vi PREFACE. 



To the Committee for the 3Ianagement of the Affairs of 

 Captain Back's Expedition. 



Portland Hotel, London, October 26, 1833. 



Gentlemen, 



Of the many circumstances of high gratification which 

 have welcomed the delivery of myself and companions from four 

 years' severe suffering, there is nothing (next after a deep sense 

 of the merciful Providence wherewith we have been surrounded in 

 such great perils) which has excited in me so strong a feeling of 

 gratitude, as the humane and generous sympathy of a number of 

 persons who, at the chance of being instrumental in our preser- 

 vation, contributed, with the assistance of his Majesty's government, 

 a sum, ample for the purpose of paying the expense of an expe- 

 dition, which was so promptly and with so much judgment put in 

 motion by your committee, and so wisely confided to the guidance 

 of Captain Back, whose known intelligence and intrepidity gave 

 the committee a certainty that all would be done which a sagacious 

 mind and unflinching perseverance could accomplish. 



It is my wish and duty to make the earliest acknowledgment, of 

 this instance of wide-extended compassion towards us, and I 

 venture to rely on the favour of the committee, to receive with 

 allowance, this imperfect expression of my feelings towards them, 

 to his Majesty's government, to the contributors to the undertaking, 

 and to the Hudson's Bay Company, for efforts which might have 



