f Castleton. Here a venerable old
man, the chief of a small tribe, or rather patriarchal family of forty
men and seventeen women, came on board in his birch canoe. He gave Sir
Henry a very cordial invitation to visit his little settlement of
wigwams, picturesquely nestled upon the banks of the river. Distance
lends enchantment to the view. The little hamlet in a sheltered cove
where fertile meadows were spread out, was surrounded by fields waving
with the harvest. From the deck of the ship the scene presented was
one of peace, prosperity and happiness. The smoke ascended gracefully
from the wigwam fires, children were sporting upon the beach, and
birch canoes, almost as light as bubbles, were being rapidly paddled
over the glassy waves.

[Illustration]

The good old chief took the English captain ashore and led him into
his palace. It was a very humble edifice, constructed of bark so
carefully overlapped as effectually to exclude both wind and rain. It
was from thirty to forty feet long and eighteen feet wide. There was a
door at each end, and ample light was admitted by an opening extending
along the whole length, through which the smoke of the fires could
escape. The interior was finished with great care, and very smoothly.
Under certain states of the atmosphere and of the wind the smoke
freely ascended, causing no embarrassment to those within. The ground
floor was neatly covered with mats, except in the centre where the
fire was built. The whole interior as Sir Hudson entered it, on a
serene autumnal day, presented a very cheerful aspect. One might
easily be pardoned for imagining, in that hour, that the life of the
American savage, free from care, was apparently far more desirable
than that of the toil-worn European.

Sir Henry, with the few who accompanied him, was received with great
hospitality. Some Indians were immediately sent into the forest for a
dinner. They soon returned with some pigeons which they had shot with
their arrows. A nice fat puppy was also killed, skinned with a
clam-shell, and roasted in the highest style of barbaric culinary art.
Thick mats were provided as seats for the guests at this royal
festival. Hudson was urged to remain all night. He was evidently a man
of very cautious, if not suspicious temperament. He could not, or did
not conceal, from the Indians his fears that they were meditating
treachery. These artless men, to convince him that he had nothing to
apprehend, actually brok