considerable Store of Rein Deer flesh & musk oxen meat – for their winter support – and as a proof of their independence in the way of living tendered us the meat of Several Caches, which unfortunately for us, was so p[…] putrid that it was left untouched[.] This formed the Sum total of the information recieved from this accidental rencounter[.] Late in the Afternoon of July the 19^th in consequence of the Commander's request – I was intrusted with Dispatches addressed to Government and ordered back to Athabasca with them and endeavour to get them dispatched to Canada, by the Winter communication[.] Four Canadians were appointed to accompany me[.] The exploring Party still consisted of twenty men & officers[.] I travelled the the most part of the way going & Coming on Foot – and after Suffering no Small hardships & privation I reached Slave Lake with my party on the 29^th of September – and continued on, agreeable to the tenor of my instructions, untill the 25^th of October when I arrived at Fort Chepewean[.] [H]ere I Wintered and in the month of January, had the melancholy account of the Death of Eleven of the Party who had accompanied Captain Franklin, all Starved – amongst the number I lament to Say that my friend Lieut^t Robert Hood was included[.] Captⁿ Franklin Lieu^t George Back, & Doctor Richardson with 5 men and an Esquimeaux interpreter from Churchill, are the only Survivors that have escaped to relate this melancholy Tale[.] They had Surveyed a line of Coast exceeding 540 miles, and after Returning 250 miles on their Track, took the desperate [r]esolution of crossing the Barren Lands and their Steer their course towards Fort Enterprise[.] This march was commenced on the 31^st of August and it was during this journey that when obliged to wade through Snow Knee deep and unable to find fuel sufficient to thaw their frozen shoes, and wit[h] Provision to Satisfy the cravings of hunger on a march of upwards of forty Days, that the fatal and truely lamentable misfortune befel the Commander of losing eleven men, as above Stated, who fell victims to the hardships

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