Then the party had only to sit down and await the coming of the grim shadow following them through the jungle to strike them with the death chill.

They had two skeletons of horses and two gaunt dogs, and a tiny remnant of flour.

The men gave themselves up to moody despondency.
"Wearied out by long endurance of trials that would have shaken the courage and tried the fortitude of the strongest," says Carron in his diary, "a sort of sluggish indifference prevailed that prevented the development of those active energies which were necessary to support us in our present critical position." One of the two horses was killed, and its scanty flesh, cut into strips, was dried in the sun and smoke.

This, the most repellant, sapless food to be found in the world, had been their diet for some time.

Douglas was the first to die.