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Though M^r Frobisher's wasted frame still exhibited the sad effects of his sufferings, no sooner had he got away did he find himself liberated from the hard oppression under which he had groaned, than his spirits and mental energy returned, and supported him in a measure bore him up for a considerable time; and although he still repeatedly constantly complained of his head, his healthy appearance had partially returned, and the buoyant state of his mind, from the hopes and expectations of ultimate escape, enabled him to encounter the difficulties that presented themselves even at the outset of their labours, with comparative and unlooked for vivacity and fortitude. He could now occasionally join his men in the chorus of some voyageur's boatsong with which they beguiled the tedium of the voyage, and the labour of the paddle.

It was not however during the few first days, and nor until they were passed Rock house, which they that they durst make the least noise. There was not indeed much chance of their meeting with interruption, as at that late period of the season every one had sought, or was on his to, his winter quarters, yet the meeting with a straggling hunter, or a fishing party, might have been as fatal to the success of their escape as the rencounter of an entire

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