CHAPTER XX.
REMOVAL TO CANADA.
In 1830, I closed my business in Rochester, preparatory to leaving for Canada.

Some of my friends thought I had better remain in the States and direct emigrants to Wilberforce; while others were certain I could benefit them more by going myself at once,--the latter I had determined to do; but as the time drew near for me to start, an unaccountable gloominess and forebodings of evil took possession of my mind.

Doubts of the practicability of the undertaking began to arise, though nothing unfavorable had occurred.

To the throne of grace, I often bore the subject and besought my Heavenly Father to enlighten my mind, and direct my steps in duty's path regarding it; but to confess the truth, I never received any great encouragement from that source, though it occupied my mind constantly.

During the hours of slumber I was continually being startled by frightful dreams,--sometimes I thought I saw a monstrous serpent as large as a log stretched across the road between Rochester and the Genesee River; at another I thought myself in the air so high that I could have a full view of the shores of Lake Ontario, and they were alive with snakes; and then I saw a large bird like an eagle, rise up out of the water and fly toward the south.
Notwithstanding these omens, I turned my steps toward Wilberforce.