna, which we reached on the night of the 13th ; staid there the night, and started the next morning for this place, where we arrived this morning ( To-morrow we leave this, tbe last post on the river, as also the last place from which I can communicate with you until our return, which probably will be about the end of September or October. “ Our boats are two—the larger one brought from the Plover, the other is a river boat of • V. TT..J r> t~i j _ n_J .L_ me nuusvu uay vtuuipauy, auu vaixcu tue Try Agatn, with reference to our attempt this time. We are 17 persons in all—Captain Pullen, myself, 10 of our old hands, 3 new ones of tbe company, and 2 Indians for hunters. We may expect to reach the sea about the 23rd of the present month, and if we meet with no detention, ought to get to Cape Bathurst in a few days, then across to Wollaston, or Banks’ Land, as opportunity may best serve. It is not impossible that we may winter in one cf those Islands, should provisions beqflentifui there, in order io extend our search as far as may be. Therefore, if you do not receive from me an announcement of our return, which I shall not fail to give if we return back this year, you must not be alarmed at our absence, or fancy a thousand horrible con-

tingencies ; but on the contrary, rejoice that we have fallen upon a never before-trodden land, and are prosecuting with ardour a prolonged search, instead of confining our operations to one brief summer (we are as safe, you know, in the greatest danger, as in a feather bed in the security of our native land ; and be assured not many of our party are easily daunted with trifles). We are not sanguine of success, but we look forward with great hope, as the region we propose visiting is one which has not been explored, and in a direction which the most experienced of Arctic voyagers imagine to be the most probable situation for the missing ships. Should we find them, what delight would be ours could we but succeed in restoring the distressed and gallant party to their anxiously sorrowing friends. ( 44 Sir J. Ross left at Port Leopold on the land of North Somerset, provisions sufflcient for 60 men for twelve months, with a steam launch. “ Now, should we reach Bank’s Land, which is about 300 miles from Cape Bathurst, and find the sea to the eastward clear of ice, with a fine westerly breeze, we might perhaps make for that place, where the provisions would support our party for four years nearly, and enable us to search away properly. But this is only a remote chance, as it is impossible to say what we shall do, depending, as we must, on the weather, which in these hyperborean regions can never be determinately calculated upon. We take energy and determination to the task, and hope to the onset; these should smooth all difficulties ; the issue is in the hands of an allwise God. To him let as leave it. 44 Enclosed is a likeness of an Indian woman of the slave tribe, taken at Fort Simpson. The costume I can answer for as being correct. Her dress is of smoked moose skin, her belt of porcupine quills. Her knife hangs in a sheath from her neck, and she holds in her hand a canoe paddle. Her name is Clo-tel-hee-ah-zee, or the Little Rabbit. These .Indians have very odd names ; there is one called Pass under the Ground ; another, Thirty-six Tongues—l suppose from his talking disposition, he being supereminently loquacious. 44 This is a noble occupation—endeavouring to save life ; far more so than destroying it, and I trust I may never be forced to that necessity, or at any rate but in a just cause.”