decorated with tin and copper,
after the manner of a marquetrie table--gray stockings, gartered
with fish skin--and moccasins made after the fashion of high-lows, an
invention of my own, which I trust are still known as 'O'Kellies,' among
my friends the red men.

"That I was not an Indian, was sufficiently apparent--if by nothing
else, the gingerly delicacy with which I trod the pavement, after a
promenade of seven hundred miles, would have shown it; and yet there
was an evident reluctance on all sides to acknowledge me as one of
themselves. The crowd that tracked our steps had by this time attracted
the attention of some officers, who stopped to see what was going
forward, when I recognised the major of my own regiment among the
number. I saw, however, that he did not remember me, and hesitated with
myself whether I should return to my old servitude. The thought that no
mode of subsistence was open to me--that I was not exactly prepossessing
enough to make my way in the world by artificial advantages-decided the
question, and I accosted him at once.

"I will not stop to paint the astonishment of the officer, nor shall I
dwell on the few events which followed the recognition--suffice it
to say, that, the same evening I received my appointment, not as a
sergeant, but as regimental interpreter between our people and the
Indians, with whom we were then in alliance against the Yankees. The
regiment soon left Quebec for Trois Rivieres, where my ambassadorial
functions were immediately called into play--not, I am bound to
confess, under such weighty and onerous reponsibilities as I had been
led to suspect would ensue between two powerful nations--but, on matters
of less moment, and fully as much difficulty, viz., the barter of old
regimental coats and caps for bows and arrows; the exchange of rum
and gunpowder for moccasins, and wampum ornaments--in a word, the
regulation of an Anglo-Indian tariff, which accurately defined the value
of everything, from a black fox skin to a pair of old gaiters--from an
Indian tomahawk to a tooth-pick.

"In addition to these fiscal regulations, I drew up a criminal
code--which, in simplicity at least, might vie with any known system
of legislation--by which it was clearly laid down, that any unknown
quantity of Indians were only equal to the slightest inconvenience
incurred, or discomfort endured by an English officer: that the
condescension of any intercourse with them, was a circumstance