During his stay in Canada M. Lajimoniere had not com- 

 municated to anyone his intention of returning to the North 

 West, and in the parish all his friends thought that his five 

 years' adventures amid the savages were sufficient to take away 

 his taste for travelling, and that henceforth he would settle 

 down to the pleasant life of a farmer in the midst of his 

 family. 



Marie Anne Gaboury was herself convinced of this when 

 M. Jean Baptiste Lajimoniere asked her hand in marriage. 

 Before consenting she consulted her family and the cure, at 

 whose house she had dwelt for eleven years. 



As M. Lajimoniere came of a respectable Maskinonge 

 family, Marie Anne Gaboury 's parents made no objection to 

 give him their daughter's hand. The date of the marriage 

 was therefore set for the 21st of April. 



Up to this time all went well. Nevertheless the spring 

 brought with it a longing to travel which nothing could erad- 

 icate.. Towards the first days of May M. Lajimoniere made 

 known to his wife that he intended to depart immediately 

 upon a second voyage to the North West. This news was 

 a sharp blow to Madame Lajimoniere; however she did not 

 allow herself to be too much depressed by it, she believed that 

 by force of circumstances and prayers she would finally turn 

 her husband from his purpose, which he had kept a secret 

 before their marriage : but when aften having set forth the 

 strongest and most convincing reasons, she saw that his reso- 

 lution was firm and that he would go at any cost, she felt her 

 position very keenly. It was too late to impose conditions, 

 there was but the one alternative, either she must allow her 

 husband to go by himself without the hope of seeing him 

 again for many long years, perhaps never, or accompany him 

 into a barbarous country to share during the remainder of 

 her days his fatigues, discomforts and dangers. 



The missionaries had not then penetrated that land to 

 carry into it the light of faith, and the tribes in these im- 

 mense territories were still living in darkness; the aspect of 

 things temporal was not much more smiling, she would be 

 obliged to follow a nomadic existence like the Indians during 

 the years to come ; she could easily see that civilization would 

 not soon reach this part of America. However, after having 

 examined every point well, without making a flattering pic- 

 ture of it, M. Vinet, her pastor, counselled Madame Lajim- 

 oniere that if in spite of all considerations she felt herself 



