Chap. X. FKANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 339 



Richardson to contain upwards of 20,000 square 

 miles, is peopled by about 120 Indian hunters, 

 most of them married, with an average of five to 

 each family, or the whole Indian population may 

 be estimated at 2500. Their mode of life subjects 

 them to great privations ; the hooping-cough and 

 measles at this time were spreading through the 

 whole tribe ; many died, and most of the survivers 

 were so enfeebled as to be unable to pursue the 

 necessary avocations of hunting and fishing; the 

 scenes of misery were heart-rending, and the few 

 who had escaped disease were not able to afford 

 relief to the sufferers. 



" One evening, in the month of January (says Dr. 

 Richardson), a poor Indian entered the North- West Com- 

 pany's House, carrying his only child in his arms, and 

 followed by his starving wife. They had been hunting 

 apart from the other bands, had been unsuccessful, and 

 whilst in want were seized with the epidemical disease. 

 An Indian is accustomed to starve, and it is not easy to 

 elicit from him an account of his sufferings. This poor 

 man's story was very brief; as soon as the fever abated, he 

 set out with his wife for Cumberland House, having been 

 previously reduced to feed on the bite of skin and offal 

 which remained about their encampment. Even this miser- 

 able fare was exhausted, and they "walked several days 

 without eating, yet exerting themselves far beyond their 

 strength, that they might save the life of the infant. It 

 died almost within sight of the house. Mr. Connelly, 

 then in charge of the post, received them with the utmost 

 humanity, and instantly placed food before them ; but no 

 language can describe the manner in which the miserable 



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