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Letter 1 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 for ever 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 for ever . 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 .
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