But who that
has read it can ever forget the awful return journey of the party
from the Arctic coast, through the Barren Lands, to their own winter
quarters, which they so aptly named Fort Resolution? In the tales
of human suffering from hunger there are few more terrible than
this. All the gruesome features of prolonged starvation were present;
the murder of Mr. Hood and two of the voyageurs by the Iroquois;
his bringing to the camp a portion of human flesh, which he declared
to be that of a wolf; his death at the Doctor's hands; the dog-like
diet of old skins, bones, leather pants, moccasins, _tripe de roche_;
the death of Peltier and Semandre from want, and the final relief
of the party by Akaitcho's Indians, and their admirable conduct.
And all those horrors experienced over five hundred miles beyond
Fort Chipewyan, itself thousands of miles beyond civilization!
Did the noble Franklin's last sufferings exceed even these? Perhaps;
but they are unrecorded.
To return to our muttons. Some marked changes had taken place, and
for the better, in Chipewyan characteristics since Franklin's day;
not surprising, indeed, after eighty years of contact with educated,
or reputable, white men; for miscreants, like the old American
frontiersmen, were not known in the country, and if they had been,
would soon have been run out. There was now no paint or "strouds"
to be seen, and the blanket was confined to the bed.
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