NORTHERN OCEAN. 
or preferve the chaftity of a Southern Indian wo- 
man*. 
= 
The 
* Notwithftanding this is the general character of the Southern Indian 
; “women, as they are called on the coafts of Hudfon’s Bay, and who are the 
fame tribe with the Canadian Indians, I am happy to have it in my power 
_ to infert a few lines to the memory of one of them, whom I knew from 
“her infancy, and who, I can truly affirm, was direétly the reverfe of the 
pidure I have drawn. 
Mary, the daughter of Mose Norton, many years Chief at Prince 
of Wales’s Fort, in Hudfon’s Bay, though born and brought up in a coun- 
itry of all others the leaft favoyrable to virtue and virtuous principles, pof- 
fefled them, and evety other good and amiable quality, in the moft emi- 
nert degree. 
Withont the affiftance of religion, and with no education but what fhe 
received among the diflolute natives of her country, fhe would have fhone 
with fuperior luftre in any other country ; for, if an engaging perfon, gen- 
tle manners, an eafy freedom, arifing from a confcioufnefS of innocence, an 
amiable modefty, and an unrivalled delicacy of fentiment, are graces and 
virtues which render a woman lovely, none ever had greater pretenfions 
to general efteem and regard: while her benevolence, humanity, and feru- 
pulous adherence to truth and honefty, would have done honour to the 
moft enlightened and devout Chriftian. 
Dutiful, obedient, and affectionate to her parents; fteady and faithful to 
her friends; grateful and humble to her benefaftors; eafily forgiving and 
forgetting injuries; careful not to offend any, and courteous and kind to 
all; fhe was, neverthelefs, {uffered to perifh by the rigours of cold and hun- 
ger, amid{t her own relations, at a time when the griping hand of famine - 
was by no means feverely felt by any other member of their company ; 
and it may truly be faid that fle fell a martyr tothe principles of virtue. 
This happened in the Winter of the year 1782, after the French had de- 
{troyed Prince of Wales’s Fort; at which time fhe was in the twenty-fe- 
cond year of her age. 
Human nature fhudders at the bare recital of fuch brutality, and reafon 
fhrinks from the tafk of accounting for the decrees of Providence on fuch 
occafions as this; but they are the Mtrongeft affurances of a future ftate, fo 
infinitely fuperior to the prefent, that the enjoyment of every pleafure in 
this world by the moft worthlefs and abandoned wretch, or the moft inno- 
cent and virtuous woman perifhing by the moft excruciating of all deaths, 
are matters equally indifferent, But, 
i Peace to the afhes, and the virtuous mind. 
Of her who lived in peace with all mankind ; C 
F Learn’d 
127 
1771. 
mynd 
June, 
