In all the English accounts, the Indian Sachem is called the old gentleman; this old gentleman, however, was completely naked; he had a feather, or fish-bone passed through the cartilage of the nose; and on his shaven head, as round as a cheese, he sometimes wore a three-cornered hat, in honour of European civilisation. Has not Velly written history with the same fidelity? Chilperick, the leader of the Franks, rubbed his hair with rancid butter, infundens acido comam butyro, daubed his cheeks with green paint, and wore an extraordinary jacket or plaid, made of the skins of wild beasts. He is, however, represented by Velly as a prince, magnificent even to ostentation in his furniture and equipage, voluptuous even to debauchery, and entertaining scarcely any belief in God, whose ministers were the objects of his ridicule.

The Sachem of the Onondagas received me well, and made me sit down on a mat. He spoke English, and understood French, whilst my guide was acquainted with Iroquoise: his conversation was easy. Among other things, the old man told me that although his nation had always been at war with mine, he had always esteemed it. He made complaints of the Americans, whom he regarded as unjust and covetous-expressing his regret, that in the partition of the country the lot of his nation had not fallen to the English.

The women served up a repast. Hospitality is the last virtue left to the savages in the midst of European civilisation; it is known how sacred it was in olden times, when the hearth had all the power of the altar.

When a tribe was driven from its native woods, or a man came to ask hospitality, the stranger began what was called the suppliant's dance; a child touched the threshold of the door and said, "Behold! a stranger!" and the chief replied, “Child, bring the man into the hut." The stranger, entering under the protection of the child, went and sat down by the ashes on the hearth. The women then sung the song of consolation. "The stranger has found again a mother and a wife; the sun shall rise and set for him as before."

These customs appear to have been borrowed from the Greeks; Themistocles, on going to the house of Admetus, embraces his Penates (household gods) and the young son of his host (I may, perhaps, when at Megara, have trampled on the hearth of the poor woman, under which lay hidden the cinerary urn of Phocion); and Ulysses, in the house of Alcinoüs, thus entreats

Arete:-"Noble Arete, daughter of Rexenor, I throw myself at your feet, after having suffered many evils." When he had spoken these words, the hero retired and went to sit down on the ashes of the hearth. I took my leave of the aged Sachem, who had been present at the taking of Quebec. The episode of the war in Canada afforded some consolation in the shameful annals of the reign of Louis XV. ;-it appeared like a page of our ancient history discovered in the Tower of London.

Montcalm, without supplies, charged with the duty of defending Canada against forces frequently re-inforced, and four times as numerous as his, struggled with success for two years; he defeated Lord Rawdon and General Abercromby. At length, however, fortune forsook him; he fell wounded under the walls of Quebec, and two days after he breathed his last. His grenadiers buried him in a trench scooped out by a bomb; a grave worthy of the honour of our arms! His noble enemy, Wolfe, fell at the same place he paid for the fall of Montcalm the penalty of his own life, and had the glory of dying on French colours.

London, April to September, 1822.

JOURNEY FROM THE LAKE OF THE ONONDAGAS TO THE RIVER GENESEEBEES CLEARINGS-HOSPITALITY-BED-CHARMED RATTLESNAKE.

My guide and I now mounted again, and pursued our route, which became more difficult, and was barely traced by felled trees; the trunks of these trees served as bridges over the streams, or fascines in the swamps. The American population was at that time flowing towards the grants of land near the river Genesee. These grants varied in price, according to the quality of the soil and of the trees, and the course and abundance of the water.

It has been observed that settlers in the woods are often preceded by bees; pioneers of the labourer, they are the symbol of the industry and civilisation which they announce. These peaceful conquerors, foreign to America, and reaching it in the track of Columbus's sails, only took from a new world of flowers treasures, of the use of which the natives were ignorant; and only made use of these treasures to enrich the soil whence they had drawn them.

The clearings on either side of the road which I was pursuing presented a curious mixture of a state of nature and a state of civilisation. In the corner of a wood, which had until now resounded only with the cries of the savage and the roar of wild beasts, we came upon a piece of cultivated land; from the same point of view we saw an Indian wigwam and a planter's house some of these houses, already completed, reminded one in their neat appearance of Dutch farm-houses; others were only halffinished, and had as yet no roof but the sky.

I was received into these dwellings, the work of a morning, and often found in them a family surrounded by European elegancies; mahogany furniture, a piano, carpets, and mirrors, at a few paces from the hut of an Iroquois. In the evening, when the labouring part of the household had returned from the woods or fields with the axe or hoe, the windows were thrown open. My host's daughters, in their long fair ringlets, sang to the piano Paësiello's duet "Pandolfetto," or a cantabile of Cimarosa's, while the open windows afforded a view of the wilderness without, and occasionally the murmur of a cascade mingled itself with the

song.

On the best districts of land, villages were established; the spire of a new belfry rose from the depths of an ancient forest. English manners follow the English wherever they go; and after traversing an extent of country where there was no trace of inhabitants, I frequently came upon the sign of an inn swinging from some tree. Hunters, planters, and Indians met at these caravanserais; but the first time that I slept at one, I vowed should also be the last.

On entering one of them, I was amazed to see an immense bed, built in a circle round a central post; each traveller took his place in this bed, with his feet at the post, and his head at the outer line of the circle, so that the sleepers were arranged symmetrically, like the spokes of a wheel, or the sticks of a fan. After some hesitation I got into this extraordinary machine, seeing no one else in it. I was just falling asleep when I felt something glide against me; it was the leg of my great Dutch guide; I never in my life experienced such a sensation of disgust. I jumped out of the hospitable receptacle, heartily cursing the customs of our good old forefathers. I went out, and lay down in my cloak beneath the clear moonlight to sleep; this companion of the traveller's rest was at least agreeable, fresh, and pure. On the bank of the river Genesee, we found a ferry; a number of settlers and Indians crossed with us;

we encamped in meadows bright with butterflies and flowers. With our various costumes, our different groupings around the fires, our horses picketed or feeding near, we resembled a caravan. It was here that I met with the rattlesnake, which allowed itself to be charmed by the sound of a flute. The Greeks would have made an Orpheus of my Canadian; a lyre of his flute; and Cerberus, or perhaps Eurydice, of the serpent.

London, from April till September, 1822.

INDIAN FAMILY-A NIGHT IN THE FOREST-DEPARTURE OF THE FAMILY -INDIANS OF NIAGARA-CAPTAIN GORDON-JERUSALEM.

WE continued to approach Niagara, and were now within eight or nine leagues of it, when we came in sight of an Indian fire in an oak-grove, and by the bank of a stream, at a place where we had ourselves thought of bivouacking. We availed ourselves of their encampment, and having attended to our horses, and arranged our own dress for the night, joined the group. Crossing our legs after the manner of tailors, we ranged ourselves round the piled-up fire in company with the Indians, and set our bunches of maize to roast.

The family consisted of two women, two children at the breast, and three warriors. The conversation became general—that is to say, interspersed with a few words and many gestures on my part; and then every one lay down to sleep where he was. I was the only wakeful person of the party, and went to sit apart from the rest, on the root of a tree which ran along the bank of the stream.

The moon had risen above the trees, and a perfumed breeze, brought with her from the east by the queen of night, seemed to go before her into the forest like her fresh breath. She gradually rose in the blue sky, sometimes gliding on without interruption, sometimes passing through masses of clouds resembling mountain summits crowned with snow. The fall of a few leaves, the sigh of a passing breeze, or the whoop of an owl, were the only sounds which broke upon the silence and repose around; in the distance the ear caught the dull roar of Niagara, which was prolonged in the calm night air from wild to wild, and died away in the soli

tary depths of the forest. It was during such nights as these that a new muse revealed herself to me; I caught some of her accents, and inscribed them in my book by the light of the stars, as an inferior musician would write down the notes dictated to him by some great master of harmony.

Next morning, the Indian warriors armed themselves with their various weapons, and the women collected together the baggage. I distributed a little gunpowder and vermilion among my hosts we saluted each other at parting by touching our foreheads and breasts. The warriors gave the word to march, and went on in front; the women followed, carrying the children, who were suspended, wrapped in furs, from their mothers' shoulders, and turned their heads to look back at us. I stood watching them till they disappeared in the forest.

The Indians of Niagara, in the British dominion, were entrusted with the keeping of the frontier on the side by which we approached; these strange-looking guards, armed with bows and arrows, refused to let us pass, and I was obliged to send my Dutchman to the fort of Niagara to get a permission to enter the British territory. This incident gave me a painful sensation, for I remembered that France had formerly ruled over Upper as well as Lower Canada. My guide returned with the permission, which I still preserve; it is signed "Captain Gordon." Is it not singular that I should have found this same name on the door of my cell at Jerusalem ? "Thirteen pilgrims had inscribed their names on the inside of the door; the first name was Charles Lombard, the date attached to it 1669; the last John Gordon, and the date of his visit 1804.”—(Itinéraire.)

London, from April till September, 1822.

CATARACT OF NIAGARA-RATTLESNAKE-I FALL AT THE EDGE OF THE

ABYSS.

I REMAINED two days in the Indian village, whence I wrote a letter to M. de Malesherbes. The Indian women were occupied in different ways at work; their infants were suspended in wicker baskets from the branches of a large purple beech. The grass was covered with dew, the wind came laden with perfume from