200 The Home of t/ie Wolverene ami Beaver. 



only say that history presents {c\w records of 

 danger and privation more cheerfully endured. The 

 whole account reads more like a thrilling romance 

 than the stern reality it actually was. During 

 their eventful journey they suffered from almost 

 every hardship that humanity can endure and still 

 survive — from pirates, from hostile Indians, some 

 of whom had the painted semblance of a red hand 

 across their mouths, a sign that they had drunk 

 the life blood of a foe ! from weakness and disease, 

 from the heavy hand of gaunt starvation. A touch- 

 ing story indeed ! Perishing from hunger, the 

 party had broken up into se\'eral sections on the 

 western slope of the Rocky Mountains, and each 

 had strixcn to reach Astoria as best it could. No 

 want of unanimity or lack of confidence in their 

 gallant leader caused this di\-ision ; it was enforced 

 by the poverty of the country, which did not carry 

 sufficient game or roots for the whole band. On 

 the 15th of February the main body, under Mr. 

 Hunt, swept round an intervening cape in their 

 canoes, and came in sight of the settlement. Their 

 historian thus describes it: "After eleven months' 

 wandering in the wilderness, a great part of the 

 time over trackless wastes, where the sight of a 

 savage wigwam was a rarity, we may imagine the 

 delight of the poor weather-beaten travellers at 



