CHRISTMAS DAY. 
265 
soon over, I began to repine and fret at the life 
of indolence and inactivity I was doomed to 
suffer. Frequently required at the camp, to give 
directions about, or to assist in the daily routine of 
duty, I did not like to absent myself long away at 
once ; there were no objects of interest near me, 
within the limits of a day’s excursion on foot, and 
the weak state of the horses, prevented me from 
making any examinations of the country at a greater 
distance on horseback ; I felt like a prisoner con- 
demned to drag out a dull and useless existence 
through a given number of days or weeks, and like 
him too, I sighed for freedom, and looked forward 
with impatience, to the time when I might again 
enter upon more active and congenial pursuits. 
Fatigue, privation, disappointment, disasters, and 
all the various vicissitudes, incidental to a life of 
active exploration had occasionally, it is true, been 
the source of great anxiety or annoyance, but all 
were preferable to that oppressive feeling of listless 
apathy, of discontent and dissatisfaction, which re- 
sulted from the life I was now obliged to lead. 
Christmas day came, and made a slight though 
temporary break in the daily monotony of our life. 
The kindness of our friends had supplied us with 
many luxuries ; and we were enabled even in the 
wilds, to participate in the fare of the season : whilst 
the season itself, and the circumstances under which 
it was ushered in to us, called forth feelings and 
associations connected with other scenes and with 
