Wilcocke, Samuel Hull. Narrative of Circumstances attending the death of the late Benjamin Frobisher, Esquire a partner of the North West Company of Montreal, ca. 1820 [Revised Text]. An electronic transcription. MFTP #0020

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reluctance; what I received was a phial of peppermint, an[d] a quart of rum, which we got on account of the North W[est] Company. Mr Shaw was at this time very ill with a cold. Mr MacTavish was also indisposed, and Mr Frobisher was reduced to a mere skeleton. Our situation was truly distressing. I enjoyed better health than the others, but was far from being well. No one appeared inclined to give us any relief: pity was totally out of question. We requested permission to visit Messrs Shaw and MacTavish, and to take the air on the outsid[e] of the fort, but were refused and spurned at. In the dilemma we were in we received timely assistance from a quarter I least expected. There was amongst the servants in the kitchen a young man who had served as waiting man to one of the Hudson's Bay masters, and had wintered at the same place I had. This man feeling for our miserable situation, one day when he brought in our victuals, told me he had three quarts of rum, ten pounds of loaf sugar and a pound of tea, whi[ch] he begged us to accept, and that he would put it through the grating of one of the back windows at night, and

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