were again reduced to the necessity of eating putrid deerskin, ere a second supply of provisions could be conveyed to them. They were then rejoiced to learn, by a note from Mr. Back, dated Nov. 11th, that he and his two surviving companions, St. Germain and Solomon Belanger, had so recruited their strength, that they were preparing to proceed from the Indian hunters’ encampment to Fort Providence.
On the 16th, Captain Franklin and his party set out for the abode of Akaitcho, which they reached in safety after a painful, but gradually improving march of ten days. Their feelings on quitting the house where they had formerly enjoyed much comfort, if not happiness, and latterly experienced a degree of misery scarcely to be paralleled, may be more easily conceived than described. A short extract from the published narrative will enable the reader to form an idea of the dreadful state to which they had previously been reduced.
“The Indians,” says Captain Franklin, “treated us with the utmost tenderness, gave us their snow-shoos, and walked without any themselves keeping by our sides, that they might lift us when we fell. They prepared our encampment, cooked for us, and fed us as if we had been children; evincing humanity that would have done honor to the most civilized people. We were received by the party assembled in the leader’s tent with looks of compassion and profound silence, winch lasted about a quarter of an hour, and by which they meant to express their condolence for our sufferings.”
Captain Franklin and Dr. Richardson continued to sojourn with Akaitcho, who was moving very slowly to the southward, until Dec. 8th: and then pushed on for Fort Providence, where they met with a hearty welcome. On the 19th they arrived at Moose-Deer Island, and there found Lieutenant Back, whose sufferings had scarcely been less than their own, and to whose exertions, under Almighty guidance, they felt the preservation of their lives to be owing. By the end of February, 1822, the swellings of their limbs had entirely subsided, and they were able to walk to any part (if the island. Their appetites gradually moderated, and they nearly regained their ordinary state of body before the spring. Hepburn alone suffered from a severe attack of rheumatism,
