380 Thirty Tears 



Having collected with great care, and by self-denial, 

 two small packets of dried meat or sinews, sufficient 

 (for men who knew what it was to fast) to last for 

 eight days, at the rate of one indifferent meal per day, 

 we prepared to set out on the 30th. I calculated that 

 we should be about fourteen days in reaching Fort 

 Providence ; and, allowing that we neither killed deer 

 nor found Indians, we could but be unprovided with 

 food six days, and this we heeded not whilst the pros- 

 pect of obtaining full relief was before us. According- 

 ly we set out against a keen north-east wind, in order 

 to gain the known route to Fort Providence. We 

 saw a number of wolves and some crows on the middle 

 of the lake, and supposing such an assembly was not 

 met idly, we made for them, and came in for a share 

 of a deer, which they had killed a short time before, 

 and thus added a couple of meals to our stock. By 

 four P.M. we gained the head of the lake, or the di- 

 rect road to Fort Providence, and some dry wood being 

 ;ii hand, we encamped ; by accident it was the same 

 place where the Commander's party had slept on the 

 19th, tie- day en which I suppose they had left Fort 

 Enterprize ; but the encampmenl was so small, that 

 ired great mortality had taken place among them ; 

 and J am sorry to say the stubborn resolution of my 

 men, not to go to the house, prevented me from deter- 

 mining this most anxious point, so that I now almost 



