to voluntary actions which enraged my guide, who, in his soul, was convinced I was really mad.

Alas! I imagined myself alone in the midst of the forest, where I bore such a lofty head! All of a sudden I knocked my nose against a shed, and under this shed presented themselves to my astonished eyes the first savages I had ever seen. They consisted of about a score of persons, men and women, daubed over with paint, like sorcerers, half-naked, with pierced ears, their heads adorned with crows' feathers, and rings in their noses. A little Frenchman, powdered and frizzled, dressed in an apple-green coat, a drugget waistcoat, and a muslin front and ruffles, was busy scraping away on an old pocket-fiddle, and playing Madelon Friquet to the dancing of these Iroquois. M. Violet (for that was his name) was the dancing master to these savages, who paid for his lessons in beaver skins and bears' hams. He had been a kitchenboy in the service of General Rochambeau, during the American war. Having stayed behind in New York on the departure of our army, he resolved to devote himself to teaching the fine arts among the Americans. His views had grown with his success, and this new Orpheus carried civilisation among the savage hordes of the New World. When speaking to me of the Indians, he always said, " Ces messieurs sauvages et ces dames sauvagesses." He bestowed great praise on the agility of his pupils; in truth, I never in my life saw such extraordinary gambols. M. Violet holding his little fiddle between his chin and his chest, tuned his miserable instrument, and shouted to the Iroquois, "PLACES," and the whole party leaped like a band of demons.

Was it not an overwhelming thing for a disciple of Rousseau to have his first introduction to savage life, at a ball given by an old kitchen-boy of General Rochambeau, to a band of Iroquois ? I had a great desire to laugh, but I was cruelly humiliated.

London, from April till September, 1822.

MY SAVAGE APPAREL-HUNTING-THE CARCAJOU AND CANADIAN FOX

MUSK-RAT-FISHING DOGS-INSECTS-MONTCALM AND WOLFE.

I BOUGHT a complete suit of apparel from the Indians; two bear skins, one for a short cloak, and the second for a bed. In

addition to these, a large cap, with ear-pieces of red cloth, a surtout, girdle, hunting horn, and the sort of cartridge-box used by the backwoods'-men. My hair hung loose on my open neck, and my beard was allowed to grow. In this fashion I became a compound of the savage, the hunter, and the missionary. An invitation was given me to join a hunting party the next day, to track a carcajou. This race of animals, as well as the beaver, has become almost extinct in Canada.

We set out before day to ascend a river which flowed from the wood, where the carcajou had been seen. The party consisted of thirty Indians, backwoods'-men, and Canadians; a division of the party with the hounds kept aloug the bank, accompanying the advance of the canoes, and the women carried our provisions.

We failed in meeting with the carcajou, but we killed several lynxes and musk-rats. The Indians make great lamentation when they happen by mistake to kill any of the latter; the female musk-rat being, as is well known, the mother of the human race. The Chinese, who are good observers, hold it as certain, that the rat changes to a quail and the mole to a loriot.

Our table was abundantly supplied with water-fowl and fish. The dogs are trained to dive; and when not employed in hunting they are taken to fish. They dash into the stream, and seize the fish at the very bottom of the river. A great fire, around which we all gathered, served the women for dressing our repast. We were obliged to lie down flat with our faces towards the ground to save our eyes from the smoke, clouds of which floating above our heads protected us, as best it might, from the stings of the musqui

toes.

These carnivorous insects, viewed through the microscope, are most formidable animals. They were, perhaps, those winged dragons whose skeletons are found again, diminished in size in proportion as they are lessened in power-the hydras, griffins, and other monsters of tradition, now appear in the form of insects. The giants of the antediluvian period are the little men of the present age.

London, from April till September, 1822.

ENCAMPMENT ON THE SHORE OF THE LAKE OF THE ONONDAGAS-ARABSA COURSE OF BOTANY-THE INDIAN WOMAN AND THE COW.

M. VIOLET offered me letters to the Onondagas, a remnant of one of the six Iroquois nations. We first reached the lake of this tribe. My Dutchman selected a suitable place for our camp. A river issued from the lake, and our implements were arranged in the bend of the river. We drove two forked sticks firmly into the ground, six feet apart, and laid a long pole horizontally on these two supports. Large pieces of the bark of the birch tree were placed with one end on the ground, and the other leaning against the transverse pole, in order to form a roof for our palace. Our saddles served as pillows, and our cloaks for bed clothes. We tied small bells to our horses' necks, and let them loose in the wood near our encampment, from which they did not stray far.

Fifteen years afterwards, when I bivouacked on the sands of the desert of Sabba, a few yards from the Jordan, and on the banks of the Dead Sea, our horses, the fleet sons of Arabia, appeared to listen to the tales of the scheik, and to take an interest in the stories of Antar and Job's horse.

It was not more than four in the afternoon when our hut was completed. I took up my gun, and went out to try my luck in the neighbourhood. Few birds were seen only a solitary couple sprung before me like the birds which I had followed in my paternal woods. By the colour of the male, I recognised the white sparrow, passer nivalis, of the ornithologists. I heard, also, the óspray, so well characterised by its cry. The flight of this noisy bird led me to a narrow valley, lying between bare and rocky hills. About half-way up on one side stood a miserable cabin, and a lean cow was wandering about in a meadow below.

I delight in these sheltered nooks. "A chico pajarillo chico nidillo (little bird, little nest). I sat down on the slope opposite to the hut.

A few minutes after I heard voices in the valley; three men appeared, driving five or six fat cattle to pasture, and drove away the lean cow with their sticks. An Indian woman came out of the

hut, advanced towards the frightened animal and addressed it. The cow ran to her, stretching out her neck with a slight lowing. The planters from a distance threatened the poor woman, who returned to her cabin. The cow followed her.

I rose up, went down the slope of the hill, crossed the valley, mounted the parallel ridge, and reached the hut.

I pronounced the salutation, which I had been taught: "siegoh" (I am come); instead of returning my salutation by the customary "you are come," the woman made no reply. I then caressed the cow; her yellow and mournful countenance assumed an expression of tenderness; I was struck with the mysterious. relations of misfortune; there is a pleasure in being affected at the evils which have never been wept over before.

The woman continued to look at me a little longer, with an appearance of some lingering doubt. She then came forward, and passed her hands over the face of the companion of her misery and solitude.

Encouraged by this mark of confidence, I said in English, for my stock of Indian phraseology was exhausted, "She is very lean!" The woman answered, in broken English, "She eats very little!" "They drove her away very cruelly," I added; and the Indian answered, "We are both accustomed to that." "Is not then, this meadow yours?" She said, "This meadow belonged to my husband, who is dead; I have no children, and the white men drive their cattle into my field."

I had nothing to offer to this creature of God. We parted. The poor woman said a great deal to me which I did not understand; it was, no doubt, the expression of her good wishes for my happiness; and if they were not heard in Heaven, it was undoubtedly not the fault of her who prayed, but the frailties of him for whom the prayer was offered. All minds have not the same aptitude for happiness, as all soils do not bear the same harvest.

I returned to my bark palace, where I found a meal of potatoes and maize awaiting me. The evening was magnificent; the lake, as smooth as a looking-glass, lay before me without a ruffle. The river murmured around our peninsula, which was perfumed by the odour of flowers. The Whip-poor- Will repeated his song; we heard him sometimes near, and sometimes at a distance, as the bird changed the scene of his loving call. called me.

No one

London, from April till September, 1822.

AN IROQUOIS-THE SACHEM OF THE ONONDAGAS-VELLY AND THE FRANKS -CEREMONIES OF HOSPITALITY-ANCIENT GREEKS.

NEXT day I went to pay a visit to the Sachem of the Onondagas: I reached his village about ten o'clock. I was immediately surrounded by groups of young savages, who spoke to me in their native tongue, mixed with English phrases, and a few French words; they made a great noise, and exhibited the same joyful appearance which the first Turks did whom I since saw at Coron, on my landing in Greece. These Indian tribes, surrounded by the clearings of the white men, possess horses, flocks and herds, their huts are supplied with domestic utensils, purchased on the one side at Quebec, Montreal, and Detroit, and on the other in the markets of the United States.

In passing through the interior of North America, there are found among the different savage tribes the same forms of government as are known amongst civilised nations. The Iroquois belonged to a race which appeared destined to conquer the Indian tribes, had not foreigners interfered to exhaust their resources and to arrest their power. This intrepid man showed no signs of astonishment or fear, when fire-arms were used against him for the first time; he stood as firm amidst the whistling of balls and the roar of artillery, as if the sounds had been familiar to him all his life; and he paid no more attention to them than to the rolling of a thunder-storm. As soon as he procured a musket, he learned to make better use of it than a European; he never abandoned his club, his scalping-knife, and his bow and arrows ;-but to these he added the carbine, pistol, dagger, and axe; he appeared never to have arms enough to content his valour. Thus doubly armed with the murderous weapons of Europe and America,-his head adorned with bunches of feathers, his ears cut, his arms tatooed and stained with blood, this champion of the New World became as formidable to look upon as to fight against, on the shores which he defended foot to foot against the attacks of the invaders.

The Sachem of the Onondagas was, in all strictness of language, an old Iroquois ; his person was a record of the traditions of the olden time of the desert.