for Englishmen of the future, and that the country ought to help those who are left behind to mourn us.  I leave my poor girl and your godson, Wilson leaves a widow, and Edgar Evans also a widow in humble circumstances.  Do what you can to get their claims recognised.  Goodbye.  I am not at all afraid of the end, but sad to miss many a humble pleasure which I had planned for the future on our long marches.  I may not have proved a great explorer, but we have done the greatest march ever made and come very near to great success.  Goodbye, my dear friend,

Yours ever,
R. SCOTT.

We are in a desperate state, feet frozen, &c.  No fuel and a long way from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent, to hear our songs and the cheery conversation as to what we will do when we get to Hut Point.

Later.—­We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our good cheer.  We have four days of storm in our tent and nowhere’s food or fuel.  We did intend to finish ourselves when things proved like this, but we have decided to die naturally in the track.

As a dying man, my dear friend, be good to my wife and child.  Give the boy a chance in life if the State won’t do it.  He ought to have good stuff in him. ...  I never met a man in my life whom I admired and loved more than you, but I never could show you how much your friendship meant to me, for you had much to give and I nothing.

TO THE RIGHT HON.  SIR EDGAR SPEYER, BART.

Dated March 16, 1912.  Lat. 79.5 deg..

MY DEAR SIR EDGAR,

I hope this may reach you.  I fear we must go and that it leaves the Expedition in a bad muddle.  But we have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen.  I regret only for the women we leave behind.

I thank you a thousand times for your help and support and your generous kindness.  If this diary is found it will show how we stuck by dying companions and fought the thing out well to the end.  I think this will show that the Spirit of pluck and power to endure has not passed out of our race ...

Wilson, the best fellow that ever stepped, has sacrificed himself again and again to the sick men of the party ...

I write to many friends hoping the letters will reach them some time after we are found next year.

We very nearly came through, and it’s a pity to have missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark.  No one is to blame and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest that we have lacked support.

Good-bye to you and your dear kind wife.

                Yours ever sincerely,
                        R. SCOTT.

TO VICE-ADMIRAL SIR FRANCIS CHARLES BRIDGEMAN, K.C.V.O., K.C.B.

MY DEAR SIR FRANCIS,