In the Arctic Regions. 389 
Factory, where we arrived on the 14th of July, and 
were received with every mark of attention and kind- 
ness by Mr. Simpson, the Governor, Mr. M’Tavish, 
and, indeed, by all the officers of the United Com- 
panies. And thus terminated our long, fatiguing, 
and disastrous travels in North America, having jour- 
neyed by water and by land (including our navigation 
of the Polar Sea,) five thousand five hundred and fifty 
miles. 
assisting the expedition, should it come back by the Annadesse River, 
of which they were not certain. 
“ As to my not leaving a letter at Fort Enterprize, it was because 
by some mischance, you had forgot to give me paper when we 
parted.* 
“T however wrote this news on a plank, in pencil, and placed it in 
the top of your former bedstead, where I left it. Since it has not 
been found there, some Indians must have gone to the house after my 
departure, and destroyed it, ‘These details, Sir, I have been induced 
to enter into (rather unexpectedly,) in justification of myself, and hope 
it will be satisfactory.” 
* I certainly offered Mr. Wentzel some paper when he quitted us, but he 
aoclined it, having then a note book ; and Mr, Back gave him a pencil, 
