In Counting Our Casks Up To This
Period, Three, In Every Respect The Same As The Flour Casks, With
Similar Marks, Had Been Reckoned In Their Lieu By Us All, Whilst The
Deficiency Being Then Apparently In The Pork Was Not Suspected By Any.
In this distressing dilemma nothing remained for us but to reduce our
ration of flour in such a proportion as would leave us twelve weeks of
that article, and as we had still plenty of pork, to issue an extra
pound of it weekly.
Since leaving the depot we had been so extremely
guarded in the issue of provisions, to prevent the possibility of our
suffering from any longer protraction of our journey than was expected,
that never more than six pounds of flour had been issued to each person
weekly, which now, from this accident coming to light, was reduced to
four pounds: it was, in truth, extremely fortunate that we had thus kept
within the calculated ration, as otherwise our situation would have been
highly alarming.
Some of our party began even now to anticipate the resources of famine,
for a large native dog being killed, it was pronounced, like lord
Peter's loaf, in the Tale of a Tub, to be true, good, natural mutton as
any in Leadenhall-market, and eaten accordingly: for myself, I was not
yet brought to the conversion of Martin and Jack.
The natives had been in this valley very recently, and I conjectured
that they were then not far from us.
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