x 9 i2] FAREWELL LETTERS 599 
that the country ought to help those who are left behind 
to mourn us. I leave my poor girl and your godson, 
Wilson leaves a widow, and Edgar Evans also a widow 
in humble circumstances. Do what you can to get their 
claims recognised. Goodbye. I am not at all afraid of 
the end, but sad to miss many a humble pleasure which 
I had planned for the future on our long marches. I may 
not have proved a great explorer, but we have done the 
greatest march ever made and come very near to great 
success. Goodbye, my dear friend, 
Yours ever, 
R. Scott. 
We are in a desperate state, feet frozen, &c. No 
fuel and a long way from food, but it would do your heart 
good to be in our tent, to hear our songs and the cheery 
conversation as to what we will do when we get to Hut 
Point. 
Later. — We are very near the end, but have not and 
will not lose our good cheer. We have four days of storm 
in our tent and nowhere's food or fuel. We did intend 
to finish ourselves when things proved like this, but we 
have decided to die naturally in the track. 
As a dying man, my dear friend, be good to my wife 
and child. Give the boy a chance in life if the State 
won't do it. He ought to have good stuff in him. . . . 
I never met a man in my life whom I admired and loved 
more than you, but I never could show you how much 
your friendship meant to me, for you had much to give 
and I nothing. 
