much farther, fix Indians were fent back to the place of our late abode, who collected a little more plunder, and destroy ed fome other effects that had been left behind, but they did not return until the day was fo far spent that it was judged beft to continue where we were through the night.

11. Early the next morning we fet off for Canada, and continued our march eight days fucceffively, until we had reached the place where the Indians had left their canoes, about fifteen miles from Crown Point. This was a long and tedious march; but the captives, by divine affiftance, were enabled to endure it with lefs trouble and difficulty than they had reafon to expect.

12. From fuch favage mafters, in fuch indigent circumftances, we could not rationally hope for kinder treatment than we received. Some of us, it is true, had a harder lot than others; and, among the children, I thought my fon Squire had the hardest of any.

13. He was then only four years old, and when we ftopped to reft our weary limbs, and he fat down on his mafter's pack, the favage monfter would often knock him off: and fometimes too with the handle of his hatchet. Several ugly marks, indented in his head by the cruel Indians, at that tender age, are still plainly to be seen..

14. At length we arrived at Crown Point, and took up our quarters there, for the space of near a week. In the mean time, fome of the Indians went to Montreal, and took feveral of the weary captives along with them, with a view of felling them to the French. They did not fucceed however in finding a market for any of them.

15. They gave my youngest daughter to the governor de Vaudreuil, had a drunken frolic, and returned again to rown Point, with the rest of their prifoners. From hence re fet off for St. John's, in four or five canoes, juft as night was coming on, and were foon furrounded with darknefs.

16. A heavy ftorm hung over us. The found of the rollng thunder was very terrible upon the waters, which at every Jafh of expanfive lightning, feemed to be all in a blaze. Yet to this we were indebted for all the light we enjoyed. No object could we difcern any longer than the flashes lafted.

17. In this poflure we failed in our open, tottering canoes, abnoft the whole of that dreary night. The morning in

deed had not yet begun to dawn, when we all went afhore; and having collected a heap of fand and gravel for a pillow, I laid myfelf down, with my tender infant by my fide, not knowing where any of my other children were, or what a miferable condition they might be in.

18. The next day, however, under the wing of that ever prefent and all-powerful Providence, which had preserved us through the darkness and imminent dangers of the preced, ing night, we all arrived in fafety at St. John's.

19. Our next movement was to St. Francois, the metropolis, if I may fo call it, to which the Indians, who led us captive, belonging. Soon after our arrival at that wretched capital, a council confifting of the chief Sashem, and fome principal warriors of the St. Francois tribe was convened: and after the ceremonies ufual on luch occafion were over, I was conducted and delivered to an old fquaw, whom the Indians told me I must call my mother.

20. My Infant ftill continued to be the property of its original Indian owners. I was nevertheless permitted to keep it a little while longer, for the fake of faving them the trouble of looking after it. When the weather began to grow cold, fhuddering at the profpect of approaching winter, I acquainted my new mother, that I did not think it would be poffible for me to endure it, if I must spend it with her, and fare as the Indians did.

21. Liftening to my repeated and earneft folicitations, that I might be difpofed of among fome of the French inhabitants of Canada, he at length fet off with me and my infant, attended by fome male Indians, upon a journey to Montreal, in hopes of finding a market for me there. But the attempt proved unfuccelsful, and the journey tedi ons indeed.

22. Our provifion was fo fcanty as well as infipid and unfavory; the weather was fo cold, and the travelling fo very bad, that it often feemed as if I must have perished on the way.

23. While we were at Montreal, we went into the houfe of a certain French gentleman, whofe lady being nt for, and coming into the room where I was, to ex amine me, feeing I had an infant, exclaimed with an

eatk, I will not buy a woman who has a child to look after."

24. There was a fw ll-pail standing near me, in which I obferved fome crufts and crumbs of bread swimming. on the furface of the greafy liquor it contained. Sorely pinched with hunger, I skimmed them off with my harde, and ate them; and this was all the refreshment which the boufe afforded me.

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25. Somewhere in the courfe of this vifit to Montreal, my Indian mother was fo unfortunate as to catch the fmall-pox, of which diftemper fhe died, foon after our return, which was by water, to St. Francois. And now came on the feafon when the Indians began to prepare for a winter's hunt.

26. I was ordered to return my poor child to thofe of the m who ftill claimed it as their property. This was a fevere trial. The babe clung to my befem with all its might; but I was obliged to pluck it thence, and deliver it, fhrieking and fcreaming enough to penetrate a heart of ftone, into the hands of thofe unfeeling wretches, whofe tender mercies may be termed cruel.

27. It was foon carried off by a hunting party of thofe Indians, to a place called Meffifkow, at the lower end of Lake Champlain, whither, in about a month after, it was my fortune to follow them And here I found it, it is true, but in a condition that afforded me no great fatisfaction: it being greatly emaciated, and almoft ftarved,

28. I took it in my arms, put its face to mine, and it inftantly bit me with fuch violence, that it seemed as if I muft have arted with a piece of my cheek. I was permitted to lodge with it that, and the two following nights; but every morning that intervened, the Indians, I fuppefe on parpofe to torment me, fent me away to another wigwam, which stood at a little diftance, though not fo far from the one in which my diftreffed infant was confined, but that I could plainly hear its inceffant cries, and heart rending lamentations.

29. In this deplorable condition I was obliged to take my leave of it on the morning of the third day after my arrival at the place. We moved down the lake feveral miles the fame day; and the night following was remarkable on atcount of the great earthquake which terribly hook that howling wilderness.

30. Among the Islands hereabouts, we spent the winter season, often fhifting our quarters, and roving about from one place to another; our family confifting of three perfons only, befides myself, viz. my late mother's daughter, whom I therefore called my fifter, her fanhop, and a pappoofe.

31. They once left me alone two difmal nights; and when they returned to me again, perceiving them fmile at each other, 1 asked what was the matter? They replied, that two of my children were no more. One of which they faid, died a natural death, and the other was knocked on the head.

32. I did not utter many words, but my heart was forely apained within me, and my mind exceedingly troubled with ftrange and awful ideas. I often imagined, for instance, that I plainly saw the naked earcafes of my deceafed chil dren hanging upon the limbs of the trees, as the Indians are wont to hang the raw hides of those beasts which they take in hunting.

33. It was not long, however, before it was fo ordered by kind Providence, that I fhould be relieved in a good meafure from thofe horrid imaginations; for as I was walking one day upon the ice, obferving a fmoke at fome diftance upon the land, it must proceed, thought I, from the fire of fome Indian hut; and who knows but fome one of my poor children may be there..

34. My curiofity, thus excited, led me to the place, and there I found my fon Caleb, a little boy between two and three years old, whom I had lately buried, in fentiment at leaft; or rather imagined to have been deprived of life, and -perhaps alfo denied a decent grave.

35. I found him likewife in tolerable health and circumstances, under the protection of a fond Indian mother; and moreover had the happinefs of lodging with him in my arms one joyful night. Again we fhifted our quarters and when we had travelled eight or ten miles upon the fnow and ice, came to a place where the Indians manufactured fugar which they extracted from the maple

trees.

36. Here an Indian came to vifit us, whom I knew, and who could fpeak English. He asked me why I did Hot go to fee my fon Squire. I replied that I had late

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ly been informed that he was dead. He affured me that he was yet alive, and but two or three miles off, on the oppofi.e Ede of the Lake.

37. At my request, he gave me the best directions he could to the place of his abode. I refolved to embrace he firft opportunity that offered of endeavoring to fearch it out. While I was bufy in contemplating this affair, the Indians obtained a little bread, of which they gave me a Small fhare.

38. I did not taste a morfel of it myself, but faved it all for my poor child, if I fhould be fo lucky as to find him. At length having cbtained of my keepers leave to be absent for one day, I fet off early in the morning, and steering as well as I could, according to the directions which the friendly Indian had given me, I quickly found the place which he had fo accurately marked out.

39 1 beheld, as I drew nigh, my little fon without the camp, but he looked, thought I, like a flarved and mangy puppy, that had had been wallowing in the afhes. I took him in my arms, and he spoke to me the words, in the Indian tongue," Mother are you come ?”

40. I took him in the wigwam with me, and obferving a number of Indian children in it, I diftributed all the bread which I had referved for my own child, among them all, otherwife I fhould have given great offence.

41. My little boy appeared to be very fond of his new mother, kept as near me as poffible while I ftayed, and when I told him I must go, he fell as though he had been knocked

down with a club.

42. But having recommended him to the care of who made him, when the day was far fpent, and the time would permit me to flay no longer, I departed, you may well fuppofe with a heavy load at my heart. The tidings I had received of the death of my youngest child had a little before been confirmed to me beyond a doubt, but I could not mourn fo heartily for the deceafed, as for the living child.

43. When the winter broke up we removed to St. John's, and through the enfuing fummer, our principal refidence was at no geat diftance from the fort at that place. In the mean time, however, my fister's 1 hufband having been out with a fcouting party to fome of the