Lying down on the bed,-I felt pretty ugly just

now."

"Well, stay quiet, gal, and I'll give you oil by and by-that will make you pretty smartish, I guess."

This dialogue between master and maid did not restore my confidence in the salubrity of the country. I turned into my downy bed with many misgivings, and lay panting and puffing for air like a porpoise all night.

This morning we pursued our journey at day-break, and halted to reconnoitre the ground on which the disastrous Battle of the Thames was fought. An old Indian had described the battle to my guide and whip, and he dealt it out second-hand to me. It was in this battle the celebrated warrior Tecumsch was shot, as the Americans say, by old Tippicanoe, the late General Harrisson. The battle at best must have been bush-fighting, for even at the present day the ground is heavily timbered. When the new road was being lately made, several skeletons were dug up, and also the debris of guns, buckles, swords, and caps. This fight was maintained by the Indians, long after Proctor ran away. If he had stood his ground, even with his handful of men, the Indians, would have rallied round him till the last man was slain. As it was, the Indians threw the American forces into confusion; and had not old Tecumsch been slain, the Americans would have had little to boast of. Further on, we found the site of an Indian village, which the Americans had destroyed, and the Indians never reoccupied. On the opposite side of the river I longed to visit a peaceful little village belonging to the Moravian Indians, but my whip did not approve of fording the river again. Here an Indian rode up to us with

two ponies; he led one, a very pretty black colt, with a skin sleek as a mouse, small head, good shoulder, long neck, and clean black legs. He wanted to sellfifteen dollars was all he asked, and would take part of the price in goods. The Indian was well dressed in a strong suit of grey jean, or fustian. He was the son of the Chief of the Moravian Indians, and, as Brant said of a very fair Indian boy, looked "half missionary, half Indian." He was very reserved, his short commentaries being confined to "yes" and "no," and a short grunt. The country now became more thickly settled, but the land did not seem to be very good. The settlers were chiefly Irish, as their houses and farms bespoke. "The Indian root doctor!" exclaimed my whip, as he pulled up, and entered into conversation with a tall old fellow, with a shrewd grey eye,

"Well, Doctor; you never sent me no pills yet." "Well, I haven't had time," responded the Doctor. "You heard how they locked me up for a month, for practising without a diplora,' though the people as knows me, says I can do as much with my little finger, as the whole body of tyrannical doctors can do with their diploras." He then informed us he had just been "curing a man far gone in the black janders," "and I'm going right away to cure a woman with a cancer in her nose.' He then boasted of his knowledge of herbs and simples. "You ought to take some of my powders, sir," said he to me- "I make them up of Jesut's bark and gerreymanders."

"Where do you get the Jesuit's bark?" said I. "In the wood, to be sure," replied the Doctor. "Will you have the goodness to shew me the tree?” "A dozen of them, if you like to follow me," said the Doctor; and off we went into the bush. The

tree was not so easily found, though at every step the Doctor either plucked or pointed out some herb or shrub, the sovereignest remedy for pains, aches, and all the ills that human flesh is heir to. "This is the dogmatic tree, from which the Jesut's bark is taken," said he, having led me a pretty dance through the wood and swamps, for nearly an hour.

"Why, this is a mountain ash!" said I.

"Put on your spectacles, sir," replied the Doctor. "Ash, indeed!—perhaps you can tell me the name of this tree, or this scrubby one, or this yarb in my hand ?" I was obliged to plead ignorance.

"That's the way with the Old Country folk," exclaimed the Doctor; "tell them a thing or two, and they'll cry out they knew it before. Now, I shew you a tree-a valuable tree, which you might have passed ten times a day without minding; but the moment I point it out to you as a dogmatic, and very important bark-'Oh, you knew all about it-it's a common tree, not worth looking at !'"

"What tribe do you belong to?" said I.

"How-tribe! how-tribe!" inquired the Doctor. "You say you are an Indian doctor; what tribe of Indians do you belong to ?"

"I'm no Indian dog!" roared the medico. "This is the reward I get for my pains!"

I explained. I did not mean to insult the learned leech-had made a little mistake.

"But I tell you, I am no more an Indian than the Governor-General," bellowed the Doctor; and we parted rather hastily.

"He is a rum-'un," said my whip; to whom I explained this contretemps; "and he cannot bear contradiction of any sort. I wonder ye had not a set-to

in the bush; for he is very hot and sore since he was in prison and fined."

Halted at Brett's Tavern, to bait: here we found the Indian and his ponies; he had fallen a dollar in the price of his colt; but money was so scarce, that I question if he could get seven dollars for the best steed in his village in a day's ride. Finally, he put his colt into the stable, and left him in the hands of his good friend, the tavern-keeper, to sell him for him if he could, or, what is more likely, keep him for his keep, in a very short time. Having taken some tea and eggs for luncheon-this being all the hostess could set before us-we prepared to depart, when a horsejockey came up to us, and said there was a friend of his lying very ill in the tavern. "He has been in a raging fever for some days," said he, "and now talks the greatest nonsense ever I heerd. I wish some one would go in and talk to him, for I find there is no use in my arguing with him any longer."

"I should think your arguments thrown away," said I. "The man is in a raging fever, you say-why don't you go for a doctor ?"

"I sent for the doctor a few days ago, but he has so much to do.”

"If you will tell me where the doctor lives, if it is not too far off, I dare say I can send him to your friend."

"Oh, for that part of the matter, I can ride over to his house in an hour!" replied the jockey.

I urged him to do so; and we pushed on, reflecting upon the many vicissitudes, ills, and ailments we are subject to in this remote and semi-barbarous region. Cross the wooden bridge, and halt for the night at Delaware, on the Thames. This is decidedly the

prettiest spot I have yet seen in Canada. The village is in its infancy, and the land around it being held by absentees and speculators, there is no immediate prospect of the peace of the valley being disturbed by a needy horde of land-loupers. I found my host and hostess civil and very obliging persons; the former, in a brown study about a scrape he had been drawn into

the Indians, to whom, in an evil hour, he had sold some whisky. He said they were New York, or Tuscarora Indians; and, as they were dressed like ourselves, and spoke good English, he never thought of refusing them, whereupon, one of the party went and lodged information against him. He was summoned before the magistrates, was to attend the sessions next day, and be fined.

A waggon full of those said Tuscarora Indians now came up; the women with papooses in their carved cradles, and sporting men's hats, with bands of tin or silver lace round them, quite stylish; the men sported blue frock-coats and continuations. The party had been to London, buying furniture for their new settlement. The tribe had recently sold their lands in New York, and emigrated into Canada, where they have purchased upwards of three thousand acres of land from private individuals, and then leased it from the crown, so as to receive the usual presents, and be treated with the same indulgence as the Canada Indians.

Pushed on towards London, the country growing more hilly and picturesque every mile.

66

My eyes, what a chance!" exclaimed my whip, as, jumping nimbly from his seat, he began to pick up sundry shillings and sixpenny pieces, lying on the road; and, with many demonstrations of joy and de