324 Thirty Years 



dition to the morning and evening service, and found 

 that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a 

 sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God, that 

 our situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer 

 destitute ; and we conversed, not only with calmness, 

 but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained 

 confidence the past events of our lives, and dwelling 

 with hope on our future prospects. Had my poor 

 friend been spared to revisit his native land, I should 

 look back to this period with unalloyed delight. 



On the morning of the 29th, the weather, although 

 still cold, was clear, and I went out in quest of tripe 

 de roche, leaving Hepburn to cut willows for a fire, 

 and Mr. Hood in bed. I had no success, as yester- 

 day's snow drift was so frozen on the surface of the 

 rocks that I could not collect any of the weed ; but, 

 on my return to the tent, I found that Michel, the 

 Iroquois, had come with a note from Mr. Franklin, 

 which stated, that this man, and Jean Baptist Belan- 

 ger being unable to proceed, were about to return to 

 lis, and that a mile beyond our present encampment 

 there was a clump of pine trees, to which he recom- 

 mended us to remove the tent. Michel informed us 

 that he quitted Mr. Franklin's party yesterday morn- 

 ing, but, that having missed his way, he had ) 



the night on the snow a mileor two to the northward 

 of us. Belanger, he said, being impatient, had lefl 



