a lean-to of
birch-bark, I found Mrs Baptiste, an Indian squaw, who, if not a solace
to him in his hours of trial, took a great deal of trouble off his
shoulders, for she worked for him from morning till night like a slave,
with small thanks. In the way he treated his wife he was no better than
an Indian. She had her hand-sleigh already packed, and as soon as we
appeared she harnessed herself into it and began dragging it off without
saying a word. Talk of the romance of Indian life, there is none of it
of an elevated nature. All the stuff novelists have written is sheer
downright nonsense. It is simple brutality from beginning to end. I
speak of the natives I have met with before they became Christians.
Baptiste, on the strength of his being a French-Canadian, on his
father's side, called himself a Christian, but he was as ignorant of
religion as was his squaw; and here let me remind you, whenever you
write to your friends in England, tell them that there is a grand
opening for missionary labours among the wide-scattered Indian tribes
still existing on this continent. Something is being done, but much
more may be done; and not only is there work to be done among Indians,
but among the out-settlers, and especially among the lumberers on the
Ottawa. Never mind whether they are Romanists or not. They never hear
the Gospel of free grace preached from one end of the year to the other.
I believe that a missionary going among them would find abundant fruit
as the result of his labours.

"To return to Baptiste. He had set his traps in the forest along the
route we were to take, and so we had to push our way through it, sleigh
and all, he scarcely condescending to help his squaw when it stuck
between the stumps of the trees, she also looking with supreme contempt
on me when I attempted to help her; indeed she, I fancy, considered me
rather officious than otherwise. I travelled on for several days with
this unattractive couple, and yet I believe that they were really fond
of each other. They were hospitable in their way also, for their pot
was always well supplied with meat, and they gave me as much as I could
eat. It was not of the choicest land, I must confess, for every
creature the trapper caught went into it, with a mixture of herbs and
roots, among which garlic predominated.

"At last Baptiste told me that he had come to the end of his journey,
and that I must find the rest of the way by myself. `I will try,