214                      A DESERTED FORT.
gone ahead, continued the journey with no alleviation of their sufferings, excepting the comfort one day of a large fire—the first deserving the name since leaving the coast. Having no rock-tripe they drank some tea and ate some of their shoes for supper.
"At length we reached Fort Enterprise, and to our in-finite disappointment found it a perfectly desolate habitation. There was no deposit of provision, no trace of the Indians, no letter from Mr. Wentzel to point out where the Indians might be found. It would be impossible for me to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode, and discovering how we had been neglected; the whole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate, as for that of our friends in the rear, whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place.
" I found a note, however, from Mr. Back, stating that he had reached the house two days ago, and was going in search of the Indians, at a place where St. Germain deemed it probable they might be found. If he was unsuccessful, he purposed walking to Fort Providence, and sending succor from thence.
"We now looked round for the means of subsistence, and were gratified to find several deer skins, which had been thrown away during our former residence. The bones were gathered from the heap of ashes; these with the skins, and the addition of tripe de roclie, we considered would support us tolerably well for a time. We procured fuel by pulling up the flooring" of the other rooms, and water for the purpose of cooking by melting the snow. Whilst we were seated round the fire singeing the deer skin for supper, we were rejoiced by the unexpected entrance of Augustus. He had followed quite a different course from ours.