beholding the emaciated countenances of the Doctor and Hepburn, as they strongly evidenced their extremely debilitated state. The alteration in our appearance was equally distressing to them; for since the swellings had subsided we were little more than skin and bone. The Doctor particularly remarked the sepulchral tone of our voices, which he requested us to make more cheerful if possible, unconscious that his own partook of the same key.
“Hepburn having shot a partridge, which was brought to the house, the Doctor tore out the feathers, held it to the fire a few minutes, and then divided it into six portions. I and my companions ravenously devoured our shares, as it was the first morsel of flesh either of us had tasted for thirty-one days, unless, indeed, the small gristly particles which we found occasionally adhering to the pounded bones may be termed flesh. The doctor having brought his prayer-book and testament, some prayers and psalms, and portions of scripture appropriate to our situation, were read, and we retired to bed.”
The dismal tale of what had befallen Mr. Hood and the Iroquois is well and feelingly told by Dr. Richardson.
It appears that, after Captain Franklin had bidden the tent party farewell, they remained seated by the fireside as long as the willows cut by the Canadians lasted. They had no tripe de roche that day, but drank an infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful from its warmth, although it afforded no sustenance. They then retired to bed, and remained there all the next day, as the weather was stormy, and the snow-drift so heavy as to destroy every prospect of success in their endeavours to kindle another fire. The officers of the expedition, previous to leaving London, had been furnished by a lady with a small collection of religious books, “of which,” says the Doctor, “we still retained two or three, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. We read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God, that our situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer destitute; we conversed, not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives, and dwelling with hope on our future prospects. Had my poor friend (Hood) been spared to revisit his native land, I should look back to this period with unalloyed delight.
