same time, baptized two of the
boys who had been under my charge, one as James Hope, and the other as
Henry Budd; they being able to read the New Testament, repeat the
Church Catechism, and to understand the chief truths of the Christian
Religion.

JULY 18.--We have the satisfaction of seeing the new sown grain promise
well for a crop; and great hopes are entertained that it will this year
escape the ravages of the locusts. Under this sanguine expectation, I
left the colony, with the Director, on the 22d, on my annual visit to
York Factory, taking the route of Manitobah Lake. As we passed this
fine and extensive sheet of water, we saw occasionally some beautiful
points, or bluffs of wood and the most striking and romantic scenery
that can be presented to the eye. The waters abound with fish; and the
alluvial soil of some parts, near the banks of the lake, promises every
encouragement to the active industry of the agriculturist. A tribe of
Indians, who traverse this part of the country, have gardens, in which
they grow potatoes and pumpkins; and were encouragement given them, by
the presence and superintendence of a Missionary, in the cultivation of
the soil, and the assistance of a plough and seed corn, afforded them
from the Colony, with the view to establish them in a village, there is
little doubt, that they would gradually, or indeed soon, become so far
civilized, as to promote the formation of a school among them for the
education of their children. We proceeded on our way, through the
Dauphin River, into Lake Winipeg, and arrived at Norway House, in about
a week after we left the Settlement.

When within about fifty miles of York Fort, two Indians paddled their
canoe to the side of the boat, and requested that I would take a little
boy, who was with them, under my charge. This I consented to do, if
they would bring him to me on my return to the Colony; and I threw him
a blanket, as he was almost naked, and suffering apparently from cold.
In landing at the Factory, I had the pleasure of meeting Captain
Franklin, and the gentlemen of the Northern Land Expedition, recently
returned from their arduous journey to the mouth of the Coppermine
River, and waiting for the return of the Company's ship to England. An
Esquimaux Indian, who accompanied the expedition as one of the guides,
named Augustus, and who survived the supposed fate of his companion,
Junius,[6] often came to my room, and interested me with his
conversa