Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/213

1768-1782] ing to retrieve, if possible, the loss I had sustained, I soon [169] increased my difficulties, so that in a few months after my arrival, all my schemes failing, I was left totally destitute.

In February, 1785, I quitted Montreal, and walked from La Prairie to St. John's, where I accidentally found a friend who supplied me with money to go to New York. I proceeded to Stony Point, where I stayed two days with some loyalist officers, some of whom accompanied me to Crown Point, where we also stayed three days. We then parted company, and I hired a slay, which carried me safely to New York, where I took a lodging, and lived as moderately as I could.

During my residence there, I met a Loretto Savage, called Indian John, who had been in the American service all the war, and who waited to receive a reward for his fidelity, as the Congress were then sitting. He told me he had been at war for them nine years, had killed a great many of their enemies, and had only received a gun, two blankets, three pieces of Indian gartering, and one hundred dollars in paper money, which he could not make use of; and as I understood his language he desired me to render him service by interpreting for ————