198 NEIGHBOURHOOD OF AMHERTSBURGH. 



landed us at what he considered the best house, kept by Mrs 

 Drake, which was a large old dingy uninhabited looking 



tenement. Mrs Drake was seated with Mr M at tea, 



or supper, as it is generally called, on our arrival, which suited 

 us well, as we had not dined, a brace of roasted ducks being 

 on the table. 



After tea, we walked down the banks of the Detroit river 

 and Lake Erie four or five miles, and returned through the 

 fields, at some distance from our former line. The evening 

 was clear, calm, and delightfully cool ; the still glassy lake 

 adorned with beautiful wooded islands, the American steam 

 boats, with music playing and unfurled sails, majestically 

 ascending the limped and smooth-gliding Detroit, together with 

 the gracefulness of vegetation and richness of soil, so enchanted 

 us, that we resolved, contrary to our original intention, to 

 devote another day to the neighbourhood of Amherstburgh. 



Next morning, Williams drove us up the banks of the 

 Detroit, till we reached the bridge crossing the Canrad, 

 where we parted with him. Ascending the Canrad a little 

 way, we turned to the right, up a flat piece of ground, in the 

 centre of which there is a small brook, and where we spent 

 some hours agreeably in examining plants, and adding to our 

 collection of seeds. We returned through the lands belonging 

 to the Huron Indians to Amherstburgh, and in the evening 

 extended our walk in the direction we had passed the night 

 before. 



We left Amherstburgh soon after sunrise, to walk by Sand 

 wich to the town of Detroit, and breakfasted by the way at a 

 small inn with a French sign. The innkeeper had very little 

 English, and we found some difficulty in understanding each 

 other. Our fare consisted of poor green tea, bad butter, and 

 worse bread. There was a fireplace in the kitchen, which was 

 without furniture, except a table and chairs. The room was 

 well lighted, and separated from the kitchen by a partition of 

 lath, without plaster of any kind. There were two beds in the 

 room without top or posts, with fine rich old printed bedcovers 

 and pillowslips of the same, clean and neatly arranged. The 

 upper story was accessible by a ladder. The father told me 



