these articles in the world whither they are gone; and it is very
affecting occasionally to hear the plaintive and mournful lamentations
of the mother at the grave of her child, uttering in pitiful accents,
"Ah! my child, why did you leave me! Why go out of my sight so early!
Who will nurse you and feed you in the long journey you have undertaken!"
The strength of natural affection will sometimes lead them to commit
suicide, under the idea that they shall accompany the spirit, and nurse
their departed child in the other world. This persuasion, that the
spirits of the deceased want the same attendance in their new station
as in the present life, is so deeply rooted in the minds of the
Indians, that the _Carriers_, west of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes
burn the widow; and a chief, on the North-West coast of America,
sacrificed a human victim, who was a slave, on the death of his son. In
some provinces of America, historians have mentioned that, upon the
death of a Chief, a certain number of his wives, and of his slaves who
had been taken in war, were put to death, and interred together with
him, that he might appear with the same dignity in the world of
spirits, and be waited upon by the same attendants. Some have solicited
the honour to die, while others have fled, as marked for victims, under
this cruel and superstitious practice.

APRIL 4.--On my arrival at the Church Mission House for divine worship,
a poor Indian widow with five children, asked me to admit two of the
boys into the schools, which I immediately did, and particularly wished
her to leave the two girls also, one about six, and the other eight
years of age; but she would not comply with my request. The boys were
very wild and troublesome, and often ran away from the school to their
mother, who was generally living about the Settlement. They were
getting at length however better reconciled, and had begun to be
attached to the schoolmaster, when I was informed the Catholics were
prejudicing her mind against the school; and that some of the women of
that persuasion had told her, that I was collecting children from the
Indians with the intention of taking them away to my country. This idea
was spread amongst them, and an Indian calling at my residence told me
that he would give his boy to the school, if I would not leave them, as
he understood I intended to do. In vain did I tell him, that in going
home to see my wife and children I should be glad to return a