Our sledges were constructed after a pattern furnished by myself, and the tents, cooking-lamps, and other camp fixtures, were manufactured under my personal supervision. From numerous friends, whose names I cannot here mention without violating the obligations of confidence, we received books and a great quantity of "small stores" which were afterward greatly appreciated during our winter imprisonment in the ice. [Sidenote: READY TO SAIL.] We had expected to sail on the 4th of July, and the friends of the Expedition were invited by the Boston Committee, through its secretary, Mr. O. W. Peabody, to see us off. Although the day was dark and drizzly many hundreds of persons were present. Through some unavoidable accident we did not get away. The guests, however, made us the recipients of their best wishes, and when the members of my little command (assembled together on that day for the first time) found themselves addressed in turn by the Governor of the State, the Mayor of the City, and the President of Harvard, and by renowned statesmen, orators, divines and merchants of Boston, and by _savans_ of Cambridge, the measure of their happiness was full. Inspired by the interest thus so conspicuously manifested in their fortunes, they felt ready for any emergency. THE OPEN POLAR SEA. CHAPTER I. LEAVING BOSTON.--AT ANCHOR IN NANTASKET ROADS.--AT SEA. Late in the evening of July 6th, 1860, the schooner _United States_ was hauled into the stream, prepared to leave port the following morning. The morning dawned clear and auspicious. Upon going on board, I found that a number of friends whom I had invited to accompany us down the bay had preceded me by half an hour. Among them were His Excellency the Governor of the State, and representatives of the Boston, New York and Philadelphia committees. The fine, large steam-tug _R. B. Forbes_ soon came alongside, alive with a gay party of well-wishers, and, taking the end of our hawser, started us from our anchorage. As we passed Long Wharf we were honored with a salute from a battery which the Mayor of the city had sent down for that purpose, and numerous parting cheers greeted us as we steamed down the bay. The wind being unfavorable, we dropped anchor for the night in Nantasket Roads. The tug took most of our friends back to Boston, and I was left in my cabin with the official representatives of the promoters of the enterprise, engaged in the last of our numerous consultations. A handful of papers were put into my possession, and I became the sole owner of the schooner _United States_ and the property on board of her. The sun had set before our conference ended, and the wind promising to hold from the eastward during the night, I returned to Boston with Mr. Baker, in his yacht.