it was to poison the nutritious properties of the latter
by sipping the putrid dregs of the water-cask, in quantities
scarce sufficient to quench the fire of their parched
palates. Unslaked thirst was a misery unknown to the
mariners of these lakes: it was but to cast their buckets
deep into the tempting element, and water, pure, sweet,
and grateful as any that ever bubbled from the moss-clad
fountain of sylvan deity, came cool and refreshing to
their lips, neutralising, in a measure, the crudities of
the coarsest food. It was to this inestimable advantage
the crew of the schooner had been principally indebted
for their health, during the long series of privation,
as far as related to fresh provisions and rest, to which
they had been subjected. All appeared as vigorous in
frame, and robust in health, as at the moment when they
had last quitted the waters of the Detroit; and but for
the inward sinking of the spirit, reflected in many a
bronzed and furrowed brow, there was little to show they
had been exposed to any very extraordinary trials.

Their meal having been hastily dispatched, and sweetened
by a draught from the depths of the Huron, the seamen
once more sprang into their boats, and devoted themselves,
heart and soul, to the completion of their task, pulling
with a vigour that operated on each and all with a tendency
to encouragement and hope. At length the vessel, still
impelled by her own sweeps, gradually approached the
land; and at rather more than an hour before sunset was
so near that the moment was deemed arrived when, without
danger of being perceived, she might be run up along the