UNCERTAIN FATE OF AUGUSTUS. 241 



blessing of communication with their friends 

 but once through a long twelvemonth. Yet 

 so true is it that 



" Man never is but always to be blest," 



that before we had time to congratulate each 

 other, our joy was almost turned into sorrow. 

 The bearer, on delivering the packet, added, 

 that he believed he had brought only half; that 

 the remainder had been sent from Fort Reso- 

 lution upwards of a month ago, under the charge 

 of two men, a Canadian and an Iroquois; that 

 these had been accompanied by my old com- 

 panion Augustus, the Esquimaux interpreter, 

 who no sooner heard that I was in the country 

 than he expressed his determination to join me, 

 and had actually walked from Hudson's Bay 

 with that affectionate intention; that the three 

 men, having no language in common, were 

 unable to convey their sentiments to each other ; 

 and that having lost their way, two of them, after 

 an absence of eighteen days, found their way 

 back to the fort ; but without Augustus, who 

 they declared persisted, in spite of their en- 

 treaties, in his forlorn search. On opening my 

 letters I found this account but too true, and 

 moreover that the brave little fellow had with 

 him, when they parted, only ten pounds of 

 pemmican, and neither gun nor bow and arrows. 



R 



