to the benefit of their Country[.] How long this contest is yet to continue a Subject of regret to every good man, is still in the bosom of time[.] [T]he weight of Purses may serve to keep alive expenses & loss, and by that means lengthen the Contest – but in the event both Parties may find themselves involved in the same ruin – for whichever Side preponderates must remaine a long while in quiet possession of Country before they can expect to retrieve their affairs in a Sufficient manner to afford them profit – and then it may be yet a matter of doubt if it will be practicable to bring back the natives to assume their former Habits and Industry[.] Indeed, it may perhaps turn out that many of the most Respectful Traders now in the Country, from age, Broken Constitutions & other infirmities will be obliged to retire before the termination of the existing troubles, or remain to leave their Bones in the Country where Golden Dreams attracted them, with the melancholy reflections of having lost their All amongst Savage Nations and in Savage Parts[.] Sad consolation!!

Yet this however has been the fate of the unfortunate M^r Benjamin Frobisher – who had been seized and detained a Prisoner by the Hudson's Bay Company Servants at Jack River the preceeding year[.] In September last autumn he made his Escape with two of his men (fellow Prisoners) and after, undergoing & Surmounting incredible privation & and difficulties, he found himself so weakened in Strength for want of subsistence that he was obliged, in Lac Bourbon, to desire his Companions in Sufferings to make the best of their way to the nearest Establishment, (if their Strength would allow them) and procure him assistance[.] The two men reluctantly left him at Pointe au Lievre in the forementioned Lake, and had the good fortune to reach one of the North West Company's Establishments at a Place called moose Lake in the Vicinity of Cumberland House, and under the care of M^r George Nelson – who on hearing the Situation of M^r

Frobisher

[71]