Fort Garry to England.

January 25th. - This afternoon I took my last leave of Fort Garry and all its kind, agreeable, and friendly inmates.*

It was not our intention to march far before camping non-arrival of one of my people, Who - through an error on his part - had been left behind, in the expectation that he would soon come up with us, obliged us to make an earlier halt than contemplated, so we only travelled twelve miles of the seventy that lay between our starting-point and the Fort at Pembina. [A curious circumstance happened as I went to bed, - as I hastily slipped myself between the buffalo robes, a wide sheet of electrical flame blazed into my face, illuminating the whole tent. The same thing happened on a subsequent occasion, though rather less vividly. These flames were doubtless similar to the sparks that issue from a cat's fur when briskly rubbed in the dark during frosty weather.]

January 26th. - Kline made another of his great journeys, taking me the remaining fifty-eight miles to Pembina in a * single day. We started at 3 A.M. and arrived at the fort at 8.30 p.m., having halted two hours and a half on the road.

January 27th. — No progress to speak of, - owing to time lost in hiring another train, which had proved to be indispensable, the baggage being too heavy for our strength of dogs. After much delay, a suitable team and driver were found and engaged at the hire of £10 for the journey and return.

On the cordial and pressing invitation of M. Rolette, I stopped for the night at his house, which is three miles beyond the Fort in the direction we were travelling. He had gathered a large party of friends and neighbours and entertained us very hospitably with a supper and a ball. Though it was late when we started the next morning, - not earlier than about 9 o'clock, - we made 35 miles before camping at a wooded point some distance past Les Deux Rivers.

January 28 - 31st. - Nothing remarkable during the next few days, except that while camped near Snake River, on the 30th, we heard the trees cracking repeatedly from the intenseness of the frost; a common circumstance, it seems, but new to me. The reports were loud and sharp, the wood, I was informed, actually splitting into visible rents and fissures.

Late on the 4th, or rather, early on the 5th, we arrived at Otter-tail, where, notwithstanding the untimeliness of the hour, we were very hospitably received, and entertained during the following day and night, by Colonel Sawyer, a gentleman who, at one time a member of the Ohio legislature, had at length taken up his abode in this remote part of the States: remotest, it might then have been termed, for Otter-tail City was at the farthest point of settlement in Minnesota. It only consisted of some half a dozen wooden houses: there were also a few scattered farms in the neighbourhood. The sheet of water which gives it its name is said to be so designated from a singular tongue of land which projects far inwards near the entrance of the tributary stream, shaping that part of the lake into the form of an otter's tail. Some interest attaches to this lake, as being the main source of the Red River; which, after flowing thirty or forty miles in a southerly direction, bends abruptly northwards, and subsequently preserves Lake Winnipeg.

On course until its termination in the 6th, we set out at 8 A.M., passed Leaf-Lake City (that two-house city of the future), and reached the ferry station on the now frozen Crow-wing River about midnight; having halted twice on the way.

During this part of our journey, we witnessed the complete progress of a nearly total eclipse of the moon, from the first slight invasion of its brilliant circle by the darkness, which gradually enshrouded all but a narrow edge of light, to its final deliverance from the slowly retreating obscurity. As I reclined at full length in the cariole, my face was set at a convenient angle for these lunar observations, and it, fortunately, happened that our road always tended in the best possible direction for the same purpose.

After two hours' rest at the ferry-house we resumed our march, and at 4 p.m. of the 7th arrived at Crow-wing City, where we stopped at the first inn that offered itself, a small tavern kept by a Frenchman of the name of Larue. It was very noisy, - preparations for a ball having attracted a crowd of strangers, - but this signified little, as I only intended to stay long enough to make parting arrangements with my men, and engage a vehicle to take me to Saux Rapids, whence there was a stage-wagon on Thursday morning.

[As I sat in the barroom I beheld a sight that filled me with sorrow and disgust, - the once great chief of the Ojibway's, "Hole-in-the-day," reeling about in a state of contemptible drunkenness. This degraded man was following Larue everywhere, with the most abject importunities for drink. "Charlie, Charlie, do give me more!" was his piteous, incessant cry, while tears ran down his pale and flabby cheeks. At length in an agony of supplication, he caught hold of Larue's coat-skirt; the tavern-keeper spurned him away, and he fell on his face upon the floor, with helpless blubbering like a scolded child. Two Indians stood within, acting as guards of honour for their degenerate chief They were stern and savage in look, their arms and their scanty dress were almost entirely of native fashion. One of them bore in his hand a long tomahawk. I watched this man's eye when Larue spurned the drunkard from him, and I saw that there was but a step between that lively young Frenchman and his tomb. But doubtless, the Indian was accustomed to such scenes, and had learnt to control his feelings; at all events, he and his companion made no hostile movement, but quietly crossed the room to their abject leader, lifted him in their arms, and put him into a handsome horse sleigh which awaited him at the door.

This Hole-in-the-day was a rich man, being largely subsidized by the United States, who paid him an annuity for the districts purchased from the tribe, besides granting him extensive reservations of land. He owned a house furnished in the European style, in which each of his six wives had her separate apartment; he had fine horses, fine sleighs, and every luxury his heart could desire. Once he was poor, now he is rich: once, warriors would fall before him; now, he licks the dust at a publican's feet. The first Indian I saw in the United States was a drunken blackguard reeling through a beautiful forest; the last I saw was a drunken chief grovelling in a road-side tavern.]".

February 8th. - A few words will suffice for the remainder of my journey. Leaving Crow-wing at midnight I reached Saux Rapids in eighteen hours and then went on by stage to St. Anthony. Arriving at St. Paul on the 10th I started early the following morning, slept at Wabasha, and on Sunday afternoon reached La Crosse, having travelled the last five-and-thirty miles from Wenona on the frozen surface of the Mississippi. At La Crosse, I came within reach of railways, and proceeding uninterruptedly, except by some changes of train, for three nights and two days, arrived at New York about noon on Wednesday the 15th.

Finding myself too late for the regular Cunard steamer, - the "Asia," it appeared, having just sailed, - I drove to the Brevoort House, and for the second time settled myself at that most comfortable hotel; intending to take my passage in the "Canada," another steam vessel of the same line, which was to start from Boston in a few days. I was fortunate enough, however, to become acquainted with the late Sir Edward Cunard, who, on learning my intentions, very obligingly offered me a passage in the "Etna", one of the company's fine screw-steamers, which was shortly starting for Liverpool, under the command of my old acquaintance Captain [now Sir James] Anderson.

A few pleasant days glided quickly by amidst the amusements of New York. Again I found myself a sharer in the frank and genial hospitalities so cordially offered me by acquaintances both old and new, though to none was I so much indebted during both my visits to this city as to my very agreeable friends, the E--- Is, whose kindness I shall never forget. Then came the hour of departure, and on the 19th of February I bade my final adieu to the New World.

I was the only passenger on board the "Etna," that vessel being one of the Company's good steamers, and found myself in possession of an excellent deck cabin, large and airy, infinitely preferable to the close and narrow quarters I had occupied in the "Africa;" everything, in short, had been, and continued to be done for my comfort during the twelve days of the homeward voyage. But right glad was I once more to set foot on my native land, after so long an absence and such distant wanderings.