his arms as soon as the others went to rest, making up in his weapon, his deficiency in numbers. So bad, indeed, are the mosquitoes, that I have no doubt whatever, that were a man to be exposed to them for the space of an hour without his clothes, they would absolutely sting him t death.

Boat-loads of government stores now arriving, as well as those of the North-west Company, on the way to Lake Huron, the margin of the bay began to be a scene of active bustle. The house of the Canadians, a member of whose mess my servant had been long since enrolled, was crowded with casual lodgers, and it was with difficulty that I could now keep my own house to myself. I had been in the habit of doing as much as I could for myself; and as I lived almost wholly on fish, I very often cut it into junks and broiled it with my own hands. Still my servant had quite enough to do, for he washed my clothes, baked my bread, cut birch bark in the woods for lights, went out fishing, and led a life, not solitary like mine,

but joyous in the extreme. Too much so, though his habitual sobriety as yet resisted the deleterious spirits, called whiskey in the country, which the new-comers dispensed among the Canadian labourers. Long after I retired to rest at night, I now heard bursts of carousal and jollity, with a regret to think that in the total change of affairs, my days of tranquillity so soon had passed away.

SUMMER JOURNEY FROM LAKE SIMCOE TO QUEBEC,

BY THE FALLS OF NIAGARA AND THE RAPIDS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.

JUNE 16.-This morning I received letters from York announcing my liberation, and conveying to me instructions to proceed thither on my way to Quebec. The intelligence gave me great pleasure, and I immediately commenced active preparations for my departure. Little, indeed, I had to prepare, and that little was most willingly undertaken. Mr. F- who had returned some time since, with his wife from York, now hearing of my intended movement, came to me to volunteer to take a paddle in the batteau, to which I acceded. The wife again remonstrated however we left her behind; and this arrangement Mr. F was, I found, upon any reasonable excuse, always ready to agree to.

The man who was the bearer of my letters

had received directions to take charge of some stores which had been forwarded to Kempenfeldt Bay, and he had brought with him his wife and a little infant child. They had slept out-of-doors the night preceding, where the woman and baby both suffered severely from the flies. The poor child's head was indeed miserably swollen, and the good looks of the mother were entirely destroyed by red knobs all over her face. No wonder the poor creature was in a peevish humour, for besides her sufferings, and the loss of beauty, the most severe trial of all was disappointment; as she had been quite deceived in the accounts of the place to which her husband had brought her. As I was to be off in two hours, I gave up my house with a good grace to her immediately, but in return she abused every thing in it, so that I was happy to keep out of her way; and more happy still, when, with Mr. Fand one of the Canadians, just before stepping into the batteau, I saw, for the last time, her poor husband at the extremity of

- his wits to find argument to satisfy her remonstrances, and whip away the flies with a little green bough at the same time.

It was about four o'clock when we went on board; the evening was delightfully fine, and the little wind that blew was directly in our favour. We hoisted our small sail, which became gently distended before I lost sight of a few honest faces who came to the water's edge to witness my departure. "Bon voyage" was more than once repeated, I am sure, with sincerity,-yet more than once I was recalled from my musing by the rude twitch, with which something or other on which I had heedlessly seated myself, was jerked from under me.

Such moments of sudden excitement are invariably succeeded by seriousness approaching to melancholy, as if the mind stood convicted of error in having yielded to the delusion of happiness; and now, even amid the eager anticipation of change, aided by the exertion of active preparation, the colours of the rainbow were forgotten, while the shower alone presented itself to the senses.