STRAY LEAVES FROM AN ARCTIC JOURNAL OR, EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN THE POLAR REGIONS, IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION, IN THE YEARS 1850-51. BY LIEUT. SHERARD OSBORN, COMMANDING H.M.S. VESSEL, PIONEER. Dedicated to Lady Franklin. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, Medication. ACCEPT, my dear Lady Franklin, these few pages, as the warm and honest tribute of deserved admiration for yourself and estimable niece, Miss Sophia Cracroft - admiration, which I delight in, in common with thousands, that such as you are Englishwomen; and pride, that a sailor's wife should so nobly have fulfilled her duty; for, if, on the one hand, the name of Sir John Franklin, that chief "sans peur et sans reproche," is dearly associated with our recollections of the honours won in the ice-bound regions of the Pole, your names are not the less so, with the noble efforts made to rescue, or solve the fate of our missing countrymen. That those sacrifices, those untiring exertions, that zeal which has never wavered, that hope so steadfast, since it is that of an English woman for her husband, that patience under misconstruction, that forgiveness for the sneer of jealousy, and that pity for the malicious, which you have so pre-eminently displayed, may yet, by God's help, one day reap its reward in the accomplishment of your wishes, is the fervent prayer of SHERARD OSBORN. |