tion.

In the autumn the males lose their bright colouring and become almost as dull as the females and the young, and it is not until spring is well advanced that they assume their bright costume and leaving the woods resort to the orchards and gardens, about which they will spend the summer.

We have in Ontario many birds whose musical abilities rank much higher than those of our canary, but there are few birds anywhere that have a more sprightly, cheerful or pleasing song than this little bird; its notes are varied and pretty, but the charm lies in the way they are uttered. The little creatures seem to throw all their strength and energy into the matter, and they sing because they have to, they are so exuberantly happy, and that is the only way they can express it. This sort of jollity is contagious, and a man must be far gone in the blues if he is not affected by it and made feel the happier for hearing it.

The canary is the latest of all our birds to commence nest-building. The reason for this is, I believe, because the young are fed chiefly upon thistle seed, which is not obtainable until the end of July. At any rate, the eggs are not laid until about the first in July. The nest is a beautifully neat structure

closely felted together and lined thickly with plant down. It is placed in any convenient fork of a small tree or bush, lilacs, syringas and other ornamental shrubs being frequently selected for the purpose, and in it are laid usually five or six white eggs. I once found a nest containing seven eggs, and was anxious to see how the little mother would stow away such a large family when they were hatched, but unfortunately did not pass that way again until after the birds had flown.

The food of our canary in summer consists entirely of the seeds of weeds, more particularly of those which are furnished with downy attachments, such as dandelion, thistle, etc., and by destroying these they do their share towards preventing them from entirely over-running us.

While the female canary is setting the male is unremitting in his attention to her. All day long he hovers about her neighbourhood incessantly calling in most endearing fashion to cheer her, and after the young are hatched his pride in his family is unbounded.

Besides the birds I have referred to in these papers, there are many more equally interesting that resort to our gardens at various times, but space was insufficient to permit me even to mention them.

THOU HOUGH my personal acquaintance with Francis Parkman only began in the autumn of 1869, I had known him some years earlier by correspondence, he having asked me to secure for him some data regarding the Acadians of New Brunswick. We met at the inauguration of Dr. Charles D Eliot as President of Harvard University, on the 19th of October. The function had attracted many of the most distinguished literary and scientific men of the United States. Among the strong personalities present none, to my mind, was more striking than that of the historian of France in the New World. His figure, tall and commanding, was spare. Lameness, which often interrupted his walks, had given him a slight stoop. His face was clean-shaven, and intellectual, and no one could look upon his brow without feeling impressed by its high mental character and energy. He was somewhat shy, and his natural reserve, which strangers sometimes mistook for hauteur, disappeared as acquaintance ripened. He lived in summer at his beautiful home on the south branch of Jamaica Pond, where he had a study, and cultivated to perfection the rose and the lily, in which occupation he took keen delight. His estate was within easy distance of the Motley mansion, while his winter home was in Chestnut St., Boston, not far from the residence of Prescott, on Beacon Street. Here he lived with his sister.

Francis Parkman could boast of a long line of ancestors, distinguished in scholarship and social position. His great grandfather was the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, a Congregational minister of eminence in his day, and a Harvard man whose name stood high on the rolls of the College, from which hall of learning he was graduated in 1754. His grandfather, Samuel Park

man, was a famous merchant of Boston, and his father, the Rev. Francis Parkman, was a Unitarian minister of prominence, an author of repute, and the founder of the Parkman Professorship in the Cambridge Theological School. On his mother's side he was descended from the Rev. John Cotton. Young Parkman was born in Boston on the 23rd September, 1823. He was carefully educated, and went to Harvard in 1840. His relatives designed him for the law, and he took up that study for two years, but tiring of it, he sought recreation in travel. From his youth he was a fond lover of Nature and out-door life. He read much about the Indian tribes of the great west, and their lives proved such a fascination for him that he resolved to live among them for a time, and so become acquainted with their customs and methods. Physically he was frail, and a fall in the gymnasium obliged him to relinquish his studies for a while. He was sent to Europe, where he visited Gibraltar and Malta and other points along the Mediterranean, but returned home in season to be present at the closing exercises of his College.

In 1846 Parkman joined his cousin, Quincy Adams Shaw, and the two friends started off on their memorable journey across the Plains, the story of which is so well set down in the picturesque "Oregon Trail," dedicated to his kinsman, "the comrade of a summer: the friend of a lifetime." This was our author's first book, and its success encouraged him to plan out his brilliant series of historical works, which began with "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," and closed with "A Halfcentury of Conflict." The "Oregon Trail" was first published as a series of papers of travel in the old Knickerbocker Magazine, then in the skilful

hands of Lewis Gaylord Clark. The author and his friend lived among the red men of the Prairie and Rocky Mountains, hunted with them, feasted with them at their great feasts, and experienced the same hardships and trials which their hosts endured. All these things were undergone that Parkman might familiarize himself with the habits and characteristics of the people whom he meant to present as they really existed, with the pen of one who had formed part of their inner life and movement. He saw the Sioux when they still killed their game with the bow and arrow, and tells of the terrific force of that weapon, when he witnessed the flight of an arrow clear through a buffalo. Some of the Ogillallah warriors had begun to use guns, but all the tribes had not yet been armed with them.

Though the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" is Parkman's first contribution to the history of the Indians and half-breeds of the West, the series proper, which deals with the wars of the English and French and red men and treats of France and England in North America, begins with "The Pioneers of France in the New World." "Pontiac," which came first, may be read as a sequel to the collection.

In the preparation of his histories, which are enriched by an eloquent and graceful style, and strict faithfulness. to facts, Parkman devoted an industry, care and thoroughness which leave unquestioned the statements put forward. We know of the vastness of his task, and the difficulties under which he worked for many years. He neglected nothing. He visited all the scenes which his luminous pen so admirably describes, not once or twice, but many times. The archives of France, England, Russia and Canada have yielded their treasures to him. Every known letter, journal, report and despatch, which bore, even in the remotest way, upon his subject were copied and sent to him, until at the end of his work he found himself possessed of no fewer than 3,400 manuscript pages, which he had bound up in several large volumes. Of course, all printed books, magazines,

pamphlets, newspapers, maps, plans and engravings which could throw light on his theme passed the ordeal of his industrious scrutiny. It has been said of him that his Puritanism was strong. It may be so, but the fact remains that he never allowed the spirit of prejudice to warp his judgment, or to destroy the value of his conclusions. He has his critics, chief among whom is the Abbé Casgrain, whose notes are entitled to respect. But, as Parkman remarks in a letter to the present writer, the learned Abbé, albeit a most scholarly and estimable man, is by nature too excitable and effeminate to discuss in soberness the cold facts of history, and particularly when his feelings, nationality, and religion are concerned. And, as he adds in a letter now before me, of August 21st, 1874: "I am afraid my Canadian friends will not like the new book, (The Old Regime). In writing, I put out of mind all considerations but the evidence before me, which in this case is not always favourable to Canadian society in the old time." He was right, the book produced much comment and attack, and several old friendships among the French-Canadians were estranged. But Parkman, true to his spirit of fairness and independence as a historian, preferred to lose a friend or two rather than pervert facts, and present opinions which were erroneous and misleading. Perhaps his thoroughness to get at the truth cannot be better shown than by quoting from his letters, unpublished up to this time. On the 20th January, 1870, he wrote to the writer, then living in St. John, New Brunswick :— "I have determined to write, as the next volume of my series, an account of La Tour and d'Aunay, postponing Count Frontenac to another time. my subject is strictly Acadian, at least, if we adopt the broader signification of the name Acadia. You spoke of documents relating to La Tour. Of what nature are they, and where are they preserved? I have a score or more letters, patents, reports, etc., relating to him, found in the French archives, (some of which are among the copies

So

made for the Canadian Government). There are also some in the State House here (Boston). Besides these, there are those printed in the Memoirs des Commissairies, together with those in Harvard and Hutchinson, and the statements of Winthrop, Denys, Hubbard, etc. Now there ought to be more at Annapolis and at St. John. Can you give me any information about them ?"

I at once set about making inquiries in all directions, and in my reply named some printed books which bore on the subject then in Mr. Parkman's mind. On the 24th of February, he wrote from Boston :-"I have all the published books you mention; but the volume of manuscripts entitled Acadia may contain something very much to the purpose. It probably will not be necessary to copy all in them relating to La Tour and d'Aunay, as many of the papers may prove to be duplicates of those which I have already. The best way will be to have a list, with titles and dates, of such letters and documents as touch the subject, made by some competent person. All papers on Acadia between the years 1628 and 1660, may be included in the list. This will simplify the work. .Please have this done at my expense, and the list sent to me. I will then check off such papers as I do not possess, and request you to get them copied. This plan will save both trouble and expense.

"It seems more than likely that Mr. Calpick* is on the track of something valuable. I am well aware that La Tour had no establishment at Port Royal, but d'Aunay, had-in fact, his headquarters were there, but, for the reason mentioned in my last, I do not think that anything will turn up there. I shall look with great interest for the results of an inquiry among the descendants of La Tour. One of them, I believe it was one of the d'Entrements, had formerly in his possession,

*W. Arthur Calfick, of Nova Scotia, author of several historical sketches, notably, "Port Royal, Its Graves," in Stewart's Quarterly, St. John, N. B., 1871-2.

a very curious paper, the marriage contract between La Tour and d'Aunay's widow. This has been published by the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, but there may be more, and I should like especially to get a copy of that will.

"Let me, in conclusion, thank you most cordially for your very active and efficient co-operation with me in this inquiry.'

Later he writes, "Thank you for the numbers of Stewart's Quarterly, containing Mr. Hannay's* articles; but are you quite sure that the remains which Mr. H. describes are those of La Tour's Fort? I confess to some doubts. The French government, in 1696, built a fort at the mouth of the St. John. May not the remains belong to this last? Fortunately there is extant a deed of La Tour, in which he conveys this fort in mortgage to MajorGeneral Gibbons, as security for a considerable sum of money. This deed will, perhaps, serve to settle the question. I have Murdoch's History, which contains many facts, and is scrupulous as regards research, but is rather a collection of notes than a history. Haliburton, though not very profound, is much more readable.

"Do not give yourself the trouble to hunt up Gesner's and Munro's Histories, if, as I believe, they are founded only on the known authorities, and do not contain original documents. It is these that I am in quest of, as I do not like to draw except from the fountain head. I think there can be no papers on La Tour at Annapolis, as I have lately discovered that all the records there were destroyed or carried off by the English in or about 1667."

The italics in the above are mine. The reader of these pages will note how scrupulous Mr. Parkman was as to the character of the documents he used in the preparation of his works. Nothing but the originals or authenticated copies were valued by him.

*James Hannay, author of "A History of Acadia," St. John, N.B., 1879; also of "Sketches of Acadia,' Stewart's Quarterly, Oct., 1867, Jan., April and July, 1868.

In Parkman's works, the Court of Old France is described with grace and colour, the tragic scenes enacted in New France, the Indians, the Intendants, the bishops and priests, the warriors and bushrangers, the soldiers and statesmen are painted in pigments which glow with life. There is nothing more fascinating than his accounts of the early struggles between the white and the red men of two centuries ago. He has elevated those struggles to the dignity of battles. He has photographed, as it were, the heroes and heroines, and described their deeds in language which charms on the instant. His galleries of worthies misses no name of real importance, and he has saved from oblivion the records of many characters whose careers would have been forgotten, despite the work they had done, despite the sacrifices they had made, despite the sufferings they had endured. No man had, up to Parkman's advent upon the scene, given us the real Indian. Cooper's Indian is romantic and false. Longfellow's Indian is poetic and striking as a figure. Indians by other pens have been caricatures. Parkman's Indian is historic, and a true portrait. He has told us all about him, laying bare his faults and his virtures, and showing how readily the savage nature assimilated itself to that of the marauding white man. The Jesuits, the Recollet Fathers and the Sulpicians find in Parkman a biographer and historian who is singularly fair and impartial towards their orders-much fairer than their contemporary critics. Their strong points, as well as their weaknesses and frailties are sketched with no faltering pencil. Frontenac, La Salle, Bigot, Laval, Montcalm and Wolfe, as well as many lesser lights, illumine at every turn his rich and sparkling pages. In his great work he was the pioneer. He touched virgin soil, and has left his task so complete that no successor can come upon the ground and rob him of his fame.

We have spoken of his rare fidelity to facts, and the value of his sources of information, the original documents

from which his narrative is drawn, comprising seventy volumes, most of them folios, the very collecting of which occupied forty-five years. But few who read the dramatic compositions are aware of the labour which the author had to expend upon his authorities before a line of his book could be begun. They were not only voluminous but often conflicting. Nearly every actor in the drama left behind him his own record of the events in which he was a figure. Sometimes the record assumed the character of a report to headquarters, private letters to friends, memorials, despatches, journals and diaries. The historian had to sift the data contained in these papers, and to compare them with the great mass of collateral evidence, "with," as he says, "more than usual care, striving to secure the greatest possible accuracy of statement, and to reproduce an image of the past with photographic clearness. and truth."

But this was not all. His health was precarious, his frame lacked physical strength, his eyesight afflicted him sorely and seriously retarded the progress of his work. The "Conspiracy of Pontiac" was written under conditions which few men would have had the courage to face. The light of day was insupportable to the author for three years, and "every attempt at reading or writing was completely debarred. Under these circumstances, the task of sifting the materials and composing the work was begun and finished. The papers were repeatedly read aloud by an amanuensis, copious notes and extracts were made, and the narrative written down from my dictation. This process, though extremely slow and laborious, was not without its advantages, and I am well convinced that the authorities have been even more minutely examined, more scrupulously collated, and more thoroughly digested than they would have been under ordinary circumstances." When, later on, in 1865, Parkman wrote his "Pioneers of France in the New World" his sight was fully as bad, if not worse. He was never permitted