I MEET SIR HENRY CURTIS It is a curious thing that at my age--fifty-five last birthday--I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history.

I wonder what sort of a history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps.

At an age when other boys are at school I was earning my living as a trader in the old Colony.

I have been trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since.

And yet it is only eight months ago that I made my pile.