SOURCE OP ST. PETER's RIVER. 165 



moment he touched her hand or came near her, he was as 

 gentle as they could wish. At one time in the middle of a 

 winter's night, he sprang from his couch, broke through 

 the frail bark which formed his cabin, and escaped into the 

 woods, howling and screaming in the wildest manner; his 

 wife and her sister followed him, endeavouring to calm him 

 and bring him home, but he seemed to have set all their 

 powers at defiance. At last Okoj came near him, and the 

 moment she laid her hand upon him, he became quite 

 tractable. In this manner he continued for a long while, 

 convincing all the Indians who saw him that he was pos- 

 sessed by a spirit, which nothing but the approach of Okoj 

 could reduce. So deep was their conviction and her's that 

 she at last consented to become his wife, and never after 

 was he troubled by a return of madness. Bruce lived 

 in his cabin for part of that time, and although he suspect- 

 ed that his insanity was feigned, yet he never could detect 

 him. 



Another instance, of a somewhat similar nature, happen- 

 ed in the presence of the same interpreter ; a young Ca- 

 nadian had secured the affections of an Indian girl called 

 Nisette, whose mother was a squaw that had been convert- 

 ed by the missionaries ; being very pious, the mother in- 

 sisted that the young folks should be united by a clergy- 

 man. None being in the country at the time, they travel- 

 led to an Algonquin village, situated on the Lake of the 

 Two Mountains, where there was a missionary. Mean- 

 while the Canadian's love cooled away, and by the time 

 they reached the village he cared no more for the poor 

 girl. Disappointed in her affections, she was observed to 

 sicken, she became subject to fits, her intellect appeared 

 disordered, and she was finally considered as quite insane. 

 The only lucid intervals which she had were in the pre- 



VoL. II. 22 



