His first objective was his old headquarters at Repulse Bay, and thither he sailed in August. The outlook was calculated to fill with misgivings the heart of a less intrepid explorer than Rae. The weather, in the first place, was unfavourable for fishing and hunting. In the second place, not a trace of an Eskimo was to be found, from which fact he gathered that game was not so plentiful now as was the case when he had paid his last visit to Repulse Bay. Consequently he began to feel serious doubts as to the possibility of spending the winter there, for, being of the opinion that the country ought always to be made to support the explorer, he had only brought sufficient provisions for three months, and had depended on his guns and his nets to make up the deficiency. Consequently, he did not feel justified in asking his men to share the dangers of an Arctic winter with him against their will, so he called them together, told them exactly how matters stood, and asked them whether they would stay there or return. Such was their confidence in their leader that they one and all volunteered to remain where they were. Luckily for them the weather improved a little, and before the end of September they had laid in a sufficient supply of provisions and fuel to last them up to the period of the spring migrations of the deer. It was on the last day of March that Rae and four men started out on the great spring journey which would, as they hoped, lead them across Boothia Peninsula from Pelly Bay to the Castor and Pollux River, and thence northward along the western coast of Boothia as far as Bellot Strait, thus connecting Simpson’s discoveries with those of Kennedy. They had been travelling for about three weeks when they happened to fall in with an Eskimo, from whom they obtained the first news of Franklin’s fate. The story is, perhaps, best given in Rae’s own words:— “The man was very communicative, and, on putting to him the usual questions as to his having seen white men before, or any ships or boats, he replied in the negative; but said that a party of ‘Kabloonans’ (whites) had died of starvation a long distance to the west of where we then were, and beyond a large river. He stated that he did not know the exact place, that he had never been there, and that he could not accompany us so far.” The substance of the information then and subsequently obtained was to the following effect:—