Chap. X. FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 359 



behold these poor creatures enjoying themselves, 

 for they had behaved in the most exemplary and 

 active manner towards the party, and with a gene- 

 rosity and sympathy seldom found even in the 

 more civilized parts of the world ; and the attention 

 and affection which they manifested towards their 

 wives evinced a benevolence of disposition, and 

 goodness of nature, which could not fail to secure 

 the approbation of the most indifferent observer." 

 Another instance, while it conveys some idea of the 

 privation to which the party were exposed with 

 regard to food, shows the desire of the Indians, in 

 the midst of their own sufferings, to administer to 

 the relief of the strangers. 



" One of our men caught a fish, which, with the assistance 

 of some weed scraped from the rocks {tripe de roche) that 

 affords a glutinous substance, made us a tolerable supper ; 

 it was not of the most choice kind, yet good enough for 

 hungry men. While we were eating it, I perceived one of 

 the women busily employed scraping an old skin, with the 

 contents of which her husband presented us. They con- 

 sisted of pounded meat, fat, and a greater proportion of 

 Indian's and deer's hair than either ; and though such a 

 mixture may not appear very alluring to an English stomach, 

 it was thought a great luxury, after three days' privation in 

 these cheerless regions of America.^ Indeed, had it not 

 been for the precaution and generosity of the Indians, we 

 must have gone without sustenance until we reached the 

 f orts ."— pp. 273, 274. 



Back in this dreadful journey was not only ex- 

 posed to starvation and the extremity of cold, but 



