BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF THE

LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ.

[CONTINUED FROM page 305, part v.]

IN 1804 his mother, who was a M'Neil, died at the family residence at Craige, in Antrim, an event which brought him into possession of the estate, and put an end to the design she had formed of taking his eldest daughter, Jane, to be brought up under her care. His eldest sister, Mrs. Moore, consort of John Moore, Esq., of the Royal Navy, Wexford, being without children, now solicited to be allowed to fulfil her mother's intentions, and being joined by Mr. Moore in the request, Mr. Johnston yielded his assent. As the situation of the Irish property now required his attention, he determined to take his daughter with him in the contemplated visit; and accompanied by her he embarked at Quebec in the autumn of 1809. After a tedious and tempestuous passage, owing to the advanced state of the season, he landed at Cork, late in the autumn. He proceeded by land to visit his friends in Dublin, and afterwards in Wexford, where he left his daughter, whose health had suffered severely on the passage and since their landing. He then continued his journey to the North of Ireland. His visit occupied the remainder of

that, and part of the following year.

On his return to America, he visited London. The particular object of this visit is not known to me, but is believed to have arisen in part from a correspondence with certain members of the North West or Hudson's Bay Companies. It had also been his wish, on going to England, to provide for the entry of his sons, Lewis and George, into the Army and Navy, to effect which he counted upon the influence of the Marquis of Hereford, and Sir Edmund M'Naughton, the latter of whom was a friend and kinsman. One of the first incidents after his arrival in the city was the loss of his pocketbook, containing letters of introduction, having been picked in a crowd near the Exchange.

During his stay in the metropolis he received from Lord Selkirk the offer of the Governorship of Hudson's Bay with suitable appointmentsan offer which, after mature deliberation and several conferences with his Lordship, he prudently, as it is thought, declined. Among the reasons which had weight with him, was the remoteness and unsettled state of the territory, which offered no advantage for the education of his child

ren, now become numerous, and the consequent unpleasantness of the removal to their feelings. It is since known that Mr. Semple, who accepted the post, was shot on the plains of Red River, in a rencontre with a party of Bois Brules and Indians, who had set his authority at defiance, and he was actually tomahawked and scalped by the Indians, who, as well as their Christian associates, were supposed to have been instigated to this atrocious act by the partners of the North West Company. Mr. Johnston, who, from his experience in the country, had confidently predicted this state of things to the Directors in London, was not disappointed in the result.

While in London he made acquaintance with a Mr. Black—a gentleman in some way connected with the British Bible and Foreign Missionary Society, in consequence of which a box of Bibles, and a missionary to labor in the conversion of the Indians, were sent to Canada. The missionary having probably formed no definite idea of the true state of settlements in that quarter, and the privations to be encountered, declined proceeding to the territories of the Chippewas, where it was designed he should have commenced his labors; and left an inference to be drawn, that his zeal in this object needed stronger excitements. In a Poetical "Petition to the Ojibwa nation of the North American Indians, to the London Society for Missions," which was addressed to Mr. Black, and published among the missionary papers, he shows the claims of the Red Race on the civilized world, and it may be referred to as denoting his opinion of the radical defects of the Jesuit missions in Canada.

Before quitting the British metropolis, an opportunity was opened of his being presented to the king, along with several other gentlemen who were waiting for the purpose-an honor which he had the firmness to decline. For it must be allowed that firmness was required, when we reflect that he was an ardent admirer of the king and constitution, and deemed the honor of an introduction one of the most flattering kind. But it is probable that, in his actual position, as a resident of a remote part of a remote province, he saw less advantage to be derived from it, than would have attended a person differently placed. And he said himself, that it would probably have increased his vanity and pride, which he found it a sufficient task to restrain, without extra excitement.

On the route from London to Liverpool, his travelling desk, containing money, jewelry, and papers, was stolen from the carriage. He embarked at Liverpool near the middle of June, but the delays attending a passage across the Atlantic, before the present improved facilities were introduced, consumed the summer, and a long inland voyage, in which the mode of conveyance is often shifted, made it very late in November before he reached St. Mary's. Here he had cause, as he remarked, to felicitate himself on the enjoyment of domestic quiet, and a peaceful

seclusion, so different from the pomp and splendor, which his recent visit served to remind him prevailed in the polished circles of his native land, and among several of his friends and relatives, whom he had found greatly advanced in wealth and place. And from this period he appears to have relinquished all idea of a permanent return to Ireland.

It had been proposed to him while in Dublin at the table of his cousin, the Right Honorable William Saurin, Attorney General of Ireland, that his friends should unite their influence in making provision for his return, and the advantages of a permanent place and adequate salary were strenuously urged. But the proposal was finally met, on his part, by the insuperable objection, that he could not abandon his wife in America, by whom he had several children, and to whom he was tenderly attached, and that it was equally impossible to introduce her into a state of society which was so different from all she had before known, that she could not fail to be insupportably unhappy. His strong attachment to his wife and children, formed indeed a striking trait of his character. And to their happiness he now devoted himself with unceasing care.

He placed his eldest sons Lewis and George at Montreal, as soon as they became of proper age, with the advantage of attending the best school the place afforded, where they were taught the common branches of an English education and the French language. They had joined the family at St. Mary's before his late visit, and the family being now once more embodied, he found himself surrounded by an interesting group of children, whose health and education had formed one of his most pleasing cares during their infancy, and whose welfare and steadfast adherence to principles of virtue, honor and piety, formed the subject of his most anxious solicitude, now that the elder of them began to verge on maturity. It should not be omitted, that in addition to his own children, he had adopted in infancy, Miss Nancy Campbell, the daughter of a friend and countryman, who fell in a duel near St. Joseph's, in which he had attended him to the field, and she was brought up and treated in every respect, with the care and tenderness of one of his own children.

He had early imbued the minds of his own family with the leading principles of the Christian religion, as explained and enforced in the church service, and was constant and zealous in the observance of its forms, accompanying morning and evening prayer with a portion of the Psalms, and a sermon (most commonly of Blair, Saurin, or Chalmers), on the Sabbath. He read impressively, and generally closed the service with some extemporaneous practical remarks. He ardently felt himself, and he had habitually taught every member of his family, to look to God, through the merits of the Saviour, as the giver of every enjoyment and the sole object of rational supplication. If any signal success attended his business, or household, he made it the occasion of special acknowledgment, and was equally attentive to refer to its true source, and to

admit with most heartfelt conviction, the justice of losses and afflictions. Life and death, riches and poverty, honor and disgrace, were, in his mind, the ready gifts of a superintending Deity, who could never err, either in giving or withholding. And though the distribution was often contrary to the awards of human reason, he did not the less doubt that it was most just, and fully comformable to the dictates of a Higher Intelligence. Feeling thus, and living in a full reliance upon scripture promises-upon which he meditated deeply and spoke often, he was soon reconciled to the untoward occurrences of life, though from the sensitiveness of his mind, and irritability of his temperament, few persons experienced more acute pain on the first intelligence of misfortune or disappointment. He had formed a most noble and ennobling conception of the sublime character and attributes of God, as being most immaculate and irreproachable. And he considered the irreverent use of his name, as being not only a gross want of piety, but altogether incompatible with the character of a gentleman.

-I have before spoken of his active benevolence, the ready access which a plea of misfortune gained to his heart, and the forgiving nature of his disposition. Punctilious in exacting the respect due to himself, and sensitive to the point of honor, he was equally ready to extend the hand of friendship and reconciliation, and could never rest under the impression that he had been the first to provoke offence, or inflict injury. If he was disposed to entertain settled antipathy to any class of the human family, it was to sceptics in religion, whom he could neither spare in their persons, or their works. He looked with abhorrence upon such writers as Paine, and could not bring himself to think that the genius or talents of Gibbon and Hume formed any adequate counterpoise to their want of faith in the Gospel of Christ.

(To be continued.)

INDOLENCE.-The Indian disappears before the white man, simply because he will not work. The struggle (in their history) was, between inveterate indolence and the most active and energetic industry, and the result could not be doubtful. GALLATIN.

MENTAL CAPACITY.-They have exhibited repeated proofs of intellectual powers apparently very superior to those of the African, and not very inferior to those of the European race.

lb.

Father Le Jeune says that it is admitted on all hands, that they were superior in intellect to the French peasantry of that time.

Ib.

ETHNOLOGY.

APALLACHIANS; a nation of Indians who formerly inhabited the extreme southern portion of the United States, and have left their name in the leading range of the Apallachian mountains. In 1539 De Soto found them in Florida, a term at that era comprehending also the entire area of the present states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and other portions of the southern territory. They were numerous, fierce, and valorous. They were clothed in the skins of wild beasts. They used bows and arrows, clubs and spears. They did not, as many nations of barbarians do, poison their darts. They were temperate, drinking only water. They did not make wars on slight pretences, or for avarice, but to repress attacks, or remedy injustice. They treated their prisoners with humanity, and like other persons of their households. They were long lived, some persons reaching a hundred years. They worshipped the sun, to which they sang hymns, morning and evening. These facts are to be gleaned from the narrative. What were their numbers, how far they extended their jurisdiction, what were their affiliations by language, customs, and institutions with other tribes, cannot be accurately decided. Much that is said of their civil and military polity, buildings, ceremonies and other traits, applies to the Floridian Indians generally, and may be dismissed as either vague, or not characteristic of the Appalachians. A quarto volume was published in London in 1666, by John Davies, under the title of a "History of the Caribby Indians," in which he traces the caribs of the northern groups of the West Indies, to the Apallachians, and relates many incidents, and narrates a series of surprising wars and battles, reaching, in their effects, through the Mississippi valley up to the great lakes, which have the appearance of fable. How much of this account, which speaks of "cattle" and "herds," may be grafted on ancient traditions, it is impossible to tell. There are some proofs of such an ancient civilisation in the Ohio valley and other sections of the country, but they are unconnected with any Indian traditions, which have survived, unless we consider the mounds and remains of antique forts as monumental evidences of these reputed wars. The Lenapee accounts of these ancient wars with the Tallagees or Allegewy, may be thought to refer to this ancient people, who had, if this conjecture be correct, extended their dominion to the middle and northern latitudes of the present area of the United States, prior to the appearance of the Algonquin and Iroquies races. Mr. Irving has suggested the name of Apallachia, or Allegania, derived from the stock, for this division of the continent.

(To be continued.)