406 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



pany, for the amount of their wages. We carried Augustus 

 down to York Factory, where we arrived on the 14th July, 

 and were received with every mark of attention and kind- 

 ness by Mr. Simpson the Governor, Mr. M'Tavish, and 

 indeed by all the officers of the united companies. And 

 thus terminated our long, fatiguing, and disastrous travels 

 in North America, having journeyed by water and by land 

 (including our navigation of the Polar Sea) five thousand 

 five hundred and fifty miles."— pp. 493, 494. 



It is impossible to rise from the perusal, even 

 of this abridged narrative, without feeling the 

 deepest contrition, mingled with admiration of 

 such dignified conduct. It contains but a small 

 portion of the transactions and adventures of 

 these few brave spirits, who have so eminently dis- 

 tinguished themselves by a determined persever- 

 ance under difficulties of no ordinary kind; by 

 their magnanimity in bearing up under suffering 

 and distress in every aggravated shape — extreme 

 cold, fatigue, hunger in its most appalling charac- 

 ter, want of fuel, want of clothing, want of covering 

 from the inclemency of the weather, dragging their 

 wearied bodies, for a protracted period, over a 

 barren country, buried in deep snow ; and bearing 

 all their miseries without a murmur, and, above 

 all, with a devout resignation to the Divine Will, 

 and a confident hope, in the very last extremity, of 

 the goodness and mercy of their Heavenly Father, 

 which, in His own good time, they were fully con- 

 fident would be extended to them. 



