Henry More Smith: The Mysterious StrangerBates, Walter
History
Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger
Bates, Walter
Criminals -- Canada -- Biography; Smith, Henry More, active 1812-1836
Sometimes he would talk very freely, and in a prophetic strain, of his
future destiny. He said he knew he was going away from home, and that he
should find enemies; every one who knew him would be afraid of him, and
look upon him with distrust and horror. That occasionally he was
distressed in his sleep with all kinds of creatures coming about him.
Great hogs and all kinds of cattle and creeping things, snakes and
adders, frogs and toads, and every hateful thing. That he would start up
from sleep and walk about the prison; then lie down and get asleep, and
be annoyed with them again. That he would sit up and talk to his family,
and sometimes take his fiddle and play to amuse himself, and drive away
these dreary hours of night. He said these snakes and adders he could
read very well; that he knew what they all meant, and could understand
something concerning the others; but that these frogs and toads coming
together he could not understand; only that he knew he was to leave this
place and go on the water, and that he could see as clearly as he saw me
standing before him, that he should find enemies, and everybody would be
afraid of him; but he would hurt no one; that he should find trouble,
and have irons on him, but that they should come off again; that the
crickets came and would get upon his children and would sing among them;
that he liked to hear them; that his mother told him he must not hurt
them, they were harmless, and that he must not hurt anybody.
His mother, he continued to say, always gave him good advice; but he had
done that which he ought not to have done, and had suffered for it; but
he forgave all his enemies. The Lord says, if you would ask forgiveness
of Him, forgive thy brother also. We cannot expect forgiveness except we
repent and forgive our enemies. The word of God is plain; except you
forgive your brother his trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive you when you ask of him. All men are sinners before God; watch,
therefore, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. I watch here and
pray with my family night and day; they cannot pray for themselves. But
I shall not stay long; he could go to sea as supercargo of some vessel,
or he could get his living with his family as a show in any country but
England, and he had never seen such a show in England; that he had never
enjoyed himself better than with his family at present. He did not care
for himself so long as his family looked well; he would be willing to
die, and he should like to die here rather than go among his enemies;
but he believed he had one friend in England, old Willie, if he is yet
alive; he was always his friend, and he should like to go and see him.
And he had one sister, he said, in England, that he wanted to see; she
played well on the pianoforte, and he himself could play on it also. She
was married to a lieutenant in the army but he was promoted to be
captain now. If he could he would go to see her in England, where he had
friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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