knows no surrender. He set himself to gather wood, built up a blazing
fire, dressed as well as he could the swollen body of the Indian, and
tried to bring some order into the filth and squalor {107} of the hut.
Hepburn meantime had killed a partridge, which the doctor then divided
among them in six parts, the first fresh meat that Franklin and those
with him had tasted for thirty-one days. This done, 'the doctor,' so
runs Franklin's story, 'brought out his prayer book and testament, and
some prayers and psalms and portions of scripture appropriate to the
situation were read.'

But beyond the consolation of manifesting a brave and devout spirit,
there was little that Richardson could do for his companions. The
second night after his arrival Peltier died. There was no strength
left in the party to lift his body out into the snow. It lay beside
them in the hut, and before another day passed Samandre, the other
Canadian, lay dead beside it. For a week the survivors remained in the
hut, waiting for death. Then at last, and just in time, help reached
them.

On November 7, nearly a month after Franklin's first arrival at the
fort, they heard the sound of a musket and the shouting of men outside.
Three Indians stood before the door. The valiant Lieutenant Back,
after sufferings almost as great as their own, had reached a band of
Indian hunters and had sent three men travelling at top speed with
enough food to {108} keep the party alive till further succour could be
brought. Franklin and his friends were saved by one of the narrowest
escapes recorded in the history of northern adventure. Another week
passed before the relief party of the Indians reached them, and even
then Franklin and his companions were so enfeebled by privation that
they could only travel with difficulty, and a month passed before they
found themselves safe and sound within the shelter of Fort Providence
on the Great Slave Lake. There they remained till the winter passed.
A seven weeks' journey took them to York Factory on Hudson Bay, whence
they sailed to England. Franklin's journey overland and on the waters
of the polar sea had covered in all five thousand five hundred and
fifty miles and had occupied nearly three years.

On his return to England Franklin found himself at once the object of a
wide public interest. Already during his absence he had been made a
commander, and the Admiralty now promoted him to the rank of captain,
while the n