fire with the green and frozen willows, which were their only fuel. Through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady, the party, previous to leaving London, had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of which, (says Richardson,) we still retained two or three of the most portable, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. "We read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition 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." How beautiful a picture have we here represented, of true piety and resignation to the divine will inducing patience and submission under an unexampled load of misery and privation. Michel, the Iroquois, joined them on the 9th of October, having, there is strong reason to believe, murdered two of the Canadians who were with him, Jean Baptiste Belanger and Perrault, as they were never seen afterward, and he gave so many rambling and contradictory statements of his proceedings, that no credit could be attached to his story. The travelers proceeded on their tedious journey by slow stages. Mr. Hood was much affected with dim ness of sight, giddiness, and other symptoms of ex treme debility, which caused them to move slowly and to make frequent halts. Michel absented himself all day of the 10th, and only arrived at their encampment near the pines late on the 11th. He reported that he had been in chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping place in the morning, and although he did not come up with them, yet he found a wolf which had been killed by the stroke of a deer's horn, and had brought a part of it. Richardson adds "We implicitly believed this story then, but afterward became aware - from circumstances, the details of which may be spared-that it must have been a portion of the body of Belanger, or Perrault. A question of moment here presents itself—namely, whether he actually murdered these men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in the snow. Captain Franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter, from knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former idea, and that both these men had been sacrificed; that Michel, having already destroyed Belanger, completed his crime by Perrault's death, in order to screen himself from detection." Although this opinion is founded only on circumstances, and is unsupported by direct evidence, it has been judged proper to mention it, especially as the subsequent conduct of the man showed that he was capable of committing such a deed. It is not easy to assign any other adequate motive for his concealing from Richardson that Perrault had turned back; while his request, over-night, that they would leave him the hatchet, and his cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a hunter, who makes use only of his knife when he kills a deer, seem to indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he knew to be frozen. Michel left them early next day, refusing Dr. Richardson's offer to accompany him, and remained out all day. He would not sleep in the tent with the other two at night. On the 13th, there being a heavy gale, they passed the day by their fire, without food. Next day, at noon, Michel set out, as he said, to hunt, but returned unexpectedly in a short time. This conduct surprised his companions, and his contradictory and evasive answers to their questions excited their suspicions still further. He subsequently refused either to hunt or cut wood, spoke in a very surly manner, and threatened to leave them. When reasoned with by Mr. Hood, his anger was excited, and he replied it was no use hunting-there were no animals, and they had better kill and eat him. we "At this period," observes Dr. Richardson, avoided, as much as possible, conversing upon the hopelessness of our situation, and generally endeavored to lead the conversation toward our future prospects in life. The fact is, that with the decay of our strength, our minds decayed, and we were no longer able to bear the contemplation of the horrors that surrounded us. Yet we were calm and resigned to our fate; not a murmur escaped us, and we were punctual and fervent in our addresses to the Supreme Being." On the morning of the 20th, they again urged Michel to go a-hunting, that he might, if possible, leave them some provision, as he intended quitting them next day, but he showed great unwillingness to go out, and lingered about the fire under the pretense of cleaning his gun. After the morning service had been read, Dr. Richardson went out to gather some tripe de roche, leaving Mr. Hood sitting before the tent at the fireside, arguing with Michel; Hepburn was employed cutting fire-wood. While they were thus engaged, the treacherous Iroquois took the opportunity to place his gun close to Mr. Hood, and shoot him through the head. He represented to his companions that the deceased had killed himself. On examination of the body, it was found that the shot had entered the back part of the head and passed out at the forehead, and that the muzzle of the gun had been applied so close as to set fire to the nightcap behind. Michel protested his innocence of the crime, and Hepburn and Dr. Richardson dared not openly evince their suspicion of his guilt. Next day, Dr. Richardson determined on going straight to the Fort. They singed the hair off a par of the buffalo robe that belonged to their ill-fated com panion, and boiled and ate it. In the course of thei march, Michel alarmed them much by his gesturet and conduct, was constantly muttering to himself, expressed an unwillingness to go to the Fort, and tried |