166 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



acutely the parting with them, especially with the poor 

 half-breed girl Emma. It was my misfortune to have 

 made a great impression on this poor girl, and I hesitated 

 a good deal before finally making up my mind to leave 

 Canada. But I was not yet twenty years of age, was not 

 blest with sufficient of this world's goods to provide for a 

 family, and not at all inclined to settle down in life. 

 These considerations finally influenced me ; but many 

 years elapsed before I ceased to think of poor Emma 

 without a painful sadness of heart. 



The parting with my friends was an Indian one. 

 There was very little said, but evidently a good deal 

 thought ; and the whole of the Indians in the neighbour- 

 hood, men, women, and children, stood on the banks of 

 the river to see the canoe depart ; and I had so many 

 little presents showered on me that I could scarcely find 

 room in the tiny skiff to carry them away. The men 

 stood upright, looking stoical, after the Indian manner, 

 the surest sign of deep feeling ; the women and children 

 squatted on the ground behind their husbands and 

 fathers, while poor Emma made no attempt to conceal 

 her grief, but, when we stepped into the canoe, was 

 prostrate in her mother's arms. 



Andrew and Monchuapiganon (Tom) paddled the 

 canoe down the tributary to the Ottawa River, and went 

 with me as far as the immediate neighbourhood of the city, 

 where the last parting took place, for I could not persuade 

 them to go farther. I had intended to send back many 

 little presents from the shops of civilisation, but I had 

 to be content with entrusting Andrew with a few trifles 

 for Chompol and Emma, and one or two others. My 

 favourite Minii' rifle ^ I gave to Tom, knowing how much 

 he valued the weapon, with all the cartridges I had left. 

 Every muscle of his face twitched as he took it; and 

 I was surer than ever that his morose exterior covered a 



^ The so-called Miiiic rifles I used in my early American journeys were 

 of the Enlield pattern. 



J 



