Franklin gladly accepted the appointment offered to him by the Colonial Office to take command of an expedition to co-operate with Hudson’s Bay Co. in exploring the north coast of America and surveying it. His colleagues were Dr Richardson, who had sole charge of the natural history work; two midshipmen named Back and Hood, selected for their proficiency as artists, and a blue-jacket named Hepburn. Other members of the expedition were to be engaged in the country, Hudson’s Bay men and Canadian voyageurs. George Back was then aged 22. He had entered the navy in 1808 on board the _Arethusa_, and served in boat actions on the north coast of Spain, where in his last fight 14 of his crew were killed out of 18. Back was taken prisoner while making an attack on a battery of heavy guns at Lequeitio and was detained at Verdun until 1814. On regaining his liberty he served in the _Akbar_ under Sir J. Byam Martin at Flushing, and afterwards on the North American station. He passed for Lieutenant in 1817, and in the following year joined the _Trent_ under Franklin in the Spitsbergen voyage. Franklin gladly secured the gallant young officer’s services again for his first land expedition. It was a difficult task, as the narrative of Hearne made sufficiently clear. The explorers were to discover the north coast of America from the mouth of the Coppermine eastward. The party reached York Factory in Hudson’s Bay in August, 1819, and Fort Chipewyan early in 1820. In July they were at Fort Providence on the north-east side of the Great Slave Lake, and early in August they set out for the Coppermine river, wintering at a station which was built on Winter Lake, and called Fort Enterprise. The fatigue and difficulty of travelling thus far were enormous. Franklin calculated that all the portages, each having to be traversed four times, made together 150 miles. One of the North West Co.’s men having joined the expedition, the party now consisted of six Englishmen and twenty-six others, principally Canadian voyageurs. Franklin arranged with the Indians that, on his return, there should be supplies of food and Indians at Fort Enterprise.