In 1849, Mr. Henry Grinnell, a merchant of the United States, actuated by the purest philanthropy that ever influenced the heart of man, determined to devote a portion of his well-deserved wealth to the noble purpose of relieving Sir John Franklin, who, it was much to be feared, from the desponding tone of a portion of the English press on Sir James Ross's failure, was likely to be left unsought for in 1850. He therefore, at his sole expense, purchased two vessels, one of 140 tons, the "Advance," the other 90 tons, the "Rescue," and, having strengthened, provisioned, and equipped them, Mr. Grinnell then placed them under the control of his Government, in order that they might be commanded by naval officers and sail under naval discipline. The American Congress passed the necessary acts, and Lieutenant E. De Haven, who had seen service in the Antarctic seas, took command of the "Advance," as the leader of the expedition, and another distinguished officer, Mr. Griffin, hoisted his pendant in the "Rescue." On the 23d May, 1850, the two vessels sailed from New York, touching at Disco, where I am sorry to say they found my worthy friend "Herr Agar" to have died shortly after my visit; they reached the pack of Melville Bay on the 7th July, and, tightly beset until the 23d, they did not reach Cape York until early in August. The 7th August they reached Cape Dudley Digges! (at that time we were still beset off Cape Walker in Melville Bay), thence they stood to the south-west, until they reached the West Water. On the 18th August, when we had a thick fog and almost a calm off Possession Bay, the American squadron was in a severe gale in Lancaster Sound; and on the 25th August, after visiting Leopold Island, the gallant Americans reached Cape Riley close on the heels of the "Assistance" and "Intrepid." From that time we have shown that they lost no opportunity of pushing ahead; and if progress depended alone upon skill and intrepidity, our go-ahead friends would have given us a hard tussle for the laurels to be won in the Arctic regions. As a proof of the disinterestedness of their motives, men as well as officers, I was charmed to hear that before sailing from America they had signed a bond not to claim, under any circumstances, the L20,000 reward the British Government had offered for Franklin's rescue; we, I am sorry to say, had acted differently. America had plucked a rose from our brows; but in such generous enterprise, we for the most part felt that no narrow-minded national prejudices could enter, and I gloried in the thought that the men who had so nobly borne themselves, as well as he, the princely merchant who had done his best to assist the widow and orphan to recover those for whom they had so long hoped and wept, were men who spoke our language, and came from one parent-stock--a race whose home is on the great waters.