128 PRIEST AND PAGAN. 



Moyne was abandoned by his Huron conductors, 

 and remained for a fortnight by the bank of the 

 river, with a French attendant who supported him 

 by hunting. Another Huron, belonging to the flo- 

 tilla that carried Du Peron, then took him into his 

 canoe ; but, becoming tired of him, was about to 

 leave him on a rock in the river, when his brother 

 priest bribed the savage with a blanket to carry 

 him to his journey's end. 



It was midnight, on the twenty-ninth of Sep- 

 tember, Avhen Du Peron landed on the shore of 

 Thunder Bay, after paddling without rest since one 

 o'clock of the preceding morning. The night was 

 rainy, and Ossossane was about fifteen miles dis- 

 tant. His Indian companions were impatient to 

 reach their towns ; the rain prevented the kindling 

 of a fire ; while the priest, who for a long time had 

 not heard mass, was eager to renew his communion 

 as soon as possible. Hence, tired and hungry as 

 he was, he shouldered his sack, and took the path 

 for Ossossane without breaking his fast. He toiled 

 on, half-spent, amid the ceaseless pattering, trick- 

 ling, and whispering of innumerable drops among 

 innumerable leaves, till, as day dawned, he reached 

 a clearing, and descried through the mists a cluster 

 of Huron houses. Faint and bedrenched, he en- 

 tered the principal one, and was greeted with the 

 monosyllable " Shay ! " — '' Welcome ! " A squaw 

 spread a mat for him by the fire, roasted four ears 

 of Indian corn before the coals, baked two squashes 

 in the embers, ladled from her kettle a dish of 

 sagamite, and off'ered them to her famished guest. 



