rvice was so great that before his health was re-established he
obtained orders from the Secretary of the Navy to proceed to
head-quarters of the army, then in the City of Mexico, for duty in
connection with the collection of data relative to field hospitals
and surgical statistics. Here his activity and daring resulted in
his being wounded in a guerilla skirmish.

Assigned temporarily to a surveying vessel, circumstances soon
determined Kane's career and gave full scope to his enthusiastic
energies, and insured his future fame. The appeals of Lady Franklin,
the recommendations of President Taylor, and the generosity of Henry
Grinnell, had culminated in the organization of a search expedition
for Franklin in the Arctic regions. It was provided that the vessels
should be manned by volunteers from the Navy, and among those
offering their services for this mission of humanity none was more
importunate than Kane. Persistent efforts brought him orders for
this fateful voyage while bathing in the tepid waters of the Gulf of
Mexico, and ten days later he sailed from New York for the icy
wastes of the North as surgeon of De Haven's flag-ship, the Advance.
This search, known in Arctic history as the First Grinnell
Expedition, was made under a joint resolution of the Congress of the
United States, dated May 2, 1850, "to accept and attach to the Navy
two vessels offered by Henry Grinnell, Esq., to be sent to the
Arctic seas in search of Sir John Franklin and his companions." Two
very small sailing brigs constituted the fleet, the flag-ship
Advance, commanded by De Haven, an officer of Antarctic experience
under Wilkes, and the Rescue, under Master Griffin; the entire party
numbered thirty-three officers and men.

Their objective point was Lancaster Sound and its westward
extension, Barrow Strait, whence either or both Wellington Channel
and Cape Walker were to be visited. The squadron passed safely
through Davis Strait, and skirting the dreaded land-ice of Melville
Bay, reached Cape York after three weeks of constant and dangerous
struggle with the heavy ice, which nearly destroyed the Rescue,
borne almost on her beam-ends by the enormous pressure from a moving
ice-pack. De Haven fell in with the English squadrons on the same
errand, August 19, 1850, and, entering Lancaster Sound with his
British consorts, devoted his energies to the search in hand.
Griffin, of the Rescue, shared with Captain Ommaney, R. N., the
honors of the d