TO
        Mrs. Saville,
           England

    St. Petersburgh,
           Dec. 11th,
         17-

    You will rejoice to hear
         that no disaster
            has accompanied the
                 commencement
                    of an enterprise
              which you
                  have regarded
                       with such evil forebodings.

    I arrived here yesterday,
           and my first task
            is to assure
                   my dear sister
                 of my welfare and
                  increasing confidence
                       in the success
                           of my undertaking.

    I am already
           far north of London,
         and as
             I walk
                   in the streets of Petersburgh,
         I feel
               a cold northern breeze play
             upon my cheeks,
           which braces my nerves
            and fills me with delight.

    Do you understand this feeling?

    This breeze,
           which has
              travelled from the regions
                   towards which
             I am advancing,
         gives me a foretaste of
               those icy climes.

    Inspirited by this wind
           of promise,
         my daydreams
              become more fervent and vivid.

    I try in vain
          to be persuaded
         that the pole
            is the seat of frost
                   and desolation;
        it ever presents itself
               to my imagination
             as the region
                   of beauty and delight.

    There,
           Margaret,
         the sun is forever visible,
           its broad disk just
              skirting the horizon and
                  diffusing a perpetual splendour.

    There
         --for with your leave,
               my sister,
             I will
                  put some trust
                       in preceding navigators--
           there snow and frost
            are banished;
        and,
           sailing over a calm sea,
         we may be wafted
               to a land
             surpassing in wonders and
                   in beauty every region hitherto
                  discovered on the habitable globe.

    Its productions and features
        may be
         without example,
           as the phenomena
               of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly
            are in those undiscovered solitudes.

    What may not
          be expected
               in a country
                   of eternal light?

    I may there
          discover the wondrous power
        which attracts the needle
            and may regulate
                   a thousand celestial observations
         that require only this voyage
              to render their seeming
                 eccentricities
                    consistent forever.

    I shall satiate
           my ardent curiosity
         with the sight
               of a part
             of the world never
         before visited,
           and may
              tread a land never
             before imprinted
                   by the foot of man.

    These are my enticements,
           and they
            are sufficient
                  to conquer
                       all fear of danger
                      or death and
                    to induce me
                          to commence this laborious voyage
                               with the joy
                                   a child feels
             when he
                embarks in a little boat,
         with his holiday mates,
           on an expedition of discovery
               up his native river.

    But supposing all these conjectures
          to be false,
           you cannot
              contest the inestimable benefit which
             I shall confer
                   on all mankind,
         to the last generation,
           by discovering a passage
               near the pole
                   to those countries,
         to reach
              which at present so
                   many months
                are requisite;
        or by
             ascertaining
                the secret of the magnet,
           which,
         if at all possible,
           can only
              be effected by an undertaking
             such as mine.

    These reflections
          have dispelled the agitation
         with which
             I began my letter,
           and I feel
               my heart
                  glow with an enthusiasm
              which elevates me to heaven,
         for nothing
            contributes so much
                   to tranquillize the mind
                 as a steady
                   purpose a point
             on which the soul
                may fix its intellectual eye.

    This expedition
        has been the favourite dream
               of my early years.

    I have read
           with ardour the accounts
               of the various voyages
          which have been made
               in the prospect of arriving
             at the North Pacific Ocean
               through the seas
          which surround the pole.

    You may remember
         that a history of
               all the voyages
              made for
            purposes of discovery
                  composed the whole
                    of our good Uncle