Recollections of a Forest Life Author:George Copway Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. My life is not dated by years— There are moments which act as a plough; And there is not a furrow appears, But is deep iii my soul as my hrow.... more »—Byron. The change of seasons changed also our mode of living, as well as the places where we then had our wigwam. In the fall we gathered the wild rice, and in the winter ve were in the interior. Some winters we suffered most severely, on account of the depth of snow, and the cold; our wigwams, were often buried in snow. Wo not only suffered from the snow and the cold, but from hunger. Our party would be unable to hunt, and being far from the white settlements, we were often in want of food. I will narrate a circumstance of our sufferings. when I come to speak of the actual condition of our people, before Christianity was introduced among us, which, when I think of it, I cannot but bless God for his preserving kindness to us, in sparing us to hear his blessed word. Soon after being Christianised, my father and another Indian, by the name of Big John, andmyself, went out hunting; my father left his family near the mission station, living in the wigwam. While we were out on the hunting grounds, we found out that some Indians had gone before us on the route up the river, and every day we gained upon them: their tracks were fresh. The river and the lakes were frozen, and we had to walk on the ice. For some days together we did not fire a gun, for fear they would hear it and go from us, where we could not find them. At length we found them by the banks of the river—they were Nah-doo-ways, or Mohawks, from Bay Quinty; there were seven of them, tall fellows. We shook hands with them: they received us kindly. My father had determined to take all they had, if we should overtake them. After they gave us a good dinner of boil...« less