140 LOSS OF AN ENGLISH SLOOP. 
leave them, on account of the despatches with which I had 
heen entrusted, and which might be of the greatest import- 
ance to the public service ; and the more, as I could not be 
ignorant that the duplicate was lost in the wreck of the brig. 
But I was still so weak, that for some time I found it im- 
possible to take the least exercise, and experienced, as well 
as the companions of my misfortunes, how difficult it is to re- 
cover from such a rude attack upon the constitution. 
After an absence of about a fortnight, the Indians returned 
with three of our people, being all that death had spared out 
of the eight persons whom I had left behind at the hut. They 
informed us, that after consuming all their provisions, they 
had subsisted upon the skin of the elk which we had disdain- 
ed to share with them; that the latter resource being ex- 
hausted, three had died of hunger, and that the others had 
been reduced to the horrible necessity of feeding on the dead 
bodies till the arrival of the Indians ; that one of the five who 
remained had given way with so much imprudence to his vo- 
racity, that he died in a few hours, amidst inexpressible tor- 
ments ; and that another had accidentally killed himself in 
handling the arms of one of the savages. Thus our compa- 
ny, consisting at first of nineteen persons, was reduced to 
nine ; and I wonder, whenever I think of it, that a single in- 
dividual escaped, after having had to contend for the space of 
three months with all the complicated hardships of cold, 
hunger, and fatigue. 
Our impaired strength kept us in this dismal place a fort- 
night longer, during which I was obliged, as before, to pay 
the most exorbitant price for our food and our smallest wants. 
At the end of that time, finding my health somewhat re-esta- 
blished, and my purse almost empty, I conceived myself oblig- 
ed to sacrifice my personal comfort to my duty to the service, 
and resolved to proceed with my despatches to General 
Clinton with all possible expedition, though this, of all the 
seasons of the year, was the least proper for traveling. I 
therefore hired two Indians to take me to Halifax for forty 
guineas, which I engaged to pay them upon my arrival there. 
I farther took upon myself to furnish them by the way with 
every kind of provisions, and suitable refreshments, in the in- 
habited parts through which we might pass. Some of the 
other Indians were to conduct the rest of our company to a 
settlement on Spanish River, where they were to remain till 
the spring, to wait for an opportunity of proceeding to Halifax 
by sea. I furnished the captain with all ihe money necessa- 
