In February, 1784, I entered into an engagement with a relation to return to Canada; and being furnished with a cargo, left London on the 15th of April following. On the 20th we got under weigh, and put into Portsmouth, to take in wines. After a bad and tedious passage of eleven weeks, we arrived safe at Quebec, from whence my goods were sent to Montreal in small craft. Unfortunately the season was too far advanced to suffer me to attempt going to Michillimakinac, and wintering in the inlands, as I had no prospect of providing suitable canoes; nor were my goods properly assorted, and there was not time sufficient to arrange them, so as to make the intended voyage. This induced me to consult a friend upon the occasion, who advised me to dispose of my goods at public vendue, which I did, at very great loss, so that I could only remit my friend in London a very small sum in part of payment. In this adventure nothing succeeded to my wishes, for by my credulity, and being willing 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,[110] 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.[111] 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 him to the governor. I desired him to call at my lodgings, and in the mean time I wrote down the circumstances he had related to me, that I might be prepared, in case I was sent for at a short notice.