The life, rude as it was, was not without its charms. Serre seems to have abandoned himself to its fascination without a regret. His descriptive letters to Badollet read like the "Idylls of a Faun." Those of Gallatin, though more tempered in tone, reveal quiet content with the simple life and a thorough enjoyment of nature in its original wildness. In the summer they followed the tracks of the moose and deer through the primitive forests, and explored the streams and lakes in the light birch canoe, with a woodsman or savage for their guide. In the winter they made long journeys over land and water on snowshoes or on skates, occasionally visiting the villages of the Indians, with whom the Lesderniers were on the best of terms, studying their habits and witnessing their feasts. Occasional expeditions of a different nature gave zest and excitement to this rustic life. These occurred when alarms of English invasion reached the settlement, and volunteers marched to the defence of the frontier. Twice Gallatin accompanied such parties to Passamaquoddy, and once, in November, 1780, was left for a time in command of a small earthwork and a temporary garrison of whites and Indians at that place. At Machias Gallatin made one acquaintance which greatly interested him, that of La Perouse, the famous navigator. He was then in command of the Amazone frigate, one of the French squadron on the American coast, and had in convoy a fleet of fishing vessels on their way to the Newfoundland banks. Gallatin had an intense fondness for geography, and was delighted with La Perouse's narrative of his visit to Hudson's Bay, and of his discovery there (at Fort Albany, which he captured) of the manuscript journal of Samuel Hearne, who some years before had made a voyage to the Arctic regions in search of a northwest passage. Gallatin and La Perouse met subsequently in Boston.