CHAMPLAIN'S FIRST WINTER AND SPRING IN QUEBEC.

September bade the sail of Pontgrave

Godspeed, and smil'd upon the infant nation;

October deckt the shores and hills with “gay

Prognostics of approaching desolation.”

Ere long the forest, steep'd in golden gloom,

Dropt rustling down its shrivel'd festal dress,

And chill November, sombre as the tomb,

Sank on the vast primeval wilderness.

Inexorable winter's iron vice

Gript hard the land, funereal with snow;

The stream was fill'd with grinding drifts of ice;

A fell disease laid twenty Frenchmen low

In death, and left the dauntless leader eight

With whom to hold the New World's fortress gate.