98 THE LIFE or

said, “ pay the $27, and I will advance you the balance; and as soon as you reach home, write to Mr. McCau- lay, the Inspector General, who lives in Toronto, and inform him who you are ; he will, doubtless, authorize me to refund you the money.” I did so, and shortly after- wards received the whole amount. In this public way I would express my most hearty thanks to these gentle- men for their acts of kindness towards an Indian stranger.

I arrived at Rice Lake on the 12th day of November, 1839, having been absent from home five years and four months. Never did I feel so rejoiced as when I stood on the top of a hill, and saw my village, seven miles across the lake. I gazed upon it with pure delight; and as I took a retrospective View of all the scenes which I had passed through,I wondered at myself, and at the great goodness of God. I knelt down and “blessed and thanked Him who liveth for ever,” for his unspeak- able goodness to a child of sin. While crossing the lake, I was in perfect ecstacies; my heart leaped with joy; and my thoughts and emotions were at my home long before my person. 0 how tedious and tardy the boat seemed to be; I wished for wings several times. But at last, I planted my foot upon the spot on which I had been reared from my infancy, and where some of the sweetest and happiest recollections of my life were centered. But “every sweet has it bitter.” On en- quiring for some of my relatives, I was informed that they had left this, for a better life. Many of my old friends and acquaintances had gone to try the realities of another world. Numbers were bathed in tears, and the wounds oftheir hearts were re-opened. My own heart