dren returned the fondness of their parents with such tender affection, that they feared giving them pain as much as ours do punishment, and very rarely wounded their feelings by neglect, or rude answers. Yet the boys were often wilful and giddy at a certain age, the girls being sooner tamed and domesticated.

These youths were apt, whenever they could carry a gun (which they did at a very early period), to follow some favorite negro to the woods, and, while he was employed in felling trees, range the whole day in search of game, to the neglect of all intellectual improvement, and contract a love of savage liberty which might, and in some instances did, degenerate into licentious and idle habits. Indeed, there were three stated periods in the year when, for a few days, young and old, masters and slaves, were abandoned to unruly enjoyment, and neglected every serious occupation for pursuits of this nature.

We who occupy countries fully inhabited can form no idea of the multitude of birds and animals that nature provides to consume her waste fertility in those regions unexplored by man. In the interior of the province the winter is much colder than might be supposed, from the latitude in which. it lies, which is only 43 degrees 36 minutes, from the keen north winds which blow constantly for four or five months over vast frozen lakes and snowy tracts, in the direction of Canada. The

snow too lies very deep; but when once they are visited by the south wind in March, its literally warm approach dissolves the snow like magic; and one never sees another wintry day till the season of cold returns. These southern winds seem to flow in a rapid current, uninterrupted by mountains or other obstacles, from the burning sands of the Floridas, Georgia, and the Carolinas, and bring with them a degree of warmth, that appears no more the natural result of the situation, than the intense cold of winter does in that

season.

Along the sea banks, in all these southern provinces, are low sandy lands, that never were or will be inhabited, covered with the berrybearing myrtle, from which wax is extracted fit for candles. Behind these banks are woods and

unwholesome swamps of great extent. The myrtle groves formerly mentioned afford shelter and food to countless multitudes of pigeons in winter, when their fruit is in season; while wild geese and ducks, in numbers nearly as great, pass the winter in the impenetrable swamps behind. Some time in the month of April, a general emigration takes place to the northward, first of the geese and ducks, and then of the pigeons; they keep the direction of the sea coast till they come come to the mouths of the great rivers, and then follow their course till they reach the great lakes in the interior, where nature has provided for them with the

same liberality as in their winter haunts. On the banks of these lakes there are large tracts of ground covered with a plant taller and more luxuriant than the wild carrot, but something resembling it, on the seeds of which the pigeons feed all the summer, while they are breeding and rearing their young. When they pass in spring, which they always do in the same track, they go in great numbers, and are very fat. Their progression northward and southward begins always about the vernal and autumnal equinoxes; and it is this that renders the carnage so great when they pass over inhabited districts. They begin to fly in the dawn, and are never seen after nine or ten o'clock in the morning, possibly feeding and resting in the woods all the rest of the day. If the morning be dry and windy, all the fowlers (that is every body) are disappointed, for then they fly so high that no shot can reach them : but in a cloudy morning the carnage is incredible; and it is singular that their removal falls out at the times of the year that the weather (even in this serene climate) is generally cloudy. This

1 The immense flocks of pigeons that formerly came down from the north after the season of incubation in such numbers as sometimes to darken the atmosphere like a passing cloud, have long since ceased to be witnessed in the valleys of the Hudson and the Connecticut. Geese and ducks also appear in diminished numbers, and are more frequently heard making their passage by night, and are not so often seen in the unbroken form of their flight, which is that of a harrow, or the letter A.

migration, as it passed by, occasioned, as I said before, a total relaxation from all employments, and a kind of drunken gaiety, though it was rather slaughter than sport; and, for above a fortnight, pigeons in pies and soups, and every way they could be dressed, were the food of the inhabitants. These were immediately succeeded by wild geese and ducks, which concluded the carnival for that season, to be renewed in September. About six weeks after the passage of these birds, sturgeon of a large size, and in great quantity, made their appearance in the river. Now the same ardor seemed to pervade all ages in pursuit of this new object. Every family had a canoe; and on this occasion all were launched; and these persevering fishers traced the course of the sturgeon up the river, followed them by torch light, and often continued two nights upon the water, never returning till they had loaded their canoes with this valuable fish, and many other very excellent in their kinds, that come up the river at the same time. The sturgeon not only furnished them with good part of their food in the summer months, but was pickled or dried for future use or exportation.

Chapter IX

FIRST ADVENTURES OF THE INDIAN TRADERS

T

O return to the boys, as all young men were called here till they married. Thus early trained to a love of sylvan sports, their characters were unfolded by contingencies. In this infant society penal laws lay dormant, and every species of coercion was unknown.

Morals, founded on Christianity, were fostered by the sweet influence of the charities of life. The reverence which children in particular had for their parents, and the young in general for the old, was the chief bond that held society together. This veneration being founded on esteem, certainly could only have existed thus powerfully in an uncorrupted community. It had, however, an

auxiliary no less powerful.

Here, indeed, it might with truth be said,

"Love breath'd his infant sighs from anguish free."

In consequence of this singular mode of associating together little exclusive parties of children of both sexes, which has been already mentioned, endearing intimacies, formed in the age of playful