6oo 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[March 
To the Right Hon. Sir Edgar Speyer, Bart. 
Dated March 16, 191 2. Lat. 79*5°. 
My dear Sir Edgar, 
I hope this may reach you. I fear we must go 
and that it leaves the Expedition in a bad muddle. But 
we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen. 
I regret only for the women we leave behind. 
I thank you a thousand times for your help and support 
and your generous kindness. If this diary is found it 
will show how we stuck by dying companions and fought 
the thing out well to the end. I think this will show that 
the Spirit of pluck and the power to endure has not passed 
out of our race. . . . 
Wilson, the best fellow that ever stepped, has sacrificed 
himself again and again to the sick men of the party. . . . 
I write to many friends hoping the letters will reach 
them some time after we are found next year. 
We very nearly came through, and it's a pity to have 
missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot 
our mark. No one is to blame and I hope no attempt 
will be made to suggest that we have lacked support. 
Good-bye to you and your dear kind wife. 
Yours ever sincerely, 
R. Scott. 
To Vice- Admiral Sir Francis Charles Bridgeman, 
K.C.V.O., K.C.B. 
My dear Sir Francis, 
I fear we have shipped up ; a close shave ; 
I am writing a few letters which I hope will be delivered 
