240 NEWS FROM YORK FACTORY. 



The following day I received a further supply 

 from Mr. M c Leod, though with the painful intel- 

 ligence that he with his family w T ere surrounded 

 by difficulties, privations, and deaths. Six more 

 natives of either sex had sunk under the horrors 

 of starvation, the nets had failed, and Akaitcho, 

 on whom he relied (for the old chief had for- 

 gotten his hasty expressions and was still 

 faithful), was twelve days' march away. Distant, 

 however, as he was, Akaitcho had managed to 

 despatch some of the strongest young hunters 

 with a supply of meat, and it was a part of this 

 which was now forwarded to me. Mr. M c Leod's 

 situation was one of great embarrassment. I pre- 

 vailed on him therefore to sacrifice the comfort 

 of being with his family, and to send them to 

 Fort Resolution, to break up the fishery for the 

 present, and stimulate the Indians to further 

 exertion by keeping constantly near them. 



March 18th. — Mr. King and his party returned 

 from Artillery Lake, where the requisite articles 

 had been deposited, and the carpenters had 

 begun the boats. On the 26th a person arrived 

 late in the evening with the packet from York 

 Factory, which we had been expecting daily for 

 the last six weeks. The happiness which this 

 announcement instantly created can be appre- 

 ciated by those only who, like us, have been 

 outside the pale of civilisation, and felt the 



