Makers of the world's history and their grand achievements . LIEUTENANT BACKS START—A JOURNEY OF FIVE HUNDRED MILES FOR FOOD. for them as dead. Discretion being the better part of valor, Franklinreluctantly determined to settle in winter quarters and continue the ex-ploration in the summer. The place chosen for wintering was at FortEnterprise, near the head of the Coppermine. During the winter, food grew scarcer and scarcer, until at laststarvation was threatened. In addition to their own party, the Indianshad to be provided for, and this greatly impoverished their resources. 32 498 SIR lOHN F
Makers of the world's history and their grand achievements . LIEUTENANT BACKS START—A JOURNEY OF FIVE HUNDRED MILES FOR FOOD. for them as dead. Discretion being the better part of valor, Franklinreluctantly determined to settle in winter quarters and continue the ex-ploration in the summer. The place chosen for wintering was at FortEnterprise, near the head of the Coppermine. During the winter, food grew scarcer and scarcer, until at laststarvation was threatened. In addition to their own party, the Indianshad to be provided for, and this greatly impoverished their resources. 32 498 SIR lOHN FRANKLIN. The Indians kuew this, aud. with a generosity which Cliristian menmight sometimes imitate, gave their own food to the strangers whoseemed more to need it. We are nsed to starvation, 3^011 are not; they said. B3^-and-by a time came when the sitnation was gloomy inthe extreme ; ammunition, and other articles indispensable to the pro-gress of the expedition, and food were fast failing. What was to bo. RETURN WITH SUPPLIES WHEN DESPERATELY NEEDED. done? There was only one course open, and that was to journey onfoot a distance of over five hundred miles to Fort Chipew\an, in thedepth of an Arctic winter, for supplies. A volunteer was soon found. L/ieutenant Back was not a man toallow his comrades to perish while he had strength and vigor to sa\ethem, and he undertook to perform the -journey aud obtain the needfulsupplies. Day after day, he and his companions toiled ou over ice and SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 499 snow ; and niglit after night, braved the inclemency of the weather bycamping out of doors. With snow-shoes galling their feet and anklestill they bled profusely; with only sufficient food to keep them fromstarving, and, therefore, rendering them all the more susceptible tocold ; with weather unusual in the severe region for its severity, on theywent, until, at last, they reached the station, procured four sledges,laden to the full with needful things, and the promise of m
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