"I am under a moral obligation not to dissolve the connexion, if she is willing to continue it"

Saturday, February 28, 1819.

Mr. George McDougall has arrived here from Frazer's Lake, to remain, as I. am going to McLeod's Lake, to prepare for a departure for Head Quarters; and my intention is, during the next summer, to visit my native land. I design, also, to take my family with me, and leave them there, that they may be educated in a civilized and christian manner.

The mother of my children will accompany me; and, if she shall be satisfied to remain in that part of the world, I design to make her regularly my wife by a formal marriage. It will be seen by this remark, that my intentions have materially changed, since the time that I at first took her to live with me; and as my conduct in this respect is different from that which has generally been pursued by the gentlemen of of the reasons which have governed my decision, in regard to this weighty affair. It has been made with the most serious deliberation; and, I hope, under a solemn sense of my accountability to God.

Having lived with this woman as my wife, though we were never formally contracted to each other, during life, and having children by her, I consider that I am under a moral obligation not to dissolve the connexion, if she is willing to continue it. The union which has been formed between us, in the providence of God, has not only been cemented by a long and mutual performance of kind offices, but, also, by a more sacred consideration. Ever since my own mind was turned effectually to the subject of religion, I have taken pains to instruct her in the great doctrines and duties of Christianity. My exertions have not been in vain. Through the merciful agency of the Holy Spirit, I trust that she has become a partaker with me, in the consolations and hopes of the gospel.

I consider it to be my duty to take her to a christian land, where she may enjoy Divine ordinances, grow in grace, and ripen for glory.—We have wept together over the early departure of several children, and especially, over the death of a beloved son. We have children still living, who are equally dear to us both. How could I spend my days in the civilized world, and leave my beloved children in the wilderness? The thought has in it the bitterness of death. How could I tear them from a mother's love, and leave her to mourn over their absence, to the day of her death? Possessing only the common feelings of humanity, how could I think of her, in such circumstances, without anguish? On the whole, I consider the course which I design to pursue, as the only one which religion and humanity would justify.

Mr. McDougall informs me, that, not long since, an Indian died at Frazer's Lake, and left behind him a widow, who had been in similar circumstances before, by the loss of a former husband. A day or two before the corpse was to be burned, she told the relations of her late husband, that she was resolved not to undergo a second slavery. She therefore left the tent, secretly, in the evening, and hung herself from a tree. Among the Carriers, widows are slaves to the relations of their deceased husbands, for the term of two or three years from the commencement of their widowhood, during which, they are generally treated in a cruel manner. Their heads are shaved, and it belongs to them to do all the drudgery, about the tent. They are frequently beaten with a club or an axe, or some such weapon.