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 inbed. 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 
Troquois, 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 
_us, 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 passed 
_ the night on the snow a mile or two to the northward 
of us. Belanger, he said, being impatient, had left 
