Even
In Adopting This Course, He Had To Make Up His Mind To The
Certainty Of Several Days Of Famine
At the outset, for it would
take that time to reach the last Indian lodges from which he had
parted,
And until they should arrive there, his people would have
nothing to subsist upon but haws and wild berries, excepting one
miserable horse, which was little better than skin and bone.
After a night of sleepless cogitation, Mr. Hunt announced to his
men the dreary alternative he had adopted, and preparations were
made to take Mr. Crooks and Le Clerc across the river, with the
remainder of the meat, as the other party were to keep up along
the opposite bank. The skin canoe had unfortunately been lost in
the night; a raft was constructed therefore, after the manner of
the natives, of bundles of willows, but it could not be floated
across the impetuous current. The men were directed, in
consequence, to keep on along the river by themselves, while Mr.
Crooks and Le Clerc would proceed with Mr. Hunt. They all, then,
took up their retrograde march with drooping spirits.
In a little while, it was found that Mr. Crooks and Le Clerc were
so feeble as to walk with difficulty, so that Mr. Hunt was
obliged to retard his pace, that they might keep up with him. His
men grew impatient at the delay. They murmured that they had a
long and desolate region to traverse, before they could arrive at
the point where they might expect to find horses; that it was
impossible for Crooks and Le Clerc, in their feeble condition, to
get over it; that to remain with them would only be to starve in
their company.
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