her; she has an open pleasing countenance, with a candor and sincerity
in her conversation which would please me, if my mind was in a state to
be pleased with any thing. Through all the attention and civility I
think myself obliged to shew her, she seems to perceive the melancholy
which I cannot shake off: she is always contriving some little party
for me, as if she knew how much I am in want of amusement.

Oct. 12.

Madame Des Roches is very kind; she sees my chagrin, and takes every
method to divert it: she insists on my going in her shallop to see the
last settlement on the river, opposite the Isle of Barnaby; she does me
the honor to accompany me, with a gentleman and lady who live about a
mile from her.

Isle Barnaby, Oct. 13.

I have been paying a very singular visit; 'tis to a hermit, who has
lived sixty years alone on this island; I came to him with a strong
prejudice against him; I have no opinion of those who fly society; who
seek a state of all others the most contrary to our nature. Were I a
tyrant, and wished to inflict the most cruel punishment human nature
could support, I would seclude criminals from the joys of society, and
deny them the endearing sight of their species.

I am certain I could not exist a year alone: I am miserable even in
that degree of solitude to which one is confined in a ship; no words
can speak the joy which I felt when I came to America, on the first
appearance of something like the chearful haunts of men; the first man,
the first house, nay the first Indian fire of which I saw the smoke