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I am of the opinion the John Hornby did nothing wrong. The right to choose presumes the the possibility of error and the responsibility of the error belongs to the individual, informed or otherwise. We are condemned to freedom.
For the most part I agree. He certainly can't be criticized in his interactions with Adlard and Christian or in his conduct over the winter.
I do however feel his decision to winter where he did was selfish and that for personal reasons he might have been blind to the dangers. He was wrestling with personal demons of his own and did not seem to be in a good place. He didn't have inner peace and seemed to hope he'd find alone on the barrens over the winter. And maybe he did.
The fault I find with Hornby is simply clouded judgement. Yes, Christian and Adlard were big boys who could make their own decisions and certainly sitting at home in perfect safety and comfort is not necessarily a good way to live your life. But they were Hornby's responsibility and when you're in that position it's their best interests you need to look after, not your own.
It should have been clear to him early on they were in serious trouble. They arrived late in the season without a large food supply of their own and failed to secure caribou for the winter. They should have pulled out while they still had a chance and wintered at Fort Reliance. It certainly wouldn't have been a large disappointment to Adlard and Christian, to whom anything that winter would have been a new experience; but to Hornby I imagine it would have been quite a defeat. Is that why they stayed on?
Since Hornby left no record of his thoughts we don't know the reasoning for staying rather than fleeing. Maybe there were good reasons why it would have been impossible to pull out in the early winter.
Alan