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and I followed him. He had considerable difficulty in expressing what he meant. I saw him labour to regain the ancient ideas of civilized man, and I watched him most closely. For instance, I had an opportunity of observing that there were two kinds of relative things absolutely effaced from his mind, viz. that of any superfluity being proper, and that of annoying others without an ab. solute necessity for it. I did not chuse to put my grand question, till after some hours of conversation had restored to him a sufficiency of words and ideas. At last I said to him: "Philip, are you happy?" He knew not at first how to reply." Happy," said he, reflecting— "happy! Yes; but happy only since I became a savage." And how do you pass your life?" asked I.He laughed." I understand you," continued I. “I think such a question unworthy of an answer. should you not like to resume your former mode of living, and return to your country ?"-" My country! France! If I were not so old, I should like to see it again.""And you would not remain there ?" added I-The motion of Philip's head answered my question sufficiently." But what induced you," continued I, "to be come what you call a savage ?"-" I don't know," said he," instinct." This expression put an end to my doubts and questions. I remained two days with Philip, in order to observe him, and never saw him swerve for a single moment from the assertion he had made. His soul, free from the conflict of social passions, appeared to me, in the language of the savages with whom he dwelt, calm as the field of battle after the warriors had smoked together the calumet of peace.

148:

ON MACKENZIE'S TRAVELS

In the interior of North America.

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THE general interest, with which travels are read, may perhaps be caused by the inconstancy and satiety of the human heart. Tired of the society with which we live, and of the vexations which surround us, we like to lose ourselves in the contemplation of distant countries, and among unknown nations. If the people, described to us, are happier than ourselves, their happiness diverts us if more unfortunate, their afflictions are consolatory to us. But the interest, attached to the recital of travels, is every day diminishing in proportion to the increase of travellers. A philosophical spirit has caused the wonders of the desert to disappear,

"The magic woods have lost their former charm,"

as Fontanes says.

When the first Frenchman, who investigated the shores of Canada, spoke of lakes similar to seas; cata. racts which fall from Heaven, and forests the depth of which could not be explored, the mind was much more strongly moved than when an English merchant, or a modern Savant tells you that he has penetrated to the

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Pacific Ocean, and that the fall.cf Niagara is only a hundred and forty-four feet in depth.

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What we gain in knowledge, by such information, we lose in sentiment. Geometrical truths have destroy. ed certain truths of the imagination, which are more important to morality than is supposed. Who were the first travellers of antiquity? The legislators, poets, and heroes-Jacob, Lycurgus, Pythagoras, Homer, Hercules, Alexander. The "dies peregrinationis" are mentioned in Genesis. At that time every thing was prodigious without ceasing to be real, and the hopes of these exlated mẹn burst forth in the exclamation of “ Terra ignota ! Terra immensa ***

We naturally dislike to be confined within bounds, and I could almost say that the globe is become too small for man since he has sailed round it. If the night be more favourable than the day to inspiration and vast conceptions, it is because it conceals all limits, and assumes the appearance of immensity. The French and English travellers seem, like the warriors of those two nations, to have shared the empire of the earth and ocean. The latter have no one, whom they can oppose to Tavernier, Chardin, Parennin, and Charlevoix, nor can they boast of any great work like the "Lettres Edifiantes;" but the former, in their turn, possess no Anson, Byron, Cook, or Vancouver. The French travellers have done more than those of the rival nation towards making us acquainted with the manners and customs of foreign countries-noon egno-mores cognovit ; but the English have been more useful as to the progress of universal geogra phy-en ponto pathen,† in mari passus est. They share with the Spaniards and Portuguese the honour of

Oh land unknown, oh land of vast extent! + Odyssey.

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having added new seas and new continents to the globe, and of having fixed the limits of the earth.

The prodigies of navigation are perhaps those, which afford the highest idea of human genius. The reader trembles, and is full of admiration when he sees Columbus plunging into the solitudes of an unknown ocean, Vasco de Gama doubling the cape of Tempests, Magellan emerging from a vast ocean to enter one vaster still, and Cook flying from one pole to the other, bounded on all sides by the shores of the globe, and unable to find more seas for his vessels.

What a beautiful spectacle does this navigator afford, when seeking unknown lands, not to oppress the inhabitants, but to succour and enlighten them; bearing to poor savages the requisites of life; swearing, on their charming banks, to maintain concord and amity with these simple children of nature; sowing among icy regions the fruits of a milder climate, and thus imitating Providence, who foresaw the fall and the wants of man!

Death having not permitted Captain Cook to com. plete his important discoveries, Captain Vancouver was appointed by the British Government to visit all the American coast from California to Cook's River or Inlet, as it is sometimes called, and to remove all doubts, which might yet remain concerning a passage to the North West of the New World. While this able officer fulfilled his mission with equal intelligence and courage, another English traveller, taking his departure from Upper Canada, proceeded across deserts and through forests to the North Sea and Pacific Ocean,

Mr. Mackenzie, of whose travels I am about to speak, neither pretends to the honour of being a scientific man, nor a writer. He was simply carrying on a traffic with the Indians in furs, and modestey gives his account to the public as only the journal of his expedition. Some

times, however, he interrupts the thread of his narrative to describe a scene of nature or the manners of the savages; but he never possesses the art of turning to his advantage those little occurrences, which are so interesting in the recitals of our missionaries. The reader is scarcely informed who were the companions of the author's fatigues. No transport is exhibited on discovering the ocean, which was the wished for object of his enterprize, no scenes of tenderness at his return. In a word, the reader is never embarked in the canoe with the traveller, and never partakes of his fears, his hopes and his perils.

Another great fault is discoverable in this work. It is unfortunate that a simple journal should be deficient in method and perspicuity, but Mr. Mackenzie manages his subject in a confused way. He never states where Fort Chepewyan is, from which he first sets out; what discoveries had been made in the regions he was about to visit, before he undertook to explore them; whether the place, at which he stops near the entrance of the Frozen Sea, was a bay, or merely an expansion of the river, as one is led to suppose. How can the traveller too be certain that this great river of the West, which he calls Tacoutche Tessé is the river of Columbia, since he did not go down to its mouth? How happens it that part of the course of this river, which he did not visit, is nevertheless marked upon his map? &c. &c.

In spite of these numerous defects, the merit of Mr. Mackenzie's journal is very great, but it requires commentaries, at one time to give an idea of the deserts which the traveller is crossing, and impart a little spirit to the meagre dryness of his narrative, at another to explain some point of geography left in an obscure state by the author. These omissions I will attempt to supply.

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