6§ 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
1770. the little attention they paid to thofe repairs, f 
December. 
28th. 
was led to think that the want of food was the 
chief thing that detained them, as they never 
ceafed eating the whole day. Indeed for many 
days before we had been in great want, and for 
the laft three days had not tafted a morfel of any — 
thing, except a pipe of tobacco and a drink of 
fnow water ; and as we walked daily from mor- 
ning till night, and were all heavy laden, our 
ftrength began to fail. I mutt confefs that I ne- 
ver {pent fo dull a Chriftmas; and when I recol- 
lected the merry feafon which was then pafiing, 
and refleted on the immenfe quantities, and 
great variety of- delicacies which were then ex- 
pending in every part of Chriftendom, and that 
with a profufion bordering on wafte, I could not 
refrain from withing myfelf again in Europe, if 
it had been only to have had an opportunity of 
alleviating the extreme hunger which I fuffered 
with the refufe of the table of any one of my ac- 
guaintance. My Indians, however, {ftill kept in 
good {pirits; and as we were then acrofs all the 
barren ground, and faw a few frefh ‘tracks of 
deer, they began to think that the worft of the 
road was over for that winter, and flattered me 
with the expectation of foon meeting with deer 
and other game in greater plenty than we had 
done fince our departure from the Fort. 
Early in the morning of the twenty-eighth, we 
again fet out, and directed our courle to the 
Weltware, 
