182 DEPLORABLE STATE OF THE PARTY. 



saw also about this time many bears, but they 

 were too weak to pursue them ; to use their own 

 expression, they were " so feeble and sore that 

 they could not even bite their biscuit." 



Their earthly career was now drawing to a 

 close ; debility heightened into " cruel pain ;" and 

 they soon experienced the effect of the scurvy ? 

 in all the horrors of its most loathsome and 

 afflicting form. In the last stage of their disease, 

 while they yet retained their faculties, one of 

 them penned the following affecting paragraph : 



" Four of us that are still alive, lie flat upon 

 the ground in our huts ; we think we could still 

 feed were there but one among us that could 

 stir out of our hut to get us some fuel, but no- 

 body is able to stir for pain. We spend our 

 time in constant prayer, to implore God's mercy 

 to deliver us out of this misery ; being ready, 

 whenever he pleases to call us. We are certain- 

 ly not in a condition to live long without food 

 or fire, and cannot assist one another in our 

 mutual applications, but must every one bear his 

 own burthen. M 



No words can more feelingly describe the 

 deplorable condition of these miserable beings 

 than those which are given in the last paragraph, 

 which fell from the pen of the historian of this 

 party. Situated as they were, with their intel- 



