MELANCHOLY FATE OF AUGUSTUS. 253 



On the 3d June, the whole of the men came 

 in from the fishery, and brought with them the 

 melancholy tidings, that the Indians had been 

 at Fort Resolution without hearing anything 

 about poor Williamson, who, it was now conjec- 

 tured, must have got bewildered among the 

 islands away from the track, or met with some 

 accident so as to incapacitate him from making 

 a fire, and thereby indicating his situation. The 

 remains of Augustus also had been discovered 

 not far from the Riviere a Jean. It appeared 

 that the gallant little fellow was retracing his 

 steps to the establishment, when, either exhausted 

 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 

 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 John Franklin and Dr. Rich- 

 ardson also, by qualities, which, wherever found, 

 in the lowest as in the highest forms of social 

 life, are the ornament and charm of humanity. 



These were not very cheering auspices for the 

 eve of our departure ; but past griefs must yield 

 to present necessities, and the sharpness of the 

 feeling gradually wore off under the pressure of 

 mental and bodily occupation. By the 5th June, I 



