e to me that I married
her and joined her tribe. The marriage ceremony was, as I have said,
confirmed by a Wesleyan minister, whose faithful words made such an
impression on me that I resolved to give up my wild life, and return
with my wife and child to my old home. My character, however--which is
extremely resolute and decided when following the bent of my
inclinations, and exceedingly weak and vacillating when running counter
to the same--interfered with my good intentions. The removal of the
tribe to a more distant part of the land also tended to delay me, and a
still more potent hindrance lay in the objection of my wife--who has
been faithful and true to me throughout; God bless her! She could not
for a long time, see her way to forsake her people.

"Ever since my meeting with the Wesleyan, my mind has been running more
or less on the subject of religion, and I have tried to explain it as
far as I could to my wife and child, but have found myself woefully
ignorant as well as sinful. At last, not long ago, I procured a New
Testament from a trapper, and God in mercy opened my eyes to see and my
heart to receive the truth as it is in Jesus. Since then I have had
less difficulty in speaking to my wife and child, and have been
attempting to teach the latter to read English. The former, whose
mother and father died lately, has now no objection to go with me to the
land of the pale-faces, and it is my present intention to go to my old
home on the return of spring. I have not heard of my poor mother since
I left her, though at various times I have written to her. It may be
that she is dead. I hope not--I even think not, for she was very young
when she married my father, and her constitution was strong. But her
hair was beginning to silver even before I forsook her--with sorrow, I
fear, on my account. Oh! mother! mother! How unavailing is my bitter
regret! What would I not give to kneel once more at your feet and
confess my sin! This may perhaps be permitted--but come weal, come woe,
blessed be God we shall meet again.

"If my prayer is granted, this paper will never be seen by human eyes.
If God sees fit to deny me this, and I should die in the wilderness,
then I charge the man to whom my packet is given, to take my wife and
daughter to Colorado; and if my mother--Mrs William Liston, of Sunny
Creek--be still alive, to present them to her with this written paper
and miniature. If, on the other hand, she be