N^o 4

M^cKenzie River

April 30^th 1811

M^r M^cKenzie

Dear Sir

Depending entirely on your generosity for forgiveness, in not writing so fully as might have been expected from a Person Buried as we are in this Country I beg leave to State Briefly – that I am gratefully sensible of your Kindness towards me – and hope for a continuance of your good will[.]

This last winter has been the most melancholy & most disastrous that could ever have befallen to any one single man, to support without becoming torpidly Stupid or totally senseless[.] Our distress & sufferings have been so great that of four Christians who were left at this establishment last Fall – I am the only survivor in a State more easily concieved than described; when I inform you that from the 13^th of December 1810 to the 12^th of January we Knew nor saw any Kind of meat but dressed moose deer Skins & Green Parchment Skins[.] [A]t this date we received only Seven Pleus of Fresh meat we were upon this little supply no less than eight mouths of course is was but two meals, from that period to the 11^th of March 1811, we lived upon nothing else than dried Beaver Skins our number was then increased to thirteen &

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