INTRODUCTION. 



When, for the first time, I left my father, and all the dear 

 friends of my youth, to cross the great ocean that separates my 

 native shores from those of the eastern world, my heart sunk 

 within me. While the breezes wafted along the great ship that 

 from La Belle France conveyed me towards the land of my 

 birth, the lingering hours were spent in deep sorrow or melan- 

 choly musing. Even the mighty mass of waters that heaved 

 around me excited little interest : my affections were with those 

 I had left behind, and the world seemed to me a great wilder- 

 ness. At length I reached the country in which my eyes first 

 opened to the light ; I gazed with rapture upon its noble forests, 

 and no sooner had I landed, than I set myself to mark every 

 object that presented itself, and became imbued with an anxious 

 desire to discover the purpose and import of that nature which 

 lay spread around me in luxuriant profusion. But ever and 

 anon the remembrance of the kind parent, from whom I had 

 been parted by uncontrollable circumstances, filled my mind, 

 and as I continued my researches, and penetrated deeper into 

 the forest, I daily became more anxious to return to him, and 

 to lay at his feet the simple results of my multiplied exertions. 



