TLACi: DE LA CROIX. 240 



The terrible and strange incidents that had formed 

 the life of Rousseau, since the defeat of his military 

 associate, D'Arteguette, seemed to him, as he recalled 

 tiuin in jjis mind, to have occupied an age. His dreams 

 were filled with scenes of torment and death. He would 

 start from his sleep with the idea that an arrow was pen- 

 etrating his body, or that the bloody knife was at his 

 heart ; these were thefi changed into visions of starva- 

 tion, or destruction by wild beasts. Recovering his 

 senses, he would find himself in a comfortable lodge, 

 reposing on a couch of soft skins ; while the simple 

 children of the woods, relieved of their terrors, were 

 waiting to administer to his wants. The change from 

 the extreme of suffering to that of comfort, he could 

 hardly realize. 



The cross in tlie wilderness, the respect they paid to 

 the one upon his breast, Averc alike inexplicable ; and 

 Rousseau, according to the spirit of his age, felt that a 

 miracle had been wrought in his favor : and on his 

 bended knees he renewed his ecclesiastical vows, and 

 determined to devote his life to enlightening and chris- 

 tianizing the people among whom Providence had placed 

 him. 



The Indian girl who first discovered Rousseau, was 

 the only child of a powerful chief She was still a 

 maiden, and the slavish labor of savage married life 

 had. conscfjuently, not been imposed upon her. 

 11* 



