5G cook's first voyage jan. 



that which had been kindled in the wood thither : 

 they were, therefore, reduced to the sad necessity 

 of leaving the unhappy wretches to their fate ; having 

 first made them a bed of boughs from the trees, and 

 spread a covering of the same kind over them, to a 

 considerable height. 



Having now been exposed to the cold and the 

 snow near an hour and a half, some of the rest 

 began to lose their sensibility ; and one, Briscoe, 

 another of Mr. Banks's servants, was so ill, that it 

 was thought he must die before he could be got to 

 the fire. 



At the fire, however, at length they arrived ; and 

 passed the night in a situation, which however dread- 

 ful in itself, was rendered more afflicting by the 

 remembrance of what was past, and the uncertainty 

 of what was to come. Of twelve, the number that 

 set out together in health and spirits, two were sup- 

 posed to be already dead ; a third was so ill, that it 

 was very doubtful whether he would be able to go 

 forward in the morning ; and a fourth, Mr. Buchan, 

 was in danger of a return of his fits, by fresh fatigue, 

 after so uncomfortable a night : they were distant 

 from the ship a long day's journey, through pathless 

 woods, in which it was too probable they might be 

 bewildered till they were overtaken by the next 

 night ; and, not having prepared for a journey of 

 more than eight or ten hours, they were wholly 

 destitute of provisions, except a vulture, which they 

 happened to shoot while they were out, and which, 

 if equally divided, would not afford each of them 

 half a meal ; and they knew not how much more 

 they might suffer from the cold, as the snow still 

 continued to fall. A dreadful testimony of the 

 severity of the climate, as it was now the midst of 

 summer in this part of the world, the twenty-first of 

 December being here the longest day ; and every 

 thing might justly be dreaded from a phaenomenon 



