of these words, surrounded as I was by doubt and danger, calmed at once
my agitated spirits, like some well-remembered air which we have heard
in our infancy, stealing over the waste of years and distance, I felt
completely overcome by my feelings. Home, and my native land, with a
thousand sweet associations of relatives, and all the charms of
friendship and love, seemed to accompany the sounds, and I gazed with
unqualified mildness on the innocent source of my happiness, who stood
gazing in simple wonder at my ill-suppressed surprise. I was nearly
fainting, and should have fallen, had it not been for a kind-hearted
squaw in a satin slip, and blond trimmings, bathing my temples with
a grateful distillation of otto of roses. The natural reserve of my
disposition having been overcome by the force of nature, I proposed to
our entertainer, if he would part with his daughter to take her back
with us, and make her a member of the civilized world. He shook his
head, and declared his inability to relinquish her; so great do we
find the force of parental affection even in savage life; but upon the
approach of his son, an eligible and ductile youth, with a promising
pair of whiskers, and irreproachable pantaloons, he consented to part
with him, declaring that next to his daughter he was the only solace of
his life. As the youth bore the name of his tribe, the semi-barbarous
cognomen of Simpson, he agreed to accept that of _Lee boo_, not
only as being more civilized, but expressive of his situation. As he
was of an ambitious nature, he had made, unknown to his parent, many
excursions towards the west; we therefore agreed to accept of him as our
guide; and we left our simple and promising friends with the assurance
of a speedy return: as a pledge, we exchanged one of our cravats, well
stiffened, and with the Petersham tie, for one of the collars worn by
the male, and a flounce of the she-savage's petticoats; promising also
to send them, on our arrival, a pattern of Lord H------h's beard, which
approached nearer to savage life than any other object we could think