we worked round several falls and kept clear of the rapids for a while; but it couldn’t last.  We lost boats here and there, till we hadn’t enough to carry the men and what baggage we had with us, and so we took to the land, and began our march through the woods along the banks of the river.  Now a kind of suffering began, which we hadn’t dreamed of when we started, but which we had been expecting before we lost our boats.  We had to drag ourselves along, over rocks and ravines and through thick underwood, with starvation staring us in the face.  I had never been a hearty feeder, and could bear the want of provisions better than those in good health and who had accustomed themselves to cramming.  But poor Johnson fainted several times on the march, and O’Brien suffered more than he would tell.  Every thing eatable was at length entirely used.  Several dogs, generally favourites of their owners, had been killed and entirely devoured, even to the entrails.  O’Brien, Johnson and myself boiled our moccasins, to see if any nourishment could be drawn from the deer-skin.  But the skins were dry.  It seemed as if we were doomed to starvation.  No game of any kind appeared, and even the eatable roots were not to be found.  I remember seeing a party of men, Johnson among them, discover a well-known root in the sand and rush for it as if it had been a diamond.  The man who got it devoured it instantly, though at any other time it would have made him sick.”

“I wonder how those men would have acted if they had met such a loaded table as this in the woods,” said Hand.

“Acted!” said Davenport.  “Like wolves, whose bellies had been pinched with hunger for a week.  You may judge from what I tell you.  As we were marching slowly through the woods, a set of ragged skeletons, the foremost of the party caught sight of some Canadians and Indians coming towards us, with great packages and bundles which we knew were the provisions sent by Colonel Arnold.  There was a perfect yell of joy, and the whole party rushed towards them.  But Major Bigelow and his officers kept the men off from the food, at the sword’s point.  The food was then distributed in very small quantities to each man.  How it disappeared!  I venture to say that ten minutes after the men received their shares, they had devoured them all.  The Canadians and Indians were ordered to keep enough provisions for the other troops, who were fed as they came up.  At last we caught sight of the French settlement of Sertigan, where Colonel Arnold had arrived some days before.  The people came out to receive us; but they wondered at us as if we were more than men.  They offered us plenty of food and clothing, and took care of the sick.  Within four or five days, the whole army was collected by small parties at Sertigan.”

“What was the number of the troops who arrived safe?” enquired Pitts.

“About five hundred and fifty men, I suppose,” replied Davenport.  “The rest had either gone back with Enos, deserted, or been left at the block-house, sick.”