The Arctic Expedition [Initial Account of Dr. Rae's Findings] (1854)

Intelligence which may be fairly considered decisive has at last reached this country of the sad fate of Sir John Franklin and his brave companions

Dr. Rae, whose previous exploits as an Arctic traveller have already so highly distinguished him, landed at Deal yesterday, and immediately proceeded to the Admiralty, and laid before Sir James Graham the melancholy evidence on which his report is founded.

Dr. Rae was not employed in searching for Sir John Franklin, but in completing his survey of the coast of Boothia. He justly thought, however, that the information he had obtained greatly out-weighed the importance of his survey, and he has hurried home to satisfy the public anxiety as to the fate of the long-lost expedition and to prevent the risk of any more lives in a fruitless search. It would seem from his description of the place in which the bodies were found that both Sir James Ross and Captain Bellot must have been within a few miles of the spot to which our unfortunate countrymen had struggled on in their desperate march. A few of the unfortunate men must, he thinks, have survived until the arrival of the wild-fowl about the end of May, 1850, as shots were heard and fresh bones and feathers of geese were noticed near the scene of the sad event.