472 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XII. 



To add to the distress of Back, he received infor- 

 mation that his friend Augustus, the former affec- 

 tionate Esquimaux interpreter, hearing of his being 

 again in the country, set out from Hudson's Bay 

 in company of a Canadian and an Iroquois ; lost 

 their way, were separated, and poor Augustus fell a 

 sacrifice to famine. His remains were found on the 

 barrens not far from the Riviere a Jean. It ap- 

 peared that the gallant little fellow was retracing 

 his steps to the establishment when, either ex- 

 hausted by suffering and privation, or caught in the 

 midst of an open traverse in one of those terrible 

 snow-storms, which may be almost said to blow 

 through the frame, he had sunk to rise no more. 

 " Such," says Back, " was the miserable end of poor 

 Augustus ! a faithful, disinterested, kind-hearted 

 creature, who had won the regard, not of myself 

 only, but I may add of Sir J. Franklin and Dr. 

 Richardson also, by qualities which, wherever 

 found, in the lowest as in the highest forms of 

 social life, are the ornament and charm of hu- 

 manity" — qualities, it must be said, that were found 

 in full vigour in the kind-hearted Back. " Often," 

 said he, on another occasion, " did I share my own 

 plate with the children, whose helpless state and 

 piteous cries were peculiarly distressing; compas- 

 sion for the full-grown may or may not be felt, but 

 that heart must be cased in steel which is insensible 

 to the cry of a child for food." 



