I9I3] TIDINGS OF THE SOUTHERN PARTY 395 
quite damped our spirits, Campbell replied : ^ The Southern 
Party reached the Pole on January i8 last year, but were 
all lost on the return journey— we have their records.' 
The anchor was dropped ; Campbell and Atkinson 
immediately came off and told us in detail how mis- 
fortune after misfortune had befallen our gallant leader 
and his four brave comrades. We listened sadly to 
the story, and our feelings were too deep to be described. 
We had actually prepared the cabins for the reception of 
our lost companions, and it was with infinite sadness 
that the beds were unmade, the flags hauled down from 
our mastheads, and those undelivered letters scaled up for 
return to the wives and mothers who had given up so 
much in order that their men might achieve. 
But however great our sorrow we had the consolation 
of pride in the magnificent spirit shown by the Polar 
Party. The manner in which these men died is in itself 
an eloquent description of their characters as we knew 
them. TJie absolute generosity of Captain Scott himself 
runs through his dying appeal to the nation and those 
letters of his with no word of blame or reflection on others 
for the disaster, though he could not know that scurvy 
had smitten the last supporting party, and that those 
who would have come were fettered by illness and the 
weather conditions that finally arrested the advance of 
the dog teams. 
It was characteristic also that he did not forget the 
future of his Expedition, but left instructions and letters 
to the end that the scientific results should be fitly 
published. 
