SOURCE OP ST. Peter's river. 123 



bis exertions, Tanner's family was discovered. His recol- 

 lections of the scenes of his eai'ly youth, though faint at 

 first, gradually brightened. He had forgotten his father's 

 name, or rather it had become confused in his recollection 

 with that of a friend of his family called Taylor, so that 

 this was at first thought to be his name. 



Tanner placed in our hands a letter which was written 

 by Lord Selkirk, and which is dated Lexington, Nov. 25, 

 1817. It was written after a personal interview with Mrs. 

 Taylor, whose account of the family corroborated Tanner's 

 statement in the most important particulars. There were 

 some slight discrepancies, but these were no other than 

 might have been expected from the imperfect recollections 

 of a child of nine years of age, after twenty-six years of es- 

 trangement from his country and friends. It is perhaps 

 somewhat singular that he should have totally forgotten a 

 language which he must have undoubtedly spoken with 

 considerable fluency at the time that he was taken prisoner. 

 The following extract from Lord Selkirk's letter, at pre- 

 sent in our possession, shows how far his recollections ex- 

 tended. 



" The circumstances that Mrs. Taylor mentioned of his 

 family coincide with those which he told me in the north, 

 particularly that he had a brother called Ned, and two 

 sisters married previously to his being carried ofi". Also 

 that his father was a big lusty man, as the young man de- 

 scribed him. The only point of diflerence is, that Mrs. 

 Taylor said that Ned Tanner was older than the boy John, 

 who was carried away*, whereas I had understood him to 

 be younger; but as I could converse with John only 

 through an interpreter, such a mistake might easily arise. 

 Mrs. T. also said that old John Tanner had been settled in 

 Kentucky several years before 1790; but that possibly he 



