1769. January. Doctor. Mr. Banks, therefore, fent five of the company, among whom was Mr. Buchan, forward to get a fire ready at the firft convenient Monday 16. place they could find; and himself, with four others, remained with the Doctor and Richmond, whom partly by perfuafion and intreaty, and partly by force, they brought on; but when they had got through the greateft part of the birch. and swamp, they both declared they could go no farther. Mr. Banks had recourse again to intreaty and expoftulation, but they produced no effect: when Richmond was told, that if he did not go on he would in a fhort time be frozen to death; he answered, That he defired nothing but to lie down and die: the doctor did not fo explicitly renounce his life; he faid he was will ing to go on, but that he must first take fome fleep, though he had before told the company that to fleep was to perish. Mr. Banks and the reft found it impoffible to carry them, and there being no remedy they were both fuffered to fit down, being partly supported by the bushes, and in a few minutes they fell into a profound fleep: foon after, fome of the people who had been fent forward returned, with the welcome news that a fire was kindled about a quarter of a mile farther on the way. Mr. Banks then endeavoured to wake Dr. Solander and happily fucceeded: but, though he had not slept five minutes, he had almost loft the use of his limbs, and 1769. and the muscles were fo fhrunk that his fhoes January. fell from his feet; he confented to go forward Monday 16. with fuch affiftance as could be given him, but no attempts to relieve poor Richmond were fuccessful. It being found impoffible to make him ftir, after fome time had been loft in the attempt, Mr. Banks left his other black fervant and a feaman, who feemed to have fuffered leaft by the cold, to look after him; promising, that as soon as two others fhould be fufficiently warmed, they fhould be relieved. Mr. Banks, with much difficulty, at length got the doctor to the fire; and foon after fent two of the people who had been refreshed, in hopes that, with the affiftance of those who had been left behind, they would be able to bring Richmond, even though it fhould ftill be found impoffible to wake him. In about half an hour, however, they had the mortification to see these two men return alone; they faid, that they had been all round the place to which they had been directed, but could neither find Richmond nor those who had been left with him; and that though they had fhouted many times, no voice had replied. This was matter of equal furprise and concern, particularly to Mr. Banks, who, while he was wondering how it could happen, miffed a bottle of rum, the company's whole ftock, which they now concluded to be in the knapfack of one of the abfentees. It was conjectured, that with this Richmond had been roused by the two per fons 1769. January. fons who had been left with him, and that, having perhaps drank too freely of it themselves, they had all rambled from the place where they Monday 16. had been left, in fearch of the fire, inftead of waiting for those who should have been their affistants and guides. Another fall of snow now came on, and continued inceffantly for two hours, fo that all hope of feeing them again, at least alive, were given up; but about twelve o'clock, to the great joy of those at the fire, a shouting was heard at fome diftance. Mr. Banks, with four more, immediately went out, and found the feaman with juft ftrength enough left to stagger along, and call out for affiftance: Mr. Banks fent him immediately to the fire, and, by his direction, proceeded in fearch of the other two, whom he foon after found. Richmond was upon his legs, but not able to put one before the other; his companion was lying upon the ground, as infenfible as a ftone. All hands were now called from the fire, and an attempt was made to carry them to it; but this, notwithstanding the united efforts of the whole company, was found to be impoffible. The night was extremely dark, the fnow was now very deep, and, under thefe additional disadvan tages, they found it very difficult to make way through the bushes and the bog for themselves, all of them getting many falls in the attempt. The only alternative was to make a fire upon the spot; ་ 1769. January. fpot; but the fnow which had fallen, and was ftill falling, befides what was every moment Monday 16. fhaken in flakes from the trees, rendered it equally impracticable, to kindle one there, and to bring any part of that which had been kindled in the wood thither: they were, therefore, reduced to the fad neceffity of leaving the unhappy wretches to their fate; having first made them a bed of boughs from the trees, and fpread a covering of the fame kind over them to a confiderable height. Having now been expofed to the cold and the fnow near an hour and an half, fome of the rest began to lose their sensibility; and one Brifcoe, another of Mr. Banks's fervants, was fo ill, that it was thought he muft die before he could be got to the fire. At the fire, however, at length they arrived; and paffed the night in a fituation, which however dreadful in itself, was rendered more afflicting by the remembrance of what was past, and the uncertainty of what was to come. Of twelve, the number that fet out together in health and fpirits, two were fuppofed to be already dead; a third was fo ill, that it was very doubtful whether he would be able to go forward in the morning; and a fourth, Mr. Buchan, was in danger of a return of his fits, by fresh fatigue, after fo uncomfortable a night: they were distant from the fhip a long day's journey, 1769. January. journey, through pathlefs woods, in which it was too probable they might be bewildered till they were overtaken by the next night; and, Monday 16. not having prepared for a journey of more than eight or ten hours, they were wholly deftitute of provisions, except a vulture, which they happened to shoot while they were out, and which, if equally divided, would not afford each of them half a meal; and they knew not how much more they might fuffer from the cold, as the fnow ftill continued to fall. A dreadful teftimony of the severity of the climate, as it was now the midst of fummer in this part of the world, the twenty-firft of December being here the longest day; and every thing might juftly be dreaded from a phænomenon which, in the correfponding feafon, is unknown even in Norway and Lapland. When the morning dawned, they faw nothing Tuesday 17. round them, as far as the eye could reach, but fnow, which feemed to lie as thick upon the trees as upon the ground; and the blafts returned fo frequently, and with fuch violence, that they found it impoffible for them to fet out: how long this might laft they knew not, and they had but too much reafon to apprehend that it would confine them in that defolate forest till they perished with hunger and cold. After having fuffered the mifery and terror of this fituation till fix o'clock in the morning, they |