On This Information We Encamped
And, Being Too Weak To Walk Myself, I Sent St. Germain To Follow The
Tracks,
With instructions to the chief of the Indians to provide
immediate assistance for such of our friends as might be
At Fort
Enterprise, as well as for ourselves, and to lose no time in returning to
me. I was now so exhausted that, had we not seen the tracks this day, I
must have remained at the next encampment until the men could have sent
aid from Fort Providence. We had finished our small portion of sinews and
were preparing for rest when an Indian boy made his appearance with meat.
St. Germain had arrived before sunset at the tents of Akaitcho whom he
found at the spot where he had wintered last year, but imagine my
surprise when he gave me a note from the Commander and said that Benoit
and Augustus, two of the men, had just joined them. The note was so
confused by the pencil marks being partly rubbed out that I could not
decipher it clearly, but it informed me that he had attempted to come
with the two men but, finding his strength inadequate to the task, he
relinquished his design and returned to Fort Enterprise to await relief
with the others. There was another note for the gentleman in charge of
Fort Providence desiring him to send meat, blankets, shoes, and tobacco.
Akaitcho wished me to join him on the ensuing day at a place which the
boy knew where they were going to fish, and I was the more anxious to do
so on account of my companions, but particularly that I might hear a full
relation of what had happened and of the Commander's true situation,
which I suspected to be much worse than he had described.
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