reason of my return, and desiring he would send
meat from Reindeer Lake by these men if St. Germain should kill any
animals there. If Benoit should miss Mr. Back I directed him to proceed
to Fort Providence and furnished him with a letter to the gentleman in
charge of it, requesting that immediate supplies might be sent to us.

On my return to the house I found Samandre very dispirited and too weak,
as he said, to render any assistance to Peltier, upon whom the whole
labour of getting wood and collecting the means of subsistence would have
devolved. Conscious too that his strength would have been unequal to
these tasks they had determined upon taking only one meal each day, so
that I felt my going back particularly fortunate as I hoped to stimulate
Samandre to exertion and at any rate could contribute some help to
Peltier. I undertook the office of cooking and insisted they should eat
twice a day whenever food could be procured but, as I was too weak to
pound the bones, Peltier agreed to do that in addition to his more
fatiguing task of getting wood. We had a violent snow-storm all the next
day and this gloomy weather increased the depression of spirits under
which Adam and Samandre were labouring. Neither of them would quit their
beds and they scarcely ceased from shedding tears all day; in vain did
Peltier and myself endeavour to cheer them. We had even to use much
entreaty before they would take the meals we had prepared for them. Our
situation was indeed distressing but in comparison with that of our
friends in the rear we thought it happy. Their condition gave us
unceasing solicitude and was the principal subject of our conversation.

Though the weather was stormy on the 26th Samandre assisted me to gather
tripe de roche. Adam, who was very ill and could not now be prevailed
upon to eat this weed, subsisted principally on bones, though he also
partook of the soup. The tripe de roche had hitherto afforded us our
chief support, and we naturally felt great uneasiness at the prospect of
being deprived of it by its being so frozen as to render it impossible
for us to gather it.

We perceived our strength decline every day and every exertion began to
be irksome; when we were once seated the greatest effort was necessary in
order to rise, and we had frequently to lift each other from our seats,
but even in this pitiable condition we conversed cheerfully, being
sanguine as to the speedy arrival of the Indians. We calculat