Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-03-02
A TERRIBLE WINTERS JOURNEY.

A TERRIBLE WINTERS JOURNEY.
The Nor Hester, new paper issued
at the Red River Settlement, gives an
account of the suferings of a party who
werelost on the prairie in the last part
of December. 1t appears that party
of five men started from Georgetown, a
newly formed station at the mouth Of the
Buffslo river, and about two hundred
miles from the Red River Settlement, to
60 TO Fort Garry. Their leader was a
young man named Mackenzie, who had
charge of the station. They expected
to be about five days on the road, and
took provisions for only that period.
None of them had ever travelled the route,
and hey made the grave mistake of
taking mules instead of dogs. They
started Dec. %. In two OF three days
their mules gave out. On the 26th,
starvation stared them in the face, and
the dull desperation of despair settled
upon them as they realized that they
were lost on trackless prairie. On
that day, Mr.. Mackenzie and another of
the party started ahead, in the hope
that they should be able to reach Penn
bina, and send back assistance 20 their
furnishing companions. But at night
they returned to camp, unsuccessful in
their object. The next day, Mackenzie
started alone, with the same object in
view, bat he did not survive the perils
which beset him on every hand. On
the following day, another man started
for Pembina, and got through the same
day. Assistance was Immediately dis
patched TO the remainder of the party,
and after their relief, search was made
for Mackenzie. His corpse was found
after two days search. The remainder
of the sad story is told as follows:
After leaving his companions, he
seems TO have followed the trail for
considerable distance, and then to have
lost his way. Night came upon him,
and bewildered by the growing darkness
and the drifting snow, he made towards
a clump of trees, with the intention,
probably, of kindling fire. If such
was his object he seems to have been
unable to accomplish it; and his beaten
track shows that to keep himself from
freezing, he had spent the hours of that
lonesome night in running round in a
circle. With the break of day, he started
again across the trackless waste, every
step that he took carrying him further
and further from the spot which he was
straining every nerve to reach. Another
weary day of fruitleSs travel was followed
by a second night more dreary even than
the first. Again he had managed to
stave off what he must have felt to
have been the hour OF his dissolution by
long hours of ceaseless activity. A third
days journey brought him towards Lac
des Roseaux. Here he attempted to run
round as before. But the strength and
courage which had heretofore sustained
him, now forsook him.
He dragged his tired footsteps through
the loose snow towards a tree, from
which he plucked branch and hung
thereon a shred of his tattered coat as a
signal to mark his dismal resting place; he
next tore off another branch of the same
tree, which he placed as pillow for his
cold bed, and then laid upon it his weary
head and died. The powerful body and
determined spirit which had so long
braved the merciless storm, in spite of
hunger and fatigue, had at last to succumb!
His right hand was on his heart, and bis
left hung by his side, firmly holding
compass. The body gave indications of
having undergone intense suffering. Some
portions of it had been frozen and thawed
many times in succession, before death
interviewed and released it from further
anguish"