1812. 
REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW YEAR. 
507 
hundred miles ; without a friend or companion from whom to ask 
advice, or to whom to communicate his thoughts ; surrounded by 
savages, men of another color, of a strange and almost unintelligible 
language, often of hostile inclinations, or of suspicious manners, 
awakening every day some new anxiety for his personal safety ; un- 
protected from the caprice of lawless tribes, whom no visible re- 
straint withheld from making his property their own, and to whose 
power his life, either sleeping or waking, lay at all moments ex- 
posed ; daily vexed and thwarted by those men on whom he had 
placed his only dependence for assistance ; exhausted by corporal 
and mental labor without respite ; and, through want of suitable 
food, reduced even to the lowest degree of bodily weakness ; draw 
but this picture, and it will then present no more than the outlines 
of the history of the following year. Yet, in the midst of all these 
troubles and dangers, the highest enjoyments may be found by all 
who are not insensible to those charms, the powers of which have 
just been faithfully portrayed. The events which succeeded my de- 
parture from Klaarwater were marked by a new character ; and the 
vicissitudes and incidents which chequered my way, assumed, not 
unfrequently, a character of the romantic. 
3rd. The heat of the weather was at this time daily increasing, 
and the summer had nearly attained its greatest height. During the 
nights the air was exceedingly warm, and at seven in the morning 
the thermometer was generally found to be about 76° Fahrenheit 
(19°-5 Reaum. ; 24°-4 Centig.) ; and frequently 96° (28° -4 Reaum ; 
35°'5 Centig.), at four in the afternoon. The hottest days were 
often the most calm ; and at such times the stillness of the atmo- 
sphere was sometimes suddenly disturbed in an extraordinary man- 
ner : whirlwinds raising up columns of dust to a great height in the 
air, and sweeping over the plain with momentary fury, were no 
unusual occurrence. As they were always harmless, it was an amus- 
ing sight to watch tliese tall pillars of dust, as they rapidly passed 
by, carrying up every light substance to the height of from one to 
even three and four hundred feet. The rate at which they travelled 
varied from five to ten miles in the hour : their form was seldom 
3 T 2 
