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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40475 ***
+
+     TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+     A number of printer's errors have been corrected. However, most
+     spelling variants are left as printed, except where the likelihood
+     of an error seems strong; (e.g. emcamped/encamped, ryhme/rhyme).
+     Consult the Notes at the end of this text for specific corrections.
+
+     Schoolcraft renders Indian language in English characters using his
+     own conventions. Therefore, the printed spelling of these words has
+     been observed as printed, with only several exceptions, where it
+     seems very clear from adjacent spellings that there have been
+     printer's errors. The figure 8 is set horizontally to represent a
+     phonetic sound. In this text these characters are simulated by [oo]
+     and [OO] for lower- and upper-case. The 'oe' ligature is rendered
+     as [oe] in transliteration but simply 'oe' elsewhere ('æsofoedita',
+     'manoeuvre').
+
+     The text of pages 286 and 287 are printed in reverse order.
+     Although pagination is continuous, there is at least one page of
+     text missing before the text beginning on p. 288. At p. 300, the
+     text again ends abruptly, with a new section beginning on p. 301.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE INDIAN IN HIS WIGWAM,
+
+                                  OR
+
+                            CHARACTERISTICS
+
+                                OF THE
+
+                         RED RACE OF AMERICA
+
+                  FROM ORIGINAL NOTES AND MANUSCRIPTS.
+
+                       BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,
+
+    Memb. Royal Geographical Society of London, and of the Royal Society
+    of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen; Hon. Memb. of the Natural
+    History Society of Montreal, Canada East; Memb. of the American
+    Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; of the American Antiquarian
+    Society, Worcester; of the American Geological Society, New Haven;
+    Vice-President of the American Ethnological Society, New York; Hon.
+    Memb. of the New York Historical Society; Hon. Memb. of the
+    Historical Society of Georgia; President of the Michigan Historical
+    Society; and Hon. Memb. of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical
+    Society; Cor. Memb. of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and
+    of the Lyceums of Natural History of Troy and Hudson, N. Y.; Memb of
+    the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; of the Albany
+    Institute at the State Capitol, Albany, and a Res. Memb. of the
+    National Institute at Washington; President of the Algic Society for
+    meliorating the condition of the Native Race in the United States,
+    instituted in 1831; Hon. Memb. of the Goethean and of the Philo L.
+    Collegiate Societies of Pennsylvania, &c. &c.
+
+                              BUFFALO:
+                   DERBY & HEWSON, PUBLISHERS.
+                   AUBURN--DERBY, MILLER & CO.
+                               1848.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.
+
+
+It is now twenty-six years since I first entered the area of the
+Mississippi valley, with the view of exploring its then but imperfectly
+known features, geographical and geological. Twenty-two years of this
+period have elapsed since I entered on the duties of an Executive Agent
+for the United States Government in its higher northern latitudes among
+the Indian tribes in the west. Having devoted so large a portion of my
+life in an active sphere, in which the intervals of travel left me
+favourable opportunities of pursuing the languages and history of this
+branch of the race, it appears to be a just expectation, that, in
+sitting down to give some account of this people, there should be some
+preliminary remarks, to apprise the reader how and why it is, that his
+attention is recalled to a topic which he may have supposed to be well
+nigh exhausted. This it is proposed to do by some brief personal
+reminiscences, beginning at the time above alluded to.
+
+The year 1814 constituted a crisis, not only in our political history,
+but also in our commercial, manufacturing, and industrial interests. The
+treaty of Ghent, which put a period to the war with England, was a
+blessing to many individuals and classes in America: but, in its
+consequences, it had no small share of the effects of a curse upon that
+class of citizens who were engaged in certain branches of manufactures.
+It was a peculiarity of the crisis, that these persons had been
+stimulated by double motives, to invest their capital and skill in the
+perfecting and establishment of the manufactories referred to, by the
+actual wants of the country and the high prices of the foreign articles.
+No pains and no cost had been spared, by many of them, to supply this
+demand; and it was another result of the times, that no sooner had they
+got well established, and were in the high road of prosperity than the
+peace came and plunged them headlong from the pinnacle of success. This
+blow fell heavier upon some branches than others. It was most fatal to
+those manufacturers who had undertaken to produce fabrics of the highest
+order, or which belong to an advanced state of the manufacturing
+prosperity of a nation. Be this as it may, however, it fell with
+crushing force upon that branch in which I was engaged. As soon as the
+American ports were opened to these fabrics, the foreign makers who
+could undersell us, poured in cargo on cargo; and when the first demands
+had been met, these cargoes were ordered to be sold at auction; the
+prices immediately fell to the lowest point, and the men who had staked
+in one enterprise their zeal, skill and money, were ruined at a blow.
+
+Every man in such a crisis, must mentally recoil upon himself. Habits
+of application, reading, and an early desire to be useful, had sustained
+me at a prior period of life, through the dangers and fascinations of
+jovial company. There was in this habit or temper of room-seclusion, a
+pleasing resource of a conservative character, which had filled up the
+intervals of my busiest hours; and when business itself came to a stand,
+it had the effect to aid me in balancing and poising my mind, while I
+prepared to enter a wider field, and indeed, to change my whole plan of
+life. If it did not foster a spirit of right thought and
+self-dependence, it, at least, gave a degree of tranquillity to the
+intervals of a marked pause, and, perhaps, flattered the ability to act.
+
+Luckily I was still young, and with good animal spirits, and a sound
+constitution I resolved I would not go down so. The result of seven
+years of strenuous exertions, applied with persevering diligence and
+success, was cast to the winds, but it was seven years of a young man's
+life, and I thought it could be repaired by time and industry. What the
+east withheld, I hoped might be supplied by another quarter. I turned my
+thoughts to the west, and diligently read all I could find on the
+subject. The result of the war of 1812, (if this contest had brought no
+golden showers on American manufacturers, as I could honestly testify in
+my own case,) had opened to emigration and enterprise the great area
+west of the Alleghanies. The armies sent out to battle with Indian, and
+other foes, on the banks of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Detroit, the
+Raisin and the Miami of the Lakes, had opened to observation attractive
+scenes for settlement; and the sword was no sooner cast aside, than
+emigrants seized hold of the axe and the plough. This result was worth
+the cost of the whole contest, honour and glory included. The total
+prostration of the moneyed system of the country, the effects of
+city-lot and other land speculations, while the system was at its full
+flow, and the very backward seasons of 1816 and 1817, attended with late
+and early frosts, which extensively destroyed the corn crop in the
+Atlantic states, all lent their aid in turning attention towards the
+west and south-west, where seven new states have been peopled and
+organized, within the brief period to which these reminiscences apply:
+namely, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and
+Michigan, besides the flourishing territories of Wisconsin and Iowa, and
+the more slowly advancing territory of Florida. It appeared to me, that
+information, geographical and other, of such a wide and varied region,
+whose boundaries were but ill defined, must be interesting at such a
+period; and I was not without the hope that the means of my future
+advancement would be found in connexion with the share I might take in
+the exploration of it. With such views I resolved to go west. This
+feeling I find to be expressed on the back of an old slip of an account
+of the period:
+
+          "I will go by western fountain,
+            I will wander far and wide;
+          Till some sunny spot invite me,
+            Till some guardian bid me bide.
+
+          "Snow or tempest--plain the drearest
+            Shall oppose a feeble bar,
+          Since I go from friends the dearest,
+              'Tis no matter then how far.
+
+          "On!--'tis useless here to dally;
+            On!--I can but make or mar;
+          Since my fortune leads to sally,
+            'Tis no matter then how far."
+
+Of the "seven years" to which allusion has been made I had spent four in
+New England a land, which is endeared to me at this distance of time, by
+recollections of hospitality, virtue, and manly intelligence.
+
+While engaged in the direction of the business above named, I had
+prepared the notes and materials for my first publication, in which I
+aimed to demonstrate the importance of an acquaintance with Chemistry
+and Mineralogy in the preparation and fusion of numerous substances in
+the mineral kingdom, which result in the different conditions of the
+various glasses, enamels, &c. I had, from early youth, cultivated a
+taste for mineralogy, long indeed it may be said, before I knew that
+mineralogy was a science; and, as opportunities increased, had been led
+by my inquiries, (which I followed with ardour but with very slight
+helps,) to add to this some knowledge of elementary chemistry and
+experimental philosophy, and to supply myself, from Boston and New York,
+with books, apparatus, and tests. I do not know that there were any
+public lectures on mineralogy, &c. at this time, say from 1810 to '16;
+certainly, there were none within my reach. I gleaned from the best
+sources I could, and believe that the late Professor Frederick Hall was
+the only person to whom I was indebted even for occasional instructions
+in these departments. He was a man strongly devoted to some of the
+natural sciences, particularly mineralogy; and was erudite in the old
+authors on the subject, whom he liked to quote; and I may say that I
+continued to enjoy his confidence and friendship to the time of his
+death, which happened in 1843. From such sources, from the diligent
+reading of books, and from experiments, conducted with the advantage of
+having under my charge extensive works, at various times, in the states
+of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, I drew the principles which
+formed the basis of my treatise on Vitreology. With this work in hand, I
+left Keene, in New Hampshire, early in the winter of 1817; and, crossing
+the Connecticut river at Brattleboro', proceeded over the Green
+Mountains, by the route of Bennington, to Albany, and thence returned to
+my father's house in western New York. No time was lost in issuing
+proposals for the work; and I had the satisfaction to find that the
+portions published, and the entire plan and merits of it were warmly
+approved by the pen of the late Mr. Maynard of Utica, and by several
+liberal minded and intelligent persons. Before quitting New England, I
+had determined to go to the Mississippi valley, and had begun to study
+its geography; and I now resolved to proceed, without unnecessary delay.
+
+Means constitute the first object of solicitude in all such
+undertakings. The ebbing tide of manufacturing prosperity to which I
+have referred, had left me very poor. From the fragments of former
+acquisitions, for which, however, I was exclusively indebted to my own
+industry, I raised a small sum of money--much smaller I think than most
+men would be willing to start with, who had resolved to go so far. I
+had, in truth, but sixty dollars in the world; but I possessed a very
+good wardrobe, and some other personal means, such as it may be supposed
+will adhere to a man who has lived in abundance for many years. I put up
+a miniature collection of mineralogical specimens, to serve as a
+standard of comparison in the west, a few implements for analysis, some
+books which I thought it would be difficult to meet with in that region,
+and some drawing materials. I had connected these things in some way
+with my future success. In other respects, I had the means, as above
+hinted, of making a respectable appearance. Thus prepared, I bade adieu
+to my father and mother, and also to three sisters and a brother, all
+younger than myself, and set forward. The winter of 1818 had opened
+before I reached my brother's house at Geneva, in western New York. From
+this point I determined to leave the main track, through the Genessee
+county west, and to strike the head waters of the Alleghany river, so as
+to descend that stream with the spring flood.
+
+My brother drove me in his own sleigh, as far as Angelica. By the time
+we reached that place, being no traveller and much fatigued with the
+intricacies and roughness of the road, he was fain to give over his
+undertaking, and I parted from him, sending back the sleigh from Olean,
+to take him home.
+
+The Alleghany river was locked with ice when I reached it. I had an
+opportunity to cross it on foot, and to examine in the vicinity those
+evidences of the coal formation which are found in masses of bituminous
+shale, slaty coal and petroleum. The river began to open about the
+middle of March. I left Olean in the first ark for the season, borne
+onwards down the sweeping Alleghany at the top of the flood, often
+through winding channels, and once in danger of being precipitated over
+a mill dam, by taking the wrong channel.
+
+On another occasion, just as we were coming to the division of the
+channel, at the head of a group of islands, a tall Seneca Indian,
+standing in the bow of a very long pine canoe, cried out, in a tone of
+peculiar emphasis, "Keep to the right--I speak it." This direction we
+followed, and were saved from another mishap. We tied the ark to the
+shore at night, built a fire on the bank and cooked a supper. On
+passing the Conowonga, it was at the height of its flood, and appeared
+to bring in as much water as the Alleghany. We stopped at the noted
+chief Cornplanter's village, and also to gratify a reminiscent
+curiosity, at the mouth of French Creek, connected with Washington's
+perilous adventure in visiting Fort de Boef, now Erie. At Kittaning, a
+great scow ferry boat was rowed and managed by two women or girls with a
+degree of muscular exertion, or rather ease, which would put to the
+blush many a man east or west of the Alleghanies. The tone, air, and
+masculine strength of these girl-boatmen, reminded me of nothing this
+side of Rollin's description of the Amazons--save that the same
+provision was not apparent for drawing the bow. Bold hills line both
+banks of the river along its upper parts, and continue, indeed, at
+farther intervals apart, to very near the junction of the Monongahela;
+but long before this point, the stream is one of noble dimensions,
+clear, broad, and strong. After a voyage of exciting and vivid interest,
+I reached and landed at Pittsburgh.
+
+
+NO. II.
+
+It is Dr. Johnson, I think, who says, that we take slight occasions to
+be pleased. At least, I found it so, on the present occasion; the day of
+my arrival was my birth day, and it required but little stretch of
+imagination to convert the scene upon which I had now entered, into a
+new world. It was new to me.--I was now fairly in the great geological
+valley of the west, the object of so many anticipations.
+
+The ark, in which I had descended the Allegany, put ashore near the
+point of land, which is formed by the junction of the Monongahela with
+this fine clear stream. The dark and slowly moving waters of the one,
+contrasted strongly with the sparkling velocity of the other. I felt a
+buoyancy of spirits as I leapt ashore, and picked up some of its clean
+pebbles to see what kind of geological testimony they bore to the actual
+character of their parent beds in the Apalachian range.
+
+"What shall I pay you, for my passage, from Olean," said I, to the
+gentleman with whom I had descended, and at whose ark-table I had found
+a ready seat with his family. "Nothing, my dear sir," he replied with a
+prompt and friendly air,--"Your cheerful aid in the way, taking the oars
+whenever the case required it, has more than compensated for any claims
+on that score, and I only regret that you are not going further with
+us."
+
+Committing my baggage to a carman, I ascended the bank of diluvial earth
+and pebbles with all eagerness, and walked to the point of land where
+Fort Pitt (old Fort Du Quesne) had stood. It is near this point that the
+Alleghany and Monongahela unite, and give birth to the noble Ohio. It is
+something to stand at the head of such a stream. The charm of novelty is
+beyond all others. I could realize, in thought, as I stood here, gazing
+on the magnificent prospect of mingling waters, and their prominent and
+varied shores, the idea, which is said to be embodied in the old Mingo
+substantive-exclamation of O-he-o! a term, be it remembered, which the
+early French interpreters at once rendered, and truly, it is believed,
+by the name of _La Belle Rivière_.
+
+So far, I said to myself, all is well,--I am now west of the great
+spinal chain. All that I know of America is now fairly _east_ of
+me--bright streams, warm hearts and all. I have fairly cast myself
+loose on the wide waters of the west. I have already come as many
+hundred miles, as there are days in the week, but I begin my travels
+here. I have, as it were, taken my life in my hand. Father and mother, I
+may never see more. God wot the result. I go to seek and fulfil an
+unknown destiny. Come weal or woe, I shall abide the result. All the
+streams run south, and I have laid in, with "time and chance" for a
+journey with them. I am but as a chip on their surface--nothing more!
+Whether my bones are to rest in this great valley, or west of the
+Cordilleras, or the Rocky Mountains, I know not. I shall often think of
+the silver Iosco, the farther I go from it. To use a native metaphor, My
+foot is on the path, and the word, is onward! "The spider taketh hold
+with her hands," Solomon says, "and is in king's palaces." Truly, a man
+should accomplish, by diligence, as much as a spider.
+
+Pittsburgh was, even then, a busy manufacturing town, filled with
+working machinery, steam engines, hammers, furnaces, and coal smoke. I
+visited Mr. O'Hara, and several other leading manufacturers. They made
+glass, bar iron, nails, coarse pottery, castings, and many other
+articles, which filled its shops and warehouses, and gave it a city-like
+appearance. Every chimney and pipe, perpendicular or lateral, puffed out
+sooty coal smoke, and it required some dexterity to keep a clean collar
+half a day. I met ladies who bore this _impress_ of the city, on their
+morning toilet. I took lodgings at Mrs. McCullough's, a respectable
+hotel on Wood street, and visited the various manufactories, for which
+the place was then, and is now celebrated. In these visits, I collected
+accurate data of the cost of raw material, the place where obtained, the
+expense of manufacture, and the price of the finished fabric. I had thus
+a body of facts, which enabled me, at least to converse understandingly
+on these topics, to give my friends in the east, suitable data, and to
+compare the advantages of manufacturing here with those possessed by the
+eastern and middle states. Every thing was, in the business prospects of
+the west, however, at a comparatively low ebb. The prostrating effects
+of the war, and of the _peace_, were alike felt. We had conquered
+England, in a second contest, but were well exhausted with the effort.
+The country had not recovered from the sacrifices and losses of a series
+of military operations, which fell most heavily on its western
+population. Its agricultural industry had been crippled. Its financial
+affairs were deranged. Its local banks were broken; its manufactories
+were absolutely ruined. There was little confidence in business, and
+never was credit, public and private, at a lower ebb. There was however,
+one thing, in which the west held out a shining prospect. It had
+abundance of the finest lands in the world, and in fact, it promised a
+happy home to the agricultural industry of half the world. It was
+literally the land of promise, to the rest of the union, if not to
+Europe.
+
+Having seen whatever I wished in Pittsburgh, I hired a horse and
+crossing the Monongahela, went up its southern banks, as high as
+Williamsport. I found the country people were in the habit of calling
+the city "Pitt" or "Fort Pitt," a term dating back doubtless to the time
+of the surrender, or rather taking possession of Fort Du Quesne, by Gen.
+Forbes. Mineral coal (bituminous) characterizes the entire region, as
+far as my excursion reached. By a happy coincidence in its geological
+structure, iron ores are contained in the series of the coal deposits.
+On returning from this trip, night set in, very dark: on the evening I
+approached the summit of the valley of the Monongahela, called Coal
+Hill. The long and winding road down this steep was one mass of moving
+mud, only varied in its consistence, by sloughs, sufficient to mire both
+man and horse. I was compelled to let the animal choose his own path,
+and could only give him aid, when the flashes of lightning lit up the
+scene with a momentary brilliance, which, however, had often no other
+effect but to remind me of my danger. He brought me, at length, safely
+to the brink of the river, and across the ferry.
+
+To be at the head of the Ohio river, and in the great manufacturing city
+of the West, was an exciting thought, in itself. I had regarded
+Pittsburgh as the alpha, in my route, and after I had made myself
+familiar with its characteristics, and finding nothing to invite my
+further attention, I prepared to go onward. For this purpose, I went
+down to the banks of the Monongahela, one day, where the arks of that
+stream usually touch, to look for a passage. I met on the beach, a young
+man from Massachusetts, a Mr. Brigham,--who had come on the same errand,
+and being pleased with each other, we engaged a passage together, and
+getting our baggage aboard immediately, set off the same evening. To
+float in an ark, down one of the loveliest rivers in the world, was, at
+least, a novelty, and as all novelty gives pleasure, we went on
+charmingly. There were some ten or a dozen passengers, including two
+married couples. We promenaded the decks, and scanned the ever changing
+scenery, at every bend, with unalloyed delight. At night we lay down
+across the boat, with our feet towards the fire-place, in a line, with
+very little diminution of the wardrobe we carried by day,--the married
+folks, like light infantry in an army, occupying the flanks of our
+nocturnal array. The only objection I found to the night's rest, arose
+from the obligation, each one was tacitly under, to repair on deck, at
+the hollow night-cry of "oars!" from the steersman. This was a cry which
+was seldom uttered, however, except when we were in danger of being
+shoved, by the current, on the head of some island, or against some
+frowning "snag," so that we had a mutual interest in being punctual at
+this cry. By it, sleep was to be enjoyed only in sections, sometimes
+provokingly short, and our dreams of golden vallies, studded with pearls
+and gems, were oddly jumbled with the actual presence of plain matter of
+fact things, such as running across a tier of "old monongahela" or
+getting one's fingers trod on, in scrambling on deck. We took our meals
+on our laps, sitting around on boxes and barrels, and made amends for
+the want of style or elegance, by cordial good feeling and a practical
+exhibition of the best principles of "association." There was another
+pleasing peculiarity in this mode of floating. Two or more arks were
+frequently lashed together, by order of their commanders, whereby our
+conversational circle was increased, and it was not a rare circumstance
+to find both singers and musicians, in the moving communities for "the
+west," so that those who were inclined to, might literally dance as they
+went. This was certainly a social mode of conquering the wilderness, and
+gives some idea of the bouyancy of American character. How different
+from the sensations felt, in floating down the same stream, by the same
+means, in the era of Boon,--the gloomy era of 1777, when instead of
+violin, or flageolet, the crack of the Indian rifle was the only sound
+to be anticipated at every new bend of the channel.
+
+Off Wheeling the commander of our ark made fast to a larger one from the
+Monongahela, which, among other acquaintances it brought, introduced me
+to the late Dr. Sellman of Cincinnatti, who had been a surgeon in
+Wayne's army. This opened a vista of reminiscences, which were wholly
+new to me, and served to impart historical interest to the scene. Some
+dozen miles below this town, we landed at the Grave Creek Flats, for the
+purpose of looking at the large mound, at that place. I did not then
+know that it was the largest artificial structure of this kind in the
+western country. It was covered with forest trees of the native growth,
+some of which were several feet in diameter, and it had indeed,
+essentially the same look and character, which I found it to present,
+twenty-five years afterwards, when I made a special visit to this
+remarkable mausoleum to verify the character of some of its antiquarian
+contents. On ascending the flat summit of the mound, I found a charming
+prospect around. The summit was just 50 feet across. There was a
+cup-shaped concavity, in its centre, exciting the idea that there had
+been some internal sub-structure which had given way, and caused the
+earth to cave in. This idea, after having been entertained for more than
+half a century, was finally verified in 1838, when Mr. Abelard
+Tomlinson, a grandson of the first proprietor, caused it to be opened.
+They discovered two remarkable vaults, built partly of stone, and partly
+of logs, as was judged from the impressions in the earth. They were
+situated about seventeen feet apart, one above the other. Both contained
+bones, the remains of human skeletons, along with copper bracelets,
+plates of mica, sea shells, heads of wrought conch, called "ivory" by
+the multitude, and some other relics, most of which were analogous to
+articles of the same kind occurring, in other ancient mounds in the
+west. The occasion would not indeed have justified the high expectations
+which had been formed, had it not been for the discovery, in one of the
+vaults, of a small flat stone of an oval form, containing an
+inscription in ancient characters. This inscription, which promises to
+throw new light on the early history of America, has not been
+decyphered. Copies of it have been sent abroad. It is thought, by the
+learned at Copenhagen, to be Celtiberic. It is not, in their view,
+Runic. It has, apparently, but one hieroglyphic, or symbolic figure.
+
+A good deal of historical interest clusters about this discovery of the
+inscribed stone. Tomlinson, the grandfather, settled on these flats in
+1772, two years before the murder of Logan's family. Large trees, as
+large as any in the forest, then covered the flats and the mound. There
+stood in the depression I have mentioned, in the top of the mound, a
+large beech tree, which had been visited earlier, as was shewn by
+several names and dates cut on the bark. Among these, there was one of
+the date of A. D. 1734. This I have seen stated under Mr. Tomlinson's
+own hand. The place continued to be much visited from 1770 to 1790, as
+was shewn by newer names and dates, and indeed, continues to be so
+still. There was standing at the time of my first visit in 1818, on the
+very summit of the mound, a large dead or decayed white oak, which was
+cut down, it appears, about ten years afterwards. On counting its
+cortical layers, it was ascertained to be about 500 years old. This
+would denote the desertion of the mound to have happened about the
+commencement of the 13th century. Granting to this, what appears quite
+clear, that the inscription is of European origin, have we not evidence,
+in this fact, of the continent's having been visited prior to the era of
+Columbus? Visited by whom? By a people, or individuals, it may be said,
+who had the use of an antique alphabet, which was much employed,
+(although corrupted, varied and complicated by its spread) among the
+native priesthood of the western shores and islands of the European
+continent, prior to the introduction of the Roman alphabet.
+
+The next object of antiquarian interest, in my descent, was at
+Gallipolis--the site of an original French settlement on the west bank,
+which is connected with a story of much interest, in the history of
+western migrations. It is an elevated and eligible plain, which had
+before been the site of an Indian, or aboriginal settlement. Some of the
+articles found in a mound, such as plates of mica and sea shells, and
+beads of the wrought conch, indicated the same remote period for this
+ancient settlement, as the one at Grave Creek Flats; but I never heard
+of any inscribed articles, or monuments bearing alphabetic characters.
+
+All other interest, then known, on this subject, yielded to that which
+was felt in witnessing the antique works at Marietta. Like many others
+who had preceded me and many who have followed me, in my visit, I felt
+while walking over these semi-military ruins, a strong wish to know, who
+had erected works so different from those of the present race of
+Indians, and during what phasis of the early history of the continent? A
+covered way had, evidently, been constructed, from the margin of the
+Muskingum to the elevated square, evincing more than the ordinary degree
+of military skill exercised by the Western Indians. Yet these works
+revealed one trait, which assimilates them, in character, with others,
+of kindred stamp, in the west. I allude to the defence of the open
+gate-way, by a minor mound; clearly denoting that the passage was to be
+disputed by men, fighting hand to hand, who merely sought an advantage
+in exercising manual strength, by elevation of position. The Marietta
+tumuli also, agree in style with others in the Ohio valley.
+
+A leaden plate was found near this place, a few years after this visit,
+of which an account was given by Gov. Clinton, in a letter to the
+American Antiquarian Society, in 1827, but the inscription upon it,
+which was in Latin, but mutilated, proved that it related to the period
+of the French supremacy in the Canadas. It appeared to have been
+originally deposited at the mouth of the river Venango, A. D. 1749,
+during the reign of Louis XV.
+
+While at Marietta, our flotilla was increased by another ark from the
+Muskingum, which brought to my acquaintance the Hon. Jesse B. Thomas, of
+Illinois, to whose civilities I was afterwards indebted, on several
+occasions. Thus reinforced, we proceeded on, delighted with the scenery
+of every new turn in the river, and augmenting our circle of fellow
+travellers, and table acquaintance, if that can be called a table
+acquaintance which assembles around a rustic board. One night an
+accident befel us, which threatened the entire loss of one of our
+flotilla. It so happened, at the spot of our landing, that the smaller
+ark, being outside, was pressed by the larger ones, so far ashore, as to
+tilt the opposite side into the stream below the caulked seam. It would
+have sunk, in a few minutes, but was held up, partly by its fastening to
+the other boats. To add to the interest felt, it was filled with
+valuable machinery. A congress of the whole travelling community
+assembled on shore, some pitching pebble-stones, and some taking a
+deeper interest in the fate of the boat. One or two unsuccessful efforts
+had been made to bail it out, but the water flowed in faster than it
+could be removed. To cut loose the rope and abandon it, seemed all that
+remained. "I feel satisfied," said I, to my Massachusetts friend, "that
+two men, bailing with might and main, _can_ throw out more water, in a
+given time, than is let in by those seams; and if you will step in with
+me, we will test it, by trying again." With a full assent and ready good
+will he met this proposition. We pulled off our coats, and each taking a
+pail, stepped in the water, then half-leg deep in the ark, and began to
+bail away, with all force. By dint of determination we soon had the
+satisfaction to see the water line lower, and catching new spirit at
+this, we finally succeeded in sinking its level below the caulked seam.
+The point was won. Others now stepped in to our relief. The ark and its
+machinery were saved. This little incident was one of those which served
+to produce pleasurable sensations, all round, and led perhaps, to some
+civilities at a subsequent date, which were valuable to me. At any rate,
+Mr. Thomas, who owned the ark, was so well pleased, that he ordered a
+warm breakfast of toast, chickens, and coffee on shore for the whole
+party. This was a welcome substitute for our ordinary breakfast of bacon
+and tea on board. Such little incidents serve as new points of
+encouragement to travellers: the very shores of the river looked more
+delightful, after we put out, and went on our way that morning. So much
+has a satisfied appetite to do with the aspect of things, both without,
+as well as within doors.
+
+The month of April had now fairly opened. The season was delightful.
+Every rural sound was joyful--every sight novel, and a thousand
+circumstances united to make the voyage one of deep and unmixed
+interest. At this early season nothing in the vegetable kingdom gives a
+more striking and pleasing character to the forest, than the frequent
+occurrence of the celtis ohioensis, or Red Bud. It presents a perfect
+bouquet of red, or rose-coloured petals, while there is not a leaf
+exfoliated upon its branches, or in the entire forest.
+
+No incident, further threatening the well being of our party, occurred
+on the descent to Cincinnatti, where we landed in safety. But long
+before we reached this city, its _outliers_, to use a geological phrase,
+were encountered, in long lines and rafts of boards and pine timber,
+from the sources of the Alleghany, and arks and flat-boats, from all
+imaginable places, with all imaginable names, north of its latitude.
+Next, steamboats lying along the gravel or clay banks, then a steam-mill
+or two, puffing up its expended strength to the clouds, and finally, the
+dense mass of brick and wooden buildings, jutting down in rectangular
+streets--from high and exceedingly beautiful and commanding hills in the
+rear. All was suited to realize high expectations. Here was a city
+indeed, on the very spot from which St. Clair set out, on his ill-fated
+expedition in 1791, against the hostile Indians. Twenty-five years had
+served to transform the wilderness into scenes of cultivation and
+elegance, realizing, with no faint outlines, the gay creations of
+eastern fable.
+
+
+NO. III.
+
+Cincinnati had, at this time, (1818,) the appearance of a rapidly
+growing city, which appeared to have, from some general causes, been
+suddenly checked in its growth. Whole rows of unfinished brick buildings
+had been left by the workmen. Banks, and the offices of corporate and
+manufacturing companies, were not unfrequently found shut. Nor did it
+require long looking or much inquiry to learn that it had seen more
+prosperous times. A branch bank of the U. S. then recently established
+there, was much and bitterly, but I know not how justly, spoken against.
+But if there was not the same life and air in all departments, that
+formerly existed, there was abundant evidence of the existence of
+resources in the city and country, which must revive and push it onward
+in its career and growth, to rank second to no city west of the
+Alleghanies. This city owes its origin, I believe, to John Cleves Symes,
+father-in-law of the late President Harrison, a Jerseyman by birth, who,
+in planning it, took Philadelphia as his model. This has imparted a
+regularity to its streets, and squares, that visitors will at once
+recognize, as characteristic of its parentage. It stands on a heavy
+diluvial formation of various layers of clay, loam, sand, and gravel,
+disposed in two great plateaux, or first and second banks, the lowest of
+which is some thirty or forty feet above the common summer level of the
+Ohio. Yet this river has sometimes, but rarely, been known to surmount
+this barrier and invade the lowermost streets of the city. These
+diluvial beds have yielded some curious antiquarian relics, which lead
+the mind farther back, for their origin, than the Indian race. The most
+curious of these, if the facts are correctly reported to me, was the
+discovery of a small antique-shaped iron horse-shoe, found twenty-five
+feet below the surface in grading one of the streets, and the blunt end,
+or stump of a tree, at another locality, at the depth of ninety-four
+feet, together with marks of the cut of an axe, and an iron wedge. I
+have had no means to verify these facts, but state them as credible,
+from the corroborative testimony afforded them by other discoveries in
+the great geological basin of the west, examined by me, which denote
+human occupancy in America prior to the deposition of the last of the
+unconsolidated and eocene series.
+
+Our flotilla here broke up, and the persons who had formed its floating
+community separated, each to pursue his several way, and separate views.
+I made several acquaintances, whose names are recollected with pleasure.
+Dr. S. invited me to dine with him, introduced me to his young partner,
+Dr. Moorhead, and put me in the way of obtaining eligible private
+lodgings. The three weeks I spent in this city were agreeably passed,
+varied as they were, by short excursions in the vicinity, including the
+Licking valley--a stream which comes in, on the Kentucky side, directly
+opposite the city. I went, one day, to see an experimental structure,
+built at the foot of the Walnut hills, with a very long pipe, or wooden
+chamber leading up their sides, and rising above their tops. This was
+constructed by an ingenious person, at the expense of the late Gen.
+Lyttle, under the confident hope of his realizing a practical mechanical
+power from the _rarifaction of atmospheric air_. There was confessedly
+_a power_, but the difficulty was in multiplying this power, so as to
+render it practically applicable to the turning of machinery. The ratio
+of its increase, contended for, namely, the length of the pipe, appeared
+to me to be wholly fallacious, and the result proved it so. The thing
+was afterwards abandoned. There was an ancient mound here, which had not
+then been opened, but which has since yielded a curious ornamented
+stone, bearing a kind of arabesque figures, not dissimilar, in the style
+of drawing, to some of the rude sculptured figures of Yucatan, as
+recently brought to light by Mr. Stephens and Mr. Catherwood.
+
+I received, one day, a note from one of the directors of the White Lead
+Works, above the city, requesting me to visit it, and inspect in detail
+the processes of the manufacture. The latter I found to be defective in
+the mode of corroding the lead by the acetic acid; there was also an
+unnecessary complication and amount of machinery in bringing the oxide
+into the condition of a good pigment, and putting it into kegs, which
+had been very onerous in its cost, and was perpetually liable to get out
+of order.
+
+It was during my stay here that I first felt the effects of the western
+limestone waters in deranging the stomach and bowels, and paid for my
+initiation into the habit, as all strangers must, by some days
+confinement. Dr. M. brought me about, and checked the disease, without
+any permanently injurious effects on my general health.
+
+When I was ready to proceed down the river, I went to seek a passage
+along the landing, but found no boat (steamboats were few and far
+between in those days.) While pacing the beach, I met a man of
+gentlemanly appearance, who had experienced the same disappointment, and
+was desirous to go forward in his journey. He told me, that he had found
+a small row boat, well built, and fitted with seats, which could be
+purchased for a reasonable sum; that it would hold our baggage very
+well, and he thought we could make a pleasant trip in it as far as
+Louisville at the Falls, where the means of communication by steamboats
+were ample. On examining the boat, and a little inquiry, I acceded to
+this proposition, and I had no cause to regret it. This gentleman,
+whose name I have forgotten, but which is somewhere among my papers, was
+a native of the city of Nancy, but a resident of Baltimore. He was, like
+the city itself I believe, Franco-German, speaking the two languages
+very well, and the English with peculiarities. He had a benevolent and
+honest countenance and social, agreeable manners, not two free, nor
+stiffly reserved; and we performed the trip without accident, although
+we had a narrow escape one day from a sawyer, one of that insidious cast
+of these river pests, called in western parlance, a sleeping sawyer. It
+was now the month of May; the atmosphere was mild and balmy, loaded with
+the perfumes of opening vegetation; we took the oars and the helm
+alternately; we had a constant succession of pretty views; we put ashore
+to eat and to sleep, and the whole trip, which occupied some three or
+four days at the farthest, was perfectly delightful.
+
+We put ashore at Vevay, where the Swiss had then newly introduced the
+cultivation of the vine, to see the vineyards and the mode of
+cultivation. I have since witnessed this culture on the banks of the
+Rhine, and found it to be very similar. The vines are closely pruned and
+kept from becoming woody, and are trained to slender sticks, which, are
+arranged with the order of a garden bean-bed, which at the proper
+season, they much resemble. We also tasted the wine, and found it poor.
+
+On the last day of the voyage, we took into our boat a young
+physician--a Hollander, recently arrived in the country, telling him,
+that by way of equivalent, we should expect him to take his turn at the
+oars. He was a man of small stature--well formed, rather slovenly, yet
+pretty well dressed, with blue eyes, a florid face, and very voluble. Of
+all that he said, however, by far the most striking part, was his
+account of his skill in curing cancer. It was clear that he was an
+itinerating cancer-doctor. He said, amid other things, that he had
+received an invitation to go and cure the Governor of Indiana. We now
+had Indiana on our right hand, and Kentucky on our left.
+
+These are the principal incidents of the trip. We reached our
+destination in safety, and landed on the superb natural sylvan wall, or
+park, which is formed by the entrance of Beargrass Creek with the Ohio,
+just in front of, or a little above, Louisville. Here we sold our boat,
+took separate lodgings, and parted. I found in a day or two, that my
+friend from Nancy had a flourishing school for military tactics and the
+sword exercise, where, at his invitation, I went to visit him. From this
+man, I learned, as we descended the Ohio, that the _right_ and _left_
+banks of a river, in military science, are determined by the supposed
+position of a man standing at its head, and looking _downwards_.
+
+I found in the lime-stone rocks which form the bed of the river between
+the town and Corn Island, the cornu ammonis and some other species of
+organic remains; and while I remained here, which was several weeks, I
+wrote a notice for one of the papers, of a locality of manganese on
+Sandy river, Ky., and others of some other objects of natural history in
+the west, which I perceived, by their being copied at the eastward, were
+well taken. It was my theory, that there was a general interest felt in
+the Atlantic States for information from the west, and this slight
+incident served to encourage me.
+
+The steamboat canal since constructed around the falls at this place,
+was then a project only spoken of, and is here alluded to for no higher
+purpose than to mention, that in its actual subsequent execution, we are
+informed the workmen came, at the depth of fourteen feet below the
+surface of the _calcareous rock_, to a brick hearth, covered with what
+appeared to be the remains of charcoal and ashes.
+
+I took walks almost daily, on the fine promenade, shaded with lofty
+trees, festooned with their native vines, along the Beargrass Creek,
+which is the common place of landing for arks and boats. On one of these
+occasions, there came in a large ark, which had been freighted at
+Perryopolis, on the Yioughagany, some thirty miles from Pittsburgh. The
+two proprietors were K. and K., Marylanders, both young men, or verging
+to middle life, who had clubbed together the necessary funds, and in the
+spirit of adventure, resolved on a trading voyage. There was something
+in the air and manners of both, which I thought I could trust in for an
+agreeable voyage, especially as they saw in me, not a rival in commerce
+of any kind, but a mere observer,--a character which I found, on more
+than one occasion, placed me on grounds of neutrality and advantage.
+Steamboats are the worst vehicles ever invented by the ingenuity of man
+to make observations on a country, always excepting the last improvement
+on locomotive rail-roads. To a naturalist, especially, they are really
+horrible. Not a tree or plant can be examined; not a shell, or a rock
+certainly identified. Hundreds of miles are passed in a few hours; the
+effect of speed is to annihilate space; town succeeds town, and object
+object, with such rapidity, that there is no distinct time left for
+observation or reflection; and after the voyager has reached his point
+of destination, he is often seriously in doubt, what he has seen, and
+what he has not seen, and is as much puzzled to put together the exact
+feature of the country's geography, as if he were called to re-adjust
+the broken incidents of a night's dream. I had yet another objection to
+this class of boats, at the era mentioned. Their boilers and machinery
+were not constructed with elaborate skill and strength; their commanders
+were often intemperate, and a spirit of reckless rivalry existed, whose
+results were not infrequently exhibited in exploded, sunk, or grounded
+boats, and the loss of lives.
+
+It is a regulation of law that pilots are provided for all boats,
+descending the falls--a descent, by the way, which can only be made on
+the Indiana side. When this officer came on board, the owners thought
+best to go by land to Shippingport. I had less at stake in its safety
+than they, yet felt a desire to witness this novel mode of descent; nor
+did the result disappoint me. Standing on the deck, or rather flat roof
+of the ark, the view was interesting and exciting. The first point at
+which the mass of water breaks was the principal point of danger, as
+there is here a powerful reflux, or eddy current, on the right hand,
+while the main velocity of the current drives the vessel in a direction
+which, if not checked by the large sweeps, would inevitably swamp it.
+The object is to give this check, and shoot her into the eddy water.
+This was done. The excitement ceased in a few moments, and we passed the
+rest of the way with less exertion to the men, and got down the
+remainder of the falls in perfect safety. All this danger to the growing
+commerce of the west, is now remedied by the Louisville canal, which, by
+a work of but two miles in length, which holds the relative position of
+a string to the bow, connects the navigable waters above and below those
+falls, and permits all river craft of the largest burden to pass.
+
+It was about the falls of the Ohio, or a little above, that I first saw
+the gay and noisy paroquet, or little parrot of the west; a gregarious
+bird, whose showy green and yellow plumage makes it quite an object to
+be noticed and remembered in a passage on the lower Ohio. One of these
+birds, which had been wounded, was picked up out of the river, a few
+miles below the falls. It was evident, from the occurrence of this
+species, and other features in the natural history of the country, that
+we were now making a rapid southing. The red-bud, the papaw, the
+buckeye, and the cucumber tree, had all introduced themselves to notice,
+among the forest species, below Pittsburgh; although they are all, I
+think, actually known to extend a little north of that latitude; and we
+now soon had added to the catalogue, the pecan and cypress, and the
+cane, with the constant attendant of the latter, the green briar. I had
+no opportunity to examine the pecan, until we reached the mouth of the
+Wabash and Shawneetown, where I went on a shooting excursion with a
+young Kentuckian, who gave me the first practical exhibition of bringing
+down single pigeons and other small game with the rifle, by generally
+striking the head or neck only. I had heard of this kind of shooting
+before, and witnessed some capital still shots, but here was a
+demonstration of it, in brush and brier--catching a sight as best one
+could. The ball used on these occasions was about the size of a large
+buckshot.
+
+Shawneetown is a word which brings to mind one of the North American
+tribes, who, between 1632 and the present time, figure as one of the
+frontier actors in our history. They have, in this time, with the
+ubiquity of one of their own genii, skipped over half America. They were
+once, certainly dwellers on the Savannah, if not, at a still earlier
+day, on the Suanee, in Florida; then fled north, a part coming down the
+Kentucky river, and a part fleeing to the Delaware, and thence west.
+They are now on the Konga, west of the Missouri. So much for the
+association of names. History never remembers any thing which she can
+possibly forget, and I found at least, one high-feeling personage here,
+who did not like the manner in which I associated the modern town with
+reminiscences of the savages. "Why, sir," said he, as we walked the deck
+of the ark, floating down the Ohio, and getting nearer the place every
+moment, "we have a bank there, and a court house; it is the seat of
+justice for Gallatin county;--and a printing press is about to be
+established;--it is a very thriving place, and it bids fair to remain
+second to none below the Wabash." "All this, truly," I responded,
+willing to reprove pride in an easy way, "is a great improvement on the
+wigwam and the council-fire, and wampum coin-beads." It is sometimes
+better to smile than argue, and I found it so on the present occasion. I
+did not wish to tread on the toes of rising greatness, or pour upon a
+love of home and locality, honorable and praise-worthy in my fellow
+traveller, the chilling influence of cold historical facts. My allusions
+were the mere effect of the association of ideas, resulting from names.
+If the residents of Shawneetown do not like to be associated with the
+native race, who would not have exchanged a good bow and arrows for all
+the court houses in Christendom, they should bestow upon the place some
+epithet which may sever the tie.
+
+
+LANGUAGES OF MEXICO.
+
+Humboldt observes that there are twenty languages in Mexico and New
+Spain, of which fourteen have grammars and dictionaries tolerably
+complete. The latter are----
+
+                1. Mexican, or Aztec.
+                2. Otomite.
+                3. Tarasc.
+                4. Zapotec.
+                5. Mistec.
+                6. Mia, or Yucatan.
+                7. Zotonac.
+                8. Popolouc.
+                9. Matlazing
+               10. Huastec.
+               11. Mixed.
+               12. Caquiquel.
+               13. Tarauma.
+               14. Tepehuan.
+               15. Cora.
+
+The languages of New Zealand, Tonga and Malay, have no declension of
+nouns, nor conjugation of verbs. The purposes of declension are answered
+by particles and prepositions. The distinctions of person, tense, and
+mode, are expressed by adverbs, pronouns, and other parts of speech.
+This rigidity of the verb and noun is absolute under every order of
+arrangement, in which the words can be placed, and their meaning is not
+helped out, by either prefixes or suffixes, as it is in the dialects of
+the Algonquin and other North American languages.
+
+
+NO. IV.
+
+After stopping a day or more at Shawneetown, and reconnoitering its
+vicinity, I proceeded to the mouth of the Cumberland, and from thence,
+after many days detention at that point waiting for a boat, to the mouth
+of the Ohio. I found this to be a highly interesting section of the
+river, from its great expanse and its fine water prospects. The
+picturesque calcareous cliffs on the west banks, display a novel and
+attractive line of river scenery. The Ohio had, from its commencement,
+well sustained the propriety of its ancient appellation of the Beautiful
+River; but it here assumed something more than beautiful--it was
+majestic. Let it be borne in mind that this stream, in the course of
+some seven or eight hundred miles flow from Pittsburg to Shawneetown,
+had been swelled on the right and left hand by the Scioto, the
+Muskingum, the Kentucky, the Miami, Green River, Wabash, and other
+rivers of scarcely inferior size. It is still further augmented, from
+the left bank, with those noble tributaries, the Cumberland and
+Tennessee, which bring in the gathered drain of the middle ranges of the
+Alleghanies. It is below Shawneetown, too, that the cliffs of the
+Cave-in-Rock-Coast present themselves on the west shore--with their
+associations of the early robber-era which has been commemorated by the
+pen of fiction of Charles Brockden Brown. These cliffs are cavernous,
+and assume varied forms. They rise in bold elevations, which bear the
+general name of the Knobs, but which are well worthy of the name of
+mountains. Distinct from the interest they have by casting their
+castle-like shadows, at sunset, in the pure broad stream, they
+constitute a kind of Derbyshire in their fine purple spars, and
+crystalized galena and other mineralogical attractions. I was told that
+a German of the name of Storch, who pretended to occult knowledge, had,
+years before, led money and mineral diggers about these Knobs, and that
+he was the discoverer of the fine fluates of lime found here.
+
+One can hardly pass these broken eminences, with the knowledge that they
+tally in their calcareous structure and position with the rock formation
+of the Missouri state border, lying immediately west of them, without
+regarding them as the apparent monuments of some ancient geological
+change, which affected a very wide space of country north of their
+position. A barrier of this nature, which should link the Tennessee and
+Missouri coasts, at Grand Tower, would have converted into an inland
+sea the principal area of the present states of Illinois, Indiana, and
+Southern Ohio. The line of separation in this latitude is not great. It
+constitutes the narrowest point between the opposing rock formations of
+the east and west shores, so far as the latter rise through and above
+the soil.
+
+I was still in a floating Monongahela ark as we approached this coast of
+cliffs. The day was one of the mildest of the month of June, and the
+surface of the water was so still and calm that it presented the
+appearance of a perfect mirror. Our captain ordered alongside the skiff,
+which served as his jolly boat, and directed the men to land me at the
+Great Cave. Its wide and yawning mouth gave expectations, however, which
+were not realized. It closes rapidly as it is pursued into the rock, and
+never could have afforded a safe shelter for gangs of robbers whose
+haunts were known. Tradition states, on this point, that its mouth was
+formerly closed and hid by trees and foliage, by which means the
+unsuspecting voyagers with their upward freight were waylaid. We
+overtook the slowly floating ark before it had reached Hurricane Island,
+and the next land we made was at Smithfield, at the mouth of the
+Cumberland. While here, several discharged Tennessee militiamen, or
+volunteers from the still unfinished Indian war in the south, landed on
+their way home. They were equipped after the fashion of western hunters,
+with hunting shirts and rifles, and took a manifest pride in declaring
+that they had fought under "old Hickory"--a term which has, since that
+era, become familiar to the civilized world. I here first saw that
+singular excrescence in the vegetable kingdom called cypress knees. The
+point of land between the mouth of the Cumberland and Ohio, was a noted
+locality of the cypress tree. This tree puts up from its roots a blunt
+cone, of various size and height, which resembles a sugar loaf. It is
+smooth, and without limb or foliage. An ordinary cone or knee would
+measure eight inches in diameter, and thirty inches high. It would seem
+like an abortive effort of the tree to put up another growth. The
+paroquet was exceedingly abundant at this place, along the shores, and
+in the woods. They told me that this bird rested by hooking its upper
+mandible to a limb. I made several shooting excursions into the
+neighbouring forests, and remember that I claimed, in addition to
+smaller trophies of these daily rambles, a shrike and a hystrix.
+
+At length a keel boat came in from the Illinois Saline, commanded by a
+Captain Ensminger--an Americo-German--a bold, frank man, very
+intelligent of things relating to river navigation. With him I took
+passage for St. Louis, in Missouri, and we were soon under weigh, by the
+force of oars, for the mouth of the Ohio. We stopped a short time at a
+new hamlet on the Illinois shore, which had been laid out by some
+speculators of Cincinnati, but was remarkable for nothing but its name.
+It was called, by a kind of bathos in nomenclature, "America." I
+observed on the shores of the river at this place, a very recent
+formation of pudding-stone, or rather a local stratum of indurated
+pebbles and clay, in which the cementing ingredient was the oxyde of
+iron. Chalybeate waters percolated over and amongst this mass. This was
+the last glimpse of consolidated matter. All below, and indeed far
+above, was alluvial, or of recent origin. Nothing could exceed the
+fertile character of the soil, or its rank vegetation and forest growth,
+as we approached the point of junction; but it was a region subject to
+periodical overflows, the eras of which were very distinctly marked by
+tufts and bunches of grass, limbs, and other floating matter which had
+been lodged and left in the forks and branches of trees, now fifteen or
+twenty feet above our heads. It was now the first day of July, and I
+felt the most intense interest as we approached and came to the point of
+confluence. I had followed the Ohio, in all its sinuosities, a thousand
+miles. I had spent more than three months in its beautiful and varied
+valley; and I had something of the attachment of an old friend for its
+noble volume, and did not well like to see it about to be lost in the
+mighty Mississippi. Broad and ample as it was, however, bringing in the
+whole congregated drain of the western slopes of the Alleghanies and the
+table lands of the Great Lakes, the contest was soon decided. The stream
+had, at that season, sunk down to its summer level, and exhibited a
+transparent blue volume. The Mississippi, on the contrary, was swelled
+by the melting snows of the Rocky Mountains, and was in its vernal
+flood. Coming in at rather an acute angle, it does not immediately
+arrest the former, but throws its waters along the Tennessee shores. It
+runs with prodigious velocity. Its waters are thick, turbid, and replete
+with mingled and floating masses of sand and other comminuted rock and
+floating vegetation, trees, and rubbish. For miles the line of
+separation between the Ohio and Mississippi waters was visible by its
+colour; but long before it reaches the Iron Banks, the modern site of
+Memphis--the Father of Waters, as it is poetically, not literally,
+called--had prevailed, and held on its way to make new conquests of the
+St. Francis, the White, the Arkansas, and other noble streams.
+
+Our captain, although he had no lack of self-confidence, did not seem to
+be in haste to grapple with this new foe, by plunging at once into the
+turbid stream, but determined to try it next morning. This left me, a
+good part of the day, in a position where there was not much to reward
+inquiry. I fished awhile from the boat's side, but was rewarded with
+nothing besides a gar, a kind of sword, or rather billed fish, which
+appears to be provided with this appendage to stir up its food or prey
+from a muddy bottom. Its scales and skin are nearly as hard and compact
+as a shark's, and its flesh is equally valueless. It is at this point
+that the town of Cairo has since been located. There were, at the period
+mentioned, several arks and flat-boats lying on the higher banks, where
+they had been moored in high water. These now served as dwellings, and
+by cutting doors in their sides they formed rude groceries and
+provision stores. Whatever else, however, was to be seen at so low and
+nascent a point, the mosquito, as night came on, soon convinced us that
+he was the true magnate of those dominions.
+
+The next morning at an early hour our stout-hearted commander put his
+boatmen in motion, and turned his keel into the torrent; but such was
+the velocity of the water, and its opacity and thick turbidness, that I
+thought we should have been precipitated down stream, and hurled against
+sunken logs. Those who have ascended this stream in the modern era of
+steamboats, know nothing of these difficulties. It seemed impossible to
+stem the current. A new mode of navigation, to me at least, was to be
+tried, and it was evidently one which the best practised and
+stoutest-hearted men by no means relished. These boats are furnished
+with a plank walk on each side, on which slats are nailed to give a
+foothold to the men. Each man has a pole of ash wood about 16 feet long,
+with a wooden knob at the head to rest against the shoulder, and a blunt
+point at the other end shod with iron. Planting these upon the bottom
+near shore, with their heads facing down stream, the men bend all their
+force upon them, propelling the boat by their feet in the contrary
+direction. This is a very laborious and slow mode of ascent, which has
+now been entirely superseded on the main rivers by the use of steam.
+
+Such is the fury and velocity of the current, that it threatens at every
+freshet to tear down and burst asunder its banks, and run lawless
+through the country. Often whole islands are swept away in a short time.
+We had an instance of this one night, when the island against which we
+were moored, began to tumble into the channel, threatening to overwhelm
+us by the falling earth and the recoil of the waves, and we got away to
+the main shore with much effort, for night was set in, the current
+furious, and the shore to which we were going entirely unknown. To have
+struck a sunken log on such a traverse, under such circumstances, must
+have been fatal. We got at length upon a firm shore, where we moored and
+turned in at a late hour; but a curious cause of alarm again roused us.
+Some animal had made its appearance on the margin of the stream, not far
+below us, which in the dimness of the night appeared to be a bear. All
+who had arms, got them, and there was quite a bustle and no little
+excitement among the cabin passengers. The most knowing pronounced it to
+be a white bear. It produced a snorting sound resembling it. It seemed
+furious. Both _white_ and _furious_ it certainly was, but after much
+delay, commendable caution, and no want of the display of courage, it
+turned out to be a large wounded hog, which had been shot in the snout
+and head, and came to allay its fevered and festered flesh, by night, in
+the waters of the Mississippi.
+
+To stem the current along this portion of the river required almost
+superhuman power. Often not more than a few miles can be made with a
+hard day's exertions. We went the first day six miles, the second about
+the same distance, and the third eight miles, which brought us to the
+first cultivated land along a low district of the west shore, called the
+Tyewapety Bottom. There were six or eight small farms at this spot; the
+land rich, and said to be quite well adapted for corn, flax, hemp, and
+tobacco. I observed here the papaw. The next day we ascended but three
+miles and stopped, the crew being found too weak to proceed. While
+moored to the bank, we were passed by several boats destined for St.
+Louis, which were loaded with pine boards and plank from Olean, on the
+sources of the Alleghany. They told us that sixty dollars per thousand
+feet could be obtained for them.
+
+Additional men having been hired, we went forward the next day to a
+point which is called the Little Chain of Rocks, where, from sickness in
+some of the hands, another halt became necessary. It is at this point
+that the firm cherty clay, or diluvial soil of the Missouri shore, first
+presents itself on the banks of the river. This soil is of a sterile and
+mineral character. I noticed beneath the first elevated point of it,
+near the river's edge, a locality of white compact earth, which is
+called chalk, and is actually used as such by mechanics. On giving a
+specimen of it, after my return to New York in 1819, to Mr. John
+Griscom, he found it completely destitute of carbonic acid; it appears
+to be a condition of alumine or nearly pure clay. Large masses of
+pudding-stone, disrupted from their original position, were seen lying
+along the shore at this locality, being similar in their character to
+that seen on approaching the mouth of the Ohio.
+
+We ascended the river this day ten miles, and the next five miles, which
+brought us to Cape Girardeau, at the estimated distance of fifty miles
+above the mouth of the Ohio. At this place I was received with attention
+by one of the principal residents, who, on learning that my object was
+to examine the natural history of the country, invited me to his house.
+In rambling the vicinity, they showed me a somewhat extra but
+dilapidated and deserted house, which had been built by one Loramee, a
+Spanish trader, who has left his name on one of the branches of the
+river St. Mary's of Indiana. This old fabric excited a strong interest
+in my mind as I walked through its open doors and deserted rooms, by a
+popular story, how true I know not, that the occupant had been both a
+rapacious and cruel man, siding with the Indians in the hostilities
+against our western people; and that he had, on one occasion, taken a
+female captive, and with his own hands cut off her breasts.
+
+The journey from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis occupied nineteen days, and
+was fraught with scenes and incidents of interest, which I should detail
+with pleasure were it compatible with my limits. Indeed, every day's
+voyage along this varied and picturesque shore presented objects of
+remark, which both commended themselves to my taste, and which the slow
+mode of ascent gave me full means to improve. This might be said
+particularly of its geological structure and its mineralogical
+productions--themes which were then fresh and new, but which have lost
+much of their attractions by the progress which natural science has made
+in the country during six and twenty years. To these topics it is the
+less necessary to revert, as they were embraced in the results of my
+tour, given in my "_View of the Mines_," published in 1819.
+
+The article improperly called pumice, which floats down the Missouri
+during its floods, from the burning coal banks in the Black Hills, I
+first picked up on the shore in the ascent above Cape Girardeau, and it
+gave me an intimation that the waters had commenced falling. We came to,
+the same night, at a well known fountain, called the Moccasin Spring, a
+copious and fine spring of crystal water, which issues from an elongated
+orifice in the limestone rock.
+
+While lying at the mouth of the river Obrazo, where we were detained on
+account of hands, several boats touched at the place, carrying emigrants
+from Vermont and New York, whose destination was the most westerly
+settlements on the Missouri. At higher points in the ascent we
+encountered emigrants from Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North
+Carolina, and Kentucky, which denotes the wide range of the spirit of
+migration at the era. The ends of the Union seemed to be brought
+together by this general movement towards the west. It was not uncommon
+to find representatives from a great number of the states in these
+accidental meetings; they were always of a social and highly friendly
+character, and the effect of such a system of intercommunication and
+residence, from districts widely separated, could not but be highly
+auspicious in promoting uniformity of manners and opinions, and
+assimilating customs, dress, and language. If long continued it must
+destroy provincialisms, and do much to annihilate local prejudices.
+
+Every one who has ascended this stream will recollect the isolated
+cliff, standing in its waters, called Grand Tower, with the
+corresponding developments of the coast on the contiguous shores, which
+tell the traveller plainly enough that here is the site of some ancient
+disruptive process in the physical history of the valley. The current
+has an increased velocity in sweeping around this obstacle; and we
+found, as the waters fell, that there were numerous eddies and strong
+jets or currents along this precipitous coast, which it required extra
+force to surmount. We saw one day a number of pelicans standing on a
+sand bar. The wild turkey and quail were daily encountered on shore.
+
+Our approach to St. Genevieve was preceded by a sight of one of those
+characteristic features in all the early French settlements in this
+quarter--the great public field extending several miles, five miles I
+think, along the banks of the river. St. Genevieve itself lies about a
+mile from the river, and is concealed by irregularities in the surface.
+It is a highly characteristic antique French town, and reminds one
+strongly of the style and manner of building of the provincial villages
+and towns of the parent country, as still existing. Three miles above
+this place we came to a noted point of crossing called the Little Rock
+Ferry; a spot worthy of note at that time as the residence of a very
+aged Frenchman, called _Le Breton_. Statements which are believed to be
+true, made him 109 years old. From his own account he was at the seige
+of Bergen-op-zoom, in Flanders; at the seige of Louisburg; at the
+building of Fort Chartres, in Illinois; and at Braddock's defeat. After
+his discharge, he discovered those extensive lead mines in Washington
+county, about forty miles west of the river, which still bear his name.
+
+The coast between St. Genevieve and Herculaneum is almost one continuous
+cliff of precipitous rocks, which are broken through chiefly at the
+points where rivers and streams discharge. Herculaneum itself is seated
+on one of these limited areas, hemmed in by cliffs, which, in this case,
+were rendered still more picturesque by their elevated shot towers. I
+landed at this place about noon of my twenty-second day's ascent, and
+finding it a convenient avenue to the mine district, determined to leave
+my baggage at a hotel till my return from St. Louis, and pursue the rest
+of the journey to that place on foot. It was at this point that I was
+introduced to Mr. Austin, the elder, who warmly approved my plan of
+exploring the mines, and offered every facility in his power to further
+it. Mr. Austin was, he informed me at a subsequent stage of our
+acquaintance, a native of Connecticut. He had gone early into Virginia
+and settled at Richmond, where his eldest son was born, and afterwards
+removed to Wythe county. In 1778 he went into Upper Louisiana, enduring
+severe sufferings and the risk of life, in crossing the country by way
+of Vincennes to St. Louis, where he was well received by the Spanish
+local governor. He obtained a grant of land in the present area of
+Washington county, the principal seat of the older mines. About the time
+I went to Missouri, or soon after it, he resolved to visit San Antonio,
+in Texas, with a view of introducing a colony of Americans into that
+quarter. This plan he carried into execution, I think, in 1820, and
+returned with an ample grant; but he did not live to carry its
+stipulations into effect, having died suddenly after his return, at the
+house of his daughter, Mrs. Bryant, at Hazel Run.
+
+Mr. Austin was a man of great zeal and fervour of imagination, and
+entered very warmly into all his plans and views, whatever they were. He
+was hospitable, frank, intelligent, and it is with feelings of unmixed
+pleasure, that I revert to my acquaintance with him, no less than with
+his talented son, Stephen, and the excellent, benign, and lady-like Mrs.
+Austin, and other members of this intelligent family.
+
+
+NO. V.
+
+Herculaneum had nothing in common with its sombre Italian prototype,
+which has been dug out of dust and ashes in modern times, but its name.
+Instead of buried palaces and ruins of a luxurious age of marble, bronze
+and silver, most of the houses were built of squared oak logs, and had
+bulky old fashioned chimneys, built outside with a kind of castelated
+air, as they are seen in the old French and Dutch settlements in Canada,
+and along the vallies of the Hudson and Mohawk. The arts of painting and
+gilding and cornices, had not yet extended their empire here. Mr.
+Austin's residence, was the only exception to this remark, I remember.
+The Courts of Justice were content to hold their sessions in one of the
+oaken timber buildings named; the county jail had a marvellous
+resemblance to an ample smoke-house, and my kind host, Ellis, who was a
+native of South Carolina, was content to serve up substantial and good
+cheer in articles, not exhumed from a city buried in volcanic ashes, but
+in plain fabrics of Staffordshire and Birmingham. In addition to the
+host-like and agreeable resort, which travellers unexpectedly found at
+his hands, in a mansion whose exterior gave no such signs, he presided
+over the department of a public ferry, established at this place, across
+the wild and fluctuating Mississippi; and had he kept note book, he
+could have given account of many a one, from other lands, with golden
+hopes of the far west, whom he had safely conducted, against the most
+adverse floods, to the Missouri shore. I found a few old books at his
+house, which showed that there had been readers in his family, and which
+helped to while away moments, which every traveller will find on his
+hands.
+
+I have intimated that there was nothing in the way of the antique, in
+Herculaneum, but its name. To this I might add, that there was no
+exception, unless it be found in the impressions of objects, in the
+structure of the rocks, in this quarter, denoting a prior age of
+existence. I was shown an impression, in the surface of a block of
+limestone, quarried here, which was thought to resemble a man's foot. It
+did not appear to me to bear this similitude, but was rather to be
+referred to some organic extinct forms, which are not yet well
+understood.
+
+Having passed a couple of days here, I set out early one morning, on
+foot, for St. Louis, accompanied by two young men from Pennsylvania,
+with whom I had become acquainted on prior parts of my route. They had
+come with an adventure of merchandize from the waters of the
+Yioughagany, and were desirous of seeing the (then) capitol of the
+Territory. Nothing untoward occurred, until we reached and crossed the
+river Merrimack, where night overtook us, and set in with intense
+darkness, just as we reached the opposite shore. There was but one house
+in the vicinity; and not distant more than a mile, but such was the
+intensity of the darkness, owing to clouds and a gathering storm, that
+we lost the road, wandered in the woods for some hours, during which the
+rain commenced, and were at length directed to the house we sought, by
+the faint and occasional tinkling of a cow bell.
+
+We travelled the next morning twelve miles, to breakfast at the antique
+looking village of Carondalet. The route lies over an elevated tract of
+uplands, eligibly situated on the right bank of the Mississippi, in
+which a growth of wild prairie grass and flowers, filled up the broad
+spaces between the trees. There was no habitation visible on the
+route--a standing spring under a ledge of rocks, about half way, was the
+only spot where we could get a drop of water to allay our thirst--for it
+was a hot August day. We encountered several deer, and from the frequent
+occurrence of their tracks, deemed such an occurrence to be common. It
+is on this elevated and airy tract, that the site of Jefferson Barracks,
+has since been judiciously established by the government.
+
+Beyond Carondalet, the country has the appearance of a grown-up heath.
+It is a bushy uninviting tract, without mature forest trees. The most
+interesting feature we saw, consisted of a number of regular
+depressions, or cup-shaped concavities in the soil, caused by the
+passage of springs over a clay basis, upon which there is deposited a
+heavy diluvial stratum of sand, mixed earth and pebbles. Within about
+three miles of the city, this heathy and desolate tract began to assume
+a cultivated character; dwellings and gardens soon succeeded, and we
+found ourselves, by almost imperceptible grades, introduced into the
+city, which we reached about four o'clock in the afternoon. On entering
+its ancient Spanish barriers, we noticed one of the old stone towers, or
+defences, which constituted a part of the enclosure. This town, I
+afterwards learned, had been regularly walled and fortified, during the
+possession of the country by the Spanish crown. As soon as I had taken
+lodgings, I called on R. Pettibone Esq., a friend formerly of Vernon, in
+western N. Y. who had established himself in this central city of the
+west, in the practice of the law; he was not in, at the moment, but his
+family received me with cordiality. He returned my visit in the evening,
+and insisted on my taking up my quarters at his house. The time that I
+spent here, was devoted to the most prominent objects which the town and
+its vicinity presented to interest a stranger, such as the private
+museum of the late Gen. Wm. Clark, containing many articles of rich and
+valuable Indian costume; the large natural mounds above the city, and
+the character of the rock formation along the shores of the river, which
+was said to have had the impressions of human feet, on its original
+surface. The latter I did not see till the summer of 1821, when the
+block of stone containing them was examined in Mr. Rapp's garden, at
+Harmony, on the Wabash.
+
+My inclinations having led me, at this time, to visit the extensive lead
+mines, southwest of this city, on the waters of the Merrimack, I lost no
+time in retracing my way to Herculaneum, by descending the Mississippi.
+
+When I was prepared to descend the river, the two gentlemen who had been
+my travelling companions, on the journey up, had completed the business
+of their adventure, and offered me a seat, in a small boat, under their
+control. It was late in the afternoon of the day that this arrangement
+was proposed, and it was dusk before we embarked; but it was thought the
+village of Cahokia, some five or six miles below, could be reached in
+good season. A humid and misty atmosphere rendered the night quite dark,
+and we soon found ourselves afloat on the broad current of the stream,
+without knowing our position, for it was too intensely dark to descry
+the outlines of either shore. Being in a light open boat, we were not
+only in some peril, from running foul of drifting trees, but it became
+disagreeably cold. On putting in for the Illinois shore, a low sandy
+bar, or shoal was made, but one of my companions who had landed came
+running back with an account of a bear and her cub, which caused us to
+push on about a mile further, where we passed the night, without beds or
+fire. Daylight disclosed to us the fact that we had passed Cahokia; we
+then crossed over to the Missouri shore, and having taken breakfast at
+Carondalet, continued the voyage, without any further misadventure, and
+reached Herculaneum at noon.
+
+I lost no time in preparing to visit the mines, and having made
+arrangements for my baggage to follow, set out on foot for Potosi. The
+first day I proceeded eighteen miles, and reached Steeples, at the head
+of the Zwoshau, or Joachim river, at an early hour. The day was
+excessively hot, and the road lay for the greater part of the distance,
+over a ridge of land, which afforded no water, and very little shelter
+from the sun's rays. I met not a solitary individual on the route, and
+with the exception of the small swift footed lizard, common to the way
+side, and a single wild turkey, nothing in the animal kingdom. The
+antlers of the deer frequently seen above the grass, denoted it however
+to abound in that animal. I was constrained while passing this dry
+tract, to allay my thirst at a pool, in a rut, not, however, without
+having disconcerted a wild turkey, which had come apparently for the
+same purpose.
+
+Next day I crossed the valley of Grand or _Big_ river, as it is commonly
+called, and at the distance of twelve miles from the Joachim, I entered
+the mining village of Shibboleth--the feudal seat, so to say, of the
+noted "John Smith T." of whose singularities rumour had already
+apprized me. Here was a novel scene. Carts passing with loads of
+ore--smelting furnaces, and fixtures, and the half-hunter, half-farmer
+costumes of the group of men who were congregated about the principal
+store, told me very plainly, that I was now in the mining region. Lead
+digging and discovering, and the singular hap-hazards of men who had
+suddenly got rich by finding rich beds of ore, and suddenly got poor by
+some folly or extravagance, gave a strong colouring to the whole tone of
+conversation at this spot, which was carried on neither in the mildest
+or most unobtrusive way: quite a vocabulary of new technical words burst
+upon me, of which it was necessary to get the correct import. I had
+before heard of the pretty term, "mineral blossom," as the local name
+for radiated quartz, but here were tiff (sulphate of barytes),
+glass-tiff (calcareous spar), "mineral sign," and a dozen other words,
+to be found in no books. At the head of these new terms stood the
+popular word "mineral," which invariably meant galena, and nothing else.
+To hunt mineral, to dig mineral, and to smelt mineral, were so many
+operations connected with the reduction of the ores of galena.
+
+I soon found the group of men about the village store, was a company of
+militia, and that I was in the midst of what New Yorkers call a
+"training," which explained the hunter aspect I had noticed. They were
+armed with rifles, and dressed in their every day leather or cotton
+hunting shirts. The officers were not distinguished from the men, either
+because swords were not easily procured, or more probably, because they
+did not wish to appear with so inefficient and useless an arm. "Food for
+powder," was the first term that occurred to me on first surveying this
+group of men, but nothing could have been more inapposite; for although
+like "lean Jack's" men, they had but little skill in standing in a right
+line, never were men better skilled for personal combat,--from the
+specimens given, I believe there was hardly a man present, who could not
+drive a bullet into the size of a dollar at a hundred yards. No man was
+better skilled in this art, either with rifle or pistol, than the Don of
+the village, the said John Smith T., or his brother, called "the Major,"
+neither of whom travelled, or eat, or slept, as I afterwards witnessed,
+without their arms. During my subsequent rambles in the mine country, I
+have sat at the same table, slept in the same room, and enjoyed the
+conversation of one or the other, and can say, that their extraordinary
+habit of going fully armed, was united in both with courteous manners,
+honourable sentiments, and high chivalric notions of personal
+independence; and I had occasion to notice, that it was none but their
+personal enemies, or opponents in business, that dealt in vituperation
+against them. John Smith T. was doubtless a man of singular and
+capricious humours, and a most fiery spirit, when aroused; of which
+scores of anecdotes are afloat. He was at variance with several of his
+most conspicuous neighbours, and, if he be likened to the lion of the
+forest, it will be perfectly just to add, that most of the lesser
+animals stood in fear of him.
+
+My stop here had consumed some time, but thinking I could still reach
+_Minè a Burton_, I pushed on, but had only proceeded a couple of miles
+when I was hastily compelled to seek shelter from an impending shower.
+As it was late, and the storm continued, I remained at a farm house, at
+Old Mines during the night. They gave me a supper of rich fresh milk and
+fine corn bread. In the morning, a walk of three miles brought me to
+Potosi, where I took lodgings at Mr. Ficklin's, proprietor of the
+principal inn of the place. Mr. F. was a native of Kentucky, a man of
+open frank manners, and most kind benevolent feelings, who had seen much
+of frontier life, had lived a number of years in Missouri, and now at a
+rather advanced period of life, possessed a fund of local knowledge and
+experience, the communication of which rendered the time I spent at his
+house both profitable and pleasing.
+
+I reached Potosi on the second of August. The next day was the day of
+the county election[1], which brought together the principal miners and
+agricultural gentlemen of the region, and gave me a favourable
+opportunity of forming acquaintance, and making known the object of my
+visit. I was particularly indebted to the civilities of Stephen F.
+Austin, Esq. for these introductions. During my stay in the country he
+interested himself in my success, omitted no opportunity of furthering
+my views, and extending my acquaintance with the geological features and
+resources of the country. He offered me an apartment in the old family
+mansion of Durham Hall, for the reception and accumulation of my
+collections. Mr. Bates and sons, Mr. Jones and sons, Mr. Perry and
+brothers, Mr. Elliot, Mr. Brickey, Mr. Honey and others, seconded these
+civilities. Indeed the friendly and obliging disposition I uniformly met
+with, from the inhabitants of the mines, and the mine country generally,
+is indelibly impressed on my memory.
+
+I was now at the capital of the mines, and in a position most favourable
+for obtaining true information of their character and value. Three
+months devoted to this object left scarcely a nook of the country which
+I had not either personally explored, or obtained authentic information
+of. I found forty-five principal mines, or mineral _diggings_ as some of
+them are called, within a circumference of less than forty miles.
+Potosi, and its vicinity yielded annually about three millions of pounds
+of lead, and furnished employment to the estimated number, of eleven to
+twelve hundred hands. The business was however depressed, like almost
+every other branch of domestic arts or industry, after the peace of
+1814, owing to the great influx and low prices of foreign products, and
+the general derangement of currency and credit. Prepared ore, delivered
+at the furnaces, was worth two dollars per cwt., paid chiefly in
+merchandize. Pig lead sold at four dollars, at the mines; and but half a
+dollar higher on the banks of the Mississippi, and was quoted at seven
+dollars in the Atlantic cities. Judged from these data, there appeared
+no adequate cause for the alleged depression; for in addition to the
+ordinary merchant's profit, in the disposition of his stock to the
+operative miner or digger of ore, a profit of one cent and a half per
+pound was left, over and above the cost of transportation to an eastern
+market; besides, the difference in exchange, between the south western
+and eastern cities. And it was evident, from a view of the whole
+subject, that the business could not only be profitably pursued, with
+economical arrangements, but that the public domain, upon which most of
+the mines are seated, might be made to yield a revenue to the treasury,
+at least equal to the amount of this article required for the national
+consumption, over the expenses, the superintendence and management.
+Besides which, there was great room for improved and economical modes of
+mining; and there was hardly one of the manipulations, from the making
+of a common drill or pick, to the erection of a smelting furnace, which
+did not admit of salutary changes for the better. The recovery of the
+mere waste lead, in its sublimated form, around the open log furnaces of
+the country, promised to add a valuable item to the profit of the
+business. The most wasteful, hurried, and slovenly of all systems is
+pursued in exploring and raising the ore, by which the surface of the
+country is riddled with pit holes, in the most random manner; the loose
+and scattered deposits in the soil hastily gathered up, and the real
+lead and veins of metal left, in very many cases, untouched. Thousands
+of square acres of land were thus partially rifled of their riches, and
+spoiled, and condemned, without being exhausted. By having no scientific
+knowledge of mineral veins and geological structure, as practically
+adopted in Europe, all rule in the process of mining and raising the ore
+had degenerated into mere guess work, and thousands of dollars had been
+wasted, in some places, where the application of some of the plainest
+mining principles, would not have warranted the removal of a shovel full
+of earth. In short, there was here observed, a blending of the miner and
+farmer character. Almost every farmer was a miner. Planters who had
+slaves, employed them part of the year in mining; and every miner, to
+some extent was a farmer. Because the ore found in the clay beds did not
+occur in east and west, or north and south lines, or its rules of
+deposition had not been determined by careful observation, all success
+in the exploration was supposed to be the result of chance. And whoever
+surveys the mineral counties of Missouri, will be ready to conclude,
+that more labour has been thrown away in the helter-skelter system of
+digging, than was ever applied to well directed or profitable mining.
+Had an absolute monarch called for this vast amount of labour from his
+people to build some monument, he would have been declared the greatest
+tyrant. Indeed, I know of no instance in America, of the misapplication
+of so great an amount of free labour--labour cheerfully bestowed, and
+thrown away without a regret. For the losers in mining, like the
+adventurers in a lottery, have no one to blame but themselves.
+
+It appeared to me that a statement of the actual condition of the mines,
+would be received with attention at Washington, and that a system for
+the better management of them could not but be approved, were it
+properly brought forward. I determined to make the attempt. It did not,
+however, appear to me, that nature had limited the deposits of ore to
+one species, or to so limited an area, and I sought means to extend my
+personal examinations farther west and south. To bring this about, and
+to collect the necessary information to base statements on, in a manner
+correspondent to my wishes, required time, and a systematic mode of
+recording facts.
+
+To this object, in connexion with the natural history of the country, I
+devoted the remainder of the year, and a part of the following year. I
+soon found, after reaching the mines, that I had many coadjutors in the
+business of collecting specimens, in the common miners, some of whom
+were in the habit of laying aside for me, any thing they found, in their
+pits and leads, which assumed a new or curious character. Inquiries and
+applications relative to the mineralogy and structure of the country
+were made, verbally and by letter, from many quarters. I established my
+residence at Potosi, but made excursions, from time to time, in various
+directions. Some of these excursions were fruitful of incidents, which
+would be worth recording, did the cursory character of these
+reminiscences permit it. On one occasion, I killed a horse by swimming
+him across the Joachim river, at its mouth, whilst he was warm and
+foaming from a hard day's ride. He was put in the stable and attended,
+but died the next day, as was supposed, from this sudden transition.
+There was scarcely a mine or digging in the country, for forty miles
+around, which I did not personally examine; and few persons, who had
+given attention to the subject, from whom I did not derive some species
+of information.
+
+The general hospitality and frankness of the inhabitants of the mine
+country could not but make a favourable impression on a stranger. The
+custom of riding on horseback, in a region which affords great
+facilities for it, makes every one a horseman and a woodsman, and has
+generated something of the cavalier air and manners. But nothing
+impressed me more, in this connexion, than the gallant manner, which I
+observed here, of putting a lady on horseback. She stands facing you,
+with the bridle in her right hand, and gives you her left. She then
+places one of her feet in your left hand, which you stoop to receive,
+when, by a simultaneous exertion and spring, she is vaulted backwards
+into the saddle. Whether this be a transmitted Spanish custom, I know
+not, but I have not observed it in the French, or American settlements
+west of the Alleghanies.
+
+The earthquakes of 1812, which were so disastrous in South America, are
+known to have propagated themselves towards the north, and they exerted
+some striking effects in the lower part of the valley of the
+Mississippi, sending down into the channel of the latter, large areas of
+deluvial earth, as was instanced, in a remarkable manner, at New Madrid.
+Portions of the forest, back of this town, sunk, and gave place to lakes
+and lagoons. These effects were also witnessed, though in a milder form,
+in the more solid formations of the mine country. Soon after reaching
+Potosi, I visited the Mineral Fork, a tributary of the Merrimack, where
+some of these effects had been witnessed. I descended into the pit and
+crevices of the Old Mines. These mines were explored in the
+metalliferous rock. Every thing had an old and ruinous look, for they
+had been abandoned. Large quantities of the ore had been formerly raised
+at this mine, which was pursued into a deep fissure of the limestone
+rock. I descended into this fissure, and found among the rubbish and
+vein stones, large elongated and orbicular masses of calc spar, the
+outer surfaces of which bore strong marks of geological abrasion. They
+broke into rhombs very transparent, and of a honey-yellow colour. Mr.
+Elliot, the intelligent proprietor of this mine, represented the
+indications of ore to have been flattering, although every thing was now
+at a stand. Masses of sulphuret of zinc, in the form of blende, were
+noticed at this locality. Mr. Elliot invited me to dine, and he filled
+up the time with interesting local reminiscences. He stated, among other
+facts, that a copious spring, at these mines, dried up during the
+remarkable earthquakes of 1812. These earthquakes appear to have
+discharged their shocks in the direction of the stratification from the
+southwest to the northeast, but they spent their force west of the
+Mississippi. Their chief violence was at Natchitoches and New Madrid, at
+the latter of which they destroyed an immense area of alluvial land.
+Their effects in the Ohio valley, lying exactly in the direction of
+their action, were slight. A Mr. Watkins, of Cincinnati, accompanied me
+on this examination, and rode back with me to Potosi.
+
+On the 9th of August, I had dined with Samuel Perry, Esq., at Mine á
+Burton, one of the principal inhabitants of the county, and was passing
+the evening at Mr. Austin's, when Mr. and Mrs. Perry came suddenly in.
+They had hardly taken seats, when a rabble of persons with bells and
+horns surrounded the house, and kept up a tumult that would have done
+honor to one of the wildest festivals of St. Nicholas, headed by Brom
+Bones himself. This, we were told, was a Chiraviri. And what is a
+Chiraviri? I am not deep enough read in French local customs to give a
+satisfactory answer, but the custom is said to be one that the populace
+may indulge in, whenever a marriage has taken place in the village,
+which is not in exact accordance with their opinions of its propriety. I
+was, by this incident, informed of Mr. Perry's recent marriage, and
+should judge, moreover, that he had exercised both taste and judgment in
+his selection of a partner. The affair of the Chiraviri is said to have
+been got up by some spiteful persons.
+
+Towards the middle of the month (12th,) I set out, accompanied by Mr.
+James B. Austin, on horseback, for Herculaneum, by the way of Hazel Run,
+a route displaying a more southerly section of the mine country than I
+had before seen. A ride on horseback over the mine hills, offers one of
+the most delightful prospects of picturesque sylvan beauty that can be
+well conceived of. The hills are, with a few exceptions, not precipitous
+enough to make the ride irksome. They rise in long and gentle swells,
+resembling those of the sea, in which the vessel is, by an easy motion,
+alternately at the top of liquid hills, or in the bottom of liquid
+vales. From these hills the prospect extends over a surface of
+heath-grass and prairie flowers, with an open growth of oaks, giving the
+whole country rather the aspect of a _park_ than a _wilderness_.
+Occasionally a ridge of pine intervenes, and wherever there is a brook,
+the waters present the transparency of rock crystal. Sometimes a range
+of red clay hillocks, putting up rank shrubs and vines of species which
+were _unknown before_, indicates an abandoned digging or mine. Farms and
+farm houses were then few; and every traveller we met on horseback, had
+more or less the bearing of a country cavalier, with a fine horse, good
+equipments, perhaps holsters and pistols, sometimes a rifle, and always
+something of a military air, betokening manliness and independence.
+Wherever we stopped, and whoever we met on the way, there was evinced a
+courteous and hospitable disposition.
+
+We did not leave Potosi till afternoon. It was a hot August day, and it
+was dusk before we entered the deep shady valley of Big River. Some
+delay arose in waiting for the ferryman to put us across the river, and
+it was nine o'clock in the evening when we reached Mr. Bryant's, at
+Hazel Run, where we were cordially received. Our host would not let us
+leave his house, next morning, till after breakfast. We rode to
+McCormick's, on the Platten, to dinner, and reached Herculaneum before
+sunset. The distance by this route from Potosi is forty-five miles, and
+the road, with the exception of a couple of miles, presented a wholly
+new section of the country.
+
+The Mississippi was now low, displaying large portions of its margin,
+and exhibiting heavy deposits of mud and slime, which broke into cakes,
+as they dried in the sun. I know not whether these exhalations affected
+me, but I experienced a temporary illness for a few days during this
+visit. I recollect that we had, during this time, some severe and
+drenching rain storms, with vivid and copious lightning, and heavy
+pealing thunder. These drenching and rapid showers convert the brooks
+and rills of the mine country to perfect torrents, and this explains one
+cause of the washing away and gullying of roads and streets, so
+remarkable on the west bank of the Mississippi. My illness induced me to
+give up returning on horseback; and I set out, on the 18th of the month,
+in a dearborn, accompanied by Mrs. Austin. On descending the long hill,
+near Donnell's, beyond the Joachim, the evening was so dark that I
+became sensible I must have got out of the road. I drove with the more
+care a few moments, and stopped. Requesting Mrs. Austin to hold the
+reins, I jumped out and explored the ground. I found myself in an
+abandoned, badly gullied track, which would have soon capsized the
+wagon; but leading the horse by the bridle, I slowly regained my
+position in the direct road and got down the hill, and reached the house
+without further accident. Next day we drove into Potosi by four o'clock
+in the afternoon. This was my second visit, and I now accepted a room
+and quarters for my collection, at their old homestead called Durham
+Hall.
+
+From this period till the middle of September, I pursued with
+unremitting assiduity, the enquiry in hand, and by that time had made a
+cabinet collection, illustrating fully the mineralogy, and, to some
+extent, the geological structure of the country. I erected a small
+chemical furnace for assays. Some of the clays of the country were found
+to stand a high heat, and by tempering them with pulverized granite,
+consisting largely of feldspar, I obtained crucibles that answered every
+purpose. Some of the specimens of lead, treated in the dry way, yielded
+from 75 to 82 per cent.
+
+Accident threw in my way, on the 25th of August, a fact which led to the
+discovery of a primitive tract, on the southern borders of the mine
+country, the true geological relation of which to the surrounding
+secondary formations, formed at the outset rather a puzzle. I rode out
+on horseback on that day, with Mr. Stephen F. Austin, to Miller's, on
+the Mineral Fork, to observe a locality of manganese, and saw lying,
+near his mills, some large masses of red syenitic granite, which
+appeared to have been freshly blasted. He remarked that they were
+obtained on the St. Francis, and were found to be the best material at
+hand for millstones. On examination, the rock consisted almost
+exclusively of red feldspar and quartz. A little hornblende was present,
+but scarcely a trace of mica. This species of syenitic granite, large
+portions of which, viewed in the field, are complete syenite, and all of
+which is very barren of crystals, I have since found on the upper
+Mississippi, and throughout the northwestern regions above the secondary
+latitudes. The hint, however, was not lost. I took the first opportunity
+to visit the sources of the St. Francis: having obtained letters to a
+gentleman in that vicinity, I set out on horseback for that region,
+taking a stout pair of saddle-bags, to hold my collections. I passed
+through Murphy's and Cook's settlements, which are, at the present time,
+the central parts of St. Francis county. _Mine a la Motte_ afforded some
+new facts in its mineralogical features. I first saw this red syenite,
+in place, on Blackford's Fork. The westernmost limits of this ancient
+mine extends to within a mile or two of this primitive formation. The
+red clay formation extends to the granitic elevations, and conceals
+their junction with the newer rock. The nearest of the carboniferous
+series, in place, is on the banks of Rock Creek, at some miles'
+distance. It is there the crystalline sandstone. How far this primitive
+district of the St. Francis extends, has not been determined. The St.
+Francis and Grand rivers, both have their sources in it. It is probable
+the Ozaw Fork of the Merrimack comes from its western borders. Not less
+than twenty or thirty miles can be assigned for its north and south
+limits. The Iron mountain of Bellvieu is within it. The vicinity of the
+pass called the Narrows, appears to have been the locality of former
+volcanic action. A scene of ruder disruption, marked by the vast
+accumulation of broken rock, it would be difficult to find. Indeed the
+whole tract is one of high geological, as well as scenic interest. Had
+the observer of this scene been suddenly dropped down into one of the
+wildest, broken, primitive tracts of New England, or the north east
+angle of New York, he could not have found a field of higher physical
+attractions. Trap and greenstone constitute prominent tracts, and exist
+in the condition of dykes in the syenite, or feldspathique granite. I
+sought in vain for mica in the form of distinct plates. Some of the
+greenstone is handsomely porphorytic, and embraces green crystals of
+feldspar. Portions of this rock are sprinkled with masses of bright
+sulphuret of iron. Indeed iron in several of its forms abounds. By far
+the largest portion of it is in the shape of the micaceous oxyde. I
+searched, without success, for the irridescent specular variety, or Elba
+ore. In returning from this trip, I found Wolf river greatly swollen by
+rains, and had to swim it at much hazard, with my saddle-bags heavily
+laden with the results of my examination. It was dark when I reached the
+opposite bank: wet and tired I pushed for the only house in sight. As I
+came to it the doors stood open, the fences were down, a perfect air of
+desolation reigned around. There was no living being found; and the
+masses of yawning darkness exhibited by the untenanted rooms, seemed a
+fit residence for the genius of romance. Neither my horse nor myself
+were, however, in a temper or plight for an adventure of this kind, and
+the poor beast seemed as well pleased as I was, to push forward from so
+cheerless a spot. Four miles' riding through an untenanted forest, and a
+dark and blind road, brought us to a Mr. Murphy's, the sponsor of
+Murphy's settlement.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+   [1] About 70 votes were polled in the town of Potosi. Mr. Austin, the
+younger, was returned by the county to the Territorial Legislature.
+
+
+
+
+SCENES AND ADVENTURES
+
+IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS.
+
+A. D. 1818 AND 1819.
+
+FROM THE ORIGINAL NOTES AND JOURNAL.
+
+
+
+
+PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
+
+
+Very little, it is conceived, is necessary to enable the reader to
+determine the writer's position on the extreme south western frontiers,
+in the year 1818. He had spent the summer of that year in traversing the
+mine district, which extends along the right bank of the Mississippi,
+between the mouth of the Maromeg and the diluvial cliffs south of Cape
+Girardeau, extending west and south westward to the sources of the St.
+Francis. In these mineralogical rambles, which were pursued sometimes on
+foot, and sometimes on horseback, or wheels, he made acquaintance with
+many estimable men, amongst whom he may name the Austins, father and
+son, the late Col. Ashley, John Rice Jones, Esq., and many others who
+are still living, by all whom, his object in visiting the country was
+cordially approved and encouraged, at all times. He also became
+acquainted with practical miners, and persons of enterprize who were not
+only familiar with the settled frontiers, but who had occasionally
+penetrated beyond them, into the broad expanse of highlands, now
+geographically known under the term of, the Ozark Chain. Geologically
+considered, the mine country is but the eastern flanks of this chain,
+which extends flush to the banks of the Mississippi, and has its
+terminus in that elevated range of mural cliffs, which form so striking
+and often picturesque a display, between St. Genevieve and St. Louis.
+There was, at the time, a general apprehension felt and expressed, by
+hunters and others who had penetrated those wilds in quest of deer and
+buffalo, or of saltpetre-earth in the limestone caves, of the predatory
+tribe of the Osages,--a people who had for years enjoyed the bad
+reputation of being thieves and plunderers. All concurred, however, in
+the interesting character of the country extending in a general course,
+south-westwardly, from the junction of the Missouri with the
+Mississippi. He felt an ardent desire to penetrate this terra incognita.
+He could not learn that any exploratory journey had been made towards
+the Rocky Mountains, since the well known expeditions of Lewis and
+Clark, up the Missouri, and of Lieut. Pike, across the upper region of
+the Arkansas, to Sante Fe and Chihuahua. Breckenridge had subsequently
+published an account of a trip to Council Bluffs.[2] But neither of
+these routes crossed the wide and mountainous tracts referred to, or
+gave any definite information respecting them. Viewed on the map, these
+routes formed the general exterior outlines, but they left the interior
+filling up to be supplied,--or, if supplied at all, it was too often
+with such vague phrases as these--"Here are salt mountains." "The ----
+is supposed to take its rise here." "Volcanic hills," and so forth. The
+geology of the country furnished no indications whatever of the
+probability of the latter remark. The kind of pseudo-pumice found
+floating down the Missouri, in high water, had been stated by Lewis and
+Clarke, to have a far more remote, and local origin. The description of
+rock salt, in mountain mass, had long been numbered by popular belief,
+among the fanciful creations of an exciting political era; and together
+with western volcanoes, had settled down among those antiquarian
+rumours, which hold up, as their prime item, the existence of the living
+mammoth "beyond the big lakes."
+
+If the writer of the notes and journal which furnish these sketches, was
+not swayed by any particular theories of this nature, yet was he not
+free from the expectation of finding abundant materials, in the natural
+productions and scenery and incidents of the journey, to reward him
+amply for its perils. He had received from hunters several objects of
+the minerological and geological collection which he made, while living
+at Potosi, and _Mine à Burton_: from these wild borders, and, without
+pretending to estimate the force of each particular object which made up
+the sum of his motives, he resolved to organize an expedition, with all
+the means he could muster, and explore the region. The Austins, who had
+treated him with marked kindness and attention, from the hour of his
+first landing in Missouri, were then preparing to make their first
+movement into Texas, and held out to him a fine theatre for enterprise;
+but it was one not suited to his particular means or taste. He recoiled
+from the subtlety of the Spanish character; and is free to confess, that
+he deemed it a far more attractive latitude for the zea maize and the
+cotton plant, than for those pursuits which led him to prefer the more
+rugged eminences of the Ozarks. They, in the end, founded a republic,
+and he only made an adventurous journey.
+
+Having thus recalled the era and the motive of the following sketches,
+the purport of these remarks is accomplished.
+
+_New York, 1844._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [2] The United States government, the very next year, 1819, sent out
+Col. Long to the Yellow Stone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     Things to be thought of before plunging into the woods--Composition
+     of the party, and reasons why it was not more numerous--First
+     night's encampment--Preliminaries--Sleep in a deserted Indian
+     lodge--A singular variety of the Fox Squirrel--The Pack Horse
+     escapes--Cross the elevation called the Pinery--Reach the outskirts
+     of the settlements in the valley of the Fourche A'Courtois.
+
+
+Whoever would venture into the wilderness, should provide himself with
+such articles of personal comfort, or safety, as habits, forecast, or
+the particular object of pursuit or observation, require. Every one will
+think of arms and ammunition, but there are other things required to
+make life pleasant, or even tolerable in the woods. This, prior
+excursions had already taught me, but the lesson was repeated by those
+of greater experience. There were two persons who had agreed to go with
+me, and stick by me, to the end,--the one a native of Massachussets, and
+the other, of Connecticut, both like myself, new in the field, and
+unacquainted with life in the woods. What they lacked in this art, they
+more than made up, I thought, in intelligence, enterprise and resource.
+The name of the first was Brigham. The other, I shall allude to, under
+the name of Enobitti. Some three or four other persons, natives of the
+region, had consented to go as hunters, or adventurers into a new field
+for emigration, but it so happened, that when all was ready--when every
+objection to the tour had been obviated, and every want supplied, and
+when my two eastern friends came on to the ground, these persons all
+quietly, and with an easy flow of reasons, backed out. In fact, my
+friend Brigham, was also obliged to relinquish the journey, after he had
+reached the point of rendezvous, i. e. Potosi. A residence on the
+American bottom, in Illinois, the prior summer, had exposed him to the
+malaria of that otherwise attractive agricultural area, and an
+intermittent fever, which he had thus contracted, forbade his venturing
+beyond the settlements. So that when the appointed day arrived, Enobitti
+and myself and my good landlord, Ficklin--a warm hearted Kentuckian, who
+had been a hunter and border spy in his youth, were all the persons I
+could number, and the latter, only went a short distance, out of the
+goodness of his heart, and love of forest adventure, to set us, as it
+were, on the way, and initiate us into some necessary forest arts. It
+was a bright balmy day,--the 6th of November, 1818. The leaves were
+rapidly falling from the trees, and strewed the road and made a musical
+rustling among the branches, as we passed the summits of the mine hills,
+which separated the valley of Mine á Burton from the next adjoining
+stream. The air had just enough of the autumn freshness in it, to make
+it inspiring; and we walked forward, with the double animation of
+health and hope. As we passed through forests where the hickory
+abounded, the fox and grey squirrel were frequently seen preparing their
+winter's stores, and gave additional animation to the scene. It was
+early in the afternoon when we came into the valley of Bates' Creek--it
+was indeed but a few miles from our starting point, where our kind
+Mentor told us, it was best to encamp; for, in the first place, it was
+the only spot where we could obtain _water_ for a long distance, and
+secondly, and more important than all, it was necessary that we should
+re-arrange the load of our pack-horse, take a lesson in the art of
+encamping, and make some other preparations which were proper, before we
+plunged outright into the wilderness. This was excellent advice, and
+proper not only to novices, but even, to the initiated in the woodsman's
+art. It is always an object, to make, by this initiatory movement, what
+is technically called _a start_.
+
+I had purchased at Potosi, a horse--a low priced animal, rather old and
+bony, to carry our blankets, some light cooking utensils and a few other
+articles of necessity, and some provisions. He bore the not very
+appropriate name of "Butcher," whether from a former owner, or how
+acquired I know not, but he was not of a sanguinary temper, or at least,
+the only fighting propensity he ever evinced was to get back to Potosi,
+as quick as possible, for he ran off the very first night, and
+frequently, till we got quite far west, repeated the attempt. The poor
+beast seemed to know, instinctively, that he was going away from the
+land of corn fodder, and would have to sustain himself by picking up his
+meals out of sere-grass, often in stony places, or in some dense and
+vine-bound cane bottom, where his hind legs would often be bound fast by
+the green briar, while he reached forward in vain, to bite off a green
+leaf.
+
+Here we took the first lesson in duly hobbling a horse--a very necessary
+lesson: for if not _hobbled_, he will stray away, and cause great
+detention in the morning, and if not _well_ hobbled he will injure his
+legs. We found, near the banks of the stream, a deserted Indian lodge,
+which appeared susceptible, by a little effort, of affording us a very
+comfortable night's lodging, and would furthermore, should it rain,
+prove an effectual shelter. This arrangement we immediately set about:
+the horse was unpacked, his burden stowed in the lodge, the horse
+hobbled and belled, and a fire lit. While my companion arranged the
+details of the camp, and prepared to boil a cup of tea, I took my gun,
+and, with but little ado, shot a number of fine fox and grey
+squirrels--being the first fruits of our exertions in the chace. Among
+them, there was one of decidedly mongrel species. If not, the variety
+was peculiar. He had a grey body, and a red foxy tail, with the belly,
+nose, and tips of the ears black, thus uniting characteristics of three
+varieties. One or two of these were added to our supper, which we made
+with great satisfaction, and in due time spread out our blankets, and
+slept soundly till day break.
+
+On sallying out, I found the horse was gone, and set out in pursuit of
+him. Although his fore feet were tethered, so that he must lift up both
+together, he made his way back, in this jumping manner, to his former
+owner's door, in the village of Mine à Burton. He had not, however, kept
+the path, all the way, and losing his track after he got on the herbage,
+my ear caught the sound of a bell far to the left, which I took to be
+his, and followed. I pursued the sound of this bell, which was only
+heard now and then, till after crossing hill and dale, without deviation
+from the line of sound, I came out at a farm yard, four miles below
+Potosi; where I found the bell to be attached to the neck of a stately
+penned ox. The owner, (who knew me and the circumstance of my having set
+out on the expedition,) told me, that Butcher had reached the mines, and
+been sent back, by a son of his former owner, to my camp. I had nothing
+left, but to retrace my way to the same spot, where I found the
+fugitive, and sat down to a breakfast of tea, bread, ham and squirrel.
+The whole morning, had been lost by this misadventure. It was ten
+o'clock before we got the animal packed and set forward.
+
+Our second day's journey yielded but little to remark. We travelled
+diligently along a rough mountainous path, across a sterile tract called
+the Pinery. This tract is valuable only for its pine timber. It has
+neither farming land nor mineral wealth. Not a habitation of any kind
+was passed. We saw neither bird nor animal. The silence of desolation
+seemed to accompany us. It was a positive relief to the uniform
+sterility of the soil, and monotony of the prospect, to see at length, a
+valley before us. It was a branch of the Maromeg, or Merrimack, which is
+called by its original French term of _Fourche á Courtois_. We had
+travelled a distance of fourteen miles over these flinty eminences. The
+first signs of human habitation appeared in the form of enclosed fields.
+The sun sunk below the hills, as we entered this valley, and we soon had
+the glimpse of a dwelling. Some woodcock flew up as we hastened forward,
+and we were not long in waiting for our formal announcement in the loud
+and long continued barking of dogs. It required the stern commands of
+their master, before they slunk back and became quiet. It was a small
+log tenement of the usual construction on the frontiers, and afforded us
+the usual hospitality and ready accommodation. They gave us warm cakes
+of corn bread, and fine rich milk. We spread our blankets before an
+evening's fire, and enjoyed a good night's rest. Butcher here, I think,
+had his last meal of corn, and made no attempt to return. With the
+earliest streaks of day light, we re-adjusted his pack, and again set
+forward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Reach a hunter's cabin on the outskirts of the wilderness--He
+     agrees to accompany us--Enter the Ozark Hills--Encounter an
+     encampment of the Delaware Indians--Character of the country--Its
+     alpine air, and the purity of its waters.--Ascend to the source of
+     the Merrimack--Reach a game country--Deserted by the hunter and
+     guide, and abandoned to individual exertions in these arts.
+
+
+Every joint labour, which proceeds on the theory, that each person
+engaged in it is to render some personal service, must, in order that it
+may go on pleasantly and succeed well, have a definite order, or rule of
+progress; and this is as requisite in a journey in the wilderness as any
+where else. Our rule was to lead the pack horse, and to take the compass
+and guide ahead, alternately, day by day. It was thought, I had the best
+art in striking and making a fire, and when we halted for the night,
+always did this, while my companion procured water and put it in a way
+to boil for tea. We carried tea, as being lighter and more easy to make
+than coffee. In this way we divided, as equally as possible, the daily
+routine of duties, and went on pleasantly. We had now reached the last
+settlement on the frontier, and after a couple of hours' walk, from our
+last place of lodging, we reached the last house, on the outer verge of
+the wilderness. It was a small, newly erected log hut, occupied by a
+hunter of the name of Roberts, and distant about 20 miles from, and
+south-west of Potosi. Our approach here was also heralded by dogs. Had
+we been wolves or panthers, creeping upon the premises at midnight, they
+could not have performed their duty more noisily. Truly this was a very
+primitive dwelling, and as recent in its structure as it was primitive.
+Large fallen trees lay about, just as the axeman had felled them, and
+partly consumed by fire. The effect of this partial burning had been
+only to render these huge trunks black and hideous. One of them lay in
+front of the cottage. In other places were to be seen deer skins
+stretched to dry; and deers' feet and antlers lay here and there. There
+was not a foot of land in cultivation. It was quite evident at first
+sight, that we had reached the dwelling of a border hunter, and not a
+tiller of the ground. But the owner was absent, as we learned from his
+wife, a spare, shrewd dark-skinned little woman, drest in buckskin, who
+issued from the door before we reached it, and welcomed us by the term
+of "Strangers." Although this is a western term, which supplies the
+place of the word "friend," in other sections of the union, and she
+herself seemed to be thoroughly a native of these latitudes, no Yankee
+could have been more inquisitive, in one particular department of
+enquiry, namely the department relative to the chace. She inquired our
+object--the course and distance we proposed to travel, and the general
+arrangements of horse-gear, equipage, &c. She told us of the danger of
+encountering the Osages, and scrutinized our arms. Such an examination
+would indeed, for its thoroughness, have put a lad to his trumps, who
+had come prepared for his first quarter's examination at a country
+academy. She told us, con amore, that her husband would be back
+soon,--as soon indeed as we could get our breakfast, and that he would
+be glad to accompany us, as far as Ashley's Cave, or perhaps farther.
+This was an opportunity not to be slighted. We agreed to wait, and
+prepare our morning's meal, to which she contributed some well baked
+corn cakes. By this time, and before indeed we had been long there,
+Roberts came in. It is said that a hunter's life is a life of feasting
+or fasting. It appeared to be one of the latter seasons, with him. He
+had been out to scour the precincts, for a meat breakfast, but came home
+empty handed. He was desirous to go out in the direction we were
+steering, which he represented to abound in game, but feared to venture
+far alone, on account of the rascally Osages. He did not fear the
+Delawares, who were near by. He readily accepted our offer to accompany
+us as hunter. Roberts, like his forest help-mate, was clothed in deer
+skin. He was a rather chunky, stout, middle sized man, with a ruddy
+face, cunning features, and a bright unsteady eye. Such a fellow's final
+destination would not be a very equivocal matter, were he a resident of
+the broad neighbourhood of Sing Sing, or "sweet Auburn:" but here, he
+was a man that might, perhaps, be trusted on an occasion like this, and
+we, at any rate, were glad to have his services on the terms stipulated.
+Even while we were talking he began to clean his rifle, and adjust his
+leathern accoutrements: he then put several large cakes of corn bread in
+a sack, and in a very short time he brought a stout little horse out of
+a log pen, which served for a barn; and clapping an old saddle on his
+back and mounting him, with his rifle in one hand, said, "I am ready,"
+and led off. We now had a guide, as well as a hunter, and threw this
+burden wholly on him. Our course lay up a long ridge of hard bound clay
+and chert soil, in the direction of the sources of the Marameg, or, as
+it is now universally called and written, Merrimack. After travelling
+about four miles we suddenly descended from an acclivity into a grassy,
+woodless valley, with a brisk clear stream winding through it, and
+several lodges of Indians planted on its borders. This, our guide told
+us, was the Ozaw Fork of the Merrimack, (in modern geographical parlance
+Ozark.) And here we found the descendants and remainder of that once
+powerful tribe of whom William Penn purchased the site of Philadelphia,
+and whose ancient dominion extended, at the earliest certain historical
+era, along the banks the Lennapihittuck, or Delaware river. Two of them
+were at home, it being a season of the year, and time of day, when the
+men are out hunting. Judging from peculiarity of features, manners and
+dress, it would seem to be impossible that any people should have
+remained so long in contact with or juxtaposition to the European races
+and changed so little, in all that constitutes national and personal
+identity. Roberts looked with no very friendly eye upon these ancient
+lords of the forest, the whole sum of his philosophy and philanthropy
+being measured by the very tangible circle of prairie and forests, which
+narrowed his own hunting grounds. They were even then, deemed to have
+been injudiciously located, by intelligent persons in the west, and have
+long since removed to a permanent location, out of the corporate limits
+of the States and Territories, at the junction of the river Konga with
+the Missouri. I should have been pleased to have lengthened our short
+halt, but the word seemed with him and Enobitti to be "onward," and
+onward we pushed. We were now fairly in the Ozark chain--a wide and
+almost illimitable tract, of which it may be said, that the vallies only
+are susceptible of future cultivation. The intervening ridges and
+mountains are nearly destitute of forest, often perfectly so, and in
+almost all cases, sterile, and unfit for the plough. It is probable
+sheep might be raised on some of these eminences, which possess a
+sufficiency of soil to permit the grasses to be sown. Geologically, it
+has a basis of limestones, resting on sandstones. Unfortunately for its
+agricultural character, the surface has been covered with a foreign
+diluvium of red clay filled with chips of horstone, chert and broken
+quartz, which make the soil hard and compact. Its trees are few and
+stunted; its grass coarse. In looking for the origin of such a soil, it
+seems probable to have resulted from broken down slates and shists on
+the upper Missouri and below the range of the Rocky Mountains, in which
+these broken and imbedded substances originally constituted veins. It is
+only in the vallies, and occasional plains, that a richer and more
+carbonaceous soil has accumulated. The purest springs, however, gush out
+of its hills; its atmosphere is fine and healthful, and it constitutes a
+theatre of Alpine attractions, which will probably render it, in future
+years, the resort of shepherds, lovers of mountain scenery, and
+valetudinarians. There is another remark to be made of the highland
+tracts of the Ozark range. They look, in their natural state, more
+sterile than they actually are, from the effects of autumnal fires.
+These fires, continued for ages by the natives, to clear the ground for
+hunting, have had the effect not only to curtail and destroy large
+vegetation, but all the carbonaceous particles of the top soil have been
+burned, leaving the surface in the autumn, rough, red, dry and hard.
+When a plough comes to be put into such a surface, it throws up quite a
+different soil; and the effects of light, and the sun's heat are often
+found, as I have noticed in other parts of the west, to produce a dark
+and comparatively rich soil.
+
+We occupied the entire day in ascending and crossing the ridge of land,
+which divides the little valley of the Oza from that of the Merrimack.
+When getting near the latter, the soil exhibited traces of what appeared
+to be iron ore, but somewhat peculiar in its character, and of dark
+hue. This soon revealed itself, in passing a short distance, in an
+abundant locality of black and coloured oxide of manganese--lying in
+masses in the arid soil. The Indian trail which we were pursuing led
+across the valley. We forded the river on foot. No encampments of
+Indians were found, nor any very recent traces of them; and we began to
+think that the accounts of Osage depredations and plundering, must be
+rather exaggerated. The river pours its transparent mountain waters over
+a wide bed of pebbles and small boulders, and, at this season, offered
+but little impediment to the horses or ourselves in crossing it. The sun
+was getting low, by the time we reached the opposite side of the valley,
+and we encamped on its borders, a mile or two above. Here we took due
+care of our horses, prepared our evening's meal, talked over the day's
+adventures, enjoyed ourselves sitting before our camp fire, with the
+wild wide creation before us and around, and then sank to a sound repose
+on our pallets.
+
+Novices in the woodman's art, and raw in the business of travelling, our
+sleep was sounder and more death-like, than that of Roberts. His eye had
+shown a restlessness during the afternoon and evening. We were now in a
+game country, the deer and elk began to be frequently seen, and their
+fresh tracks across our path, denoted their abundance. During the night
+they ventured about our camp, so as to disturb the ears of the weary
+hunter, and indeed, my own. He got up and found both horses missing.
+Butcher's memory of Mine á Burton corn fodder had not deserted him, and
+he took the hunter's horse along with him. I jumped up, and accompanied
+him, in their pursuit. They were both overtaken about three miles back
+on the track, making all possible speed homeward, that their tethered
+fore legs would permit. We conducted them back, without disturbing my
+companion, and he then went out with his rifle, and quickly brought in a
+fine fat doe, for our breakfast. Each one cut fine pieces of steaks, and
+roasted for himself. We ate it with a little salt, and the remainder of
+the hunter's corn cakes, and finished the repast, with a pint cup each,
+of Enobitti's best tea. This turned out to be _a finale_ meal with our
+Fourche à Courtois man, Roberts: for the rascal, a few hours afterwards,
+deserted us, and went back. Had he given any intimation of
+dissatisfaction, or a desire to return, we should have been in a measure
+prepared for it. It is probable his fears of the then prevalent bugbear
+of those frontiersmen, the Osages, were greater than our own. It is also
+probable, that he had no other idea whatever, in leaving the Fourche à
+Courtois, than to avail himself of our protection till he could get into
+a region where he could shoot deer enough in a single morning to load
+down his horse, with the choicest pieces, and lead him home. This the
+event, at least, rendered probable; and the fellow not only deserted us
+meanly, but he carried off my best new hunting knife, with scabbard and
+belt--a loss not easily repaired in such a place.
+
+To cloak his plan, he set out with us in the morning: it had rained a
+little, during the latter part of the night, and was lowering and dark
+all the morning. After travelling about ten miles, we left the Osage
+trail, which began to bear too far north-west, and struck through the
+woods in a south course, with the view of reaching Ashley's Cave on one
+of the head streams of the river currents. Soon after leaving this
+trail, Roberts, who was in advance on our left, about half a mile, fired
+at, and killed, a deer, and immediately re-loaded, pursued and fired
+again; telling us to continue on our course, as he, being on horseback,
+could easily overtake us. We neither heard nor saw more of him. Night
+overtook us near the banks of a small lake, or rather a series of little
+lakes or ponds, communicating with each other, where we encamped. After
+despatching our supper, and adjusting, in talk, the day's rather
+eventful incidents, and the morrow's plan of march, we committed
+ourselves to rest, but had not sunk into forgetfulness, when a pack of
+wolves set up their howl in our vicinity. We had been told that these
+animals will not approach near a fire, and are not to be dreaded in a
+country where deer abound. They follow the track of the hunter, to share
+such part of the carcass as he leaves, and it is their nature to herd
+together and run down this animal as their natural prey. We slept well,
+but it is worthy of notice, that on awaking about day break, the howling
+of the wolves was still heard, and at about the same distance. They had
+probably serenaded us all night. Our fire was nearly out; we felt some
+chilliness, and determined to rekindle it, and prepare our breakfast
+before setting forward. It was now certain, that Roberts was gone.
+Luckily he had not carried off our compass, for _that_ would have been
+an accident fatal to the enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     A deeper view of the Ozark Chain. Pass along the flanks of the
+     highlands which send out the sources of the Black, Eleven points,
+     Currents and Spring rivers. Reach a romantic glen of caves. Birds
+     and animals seen. Saltpetre earth; stalactites. Cross the alpine
+     summit of the western Ozarks. Source of the Gasconade river
+     Accident in fording the Little Osage river.--Encamp on one of its
+     tributaries.
+
+
+It was found as we began to bestir ourselves for wood to light our fire
+that we had reposed not far from a bevy of wild ducks, who had sought
+the grassy edge of the lake during the night, and with the first alarm
+betook themselves to flight. With not so ready a mode of locomotion, we
+followed their example, in due time, and also their course, which was
+south. At the distance of a couple of miles, we crossed a small stream,
+running south-east, which we judged to be the outlet of the small lakes
+referred to, and which is, probably the source of Black River, or the
+Eleven points. Our course led us in an opposite direction, and we soon
+found ourselves approaching the sterile hills which bound the romantic
+valley of the currents. There had been some traces of wheels, on the
+softer soil, which had been driven in this direction towards the
+saltpetre caves, but we completely lost them, as we came to and ascended
+these arid and rugged steeps. Some of these steeps rose into dizzy and
+romantic cliffs, surmounted with pines. We wound our way cautiously
+amongst them, to find some gorge and depression, through which we might
+enter the valley. For ourselves we should not have been so choice of a
+path, but we had a pack horse to lead, and should he be precipitated
+into a gulf, we must bid adieu to our camp equipage. Our arms and a
+single blanket, would be all we could carry. At length this summit was
+reached. The view was enchanting. A winding wooded valley, with its
+clear bright river, stretched along at the base of the summit. Rich
+masses of foliage, hung over the clear stream, and were reflected in its
+pellucid current, with a double beauty. The autumnal frost, which had
+rifled the highland trees of their clothing, appeared to have passed
+over this deeply secluded valley with but little effect, and this
+effect, was only to highten the interest of the scene, by imparting to
+portions of its foliage, the liveliest orange and crimson tints. And
+this was rendered doubly attractive by the contrast. Behind us lay the
+bleak and barren hills, over which we had struggled, without a shade, or
+a brook, or even the simplest representative of the animal creation. For
+it is a truth, that during the heat of the day, both birds and
+quadrupeds betake themselves to the secluded shades of the streams and
+vallies. From these they sally out, into the plains, in quest of food at
+early dawn, and again just before night fall. All the rest of the day,
+the plains and highlands have assumed the silence of desolation. Evening
+began to approach as we cautiously picked our way down the cliffs, and
+the first thing we did, on reaching the stream was to take a hearty
+drink of its crystal treasure, and let our horse do the same. The next
+object was to seek a fording place--which was effected without
+difficulty. On mounting the southern bank, we again found the trail,
+lost in the morning, and pursued it with alacrity. It was my turn this
+day to be in advance, as guide, but the temptation of small game, as we
+went up the valley, drew me aside, while Enobitti proceeded to select a
+suitable spot for the night's encampment. It was dark when I rejoined
+him, with my squirrel and pigeon hunt. He had confined himself closely
+to the trail. It soon led him out of the valley, up a long brushy ridge,
+and then through an open elevated pine grove, which terminated abruptly
+in a perpendicular precipice. Separated from this, at some eight hundred
+yards distance, stood a counter precipice of limestone rock, fretted
+out, into pinnacles and massy walls, with dark openings, which gave the
+whole the resemblance of architectural ruins. The stream that ran
+between these cliffs, was small, and it lay so deep and well embrowned
+in the shades of evening, that it presented vividly from this elevation,
+a waving bright line on a dark surface. Into this deep dark terrific
+glen the path led, and here we lit our fire, hastily constructed a bush
+camp, and betook ourselves, after due ablutions in the little stream, to
+a night's repose. The sky became rapidly overcast, before we had
+finished our meal, and a night of intense darkness, threatening a
+tempest, set in. As we sat by our fire, its glare upon huge beetling
+points of overhanging rocks, gave the scene a wild and picturesque cast;
+and we anticipated returning daylight with an anxious wish to know and
+see our exact locality. By the restless tramping of our horse, and the
+tinkling of his bell, we knew that he had found but indifferent picking.
+
+Daylight fulfilled the predictions of the evening. We had rain. It also
+revealed our position in this narrow, and romantic glen. A high wall of
+rocks, encompassed us on either hand, but they were not such as would
+have resulted in a volcanic country from a valley fissure. Narrow and
+deep as the glen was, it was at once apparent, that it was a valley of
+denudation, and had owed its existence to the wasting effects of the
+trifling stream within it, carrying away, particle by particle, the
+matter loosened by rains and frosts, and mechanical attrition. The
+cliffs are exclusively calcareous, and piled up, mason like, in
+horizontal layers. One of the most striking pictures which they
+presented, was found in the great number, size and variety of caves,
+which opened into this calcareous formation. These caves are of all
+sizes, some of them very large, and not a few of them situated at
+elevations above the floor of the glen, which forbade access.
+
+One of our first objects, after examining the neighbourhood, was to
+remove our baggage and location up the glen, into one of these caves,
+which at the distance of about a mile, promised us an effectual shelter
+from the inclemency of the storm. This done, we determined here to wait
+for settled weather, and explore the precincts. By far the most
+prominent object, among the caverns, was the one into which we had thus
+unceremoniously thrust ourselves. It had evidently been visited before,
+by persons in search of saltpetre earth. Efflorescences of nitric earth,
+were abundant in its fissures, and this salt was also present in masses
+of reddish diluvial earth, which lay in several places. The mouth of
+this cave presented a rude irregular arc, of which the extreme height
+was probably thirty feet, and the base line ninety. The floor of this
+orifice occurs, at an elevation of about forty feet above the stream.
+And this size is held for about two hundred feet, when it expands into a
+lofty dome, some eighty or ninety feet high, and perhaps, three hundred
+in diameter. In its centre a fine spring of water issues from the rock.
+From this dome several passages lead off in different directions.
+
+One of these opens into the glen, at an inaccessible point, just below.
+Another runs back nearly at right angles with the mouth, putting out
+smaller passages, of not much importance, however, in its progress. So
+splendid and noble an entrance gave us the highest hopes of finding it
+but the vestibule of a natural labyrinth; but the result disappointed
+us. These ample dimensions soon contract, and after following the main
+or south passage about five hundred yards, we found our further entrance
+barred, by masses of fallen rock, at the foot of which a small stream
+trickled through the broken fragments, and found its way to the mouth.
+Have we good reason to attribute to this small stream, a power
+sufficient to be regarded as the effective agent in carrying away the
+calcareous rock, so as to have in a long period produced the orifice?
+Whence then, it may be asked, the masses of compact reddish clay and
+pebble diluvium, which exist? These seem rather, to denote that these
+caves were open orifices, during the period of oceanic action, upon the
+surface of the Ozarks, and that a mass of waters, surcharged with such
+materials, flowed into pre-existing caverns. This diluvium is, in truth,
+of the same era as the wide spread stream of like kind, which has been
+deposited over the metalliferous region of Missouri. If these, however,
+be questions for geological doubt, we had lit upon another inquiry,
+very prominent on our minds in making this exploration, namely, whether
+there were any wild beasts sheltered in its fissures. Satisfied that we
+were safe on this score, we retraced our footsteps to our fire, and
+sallied out to visit other caves. Most of these were at such heights as
+prevented access to them. In one instance, a tree had fallen against the
+face of the cliff, in such a manner, that by climbing it to its forks,
+and taking one of the latter, the opening might be reached. Putting a
+small mineral hammer in my pocket, I ascended this tree, and found the
+cave accessible. It yielded some wax-yellow and white-translucent
+stalactites, and also very delicate white crystals of nitre. The
+dimensions of this cave were small, and but little higher than to enable
+a man to stand upright.
+
+In each of the caves of this glen which I entered, during a halt of
+several days in this vicinity, I looked closely about for fossil bones,
+but without success in any instance. The only article of this kind
+observed was the recent leg and foot bones and vertebra of the bos
+musarius, which appeared to be an inhabitant of the uppermost fissures
+in these calcareous cliffs, but I never saw the living species, although
+I ranged along their summits and bases, with my gun and hammer, at
+various hours. Some of the compact lime stone in the bed of the creek
+exhibited a striped and jaspery texture. The wood-duck and the duck and
+mallard sometimes frequented this secluded stream, and it was a common
+resort for the wild turkey, at a certain hour in the evening. This bird
+seemed at such times to come in thirsty, from its ranges in quest of
+acorns on the uplands, and its sole object appeared to be to drink.
+Sitting in the mouth of our cave, we often had a fine opportunity to see
+flocks of these noisy and fine birds flying down from the cliffs, and
+perching on the trees below us. If they came to roost, as well as to
+slack their thirst, a supposition probable, this was an ill-timed
+movement, so long as we inhabited the glen, for they only escaped the
+claw and talons of one enemy, to fall before the fire-lock of the other.
+This bird, indeed, proved our best resource on the journey, for we
+travelled with too much noise and want of precaution generally, to kill
+the deer and elk, which, however, were abundant on the highland plains.
+
+We passed three days at the Glen Cave, during which there were several
+rains; it stormed one entire day, and we employed the time of this
+confinement, in preparing for the more intricate and unknown parts of
+our journey. Hitherto we had pursued for the most of the way, a trail,
+and were cheered on our way, by sometimes observing traces of human
+labour. But, from this point we were to plunge into a perfect
+wilderness, without a trace or track. We had before us, that portion of
+the Ozark range, which separates to the right and left, the waters of
+the Missouri from those of the Mississippi. It was supposed, from the
+best reports, that by holding south-west, across these eminences, we
+should strike the valley of the White River, which interposed itself
+between our position there and the Arkansas. To enter upon this tract,
+with our compass only as a guide, and with the certainty of finding no
+nutritious grass for our horse, required that we should lighten and
+curtail our baggage as much as possible, and put all our effects into
+the most compact and portable form. And having done this, and the
+weather proving settled, we followed a short distance up the Glen of
+Caves; but finding it to lead too directly west, we soon left it and
+mounted the hills which line its southern border. A number of latter
+valleys, covered with thick brush, made this a labour by no means
+slight. The surface was rough; vegetation sere and dry, and every
+thicket which spread before us, presented an obstacle which was to be
+overcome. We could have penetrated many of these, which the horse could
+not be forced through. Such parts of our clothing as did not consist of
+buckskin, paid frequent tribute to these brambles. At length we got
+clear of these spurs, and entered on a high waving table land where
+travelling became comparatively easy. The first view of this vista of
+high land plains was magnificent. It was covered with moderate sized
+sere grass and dry seed pods, which rustled as we passed. There was
+scarcely an object deserving the name of a tree, except, now and then, a
+solitary trunk of a dead pine, or oak, which had been scathed by
+lightning. The bleached skull of the buffalo, was sometimes met, and
+proved that this animal had once existed here. Rarely we passed a
+stunted oak; sometimes a cluster of saplings crowned the summit of a
+sloping hill; the deer often bounded before us; we sometimes disturbed
+the hare from its sheltering bush, or put to flight the quail or the
+prairie hen. There was no prominent feature for the eye to rest upon.
+The unvaried prospect produced satiety. We felt in a peculiar manner the
+solitariness of the wilderness. We travelled silently and diligently. It
+was a dry and thirsty barren. From morning till sun set we did not
+encounter a drop of water. This became the absorbing object. Hill after
+hill, and vale after vale were patiently scanned, and diligently footed,
+without bringing the expected boon. At length we came, without the
+expectation of it, to a small running stream in the plain, where we
+gladly encamped. There was also some grass which preserved a greenish
+hue, and which enabled our horse also to recruit himself.
+
+Early the next morning we repacked him, and continued our course,
+travelling due west south-west. At the distance of five or six miles, we
+reached the banks of a clear stream of twenty feet wide, running over a
+bed of pebbles and small secondary boulders. This stream ran towards the
+north west, and gave us the first intimation we had, that we had crossed
+the summit and were on the off drain of the Missouri. We supposed it to
+be the source of the Gasconade, or at farthest some eastern tributary of
+the Little Osage.
+
+A few hours travelling brought us to the banks of another stream of
+much larger size and depth, but running in the same direction. This
+stream we found it difficult to cross, and spent several hours in
+heaping piles of stone, and connecting them with dry limbs of trees,
+which had been carried down by floods. It had a rapid and deep current,
+on each side of which was a wide space of shallow water and rolled
+boulders of lime and sand stone. We succeeded in driving the horse
+safely over. Enobitti led the way on our frail bridge-work, but
+disturbed the last link of it as he jumped off on the south bank, so
+that it turned under my tread and let me in. There was no kind of danger
+in the fall as it was in the shallow part of the stream, but putting out
+my hands to break the fall, it so happened that my whole weight rested
+on my gun, which was supported on two stones, merely on its butt and
+muzzle; the effect was to wrench the barrel. I gave it a counter wrench
+as soon as we encamped, but I never afterwards could place full
+confidence in it. We had not gone over three or four miles beyond this
+river, when we came to the banks of a third stream, running west, but
+also sweeping off below, towards the north-west. This stream was smaller
+than the former and opposed no difficulty in fording it. Having done
+this we followed it up a short distance, and encamped on its south
+banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Hearsay information of the hunters turns out false--We alter our
+     course--A bear hunt--An accident--Another rencontre with
+     bears--Strike the source of the Great North Fork of White
+     River--Journey down this valley--Its character and productions--A
+     great Spring--Incidents of the route--Pack horse rolls down a
+     precipice--Plunges in the river--A cavern--Osage lodges--A hunter's
+     hut.
+
+
+It was now manifest, from our crossing the last two streams, that we
+were going too far north--that we were in fact in the valley of the
+Missouri proper; and that the information obtained of the hunters on the
+source of the Merrimack, was not to be implicitly relied on. It is not
+probable that one of the persons who gave this information had ever been
+here. It was a region they were kept out of by the fear of the Osages,
+as our own experience in the case of Roberts denoted. Willing to test it
+farther, however, we followed down the last named stream a few miles; in
+the hope of its turning south or south-west, but it went off in another
+direction. We then came to a halt, and after consulting together,
+steered our course due south south-west, thus varying our general course
+from the caves. This carried us up a long range of wooded highlands. The
+forest here assumed a handsome growth. We passed through a track of the
+over-cup oak, interspersed with hickory, and had reached the summit of
+an elevated wooded ridge, when just as we gained the highest point, we
+discovered four bears on a large oak, in the valley before us. Three of
+the number were probably cubs, and with their dam, they were regaling
+themselves on the ripe acorns without observing us. We had sought no
+opportunities to hunt, and given up no especial time to it, but here was
+too fair a challenge to be neglected. We tied our horse securely to a
+sapling, and then examining our pieces, and putting down an extra ball,
+set out to descend the hill as cautiously as possible. An unlucky slip
+of Enobitti threw him with force forward and sprained his ankle. He lay
+for a short time in agony. This noise alarmed the bears, who one after
+the other quickly ran in from the extremities of the limbs to the trunk,
+which they descended head first, and scampered clumsily off up the
+valley. I pursued them without minding my companion, not knowing, indeed
+how badly he was hurt, but was compelled to give up the chase, as the
+tall grass finally prevented my seeing what course they had taken. I now
+returned to my companion. He could not stand at first, nor walk when he
+arose, and the first agony had passed. I proposed to mount him on the
+pack horse, and lead him slowly up the valley, and this plan was carried
+into effect. But he endured too much suffering to bear even this. The
+ankle began to inflame. There was nothing but rest and continued repose
+that promised relief. I selected a fine grassy spot to encamp, unpacked
+the horse, built a fire, and got my patient comfortably stretched on his
+pallet. But little provision had been made at Potosi in the medical
+department. My whole store of pharmacy consisted of some pills and
+salves, and a few simple articles. The only thing I could think of as
+likely to be serviceable, was in our culinary pack,--it was a little
+sack of salt, and of this I made a solution in warm water and bathed the
+ankle. I then replenished the fire and cut some wood to renew it. It was
+still early in the day, and leaving my companion to rest, and to the
+effect of the remedy offered, I took my gun and strolled over the
+adjoining hills, in hopes of bringing in some pigeons, or other small
+game. But it was a time of day when both birds and quadrupeds have
+finished their mornings repast, and retired to the groves or fastnesses.
+I saw nothing but the little grey bunting, and the noisy jay. When I
+returned to our camp in the vale I found my companion easier. The
+bathing had sensibly alleviated the pain and swelling. It was therefore
+diligently renewed, and the next morning he was so far improved, that he
+consented to try the pack horse again. We had not, however, travelled
+far, when two large bears were seen before us playing in the grass, and
+so engaged in their sport, that they did not perceive us. We were now on
+the same level with them, and quickly prepared to give them battle. My
+companion dismounted as easily as possible, and having secured the horse
+and examined our arms, we reached a stand within firing distance. It was
+not till this moment that our approach was discovered by them, and the
+first thing they did after running a few yards, was to sit up in the
+grass and gaze at us. Having each singled his animal, we fired at the
+same instant. Both animals fled, but on reaching the spot where my mark
+had sat, blood was copiously found on the grass, and a pursuit was the
+consequence. I followed him up a long ridge, but he passed over the
+summit so far before me, that I lost sight of him. I came to a large
+hollow black oak, in the direction he had disappeared, which showed the
+nail marks of some animal, which I believed to be his. While examining
+these signs more closely my companion made his appearance. How he had
+got there I know not. The excitement had well nigh cured his ancle. He
+stood by the orifice, while I went for the axe to our camp, and when I
+was tired chopping, he laid hold. We chopped alternately, and big as it
+was, the tree at last came down with a crash that made the forest ring.
+For a few moments we looked at the huge and partly broken trunk as if a
+bear would start from it; but all was silence. We thoroughly searched
+the hollow part but found nothing. I went over another ridge of forest
+land, started a noble elk, but saw nothing more of my bear. Here
+terminated this adventure. We retraced our footsteps back to the valley,
+and proceeded on our route. This incident had led us a little south of
+our true course; and it so turned out that it was at a point, where a
+mile or two one way or the other, was calculated to make a wide
+difference in the place of our exit into the valley of White River; for
+we were on a high broken summit ridge, from which several important
+streams originated. The pursuit of the bear had carried us near to the
+head of the valley, and by crossing the intervening summit, we found
+ourselves at the head springs of an important stream, which in due time
+we learned was the Great North Fork of White River. This stream begins
+to develope itself in pools, or standing springs, which soak through the
+gravel and boulders, and it is many miles before it assumes the
+character of a continuous stream. Even then it proceeds in plateaux or
+steps, on which the water has a level, and the next succeeding level
+below it has its connection with it, through a rapid. In fact, the whole
+stream, till near its mouth, is one series of these lake-like levels,
+and short rapids, each level sinking lower and lower, till, like the
+locks in a canal, the last flows out on a level with its final
+recipient. But however its waters are congregated, they are all pure and
+colourless as rock crystal, and well vindicate the propriety of their
+original name of _la Rivière Blanc_. They all originate in mountain
+springs, are cool and sparkling, and give assurance in this feature,
+that they will carry health to the future inhabitants of the valley
+through which they flow. With the first springs begins to be seen a
+small growth of the cane, which is found a constant species on its
+bottom lands. This plant becomes high in more southern latitudes, and
+being intertwined with the green briar, renders it very difficult, as we
+soon found, to penetrate it, especially with a horse. Man can endure a
+thousand adventures and hardships where a horse would die; and it would
+require no further testimony than this journey gave, to convince me,
+that providence designed the horse for a state of civilization.
+
+We followed the course of these waters about six miles, and encamped It
+was evidently the source of a stream of some note. It ran in the
+required direction, and although we did not then know, that it was the
+valley of the Great North Fork of White River, we were satisfied it was
+a tributary of the latter stream, and determined to pursue it. This we
+did for twelve days, before we met with a human being, white or red. It
+rapidly developed itself, as we went, and unfolded an important valley,
+of rich soil, bearing a vigorous growth of forest trees, and enclosed on
+either hand, by elevated limestone cliffs. Nothing could exceed the
+purity of its waters, which bubbled up in copious springs, from the
+rock, or pebble stratum. For a long distance the stream increased from
+such accessions alone, without large and independent tributaries. On the
+second day's travel, we came to a spring, of this crystal character,
+which we judged to be about fifty feet across, at the point of its issue
+from the rock and soil. Its outlet after running about a thousand yards,
+joined the main stream, to which it brings a volume fully equal to it.
+This spring I named the Elk Spring, from the circumstance of finding a
+large pair of the horns of this animal, partly buried in the leaves, at
+a spot where I stooped down to drink. I took the horns, and hung them in
+the forks of a young oak tree.
+
+We found abundance of game in this valley. There was not an entire day,
+I think, until we got near the hunters' camps, that we did not see
+either the bear, elk, or deer, or their recent signs. Flocks of the wild
+turkey were of daily occurrence. The gray squirrel frequently sported on
+the trees, and as the stream increased in size, we found the duck, brant
+and swan.
+
+There were two serious objections, however, in travelling down a wooded
+valley. Its shrubbery was so thick and rank that it was next to
+impossible to force the pack horse through it. Wherever the cane
+abounds, and this comprehends all its true alluvions, it is found to be
+matted together, as it were, with the green briar and grape vine. So
+much noise attended the effort at any rate, that the game generally fled
+before us, and had it not been for small game, we should have often
+wanted a meal. With every effort, we could not make an average of more
+than fourteen miles a day. The river was so tortuous too, that we could
+not count, on making more than half this distance, in a direct line. To
+remedy these evils we sometimes went out of the valley, on the open
+naked plains. It was a relief, but had, in the end, these difficulties,
+that while the plains exposed us to greater heats in travelling, they
+afforded no water, and we often lost much time in the necessity, we were
+under, towards night-fall, of going back to the valley for water.
+Neither was it found to be safe to travel far separated, for there were
+many causes of accident, which rendered mutual assistance desirable. One
+day, while Enobitti led the horse, and was conducting him from a lofty
+ridge, to get into the valley, the animal stumbled, and rolled to the
+bottom. We thought every bone in his body had been broke, but he had
+been protected by his pack, and we found that he was but little injured,
+and when repacked, still capable of going forward. On another occasion,
+I had been leading him for several hours, along a high terrace of cliffs
+on the left banks where this terrace was, as it were, suddenly cut off
+by the intersection of a lateral valley. The view was a sublime one,
+standing at the pinnacle of junction; but there was no possible way of
+descent, and it was necessary to retrace my steps, a long--long way. As
+an instance of the very tortuous character of this stream, I will
+mention that a rocky peninsula, causing a bend which it took my
+companion some two hours to pass, with the horse, I had crossed in less
+than twenty minutes, with my hammer and gun. When we had, as we
+supposed, become familiar with every species of impediment and delay, in
+descending the valley, a new, and very serious and unexpected one, arose
+one day, in crossing the stream, from the left to the right bank. It was
+my turn to be muleteer that day, and I had selected a ford where the
+river was not wide, and the water, apparently, some two or three feet
+deep. I judged from the clearness of the pebbles at the bottom, and
+their apparent nearness to the surface. But such was the transparency of
+the water, that a wide mistake was made. We had nearly lost the horse,
+he plunged in over head, could not touch bottom, and when with great
+ado, we had got him up the steep bank on the other side, he was
+completely exhausted. But this was not the extent of the evil. Our sugar
+and salt were dissolved. Our meal, of which a little still remained, was
+spoiled. Our tea was damaged,--our blankets and clothing wetted,--our
+whole pack soaked. The horse had been so long in the water, in our often
+fruitless efforts to get him to some part of the bank depressed enough,
+to pull him up, that nothing had escaped its effects. We encamped on the
+spot, and spent the rest of the day in drying our effects, and expelling
+from our spare garments the superfluous moisture.
+
+The next day we struck out into the high plains, on the right bank, and
+made a good day's journey. The country was nearly level, denuded of
+trees, with sere autumnal grass. Often the prairie hen started up, but
+we saw nothing in the animal creation beside, save a few hares, as
+evening came on. To find water for the horse, and ourselves, we were
+again compelled to approach the valley. We at length entered a dry and
+desolate gorge, without grass or water. Night came on, but no sound or
+sight of water occurred. We were sinking deeper and deeper into the
+rocky structure of the country at every step, and soon found there were
+high cliffs on either side of us. What we most feared now occurred. It
+became dark, the clouds had threatened foul weather and it now began to
+rain. Had it not been for a cavern, which disclosed itself, in one of
+these calcareous cliffs, we must have passed a miserable night. On
+entering it, we found a spring of water. It was too high in the cliff to
+get the horse in, but we carried him water in a vessel. He was
+afterwards hobbled, and left to shift for himself. On striking a fire,
+in the cave, its rays disclosed masses of stalactites, and a dark avenue
+into the rocks back. Having made a cup of tea and finished our repast,
+we determined to explore the cave before lying down to rest, lest we
+might be intruded on by some wild animal before morning. A torch of pine
+wood was soon made, which guided our footsteps into the dismal recess,
+but we found nothing of the kind. On returning to our fire, near the
+mouth of the cave, we found the rain had increased to a heavy shower,
+and the vivid flashes of lightning, illumined with momentary
+brilliancy, the dark and frowning precipices of this romantic gorge. The
+excitement and novelty of our position, served to drive away sleep,
+notwithstanding a long day's march, and it was late before we sought
+repose.
+
+Morning brought a clear sky, but the horse was gone. He had followed on
+the back track, up the glen, in search of something to feed upon, and
+was not found till we reached the skirts of the plains. The whole
+morning was indeed, lost in reclaiming him, and we then set forward
+again, and returned to the North Fork valley. We found it had assumed a
+greater expanse, at the point of our re-entry, which it maintained, and
+increased, as we pursued it down. Wide open oak plains extended on the
+left bank, which appeared very eligible for the purposes of settlement.
+On an oak tree, at this spot, we observed some marks, which had probably
+been made by some enterprising land explorer. With these improved
+evidences of its character for future occupation, we found the
+travelling easier. Within a few miles travel, we noticed a tributary
+coming in on the left bank, and at a lower point another on the left.
+The first stream had this peculiarity, that its waters came in at a
+right angle, with the parent stream, and with such velocity as to pass
+directly across its channel to the opposite bank. In this vicinity, we
+saw many of the deserted pole camps of the Osages, none of which
+appeared, however, to have been recently occupied. So far, indeed, we
+had met no hindrance, or annoyance from this people; we had not even
+encountered a single member of the tribe, and felt assured that the
+accounts we had received of their cruelty and rapacity, had been grossly
+exaggerated, or if not wholly overcoloured, they must have related to a
+period in their history, which was now well nigh past. We could not
+learn that they had hunted on these lands, during late years, and were
+afterwards given to understand that they had ceded them to the United
+States by a treaty concluded at St. Louis. From whatever causes,
+however, the district had been left free from their roving parties, it
+was certain that the game had recovered under such a cessation of the
+chase. The black bear, deer and elk, were abundant. We also frequently
+saw signs of the labours of the beaver along the valley. I had the good
+luck, one day, while in advance with my gun, of beholding two of these
+animals, at play in the stream, and observing their graceful motions. My
+position was, within point blank shot of them, but I was screened from
+their gaze. I sat, with gun cocked, meaning to secure one of them after
+they came to the shore. Both animals came out together, and sat on the
+bank at the edge of the river, a ledge of rocks being in the rear of
+them. The novelty of the sight led me to pause, and admire them, when,
+all of a sudden, they darted into a crevice in the rock.
+
+On the second day after re-entering the valley, we descried, on
+descending a long slope of rising ground, a hunter's cabin, covered with
+narrow oak boards, split with a frow; and were exhilarated with the
+idea of finding it occupied. But this turned out a delusive hope. It had
+been deserted, from appearance, the year before. We found, among the
+surrounding weeds, a few stems of the cotton plant, which had grown up
+from seeds, accidentally dropped. The bolls had opened. I picked out the
+cotton to serve as a material in lighting my camp fires, at night, this
+being a labour which I had taken the exclusive management of. The site
+of this camp, had been well chosen. There was a small stream in front,
+and a heavy rich cane bottom behind it, extending to the banks of the
+river. A handsome point of woodlands extended north of it, from the
+immediate door of the camp. And although somewhat early in the day, we
+determined to encamp, and soon made ourselves masters of the fabric, and
+sat down before a cheerful fire, with a title to occupancy, which there
+was no one to dispute.
+
+
+THE BIRD.
+
+VERSIFIED FROM THE GERMAN OF GESSNER: 1812.
+
+          A swain, as he strayed through the grove,
+            Had caught a young bird on a spray--
+          What a gift, he exclaimed, for my love,
+            How beautiful, charming, and gay.
+
+          With rapture he viewed the fair prize,
+            And listened with joy to its chat,
+          As with haste to the meadow he hies
+            To secure it beneath his straw hat.
+
+          I will make of yon willows so gay,
+            A cage for my prisoner to mourn,
+          Then to Delia, the gift I'll convey,
+            And beg for a kiss in return.
+
+          She will grant me that one, I am sure;
+            For a present so rare and so gay,
+          And I easily can steal a few more
+            And bear them enraptured away.
+
+          He returned: but imagine his grief,
+            The wind had his hat overthrown,
+          And the bird, in the joy of relief,
+            Away with his kisses had flown.
+
+                    H. R. S.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE INDIAN RACE, DRAWN FROM NOTES
+OF TRAVEL AND RESIDENCE IN THEIR TERRITORIES.
+
+CHARACTER OF THE RED MAN OF AMERICA.
+
+
+     INQUIRY I.--What kind of a being is the North American
+     Indian?--Have we judged rightly of him?--What are his peculiar
+     traits, his affections, and his intellectual qualities?--Is he much
+     influenced by his religion, his mode of government, and his
+     complicated language.
+
+My earliest impressions of the Indian race, were drawn from the fireside
+rehearsals of incidents which had happened during the perilous times of
+the American revolution; in which my father was a zealous actor, and
+were all inseparably connected with the fearful ideas of the Indian
+yell, the tomahawk, the scalping knife, and the fire brand. In these
+recitals, the Indian was depicted as the very impersonation of evil--a
+sort of wild demon, who delighted in nothing so much as blood and
+murder, Whether he had mind, was governed by any reasons, or even had
+any soul, nobody inquired, and nobody cared. It was always represented
+as a meritorious act in old revolutionary reminiscences, to have killed
+one of them in the border wars, and thus aided in ridding the land of a
+cruel and unnatural race, in whom all feelings of pity, justice, and
+mercy, were supposed to be obliterated. These early ideas were sustained
+by printed narratives of captivity and hair-breadth escapes of men and
+women from their clutches, which, from time to time, fell into my hands,
+so that long before I was ten years old, I had a most definite and
+terrific idea impressed on my imagination of what was sometimes called
+in my native precincts, "the bow and arrow race."
+
+To give a definite conception of the Indian man, there lived in my
+native valley, a family of Indians of the Iroquois stock, who often went
+off to their people in the west, and as often returned again, as if
+they were a troop of genii, or the ghosts of the departed, who came to
+haunt the nut wood forests, and sub-vallies of the sylvan Tawasenthaw,
+which their ancestors had formerly possessed, and to which they still
+claimed some right. In this family, which was of the Oneida tribe, and
+consisted of the husband and wife, with two grown up sons, I first saw
+those characteristic features of the race,--namely, a red skin, with
+bright black eyes, and black straight hair. They were mild and docile in
+their deportment, and were on friendly terms with the whole settlement,
+whom they furnished with neatly made baskets of the linden wood, split
+very thin, and coloured, to impart variety, and with nice ash brooms.
+These fabrics made them welcome guests with every good housewife, who
+had forgotten the horrific stories of the revolution, and who was ever
+ready to give a chair and a plate, and a lodging place by the kitchen
+fire, to poor old Isaac and Anna, for so they had been named. What their
+original names were, nobody knew; they had lived so long in the valley
+that they spoke the Dutch language, and never made use of their own,
+except when talking together; and I recollect, we thought it a matter of
+wonder, when they discoursed in Indian, whether such a guttural jargon,
+could possibly be the medium of conveying any very definite ideas. It
+seemed to be one undistinguished tissue of hard sounds, blending all
+parts of speech together.
+
+Had the boys of my own age, and I may say, the grown people, stopped to
+reflect, and been led to consider this family and their race in America,
+independently of their gross acts, under the strong excitements of war
+and revenge, goaded by wrongs, and led on by the class of revolutionary
+tories, more implacable than even themselves, we must have seen, in the
+peaceable lives, quiet manners, and benevolent dispositions of these
+four people, a contradiction to, at least, some part, of the sweeping
+conclusions above noticed. But no such thoughts occurred. The word
+"Indian," was synonymous then, as perhaps now, with half the opprobrious
+epithets in the dictionary. I recollect to have myself made a few lines,
+in early life, on the subject, which ran thus:--
+
+          Indians they were, ere Colon crossed the sea,
+          And ages hence, they shall but _Indians_ be.
+
+Fortunately I was still young when my sphere of observation was
+enlarged, by seeing masses of them, in their native forests; and I,
+after a few years, assumed a position as government agent to one of the
+leading tribes, at an age when opinions are not too firmly rooted to
+permit change. My opinions were still, very much however, what they had
+been in boyhood. I looked upon them as very cannibals and blood-thirsty
+fellows, who were only waiting a good opportunity to knock one in the
+head. But I regarded them as a curious subject of observation. The
+remembrance of poor old Isaac, had shown me that there was some feeling
+and humanity in their breasts, I had seen many of them in my travels in
+the west, and I felt inclined to inquire into the traits of a people,
+among whom my duties had placed me. I had, from early youth, felt
+pleased with the study of natural history, and I thought the Indian, at
+least in his languages, might be studied with something of the same mode
+of exactitude. I had a strong propensity, at this time of life, for
+analysis, and I believed that something like an analytical process might
+be applied to enquiries, at least in the department of philology.
+Whenever a fact occurred, in the progress of my official duties, which I
+deemed characteristic, I made note of it, and in this way preserved a
+sort of skeleton of dates and events, which, it was believed, would be a
+source of useful future reference. It is, in truth, under advantages of
+the kind, that these remarks are commenced.
+
+The author has thrown out these remarks, as a starting point. He has
+made observations which do not, in all respects, coincide with the
+commonly received opinions, and drawn some conclusions which are
+directly adverse to them. He has been placed in scenes and circumstances
+of varied interest, and met with many characters, in the course of four
+and twenty years' residence and travel in the wilds of America, who
+would have struck any observer as original and interesting. With numbers
+of them, he has formed an intimate acquaintance, and with not a few,
+contracted lasting friendships. Connected with them by a long residence,
+by the exercise of official duties, and by still more delicate and
+sacred ties, he has been regarded by them as one identified with their
+history, and received many marks of their confidence.
+
+The Indians, viewed as a distinct branch of the human race, have some
+peculiar traits and institutions, from which their history and character
+may be advantageously studied. They hold some opinions, which are not
+easily discovered by a stranger, or a foreigner, but which yet exert a
+powerful influence on their conduct and life. There is a subtlety in
+some of their modes of thought and belief, on life and the existence of
+spiritual and creative power, which would seem to have been eliminated
+from some intellectual crucible, without the limits of their present
+sphere. Yet, there is much relative to all the common concerns of life,
+which is peculiar to it. The author has witnessed many practices and
+observances, such as travellers have often noticed, but like others,
+attributed them to accident, or to some cause widely different from the
+true one. By degrees, he has been admitted into their opinions, and if
+we may so call it, the philosophy of their minds; and the life of an
+Indian no longer appears to him a mystery. He sees him acting, as other
+men would act, if placed exactly in his condition, prepared with the
+education the forest has given him, and surrounded with the same wants,
+temptations and dangers.
+
+The gentler affections are in much more extensive and powerful exercise
+among the Indian race, than is generally believed, although necessarily
+developed with less refinement than in civilized society. Their
+paternal and fraternal affections, have long been known to be very
+strong, as well as their veneration for the dead. It has been his
+province in these departments, to add some striking examples of their
+intensity of feeling and affection, and truthfulness to nature.
+
+The most powerful source of influence, with the Red man, is his
+religion. Here is the true groundwork of his hopes and his fears, and,
+it is believed, the fruitful source of his opinions and actions. It
+supplies the system of thought by which he lives and dies, and it
+constitutes, indeed, the basis of Indian character. By it he preserves
+his identity, as a barbarian, and when this is taken away, and the true
+system substituted, he is still a Red Man, but no longer, in the popular
+sense, an _Indian_--a barbarian, a pagan.
+
+The Indian religion is a peculiar compound of rites, and doctrines, and
+observances, which are early taught the children by precept and example.
+In this respect, every bark-built village is a temple, and every forest
+a school. It would surprise any person to become acquainted with the
+variety and extent to which an Indian is influenced by his religious
+views and superstitions. He takes no important step without reference to
+it. It is his guiding motive in peace and in war. He follows the chace
+under its influence, and his very amusements take their tincture from
+it. To the author, the facts have been developing themselves for many
+years, and while he is able to account for the peculiar differences
+between the conduct of Indians and that of white men, in given cases, he
+can easily perceive, why the latter have so often been unable to
+calculate the actions of the former, and even to account for them, when
+they have taken place. It may be here remarked, that the civilized man,
+is no less a mysterious and unaccountable being to an Indian, because
+his springs of action are alike unintelligible to him.
+
+If the following pages shall afford the public any means of judging of
+the Red Race, with greater accuracy, he hopes they may lead to our
+treating them with greater kindness and a more enlarged spirit of
+justice. The change which has been wrought in his own mind, by the facts
+he has witnessed, has been accompanied by a still more important one, as
+to their intellectual capacities and moral susceptibilities, and their
+consequent claims on the philanthropy of the age. As a class of men, it
+is thought their native speakers, without letters or education, possess
+a higher scope of thought and illustration, than the _corresponding
+class_ in civilized life. This may be accounted for, perhaps, from
+obvious external causes, without impugning the actual native capacity of
+the lower, although educated classes of civilized life. Still, it is a
+very striking fact, and one which has very often forced itself on the
+attention of the author. The old idea that the Indian mind is not
+susceptible of a high, or an advantageous developement, rests upon
+questionable data. The two principal causes, which have prolonged their
+continuance in a state of barbarism, on this continent, for so long a
+period, are a false religion, and false views of government. The first
+has kept back social prosperity and impeded the rise of virtue. With
+respect to government, during all the time we have had them for
+neighbours, they may be said to have had no government at all. Personal
+independence, has kept the petty chiefs from forming confederacies for
+the common good. Individuals have surrendered no part of their original
+private rights, to secure the observance of the rest. There has been no
+public social organization, expressed or implied. The consequence has
+been that the law of private redress and revenge prevailed. In the only
+two cases where this system was departed from, in North America, namely
+that of the Azteek empire, and of the Iroquois confederacy, there was no
+lack of vigour to improve. The results were a constantly increasing
+power, and extending degree of knowledge up to the respective eras of
+their conquest. It was not want of mental capacity, so much as the
+non-existence of moral power, and of the doctrines of truth and virtue,
+that kept them back; and left our own wandering tribes, particularly,
+with the bow and the spear in their hands. He believes, that their
+errors, in these particulars, may be pointed out, without drawing
+conclusions adverse to their political or social prosperity, under
+better auspicies, and without attributing such failures to mental
+imbecility.
+
+The mode of recording thought, among these tribes, by means of pictorial
+signs, and mnemonic symbols, has attracted particular attention, and
+gives the author hopes, that he has been enabled to collect, and bring
+forward, a body of facts, in this department, which will recommend
+themselves by their interest and novelty. Confidence, inspired by long
+residence in their territories, revealed to him another trait of
+character, in the existence among them of a traditionary imaginative
+lore, which is repeated from father to son, and has no small influence
+upon their social condition. It is in these two departments, that, he
+believes, he has opened new and important means of judging of the Indian
+character, and discovered the sources of views and opinions, on many
+subjects, which had escaped previous inquirers.
+
+There is one more point, to which he will here invite a momentary
+attention, and which, although not usually enumerated as among the
+practical causes that influenced Indian society and character, is yet
+believed to exercise a strong, though silent sway, both upon the
+question of the mental character, and its true development. The author
+alludes to the topic of their languages. Some of the most venerated
+writers present a theory of the origin of national government languages
+and institutions, difficult or impossible to be conformed with the
+nature of man in society, and unsupported by such evidence as their
+doctrines require. Such, he regards, the theory of the "social compact,"
+except it be viewed in the most undefined and general sense possible.
+Such, also, is the theory of the origin and improvement of languages.
+The system of government generally prevailing among the Indian tribes,
+is indeed so simple and natural, under their circumstances, that it is
+thought no person would long seek for the traces of any great
+legislator, giving them laws in any past period. When, however, we
+consider the curious structure of their languages, we find an ingenuity
+and complexity, far surpassing any theory to be discovered in that of
+the modern languages of Europe, with, perhaps, some exceptions in the
+Basque and Majyer, and even beyond any thing existing in the Greek. As
+the latter has long been held up as a model, and the excellencies of its
+plan attributed to some unknown, but great and sagacious, learned and
+refined mind, we might feel justified in assigning the richness of
+forms, the exceeding flexibility, and the characteristic beauties and
+excellencies of the Indian tongues, to a mind of far superior wisdom,
+ingenuity, and experience. Yet how perfectly gratuitous would this be!
+All history bears testimony against the human invention and designed
+alteration of language; and none but a mere theorist can ever embrace
+the idea that it is, or ever was, in the power of any man, to fabricate
+and introduce a new language, or to effect a fundamental change in the
+groundwork of an existing one. This, at least, is the decided opinion of
+the author; and he firmly believes, that whoever will contemplate the
+subject, amidst such scenes as he has been accustomed to, will
+inevitably come to the same conclusion. He has seen changes in dialects
+commenced and progressive, and indications of others going on, but these
+owed their origin and impulse to accidental circumstances, and were not
+the result of any plan or design. They were the result of necessity,
+convenience, or caprice. These three causes, that is to say, necessity
+convenience and caprice, if properly examined and appreciated in their
+influence, and traced with care to their effects, will develop the
+origin of many things, whose existence has been sought at too great a
+distance, or amidst too much refinement.
+
+Books, and the readers of books, have done much to bewilder and perplex
+the study of the Indian character. Fewer theories and more observation,
+less fancy and more fact, might have brought us to much more correct
+opinions than those which are now current. The Indian is, after all,
+believed to be a man, much more fully under the influence of common
+sense notions, and obvious every-day motives of thought and action, hope
+and fear, than he passes for. If he does not come to the same
+conclusions, on passing questions, as we do, it is precisely because he
+sees the premises, under widely different circumstances. The admitted
+errors of barbarism and the admitted truths of civilization, are two
+very different codes. He is in want of almost every source of true
+knowledge and opinion, which we possess. He has very imperfect notions
+on many of those branches of knowledge in what we suppose him best
+informed. He is totally in the dark as to others. His vague and vast and
+dreamy notions of the Great Author of Existence, and the mode of his
+manifestations to the human race, and the wide and complicated system of
+superstition and transcendental idolatry which he has reared upon this
+basis, place him, at once, with all his sympathies and theories, out of
+the great pale of truth and civilization. This is one of the leading
+circumstances which prevents him from drawing his conclusions as we draw
+them. Placed under precisely similar circumstances, we should perhaps
+coincide in his opinion and judgments. But aside from these erroneous
+views, and after making just allowances for his ignorance and moral
+depression, the Indian is a man of plain common sense judgment, acting
+from what he knows, and sees, and feels, of objects immediately before
+him, or palpable to his view. If he sometimes employs a highly
+figurative style to communicate his thoughts, and even stoops, as we
+_now_ know he does, to amuse his fire-side circle with tales of
+extravagant and often wild demonic fancy, he is very far from being a
+man who, in his affairs of lands, and merchandize, and business,
+exchanges the sober thoughts of self preservation and subsistence, for
+the airy conceptions of fancy. The ties of consanguinity bind him
+strongly. The relation of the family is deep and well traced amongst the
+wildest tribes, and this fact alone forms a basis for bringing him back
+to all his original duties, and re-organizing Indian society. The author
+has, at least, been thrown into scenes and positions, in which this
+truth has strongly presented itself to his mind, and he believes the
+facts are of a character which will interest the reader, and may be of
+some use to the people themselves, so far as affects the benevolent
+plans of the age, if they do not constitute an increment in the body of
+observational testimony, of a practical nature, from which the character
+of the race is to be judged.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE RED RACE, DRAWN FROM NOTES OF
+RESIDENCE AND TRAVEL IN THE INDIAN TERRITORIES.
+
+DOMESTIC CONDITION OF THE TRIBES AND CONSTITUTION OF THE INDIAN FAMILY.
+
+
+     INQUIRY II.--What is the domestic condition and organization of the
+     Indian family? Is the tie of consanguinity strong, and what
+     characteristic facts can be stated of it? How are the domestic
+     duties arranged? What are the rights of each inmate of the lodge?
+     How is order maintained in so confined a space, and the general
+     relations of the family preserved? Are the relative duties and
+     labours of the hunter and his wife, equally or unequally divided?
+     Who builds the lodge, and how is it constructed?
+
+There is a very striking agreement, in the condition, relative duties
+and obligations, of the Indian family, among all the tribes of whom I
+have any personal knowledge, in North America. Climate and position, the
+abundance or want of the means of subsistence and other accidental
+causes, have created gradations of condition in the various tribes, some
+of whom excel others in expertness, in hunting and war, and other arts,
+but these circumstances have done little to alter the general
+characteristics, or to abridge or enlarge the original rights and claims
+of each inmate of the lodge. The tribes who cultivated maize in the rich
+sub-vallies and plains of the Ohio and Mississippi, had fuller means of
+both physical and mental development, than those who were, and still
+are, obliged to pick a scanty subsistence, among the frigid, and half
+marine regions in the latitudes north of the great lakes. There are some
+peculiar traits of manners, in the prairie-tribes, west of the
+Mississippi, who pursue the bison on horse back, and rely for their
+subsistence greatly, on its flesh, and the sale of its skin. The well
+fed Muscogee, Cherokee, or Choctaw, who lived in the sunny vallies of
+upper Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, the robust Osage, revelling in
+the abundance of corn and wild meat, south of the Missouri, and the
+lean and rigid Montaignes, Muskeego, and Kenisteno, who push their
+canoes through waters choked with aquatic weeds, and wild rice, present
+very different pictures of home and comfort, within their lodge doors.
+But they really present the same idea, the same sentiments, and the same
+round of duties and obligations, of father and mother, sister and
+brother, wife and husband. The original type of the human family among
+them, is well preserved, better, indeed, than was to have been expected
+in a state of barbarism, and among branches of the race who have been so
+long separated, and subjected to such severe vicissitudes. It would be
+useless, in this view, to draw a parallel between the relative condition
+of the members of a family, within, and without the pale of
+civilization. Nothing of the kind could be done, without showing up
+pictures of want in the hunter-life which are wholly unknown in the
+agricultural state. It cannot perhaps, in fair justice, be said that the
+tie of consanguinity, in the man of the woods, is stronger, than in
+civilized life. But it is in accordance with all observation to say,
+that it is very strong, that its impulses beat with marked force, and
+are more free from the intertwined ligaments of interest, which often
+weakens the tie of relationship in refined and affluent society.
+
+The true idea of matrimony, in Indian life, is also well set forth and
+acknowledged, although it has come down through ages of plunder and
+wandering, degraded in its condition, shorn of its just ceremonies, and
+weakened in its sacred character. I have observed that polygamy, among
+the northern tribes, is chiefly to be found, among bands who are
+favourably located, and have the best means of subsistence. But even
+here it is not reputable; it may often increase a man's influence in the
+tribe or nation, but there are always persons in the wildest forests,
+who do not think the practice right or reputable. In the worst state of
+Indian society, there are always some glimmerings of truth. If the
+conscience of the Red man may be compared to a lamp, it may be said to
+have rather sunk low into its socket, than actually to have expired. The
+relation between husband and wife, in the forest, are formed under
+circumstances, which are generally uniform. Various incidents, or
+motives determine a union. Sometimes it is brought about by the
+intervention of friends; sometimes from a sudden impulse of admiration;
+sometimes with, and sometimes against the wishes of the graver and more
+prudent relatives of the parties. Where the husband is acceptable, and
+has not before been married, which covers the majority of cases, he
+comes to live for a while after marriage, in the lodge of his
+mother-in-law; and this relation generally lasts until the increase of
+children, or other circumstances determine his setting up a lodge for
+himself. Presents are still a ready way for a young hunter to render
+himself acceptable in a lodge. There are some instances, where
+considerable ceremony, and the invitation of friends, have attended the
+first reception of the bridegroom, at the lodge; but these are in most
+cases, what we should denominate matches of state, or expediency, in
+which the bravery, or other public services of a chief or leader, has
+inclined his village to think, that his merits deserve the reward of a
+wife. Generally, the acceptance of the visitor by the party most
+interested, and her mother and father, and their expressed, or tacit
+consent, is the only preliminary, and this is done in a private way. The
+only ceremonial observance, of which I have ever heard, is the assigning
+of what is called an abbinos, or permanent lodge seat, to the
+bridegroom. When this has been done, by the mother or mistress of the
+lodge, who governs these things, he is received, and henceforth
+installed as a constituent member of the lodge and family. The simple
+rule is, that he who has a right to sit by the bride, is her husband.
+
+The lodge itself, with all its arrangements, is the precinct of the rule
+and government of the wife. She assigns to each member, his or her
+ordinary place to sleep and put their effects. These places are
+permanent, and only changed at her will, as when there is a guest by day
+or night. In a space so small as a lodge this system preserves order,
+and being at all times under her own eye, is enforced by personal
+supervision. The husband has no voice in this matter, and I have never
+heard of an instance in which he would so far deviate from his position,
+as to interfere in these minor particulars. The lodge is her precinct,
+the forest his.
+
+There is no law, nor force, to prevent an Indian from decreeing his own
+divorce, that is to say, leaving one wife and taking another whenever he
+sees cause. Yet it often occurs that there is some plausible pretext for
+such a step, such as if true, would form some justification of the
+measure. The best protection to married females arises from the ties of
+children, which by bringing into play the strong natural affections of
+the heart, and appeals at once to that principle in man's original
+organization, which is the strongest. The average number of children
+borne by the women, and which reach the adult period is small, and will
+scarcely exceed two. On the pay rolls it did not exceed this. Much of
+this extraordinary result is owing to their erratic mode of life, and
+their cramped means of subsistence. Another cause is to be found in the
+accidents and exposure to which young children are liable, but still
+more to their shocking ignorance of medicine. I once knew a child at
+three years of age to be killed by an attempt to restore a deranged
+state of the bowels, by a strong overdose of an astringent tincture of
+hemlock bark administered by her father. This man, who was called
+Attuck, had strong natural affections, but he was very ignorant even in
+the eyes of the Indian race, being one of that people living N. E. of
+lake Superior, who are called variously Gens de Terres, Mountaineers,
+and Muskeegoes, Wherever the laws of reproduction are relieved from
+these depressing circumstances, the number of children is seen to be
+increased.
+
+The chief Iaba-Waddick, who lived on a small bay at the foot of lake
+Superior, and had abundance of means of subsistence, had fourteen
+children by one wife. He was an excellent hunter, and of habits for the
+most part of his life, strictly temperate; he had married young, and had
+always had the means of providing his family with adequate clothing and
+food. Not one of these children died in infancy. He lived himself to be
+old, and died rather from a complaint induced by constitutional
+structure, than from a natural decay of vital power.
+
+The duties and labours of Indian life, are believed to be equally, and
+not, as has been generally thought, unequally divided between the male
+and female. This division is also the most natural possible, and such as
+must ever result from the condition of man, as a mere hunter. It is the
+duty of the male to provide food, and of the female to prepare it. This
+arrangement carries with it to the share of the male, all that relates
+to external concerns, and all that pertains to the internal to the care
+of the female as completely as is done in civilized life. To the man
+belongs not only the business of hunting, for this is an _employment_
+and not a _pastime_, but the care of the territory, and keeping off
+intruders and enemies, and the preparation of canoes for travel, and of
+arms and implements of war. The duties of cooking and dressing meats and
+fowl, and whatever else the chase affords, carries on the other hand, to
+the share of the hunter's wife, the entire care and controul of the
+lodge, with its structure and removal, and the keeping it in order, with
+all its utensils and apparatus. A good and frugal hunter's wife, makes
+all this a point of ambitious interest, and takes a pride in keeping it
+neat and proper for the reception of her husband's guests. She sweeps
+the earth clean around the fire, with a broom of branches of the cedar
+constructed for this purpose. This lodge it is to be remembered, is made
+not of beams and posts, and heavy carpentry, but out of thin poles, such
+as a child can lift, set in the ground in a circle, bent over and tied
+at the top, and sheathed with long sheets of the white birch bark. A rim
+of cedar wood at the bottom, assimilates these birch bark sheets to the
+roller of a map, to which in stormy weather a stone is attached to hold
+it firm. This stick has also the precise use of a map-roller, for when
+the lodge is to be removed, the bark is rolled on it, and in this shape
+carried to the canoe, to be set up elsewhere. The circle of sticks or
+frame, is always left standing, as it would be useless to encumber the
+canoe with what can easily be had at any position in a forest country.
+
+Such at least is the hunting lodge, and indeed, the lodge generally used
+by the tribes north of lattitude 42°. It is, in its figure, a half
+globe, and by its lightness and wicker-like structure, may be said to
+resemble an inverted bird's nest. The whole amount of the transportable
+materials of it, is often comprehended in some half a dozen good rolls
+of bark, and as many of rush mats which the merest girl can easily lift.
+The mats which are the substitute for floor cloths, and also the under
+stratum of the sleeping couch, are made out of the common lacustris or
+bullrush, or the flag, cut at the proper season, and woven in a warp of
+fine hemp net thread, such as is furnished by traders in the present
+state of the Indian trade. A portion of this soft vegetable woof, is
+dyed, and woven in various colours. Lodges thus constructed are to be
+still abundantly seen, by the summer visitor, in the upper lakes, at all
+the principal points, to which the Indians resort, during the height of
+summer. Such are the posts of Michilimackinac, Sault Ste. Marie, and
+Green Bay. At Michilimackinac, where it is now difficult to get fresh
+lodge poles, without going some distance, or trespassing on private
+rights, the natives who resort thither, of late years, have adopted an
+ingenious change, by which two objects are accomplished at the same
+time, and the labour of the females dispensed with in getting new poles.
+It is known, that the bark canoe, being itself but an enlarged species
+of wicker work, has not sufficient strength to be freighted, without
+previously having a number of poles laid longitudinally, in the bottom,
+as a kind of vertebral support. These poles on landing upon the gravelly
+shores of that island, are set up, or stacked, to use a military phrase,
+that is tying the tops together and then drawing out the other ends so
+as to describe a circle, and thus making a perfect cone. The bark
+tapestry is hung around these poles very much as it would be around the
+globular close lodges; and by this arrangement, an Indian lodge is
+raised, and ready for occupation, in as many minutes, after landing, as
+the most expert soldiers could pitch a tent in.
+
+Before we can affirm that the labour of preparing these barks and mats
+and setting up, and taking down, the lodge, is disproportionately great,
+or heavy on the females, it will be necessary to inquire into other
+particulars, both on the side of the male and female. Much of the time
+of an Indian female, is passed in idleness. This is true not only of a
+part of every day, but is emphatically so, of certain seasons of the
+year. She has not like the farmer's wife, her cows to milk, her butter
+and cheese to make, and her flax to spin. She has not to wash and comb
+and prepare her children every morning, to go to school. She has no
+extensive or fine wardrobe to take care of. She has no books to read.
+She sets little value on time, which is characteristic of all the race.
+What she does, is either very plain sewing, or some very pains taking
+ornamental thing. When the sheathing and flooring of the lodges are once
+made, they are permanent pieces of property, and do not require frequent
+renewal. When a skin has been dressed, and a garment made of it, it is
+worn, till it is worn out. Frequent ablution and change of dress, are
+eminently the traits of high civilization, and not of the hunter's
+lodge. The articles which enter into the mysteries of the laundry, add
+but little to the cares of a forest housekeeper. With every industrial
+effort, and such is, sometimes the case, there is much unoccupied time,
+while her husband is compelled by their necessities, to traverse large
+tracts, and endure great fatigues, in all weathers in quest of food. He
+must defend his hunting grounds, in peace and war, and has his life
+daily in his hands. Long absences are often necessary, on these
+accounts. It is at such times, during the open season, that the Indian
+female exerts her industry. In the fall season, she takes her children
+in a canoe, or if she have none, invites a female companion to go with
+her, along the streams, to cut the rush, to be manufactured into mats,
+at her leisure, in the winter. It is also a part of her duty, at all
+seasons, to provide fuel for the lodge fire, which she is careful to do,
+that she may suitably receive her husband, on his return from the chase,
+and have the means of drying his wet moccasins, and a cheerful spot,
+where he may light his pipe, and regain his mental equilibrium, while
+she prepares his meals. The very idea of a female's chopping wood, is to
+some horriffic. But it is quite true that the Indian female _does_ chop
+wood, or at least, exert an undue labour, in procuring this necessary
+article of the household. In speaking of the female, we, at once, rush
+to the poetic idea of the refinement of lady like gentleness, and
+delicacy. Not only does the nature of savage life and the hardiness of
+muscle created by centuries of forest vicissitude, give the hunter's
+wife, but a slender claim on this particular shade of character, but the
+kind of labour implied, is very different from the notion civilized men
+have of "wood chopping." The emigrant swings a heavy axe of six pounds
+weight, incessantly, day _in_, and day _out_, against immense trees, in
+the heaviest forest, until he has opened the land to the rays of the
+sun, and prepared an amount of cyclopean labours for the power of fire,
+and the ox. The hunter clears no forests, the limits of which on the
+contrary, he carefully cherishes for his deer to range in. He seats
+himself down, with his lodge, in the borders of natural glades, or
+meadows, to plant his few hills of maize. He had no metallic axe,
+capable of cutting down a tree, before 1492, and he has never learned to
+wield a heavy axe up to 1844. His wife, always made her lodge fires by
+gathering sticks, and she does so still. She takes a hatchet of one or
+two pounds weight, and after collecting dry limbs in the forest, she
+breaks them into lengths of about 18 inches, and ties them in bundles,
+or faggots, and carries them, at her leisure, to her lodge. Small as
+these sticks are, in their length and diameter, but few are required to
+boil her pot. The lodge, being of small circumference, but little heat
+is required to warm the air, and by suspending the pot by a string from
+above, over a small blaze, the object is attained, without that
+extraordinary expenditure of wood, which, to the perfect amazement of
+the Indian, characterizes the emigrant's roaring fire of logs. The few
+fields which the Indians have cleared and prepared for corn fields, in
+northern latitudes, are generally to be traced to some adventitious
+opening, and have been enlarged very slowly. Hence, I have observed,
+that when they have come to be appraised, to fix their value as
+improvements upon the land, under treaty provisions, that the amount
+thereof may be paid the owner, they have uniformly set a high estimate
+upon these ancient clearings, and sometimes regarded their value, one
+would think, in the inverse proportion of these limits. As if, indeed,
+there were some merit, in having but half an acre of cleared ground,
+where, it might be supposed, the owner would have cultivated ten acres.
+And this half acre, is to be regarded as the industrial sum of the
+agricultural labours of all ages and sexes, during perhaps, ten
+generations. Could the whole of this physical effort, therefore, be
+traced to female hands, which is doubtful, for the old men and boys,
+will often do something, it would not be a very severe imposition. There
+is at least, a good deal, it is believed, in this view of the domestic
+condition of the women to mitigate the severity of judgment, with which
+the proud and labour-hating hunter, has sometimes been visited. He has,
+in our view, the most important part of the relative duties of Indian
+life, to sustain. In the lodge he is a mild, considerate man, of the
+non-interfering and non-scolding species. He may indeed, be looked upon,
+rather as the guest of his wife, than what he is often represented to
+be, her tyrant, and he is often only known as the lord of the lodge, by
+the attention and respect which _she_ shows to him. He is a man of few
+words. If her temper is ruffled, he smiles. If he is displeased, he
+walks away. It is a province in which his actions acknowledge her right
+to rule; and it is one, in which his pride and manliness have exalted
+him above the folly of altercation.
+
+
+THE MANITO TREE.
+
+There is a prominent hill in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, at the
+outlet of lake Superior, called by the French _La Butte des Terres_. An
+Indian footpath formerly connected this hill with the old French
+settlement at those falls, from which it is distant about a mile. In the
+intermediate space, near the path, there formerly stood a tree, a large
+mountain ash, from which, Indian tradition says, there issued a sound,
+resembling that produced by their own war-drums, during one of the most
+calm and cloudless days. This occurred long before the French appeared
+in the country. It was consequently regarded as the local residence of a
+spirit, and deemed sacred.
+
+From that time they began to deposit at its foot, an offering of small
+green twigs and boughs, whenever they passed the path, so that, in
+process of time, a high pile of these offerings of the forest was
+accumulated. It seemed as if, by this procedure, the other trees had
+each made an offering to this tree. At length the tree blew down, during
+a violent storm, and has since entirely decayed, but the spot was
+recollected and the offerings kept up, and they would have been
+continued to the present hour, had not an accidental circumstance put a
+stop to it.
+
+In the month of July 1822, the government sent a military force to take
+post, at that ancient point of French settlement, at the foot of the
+falls, and one of the first acts of the commanding officer was to order
+out a fatigue party to cut a wagon road from the selected site of the
+post to the hill. This road was directed to be cut sixty feet wide, and
+it passed over the site of the tree. The pile of offerings was thus
+removed, without the men's knowing that it ever had had a superstitious
+origin; and thus the practice itself came to an end. I had landed with
+the troops, and been at the place but nine days, in the exercise of my
+appropriate duties as an Agent on the part of the government to the
+tribe, when this trait of character was mentioned to me, and I was thus
+made personally acquainted with the locality, the cutting of the road,
+and the final extinction of the rite.
+
+Our Indians are rather prone to regard the coming of the white man, as
+fulfilling certain obscure prophecies of their own priests; and that
+they are, at best, harbingers of evil to them; and with their usual
+belief in fatality, they tacitly drop such rites as the foregoing. They
+can excuse themselves to their consciences in such cases, in
+relinquishing the worship of a local manito, by saying: it is the tread
+of the white man that has desecrated the ground.
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF A WIGWAM.
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE STONE CANOE.
+
+
+There was once a very beautiful young girl, who died suddenly on the day
+she was to have been married to a handsome young man. He was also brave,
+but his heart was not proof against this loss. From the hour she was
+buried, there was no more joy or peace for him. He went often to visit
+the spot where the women had buried her, and sat musing there, when, it
+was thought, by some of his friends, he would have done better to try to
+amuse himself in the chase, or by diverting his thoughts in the
+war-path. But war and hunting had both lost their charms for him. His
+heart was already dead within him. He pushed aside both his war-club and
+his bow and arrows.
+
+He had heard the old people say, that there was a path, that led to the
+land of souls, and he determined to follow it. He accordingly set out,
+one morning, after having completed his preparations for the journey. At
+first he hardly knew which way to go. He was only guided by the
+tradition that he must go south. For a while, he could see no change in
+the face of the country. Forests, and hills, and vallies, and streams
+had the same looks, which they wore in his native place. There was snow
+on the ground, when he set out, and it was sometimes seen to be piled
+and matted on the thick trees and bushes. At length, it began to
+diminish, and finally disappeared. The forest assumed a more cheerful
+appearance, the leaves put forth their buds, and before he was aware of
+the completeness of the change, he found himself surrounded by spring.
+He had left behind him the land of snow and ice. The air became mild,
+the dark clouds of winter had rolled away from the sky; a pure field of
+blue was above him, and as he went he saw flowers beside his path, and
+heard the songs of birds. By these signs he knew that he was going the
+right way, for they agreed with the traditions of his tribe. At length
+he spied a path. It led him through a grove, then up a long and elevated
+ridge, on the very top of which he came to a lodge. At the door stood an
+old man, with white hair, whose eyes, though deeply sunk, had a fiery
+brilliancy. He had a long robe of skins thrown loosely around his
+shoulders, and a staff in his hands.
+
+The young Chippewayan began to tell his story; but the venerable chief
+arrested him, before he had proceeded to speak ten words. I have
+expected you, he replied, and had just risen to bid you welcome to my
+abode. She, whom you seek, passed here but a few days since, and being
+fatigued with her journey, rested herself here. Enter my lodge and be
+seated, and I will then satisfy your enquiries, and give you directions
+for your journey from this point. Having done this, they both issued
+forth to the lodge door. "You see yonder gulf, said he, and the wide
+stretching blue plains beyond. It is the land of souls. You stand upon
+its borders, and my lodge is the gate of entrance. But you cannot take
+your body along. Leave it here with your bow and arrows, your bundle and
+your dog. You will find them safe on your return." So saying, he
+re-entered the lodge, and the freed traveller bounded forward, as if his
+feet had suddenly been endowed with the power of wings. But all things
+retained their natural colours and shapes. The woods and leaves, and
+streams and lakes, were only more bright and comely than he had ever
+witnessed. Animals bounded across his path, with a freedom and a
+confidence which seemed to tell him, there was no blood shed here. Birds
+of beautiful plumage inhabited the groves, and sported in the waters.
+There was but one thing, in which he saw a very unusual effect. He
+noticed that his passage was not stopped by trees or other objects. He
+appeared to walk directly through them. They were, in fact, but the
+souls or shadows of material trees. He became sensible that he was in a
+land of shadows. When he had travelled half a day's journey, through a
+country which was continually becoming more attractive, he came to the
+banks of a broad lake, in the centre of which was a large and beautiful
+island. He found a canoe of shining white stone, tied to the shore. He
+was now sure that he had come the right path, for the aged man had told
+him of this. There were also shining paddles. He immediately entered the
+canoe, and took the paddles in his hands, when to his joy and surprise,
+on turning round, he beheld the object of his search in another canoe,
+exactly its counterpart in every thing. She had exactly imitated his
+motions, and they were side by side. They at once pushed out from shore
+and began to cross the lake. Its waves seemed to be rising and at a
+distance looked ready to swallow them up; but just as they entered the
+whitened edge of them they seemed to melt away, as if they were but the
+images of waves. But no sooner was one wreath of foam passed, than
+another, more threatening still, rose up. Thus they were in perpetual
+fear; and what added to it, was the _clearness of the water_, through
+which they could see heaps of beings who had perished before, and whose
+bones laid strewed on the bottom of the lake. The Master of Life had,
+however, decreed to let them pass, for the actions of neither of them
+had been bad. But they saw many others struggling and sinking in the
+waves. Old men and young men, males and females of all ages and ranks,
+were there; some passed, and some sank. It was only the little children
+whose canoes seemed to meet no waves. At length, every difficulty was
+gone, as in a moment, and they both leapt out on the happy island. They
+felt that the very air was food. It strengthened and nourished them.
+They wandered together over the blissful fields, where every thing was
+formed to please the eye and the ear. There were no tempests--there was
+no ice, no chilly winds--no one shivered for the want of warm clothes:
+no one suffered for hunger--no one mourned for the dead. They saw no
+graves. They heard of no wars. There was no hunting of animals; for the
+air itself was their food. Gladly would the young warrior have remained
+there forever, but he was obliged to go back for his body. He did not
+see the Master of Life, but he heard his voice in a soft breeze: "Go
+back, said this voice, to the land from whence you came. Your time has
+not yet come. The duties for which I made you, and which you are to
+perform, are not yet finished. Return to your people, and accomplish the
+duties of a good man. You will be the ruler of your tribe for many days.
+The rules you must observe, will be told you by my messenger, who keeps
+the gate. When he surrenders back your body, he will tell you what to
+do. Listen to him, and you shall afterwards rejoin the spirit, which you
+must now leave behind. She is accepted and will be ever here, as young
+and as happy as she was when I first called her from the land of snows."
+When this voice ceased, the narrator awoke. It was the fancy work of a
+dream, and he was still in the bitter land of snows, and hunger and
+tears.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+LYNX AND THE HARE,
+
+A FABLE FROM THE OJIBWA-ALGONQUIN.
+
+
+A lynx almost famished, met a hare one day in the woods, in the winter
+season, but the hare was separated from its enemy by a rock, upon which
+it stood. The lynx began to speak to it in a very kind manner. "Wabose!
+Wabose!"[3] said he, "come here my little white one, I wish to talk to
+you." "O no," said the hare, "I am afraid of you, and my mother told me
+never to go and talk with strangers." "You are very pretty," replied the
+lynx, "and a very obedient child to your parents; but you must know that
+I am a relative of yours; I wish to send some word to your lodge; come
+down and see me." The hare was pleased to be called pretty, and when she
+heard that it was a relative, she jumped down from the place where she
+stood, and immediately the lynx pounced upon her and tore her to pieces.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [3] This word appears to be a derivation from the radix WAWB, white. The
+termination in o is the objective sign. The term is made diminutive in
+s.
+
+
+
+
+THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN,
+
+AN OTTOWA TRADITION.
+
+
+A long time ago, there lived an aged Odjibwa and his wife, on the shores
+of Lake Huron. They had an only son, a very beautiful boy, whose name
+was O-no-wut-a-qut-o, or he that catches the clouds. The family were of
+the totem of the beaver. The parents were very proud of him, and thought
+to make him a celebrated man, but when he reached the proper age, he
+would not submit to the We-koon-de-win, or fast. When this time arrived,
+they gave him charcoal, instead of his breakfast, but he would not
+blacken his face. If they denied him food, he would seek for birds'
+eggs, along the shore, or pick up the heads of fish that had been cast
+away, and broil them. One day, they took away violently the food he had
+thus prepared, and cast him some coals in place of it. This act brought
+him to a decision. He took the coals and blackened his face, and went
+out of the lodge. He did not return, but slept without; and during the
+night, he had a dream. He dreamed that he saw a very beautiful female
+come down from the clouds and stand by his side. "O-no-wut-a-qut-o,"
+said she, "I am come for you--step in my tracks." The young man did so,
+and presently felt himself ascending above the tops of the trees--he
+mounted up, step by step, into the air, and through the clouds. His
+guide, at length, passed through an orifice, and he, following her,
+found himself standing on a beautiful plain.
+
+A path led to a splendid lodge. He followed her into it. It was large,
+and divided into two parts. On one end he saw bows and arrows, clubs and
+spears, and various warlike implements tipped with silver. On the other
+end, were things exclusively belonging to females. This was the home of
+his fair guide, and he saw that she had, on the frame, a broad rich
+belt, of many colours, which she was weaving. She said to him: "My
+brother is coming and I must hide you." Putting him in one corner, she
+spread the belt over him. Presently the brother came in, very richly
+dressed, and shining as if he had had points of silver all over him. He
+took down from the wall a splendid pipe, together with his sack of
+a-pa-ko-ze-gun, or smoking mixture. When he had finished regaling
+himself in this way, and laid his pipe aside, he said to his sister:
+"Nemissa," (which is, my elder sister,) "when will you quit these
+practices? Do you forget that the Greatest of the Spirits has commanded
+that you should not take away the children from below? Perhaps you
+suppose that you have concealed O-na-wut-a-qut-o, but do I not know of
+his coming? If you would not offend me, send him back immediately." But
+this address did not alter her purpose. She would not send him back.
+Finding that she was purposed in her mind, he then spoke to the young
+lad, and called him from his hiding place. "Come out of your
+concealment," said he, "and walk about and amuse yourself. You will grow
+hungry if you remain there." He then presented him a bow and arrows, and
+a pipe of red stone, richly ornamented. This was taken as the word of
+consent to his marriage; so the two were considered husband and wife
+from that time.
+
+O-no-wut-a-qut-o found every thing exceedingly fair and beautiful around
+him, but he found no inhabitants except her brother. There were flowers
+on the plains. There were bright and sparkling streams. There were green
+vallies and pleasant trees. There were gay birds and beautiful animals,
+but they were not such as he had been accustomed to see. There was also
+day and night, as on the earth; but he observed that every morning the
+brother regularly left the lodge, and remained absent all day; and every
+evening the sister departed, though it was commonly but for a part of
+the night.
+
+His curiosity was aroused to solve this mystery. He obtained the
+brother's consent to accompany him in one of his daily journies. They
+travelled over a smooth plain, without boundaries, until
+O-no-wut-a-qut-o felt the gnawings of appetite, and asked his companion
+if there were no game. "Patience! my brother," said he, "we shall soon
+reach the spot where I eat my dinner, and you will then see how I am
+provided." After walking on a long time, they came to a place which was
+spread over with fine mats, where they sat down to refresh themselves.
+There was, at this place, a hole through the sky; and O-no-wut-a-qut-o,
+looked down, at the bidding of his companion, upon the earth. He saw
+below the great lakes, and the villages of the Indians. In one place, he
+saw a war party stealing on the camp of their enemies. In another, he
+saw feasting and dancing. Oh a green plain, young men were engaged at
+ball. Along a stream, women were employed in gathering the a-puk-wa for
+mats.
+
+"Do you see," said the brother, "that group of children playing beside a
+lodge. Observe that beautiful and active boy," said he, at the same time
+darting something at him, from his hand. The child immediately fell, and
+was carried into the lodge.
+
+They looked again, and saw the people gathering about the lodge. They
+heard the she-she-gwan of the meeta, and the song he sung, asking that
+the child's life might be spared. To this request, the companion of
+O-no-wut-a-qut-o made answer--"send me up the sacrifice of a white dog."
+Immediately a feast was ordered by the parents of the child, the white
+dog was killed, his carcass was roasted, and all the wise men and
+medicine men of the village assembled to witness the ceremony, "There
+are many below," continued the voice of the brother, "whom you call
+great in medical skill, but it is because their ears are open, and they
+listen to my voice, that they are able to succeed. When I have struck
+one with sickness, they direct the people to look to me: and when they
+send me the offering I ask, I remove my hand from off them, and they are
+well." After he had said this, they saw the sacrifice parcelled out in
+dishes, for those who were at the feast. The master of the feast then
+said, "we send this to thee, Great Manito," and immediately the roasted
+animal came up. Thus their dinner was supplied, and after they had
+eaten, they returned to the lodge by another way.
+
+After this manner they lived for some time; but the place became
+wearisome at last. O-no-wut-a-qut-o thought of his friends, and wished
+to go back to them. He had not forgotten his native village, and his
+father's lodge; and he asked leave of his wife, to return. At length she
+consented. "Since you are better pleased," she replied, "with the cares
+and the ills, and the poverty of the world, than with the peaceful
+delights of the sky, and its boundless prairies, go! I give you
+permission, and since I have brought you hither, I will conduct you
+back; but remember, you are still my husband, I hold a chain in my hand
+by which I can draw you back, whenever I will. My power over you is not,
+in any manner, diminished. Beware, therefore, how you venture to take a
+wife among the people below. Should you ever do so, it is then that you
+shall feel the force of my displeasure."
+
+As she said this, her eyes sparkled--she raised herself slightly on her
+toes, and stretched herself up, with a majestic air; and at that moment,
+O-no-wut-a-qut-o awoke from his dream. He found himself on the ground,
+near his father's lodge, at the very spot where he had laid himself down
+to fast. Instead of the bright beings of a higher world, he found
+himself surrounded by his parents and relatives. His mother told him he
+had been absent a year. The change was so great, that he remained for
+some time moody and abstracted, but by degrees, he recovered his
+spirits. He began to doubt the reality of all he had heard and seen
+above. At last, he forgot the admonitions of his spouse, and married a
+beautiful young woman of his own tribe. But within four days, she was a
+corpse. Even the fearful admonition was lost, and he repeated the
+offence by a second marriage. Soon afterwards, he went out of the lodge,
+one night, but never returned. It was believed that his wife had
+recalled him to the region of the clouds, where the tradition asserts,
+he still dwells, and walks on the daily rounds, which he once witnessed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The native tribes are a people without maxims: One of the few which have
+been noticed is this: Do not tell a story in the summer; if you do, the
+toads will visit you.
+
+
+
+
+SHINGEBISS,
+
+FROM THE ODJIBWA-ALGONQUIN.
+
+
+There was once a Shingebiss, [the name of a kind of duck] living alone,
+in a solitary lodge, on the shores of the deep bay of a lake, in the
+coldest winter weather. The ice had formed on the water, and he had but
+four logs of wood to keep his fire. Each of these, would, however, burn
+a month, and as there were but four cold winter months, they were
+sufficient to carry him through till spring.
+
+Shingebiss was hardy and fearless, and cared for no one. He would go out
+during the coldest day, and seek for places where flags and rushes grew
+through the ice, and plucking them up with his bill, would dive through
+the openings, in quest of fish. In this way he found plenty of food,
+while others were starving, and he went home daily to his lodge,
+dragging strings of fish after him, on the ice.
+
+Kabebonicca[4] observed him, and felt a little piqued at his
+perseverance and good luck in defiance of the severest blasts of wind he
+could send from the northwest. "Why! this is a wonderful man," said he;
+"he does not mind the cold, and appears as happy and contented, as if it
+were the month of June. I will try, whether he cannot be mastered." He
+poured forth ten-fold colder blasts, and drifts of snow, so that it was
+next to impossible to live in the open air. Still the fire of Shingebiss
+did not go out: he wore but a single strip of leather around his body,
+and he was seen, in the worst weather, searching the shores for rushes,
+and carrying home fish.
+
+"I shall go and visit him," said Kabebonicca, one day, as he saw
+Shingebiss dragging along a quantity of fish. And accordingly, that very
+night, he went to the door of his lodge. Meantime Shingebiss had cooked
+his fish, and finished his meal, and was lying, partly on his side,
+before the fire singing his songs. After Kabebonicca had come to the
+door, and stood listening there, he sang as follows:
+
+          Ka       Neej        Ka       Neej
+          Be       In          Be       In
+          Bon      In          Bon      In
+          Oc       Ee.         Oc       Ee.
+          Ca       We-ya!      Ca       We-ya!
+
+The number of words, in this song, are few and simple, but they are made
+up from compounds which carry the whole of their original meanings, and
+are rather suggestive of the ideas floating in the mind, than actual
+expressions of those ideas. Literally he sings:
+
+          Spirit of the North West--you are but my fellow man.
+
+By being broken into syllables, to correspond with a simple chant, and
+by the power of intonation and repetition, with a chorus, these words
+are expanded into melodious utterance, if we may be allowed the term,
+and may be thus rendered:
+
+          Windy god, I know your plan,
+          You are but my fellow man,
+          Blow you may your coldest breeze,
+          Shingebiss you cannot freeze,
+          Sweep the strongest wind you can,
+          Shingebiss is still your man,
+          Heigh! for life--and ho! for bliss,
+          Who so free as Shingebiss?
+
+The hunter knew that Kabebonicca was at his door, for he felt his cold
+and strong breath; but he kept on singing his songs, and affected utter
+indifference. At length Kabebonicca entered, and took his seat on the
+opposite side of the lodge. But Shingebiss did not regard, or notice
+him. He got up, as if nobody were present, and taking his poker, pushed
+the log, which made his fire burn brighter, repeating as he sat down
+again:
+
+          You are but my fellow man.
+
+Very soon the tears began to flow down Kabebonicca's cheeks, which
+increased so fast, that, presently, he said to himself, "I cannot stand
+this--I must go out." He did so, and left Shingebiss to his songs; but
+resolved to freeze up all the flag orifices, and make the ice thick, so
+that he could not get any more fish. Still Shingebiss, by dint of great
+diligence, found means to pull up new roots, and dive under for fish. At
+last Kabebonicca was compelled to give up the contest. "He must be aided
+by some Monedo," said he, "I can neither freeze him, nor starve him, he
+is a very singular being--I will let him alone."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The introduction of the Saxon race into North America, has had three
+determined opponents, the life of each of whom forms a distinct era.
+They were Powhatan, Metakom, and Pontiac. Each pursued the same method
+to accomplish his end, and each was the indominitable foe of the
+race.--Sassacus ought, perhaps, to be added to the number. Brant, was
+but a partisan, and fought for one branch, against another. Tecumseh,
+was also, rather the foe of the American type of the race, than the
+whole race. The same can be said of lesser men, such as Little Turtle,
+Buckanjaheela, and Black Hawk. Uncas was also a partisan, not a hater of
+the white race, and like Waub Ojeeg in the north, fought, that one tribe
+might prevail over another. If the Saxon race profited by this, he could
+not help it. Tuscaloosa fought for his tribe's supremacy; Osceola for
+revenge.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [4] A personification of the North West.
+
+
+
+
+EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY.
+
+PISKARET.
+
+
+There lived a noted chief on the north banks of the St. Lawrence in the
+latter part of the 16th century, who was called by the Iroquois,
+Piskaret, but the true pronunciation of whose name, by his own people,
+was Bisconace, or the Little Blaze. Names are often arbitrarily bestowed
+by the Indians, from some trivial circumstance in domestic life, or
+hunting, as mere nick names, which take the place of the real names: for
+it is a practice among this people to conceal their real names, from a
+subtle, superstitious notion, that, if so known, they will be under the
+power of priestly incantation, or some other evil influence.
+
+What the real name of this man was, if it differed from the above, is
+not known, as this was his only appellation. He was an Adirondak: that
+is to say, one of the race of people who were called Adirondaks by the
+Iroquois, but Algonquins by the French. And as the Algonquins and
+Iroquois, had lately became deadly enemies and were so then, the
+distinction to which Bisconace rose, was in the conducting of the war
+which his people waged against the Iroquois, or Five Nations.
+
+It seems, from the accounts of both English and French authors, that the
+Algonquins, at the period of the first settlement of the St. Lawrence,
+were by far the most advanced in arts and knowledge, and most
+distinguished for skill in war and hunting, of all the nations in North
+America. This at least is certain, that no chief, far or near, enjoyed
+as high a reputation for daring valor and skill as Bisconace. He is
+spoken of in this light by all who name him; he was so fierce, subtle
+and indomitable that he became the terror of his enemies, who were
+startled at the very mention of his name. Bisconace lived on the north
+banks of the St. Lawrence, below Montreal, and carried on his wars
+against the Indians inhabiting the northern parts of the present state
+of New York, often proceeding by the course of the River Sorel.
+
+The period of the Adirondak supremacy, embraced the close of the 15th
+century and the beginning of the 16th, and at this time the people began
+to derive great power and boldness, from the possession of fire arms,
+with which the French supplied them, before their southern and western
+neighbours came to participate in this great improvement, this striking
+era of the Red man, in the art of war. Colden is thought to be a little
+out, in the great estimate he furnishes of the power, influence, and
+advances of this great family of the Red Race. The French naturally
+puffed them up a good deal; but we may admit that they were most expert
+warriors, and hunters; and manufactured arms and canoes, with great
+skill. They were the prominent enemies of the Five Nations; and like
+all enemies at a distance had a formidable name. The word Adirondak is
+one of Iroquois origin; but the French, who always gave their own names
+to the Tribes, and had a policy in so doing, called them Algonquins--a
+term whose origin is involved in some obscurity. For a time, they
+prevailed against their enemies south of the St. Lawrence, but the
+latter were soon furnished with arms by the Dutch, who entered the
+Hudson in 1609, and their allies, the Iracoson, or Iroquois, soon
+assumed that rank in war which, if they had before lacked, raised them
+to so high a point of preeminence. It was in that early period of the
+history of these nations that Bisconace exerted his power.
+
+Where a people have neither history nor biography, there is but little
+hope that tradition will long preserve the memory of events. Some of the
+acts of this chief are known through the earlier colonial writers. So
+great was the confidence inspired in the breast of this chief, by the
+use of fire arms, that he pushed into the Iroquois country like a mad
+man, and performed some feats against a people armed with bows only,
+which are astonishing.
+
+With only four chiefs to aid him, he left Trois Rivieres, on one
+occasion, in a single canoe, with fifteen loaded muskets, thus giving
+three pieces, to each man. Each piece was charged with two balls, joined
+by a small chain ten inches long. Soon after entering the Sorel river,
+he encountered five bark canoes of Iroquois, each having ten men. To
+cloak his ruse he pretended to give himself up for lost, in view of such
+a disparity of numbers; and he and his companions began to sing their
+death song. They had no sooner got near their enemies, however, than
+they began to pour in their chain-shot, riddling the frail canoes of the
+enemy, who tumbled into the water, and sank under the active blows of
+their adversaries. Some he saved to grace his triumphant return, and
+these were tortured at the stake.
+
+On another occasion he undertook an enterprize alone. Being well
+acquainted with the Iroquois country, he set out, about the time the
+snow began to melt, taking the precaution to put the hinder part of his
+snow-shoes forward to mislead the enemy, in case his track should be
+discovered. As a further precaution, he avoided the plain forest paths,
+keeping along the ridges and high stony grounds, where the snow was
+melting, that his track might be often lost. When he came near to one of
+the Villages of the Five Nations, he hid himself till night. He then
+crept forth, and entered a lodge, where he found every soul asleep.
+Having killed them all, he took their scalps, and went back to his
+lurking place. The next day the people of the village searched in vain
+for the perpetrator. At night he again sallied forth, and repeated the
+act, on another lodge, with equal secrecy and success. Again the
+villagers searched, but could find no traces of his footsteps. They
+determined, however, to set a watch. Piskaret, anticipating this,
+gathered up his scalps, and stole forth slyly, but found the inhabitants
+of every lodge on the alert, save one, where the sentinel had fallen
+asleep. This man he despatched and scalped, but alarmed the rest, who
+rose in the pursuit. He was, however, under no great fears of being
+overtaken. One of the causes of his great confidence in himself was
+found in the fact that he was the swiftest runner known. He eluded them
+often, sometimes, however, lingering to draw them on, and tire them out.
+When he had played this trick, he hid himself. His pursuers, finding
+they had let him escape, encamped, thinking themselves in safety, but
+they had no sooner fallen asleep, than he stole forth from his lurking
+place, and despatched every one of them. He added their scalps to his
+bundle of trophies, and then returned.
+
+Recitals of this kind flew from village to village, and gave him the
+greatest reputation for courage, adroitness and fleetness.
+
+The Five Nations were, however, early noted for their skill in
+stratagem, and owed their early rise to it. They were at this era
+engaged in their long, fierce and finally triumphant war against the
+Algonquins and Wyandots, or to adopt the ancient terms, the Adirondaks
+and Quatoghies. These latter they defeated in a great battle, fought
+within two miles of Quebec. In this battle the French, who were in
+reality weak in number, were neutral. Their neutrality, on this
+occasion, happened in this way. They had urged the reception of priests
+upon the Five Nations, through whose influence, they hoped to prevail
+over that people, and to wrest western New York from the power of the
+Dutch and English. As soon as a number of these missionaries of the
+sword and cross had insinuated themselves among the Five Nations, the
+latter seized them, as hostages; and, under a threat of their execution,
+kept the French quiet in this decisive battle. This scheme had succeeded
+so well, that it taught the Five Nations the value of negociation; and
+they determined, the next year, to try another. Pretending that they
+were now well satisfied with their triumph on the St. Lawrence, they
+sent word that they meant to make a formidable visit to Yonnendio, this
+being the official name they bestowed on the governor of Canada. Such
+visits they always made with great pomp and show; and on this occasion,
+they came with 1000 or 1200 men. On the way to Quebec, near the river
+Nicolet, their scouts met Piskaret, whom they cajoled, and kept in utter
+ignorance of the large force behind until they had drawn out of him an
+important piece of information, and then put him to death. They cut off
+his head, and carried it to the Iroquois army. To have killed him, was
+regarded as an assurance of ultimate victory. These scouts also carried
+to the army the information, which they had obtained, that the
+Adirondaks were divided into two bodies, one of which hunted on the
+river Nicolet, and the other at a place called Wabmeke, on the north
+side of the St. Lawrence. They immediately divided their forces, fell
+upon each body at unawares and cut them both to pieces.
+
+This is the great triumph to which Charlevoix, in his history of New
+France, alludes. It was the turning point in the war against the
+confederated Wyandots, and Algonquins, and, in effect, drove both
+nations, in the end, effectually out of the St. Lawrence valley. The
+former fled to Lake Huron, to which they imparted their name. Some of
+the Adirondaks took shelter near Quebec, under the care of the Jesuits;
+the larger number went up the Utawas, to the region of Lake Nipising;
+the Atawairos fled to a large chain of islands in Lake Huron, called the
+Menaloulins; other bands scattered in other directions. Each one had
+some local name; and all, it is probable, were well enough pleased to
+hide their defeat by the Five Nations, under local and geographical
+designations. But they had no peace in their refuge. The spirit of
+revenge burned in the breast of the Iroquois, particularly against their
+kindred tribe, the Wyandots, whom they pursued into Lake Huron, drove
+them from their refuge at Michilimackinac, and pushed them even to Lake
+Superior, where for many years, this ancient tribe continued to dwell.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The pernicious examples of white men, who have conducted the Indian
+trade, their immoral habits, injustice, and disregard of truth, and open
+licentiousness, have created the deepest prejudice in the minds of the
+Red men against the whole European race.
+
+The Indian only thinks when he is forced to think, by circumstances.
+Fear, hunger and self-preservation, are the three prominent causes of
+his thoughts. Affection and reverence for the dead, come next.
+
+Abstract thought is the characteristic of civilization. If teachers
+could induce the Indians to think on subjects not before known to them,
+or but imperfectly known, they would adopt one of the most efficacious
+means of civilizing them.
+
+Christianity is ultraism to an Indian. It is so opposed to his natural
+desires, that he, at first, hates it, and decries it. Opposite states of
+feeling, however, affect him, precisely as they do white men. What he at
+first hates, he may as suddenly love and embrace.
+
+Christianity is not propagated by ratiocination, it is the result of
+feelings and affections on the will and understanding. Hence an Indian
+can become a christian.
+
+
+
+
+THE SAUSTAWRAÝTSEES,
+
+OR
+
+THE ORIGIN OF THE WYANDOT AND SENECA TRIBES.
+
+A WYANDOT TRADITION.
+
+
+Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, a body of Indians,
+composed of the Wyandots (or as they were then called the
+Saus-taw-ray-tsee) and Seneca tribes inhabited the borders of Lake
+Ontario. The present Wyandots and Senecas are the remains of this
+community, and of the cause of their separation and of the relentless
+hostilities by which it was succeeded, the following details are given
+in the traditionary history of the Wyandots.
+
+A Wyandot girl, whose name for the sake of distinction shall be
+_Oon-yay-stee_, and in whom appeared united a rare combination of moral
+attractions, and of extraordinary personal beauty, had for her suitors,
+nearly all the young men of her tribe. As insensible however, as
+beautiful, the attentions of her lovers were productive of no favorable
+effect, for though none were rejected, yet neither was any one
+distinguished by her partiality. This unaccountable apathy became, in
+time, a subject not only of general, but of common interest to the young
+Wyandots. A council composed of those interested in the issue of these
+many and importunate applications for her favor, was held for the
+purpose of devising some method, by which her intentions in relation to
+them might be ascertained. At this, when these amourists had severally
+conceded, each, that he could boast of no indication of a preference
+shown by Oon-yay-stee to himself, upon which to found a reasonable hope
+of ultimately succeeding, it was finally determined, that their claims
+should be withdrawn in favor of the War Chief of their lodge. This was
+adopted, not so much for the purpose of advancing the interests of
+another to the prejudice of their own, as to avoid the humiliating
+alternative of yielding the object of so much competition to some more
+fortunate rival not connected with their band.
+
+It may be here necessary to remark that nearly all the suitors belonged
+to one lodge, and that each of these was a large oblong building,
+capable of containing 20 or 30 families, the domestic arrangements of
+which were regulated by a war chief, acknowledged as the head of that
+particular subordinate band.
+
+Many objections to the task imposed on him by this proposition were
+interposed by the chief, the principal of which were, the great
+disparity of age and the utter futility of any further attempt, upon the
+affections of one so obdurate of heart. The first was obviated by some
+well applied commendations of his person, and the second yielded to the
+suggestion that women were often capricious, were not always influenced
+by considerations the most natural, or resolvable to reasons the most
+obvious.
+
+The chief then painted and arrayed himself as for battle, bestowing some
+little additional adornment upon his person, to aid him in this species
+of warfare, with which he was not altogether so familiar as that in
+which he had acquired his reputation; his practice having been confined
+rather to the use of stone-headed arrows than love darts, and his
+dexterity in the management of hearts displayed rather in making bloody
+incisions, than tender impressions. Before he left the lodge, his
+retainers pledged themselves, that if the prosecution of this adventure
+should impose upon their chief the necessity of performing any feat, to
+render him better worthy the acceptance of Oon-yay-stee, they would aid
+him in its accomplishment, and sustain him against its consequences to
+the last extremity. It was reserved for so adventurous a spirit that it
+should be as successful in love, as it had hitherto been resistless in
+war.
+
+After a courtship of a few days, he proposed himself and was
+conditionally accepted, but what the nature of this condition was,
+further than that it was indispensable, Oon-yay-stee refused to tell
+him, until he should have given her the strongest assurances that it
+should be complied with, After some hesitation and a consultation with
+the lovers who urged him to give the promise, he declared himself
+ready to accept the terms of the compact. Under her direction he then
+pledged the word of a warrior, that neither peril to person, nor
+sacrifice of affection should ever prevail with him to desist,
+imprecating the vengeance of _Hau-men-dee-zkoo_, and the persecution
+of _Dairh-shoo-oo-roo-no_ upon his head if he failed to prosecute to
+the uttermost, the enterprise, if its accomplishment were only possible.
+
+She told him to bring her the scalp of a Seneca chief whom she
+designated, who for some reason she chose not to reveal, was the object
+of her hatred.
+
+The Wyandot saw too late, that he was committed. He besought her to
+reflect, that this man was his bosom friend, they had eaten and drank
+and grown up together--and how heavy it would make his heart to think
+that his friend had perished by his hand. He remonstrated with her on
+the cruelty of such a requisition, on the infamy of such an outrage of
+confidence and the execration which would forever pursue the author of
+an action so accursed. But his expostulations were made to deaf ears.
+She told him either to redeem his pledge, or consent to be proclaimed
+for a lying dog, whose promises were unworthy ever to be heard, and then
+left him.
+
+An hour had hardly elapsed, before the infuriated Wyandot blackened his
+face, entered the Seneca Village, tomahawked and scalped his friend, and
+as he rushed out of the lodge shouted the scalp-whoop. In the darkness
+of the night his person could not be distinguished, and he was
+challenged by a Seneca to whom he gave his name, purpose, and a defiance
+and then continued his flight. But before it had terminated, the long
+mournful scalp-whoop of the Senecas was resounding through the Wyandot
+Village; and the chief had hardly joined in the furious conflict that
+ensued between the avengers of his murdered victim and his own
+retainers, before he paid with his life the forfeit of his treachery.
+
+After a deadly and sustained combat for three days and nights, with
+alternate success, the Wyandots were compelled to retire, deserting
+their village and abandoning their families to such mercy as might be
+granted by an infuriated enemy. Those who were left, sunk under the
+tomahawk and scalping knife--the village was devastated--and the
+miserable author of the bloody tragedy herself perished amid this scene
+of indiscriminate slaughter and desolation.
+
+This war is said to have continued for a period of more than 30 years,
+in which time, the Wyandots had been forced backwards as far as Lakes
+Huron and Michigan. Here they made an obstinate stand, from which all
+the efforts of their relentless enemies to dislodge them were
+ineffectual. Their inveterate hatred of each other was fostered by the
+war parties of the respective tribes, whose vindictive feelings led them
+to hunt and destroy each other, like so many beasts of the forest. These
+resulted generally in favor of the Wyandots, who, inspirited by these
+partial successes, prepared for more active operations. Three encounters
+took place, on the same day, two being had on Lake Michigan and one on
+Lake Erie, and which from their savage and exterminating character,
+closed this long and merciless contest. It is somewhat remarkable, as no
+other tradition makes mention of an Indian battle upon water, that one
+of these, said to have occurred on Lake Erie, between Long Point and
+Fort Talbot, was fought in canoes. Of this the following detail is
+given.
+
+A large body of Wyandots accompanied by two Ottawas left Lake Huron in
+birch canoes, on a war excursion into the country of the Senecas, who
+had settled at this time, near the head of the Niagara river. They put
+ashore at Long Point to cook, when one of the Ottawas and a Wyandot were
+sent out as spies to reconnoitre. They had proceeded but a short
+distance from the camp, when they met two Senecas, who had been
+despatched by their party for the like purposes, and from whom they
+instantly fled. The Ottawa finding his pursuers gaining upon him, hid
+himself in the branches of a spruce tree, where he remained till the
+Seneca had passed. The Wyandot, fleeter of foot, succeeded in reaching
+his camp and gave the alarm, when the whole body embarked and pushed out
+into the lake. In another moment a party of Senecas was discovered,
+turning the nearest point of land in wooden canoes. Immediately the
+war-whoops were sounded and the hostile bands began to chant their
+respective songs. As they slowly approached each other, the Wyandots
+struck a fire, and prepared their gum and bark to repair any damage
+which might occur to the canoes. The battle was fought with bows and
+arrows, and after a furious and obstinate contest of some hours, in
+which the carnage was dreadful, and the canoes were beginning to fill
+with blood, water and mangled bodies, the Senecas began to give way. The
+encouraged Wyandots fought with redoubled ardor, driving the Senecas to
+the shore, where the conflict was renewed with unabated fury. The
+Wyandots were victorious, and few of the surviving Senecas escaped to
+tell the story of their defeat. One of the prisoners, a boy, was spared
+and adopted by the nation. Two Wyandots are now living who profess to
+have seen him, when very far advanced in years.
+
+The two other attacks to which allusion has been made, as occurring on
+the borders of Lake Michigan, were not more fortunate in their issue.
+The Senecas were repulsed with great slaughter.
+
+Thus, say the Wyandots, originated this long, bloody and disastrous war,
+and thus it terminated after proving nearly the ruin of our nation.
+
+                                                  HO-TSHUNG-RAH.
+
+_Upper Sandusky, March 1st, 1827._
+
+
+
+
+EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN.
+
+
+The oldest books we possess written by the first observers of our
+Indians abound in interest. Among these is a small work by William Wood,
+who visited Plymouth and Massachusetts soon after their settlement, and
+published his "_New England's Prospect_," in London, in 1634.
+
+The following extract from this book, (now very scarce,) we make here,
+partly for the purpose which the author declares he had in view in
+writing it, viz.: to excite the special interest of our female readers,
+though the good humour and wit, as well as the benevolence of the
+writer, will doubtless commend it to persons of both sexes. That we may
+not run the risk of losing any of the effect of the quaint,
+old-fashioned style of the original, we have been careful to preserve
+the author's orthography and punctuation, together with the long
+sentences, for which, as well as many of his contemporaries, he was,
+remarkable. We have omitted short and unimportant passages in a few
+places, marked with asterisks.
+
+
+
+
+WASBASHAS;
+
+OR,
+
+THE TRIBE THAT GREW OUT OF A SHELL.
+
+AN OSAGE LEGEND.
+
+
+There was a snail living on the banks of the river Missouri, where he
+found plenty of food, and wanted nothing. But at length the waters began
+to rise and overflow its banks, and although the little animal clung to
+a log, the flood carried them both away: they floated along for many
+days. When the water fell, the poor snail was left in the mud and slime,
+on shore. The heat of the sun came out so strong, that he was soon fixed
+in the slime and could not stir. He could no longer get any nourishment.
+He became oppressed with heat and drought. He resigned himself to his
+fate and prepared to die. But all at once, he felt a renewed vigour. His
+shell burst open, and he began to rise. His head gradually rose above
+the ground, he felt his lower extremities assuming the character of feet
+and legs. Arms extended from his sides. He felt their extremities divide
+into fingers. In fine he rose, under the influence of one day's sun,
+into a tall and noble man. For a while he remained in a dull and stupid
+state. He had but little activity, and no clear thoughts. These all came
+by degrees, and when his recollections returned, he resolved to travel
+back to his native land.
+
+But he was naked and ignorant. The first want he felt was hunger. He saw
+beasts and birds, as he walked along, but he knew not how to kill them.
+He wished himself again a snail, for he knew how, in that form, to get
+his food. At length he became so weak, by walking and fasting, that he
+laid himself down, on a grassy bank, to die. He had not laid long, when
+he heard a voice calling him by name. "Was-bas-has." exclaimed the
+voice. He looked up; and beheld the Great Spirit sitting on a white
+horse. His eyes glistened like stars. The hair of his head shone like
+the sun. He could not bear to look upon him. He trembled from head to
+foot. Again the voice spoke to him in a mild tone: "Was-bas-has! Why do
+you look terrified?" "I tremble," he replied, "because I stand before Him
+who raised me from the ground. I am faint and hungry,--I have eaten
+nothing since the floods left me upon the shore--a little shell."
+
+The Great Spirit here lifted up his hands and displaying a bow and
+arrows, told him to look at him. At a distance sat a bird on a tree. He
+put an arrow to the string, and pulling it with force, brought down the
+beautiful object. At this moment a deer came in sight. He placed another
+arrow to the string, and pierced it through and through. "These" said
+he, "are your food, and these are your arms," handing him the bow and
+arrows. He then instructed him how to remove the skin of the deer, and
+prepare it for a garment. "You are naked," said he, "and must be
+clothed; it is now warm, but the skies will change, and bring rains, and
+snow, and cold winds." Having said this, he also imparted the gift of
+fire, and instructed him how to roast the flesh. He then placed a collar
+of wampum around his neck. "This," said he, "is your authority over all
+beasts." Having done this, both horse and rider rose up, and vanished
+from his sight.
+
+Was-bas-has refreshed himself, and now pursued his way to his native
+land. He had seated himself on the banks of the river, and was
+meditating on what had passed, when a large beaver rose up from the
+channel and addressed him. "Who art thou;" said the beaver, "that comest
+here to disturb my ancient reign?" "I am a _man_" he replied; "I was
+once a _shell_, a creeping shell; but who art thou?" "I am king of the
+nation of beavers," he answered: "I lead my people up and down this
+stream; we are a busy people, and the river is my dominion." "I must
+divide it with you," retorted Was-bas-has. "The Great Spirit has placed
+me at the head of beasts and birds, fishes and fowl; and has provided me
+with the power of maintaining my rights." Here he held up the bow and
+arrows, and displayed the collar of shells around his neck. "Come,
+come," said the Beaver, modifying his tone, "I perceive we are
+brothers.--Walk with me to my lodge, and refresh yourself after your
+journey," and so saying he led the way. The Snail-Man willingly obeyed
+his invitation, and had no reason to repent of his confidence. They soon
+entered a fine large village, and his host led him to the chief's lodge.
+It was a well-built room, of a cone-shape, and the floor nicely covered
+with mats. As soon as they were seated, the Beaver directed his wife and
+daughter to prepare food for their guest. While this was getting ready,
+the Beaver chief thought he would improve his opportunity by making a
+fast friend of so superior a being; whom he saw, at the same time, to be
+but a novice. He informed him of the method they had of cutting down
+trees, with their teeth, and of felling them across streams, so as to
+dam up the water, and described the method of finishing their dams with
+leaves and clay. He also instructed him in the way of erecting lodges,
+and with other wise and seasonable conversation beguiled the time. His
+wife and daughter now entered, bringing in vessels of fresh peeled
+poplar, and willow, and sassafras, and alder bark, which is the most
+choice food known to them. Of this, Was-bas-has made a merit of tasting,
+while his entertainer devoured it with pleasure. He was pleased with the
+modest looks and deportment of the chief's daughter, and her cleanly and
+neat attire, and her assiduous attention to the commands of her father.
+This was ripened into esteem by the visit he made her. A mutual
+attachment ensued. A union was proposed to the father, who was rejoiced
+to find so advantageous a match for his daughter. A great feast was
+prepared, to which all the beavers, and other animals on good terms with
+them, were invited. The Snail-Man and the Beaver-Maid were thus united,
+and this union is the origin of the Osages. So it is said by the old
+people.
+
+
+
+
+THE BOY WHO SET A SNARE FOR THE SUN;
+
+OR
+
+THE ORIGIN OF THE KUG-E-BEENG-WA-KWA,[5] OR DORMOUSE.
+
+FROM THE ODJIBWA ALGONQUIN.
+
+
+At the time when the animals reigned in the earth, they had killed all
+but a girl, and her little brother, and these two were living in fear
+and seclusion. The boy was a perfect pigmy, and never grew beyond the
+stature of a small infant; but the girl increased with her years, so
+that the labor of providing food and lodging devolved wholly on her. She
+went out daily to get wood for their lodge-fire, and took her little
+brother along that no accident might happen to him; for he was too
+little to leave alone. A big bird might have flown away with him. She
+made him a bow and arrows, and said to him one day, "I will leave you
+behind where I have been chopping--you must hide yourself, and you will
+soon see the Gitshee-gitshee-gaun, ai see-ug or snow birds, come and
+pick the worms out of the wood, where I have been chopping," (for it was
+in the winter.) "Shoot one of them and bring it home." He obeyed her,
+and tried his best to kill one, but came home unsuccessful. She told him
+he must not despair, but try again the next day. She accordingly left
+him at the place she got wood, and returned. Towards nightfall, she
+heard his little footsteps on the snow, and he came in exultingly, and
+threw down one of the birds, which he had killed. "My sister," said he,
+"I wish you to skin it and stretch the skin, and when I have killed
+more, I will have a coat made out of them." "But what shall we do with
+the body?" said she: for as yet men had not begun to eat animal food,
+but lived on vegetables alone. "Cut it in two," he answered, "and season
+our pottage with one half of it at a time." She did so. The boy, who
+was of a very small stature, continued his efforts, and succeeded in
+killing ten birds, out of the skins of which his sister made him a
+little coat.
+
+"Sister," said he one day, "are we all alone in the world? Is there
+nobody else living?" She told him that those they feared and who had
+destroyed their relatives lived in a certain quarter, and that he must
+by no means go in that direction. This only served to inflame his
+curiosity and raise his ambition, and he soon after took his bow and
+arrows and went in that direction. After walking a long time and meeting
+nothing, he became tired, and lay down on a knoll, where the sun had
+melted the snow. He fell fast asleep; and while sleeping, the sun beat
+so hot upon him, that it singed and drew up his bird-skin coat, so that
+when he awoke and stretched himself, he felt bound in it, as it were. He
+looked down and saw the damage done to his coat. He flew into a passion
+and upbraided the sun, and vowed vengeance against it. "Do not think you
+are too high," said he, "I shall revenge myself."
+
+On coming home he related his disaster to his sister, and lamented
+bitterly the spoiling of his coat. He would not eat. He lay down as one
+that fasts, and did not stir, or move his position for ten days, though
+she tried all she could to arouse him. At the end of ten days, he turned
+over, and then lay ten days on the other side. When he got up, he told
+his sister to make him a snare, for he meant to catch the sun. She said
+she had nothing; but finally recollected a little piece of dried deer's
+sinew, that her father had left, which she soon made into a string
+suitable for a noose. But the moment she showed it to him, he told her
+it would not do, and bid her get something else. She said she had
+nothing--nothing at all. At last she thought of her hair, and pulling
+some of it out of her head, made a string. But he instantly said it
+would not answer, and bid her, pettishly, and with authority, make him a
+noose. She told him there was nothing to make it of, and went out of the
+lodge. She said to herself, when she had got without the lodge, and
+while she was all alone, "neow obewy indapin." This she did, and
+twisting them into a tiny cord she handed it to her brother. The moment
+he saw this curious braid he was delighted. "This will do," he said, and
+immediately put it to his mouth and began pulling it through his lips;
+and as fast as he drew it changed it into a red metal cord, which he
+wound around his body and shoulders, till he had a large quantity. He
+then prepared himself, and set out a little after midnight, that he
+might catch the sun before it rose. He fixed his snare on a spot just
+where the sun would strike the land, as it rose above the earth's disc;
+and sure enough, he caught the sun, so that it was held fast in the
+cord, and did not rise.
+
+The animals who ruled the earth were immediately put into a great
+commotion. They had no light. They called a council to debate upon the
+matter, and to appoint some one to go and cut the cord--for this was a
+very hazardous enterprise, as the rays of the sun would burn whoever
+came so near to them. At last the dormouse undertook it--for at this
+time the dormouse was the largest animal in the world. When it stood up
+it looked like a mountain. When it got to the place where the sun was
+snared, its back began to smoke and burn, with the intensity of the
+heat, and the top of its carcass was reduced to enormous heaps of ashes.
+It succeeded, however, in cutting the cord with its teeth, and freeing
+the sun, but it was reduced to a very small size, and has remained so
+ever since. Men call it the Kug-e-been-gwa-kwa.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [5] Blind Woman.
+
+
+
+
+AMPATA SAPA;
+
+OR,
+
+THE FIRST-WIFE.
+
+A TRADITION OF THE DACOTAHS.
+
+
+Ampata Sapa was the wife of a brave young hunter and warrior, by whom
+she had two children. They lived together in great happiness, which was
+only varied by the changes of a forest life. Sometimes they lived on the
+prairies; sometimes they built their wigwam in the forest, near the
+banks of a stream, and they paddled their canoe up and down the rivers.
+In these trips they got fish, when they were tired of wild meats. In the
+summer season they kept on the open grounds; in the winter, they fixed
+their camp in a sheltered position, in the woods. The very change of
+their camp was a source of pleasure, for they were always on the
+look-out for something new. They had plenty, and they wanted nothing.
+
+In this manner the first years of their marriage passed away. But it so
+happened, that as years went by, the reputation of her husband in the
+tribe increased, and he soon came to be regarded as a Weetshahstshy
+Atapee, or chief. This opened a new field for his ambition and pride.
+The fame of a chief, it is well known, is often increased by the number
+of his wives. His lodge was now thronged with visitors. Some came to
+consult him; some to gain his favour. All this gave Ampata Sapa no
+uneasiness, for the Red People like to have visitors, and to show
+hospitality. The first thing that caused a jar in her mind, was the
+rumour that her husband was about to take a new wife. This was like a
+poison in her veins; for she had a big heart. She was much attached to
+her husband, and she could not bear the idea of sharing his affections
+with another. But she found that the idea had already got strong hold of
+her husband's mind, and her remonstrances did little good. He defended
+himself on the ground, that it would give him greater influence in the
+tribe if he took the daughter of a noted chief. But before he had time
+to bring her to his lodge, Ampata Sapa had fled from it, taking her two
+children, and returned to her father's lodge. Her father lived at some
+distance, and here she remained a short time in quiet. The whole band
+soon moved up the Mississippi, to their hunting ground. She was glad to
+go with them, and would, indeed, have been glad to go any where, to get
+farther from the lodge of her faithless husband.
+
+Here the winter wore away. When the Spring opened, they came back again
+to the banks of the river, and mended and fitted up the canoes, which
+they had left in the fall. In these they put their furs, and descended
+to the Falls of St. Anthony. Ampata Sapa lingered behind a short time
+the morning of their embarkation, as they began to draw near the rapids
+which precede the great plunge. She then put her canoe in the water, and
+embarked with her children. As she approached the falls, the increasing
+velocity of the current rendered the paddles of but little use. She
+rested with her's suspended in her hands, while she arose, and uttered
+her lament:
+
+"It was him only that I loved, with the love of my heart. It was for him
+that I prepared, with joy, the fresh killed meat, and swept with boughs
+my lodge-fire. It was for him I dressed the skin of the noble deer, and
+worked, with my hands, the Moccasins that graced his feet.
+
+"I waited while the sun ran his daily course, for his return from the
+chase, and I rejoiced in my heart when I heard his manly footsteps
+approach the lodge. He threw down his burden at the door--it was a
+haunch of the deer;--I flew to prepare the meat for his use.
+
+"My heart was bound up in him, and he was all the world to me. But he has
+left me for another, and life is now a burden which I cannot bear. Even
+my children add to my griefs--they look so much like him. How can I
+support life, when all its moments are bitter! I have lifted up my voice
+to the Master of life. I have asked him to take back that life, which he
+gave, and which I no longer wish. I am on the current that hastens to
+fulfil my prayer. I see the white foam of the water. It is my shroud. I
+hear the deep murmur from below. It is my funeral song. Farewell."
+
+It was too late to arrest her course. She had approached too near the
+abyss, before her purpose was discovered by her friends. They beheld her
+enter the foam--they saw the canoe for an instant, on the verge, and
+then disappear for ever. Such was the end of Ampata Sapa; and they say
+her canoe can sometimes be seen, by moonlight, plunging over the falls.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Internal dissention has done more to destroy the Indian power in
+America, than the white man's sword. Could the tribes learn the wisdom
+of confederation, they might yet be saved. This is a problem now
+undergoing an interesting process of solution.
+
+
+
+
+MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA;
+
+OR,
+
+THE TOAD-WOMAN
+
+AN ODJIBWA TALE.
+
+
+Great good luck once happened to a young woman who was living all alone
+in the woods, with nobody near her but her little dog, for, to her
+surprise, she found fresh meat every morning at her door. She felt very
+anxious to know who it was that supplied her, and watching one morning,
+very early, she saw a handsome young man deposit the meat. After his
+being seen by her, he became her husband, and she had a son by him. One
+day not long after this, the man did not return at evening, as usual,
+from hunting. She waited till late at night, but all in vain. Next day
+she swung her baby to sleep in its tikenágun, or cradle, and then said
+to her dog: "Take care of your brother whilst I am gone, and when he
+cries, halloo for me." The cradle was made of the finest wampum, and all
+its bandages and decorations were of the same costly material. After a
+short time the woman heard the cry of her faithful dog, and running home
+as fast as she could, she found her child gone and the dog too. But on
+looking round, she saw pieces of the wampum of her child's cradle bit
+off by the dog, who strove to retain the child and prevent his being
+carried off by an old woman called Mukakee Mindemoea, or the Toad-Woman.
+The mother followed at full speed, and occasionally came to lodges
+inhabited by old women, who told her at what time the thief had passed;
+they also gave her shoes, that she might follow on. There were a number
+of these old women, who seemed as if they were all prophetesses. Each of
+them would say to her, that when she arrived in pursuit of her stolen
+child at the next lodge, she must set the toes of the moccasins they had
+loaned her pointing homewards, and they would return of themselves. She
+would get others from her entertainers farther on, who would also give
+her directions how to proceed to recover her son. She thus followed in
+the pursuit, from valley to valley, and stream to stream, for months and
+years; when she came, at length, to the lodge of the last of the
+friendly old Nocoes, or grandmothers, as they were called, who gave her
+final instructions how to proceed. She told her she was near the place
+where her son was, and directed her to build a lodge of shingoob, or
+cedar boughs, near the old Toad-Woman's lodge, and to make a little bark
+dish and squeeze her milk into it. "Then," she said, "your first child
+(meaning the dog) will come and find you out." She did accordingly, and
+in a short time she heard her son, now grown, going but to hunt, with
+his dog, calling out to him, "Monedo Pewaubik (that is, Steel or Spirit
+Iron,) Twee! Twee!" She then set ready the dish and filled it with her
+milk. The dog soon scented it and came into the lodge; she placed it
+before him. "See my child," said she, addressing him, "the food you used
+to have from me, your mother." The dog went and told his young master
+that he had found his _real_ mother; and informed him that the old
+woman, whom he _called_ his mother, was not his mother, that she had
+stolen him when an infant in his cradle, and that he had himself
+followed her in hopes of getting him back. The young man and his dog
+then went on their hunting excursion, and brought back a great quantity
+of meat of all kinds. He said to his pretended mother, as he laid it
+down, "Send some to the stranger that has arrived lately." The old hag
+answered, "No! why should I send to her--the Sheegowish."[6] He
+insisted; and she at last consented to take something, throwing it in at
+the door, with the remark, "My son gives you, or feeds you this." But it
+was of such an offensive nature, that she threw it immediately out after
+her.
+
+After this the young man paid the stranger a visit, at her lodge of
+cedar boughs, and partook of her dish of milk. She then told him she was
+his real mother, and that he had been stolen away from her by the
+detestable Toad-Woman, who was a witch. He was not quite convinced. She
+said to him, "Feign yourself sick, when you go home, and when the
+Toad-Woman asks what ails you, say that you want to see your cradle; for
+your cradle was of wampum, and your faithful brother, the dog, bit a
+piece off to try and detain you, which I picked up, as I followed in
+your track. They were real wampum, white and blue, shining and
+beautiful." She then showed him the pieces. He went home and did as his
+real mother bid him. "Mother," said he, "why am I so different in my
+looks from the rest of your children?" "Oh," said she, "it was a very
+bright clear blue sky when you were born; that is the reason." When the
+Toad-Woman saw he was ill, she asked what she could do for him. He said
+nothing would do him good, but the sight of his cradle. She ran
+immediately and got a cedar cradle; but he said "That is not my cradle."
+She went and got one of her own children's cradles, (for she had four,)
+but he turned his head and said, "That is not mine." She then produced
+the real cradle, and he saw it was the same, in substance, with the
+pieces the other had shown him; and he was convinced, for he could even
+see the marks of the dog's teeth upon it.
+
+He soon got well, and went out hunting, and killed a fat bear. He and
+his dog-brother then stripped a tall pine of all its branches, and stuck
+the carcass on the top, taking the usual sign of his having killed an
+animal--the tongue. He told the Toad-Woman where he had left it, saying,
+"It is very far, even to the end of the earth." She answered, "It is not
+so far but I can get it," so off she set. As soon as she was gone, the
+young man and his dog killed the Toad-Woman's children, and staked them
+on each side of the door, with a piece of fat in their mouths, and then
+went to his real mother and hastened her departure with them. The
+Toad-Woman spent a long time in finding the bear, and had much ado in
+climbing the tree to get down the carcass. As she got near home, she saw
+the children looking out, apparently, with the fat in their mouths, and
+was angry at them, saying, "Why do you destroy the pomatum of your
+brother." But her fury was great indeed, when she saw they were killed
+and impaled. She ran after the fugitives as fast as she could, and was
+near overtaking them, when the young man said, "We are pressed hard, but
+let this stay her progress," throwing his fire steel behind him, which
+caused the Toad-Woman to slip and fall repeatedly. But still she pursued
+and gained on them, when he threw behind him his flint, which again
+retarded her, for it made her slip and stumble, so that her knees were
+bleeding; but she continued to follow on, and was gaining ground, when
+the young man said, "Let the Oshau shaw go min un (snake berry) spring
+up to detain her," and immediately these berries spread like scarlet all
+over the path for a long distance, which she could not avoid stooping
+down to pick and eat. Still she went on, and was again advancing on
+them, when the young man at last, said to the dog, "Brother, chew her
+into mummy, for she plagues us." So the dog, turning round, seized her
+and tore her to pieces, and they escaped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Death is frightful, or welcome, according to the theories men have of
+it. To the Indian, it is a pleasing and welcome event. He believes a
+future state to be one of rewards, and restitutions, and not of
+punishments.
+
+The Indian idea of paradise is the idea of the orientals. It consists of
+sensualities, not spiritualities. He expects the scene to furnish him
+ease and plenty. Ease and plenty make the Indian's happiness here, and
+his heaven is but a bright transcript of his earth.
+
+Paganism and idolatry, require more mysteries for their support than
+Christianity. The Christian has but one God, existing in three
+hypostases. It would be below the truth to say that the Indian has one
+hundred thousand gods.
+
+The Hindoos _worship_ their multiform gods of the earth, air and sea.
+The North American Indian only _believes_ in them. He worships the Great
+Spirit.
+
+Wild thoughts are often bright thoughts, but like the wild leaps of a
+mountain torrent, they are evanescent and unequal. We are dazzled by a
+single figure in an Indian speech, but it is too often like a spark amid
+a shower of ashes.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [6] _Sheegowiss_, a widow, and _mowigh_, something nasty.
+
+
+
+
+THE FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES FROM THE SOUTH.
+
+A MOHEGAN TRADITION.
+
+
+Metoxon states, that the Shawnees were, in ancient times, while they
+lived in the south, defeated by a confederacy of surrounding tribes, and
+in danger of being totally cut off and annihilated, had it not been for
+the interference of the Mohegans and Delawares. An alliance between them
+and the Mohegans, happened in this way. Whilst the Mohegans lived at
+Schodack, on the Hudson river, a young warrior of that tribe visited the
+Shawnees, at their southern residence, and formed a close friendship
+with a young warrior of his own age. They became as brothers, and vowed
+for ever to treat each other as such.
+
+The Mohegan warrior had returned, and been some years living with his
+nation, on the banks of the Chatimac, or Hudson, when a general war
+broke out against the Shawnees. The restless and warlike disposition of
+this tribe, kept them constantly embroiled with their neighbours. They
+were unfaithful to their treaties, and this was the cause of perpetual
+troubles and wars. At length the nations of the south resolved, by a
+general effort, to rid themselves of so troublesome a people, and began
+a war, in which the Shawnees were defeated, battle after battle, with
+great loss. In this emergency, the Mohegan thought of his Shawnee
+brother, and resolved to rescue him. He raised a war-party and being
+joined by the Lenapees, since called Delawares, they marched to their
+relief, and brought off the remnant of the tribe to the country of the
+Lenapees. Here they were put under the charge of the latter, as their
+grandfather.
+
+They were now, in the Indian phrase, put between their grandfather's
+knees, and treated as little children. Their hands were clasped and tied
+together--that is to say, they were taken under their protection, and
+formed a close alliance. But still, sometimes the child would creep out
+under the old man's legs, and get into trouble--implying that the
+Shawnees could never forget their warlike propensities.
+
+The events of the subsequent history of this tribe, after the settlement
+of America are well known. With the Lenapees, or Delawares, they
+migrated westward.
+
+The above tradition was received from the respectable and venerable
+chief, above named, in 1827, during the negotiation of the treaty of
+_Buttes des Morts_, on Fox river. At this treaty his people, bearing the
+modern name of Stockbridges, were present, having, within a few years,
+migrated from their former position in Oneida county, New York, to the
+waters of Fox river, in Wisconsin.
+
+Metoxon was a man of veracity, and of reflective and temperate habits,
+united to urbanity of manners, and estimable qualities of head and
+heart, as I had occasion to know from several years' acquaintance with
+him, before he, and his people went from Vernon to the west, as well as
+after he migrated thither.
+
+The tradition, perhaps with the natural partiality of a tribesman, lays
+too much stress upon a noble and generous act of individual and tribal
+friendship, but is not inconsistant with other relations, of the early
+southern position, and irrascible temper of the Shawnee tribe. Their
+name itself, which is a derivative from O-shá-wan-ong, the place of the
+South, is strong presumptive evidence of a former residence in, or
+origin from, the extreme south. Mr. John Johnston, who was for many
+years the government agent of this tribe at Piqua, in Ohio, traces them,
+in an article in the Archælogia Americana (vol. 1, p. 273) to the
+Suwanee river in Florida. Mr. Gallatin, in the second volume of the same
+work (p. 65) points out their track, from historical sources of
+undoubted authority, to the banks of the upper Savannah, in Georgia; but
+remarks that they have only been well known to us since 1680. They are
+first mentioned in our scattered Indian annals, by De Laet, in 1632.
+
+It may further be said, in relation to Metoxon's tradition, that there
+is authority for asserting, that in the flight of the Shawnees from the
+south, a part of them descended the Kentucky river west, to the Ohio
+valley, where, in after times, the Shawnees of Pennsylvania and New
+Jersey, rather formed a re-union with this division of their kindred
+than led the way for them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To depart one step from barbarism, is to take one step towards
+civilization. To abandon the lodge of bark--to throw aside the
+blanket--to discontinue the use of paints--or to neglect the nocturnal
+orgies of the wabeno, are as certain indications of incipient
+civilization, as it unquestionably is, to substitute alphabetical
+characters for rude hieroglyphics, or to prefer the regular cadences of
+the gamut, to the wild chanting of the chichigwun.
+
+
+
+
+BOSH-KWA-DOSH,
+
+OR
+
+THE QUADRUPED WITH THE HAIR BLOWN OFF ITS SKIN.
+
+
+There was once a man who found himself alone in the world. He knew not
+whence he came, nor who were his parents, and he wandered about from
+place to place, in search of something. At last he became wearied and
+fell asleep. He dreamed that he heard a voice saying, "Nosis," that is,
+my grandchild. When he awoke he actually heard the word repeated, and
+looking around, he saw a tiny little animal hardly big enough to be seen
+on the plain. While doubting whether the voice could come from such a
+diminutive source, the little animal said to him, "My grandson, you will
+call me Bosh-kwa-dosh. Why are you so desolate. Listen to me, and you
+shall find friends and be happy. You must take me up and bind me to your
+body, and never put me aside, and success in life shall attend you." He
+obeyed the voice, sewing up the little animal in the folds of a string,
+or narrow belt, which he tied around his body, at his navel. He then set
+out in search of some one like himself, or other object. He walked a
+long time in woods without seeing man or animal. He seemed all alone in
+the world. At length he came to a place where a stump was cut, and on
+going over a hill he descried a large town in a plain. A wide road led
+through the middle of it; but what seemed strange was, that on one side
+there were no inhabitants in the lodges, while the other side was
+thickly inhabited. He walked boldly into the town.
+
+The inhabitants came out and said; "Why here is the being we have heard
+so much of--here is Anish-in-á-ba. See his eyes, and his teeth in a half
+circle--see the Wyaukenawbedaid! See his bowels, how they are
+formed;"--for it seems they could look through him. The king's son, the
+Mudjékewis, was particularly kind to him, and calling him
+brother-in-law, commanded that he should be taken to his father's lodge
+and received with attention. The king gave him one of his daughters.
+These people, (who are supposed to be human, but whose rank in the scale
+of being is left equivocal,) passed much of their time in play and
+sports and trials of various kinds. When some time had passed, and he
+had become refreshed and rested, he was invited to join in these
+sports. The first test which they put him to, was the trial of frost. At
+some distance was a large body of frozen water, and the trial consisted
+in lying down naked on the ice, and seeing who could endure the longest.
+He went out with two young men, who began, by pulling off their
+garments, and lying down on their faces. He did likewise, only keeping
+on the narrow magic belt with the tiny little animal sewed in it; for he
+felt that in this alone was to be his reliance and preservation. His
+competitors laughed and tittered during the early part of the night, and
+amused themselves by thoughts of his fate. Once they called out to him,
+but he made no reply. He felt a manifest warmth given out by his belt.
+About midnight finding they were still, he called out to them, in
+return,--"What!" said he, "are you benumbed already, I am but just
+beginning to feel a little cold." All was silence. He, however, kept his
+position till early day break, when he got up and went to them. They
+were both quite dead, and frozen so hard, that the flesh had bursted out
+under their finger nails, and their teeth stood out. As he looked more
+closely, what was his surprise to find them both transformed into
+buffalo cows. He tied them together, and carried them towards the
+village. As he came in sight, those who had wished his death were
+disappointed, but the Mudjékewis, who was really his friend, rejoiced.
+"See!" said he "but one person approaches,--it is my brother-in-law." He
+then threw down the carcasses in triumph, but it was found that by their
+death he had restored two inhabitants to the before empty lodges, and he
+afterwards perceived, that every one of these beings, whom he killed,
+had the like effect; so that the depopulated part of the village soon
+became filled with people.
+
+The next test they put him to was the trial of speed. He was challenged
+to the race ground, and began his career with one whom he thought to be
+a man; but every thing was enchanted here, for he soon discovered that
+his competitor was a large black bear. The animal outran him, tore up
+the ground, and sported before him, and put out its large claws as if to
+frighten him. He thought of his little guardian spirit in the belt, and
+wishing to have the swiftness of the Kakake, i. e. sparrow hawk, he
+found himself rising from the ground, and with the speed of this bird he
+outwent his rival, and won the race, while the bear came up exhausted
+and lolling out his tongue. His friend the Mudjékewis stood ready, with
+his war-club, at the goal, and the moment the bear came up, dispatched
+him. He then turned to the assembly, who had wished his friend and
+brother's death, and after reproaching them, he lifted up his club and
+began to slay them on every side. They fell in heaps on all sides; but
+it was plain to be seen, the moment they fell, that they were not men,
+but animals,--foxes, wolves, tigers, lynxes, and other kinds, lay thick
+around the Mudjékewis.
+
+Still the villagers were not satisfied. They thought the trial of
+frost, had not been fairly accomplished, and wished it repeated. He
+agreed to repeat it, but being fatigued with the race, he undid his
+guardian belt, and laying it under his head, fell asleep. When he awoke,
+he felt refreshed, and feeling strong in his own strength, he went
+forward to renew the trial on the ice, but quite forgot the belt, nor
+did it at all occur to him when he awoke, or when he lay down to repeat
+the trial. About midnight his limbs became stiff, the blood soon ceased
+to circulate, and he was found in the morning, a stiff corpse. The
+victors took him up and carried him to the village, where the loudest
+tumult of victorious joy was made, and they cut the body into a thousand
+pieces, that each one might eat a piece.
+
+The Mudjékewis bemoaned his fate, but his wife was inconsolable. She lay
+in a state of partial distraction, in the lodge. As she lay here, she
+thought she heard some one groaning. It was repeated through the night,
+and in the morning, she carefully scanned the place, and running her
+fingers through the grass, she discovered the secret belt, on the spot
+where her husband had last reposed. "Aubishin!" cried the belt--that is,
+untie me, or unloose me. Looking carefully, she found the small seam
+which enclosed the tiny little animal. It cried out the more earnestly
+"Aubishin!" and when she had carefully ripped the seams, she beheld, to
+her surprise, a minute, naked little beast, smaller than the smallest
+new born mouse, without any vestige of hair, except at the tip of its
+tail, it could crawl a few inches, but reposed from fatigue. It then
+went forward again. At each movement it would _pupowee_, that is to say,
+shake itself, like a dog, and at each shake it became larger. This it
+continued until it acquired the strength and size of a middle sized dog,
+when it ran off.
+
+The mysterious dog ran to the lodges, about the village, looking for the
+bones of his friend, which he carried to a secret place, and as fast as
+he found them arranged all in their natural order. At length he had
+formed all the skeleton complete, except the heel bone of one foot. It
+so happened that two sisters were out of the camp, according to custom,
+at the time the body was cut up, and this heel was sent out to them. The
+dog hunted every lodge, and being satisfied that it was not to be found
+in the camp, he sought it outside of it, and found the lodge of the two
+sisters. The younger sister was pleased to see him, and admired and
+patted the pretty dog, but the elder sat mumbling the very heel-bone he
+was seeking, and was surly and sour, and repelled the dog, although he
+looked most wistfully up in her face, while she sucked the bone from one
+side of her mouth to the other. At last she held it in such a manner
+that it made her cheek stick out, when the dog, by a quick spring,
+seized the cheek, and tore cheek and bone away and fled.
+
+He now completed the skeleton, and placing himself before it, uttered a
+hollow, low, long-drawn-out-howl, when the bones came compactly
+together. He then modulated his howl, when the bones knit together and
+became tense. The third howl brought sinews upon them, and the fourth,
+flesh. He then turned his head upwards, looking into the sky, and gave a
+howl, which caused every one in the village to startle, and the ground
+itself to tremble, at which the breath entered into his body, and he
+first breathed and then arose. "Hy kow!" I have overslept myself, he
+exclaimed, "I will be too late for the trial." "Trial!" said the dog, "I
+told you never to let me be separate from your body, you have neglected
+this. You were defeated, and your frozen body cut into a thousand
+pieces, and scattered over the village, but my skill has restored you.
+Now I will declare myself to you, and show who and what I am!"
+
+He then began to PUPOWEE, or shake himself, and at every shake, he grew.
+His body became heavy and massy, his legs thick and long, with big
+clumsy ends, or feet. He still shook himself, and rose and swelled. A
+long snout grew from his head, and two great shining teeth out of his
+mouth. His skin remained as it was, naked, and only a tuft of hair grew
+on his tail. He rose up above the trees. He was enormous. "I should fill
+the earth," said he, "were I to exert my utmost power, and all there is
+on the earth would not satisfy me to eat. Neither could it fatten me or
+do me good. I should want more. It were useless, therefore, and the gift
+I have, I will bestow on you. The animals shall henceforth be _your
+food_. They were not designed to feed on man, neither shall they
+hereafter do it, but shall _feed_ him, and he only shall prey on beasts.
+But you will respect me, and not eat _my kind_."
+
+     [The preceding is a traditionary tale of Maidosegee, an aged and
+     respected hunter, of Sault-ste-Mairie, who was the ruling chief of
+     the band of Chippewas at those falls, and the progenitor of the
+     present line of ruling chiefs. It is preserved through the Johnston
+     family, where he was a frequent guest, prior to 1810, and was happy
+     to while away many of his winter's evenings, in return for the
+     ready hospitalities which were sure to await him at the house of
+     the Indian's friend.]
+
+
+
+
+MÄSH-KWA-SHA-KWONG,
+
+OR
+
+THE TRADITIONARY STORY OF THE RED HEAD AND HIS TWO SONS.
+
+BY NABINOI, AN AGED ODJIBWA CHIEF.
+
+
+Mash-kwa-sha-kwong, was a first rate hunter, and he loved the chase
+exceedingly, and pursued it with unceasing vigilance. One day, on his
+return home, arriving at his lodge, he was informed by his two sons, who
+were but small then, that they were very lonesome, because their mother
+was in the habit of daily leaving them alone, and this occurred so soon
+as he started upon his daily chase. This circumstance was not unknown
+to Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong, but he seemed fully aware of it; he took his boys
+in his arms and kissed them, and told them that their mother behaved
+improperly and was acting the part of a wicked and faithless woman. But
+Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong behaved towards his wife as if ignorant of her vile
+course. One morning rising very early, he told his sons to take courage,
+and that they must not be lonesome, he also strictly enjoined them not
+to absent themselves nor quit their lodge; after this injunction was
+given to the boys, he made preparations, and starting much earlier than
+usual, he travelled but a short distance from his lodge, when he halted
+and secreted himself. After waiting a short time, he saw his wife coming
+out of their lodge, and immediately after a man made his appearance and
+meeting Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong's wife, they greeted one another. His
+suspicions were now confirmed, and when he saw them in the act of
+carrying on an illegal intercourse, his anger arose, he went up to them,
+and killed them with one blow; he then dragged them both to his lodge,
+and tying them together, he dug a hole beneath the fire-place in his
+lodge and buried them. He then told his sons that it was necessary that
+he should go away, as he would surely be killed if he remained, and
+their safety would depend upon their ability of keeping the matter a
+secret. He gave his eldest son a small bird, (Kichig-e-chig-aw-na-she)
+to roast for his small brother over the ashes and embers where their
+mother was buried, he also provided a small leather bag, and then told
+his sons the necessity of his immediate flight to heaven, or to the
+skies. And that it would be expedient for them to fly and journey
+southward, and thus prepared their minds for the separation about to
+take place. "By and bye," said Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong to his sons, "persons
+will come to you and enquire for me and for your mother, you will say to
+them that I am gone hunting, and your little brother in the mean time
+will continually point to the fire place, this will lead the persons to
+whom I allude, to make inquiries of the cause of this pointing, and you
+will tell them that you have a little bird roasting for your brother,
+this will cause them to desist from further inquiry at the time. As soon
+as they are gone escape! While you are journeying agreeably to my
+instructions, I will look from on high upon you, I will lead and conduct
+you, and you shall hear my voice from day to day." Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong at
+this time gave his sons an awl, a beaver's tooth, and a hone, also a dry
+coal, and directed them to place a small piece of the coal on the ground
+every evening, so soon as they should encamp, from which fire would be
+produced and given to them; he told his eldest son to place his brother
+in the leather bag, and in that manner carry him upon his back; he then
+bade them farewell.
+
+The two boys being thus left alone in the lodge, and while in the act of
+roasting the little bird provided for them, a man came in, and then
+another, and another, until they numbered ten in all; the youngest boy
+would from time to time point at the fire, and the men enquired to know
+the reason, the eldest boy said that he was roasting a bird for his
+brother, and digging the ashes produced it. They enquired, where their
+father and mother were, the boy answered them saying, that their father
+was absent hunting, and that their mother had gone to chop and collect
+wood; upon this information the men rose and searched around the
+outskirts of the lodge, endeavouring to find traces of the man and his
+wife, but they were not successful, and returned to the lodge. Before
+this, however, and during the absence of the ten men,
+Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong's eldest son placed his little brother in the leather
+bag, (Ouskemood,) and ran away southward.
+
+One of the ten men observed, that the smallest boy had repeatedly
+pointed to the fire place, and that they might find out something by
+digging; they set to work, and found the woman and the man tied
+together. On this discovery their wrath was kindled, they brandished
+their weapons, denouncing impercations upon Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong, who was
+of course suspected of having committed the deed.
+
+The ten men again renewed their search in order to avenge themselves
+upon the perpetrator of this dark deed, but Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong, in order
+to avoid instant death, had sought a large hollow tree, and entering at
+the bottom or root part, passed through and reached the top of it, from
+whence he took his flight upwards to the sky. His pursuers finally
+traced him, and followed him as far as the tree, and into the sky, with
+loud and unceasing impercations of revenge and their determination to
+kill him. The spirit of the mother alone followed her children. About
+mid-day the boys heard, as they ran, a noise in the heavens like the
+rolling of distant thunder.[7] The boys continued their journey south,
+when the noise ceased; towards night they encamped; they put a small
+piece of the coal on the ground, then a log of fire-wood was dropped
+down from the skies to them, from whence a good blazing fire was
+kindled. This was done daily, and when the fire was lit, a raccoon would
+fall from on high upon the fire, and in this manner the boys were fed,
+and this over-ruling care they experienced daily. In the evenings at
+their camping place, and sometimes during the day, the Red Head's voice
+was heard speaking to his children, and encouraging them to use their
+utmost exertions to fly from the pursuit of their mother. To aid them in
+escaping, they were told to throw away their awl, and immediately there
+grew a strong and almost impassable hedge of thorn bushes behind them,
+in their path, which the pursuing mother could scarcely penetrate, and
+thus impeding her progress, tearing away her whole body and leaving
+nothing but the head. So they escaped the first day.
+
+The next day they resumed their march and could distinctly hear the
+noise of combat in the sky, as if it were a roaring thunder; they also
+heard the voice of their mother behind them, desiring her eldest son to
+stop and wait for her, saying that she wished to give the breast to his
+brother; then again Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong's voice, encouraging his sons to
+fly for their lives, and saying that if their mother overtook them she
+would surely kill them.
+
+In the evening of the second day the boys prepared to encamp, and the
+noise of combat on high ceased; on placing a small piece of the coal on
+the ground, a log and some fire-wood was let down as on the preceding
+night, and the fire was kindled, and then the raccoon placed on it for
+their food. This was fulfilling the promise made by their father, that
+they would be provided for during their flight. The beaver's tooth was
+here thrown away, and this is the cause why the northern country now
+abounds with beaver, and also the innumerable little lakes and marshes,
+and consequently the rugged and tedious travelling now experienced.
+
+On the third day the boys resumed their flight, and threw away their
+hone, and it became a high rocky mountainous ridge, the same now seen on
+the north shore of these straits, (St. Mary's) which was a great
+obstacle in the way of the woman of the Head, for this was now her name,
+because that part alone remained of her whole frame, and with it she was
+incessantly uttering determinations to kill her eldest son; the boys
+finally reached the fishing place known as the eddy of Wah-zah-zhawing,
+at the rapids of Bawating, situated on the north shore of the river.
+Here Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong, told his sons that he had himself been
+overtaken in his flight by his pursuers and killed, and he appeared to
+them in the shape of a red headed wood-pecker, or a _mama_. This is a
+bird that is seldom or never attacked by birds of prey, for no vestiges
+of his remains are ever seen or found by the Indian hunter. "Now my
+sons," said the red headed wood-pecker, "I have brought you to this
+river, you will now see your grand father and he will convey you across
+to the opposite side." Then the boys looked to the southern shore of the
+river, and they saw in the middle of the rapid, an OSHUGGAY standing on
+a rock; to the Oshuggay the boys spoke, and accosted him as their grand
+father, requesting him to carry them across the river Bawating. The
+Oshuggay stretching his long neck over the river to the place where the
+boys stood, told them to get upon his head and neck, and again
+stretching to the southern shore, he landed the boys in safety, upon a
+prairie: the crane was seen walking in state, up and down the prairie.
+
+The persevering mother soon arrived at Wah-zah-hawing, and immediately
+requested the Oshuggay to cross her over, that she was in pursuit of
+her children and stating that she wished to overtake them; but the
+Oshuggay seemed well aware of her character, and objected to conveying
+her across, giving her to understand that she was a lewd and bad woman;
+he continued giving her a long moral lecture upon the course she had
+pursued and the bad results to mankind in consequence, such as quarrels,
+murders, deaths, and hence widowhood.
+
+The woman of the Head persisted in her request of being conveyed across.
+Objections and entreaties followed. She talked as if she were still a
+woman, whose favour was to be sought; and he, as if he were above such
+favours. After this dialogue the Oshuggay said that he would convey her
+across, on the condition that she would adhere strictly to his
+injunctions; he told her not to touch the bare part of his head, but to
+get upon the hollow or crooked part of his neck; to this she agreed, and
+got on. The Oshuggay then withdrew his long neck to about half way
+across, when feeling that she had forgotten her pledge he dashed her
+head upon the rocks, and the small fish, that were so abundant instantly
+fed upon the brain and fragments of the skull and became large white
+fish. "A fish" said the Oshuggay, "that from this time forth shall be
+abundant, and remain in these rapids to feed the Indians and their
+issue, from generation to generation."[8]
+
+After this transaction of the Oshuggay's, landing the boys safely
+across, and dashing the woman's head upon the rocks, he spake to the
+Crane and mutually consulting one another in relation to
+Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong's sons they agreed to invite two women from the
+eastward, of the tribe of the WASSISSIG, and the two lads took them for
+wives. The Oshuggay plucked one of his largest wing feathers and gave it
+to the eldest boy, and the Crane likewise did the same, giving his
+feathers to the youngest; they were told to consider the feathers as
+their sons after this, one feather appeared like an Oshuggay and the
+other like a young Crane. By and by they appeared like human beings to
+the lads. Thus the alliance was formed with the Wassissig, and the
+circumstance of the Oshuggay and Crane interesting themselves in behalf
+of the boys and the gift to them of their feathers and the result, is
+the origin of the Indian _Totem_.
+
+Here Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong's sons were told that they would be considered
+as chieftains and that this office would be hereditary and continue in
+their generations. After this, they multiplied exceedingly and became
+strong and powerful. About this time the Obinangoes, (or the Bears'
+Totem) came down from Shaugah-wah-mickong, near the extremity of Lake
+Superior. On their way eastward they were surprised on reaching Bawating
+to find such a numerous population of human beings: they were not aware
+of its being in existence; fear came upon the Obinangoes, and they
+devised the plan of securing friendship with the Oshuggays and Cranes,
+by adopting and claiming a relationship with them, and calling them
+their grandsons. This claim was yielded, and they were permitted to
+remain at Bawaiting upon the score of relationship thus happily
+attained. The Obenangoes eventually emigrated eastward and settled upon
+the northern coast of Lakes Huron and Ontario.
+
+Population increased so rapidly at Bawaiting, that it was necessary to
+form new villages, some settling on the Garden River, some upon the
+Pakaysaugauegan River, and others upon the island of St. Joseph's, and
+upon the Menashkong Bay and Mashkotay Saugie River.
+
+About this time, a person in the shape of a human being came down from
+the sky; his clothing was exceedingly pure and white; he was seated as
+it were in a nest, with a very fine cord attached to it, by which this
+mysterious person was let down, and the cord or string reached heaven.
+He addressed the Indians in a very humane, mild, and compasionate tone,
+saying that they were very poor and needy, but telling them that they
+were perpetually _asleep_, and this was caused by the Mache Monedo who
+was in the midst of them, and leading them to death and ruin.
+
+This mysterious personage informed them also that above, where he came
+from, there was no night, that the inhabitants never slept, that it was
+perpetually day and they required no sleep; that Kezha Monedo was their
+light. He then invited four of the Indians to ascend up with him
+promising that they would be brought back in safety; that an opportunity
+would thereby present itself to view the beauty of the sky, or heavens.
+But the Indians doubted and feared lest the cord should break, because
+it appeared to them so small. They did not believe it possible it could
+bear their weight. With this objection they excused themselves. They
+were, however, again assured that the cord was sufficiently strong and
+that Kezha Monedo had the power to make it so. Yet the Indians doubted
+and feared, and did not accompany the messenger sent down to them. After
+this refusal the mysterious person produced a small bow and arrows with
+which he shot at the Indians in different parts of their bodies: the
+result was the killing of multitudes of small white worms, which he
+showed to them; telling them that they were the Mache Monedo which
+caused them to sleep, and prevented their awakening from their
+death-like state.
+
+This divine messenger then gave to the Indians laws and rules, whereby
+they should be guided: first, to love and fear Kezha Monedo, and next
+that they must love one another, and be charitable and hospitable; and
+finally, that they must not covet their neighbours property, but acquire
+it by labour and honest industry. He then instituted the grand medicine
+or metay we win dance: this ceremony was to be observed annually, and
+with due solemnity, and the Indians, said Nabinoi, experienced much good
+from it; but unfortunately, the foolish young men were cheated by Mache
+Monedo, who caused them to adopt the Wabano dance and its ceremonies.
+This latter is decidedly an institution of the _sagemaus_, or evil
+spirits, and this was finally introduced into the metay we wining, (i.
+e. medicine dance) and thereby corrupted it.
+
+The old chief continued his moral strain thus: While the Indians were
+instructed by the heavenly messenger they were told that it would snow
+continually for the space of five years, winter and summer, and the end
+would then be nigh at hand; and again that it would rain incessantly as
+many winters and summers more, which would cause the waters to rise and
+overflow the earth, destroying trees and all manner of vegetation. After
+this, ten winters and summers of drought would follow, drying up the
+land, and mostly the lakes and rivers; not a cloud would be seen during
+this period. The earth would become so dry, that it will then burn up
+with fire of itself, and it will also burn the waters to a certain
+depth, until it attains the first created earth and waters. Then the
+good Indians will rise from death to enjoy a new earth, filled with an
+abundance of all manner of living creatures. The only animal which will
+not be seen is the beaver. The bad Indians will not enjoy any portion of
+the new earth; they will be condemned and given to the evil spirits.
+
+Four generations, he went on to say, have now passed away, since that
+brotherly love and charity, formerly known, still existed among the
+Indians. There was in those ancient times an annual meeting among the
+Indians, resembling the French New Year's Day, which was generally
+observed on the new moon's first appearance, Gitchy Monedo gesus. The
+Indians of our village would visit these of another, and sometimes meet
+one another dancing; and on those occasions they would exchange bows and
+arrows, their rude axes, awls, and kettles, and their clothing. This was
+an annual festival, which was duly observed by them. In those days the
+Indians lived happy; but every thing is now changed to the Indian mind,
+indicating the drawing near and approach of the end of time. The Indians
+who still adhere to the laws of the heavenly messenger experience
+happiness; and, on the contrary, concluded the old man, those who are
+wicked and adhere to the Wabano institution, generally meet with their
+reward; and it is singular to say that they generally come to their end
+by accidents, such as drowning, or miserable deaths.
+
+He then reverted to the former part of his story. The Oshuggays, and the
+Cranes quarrelled, and this quarrel commenced on a trivial point. It
+appears that the Cranes took a pole, without leave, from the Oshuggays,
+and they broke the pole; this circumstance led to a separation. The
+Oshuggays emigrated south, and are now known as the Shawnees.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [7] Note by Mr. George Johnston, from whom this tale was received.--Any
+thing of the kind, or a similar noise heard, is attributed by the
+Indian, to this day, as an indication of the contention between
+Mäsh-kwa-sha-kwong and his pursuers, and hence a prelude to wars and
+contentions among the nations of the world.
+
+  [8] The small white shells that the white fish live upon, and the white
+substance found in its gizzard are to this day considered by the
+Indians, the brain and skull of the woman of the Head.
+
+
+
+
+WA-WA-BE-ZO-WIN,
+
+OR
+
+THE SWING ON THE LAKE SHORE.
+
+FROM THE TRADITIONS OF THE ODJIBWAS.
+
+
+There was an old hag of a woman living with her daughter-in-law, and
+son, and a little orphan boy, whom she was bringing up. When her
+son-in-law came home from hunting, it was his custom to bring his wife
+the moose's lip, the kidney of the bear, or some other choice bits of
+different animals. These she would cook crisp, so as to make a sound
+with her teeth in eating them. This kind attention of the hunter to his
+wife, at last, excited the envy of the old woman. She wished to have the
+same luxuries, and in order to get them she finally resolved to make way
+with her son's wife. One day, she asked her to leave her infant son to
+the care of the orphan boy, and come out and swing with her. She took
+her to the shore of a lake, where there was a high range of rocks
+overhanging the water. Upon the top of this rock, she erected a swing.
+She then undressed, and fastened a piece of leather around her body, and
+commenced swinging, going over the precipice at every swing. She
+continued it but a short time, when she told her daughter to do the
+same. The daughter obeyed. She undressed, and tying the leather string
+as she was directed, began swinging. When the swing had got in full
+motion and well a going, so that it went clear beyond the precipice, at
+every sweep, the old woman slyly cut the cords and let her daughter drop
+into the lake. She then put on her daughter's clothing, and thus
+disguised went home in the dusk of the evening and counterfeited her
+appearance and duties. She found the child crying, and gave it the
+breast, but it would not draw. The orphan boy asked her where its mother
+was. She answered, "She is still swinging." He said, "I shall go and
+look for her." "No!" said she, "you must not--what should you go for?"
+When the husband came in, in the evening, he gave the coveted morsel to
+his supposed wife. He missed his mother-in-law, but said nothing. She
+eagerly ate the dainty, and tried to keep the child still. The husband
+looked rather astonished to see his wife studiously averting her face,
+and asked her why the child cried so. She said, she did not know--that
+it would not draw.
+
+In the meantime the orphan boy went to the lake shores, and found no
+one. He mentioned his suspicions, and while the old woman was out
+getting wood, he told him all that he had heard or seen. The man then
+painted his face black, and placed his spear upside down in the earth
+and requested the Great Spirit to send lightning, thunder, and rain, in
+the hope that the body of his wife might arise from the water. He then
+began to fast, and told the boy to take the child and play on the lake
+shore.
+
+We must now go back to the swing. After the wife had plunged into the
+lake, she found herself taken hold of by a water tiger, whose tail
+twisted itself round her body, and drew her to the bottom. There she
+found a fine lodge, and all things ready for her reception, and she
+became the wife of the water tiger. Whilst the children were playing
+along the shore, and the boy was casting pebbles into the lake, he saw a
+gull coming from its centre, and flying towards the shore, and when on
+shore, the bird immediately assumed the human shape. When he looked
+again he recognized the lost mother. She had a leather belt around her
+loins, and another belt of white metal, which was, in reality, the tail
+of the water tiger, her husband. She suckled the babe, and said to the
+boy--"Come here with him, whenever he cries, and I will nurse him."
+
+The boy carried the child home, and told these things to the father.
+When the child again cried, the father went also with the boy to the
+lake shore, and hid himself in a clump of trees. Soon the appearance of
+a gull was seen, with a long shining belt, or chain, and as soon as it
+came to the shore, it assumed the mother's shape, and began to suckle
+the child. The husband had brought along his spear, and seeing the
+shining chain, he boldly struck it and broke the links apart. He then
+took his wife and child home, with the orphan boy. When they entered the
+lodge, the old woman looked up, but it was a look of despair, she
+instantly dropped her head. A rustling was heard in the lodge, and the
+next moment, she leaped up, and flew out of the lodge, and was never
+heard of more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The name of God, among the ancient Mexicans, was Teo, a word seldom
+found, except in compound phrases. Among the Mohawks and Onondagas, it
+is Neo. With the western Senecas, as given by Smith, Owayneo. With the
+Odjibwas, Monedo; with the Ottowas, Maneto. Many modifications of the
+word by prefixes, to its radix Edo, appear among the cognate dialects.
+It is remarkable that there is so striking a similarity in the principal
+syllable, and it is curious to observe that Edo, is, in sound, both the
+Greek term Deo, and the Azteek Teo, transposed. Is there any thing
+absolutely _fixed_ in the sounds of languages?
+
+
+
+
+TAKOZID,
+
+OR
+
+THE SHORT-FOOT.
+
+A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
+
+
+Most of the individuals who have figured amongst the Red Race in
+America, have appeared under circumstances which have precluded any
+thing like a full and consistent biography. There is, in truth, but
+little in savage life, to furnish materials for such biographies. The
+very scantiness of events determines this. A man suddenly appears among
+these tribes as a warrior, a negociator, an orator, or a prophet, by a
+name that nobody ever before heard of. He excites attention for a short
+time, and then sinks back into the mass of Indian society, and is no
+more heard of. His courage, his eloquence, or his diplomatic skill, are
+regarded as evidences of talent, and energy of thought or action, which,
+under better auspices, might have produced a shining and consistent
+character. But he has been left by events, and is sunk in the mass. He
+appeared rather like an erratic body, or flash, than a fixed light amid
+his people. The circumstances that brought him into notice have passed
+away. A victory has been won, a speech made, a noble example given. The
+affair has been adjusted, the tribe resumed its hunting, or
+corn-planting, or wandering, or internal discords, and the new name,
+which promised for a while to raise a Tamerlane, or Tippoo Saib in the
+west, settles down in the popular mind; and if it be not wholly lost, is
+only heard of now and then, as one of the signatures to some land
+treaty. There is not, in fact, sufficient, in the population, military
+strength, or importance of the affairs of most of our tribes, to work
+out incidents for a sustained and full biography. Even the most
+considerable personages of past times, who have been honoured with such
+full notices, have too much resemblance to a stout boy in his father's
+regimentals. They hang loosely about him. The most that can be done--all
+indeed which the occasion requires in general--is a sketch of such
+particular events, in aboriginal history, as the individual has
+connected his name with. It is proposed in the progress of this work, to
+furnish some of such sketches from the unwritten annals of the west and
+the north.
+
+Among that class of aboriginal chiefs and actors, who have not risen to
+the highest distinction, or attained general notoriety out of the circle
+of their own tribes, was Takozid, or the Short-Foot; a Mukundwa, or
+pillager; a fierce, warlike, and predatory tribe of the Odjibwa
+Algonquin stock, who, at an early time seated themselves on the sources
+of the Mississippi, making their head quarters at Leech Lake. To this
+place, their traditions assert, they came from Chagoimegon, or still
+farther east, prior to the discovery of the country by Europeans. They
+were consequently intruders in, or conquerors of the country, and drove
+back some other people. It seems equally probable that this people were
+the Dacotahs, the Naddowassies, or as it is abbreviated, Sioux, of early
+French writers. The Sioux are a numerous and warlike stock, who occupy
+portions of the banks of the Missouri and the Mississippi, at, and about
+the latitude of St. Anthony's Falls. A hereditary war of which "the
+memory of man runneth not to the contrary," was the consequence of this
+ancient inroad. Of all this region of country we can speak from personal
+knowledge, having traversed it at sundry times, and in various
+directions. It is in local reminiscence, little more than a widely
+extended scene of Indian battles, ambuscades and murders. There is
+hardly a prominent stream, plain or forest, which is not referred to, as
+the traveller proceeds, as the particular locality of some fight,
+tragedy, or hair-breath escape among the Red Men. The Olympic games were
+not a surer test of fame in successful rivalry, than is this wide area
+of aboriginal warfare, for the opposing nations of the Sioux and
+Chippewas. War is the prime avenue to distinction to the Indian mind. As
+soon as a hunter has acquired any distinction, and begins to look upon
+himself as a person of courage and address, he turns his efforts to the
+war path. Whatever else he is famous for, this is the crowning test and
+seal of his reputation. And none have pursued it with more incessant
+devotion than the Chippewas.
+
+Takozid determined from his earliest youth to take a part in the strife
+for barbaric glory. He early joined the war parties going into the great
+plains. He learned their arts, repeated their songs, and became expert
+in all the warrior's arts. He established the reputation of a brave
+young man. The next step was to lead a war party himself. He courted
+popularity by generosity, self denial, and attention to their religious
+rites and ceremonies. These things may be done on a smaller scale, as
+effectually among a band of savages, as in the hall or forum. He
+succeeded. He raised a war party, conducted it into the plains,
+discovered his enemies, approached them slily, fell upon them, defeated
+them, and returned in triumph with their scalps to his village. His deep
+and hollow CHE KWAN DUM, or death-cry of victory as he came to the
+eminence which overlooked his village, announced all this before he set
+foot in his village: and the number of his scalps.
+
+These exploits placed him on the pinnacle of fame. It is a curious fact,
+in the lives of our Red men, to observe that war is a stimulus to
+poligamy. One of the first things he thought of, as a proper reward for
+his bravery, was to take another wife. In this, his friends and
+partizans concurred, although he had no cause of dissatisfaction with
+his first wife, to whom he had been married but a short time, and who
+had borne him a son. Time added confirmation to this plan. It was talked
+of, and even debated by the chiefs. It was conceded to be due to his
+bravery. All, indeed, appeared to approve of it, but his wife. She heard
+of the rumor with alarm, and received the account of its confirmation,
+with pain. It could no longer be doubted, for the individual who was to
+share, nay, control the lodge with her was named, and the consent of her
+parents had been obtained.
+
+Monon, or the Little-Iron-Wood-Tree, as she was called, was a female of
+no ordinary firmness of character. She was ardently attached to her
+husband, not the less so for his rising fame, jealous of her rights, and
+prompted by strong feelings to maintain them. In all these points she
+was above the generality of her country women. Like others, however, in
+a community where poligamy was common, she might have submitted at
+length, to her fate, had not her rival in the affections of Takozid,
+appealed to a deeper seated principle, and waked up, in the breast of
+the injured wife, the feeling of revenge: a principle reckless enough,
+in communities where there are the safeguards of education and
+christianity to restrain and regulate it; but horrible in wild and
+roving bands of barbarians. Monon's fidelity was slandered. She was a
+pure and high minded woman, and the imputation goaded her to the quick.
+
+When this slander first reached her ears, through the ordinary channel
+of village gossip, a chord was struck, which vibrated through every
+throe, and steeled her heart for some extraordinary act; although none
+could anticipate the sanguinary deed which marked the nuptial night. An
+Indian marriage is often a matter of little ceremony. It was not so, on
+this occasion. To render the events imposing, many had been invited. The
+bride was dressed in her best apparel. Her father was present. Many
+young and old, males and females were either present or thronged around
+the lodge. The broad clear blue waters of the lake, studded with green
+islands, spread before the door. A wide grassy lawn, which was the
+village ball and play ground, extended down to its margin. It was a
+public event. A throng had gathered around. Takozid was to be married.
+He was to take a second wife, in the daughter of Obegwud. Takozid
+himself was there. Hilarity reigned within and without. All indeed, were
+there, but the dejected and deserted Monon, who had been left with her
+child, at the chieftain's own lodge.
+
+But a spirit had been aroused in her breast, which would not permit her
+to remain absent. She crossed the green silently, stealthily. She stood
+gazing awhile at the lake. She approached the bridal lodge. She passed
+easily among the group. She entered the lodge. Nor had any one, at that
+moment, a thought of suspicion or alarm. The bride was seated on her
+envied abbinos; her affianced husband was at her side.
+
+All at once, there arose a shrill cry, in the Chippewa tongue. "_This_,
+vociferated the enraged Monon, _This_ for the bastard!" and at each
+repetition of the words, she raised an Indian poignard, in her hand.
+The suddenness of her movement had paralyzed every attempt to arrest
+her. Amazement sat in every face. She had plunged a pointed knife into
+the breast of her rival.
+
+There is little to be added to such a catastrophe. Its very suddenness
+and atrocity appalled every one. Nobody arrested her, and nobody pursued
+her. She returned as she came, and re-entered her lodge. Her victim
+never spoke.
+
+From this moment the fame of Takozid declined. The event appeared to
+have unmanned him. He went no more to war. His martial spirits appeared
+to have left him. He sank back into the mass of Indian society, and was
+scarcely ever mentioned. Nor should we, indeed, have recalled his name
+from its obscurity, were it not associated in the Indian reminiscences
+of Leach lake, with this sanguinary deed.
+
+I had this relation a few years ago, from a trader, who had lived at
+Leech lake, who personally knew the parties, and whose veracity I had no
+reason at all, to call into question. It is one of the elements that go
+into the sum of my personal observations, on savage life, and as such I
+cast it among these papers. To judge of the Red race aright, we must
+view it, in all its phases, and if we would perform our duty towards
+them, as christians and men, we should gather our data from small, as
+well as great events, and from afar as well as near. When all has been
+done, in the way of such collections and researches, it will be found,
+we think, that their errors and crimes, whatever they are, assume no
+deeper dye than philanthropy has had reason to apprehend them to take,
+without a knowledge of the principles of the gospel. _Thou shall not
+kill_, is a law, yet to be enforced, among more than two hundred
+thousand souls, who bear the impress of a red skin, within the
+acknowledged limits of the American Union.
+
+
+
+
+MACHINITO, THE EVIL SPIRIT;
+
+FROM THE LEGENDS OF IAGOU.
+
+BY MRS. E. OAKES SMITH.
+
+     "The Pagan world not only believes in a myriad of gods, but
+     worships them also. It is the peculiarity of the North American
+     Indian, that while he _believes_ in as many, he _worships_ but one,
+     the Great Spirit."--(_Schoolcraft._)
+
+
+CHEMANITOU, being the master of life, at one time became the origin of a
+spirit, that has ever since caused himself and all others of his
+creation a great deal of disquiet. His birth was owing to an accident.
+It was in this wise.
+
+METÓWAC, or as the white people now call it, Long Island, was originally
+a vast plain, so level and free from any kind of growth, that it looked
+like a portion of the great sea that had suddenly been made to move back
+and let the sand below appear, which was the case in fact.
+
+Here it was that Chemanitou used to come and sit, when he wished to
+bring any new creation to the life. The place being spacious and
+solitary, the water upon every side, he had not only room enough, but
+was free from interruption.
+
+It is well known that some of these early creations were of very great
+size, so that very few could live in the same place, and their strength
+made it difficult for Chemanitou, even to controul them; for when he has
+given them certain elements, they have the use of the laws that govern
+these elements, till it is his will to take them back to himself.
+Accordingly, it was the custom of Chemanitou, when he wished to try the
+effect of these creatures, to set them in motion upon the island of
+Metówac, and if they did not please him, he took the life out before
+they were suffered to escape. He would set up a mammoth or other large
+animal, in the centre of the island, and build him up with great care,
+somewhat in the manner that a cabin or a canoe is made.
+
+Even to this day may be found traces of what had been done here in
+former years; and the manner in which the earth sometimes sinks down
+[even wells fall out at the bottom here,] shows that this island is
+nothing more than a great cake of earth, a sort of platter laid upon the
+sea, for the convenience of Chemanitou, who used it as a table upon
+which he might work, never having designed it for anything else; the
+margin of the CHATIEMAC, (the stately swan,) or Hudson river, being
+better adapted to the purposes of habitation.
+
+When the master of life wished to build up an elephant or mammoth he
+placed four cakes of clay upon the ground, at proper distances, which
+were moulded into shape, and became the feet of the animal.
+
+Now sometimes these were left unfinished; and to this day the green
+tussocks, to be seen like little islands about the marshes, show where
+these cakes of clay had been placed.
+
+As Chemanitou went on with his work, the NEEBANAWBAIGS (or water
+spirits,) the PUCK-WUD-JINNIES, (Fairies[9]) and indeed all the lesser
+manittoes, used to come and look on, and wonder what it would be, and
+how it would act.
+
+When the animal was quite done, and had dried a long time in the sun,
+Chemanitou opened a place in the side, and entering in, remained there
+many days.
+
+When he came forth, the creature began to shiver and sway from side to
+side, in such a manner as shook the whole island for many leagues. If
+his appearance pleased the master of life he was suffered to depart, and
+it was generally found that these animals plunged into the sea upon the
+north side of the island, and disappeared in the great forests beyond.
+
+Now at one time Chemanitou was a very long while building an animal, of
+such great bulk, that it looked like a mountain upon the centre of the
+island; and all the manittoes, from all parts, came to see what it was.
+The Puck-wud-jinnies especially made themselves very merry, capering
+behind his great ears, sitting within his mouth, each perched upon a
+tooth, and running in and out of the sockets of the eyes, thinking
+Chemanitou, who was finishing off other parts of the animal, could not
+see them.
+
+But he can see right through every thing he has made. He was glad to see
+them so lively, and bethought himself of many new creations while he
+watched their motions.
+
+When the Master of Life had completed this large animal, he was fearful
+to give it life, and so it was left upon the island, or work-table of
+Chemanitou, till its great weight caused it to break through, and
+sinking partly down it stuck fast, the head and tail holding it in such
+a manner as to prevent it from going down.
+
+Chemanitou then lifted up a piece of the back, and found it made a very
+good cavity, into which the old creations, which failed to please him,
+might be thrown.
+
+He sometimes amused himself by making creatures very small and active,
+with which he disported awhile, and finding them of very little use in
+the world, and not so attractive as the little Vanishers, he would take
+out the life, holding it in himself, and then cast them into the cave
+made by the body of the unfinished animal. In this way great quantities
+of very odd shapes were heaped together in this _Roncomcomon_, or "Place
+of Fragments."
+
+He was always careful to first take out the life.
+
+One day the Master of Life took two pieces of clay and moulded them into
+two large feet, like those of a panther. He did not make four--there
+were two only.
+
+He stepped his own feet into them, and found the tread very light and
+springy, so that he might go with great speed, and yet make no noise.
+
+Next he built up a pair of very tall legs, in the shape of his own, and
+made them walk about awhile--he was pleased with the motion. Then
+followed a round body, covered with large scales, like the alligator.
+
+He now found the figure doubling forward, and he fastened a long black
+snake, that was gliding by, to the back part of the body, and let it
+wind itself about a sapling near, which held the body upright, and made
+a very good tail.
+
+The shoulders were broad and strong, like those of the buffaloe, and
+covered with hair--the neck thick and short, and full at the back.
+
+Thus far Chemanitou had worked with little thought, but when he came to
+the head he thought a long while.
+
+He took a round ball of clay into his lap, and worked it over with great
+care. While he thought, he patted the ball upon the top, which made it
+very broad and low; for Chemanitou was thinking of the panther feet, and
+the buffaloe neck. He remembered the Puck-wud-jinnies playing in the eye
+sockets of the great unfinished animal, and he bethought him to set the
+eyes out, like those of a lobster, so that the animal might see upon
+every side.
+
+He made the forehead broad and full, but low; for here was to be the
+wisdom of the forked tongue, like that of the serpent, which should be
+in his mouth. He should see all things, and know all things. Here
+Chemanitou stopped, for he saw that he had never thought of such a
+creation before, one with but two feet, a creature who should stand
+upright, and see upon every side.
+
+The jaws were very strong, with ivory teeth, and gills upon either side,
+which arose and fell whenever breath passed through them. The nose was
+like the beak of the vulture. A tuft of porcupine quills made the
+scalp-lock.
+
+Chemanitou held the head out the length of his arm, and turned it first
+upon one side and then upon the other. He passed it rapidly through the
+air, and saw the gills rise and fall, the lobster eyes whirl round, and
+the vulture nose look keen.
+
+Chemanitou became very sad; yet he put the head upon the shoulders. It
+was the first time he had made an upright figure.
+
+It seemed to be the first idea of a man.
+
+It was now nearly night; the bats were flying through the air, and the
+roar of wild beasts began to be heard. A gusty wind swept in from the
+ocean, and passed over the island of Metówac, casting the light sand to
+and fro. A heavy scud was skimming along the horizon, while higher up in
+the sky was a dark thick cloud, upon the verge of which the moon hung
+for a moment, and then was shut in.
+
+A panther came by and stayed a moment, with one foot raised and bent
+inward, while he looked up at the image, and smelt the feet, that were
+like his own.
+
+A vulture swooped down with a great noise of its wings, and made a dash
+at the beak, but Chemanitou held him back.
+
+Then came the porcupine, and the lizard, and the snake, each drawn by
+its kind in the image.
+
+Chemanitou veiled his face for many hours, and the gusty wind swept by,
+but he did not stir.
+
+He saw that every beast of the earth seeketh its kind; and that which is
+like draweth its likeness unto himself.
+
+The Master of Life thought and thought. The idea grew into his mind that
+at some time he would create a creature who should be made not after the
+things of the earth, but after himself.
+
+He should link this world to the spirit world,--being made in the
+likeness of the Great Spirit, he should be drawn unto his likeness.
+
+Many days and nights, whole seasons, passed while Chemanitou thought
+upon these things. He saw all things.
+
+Then the Master of Life lifted up his head; the stars were looking down
+upon the image, and a bat had alighted upon the forehead, spreading its
+great wings upon each side. Chemanitou took the bat and held out its
+whole leathery wings, (and ever since the bat, when he rests, lets his
+body hang down,) so that he could try them over the head of the image.
+He then took the life of the bat away, and twisted off the body, by
+which means the whole thin part fell down over the head, and upon each
+side, making the ears, and a covering for the forehead like that of the
+hooded serpent.
+
+Chemanitou did not cut off the face of the image below, he went on and
+made a chin, and lips that were firm and round, that they might shut in
+the forked tongue, and the ivory teeth; and he knew that with the lips
+and the chin it would smile, when life should be given to it.
+
+The image was now all done but the arms, and Chemanitou saw that with a
+chin it must have hands. He grew more grave.
+
+He had never given hands to any creature.
+
+He made the arms and the hands very beautiful, after the manner of his
+own.
+
+Chemanitou now took no pleasure in his work that was done--it was not
+good in his sight.
+
+He wished he had not given it hands; might it not, when trusted with
+life, might it not begin to create? might it not thwart the plans of the
+master of life himself?
+
+He looked long at the image. He saw what it would do when life should be
+given it. He knew all things.
+
+He now put fire in the image: but fire is not life.
+
+He put fire within, and a red glow passed through and through it. The
+fire dried the clay of which it was made, and gave the image an
+exceedingly fierce aspect. It shone through the scales upon the breast,
+and the gills, and the bat-winged ears. The lobster eyes were like a
+living coal.
+
+Chemanitou opened the side of the image, _but he did not enter_. He had
+given it hands and a chin.
+
+It could smile like the manittoes themselves.
+
+He made it walk all about the island of Metówac, that he might see how
+it would act. This he did by means of his will.
+
+He now put a little life into it, but he did not take out the fire.
+Chemanitou saw the aspect of the creature would be very terrible, and
+yet that he could smile in such a manner that he ceased to be ugly. He
+thought much upon these things. He felt it would not be best to let such
+a creature live; a creature made up mostly from the beasts of the field,
+but with hands of power, a chin lifting the head upward, and lips
+holding all things within themselves.
+
+While he thought upon these things, he took the image in his hands and
+cast it into the cave.
+
+_But Chemanitou forgot to take out the life!_
+
+The creature lay a long time in the cave and did not stir, for his fall
+was very great. He lay amongst the old creations that had been thrown in
+there without life.
+
+Now when a long time had passed Chemanitou heard a great noise in the
+cave. He looked in and saw the image sitting there, and he was trying to
+put together the old broken things that had been cast in as of no value.
+
+Chemanitou gathered together a vast heap of stones and sand, for large
+rocks are not to be had upon the island, and stopped the mouth of the
+cave. Many days passed and the noise grew louder within the cave. The
+earth shook, and hot smoke came from the ground. The Manittoes crowded
+to Metówac to see what was the matter.
+
+Chemanitou came also, for he remembered the image he had cast in there,
+and forgotten to take away the life.
+
+Suddenly there was a great rising of the stones and sand--the sky grew
+black with wind and dust. Fire played about the ground, and water gushed
+high into the air.
+
+All the Manittoes fled with fear; and the image came forth with a great
+noise and most terrible to behold. His life had grown strong within him,
+for the fire had made it very fierce.
+
+Everything fled before him and cried--MACHINITO--MACHINITO--which means
+a god, but an evil god!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above legend is gathered from the traditions of Iagou, the great
+Indian narrator, who seems to have dipped deeper into philosophy than
+most of his compeers. The aboriginal language abounds with stories
+related by this remarkable _personage_, which we hope to bring before
+the public at some future time. Whether subsequent events justify the
+Indian in making Long Island the arena of the production of Machinito or
+the Evil Spirit, will seem more than apocryphal to a white resident.
+However we have nothing to do except to relate the fact as it was
+related.
+
+As to these primitive metaphysics, they are at least curious; and the
+coolness with which the fact is assumed that the origin of evil was
+accidental in the process of developing a perfect humanity, would, at an
+earlier day, have been quite appalling to the schoolmen.
+
+                                                  E. O. S.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [9] Literally, little men, who vanish.
+
+
+
+
+REPOSE OF THE SOUL.
+
+
+When an Indian corpse is put in a coffin, among the tribes of the
+Lake-Algonquins, the lid is _tied_ down, and not nailed. On depositing
+it in the grave, the rope or string is loosed, and the weight of the
+earth alone relied on, to keep it in a fixed position. The reason they
+give for this, is, that the soul may have free egress from the body.
+
+Over the top of the grave a covering of cedar bark is put, to shed the
+rain. This is roof-shaped and the whole structure looks, slightly, like
+a house in miniature. It has gable ends. Through one of these, being the
+head, an aperture is cut. On asking a Chippewa why this was done, he
+replied,--"To allow the soul to pass out, and in."
+
+"I thought," I replied, "that you believed that the soul went up from
+the body at the time of death, to a land of happiness. How, then, can it
+remain in the body?"
+
+"There are two souls," replied the Indian philosopher.
+
+"How can this be? my friend."
+
+"It is easily explained," said he.
+
+"You know that, in dreams, we pass over wide countries, and see hills
+and lakes and mountains, and many scenes, which pass before our eyes,
+and affect us. Yet, at the same time, our bodies do not stir, and there
+is a soul left with the body,--else it would be dead. So, you perceive,
+it must be another soul that accompanies us."
+
+This conversation took place, in the Indian country. I knew the Indian
+very well, and had noticed the practice, not general now, on the
+frontiers, of _tying_ the coffin-lid, in burials. It is at the orifice
+in the bark sheeting mentioned, that the portion of food, consecrated in
+feasts for the dead, is set. It could not but happen, that the food
+should be eaten by the hystrix, wolf, or some other animal, known to
+prowl at night; nor that, Indian superstition, ever ready to turn slight
+appearances of this kind to account, should attribute its abstraction to
+the spirit of the deceased.
+
+
+
+
+THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN.
+
+AN ODJIBWA FAIRY TALE.
+
+WRITTEN OUT FROM THE VERBAL NARRATIVE BY THE LATE MRS. H. R.
+SCHOOLCRAFT.
+
+
+There was once a little boy, remarkable for the smallness of his
+stature. He was living alone with his sister older than himself. They
+were orphans, they lived in a beautiful spot on the Lake shore; many
+large rocks were scattered around their habitation. The boy never grew
+larger as he advanced in years. One day, in winter, he asked his sister
+to make him a ball to play with along shore on the clear ice. She made
+one for him, but cautioned him not to go too far.--Off he went in high
+glee, throwing his ball before him, and running after it at full speed;
+and he went as fast as his ball. At last his ball flew to a great
+distance: he followed it as fast as he could. After he had run for some
+time, he saw four dark substances on the ice straight before him. When
+he came up to the spot he was surprised to see four large, tall men
+lying on the ice, spearing fish. When he went up to them, the nearest
+looked up and in turn was surprised to see such a diminutive being, and
+turning to his brothers, he said, "Tia! look! see what a little fellow
+is here." After they had all looked a moment, they resumed their
+position, covered their heads, intent in searching for fish. The boy
+thought to himself, they imagine me too insignificant for common
+courtesy, because they are tall and large; I shall teach them
+notwithstanding, that I am not to be treated so lightly. After they were
+covered up the boy saw they had each a large trout lying beside them. He
+slyly took the one nearest him, and placing his fingers in the gills,
+and tossing his ball before him, ran off at full speed. When the man to
+whom the fish belonged looked up, he saw his trout sliding away as if of
+itself, at a great rate--the boy being so small he was not distinguished
+from the fish. He addressed his brothers and said, "See how that tiny
+boy has stolen my fish; what a shame it is he should do so." The boy
+reached home, and told his sister to go out and get the fish he had
+brought home. She exclaimed, "where could you have got it? I hope you
+have not stolen it." "O no," he replied, "I found it on the ice." "How"
+persisted the sister, "could you have got it there?"--"No matter," said
+the boy, "go and cook it." He disdained to answer her again, but thought
+he would one day show her how to appreciate him. She went to the place
+he left it, and there indeed she found a monstrous trout. She did as she
+was bid, and cooked it for that day's consumption. Next morning he went
+off again as at first. When he came near the large men, who fished every
+day, he threw his ball with such force that it rolled into the ice-hole
+of the man of whom he had stolen the day before. As he happened to raise
+himself at the time, the boy said, "Neejee, pray hand me my ball." "No
+indeed," answered the man, "I shall not," and thrust the ball under the
+ice. The boy took hold of his arm and broke it in two in a moment, and
+threw him to one side, and picked up his ball, which had bounded back
+from under the ice, and tossed it as usual before him. Outstripping it
+in speed, he got home and remained within till the next morning. The man
+whose arm he had broken hallooed out to his brothers, and told them his
+case, and deplored his fate. They hurried to their brother, and as loud
+as they could roar threatened vengeance on the morrow, knowing the
+boy's speed that they could not overtake him, and he was near out of
+sight; yet he heard their threats and awaited their coming in perfect
+indifference. The four brothers the next morning prepared to take their
+revenge. Their old mother begged them not to go--"Better" said she "that
+one only should suffer, than that all should perish; for he must be a
+monedo, or he could not perform such feats." But her sons would not
+listen; and taking their wounded brother along, started for the boy's
+lodge, having learnt that he lived at the place of rocks. The boy's
+sister thought she heard the noise of snow-shoes on the crusted snow at
+a distance advancing. She saw the large, tall men coming straight to
+their lodge, or rather cave, for they lived in a large rock. She ran in
+with great fear, and told her brother the fact. He said, "Why do you
+mind them? give me something to eat." "How can you think of eating at
+such a time," she replied,--"Do as I request you, and be quick." She
+then gave him his dish, which was a large _mis-qua-dace_ shell, and he
+commenced eating. Just then the men came to the door, and were about
+lifting the curtain placed there, when the boy-man turned his dish
+upside-down, and immediately the door was closed with a stone; the men
+tried hard with their clubs to crack it; at length they succeeded in
+making a slight opening. When one of them peeped in with one eye, the
+boy-man shot his arrow into his eye and brain, and he dropped down dead.
+The others, not knowing what had happened their brother, did the same,
+and all fell in like manner; their curiosity was so great to see what
+the boy was about. So they all shared the same fate. After they were
+killed the boy-man told his sister to go out and see them. She opened
+the door, but feared they were not dead, and entered back again hastily,
+and told her fears to her brother. He went out and hacked them in small
+pieces, saying, "henceforth let no man be larger than you are now." So
+men became of the present size. When spring came on, the boy-man said to
+his sister, "Make me a new set of arrows and bow." She obeyed, as he
+never did any thing himself of a nature that required manual labour,
+though he provided for their sustenance. After she made them, she again
+cautioned him not to shoot into the lake; but regardless of all
+admonition, he, on purpose, shot his arrow into the lake, and waded some
+distance till he got into deep water, and paddled about for his arrow,
+so as to attract the attention of his sister. She came in haste to the
+shore, calling him to return, but instead of minding her he called out,
+"Ma-mis-quon-je-gun-a, be-nau-wa-con-zhe-shin," that is, "_you_, of the
+_red fins_ come and swallow me." Immediately that monstrous fish came
+and swallowed him; and seeing his sister standing on the shore in
+despair, he hallooed out to her, "Me-zush-ke-zin-ance." She wondered
+what he meant. But on reflection she thought it must be an old mockesin.
+She accordingly tied the old mockesin to a string, and fastened it to a
+tree. The fish said to the boy-man, under water, "What is that
+floating?" the boy-man said to the fish, "Go, take hold of it, swallow
+it as fast as you can." The fish darted towards the old shoe, and
+swallowed it. The boy-man laughed in himself, but said nothing, till the
+fish was fairly caught; he then took hold of the line and began to pull
+himself and fish to shore. The sister, who was watching, was surprised
+to see so large a fish; and hauling it ashore she took her knife and
+commenced cutting it open. When she heard her brother's voice inside of
+the fish, saying, "Make haste and release me from this nasty place," his
+sister was in such haste that she almost hit his head with her knife;
+but succeeded in making an opening large enough for her brother to get
+out. When he was fairly out, he told his sister to cut up the fish and
+dry it, as it would last a long time for their sustenance, and said to
+her, never, never more to doubt his ability in any way. So ends the
+story.
+
+
+
+
+AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA.
+
+     STORY OF A FAMILY OF NADOWAS, OR PEOPLE OF THE SIX NATIONS OF
+     TORONTO, CONSISTING OF SIX BROTHERS, THEIR YOUNGEST SISTER, AND TWO
+     AUNTS. THEIR FATHER AND MOTHER HAVING DIED, THEY WERE LEFT ORPHANS,
+     THEIR ORIGIN, HOWEVER, WAS FROM THE FIRST CLASS OF CHIEFTAINS IN
+     THEIR NATION.
+
+NARRATED PROM THE ORAL RELATION OF NABANOI, BY MR. GEORGE JOHNSTON.
+
+
+In the days of this story, wars, murders, and cruelty existed in the
+country now comprising the province of Upper Canada, or that portion
+bordering upon Lakes Simcoe, Erie, and Ontario, which was claimed and
+belonged to the powerful tribe of the eight nations of the Nawtoways.
+The young men had, on a day, started for a hunting excursion: in the
+evening five only of the brothers returned, one was missing. Upon search
+being made the body was found, and it appeared evident that he had been
+killed: this gave a great blow to the family, but particularly causing
+great affliction to the sister, who was the youngest of the family. She
+mourned and lamented her brother's death, and she wept incessantly.
+
+The ensuing year another was killed, and so on till four were killed.
+The remaining two brothers did all they could to afford consolation to
+their pining sister, but she would not be consoled: they did all they
+could to divert her mind from so much mourning, but all their endeavours
+proved ineffectual: she scarcely took any food, and what she ate was
+hardly sufficient to sustain nature. The two brothers said that they
+would go hunting, which they did from day to day. They would bring
+ducks and birds of every description to their sister, in order to tempt
+her appetite, but she persisted in refusing nourishment, or taking very
+little. At the expiration of the year when the fourth brother had been
+killed, the two young men set out upon the chase; one of them returned
+in the evening, the other was missing, and found killed in like manner
+as the others had been. This again augmented the afflictions of the
+young girl; she had been very delicate, but was now reduced to a mere
+skeleton. At the expiration of the year the only and last of her
+brothers, taking pity upon his pining sister, said to her that he would
+go and kill her some fresh venison, to entice her to eat. He started
+early in the morning, and his sister would go out from time to time, in
+the course of the day, to see if her brother was returning. Night set
+in, and no indications of his coming--she sat up all night, exhibiting
+fear and apprehension bordering upon despair--day light appeared, and he
+did not come--search was made, and he was finally found killed, like all
+the other brothers. After this event the girl became perfectly
+disconsolate, hardly tasting food, and would wander in the woods the
+whole day, returning at nights. One of her aunts had the care of her at
+this time. One day in one of her rambles she did not return; her aunt
+became very anxious, and searched for her, and continued her search
+daily. On the tenth day, the aunt in her search lost her way and was
+bewildered, and finally was benighted. While lying down, worn with
+fatigue, she thought she heard the voice of some one speaking: she got
+up, and directing her course to the spot, she came upon a small lodge
+made of bushes, and in it lay her niece, with her face to the ground.
+She prevailed upon her to return home. Before reaching their lodge the
+girl stopt, and her aunt built her a small lodge, and she resided in it.
+Here her aunt would attend upon her daily.
+
+One day as she lay alone in her little lodge, a person appeared to her
+from on high: he had on white raiment that was extremely pure, clean and
+white: he did not touch the earth, but remained at some distance from
+it. He spoke to her in a mild tone and said, Daughter, why do you remain
+here mourning? I have come to console you, and you must arise, and I
+will give you all the land, and deliver into your hands the persons who
+have killed your brothers. All things living and created are mine, I
+give and take away. Now therefore arise, slay and eat of my dog that
+lays there. You will go to your village and firstly tell your relatives
+and nation of this vision, and you must act conformably to my word and
+to the mind I'll give you, and your enemies will I put into your hands.
+I will be with you again.
+
+After this, he ascended on high. When the girl looked to the place where
+the heavenly being pointed, she saw a bear. She arose and went home, and
+mentioned to her relatives the vision she had seen, and made a request
+that the people might be assembled to partake of her feast. She directed
+her relations to the spot where the bear was to be found; it was killed
+and brought to the village, and singed upon a fire, and the feast was
+made, and the nature of the vision explained. Preparations were
+immediately set on foot, messengers were sent to each tribe of the six
+nations, and an invitation given to them, to come upon a given day to
+the village of Toronto. Messengers were also sent all along the north
+coast of lake Huron to Bawiting, inviting the Indians to form an
+alliance and fight against the enemies of the young girl who had lost so
+many brothers.
+
+In the midst of the Nadowas, there lived two chieftains, twin brothers.
+They were Nadowas also of the Bear tribe, perfect devils in disposition,
+cruel and tyrannical. They were at the head of two nations of the
+Nadowas, reigning together, keeping the other nations in great fear and
+awe, and enslaving them; particularly the Indians of the Deer totem, who
+resided in one portion of their great village. Indians in connection
+with the Chippewas were also kept in bondage by the two tyrants, whose
+names were _Aingodon_ and _Naywadaha_. When the Chippewas received the
+young girl's messengers, they were told that they must rescue their
+relatives, and secretly apprize them of their intention, and the great
+calamity that would befall Aingodon and Naywadaha's villages and towns.
+Many therefore made their escape; but one remained with his family,
+sending an excuse for not obeying the summons, as he had a great
+quantity of corn laid up, and that he must attend to his crops. The
+Indians all along the north shore of lake Huron and of Bawiting,
+embarked to join the general and common cause; they passed through the
+lakes, and reached Toronto late in the fall. In the beginning of the
+winter the assembled allies marched, headed by the young girl. She
+passed through lake Simcoe, and the line covered the whole lake,
+cracking the ice as they marched over it. They encamped at the head of
+the lake. Here the young girl produced a garnished bag, and she hung it
+up, and told the assembled multitude that she would make chingodam; and
+after this she sent hunters out directing them to bring in eighteen
+bears, and before the sun had risen high the bears were all brought in,
+and they were singed, and the feast of sacrifice offered. At this place
+the person from on high appeared to the girl in presence of the
+assembled multitude, and he stretched forth his hand and shook hands
+with her only. He here directed her to send secret messengers into the
+land, to warn the Indians who had the deer totem to put out their totems
+on poles before their lodge door, in order that they might be known and
+saved from the approaching destruction; and they were enjoined not to go
+out of their lodges, neither man, woman, or child; if they did so they
+would be surely consumed and destroyed; and the person on high said--Do
+not approach nigh the open plain until the rising sun, you will then see
+destruction come upon your enemies, and they will be delivered into your
+hands.
+
+The messengers were sent to the Deer Totems, and they entered the town
+at night, and communicated their message to them. After this all the
+Indians bearing that mark were informed of the approaching calamity, and
+they instantly made preparations, setting out poles before their lodge
+doors, and attaching deer skins to the poles, as marks to escape the
+vengeance that was to come upon Aingodon and Nawadaha, and their tribes.
+The next morning at daylight the Aingodons and Nawadahas rose, and
+seeing the poles and deer skins planted before the doors of the lodges,
+said in derision, that their friends, the Deer Totems, had, or must have
+had, bad dreams, thus to set their totems on poles. The Indians of the
+deer totems remained quiet and silent, and they did not venture out of
+their lodges. The young girl was nigh the skirts of the wood with her
+host, bordering upon the plain; and just as the sun rose she marched,
+and as she and her allied forces neared the village of the twin tyrants,
+it became a flame of fire, destroying all its inhabitants. The Deer
+Totems escaped. Aingodon and Nawadaha were not consumed. The allied
+Indians drew their bows and shot their arrows at them, but they bounded
+off, and the blows inflicted upon them were of no avail, until the young
+girl came up and subdued them, and took them alive, and made them
+prisoners.
+
+The whole of Aingodon's and Nawadaha's towns and villages were destroyed
+in the same way; and the land was in possession of the young girl and
+the six remaining tribes of the Nadowas. After this signal vengeance was
+taken the young girl returned with her host, and again encamped at the
+head of lake Simcoe, at her former encamping place; and the two tyrants
+were asked, what was their object for making chingodam, and what weight
+could it have? They said, in answer, that their implements for war, were
+war axes, and if permitted they would make chingodam, and on doing so
+they killed each two men. They were bound immediately, and their flesh
+was cut off from their bodies in slices. One of them was dissected, and
+upon examination it was discovered that he had no liver, and his heart
+was small, and composed of hard flint stone. There are marks upon a
+perpendicular ledge of rocks at the narrows, or head of lake Simcoe,
+visible to this day, representing two bound persons, who are recognized
+by the Indians of this generation as the two tyrants, or twin brothers,
+Aingodon and Nawadaha. One of the tyrants was kept bound, until the time
+the French discovered and possessed the Canadas, and he was taken to
+Quebec. After this the young girl was taken away by the god of light.
+
+                                                  GEO. JOHNSTON.
+
+_Sault Ste. Marie, May 12th, 1838._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Indian warriors of the plains west of the sources of the
+Mississippi, chew a bitter root, before going into battle, which they
+suppose imparts courage, and renders them insensible to pain. It is
+called zhigowak.
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF NOTED RED MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE APPEARED ON
+THE WESTERN CONTINENT.
+
+
+
+
+WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER.
+
+
+This individual has indelibly interwoven his name with the history of
+the Chippewa nation, during the latter half of the 18th century. His
+ancestors had, from the earliest times, held the principal chieftainship
+in lake Superior. His father, Ma-mongazida, was the ruling chief during
+the war of the conquest of the Canadas by the British crown. In common
+with his tribe and the northern nations generally, he was the fast
+friend of the French government, and was present with his warriors,
+under Gen. Montcalm, at the loss of Quebec, in 1759. He carried a short
+speech from that celebrated officer to his people in the north, which is
+said to have been verbally delivered a short time before he went to the
+field.
+
+The period of the fall of the French power in the Canadas, is one of the
+most marked events in Indian reminiscence throughout all northwest
+America. They refer to the days of French supremacy as a kind of golden
+era, when all things in their affairs were better than they now are; and
+I have heard them lament over the change as one which was in every
+respect detrimental to their power and happiness. No European nation, it
+is evident from these allusions, ever pleased them as well. The French
+character and manners adapted themselves admirably to the existing
+customs of forest life. The common people, who went up into the interior
+to trade, fell in with their customs with a degree of plasticity and an
+air of gaiety and full assent, which no other foreigners have, at least
+to the same extent, shown. These _Couriers du Bois_ had not much to
+boast of on the score of rigid morals themselves. They had nearly as
+much superstition as the wildest Indians. They were in fact, at least
+nine-tenths of them, quite as illiterate. Very many of them were far
+inferior in their mental structure and capacity to the bold, eloquent,
+and well formed and athletic northern chiefs and hunters. They respected
+their religious and festive ceremonies. They never, as a chief once told
+me, _laughed_ at them. They met their old friends on their annual
+returns from Montreal, with a kiss. They took the daughters of the red
+men for wives, and reared large families, who thus constituted a strong
+bond of union between the two races, which remains unbroken at this
+day.
+
+This is the true secret of the strenuous efforts made by the northern
+and western Indians to sustain the French power, when it was menaced in
+the war of 1744, by the fleets and armies of Great Britain. They rallied
+freely to their aid at Detroit, Vincennes, the present sites of
+Pittsburg and Erie, at Fort Niagara, Montreal, and Quebec, and they
+hovered with infuriated zeal around the outskirts of the northern and
+western settlements, during the many and sanguinary wars carried on
+between the English and French. And when the French were beaten they
+still adhered to their cause, and their chiefs stimulated the French
+local commanders to continue and renew the contest, even after the fall
+of Niagara and Quebec, with a heroic consistency of purpose, which
+reflects credit upon their foresight, bravery, and constancy. We hope in
+a future number to bring forward a sketch of the man who put himself at
+the head of this latter effort, who declared he would drive the Saxon
+race into the sea, who beseiged _twelve_ and took _nine_ of the western
+stockaded forts, and who for four years and upwards, maintained the war,
+after the French had struck their colours and ceded the country. We
+refer to the great Algic leader, Pontiac.
+
+At present our attention is called to a cotemporary chief, of equal
+personal bravery and conduct, certainly, but who lived and exercised his
+authority at a more remote point, and had not the same masses and means
+at his command. This point, so long hid in the great forests of the
+north, and which, indeed, has been but lately revealed in our positive
+geography, is the AREA OF LAKE SUPERIOR. It is here that we find the
+Indian tradition to be rife with the name of Wabojeeg and his wars, and
+his cotemporaries. It was one of the direct consequences of so remote a
+position, that it withdrew his attention more from the actual conflicts
+between the French and English, and fixed them upon his western and
+southern frontiers, which were menaced and invaded by the numerous bands
+of the Dacotahs, and by the perfidious kinsmen of his nation, the
+Outagamies and Saucs. He came into active life, too, as a prominent war
+leader, at the precise era when the Canadas had fallen into the British
+power, and by engaging zealously in the defence of the borders of his
+nation west, he allowed time to mitigate and adjust those feelings and
+attachments which, so far as public policy was concerned, must be
+considered to have moulded the Indian mind to a compliance with, and a
+submission to, the British authority. Wabojeeg was, emphatically, the
+defender of the Chippewa domain against the efforts of other branches of
+the Red Race. He did not, therefore, lead his people to fight, as his
+father, Ma-mongazida, and nearly all the great Indian war captains had,
+to enable one type of the foreign race to triumph over another, but
+raised his parties and led them forth to maintain his tribal supremacy.
+He may be contemplated, therefore, as having had a more patriotic object
+for his achievement.
+
+Lake Superior, at the time of our earliest acquaintance with the region,
+was occupied, as it is at this day, by the Chippewa race. The chief
+seat of their power appeared to be near the southwestern extremity of
+the lake, at Chagoimegon, where fathers Marquette and Alloez found their
+way, and established a mission, so early as 1668. Another of their
+principal, and probably more _ancient_ seats, was at the great rapids on
+the outlet of that lake, which they named the Sault de Ste. Marie. It
+was in allusion to their residence here that they called this tribe
+Saulteur, that is to say, people of the leap or rapid.
+
+Indian tradition makes the Chippewas one of the chief, certainly by far
+the most _numerous and widely spread_, of the Algonquin stock proper. It
+represents them to have migrated from the east to the west. On reaching
+the vicinity of Michilimackinac, they separated at a comparatively
+moderate era into three tribes, calling themselves, respectively,
+Odjibwas, Odawas, and Podawadumees. What their name was before this era,
+is not known. It is manifest that the term Odjibwa is not a very ancient
+one, for it does not occur in the earliest authors. They were probably
+of the Nipercinean or true Algonquin stock, and had taken the route of
+the Utawas river, from the St. Lawrence valley into lake Huron. The term
+itself is clearly from Bwa, a voice; and its prefix in Odji, was
+probably designed to mark a peculiar intonation which the muscles are,
+as it were, _gathered up_, to denote.
+
+Whatever be the facts of their origin, they had taken the route up the
+straits of St. Mary into lake Superior, both sides of which, and far
+beyond, they occupied at the era of the French discovery. It is evident
+that their course in this direction must have been aggressive. They were
+advancing towards the west and northwest. The tribe known as Kenistenos,
+had passed through the Lake of the Woods, through the great lake
+Nipesíng, and as far as the heads of the Saskatchewine and the portage
+of the Missinipi of Hudson's bay. The warlike band of Leech Lake, called
+Mukundwas, had spread themselves over the entire sources of the
+Mississippi and extended their hunting excursions west to Red River,
+where they came into contact with the Assinaboines, or Stone Sioux. The
+central power, at this era, still remained at Chagoimegon, on Superior,
+where indeed, the force of early tradition asserts there was maintained
+something like a frame of both civil and ecclesiastical polity and
+government.
+
+It is said in the traditions related to me by the Chippewas, that the
+Outagamies, or Foxes, had preceded them into that particular section of
+country which extends in a general course from the head of Fox River, of
+Green Bay, towards the Falls of St. Anthony, reaching in some points
+well nigh to the borders of lake Superior. They are remembered to have
+occupied the interior wild rice lakes, which lie at the sources of the
+Wisconsin, the Ontonagon, the Chippewa, and the St. Croix rivers. They
+were associated with the Saucs, who had ascended the Mississippi some
+distance above the Falls of St. Anthony, where they lived on friendly
+terms with the Dacotahs or Sioux. This friendship extended also to the
+Outagamies, and it was the means of preserving a good understanding
+between the Dacotahs and Chippewas.
+
+The Fox tribe is closely affiliated with the Chippewas. They call each
+other brothers. They are of the same general origin and speak the same
+general language, the chief difference in sound being that the Foxes use
+the letter l, where the Odjibwas employ an n. The particular cause of
+their disagreement is not known. They are said by the Chippewas to have
+been unfaithful and treacherous. Individual quarrels and trespasses on
+their hunting grounds led to murders, and in the end to a war, in which
+the Menomonees and the French united, and they were thus driven from the
+rice lakes and away from the Fox and upper Wisconsin. To maintain their
+position they formed an alliance with the Sioux, and fought by their
+side.
+
+It was in this contest that Wabojeeg first distinguished himself, and
+vindicated by his bravery and address the former reputation of his
+family, and laid anew the foundations of his northern chieftaindom.
+Having heard allusions made to this person on my first entrance into
+that region, many years ago, I made particular enquiries; and found
+living a sister, an old white-headed woman, and a son and daughter,
+about the age of middle life. From these sources I gleaned the following
+facts. He was born, as nearly as I could compute the time, about 1747.
+By a singular and romantic incident his father, Ma-mongazida, was a
+half-brother of the father of Wabashaw, a celebrated Sioux chief, who
+but a few years ago died at his village on the upper Mississippi. The
+connexion happened in this way.
+
+While the Sioux and Chippewas were living in amity near each other, and
+frequently met and feasted each other on their hunting grounds and at
+their villages, a Sioux chief, of distinction, admired and married a
+Chippewa girl, by whom he had two sons. When the war between these two
+nations broke out, those persons of the hostile tribes who had married
+Chippewa wives, and were living in the Chippewa country, withdrew, some
+taking their wives along and others separating from them. Among the
+latter was the Sioux chief. He remained a short time after hostilities
+commenced, but finding his position demanded it, he was compelled, with
+great reluctance, to leave his wife behind, as she could not, with
+safety, have accompanied him into the Sioux territories. As the blood of
+the Sioux flowed in the veins of her two sons, neither was it safe for
+her to leave them among the Chippewas. They were, however, by mutual
+agreement, allowed to return with the father. The eldest of these sons
+became the father of Wabashaw.
+
+The mother thus divorced by the mutual consent of all parties, remained
+inconsolable for some time. She was still young and handsome, and after
+a few years, became the wife of a young Chippewa chief of Chagoimegon,
+of the honoured totem of the ADDICK or reindeer. Her first child by
+this second marriage, was Ma Mongazida, the father of Wabojeeg. In this
+manner, a connexion existed between two families, of separate hostile
+nations, each of which distinguished itself, for bravery and skill in
+war and council. It has already been stated that Ma Mongazida, was
+present, on the side of the French, in the great action in which both
+Montcalm and Wolf fell, and he continued to exercise the chieftainship
+till his death, when his second son succeeded him.
+
+It was one of the consequences of the hostility of the Indians to the
+English rule, that many of the remote tribes were left, for a time,
+without traders to supply their wants. This was the case, tradition
+asserts, with Chagoimegon, which, for two years after the taking of old
+Mackinac, was left without a trader. To remonstrate against this, Ma
+Mongazida visited Sir William Johnson, the superintendant general of
+Indian affairs, by whom he was well received, and presented with a broad
+wampum belt and gorget. This act laid the foundation of a lasting peace
+between the Chippewas and the English. The belt, it is added, was of
+blue wampum, with figures of white. And when Wabojeeg came to the
+chieftainship, he took from it the wampum employed by him to muster his
+warparties.
+
+In making traditionary enquiries I have found that the Indian narrators
+were careful to preserve and note any fact, in the early lives of their
+distinguished men, which appeared to prefigure their future eminence, or
+had any thing of the wonderful or premonitory, in its character. The
+following incident of this sort, was noticed respecting this chief. Ma
+Mongazida generally went to make his fall hunts on the middle grounds
+towards the Sioux territory, taking with him all his near relatives,
+amounting usually to twenty persons, exclusive of children. Early one
+morning while the young men were preparing for the chase, they were
+startled by the report of several shots, directed towards the lodge. As
+they had thought themselves in security, the first emotion was surprise,
+and they had scarcely time to fly to their arms, when another volley was
+fired, which wounded one man in the thigh, and killed a dog. Ma
+Mongazida immediately sallied out with his young men, and pronouncing
+his name aloud in the Sioux language, demanded if Wabasha or his
+brother, were among the assailants. The firing instantly ceased--a pause
+ensued, when a tall figure, in a war dress, with a profusion of feathers
+upon his head, stepped forward and presented his hand. It was the elder
+Wabasha, his half brother. The Sioux peaceably followed their leader
+into the lodge, upon which they had, the moment before, directed their
+shots. At the instant the Sioux chief entered, it was necessary to stoop
+a little, in passing the door. In the act of stooping, he received a
+blow from a war-club wielded by a small boy, who had posted himself
+there for the purpose. It was the young Wabojeeg. Wabasha, pleased with
+this early indication of courage, took the little lad in his arms,
+caressed him, and pronounced that he would become a brave man, and
+prove an inveterate enemy of the Sioux.
+
+The border warfare in which the father of the infant warrior was
+constantly engaged, early initiated him in the arts and ceremonies
+pertaining to war. With the eager interest and love of novelty of the
+young, he listened to their war songs and war stories, and longed for
+the time when he would be old enough to join these parties, and also
+make himself a name among warriors. While quite a youth he volunteered
+to go out with a party, and soon gave convincing proofs of his courage.
+He also early learned the arts of hunting the deer, the bear, the moose,
+and all the smaller animals common to the country; and in these
+pursuits, he took the ordinary lessons of Indian young men, in
+abstinence, suffering, danger and endurance of fatigue. In this manner
+his nerves were knit and formed for activity, and his mind stored with
+those lessons of caution which are the result of local experience in the
+forest. He possessed a tall and commanding person, with a full black
+piercing eye, and the usual features of his countrymen. He had a clear
+and full toned voice, and spoke his native language with grace and
+fluency. To these attractions, he united an early reputation for bravery
+and skill in the chase, and at the age of twenty-two, he was already a
+war leader.
+
+Expeditions of one Indian tribe against another, require the utmost
+caution, skill, and secrecy. There are a hundred things to give
+information to such a party, or influence its action, which are unknown
+to civilized nations. The breaking of a twig, the slightest impression
+of a foot print, and other like circumstances, determine a halt, a
+retreat, or an advance. The most scrupulous attention is also paid to
+the signs of the heavens, the flight of birds, and above all, to the
+dreams and predictions of the jossakeed, priest, or prophet, who
+accompanies them, and who is entrusted with the sacred sack. The theory
+upon which all these parties are conducted, is secrecy and stratagem: to
+steal upon the enemy unawares; to lay in ambush, or decoy; to kill and
+to avoid as much as possible the hazard of being killed. An intimate
+geographical knowledge of the country, is also required by a successful
+war leader, and such a man piques himself, not only on knowing every
+prominent stream, hill, valley, wood, or rock, but the particular
+productions, animal, and vegetable, of the scene of operations. When it
+is considered that this species of knowledge, shrewdness and sagacity,
+is possessed on _both_ sides, and that the nations at war watch each
+other, as a lynx for its prey, it may be conceived, that many of these
+border war parties are either light skirmishes, sudden on-rushes, or
+utter failures. It is seldom that a close, well contested, long
+continued hard battle is fought. To kill a few men, tear off their
+scalps in haste, and retreat with these trophies, is a brave and
+honourable trait with them, and may be boasted of, in their triumphal
+dances and warlike festivities.
+
+To glean the details of these movements, would be to acquire the modern
+history of the tribe, which induced me to direct my enquiries to the
+subject; but the lapse of even forty or fifty years, had shorn tradition
+of most of these details, and often left the memory of results only. The
+Chippewas told me, that this chief had led them seven times to
+successful battle against the Sioux and the Outagamies, and that he had
+been wounded thrice--once in the thigh, once in the right shoulder, and
+a third time in the side and breast, being a glancing shot. His war
+parties consisted either of volunteers who had joined his standard at
+the war dance, or of auxiliaries, who had accepted his messages of
+wampum and tobacco, and come forward in a body, to the appointed place
+of rendezvous. These parties varied greatly in number; his first party
+consisted of but forty men, his greatest and most renowned, of three
+hundred, who were mustered from the villages on the shores of the lake,
+as far east as St. Mary's falls.
+
+It is to the incidents of this last expedition, which had an important
+influence on the progress of the war, that we may devote a few moments.
+The place of rendezvous was _La Pointe_ Chagomiegon, or as it is called
+in modern days, La Pointe of Lake Superior. The scene of the conflict,
+which was a long and bloody one, was the falls of the St. Croix. The two
+places are distant about two hundred and fifty miles, by the most direct
+route. This area embraces the summit land between Lake Superior and the
+upper Mississippi. The streams flowing each way interlock, which enables
+the natives to ascend them in their light canoes, and after carrying the
+latter over the portages, to descend on the opposite side. On this
+occasion Wabojeeg and his partizan army, ascended the Muskigo, or
+Mauvais river, to its connecting portage with the Namakagon branch of
+the St. Croix. On crossing the summit, they embarked in their small and
+light war canoes on their descent westward. This portion of the route
+was passed with the utmost caution. They were now rapidly approaching
+the enemy's borders, and every sign was regarded with deep attention.
+They were seven days from the time they first reached the waters of the
+St. Croix, until they found the enemy. They went but a short distance
+each day, and encamped. On the evening of the seventh day, the scouts
+discovered a large body of Sioux and Outagamies encamped on the lower
+side of the portage of the great falls of the St. Croix. The discovery
+was a surprise on both sides. The advance of the Chippewas had landed at
+the upper end of the portage, intending to encamp there. The Sioux and
+their allies had just preceded them, from the lower part of the stream
+with the same object. The Foxes or Outagamies immediately fired, and a
+battle ensued. It is a spot indeed, from which a retreat either way is
+impracticable, in the face of an enemy. It is a mere neck of rugged
+rock. The river forces a passage through this dark and solid barrier. It
+is equally rapid and dangerous for canoes above and below. It cannot be
+crossed direct. After the firing began Wabojeeg landed and brought up
+his men. He directed a part of them to extend themselves in the wood
+around the small neck, or peninsula, of the portage, whence alone escape
+was possible. Both parties fought with bravery; the Foxes with
+desperation. But they were outnumbered, overpowered, and defeated. Some
+attempted to descend the rapids, and were lost. A few only escaped. But
+the Chippewas paid dearly for their victory. Wabojeeg was slightly
+wounded in the breast: his brother was killed. Many brave warriors fell.
+It was a most sanguinary scene. The tradition of this battle is one of
+the most prominent and wide spread of the events of their modern
+history. I have conversed with more than one chief, who dated his first
+military honours in youth, to this scene. It put an end to their feud
+with the Foxes, who retired from the intermediate rice lakes, and fled
+down the Wisconsin. It raised the name of the Chippewa leader, to the
+acme of his renown among his people: but Wabojeeg, as humane as he was
+brave, grieved over the loss of his people who had fallen in the action.
+This feeling was expressed touchingly and characteristically, in a war
+song, which he uttered after this victory which has been preserved by
+the late Mr. Johnston of St. Mary's, in the following stanzas.
+
+          On that day when our heroes lay low--lay low,
+            On that day when our heroes lay low,
+          I fought by their side, and thought ere I died,
+            Just vengeance to take on the foe,
+            Just vengeance to take on the foe.
+
+          On that day, when our chieftains lay dead--lay dead,
+            On that day when our chieftains lay dead,
+          I fought hand to hand, at the head of my band,
+            And here, on my breast, have I bled,
+            And here, on my breast, have I bled.
+
+          Our chiefs shall return no more--no more,
+            Our chiefs shall return no more,
+          Nor their brothers of war, who can show scar for scar,
+            Like women their fates shall deplore--deplore,
+            Like women their fate shall deplore.
+
+          Five winters in hunting we'll spend--we'll spend,
+            Five winters in hunting we'll spend,
+          Till our youth, grown to men, we'll to war lead again,
+            And our days, like our fathers, we'll end,
+            And our days, like our fathers, we'll end.
+
+It is the custom of these tribes to go to war in the spring and summer,
+which are, not only comparatively seasons of leisure with them, but it
+is at these seasons that they are concealed and protected by the foliage
+of the forest, and can approach the enemy unseen. At these annual
+returns of warmth and vegetation, they also engage in festivities and
+dances, during which the events and exploits of past years are sang and
+recited: and while they derive fresh courage and stimulus to renewed
+exertions, the young, who are listeners, learn to emulate their fathers,
+and take their earliest lessons in the art of war. Nothing is done in
+the summer months in the way of hunting. The small furred animals are
+changing their pelt, which is out of season. The doe retires with her
+fawns, from the plains and open grounds, into thick woods. It is the
+general season of reproduction, and the red man for a time, intermits
+his war on the animal creation, to resume it against man.
+
+As the autumn approaches, he prepares for his fall hunts, by retiring
+from the outskirts of the settlements, and from the open lakes, shores,
+and streams, which have been the scenes of his summer festivities; and
+proceeds, after a short preparatory hunt, to his wintering grounds. This
+round of hunting, and of festivity and war, fills up the year; all the
+tribes conform in these general customs. There are no war parties raised
+in the winter. This season is exclusively devoted to securing the means
+of their subsistence and clothing, by seeking the valuable skins, which
+are to purchase their clothing and their ammunition, traps and arms.
+
+The hunting grounds of the chief, whose life we are considering,
+extended along the southern shores of Lake Superior from the Montreal
+River, to the inlet of the Misacoda, or Burntwood River of Fond du Lac.
+If he ascended the one, he usually made the wide circuit indicated, and
+came out at the other. He often penetrated by a central route up the
+Maskigo. This is a region still abounding, but less so than formerly, in
+the bear, moose, beaver, otter, martin, and muskrat. Among the smaller
+animals are also to be noticed the mink, lynx, hare, porcupine, and
+partridge, and towards its southern and western limits, the Virginia
+deer. In this ample area, the La Pointe, or Chagoimegon Indians hunted.
+It is a rule of the chase, that each hunter has a portion of the country
+assigned to him, on which he alone may hunt; and there are conventional
+laws which decide all questions of right and priority in starting and
+killing game. In these questions, the chief exercises a proper
+authority, and it is thus in the power of one of these forest governors
+and magistrates, where they happen to be men of sound sense, judgment
+and manly independence, to make themselves felt and known, and to become
+true benefactors to their tribes. And such chiefs create an impression
+upon their followers, and leave a reputation behind them, which is of
+more value than their achievements in war.
+
+Wabojeeg excelled in both characters; he was equally popular as a civil
+ruler and a war chief; and while he administered justice to his people,
+he was an expert hunter, and made due and ample provision for his
+family. He usually gleaned, in a season, by his traps and carbine, four
+packs of mixed furs, the avails of which were ample to provide clothing
+for all the members of his lodge circle, as well as to renew his supply
+of ammunition and other essential articles.
+
+On one occasion, he had a singular contest with a moose. He had gone
+out, one morning early, to set martin traps. He had set about forty, and
+was returning to his lodge, when he unexpectedly encountered a large
+moose, in his path, which manifested a disposition to attack him. Being
+unarmed, and having nothing but a knife and small hatchet, which he had
+carried to make his traps, he tried to avoid it. But the animal came
+towards him in a furious manner. He took shelter behind a tree, shifting
+his position from tree to tree, retreating. At length, as he fled, he
+picked up a pole, and quickly untying his moccasin strings, he bound his
+knife to the end of the pole. He then placed himself in a favourable
+position, behind a tree, and when the moose came up, stabbed him several
+times in the throat and breast. At last, the animal, exhausted with the
+loss of blood, fell. He then dispatched him, and cut out his tongue to
+carry home to his lodge as a trophy of victory. When they went back to
+the spot, for the carcass, they found the snow trampled down in a wide
+circle, and copiously sprinkled with blood, which gave it the appearance
+of a battle-field. It proved to be a male of uncommon size.
+
+The domestic history of a native chief, can seldom be obtained. In the
+present instance, the facts that follow, may be regarded with interest,
+as having been obtained from residents of Chagoimegon, or from his
+descendants. He did not take a wife till about the age of thirty, and he
+then married a widow, by whom he had one son. He had obtained early
+notoriety as a warrior, which perhaps absorbed his attention. What
+causes there were to render this union unsatisfactory, or whether there
+were any, is not known; but after the lapse of two years, he married a
+girl of fourteen, of the totem of the bear, by whom he had a family of
+six children. He is represented as of a temper and manners affectionate
+and forbearing. He evinced thoughtfulness and diligence in the
+management of his affairs, and the order and disposition of his lodge.
+When the hunting season was over, he employed his leisure moments in
+adding to the comforts of his lodge. His lodge was of an oblong shape,
+ten fathoms long, and made by setting two rows of posts firmly in the
+ground, and sheathing the sides and roof with the smooth bark of the
+birch. From the centre rose a post crowned with the carved figure of an
+owl, which he had probably selected as a bird of good omen, for it was
+neither his own nor his wife's totem. This figure was so placed, that it
+turned with the wind, and answered the purpose of a weathercock.
+
+In person Wabojeeg was tall, being six feet six inches, erect in
+carriage, and of slender make. He possessed a commanding countenance,
+united to ease and dignity of manners. He was a ready and fluent
+speaker, and conducted personally the negotiations with the Fox and
+Sioux nations. It was perhaps twenty years after the battle on the St.
+Croix, which established the Chippewa boundary in that quarter, and
+while his children were still young, that there came to his village, in
+the capacity of a trader, a young gentleman of a respectable family in
+the north of Ireland, who formed an exalted notion of his character,
+bearing, and warlike exploits. This visit, and his consequent residence
+on the lake, during the winter, became an important era to the chief,
+and has linked his name and memory with numerous persons in civilized
+life. Mr. Johnston asked the northern chief for his youngest daughter.
+Englishman, he replied, my daughter is yet young, and you cannot take
+her as white men have too often taken our daughters. It will be time
+enough to think of complying with your request, when you return again to
+this lake in the summer. My daughter is my favourite child, and I cannot
+part with her, unless you will promise to acknowledge her by such
+ceremonies as white men use. You must ever keep her, and never forsake
+her. On this basis a union was formed, a union it may be said, between
+the Erse and Algonquin races--and it was faithfully adhered to, till his
+death, a period of thirty-seven years.
+
+Wabojeeg had impaired his health in the numerous war parties which he
+conducted across the wide summit which separated his hunting grounds
+from the Mississippi valley. A slender frame, under a life of incessant
+exertion, brought on a premature decay. Consumption revealed itself at a
+comparatively early age, and he fell before this insidious disease, in a
+few years, at the early age of about forty-five. He died in 1793 at his
+native village of Chagoimegon.
+
+The incident which has been named, did not fail to make the forest
+chieftain acquainted with the leading truth of Christianity, in the
+revelation it makes of a saviour for all races. On the contrary, it is a
+truth which was brought to his knowledge and explained. It is, of
+course, not known with what particular effects. As he saw his end
+approaching, he requested that his body might not be buried out of
+sight, but placed, according to a custom prevalent in the remoter bands
+of this tribe, on a form supported by posts, or a scaffold. This trait
+is, perhaps, natural to the hunter state.
+
+          My friends when my spirit is fled--is fled
+            My friends when my spirit is fled,
+          Ah, put me not bound, in the dark and cold ground,
+            Where light shall no longer be shed--be shed,
+            Where day-light no more shall be shed.
+
+          But lay me up scaffolded high--all high,
+            Chiefs lay me up scaffolded high,
+          Where my tribe shall still say, as they point to my clay,
+            He ne'er from the foe sought to fly--to fly,
+            He ne'er from the foe sought to fly.
+
+          And children, who play on the shore--the shore,
+            And children who play on the shore,
+          As the war dance they beat, my name shall repeat,
+            And the fate of their chieftain deplore--deplore,
+            And the fate of their chieftain deplore.
+
+
+MODE OF WRITING AN INDIAN LANGUAGE.
+
+The rules of utterance of these tribes, after all that has been said and
+written on the subject, are very simple, and determine the orthography,
+so far, at least, as relates to distinctions for the long and short
+vowels. If, in writing Indian, the syllables be separated by hyphens,
+there need be no uncertainty respecting their sounds, and we shall be
+saved a world of somewhat over nice disquisition. A vowel preceded by a
+consonant, is always long, a vowel followed by a consonant is always
+short. A vowel between two consonants, is short. A vowel standing by
+itself is always full or long. A few examples of well known words will
+denote this.
+
+                    On ta' ri o.
+                    Ni ag' ar a.
+                    O we' go.
+                    Ti ó ga.
+                    Os wé go.
+                    I´-o-wa.
+                    Wis con' sin.
+                    Chi cá go.
+                    Wá bash.
+                    Pe ó ri a.
+                    Tí con de ró ga.
+                    Mis siss ip pi.
+                    O neí da.
+                    Al ab á ma.
+                    O tis' co.
+                    Or' e gon.
+
+Write the words by whatever system of orthography you will, French,
+English, or German, and the vowel sounds will vindicate this
+distinction. If diphthongs have been used, for simple vowels, through
+early mistake or redundancy, the rule is the same. If they appear as
+proper diphthongs, they follow the rule of diphthongs. This principal of
+utterance appears to be a general and fixed law in the Indian languages
+as respects the sounds of e, i, o, u, and the two chief sounds of a, 1
+and 3 of Walker's Key. As the letter a has four distinct sounds, as in
+English, the chief discrepancies, seen above, will appear in the use of
+this letter.
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF NOTED RED MEN AND WOMEN, WHO HAVE APPEARED ON
+THE WESTERN CONTINENT.
+
+
+
+
+BRANT, RED JACKET, UNCAS, MIONTONIMO.
+
+A NOTICE OF THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE LATE COL. WILLIAM L. STONE, PREPARED
+FOR THE DEMOCRATIC REVIEW--1843.
+
+
+The Egyptians embalmed their dead in myrrh and spices, but the blessed
+art of printing has given us a surer and less revolting method of
+preserving and transmitting to posterity, all that is truly valuable in
+the plaudits of virtue, worth, and honor. Books thus become a more
+permanent memorial than marble, and by their diffusion scatter those
+lessons among all mankind, which the age of mounds and hieroglyphics,
+stone and papyrus, had confined to the tablet of a shaft, or the dark
+recesses of a tomb or a pyramid. It is never to be forgotten, that in
+the development of this new phasis in the history of the human race, it
+was printing that first lit the lamp of truth, and has driven on the
+experiment, till the boundaries of letters have well nigh become
+co-extensive with the world. If we do not widely err, there is no part
+of the globe, where books of all descriptions have become so cheap and
+abundant as they are at this time in the United States, and, laying
+aside all other considerations, we may find a proof of the position
+stated in the fact, that our vernacular literature is no longer confined
+to the production of school books, the annals of law and divinity, the
+age of muddy pamphlets, or the motley pages of the newspaper. We have no
+design to follow up these suggestions by showing how far the study of
+the natural sciences, the discussion of political economy, or the
+advances of belles-lettres, have operated to produce this result; far
+less to identify those causes, in the progress of western arts and
+commerce, which have concurred to bring down the price of books, and
+scatter the blessings of an untrammelled press, among all classes. It is
+sufficient for our purpose to say that even the lives of our
+distinguished native chieftains have come in for a share of modern
+notice, and, we feel proud to add, of a notice which, so far as it
+reaches, is worthy of the subject. And should our contributions on this
+head, for the last few years, be equally well followed up for a few
+years to come, even the desponding strains of one of their own
+impersonated heroes can no longer be repeated with perfect truth:
+
+          "They sink, they pass, they fly, they go,
+            Like a vapor at morning's dawn,
+          Or a flash of light, whose sudden glow
+            Is seen, admired, and gone.
+
+          "They died; but if a brave man bleeds,
+            And fills the dreamless grave,
+          Shall none repeat his name, his deeds,
+            Nor tell that he was brave?"
+
+To no one in our literary annals is the public so much indebted for
+rescuing from oblivion the traits and character of the four celebrated
+chiefs whose names stand at the head of this article, as to the able
+author of these biographies, William L. Stone. Gifted with a keen
+perception of the questions of right and wrong, which turn upon the
+planting of the colonies among barbarians, who more than idled away
+their days upon a soil which they did not cultivate--with a deep
+sympathy in their fate and fortunes, on the one hand, and the paramount
+claims of letters and Christianity on the other, he has set himself to
+the task of rendering justice to whom justice belongs, with the ardor of
+a philanthropist, and the research of a historian. He appears to have
+planned a series of biographies which, if completed, will give a
+connected view of the leading tribes who occupied New York, Connecticut,
+Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, with a range in the examination of
+contemporary men and collateral topics, which embraces a wide circle.
+And he has filled up the outlines of his plan, thus far, in a manner
+which leaves but little to glean in the path which he has trod. If the
+extension of this circle, and the large amount of contemporaneous matter
+brought in, has, in the minds of some, abstracted too large a share of
+attention, and left the biographies with less unity and compactness than
+they would otherwise have assumed, this is exclusively the fault of
+their plan, so far as it is acknowledged, and not of the execution. And
+for this course of extension there is a plea to be found in the nature
+of the subject, in the treatment of which, scantiness of material was
+often sought to be supplied by the introduction of collateral and
+sometimes extraneous matter.
+
+We propose briefly to notice the series of these biographies in their
+order of publication. In his first work on Brant, he has presented, in
+living colors, the great Mohawk of 1776, who rose up to crush that
+confederacy which Washington and his compeers had pledged their lives to
+maintain. Brant was a man of power and capacities, mental and physical,
+beyond his tribe; and was so situated, in the actual contest, as to
+throw a greater weight into the scale against us, than any other, or all
+of the hostile chiefs of the Red Race put together. If he could not,
+like Ariel, call up the "spirits of the vasty deep," he could, at his
+bidding, summon together the no less malignant spirits of the woods, who
+fell upon our sleeping hamlets with the fury of demons. And whether at
+Johnson Hall or Niagara, at Cherry Valley or Schoharie, on the waters of
+the Oriskany or the Chemung, he was the ruling and informing spirit of
+the contest. Such was the power he wielded as commander of a most
+effective body of light troops (for such are all Indian warriors), who
+were supported by large and well appointed armies, that, like the
+electric flashes of the boding storm, he preceded the heavier outbreak
+by sounding aloud the wild notes of terror and dismay. It was in this
+manner that his name became a talisman on the frontiers, to conjure up
+deeds of evil, and in this way also, doubtless, it became loaded with
+reproaches, some of which, as the author has denoted, were due to other
+actors in the contest. It is difficult, however, to disturb the
+judgments of a preceding age, on the character of individuals who have
+long passed off the stage of action, whether those judgments be
+favorable or unfavorable; and it is, in fact, impossible to reverse
+them. It is only necessary to glance backward a short way, on the track
+of biography, to perceive that posterity never revises the opinions once
+put on individual character, heroic or literary. It tries to forget all
+it can, and every body it can, and never remembers a long time any name
+which it is possible to forget. It is willing, we should infer, to
+concede something to the great men among barbarian nations, whose names
+have often burst upon civilized society with the fearful attractions of
+the meteor, or the comet, producing admiration in the beholders, without
+stopping to inquire the true cause. Such were the Tamerlanes, and the
+Tippoo Saibs of the eastern world, of a prior age, as well as the
+Mehemet Alis and Abdel Kaders of the present. And such were, also, with
+reduced means of action, numbers of the American aboriginal chiefs, who,
+between the days of Manco Capac and Micanopy have figured in the history
+of the western world. Most of these men owe their celebrity to the mere
+fact of their having dazzled or astounded, or like Brant himself,
+excited the terror of those who opposed them. In the case of the latter,
+a change of opinion in those particular traits which affect his
+humanity, is less readily made, from the fact, yet generally remembered,
+that he had received a Christian education; that he was, while a mere
+boy, received into the best society, acquired the English language, and
+had been instructed, first at a New England academy, and afterwards at
+one of its most practically efficient colleges. Posterity holds the
+Mohawk chief responsible to have carried the precepts thus obtained into
+the forest, and to have diffused their blessings among those who had
+perhaps his bravery, without his talents of his knowledge. Those who
+fought against him were ill qualified, we confess, to be his judges. He
+had not only espoused the wrong cause, wrong because it was adverse to
+the progress of national freedom and those very principles his people
+contended for; but he battled for it with a master's hand, and made the
+force of his energy felt, as the author has more fully indicated than
+was before known, from the banks of the Mohawk and the Niagara, to the
+Ohio, the Miami, and the Wabash. Yet, if there was error in the extent
+to which he failed to carry the precepts of civilization and
+Christianity, it was meet it should be pointed out, although it will
+also be admitted, the public have a right to look for the strongest of
+these proofs of a kind and benevolent feeling towards his open enemies,
+out of the range of his domestic circle. His family had carried the
+incipient principles of civilization, which he gave them, too
+high--they had exhibited to the next age, a too prominent example of
+cultivation and refinement in every sense--not to feel deeply the
+obloquy cast upon his name, by the poetic spirit of the times; and not
+to wish that one who had, in verity, so many high and noble qualities,
+both in the council and the field, should also be without a spot on his
+humanity. We deem the feeling as honorable to all who have the blood of
+the chieftain in their veins as it is praiseworthy in his biographer. We
+cannot, however, consent to forget, that historical truth is very severe
+in its requisitions, and is not to be put off, by friend or foe, with
+hearsay testimony, or plausible surmises.
+
+Brant cannot, like Xicotencal, be accused of having joined the invaders
+of his country, who were recklessly resolved upon its subjugation; but
+he overlooked the fact, that both the _invader_ and the _invaded_ in the
+long and bloody border warfare of the revolution, were, in all that
+constitutes character, the same people. They were of the same blood and
+lineage, spoke the same language, had the same laws and customs, and the
+same literature and religion, and he failed to see that the only real
+point of difference between them was, who should wield the sceptre.
+Whichever party gained the day in such a contest, letters and
+Christianity must triumph, and as the inevitable result, barbarism must
+decline, and the power of the Indian nation fall.
+
+In Brant, barbarism and civilization evinced a strong and singular
+contest. He was at one moment a savage, and at another a civilian, at
+one moment cruel, and at another humane; and he exhibited, throughout
+all the heroic period of his career, a constant vacillation and struggle
+between good and bad, noble and ignoble feelings, and, as one or the
+other got the mastery, he was an angel of mercy, or a demon of
+destruction. In this respect, his character does not essentially vary
+from that which has been found to mark the other leading red men who,
+from Philip to Osceola, have appeared on the stage of action. Like them,
+his reasoning faculties were far less developed than his physical
+perceptions. And to attempt to follow or find anything like a fixed
+principle of humanity, basing itself on the higher obligations that sway
+the human breast, would, we fear, become a search after that which had
+no existence in his mind; or if the germ was there, it was too feeble to
+become predominant. We do not think it necessary, in commenting on his
+life, to enter into any nice train of reasoning or motives to account
+for this characteristic, or to reconcile cruelties of the most shocking
+kind, when contrasted with traits of mildness and urbanity. They were
+different moods of the man, and in running back over the eventful years
+of his life, it becomes clear, that civilization had never so completely
+gained the mastery over his mind and heart, as not to desert him,
+without notice, the moment he heard the sound of the war-whoop. The fact
+that he could use the pen, supplied no insuperable motive against his
+wielding the war club. His tomahawk and his Testament lay on the same
+shelf. The worst trait in his character is revealed in his tardiness to
+execute acts of _purposed_ mercy. There was too often some impediment,
+which served as an excuse, as when he had a ploughed field to cross to
+save Wells and his family, or a lame heel, or gave up the design
+altogether, as in the case of Wisner, whom he construed it into an act
+of mercy to tomahawk.
+
+That he was, however, a man of an extraordinary firmness, courage and
+decision of character, is without doubt. But his fate and fortunes have
+not been such as to give much encouragement to chiefs of the native race
+in lending their influence to European, or Anglo-European powers, who
+may be engaged in hostilities against each other on this continent.
+Pontiac had realized this before him, and Tecumtha realized it after
+him. Neither attained the object he sought. One of these chiefs was
+assassinated, the other fell in battle, and Brant himself only survived
+the defeat of his cause, to fret out his latter days in vain attempts to
+obtain justice from the power which he had most loyally served, and
+greatly benefited. Had he been knighted at the close of the contest,
+instead of being shuffled from one great man to another, at home and
+abroad, it would have been an instance of a noble exercise of that
+power. But George III seemed to have been fated, at all points, neither
+to do justice to his friends nor his enemies.
+
+Such was Brant, or Thayendanegea, symbolically, the Band of his
+tribe,[10] to whose lot it has fallen to act a more distinguished part
+in the Colonies, as a consummate warrior, than any other aboriginal
+chieftain who has arisen. And his memory was well worthy of the
+elaborate work in which his biographer has presented him, in the most
+favourable points of view, amidst a comprehensive history of the border
+wars of the revolution, without, however, concealing atrocities of which
+he was, perhaps sometimes unwillingly, the agent.
+
+A word, and but a word, will be added, as to some points connected with
+this chief's character, which are not in coincidence with the generally
+received opinion, or are now first introduced by way of palliation, or
+vindication. We confess, that so far as the presence or absence of the
+Great Mohawk in the massacre of Wyoming, is concerned, the statements
+are either inconclusive, or less satisfactory than could be wished.
+There was quite too much feeling sometimes evinced by his family, and
+particularly his son John, to permit us to receive the new version of
+the statement without some grains of allowance. An investigation is
+instituted by Col. Stone as to the immediate ancestry of Brant, and much
+importance is attached to the inquiry, whether he was descended from a
+line of hereditary chiefs. We think the testimony adverse to such a
+supposition, and it affords no unequivocal proof of talents, that
+notwithstanding such an adventitious circumstance, certainly without
+being of the line of _ruling_ chiefs, he elevated himself to be, not
+only the head chief and leader of his tribe, but of the Six Nations.
+Courtesy and popular will attach the title of chief or sachem to men of
+talents, courage or eloquence among our tribes generally; and while mere
+descent would devolve it upon a chief's son, whatever might be his
+character, yet this fact alone would be of little import, and give him
+little influence, without abilities: whereas abilities alone are found
+to raise men of note to the chieftainship, among all the North American
+tribes, whose customs and character are known.
+
+It has constituted no part of our object, in these general outlines, to
+examine minor points of the biography or history, upon which the
+information or the conclusions are not so satisfactory as could be
+wished, or which may, indeed, be at variance with our opinions. One
+fact, however, connected with this name, it is not deemed proper to pass
+_sub silentio_. Brant is made to take a part in the Pontiac war, a
+contest arising on the fall of the French power in Canada in 1759, and
+which closed in 1763. Brant was at its close but twenty-one years of
+age, and had not, it is probable, finally returned from his New England
+tutors. At any rate, there is no reason to suppose, that, at that early
+period of his life and his influence, he could have had any
+participation in the events of that war.
+
+In the life of Red Jacket, or Sagóyewata, we have a different order of
+Indian intellect brought to view. He was an orator and a diplomatist,
+and was at no period of his life noted for his skill as a warrior. Nay,
+there are indubitable proofs that his personal courage could not always
+be "screwed up to the sticking point." But in native intellect, he was
+even superior to Brant. He was, indeed, the Brant of the council, and
+often came down upon his opponents with bursts of eloquence, trains of
+argument, or rhapsodies of thought, which were irresistible. And of him,
+it may be symbolically said, that his tongue was his tomahawk, and the
+grandiloquent vocabulary of the Seneca language, his war-club. Nor has
+any native chieftain welded the weapon to more purpose, or with a longer
+continued effect than the great Seneca orator. The specimens of his
+eloquence which have appeared in our newspapers for forty years or more,
+are still fresh in the memory, and it was due and meet that these should
+be collected and preserved in a permanent shape, together with such
+particulars of his life and career as could be obtained. This task has
+been performed by Col. Stone, in a manner which leaves nothing more to
+be attempted on the subject. Much zeal and industry have been evinced in
+eliciting facts from every quarter where it was probable information
+could be had. And he has brought together a body of contemporaneous
+proofs and reminiscences, touching this chief, which a few years would
+have put beyond the power of recovery, and which a position less
+prominent than he occupied as a public journalist, might have rendered
+it difficult for another to collect. We need only refer to the names of
+Gen. P. B. Porter, Rev. J. Breckenridge, Mr. Parish, and Mr. Hosmer, to
+show the character of this part of his materials.
+
+Other chiefs of the native stock, have produced occasional pieces of
+eloquence, or admired oratory, but Red-Jacket is the only prominent
+individual who has devoted his whole career to it. That he did, indeed,
+excel, producing effects which no reported speech of his ever equalled
+or did justice to, there are still many living to attest. In the
+question of land sales, which arose between the white and red races,
+there were frequent occasions to bring him out. And these, in the end,
+assumed a complicated shape, from either the vague nature, or ill
+understood conditions of prior grants. In all these discussions, he
+preserved a unity and consistency in the set of opinions he had adopted.
+He was opposed to further sales, to removal, to civilization, and to the
+introduction of Christianity among his people. What Brant had done in
+_politics_, Red-Jacket repeated in _morals_. Both took the wrong side,
+and both failed. But it is to be said of the Seneca orator, that he did
+not live to see the final defeat of that course of policy which he had
+so long and so ably advocated.
+
+It was remarked by Mr. Clinton, and the fact had impressed others, that
+the Iroquois, or Six Nations, excelled the other natives in eloquence.
+Of this, their history, during the Supremacy of Holland and England in
+New York, as given by Golden, furnishes ample proofs. The speech of
+Garangula, against the Governor General of Canada and his wily policy,
+is unexcelled, as a whole, by anything which even Red-Jacket has left in
+print, though much of the effect of it is due to the superior and heroic
+position occupied by the tribes for whom he spoke. Logan, unexcelled by
+all others for his pathos and simplicity, it must be remembered, was
+also of this stock,--Mingo, or _Mengwe_, as the Delawares pronounced it,
+being but a generic term for Iroquois; so that the transmission of this
+trait, from the proud era of the Iroquois confederacy down to modern
+days, is quite in keeping with the opinion quoted.
+
+It is to be wished that Col. Stone would supply another link in the
+chain of Iroquois history, by favoring the public with the life of the
+noted Oneida chief, Shenandoah, for which materials must exist in the
+Kirkland family.
+
+The lives of the two men, Uncas and Miontonimo, whose leading acts are
+described in one of the volumes named in our caption, belong to an
+earlier period of history, and a different theatre of action. The scene
+changes from western New York to the seaboard of Connecticut, Rhode
+Island, and, to some extent, Massachusetts. Uncas was the good genius,
+the tutelary spirit, if we may so say, of the colony of Connecticut; and
+the best monument which that State could erect to his memory, would be
+to change the unmeaning and worn out name of one of her counties, New
+London, for that of the noble and friendly chief, of whose forest
+kingdom it once formed a part. From the first day that the English
+colonists set foot within it, to the hour of his death, Uncas was the
+unwavering "friend of the white man," as his biographer justly calls
+him. He was of that race, whom history has, without making a particle of
+allowance for savage ignorance and hereditary prejudice, branded under
+the name of Pequods. They were of that type of languages and lineage,
+which was very well characterized generically, at least as far south as
+the original country of the Delawares; but which assumed a sub-type
+after crossing the Hudson, and was known east of that point under one of
+its superinduced forms, as the Mohegan. This term had been dropped by
+the Pequods, if it was ever their specific cognomen, but it is a proof,
+and we think a very conclusive proof, of the yet freshly remembered
+affiliation with Taminund[11] and the Manhattans, that Uncas, the moment
+he revolted from King Sassacus, assumed the name of a Mohegan, and put
+himself at the head of that tribe, as it then existed within the
+boundaries of Connecticut, Or rather, he constituted the revolted
+Pequods a new tribe, under an old and respected name, and he thus laid
+the foundation of the Uncas dynasty. Placed thus by circumstances in a
+position in which he sought an alliance with the early colonists, and
+finding his security in theirs, he was in fact the only leading chief of
+the times who, really, heartily, and faithfully sought their prosperity
+and growth to the end. The rise of Uncas and Connecticut thus began at
+one era; and as the alliance was founded on mutual interest and safety,
+it only grew stronger with time. A man of less force of character or
+natural sagacity than Uncas, would have vacillated when he saw the
+colonists becoming more powerful and himself more weak as years rolled
+on, and would have been seduced to enter into alliances for arresting
+the white man's power, as other native chiefs had done. But all history
+concurs in showing that, under every circumstance, and there were many
+of the most trying kind, he carried himself well, and avoided even a
+suspicion of his fidelity.
+
+Uncas was well qualified for a ruler both in mind and person. He
+possessed a fine figure, over six feet in height, a commanding voice,
+and a noble bearing. He was mild yet dignified in his manners. He was
+not only wise in council, but brave[12] in war, as he evinced in many
+instances, but particularly in the battle of Sachem's Plain, in which he
+proved himself the bravest and most chivalrous of the brave. Yet his
+wisdom and moderation in governing his people, and the well balanced
+justice and consistency of his character, give him a still higher
+reputation, and establish his best claim to remembrance. In all the
+trials in which he was placed, in all the temptations he had to fly into
+a rage, and act out the savage, he sustained this character for wise
+deliberation; and by adhering to his first covenant with the English,
+and laying all his plans and grievances before the colonial courts, he
+raised himself in strength and reputation, and finally triumphed, first
+over Sassacus, and then over Miontonimo, the two greatest and most
+powerful of his immediate contemporaries.
+
+If Uncas was the patron of Connecticut, Miontonimo, with his family of
+the Narragansett chiefdom, was equally so of Rhode Island. And it is
+from this obvious fact, probably, in part, that we find the historical
+notices of him, from the last quarter, decidedly more favorable to his
+general character than those emanating from the land of his enemy and
+his conqueror, Uncas. While there is no disagreement as to any
+historical fact of note, it is natural that some little shade of feeling
+of this nature should remain. We have noticed a similar feeling with
+respect to existing tribes and chiefs, in the western world, where the
+inhabitants never fail to be imbued with those peculiar notions and
+traditions of the particular tribe about them, which represent the
+latter as the principal nation, and invest them with tribal traits of
+superiority. It is a feeling which leans to the better side of one's
+nature, and does honor to men's hearts; but the historian is obliged to
+look at such questions with a colder eye, and can never abate a tittle
+of the truth, although he may run counter to this local sympathy and
+bias. We could name some remarkable instances of this prejudice, if we
+were willing to digress.
+
+If Miontonimo be compared to Uncas, it will at once be seen that he
+lacked the latter's sagacity and firmness of character. Had the
+Narragansett listened to Sassacus, and formed a league with him, he
+would have crushed, for a time, the infant colony of Connecticut. This
+he declined, apparently, because it had the specific character of
+enabling Sassacus to put down Uncas. After the Pequod king had been
+defeated and fled to the Mohawks, Miontonimo was left in a position to
+assume the Pequod's policy, and then tried to bring Uncas into just such
+a combination to fall on the colonists, as he had himself refused, when
+the proposition came from Sassacus. As Uncas not only refused, but laid
+the scheme before his allies, Miontonimo went to war against him, with a
+large army. Uncas hastily prepared to meet him, with a smaller force.
+They met on Sachem's Plain, on the banks of the Shawtucket. Uncas,
+unwilling to see so many of his people slain in battle, nobly stepped
+forward and proposed a personal combat, to decide the question of who
+should rule, and who obey. It was declined, but the moment the reply was
+made, he threw himself on the plain, a signal, it seems, for his men to
+advance, and they came on with such an impulse, that he won the day and
+took Miontonimo prisoner. This capture was the act of one of his minor
+chiefs; but when his enemy was brought before him, he declined
+exercising his right of putting him to death, but determined to refer
+the matter to the authorities of Hartford. There it was found to be a
+knotty question, and finally referred to the General Court at Boston.
+The Court strengthened itself with the opinions of six distinguished
+clergymen and several eminent civilians; and then decided, that the
+Narragansett chief had justly forfeited his life, by violating his
+political covenants with the colonies, but it might not be taken away
+_by them_. He must be remanded to Uncas, within his jurisdiction, and by
+him be executed; but it was enjoined, with a very poor compliment to the
+known mildness of the character of Uncas, that no needless cruelty
+should be practised. Here, then, the white man evinced less mercy than
+the red had done. Miontonimo was now released from his confinement, and
+conducted back to the very spot where he had first been taken prisoner,
+as he approached which, one of the Mohegans who accompanied him, keeping
+him in entire ignorance of his fate, raised his tomahawk as he walked
+behind him, and laid him dead at a blow.
+
+Whether the moral responsibility of this execution rests with the court,
+or the executioner, we do not propose particularly to inquire, nor to
+ascertain to what degree it was shuffled off, by directing an Indian to
+commit an act which it was unlawful for a white man and a Christian to
+perform. Had Uncas slain his adversary in cold blood, after the action,
+the thing would have been in perfect accordance with Indian law. Had
+Miontonimo been a subject of either of the colonies of Connecticut,
+Rhode Island, or Massachusetts, and levied war, or committed any overt
+act of treason, his execution would have been in accordance with the
+laws of civilized nations. Neither condition happened. It was, however,
+felt, that the great disturber of the colonies, after Sassacus, had now
+been caught. He had violated his covenant by going to war without
+apprising them. They did not believe he would keep any future covenants.
+The moral sense of the community would not be shocked, but rather
+gratified by his execution. This point was strongly signified to the
+court. But they could not legally compass it. English law opposed it.
+The customs of civilized nations, in warring with _each other_, opposed
+it. Should a different rule be observed towards the aborigines? Did the
+dictates of sound judgment and common sense, did the precepts of
+Christianity,--aye, "there was the rub,"--did the precepts of
+Christianity sanction it? On full deliberation,--for the question was
+not decided in haste,--neither of these points could be affirmatively
+answered. But while policy--the policy of _expediency_, the lust of
+power, and the offended moral sense of an exposed and suffering
+community demanded, as it was thought, the death of the sachem, still it
+was not found that one whom they had ever treated, and then viewed, as a
+foreign prince, legally considered, could be thus deprived of his life.
+Imprisonment was not, as a permanent policy, resolved on. There was one
+course left to escape both dilemmas, and to avoid all censure. It was to
+restore things to the precise footing they had before his surrender. It
+was to hand him back to Uncas, without the expression of any decision,
+leaving that chieftain to act as he deemed fit. They remanded him
+indeed, but went one step too far, by first deciding in a formal court,
+after months of deliberation, in the course of which the clergy and
+gentry, (this is a term that would be proper to the times) had been
+formally consulted, and directed his death, stipulating only that he
+should not be killed with cruelty. If there was not something that
+smacks of the want of true and noble dealing in this--if it accorded
+with the bland precepts of Christianity, to do unto others as you would
+that others should do unto you--if the act did not, in fine, partake of
+the very spirit of Jesuitism in the worst sense in which the word has
+been adopted into the language, we have, we confess, formed a totally
+wrong idea of its meaning.
+
+A case, in some respects similar to this, happened in modern times,
+which may be thought to contrast rather strongly with the above example
+of Puritan mercy. The reasons for a capital punishment, were, indeed,
+far more cogent, and the community called out strongly for it, and would
+have sustained it. It was the capture of Black Hawk, which, it will be
+recollected, took place during the first Presidential term of General
+Jackson. Black Hawk had levied war within the boundaries of one of the
+States, on lands ceded by treaty, and organized a confederacy of Indian
+tribes, which, though broken up in part, chiefly through the failure of
+the other tribes to fulfil their engagements with him, yet required for
+its suppression the entire disposable force of the Union. The Sac chief
+was finally captured on Indian territory, in the act of fleeing west of
+the Mississippi. He was imprisoned, and the case referred to the
+Government for decision. He had broken his treaty covenants. He had not
+only made war, but in its outbreak and its continuance, had been guilty
+of countenancing, at least, the most shocking barbarities. He had,
+indeed, opened the scene by cruelly murdering the agent of the
+Government, the representative of the President, in the person of Mr.
+St. Vrain. The community, the western States particularly, called
+loudly for his execution. There could be no security, it was said, if
+such a bloody fellow was allowed to roam at large. He had forfeited his
+life a thousand times. There was, indeed, the same popular feeling
+against him, which had existed in New England, one hundred and ninety
+years before, against Miontonimo. But could he have been _legally_
+executed? And if so, was it, indeed, the true policy? Was it noble--was
+it high-minded? Was it meting out exact and equal justice to men with
+red skins, as well as white? It was thought that all these questions
+must be negatively answered; and the bold Sac insurgent was sent home,
+accompanied by an officer of the army, to secure his comfort and safety,
+and thus to see that a wise and merciful decision should be faithfully
+carried out, and popular indignation be prevented from wreaking itself,
+in the assassination of the chief.
+
+In closing these remarks, it may appear selfish to express the hope,
+that Mr. Stone, to whom we are already indebted for these spirited,
+comprehensive, and well written volumes, should still further employ his
+pen in adding to the sum of these obligations. But he has so well
+studied the field in its historical bearing, so far at least as relates
+to the eastern department of the Union, that we know of no one to whom
+the labour would present less of the character of a task. We are in want
+of a good account of Philip, or Metacom, the energetic sachem of the
+Pokenokets, who impersonated so fully the wild Indian character, and
+views, and battled so stoutly against the occupancy of New England by
+the Saxon race. In showing up to modern times such a man, we think a
+biography would derive very deep interest, and it would certainly be a
+new experiment, to take up the aboriginal views and opinions of the
+invading race, and thus write, as it were, from _within_, instead of
+_without_ the circle of warlike action. In this way, their combinations,
+efforts and power, would better appear, and redound more to the credit
+of the aboriginal actors, as warriors and heroes. As it is, history only
+alludes to them as conspirators, rebels, traitors, or culprits; as if
+the fact of their opposing the egress of civilized nations, who were in
+all respects wiser and better, were sufficient to blot out all their
+right and claim to the soil and sovereignty of the land of their
+forefathers, and they were in fact bound to stand back, and give it up
+_nolens volens_.
+
+We had designed to subjoin a few remarks on the biographical labors of
+other writers in this department, particularly those of Thatcher and
+Drake, but our limits are already exhausted, and we must abandon, or at
+least, defer it.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [10] The name is usually translated, two-sticks tied, or united.
+
+  [11] The name of this chief is Anglicised in the word Tammany.
+
+  [12] The terms "brave" and "braves" used in a substantive sense, in this
+work, are neither English nor Indian. The Indian term should be
+translated strong-heart, its literal import; for it is one of the
+general rules of these languages, that the operation of the adjective,
+as well as action of the verb, is uniformly marked upon the
+substantive--there being, indeed, different inflections of each
+substantive, to denote whether this operation or action be caused by a
+noble or ignoble, or an animate or inanimate object. Still the general
+use of the Canadian term _Brave_, on our Indian border, may give it some
+poetic claims to introduction into our vernacular burthened as it
+already is with more objectionable Americanisms.
+
+
+
+
+THE RABID WOLF.
+
+A VERITABLE TRADITION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TAWASENTHA.
+
+
+The great Pine Plains, beginning not far south of the junction of the
+Mohawk with the North River, are still infested by wolves, who harbour
+in its deep gorges, from which they sally out at night, on the
+sheep-folds of the farmers, and often put a whole neighbourhood in fear.
+The railroad track from Albany to Schenectady, passes over a part of
+these plains, which stretch away in the direction of the blue outlines
+of the Helderberg mountains. It is many miles across the narrowest part
+of them, and they reach down to the very outskirts of the city of
+Albany, where they have of late years, and since Buel's day, begun to
+cultivate them by sowing clover, planting fruit trees, and in other
+ways. They constitute the table land of the county, and send out from
+beneath their heavy mass of yellow sand and broken down sand stones,
+mica slates, and granites, many springs and streams of the purest and
+most crystalline waters, which find their outlets chiefly into the
+valley of the Tawasentha, or, as the river is called in popular
+language, the Norman's Kill, and are thus contributed to swell the noble
+volume of the Hudson. These springs issue at the precise point where the
+arenaceous mass rests on a clay or impervious basis. The effect, in
+ancient years, has been that the sand is carried off, grain by grain,
+till a deep ravine or gorge is formed. The sides of this gorge being
+composed of mixed earth and some mould, and free from the aridity of the
+surface, bear a dense and vigorous growth of hard wood trees and
+shrubbery, and are often found to be encumbered with immense trunks of
+fallen pines and other forest rubbish, which renders it very difficult
+to penetrate them. It is into these dark gorges that the wolves retreat,
+after scouring the plains and neighbouring farms for prey; and here they
+have maintained their ancient empire from time immemorial. Such, at
+least, was the state of things between the settlers and the wolves, at
+the date of this story, in 1807.
+
+Sometimes the whole country armed and turned out _en masse_, to ferret
+them out of their fastnesses and destroy them; and truly the forces
+assembled on some of these wolf-hunts were surprising, and, in one
+respect, that is to say, the motley and uncouth character of their arms,
+they would have put both Bonaparte and Wellington to flight. There was
+nothing, from a pitchfork to a heavy blunderbuss, which they did not
+carry, always excepting a good rifle, which I never remember to have
+seen on these occasions. Indeed, these formal turn-outs were better
+suited to frighten away, than to kill and capture the foe; so that there
+was no just cause of surprise why the wolves remained, and even
+increased. They still kept masters of the Plains--sheep were killed by
+dozens, night after night, and the alarm went on.
+
+It was at other times tried to trap them, and to bait them in sundry
+ways. I recollect that we all had implicit faith in the village
+schoolmaster, one Cleanthus, who knew some Latin, and a little of almost
+every thing; and among other arts which he cherished, and dealt out in a
+way to excite wonder for his skill, he knew how to make the wolves
+follow his tracks, by smearing his shoes with æsofoedita, or some
+other substance, and then ensconcing himself at night in a log pen,
+where he might bid defiance to the best of them, and shoot at them
+besides. But I never could learn that there were any of these
+pestiferous animals killed, either by the schoolmaster and his party, or
+any other party, except it was the luckless poor animal I am about to
+write of, which showed its affinities to the canine race by turning
+rabid, and rushing at night into the midst of a populous manufacturing
+village.
+
+Iosco was eligibly seated on the summit and brow of a picturesque series
+of low crowned hills, just on the southern verge of these great Plains,
+where the tillable and settled land begins. It was, consequently, in
+relation to these wolves, a perfect frontier; and we had not only
+frequent alarms, but also the privilege and benefit of hearing all the
+wonderful stories of wolf-adventure, to man and beast, for a wide
+circle. Indeed, these stories often came back with interest, from the
+German and Dutch along the Swarta Kill, and Boza Kill settlements, away
+up to the foot of the Helderberg mountains. A beautiful and clear stream
+of sparkling cold water, called the Hungerkill, after gathering its
+crystal tributaries from the deep gorges of the plains, ran through the
+village, and afforded one or two seats for mills, and after winding and
+doubling on its track a mile or two, rendered its pellucid stores into
+the Norman's Kill, or, as this stream was called by the ancient Mohawk
+race, in allusion to their sleeping dead, the Tawasentha. No stream in
+the country was more famous for the abundance of its fine brook trout,
+and the neighbouring plains served to shelter the timid hare, and the
+fine species of northern partridge, which is there always called a
+pheasant.
+
+The village was supported by its manufacturing interests, and was quite
+populous. It had a number of long streets, some of which reached across
+the stream, and over a spacious mill pond, and others swept at right
+angles along the course of the great Cherry Valley turnpike. In its
+streets were to be heard, in addition to the English, nearly all the
+dialects of the German between, the Rhine and the Danube; the Low Dutch
+as spoken by the common country people on the manor of Rensselaerwyck,
+the Erse and Gaelic, as not unfrequently used by the large proportion of
+its Irish and Scotch, and what seemed quite as striking to one brought
+up in seclusion from it, the genuine Yankee, as discoursed by the
+increasing class of factory wood choppers, teamsters, schoolmasters, men
+out at the elbows, and travelling wits. The latter were indeed but a
+sorry representation of New England, as we have since found it. No small
+amount of superstitions were believed and recited in the social meetings
+of such a mixed foreign population. Accounts of instances of the second
+sight, death-lights on the meadows and in the churchyard, the low
+howling of premonitory dogs before funerals, and other legendary wares,
+to say nothing of the actual and veritable number of downright spooks,
+seen on various occasions, on the lands of the Veeders, the Van
+Valkenburgs, the Truaxes, and the Lagranges, rendered it a terror to all
+children under twelve to stir out of doors after dark. There were in the
+annals of Iosco, several events in the historical way which served as
+perfect eras to its inhabitants; but none, it is believed, of so
+striking and general importance as the story of the Mad Wolf, of which I
+am about to write.
+
+There had been found, soon after the close of the revolutionary war, in
+a dark wood very near the road, pieces of a cloth coat and metallic
+buttons, and other things, which rendered it certain that a man had been
+murdered at that spot, in consequence of which the place was shunned, or
+hurried by, as if a spirit of evil had its abode there. On another
+occasion, the body of a poor old man of the name of Homel, was found
+drowned deep in the Norman's Kill, clasped in the arms of his wife, both
+dead. A gentleman of standing, who ventured alone, rather groggy, one
+dark night, over the long unrailed bridge that crossed the mill pond,
+pitched upon some sharp pallisadoes in the water, and came to a
+melancholy end. Hormaun, an Iroquois, who haunted the valley, had
+killed, it was said, ninety-nine men, and was waiting an opportunity to
+fill his count, by dispatching his hundredth man. This was a greatly
+dreaded event, particularly by the boys. There was also the era, when a
+Race Course had been established on a spot called the "Colonel's Farm,"
+and the era of the "Deep Snow." There were many other events celebrated
+in Iosco, such as the De Zeng era, the Van Rensselaer era, and the Van
+Kleeck era, which helped the good mothers to remember the period when
+their children were born; but none, indeed, of so notable a character to
+youthful minds as the adventure of the mad wolf.
+
+Wolf stories were in vogue, in fact, in the evening and tea party
+circles of Iosco for many years; and if one would take every thing as it
+was given, there had been more acts of bravery, conduct, and firm
+decision of character and foresight, displayed in encountering these
+wild vixens of the plains and valleys by night, than would, if united,
+have been sufficient to repel the inroads of Burgoyne, St. Leger, or Sir
+John Johnson, with Brant, and all his hosts of tories and Indians,
+during the American revolution.
+
+I chanced one night to have left the city of Albany, in company with
+one of these heroic spirits. We occupied my father's chaise, an
+old-fashioned piece of gentility now out of vogue, drawn by a prime
+horse, one which he always rode on parades. It was late before we got
+out of the precincts of the city, and up the hill, and night overtook us
+away in the pine woods, at Billy McKown's, a noted public-house seated
+half way between the city and Iosco, where it was customary in those
+days to halt; for besides that he was much respected, and one of the
+most sensible and influential men in the town, it was not thought right,
+whatever the traveller might require, that a _horse_ should be driven
+eight miles without drawing breath, and having a pail of water. As I was
+but young, and less of a charioteer than my valiant companion, he held
+the whip and reins thus far; but after the wolf stories that poured in
+upon us at McKown's that evening, he would hold them no longer. Every
+man, he thought, was responsible to himself. He did not wish to be
+wolf's meat that night, so he hired a fleet horse from our host, and a
+whip and spurs, and set off with the speed of a Jehu, leaving me to make
+my way, in the heavy chaise, through the sandy plains, as best I could.
+
+In truth we had just reached the most sombre part of the plain, where
+the trees were more thick, the sand deep and heavy, and not a house but
+one, within the four miles. To render it worse, this was the chief
+locality of wolf insolence, where he had even ventured to attack men. It
+was on this route too, that the schoolmaster had used his medical arts,
+which made it better known through the country as the supposed centre of
+their power. Nothing harmed me, however; the horse was fine, and I
+reached home not only uneaten, but unthreatened by a wolf's jaw.
+
+But I must confine myself to the matter in hand. A large and fierce wolf
+sallied out of the plains one dark summer's night, and rushed into the
+midst of the village, snapping to the right and left as he went, and
+biting every animal that came in his way. Cows, swine, pigs,
+geese--every species, whether on four legs, or two legs, shared its
+malice alike. The animal seemed to have a perfect ubiquity--it was every
+where, and seemed to have spared nothing. It is not recollected that
+there was a single house, or barn-yard in the village, where something
+had not been bitten. If he had come on an errand of retribution, for the
+great and threatening wolf-parties which had gone out against his race,
+and all the occult arts of the schoolmaster in trying to decoy them at
+Barrett's hollow, he could not have dealt out his venomous snaps more
+indiscriminately.
+
+It must have been about midnight, or soon after, that the fearful
+visiter came. Midnight, in a country village, finds almost every one in
+bed, but such was the uproar among the animal creation, made by this
+strange interloper, that _out_ of bed they soon come. The cattle
+bellowed, the pigs squealed, the poultry cackled--there must be
+something amiss. Santa Claus himself must be playing his pranks. "A
+wolf!" was the cry--"a wolf is committing havoc." "It is mad!" came next
+on the voices of the night. "A mad wolf!--a mad wolf!" Nothing but a
+mad wolf could venture alone into the heart of the village, and do so
+much mischief. Out ran the people into the streets, men, women and all.
+Some caught up guns, some clubs, some pitchforks. If the tories and
+Indians, in the old French war, had broke into the settlement with fire
+and sword, there could not have been a greater tumult, and nothing but a
+mad wolf would have stood his ground. Where is he? which way did he run?
+who saw him? and a thousand like expressions followed. He had gone
+south, and south the mob pushed after him. He was away over on the
+street that leads up from the middle factory. It was a cloudy night, or
+the moon only came out fitfully, and threw light enough to discern
+objects dimly, as the clouds rolled before it. Indistinct murmurs came
+on the breeze, and at length the scream of a woman. The cause of it soon
+followed. The wolf had bitten Mrs. Sitz. Now Mrs. Sitz was a careful,
+tall, rigid-faced, wakeful housewife, from the dutchy of Hesse
+D'Armstadt, who had followed the fortunes of her husband, in trying his
+mechanical skill in the precincts of Iosco; but while her husband Frank
+laid fast asleep, under the influence of a hard day's labour, her ears
+were open to the coming alarm. It was not long before she heard a tumult
+in her goose pen. The rabid animal had bounded into the midst of them,
+which created as great an outcry as if Rome had a second time been
+invaded. Out she ran to their relief, not knowing the character of the
+disturber, but naturally thinking it was some thief of a neighbour, who
+wished to make provision for a coming Christmas. The animal gave her one
+snap and leapt the pen. "Mein hemel!" screamed she, "er hat mein
+gebissen!" Sure enough the wolf had bit her in the thigh.
+
+The party in chase soon came up, and while some stopt to parley and
+sympathize with her, others pushed on after the animal--the spitzbug, as
+she spitefully called him. By this time the wolf had made a circuit of
+the southern part of the village, and scampered down the old factory
+road, by the mill dam, under the old dark bridge at the saw mill, and up
+the hill by the old public store; and thus turned his course back
+towards the north, into the thickest part of the village, where he had
+first entered. He had made a complete circuit. All was valour, boasting,
+and hot speed behind him, but the wolf had been too nimble for them.
+Unluckily for him, however, while the main group pushed behind, just as
+he was scampering up the old store hill, he was suddenly headed by a
+party coming down it. This party was led by old Colonel S., a
+revolutionary soldier, a field-officer of the county militia, and the
+superintendent of the extensive manufacturing establishment from which
+the village drew its prosperity. He was armed with a fusil of the olden
+time, well charged, and having been roused from his bed in a hurry,
+could not at the moment find his hat, and clapt on an old revolutionary
+cocked hat, which hung in the room. His appearance was most opportune;
+he halted on the brow of the hill, and as the wolf bounded on he
+levelled his piece at the passing fugitive, and fired. He had aimed at
+the shoulders; the fleetness of its speed, however, saved its vital
+parts, but the shot took effect in the animal's hind legs. They were
+both broken at a shot. This brought him down. The poor creature tried to
+drag himself on by his fore paws, but his pursuers were too close upon
+him, and they soon dispatched him with hatchets and clubs.
+
+Thus fell the rabid wolf, to be long talked of by men and boys, and put
+down as a chief item in village traditions. But the effects of his visit
+did not end here. In due time, symptoms of madness seized the cattle and
+other animals, which had come within the reach of his teeth. Many of the
+finest milch cows were shot. Calves and swine, and even poultry went
+rabid; and as things of this kind are generally overdone, there was a
+perfect panic in the village on the subject, and numbers of valuable
+animals were doubtless shot, merely because they happened to show some
+restiveness at a very critical epoch.
+
+But what, methinks the reader is ready to ask, became of Mrs. Sitz?
+Whether it was, that she had brought over some mystical arts from the
+Wild Huntsman of Bohemia, or had derived protection from the venom
+through the carefully administered medicines of Dr. Crouse, who duly
+attended the case, or some inherent influence of the stout hearted
+woman, or the audacity of the bite itself, had proved more than a match
+for the wolf, I cannot say; but certain it is, that while oxen and kine,
+swine and fatlings, fell under the virus and were shot, she recovered,
+and lived many years to scold her dozing husband Frank, who did not jump
+up immediately, and come to her rescue at the goose pen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INDIAN POSSESSIONS.--The Ottoes own, at the latest accounts, a large
+tract of country on the Big Platte, west of the Missouri; they are a
+poor race of people, and receive a small annuity of $2,500. The Pawnees
+are a powerful body, and number about 6,500 persons, divided into bands
+under the names of Pawnee Loups, Grand Pawnees, Republican Pawnees,
+Pawnee Pics, &c.; they are wild and furtive in their habits, and receive
+provisions and goods. The Grand Nation is the Pottowattomies, or the
+"united bands of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies." They own
+five millions of acres of prairie lands, along the Missouri river to the
+Little Sioux, number about 2,000, and receive $42,000 a year for their
+lands sold in Illinois and Michigan. They are a respectable body of
+Indians, are good farmers, and educate their children. The payment of
+the annuities is always a season of great hilarity and festivity.--_N.
+O. Pic._
+
+     It is a characteristic of some of the Indian legends, that they
+     convey a _moral_ which seems clearly enough to denote, that a part
+     of these legends were invented to convey instruction to the young
+     folks who listen to them. The known absence of all harsh methods
+     among the Indians, in bringing up their children, favours this
+     idea. The following tale addresses itself plainly to girls; to whom
+     it teaches the danger of what we denominate coquetry. It would seem
+     from this, that beauty, and its concomitant, a passion for dress,
+     among the red daughters of Adam and Eve, has the same tendency to
+     create pride, and nourish self-conceit, and self-esteem, and assume
+     a _tyranny over_ the _human heart_, which writers tell us, these
+     qualities have among their white-skinned, auburn-haired, and
+     blue-eyed progeny the world over. This tale has appeared in the
+     "Columbian." The term Moowis is one of the most derogative and
+     offensive possible. It is derived from the Odjibwa substantive, mo,
+     filth, or excrement.
+
+
+
+
+MOOWIS,
+
+OR
+
+THE MAN MADE UP OF RAGS AND DIRT.
+
+A TRADITIONARY LEGEND OF THE ODJIBWAS.
+
+
+In a large village, there lived a noted belle, or Ma mon dá go kwa, who
+was the admiration of all the young hunters and warriors. She was
+particularly admired by a young man, who from his good figure, and the
+care he took in his dress, was called the Beau-Man, or Ma mon dá gin
+in-e. This young man had a friend and companion, whom he made a
+confidant of his affairs. "Come," said he, one day in a sportive mood,
+"let us go a courting to her who is so handsome, perhaps she may fancy
+one of us." But she would listen to neither of them, and when the
+handsome young man rallied from the coldness of her air, and made an
+effort to overcome her indifference, she put together her thumb and
+three fingers, and raising her hand gracefully towards him, deliberately
+opened them in his face. This gesticulatory mode of rejection is one of
+the highest contempt, and the young hunter retired confused and abashed.
+His sense of pride was deeply wounded, and he was the more piqued, that
+it had been done in the presence of others, and the affair was soon
+noised about the village, and became the talk of every lodge circle.
+Besides, he was a very sensitive man, and the thing so preyed upon him,
+that he became moody, and at last took to his bed. He was taciturn,
+often lying for days without uttering a word, with his eyes fixed on
+vacancy, and taking little or no food. From this state no efforts could
+rouse him; he felt abashed and dishonoured, even in the presence of his
+own relatives, and no persuasions could induce him to rise. So that when
+the family prepared to take down the lodge to remove, he still kept his
+bed, and they were compelled to lift it over his head, and leave him
+upon his skin couch. It was a time of general removal and breaking up of
+the camp, for it was only a winter's hunting camp, and as the season of
+the hunt was now over, and spring began to appear, they all moved off,
+as by one impulse, to the place of their summer village, and in a short
+time, all were gone, and he was left alone. The last person to leave him
+was his boon companion, and cousin, who has been mentioned as also one
+of the admirers of the forest belle. But even _his_ voice was
+disregarded, and as soon as his steps died away on the creaking snow,
+the stillness and solitude of the wilderness reigned around.
+
+As soon as all were gone, and he could no longer, by listening, hear the
+remotest sounds of the departing camp, the Beau-Man arose. It is to be
+understood that this young man was aided by a powerful guardian spirit,
+or personal Moneto; and he resolved to make use of his utmost power to
+punish and humble the girl. For she was noted in the tribe for her
+coquetry, and had treated others, who were every way her equals, as she
+had done him. He resolved on a singular stratagem, by way of revenge.
+For this purpose, he walked over the deserted camp, and gathered up all
+the bits of soiled cloth, clippings of finery, and cast off clothing,
+and ornaments which had either been left or lost. These he carefully
+picked out of the snow, into which some of them had been trodden and
+partially buried, and conveyed them to one place. The motly heap of
+gaudy and soiled stuffs, he restored to their original beauty, and
+determined to make them into a coat and leggins, which he trimmed with
+beads, and finished and decorated after the best fashion of his tribe.
+He then made a pair of moccasins and garnished them with beads, a bow
+and arrows, and a frontlet and feathers for the head. Having done this,
+he searched about for cast out bones of animals, pieces of skins,
+clippings of dried meat, and even dirt, and having cemented them
+together with snow, he filled the clothes with these things, and pressed
+the mass firmly in, and fashioned it externally in all respects, like a
+tall and well framed man. He put a bow and arrows in his hands, and the
+frontlet on his head. And having finished it, he brought it to life, and
+the image stood forth, in the most favoured lineaments of his fellows.
+Such was the origin of Moowis, or the Dirt and Rag Man.
+
+"Follow me," said the Beau-Man, "and I will direct you, how you shall
+act." He was indeed, a very sightly person, and as they entered the new
+encampment, the many colours of his clothes, the profusion of ornaments
+which he had managed to give him, and his fine manly step, and animated
+countenance, drew all eyes. And he was received by all, both old and
+young, with marks of attention. The chief invited him to his lodge, and
+he was feasted on the moose's hump and the finest venison.
+
+But no one was better pleased with the handsome stranger than Ma mon dá
+go kwa. She fell in love with him at the first sight, and he was an
+invited guest at the lodge of her mother, the very first evening of his
+arrival. The Beau-man went with him, for it was under his patronage that
+he had been introduced, and, in truth, he had another motive for
+accompanying him, for he had not yet wholly subdued his feelings of
+admiration for the object, against whom he had, nevertheless, exerted
+all his necromantic power, and he held himself subject to any favourable
+turn, which he secretly hoped the visit might take, in relation to
+himself. But no such turn occurred. Moowis attracted the chief
+attention, and every eye and heart were alert to entertain him. In this
+effort on the part of his entertainers, they had well nigh revealed his
+true character, and dissolved him into his original elements of rags,
+and snow, and dirt; for he was assigned the most prominent place before
+the fire: this was a degree of heat which he could by no means endure.
+To ward it off he put a boy between himself and the fire. He shifted his
+position frequently, and evaded, by dexterous manoeuvres, and timely
+remarks, the pressing invitation of his host to sit up, and enjoy it. He
+so managed these excuses, as not only to conceal his dread of immediate
+dissolution, but to secure the further approbation of the fair forest
+girl, who could not but admire one who had so brave a spirit of
+endurance against the paralysing effects of cold.
+
+The visit proved that the rejected lover had well calculated the effects
+of his plan. He withdrew from the lodge, and Moowis triumphed. Before he
+went, he saw him cross the lodge to the coveted abinos, or bridegroom's
+seat. Marriage in the forest race, is a simple ceremony, and where the
+impediments of custom are small, there is but little time demanded for
+their execution. The dart which Ma mon dá go kwa had so often delighted
+in sending to the hearts of her admirers, she was at length fated
+herself to receive. She had married an image. As the morning begun to
+break, the stranger arose and adjusted his warrior's plumes, and took
+his forest weapons to depart. "I must go," said he, "for I have an
+important business to do, and there are many hills and streams between
+me and the object of my journey." "I will go with you," she replied. "It
+is too far," he rejoined, "and you are ill able to encounter the perils
+of the way." "It is not so far, but that I can go," she responded, "and
+there are no dangers which I will not fully share for you."
+
+Moowis returned to the lodge of his master, and detailed to him the
+events we have described. Pity, for a moment, seized the breast of the
+rejected youth. He regretted that she should thus have cast herself away
+upon an image and a shadow, when she might have been mistress of the
+best lodge in the band. "But it is her own folly," he said, "she has
+turned a deaf ear to the counsels of prudence, and she must submit to
+her fate."
+
+The same morning the Image-man set forth, and his wife followed him,
+according to custom, at a distance. The way was rough and intricate, and
+she could not keep up with his rapid pace; but she struggled hard, and
+perseveringly to overtake him. Moowis had been long out of sight, when
+the sun arose, and commenced upon his snow-formed body the work of
+dissolution. He began to melt away, and fall to pieces. As she followed
+him, piece after piece of his clothing were found in the path. She
+first found his mittens, then his moccasins, then his leggins, then his
+coat, and other parts of his garments. As the heat unbound them, they
+had all returned also to their debased and filthy condition. The way led
+over rocks, through wind falls, across marshes. It whirled about to all
+points of the compass, and had no certain direction or object. Rags,
+bones, leather, beads, feathers, and soiled ribbons, were found, but she
+never caught the sight of Moowis. She spent the day in wandering; and
+when evening came, she was no nearer the object of her search than in
+the morning, but the snow having now melted, she had completely lost his
+track, and wandered about, uncertain which way to go, and in a state of
+perfect despair. Finding herself lost, she begun, with bitter cries, to
+bewail her fate.
+
+"Moowis, Moowis," she cried. "Nin ge wen e win ig, ne won e win
+ig"--that is--Moowis, Moowis, you have led me astray--you are leading me
+astray. And with this cry she continued to wander in the woods.
+
+Sometimes the village girls repeat the above words, varying the
+expressions, till they constitute an irregular kind of song, which,
+according to the versions of a friendly hand, may be set down as
+follows:--
+
+          Moowis! Moowis!
+            Forest rover,----
+          Where art thou?
+            Ah my bravest, gayest lover,
+          Guide me now.
+
+          Moowis! Moowis!
+            Ah believe me,
+          List my moan,
+            Do not--do not, brave heart, leave me
+          All alone.
+
+          Moowis! Moowis!
+            Foot-prints vanished,
+          Whither wend I,
+            Fated, lost, detested, banished,
+          Must I die.
+
+          Moowis! Moowis!
+            Whither goest,
+          Eye-bright lover,
+            Ah thou ravenous bird that knowest,
+          I see you hover.
+
+          Circling--circling,
+            As I wander,
+          But to spy
+            Where I fall, and then to batten,
+          On my breast.
+
+
+
+
+THE LONE LIGHTNING.
+
+AN ODJIBWA TALE.
+
+
+A little orphan boy who had no one to care for him, was once living with
+his uncle, who treated him very badly, making him do hard things and
+giving him very little to eat; so that the boy pined away, he never grew
+much, and became, through hard usage, very thin and light. At last the
+uncle felt ashamed of this treatment, and determined to make amends for
+it, by fattening him up, but his real object was, to kill him by
+over-feeding. He told his wife to give the boy plenty of bear's meat,
+and let him have the fat, which is thought to be the best part. They
+were both very assiduous in cramming him, and one day came near choking
+him to death, by forcing the fat down his throat. The boy escaped and
+fled from the lodge. He knew not where to go, but wandered about. When
+night came on, he was afraid the wild beasts would eat him, so he
+climbed up into the forks of a high pine tree, and there he fell asleep
+in the branches, and had an aupoway, or ominous dream.
+
+A person appeared to him from the upper sky, and said, "My poor little
+lad, I pity you, and the bad usage you have received from your uncle has
+led me to visit you: follow me, and step in my tracks." Immediately his
+sleep left him, and he rose up and followed his guide, mounting up
+higher and higher into the air, until he reached the upper sky. Here
+twelve arrows were put into his hands, and he was told that there were a
+great many manitoes in the northern sky, against whom he must go to war,
+and try to waylay and shoot them. Accordingly he went to that part of
+the sky, and, at long intervals, shot arrow after arrow, until he had
+expended eleven, in vain attempt to kill the manitoes. At the flight of
+each arrow, there was a long and solitary streak of lightning in the
+sky--then all was clear again, and not a cloud or spot could be seen.
+The twelfth arrow he held a long time in his hands, and looked around
+keenly on every side to spy the manitoes he was after. But these
+manitoes were very cunning, and could change their form in a moment. All
+they feared was the boy's arrows, for these were magic arrows, which had
+been given to him by a good spirit, and had power to kill them, if aimed
+aright. At length, the boy drew up his last arrow, settled in his aim,
+and let fly, as he thought, into the very heart of the chief of the
+manitoes; but before the arrow reached him, he changed himself into a
+rock. Into this rock, the head of the arrow sank deep and stuck fast.
+
+"Now your gifts are all expended," cried the enraged manito, "and I will
+make an example of your audacity and pride of heart, for lifting your
+bow against me"--and so saying, he transformed the boy into the
+Nazhik-a-wä wä sun, or Lone Lightning, which may be observed in the
+northern sky, to this day.
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF
+
+NOTED RED MEN AND WOMEN
+
+WHO HAVE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT.
+
+
+
+
+CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE OGEE WYAN AKWUT OKWA;
+
+OR THE WOMAN OF THE BLUE-ROBED CLOUD,
+
+THE PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEGON.
+
+     [These confessions of the Western Pythoness were made after she had
+     relinquished the prophetic office, discarded all the ceremonies of
+     the Indian _Medáwin_ and _Jesukeéwin_, and united herself to the
+     Methodist Episcopal church, of which, up to our latest dates, she
+     remained a consistent member. They are narrated in her own words.]
+
+
+When I was a girl of about twelve or thirteen years of age, my mother
+told me to look out for something that would happen to me. Accordingly,
+one morning early, in the middle of winter, I found an unusual sign, and
+ran off, as far from the lodge as I could, and remained there until my
+mother came and found me out. She knew what was the matter, and brought
+me nearer to the family lodge, and bade me help her in making a small
+lodge of branches of the spruce tree. She told me to remain there, and
+keep away from every one, and as a diversion, to keep myself employed in
+chopping wood, and that she would bring me plenty of prepared bass wood
+bark to twist into twine. She told me she would come to see me, in two
+days, and that in the meantime I must not even taste snow.
+
+I did as directed; at the end of two days she came to see me. I thought
+she would surely bring me something to eat, but to my disappointment she
+brought nothing. I suffered more from _thirst_, than hunger, though I
+felt my stomach gnawing. My mother sat quietly down and said (after
+ascertaining that I had not tasted anything, as she directed), "My
+child, you are the youngest of your sisters, and none are now left me of
+all my sons and children, but you _four_" (alluding to her two elder
+sisters, herself and a little son, still a mere lad). "Who," she
+continued, "will take care of us poor women? Now, my daughter, listen to
+me, and try to obey. Blacken your face and fast _really_, that the
+Master of Life may have pity on you and me, and on us all. Do not, in
+the least, deviate from my counsels, and in two days more, I will come
+to you. He will help you, if you are determined to do what is right, and
+tell me, whether you are favored or not, by the _true_ Great Spirit; and
+if your visions are not good, reject them." So saying, she departed.
+
+I took my little hatchet and cut plenty of wood, and twisted the cord
+that was to be used in sewing _ap puk way con un_, or mats, for the use
+of the family. Gradually, I began to feel less appetite, but my thirst
+continued; still I was fearful of touching the snow to allay it, by
+sucking it, as my mother had told me that if I did so, though secretly,
+the Great Spirit would see me, and the lesser spirits also, and that my
+fasting would be of no use. So I continued to fast till the fourth day,
+when my mother came with a little tin dish, and filling it with snow,
+she came to my lodge, and was well pleased to find that I had followed
+her injunctions. She melted the snow, and told me to drink it. I did so,
+and felt refreshed, but had a desire for more, which she told me would
+not do, and I contented myself with what she had given me. She again
+told me to get and follow a good vision--a vision that might not only do
+us good, but also benefit mankind, if I could. She then left me, and for
+two days she did not come near me, nor any human being, and I was left
+to my own reflections. The night of the sixth day, I fancied a voice
+called to me, and said: "Poor child! I pity your condition; come, you
+are invited this way;" and I thought the voice proceeded from a certain
+distance from my lodge. I obeyed the summons, and going to the spot from
+which the voice came, found a thin shining path, like a silver cord,
+which I followed. It led straight forward, and, it seemed, upward. No.
+3. After going a short distance I stood still, and saw on my right hand
+the new moon, with a flame rising from the top like a candle, which
+threw around a broad light. No. 4. On the left appeared the sun, near
+the point of its setting. No. 11. I went on, and I beheld on my right
+the face of _Kau ge gag be qua_, or the everlasting woman, No. 5, who
+told me her name, and said to me, "I give you my name, and you may give
+it to another. I also give you that which I have, life everlasting. I
+give you long life on the earth, and skill in saving life in others. Go,
+you are called on high."
+
+I went on, and saw a man standing with a large circular body, and rays
+from his head, like horns. No. 6. He said, "Fear not, my name is Monedo
+Wininees, or the Little man Spirit. I give this name to your first son.
+It is my life. Go to the place you are called to visit." I followed the
+path till I could see that it led up to an opening in the sky, when I
+heard a voice, and standing still, saw the figure of a man standing near
+the path, whose head was surrounded with a brilliant halo, and his
+breast was covered with squares. No. 7. He said to me: "Look at me, my
+name is _O Shau wau e geeghick_, or the Bright Blue Sky. I am the veil
+that covers the opening into the sky. Stand and listen to me. Do not be
+afraid. I am going to endow you with gifts of life, and put you in array
+that you may withstand and endure." Immediately I saw myself encircled
+with bright points which rested against me like needles, but gave me no
+pain, and they fell at my feet. No. 9. This was repeated several times,
+and at each time they fell to the ground. He said, "wait and do not
+fear, till I have said and done all I am about to do." I then felt
+different instruments, first like awls, and then like nails stuck into
+my flesh, but neither did they give me pain, but like the needles, fell
+at my feet, as often as they appeared. He then said, "that is good,"
+meaning my trial by these points. "You will see length of days. Advance
+a little farther," said he. I did so, and stood at the commencement of
+the opening. "You have arrived," said he, "at the limit you cannot pass.
+I give you my name, you can give it to another. Now, return! Look around
+you. There is a conveyance for you. No. 10. Do not be afraid to get on
+its back, and when you get to your lodge, you must take that which
+sustains the human body." I turned, and saw a kind of fish swimming in
+the air, and getting upon it as directed, was carried back with
+celerity, my hair floating behind me in the air. And as soon as I got
+back, my vision ceased.
+
+In the morning, being the sixth day of my fast, my mother came with a
+little bit of dried trout. But such was my sensitiveness to all sounds,
+and my increased power of scent, produced by fasting, that before she
+came in sight I heard her, while a great way off, and when she came in,
+I could not bear the smell of the fish or herself either. She said, "I
+have brought something for you to eat, only a mouthful, to prevent your
+dying." She prepared to cook it, but I said, "Mother, forbear, I do not
+wish to eat it--the smell is offensive to me." She accordingly left off
+preparing to cook the fish, and again encouraged me to persevere, and
+try to become a comfort to her in her old age and bereaved state, and
+left me.
+
+I attempted to cut wood, as usual, but in the effort I fell back on the
+snow, from weariness, and lay some time; at last I made an effort and
+rose, and went to my lodge and lay down. I again saw the vision, and
+each person who had before spoken to me, and heard the promises of
+different kinds made to me, and the songs. I went the same path which I
+had pursued before, and met with the same reception. I also had another
+vision, or celestial visit, which I shall presently relate. My mother
+came again on the seventh day, and brought me some pounded corn boiled
+in _snow water_, for she said I must not drink water from lake or river.
+After taking it, I related my vision to her. She said it was good, and
+spoke to me to continue my fast three days longer. I did so; at the end
+of which she took me home, and made a feast in honor of my success, and
+invited a great many guests. I was told to eat sparingly, and to take
+nothing too hearty or substantial; but this was unnecessary, for my
+abstinence had made my senses so acute, that all animal food had a gross
+and disagreeable odor.
+
+After the seventh day of my fast (she continued), while I was lying in
+my lodge, I saw a dark round object descending from the sky like a round
+stone, and enter my lodge. As it came near, I saw that it had small feet
+and hands like a human body. It spoke to me and said, "I give you the
+gift of seeing into futurity, that you may use it, for the benefit of
+yourself and the Indians--your relations and tribes-people." It then
+departed, but as it went away, it assumed wings, and looked to me like
+the red-headed woodpecker.
+
+In consequence of being thus favored, I assumed the arts of a medicine
+woman and a prophetess; but never those of a Wabeno. The first time I
+exercised the prophetical art, was at the strong and repeated
+solicitations of my friends. It was in the winter season, and they were
+then encamped west of the Wisacoda, or Brule river of Lake Superior, and
+between it and the plains west. There were, besides my mother's family
+and relatives, a considerable number of families. They had been some
+time at the place, and were near starving, as they could find no game.
+One evening the chief of the party came into my mother's lodge. I had
+lain down, and was supposed to be asleep, and he requested of my mother
+that she would allow me to try my skill to relieve them. My mother spoke
+to me, and after some conversation, she gave her consent. I told them to
+build the _Jee suk aun_, or prophet's lodge, _strong_, and gave
+particular directions for it. I directed that it should consist of ten
+posts or saplings, each of a different kind of wood, which I named. When
+it was finished, and tightly wound with skins, the entire population of
+the encampment assembled around it and I went in, taking only a small
+drum. I immediately knelt down, and holding my head near the ground, in
+a position as near as may be prostrate, began beating my drum, and
+reciting my songs or incantations. The lodge commenced shaking
+violently, by supernatural means. I knew this, by the compressed current
+of air above, and the noise of motion. This being regarded by me, and by
+all without, as a proof of the presence of the spirits I consulted, I
+ceased beating and singing, and lay still, waiting for questions, in the
+position I had at first assumed.
+
+The first question put to me, was in relation to the game, and _where_
+it was to be found. The response was given by the orbicular spirit, who
+had appeared to me. He said, "How short-sighted you are! If you will go
+in a _west_ direction, you will find game in abundance." Next day the
+camp was broken up, and they all moved westward, the hunters, as usual,
+going far ahead. They had not proceeded far beyond the bounds of their
+former hunting circle, when they came upon tracks of moose, and that
+day, they killed a female and two young moose, nearly full-grown. They
+pitched their encampment anew, and had abundance of animal food in this
+new position.
+
+My reputation was established by this success, and I was afterwards
+noted in the tribe, in the art of a medicine woman, and sung the songs
+which I have given to you. About four years after, I was married to O
+Mush Kow Egeezhick, or the Strong Sky, who was a very active and
+successful hunter, and kept his lodge well supplied with food; and we
+lived happy. After I had had two children, a girl and a boy, we went
+out, as is the custom of the Indians in the spring, to visit the white
+settlements. One night, while we were encamped at the head of the
+portage at Pauwating (the Falls of St. Mary's), angry words passed
+between my husband and a half Frenchman named Gaultier, who, with his
+two cousins, in the course of the dispute, drew their knives and a
+tomahawk, and stabbed and cut him in four or five places, in his body,
+head and thighs. This happened the first year that the Americans came to
+that place (1822). He had gone out at a late hour in the evening, to
+visit the tent of Gaultier. Having been urged by one of the trader's men
+to take liquor that evening, and it being already late, I desired him
+not to go, but to defer his visit till next day; and after he had left
+the lodge, I felt a sudden presentiment of evil, and I went after him,
+and renewed my efforts in vain. He told me to return, and as I had two
+children in the lodge, the youngest of whom, a boy, was still in his
+cradle, and then ill, I sat up with him late, and waited and waited,
+till a late hour, and then fell asleep from exhaustion. I slept very
+sound. The first I knew, was a violent shaking from a girl, a niece of
+Gaultier's, who told me my husband and Gaultier were all the time
+quarrelling. I arose, and went up the stream to Gaultier's camp fire. It
+was nearly out, and I tried in vain to make it blaze. I looked into his
+tent, but all was dark and not a soul there. They had suddenly fled,
+although I did not at the moment know the cause. I tried to make a light
+to find my husband, but could find nothing dry, for it had rained very
+hard the day before. After being out a while my vision became clearer,
+and turning toward the river side, I saw a dark object lying near the
+shore, on a grassy opening. I was attracted by something glistening,
+which turned out to be his ear-rings. I thought he was asleep, and in
+stooping to awake him, I slipped and fell on my knees. I had slipped in
+his blood on the grass, and putting my hand on his face, found him dead.
+In the morning the Indian agent came with soldiers from the fort, to see
+what had happened, but the murderer and all his bloody gang of relatives
+had fled. The agent gave orders to have the body buried in the old
+Indian burial ground, below the Falls.
+
+My aged mother was encamped about a mile off, at this time. I took my
+two children in the morning, and fled to her lodge. She had just heard
+of the murder, and was crying as I entered. I reminded her that it was
+an act of providence, to which we must submit. She said it was for me
+and my poor helpless children that she was crying--that I was left as
+she had been, years before, with nobody to provide for us. With her I
+returned to my native country at Chegoimegon on Lake Superior.
+
+Thus far, her own narrative. We hope, in a future number, to give
+further particulars of her varied, and rather eventful life; together
+with specimens of her medicine, and prophetic songs.
+
+
+
+
+RULING CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS.
+
+
+Died, on the 13th inst. (August, 1841), at his residence on the St.
+Mary's, four and a half miles south-west of this city, John B.
+Richardville, principal chief of the Miami nation of Indians, aged about
+eighty years.
+
+Chief Richardville, or "_Piskewah_" (which is an Indian name, meaning in
+English "wild-cat"), was born on the point across the Maumee river,
+opposite this city, under or near a large apple tree, on the farm of the
+late Colonel Coles; and at a very early age, by succession, became the
+chief of the tribe, his mother being chieftainess at the time of his
+birth. His situation soon brought him in contact with the whites, and he
+was in several engagements, the most important of which was the
+celebrated slaughter on the St. Joseph River, one mile north of this
+city, designated as "Harmar's Defeat," where several hundred whites,
+under General Harmar, were cut off in attempting to ford the river, by
+the Indians, who lay in ambush on the opposite shore, by firing upon the
+whites when in the act of crossing; which slaughter crimsoned the river
+a number of days for several miles below with the blood of the
+unfortunate victims.
+
+The Chief is universally spoken of as having been kind and humane to
+prisoners--far more so than most of his race; and as soon as peace was
+restored, became a worthy citizen, and enjoyed the confidence of the
+whites to the fullest extent. He spoke good French and English, as well
+as his native tongue; and for many years his house, which is pleasantly
+situated on the banks of the St. Mary's, and which was always open for
+the reception of friends--was a place of resort for parties of pleasure,
+who always partook of the hospitality of his house.
+
+The old man was strictly honest, but remarkably watchful of his
+interest, and amassed a fortune exceeding probably a million of dollars,
+consisting of nearly $200,000 in specie on hand, and the balance in the
+most valuable kind of real estate, which he has distributed by "will"
+among his numerous relations with "even-handed justice." He had always
+expressed a great anxiety to live, but when he became conscious that the
+time of his departure was near at hand, he resigned himself with perfect
+composure, saying that it was ordered that all must die, and he was then
+ready and willing to answer the call of the "Great Spirit." His remains
+were deposited in the Catholic burying-ground with religious
+ceremonies.--_Fort Wayne (Ind.) Sentinel._
+
+
+
+
+THE MAGICIAN OF LAKE HURON.
+
+AN OTTOWA TALE RELATED BY NABUNWA IN THE INDIAN TONGUE, TO MR. GEORGE
+JOHNSTON.
+
+
+At the time that the Ottowas inhabited the Manatoline Islands, in Lake
+Huron, there was a famous magician living amongst them whose name was
+Masswäwëinini, or the Living Statue. It happened, by the fortune of war,
+that the Ottowa tribe were driven off that chain of islands by the
+Iroquois, and obliged to flee away to the country lying between Lake
+Superior and the Upper Mississippi, to the banks of a lake which is
+still called, by the French, and in memory of this migration, _Lac
+Courtorielle_, or the lake of the Cut-ears, a term which is their _nom
+de guerre_ for this tribe. But the magician Masswäwëinini remained
+behind on the wide-stretching and picturesque Manatoulins, a group of
+islands which had been deemed, from the earliest times, a favorite
+residence of the manitoes or spirits. His object was to act as a
+sentinel to his countrymen, and keep a close watch on their enemies, the
+Iroquois, that he might give timely information of their movements. He
+had with him two boys; with their aid he paddled stealthily around the
+shores, kept himself secreted in nooks and bays, and hauled up his canoe
+every night, into thick woods, and carefully obliterated his tracks upon
+the sand.
+
+One day he rose very early, and started on a hunting excursion, leaving
+the boys asleep, and limiting himself to the thick woods, lest he should
+be discovered. At length he came unexpectedly to the borders of an
+extensive open plain. After gazing around him, and seeing no one, he
+directed his steps across it, intending to strike the opposite side of
+it; while travelling, he discovered a man of small stature, who appeared
+suddenly on the plain before him, and advanced to meet him. He wore a
+red feather on his head, and coming up with a familiar air, accosted
+Masswäwëinini by name, and said gaily, "Where are you going?" He then
+took out his smoking apparatus, and invited him to smoke. "Pray," said
+he, while thus engaged, "wherein does your strength lie." "My strength,"
+answered Masswäwëinini, "is similar to the human race, and common to the
+strength given to them, and no stronger." "We must wrestle," said the
+man of the red feather. "If you should make me fall, you will say to me,
+I have thrown you, _Wa ge me na_."
+
+As soon as they had finished smoking and put up their pipe, the
+wrestling began. For a long time the strife was doubtful. The strength
+of Masswäwëinini was every moment growing fainter. The man of the red
+feather, though small of stature, proved himself very active, but at
+length he was foiled and thrown to the ground. Immediately his adversary
+cried out, "I have thrown you: _wa ge me na;_" and in an instant his
+antagonist had vanished. On looking to the spot where he had fallen, he
+discovered a crooked ear of _mondamin_, or Indian corn, lying on the
+ground, with the usual red hairy tassel at the top. While he was gazing
+at this strange sight, and wondering what it could mean, a voice
+addressed him from the ground. "Now," said the speaking ear, for the
+voice came from it, "divest me of my covering--leave nothing to hide my
+body from your eyes. You must then separate me into parts, pulling off
+my body from the spine upon which I grow. Throw me into different parts
+of the plain. Then break my spine and scatter it in small pieces near
+the edge of the woods, and return to visit the place, after _one moon._"
+
+Masswäwëinini obeyed these directions, and immediately set out on his
+return to his lodge. On the way he killed a deer, and on reaching his
+canoe, he found the boys still asleep. He awoke them and told them to
+cook his venison, but he carefully concealed from them his adventure. At
+the expiration of the moon he again, _alone_, visited his wrestling
+ground, and to his surprise, found the plain filled with the spikes and
+blades of new grown corn. In the place where he had thrown the pieces of
+cob, he found pumpkin vines growing in great luxuriance. He concealed
+this discovery also, carefully from the young lads, and after his return
+busied himself as usual, in watching the movements of his enemies along
+the coasts of the island. This he continued, till summer drew near its
+close. He then directed his canoe to the coast of that part of the
+island where he had wrestled with the Red Plume, drew up his canoe, bid
+the lads stay by it, and again visited his wrestling ground. He found
+the corn in full ear, and pumpkins of an immense size. He plucked ears
+of corn, and gathered some of the pumpkins, when a voice again addressed
+him from the cornfield. "Masswäwëinini, you have conquered me. Had you
+not done so, your existence would have been forfeited. Victory has
+crowned your strength, and from henceforth you shall never be in want of
+my body. It will be nourishment for the human race." Thus his ancestors
+received the gift of corn.
+
+Masswäwëinini now returned to his canoe, and informed the young men of
+his discovery, and showed them specimens. They were astonished and
+delighted with the novelty.
+
+There were, in those days, many wonderful things done on these islands.
+One night, while Masswäwëinini was lying down, he heard voices speaking,
+but he still kept his head covered, as if he had not heard them. One
+voice said, "This is Masswäwëinini, and we must get his heart." "In what
+way can we get it?" said another voice. "You must put your hand in his
+mouth," replied the first voice, "and draw it out that way."
+Masswäwëinini still kept quiet, and did not stir. He soon felt the hand
+of a person thrust in his mouth. When sufficiently far in, he bit off
+the fingers, and thus escaped the danger. The voices then retired, and
+he was no further molested. On examining the fingers in the morning,
+what was his surprise to find them long wampum beads, which are held in
+such high estimation by all the Indian tribes. He had slept, as was his
+custom, in the thick woods. On going out to the open shore, at a very
+early hour, he saw a canoe at a small distance, temporarily drawn up on
+the beach; on coming closer, he found a man in the bows and another in
+the stern, with their arms and hands extended in a fixed position. One
+of them had lost its fingers: it was evidently the man who had attempted
+to thrust his arm down his throat. They were two Pukwudjininees, or
+fairies. But on looking closer, they were found to be transformed into
+statues of stone. He took these stone images on shore, and set them up
+in the woods.
+
+Their canoe was one of the most beautiful structures which it is
+possible to imagine, four fathoms in length, and filled with bags of
+treasures of every description and of the most exquisite workmanship.
+These bags were of different weight, according to their contents. He
+busied himself in quickly carrying them into the woods, together with
+the canoe, which he concealed in a cave. One of the fairy images then
+spoke to him and said: "In this manner, the Ottowa canoes will hereafter
+be loaded, when they pass along this coast, although your nation are
+driven away by their cruel enemies the Iroquois." The day now began to
+dawn fully, when he returned to his two young companions, who were still
+asleep. He awoke them, and exultingly bid them cook, for he had brought
+abundance of meat and fish, and other viands, the gifts of the fairies.
+
+After this display of good fortune, he bethought him of his aged father
+and mother, who were in exile at the Ottowa lake. To wish, and to
+accomplish his wish, were but the work of an instant with Masswäwëinini.
+
+One night as he lay awake, reflecting on their condition, far away from
+their native fields, and in exile, he resolved to visit them, and bring
+them back to behold and to participate in his abundance. To a common
+traveller, it would be a journey of twenty or thirty days, but
+Masswäwëinini was at their lodge before daylight. He found them asleep,
+and took them up softly in his arms and flew away with them through the
+air, and brought them to his camp on the Manatolines, or Spirit's
+Islands. When they awoke, their astonishment was at its highest pitch;
+and was only equalled by their delight in finding themselves in their
+son's lodge, in their native country, and surrounded with abundance.
+
+Masswäwëinini went and built them a lodge, near the corn and wrestling
+plain. He then plucked some ears of the corn, and taking some of the
+pumpkins, brought them to his father and mother. He then told them how
+he had obtained the precious gift, by wrestling with a spirit in red
+plumes, and that there was a great abundance of it in his fields. He
+also told them of the precious canoe of the fairies, loaded with sacks
+of the most costly and valuable articles. But one thing seemed necessary
+to complete the happiness of his father, which he observed by seeing him
+repeatedly at night looking into his smoking pouch. He comprehended his
+meaning in a moment. "It is tobacco, my father, that you want. You shall
+also have this comfort in two days." "But where," replied the old man,
+"can you get it--away from all supplies, and surrounded by your
+enemies?" "My enemies," he answered, "shall supply it--I will go over to
+the Nadowas of the Bear totem, living at Penetanguishine."
+
+The old man endeavored to dissuade him from the journey, knowing their
+blood-thirsty character, but in vain. Masswäwëinini determined
+immediately to go. It was now winter weather, the lake was frozen over,
+but he set out on the ice, and although it is forty leagues, he reached
+Penetanguishine the same evening. The Nadowas discerned him coming--they
+were amazed at the swiftness of his motions, and thinking him somewhat
+supernatural, feared him, and invited him to rest in their lodges, but
+he thanked them, saying that he preferred making a fire near the shore.
+In the evening they visited him, and were anxious to know the object of
+his journey, at so inclement a season. He said it was merely to get some
+tobacco for his father. They immediately made a contribution of the
+article and gave it to him. During the night they however laid a plot to
+kill him. Some of the old men rushed into his lodge, their leader crying
+out to him, "You are a dead man." "No, I am not," said Masswäwëinini,
+"but you are," accompanying his words with a blow of his tomahawk, which
+laid the Nadowa dead at his feet. Another and another came, to supply
+the place of their fallen comrade, but he despatched them in like
+manner, as quickly as they came, until he had killed six. He then took
+all the tobacco from their smoking pouches. By this time, the day began
+to dawn, when he set out for his father's lodge, which he reached with
+incredible speed, and before twilight, spread out his trophies before
+the old man.
+
+When spring returned, his cornfield grew up, without planting, or any
+care on his part, and thus the _maize_ was introduced among his people
+and their descendants, who have ever been noted, and are at this day,
+for their fine crops of this grain, and their industry in its
+cultivation. It is from their custom of trading in this article, that
+this tribe are called Ottowas.
+
+
+
+
+CORN-PLANTING, AND ITS INCIDENTS.
+
+
+The zea, mais, originally furnished the principal article of subsistence
+among all the tribes of this race, north and south. It laid at the
+foundation of the Mexican and Peruvian types of civilization, as well as
+the incipient gleamings of it, among the more warlike tribes of the
+Iroquois, Natchez, Lenapees, and others, of northern latitudes. They
+esteem it so important and divine a grain, that their story-tellers
+invented various tales, in which this idea is symbolized under the form
+of a special gift from the Great Spirit. The Odjibwa-Algonquins, who
+call it Mon-dá-min, that is, the Spirit's grain or berry, have a pretty
+story of this kind, in which the stalk in full tassel, is represented as
+descending from the sky, under the guise of a handsome youth, in answer
+to the prayers of a young man at his fast of virility, or coming to
+manhood.
+
+It is well known that corn-planting, and corn-gathering, at least among
+all the still _uncolonized_ tribes, are left entirely to the females and
+children, and a few superannuated old men. It is not generally known,
+perhaps, that this labour is not compulsory, and that it is assumed by
+the females as a just equivalent, in their view, for the onerous and
+continuous labour of the other sex, in providing meats, and skins for
+clothing, by the chase, and in defending their villages against their
+enemies, and keeping intruders off their territories. A good Indian
+housewife deems this a part of her prerogative, and prides herself to
+have a store of corn to exercise her hospitality, or duly honour her
+husband's hospitality, in the entertainment of the lodge guests.
+
+The area of ground planted is not, comparitively, large. This matter is
+essentially regulated by the number of the family, and other
+circumstances. Spring is a leisure season with them, and by its genial
+and reviving influence, invites to labour. An Indian female has no cows
+to milk, no flax to spin, no yarn to reel. Even those labours, which, at
+other seasons fall to her share, are now intermitted. She has apukwas to
+gather to make mats. Sugar-making has ended. She has no skins to dress,
+for the hunt has ended, the animals being out of season. It is at this
+time that the pelt grows bad, the hair becomes loose and falls off, and
+nature itself teaches the hunter, that the species must have repose, and
+be allowed a little time to replenish. Under these circumstances the
+mistress of the lodge and her train, sally out of the lodge into the
+corn-field, and with the light pemidge-ag akwut, or small hoe, open up
+the soft ground and deposit their treasured mondamin.
+
+The Indian is emphatically a superstitious being, believing in all sorts
+of magical, and secret, and wonderful influences. Woman, herself, comes
+in for no small share of these supposed influences. I shrewdly suspect
+that one half of the credit we have been in the habit of giving the
+warrior, on the score of virtue, in his treatment of captives, is due
+alone to his superstitions. He is afraid, at all times, to spoil his
+luck, cross his fate, and do some untoward act, by which he might,
+perchance, fall under a bad spiritual influence.
+
+To the wéwun, or wife--the equá, or woman, to the guh or mother,--to the
+equázas, or girl, and to the dánis, or daughter, and shéma, or sister,
+he looks, as wielding, in their several capacities, whether kindred or
+not, these mystic influences over his luck. In consequence of this, the
+female never walks in the path before him. It is an unpropitious sign.
+If she cross his track, when he is about to set out on a hunting, or war
+excursion, his luck is gone. If she is ill, from natural causes, she
+cannot even stay in the same wigwam. She cannot use a cup or a bowl
+without rendering it, in his view, unclean.
+
+A singular proof of this belief, in both sexes, of the mysterious
+influence of the steps of a woman on the vegetable and insect creation,
+is found in an ancient custom, which was related to me, respecting
+corn-planting. It was the practice of the hunter's wife, when the field
+of corn had been planted, to choose the first dark or overclouded
+evening, to perform a secret circuit, sans habilement, around the field.
+For this purpose she slipt out of the lodge in the evening, unobserved,
+to some obscure nook, where she completely disrobed. Then taking her
+matchecota, or principal garment in one hand, she dragged it around the
+field. This was thought to ensure a prolific crop, and to prevent the
+assaults of insects and worms upon the grain. It was supposed they could
+not creep over the charmed line.
+
+But if corn-planting be done in a lively and satisfied, and not a
+slavish spirit, corn-gathering and husking is a season of decided
+thankfulness and merriment. At these gatherings, the chiefs and old men
+are mere spectators, although they are pleased spectators, the young
+only sharing in the sport. Who has not seen, the sedate ogema in such a
+vicinage, smoking a dignified pipe with senatorial ease. On the other
+hand, turning to the group of nature's red daughters and their young
+cohorts, it may be safely affirmed that laughter and garrulity
+constitute no part of the characteristics of civilization. Whatever else
+custom has bound fast, in the domestic female circle of forest life, the
+tongue is left loose. Nor does it require, our observation leads us to
+think, one tenth part of the wit or drollery of ancient Athens, to set
+their risible faculties in motion.
+
+If one of the young female huskers finds a _red_ ear of corn, it is
+typical of a brave admirer, and is regarded as a fitting present to some
+young warrior. But if the ear be _crooked_, and tapering to a point, no
+matter what colour, the whole circle is set in a roar, and _wa ge min_
+is the word shouted aloud. It is the symbol of a thief in the cornfield.
+It is considered as the image of an old man stooping as he enters the
+lot. Had the chisel of Praxitiles been employed to produce this image,
+it could not more vividly bring to the minds of the merry group, the
+idea of a pilferer of their favourite mondámin. Nor is there any doubt
+on these occasions, that the occurrence truly reveals the fact that the
+cornfield has actually been thus depredated on.
+
+The term wagemin, which unfolds all these ideas, and reveals, as by a
+talisman, all this information, is derived in part, from the tri-literal
+term Waweau, that which is bent or crooked. The termination in g, is the
+animate plural, and denotes not only that there is more than one object,
+but that the subject is noble or invested with the importance of
+animated beings. The last member of the compound, min, is a shortened
+sound of the generic meen, a grain, or berry. To make these coalesce,
+agreeably to the native laws of euphony, the short vowel i, is thrown
+in, between the verbal root and substantive, as a connective. The
+literal meaning of the term is, a mass, or crooked ear of grain; but the
+ear of corn so called, is a conventional type of a little old man
+pilfering ears of corn in a cornfield. It is in this manner, that a
+single word or term, in these curious languages, becomes the fruitful
+parent of many ideas. And we can thus perceive why it is that the word
+wagemin is alone competent to excite merriment in the husking circle.
+
+This term is taken as the basis of the cereal chorus or corn song, as
+sung by the northern Algonquin tribes. It is coupled with the phrase
+Paimosaid,--a permutative form of the Indian substantive made from the
+verb, pim-o-sa, to walk. Its literal meaning is, he who walks, or the
+walker; but the ideas conveyed by it, are, he who walks at night to
+pilfer corn. It offers, therefore, a kind of parallelism in expression,
+to the preceding term. The chorus is entirely composed of these two
+terms, variously repeated, and may be set down as follows:
+
+                    Wagemin,
+                    Wagemin,
+                    Paimosaid.
+                    Wagemin,
+                    Wagemin,
+                    Paimosaid.
+
+When this chant has been sung, there is a pause, during which some one
+who is expert in these things, and has a turn for the comic or ironic,
+utters a short speech, in the manner of a recitative, in which a
+peculiar intonation is given, and generally interrogates the supposed
+pilferer, as if he were present to answer questions, or accusations.
+There can be no pretence, that this recitative part of the song is
+always the same, at different times and places, or even that the same
+person should not vary his phraseology. On the contrary, it is often an
+object to vary it. It is a perfect improvisation, and it may be supposed
+that the native composer is always actuated by a desire to please, as
+much as possible by novelty. The whole object indeed is, to keep up the
+existing merriment, and excite fun and laughter.
+
+The following may be taken as one of these recitative songs, written
+out, on the plan of preserving the train of thought, and some of those
+peculiar interjections in which these languages so much abound. The
+chorus alone, it is to be observed, is fixed in its words and metre,
+however transposed or repeated, and, unlike an English song, precedes
+the stanza or narrative.
+
+CORN SONG.
+
+  Cereal chorus.            Wagemin! wagemin!
+                            Thief in the blade,
+                            Blight of the cornfield
+                                      Paimosaid.
+
+  Recitative. See you not traces, while pulling the leaf,
+              Plainly depicting the TAKER and thief?
+              See you not signs by the ring and the spot,
+              How the man crouched as he crept in the lot?
+              Is it not plain by this mark on the stalk,
+              That he was heavily bent in his walk?
+              Old man be nimble! the old should be good,
+              But thou art a cowardly thief of the wood.
+
+  Cereal Chorus.            Wagemin! wagemin!
+                            Thief in the blade,
+                            Blight of the cornfield
+                                      Paimosaid.
+
+  Recitative. Where, little TAKER of things not your own--
+              Where is your rattle, your drum, and your bone?
+              Surely a WALKER, so nimble of speed,
+              Surely he must be a Meta[13] indeed.
+              See how he stoops, as he breaks off the ear,
+              Nushka![14] he seems for a moment in fear;
+              Walker, be nimble--oh! walker be brief,
+              Hooh![15] it is plain the old man is the thief.
+
+  Cereal chorus.            Wagemin! wagemin!
+                            Thief in the blade,
+                            Blight of the cornfield
+                                      Paimosaid.
+
+  Recitative. Wabuma![16] corn-taker, why do you lag?
+              None but the stars see you--fill up your bag!
+              Why do you linger to gaze as you pull,
+              Tell me, my little man, is it most full?
+              A-tia![17] see, a red spot on the leaf,
+              Surely a warrior cannot be a thief!
+              Ah, little night-thief, be deer your pursuit,
+              And leave here no print of your dastardly foot
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+   [13] A Juggler.
+
+
+
+
+TO HEALTH.
+
+BY THE LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ.
+
+
+          Health! dearest of the heavenly powers,
+          With thee to pass my evening hours,
+              Ah! deign to hear my prayer;
+          For what can wealth or beauty give,
+          If still in anguish doomed to live
+              A slave to pain and care.
+
+          Not sovereign power, nor charms of love,
+          Nor social joys the heart can move,
+              If thou refuse thy aid;
+          E'en friendship, sympathy divine!
+          Does, in thy absence, faintly shine,
+              Thou all-inspiring maid.
+
+          Return then, to my longing soul,
+          Which sighs to feel thy sweet control
+              Transfused through every pore;
+          My muse, enraptured, then shall sing
+          Thee--gift of heaven's all bounteous king,
+              And gratefully adore.
+
+_February 4, 1807._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [14] A sharp exclamation quickly to behold something striking.
+
+  [15] A derogatory exclamation.
+
+  [16] Behold thou.
+
+  [17] A masculine exclamation, to express surprise.
+
+
+
+
+DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL MANNERS OF THE INDIANS, WHILE ON THEIR WINTERING
+GROUNDS.
+
+
+The Indian, who takes his position as an orator, in front of his people,
+and before a mixed assemblage of white men, is to be regarded, in a
+measure, as an actor, who has assumed a part to perform. He regards
+himself as occupying a position in which all eyes are directed upon him,
+in scrutiny, and he fortifies himself for the occasion, by redoubled
+efforts in cautiousness and studied stoicism. Rigid of muscle, and
+suspicious of mind by nature, he brings to his aid the advantages of
+practised art, to bear him out in speaking for his tribe, and to quit
+him manfully of his task by uttering sentiments worthy of them and of
+himself. This is the statue-like and artistic phasis of the man. It is
+here that he is, truly
+
+          "A man without a fear--a stoic of the wood."
+
+All this is laid aside, so far as it is assumed, when he returns from
+the presence of the "pale-faces," and rejoins his friends and kindred,
+in his own village, far away from all public gaze, in the deep recesses
+of the forest. Let us follow the man to this retreat, and see what are
+his domestic manners, habits, amusements, and opinions.
+
+I have myself visited an Indian camp, in the far-off area of the
+NORTHWEST, in the dead of winter, under circumstances suited to allay
+his suspicions, and inspire confidence, and have been struck with the
+marked change there is in his social temper, character, and feelings.
+And I have received the same testimony from Indian traders, who have
+spent years among them in these secluded positions, and been received by
+them as friends and kindred. All indeed, who have had frequent and full
+opportunities of witnessing the red man on his hunting grounds, concur
+in bearing evidence to his social, hospitable, and friendly habits and
+manners. Viewed in such positions, the most perfect sincerity and
+cheerfulness prevail; and their intercourse is marked with the broadest
+principles of charity and neighborly feeling. The restraint and ever
+watchful suspicion which they evince at the frontier post, or in other
+situations exposed to the scrutiny and cupidity of white men, is thrown
+aside and gives way to ease, sociability and pleasantry. They feel while
+thus ensconced in the shades of their native forests, a security unknown
+to their breasts in any other situations. The strife seems to be, who
+shall excel in offices of friendship and charity, or in spreading the
+festive board. If one is more fortunate than the other, in taking meat,
+or wielding the arrow or spear, the spoil is set apart for a feast, to
+which all the adults, without distinction, are invited. When the set
+time of the feast arrives, each one, according to ancient custom, takes
+his dish and spoon, and proceeds to the entertainer's lodge. The
+victuals are served up with scrupulous attention that each receives a
+portion of the best parts. While at the meal, which is prolonged by
+cheerful conversation, anecdote, and little narrations of personal
+adventure, the females are generally listeners; and none, except the
+aged, ever obtrude a remark. The young women and girls show that they
+partake in the festivity by smiles, and are scrupulous to evince their
+attention to the elder part of the company. Conversation is chiefly
+engrossed by the old men and chiefs, and middle-aged men. Young men, who
+are desirous to acquire a standing, seldom offer a remark, and when they
+_do_, it is with modesty. The topics discussed at these public meals
+relate generally to the _chace_, to the _news_ they have heard, or to
+personal occurrences about the village; or to deeds, "real or fabulous,"
+of "old lang syne;" but the matters are discussed in a lively, and not
+in a grave style. Business, if we may be allowed that term for what
+concerns their trade and government intercourse, is never introduced
+except in _formal councils_, convened specially, and opened formally by
+smoking the pipe. It seems to be the drift of conversation, in these
+sober festivities (for it must be recollected that we are speaking of
+the Indians on their wintering grounds and beyond the reach, certainly
+beyond the free or ordinary use of ardent spirits), to extract from
+their hunts and adventures, whatever will admit of a pleasant turn, draw
+forth a joke, or excite a laugh. Ridiculous misadventures, or comical
+situations, are sure to be applauded in the recital. Whatever is
+anti-social, or untoward, is passed over, or if referred to by another,
+is parried off, by some allusion to the scene before them.
+
+Religion (we use this term for what concerns the great spirit, sacred
+dreams, and the ceremonies of the Meda or medicine dance), like
+business, is reserved for its proper occasion. It does not form, as with
+us, a free topic of remark, at least among those who are professors of
+the dance. Thus they cheat away the hours in pleasantry, free, but not
+tumultuous in their mirth, but as ardently bent on the enjoyment of the
+present moment, as if the sum of life were contained in these three
+words, "eat, drink, and be merry." When the feast is over, the women
+return to their lodges, and leave the men to smoke. On their return,
+they commence a conversation on what they have heard the men advance,
+and thus amuse themselves till their husbands return. The end of all is
+generally some good advice to the children.
+
+The company in these ordinary feasts is as general, with respect to the
+rank, age or standing of the guests, as the most unlimited equality of
+rights can make it. All the aged and many of the young are invited.
+There is, however, another feast instituted, at certain times during
+the season, to which young persons only are invited, or admitted, except
+the entertainer and his wife, and generally two other aged persons, who
+preside over the feast and administer its rites. The object of this
+feast seems to be instruction, to which the young and thoughtless are
+induced to listen for the anticipated pleasure of the feast. Before this
+feast commences, the entertainer, or some person fluent in speech, whom
+he has selected for the purpose, gets up and addresses the youth of both
+sexes on the subject of their course through life. He admonishes them to
+be attentive and respectful to the aged and to adhere to their counsels:
+never to scoff at the decrepid, deformed, or blind: to obey their
+parents: to be modest in their conduct: to be charitable and hospitable:
+to fear and love the great Spirit, who is the giver of life and every
+good gift. These precepts are dwelt upon at great length, and generally
+enforced by examples of a good man and woman and a bad man and woman,
+and after drawing the latter, it is ever the custom to say, "you will be
+like one of these." At the end of every sentence, the listeners make a
+general cry of haá. When the advice is finished, an address, or kind of
+prayer to the great Spirit is made, in which he is thanked for the food
+before them, and for the continuance of life. The speaker then says,
+"Thus the great Spirit supplies us with food; act justly, and conduct
+well, and you will ever be thus bountifully supplied." The feast then
+commences, and the elders relax their manner and mix with the rest, but
+are still careful to preserve order, and a decent, respectful behavior
+among the guests.
+
+Let it not be supposed, however, that the Indian's life, while on his
+wintering grounds, is a round of feasting. Quite the contrary; and his
+feasts are often followed by long and painful fasts, and the severity of
+the seasons, and scarcity of game and fish, often reduce himself and
+family to the verge of starvation, and even death. When the failure of
+game, or any other causes, induce the hunter to remove to a new circle
+of country, the labor of the removal falls upon the female part of the
+family. The lodge, utensils and fixtures of every kind, are borne upon
+the women's backs, sustained by a strap of leather around the forehead.
+On reaching the intended place of encampment, the snow is cleared away,
+cedar branches brought and spread for a flooring, the lodge set up, the
+moveables stowed away, wood collected, and a fire built, and then, and
+not until then, can the females sit down and warm their feet and dry
+their moccasins. If there be any provisions, a supper is cooked. If
+there be none, all studiously strive to conceal the exhibition of the
+least concern on this account, and seek to divert their thoughts by
+conversation quite foreign to the subject. The little children are the
+only part of the family who complain, and who are privileged to
+complain, but even they are taught at an early age to suffer and be
+silent. Generally, something is reserved by the mother, when food
+becomes scarce, to satisfy their clamors, and they are satisfied with
+little. On such occasions, if the family have gone supperless to rest,
+the father and elder sons rise early in the morning in search of
+something. If one has the luck to kill even a partridge or a squirrel,
+it is immediately carried to the lodge, cooked, and divided into as many
+parts as there are members of the family. On these occasions, the elder
+ones often make a merit of relinquishing their portions to the women and
+children. If nothing rewards the search, the whole day is spent by the
+father upon his snow-shoes, with his gun in his hands, and he returns at
+night, fatigued, to his couch of cedar branches and rush mats. But he
+does not return to complain, either of his want of success, or his
+fatigue. On the following day the same routine is observed, and days and
+weeks are often thus consumed without being rewarded with anything
+capable of sustaining life. Instances have been well authenticated, when
+this state of wretchedness has been endured by the head of a family
+until he has become so weak as to fall in his path, and freeze to death.
+When all other means of sustaining life are gone, the skins he has
+collected to pay his credits, or purchase new supplies of clothing or
+ammunition, are eaten. They are prepared by removing the pelt, and
+roasting the skin until it acquires a certain degree of crispness. Under
+all their sufferings, the pipe of the hunter is his chief solace, and is
+a solace often resorted to. Smoking parties are frequently formed, when
+there is a scarcity of food not tending, as might be supposed, to
+destroy social feeling and render the temper sour. On these occasions
+the entertainer sends a message to this effect: "Come and smoke with me.
+I have no food; but we can pass away the evening very well without it."
+All acknowledge their lives to be in the hand of the great Spirit; feel
+a conviction that all comes from him, and that although he allows them
+to suffer, he will again supply them. This tends to quiet their
+apprehensions; they are fatalists, however, under long reverses, and
+submit patiently and silently to what they believe to be their destiny.
+When hunger and misery are past, they are soon forgotten, and their
+minds are too eagerly intent on the enjoyment of the present good, to
+feel any depression of spirits from the recollection of the past, or to
+hoard up anything to provide against want for the future. No people are
+more easy, or less clamorous under sufferings of the deepest dye, and
+none more happy, or more prone to evince their happiness, when
+prosperous in their affairs.
+
+October 29th, 1826.
+
+
+
+
+PUGASAING;
+
+OR,
+
+THE GAME OF THE BOWL.
+
+
+This is the principal game of hazard among the northern tribes. It is
+played with thirteen pieces, hustled in a vessel called onágun, which is
+a kind of wooden bowl. They are represented, and named, as follows.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The pieces marked No. 1, in this cut, of which there are two, are called
+Ininewug, or men. They are made tapering, or wedge-shaped in thickness,
+so as to make it possible, in throwing them, that they may stand on
+their base. Number 2, is called Gitshee Kenabik, or the Great Serpent.
+It consists of two pieces, one of which is fin-tailed, or a
+water-serpent, the other truncated, and is probably designed as
+terrestrial. They are formed wedge-shaped, so as to be capable of
+standing on their bases length-wise. Each has four dots. Number 3, is
+called Pugamágun, or the war club. It has six marks on the handle, on
+the _red side_, and four radiating from the orifice of the club end; and
+four marks on the handle of the _white side_; and six radiating marks
+from the orifice on the club-end, making ten on each side. Number 4 is
+called Keego, which is the generic name for a fish. The four circular
+pieces of brass, slightly concave, with a flat surface on the apex, are
+called Ozawábiks. The three bird-shaped pieces, Sheshebwug, or ducks.
+
+All but the circular pieces are made out of a fine kind of bone. One
+side of the piece is white, of the natural colour of the bones, and
+polished, the other red. The brass pieces have the convex side bright,
+the concave black. They are all shaken together, and thrown out of the
+onágun, as dice. The term pugasaing denotes this act of throwing. It is
+the participial form of the verb.--The following rules govern the game:
+
+1. When the pieces are turned on the red side, and one of the Ininewugs
+stands upright on the bright side of one of the brass pieces, it counts
+158.
+
+2. When all the pieces turn red side up, and the Gitshee Kenabik with
+the tail stands on the bright side of the brass piece, it counts 138.
+
+3. When all turn up red, it counts 58 whether the brass pieces be bright
+or black side up.
+
+4. When the Gitshee Kenabik and his associate, and the two Ininewugs
+turn up white side, and the other pieces red, it counts 58, irrespective
+of the concave or convex position of the brass pieces.
+
+5. When all the pieces turn up white, it counts 38, whether the
+Ozawábiks, be bright or black.
+
+6. When the Gitshee Kenabik and his associate turn up red, and the other
+white, it counts 38, the brass pieces immaterial.
+
+7. When one of the Ininewugs stands up, it counts 50, without regard to
+the position of all the rest.
+
+8. When either of the Gitshee Kenabiks stands upright, it counts 40,
+irrespective of the position of the others.
+
+9. When all the pieces turn up white, excepting one, and the Ozawábiks
+dark, it counts 20.
+
+10. When all turn up red, except one, and the brass pieces bright, it
+counts 15.
+
+11. When the whole of the pieces turn up white, but one, with the
+Ozawábiks bright, it counts 10.
+
+12. When a brass piece turns up dark, the two Gitshee Kenabiks and the
+two men red, and the remaining pieces white, it counts 8.
+
+13. When the brass piece turns up bright, the two Gitshee Kenabiks and
+one of the men red, and all the rest white, it is 6.
+
+14. When the Gitshee Kenabik in chief, and one of the men turn up red,
+the Ozawábiks, bright, and all the others white, it is 4.
+
+15. When both the Kenabiks, and both men, and the three ducks, turn up
+red, the brass piece black, and either the Keego, or a duck white, it is
+5.
+
+16. When all the pieces turn up red, but one of the Ininewugs, and the
+brass piece black, it counts 2.
+
+The limit of the game is stipulated. The parties throw up for the play.
+
+This game is very fascinating to some portions of the Indians. They
+stake at it their ornaments, weapons, clothing, canoes, horses, every
+thing in fact they possess; and have been known, it is said, to set up
+their wives and children, and even to forfeit their own liberty. Of such
+desperate stakes, I have seen no examples, nor do I think the game
+itself in common use. It is rather confined to certain persons, who hold
+the relative rank of gamblers in Indian society--men who are not noted
+as hunters or warriors, or steady providers for their families. Among
+these are persons who bear the term of Ienadizze-wug, that is, wanderers
+about the country, braggadocios, or fops. It can hardly be classed with
+the popular games of amusement, by which skill and dexterity are
+acquired. I have generally found the chiefs and graver men of the
+tribes, who encouraged the young men to play ball, and are sure to be
+present at the customary sports, to witness, and sanction, and applaud
+them, speak lightly and disparagingly of this game of hazard. Yet, it
+cannot be denied, that some of the chiefs, distinguished in war and the
+chase, at the west, can be referred to, as lending their example to its
+fascinating power.
+
+An analysis of this game, to show its arithmetical principles and
+powers, might be gone into; but it is no part of the present design to
+take up such considerations here, far less to pursue the comparison and
+extension of customs of this kind among the modern western tribes. It
+may be sufficient to say, from the foregoing rules, that there seems to
+be no _unit_ in the throw, and that the count proceeds by _decimals_,
+for all numbers over 8. Doubtless these rules, are but a part of the
+whole series, known to experienced players. They comprise, however, all
+that have been revealed to me.
+
+          "Gambling is not peculiar to our race,
+          The Indian gambles with as fixed a face."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Herodotus says of the ancient Thracians--that "the most honourable life,
+with them, is a life of war and plunder; the most contemptible that of a
+husbandman. Their supreme delight is war and plunder." Who might not
+suppose, were the name withheld, that this had been said by some modern
+writer of the Pawnees, or the Camanches?
+
+
+
+
+REVERENCE AND AFFECTION FOR PARENTS.
+
+
+There lived a noted chief at Michilimackinac, in days past, called
+Gitshe Naygow, or the Great-Sand-Dune, a name, or rather nick-name,
+which he had, probably, derived from his birth and early residence at a
+spot of very imposing appearance, so called, on the southern shore of
+Lake Superior, which is east of the range of the Pictured Rocks. He was
+a Chippewa, a warrior and a counsellor, of that tribe, and had mingled
+freely in the stirring scenes of war and border foray, which marked the
+closing years of French domination in the Canadas. He lived to be very
+old, and became so feeble at last, that he could not travel by land,
+when Spring came on and his people prepared to move their lodges, from
+their sugar-camp in the forest, to the open lake shore. They were then
+inland, on the waters of the Manistee river, a stream which enters the
+northern shores of Lake Michigan. It was his last winter on earth; his
+heart was gladdened by once more feeling the genial rays of Spring, and
+he desired to go with them, to behold, for the last time, the expanded
+lake and inhale its pure breezes. He must needs be conveyed by hand.
+This act of piety was performed by his daughter, then a young woman. She
+carried him on her back from their camp to the lake shore, where they
+erected their lodge and passed their spring, and where he eventually
+died and was buried.
+
+This relation I had from her own lips, at the agency of Michilimackinac,
+in 1833. I asked her how she had carried him. She replied, with the
+Indian apekun, or head-strap. When tired she rested, and again pursued
+her way, on-wa-be-win by on-wa-be-win, or rest by rest, in the manner
+practised in carrying heavy packages over the portages. Her name was
+Nadowákwa, or the female Iroquois. She was then, perhaps, about
+fifty-five years of age, and the wife of a chief called Saganosh, whose
+home and jurisdiction were in the group of the St. Martin's Islands,
+north of Michilimackinac.
+
+The incident was not voluntarily told, but came out, incidentally, in
+some inquiries I was making respecting historical events, in the
+vicinity. One such incident goes far to vindicate the affections of this
+people, and should teach us, that they are of the same general lineage
+with ourselves, and only require letters and Christianity, to exalt them
+in the scale of being.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first words of men, says Harris in his Hermes, like their first
+ideas, had an immediate reference to sensible objects; in after days,
+when they began to discern with their intellect, they took those words
+which they found already made, and transferred them by metaphor, to
+intellectual conceptions.
+
+
+
+
+ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH.
+
+
+Many persons among the Indian race, have attracted notice from their
+exploits on the war-path. Andaig Weos was not among the number of these,
+or if he had mingled in such events, his deeds of daring are now lost
+amid the remembrance of better qualities. He was a chief of the once
+prominent and reigning band of Odjibwa Algonquins, who are called
+Chippewas, located at Chegoimgon, on Lake Superior, where his name is
+cherished in local tradition, for the noble and disinterested deeds
+which he performed in former days. He lived in the latter part of the
+18th century.
+
+It was perhaps forty years ago--said my informant, it was while the late
+Mr. Nolin, of Sault Ste. Maries was a trader in the Chippewa country,
+between lake Superior and the Mississippi, that he wintered one year low
+down on the Chippewa river. On his way down this stream, and while he
+was still on one of its sources, cold weather set in suddenly, the ice
+formed, and he was unable to get on with his goods. He consequently put
+them en cache, according to the custom of the country, and proceeded on
+foot, with his men to the lower part of the river, to the spot at which
+he had determined to winter. Here he felled trees, and built his house,
+and having made all things ready, he set out with his men on his return
+to his _cache_, in order to bring down his goods.
+
+On the way he fell in with an Indian hunter and his wife, who followed
+him to the place where he had secreted his goods. On reaching this, he
+filled a bottle with spirits and gave a glass to each of his men, took
+one himself, and then filling the glass presented it to the Indian. This
+was done after the camp had been made for the night. It so happened that
+the Indian was taken suddenly ill that night, and before day light died.
+Nolin and his men buried him, and then proceeded back to his wintering
+house below, each man carrying a pack of goods; and the widow rejoined
+her friends.
+
+After the Indians had taken their credits, and dispersed to their
+several wintering grounds, it was rumoured amongst them, that the trader
+had administered poison to the Indian who died so suddenly after taking
+the glass of spirits. And this opinion gained ground, although the widow
+woman repeatedly told the Indians, that the liquor given to her deceased
+husband was from the same bottle and glass, that all the French people
+had drank from. But it was of no avail; the rumour grew, and Mr. Nolin
+began to be apprehensive, as he had already learnt that the Indians
+meant to kill him. To confirm this suspicion a party of forty men, soon
+after, entered his house, all armed, painted black, and with war dresses
+on. They were all presented with a piece of tobacco, as was customary,
+when each of them threw it into the fire. No alternative now appeared to
+remain to avert the blow, which he was convinced must soon follow.
+Almost at the same instant, his men intimated that another party, of six
+men more, were arriving.
+
+It proved to be the chief Andaig Weos, from near Lac du Flambeau, in
+search of a trader, for a supply of tobacco and ammunition. On entering,
+the chief eyed the warriors, and asked Mr. N. whether he had given them
+tobacco. He replied that he _had_, and that they had all, to a man,
+thrown it in the fire, and, he added, that they intended to kill him.
+The chief asked for some tobacco, which he threw down before the
+warriors, telling them to smoke it, adding in an authoritive voice, that
+when Indians visited traders, it was with an intention of getting
+tobacco from them to _smoke_ and not to _throw into the fire_; and
+that, for his part, he had been a long time without smoking, and was
+very happy to find a trader to supply him with that article. This
+present from him, with the rebuke, was received with silent
+acquiescence,--no one venturing a reply.
+
+The chief next demanded liquor of the trader, saying, "that he intended
+to make them drink." The politic Frenchman remonstrated, saying, "that
+if this was done, he should surely be killed." "Fear not, Frenchman,"
+replied the chief, boldly. "These are not _men_ who want to kill you:
+they are _children_. I, and my warriors will guard you." On these
+assurances, a keg of liquor was given, but with the greatest reluctance.
+The chief immediately presented it to the war-party, but cautioned them
+to drink it at a distance, and not to come nigh the trader during the
+night. They obeyed him. They took it a short distance and drank it, and
+kept up a dreadful yelling all night, but did not molest the house.
+
+The next morning Andaig Weos demanded tobacco of the still uneasy
+_marchand voyageur_, and ordered one of his young men to distribute it
+to the Indians in the war-dress. He then rose and addressed them in an
+energetic and authoritative speech, telling them to march off, without
+tasting food; that they were _warriors_, and needed not any thing of the
+kind; and if they did, they were _hunters_,--they had guns, and might
+hunt, and kill and eat. "You get nothing more here," he added. "This
+trader has come here to supply your wants, and you seek to kill him--a
+poor reward for the trouble and the anxiety he has undergone! This is no
+way of requiting white people." They all, to a man started, and went
+off, and gave the trader no farther molestation while he remained in the
+country.
+
+On another occasion Andaig Weos was placed in a situation which afforded
+a very different species of testimony to his principles and integrity. A
+French trader had entered lake Superior so late in the season, that with
+every effort, he could get no farther than _Pointe La Petite Fille_,
+before the ice arrested his progress. Here he was obliged to build his
+wintering house, but he soon ran short of provisions, and was obliged to
+visit La Pointe, with his men, in order to obtain fish--leaving his
+house and store-room locked, with his goods, ammunition, and liquors,
+and resolving to return immediately. But the weather came on so bad,
+that there was no possibility of his immediate return, and the winter
+proved so unfavourable that he was obliged to spend two months at that
+post.
+
+During this time, the chief Andaig Weos, with fifteen of his men, came
+out from the interior, to the shores of the lake, for the purpose of
+trading, each carrying a pack of beaver, or other furs. On arriving at
+the point La Petite Fille, they found the trader's house locked and no
+one there. The chief said to his followers.--It is customary for traders
+to invite Indians into their house, and to receive them politely; but as
+there is no one to receive us, we must act according to circumstances.
+He then ordered the door to be opened, with as little injury as
+possible, walked in, with his party, and caused a good fire to be built
+in the chimney. On opening the store-door he found they could be
+supplied with all they wanted. He told his party, on no account to
+touch, or take away any thing, but shut up the door, and said, "that he
+would, on the morrow, act the trader's part."
+
+They spent the night in the house. Early the next morning, he arose and
+addressed them, telling them, that he would now commence trading with
+them. This he accordingly did, and when all was finished, he carefully
+packed the furs, and piled the packs, and covered them with an oilcloth.
+He then again addressed them, saying that it was customary for a trader
+to give tobacco and a keg of spirits, when Indians had traded
+handsomely. He, therefore, thought himself authorized to observe this
+rule, and accordingly gave a keg of spirits and some tobacco. "The
+spirits," he said, "must not be drank here. We must take it to our
+hunting camp," and gave orders for returning immediately. He then caused
+the doors to be shut, in the best manner possible, and the outer door to
+be barricaded with logs, and departed.
+
+When the trader returned, and found his house had been broken open, he
+began to bewail his fate, being sure he had been robbed; but on entering
+his store-room and beholding the furs, his fears were turned to joy. On
+examining his inventory, and comparing it with the amount of his furs,
+he declared, that had he been present, he could not have traded to
+better advantage, nor have made such a profit on his goods.
+
+These traits are not solitary and accidental. It happened at another
+time, that a Mr. Lamotte, who had wintered in the Folle-avoine country,
+unfortunately had a quarrel with the Indians, at the close of the
+season, just when he was about to embark on his return with his furs. In
+the heat of their passion the Indians broke all his canoes in pieces,
+and confined him a prisoner, by ordering him to encamp on an island in
+the St. Croix river.
+
+In this situation he remained, closely watched by the Indians, till all
+the _other_ traders had departed and gone out of the country to renew
+their supplies, when the chief Andaig Weos arrived. He comprehended the
+case in an instant, and having found that the matter of offence was one
+of no importance, he immediately went to the Indian village, and in a
+loud and authoritative tone of voice, so as to be heard by all,
+commanded suitable canoes to be taken to the imprisoned trader--a
+summons which was promptly obeyed. He then went to Mr. Lamotte and told
+him to embark fearlessly, and that he himself would see that he was not
+further hindered, at the same time lamenting the lateness of his return.
+
+The general conduct of this chief was marked by kindness and urbanity.
+When traders arrived at Chagoimegon, where he lived, it was his custom
+to order his young men to cover and protect their baggage lest any thing
+should be injured or stolen. He was of the lineage of the noted
+war-chief, Abojeeg, or Wab Ojeeg. He lived to be very old, so that he
+walked nearly bent double--using a cane. The present ruling chief of
+that place, called Pezhickee, is his grandson. These anecdotes were
+related by Mr. Cadotte, of Lapointe, in the year 1829, and are believed
+to be entitled to full confidence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Tartars cannot pronounce the letter _b_. Those of Bulgaria pronounce
+the word _blacks_ as if written _ilacs_. It is noticeable, that the
+Odjibwas and their cognate tribes at the north, not only make great use
+of the letter b, in native words, but when they come to pronounce
+English words, in which the letter v occurs, they invariably substitute
+the b for it, as in village, and vinegar.
+
+There are three letters in the English alphabet which the above tribes
+do not pronounce. They are f, r, and l. For f, they substitute, in their
+attempts to pronounce foreign words, p. The sound of r, they change to
+broad a, or drop. L is changed to n.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Singing and dancing are applied to political and to religious purposes
+by the Indians. When they wish to raise a war-party, they meet to sing
+and dance: when they wish to supplicate the divine mercy on a sick
+person, they assemble in a lodge, to sing and dance. No grave act is
+performed without singing and dancing.
+
+
+
+
+ORIGIN
+
+AND
+
+HISTORY OF THE RACE.
+
+
+
+
+WYANDOT TRADITIONS OF THE CREATION, AND OTHER EPOCHS.
+
+
+The following traditions of the creation of man, and of the Red Race; of
+the order of precedence and relationship among the tribes, and the
+notice of the first arrival of Europeans on the continent, together with
+the allegories of Good and Evil, and of Civilization, and Barbarism, are
+extracted from a private journal, kept during the period of my official
+intercourse with the various tribes.
+
+                              Superintendency Indian Affairs,
+                                     Detroit, January 30th, 1837.
+
+A delegation of three Wyandot chiefs visited me, this day, from their
+location near Amherstburg in Canada, with their interpreter, George C.
+Martin. Their names were O-ri-wa-hen-to, or Charlo, On-ha-to-tun-youh,
+or Round Head, son of Round Head, the brother of Splitlog, and
+Ty-er-on-youh, or Thomas Clark. They informed me, in reply to a
+question, that the present population of their band, at that location,
+was eighty-six souls. After transacting their business, I proposed
+several questions to them respecting their origin and history.
+
+1. What is the origin of the Indians? We believe that all men sprang
+from one man and woman, who were made by God, in parts beyond the sea.
+But in speaking of the Indians we say, how did they cross the sea
+without ships? and when did they come? and from what country? What is
+your opinion on the subject?
+
+Oriwahento answered: "The old chief, Splitlog, who could answer you, is
+not able to come to see you from his age and feebleness; but he has sent
+us three to speak with you. We will do the best we can. We are not able
+to read and write, like white men, and what you ask is not therefore to
+be found in black and white." (This remark was probably made as they
+observed I took notes of the interview.)
+
+"There was, in ancient times, something the matter with the earth. It
+has changed. We think so. We believe God created it, and made men out of
+it, We think he made the Indians in this country, and that they did not
+come over the sea. They were created at a place called MOUNTAINS. It
+was eastward. When he had made the earth and those mountains, he covered
+something over the earth, as it were, with his hand. Below this, he put
+man. All the different tribes were there. One of the young men found his
+way out to the surface. He saw a great light, and was delighted with the
+beauty of the surface. While gazing around, he saw a deer running past,
+with an arrow in his side. He followed it, to the place where it fell
+and died. He thought it was a harmless looking animal. He looked back to
+see its tracks, and he soon saw other tracks. They were the foot prints
+of the person who had shot the deer. He soon came up. It was the creator
+himself. He had taken this method to show the Indians what they must do,
+when they came out from the earth. The creator showed him how to skin
+and dress the animal, bidding him do so and so, as he directed him. When
+the flesh was ready, he told him to make a fire. But he was perfectly
+ignorant. God made the fire. He then directed him to put a portion of
+the meat on a stick, and roast it before the fire. But he was so
+ignorant that he let it stand till it burned on one side, while the
+other was raw.
+
+"Having taught this man the hunter's art, so that he could teach it to
+others, God called the Indians forth out of the earth. They came in
+order, by tribes, and to each tribe he appointed a chief. He appointed
+one Head Chief to lead them all, who had something about his neck, and
+he instructed him, and put it into his head what to say to the tribes.
+That he might have an opportunity to do so, a certain animal was killed,
+and a feast made, in which they were told to eat it all. The leader God
+had so chosen, told the tribes what they must do, to please their maker,
+and what they must not do."
+
+Oriwahento further said: God also made Good and Evil. They were
+brothers. The one went forth to do good, and caused pleasant things to
+grow. The other busied himself in thwarting his brother's work. He made
+stony and flinty places, and caused bad fruits, and made continual
+mischief among men. Good repaired the mischief as fast as it was done,
+but he found his labour never done. He determined to fly upon his
+brother and destroy him, but not by violence. He proposed to run a race
+with him. Evil consented, and they fixed upon the place. But first tell
+me, said Good, what is it you most dread. Bucks horns! replied he, and
+tell me what is most hurtful to you. Indian grass braid! said Good. Evil
+immediately went to his grandmother, who made braid, and got large
+quantities of it, which he put in the path and hung on the limbs that
+grew by the path where Good was to run. Good also filled the path of his
+brother with the dreaded horns. A question arose who should run first.
+I, said Good, will begin, since the proposition to try our skill first
+came from me. He accordingly set out, his brother following him. But as
+he began to feel exhausted at noon, he took up the grass braid and eat
+it. This sustained him, and he tired down his brother before night, who
+entreated him to stop. He did not, however, cease, till he had
+successfully reached the goal.
+
+The next day Evil started on his path. He was encountered every where by
+the horns, which before noon had greatly weakened him. He entreated to
+be relieved from going on. Good insisted on his running the course. He
+sustained himself 'till sunset, when he fell in the path, and was
+finally dispatched by one of the horns wielded by his brother.
+
+Good now returned in triumph to his grandmother's lodge. But she was in
+an ill humour, as she always was, and hated him and loved his brother
+whom he had killed. He wanted to rest, but at night was awoke by a
+conversation between her and the ghost of Evil. The latter pleaded to
+come in, but although he felt for him, he did not allow his fraternal
+feelings to get the better, and resolutely denied admission. Then said
+Evil "I go to the north-west, and you will never see me more, and all
+who follow me will be in the same state. They will never come back.
+Death will for ever keep them."
+
+Having thus rid himself of his adversary, he thought he would walk out
+and see how things were going on, since there was no one to oppose his
+doing good. After travelling some time he saw a living object a-head. As
+he drew nearer, he saw more plainly. It was a naked man. They began to
+talk to each other. "I am walking to see the creation, which I have
+made," said Good, "but who are you?" "Clothed man," said he, "I am as
+powerful as you, and have made all that land you see." "Naked man," he
+replied, "I have made all things, but do not recollect making you." "You
+shall see my power," said the naked man, "we will try strength. Call to
+yonder mountain to come here, and afterwards I will do the same, and we
+will see who has the greatest power." The clothed man fell down on his
+knees, and began to pray, but the effort did not succeed, or but
+partially. Then the naked man drew a rattle from his belt, and began to
+shake it and mutter, having first blindfolded the other. After a time,
+now said he, "look!" He did so, and the mountain stood close before him,
+and rose up to the clouds. He then blindfolded him again, and resumed
+his rattle and muttering. The mountain had resumed its former distant
+position.
+
+The clothed man held in his left hand a sword, and in his right hand the
+law of God. The naked man had a rattle in one hand, and a war club in
+the other. They exchanged the knowledge of the respective uses of these
+things. To show the power of the sword, the clothed man cut off a rod,
+and placed it before him. The naked man immediately put the parts
+together and they were healed. He then took his club, which was flat,
+and cut off the rod, and again healed the mutilated parts. He relied on
+the rattle to answer the same purpose as the other's book. The clothed
+man tried the use of the club, but could not use it with skill, while
+the naked man took the sword and used it as well as the other.
+
+Oriwahento continued:--It is said that Evil killed his mother at his
+birth. He did not enter the world the right way, but bursted from the
+womb. They took the body of the mother and laid it upon a scaffold. From
+the droppings of her decay, where they fell on the ground, sprang up
+corn, tobacco, and such other vegetable productions as the Indians have.
+Hence we call corn, our mother. And our tobacco propagates itself by
+spontaneous growth, without planting; but the clothed man is required to
+labour in raising it.
+
+Good found his grandmother in no better humor when he came back from the
+interview with the naked man. He therefore took and cast her up, and she
+flew against the moon, upon whose face the traces of her are still to be
+seen.
+
+This comprised the first interview; after a recess during which they
+were permitted to refresh themselves and smoke their pipes, I returned
+to the office and resumed the inquiries.
+
+2. Where did your tribe first see white men on this continent? The
+French say you lived on the St. Lawrence, and afterwards went to the
+north, from whence you afterwards came down to the vicinity of Detroit.
+That you possess the privilege of lighting up the general council fire
+for the Lake tribes; and that you were converted to the catholic faith.
+Oriwahento again answered.
+
+When the tribes were all settled, the Wyandots were placed at the head.
+They lived in the interior, at the mountains east, about the St.
+Lawrence. They were the first tribe of old, and had the first
+chieftainship. The chief said to their nephew, the Lenapees, Go down to
+the sea coast and look, and if you see any thing bring me word. They had
+a village near the sea side, and often looked, but saw nothing except
+birds. At length they espied an object, which seemed to grow and come
+nearer, and nearer. When it came near the land it stopped, but all the
+people were afraid, and fled to the woods. The next day, two of their
+number ventured out to look. It was lying quietly on the water. A
+smaller object of the same sort came out of it, and walked with long
+legs (oars) over the water. When it came to land two men came out of it.
+They were different from us and made signs for the others to come out of
+the woods. A conference ensued. Presents were exchanged. They gave
+presents to the Lenapees, and the latter gave them their skin clothes as
+curiosities. Three distinct visits, at separate times, and long
+intervals, were made. The mode in which the white men got a footing, and
+power in the country was this. First, room was asked, and leave given to
+place a chair on the shore. But they soon began to pull the lacing out
+of its bottom, and go inland with it; and they have not yet come to the
+end of the string. He exemplified this original demand for a cession of
+territory and its renewal at other epochs, by other figures of speech,
+namely, of a bull's hide, and of a man walking. The first request for a
+seat on the shore, was made he said of the Lenapees; alluding to the
+cognate branches of this stock, who were anciently settled at the
+harbour of New York, and that vicinity.
+
+To the question of their flight from the St. Lawrence, their settlement
+in the north, and their subsequent migration to, and settlement on, the
+straits of Detroit, Oriwahento said:
+
+The Wyandots were proud. God had said that such should be beaten and
+brought low. This is the cause why we were followed from the east, and
+went up north away to Michilimackinac, but as we had the right before,
+so when we came back, the tribes looked up to us, as holding the council
+fire.[18]
+
+3. What relationship do you acknowledge, to the other western tribes?
+
+Answer by Oriwahento: We call the Lenapees, _nephews_; we call the
+Odjibwas (Chippewas) Ottawas, Miamis &c. _Younger Brother_. We call the
+Shawnees, _the Youngest Brother_. The Wyandots were the first tribe in
+ancient times. The first chieftainship was in their tribe.
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTIONS TO THE INTERPRETER.
+
+1. Are the Wyandot and Mohawk languages, alike in sounds. You say, you
+speak both.
+
+Ans. Not at all alike. It is true there are a few words so, but the two
+languages do not seem to me more akin than English and French. You know
+some English and French words are alike. The Mohawk language is on the
+_tongue_, the Wyandot is in _the throat_.
+
+2. Give me some examples: Read some of this translation of the Mohawk,
+(handing him John's Gospel printed by the American Bible Society in
+1818.) He complied, reading it fluently, and appearing to have been
+acquainted with the translation.
+
+Further conversation, in which his attention was drawn to particular
+facts in its structure and principles, made him see stronger analogies
+between the two tongues. It was quite evident, that he had never
+reflected on the subject, and that there were, both grammatically, and
+philologically, coincidences beyond his depth.
+
+                                                  H. R. S.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [18] This is certainly a dignified and wise answer; designed as it was,
+to cover their disastrous defeat and flight from the St. Lawrence valley
+to the north. The precedence to which he alludes, on reaching the
+straits of Detroit, as having been theirs before, is to be understood,
+doubtless, of the era of their residence on the lower St. Lawrence,
+where they were at the head of the French and Indian confederacy against
+the Iroquois. Among the latter, they certainly had no precedency, so far
+as history reaches. Their council fire was kept by the Onondagas.
+
+
+
+
+TRADITIONS OF THE ARCTIDÉS.
+
+
+There are some curious traditions related by the race of people living
+on that part of the continent lying north and west of Athabasca lake,
+and the river Unjigah. Mackenzie has described that branch of them, who
+are called by the trivial name of Che-pe-wyans. This is an Algonquin
+term, meaning puckered blankets, and has reference only to the most
+easterly and southerly division of the race. They are but the van of an
+extensive race. All that gives identity to their general traditions, and
+distinctive character and language, relates as well to the Dogribs, the
+Coppermines, the Strongbows, the Ambawtawoots, the Hares, the
+Brushwoods, the Sursees, the Tacullies, the Nateotetains, and other
+tribes located north of them, extending to the Arctic Ocean, and west
+through the Peace river pass of the Rocky Mountains. Philology brings
+into one groupe all these dialects of a wide spread race, who extend
+from the borders of the Atnah nation on the Columbia, across the Rocky
+Mountains eastwardly to the Lake of the Hills and the Missinipi or
+Churchill river, covering many degrees of latitude and longitude. In the
+absence of any generic name for them, founded on language or character,
+I shall allude to them under the geographical phrase of ARCTIDES.
+
+This stock of people have proceeded from the direction of the North
+Pacific towards the Atlantic waters, in a general eastern direction, in
+which respect, their history forms a striking exception to the other
+great stocks of the eastern part of the United States, the Canadas, and
+Hudson's bay, who have been in a continual progress towards the WEST and
+NORTHWEST. The Arctides, on the contrary, have proceeded EAST and
+SOUTHEAST. They may be supposed, therefore, to bring their traditions
+more directly from opposite portions of the continent, and from Asia,
+and it may be inferred, from more unmixed and primitive sources. Some of
+these traditions are, at least, of a curious and striking character.
+They believe, like the more southerly tribes, in the general tradition
+of a deluge, and of a paradise, or land of future bliss. They have
+apparently, veiled the Great Spirit, or creator of the globe, under the
+allegory of a gigantic bird. They believe, that there was originally
+nothing visible but one vast ocean. Upon this the bird descended from
+the sky, with a noise of his wings which produced sounds resembling
+thunder. The earth, as he alighted, immediately rose above the waters.
+This bird of creative power, then made all the classes of animals, who
+were made out of earth. They all had precedency to man. Man alone, the
+last in the series, was created from the integument of a dog. This, they
+believe, was their own origin, and hence, as Mackenzie tells us, they
+will not eat the flesh of this animal, as is done by the other tribes of
+the continent. To guard and protect them, he then made a magic arrow,
+which they were to preserve with great care, and hold sacred. But they
+were so thoughtless, they add, as to carry it away and lose it, upon
+which the great bird took his flight, and has never since appeared. This
+magic arrow is doubtless to be regarded as a symbol of something else,
+which was very essential to their safety and happiness. Indian history
+is often disguised under such symbolic forms.
+
+They have also a tradition that they originally came from a foreign
+country, which was inhabited by a wicked people. They had to cross a
+great lake, or water, which was shallow, narrow, and full of islands.
+Their track lay also through snow and ice, and they suffered miserably
+from cold. They first landed at the mouth of the Coppermine river. The
+earth thereabouts was then strewed with metallic copper, which has since
+disappeared.
+
+They believe that, in ancient times, men lived till their feet were worn
+out with walking, and their throats with eating. They represent their
+ancestors as living to very great ages. They describe a deluge, in which
+the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains, on
+which their progenitors were saved.
+
+Their notions of a future state coincide generally with the other
+stocks. But their paradise is clothed with more imaginative traits. They
+believe, that at death they pass immediately to another world, where
+there is a large river of water to cross. They must embark in a stone
+canoe, and are borne along into a wide lake, which has an island in its
+centre. This is the island of the blest, and the object of the
+disembodied soul is to reach it. If their lives have been good, they
+will be fortunate, and make it. If bad, they will sink; but they will
+only sink to the depth of their chins, so that they may be permitted to
+behold the happy land, and strive in vain to reach it. Eternity is
+passed in this vain endeavour.
+
+They have also some notion of the doctrine of transmigration. Such are
+the traditionary notions of this numerous family of the Red Race, which
+are sufficiently distinctive and peculiar,--and while they resemble in
+many traits, yet in others they contradistinguish them from the great
+Algic race of the eastern part of the continent. The most advanced
+branch of these tribes in their geographical position, call themselves,
+as reported by Capt. Franklin, People of the Rising Sun, or
+_Saw-eesaw-dinneh_.
+
+It seems singular, that the farther north we go, the greater evidences
+do we behold of imagination, in the aboriginal race, together with some
+fore-shadowings of future punishment.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE CHIPPEWAS, ODJIBWAS, OR ODJIBWA-ALGONQUINS.
+
+
+Of all the existing branches of the Algonquin stock in America, this
+extensive and populous tribe appears to have the strongest claims to
+intellectual distinction, on the score of their traditions, so far, at
+least, as the present state of our inquiries extends. They possess, in
+their curious fictitious legends and lodge-tales, a varied and
+exhaustless fund of tradition, which is repeated from generation to
+generation. These legends hold, among the wild men of the north, the
+relative rank of story-books; and are intended both to amuse and
+instruct. This people possess also, the art of picture writing, in a
+degree which denotes that they have been, either more careful, or more
+fortunate, in the preservation of this very ancient art of the human
+race. Warriors, and the bravest of warriors, they are yet an
+intellectual people.
+
+Their traditions and belief, on the origin of the globe, and the
+existence of a Supreme Being, are quite accordant with some things in
+our own history and theory. They believe that the Great Spirit created
+material matter, and that he made the earth and heavens, by the power of
+his will. He afterwards made animals and men, out of the earth, and he
+filled space with subordinate spirits, having something of his own
+nature, to whom he gave a part of his own power. He made one great and
+master spirit of evil, to whom he also gave assimilated and subordinate
+evil spirits, to execute his will. Two antagonist powers, they believe,
+were thus placed in the world who are continually striving for the
+mastery, and who have power to affect the fortunes and lives of men.
+This constitutes the groundwork of their religion, sacrifices and
+worship.
+
+They believe that animals were created before men, and that they
+originally had rule on the earth. By the power of necromancy, some of
+these animals were transformed to men, who, as soon as they assumed this
+new form, began to hunt the animals, and make war against them. It is
+expected that these animals will resume their human shapes, in a future
+state, and hence their hunters, feign some clumsy excuses, for their
+present policy of killing them. They believe that all animals, and birds
+and reptiles, and even insects, possess reasoning faculties, and have
+souls. It is in these opinions, that we detect the ancient doctrine of
+transmigration.
+
+Their most intelligent priests tell us, that their forefathers
+worshipped the sun: this luminary was regarded by them, as one of their
+Medas told me, as the symbol of divine intelligence, and the figure of
+it is drawn in their system of picture writing, to denote the Great
+Spirit. This symbol very often occurs in their pictures of the medicine
+dance, and the wabeno dance, and other sacred forms of their rude
+inscriptions.
+
+They believe, at least to some extent, in a duality of souls, one of
+which is fleshly, or corporeal, the other is incorporeal or mental. The
+fleshly soul goes immediately, at death, to the land of spirits, or
+future bliss. The mental soul abides with the body, and hovers round the
+place of sepulture. A future state is regarded by them, as a state of
+rewards, and not of punishments. They expect to inhabit a paradise,
+filled with pleasures for the eye, and the ear, and the taste. A strong
+and universal belief in divine mercies absorbs every other attribute of
+the Great Spirit, except his power and ubiquity; and they believe, so
+far as we can gather it, that this mercy will be shown to all. There is
+not, in general, a very discriminating sense of moral distinctions and
+responsibilities, and the faint out-shadowings, which we sometimes hear
+among them, of a deep and sombre stream to be crossed by the adventurous
+soul, in its way to the land of bliss, does not exercise such a
+practical influence over their lives, as to interfere with the belief of
+universal acceptance after death. So firm is this belief, that their
+proper and most reverend term for the Great Spirit, is Gézha Monedo,
+that is to say, Merciful Spirit. Gitchy Monedo, which is also employed,
+is often an equivocal phrase. The term Wäzheáud, or Maker, is used to
+designate the Creator, when speaking of his animated works. The compound
+phrase Wäosemigóyan, or universal Father, is also heard.
+
+The great spirit of evil, called Mudje Monedo, and Matche Monito, is
+regarded as a _created_, and not a pre-existing being. Subordinate
+spirits of evil, are denoted by using the derogative form of the word,
+in _sh_ by which Moneto is rendered Monetosh. The exceeding flexibility
+of the language is well calculated to enable them to express distinction
+of this nature.
+
+This tribe has a general tradition of a deluge, in which the earth was
+covered with water, reaching above the highest hills, or mountains, but
+not above a tree which grew on the latter, by climbing which a man was
+saved. This man was the demigod of their fictions, who is called
+Manabozho, by whose means the waters were stayed and the earth
+re-created. He employed for this purpose various animals who were sent
+to dive down for some of the primordial earth, of which a little was,
+at length, brought up by the beaver, and this formed the germ or nucleus
+of the new, or rather rescued planet. What particular allegories are hid
+under this story, is not certain; but it is known that this, and other
+tribes, are much in the habit of employing allegories, and symbols,
+under which we may suspect, they have concealed parts of their
+historical traditions and beliefs. This deluge of the Algonquin tribes,
+was produced, as their legends tell, by the agency of the chief of the
+evil spirits, symbolized by a great serpent, who is placed, throughout
+the tale, in an antagonistical position to the demi-god Manabosho. This
+Manabozho, is the same, it is thought, with the Abou, and the Michabou,
+or the Great Hare of elder writers.
+
+Of their actual origin and history, the Chippewas have no other certain
+tradition, than that they came from Wabenong, that is to say, the land
+of the EAST. They have no authentic history, therefore, but such
+remembered events, as must be placed subsequent to the era of the
+discovery of the continent. Whether this tradition is to be interpreted
+as an ancient one, having reference to their arrival on the continent,
+or merely to the track of their migration, after reaching it, is a
+question to be considered. It is only certain, that they came to their
+present position on the banks of Lake Superior, from the direction of
+the Atlantic seaboard, and were, when discovered, in the attitude of an
+invading nation, pressing westward and northward. Their distinctive name
+sheds no light on this question. They call themselves _Od-jib-wäg_,
+which is the plural of Odjibwa,--a term which appears to denote a
+peculiarity in their voice, or manner of utterance. This word has been
+pronounced Chippewa by the Saxon race in America, and is thus recorded
+in our treaties and history. They are, in language, manners and customs,
+and other characteristics, a well marked type of the leading Algonquin
+race, and indeed, the most populous, important, and wide spread existing
+branch of that family now on the continent. The term Chippewa, may be
+considered as inveterately fixed by popular usage, but in all
+disquisitions which have their philology or distinctive character in
+view, the true vernacular term of Od-jib-wa, will be found to possess
+advantages to writers. The word Algonquin is still applied to a small
+local band, at the Lake of Two Mountains, on the Utawas river, near
+Montreal, but this term, first bestowed by the French, has long been a
+generic phrase for the entire race, who are identified by the ties of a
+common original language in the United States and British America.
+
+One of the most curious opinions of this people is their belief in the
+mysterious and sacred character of fire. They obtain sacred fire, for
+all national and ecclesiastical purposes, from the flint. Their national
+pipes are lighted with this fire. It is symbolical of purity. Their
+notions of the boundary between life and death, which is also
+symbolically the limit of the material verge between this and a future
+state, are revealed in connection with the exhibition of flames of
+fire. They also make sacrifices by fire of some part of the first fruits
+of the chase. These traits are to be viewed, perhaps, in relation to
+their ancient worship of the sun, above noticed, of which the traditions
+and belief, are still generally preserved. The existence among them of
+the numerous classes of jossakeeds, or mutterers--(the word is from the
+utterance of sounds low on the earth,) is a trait that will remind the
+reader of a similar class of men, in early ages, in the eastern
+hemisphere. These persons constitute, indeed, the Magii of our western
+forests. In the exhibition of their art, and of the peculiar notions
+they promulgate on the subject of a sacred fire, and the doctrine of
+transmigration, they would seem to have their affiliation of descent
+rather with the disciples of Zoroaster and the fruitful Persian stock,
+than with the less mentally refined Mongolian hordes.
+
+
+
+
+MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION OF THE ALGONQUINS.
+
+     THEIR SYSTEM OF MANITO WORSHIP, AS RECENTLY DISCLOSED BY THE
+     CONFESSIONS OF ONE OF THEIR PROPHETS; THEIR LANGUAGES, AND
+     CHARACTER OF THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE GOSPEL MADE INTO THESE
+     DIALECTS; AND THE LEADING MOTIVES OF CHRISTIANS AND PHILANTHROPISTS
+     TO PERSEVERE IN THEIR CIVILISATION AND CONVERSION.[19]
+
+
+It is known that the Indian tribes of this continent live in a state of
+mental bondage to a class of men, who officiate as their priests and
+soothsayers. These men found their claims to supernatural power on early
+fastings, dreams, ascetic manners and habits, and often on some real or
+feigned fit of insanity. Most of them affect a knowledge of charms and
+incantations. They are provided with a sack of mystic implements, the
+contents of which are exhibited in the course of their ceremonies, such
+as the hollow bones of some of the larger anseres, small carved
+representations of animals, cowrie and other sea-shells, &c. Some of
+these men acquire a character for much sanctity, and turn their
+influence to political purposes, either personally or through some
+popular warrior, as was instanced in the success of the sachems
+Buchanjahela, Little Turtle and Tecumthè.
+
+We have recently had an opportunity of conversing with one of this class
+of sacred person, who has within late years embraced Christianity; and
+have made some notes of the interview, which we will advert to for the
+purpose of exhibiting his testimony, as to the true character of this
+class of impostors. Chusco, the person referred to, is an Ottawa Indian
+who has long exercised the priestly office, so to say, to his brethren
+on the northern frontiers. He is now a man turned of seventy. He is of
+small stature, somewhat bent forward, and supports the infirmities of
+age by walking with a staff. His sight is impaired, but his memory
+accurate, enabling him to narrate with particularity events which
+transpired more than half a century ago. He was present at the great
+convocation of northern Indians at Greenville, which followed Gen.
+Wayne's victories in the west--an event to which most of these tribes
+look back, as an era in their history. He afterwards returned to his
+native country in the upper lakes, and fixed his residence at
+Michilimackinac, where in late years, his wife became a convert to the
+Christian faith, and united herself to the mission church on that
+island. A few years after, the old prophet, who despised this mode of
+faith, and thought but little of his wife's sagacity in uniting herself
+to a congregation of believers, felt his own mind arrested by the same
+truths, and finally also embraced them, and was propounded for
+admission, and afterwards kept on trial before the session. It was about
+this time, or soon after he had been received as an applicant for
+membership, that the writer visited his lodge, and entered into a full
+examination of his sentiments and opinions, contrasting them freely with
+what they had formerly been. We requested him to narrate to us the facts
+of his conversion to the principles of Christianity, indicating the
+progress of truth on his mind, which he did in substance, through an
+interpreter as follows:
+
+"In the early part of my life I lived very wickedly, following the META,
+the JEESUKAN, and the WABENO, the three great superstitious observances
+of my people. I did not know that these societies were made up of errors
+until my wife, whose heart had been turned by the missionaries, informed
+me of it. I had no pleasure in listening to her on this subject, and
+often turned away, declaring that I was well satisfied with the religion
+of my forefathers. She took every occasion of talking to me on the
+subject. She told me that the Indian societies were bad, and that all
+who adhered to them were no better than open servants of the Evil
+Spirit. She had, in particular, _four_ long talks with me on the
+subject, and explained to me who God was, and what sin was, as it is
+written in God's book. I believed before, that there was One Great
+Spirit who was the Master of life, who had made men and beasts. But she
+explained to me the true character of this Great Spirit, the sinfulness
+of the heart, and the necessity of having it changed from evil to good
+by praying through Jesus Christ. By degrees I came to understand it. She
+told me that the Ghost of God or Holy Spirit only could make the heart
+better, and that the souls of all who died, without having felt this
+power, would be burned in the fires. The missionaries had directed her
+to speak to me and put words in her mouth; and she said so much that,
+at length, I did not feel satisfied with my old way of life. Amongst
+other things she spoke against drinking, which I was very fond of.
+
+"I did not relish these conversations, but I could not forget them When
+I reflected upon them, my heart was not as fixed as it used to be. I
+began to see that the Indian Societies were bad, for I knew from my own
+experience, that it was not a good Spirit that I had relied upon. I
+determined that I would not undertake to _jeesukà_ or to look into
+futurity any longer for the Indians, nor practice the _Meta's_ art.
+After a while I began to see more fully that the Indian ceremonies were
+all bad, and I determined to quit them altogether, and give heed to what
+was declared in God's book.
+
+"The first time that I felt I was to be condemned as a sinner, and that
+I was in danger of being punished for sin by God, is clearly in my mind.
+I was then on the Island of Bois Blanc, making sugar with my wife. I was
+in a conflict of mind, and hardly knew what I was about. I walked around
+the kettles, and did not know what I walked for. I felt sometimes like a
+person wishing to cry, but I thought it would be unmanly to cry. For the
+space of two weeks, I felt in this alarmed and unhappy mood. It seemed
+to me sometimes as if I must die. My heart and my bones felt as if they
+would burst and fall asunder. My wife asked me if I was sick, and said I
+looked pale. I was in an agony of body and mind, especially during _one_
+week. It seemed, during this time, as if an evil spirit haunted me. When
+I went out to gather sap, I felt conscious that this spirit went with me
+and dogged me. It appeared to animate my own shadow.
+
+"My strength was failing under this conflict. One night, after I had
+been busy all day, my mind was in great distress. This shadowy influence
+seemed to me to persuade me to go to sleep. I was tired, and I wished
+rest, but I could not sleep. I began to pray. I knelt down and prayed to
+God. I continued to pray at intervals through the night; I asked to know
+the truth. I then laid down and went to sleep. This sleep brought me
+rest and peace. In the morning my wife awoke me, telling me it was late.
+When I awoke I felt placid and easy in mind. My distress had left me. I
+asked my wife what day it was. She told me it was the Sabbath (in the
+Indian, prayer-day). I replied, 'how I wish I could go to the church at
+the mission! Formerly I used to avoid it, and shunned those who wished
+to speak to me of praying to God, but now my heart longs to go there.'
+This feeling did not leave me.
+
+"After three days I went to the mission. The gladness of my heart
+continued the same as I had felt it the first morning at the camp. My
+first feeling when I landed, was pity for my drunken brethren, and I
+prayed that they might also be brought to find the true God. I spoke to
+the missionary, who at subsequent interviews explained to me the truth,
+the rite of baptism, and other principles. He wished, however, to try
+me by my life, and I wished it also. It was the following autumn, that I
+was received into the church."
+
+We now turned his mind to the subject of intemperance in drinking,
+understanding that it had been his former habit. He replied that he had
+been one of the greatest drunkards. He had not been satisfied with a ten
+days' drink. He would go and drink as long as he could get it. He said,
+that during the night in which he first prayed, it was one of the first
+subjects of his prayers, that God would remove this desire with his
+other evil desires. He added, "God did so." When he arose that morning
+the desire had left him. The evil spirit then tempted him by suggesting
+to his mind--"Should some one now enter and offer you liquor, would you
+not taste it?" He averred he could, at that moment, firmly answer No! It
+was now seven years since he had tasted a drop of strong drink. He
+remarked that when he used first to visit the houses of Christians, who
+gladly opened their doors to him, they were in the habit of asking him
+to drink a glass of cider or wine, which he did. But this practice had
+nearly ruined him. On one occasion he felt the effects of what he had
+thus been prevailed on to drink. The danger he felt himself to be in was
+such, that he was alarmed and gave up this practice also.
+
+He detailed some providential trials which he had been recently exposed
+to. He had observed, he said, that those of his people who had professed
+piety and had subsequently fallen off, had nevertheless prospered in
+worldly things, while he had found it very hard to live. He was often in
+a state of want, and his lodge was so poor and bad, that it would not
+keep out the rain. Both he and his wife were feeble, and their clothes
+were worn out. They had now but a single blanket between them. But when
+these trials came up in his mind, he immediately resorted to God, who
+satisfied him.
+
+Another trait in the character of his piety, may here be mentioned. The
+autumn succeeding his conversion, he went over to the spot on the island
+where he had planted potatoes. The Indian method is, not to visit their
+small plantations from the time that their corn or potatoes are
+_hilled_. He was pleased to find that the crop in this instance promised
+to yield abundantly, and his wife immediately commenced the process of
+raising them. "Stop!" exclaimed the grateful old man, "dare you dig
+these potatoes until we have thanked the Lord for them?" They then both
+knelt in prayer, and afterwards gathered the crop.
+
+This individual appeared to form a tangible point in the intellectual
+chain between Paganism and Christianity, which it is felt important to
+examine. We felt desirous of drawing from him such particulars
+respecting his former practice in necromancy and the prophetic art, as
+might lead to correct philosophical conclusions. He had been the great
+juggler of his tribe. He was now accepted as a Christian. What were his
+own conceptions of the power and arts he had practised? How did these
+things appear to his mind, after a lapse of several years, during which
+his opinions and feelings had undergone changes, in many respects so
+striking? We found not the slightest avoiding of this topic on his part.
+He attributed all his ability in deceptive arts to the agency of the
+Evil Spirit; and he spoke of it with the same settled tone that he had
+manifested in reciting other points in his personal experience. He
+believed that he had followed a spirit whose object it was to deceive
+the Indians and make them miserable. He believed that this spirit had
+left him and that he was now following, in the affections of his heart,
+the spirit of Truth.
+
+Numerous symbols of the classes of the animate creation are relied on by
+the Indian _metays_ and _wabenos_, to exhibit their affected power of
+working miracles and to scrutinize the scenes of futurity. The objects
+which this man had appealed to as personal spirits in the arcanum of his
+lodge, were the tortoise, the swan, the woodpecker and the crow. He had
+dreamed of these at his initial fast in his youth, during the period set
+apart for this purpose, and he believed that a satanic influence was
+exerted, by presenting to his mind one or more of these solemnly
+appropriated objects at the moment of his invoking them. This is the
+theory drawn from his replies. We solicited him to detail the _modus
+operandi_, after entering the juggler's lodge. This lodge resembles an
+acute pyramid with the apex open. It is formed of poles, covered with
+tight-drawn skins. His replies were perfectly ingenuous, evincing
+nothing of the natural taciturnity and shyness of the Indian mind. The
+great object with the operator is to agitate this lodge, and cause it to
+move and shake without uprooting it from its basis, in such a manner as
+to induce the spectators to believe that the _power of action is
+superhuman_. After this manifestation of spiritual _presence_, the
+priest within is prepared to give oracular responses. The only articles
+within were a drum and rattle. In reply to our inquiry as to the mode of
+procedure, he stated that his first essay, after entering the lodge, was
+to strike the drum and commence his incantations. At this time his
+personal manitos assumed their agency, and received, it is to be
+inferred, _a satanic energy_. Not that he affects that there was any
+visible form assumed. But he felt their spirit-like presence. He
+represents the agitation of the lodge to be due to currents of air,
+having the irregular and gyratory power of a whirlwind. He does not
+pretend that his responses were guided by truth, but on the contrary
+affirms that they were given under the influence of the evil spirit.
+
+We interrogated him as to the use of physical and mechanical means in
+effecting cures, in the capacity of a meta, or a medicine man. He
+referred to various medicines, some of which he thinks were antibilious
+or otherwise sanatory. He used two bones in the exhibition of his
+physical skill, one of which was _white_ and the other _green_. His
+arcanum also embraced two small stone images. He affected to look _into_
+and _through_ the flesh, and to draw from the body fluids, as bile and
+blood. He applied his mouth in suction. He characterized both the _meta_
+or medicine dances and the _wabeno_ dances by a term which may be
+translated _deviltry_. Yet he discriminated between these two popular
+institutions by adding that the _meta_ included the use of medicines,
+good and bad. The _wabeno_, on the contrary, consisted wholly in a wild
+exhibition of mere braggadocio and trick. It is not, according to him,
+an ancient institution. It originated, he said, with a Pottawattomie,
+who was sick and lunatic a month. When this man recovered he pretended
+that he had ascended to heaven, and had brought thence divine arts, to
+aid his countrymen.
+
+With respect to the opinion steadfastly maintained by this venerable
+subject of Indian reformation, that his deceptive arts were rendered
+effectual in the way he designed, by _satanic agency_, we leave the
+reader to form his own conclusions. In his mode of stating the facts, we
+concede much to him, on the score of long established mental habits, and
+the peculiarities arising from a mythology, exceeding even that of
+ancient Greece, for the number, variety and ubiquity of its objects. But
+we perceive nothing, on Christian theories, heterodox in the general
+position. When the truth of the gospel comes to be grafted into the
+benighted heart of a pagan, such as Chusco was, it throws a fearful
+light on the objects which have been cherished there. The whole system
+of the mythological agency of the gods and spirits of the heathen world
+and its clumsy machinery is shown to be a sheer system of demonology,
+referable, in its operative effects on the minds of individuals, to the
+"Prince of the power of the air." As such the Bible depicts it. We have
+not been in the habit of conceding the existence of demoniacal
+possessions, _in the present era of Christianity_, and have turned over
+some scores of chapters and verses to satisfy our minds of the
+_abrogation of these things_. But we have found no proofs of such a
+withdrawal of evil agency short of the very point where our subject
+places it--that is, the dawning of the light of Christianity in the
+heart. We have, on the contrary, found in the passages referred to, the
+declaration of the full and free existence of such an agency in the
+general import, and apprehend that it cannot be plucked out of the
+sacred writings.
+
+The language of such an agency appears to be fully developed among the
+northern tribes. _Spirit-ridden_ they certainly are; and the mental
+slavery in which they live, under the fear of an invisible agency of
+evil spirits, is, we apprehend, greater even than the bondage of the
+body. The whole mind is bowed down under these intellectual fetters
+which circumscribe its volitions, and bind it as effectually as with the
+hooks of steel which pierce a whirling Hindoo's flesh. Whatever is
+wonderful, or past comprehension to their minds, is referred to the
+agency of a spirit This is the ready solution of every mystery in
+nature, and of every refinement of mechanical power in art. A watch is,
+in the intricacy of its machinery, a spirit. A piece of blue cloth--cast
+and blistered steel--a compass, a jewel, an insect, &c., are,
+respectively, a spirit. Thunder consists, in their transcendental
+astronomy, of so many distinct spirits. The aurora borealis is a body of
+dancing spirits, or rather ghosts of the departed.
+
+Such were the ideas and experiences of Chusco, after his union with the
+church; and with these views he lived and died, having given evidence,
+as was thought, of the reception of the Saviour, _through faith_.
+
+To give some idea of the Indian mythology as above denoted, it is
+necessary to conceive every department of the universe to be filled with
+invisible spirits. These spirits hold in their belief nearly the same
+relation to matter that the soul does to the body: they pervade it. They
+believe not only that every man, but also _that every animal, has a
+soul_; and as might be expected under this belief, they make no
+distinction between _instinct_ and _reason_. Every animal is supposed to
+be endowed with a reasoning facility. The movements of birds and other
+animals are deemed to be the result, not of mere instinctive animal
+powers implanted and limited by the creation, without inherent power to
+_exceed_ or _enlarge_ them, but of a process of ratiocination. They go a
+step farther, and believe that animals, particularly birds, can look
+into, and are familiar with the vast operations of the world above.
+Hence the great respect they pay to birds as agents of omen, and also to
+some animals, whose souls they expect to encounter in another life. Nay,
+it is the settled belief among the northern Algonquins, that animals
+will fare better in another world, in the precise ratio that their lives
+and enjoyments have been curtailed in this life.
+
+Dreams are considered by them as a means of direct communication, with
+the spiritual world; and hence the great influence which dreams exert
+over the Indian mind and conduct. They are generally regarded as
+friendly warnings of their personal manitos. No labor or enterprise is
+undertaken against their indications. A whole army is turned back if the
+dreams of the officiating priest are unfavorable. A family lodge has
+been known to be deserted by all its inmates at midnight, leaving the
+fixtures behind, because one of the family had dreamt of an attack, and
+been frightened with the impression of blood and tomahawks. To give more
+solemnity to his office the priest or leading _meta_ exhibits a sack
+containing the carved or stuffed images of animals, with medicines and
+bones constituting the sacred charms. These are never exhibited to the
+common gaze, but, on a march, the sack is hung up in plain view. To
+profane the medicine sack would be equivalent to violating the altar.
+Dreams are carefully sought by every Indian, whatever be their rank, at
+certain periods of youth, with fasting. These fasts are sometimes
+continued a great number of days, until the devotee becomes pale and
+emaciated. The animals that appear propitiously to the mind during these
+dreams, are fixed on and selected as personal manitos, and are ever
+after viewed as guardians. This period of fasting and dreaming is deemed
+as essential by them as any religious rite whatever employed by
+Christians. The initial fast of a young man or girl holds the relative
+importance of baptism, with this peculiarity, that it is a free-will, or
+self-dedicatory rite.
+
+The naming of children has an intimate connection with the system of
+mythological agency. Names are usually bestowed by some aged person,
+most commonly under the supposed guidance of a particular spirit. They
+are often derived from the mystic scenes presented in a dream, and refer
+to aerial phenomena. Yellow Thunder, Bright Sky, Big Cloud, Spirit Sky,
+Spot in the Sky, are common names for males. Females are more commonly
+named from the vernal or autumnal landscape, as Woman of the Valley,
+Woman of the Rock, &c. Females are not excluded from participation in
+the prophetical office or jugglership. Instances of their having assumed
+this function are known to have occurred, although it is commonly
+confined to males. In every other department of life they are apparently
+regarded as inferior or _inclusive_ beings. Names bestowed with ceremony
+in childhood are deemed sacred, and are seldom pronounced, out of
+respect, it would seem, to the spirit under whose favor they are
+supposed to have been selected. Children are usually called in the
+family by some name which can be familiarly used. A male child is
+frequently called by the mother, a bird, or young one, or old man, as
+terms of endearment, or bad boy, evil-doer, &c., in the way of light
+reproach; and these names often adhere to the individual through life.
+Parents avoid the true name often by saying my son, my younger, or my
+elder son, or my younger or my elder daughter, for which the language
+has separate words. This subject of a reluctance to tell their names is
+very curious and deserving of investigation.
+
+The Indian "art and mystery" of hunting is a tissue of necromantic or
+mythological reliances. The personal spirits of the hunter are invoked
+to give success in the chace. Images of the animals sought for are
+sometimes carved in wood, or drawn by the metas on tabular pieces of
+wood. By applying their mystic medicines to these, the animals are
+supposed to be drawn into the hunter's path; and when animals have been
+killed, the Indian feels, that although they are an authorized and
+lawful prey, yet there is something like accountability to the animal's
+_suppositional soul_. An Indian has been known to ask the pardon of an
+animal, which he had just killed. Drumming, shaking the rattle, and
+dancing and singing, are the common accompaniments of all these
+superstitious observances, and are not peculiar to one class alone. In
+the wabeno dance, which is esteemed by the Indians as the most
+latitudinarian co-fraternity, love songs are introduced. They are never
+heard in the medicine dances. They would subject one to utter contempt
+in the war dance.
+
+The system of _manito worship_ has another peculiarity, which is
+illustrative of Indian character. During the fasts and ceremonial dances
+by which a warrior prepares himself to come up to the duties of war,
+everything that savors of effeminacy is put aside. The spirits which
+preside over bravery and war are alone relied on, and these are supposed
+to be offended by the votary's paying attention to objects less stern
+and manly than themselves. Venus and Mars cannot be worshipped at the
+same time. It would be considered a complete desecration for a warrior,
+while engaged in war, to entangle himself by another, or more tender
+sentiment. We think this opinion should be duly estimated in the general
+award which history gives to the chastity of warriors. We would record
+the fact to their praise, as fully as it has been done; but we would
+subtract something from the _motive_, in view of his paramount
+obligations of a sacred character, and also the fear of the ridicule of
+his co-warriors.
+
+In these leading doctrines of an oral and mystic school of wild
+philosophy may be perceived the ground-work of their mythology, and the
+general motive for selecting familiar spirits. Manito, or as the
+Chippewas pronounce it, monédo, signifies simply a spirit, and there is
+neither a good nor bad meaning attached to it, when not under the
+government of some adjective or qualifying particle. We think, however,
+that so far as there is a meaning distinct from an invisible existence,
+the tendency is to a bad meaning. A bad meaning is, however, distinctly
+conveyed by the inflection, _osh_ or _ish_. The particle _wee_, added in
+the same relation, indicates a witch. Like numerous other nouns, it has
+its diminutive in _os_, its plural in _wug_, and its local form in
+_ing_. To add "great," as the Jesuit writers did, is far from deciding
+the moral character of the spirit, and hence modern translators prefix
+_gezha_, signifying merciful. Yet we doubt whether the word God should
+not be carried boldly into translations of the scriptures. In the
+conference and prayer-room, the native teachers use the inclusive
+pronominal form of Father, altogether. Truth breaks slowly on the mind,
+sunk in so profound a darkness as the Indians are, and there is danger
+in retaining the use of words like those which they have so long
+employed in a problematical, if not a derogative sense.
+
+The love for mystery and magic which pervades the native ceremonies, has
+affected the forms of their language. They have given it a power to
+impart life to dead masses. Vitality in their forms of utterance is
+deeply implanted in all these dialects, which have been examined; they
+provide, by the process of inflection, for keeping a perpetual
+distinction between the animate and inanimate kingdoms. But where
+vitality and spirituality are so blended as we see them in their
+doctrine of animal souls, the inevitable result must be, either to exalt
+the principle of life, in all the classes of nature, into immortality,
+or to sink the latter to the level of mere organic life. Indian
+word-makers have taken the former dilemma, and peopled their paradise
+not only with the souls of men, but with the souls of every imaginable
+kind of beasts. Spirituality is thus clogged with sensual accidents. The
+human soul _hungers_, and it must have food deposited upon the grave.
+_It suffers from cold_, and the body must be wrapped about with cloths.
+It is in _darkness_, and a light must be kindled at the head of the
+grave. It wanders through plains and across streams, subject to the
+providences of this life, in quest of its place of enjoyment, and when
+it reaches it, it finds every species of sensual trial, which renders
+the place not indeed a _heaven of rest_, but _another experimental
+world_--very much like this. Of punishments, we hear nothing; rewards
+are looked for abundantly, and the idea that the Master of life, or the
+merciful Spirit, will be alike merciful to all, _irrespective of the
+acts of this life_, or the degree of _moral turpitude_, appears to leave
+for their theology a belief in restorations or universalism. There is
+nothing to refer them to a Saviour; that IDEA was beyond their
+conception, and of course there was no occasion for the offices of the
+Holy Ghost. Darker and more chilling views to a theologian, it would be
+impossible to present. Yet it may be asked, what more benign result
+could have been, or can now be, anticipated in the hearts of an
+ignorant, uninstructed and wandering people, exposed to sore
+vicissitudes in their lives and fortunes, and without the guidance of
+the light of Revelation?
+
+Of their mythology proper, we have space only to make a few remarks.
+Some of the mythologic existences of the Indians admit of poetic uses.
+Manabozho may be considered as a sort of terrene Jove, who could perform
+all things whatever, but lived some time on earth, and excelled
+particularly in feats of strength and manual dexterity. All the animals
+were subject to him. He also survived a deluge, which the traditions
+mention, having climbed a tree on an extreme elevation during the
+prevalence of the waters, and sent down various animals for some earth,
+out of which he re-created the globe. The four cardinal points are so
+many demi-gods, of whom the West, called KABEUN, has priority of age.
+The East, North and South are deemed to be his sons, by a maid who
+incautiously exposed herself to the west wind. IAGOO (Iagoo) is the god
+of the marvellous, and many most extravagant tales of forest and
+domestic adventure are heaped upon him. KWASIND is a sort of Samson, who
+threw a huge mass of rock such as the Cyclops cast at Mentor. WEENG is
+the god of sleep, who is represented to have numerous small emissaries
+at his service, reminding us of Pope's creation of gnomes. These minute
+emissaries climb up the forehead, and wielding a tiny club, knock
+individuals to sleep. PAUGUK is death, in his symbolic attitude. He is
+armed with a bow and arrows. It would be easy to extend this
+enumeration.
+
+The mental powers of the Indian constitutes a topic which we do not
+design to discuss. But it must be manifest that some of their
+peculiarities are brought out by their system of mythology and
+spirit-craft. War, public policy, hunting, abstinence, endurance and
+courageous adventure, form the leading topics of their mental efforts.
+These are deemed the appropriate themes of men, sages and warriors. But
+their intellectual essays have also a domestic theatre of exhibition. It
+is here that the Indian mind unbends itself and reveals some of its less
+obvious traits. Their public speakers cultivate a particular branch of
+oratory. They are careful in the use of words, and are regarded as
+standards of purity in the language. They appear to have an accurate ear
+for sounds, and delight in rounding off a period, for which the
+languages afford great facilities, by their long and stately words, and
+multiform inflexions. A drift of thought--an elevation of style, is
+observable in their public speaking which is dropt in private
+conversation. Voice, attitude and motion, are deemed of the highest
+consequence. Much of the meaning of their expressions is varied by the
+vehement, subdued, or prolonged tone in which they are uttered. In
+private conversation, on the contrary, all is altered. There is an
+equanimity of tone, and easy vein of narration or dialogue, in which the
+power of mimicry is most strikingly brought out. The very voice and
+words of the supposed speakers, in their fictitious legends, are
+assumed. Fear, supplication, timidity or boasting, are exactly depicted,
+and the deepest interest excited. All is ease and freedom from
+restraint. There is nothing of the coldness or severe formality of the
+council. The pipe is put to its ordinary use, and all its symbolic
+sanctity is laid aside with the wampum belt and the often reiterated
+state epithets, "Nosa" and "Kosinan," i.e. _my father_ and _our father_.
+
+Another striking trait of the race is found in their legends and tales.
+Those of the aboriginal race who excel in private conversation, become
+to their tribes oral chroniclers, and are relied on for historical
+traditions as well as tales. It is necessary, in listening to them, to
+distinguish between the gossip and the historian, the narrator of real
+events, and of nursery tales. For they gather together everything from
+the fabulous feats of Manebozho and Misshozba, to the hair-breadth
+escapes of a Pontiac, or a Black Hawk. These narrators are generally men
+of a good memory and a certain degree of humor, who have experienced
+vicissitudes, and are cast into the vale of years. In the rehearsal of
+their tales, transformations and transmigrations are a part of the
+machinery relied on; and some of them are as accurately adapted to the
+purposes of amusement or instruction, as if Zoroaster or Ovid himself
+had been consulted in their production. Many objects in the inanimate
+creation, according to these tales, were originally men and women. And
+numerous animals had other forms in their first stages of existence,
+which they, as well as human beings, forfeited, by the power of
+necromancy and transmigration. The evening star, it is fabled, was
+formerly a woman. An ambitious boy became one of the planets. Three
+brothers, travelling in a canoe, were translated into a group of stars.
+The fox, lynx, hare, robin, eagle and numerous other species, retain
+places in the Indian system of astronomy. The mouse obtained celestial
+elevation by creeping up the rainbow, which Indian story makes a flossy
+mass of bright threads, and by the power of gnawing them, he relieved a
+captive in the sky. It is a coincidence, which we note, that _ursa
+major_ is called by them the bear.
+
+These legends are not confined to the sky alone. The earth also is a
+fruitful theatre of transformations. The wolf was formerly a boy, who,
+being neglected by his parents, was transformed into this animal. A
+shell, lying on the shore, was transformed to the raccoon. The brains of
+an adulteress were converted into the _addikumaig_, or white fish.
+
+The power of transformation was variously exercised. It most commonly
+existed in magicians, of whom Abo, Manabosh or Manabozha, and Mishosha,
+retain much celebrity. The latter possessed a magic canoe which would
+rush forward through the water on the utterance of a charm, with a speed
+that would outstrip the wind. Hundreds of miles were performed in as
+many minutes. The charm which he uttered, consisted of a monosyllable,
+containing one consonant, which does not belong to the language; and
+this word has no definable meaning. So that the language of magic and
+demonology has one feature in common in all ages and with every nation.
+
+Man, in his common shape, is not alone the subject of their legends. The
+intellectual creations of the Indians admit of the agency of giants and
+fairies. Anak and his progeny could not have created more alarm in the
+minds of the ten faithless spies, than do the race of fabulous Weendigos
+to the Indian tribes. These giants are represented as cannibals, who ate
+up men, women and children. Indian fairies are of two classes,
+distinguished as the place of their revels is either the land or water.
+Land-fairies are imagined to choose their residences about promontories,
+water-falls and solemn groves. The water, besides its appropriate class
+of aquatic fairies, is supposed to be the residence of a race of beings
+called Nibanaba which have their analogy, except as to sex, in the
+mermaid. The Indian word indicates a male. Ghosts are the ordinary
+machinery in their tales of terror and mystery. There is, perhaps, a
+glimmering of the idea of retributive justice in the belief that ghosts
+and spirits are capable of existing in fire.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [19] New York Lit & Theo. Review.
+
+
+
+
+INDIAN ARROW HEADS, &c.
+
+
+By far the most numerous relics of the Red Race, now found in those
+parts of our country from which it has disappeared, are the small stones
+with which they headed their arrows. Being made of the most durable
+substances, they have generally remained in the soil, unaffected by time
+and the changes of season. They most abound in those rich meadows which
+border some of our rivers, and in other spots of peculiar fertility,
+though of less extent, where the pasture, or other attractions,
+collected game for the Red men. The stones most commonly used were
+quartz and flint, which were preferred on account of the facility of
+shaping them, the keenness of the points and edges, which they readily
+present under the blows of a skilful manufacturer, as well as their
+superior hardness and imperishable nature. Multitudes of specimens still
+exist, which show the various forms and sizes to which the Red men
+reduced stones of these kinds: and they excite our admiration, by their
+perfect state of preservation, as well by the skilfulness of their
+manufacture.
+
+Other stones, however, were not unfrequently used: and a collection
+which we have been making for many years, presents a considerable
+variety of materials, as well as of sizes, shapes and colors. Hard
+sandstone, trap or graacke, jasper and chalcedony, appear occasionally;
+some almost transparent. One of the larger size is made of steatite, and
+smooth, as if cut or scraped with a knife, contrary to the common
+method, of gradually chipping off small fragments of more brittle stone,
+by light blows often repeated. These arrow heads were fastened to the
+shaft, by inserting the butt into the split end, and tying round it a
+string of deer's sinews. A groove or depression is commonly observable
+in the stone, designed to receive the string. But it is sometimes
+difficult to imagine how the fastening was effected, as some perfect
+arrow-heads show no such depressions, and their forms are not well
+adapted to such a purpose. This peculiarity, however, is most frequently
+to be observed in specimens of small size, the larger, and especially
+such as are commonly supposed to have been the heads of spears, being
+usually well shaped for tying.
+
+It is remarkable that some spots have been found, where such relics were
+surprizingly numerous. In Hartford, Connecticut, about thirty years ago,
+many were picked up in a garden, at the corner of Front and Mill
+streets. The spot was indeed on the bank of the Little River, probably
+at the head of Indian Canoe navigation: but yet no rational conjecture
+could be formed, to account for the discovery, except one. It was
+concluded that the place was an ancient burying ground. Many bits of
+coarse earthen-ware were found, such as are common in many parts of the
+country. About two miles below Middletown, Connecticut, on the slope of
+a hill on the southern side of the Narrows, we discovered, some years
+since, a great number of small fragments of white quartz, scattered
+thickly over the surface of the ground, perhaps for half an acre. Among
+them were several arrow heads of various forms, most of them imperfect,
+and many pieces of stone, which at first sight resembled them, but, on
+closer inspection, seemed to have been designed for arrow heads, but
+spoiled in the making. Some had one good edge, or a point or barb, while
+the other parts of the same stones showed only the natural form and
+fracture. In many instances, it was easy to see that the workman might
+well have been discouraged from proceeding any farther, by a flaw, a
+break or the nature of the stone. Our conclusion was, that the spot had
+long been a place where Indian arrow heads were made, and that we saw
+around us the refuse fragments rejected by the workmen. Other spots have
+been heard of resembling this.
+
+If such relics were found nowhere else but in our own country, they
+would be curious, and worthy of preservation and attention: but it is an
+interesting fact, not however generally known, that they exist in many
+other parts of the world. Stone arrow and spear heads have been found in
+England for hundreds of years, and are believed to have been made and
+used by the Britons, who, in respect to civilization, were nearly on a
+level with our Indians. These relics are called by the common people
+Celts, from the race whose memory they recal; and particular accounts of
+them are given, with drawings, in several antiquarian works. They bear a
+striking resemblance to our Indian arrow heads; and many of them could
+be hardly, if at all, distinguished from those of America.
+
+African arrows have been brought to this country, in which the points
+were of the same forms and materials, and fastened in the same manner.
+About twelve years ago a vessel from Stonington was attacked by a party
+of Patagonians, who threw arrows on board. One of these which we
+procured, was pointed with a head of milky quartz, exactly corresponding
+with specimens picked up in New England.
+
+Among the relics found in excavating the low mounds on the plain of
+Marathon, as we were informed by one of our countrymen, who was at
+Athens some years ago, there were spear heads made of flint, which, he
+declared, were like those he had often seen ploughed up in his native
+fields. These, it was conjectured, might have been among the weapons of
+some of the rude Scythians in the Persian army, which met its defeat on
+that celebrated battle ground.
+
+A negro, from an obscure group of islands, just north of New Guinea, in
+describing the weapons in use among his countrymen, drew the forms of
+spear heads, which he said were often made of stones; and, when shown
+specimens from our collection, declared that they were very much like
+them.
+
+It has been thought, that certain instruments would naturally be
+invented by men in particular states of society and under certain
+circumstances, as the result of their wants and the means at hand to
+supply them. It is not, however, always easy to reconcile this doctrine
+with fasts. For example, the black race of the islands north of New
+Holland, (of which so little is yet known,) appear to require the use of
+the bow as much as any other savage people, yet they are entirely
+ignorant of it, though it has been thought one of the simple, most
+natural and most indispensable instruments in such a condition of
+society.
+
+We are therefore left in doubt, in the present state of our knowledge,
+whether the manufacture and use of stone arrow heads have been so
+extensively diffused over the globe by repeated inventions, or by an
+intercourse between portions of the human race long since ceased, or by
+both causes. To whichever of these opinions we may incline, the subject
+must still appear to us worthy of investigation, as the history of these
+relics must necessarily be closely connected with that of different
+families and races of men in every continent and in every zone.
+
+We would invite particular attention to the position and circumstances
+of Indian remains which may hereafter be found; and would express a wish
+that they might be recorded and made known. Our newspapers offer a most
+favorable vehicle for the communication of such discoveries and
+observations, and our editors generally must have taste and judgment
+enough to give room for them.
+
+It was remarked in some of our publications a few years ago, that no
+unequivocal remains of the Red men had yet been discovered in the earth,
+below the most recent strata of soil, excepting cases in which they had
+been buried in graves, &c. Perhaps later observations may furnish
+evidence of the longer presence of that race on our continent than such
+a statement countenances.
+
+One of the most interesting objects of enquiry, with some antiquaries,
+is whether there are any ancient indications of Alphabetical writing in
+our continent. A small stone found in the Grave-Creek Mound, and others
+of a more doubtful character, are quite sufficient to awaken interest
+and stimulate enquiry.
+
+A few specimens of rude sculpture and drawing have been found in
+different parts of the U. States; and shells, ornaments, &c., evidently
+brought from great distances. There may be others, known to individuals,
+of which antiquaries are not aware. After perusing the foregoing pages,
+it will be easy to realize that all such remains may be worthy of
+attention. Not only copies should be made and dimensions taken, but
+descriptions should be written, local information and traditions
+collected, measures taken to preserve the originals, and some notice
+given which may reach persons interested in such subjects.--_E._
+
+
+
+
+INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY.
+
+
+No. 1.
+
+The North American tribes have the elements of music and poetry. Their
+war songs frequently contain flights of the finest heroic sentiment,
+clothed in poetic imagery. And numbers of the addresses of the speakers,
+both occasional and public, abound in eloquent and poetic thought. "We
+would anticipate eloquence," observes a modern American writer, "from an
+Indian. He has animating remembrances--a poetry of language, which
+exacts rich and apposite metaphorical allusions, even for ordinary
+conversation--a mind which, like his body, has never been trammelled and
+mechanized by the formalities of society, and passions which, from the
+very outward restraint imposed upon them, burn more fiercely within."
+Yet, it will be found that the records of our literature, scattered as
+they are, in periodicals and ephemeral publications, rather than in
+works of professed research, are meagre and barren, on these topics. One
+of the first things we hear of the Indians, after their discovery, is
+their proneness to singing and dancing. But however characteristic these
+traits may be, and we think they are eminently so, it has fallen to the
+lot of but few to put on record specimens, which may be appealed to, as
+evidences of the current opinion, on these heads. With favourable
+opportunities of observation among the tribes, we have but to add our
+testimony to the difficulties of making collections in these
+departments, which shall not compromit the intellectual character of the
+tribes, whose efforts are always oral, and very commonly extemporaneous.
+These difficulties arise from the want of suitable interpreters, the
+remoteness of the points at which observations must be made, the heavy
+demands made upon hours of leisure or business by such inquiries, and
+the inconvenience of making notes and detailed memoranda on the spot.
+The little that it is in our power to offer, will therefore be submitted
+as contributions to an inquiry which is quite in its infancy, and rather
+with the hope of exciting others to future labours, than of gratifying,
+to any extent, an enlightened curiosity on the subject.
+
+Dancing is both an amusement and a religious observance, among the
+American Indians, and is known to constitute one of the most wide spread
+traits in their manners and customs. It is accompanied, in all cases,
+with singing, and, omitting a few cases, with the beating of time on
+instruments. Tribes the most diverse in language, and situated at the
+greatest distances apart, concur in this. It is believed to be the
+ordinary mode of expressing intense passion, or feeling on any subject,
+and it is a custom which has been persevered in, with the least
+variation, through all the phases of their history, and probably exists
+among the remote tribes, precisely at this time, as it did in the era of
+Columbus. It is observed to be the last thing abandoned by bands and
+individuals, in their progress to civilization and christianity. So true
+is this, that it may be regarded as one of the best practical proofs of
+their advance, to find the native instruments and music thrown by, and
+the custom abandoned.
+
+Every one has heard of the war dance, the medicine dance, the wabeno
+dance, the dance of honour (generally called the begging dance,) and
+various others, each of which has its appropriate movements, its air,
+and its words. There is no feast, and no religious ceremony, among them,
+which is not attended with dancing and songs. Thanks are thus expressed
+for success in hunting, for triumphs in war, and for ordinary
+providential cares. Public opinion is called to pressing objects by a
+dance, at which addresses are made, and in fact, moral instructions and
+advice are given to the young, in the course of their being assembled at
+social feasts and dances. Dancing is indeed the common resource,
+whenever the mass of Indian mind is to be acted on. And it thus stands
+viewed in its necessary connection with the songs and addresses, in the
+room of the press, the newspaper, and the periodical. The priests and
+prophets have, more than any other class, cultivated their national
+songs and dances, and may be regarded as the skalds and poets of the
+tribes. They are generally the composers of the songs, and the leaders
+in the dance and ceremonies, and it is found, that their memories are
+the best stored, not only with the sacred songs and chants, but also
+with the traditions, and general lore of the tribes.
+
+Dancing is thus interwoven throughout the whole texture of Indian
+society, so that there is scarcely an event important or trivial,
+private or public, which is not connected, more or less intimately, with
+this rite. The instances where singing is adopted, without dancing, are
+nearly confined to occurrences of a domestic character. Among these, are
+wails for the dead, and love songs of a simple and plaintive character.
+Maternal affection evinces itself, by singing words, to a cheerful air,
+over the slumbers of the child, which, being suspended in a kind of
+cradle receives, at the same time a vibratory motion. Children have
+likewise certain chants, which they utter in the evenings, while playing
+around the lodge door, or at other seasons of youthful hilarity. Some of
+the Indian fables are in the shape of duets, and the songs introduced in
+narrating their fictitious tales, are always sung in the recital.
+
+Their instruments of music are few and simple. The only wind instrument
+existing among them is the Pibbegwon, a kind of flute, resembling in
+simplicity the Arcadian pipe. It is commonly made of two
+semi-cylindrical pieces of cedar, united with fish glue, and having a
+snake skin, in a wet state, drawn tightly over it, to prevent its
+cracking. The holes are eight in number, and are perforated by means of
+a bit of heated iron. It is blown like the flagolet, and has a similar
+orifice or mouth piece.
+
+The TAYWA[']EGUN, (struck-sound-instrument,) is a tamborine, or
+one-headed drum, and is made by adjusting a skin to one end of the
+section of a moderate sized hollow tree. When a heavier sound is
+required, a tree of larger circumference is chosen, and both ends closed
+with skins. The latter is called MITTIGWUKEEK, i. e. Wood-Kettle-Drum,
+and is appropriately used in religious ceremonies, but is not, perhaps,
+confined to this occasion.
+
+To these may be added a fourth instrument, called the SHESHEGWON, or
+Rattle, which is constructed in various ways, according to the purpose
+or means of the maker. Sometimes it is made of animal bladder, from
+which the name is derived, sometimes of a wild gourd; in others, by
+attaching the dried hoofs of the deer to a stick. This instrument is
+employed both to mark time, and to produce variety in sound.
+
+
+ORAL COMPOSITION.
+
+Common as the Indian songs are, it is found to be no ordinary
+acquisition to obtain accurate specimens of them. Even after the
+difficulties of the notation have been accomplished, it is not easy to
+satisfy the requisitions of a correct taste and judgment, in their
+exhibition. There is always a lingering fear of misapprehension, or
+misconception, on the part of the interpreter--or of some things being
+withheld by the never sleeping suspicion, or the superstitious fear of
+disclosure, on the part of the Indian. To these must be added, the
+idiomatic and imaginative peculiarities of this species of wild
+composition--so very different from every notion of English
+versification. In the first place there is no unity of theme, or plot,
+unless it be that the subject, war for instance, is kept in the singer's
+mind. In the next place both the narration and the description, when
+introduced, is very imperfect, broken, or disjointed. Prominent ideas
+flash out, and are dropped. These are often most striking and beautiful,
+but we wait in vain for any sequence. A brief allusion--a shining
+symbol, a burst of feeling or passion, a fine sentiment, or a bold
+assertion, come in as so many independent parts, and there is but little
+in the composition to indicate the leading theme which is, as it were,
+kept in mental reserve, by the singer. Popular, or favourite expressions
+are often repeated, often transposed, and often exhibited with some new
+shade of meaning. The structure and flexibility of the language is
+highly favourable to this kind of improvisation. But it is difficult to
+translate, and next to impossible to preserve its spirit. Two languages
+more unlike in all their leading characteristics, than the English and
+the Indian were never brought into contact. The one monosyllabic, and
+nearly without inflections--the other polysyllabic, polysynthetic and so
+full of inflections of every imaginative kind, as to be completely
+transpositive--the one from the north of Europe, the other, probably,
+from Central Asia, it would seem that these families of the human race,
+had not wandered wider apart, in their location, than they have in the
+sounds of their language, the accidence of their grammar and the
+definition of their words. So that to find equivalent single words in
+translation, appears often as hopeless as the quadrature of the circle.
+
+The great store-house of Indian imagery is the heavens. The clouds, the
+planets, the sun, and moon, the phenomena of lightning, thunder,
+electricity, aerial sounds, electric or atmospheric, and the endless
+variety produced in the heavens by light and shade, and by elemental
+action,--these constitute the fruitful themes of allusion in their songs
+and poetic chants. But they are mere allusions, or broken description,
+like touches on the canvass, without being united to produce a perfect
+object. The strokes may be those of a master, and the colouring
+exquisite; but without the art to draw, or the skill to connect, it will
+still remain but a shapeless mass.
+
+In war excursions great attention is paid to the flight of birds,
+particularly those of the carnivorous species, which are deemed typical
+of war and bravery, and their wing and tail feathers are appropriated as
+marks of honor, by the successful warrior. When the minds of a war party
+have been roused up to the subject, and they are prepared to give
+utterance to their feelings by singing and dancing, they are naturally
+led to appeal to the agency of this class of birds. Hence the frequent
+allusions to them, in their songs. The following stanza is made up of
+expressions brought into connection, from different fragments, but
+expresses no more than the native sentiments:
+
+                    The eagles scream on high,
+                      They whet their forked beaks,
+                    Raise--raise the battle cry,
+                      'Tis fame our leader seeks.
+
+Generally the expressions are of an exalted and poetic character, but
+the remark before made of their efforts in song, being discontinuous and
+abrupt, apply with peculiar force to the war songs. To speak of a brave
+man--of a battle--or the scene of a battle, or of the hovering of birds
+of prey above it, appears sufficient to bring up to the warrior's mind,
+all the details consequent on personal bravery or heroic achievement. It
+would naturally be expected, that they should delight to dwell on scenes
+of carnage and blood: but however this may be, all such details are
+omitted or suppressed in their war songs, which only excite ideas of
+noble daring.
+
+          The birds of the brave take a flight round the sky,
+            They cross the enemy's line,
+          Full happy am I--that my body should fall,
+            Where brave men love to die.
+
+Very little effort in the collocation and expansion of some of their
+sentiments, would impart to these bold and unfettered rhapsodies, an
+attractive form, among polished war songs.
+
+The strain in which these measures are sung, is generally slow and grave
+in its commencement and progress, and terminates in the highest note.
+While the words admit of change, and are marked by all the fluctuation
+of extempore composition, the air and the chorus appear to be permanent,
+consisting not only of a graduated succession of fixed sounds, but,
+always exact in their enunciation, their quantity, and their wild and
+startling musical expression. It has always appeared to me that the
+Indian music is marked by a nationality, above many other traits, and it
+is a subject inviting future attention. It is certain that the Indian
+ear is exact in noting musical sounds, and in marking and beating time.
+But little observation at their dances, will be sufficient to establish
+this fact. Nor is it less certain, by attention to the philology of
+their language, that they are exact in their laws of euphony, and
+syllabical quantity. How this remark may consist with the use of
+unmeasured and fluctuating poetry in their songs, it may require studied
+attention to answer. It is to be observed, however, that these songs are
+rather _recited_, or _chanted_, than sung. Increments of the chorus are
+not unfrequently interspersed, in the body of the line, which would
+otherwise appear deficient in quantity; and perhaps rules of metre may
+be found, by subsequent research, which are not obvious, or have been
+concealed by the scantiness of the materials, on this head, which have
+been examined. To determine the airs and choruses and the character of
+the music, will prove one of the greatest facilities to this inquiry.
+Most of the graver pieces, which have been written out, are arranged in
+metres of sixes, sevens, and eights. The lighter chants are in threes or
+fours, and consist of iambics and trochees irregularly. Those who have
+translated hymns into the various languages, have followed the English
+metres, not always without the necessity of elision, or employing
+constrained or crampt modes of expression. A worse system could not have
+been adopted to show Indian sentiment. The music in all these cases has
+been like fetters to the free, wild thoughts of the native singer. As a
+general criticism upon these translations, it may be remarked that they
+are often far from being literal, and often omit parts of the original.
+On the other hand, by throwing away adjectives, in a great degree, and
+dropping all incidental or side thoughts, and confining the Indian to
+the leading thought or sentiment, they are, sometimes, rendered more
+simple, appropriate, and effective. Finally, whatever cultivated minds
+among the Indians, or their descendants may have done, it is quite
+evident to me, from the attention I have been able to give the subject,
+that the native compositions were without metre. The natives appear to
+have sung a sufficient number of syllables to comply with the air, and
+effected the necessary pauses, for sense or sound, by either slurring
+over, and thus shortening, or by throwing in floating particles of the
+language, to eke out the quantity, taken either from the chorus, or from
+the general auxiliary forms of the vocabulary.
+
+Rhyme is permitted by the similarity of the sounds from which the
+vocabulary is formed, but the structure of the language does not appear
+to admit of its being successfully developed in this manner. Its forms
+are too cumbrous for regularly recurring expressions, subjected at once
+to the laws of metre and rhyme. The instances of rhyme that have been
+observed in the native songs are few, and appear to be the result of the
+fortuitous positions of words, rather than of art. The following
+juvenile see-saw is one of the most perfect specimens noticed, being
+exact in both particulars:
+
+                    Ne osh im aun
+                    Ne way be naun.
+
+These are expressions uttered on sliding a carved stick down snow banks,
+or over a glazed surface of ice, in the appropriate season; and they may
+be rendered with nearly literal exactness, thus:
+
+                    My sliding stick
+                    I send quick--quick.
+
+Not less accurate in the rhyme, but at lines of six and eight feet,
+which might perhaps be exhibited unbroken, is the following couplet of a
+war song:
+
+                    Au pit she Mon e tög
+                    Ne mud wa wa wau we ne gög.
+
+                    The Spirit on high,
+                    Repeats my warlike name.
+
+In the translation of hymns, made during the modern period of missionary
+effort, there has been no general attempt to secure rhyme; and as these
+translations are generally due to educated natives, under the inspection
+and with the critical aid of the missionary, they have evinced a true
+conception of the genius of the language, by the omission of this
+accident. Eliot, who translated the psalms of David into the
+Massachusetts language, which were first printed in 1661, appears to
+have deemed it important enough to aim at its attainment: but an
+examination of the work, now before us, gives but little encouragement
+to others to follow his example, at least while the languages remain in
+their present rude and uncultivated state. The following is the XXIII
+Psalm from this version:
+
+               1. Mar teag nukquenaabikoo
+                    shepse nanaauk God.
+                  Nussepsinwahik ashkoshqut
+                    nuttinuk ohtopagod
+
+               2. Nagum nukketeahog kounoh
+                    wutomohkinuh wonk
+                  Nutuss [oo]unuk ut sampoi may
+                    newutch [oo]wesnonk.
+
+               3. Wutonkauhtamut pomushaon
+                    mupp[oo]onk [oo]nauhkoe
+                  Woskehettuonk mo nukqueh tam[oo]
+                    newutch k[oo]wetomah:
+
+               4. Kuppogkomunk kutanwohon
+                    nish n[oo]nenehikquog
+                  Koonoch[oo] hkah anquabhettit
+                    wame nummatwomog
+
+               5. Kussussequnum nuppuhkuk
+                    weetepummee nashpea
+                  Wonk woi God n[oo]tallamwaitch
+                    pomponetupohs hau
+
+               6. [OO]niyeuonk monaneteonk
+                    nutasukkonkqunash
+                  Tohsohke pomantam wekit God
+                    michem nuttain pish[20].
+
+This appears to have been rendered from the version of the psalms
+appended to an old edition of King James' Bible of 1611, and not from
+the versification of Watts. By comparing it with this, as exhibited
+below, there will be found the same metre, eights and sixes, the same
+syllabical quantity, (if the notation be rightly conceived,) and the
+same coincidence of rhyme at the second and fourth lines of each verse;
+although it required an additional verse to express the entire psalm. It
+could therefore be sung to the ordinary tunes in use in Eliot's time,
+and, taken in connection with his entire version, including the Old and
+New Testament, evinces a degree of patient assiduity on the part of that
+eminent missionary, which is truly astonishing:
+
+                  The Lord is my shepherd, I'll not want;
+                    2. He makes me down to lie
+                  In pastures green: he leadeth me
+                    the quiet waters by.
+
+               3. My soul he doth restore again
+                    and me to walk doth make
+                  Within the paths of righteousness
+                    E'en for his own name's sake.
+
+               4. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
+                    yet will I fear none ill;
+                  For thou art with me and thy rod
+                    and staff me comfort still.
+
+               5. My table thou hast furnished
+                    in presence of my foes;
+                  My head thou dost with oil annoint,
+                    and my cup overflows.
+
+               6. Goodness and mercy all my life
+                    shall surely follow me;
+                  And in God's house forevermore
+                    my dwelling place shall be.
+
+The harmony of numbers has always detracted from the plain sense, and
+the piety of thought, of the scriptures, which is the probable cause of
+so many failures on the subject. In the instance of this Psalm, it will
+be observed, by a comparison, that Watts, who has so generally
+succeeded, does not come up, in any respect, to the full literal meaning
+of the original, which is well preserved, with the requisite harmony, in
+the old version.
+
+There is one species of oral composition existing among all the tribes,
+which, from its peculiarities, deserves to be separately mentioned. I
+allude to the hieratic chants, choruses and incantations of their
+professed prophets, medicine men and jugglers--constituting, as these
+men do, a distinct order in Indian society, who are entitled by their
+supposed skill, wisdom or sanctity, to exercise the offices of a
+priesthood. Affecting mystery in the discharge of their functions, their
+songs and choruses are couched in language which is studiously obscure,
+oftentimes cabalistic, and generally not well understood by any but
+professed initiates.
+
+Nothing, however, in this department of my inquiries, has opened a more
+pleasing view of society, exposed to the bitter vicissitudes of Indian
+life, than the little domestic chants of mothers, and the poetic
+see-saws of children, of which specimens are furnished. These show the
+universality of the sentiments of natural affection, and supply another
+proof, were any wanting, to demonstrate that it is only ignorance,
+indolence and poverty, that sink the human character, and create the
+leading distinctions among the races of men. Were these affections
+cultivated, and children early taught the principles of virtue and
+rectitude, and the maxims of industry, order and cleanliness, there is
+no doubt that the mass of Indian society would be meliorated in a
+comparatively short period; and by a continuance of efforts soon exalted
+from that state of degradation, of which the want of letters and
+religion have been the principal causes.
+
+In presenting these specimens of songs, gathered among the recesses of
+the forest, it is hoped it will not be overlooked, by the reader, that
+they are submitted _as facts_ or _materials_, in the mental condition
+of the tribes, and not as evidences of attainment in the arts of metre
+and melody, which will bear to be admitted or even criticised by the
+side of the refined poetry of civilized nations. And above all, not as
+efforts to turn Indian sentiments to account, in original composition.
+No such idea is entertained. If materials be supplied from which some
+judgment may be formed of the actual state of these songs and rude oral
+compositions, or improvisations, the extent of the object will have been
+attained. But even here, there is less, with the exception of a single
+department, i. e. versification and composition by cultivated natives,
+than it was hoped to furnish. And this little, has been the result of a
+species of labour, in the collection, quite disproportionate to the
+result. It is hoped at least, that it may indicate the mode in which
+such collections may be made, among the tribes, and become the means of
+eliciting materials more worthy of attention.
+
+This much seemed necessary to be said in introducing the following
+specimens, that there might not appear, to the reader, to be an undue
+estimate placed on the literary value of these contributions, and
+translations, while the main object is, to exhibit them in the series,
+as illustrations of the mental peculiarities of the tribes. To dismiss
+them, however, with a bare, frigid word for word translation, such as is
+required for the purposes of philological comparison, would by no means
+do justice to them, nor convey, in any tolerable degree, the actual
+sentiments in the minds of the Indians. That the opposite error might
+not, at the same time, be run into, and the reader be deprived
+altogether of this means of comparison, a number of the pieces are left
+with literal prose translations, word for word as near as the two
+languages will permit. Others exhibit both a literal, and a versified
+translation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All the North American Indians know that there is a God; but their
+priests teach them that the devil is a God, and as he is believed to be
+very malignant, it is the great object of their ceremonies and
+sacrifices, to appease him.
+
+The Indians formerly worshipped the Sun, as the symbol of divine
+intelligence.
+
+Fire is an unexplained mystery to the Indian; he regards it as a
+connecting link between the natural and spiritual world. His
+traditionary lore denotes this.
+
+Zoroaster says: "When you behold secret fire, without form, shining
+flashingly through the depths of the whole world--hear the voice of
+fire." One might suppose this to have been uttered by a North American
+Indian.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [20] Eliot employed the figure 8, set horizontally, to express a
+peculiar sound: otherwise he used the English alphabet in its ordinary
+powers.
+
+
+
+
+CHANT TO THE FIRE-FLY.
+
+
+In the hot summer evenings, the children of the Chippewa Algonquins,
+along the shores of the upper lakes, and in the northern latitudes,
+frequently assemble before their parents' lodges, and amuse themselves
+by little chants of various kinds, with shouts and wild dancing.
+Attracted by such shouts of merriment and gambols, I walked out one
+evening, to a green lawn skirting the edge of the St. Mary's river, with
+the fall in full view, to get hold of the meaning of some of these
+chants. The air and the plain were literally sparkling with the
+phosphorescent light of the fire-fly. By dint of attention, repeated on
+one or two occasions, the following succession of words was caught. They
+were addressed to this insect:
+
+               Wau wau tay see!
+               Wau wau tay see!
+               E mow e shin
+               Tshe bwau ne baun-e wee!
+               Be eghaun--be eghaun--ewee!
+               Wa Wau tay see!
+               Wa wau tay see!
+               Was sa koon ain je gun
+               Was sa koon ain je gun.
+
+
+LITERAL TRANSLATION.
+
+Flitting-white-fire-insect! waving-white-fire-bug! give me light before
+I go to bed! give me light before I go to sleep. Come, little
+dancing[21]-white-fire-bug! Come little flitting-white-fire-beast! Light
+me with your bright white-flame-instrument--your little candle[22].
+
+Metre there was none, at least, of a regular character: they were the
+wild improvisations of children in a merry mood.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [21] In giving the particle wa, the various meanings of "flitting,"
+"waving," and "dancing," the Indian idiom is fully preserved. The final
+particle see, in the term wa wa tai see, is from the generic root
+_asee_, meaning a living creature, or created form, not man. By
+prefixing Ahw to the root, we have the whole class of quadrupeds, and by
+pen, the whole class of birds, &c. The Odjibwa Algonquin term for a
+candle, was sa koon ain je gun, is literally rendered from its
+elements--"bright--white--flamed--instrument." It is by the very
+concrete character of these compounds that so much meaning results from
+a few words, and so considerable a latitude in translation is given to
+Indian words generally.
+
+  [22]    Fire-fly, fire-fly! bright little thing,
+          Light me to bed, and my song I will sing.
+          Give me your light, as you fly o'er my head,
+          That I may merrily go to my bed.
+          Give me your light o'er the grass as you creep,
+          That I may joyfully go to my sleep.
+          Come little fire-fly--come little beast--
+          Come! and I'll make you to-morrow a feast.
+          Come little candle that flies as I sing,
+          Bright little fairy-bug--night's little king;
+          Come, and I'll dance as you guide me along,
+          Come, and I'll pay you, my bug, with a song.
+
+
+
+
+ETHNOLOGY.
+
+
+
+
+     SCHOOLCRAFT'S AMERICAN CYCLOPÆDIA, OR ETHNOLOGICAL GAZETTEER OF THE
+     INDIAN TRIBES OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, NORTH AND SOUTH,
+     COMPRISING THEIR HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, AND NOMENCLATURE, FROM THE
+     DISCOVERY IN 1492, TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT.
+
+A prospectus for this work was issued in 1842. While the title is
+slightly modified, the design and plan of its execution have not been
+essentially changed. The principal object aimed at, under the general
+idea of the history and geography of the Aboriginal Race, is to furnish
+a general and standard reference-book, or short encyclopædia of topics
+relative to the entire race, alphabetically arranged. By the insertion
+of the name of each family of tribes, nation, sub-tribe, or important
+clan, the occasion will be presented of noticing the leading or
+characteristic events, in their history, numbers, government, religion,
+languages, arts or distinctive character.
+
+Where the scene or era of their expansion, growth and decay has been so
+extensive, embracing as it does, the widest bounds and remotest periods,
+their antiquities have also called for a passing notice. Nor could any
+thing like a satisfactory accomplishment of the plan be effected,
+without succinct notices of the lives and achievements of their
+principal chiefs, rulers, and leading personages.
+
+Language is an important means of denoting the intricate thread of
+history in savage nations. Mr. Pritchard considers it more important
+than physiological structure and peculiarities. It is, at least, found
+often to reveal ethnological affinities, where both the physical type,
+and the light of tradition, afford but little aid. The words and names
+of a people, are so many clues to their thoughts and intellectual
+structure; this branch of the subject, indeed, formed the original germ
+of the present plan, which was at first simply geographical, and has
+been rather expanded and built upon, than, if we may so say, supplied
+the garniture of the edifice. In a class of transpositive languages,
+which are very rich in their combinations, and modes of concentrated
+description, it must needs happen, that the names of places would often
+recall both associations and descriptions of deep interest in
+contemplating the fate and fortunes of this unfortunate race. Without
+intruding upon the reader disquisitions which would be out of place, no
+opportunity has been omitted, from the consideration of their names, to
+throw around the sites of their former or present residence, this
+species of interest.
+
+But half the work would have been done, it is conceived, to have
+confined the work to North America; and it must necessarily have lost,
+by such a limitation, more than half its interest. We are just beginning
+in truth to comprehend the true character and bearing of that unique
+type of civilization which existed in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan. The
+rude hand with which these embryo kingdoms of the native race were
+overturned, in consequence of their horrid idolatries, necessarily led
+to the destruction of much of their monumental, and so far as their
+picture writing reached, some of their historical materials, of both of
+which, we now feel the want. It is some relief, to know, as the
+researches of Mr. Gallatin, which are now in progress, demonstrate, that
+by far the greatest amount of the ancient Mexican picture writings, as
+they are embraced in the elaborate work of Lord Kingsborough, relate to
+their mythology and superstitions, and are of no historical value
+whatever. And if the portions destroyed in the Mexican and Peruvian
+conquests, were as liberally interspersed with similar evidences of
+their wild polytheism, shocking manners, and degraded worship, neither
+chronology nor history have so much to lament.
+
+The early, strong and continued exertions which were made by the
+conquerors to replace this system of gross superstition and idolatry, by
+the Romish ritual, filled Mexico and South America with missions of the
+Catholic Church, which were generally under the charge of zealous, and
+sometimes of learned and liberal-spirited superintendants, who have
+accumulated facts respecting the character and former condition of the
+race. These missions, which were generally spread parallel to the sea
+coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific, reaching inland along the banks of
+the great rivers and plains, have confessedly done much to ameliorate
+the manners and condition of the native race, to foster a spirit of
+industry, and to enlighten their minds. Still, it is scarcely known,
+that numerous and powerful tribes, stretching through wide districts of
+the Andes and the Cordilleras, never submitted to the conqueror, and yet
+exist in their original state of barbarism.
+
+In this department of inquiry, the geographical and historical work of
+De Alcedo, which, so far as the Spanish and Portuguese missions are
+concerned, is both elaborate and complete in its details, has been taken
+as a basis. No one can write of South America and its native tribes,
+without reference to Humboldt. Other standard writers have been
+consulted, to give this part of the work as much value as possible, not
+excepting the latest voyages and travels. The design has been, without
+aiming at too much, to compress a body of leading and characteristic
+facts, in the shortest practicable compass, which should, at the same
+time, present an ethnological view of the various families and groups of
+the race.
+
+In each department of inquiry, which admitted of it, the author has
+availed himself of such sources and opportunities of personal
+observation and experience, as his long residence in the Indian
+territories, and his study of the Indian history have afforded. And he
+is not without the hope, that his inquiries and researches on this head
+may be found to be such as to merit approval.
+
+
+A.
+
+AB, often pronounced with the sound of we, before it,--a particle which,
+in geographical names, in the family of the Algonquin dialects, denotes
+light, or the east. It is also the radix of the verb wab, to see, as
+well as of the derivatives, a-ab, an eye-ball, and wabishka, a white
+substance, &c.,--ideas which either in their origin or application, are
+closely allied.
+
+ABACARIS, a settlement of Indians in the Portuguese possessions of the
+province of Amazon. These people derive their name from a lake, upon
+which they reside. It is a peculiarity of this lake, that it has its
+outlet into the river Madiera which, after flowing out of the province
+turns about and again enters it, forming, in this involution, the large
+and fertile island of Topanambes. This tribe is under the instruction of
+the Carmelites. They retain many of their early peculiarities of manners
+and modes of life. They subsist by the cultivation of maize, and by
+taking fish in the waters of the Abacaris; or Abacactes in addition to
+these means, they rely upon tropical fruits. The latest notices of them
+come down to 1789. But little is known of their numbers, or present
+condition.
+
+ABACHES, or Apaches, an erratic tribe of Indians, who infest the
+prairies of western Texas and New Mexico. They are supposed by some, to
+consist of not less than 15,000 souls. They are divided into petty
+bands, known under various names. They are the most vagrant of all the
+wild hunter tribes of the general area denoted. They do not live in
+fixed abodes, but shift about in search of game or plunder, and are
+deemed a pest by the Santa Fe traders. They raise nothing and
+manufacture nothing. Those of them who are east of the Rio del Norte,
+subsist on the baked root of the mauguey, and a similar plant called
+Mezcal, and hence they are called Mezcaleros.
+
+Another division of them, and by far the greatest, rove west of that
+stream, where they are called Coyoteros, from their habit of eating the
+coyote, or prairie wolf. They extend west into California and Sonora.
+They bear a bad character wherever they are known. If on the outskirts
+of the ranches and haciendas, they steal cattle and sheep. If on the
+wide and destitute plains which they traverse, they thieve and murder.
+Sometimes they are pursued and punished; more frequently, they escape.
+The Mexican authorities keep some sort of terms with them by treaties,
+which the vagrants, however, break and disregard, whenever they are
+excited by hunger, or the lust of plunder. For Indians bearing the name,
+formerly from the U. States, see Apaches.
+
+ABACO, one of the Bahama islands. The native inhabitants of this, and
+the adjacent groupes of islands, were, early after the discovery,
+transported to the main, to work in the mines. In 1788 this island,
+known to nautical men as the locality of the Hole in the Wall, had a
+population of 50 whites, and 200 Africans.
+
+ABACOOCHE, or COOSA, a stream rising in Georgia. It flows into Alabama,
+and after uniting with the Tallapoosa, a few miles below Wetumpka it
+forms the Alabama river. The word is, apparently, derived from Oscooche,
+one of the four bands into which the Muscogees, were anciently divided.
+
+ABANAKEE, or Eastlanders, a distinct people, consisting of a plurality
+of tribes, who formerly occupied the extreme north eastern part of the
+United States. The word is variously written by early writers. See
+Abenakies, Abernaquis, Wabunakies.
+
+ABANCAY, the capital of a province of the same name 20 leagues from
+Cuzco, in Peru. It is memorable for the victories gained in the vicinity
+by the king's troops in 1542 and 1548 against Gonzalo Pizarro. It lies
+in a rich and spacious valley, which was inhabited by the subjects of
+the Inca, on the conquest.
+
+ABASCA, or RABASCA, a popular corruption, in the northwest, of
+Athabasca, which see.
+
+ABANES, an unreclaimed nation of Indians, living in the plains of St.
+Juan, to the north of the Orinoco, in New Grenada. They are of a docile
+character, and good disposition, lending a ready ear to instruction, but
+have not embraced the Catholic religion. They inhabit the wooded shores
+of the river, and shelter themselves from the effects of a tropical sun,
+in the open plains, by erecting their habitations in the small
+copse-wood. They are bounded towards the west, by the Andaquies and
+Caberras, and east by the Salivas.
+
+ABANGOUI, a large settlement of the Guarani nation of Indians, on the
+shores of the river Taquani, in Paraguay. This stream and its
+inhabitants were discovered by A. Numez, in 1541.
+
+ABECOOCHI, see Abacooche.
+
+ABEICAS, an ancient name for a tribe of Indians, in the present area of
+the United States, who are placed in the earlier geographies, _south_ of
+the Alabamas and _west_ of the Cherokees. They dwelt at a distance from
+the large rivers, yet were located in the districts of the cane, out of
+the hard substance of which they made a kind of knife, capable of
+answering the principal purposes of this instrument. They were at enmity
+with the Iroquois.
+
+ABENAKIES, a nation formerly inhabiting a large part of the
+territorial area of the states of New Hampshire and Maine. There were
+several tribes, of this nation the principal of which were the
+Penobscots, the Norredgewocks, and the Ameriscoggins. They were at
+perpetual hostilities with the New England colonists. They had received
+missionaries, at an early day, from the French in Canada, and acted in
+close concert with the hostile Indians from that quarter. At length in
+1724, the government of Massachussetts organized an effective expedition
+against them, which ascended the Kennebec, attacked the chief town of
+the Norredgewocks, and killed a large number of their bravest warriors.
+Among the slain, was found their missionary Sebastian Rasle, who had
+taken up arms in their defence. There was found, among his papers, a
+copious vocabulary of the language, which has recently been published
+under the supervision of Mr. Pickering. In the year 1754, all the
+Abenakies, except the Penobscots, removed into Canada. This nation had
+directed their attention, almost exclusively, to hunting. At the mouth
+of the Kennebec they absolutely planted nothing. Their language, as
+observed by Mr. Gallatin, has strong affinities with those of the
+Etchemins, and of the Micmacs, of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; there
+are fewer resemblances in its vocabulary to the dialects south of them.
+This nation appears to have been called Tarrenteens, by the New England
+Indians. Their generic name for themselves, if they had one, is unknown.
+The term Abenakie, is one manifestly imposed by Algonquin tribes living
+west and south of them. It is derived from wabanung, the east, or a
+place of light, and akee, land.
+
+ABEKAS, a name applied, so late as 1750, to a band of the Muscogees,
+living on the river Tombigbee, within the present area of Alabama.
+
+ABERNAQUIS, a settlement of the expatriated Abenakies of New England,
+in Lower Canada. They subsist themselves at this time in a great measure
+by agriculture, and manifest a disposition to improve. From a report
+made in 1839 by the American Board of Foreign missions of Boston who
+employ a missionary and teacher among them, sixty persons attend
+Protestant worship, of which number, 24 are church members. Twenty of
+the youth attend a daily school.
+
+ABIGIRAS, an Indian mission formerly under the charge of the order of
+Jesuits, in the governmental department of Quito. It is situated on the
+river Curasari, 30 leagues from its mouth, and 240 from Quito. It was
+founded in 1665 by father Lorenzo Lucero.
+
+ABINGAS, or WABINGAS, a name for a band, or sub-tribe of the River
+Indians, of the Mohegan, or Mohekinder stock, who formerly inhabited the
+present area of Dutchess county, N. Y., and some adjacent parts of the
+eastern shores of the Hudson, above the Highlands.
+
+ABIPONES, an unreclaimed nation of Indians, who inhabit the south shores
+of the river Bermejo, in the province of Tucuman, Buenos Ayres. This
+nation is said, perhaps vaguely, to have formerly numbered 100,000
+souls, but was, at the last accounts, about A.D. 1800, much reduced.
+They present some peculiar traits, living as nearly in a state of nature
+as possible. The men go entirely naked, subsisting themselves by hunting
+and fishing, and passing much of their time in idleness or war. The
+women wear little ornamented skins called _queyapi_. Physically, the
+people are well formed, of a lofty stature and bearing, robust and good
+featured. They paint their bodies profusely, and take great pains to
+inspire hardihood. For this purpose they cut and scarify themselves from
+childhood; they esteem tiger's flesh one of the greatest dainties,
+believing its properties to infuse strength and valor. In war they are
+most cruel, sticking their captives on the top of high poles, where,
+exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, they are left to die the most
+horrid death.
+
+They have no knowledge of God, of laws, or of policy, yet they believe
+in the immortality of the soul, and in a land of future bliss, where
+dancing and diversions shall prevail. Widows observe celibacy for a
+year, during which time they abstain from fish. The females occupy
+themselves in sewing hides, or spinning rude fabrics. When the men are
+intoxicated--a prevalent vice--they conceal their husbands' knives to
+prevent assassinations. They rear but two or three children, killing all
+above this number.
+
+ABISCA, an extensive mountainous territory of Peru, lying between the
+Yetau and Amoramago rivers, east of the Andes, noted from the earliest
+times, for the number of barbarous nations who occupy it. It is a wild
+and picturesque region, abounding in forests, lakes and streams, and
+affording facilities for the chase, and means of retreat from
+civilization, so congenial to savage tribes. An attempt to subjugate
+these fierce tribes made by Pedro de Andia in 1538, failed. The same
+result had attended the efforts of the emperor Yupanqui.
+
+ABITANIS, a mountain in the province of Lipas, in Peru. In the Quetchuan
+tongue, it signifies the ore of gold, from a mine of this metal, which
+is now nearly abandoned.
+
+ABITTIBI, the name of one of the tributaries of Moose River, of James'
+Bay, Canada. Also a small lake in Canada West, near the settlement of
+Frederick, in north latitude 48°, 35´ and west longitude 82°: also, a
+lake north of lake Nepissing, in the direction to Moose Fort. It is a
+term, apparently derived from nibee, water, and wab, light.
+
+ABITIGAS, a fierce and warlike nation of Indians, in the province of
+Tarma in Peru, of the original Quetche stock. They are situated 60
+leagues to the east of the Andes. They are barbarians, roving from place
+to place, without habits of industry, and delighting in war. They are
+numerous, as well as warlike; but like all the non-agricultural tribes
+of the region, they are often in want and wretchedness. They are
+bounded on the south by their enemies the Ipilcos.
+
+ABO, ABOUOR MICHABO, or the Great Hare, a personage rather of
+mythological, than historical note, in the traditions of the Lake
+Algonquin tribes. It is not clear, although probable, that he is to be
+regarded as identical with Manabosho, or Nanabosho.
+
+ABOJEEG, a celebrated war and hereditary chief of the Chippewa nation,
+who flourished during the last century; more commonly written Wabojeeg,
+which see.
+
+ABRAHAM, a chief of the Mohawks, who, after the fall of king Hendrick,
+so called, at the battle of lake George, in 1755, between the English
+and French armies, became the ruling chief of that nation. He was the
+younger brother of Hendrick, and lived at the lower Mohawk Castle. He
+was of small stature, but shrewd and active, and a fluent speaker.
+Numbers of his speeches are preserved, which he delivered, as the ruling
+chief of his tribe, in various councils, during the stormy era of 1775,
+which eventuated in the American revolution. In the events of that era,
+his name soon disappears: as he was then a man of advanced years, he
+probably died at his village. It is not known that he excelled in war,
+and, at all events, he was succeeded, about this time, in fame and
+authority, by a new man in the chieftainship, who rose in the person of
+Thyendanegea, better known as Joseph Brant. Abraham, or little Abraham,
+as he was generally called, appears from his speeches and policy, to
+have thoroughly adopted the sentiments and policy of Sir William
+Johnson, of whom, with his tribe generally, he was the friend and
+admirer. He was, as his speeches disclose, pacific in his views,
+cautious in policy, and not inclined, it would seem, to rush headlong
+into the great contest, which was then brewing, and into which, his
+popular successor, Brant, went heart and hand. With less fame than his
+elder brother Hendrick, and with no warlike reputation, yet without
+imputation upon his name, in any way, he deserves to be remembered as a
+civilian and chieftain, who bore a respectable rank; as one of a proud,
+high spirited, and important tribe. Little Abraham was present at the
+last and _final_ council of the Mohawks, with the American
+Commissioners, at Albany, in September 1775, and spoke for them on this
+occasion--which is believed to have been the last peaceable meeting
+between the Americans and the Mohawk tribe, prior to the war.
+
+
+   [NOTE.--Accents are placed over all words of North American origin,
+   when known. Vowels preceding a consonant, or placed between two
+   consonants, are generally short: following a consonant, or ending a
+   syllable or word, they are generally long. Diphthongs are used with
+   their ordinary power.]
+
+ABSECON. A beach of the sea coast of New Jersey, sixteen miles southwest
+of Little Egg Harbor. The word is a derivative from Wabisee, a Swan, and
+Ong, a Place.
+
+ABSORÓKA, a name for the Minnetaree tribe of Indians on the river
+Missouri. They are philologically of the Dacotah family. See Minnetaree.
+
+ABUCEES, a mission of the Sucumbias Indians, in the province of Quixos,
+Quito, which was founded by the order of Jesuits. It is situated on the
+shores of a small river, which enters the Putumago, in north latitude O°
+36´ longitude 79° 2´ west.
+
+ABURRA, a town, in a rich valley of the same name, in New Grenada,
+discovered in 1540, by Robledo. In its vicinity are found many huacas,
+or sepulchres of the Indians, in which great riches, such as gold
+ornaments, are found deposited. There are, in the vicinity, some streams
+of saline water, from which the Indians manufacture salt.
+
+ABWOIN, or BWOIN, a name of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and other modern
+Algonquin tribes of the upper Lakes, for the Dacotah or Sioux nation. It
+is rendered plural in ug. The word is derived from abwai, a stick used
+to roast meat, and is said to have been given to this tribe, in reproach
+from the ancient barbarities practised towards their prisoners taken
+captive in war. For an account of this tribe, see Dacotah and Sioux.
+
+ABWOINAC; ABWOINA: Terms applied to the general area between the
+Mississippi and Missouri, lying north of the St. Peter's, occupied by
+Sioux tribes. In the earlier attempts of Lord Selkirk, to plant a colony
+in parts of this region, the compound term Assinaboina, was, to some
+extent, but unsuccessfully employed. The two former terms are
+derivatives from Abwoin, a Sioux, and akee, earth; the latter has the
+prefix assin, (ossin,) a stone.
+
+ACAQUATO, a settlement of Indians in the district of Tancitars, in Peru,
+reduced in 1788, to fifteen families, who cultivated maize and
+vegetables.
+
+ACAMBARO, a settlement of 490 families of Indians, and 80 of _Mustees_,
+belonging to the order of St. Francis, in the district of Zelaya, in the
+province and bishopric of Mechoacan, seven leagues S. of its capital.
+
+ACAMISTLAHUAC, a settlement of 30 Indian families in the district of
+Tasco, attached to the curacy of its capital, from whence it is two
+leagues E. N. E.
+
+ACHAMUCHITLAN, a settlement of 60 families of Indians in the district of
+Texopilco, and civil division of Zultepec. They sell sugar and
+honey--the district also produces maize and vegetables. It is 5 leagues
+N. of its head settlement.
+
+ACANTEPEC. The head settlement of Tlapa, embracing 92 Indian families,
+including another small settlement in its vicinity, all of whom maintain
+themselves by manufacturing cotton stuffs.
+
+ACAPETLAHUALA, a settlement of 180 Indian families, being the principal
+settlement of the district of Escateopan, and civil district of
+Zaquaepa.
+
+ACARI, a settlement in a beautiful and extensive valley of Camana, in
+Peru, noted for a lofty mountain called Sahuacario, on the skirts of
+which the native Indians had constructed two fortresses, prior to their
+subjugation by the Spanish. This mountain is composed of "misshapen
+stones, and sand," and is reported, at certain times of the year to emit
+loud sounds, as if proceeding from pent up air, and it is thought to
+have, in consequence, attracted the superstitious regard of the ancient
+Indian inhabitants.
+
+ACATEPEC. There are five Indian settlements of this name, in Spanish
+America.
+
+1. A settlement comprising 860 Indian families, of the order of St.
+Francis, in the district of Thehuacan. Forty of these families live on
+cultivated estates stretching a league in a spacious valley, four
+leagues S. S. W. of the capital.
+
+2. A settlement in the district of Chinantla, in the civil jurisdiction
+of Cogamaloapan. It is situated in a pleasant plain, surrounded by three
+lofty mountains. The number of its inhabitants is reduced. The Indians
+who live on the banks of a broad and rapid river, which intercepts the
+great road to the city of Oxaca, and other jurisdictions, support
+themselves by ferrying over passengers in their barks and canoes. It is
+10 leagues W. of its head settlement.
+
+3. A settlement of 100 Indian families, in the same kingdom; situated
+between two high ridges. They are annexed to the curacy of San Lorenzo,
+two leagues off.
+
+4. A settlement of 39 Indian families annexed to, and distant one league
+and a half N. of the curacy of Tlacobula. It is in a hot valley, skirted
+by a river, which is made to irrigate the gardens and grounds on its
+borders.
+
+5. A settlement of 12 Indian families in the _mayorate_ of Xicayun of
+the same kingdom.
+
+ACATEPEQUE, ST. FRANCISCO, DE, a settlement of 140 Indian families in
+the mayorate of St. Andres de Cholula, situated half a league S. of its
+capital.
+
+ACATLAN, six locations of Indians exist, under this name, in Mexico.
+
+1. A settlement of 850 families of Indians in the _alcaldia_ of this
+name, embracing some 20 Spaniards and _Mustees_. In the vicinity are
+some excellent salt grounds. The climate is of a mild temperature, and
+the surrounding country is fertile, abounding in fruits, flowers, and
+pulse, and is well watered. It is 55 leagues E. S. E. of Mexico.
+
+2. A settlement of 180 Indian families in Xalapa of the same kingdom,
+(now republic.) It occupies a spot of clayey ground of a cold moist
+temperature, in consequence of which, and its being subject to N. winds,
+fruits, in this neighbourhood, do not ripen. Other branches of
+cultivation succeed from the abundance of streams of water, and their
+fertilizing effects on the soil. This settlement has the dedicatory
+title of St. Andres.
+
+3. SAN PEDRO, in the district of Malacatepec, and _alcaldia_ of
+Nexapa. It contains 80 Indian families, who trade in wool, and the fish
+called _bobo_, which are caught, in large quantities, in a considerable
+river of the district.
+
+4. ZITLALA. It consists of 198 Indian families, and is a league
+and a half N. of its head settlement of this name.
+
+5. SENTEPEC, a settlement 15 leagues N. E. of its capital. The
+temperature is cold. It has 42 Indian families.
+
+6. ATOTONILCO, in the _alcaldia mayor_ of Tulanzingo. It contains
+115 Indian families, and has a convent of the religious order of St.
+Augustine. It is 2 leagues N. of its head settlement.
+
+ACATLANZINGO, a settlement of 67 Indian families of Xicula of the
+alcadia mayor of Nexapa, who employ themselves in the culture of
+cochineal plants. It lies in a plain, surrounded on all sides by
+mountains.
+
+ACAXEE, a nation of Indians in the province of Topia. They are
+represented to have been converted to the catholic faith by the society
+of Jesuits in 1602. They are docile and of good dispositions and
+abilities. One of their ancient customs consisted of bending the heads
+of their dead to their knees, and in this posture, putting them in
+caves, or under a rock and at the same time, depositing a quantity of
+food for their supposed journey in another state. They also exhibited a
+farther coincidence with the customs of the northern Indians, by placing
+a bow and arrows with the body of the dead warrior, for his defence.
+Should an Indian woman happen to die in child-bed, they put the
+surviving infant to death, as having been the cause of its mother's
+decease. This tribe rebelled against the Spanish in 1612, under the
+influence of a native prophet, but they were subdued by the governor of
+the province, Don Francisco de Ordinola.
+
+ACAXETE, Santa Maria de, the head settlement of the district of Tepcaca,
+on the slope of the _sierra_ of Tlascala. It consists of 176 Mexican
+Indians, 7 Spanish families, and 10 Mustees and Mulatoes. In its
+vicinity there is a reservoir of hewn stone, to catch the waters of the
+mountain, which are thence conducted to Tepcaca, three leagues N. N. W.
+
+ACAXUCHITLAN, a curacy consisting of 406 Indian families of the
+bishopric of La Peubla de los Angeles. It is in the _alcaldia_ of
+Tulanzingo, lying 4 leagues E. of its capital.
+
+ACAYUCA, the capital of a civil division of New Spain, in the province
+of Goazacoalco, embracing, in its population, 296 families of Indians,
+30 of Spaniards, and 70 of mixed bloods. It lies a little over 100
+leagues S. E. of Mexico, in lat. 17° 53´ N.
+
+ACAZINGO, St. Juan de, a settlement of the district of Tepcaca,
+consisting of 700 families of Indians, 150 of Spaniards, 104 of Mustees,
+and 31 of Mulatoes. It is situated in a plain of mild temperature, well
+watered, and has a convent and fountain, and a number of "very ancient
+buildings."
+
+ACCÓCESAWS, a tribe of Indians of erratic habits, of Texas, whose
+principal location was formerly on the west side of the Colorado, about
+200 miles S. W. of Nacogdoches. At a remoter period they lived near the
+gulf of Mexico: they made great use of fish, and oysters. Authors
+represent the country occupied, or traversed by them, as exceedingly
+fertile and beautiful, and abounding in deer of the finest and largest
+kind. Their language is said to be peculiar to themselves; they are
+expert in communicating ideas by the system of signs. About A. D. 1750
+the Spanish had a mission among them, but removed it to Nacogdoches.
+
+ACCOMAC, a county of Virginia, lying on the eastern shores of Chesapeak
+bay. This part of the sea coast was inhabited by the Nanticokes, who
+have left their names in its geography. We have but a partial vocabulary
+of this tribe, which is now extinct. It has strong analogies, however,
+to other Algonquin dialects. Aco, in these dialects, is a generic term,
+to denote a goal, limit, or fixed boundary. Ahkee, in the Nanticoke, is
+the term for earth, or land. Auk, is a term, in compound words of these
+dialects, denoting wood. The meaning of accomac, appears to be _as far
+as the woods reach_, or, the boundary between meadow and woodlands.
+
+ACCOMACS, one of the sub tribes inhabiting the boundaries of Virginia on
+its discovery and first settlement. Mr. Jefferson states their numbers
+in 1607 at 80. In 1669, when the legislature of Virginia directed a
+census of the Indian population, within her jurisdiction, there appears
+no notice of this tribe. They inhabited the area of Northampton county.
+They were Nanticokes--a people whose remains united themselves or at
+least took shelter with the Lenapees, or Delawares.
+
+ACCOHANOCS, a division or tribe of the Powhetanic Indians, numbering 40,
+in 1607. They lived on the Accohanoc river, in eastern Virginia.
+
+ACCOMENTAS, a band, or division of the Pawtucket Indians inhabiting the
+northerly part of Massachusetts in 1674. (Gookin.)
+
+ACHAGUA, a nation of Indians of New Grenada, dwelling in the plains of
+Gazanare and Meta, and in the woods of the river Ele. They are bold and
+dexterous hunters with the dart and spear, and in their contests with
+their enemies, they poison their weapons. They are fond of horses, and
+rub their bodies with oil, to make their hair shine. They go naked
+except a small _azeaun_ made of the fibres of the aloe. They anoint
+their children with a bituminous ointment at their birth, to prevent the
+growth of hair. The brows of females are also deprived of hair, and
+immediately rubbed with the juice of _jagua_, which renders them bald
+ever after. They are of a gentle disposition but addicted to
+intoxication. The Jesuits formerly reduced many of them to the Catholic
+faith, and formed them into settlements in 1661.
+
+ACHAFALAYA, the principal western outlet of the Mississippi river. It is
+a Choctaw word, meaning, "the long river," from _hucha_, river, and
+_falaya_, long. (Gallatin.)
+
+ACKOWAYS, a synonym for a band of Indians of New France, now Canada. See
+Acouez.
+
+ACKEEKSEEBE, a remote northern tributary of the stream called Rum river,
+which enters the Mississippi, some few miles above the falls of St.
+Anthony, on its left banks. It is a compound phrase, from Akeek, a
+kettle, and seebe, a stream. It was on the margin of this stream, in a
+wide and spacious area, interspersed with beaver ponds, that a
+detachment of Gen. Cass's exploring party in July 1820, encamped; and
+the next morning discovered an Indian pictorial letter, written on bark,
+detailing the incidents of the march.
+
+ACKEEKO, or the Kettle chief, a leading Sauc chief who exercised his
+authority in 1820, at an important Indian village, situated on the right
+banks of the Mississippi, at Dubuque's mines.
+
+ACHQUANCHICÓLA, the name of a creek in Pennsylvania; it signifies in the
+Delaware or Lenapee language, as given by Heckewelder, the brush-net
+fishing creek.
+
+ACHWICK, a small stream in central Pennsylvania. It denotes in the
+Delaware language, according to Heckewelder, brushy, or difficult to
+pass.
+
+ACOBAMBA, a settlement in the province of Angaraes in Peru, near which
+are some monumental remains of the ancient race, who inhabited the
+country prior to its conquest by the Spanish. They consist, chiefly, of
+a pyramid of stones, and the ruins of some well sculptured stone
+couches, or benches, now much injured by time.
+
+ACOLMAN, San Augustin de, a settlement of 240 families of Indians of
+Tezcoco in Mexico. It is situated in a pleasant valley, with a benign
+temperature, and has a convent of Augustine monks.
+
+ACOMES, a fall in the river Amariscoggin, Maine, denoting, in the
+Indian, as is supposed, a rest, or place of stopping. From aco, a bound
+or point.
+
+ACOMULCO, a village of 12 Indian families in Zochicoatlan, New Spain,
+two leagues W. of its capital.
+
+ACONICHI, the name of a settlement of Indians formerly living on the
+river Eno, in North Carolina.
+
+ACOTITLAN, a settlement of 15 Indian families, in the _alcaldia_ of
+Autlan, Mexico. They employ themselves in raising cattle, making sugar
+and honey, and extracting oil from the _cacao_ fruit.
+
+ACOUEZ, a name formerly applied by the French to a band of Indians in
+New France. Believed to be identical with Ackoways.
+
+ACQUACKINAC, or ACQUACKINUNK, the Indian name of a town on the W. side
+of the Passaic river, New Jersey, ten miles N. of Newark and 17 from New
+York. From aco, a limit, misquak, a red cedar, and auk, a stump or trunk
+of a tree.
+
+ACQUINOSHIÓNEE, or United People, the vernacular name of the Iroquois
+for their confederacy. It appears, from their traditions, communicated
+to the Rev. Mr. Pyrlaus, a Dutch missionary of early date, that this
+term had not been in use above 50 years prior to the first settlement of
+the country: and if so, we have a late date, not more remote than 1559
+for the origin of this celebrated union. But this may be doubted.
+Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence in 1534, and found them at the site
+of Montreal; Verrizani, is said to have entered the bay of New York ten
+years before. Hudson entered the river in 1609. Jamestown was founded
+the year before. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 14 years later. It is
+more probable that the 50 years should be taken from the period of the
+earlier attempts of the French settlements, which would place the origin
+of the confederacy about A. D. 1500. (See Iroquois.)
+
+ACTOPAN, or OCTUPAN, a town and settlement of the Othomies Indians,
+situated 23 leagues N. N. E. of Mexico. Its population is put by Alcedo
+in 1787, at 2750 families. These are divided into two parties, separated
+by the church. It also contains 50 families of Spaniards, Mustees, and
+Mulatoes. The temperature is mild, but the ground is infested with the
+cactus, thorns and teasel, which leads the inhabitants to devote their
+attention to the raising of sheep and goats. In this vicinity are found
+numbers of the singular bird, called _zenzontla_, by the Mexican
+Indians.
+
+ACTUPAN, a settlement of 210 families of Indians in the district of
+Xocimilco, Mexico.
+
+ACUIAPAN, a settlement of 58 Indian families, in the _alcaldia mayor_
+of Zultepec, annexed to the curacy of Temascaltepec. They live by dressing
+hides for the markets--ib.
+
+ACUILPA, a settlement of 92 Indian families, in the magistracy of Tlapa,
+Mexico. It is of a hot and moist temperature, yielding grain, and the
+white medicinal earth called _chia_, in which they carry on a trade.
+
+ACUIO, a considerable settlement of Spaniards, Mustees, Mulatoes, and
+Negroes, 30 leagues W. of Cinaqua, in the curacy of Tauricato, Mexico;
+embracing 9 Indian families.
+
+ACULA, SAN PEDRO DE, an Indian settlement of 305 families, four leagues
+E. of Cozamaloapan, its capital. It is situated on a high hill, bounded
+by a large lake of the most salubrious water, called _Peutla_ by the
+natives. This lake has its outlet into the sea through the sand banks of
+Alvarado, and the lake is subject to overflow its banks in the winter
+season.
+
+ACUTITLAN, an Indian settlement of 45 families, in the district of
+Tepuxilco, Mexico, who trade in sugar, honey, and maize. It is five
+leagues N. E. of Zultepec, and a quarter of a league from Acamuchitlan.
+
+ACUTZIO, an Indian settlement of Tiripitio, in the magistracy of
+Valladolid, and bishopric of Mechoacan, Mexico. It contains 136 Indian
+families, and 11 families of Spaniards and Mustees. Six cultivated
+estates in this district, producing wheat, maize, and other grains,
+employ most of this population, who also devote part of their labour to
+the care of large and small cattle.
+
+ADAES, or ADAIZE, a tribe of Indians, who formerly lived forty miles
+south west from Natchitoches, in the area of country, which now
+constitutes a part of the republic of Texas. They were located on a
+lake, which communicates with the branch of Red-river passing Bayou
+Pierre. This tribe appears to have lived at that spot, from an early
+period. Their language is stated to be difficult of acquisition, and
+different from all others, in their vicinity. They were at variance with
+the ancient Natchez, and joined the French in their assault upon them in
+1798. They were intimate with the Caddoes, and spoke _their_ language.
+At the last dates, (1812) they were reduced to twenty men, with a
+disproportionate number of women. The synonyms for this now extinct
+tribe are, Adayes; Adees; Adaes; Adaize.
+
+ADARIO, a celebrated chief of the Wyandot nation, who was at the height
+of his usefulness and reputation, about 1690. He was able in the
+councils of his tribe, shrewd and wily in his plans, and firm and
+courageous in their execution. The Wyandots, or Hurons as they are
+called by the French, were then living at Michilimackinac, to which
+quarter they had been driven by well known events in their history. The
+feud between them and their kindred, the Iroquois, still raged. They
+remained the firm allies of the French; but they were living in a state
+of expatriation from their own country, and dependant on the friendship
+and courtesy of the Algonquins of the upper lakes, among whom they had
+found a refuge. Adario, at this period, found an opportunity of making
+himself felt, and striking a blow for the eventual return of his nation.
+
+To understand his position, a few allusions to the history of the period
+are necessary.
+
+In 1687, the English of the province of New York, resolved to avail
+themselves of a recent alliance between the two crowns, to attempt a
+participation in the fur trade of the upper lakes. They persuaded the
+Iroquois to set free a number of Wyandot captives to guide them through
+the lakes, and open an intercourse with their people. Owing to the high
+price and scarcity of goods, this plan was favored by Adario and his
+people, and also by the Ottowas and Pottowattomis, but the enterprise
+failed. Major McGregory, who led the party, was intercepted by a large
+body of French from Mackinac, the whole party captured and their goods
+were distributed gratuitously to the Indians. The lake Indians, who had
+covertly countenanced this attempt, were thrown back entirely on the
+French trade, and subjected to suspicions which made them uneasy in
+their councils, and anxious to do away with the suspicions entertained
+of their fidelity by the French. To this end Adario marched a party of
+100 men from Mackinac against the Iroquois. Stopping at fort Cadarackui
+to get some intelligence which might guide him, the commandant informed
+him that the governor of Canada, Denonville, was in hopes of concluding
+a peace with the Five Nations, and expected their ambassadors at
+Montreal in a few days. He therefore advised the chief to return. Did
+such a peace take place, Adario perceived that it would leave the
+Iroquois to push the war against his nation, which had already been
+driven from the banks of the St. Lawrence to lake Huron. He dissembled
+his fears, however, before the commandant, and left the fort, not for
+the purpose of returning home, but to waylay the Iroquois delegates, at
+a portage on the river where he knew they must pass. He did not wait
+over four or five days, when the deputies arrived, guarded by 40 young
+warriors, who were all surprised, and either killed or taken prisoners.
+His next object was to shift the blame of the act on the governor of
+Canada, by whom he told his prisoners, he had been informed of their
+intention to pass this way, and he was thus prepared to lie in wait for
+them. They were much surprised at this apparent act of perfidy,
+informing him at the same time, that they were truly and indeed on a
+message of peace. Adario affected to grow mad with rage against
+Denonville, declaring that he would some time be revenged on him for
+making him a tool, in committing so horrid a treachery. Then looking
+steadfastly on the prisoners among whom was Dekanefora, the head chief
+of the Onondaga tribe, "Go," said he, "my brothers, I untie your bonds,
+and send you home again, although our nations be at war. The French
+governor has made me commit so black an action, that I shall never be
+easy after it, until the Five Nations have taken full revenge." The
+ambassadors were so well persuaded of the perfect truth of his
+declarations, that they replied in the most friendly terms, and said the
+way was opened to their concluding a peace between their respective
+tribes, at any time. He then dismissed his prisoners, with presents of
+arms, powder and ball, keeping but a single man (an adopted Shawnee) to
+supply the place of the only man he had lost in the engagement. By one
+bold effort he thus blew up the fire of discord between the French and
+their enemies, at the moment it was about to expire, and laid the
+foundation of a peace with his own nation. Adario delivered his slave to
+the French on reaching Mackinac, who, to keep up the old enmity between
+the Wyandots and the Five Nations, ordered him to be shot. On this
+Adario called up an Iroquois prisoner who was a witness of this scene,
+and who had long been detained among them, and told him to escape to his
+own country, and give an account of the cruelty of the French, from whom
+it was not in his power to save a prisoner he had himself taken.
+
+This increased the rage of the Five Nations to such a pitch, that when
+Mons. Denonville sent a message to disown the act of Adario, they put no
+faith in it, but burned for revenge. Nor was it long before the French
+felt the effects of their rage. On the 26th of July, 1688, they landed
+with 1200 men on the upper end of the island of Montreal, and carried
+destruction wherever they went. Houses were burnt, plantations sacked,
+and men, women and children massacred. Above a thousand of the French
+inhabitants were killed, and twenty-six carried away prisoners, most of
+whom were burnt alive. In October of the same year, they renewed their
+incursion, sweeping over the lower part of the island as they had
+previously done the upper. The consequences of these inroads were most
+disastrous to the French, who were reduced to the lowest point of
+political despondency. They burnt their two vessels on Cadarackui lake,
+abandoned the fort, and returned to Montreal. The news spread far and
+wide among the Indians of the upper lakes, who, seeing the fortunes of
+the French on the wane, made treaties with the English, and thus opened
+the way for their merchandise into the lakes.--[Colden.]
+
+Such were the consequences of a single enterprise, shrewdly planned and
+vigorously executed. The fame of its author spread abroad, and he was
+every where regarded as a man of address, courage and abilities. And it
+is from this time, that the ancient feud between the Wyandots and their
+kindred, the Five Nations, began to cool. They settled on the straits of
+Detroit, where they so long, and up to the close of the late war (1814,)
+exercised a commanding influence among the lake tribes, as keepers of
+the general council fire of the nations.
+
+La Hontan, in his Travels in New France, relates some conversations with
+this chief, on the topic of religion, which may be regarded, almost
+exclusively, as fabulous.
+
+ADAYES, ADAES, and ADEES, forms of orthography, occurring in various
+writers, for the Adaize Indians, which see.
+
+ADEQUATÁNGIE, a tributary of the eastern head waters of the river
+Susquehanna in New-York. The word is Iroquois.
+
+ADDEES, the number of this tribe, residing on the waters of Red River,
+in Louisiana, in 1825, is stated, in an official report, from the war
+department of that year, at twenty-seven.
+
+ADÓLES, a settlement of Indians in the province of Orinoco. They were of
+the Saliva nation. The settlement was destroyed by the Caribs in 1684.
+
+ADIRÓNDACKS, the name of the Iroquois tribes for the Algonquins. The
+consideration of their history and characteristics, as a family of
+tribes, will be taken up, under the latter term.
+
+ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS, a name bestowed, in the geological survey of New
+York, upon the mountains at the source of the Hudson River.
+
+ADIK, IÁ-BA. See Iaba Wadik.
+
+ADIKÍMINIS, or Cariboo Island; an island situated in the north eastern
+part of lake Superior, which is invested with no other importance than
+it derives from Indian mythology and superstition. It is small and has
+seldom been visited. The Chippewas believe that this is one of the
+places of residence of their local manitoes, and that it was formerly
+inhabited by Michabo or Manabosho. Early travellers, who notice this
+belief, represent its shores to be covered with golden sands, but that
+these sands are guarded by powerful spirits, who will not permit the
+treasure to be carried away. Many fanciful tales are told of its having
+been once attempted, when a huge spirit strode into the water, and
+reclaimed the shining treasure. This is Carver's version, who, however,
+confounds it with another contiguous island. Henry, who visited it in
+his search after silver mines, in 1765, says that the Indians told him
+that their ancestors had once landed there, being driven by stress of
+weather, but had great difficulty in escaping from the power of enormous
+snakes. He calls it the Island of Yellow Sands. It abounded certainly
+with hawks in his day, one of whom was so bold as to pluck his cap from
+his head. He found nothing to reward his search but a number of
+Cariboos, which is the American reindeer, of which no less than 13 were
+killed, during his stay of three days. He represented it to be 12 miles
+in circumference, low, and covered with ponds, and to be sixty miles
+distant from the north shore of the lake. He thinks it is perhaps the
+same island which the French called _Isle de Pontchartrain_.
+
+AFFAGOULA, a small village of Indians, of Louisiana, who were located in
+1783 near Point Coupé, on the Mississippi.
+
+AGACES, a nation of Indians of the province of Paraguay. They are
+numerous, valiant, and of a lofty stature. They were, in ancient times,
+masters of the banks of the Paraguay, waging war against the Guavanies,
+and keeping the Spaniards at bay, but were at last subjugated in 1542,
+by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, governor of the province.
+
+AGARIATA, an Iroquois chief, who, having gone on an embassy of peace
+about 1688, to Canada, the governor, Monsieur Coursel, being
+exasperated against him, on account of bad faith and a violation of a
+treaty, caused him to be hanged in the presence of his countrymen.
+
+AGAMENTIGUS, a mountain of considerable elevation, eight miles from York
+harbour, Maine; also, a river of the same vicinity, which derives its
+waters chiefly from the influx of Piscataqua bay. The termination of the
+name in _us_, is foreign, and not in accordance with the Abenakie
+dialects of this coast.
+
+AGAMUNTIC, the name of a small lake, or pond, of Maine, which discharges
+its waters through the west branch of the Chaudiere river.
+
+AGAWAMS, a band of Indians of the Pokenoket, or Wampanoag type, who
+formerly lived at various periods, in part in Sandwich, in part in
+Ipswich, and in part in Springfield, Massachusets. The word is written
+with some variety, in old authors, the chief of which, are, the addition
+of another g, and the change of the penultimate a to o.
+
+AGIOCOCHOOK, a name of the Indians, for the White Mountains of
+New-Hampshire; of which the penultimate ok, is the plural. This group is
+also called, according to President Allen, Waumbek--a word, which in
+some of the existing dialects of the Algonquin, is pronounced Waubik,
+that is, White Rock.
+
+AGNALOS, a tribe of infidel Indians, inhabiting the mountains north of
+the river Apure, in New Grenada.
+
+AGRIAS, a tribe of Indians, formerly very numerous, of the government of
+Santa Marta, to the north of the Cienegra Grande. They are, at present,
+considerably reduced.
+
+AGUA DE CULEBRA, San Francisco Xavier De La, a _reduccion_ of
+Indians of the Capuchins, of the province of Venezuela. The vicinity
+produces, in abundance, cacao, yucao, and other vegetable productions.
+
+AGUACAGUA, an Indian mission, on a branch of the Oronoco, called Caroni.
+
+AGUACATLAN, an Indian mission of Xala, in Mexico. In 1745, it contained
+80 families of Indians, who cultivated maize and French beans.
+
+AGUALULCO, the capital of the jurisdiction of Izatlan, New Galicia,
+which in 1745, contained 100 Indian families.
+
+AGUANOS, a settlement in the province of Mainas, Quito, so called from
+the Indians of whom it is composed.
+
+AGUARICO, an Indian mission of the Jesuits, on the shores of the river
+Napo, of the province of Máinás, Quito.
+
+AGUARINGUA, an ancient and large settlement of Indians of the Taironas
+nation, in Santa Marta.
+
+AGUILUSCO, a settlement of the district of Arantzan, in the province of
+Mechoacan, which contains 36 Indian families. They subsist by sowing
+seed, cutting wood, making saddle trees, and manufacturing vessels of
+fine earthen ware.
+
+AHAPOPKA, a lake of Florida, having its outlet through the Oclawaha
+river of the St. John's.
+
+AHASIMUS, an ancient Indian name, for the present site of Jersey city,
+Hudson county, New Jersey.
+
+AHOME, or Ahoma, a nation of Indians, living on the banks of the river
+Zaque, in the province of Cinaloa, of California. They are located four
+leagues from the gulf, in extensive and fertile plains, and are said to
+be superior, by nature, to the other Indians of New Spain. Some of their
+customs denote this. They abhor poligamy, they hold virginity in the
+highest estimation. Unmarried girls, by way of distinction, wear a small
+shell suspended to their neck, until the day of their nuptials, when it
+is taken off by the bridegroom. They wear woven cotton. They bewail
+their dead a year, at night and morning. They are gentle and faithful in
+their covenants and engagements.
+
+AHOUANDÁTE, a name for the tribe of the Wyandots, which is found on
+ancient maps of the Colonies.
+
+AHUACATLAN, the name of four separate settlements of Mexico, containing,
+respectively, 51, 13, 450, and 160 families of Indians.
+
+AHUACAZALCA, Nueva Espána. At this place, 56 families of Indians live by
+raising rice and cotton. It is in the district of San Luis de la Costa.
+
+AHUACAZINGO, in the district of Atengo, Nueva Espána, contains 46 Indian
+families.
+
+AHUALICAN, of the same province, has 36 Indian families.
+
+AHUATELCO, ib. Has 289 families, who cultivate wheat and raise cattle.
+
+AHUATEMPA, ib. Has 39 families.
+
+AHUATEPEC, ib. Has 32 families.
+
+AHUAZITLA, ib. Has 36 families, who trade _inchia_, a white medicinal
+earth, grain and earthen-ware.
+
+AHWAHAWA, a tribe of Indians who were found in 1805 to be located a few
+miles above the Mandans, on the south west banks of the Missouri. They
+are believed to have been a band of the Minnitares. They numbered at
+that date 200. They were at war with the Snake Indians. They claim to
+have once been a part of the Crow nation. They professed to have been
+long residents of the spot occupied. The name has not been kept up, and
+does not appear in recent reports from that quarter. Their history is,
+probably, to be sought in that of the Mandans and the Minnetares.
+
+AIAHUALTEMPA, a settlement of Chalipa, Mexico, containing 36 Indian
+families.
+
+AIAHUALULCO, ib. Two settlements of this name, contain, respectively, 70
+and 42 Indian families.
+
+AIAPANGO, ib. contains 100 Indian families.
+
+AIATEPEC, ib. has 45 families of natives.
+
+AIAUTLA, ib. has 100 families.
+
+AICHES, a settlement of Indians of Texas, situated on the main road to
+Mexico.
+
+AIECTIPAC, Mexico. Twenty-one Indian families reside here.
+
+AINSE, a Chippewa chief of Point St. Ignace, Mechilimackinac county,
+Michigan. The population of this band, as shown by the government census
+rolls in 1840, was 193, of whom 33 were men, 54 women, and 106 children.
+They support themselves by the chase and by fishing. They cultivate
+potatoes only. They receive, together with the other bands, annuities
+from the government, in coin, provisions, salt, and tobacco, for which
+purpose they assemble annually, on the island of Michilimackinac. The
+name of this chief is believed to be a corruption from Hans.
+
+AIOCUESCO, an Indian settlement of Chalipa, Mexico. Has 400 Indian
+families.
+
+AIOCTITLAN, ib. Has 76 ditto.
+
+AIOZINAPA, ib. Has 34 ditto.
+
+AIOZINGO, ib. Has 120 ditto.
+
+AIRICOS, a nation of Indians inhabiting the plains of Cazanare and Meta
+in the new kingdom of Grenada, to the east of the mountains of Bogota.
+They inhabit the banks of the river Ele. They are numerous and warlike,
+and feared by all their neighbours, for their valour and dexterity in
+the use of arms. In 1662 Antonio de Monteverde, a Jesuit, established a
+mission among them, and baptized numbers.
+
+AISHQUÁGONABEE. A Chippewa chief, of some note, of a mild and dignified
+carriage, living on Grand Traverse Bay, on the east shores of lake
+Michigan. In 1836 he formed a part of the delegation of Chippewa and
+Ottowa chiefs, who proceeded to Washington city, and concluded a treaty
+ceding their lands to the U. S. from Grand river on lake Michigan, to
+Chocolate river on lake Superior. The name signifies, the first feather,
+or feather of honour. The population of his village in 1840, as shown by
+the census rolls, was 207, of whom 51 were men, or heads of families, 49
+women, and 107 children. They receive annuities annually at
+Michilimackinac. They subsist by the chase, by planting corn, beans and
+potatoes, and by fishing.
+
+AISHKEBUGÉKOZH, or the Flat Mouth, called Guelle Platte, in the patois
+of the Fur Trade. The Head chief of the band of the Chippewas, called
+Mukundwas or Pilligers, who are situated at Leech Lake, on the sources
+of the Mississippi. This band, it is estimated, can furnish 200
+warriors. They are a brave and warlike people, and are at perpetual war
+with their western neighbours, the Sioux. They subsist by the chase, and
+by taking white fish in the lake. Some corn and potatoes are also raised
+by the women and the old and superannuated men of the band. They are a
+fierce, wild, untamed race, strong in their numbers, and proud and
+confident in their success in war, and the comparative ease with which
+they procure a subsistence from the chase. They adhere to their ancient
+religious ceremonies and incantations, and are under the government of
+their native priests, jossakeeds and seers. Aishkebugekozh, has for many
+years exercised the political sway over them, leading them, sometimes to
+war, and presiding, at all times, in their councils. He is a shrewd man,
+of much observation and experience in the affairs of the frontiers. He
+is of a large, rather stout frame, broad shoulders and chest, and broad
+face, with a somewhat stern countenance, denoting decision of character
+and capacity to command. Thin and extended lips, parted in a right line
+over a prominent jaw, render the name, which his people have bestowed on
+him, characteristic. By the term Kozh, instead of Odoan, the true
+meaning of it is rather muzzle, or snout, than mouth, a distinction
+which the French have preserved in the term _Guelle_.
+
+AIUINOS, a nation of Indians, of the government of Cinaloa, New Spain.
+They live in the north part of the province. They formerly dwelt in
+lofty mountains, to escape the effects of war with other nations. In
+1624, the Jesuits established a mission amongst them. They are docile,
+well inclined, and of good habits.
+
+AIUTLA, a settlement of New Spain, containing 187 Indian families.
+Another location of the same name contains 23 families.
+
+AJOUES, a tribe of Indians of Louisiana, in its ancient extent, while it
+existed under the government of the French. The word, as expressed in
+English orthography, is Iowas, and the tribe will be considered under
+that head.
+
+AKÓSA, an Odjibwa chief, living on the peninsula of Grand Traverse Bay,
+lake Michigan, known for his good will towards the mission established
+near his village, by the American Board, in 1839. In the recess periods
+of hunting, he is attentive on the means of instruction furnished at
+that station. He enjoins on his children attendance at the school. He
+bestows a punctual care in planting his corn-field and garden. He has
+erected a good dwelling house of logs, and supplied it with several
+articles of plain household furniture. He is of a mild and pleasing
+character, and appreciates and acknowledges the superiority of
+agriculture and civilization over the uncertainties of the chase.
+Without distinction in war, or eloquence, or a genealogy of warriors to
+refer to, and consequently, of but little general note or fame in his
+tribe, he is an active hunter, and stable, temperate man, and may be
+regarded as a fair average specimen, physically and mentally, of the
+race. The band of Akosa mustered 160 souls, on the pay rolls of 1840, of
+which number, 37 were men, 42 women, and 89 children. They receive their
+annuities at Michilimackinac.
+
+AKANSA, a synonym of Arkansas.
+
+ALABÁMA, one of the United States of America. The name is derived from a
+tribe of Indians, who formerly inhabited the banks of the river of the
+same name. This river, on its junction with the Tombigbee, forms the
+Mobile. The Alabama Indians, were succeeded in the occupancy of this
+river by the Creeks, or Muscogees. They withdrew towards the west. In
+1790 their descendants lived in a village, eligibly situated, on several
+swelling green hills on the banks of the Mississippi. No accounts of
+them are given in recent reports. They appear to have continued their
+route westward by the way of Red River. The precise period of their
+crossing the Mississippi is not known. They came to Red River about the
+same time as the Bolixies and Appalaches. Their language is represented
+to be the Mobilian, as denominated by Du Pratz, that is the Chacta. Part
+of them lived, at the end of the 18th century, on Red River, sixteen
+miles above Bayou Rapide. Thence they went higher up the stream, and
+settled near the Caddoes, where they raised good crops of corn. Another
+party, of about 40 men, lived in Apalousas district, where they
+cultivated corn, raised and kept horses, hogs and cattle, and exhibited
+a quiet and pacific character. From a statement published in a paper, at
+Houston, the seat of government of Texas, in 1840, their descendants
+were then settled on the river Trinity, in that republic, where they are
+associated with the Coshattas, forming two villages, numbering two
+hundred warriors, or about 1000 souls. They preserve, in this new
+location, the pacific and agricultural traits noticed during their
+residence in Louisiana.
+
+ALACHUA, an extensive level prairie, in Florida, about 75 miles west of
+St. Augustine. The ancient Indian town of Alachua, stood on its borders,
+but its inhabitants removed to a more healthful position at Cuscowilla.
+
+ALACLATZALA, a settlement in the district of St. Lewis, New Spain,
+containing 125 Indian families.
+
+ALAHUITZLAN, ib. a settlement having 270 Indian families.
+
+ALAPAHA, one of the higher tributary streams of the Suwannee river, in
+Florida.
+
+ALASKE, or ONALASKA, a long peninsula on the N. W. coast of America. At
+its termination, are a number of islands, which form a part of the
+cluster called the northern Archepelago.
+
+ALBARRADA, a settlement of Indians in the kingdom of Chile, situated on
+the shores of the river Cauchupil. Also a settlement of New Spain,
+containing 22 Indian families.
+
+ALEMPIGON improperly written for Nipigon, a small lake north of lake
+Superior.
+
+ALFAXAIUCA, a settlement of New Spain, containing 171 Indian families.
+
+ALGANSEE, a township of the county of Branch, Michigan. It is a compound
+derivative from Algonkin, _gan_, a particle denoting a lake, and
+mushcodainse, a prairie.
+
+ALGIC, an adjective term used by the writer, to denote a genus or family
+of tribes who take their characteristic from the use of the Algonquin
+language. It is a derivative from the words _Algonquin_, and _Akee_,
+earth, or land.
+
+ALGONQUIN, a nation of Indians who, on the discovery and settlement of
+Canada, were found to occupy the north banks of the St. Lawrence between
+Quebec, Three Rivers, and the junction of the Utawas. Quebec itself is
+believed to be a word derived from this language, having its origin in
+Kebic, the fearful rock or cliff. When the French settled at Quebec,
+fifteen hundred fighting men of this nation lived between that nation
+and Sillery. They were reputed, at this era, to be the most warlike and
+powerful people in North America, and the most advanced in their policy
+and intelligence. Colden speaks of them as excelling all others. On the
+arrival of Champlain, who, although not the discoverer of the country,
+was the true founder of the French power in Canada, they were supplied
+with fire arms, and even led to war, by that chivalric officer, against
+their enemies, the Iroquois. They were stimulated to renewed exertions
+in various ways, by the arrival of this new power, and carried the
+terror of their arms towards the south and south-west. They were in
+close alliance with the Wyandots, a people who, under the names of
+Quatoghies and Hurons, on Cartier's arrival in 1534, were seen as low
+down the St. Lawrence as the island of Anticosti, and bay Chaleur. But
+as soon as the Iroquois had been supplied with the same weapons, and
+learned their use, the Algonquins were made to feel the effects of their
+courage, and combined strength. The Wyandots were first defeated in a
+great battle fought within two leagues of Quebec. The Iroquois next
+prepared to strike an effective blow against the collective tribes of
+kindred origin, called Algonquins. Under the pretence of visiting the
+Governor of Canada, they introduced a thousand men into the valley of
+the St. Lawrence, when, finding their enemies separated into two bodies,
+the one at the river Nicolet, and the other at Trois Rivière, they fell
+upon them unawares, and defeated both divisions. In this defeat the
+Nipercerinians (Nipessings) and the Atawawas (Ottowas) who then lived on
+the banks of the St. Lawrence, participated. The former, who were indeed
+but the Algonquins, under their proper name, drew off towards the
+north-west. The Atawawas migrated to the great chain of the Manatoulines
+of lake Huron, whence they have still proceeded further towards the west
+and south, until they reached L'arbre Croche and Grand River of
+Michigan, their present seats. The Quatoghies or Wyandots fled to the
+banks of the same Lake (Huron) which has derived its name from the
+celebrity of their flight to, and residence on its banks.
+
+Of the Algonquins proper who remained on the St. Lawrence, and who are
+specifically entitled to that name, but a limited number survive. About
+the middle of the 17th century, they were reduced to a few villages near
+Quebec, who were then said to be "wasted, and wasting away under the
+effects of ardent spirits." Subsequently, they were collected, by the
+Catholic Church, into a mission, and settled at the Lake of Two
+Mountains, on the Utawas or Grand River of Canada, where they have been
+instructed in various arts, and effectually civilized. There, their
+descendants still remain. They are a tall, active, shrewd, lithe,
+energic race. Parties of them have been engaged as voyagers and hunters,
+within modern times, and led in the prosecution of the fur trade into
+the remote forests of the north-west. In these positions, they have
+manifested a degree of energy, hardihood, and skill in the chase, far
+beyond that possessed by native, unreclaimed tribes. The Algonquin
+women, at the Lake of Two Mountains, make very ingenious basket and bead
+work, in which the dyed quills of the porcupine, and various coloured
+beads of European manufacture, are employed. They also make finger rings
+out of moose hair, taken from the breast tuft of this animal, in which
+mottoes or devices are worked. They have melodious soft voices, in
+chanting the hymns sung at the mission. This tribe is called
+Odishkuaguma, that is, People-at-the-end-of-the-waters, by the Odjibwas.
+They were called Adirondacks, by the Six Nations. The term Algonquin,
+which we derive from the French, is not of certain etymology. It appears
+at first to have been a _nom de guerre_, for the particular people, or
+tribe, whose descendants are now confined to the position at the Lake of
+Two Mountains. It was early applied to all the tribes of kindred origin.
+And is now a generic term for a family or primitive stock of tribes in
+North America, who either speak cognate dialects, or assimilate in the
+leading principles of their languages.
+
+The number of these tribes still existing, is very large, and viewed in
+the points of their greatest difference, the variations in the
+consonantal and diphthongal sounds of their languages, are considerable.
+As a general geographical area, these tribes, at various periods from
+about 1600, to the present time, ethnographically covered the Atlantic
+coast, from the northern extremity of Pamlico-sound to the Straits of
+Bellisle, extending west and north-west, to the banks of the Missinipi
+of Hudson's Bay, and to the east borders of the Mississippi, as low as
+the junction of the Ohio. From this area, the principal exceptions are
+the Iroquois of New York, the Wyandots west, and the Winnebagoes and
+small bands of the Docotahs. The grammatical principles of these
+dialects, coincide. As a general fact, in their lexicography the letters
+f, r and v are wanting. The dialects derive their peculiarities, in a
+great measure, from interchanges between the sounds of l and n, b and p,
+d and t, g and k, in some of which, there is a variance even in distant
+bands of the same tribe. The language is transpositive. In its
+conjugations, the pronouns are incorporated with the verb, either as
+prefixes or suffixes. Its substantives are provided with adjective
+inflections, denoting size and quality. Its verbs, on the other hand,
+receive substantive inflections. Gender is, as a rule, lost sight of, in
+the uniform attempt, to preserve, by inflections, a distinction between
+animate and inanimate, and personal or impersonal objects. It is
+remarkable for the variety of its compounds, although the vocabulary
+itself, is manifestly constructed from monosyllabic roots. All its
+substantives admit of diminutives, but, in no instance, of
+augmentatives. They also admit of derogative and prepositional
+inflections. The comparison of adjectives, is not, on the contrary, made
+by inflections, but by separate words. There is no dual number, but in
+all the dialects, so far as examined, a distinction is made in the
+plural of the first person, to denote the inclusion or exclusion of the
+object. There is no distinction between the pronoun, singular and
+plural, of the third person. The language has some redundancies, which
+would be pruned off by cultivation. It has many liquid and labial
+sounds. It has a soft flow and is easy of attainment. It is peculiarly
+rich and varied, in its compound terms for visible objects, and their
+motions or acts. Streams, mountains, vallies, and waters, in all their
+variety of appearance, are graphically described. It is equally suited
+to describe the phenomena of the heavens, the air, tempests, sounds,
+light, colours, motion, and the various phases of the clouds and
+planetary bodies. It is from this department, that a large portion of
+their personal names are taken.
+
+It is true that many of the grammatical principles of the Algonquin
+languages, are also developed in other stocks. Yet these stocks are not
+as well known. It was chiefly in the area of the Algonquin tribes, that
+the British and French, and Dutch and Swedish colonists settled, and the
+result of enquiry, through a long period, has accumulated most materials
+in relation to this type of the American languages. Specific notices of
+each of the subdivisions of this stock, will be given under the
+appropriate names.
+
+The general synonyms for this nation are but few. The principal
+differences in the orthography, between the French and English writers
+consist in the latter's spelling the last syllable _quin_, while the
+former employ _kin_. In old encyclopædias and gazetteers, the phrase
+Algonquinensis, is used. The term Abernaquis, is also a French mode of
+annotation for the same word, but is rather applied at this time to a
+specific band. The word Algic, derived from the same root, has been
+applied by the writer to the entire circle of the Algonquin tribes, in
+their utmost former extent in North America. Mr. Gallatin has proposed
+the term "Algonkin-Lenape," as a philological denomination for this
+important family. Their own name for the race, is a question of some
+diversity of opinion. Those particular tribes, who were found on the
+Atlantic coast between the Chesapeak-bay and the Hudson, called
+themselves Lenapes, generally with the prefixed or qualifying noun of
+Linno, or Lenno. Other tribes extending over the largest area of the
+union, and of British America, inhabited by this stock, denote
+themselves as a race, by the term Anishinábá, that is, the common
+people.
+
+The term Lenápe, signifies a male, and is identical in sense with the
+Algonquin word Iába. If Lenno, or Linno be, as some contend, a term
+denoting _original_, they must be conceded to have had more forethought,
+and a greater capacity for generalization, than other stocks have
+manifested, by calling themselves, Original Men. If, however, it only
+implies, as others acquainted with this language, assert, _common_ or
+_general_, then is here perceived to be a perfect identity in the
+meaning of the two terms.
+
+ALGONAC, a village of the county of St. Clair, Michigan, which is
+pleasantly situated on the banks of the river St. Clair. It is a term
+derived from the word Algonquin, and _akee_, earth or land.
+
+ALGONQUINENSIS, a term used in old gazetteers and geographical
+dictionaries, for the Algonquins.
+
+ALIETANS, a name for the Shoshones, or Snake Indians. See Ietans.
+
+ALIBAMONS, or ALIBAMIS, ancient forms of orthography for the tribe of
+the Alabamas.
+
+ALINA, a settlement of Pinzandarc, New Spain, containing 20 Indian
+families, who have a commerce in maize and wax.
+
+ALIPKONCK, an Indian village which, in 1659, stood on the east banks of
+the river Hudson, between the influx of the Croton, then called by the
+Dutch Saehkill, and the Indian village of Sing Sing. [Osinsing.]
+Aneebikong? place of leaves, or rich foliage.
+
+ALLCA, an ancient province of the kingdom of Peru, south of Cuczo,
+inhabited by a race of natives, who made a vigorous stand against Manco
+Capac, the fourth emperor of the Incas, and called the conqueror. In
+this defence, they were favoured by the rugged character of the country,
+which abounds in woods, mountains, lakes, and gold and silver mines.
+
+ALLEGAN, an agricultural and milling county of the state of Michigan,
+bordering on the east shores of lake Michigan. It is a derivative word,
+from Algonkin, and _gan_ the penultimate syllable of the Odjibwa term
+Sa-gí-é-gan, a lake.
+
+ALLEGHANY, the leading chain of mountains of the United States east of
+the Mississippi, also one of the two principal sources of the Ohio
+river. Indian tradition attributes the origin of this name to an ancient
+race of Indians who were called Tallegewy, or Allegewy. This nation,
+tradition asserts, had spread themselves east of the Mississippi and of
+the Ohio. They were a warlike people, and defended themselves in long
+and bloody wars, but were overpowered and driven south by a confederacy
+of tribes, whose descendants still exist in the Algonquin and Iroquois
+stocks. Such is the account of the Delawares.
+
+ALMOLOIA, a settlement of Zultepec in New Spain, of 77 Indian families;
+also, in Metepec, in the same kingdom, of 156 families.
+
+ALMOLOLOAIAN, a settlement in the district of Cohma, New Spain, of 60
+Indian families.
+
+ALOTEPEC, ib. has 67 families.
+
+ALOZOZINGO, ib. has 110 families.
+
+ALPIZAGUA, ib. has 36 families.
+
+ALPOIECA, ib. has 42 families. Another, same name, of 115 families.
+
+ALPOIECAZINGO, ib. has 140 families.
+
+ALPONECA, ib. has 30 families. Another, same name, 77 families.
+
+ALTAMAHA, a river of Georgia.
+
+ALTOTONGA, the name of a settlement of Xalapa, in New Spain. The word
+signifies in the Mexican language, hot and saltish water, and this comes
+from the intermingled qualities of two streams which originate in a
+mountain near to each other, and form by their junction a river which
+runs into the lake of Alchichica.
+
+ALZOUI, a settlement of 190 Indian families, of Tlapa, in New Spain, or
+Mexico. They are industrious, cultivating maize, cotton, French beans
+and rice.
+
+ALMOUCHICO, the Indian name for New England, on the map of "Novi
+Belgii," published at Amsterdam in 1659.
+
+AMACACHES, a nation of Indians of Brazil, of the province of Rio
+Janiero. They inhabit the mountains south of the city. They are
+numerous, and much dreaded, on account of the desperate incursions they
+have made into the Portuguese settlements. Their weapons are darts, and
+macanaw, a kind of club made of a very heavy wood. They poison their
+arrows and lances.
+
+AMALISTES, a band of Algonquins, living on the St. Lawrence, and
+numbering 500 in 1760.
+
+AMANALCO, an Indian settlement of the district of Metepeque, Mexico, of
+1224 families.
+
+AMAPAES, a barbarous nation of Indians in New Andalusia, to the west of
+the river Orinoco, near the mountains of Paria. They are valiant and
+hardy; sincere and faithful in their engagements. They live by the chace
+and by fishing. They make arms, which are tipped by vegetable poisons.
+They are at war with the Isaperices. Their territory is called, after
+them, Amapaya.
+
+AMAPILCAN, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 15 Indian families.
+
+AMATEPEC, an Indian settlement of Zultepec, Mexico, situated on the top
+of a mountain, consisting of 80 families. Another settlement, of the
+same name, in the district of Toltontepec, has 15 Indians families. Both
+have a cold temperature.
+
+AMATICLAN, a settlement of Huitepec, in Mexico, containing 43 Indian
+families.
+
+AMATINCHAN, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 62 Indian
+families.
+
+AMATLAN, a settlement of Tanzitaro, Mexico, containing 60 Indian
+families. Another settlement of San Louis, has 380 families. Another, in
+the district of Cordova, has 220. Another, in Zacatlan 248. Another, in
+Cozamaopan has 150. All these bear the same name, with the prefix of the
+dedicatory patron, Santa Ana.
+
+AMBOY, a bay of New Jersey. This part of the state was occupied, in
+ancient time, by a tribe or band of the Minci, who were called
+Sauhikans.
+
+AMEALCO, a settlement of Querataro, Mexico, containing 38 Indian
+families.
+
+AMECA, a settlement of Autlan, Mexico, containing 43 Indian families.
+
+AMECAMECA, a settlement of Chalco, Mexico, containing 570 Indian
+families.
+
+AMECAQUE, a settlement of Calpa, Mexico, containing 275 Indian families.
+
+AMERICA; no nation of Indians on this continent, had, so far as we know,
+ever generalized sufficiently to bestow a generic name on the continent.
+The Algonquin terms "Our Country," AINDANUKEYAN, and "The West," KABEAN,
+were probably the most comprehensive which their intercourse or ideas
+required. Equivalents for these phrases might be, perhaps, successfully
+sought among all the most advanced tribes. The instances here given are
+from the Odjibwa dialect.
+
+AMICWAYS, or AMICAWAES, a tribe or family of Indians, who are spoken of
+by the French writers as having formerly inhabited the Manatonline chain
+of islands in lake Huron. The term is from Amik, a beaver. The Ottowas
+settled here, after their discomfiture, along with the Adirondacks, on
+the St. Lawrence.
+
+AMIK-EMINIS, the group of Beaver islands of Lake Michigan. The
+easternmost of this group is called Amik-aindaud, or the Beaver-house.
+These islands are inhabited by Chippewas. In 1840, they numbered 199
+souls, of whom 39 were men, 51 women, and 109 children. All were engaged
+in the chase, or in fishing, and none in agriculture. Their chief was
+called Kinwabekizze.
+
+AMIKWUG, a wild roving nation northwest of the sources of the
+Mississippi. See Beaver Indians.
+
+AMILPA, a settlement of Xochimilco, in Mexico, containing 730 Indian
+families, who live by agriculture.
+
+AMILTEPEC, a settlement of Juquila, M., containing 14 Indian families.
+
+AMIXOCORES, a barbarous nation of Indians of Brazil. They inhabit the
+woods and mountains south of Rio Janerio. They are cruel and
+treacherous. They are at continual war with the Portuguese. Very little
+is known of the territory they inhabit, or of their manners.
+
+AMMOUGKAUGEN, a name used in 1659, for the southern branch of the
+Piscataqua river.
+
+AMOLA, or AMULA, a judicial district in Guadaxalara, Mexico. In the
+Mexican tongue, it signifies the land of many trees, as it abounds in
+trees. The change from o to u in the word, is deemed a corruption.
+
+AMOLTEPEC, a settlement of Teozaqualco, Mexico, containing 96 Indian
+families.
+
+AMONOOSUCK, an Indian name which is borne by two rivers of New
+Hampshire. Both take their rise in the White Mountains. The upper
+Amonoosuck enters the Connecticut River, at Northumberland, near upper
+Coos. The lower, or Great Amonoosuck, enters the same river above the
+town of Haverhill, in lower Coos.
+
+AMOPOCAN, a settlement of Indians of Cuyo, in Chili, situated along the
+shores of a river.
+
+AMOZAQUE, a settlement of Puebla de los Angelos, in a hot and dry
+temperature, containing 586 Indian families.
+
+AMPONES, a barbarous nation of Indians, in Paraguay. They inhabit the
+forest to the south of the Rio de la Plata. They are of small stature.
+They are divided into several tribes. They are courageous. They live on
+wild tropical fruits, and on fish which are taken in certain lakes. They
+preserve these by smoking. They enjoy a fine country and climate. They
+find gold in the sand of their rivers, and have some traffic with the
+city of Conception. Some converts have been made to the Catholic faith.
+
+AMUES, a settlement and silver mine of San Luis de la Paz, in Mexico. It
+has 43 Indian families, besides 93 of Mustees and Mullatoes. They
+subsist by digging in the mines.
+
+AMURCAS, a nation of barbarous Indians, descended from the Panches, in
+New Grenada. They live in the forests to the south of the river
+Magdalena. But little is known of them.
+
+AMUSKEAG, the Indian name of a fall in the river Merrimack, New
+Hampshire, 16 miles below Concord, and 7 miles below Hookset falls.
+
+ANA, SANTA. Of the fifty-five names of places in Mexico, or New Spain,
+mentioned by Alcedo, which bear this name, seven are the seat of a joint
+population of 544 Indian families. Of these, 31 are in Zaqualpa; 117 in
+Zultepec; 124 in Toluca; 134 in Cholula; 18 in Yautepec; 25 in Mitla; 70
+in Amaqueca; and 149 in Huehuetlan.
+
+ANAHUAC, the ancient Indian name of New Spain, or Mexico. The valley of
+Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, is, according to Humboldt, situated in the
+centre of the cordillera of Anahuac. This valley is of an oval form. Its
+length is 18-3/4 leagues, estimating from the entry of the Rio Tenango
+into lake Chalco to the foot of the Cerro de Sincoque, and 12-1/2
+leagues in breadth, from St. Gabriel to the sources of the Rio de
+Escapusalco. Its territorial extent is 244-1/2 square leagues, of which
+only 22 square leagues are occupied by lakes, being less than a tenth
+of the whole surface. The circumference of the valley, estimating around
+the crest of the mountains, is 67 leagues. This crest is very elevated
+in most parts, and embraces the great volcanoes of La Puebla,
+Popocatepetl, and Iztacchihuatl. There are five lakes in this valley, of
+which, that of Tezcuco is the largest. All are much diminished in the
+quantity of water they yield, since the 16th century, which is owing, in
+part, to the destruction of trees by the Spaniards, but most directly to
+the canal of Huehuetoco, cut through a mountain, by which the waters are
+drawn into the river Panuco, and thus find their way into the Atlantic.
+By this work, the city of Mexico itself was freed from all effects of
+periodical inundation, and the site enlarged and rendered better suited
+to streets and carriages. The waters of lake Tezcuco are impregnated
+with muriate and carbonate of soda. Those of Xochimilco are the most
+pure and limpid. Humboldt found their specific gravity to be 1.0009,
+when distilled water at the temperature of 54° Fahrenheit, was 1.000,
+and that of Tezcuco 1.0215.
+
+Of the five lakes mentioned, Xochimilco and Chalco contain 6-1/2 square
+leagues; Tezcuco, 10-1/10; San Christoval, 3-6/10; and Zumpango, 1-3/10.
+The valley is a basin, surrounded by an elevated wall of porphyry
+mountains. The bottom of this basin is 2,277 metres, or 7,468 feet above
+the sea.
+
+ANALCO, a settlement of Guadalaxara, in Mexico, containing 40 Indian
+families.
+
+ANASAGUNTAKOOK, a band of the Abenaki, on the sources of the
+Androscoggin, in Maine.
+
+ANCAMARES, a nation of Indians inhabiting the shores of the river
+Madera. They are very warlike and robust. In 1683 they attacked the
+Portuguese, and compelled them to give up the navigation of the river.
+They are divided into different tribes. The most numerous are the
+Ancamares, who inhabit the shores of the river Cayari.
+
+ANCAS, a nation of Indians in Peru, who, on the 6th January, 1725, were
+overwhelmed and destroyed by the ruins of a mountain which burst forth
+by an earthquake. Fifteen thousand souls perished on that occasion.
+
+ANCE, or HANCE'S band of Chippewas, living at Point St. Ignace, on the
+straits of Michilimackinac, in Michigan. This band, in 1840, as denoted
+by the annuity pay rolls, numbered 193; of whom, 33 were men, 54 women,
+and 106 children. They subsist in part by hunting the small furred
+animals still existing in the country, and in part by fishing. They
+migrate from place to place, as the season varies, plant very little,
+and are addicted to the use of ardent spirits.
+
+ANCLOTE, an island on the southwest coast of Florida; also, a river
+flowing into the gulf at that locality, which is also called, in the
+Seminole dialect, the Est-has-hotee.
+
+ANCUTERES, a nation of infidel Indians inhabiting the forests of the
+river Napo, in Quito. They are numerous, savage, treacherous, and
+inconstant.
+
+ANDASTES, a nation formerly inhabiting the territory on the southern
+shores of lake Erie, southwest of the Senecas. They were extirpated by
+the Iroquois.
+
+ANDAIG WEOS, or CROW'S FLESH, a hereditary chief of the Chippewa nation,
+living towards the close of the last century at the ancient Indian
+village of La Pointe Chegoimegon, on lake Superior. He possessed
+qualities, which, under a different phasis of society, would have
+developed themselves in marked acts of benevolence. Numbers of
+anecdotes, favourable to his character, are related of him, and have
+been handed down by tradition among the French residents on that remote
+frontier. Although a warrior, engaged in frequent expeditions against
+the enemies of his tribe, he opposed the shedding of the blood of white
+men who were encountered, in a defenceless state, in the pursuits of
+trade. He also resisted the plunder of their property. He had a strong
+natural sense of justice, accompanied with moral energy, and gave
+utterance to elevated and ennobling sentiments in his intercourse.
+
+ANDREAS, SAN. A settlement of Texupilco, in Mexico, containing 77 Indian
+families; another of Toluco, of 134; another in Tlatotepec, of 33;
+another in Tuxtla, of 1170; another in Guejozingo, of 15; another in
+Papalotepec, of 20; another in Hiscoutepec, of 68; another in
+Tepehuacan, of 40; all under the same dedicatory name.
+
+ANDROSCOGGIN, the main western source of the river Kennebec, in Maine.
+
+ANGAGUA, SANTIAGO DE; a settlement of Valladolid, Mexico, containing 22
+Indian families.
+
+ANGAMOCUTIRO, a settlement of the same district with the preceding,
+containing 106 Indian families.
+
+ANGARAES, a province of Peru, containing six curacies or parishes of
+Indians.
+
+ANGELES, PUEBLA DE LOS, the capitol of the province of Tlaxcala, in New
+Spain, or Mexico, founded in 1533. The entire number of Indian families
+within this important jurisdiction is 3,200, which, at the ordinary rate
+of the estimation of Indian population here, that is, five souls to a
+family, gives an aggregate of 16,000. These are descendants of the
+ancient Azteecs, who inhabited the country on its conquest.
+
+This is, however, but the population of the chief town or capital. The
+entire intendency of Pueblos de los Angeles contained, in 1793, 508,098
+souls. Of this number, 373,752 were Indians of pure blood, divided into
+187,531 males, and 186,221 females. There were also 77,908 of the mixed
+race, divided into 37,318 males, and 40,590 females. But 54,980 were
+Spaniards, or whites, exclusive of 585 secular ecclesiastics, 446 monks,
+and 427 nuns. This preponderance of the native Indian population is
+still more striking in the government of Ilaxcala, which, of course,
+includes the capital above named. In 1793, it contained a population of
+59,177 souls; of which, 42,878 were Indians, divided into 21,849 males,
+and 21,029 females. The town is governed by a Cacique, and four Indian
+Alcaldes, who represent the ancient heads of the four quarters, still
+called Teepectipac, Ocotelalco, Quiahtuitztlan, and Tizatlan. By virtue
+of a royal cedula of 16th April, 1585, the whites have no seat in the
+municipality. The Cacique, or Indian Governor, enjoys the honors of an
+_alferez real_. Notwithstanding the zeal of a Spanish intendant general,
+the progress of the inhabitants in industry and prosperity has been
+extremely slow. The secret of this is, perhaps, revealed in the fact
+that four fifths of the whole property belongs to mort-main proprietors,
+that is to say, to communities of monks, to chapters, corporations, and
+hospitals. Their trade is also depressed by the enormous price of
+carriage from the table lands, and the want of beasts of burden.
+
+The geology and antiquities of this part of Mexico, are equally
+interesting. The intendency of Puebla is traversed by the high
+cordilleras of Anahuac, which, beyond the 18th degree of latitude,
+spreads into a plain, elevated from 1,800 to 2,000 metres above the
+level of the ocean, or from 5,905 to 6,561 feet. In this intendency is
+also the Popocatepetl, the highest mountain in Mexico. Humboldt's
+measurement of this volcano makes it 600 metres (1,968 feet,) higher
+than the most elevated summit of the old continent. It is, indeed, only
+exceeded between Panama and Behring's Straits, by Mt. St. Elias.
+
+The table land of Puebla exhibits remarkable vestiges of ancient
+civilization. The fortifications of Tlaxcala are posterior in the date
+of their construction to the great pyramid of Cholula. This pyramid, or
+teocalli, is the most stupendous monument erected by the race. Its
+squares are arranged in exact accordance with the astronomical
+parallels. It is constructed in stages or terraces, the highest of which
+is 177 feet above the plain. It has a base of 1423 feet. By a passage
+excavated into the north side of it, a few years ago, it is found to be
+solid, and to consist of alternate layers of brick and clay. Its centre
+has not, however, been reached. Its height exceeds the third of the
+great Egyptian pyramids of the group of Ghiza. In its base, however, it
+exceeds that of all other edifices found by travellers in the old
+continent; it is almost double that of the great pyramid of Cheops. To
+conceive of the vastness of the structure, let the traveller imagine a
+square four times the size of the Place Vendome, piled up with brick, in
+terraces, twice the utmost height of the palace of the Louvre.
+
+The Indians of the province of Tlaxcala speak three languages, differing
+from one another, namely: the Mexican, Totonac, and Tlapanac. The first
+is peculiar to the inhabitants of Puebla, Cholula, and Tlascalla; the
+second to the inhabitants of Zacatlan; and the third is preserved in the
+environs of Tlapa. The population of the entire intendency of Puebla, in
+1803, that is, ten years after the census above noted, had advanced to
+813,300 in an extent of 2,696 square leagues, giving 301 inhabitants to
+the square league. Small as this may appear, it is four times greater
+than that of Sweden, and nearly equal to that of the Kingdom of Arragon.
+
+ANIALIS, a barbarous nation of South American Indians, in the llanos of
+Casanare and Meta, in the new kingdom of Grenada. They are descended
+from the Betoyes. They are very numerous, and of a gentle nature. The
+Jesuits established a mission among them in 1722.
+
+ANNACIOIS, or ANNACOUS, a barbarous nation of Indians, of the province
+of Puerto Seguro, in Brazil. They inhabit the woods and mountains to the
+west, and near the rivers Grande and Yucara. They are in a constant
+state of warfare, night and day. They are irreconcileable enemies of the
+Portuguese, whose colonies and cultivated lands they continually infest,
+and which they destroyed in 1687.
+
+ANNEMOSING, the name of the Ottowas, and Chippewas, for the Fox Islands,
+of lake Michigan. It is derived of Annemose, a young dog or fox, and
+_ing_, a particle denoting place, or locality.
+
+ANNEMIKEENS, a Chippewa hunter of Red River, in Hudson's bay, who
+survived a conflict with a grisly bear. After being terribly lacerated,
+in his face and limbs, but not deprived of consciousness, he affected
+death. The animal then seized him gently by the neck, and dragged him to
+a thicket, where he was left, as it was thought, to be eaten when the
+calls of hunger should demand. From this position he arose, first
+setting up, and binding parts of his lacerated flesh down, and
+afterwards rose, and succeeded in reaching his wigwam, where, by skill
+in the use of simples, his wounds were entirely healed. The name
+signifies little thunder, being a compound from Annimikee, thunder, and
+the diminutive inflection in us.
+
+ANNUTTELIGO, a hammock brought to notice in the late war with the
+Seminoles, in Florida. It is situated east of the Withlacooche river.
+
+ANOLAIMA, a settlement of Iocaima, in New Granada, containing a small,
+but indefinite population of Indians.
+
+ANTALIS, a barbarous and warlike nation of Indians, in the kingdom of
+Chile, to the west of Coquimbo. They valorously opposed the progress of
+the Inca Yupanqui, compelling him, in the end, to terminate his
+conquests on the other side of the river Maule, the last boundary of
+Peru.
+
+ANTIQUITIES. See the articles Grave Creek, Marrietta, Circleville, &c.
+
+ANTHONY ST.; the falls of, being the fourth and lowermost of the
+perpendicular, or prominent falls of the Mississippi, and by far the
+greatest.
+
+The first fall of this stream is the Kakabika, situated about half a
+day's journey below Itasca lake; the second is called Pukägama, and
+occurs below the influx of the Leech lake branch. The third is below
+Elk river, and is passable in boats and canoes. St. Anthony's is the
+most considerable of the series, and the only one which presents an
+abrupt plunge of the stream from horizontal rocks. They were thus named
+by Hennepin, about 1680. By the Dacotah Indians, who inhabit the
+country, they are called Haha. It is at this point, that the
+Mississippi, which gathers its waters from high table lands, and has its
+course, for several hundreds of miles, through diluvions superimposed on
+the primitive, first plunges into the great secondary formation. For
+more than a thousand miles, in its way southward, its banks are rendered
+imposing and precipitous by this formation. At or near the Grand Tower,
+and its adjunct precipice, on the Missouri shore, this formation ceases,
+and the river enters the great delta, which still confines it, for a
+like distance, before it expands itself, by its bifurcations, and final
+exit, in the Gulf of Mexico, at the Balize.
+
+ANTONIO, SAN. The following statistical facts, denote the Indian
+population, of sundry settlements, bearing this name, within the former
+government of New Spain, now Mexico. In the limits of Toliman, 32
+families; in Tampolomon, 128; in Toluca, 51; in Metepec, 261; in
+Coronango, 44; in Huehuetlan, 140; in Chapala, 27.
+
+APACAHUND, or WHITE EYES, a Delaware chief of note, of the era of the
+American revolution, who is frequently mentioned in documents of the
+times.
+
+APACES, SAN JUAN BAUTISTA DE, a settlement of Zelaga in the province and
+bishopric of Mechoacan, containing 135 Indian families. Another
+settlement, of the same name, with the dedicatory title of Santa Maria,
+in the district of Zitaguaro, contains 24 families.
+
+APACHES, a nation of Indians, located between the Rio del Norte and the
+sources of the Nuaces, who were reported, in 1817, at 3,500. In an
+official report submitted to Congress, in 1837, their numbers "within
+striking distance of the western frontier," are vaguely put at, 20,280.
+
+APALLACHIANS; a nation of Indians who formerly inhabited the extreme
+southern portion of the United States, and have left their name in the
+leading range of the Apallachian mountains. In 1539 De Soto found them
+in Florida, a term at that era comprehending also the entire area of the
+present states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and other portions of
+the southern territory. They were numerous, fierce, and valorous. They
+were clothed in the skins of wild beasts. They used bows and arrows,
+clubs and spears. They did not, as many nations of barbarians do, poison
+their darts. They were temperate, drinking only water. They did not make
+wars on slight pretences, or for avarice, but to repress attacks, or
+remedy injustice. They treated their prisoners with humanity, and like
+other persons of their households. They were long lived, some persons
+reaching a hundred years. They worshipped the sun, to which they sang
+hymns, morning and evening. These facts are to be gleaned from the
+narrative. What were their numbers, how far they extended their
+jurisdiction, what were their affiliations by language, customs, and
+institutions with other tribes, cannot be accurately decided. Much that
+is said of their civil and military polity, buildings, ceremonies and
+other traits, applies to the Floridian Indians generally, and may be
+dismissed as either vague, or not characteristic of the Appalachians. A
+quarto volume was published in London in 1666, by John Davies, under the
+title of a "History of the Caribby Indians," in which he traces the
+caribs of the northern groups of the West Indies, to the Apallachians,
+and relates many incidents, and narrates a series of surprising wars and
+battles, reaching, in their effects, through the Mississippi valley up
+to the great lakes, which have the appearance of fable. How much of this
+account, which speaks of "cattle" and "herds," may be grafted on ancient
+traditions, it is impossible to tell. There are some proofs of such an
+ancient civilisation in the Ohio valley and other sections of the
+country, but they are unconnected with any Indian traditions, which have
+survived, unless we consider the mounds and remains of antique forts as
+monumental evidences of these reputed wars. The Lenapee accounts of
+these ancient wars with the Tallagees or Allegewy, may be thought to
+refer to this ancient people, who had, if this conjecture be correct,
+extended their dominion to the middle and northern latitudes of the
+present area of the United States, prior to the appearance of the
+Algonquin and Iroquies races. Mr. Irving has suggested the name of
+Apallachia, or Allegania, derived from the stock, for this division of
+the continent.
+
+
+
+
+LANGUAGE.
+
+
+LECTURES ON THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGE.
+
+
+The course of lectures, of which the following are part, were delivered
+before the St. Mary's committee of the Algic Society. Two of them only
+have been published. They are here continued from the article "Indian
+Languages," at page 202 of the "Narrative of the Discovery of the actual
+Source of the Mississippi, in Itasca Lake," published by the Harpers, in
+1834. The family of languages selected as the topic of inquiry, is the
+Algonquin. All the examples employed are drawn from that particular type
+of it which is called Chippewa, in our transactions with them, but which
+they uniformly pronounce themselves, Od-jib-wa. These terms are employed
+as perfect synonyms. The phrase "Odjibwa-Algonquin," wherever it occurs,
+is intended to link, in the mind of the inquirer, the species and the
+genus (if we may borrow a term from natural history) of the language,
+but is not fraught with, or intended to convey, any additional idea. The
+three terms relate to one and the same people.
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE III.
+
+     Observations on the Adjective--Its distinction into two classes
+     denoted by the presence or absence of vitality--Examples of the
+     animates and inanimates--Mode of their conversion into
+     substantives--How pronouns are applied to these derivatives, and
+     the manner of forming compound terms from adjective bases, to
+     describe the various natural phenomena--The application of these
+     principles in common conversation, and in the description of
+     natural and artificial objects--Adjectives always preserve the
+     distinction of number--Numerals--Arithmetical capacity of the
+     language--The unit exists in duplicate.
+
+1. It has been remarked that the distinction of words into animates and
+inanimates, is a principle intimately interwoven throughout the
+structure of the language. It is, in fact, so deeply imprinted upon its
+grammatical forms, and is so perpetually recurring, that it may be
+looked upon, not only as forming a striking peculiarity of the language,
+but as constituting the fundamental principle of its structure, from
+which all other rules have derived their limits, and to which they have
+been made to conform. No class of words appears to have escaped its
+impress. Whatever concords other laws impose, they all agree, and are
+made subservient in the establishment of this.
+
+It might appear to be a useless distinction in the adjective, when the
+substantive is thus marked; but it will be recollected that it is in the
+plural of the substantive only, that the distinction is marked. And we
+shall presently have occasion to show, that redundancy of forms, are, to
+considerable extent, obviated in practice.
+
+For the origin of the principle itself, we need look only to nature,
+which endows animate bodies with animate properties and qualities, and
+vice versa. But it is due to the tribes who speak this language, to have
+invented one set of adjective symbols to express the ideas peculiarly
+appropriate to the former, and another set applicable, exclusively, to
+the latter; and to have given the words good and bad, black and white,
+great and small, handsome and ugly, such modifications as are
+practically competent to indicate the general nature of the objects
+referred to, whether provided with, or destitute of the vital principle.
+And not only so, but by the figurative use of these forms, to exalt
+inanimate masses into the class of living beings, or to strip the latter
+of the properties of life--a principle of much importance to their
+public speakers.
+
+This distinction is shown in the following examples, in which it will be
+observed, that the inflection _izzi_, generally denotes the personal,
+and _au_, _un_, or _wud_, the impersonal forms.
+
+      Adj:        INANIMATE.                 Adj: ANIMATE.
+
+      Bad         Monaud         ud          Monaud         izzi.
+      Ugly        Gushkoonaug   wud          Gushkoonaug   oozzi.
+      Beautiful   Bishegaindaug wud          Bishegaindaug oozzi.
+      Strong      Söng           un          Söng           izzi.
+      Soft        Nök            un          Nök            izzi.
+      Hard        Mushkow        au          Mushkow        izzi.
+      Smooth      Shoiskw        au          Shoisk        oozzi.
+      Black       Mukkuddäw      au          Mukkuddäw      izzi.
+      White       Waubishk       au          Waubishk       izzi.
+      Yellow      Ozahw          au          Ozahw          izzi.
+      Red         Miskw          au          Miskw          izzi.
+      Blue        Ozhahwushkw    au          Ozhahwushkw    izzi.
+      Sour        Sheew          un          Sheew          izzi.
+      Sweet       Weeshkob       un          Weeshkob       izzi.
+      Light       Naung          un          Naung          izzi.
+
+It is not, however, in all cases, by mere modifications of the
+adjective, that these distinctions are expressed. Words totally
+different in sound, and evidently derived from radically different
+roots, are, in some few instances, employed, as in the following
+examples:
+
+
+       Adj:   _Inanimate._          Adj: _Animate._
+
+      Good     Onisheshin               Minno.
+      Bad      Monaudud                 Mudjee.
+      Large    Mitshau                  Mindiddo.
+      Small    Pungee                   Uggaushi.
+      Old      Geekau                   Gitizzi.
+
+It may be remarked of these forms, that although the impersonal will, in
+some instances, take the personal inflections, the rule is not
+reciprocated, and minno, and mindiddo, and gitizzi, and all words
+similarly situated, remain unchangeably animates. The word pungee, is
+limited to the expression of quantity, and its correspondent uggaushi,
+to size, or quality. Kishedä, (hot) is restricted to the heat of a fire;
+keezhautä, to the heat of the sun. There is still a third term to
+indicate the natural heat of the body, _Kizzizoo_. Mitshau (large) is
+generally applied to countries, lakes, rivers, &c. Mindiddo, to the
+body, and gitshee, indiscriminately. Onishishin, and its correspondent
+onishishshä, signify, handsome or fair, as well as good. Kwonaudj a. a.
+and kwonaudj ewun a. i. mean, strictly, handsome, and imply nothing
+further. Minno, is the appropriate personal form for good. Mudgee and
+monaudud, may reciprocally change genders, the first by the addition of
+_i-e-e_, and the second by altering _ud_ to _izzi_.
+
+Distinctions of this kind are of considerable importance in a practical
+point of view, and their observance or neglect, are noticed with
+scrupulous exactness by the Indians. The want of inanimate forms to such
+words as happy, sorrowful, brave, sick &c. creates no confusion, as
+inanimate nouns cannot, strictly speaking, take upon themselves such
+qualities, and when they do--as they sometimes do, by one of those
+extravagant figures of speech, which are used in their tales of
+transformations, the animate forms answer all purposes. For in these
+tales the whole material creation may be clothed with animation. The
+rule, as exhibited in practice, is limited, with sufficient accuracy, to
+the boundaries prescribed by nature.
+
+To avoid a repetition of forms, were the noun and the adjective both to
+be employed in their usual relation, the latter is endowed with a
+pronominal, or substantive inflection. And the use of the noun, in its
+separate form, is thus wholly superceded. Thus onishishin, a. i. and
+onishishsha, a. a. become Wanishishing, that which is good, or fair, and
+Wanishishid, he who is good or fair. The following examples will exhibit
+this rule, under each of its forms.
+
+       Compound or Noun-Adjective Animate.
+
+  Black     Mukkuddaw izzi      Makuddaw  izzid.
+  White     Waubishk  izzi      Wyaubishk izzid.
+  Yellow    Ozahw     izzi      Wazauw    izzid.
+  Red       Miskw     izzi      Mashk    oozzid.
+  Strong    Song      izzi      Song      izzid.
+
+       Noun-Adjective Inanimate.
+
+  Black    Mukkuddäw au    Mukkuddäw aug.
+  White    Waubishk  au    Wyaubishk aug.
+  Yellow   Ozahw     au    Wäzhauw   aug.
+  Red      Mishkw    au    Mishkw    aug.
+
+The animate forms in these examples will be recognized, as exhibiting a
+further extension of the rule, mentioned in the preceding chapter, by
+which substantives are formed from the indicative of the verb by a
+permutation of the vowels. And these forms are likewise rendered plural
+in the manner there mentioned. They also undergo changes to indicate the
+various persons. For instance onishisha is thus declined to mark the
+person.
+
+  Wänishish-eyaun      I (am) good, or fair.
+  Wänishish-eyun       Thou (art) good, or fair.
+  Wänishish-id         He (is) good or fair.
+  Wänishish-eyang      We (are) good or fair (ex.)
+  Wänishish-eyung      We (are) good a fair (in.)
+  Wänishish-eyaig      Ye (are) good or fair.
+  Wänishish-idigj      They (are) good or fair.
+
+The inanimate forms, being without person, are simply rendered plural by
+_in_, changing maiskwaug, to maiskwaug-in, &c. &c. The verbal
+signification which these forms assume, as indicated in the words am,
+art, is, are, is to be sought in the permutative change of the first
+syllable. Thus o is changed to wä, muk to mäk, waub to wy-aub, ozau to
+wäzau, misk to maisk, &c. The pronoun, as is usual in the double
+compounds, is formed wholly by the inflections eyaun, eyun, &c.
+
+The strong tendency of the adjective to assume a personal, or
+pronomico-substantive form, leads to the employment of many words in a
+particular, or exclusive sense. And in any future practical attempts
+with the language, it will be found greatly to facilitate its
+acquisition if the adjectives are arranged in distinct classes,
+separated by this characteristic principle of their application. The
+examples we have given are chiefly those which may be considered
+strictly animate, or inanimate, admit of double forms, and are of
+general use. Many of the examples recorded in the original manuscripts
+employed in these lectures, are of a more concrete character, and, at
+the same time, a more limited use. Thus shaugwewe, is a weak person,
+nökaugumme, a weak drink, nokaugwud, a weak, or soft piece of wood.
+Sussägau, is fine, but can only be applied to personal appearance:
+beesau, indicates fine grains. Keewushkwa is giddy, and keewushkwäbee,
+giddy with drink, both being restricted to the third person. Söngun and
+songizzi, are the personal and impersonal forms of strong, as given
+above. But Mushkowaugumme, is strong drink. In like manner the two words
+for hard, as above, are restricted to solid substances. Sunnuhgud is
+hard (to endure,) waindud, is easy (to perform), Söngedää is brave,
+Shaugedää cowardly, keezhinzhowizzi, active, kizhekau, swift,
+onaunegoozzi lively, minwaindum happy, gushkwaindum, sorrowful, but all
+these forms are confined to the third person of the indicative,
+singular. Pibbigwau, is a rough or knotted substance. Pubbiggoozzi, a
+rough person. Keenwau is long, or tall, (any solid mass.) Kaynozid is a
+tall person. Tahkozid a short person. Wassayau is light; wassaubizzoo,
+the light of the eye; wasshauzhä, the light of a star, or any luminous
+body. Keenau is sharp, keenaubikud, a sharp knife, or stone.
+Keezhaubikeday, is hot metal, a hot stove, &c. Keezhaugummeda, is hot
+water. Aubudgeetön, is useful,--a useful thing. Wauweeug is frivolous,
+any thing frivolous in word, or deed. Tubbushish, appears to be a
+general term for low. Ishpimming is high in the air. Ishpau, is applied
+to any high fixture, as a house, &c. Ishpaubikau is a high rock.
+Taushkaubikau, a split rock.
+
+These combinations and limitations meet the inquirer at every step: They
+are the current phrases of the language. They present short, ready, and
+often beautiful modes of expression. But as they shed light, both upon
+the idiom and genius of the language, I shall not scruple to add further
+examples and illustrations. Ask a Chippewa, the name for rock, and he
+will answer _awzhebik_. The generic import of aubik, has been explained.
+Ask him the name for red rock, and he will answer miskwaubik,--for white
+rock, and he will answer waubaubik, for black rock mukkuddäwaubik,--for
+yellow rock, ozahwaubik,--for green rock, ozhahwushkwaubik,--for bright
+rock, wassayaubik, for smooth rock, shoishkwaubik, &c. compounds in
+which the words red, white, black, yellow, &c. unite with aubik. Pursue
+this inquiry and the following forms will be elicited.
+
+                  _Impersonal._
+
+  Miskwaubik-ud.         It (is) a red rock.
+  Waubaubik-ud.          It (is) a white rock.
+  Mukkuddäwaubik-ud.     It (is) a black rock.
+  Ozahwaubik-ud.         It (is) a yellow rock.
+  Wassayaubik-ud.        It (is) a bright rock.
+  Shoiskwaubik-ud.       It (is) a smooth rock.
+
+                   _Personal._
+
+  Miskwaubik-izzi.       He (is) a red rock.
+  Waubaubik-izzi.        He (is) a white rock.
+  Mukkuddäwaubik-izzi.   He (is) a black rock.
+  Ozahwaubik-izzi.       He (is) a yellow rock.
+  Wassayaubik-izzi.      He (is) a bright rock
+  Shoiskwaubik-izzi.     He (is) a smooth rock.
+
+Add _bun_ to these terms, and they are made to have passed
+away,--prefix tah to them, and their future appearance is indicated.
+The word "is" in the translations, although marked with brackets, is not
+deemed wholly gratuitous. There is, strictly speaking, an idea of
+existence given to these compounds, by the particle au in aubic, which
+seems to be indirectly a derivative from that great and fundamental root
+of the language iau. Bik, is, apparently, the radix of the expression
+for "rock."
+
+Let this mode of interrogation be continued, and extended to other
+adjectives, or the same adjectives applied to other objects, and results
+equally regular and numerous will be obtained. Minnis, we shall be told,
+is an island: miskominnis, a red island; mukkaddäminnis, a black island;
+waubeminnis, a white island, &c. Annokwut, is a cloud; miskwaunakwut, a
+red cloud; mukkuddawukwut, a black cloud; waubahnokwut, a white cloud;
+ozahwushkwahnokwut, a blue cloud, &c. Neebe is the specific term for
+water; but is not generally used in combination with the adjective. The
+word _guma_, like _aubo_, appears to be a generic term for water, or
+potable liquids. Hence the following terms:--
+
+  Gitshee,      Great.     Gitshiguma,       Great water.
+  Nokun,        Weak.      Nôkauguma,        Weak drink.
+  Mushkowau,    Strong.    Mushkowauguma,    Strong drink.
+  Weeshkobun,   Sweet.     Weeshkobauguma,   Sweet drink.
+  Sheewun,      Sour.      Sheewauguma,      Sour drink.
+  Weesugun,     Bitter.    Weesugauguma,     Bitter drink.
+  Minno,        Good.      Minwauguma,       Good drink.
+  Monaudud,     Bad.       Mahnauguma,       Bad drink.
+  Miskwau,      Red.       Miskwauguma,      Red drink.
+  Ozahwau,      Yellow.    Ozahwauguma,      Yellow drink.
+  Weenun,       Dirty.     Weenauguma,       Dirty water.
+  Peenud,       Clear.     Peenauguma,       Clear Water.
+
+From minno, and from monaudud, good and bad, are derived the following
+terms. Minnopogwud, it tastes well; minnopogoozzi, he tastes well.
+Mauzhepogwud, it tastes bad; mawzhepogoozzi, he tastes bad.
+Minnomaugwud, it smells good; minnomaugoozzi, he smells good;
+magghemaugawud, it smells bad; mawhemaugoozzi, he smells bad. The
+inflections gwud, and izzi, here employed, are clearly indicative, as in
+other combinations, of the words _it_ and _him_.
+
+Baimwa is sound. Baimwäwa, the passing sound. Minwäwa, a pleasant sound.
+Minwäwa, a pleasant sound. Maunwawa, a disagreeable sound.
+Mudwayaushkau, the sound of waves dashing on the shore. Mudwayaunnemud,
+the sound of winds. Mudway au kooskau, the sound of falling trees.
+Mudwäkumigishin, the sound of a person falling upon the earth.
+Mudwaysin, the sound of any inanimate mass falling on the earth. These
+examples might be continued ad infinitum. Every modification of
+circumstances--almost every peculiarity of thought is expressed by some
+modification of the orthography. Enough has been given to prove that the
+adjective combines itself with the substantive, the verb and the
+pronoun--that the combinations thus produced are numerous, afford
+concentrated modes of conveying ideas, and oftentimes happy terms of
+expression. Numerous and prevalent as these forms are, they do not,
+however, preclude the use of adjectives in their simple forms. The use
+of the one, or of the other appears to be generally at the option of the
+speaker. In most cases brevity or euphony dictates the choice. Usage
+results from the application of these principles. There may be rules
+resting upon a broader basis, but if so, they do not appear to be very
+obvious. Perhaps the simple adjectives are oftenest employed before
+verbs and nouns, in the first and second persons singular.
+
+   Ningee minno neebau-nabun,              I have slept well.
+   Ningee minno weesin,                    I have eaten a good meal.
+   Ningee minno pimmoossay,              } I have walked well, or a good
+                                         } distance.
+   Kägät minno geeghigud,                  It (is) a very pleasant day.
+   Kwunaudj ningödahs,                     I have a handsome garment.
+   Ke minno iau nuh?                       Are you well?
+   Auneende ain deyun?                     What ails you?
+   Keezhamonedo aupädushshäwainenik,       God Prosper you
+   Aupädush Shäwaindaugoozzeyun,           Good luck attend you.
+   Aupädush nau kinwainzh pimmaudizziyun,  May you live long.
+   Onauneegoozzin,                         Be (thou) cheerful.
+   Ne miuwaindum waubumaun,                I (am) glad to see you.
+   Kwanaudj Kweeweezains,                  A pretty boy.
+   Kägät Söngeedää,                        He (is) a brave man.
+   Kägät onishishsha,                      She (is) handsome.
+   Gitshee kinözee,                        He (is) very tall.
+   Uggausau bäwizzi,                       She (is) slender.
+   Gitshee sussaigau,                      He (is) fine dressed.
+   Bishegaindaugooziwug meegwunug,         They (are) beautiful feathers.
+   Ke daukoozzinuh?                        Are you sick.
+   Monaudud maundun muskeekee,             This (is) bad medicine.
+   Monaudud aindauyun,                     My place of dwelling (is) bad.
+   Aindauyaun mitshau,                     My place of dwelling is large.
+   Ne mittigwaub onishishsha,              My bow (is) good.
+   Ne bikwukön monaududön,                 But my arrows (are) bad.
+   Ne minwaindaun appaukoozegun,           I love mild, or mixed, tobacco.
+   Kauweekau neezhikay ussämau           } But I never smoke pure tobacco.
+   ne sugguswaunausee,                   }
+   Monaudud maishkowaugumig,               Strong drink (is) bad.
+   Keeguhgee baudjeëgonaun,                It makes us foolish.
+   Gitshee Monedo nebee ogee             } The Great Spirit made water.
+   ozhetön,                              }
+   Inineewug dush ween ishkädä           } But man made whiskey.
+   waubo ogeo ozhetönahwaun.             }
+
+These expressions are put down promiscuously, embracing verbs and nouns
+as they presented themselves; and without any effort to support the
+opinion--which may, or may not be correct--that the elementary forms of
+the adjectives are most commonly required before verbs and nouns in the
+first and second persons. The English expression is thrown into Indian
+in the most natural manner, and of course, without always giving
+adjective for adjective, or noun for noun. Thus, God is rendered, not
+"Monedo," but, "Geezha Monedo," _Merciful Spirit_. Good luck, is
+rendered by the compound phrase "Shäwaindaugoozzeyun," indicating, in a
+very general sense _the influence of kindness or benevolence on success
+in life_. "Söngedää" is alone, _a brave man_; and the word "Kägät,"
+prefixed, is an adverb. In the expression "mild tobacco," the adjective
+is entirely dispensed with in the Indian, the sense being sufficiently
+rendered by the compound noun "appaukoozzegun," which always means the
+Indian weed, or smoking mixture. "Ussamau," on the contrary, without the
+adjective, signifies, "pure tobacco." "Bikwakön," signifies blunt, or
+lumpy-headed arrows. Assowaun is the barbed arrow. Kwonaudj
+kweeweezains, means, not simply "pretty boy," but _pretty little boy_;
+and there is no mode of using the word boy but in this diminutive
+form--the word itself being a derivative, from kewewe, conjugal with
+the regular diminutive in _ains_. "Onaunegoozzin" embraces the pronoun,
+verb and adjective, _be thou cheerful_. In the last phrase of the
+examples, "man," is rendered men (inineewug) in the translation, as the
+term _man_ cannot be employed in the general plural sense it conveys in
+this connection, in the original. The word "whiskey," is rendered by the
+compound phrase ishködawaubo, literally, _fine-liquor_, a generic for
+all kinds of ardent spirits.
+
+These aberrations from the literal term, will convey some conceptions of
+the difference of the two idioms, although, from the limited nature and
+object of the examples, they will not indicate the full extent of this
+difference. In giving anything like the spirit of the original, much
+greater deviations, in the written forms, must appear. And in fact, not
+only the structure of the language, but the mode and _order of thought_
+of the Indians is so essentially different, that any attempts to
+preserve the English idiom--to give letter for letter, and word for
+word, must go far to render the translation pure nonsense.
+
+2. Varied as the adjective is, in its changes it has no comparative
+inflection. A Chippewa cannot say that one substance is hotter or colder
+than another; or of two or more substances unequally heated, that this,
+or that is the hottest or coldest, without employing adverbs, or
+accessory adjectives. And it is accordingly by adverbs, and accessory
+adjectives, that the degrees of comparison are expressed.
+
+Pimmaudizziwin, is a very general substantive expression, in indicating
+_the tenor of being or life_. Izzhewäbizziwin, is a term near akin to
+it, but more appropriately applied to the _acts_, _conduct_, _manner_,
+_or personal deportment of life_. Hence the expressions:
+
+  Nin bimmaudizziwin,                 My tenor of life.
+  Ke bimmaudizziwin,                  Thy tenor of life.
+  O Pimmaudizziwin,                   His tenor of life, &c.
+  Nin dizekewäbizziwin,               My personal deportment.
+  Ke dizhewäbizziwin,                 Thy personal deportment.
+  O Izzhewäbizziwin,                  His personal deportment, &c.
+
+To form the positive degree of comparison for these terms minno, good,
+and mudjee, bad, are introduced between the pronoun and verb, giving
+rise to some permutations of the vowels and consonants, which affect the
+sound only. Thus:--
+
+  Ne minno pimmaudizziwin,            My good tenor of life.
+  Ke minno pimmaudizziwin,            Thy good tenor of life.
+  Minno pimmaudizziwin,               His good tenor of life.
+  Ne mudjee pimmaudizziwin,           My bad tenor of life.
+  Ke mudjee pimmaudizziwin,           Thy bad tenor of life.
+  Mudjee pimmaudizziwin,              His bad tenor of life.
+
+To place these forms in the comparative degree, nahwudj, _more_, is
+prefixed to the adjective; and the superlative is denoted by _mahmowee_,
+an adverb, or an adjective as it is variously applied, but the meaning
+of which, is, in this connexion, _most_. The degrees of comparison may
+be therefore set down as follows:--
+
+      _Positive_, Kishedä,          Hot, (restricted to the heat of
+                                               a fire.)
+      _Comp_.     Nahwudj Kishedä,  More hot.
+      _Super_.    Mahmowee Kishedä, Most hot.
+
+   Your manner of life is good,       Ke dizzhewäbizziwin onishishin.
+
+   Your manner of life is better,   { Ke dizzhewäbizziwin nahwudj
+                                      onishishin.
+
+   Your manner of life is best,     { Ke dizzhewäbizziwin mahmoweé
+                                    { onishishin.
+
+   His manner of life is best,      { Odizzhewabizziwin mahmowee
+                                    { onishishinine.
+
+   Little Turtle was brave,           Mikkenoköns söngedääbun.
+
+   Tecumseh was braver,               Tecumseh nahwidj söngedääbun.
+   Pontiac was bravest,               Pontiac mahmowee söngedääbun.
+
+3. The adjective assumes a negative form when it is preceeded by the
+adverb. Thus the phrase söngedää, he is brave, is changed to, Kahween
+söngedää_see_, he is not brave.
+
+   _Positive._         _Negative._
+
+   Neebwaukah,              Kahween neebwaukah-see,
+     He is wise.              He is not wise.
+   Kwonaudjewe,             Kahween kwonaudjewe-see,
+     She is handsome,         She is not handsome.
+   Oskineegee,              Kahween oskineegee-see,
+     He is young.             He is not young.
+   Shaugweewee,             Kahween Shaugweewee-see,
+     He is feeble.            He is not feeble.
+   Geekkau,                 Kahween Geekkau-see,
+     He is old.               He is not old.
+   Mushkowizzi,             Kahween Mushkowizzi-see,
+     He is strong.            He is not strong.
+
+From this rule the indeclinable adjectives--by which is meant those
+adjectives which do not put on the personal and impersonal forms by
+inflection, but consist of radically different roots--form exceptions.
+
+  Are you sick?                   Ke dahkoozzi nuh?
+  You are not sick!               Kahween ke dahkoozzi-see!
+  I am happy.                     Ne minwaindum.
+  I am unhappy.                   Kahween ne minwuindaz-see.
+  His manner of life is bad.      Mudjee izzhewabizzi.
+  His manner of life is not bad.  Kahween mudjee a izzhewabizzi-see.
+  It is large.                    Mitshau muggud.
+  It is not large.                Kahween mitshau-seenön.
+
+In these examples the declinable adjectives are rendered negative in
+_see_. The indeclinable, remain as simple adjuncts to the verbs, and the
+_latter_ put on the negative form.
+
+4. In the hints and remarks which have now been furnished respecting the
+Chippewa adjective, its powers and inflections have been shown to run
+parallel with those of the substantive, in its separation into animates
+and inanimates,--in having the pronominal inflections,--in taking an
+inflection for tense--(a topic, which, by the way, has been very
+cursorily passed over,) and in the numerous, modifications to form the
+compounds. This parallelism has also been intimated to hold good with
+respect to number--a subject deeply interesting in itself, as it has its
+analogy only in the ancient languages, and it was therefore deemed best
+to defer giving examples till they could be introduced without
+abstracting the attention from other points of discussion.
+
+Minno and mudjee, good and bad, being of the limited number of personal
+adjectives, which modern usage permits being applied, although often
+improperly applied, to inanimate objects, they as well as a few other
+adjectives, form exceptions to the use of number. Whether we say a good
+man or a bad man, good men or bad men, the words minno and mudjee,
+remain the same. But all the declinable and coalescing
+adjectives--adjectives which join on, and, as it were, _melt into_ the
+body of the substantive, take the usual plural inflections, and are
+governed by the same rules in regard to their use, as the substantive,
+personal adjectives requiring personal plurals, &c.
+
+                 Adjectives Animate.
+
+                  _Singular._
+
+        Onishishewe mishemin,           Good apple.
+        Kwonaudjewe eekwä,              Handsome woman.
+        Songedää inine,                 Brave man.
+        Bishegaindaugoozzi peenasee,    Beautiful bird.
+        Ozahwizzi ahmo,                 Yellow bee.
+
+                   _Plural._
+
+  Onishishewe-wug mishemin-ug,          Good apples.
+  Kwonaudjewe-wug eekwä-wug,            Handsome women.
+  Songedää-wug inine-wug,               Brave men.
+  Bishegaindaugoozzi-wug peenasee-wug,  Beautiful birds.
+  Ozahwizzi-wug ahm-ög,                 Yellow bees.
+
+                Adjectives Inanimate.
+
+                  _Singular._
+
+        Onishishin mittig,              Good tree.
+        Kwonaudj tshemaun,              Handsome canoe.
+        Monaudud ishkoda,               Bad fire.
+        Weeshkobun aidetaig,            Sweet fruit.
+
+                   _Plural._
+
+        Onishishin-ön mittig-ön,        Good trees.
+        Kwonaudjewun-ön tshemaun-un,    Handsome canoes.
+        Monaudud-ön ishkod-än,          Bad fires.
+        Weeshkobun-ön aidetaig-in,      Sweet fruits.
+
+Peculiar circumstances are supposed to exist, in order to render the use
+of the adjective, in this connexion with the noun, necessary and proper.
+But in ordinary instances, as the narration of events, the noun would
+precede the adjective, and oftentimes, particularly where a second
+allusion to objects previously named became necessary, the compound
+expressions would be used. Thus instead of saying the yellow bee,
+wäyzahwizzid, would distinctly convey the idea of that insect, _had the
+species been before named_. Under similar circumstances kainwaukoozzid,
+agausheid söngaunemud, mushkowaunemud, would respectively signify, a
+tall tree, a small fly, a strong wind, a hard wind. And these terms
+would become plural in _jig_, which, as before mentioned, is a mere
+modification of _ig_, one of the five general animate plural inflections
+of the language.
+
+Kägát wahwinaudj abbenöjeeug, is an expression indicating _they are very
+handsome children_. Bubbeeweezheewug monetösug, denotes _small insects_.
+Minno neewugizzi, is good tempered, he is good tempered.
+Mawshininewugizzi, is bad tempered, both having their plural in _wug_.
+Nin nuneenahwaindum, I am lonesome. Nin nuneenahwaindaumin, we
+(excluding you) are lonesome. Waweea, is a term generally used to
+express the adjective sense of _round_. Kwy, is the scalp. (_Weenikwy_
+his scalp.) Hence Weewukwon, hat; Wayweewukwonid, a wearer of the hat;
+and its plural Wayeewukwonidjig, wearers of the hats--the usual term
+applied to Europeans, or white men generally. These examples go to
+prove, that under every form in which the adjective can be traced,
+whether in its simplest or most compound state, it is susceptible of
+number.
+
+The numerals of the language are converted into adverbs, by the
+inflection _ing_, making _one_, _once_, &c. The unit exists in
+duplicate.
+
+  Päzhik, One, general unit  }    Aubeding, Once.
+  Ingoot, One, numerical unit}
+  Neesh, Two.                     Neeshing, Twice.
+  Niswee, Three.                  Nissing, Thrice.
+  Neewin, Four.                   Neewing, Four-times.
+  Naunun, Five.                   Nauning, Five-times.
+  N'goodwaswä, Six.               N'goodwautshing, Six-times.
+  Neeshwauswä, Seven.             Neeshwautshing, Seven-times.
+  Shwauswe, Eight.                Shwautshing, Eight-times.
+  Shongusswe, Nine.               Shongutshing, Nine-times.
+  Meetauswee, Ten.                Meetaushing, Ten-times.
+
+These inflections can be carried as high as they can compute numbers.
+They count decimally. After reaching ten, they repeat, ten and one, ten
+and two, &c. to twenty. Twenty is a compound signifying two tens,
+thirty, three tens, &c., a mode which is carried up to one hundred
+_n'goodwak_. Wak, then becomes the word of denomination, combining with
+the names of the digits, until they reach a thousand, _meetauswauk_,
+literally, _ten hundred_. Here a new compound term is introduced made by
+prefixing twenty to the last denomination, neshtonnah duswak, which
+doubles the last term, thirty triples it, forty quadruples it, &c., till
+the computation reaches to ten thousand, n'goodwak dushing n'goodwak,
+_one hundred times one hundred_. This is the probable extent of all
+certain computation. The term _Gitshee_, (great,) prefixed to the last
+denomination, leaves the number indefinite.
+
+There is no form of the numerals corresponding to second, third, fourth,
+&c. They can only further say, _nittum_ first, and _ishkwaudj_, last.
+
+
+
+
+LECTURE IV.
+
+     Nature and principles of the pronoun--Its distinction into
+     preformative and subformative classes--Personal pronouns--The
+     distinction of an inclusive and exclusive form in the number of the
+     first person plural--Modifications of the personal pronouns to
+     imply existence, individuality, possession, ownership, position and
+     other accidents--Declension of pronouns to answer the purpose of
+     the auxiliary verbs--Subformatives, how employed, to mark the
+     persons--Relative pronouns considered--Their application to the
+     causative verbs--Demonstrative pronouns--their separation into two
+     classes, animates and inanimates--Example of their use.
+
+
+Pronouns are buried, if we may so say, in the structure of the verb. In
+tracing them back to their primitive forms, through the almost infinite
+variety of modifications which they assume, in connexion with the verb,
+substantive and adjective, it will facilitate analysis, to group them
+into preformative and subformative, which include the pronominal
+prefixes and suffixes, and which admit of the further distinction of
+separable and inseparable. By separable is intended those forms, which
+have a meaning by themselves, and are thus distinguished from the
+inflective and subformative pronouns, and pronominal particles
+significant only, in connection with another word.
+
+1. Of the first class, are the personal pronouns Neen (I,) Keen (thou,)
+and Ween or O (he or she.) They are declined to form the plural persons
+in the following manner:
+
+  I,           Neen.        We     Keen owind (in.)
+                            We     Neen owind (ex.)
+  Thou,        Keen.        Ye     Keen owau.
+  He or She,   Ween or O.   They   Ween owau.
+
+Here the plural persons are formed by a numerical inflection of the
+singular. The double plural of the first person, of which both the rule
+and examples have been incidentally given in the remarks on the
+substantive, is one of those peculiarities of the language, which may,
+perhaps, serve to aid in a comparison of it, with other dialects,
+kindred and foreign. As a mere conventional agreement, for denoting
+whether the person addressed, be included, or excluded, it may be
+regarded as an advantage to the language. It enables the speaker, by the
+change of a single consonant, to make a full and clear discrimination,
+and relieves the narration from doubts and ambiguity, where doubts and
+ambiguity would otherwise often exist. On the other hand, by
+accumulating distinctions, it loads the memory with grammatical forms,
+and opens a door for improprieties of speech. We are not aware of any
+inconveniencies in the use of a general plural. But in the Indian it
+would produce confusion. And it is perhaps to that cautious desire of
+personal discrimination, which is so apparent in the structure of the
+language, that we should look for the reason of the duplicate forms of
+this word. Once established, however, and both the distinction, and the
+necessity of a constant and strict attention to it, are very obvious and
+striking. How shall he address the Deity? If he say--"_Our father who
+art in heaven_," the inclusive form of "our" makes the Almighty one of
+the suppliants, or family. If he use the exclusive form, it throws him
+out of the family, and may embrace every living being but the Deity.
+Yet, neither of these forms can be used well in prayer, as they cannot
+be applied directly _to_ the object addressed. It is only when speaking
+_of_ the Deity, under the name of father, to other persons, that the
+inclusive and exclusive forms of the word "our" can be used. The dilemma
+may be obviated, by the use of a compound descriptive phrase--Wä ö se
+mig o yun, signifying--THOU WHO ART THE FATHER OF ALL. Or, universal
+father.
+
+In practice, however, the question is cut short, by those persons who
+have embraced Christianity. It has seemed to them, that by the use of
+either of the foregoing terms, the Deity would be thrown into too remote
+a relation to them, and I have observed, that, in prayer, they
+invariably address Him, by the term used by children for the father of a
+family, that is, NOSA, my father.
+
+The other personal pronouns undergo some peculiar changes, when employed
+as preformatives before nouns and verbs, which it is important to
+remark. Thus neen, is sometimes rendered ne or _nin_, and sometimes
+_nim_. Keen, is rendered ke or _kin_. In compound words the mere signs
+of the first and second pronouns, N and K, are employed. The use of
+_ween_ is limited; and the third person, singular and plural, is
+generally indicated by the sign, O.
+
+The particle _suh_ added to the complete forms of the disjunctive
+pronouns, imparts a verbal sense to them; and appears in this instance,
+to be a succedaneum for the substantive verb. Thus Neen, I, becomes
+Neensuh, it is I. Keen, thou, becomes Keensuh, it is thou, and Ween, he
+or she. Weensuh, it is he or she. This particle may also be added to the
+plural forms.
+
+  Keenowind suh.      It is we (in.)
+  Neenowind suh.      It is we (ex.)
+  Keenowa suh.        It is ye, or you.
+  Weenowau suh.       It is they.
+
+If the word _aittah_ be substituted for _suh_, a set of adverbial
+phrases are formed.
+
+  Neen aittah,  I only.          Neen aittah wind,  We &c. (ex.)
+                                 Keen aittah wind,  We &c. (in.)
+  Keen aittah,  Thou only.       Keen aittah wau,   You &c.
+  Ween aittah,  He or she only.  Ween aittah wau,   They &c.
+
+In like manner _nittum_ first, and _ishkwaudj_ last, give rise to the
+following arrangement of the pronoun:
+
+  Neen nittum,          I first.
+  Keen nittum,          You or thou first.
+  Ween nittum,          He or she first.
+  Keen nittum ewind,    We first. (in.)
+  Neen nittum ewind,    We first. (ex.)
+  Keen nittum ewau,     Ye or you first.
+  Ween nittum ewau,     They first.
+
+ISHKWAUDJ.
+
+  Neen ishkwaudj,         I last.
+  Keen ishkwaudj,         Thou last.
+  Ween ishkwaudj,         He or she last.
+  Keenowind ishkwaudj,    We last (in.)
+  Neenowind ishkwaudj,    We last (ex.)
+  Keenowau ishkwaudj,     Ye or you last.
+  Weenowau ishkwaudj,     They last.
+
+The disjunctive forms of the pronoun are also sometimes preserved before
+verbs and adjectives.
+
+NEEZHIKA. Alone. (_an._)
+
+  Neen neezhika,         I alone.
+  Keen neezhika,         Thou alone.
+  Ween neezhika,         He or she alone.
+  Keenowind neezhika,    We alone (in.)
+  Neenowind neezhika,    We alone (ex.)
+  Keenowau neezhika,     Ye or you alone.
+  Weenowau neezhika,     They alone.
+
+To give these expressions a verbal form, the substantive verb, with its
+pronominal modifications, must be superadded. For instance, _I am_
+alone, &c., is thus rendered:
+
+  Neen neezhika nindyau,    I am alone, × aumin.
+  Keen neezhika keedyau,    Thou art alone, × aum.
+  Ween neezhika Iyau,       He or she is alone, &c. × wug.
+
+In the subjoined examples the noun ow, body, is changed to a verb, by
+the permutation of the vowel, changing ow to auw, which last takes the
+letter d before it, when the pronoun is prefixed.
+
+  I am a man,          Neen nin dauw.
+  Thou art a man,      Keen ke dauw.
+  He is a man,         Ween ah weeh.
+  We are men, (in.)    Ke dauw we min.
+  We are men, (ex.)    Ne dauw we min.
+  Ye are men,          Ke dauw min.
+  They are men,        Weenowau ah weeh wug.
+
+In the translation of these expressions "man" is used as synonomous with
+person. If the specific term _inine_, had been introduced in the
+original, the meaning thereby conveyed would be, in this particular
+connexion, I am a man with respect to _courage_ &c., in opposition to
+effeminacy. It would not be simply declarative of _corporeal existence_,
+but of existence in a _particular state or condition_.
+
+In the following phrases, the modified forms, or the signs only, of the
+pronouns are used:
+
+  N' debaindaun,           I own it.
+  Ke debaindaun,           Thou ownest it.
+  O debaindaun,            He or she owns it.
+  N' debaindaun-in,        We own it (ex.)
+  Ke debaindaun-in,        We own it (in.)
+  Ke debaindaun-ewau,      Ye own it.
+  O debaindaun-ewau,       They own it.
+
+These examples are cited as exhibiting the manner in which the prefixed
+and preformative pronouns are employed, both in their full and
+contracted forms. To denote possession, nouns specifying the things
+possessed, are required; and, what would not be anticipated, had not
+full examples of this species of declension been given in another place,
+the purposes of distinction are not effected by a simple change of the
+pronoun, as _I_ to _mine_, &c., but by a subformative inflection of the
+_noun_, which is thus made to have a reflective operation upon the
+pronoun-speaker. It is believed that sufficient examples of this rule,
+in all the modifications of inflection, have been given under the head
+of the substantive. But as the substantives employed to elicit these
+modifications were exclusively _specific_ in their meaning, it may be
+proper here, in further illustration of an important principle, to
+present a generic substantive under their compound forms.
+
+I have selected for this purpose one of the primitives. IE-AÚ, is the
+abstract term for existing matter. It is in the animate form and
+declarative. Its inanimate correspondent is IE-EÉ. These are two
+important roots. And they are found in combination, in a very great
+number of derivative words. It will be sufficient here, to show their
+connexion with the pronoun, in the production of a class of terms in
+very general use.
+
+  Animate Forms.
+
+             _Singular._                      _Plural._
+
+        {Nin dyë aum,   Mine.         Nin dyë auminaun,  Ours. (ex.)
+  Poss. {                             Ke dyë auminaun,   Ours. (in.)
+        {Ke dyë aum,    Thine.        Ke dyë aumewau,    Yours.
+
+  Obj.   O dyë aum-un,  His or Hers.  O dyë aumewaun,    Theirs.
+
+  Inanimate Forms.
+
+             _Singular._                      _Plural._
+
+       {Nin dyë eem,  Mine.        Nin dyë eeminaun, Ours. (ex.)
+  Poss.{                           Ke dyë eeminaun,  Ours. (in.)
+       {Ke dyë eem,   Thine.       Ke dyë eemewau,   Yours.
+
+  Obj.  O dyë eem-un, His or Hers. O dyë eemewaun,   Theirs. _Poss. in._
+
+
+In these forms the noun is singular throughout. To render it plural, as
+well as the pronoun, the appropriate general plurals _ug_ and _un_ or
+_ig_ and _in_, must be superadded. But it must be borne in mind, in
+making these additions, "that the plural inflection to inanimate nouns
+(which have no objective case,) forms the objective case to animates,
+which have no number in the third person," [p. 30.] The particle _un_,
+therefore, which is the appropriate plural for the inanimate nouns in
+these examples, is only the objective mark of the animate.
+
+The plural of I, is _naun_, the plural of thou and he, _wau_. But as
+these inflections would not coalesce smoothly with the possessive
+inflections, the connective vowels i. and e. are prefixed, making the
+plural of I, _inaun_, and of thou, &c. _ewau_.
+
+If we strike from these declensions the root IE, leaving its animate and
+inanimate forms AU, and EE, and adding the plural of the noun, we shall
+then,--taking the _animate_ declension as an instance, have the
+following formula of the pronominal declensions.
+
+  -----+------+-----------+------------+--------+------------+-------+------
+  Pron.|Place |Possessive |Obj. inflec.|Connect.|Plu. inflec.| Obj.  |Plural
+  Sing.|of the|inflection.|   to the   | vowel. |   of the   |inflec.|of the
+       |Noun. |           | noun sing. |        |  pronoun.  |n. plu.|Noun.
+  -----+------+-----------+------------+--------+------------+-------+------
+  Ne   | ---- |    aum    |    ----    | - i -  |  - naun    |  ---  | - ig.
+  Ke   | ---- |    aum    |    ----    | - e -  |  - wau     |  ---  | - g.
+  O    | ---- |    aum    |     un     |        |            |       |
+  O    | ---- |    aum    |    ----    | - e -  |  - wau     |  - n  |
+  -----+------+-----------+------------+--------+------------+-------+------
+
+To render this formula of general use, six variations, (five in
+addition to the above) of the possessive inflection, are required,
+corresponding to the six classes of substantives, whereby aum would be
+changed to am, eem, im, öm, and oom, conformably to the examples
+heretofore given in treating of the substantive. The objective
+inflection, would also be sometimes changed to _een_ and sometimes to
+_oan_.
+
+Having thus indicated the mode of distinguishing the person, number,
+relation, and gender--or what is deemed its technical equivalent, the
+mutation words undergo, not to mark the distinctions of _sex_, but the
+presence or absence of _vitality_, I shall now advert to the inflections
+which the pronouns take for _tense_, or rather, to form the auxiliary
+verbs, have, had, shall, will, may, &c. A very curious and important
+principle, and one, which clearly demonstrates that no part of speech
+has escaped the transforming genius of the language. Not only are the
+three great modifications of time accurately marked in the verbal forms
+of the Chippewas, but by the inflection of the pronoun they are enabled
+to indicate some of the oblique tenses, and thereby to conjugate their
+verbs with accuracy and precision.
+
+The particle _gee_ added to the first, second, and third persons
+singular of the present tense, changes them to the perfect past,
+rendering I, thou, He, I did--have--or had. Thou didst,--hast--or hadst,
+He, or she did--have, or had. If _gah_, be substituted for _gee_, the
+first future tense is formed, and the perfect past added to the first
+future, forms the conditional future. As the eye may prove an auxiliary
+in the comprehension of forms, which are not familiar, the following
+tabular arrangement of them, is presented.
+
+  _First Person, I._
+
+  Nin gee,          I did--have--had.
+  Nin gah,          I shall--will.
+  Nin gah gee,      I shall have--will have.
+
+  _Second Person, Thou._
+
+  Ke gee,           Thou didst--hast--hadst.
+  Ke gah,           Thou shall--wilt.
+  Ke gah gee,       Thou shall have--wilt have.
+
+  _Third Person, He, or She._
+
+  O gee,            He or she did--has--had.
+  O gah,            He or she did--has--had.
+  O gah gee,        He or she shall have--will have.
+
+The present and imperfect tense of the potential mood, is formed by
+_dau_, and the perfect by _gee_, suffixed as in other instances.
+
+  _First Person, I._
+
+  Nin dau,          I may--can, &c.
+  Nin dau gee,      I may have--can have, &c.
+
+  _Second Person, Thou._
+
+  Ke dau,          Thou mayst--canst, &c.
+  Ke dau gee,      Thou mayst have--canst have, &c.
+
+
+  _Third Person, He, or She._
+
+  O dau,           He or she may--can, &c.
+  O dau gee,       He or she may have--can have, &c.
+
+In conjugating the verbs through the plural persons, the singular terms
+for the pronoun remain, and they are rendered plural by a retrospective
+action of the pronominal inflections of the verb. In this manner the
+pronoun-verb auxiliary, has a general application, and the necessity of
+double forms is avoided.
+
+The preceding observations are confined to the formative or _prefixed_
+pronouns. The inseparable suffixed or subformative are as follows--
+
+  Yaun,       My.
+  Yun,        Thy.
+  Id, or d,   His, or hers.
+  Yaung,      Our. (ex.)
+  Yung,       Our. (in.)
+  Yaig,       Your.
+  Waud,       Their.
+
+These pronouns are exclusively employed as suffixes,--and as suffixes to
+the descriptive compound substantives, adjectives and verbs. Both the
+rule and examples have been stated under the head of the substantive, p.
+43. and adjective, p. 81. Their application to the verb will be shown,
+as we proceed.
+
+2. Relative Pronouns. In a language which provides for the distinctions
+of person by particles prefixed or suffixed to the verb, it will
+scarcely be expected, that separate and independent relative pronouns
+should exist, or if such are to be found, their use, as separate parts
+of speech, must, it will have been anticipated, be quite
+limited--limited to simple interrogatory forms of expression, and not
+applicable to the indicative, or declaratory. Such will be found to be
+the fact in the language under review; and it will be perceived, from
+the subjoined examples, that in all instances, requiring the relative
+pronoun _who_, other than the simple interrogatory forms, this relation
+is indicated by the inflections of the verb, or adjective, &c. Nor does
+there appear to be any declension of the separate pronoun, corresponding
+to _whose_, and _whom_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The word Ahwaynain, may be said to be uniformly employed in the sense of
+_who_, under the limitations we have mentioned. For instance,
+
+  Who is there?           Ahwaynain e-mah ai-aud?
+  Who spoke?              Ahwaynain kau keeg[oe]dood?
+  Who told you?           Ahwaynain kau ween dumoak?
+  Who are you?            Ahwaynain iau we yun?
+  Who sent you?           Ahwaynain waynönik?
+  Who is your father?     Ahwaynain kös?
+  Who did it?             Ahwaynain kau tödung?
+  Whose dog is it?        Ahwaynain way dyid?
+  Whose pipe is that?     Ahwaynain döpwaugunid en-eu?
+  Whose lodge is it?      Ahwaynain way weegewomid?
+  Whom do you seek?       Ahwaynain nain dau wau bumud?
+  Whom have you here?     Ahwaynain oh omau ai auwaud?
+
+Not the slightest variation is made in these phrases, between who,
+whose, and whom.
+
+Should we wish to change the interrogative, and to say, he who is there;
+he who spoke; he who told you, &c., the separable personal pronoun ween
+(he) must be used in lieu of the relative, and the following forms will
+be elicited.
+
+  Ween, kau unnönik,        He (who) sent you.
+  Ween, kau geedood,        He (who) spoke.
+  Ween, _ai_-aud e-mah,     He (who) is there.
+  Ween, kau weendumoak,     He (who) told you.
+  Ween, kau tö dung,        He (who) did it, &c.
+
+If we object that, that in these forms, there is no longer the relative
+pronoun _who_, the sense being simply, he sent you, he spoke, &c., it is
+replied that if it be intended only to say, he sent you, &c., and not he
+_who_ sent you, &c., the following forms are used.
+
+  Ke gee unnönig.      He (sent) you.
+  Ainnözhid,           He (sent) me.
+  Ainnönaud,           He (sent) him, &c.
+  Iau e-mau,           He is there.
+  Ke geedo,            He (spoke.)
+  Kegeeweendumaug,     He (told) you.
+  Ke to dum,           He did it.
+
+We reply, to this answer of the native speaker, that the particle _kau_,
+prefixed to a verb denotes the past tense,--that in the former series of
+terms, in which this particle appears, the verbs are in the perfect
+indicative,--and in the latter, they are in the present indicative,
+marking the difference only between _sent_ and _send_, _spoke_ and
+_speak_, &c. And that there is absolutely no relative pronoun, in either
+series of terms. We further observe, that the personal pronoun ween,
+prefixed to the first set of terms, may be prefixed with equal
+propriety, to the second set, and that its use or disuse, is perfectly
+optional with the speaker, as he may wish to give additional energy or
+emphasis to the expression. To these positions, after reflection,
+discussion and examination, we receive an assent, and thus the
+uncertainty is terminated.
+
+We now wish to apply the principle thus elicited to verbs causative, and
+other compound terms--to the adjective verbs, for instance--and to the
+other verbal compound expressions, in which the objective and the
+nominative persons, are incorporated as a part of the verb, and are not
+prefixes to it. This may be shown in the causative verb, _To make
+Happy_.
+
+  Mainwaindumëid,         He (who) makes _me_ happy.
+  Mainwaindumëik,         He (who) makes _thee_ happy.
+  Mainwaindumëaud,        He (who) makes _him_ happy.
+  Mainwaindumëinung,      He (who) makes _us_ happy, (inclusive.)
+  Mainwaindumëyaug,       He (who) makes _us_ happy, (exclusive.)
+  Mainwaindumëinnaig,     He (who) makes _ye_ or _you_ happy.
+  Mainwaindumëigowaud,    He (who) makes _them_ happy.
+
+And so the forms might be continued, throughout all the objective
+persons.--
+
+  Mainwaindumëyun,        Thou (who) makest me happy, &c.
+
+The basis of these compounds is _minno_, good, and _aindum_, the mind.
+Hence minwaindum, he happy. The adjective in this connexion, cannot be
+translated "good," but its effect upon the noun, is to denote that state
+of the mind, which is at rest with itself. The first change from this
+simple compound, is to give the adjective a verbal form; and this is
+effected by a permutation of the vowels of the first syllable--a rule of
+very extensive application--and by which, in the present instance, the
+phrase _he happy_, is changed to _he makes happy_, (mainwaindum.) The
+next step is to add the suffix personal pronouns, id, ik, aud, &c.,
+rendering the expressions, he makes _me_ happy, &c. But in adding these
+increments, the vowel e, is thrown between the adjective-verb, and the
+pronoun suffixed, making the expression, not mainwaindum-yun, but
+mainwaindumëyun. Generally the vowel e in this situation, is a
+connective, or introduced merely for the sake of euphony. And those who
+maintain that it is here employed as a personal pronoun, and that the
+relative _who_, is implied by the final inflection; overlook the
+inevitable inference, that if the marked e, stands for _me_ in the first
+phrase, it must stand for _thee_ in the second, _he_ in the third, _us_
+in the fourth, &c. As to the meaning and office of the final inflections
+id, ik, &c.--whatever they may, in an involuted sense _imply_, it is
+quite clear, by turning to the list of _suffixed personal pronouns_ and
+_animate plurals_, that they mark the persons, I, thou, he, &c., we, ye,
+they, &c.
+
+Take for example, minwaindumëigowaud. He (who) makes them happy. Of this
+compound, minwaindum, as before shown, signifies _he makes happy_. But
+as the verb is in the singular number, it implies that but _one person_
+is made happy, and the suffixed, personal pronouns _singular_, mark the
+distinctions between _me_, _thee_, and he, or him.
+
+Minwaindum-e-ig is the verb plural, and implies that several persons are
+made happy, and, in like manner, the suffixed personal pronouns
+_plural_, mark the distinctions between we, ye, they, &c. For it is a
+rule of the language, that a strict concordance must exist between the
+number of the verb, and the number of the pronoun. The termination of
+the verb consequently always indicates, whether there be one or many
+objects, to which its energy is directed. And as animate verbs can be
+applied only to animate objects, the numerical inflections of the verb,
+are understood to mark the number of persons. But this number is
+indiscriminate, and leaves the sense vague, until the pronominal
+suffixes are superadded. Those who, therefore, contend for the sense of
+the relative pronoun "who," being given in the last mentioned phrase,
+and all phrases similarly formed, by a succedaneum, contend for
+something like the following form of translation:--He makes them
+happy--him! or Him--he (meaning who) makes them happy.
+
+The equivalent for what, is _Waygonain_.
+
+  What do you want?         Waygonain wau iauyun?
+  What have you lost?       Waygonain kau wonetöyun?
+  What do you look for?     Waygonain nain dahwaubundamun?
+  What is this?             Waygonain ewinain maundun?
+  What will you have?       Waygonain kau iauyun?
+  What detained you?        Waygonain kau oon dahme egöyun?
+  What are you making?      Waygonain wayzhetöyun?
+  What have you there?      Waygonain e-mau iauyun?
+
+The use of this pronoun, like the preceding, appears to be confined to
+simple interrogative forms. The word _auneen_, which sometimes supplies
+its place, or is used for want of the pronoun _which_, is an adverb, and
+has considerable latitude of meaning. Most commonly it may be considered
+as the equivalent for _how_, in what manner, or at what time.
+
+  What do you say?                          Auneen akeedöyun?
+  What do you call this?                    Auneen aizheneekaudahmun
+                                                maundun? (i.)
+  What ails you?                            Auneen aindeeyun?
+  What is your name?                        Auneen aizheekauzoyun?
+  Which do you mean; this or that? (an.)    Auneen ah-ow ainud, woh-ow
+                                                gämau ewidde?
+  Which do you mean; this or that? (in.)    Auneen eh-eu ewaidumun oh-oo
+                                                gämau ewaidde?
+  Which boy do you mean?                    Auneen ah-ow-ainud?
+
+  By adding to this word, the particle _de_, it is converted into an
+  adverb of place, and may be rendered _where_.
+
+  Where do you dwell?        Auneende aindauyun?
+  Where is your son?         Auneende ke gwiss?
+  Where did you see him?     Auneende ke waubumud?
+
+[The text at this point was misprinted. There is at least one missing
+page.]
+
+becomes quite necessary in writing the language. And in the following
+sentences, the substantive is properly employed after the pronoun.
+
+  This dog is very lean,            Gitshee bukaukdoozo woh-ow
+                                          annemoosh.
+  These dogs are very lean,         Gitshee bukauddoozowug o-goo
+                                          annemooshug.
+  Those dogs are fat,               Ig-eu annemooshug ween-in-oawug.
+  That dog is fat,                  Ah-ow annemoosh ween-in-ao.
+  This is a handsome knife,         Gagait onishishin maundun mokomahn.
+  These are handsome knives,        Gagait wahwinaudj o-noo mokomahnun.
+  Those are bad knives,             Monaududön in-euwaidde mokomahnun.
+  Give me that spear,               Meezhishin eh-eu ahnitt.
+  Give me those spears,             Meezhishin in-eu unnewaidde
+                                          ahnitteen.
+  That is a fine boy,               Gagait kwonaudj ah-ow kweewezains.
+  Those are fine boys,              Gagait wahwinaudj ig-euwaidde
+                                          kweewezainsug.
+  This boy is larger than that,     Nahwudj mindiddo woh-ow kweewezains
+                                          ewaidde dush.
+  That is what I wanted,            Meeh-eu wau iauyaumbaun.
+  This is the very thing I wanted,  Mee-suh oh-oo wau iauyaumbaun.
+
+In some of these expressions, the pronoun combines with an adjective, as
+in the compound words, ineuwaidde, and igeuwaidde, _those yonder_, (in.)
+and _those yonder_ (an.) Compounds which exhibit the full pronoun in
+coalescence with the word _Ewaidde_ yonder.
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY.
+
+  Columbus discovered the West Indies Oct. 12, 1492.
+  Americo Vespucio, discovered the coast of South America, 1497.
+  Cabot discovered the North American coast 1497.
+  De Leon discovered Florida 1512.
+  Cortes, enters the city of Mexico, after a seige, Aug. 13, 1521.
+  Verrizani, is said to have entered the bay of New York, 1524.
+  Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence, 1534.
+  Jamestown, in Virginia, is founded, 1608.
+  Acknowledged date of the settlement of Canada, 1608.
+  Hudson discovers the river bearing his name, 1609.
+  The Dutch build a fort near Albany, 1614.
+  The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Dec, 22, 1620.
+  New Amsterdam taken from the Dutch by the Duke of York and Albany
+    and named New York 1664.
+  La Salle discovers the Illinois in upper Louisiana 1678.
+           discovers Lower Louisiana, and is killed 1685.
+
+
+
+
+THE ERA OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH IN THE UPPER LAKES.
+
+
+Ke-wa-kons, a chief of the straits of St. Mary's, told me, during an
+interview, in 1827, that but seven generations of red men had passed
+away, since the French first appeared on those straits. If we take the
+date of Cartier's first visit to the St. Lawrence, as the era of their
+acquaintance with this nation, A.D. 1534, we should have 56 years as the
+period of an Indian generation. Should we take, instead of this, the
+time of La Salle's first arrival on the upper lakes, 1778, there would,
+on the contrary, be but a fraction over 22 years for a generation. But
+neither of these periods, can be truly said to coincide with the
+probable era of the chief's historical reminiscences. The first is too
+early, the last too late. An average of the two, which is required to
+apply the observation properly, gives 38 years as the Indian generation.
+This nearly assimilates it to the results among Europeans, leaving 8
+years excess. Further data would probably reduce this; but it is a
+department in which we have so little material, that we must leave it
+till these be accumulated. It may be supposed that the period of Indian
+longevity, before the introduction of ardent spirits, was equal,
+perhaps, a little superior, to that of the European; but it did not
+exceed it, we think, by 8 years.
+
+Ke-wa-kons, whom I knew very well, was a man of shrewd sense, and
+respectable powers of observation. He stated, at the same interview,
+that his tribe, who were of the Odjibwa type of the Algonquins, laid
+aside their Akeeks, or clay cooking-vessels, at _that time_, and adopted
+in lieu of them, the light brass kettle, which was more portable and
+permanent. And from that time, their skill in pottery declined, until,
+in our day, it is entirely lost. It is curious to reflect, that within
+the brief period of 150 years, a living branch of coarse manufacture
+among them, has thus been transferred into an object of antiquarian
+research. This fact, should make historians cautious in assigning very
+remote periods of antiquity to the monumental evidences of by-gone
+generations.
+
+It is by such considerations that we get a glimpse of some of the
+general principles which attended the early periods of discovery and
+settlement, in all parts of the continent. Adventurers came to find
+gold, or furs, to amass wealth, get power, or to perform mere exploits.
+Nobody cared much for the native race, beyond the fact of their being
+the medium to lead to these specified objects. There were none, to
+record accurately, their arts, and other peculiarities, which now excite
+intense interest. They died away very fast, whole tribes becoming
+extinct within a generation or two. The European fabrics, then
+introduced, were so much superior to their own, that they, at once,
+discontinued such rude arts as they practised, at least in our northern
+latitudes. New adventurers followed in the track of Columbus, Amerigo,
+Cabot, and their compeers and followers, who, in the lapse of time,
+picked up, from the soil, pieces of coarse pottery, pestles and such
+like things, and holding them up, said,--"See these!--here are evidences
+of very great skill, and very high antiquity."
+
+It is not the intention by any means, to assert, that there were not
+antiquities of a far higher era, and nobler caste, but merely to impress
+upon inquirers, the necessity of discriminating the different eras in
+the chronology of our antiquities. All Indian pottery, north of the
+capes of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, is of, or preceding the era of
+the discovery; but there is found in graves, a species of pottery, and
+vitrified ware, which was introduced, in the early stages of traffic, by
+Europeans. Of this transition era between the dying away of the Indian
+arts, and the introduction of the European, are the rude pastes, enamel
+and glass beads, and short clay pipes of coarse texture, found in Indian
+cemeteries, but not in the tumuli. In place of these, our ancient
+Indians used wrought and unwrought sea shells of various species, and
+pipes carved out of steatites and other soft materials.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Anderson remarks in his biography of Catharine Brown, that "the
+Cherokees are said to possess a language, which is more precise and
+powerful than any into which learning has poured richness of thought, or
+genius breathed the enchantments of fancy and eloquence."
+
+David Brown, in one of his letters, in the same volume, terms his people
+the Tsallakee, of which we must therefore take "Cherokee," to be a
+corruption. It is seen by the Cherokee alphabet, that the sound of _r_
+does not occur in that language.
+
+
+FAITH.
+
+When Chusco was converted to Christianity at the mission of
+Michilimackinac, he had planted a field of potatoes on one of the
+neighbouring islands in lake Huron. In the fall he went over in his
+canoe, with his aged wife, to dig them--a labour which the old woman set
+unceremoniously about, as soon as they got into the field. "Stop!" cried
+the little old man, who had a small tenor voice and was bent nearly
+double by age,--"dare you begin to dig, till we have thanked the Lord
+for their growth." They then both knelt down in the field, while he
+lifted up his voice, in his native language, in thanks.
+
+
+
+
+SHINGABA-WOSSINS; OR IMAGE STONES.
+
+
+The native tribes who occupy the borders of the great lakes, are very
+ingenious in converting to the uses of superstition, such masses of
+loose rock, or boulder stones, as have been fretted by the action of
+water into shapes resembling the trunks of human bodies, or other
+organic forms.
+
+There appears, at all times, to have been a ready disposition to turn
+such masses of rude natural sculpture, so to call them, to an idolatrous
+use; as well as a most ingenious tact, in aiding the effect of the
+natural resemblance, by dots or dabs of paint, to denote eyes, and other
+features, or by rings of red ochre, around their circumference, by way
+of ornament.
+
+In the following figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, some of these masses are
+represented.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Number 3. was brought to the office of the Indian Agent at
+Michilimackinac in 1839, and placed among objects of analagous interest
+to visiters. It consisted of a portion of a vein or mass of gneiss or
+granite, from which both mica and feldspar were nearly absent, existing
+only in trace, while the quartzy portion predominated, and had, by its
+superior hardness, resisted the elemental action. The mode of the
+formation of such masses is very well known to geologists, resulting, in
+almost every case, from the unequal degree of hardness of various parts
+of a mass, submitted to an equal force of attrition, such as is
+ordinarily given by the upheaving and rolling force of waves on a lake,
+or ocean beach. To the natives, who are not prone to reason from cause
+to effect, such productions appear wonderful. All that is past
+comprehension, or wonderful, is attributed by them to the supernatural
+agency of spirits. The hunter or warrior, who is travelling along the
+coast, and finds one of these self-sculptured stones, is not sure that
+it is not a direct interposition of his God, or guardian Manito, in his
+favour. He is habitually a believer in the most subtle forms of
+mysterious power, which he acknowledges to be often delegated to the
+native priests, or necromancers. He is not staggered by the most
+extraordinary stretch of fancy, in the theory of the change or
+transformation of animate into inanimate objects, and vice versa. All
+things, "in heaven and earth," he believes to be subject to this subtle
+power of metamorphosis. But, whatever be the precise operating cause of
+the respect he pays to the imitative rolled stones, which he calls
+Shingaba-wossins, and also by the general-phrase of Muz-in-in-a-wun, or
+images, he is not at liberty to pass them without hazarding something,
+in his opinion, of his chance of success in life, or the fortune of the
+enterprize in hand.
+
+If the image be small, it is generally taken with him and secreted in
+the neighborhood of his lodge. If large and too heavy for this purpose,
+it is set up on the shore, generally in some obscure nook, where an
+offering of tobacco, or something else of less value, may be made _to_
+it, or rather _through_ it, to the spirit.
+
+In 1820 one of these stones (No. 2.) was met by an expedition of the
+government sent north, that year, for the purpose of interior discovery
+and observation, at the inner Thunder Bay island, in Lake Huron. It was
+a massy stone, rounded, with a comparatively broad base and entablature
+but not otherwise remarkable. It was set up, under a tree on the island,
+which was small, with the wide and clear expanse of the lake in plain
+view. The island was one of those which were regarded as desert, and was
+probably but seldom stopped at. It was, indeed, little more than a few
+acres of boulders and pebbles, accumulated on a limestone reef, and
+bearing a few stunted trees and shrubs. The water of the lake must, in
+high storms, have thrown its spray over this imaged stone. It was, in
+fine, one of those private places which an Indian might be supposed to
+have selected for his secret worship.
+
+In No. 3. is figured an object of this kind, which was found in 1832, in
+the final ascent to the source of the Mississippi, on the right cape, in
+ascending this stream into lac Traverse--at the distance of about 1000
+miles above the falls of St. Anthony. I landed at the point to see it,
+having heard, from my interpreter, that such an object was set up and
+dedicated to some unknown Manito there. It was a pleasant level point of
+land shaded with trees, and bearing luxuriant grass and wild shrubbery
+and flowers. In the middle of this natural parterre the stone was
+placed, and was overtopped by this growth, and thus concealed by it. A
+ring of red paint encircled it, at the first narrowed point of its
+circumference, to give it the resemblance of a human neck; and there
+were some rude dabs to denote other features. The Indian is not precise
+in the matter of proportion, either in his drawing, or in his attempts
+at statuary. He seizes upon some minute and characteristic trait, which
+is at once sufficient to denote the _species_, and he is easily
+satisfied about the rest. Thus a simple cross, with a strait line from
+shoulder to shoulder, and a dot, or circle above, to serve for a head,
+is the symbol of the human frame; and without any adjunct of feet, or
+hands, it could not have been mistaken for anything else--certainly for
+any other object in the animal creation.
+
+
+
+
+
+MNEMONIC SYMBOLS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+     PRELIMINARY REMARKS.--SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATIONS AND HIEROGLYPHICS,
+     ONE OF THE EARLIEST OBSERVED TRAITS IN THE CUSTOMS AND ARTS OF THE
+     AMERICAN ABORIGINES; BUT THIS ART NOT SUSPECTED TO HAVE A
+     SYSTEMATIC FORM AMONG THE RUDE HUNTER TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA,
+     UNTIL THE YEAR 1820, WHEN IT WAS DISCOVERED ON THE SOURCE OF THE
+     MISSISSIPPI. THIS INSTANCE GIVEN, WITH A DRAWING; THE HINT PURSUED.
+
+The practice of the North American tribes, of drawing figures and
+pictures on skins, trees, and various other substances, has been noticed
+by travellers and writers from the earliest times. Among the more
+northerly tribes, these figures are often observed on that common
+substitute for the ancient papyrus, among these nations, the bark of the
+_betula papyracea_, or white birch: a substance possessing a smooth
+surface, easily impressed, very flexible, and capable of being preserved
+in rolls. Often these devices are cut, or drawn in colours on the trunks
+of trees, more rarely on rocks or boulders. According to Colden and
+Lafitou records of this rude character were formerly to be seen on the
+blazed surface of trees, along some of the ancient paths and portages
+leading from the sources of the Atlantic rivers into the interior, or in
+the valley of the St. Lawrence; but these, after satisfying a transient
+curiosity, have long since yielded to the general fate of these simple
+and unenduring monuments. Pictures and symbols of this kind are now to
+be found only on the unreclaimed borders of the great area west of the
+Alleghanies and the Lakes, in the wide prairies of the west, or along
+the Missouri and the upper Mississippi. It is known that such devices
+were in use, to some extent, at the era of the discovery, among most of
+the tribes, situated between the latitudes of the capes of Florida, and
+Hudson's Bay, although they have been considered as more particularly
+characteristic of the tribes of the Algonquin type. In a few instances,
+these pictorial inscriptions have been found to be painted or stained on
+the faces of rocks, or on loose boulders, and still more rarely, devices
+were scratched or pecked into the surface, as is found to be the case
+still at Dighton and Venango. Those who are intent on observations of
+this kind, will find figures and rude hieroglyphics invariably at the
+present time, on the grave posts which mark the places of Indian
+sepulchre at the west and north. The nations who rove over the western
+prairies, inscribe them on the skins of the buffalo. North of latitude
+42°, the bark of the birch, which furnishes at once the material of
+canoes, tents, boxes, water-dippers, and paper, constitutes the common
+medium of their exhibition. Tablets of hard wood are confined to such
+devices as are employed by their priests and prophets, and medicine-men;
+and these characters uniformly assume a more mystical or sacred import.
+But the recent discovery, on one of the tributaries of the Susquehanna,
+of an Indian map, drawn on stone, with intermixed devices, a copy of
+which appears in the 1st volume of the collections of the Historical
+Committee of the American Philosophical Society, proves that stone was
+also employed in that branch of inscription. This discovery was on the
+area occupied by the Lenapees.
+
+Colden, in his history of the Five Nations,[23] informs us that when, in
+1696, the Count de Frontenac marched a well appointed army into the
+Iroquois country, with artillery and all other means of regular military
+offence, he found, on the banks of the Onondaga, now called Oswego
+river, a tree, on the trunk of which the Indians had depicted the French
+army, and deposited two bundles of cut rushes at its foot, consisting of
+1434 pieces--an act of defiance on their part, which was intended to
+inform their invaders, that they would have to encounter this number of
+warriors. In speaking in another passage of the general traits of the
+Five Nations, he mentions the general custom prevalent among the Mohawks
+going to war, of painting, with red paint, on the trunk of a tree; such
+symbols, as might serve to denote the object of their expedition. Among
+the devices was a canoe pointed towards the enemies' country. On their
+return, it was their practice to visit the same tree, or precinct, and
+denote the result: the canoe being, in this case, drawn with its bows in
+the opposite direction. Lafitou, in his account of the nations of
+Canada, makes observations on this subject to which we shall more
+particularly refer hereafter, which denote the general prevalence of the
+custom in that quarter. Other writers, dating as far back as Smith and
+de Bre, bear a passing testimony to the existence of this trait among
+the northern tribes. Few have however done more than notice it, and none
+are known to have furnished any amount of connected details.
+
+A single element in the system attracted early notice. I allude to the
+institution of the Totem, which has been well known among the Algonquin
+tribes from the settlement of Canada. By this device, the early
+missionaries observed, that the natives marked their division of a tribe
+into clans, and of a clan into families, and the distinction was thus
+very clearly preserved. Affinities were denoted and kept up, long after
+tradition had failed in its testimony. This distinction, which is
+marked with much of the certainty of heraldic bearings in the feudal
+system, was seen to mark the arms, the lodge, and the trophies of the
+chief and warrior. It was likewise employed to give identity to the
+_clan_ of which he was a member, on his ad-je-da-teg or grave-post. This
+record went but little farther; a few strokes or geometric devices were
+drawn on these simple monuments, to denote the number of men he had
+slain in battle.
+
+It has not been suspected in any notices to which I have had access,
+that there was a pictorial alphabet, or a series of homophonous figures,
+in which, by the juxtaposition of symbols representing acts, as well as
+objects of action, and by the introduction of simple adjunct signs, a
+series of disjunctive, yet generally connected ideas, were denoted; or
+that the most prominent incidents of life and death could be recorded so
+as to be transmitted from one generation to another, as long at least as
+the monument and the people endured. Above all, it was not anticipated
+that there should have been found, as will be observed in the subsequent
+details, a system of symbolic notation for the songs and incantations of
+the Indian metas and priests, making an appeal to the memory for the
+preservation of language.
+
+Persons familiar with the state of the western tribes of this continent,
+particularly in the higher northern latitudes, have long been aware that
+the songs of the Indian priesthood, and wabenoes, were sung from a kind
+of pictorial notation, made on bark. It is a fact which has often come
+to the observation of military officers performing duties on those
+frontiers, and of persons exercising occasional duties in civil life,
+who have passed through their territories. But there is no class of
+persons to whom the fact of such notations being made, is so well known,
+as the class of Indian traders and interpreters who visit or reside a
+part of the season at the Indian villages. I have never conversed with
+any of this latter class of persons to whom the fact of such
+inscriptions, made in various ways, was not so familiar as in their view
+to excite no surprise or even demand remark.
+
+My attention was first called to the subject in 1820. In the summer of
+that year I was on an exploring journey through the lake country. At the
+mouth of the small river Huron, on the banks of Lake Superior, there was
+an Indian grave fenced around with saplings, and protected with much
+care. At its head stood a post, or tabular stick, upon which was drawn
+the figure of the animal which was the symbol of the clan to which the
+deceased chief belonged. Strokes of red paint were added to denote,
+either the number of war parties in which he had been engaged, or the
+number of scalps which he had actually taken from the enemy. The
+interpreter who accompanied us, and who was himself tinctured with
+Indian blood, gave the latter, as the true import of these marks.
+
+On quitting the river St. Louis, which flows into the head of the lake
+at the Fond du Lac, to cross the summit dividing its waters from those
+of the Mississippi, the way led through heavy and dense woods and
+swamps, and the weather proved dark and rainy, so that, for a couple of
+days together, we had scarcely a glimpse of the sun.
+
+The party consisted of sixteen persons, with two Indian guides; but the
+latter, with all their adroitness in threading the maze, were completely
+at fault for nearly an entire day. At night we lay down on ground
+elevated but a few inches above the level of the swamp. The next morning
+as we prepared to leave the camp, a small sheet of birch bark containing
+devices was observed elevated on the top of a sapling, some 8 or 10 feet
+high. One end of this pole was thrust firmly into the ground leaning in
+the direction we were to go. On going up to this object, it was found,
+with the aid of the interpreter, to be a symbolic record of the
+circumstances of our crossing this summit, and of the night's encampment
+at this spot. Each person was appropriately depicted, distinguishing the
+soldiers from the officer in command, and the latter from the scavans of
+the party. The Indians themselves were depicted without hats, this
+being, as we noticed, the general symbol for a white man or European.
+The entire record, of which a figure is annexed, accurately symbolized
+the circumstances, and they were so clearly drawn, according to their
+conventional rules, that the intelligence would be communicated thereby
+to any of their people who might chance to travel or wander this way.
+This was the object of the inscription.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Fig. No. 1. represents the subaltern officer in command of the party of
+the U. S. troops. He is drawn with a sword to denote his official rank.
+No. 2 denotes the person who officiated in quality of Secretary. He is
+represented holding a book. No. 3 denotes the geologist and mineralogist
+of the party. He is drawn with a hammer. Nos. 4 and 5 are attachés; No.
+6, the interpreter.
+
+The group of figures marked 9 represents eight infantry soldiers, each
+of whom, as shown in group No. 10, was armed with a musket. No. 15
+denotes that they had a separate fire, and constituted a separate mess.
+Figures 7 and 8 are the two Chippewa guides, the principal of whom,
+called Chamees, or the Pouncing-hawk, led the way over this dreary
+summit. These are the only human figures on this unique bark letter, who
+are drawn without a hat. This was the characteristic seized on, by them,
+and generally employed by the tribes, to distinguish the Red from the
+white race. Figures 11 and 12 represent a prairie hen, and a green
+tortoise, which constituted the sum of the preceding day's chase, and
+were eaten at the encampment. The inclination of the pole, was designed
+to show the course pursued from that particular spot: there were three
+hacks in it, below the scroll of bark, to indicate the estimated length
+of this part of the journey, computing from water to water, that is to
+say, from the head of the portage Aux Couteaux on the St. Louis river,
+to the open shores of Sandy lake, the Ka-ma-ton-go-gom-ag of the
+Odjibwas.
+
+The story was thus briefly and simply told; and this memorial was set up
+by the guides, to advertise any of their countrymen, who might chance to
+wander in that direction, of the adventure--for it was evident, both
+from this token, and from the dubiousness which had marked the prior
+day's wanderings, that they regarded the passage in this light, and were
+willing to take some credit for the successful execution of it.
+
+Before we had penetrated quite to this summit, we came to another
+evidence of their skill in this species of knowledge, consisting of one
+of those contrivances which they denominate Man-i-to-wa-teg, or Manito
+Poles. On reaching this our guides shouted, whether from a superstitious
+impulse, or the joy of having found a spot they certainly could
+recognize, we could not tell. We judged the latter. It consisted of
+eight poles, of equal length; shaved smooth and round, painted with
+yellow ochre, and set so as to enclose a square area. It appeared to
+have been one of those rude temples, or places of incantation or
+worship, known to the metas, or priests, where certain rites and
+ceremonies are performed. But it was not an ordinary medicine lodge.
+There had been far more care in its construction.
+
+On reaching the village of Sandy lake, on the upper Mississippi, the
+figures of animals, birds, and other devices were found, on the rude
+coffins, or wrappings of their dead, which were scaffolded around the
+precincts of the fort, and upon the open shores of the lake. Similar
+devices were also observed, here, as at other points in this region,
+upon their arms, war-clubs, canoes, and other pieces of moveable
+property, as well as upon their grave posts.
+
+In the descent of the Mississippi, we observed such devices painted on a
+rock, below and near the mouth of Elk river, and at a rocky island in
+the river, at the Little Falls. In the course of our descent to the
+Falls at St. Anthony, we observed another bark letter, as the party now
+began to call these inscriptions, suspended on a high pole, on an
+elevated bank of the river, on its west shore. At this spot, where we
+encamped for the night, and which is just opposite a point of highly
+crystalized hornblende rock, called the Peace Rock, rising up through
+the prairie, there were left standing the poles or skeletons of a great
+number of Sioux lodges. It is near and a little west of the territorial
+boundary of the Sioux nation; and on inspecting this scroll of bark, we
+found it had reference to a negociation for bringing about a permanent
+peace between the Sioux and Chippewas. A large party of the former, from
+St. Peter's, headed by their chief, had proceeded thus far, in the hope
+of meeting the Chippewa hunters, on their summer hunt. They had been
+countenanced, or directed in this step, by Col. Leavenworth, the
+commanding officer of the new post, just then about to be erected. The
+inscription, which was read off at once, by the Chippewa Chief
+Babesacundabee, who was with us, told all this; it gave the name of the
+Chief who had led the party, and the number of his followers, and gave
+that chief the first assurance he had, that his mission for the same
+purpose, would be favourably received.
+
+After our arrival at St. Anthony's Falls, it was found that this system
+of picture writing was as familiar to the Dacotah, as we had found it
+among the Algonquin race. At Prairie du Chien, and at Green Bay, the
+same evidences were observed among the Monomonees, and the Winnebagoes,
+at Chicago among the Pottowottomies, and at Michilimakinac, among the
+Chippewas and Ottawas who resort, in such numbers, to that Island. While
+at the latter place, on my return, I went to visit the grave of a noted
+chief of the Monomonee tribe, who had been known by his French name of
+Toma, i.e. Thomas. He had been buried on the hill west of the village;
+and on looking at his Ad-je-da-tig or grave post, it bore a pictorial
+inscription, commemorating some of the prominent achievements of his
+life.
+
+These hints served to direct my attention to the subject when I returned
+to the country in 1822. The figures of a deer, a bear, a turtle, and a
+crane, according to this system, stand respectively for the names of
+men, and preserve the language very well, by yielding to the person
+conversant with it, the corresponding words, of Addick, Muckwa,
+Mickenock, and Adjeejauk. Marks, circles, or dots, of various kinds, may
+symbolize the number of warlike deeds. Adjunct devices may typify or
+explain adjunct acts. If the system went no farther, the record would
+yield a kind of information both gratifying and useful to one of his
+countrymen who had no letters and was expert in the use of symbols; and
+the interpretation of it, would be easy and precise in proportion as the
+signs were general, conventional, and well understood. There was
+abundant evidence in my first year's observation, to denote that this
+mode of communication was in vogue, and well understood by the northern
+tribes; but it hardly seemed susceptible of a farther or extended use.
+It was not till I had made a personal acquaintance with one of their
+Medas--a man of much intelligence, and well versed in their customs,
+religion, and history, that a more enlarged application of it appeared
+to be practicable. I observed in the hands of this man a tabular piece
+of wood, covered over on both sides, with a series of devices cut
+between parallel lines, which he referred to, as if they were the notes
+of his medicine and mystical songs. I heard him sing these songs, and
+observed that their succession was fixed and uniform. By cultivating his
+acquaintance, and by suitable attention and presents, such as the
+occasion rendered proper, he consented to explain the meaning of each
+figure, the object symbolized, and the words attached to each symbol. By
+this revelation, which was made with closed doors, I became a member or
+initiate of the Medicine Society, and also of the Wabeno Society. Care
+was taken to write each sentence of the songs and chants in the Indian
+language, with its appropriate devices, and to subjoin a literal
+translation in English. When this had been done, and the system
+considered, it was very clear that the devices were mnemonic--that any
+person could sing from these devices, very accurately, what he had
+previously committed to memory, and that the system revealed a curious
+scheme of symbolic notation.
+
+All the figures thus employed, as the initiatory points of study,
+related exclusively to either the medicine dance, or the wabeno dance;
+and each section of figures, related exclusively to one or the other.
+There was no intermixture or commingling of characters, although the
+class of subjects were sometimes common to each. It was perceived,
+subsequently, that this classification of symbols extended to the songs
+devoted to war, to hunting, and to other specific topics. The entire
+inscriptive system, reaching from its first rudimental characters, in
+the ad-je-da-tig, or grave board, to the extended roll of bark covered
+with the incriptions of their magicians and prophets, derived a new
+interest-from this feature. It was easy to perceive that much
+comparative precision was imparted to interpretations in the hands of
+the initiated, which before, or to others, had very little. An interest
+was thus cast over it distinct from its novelty. And in truth, the
+entire pictorial system was thus invested with the character of a
+subject of acurate investigation, which promised both interest and
+instruction.
+
+It has been thought that a simple statement of these circumstances,
+would best answer the end in view, and might well occupy the place of a
+more formal or profound introduction. In bringing forward the elements
+of the system, after much reflection, it is thought, however, that a few
+remarks on the general character of this art may not be out of place.
+For, simple as it is, we perceive in it the native succedaneum for
+letters. It is not only the sole graphic mode they have few
+communicating ideas, but it is the mode of communicating all classes of
+ideas commonly entertained by them--such as their ideas of war, of
+hunting, of religion, and of magic and necromancy. So considered, it
+reveals a new and unsuspected mode of obtaining light on their opinions
+of a deity, of the structure or cosmogony of the globe, of astronomy,
+the various classes of natural objects, their ideas of immortality and a
+future state, and the prevalent notions of the union of spiritual and
+material matter. So wide and varied, indeed, is the range opened by the
+subject, that we may consider the Indian system of picture writing as
+the thread which ties up the scroll of the Red man's views of life and
+death, reveals the true theory of his hopes and fears, and denotes the
+relation he bears, in the secret chambers of his own thoughts, to his
+Maker. What a stoic and suspicious temper would often hold him back from
+uttering to another, and what a limited language would sometimes prevent
+his fully revealing, if he wished, symbols and figures can be made to
+represent and express. The Indian is not a man prone to describe his
+god, but he is ready to depict him, by a symbol. He may conceal under
+the figures of a serpent, a turtle, or a wolf, wisdom, strength, or
+malignity, or convey under the picture of the sun, the idea of a
+supreme, all-seeing intelligence. But he is not prepared to discourse
+upon these things. What he believes on this head, he will not declare to
+a white man or a stranger. His happiness and success in life, are
+thought to depend upon the secrecy of that knowledge of the Creator and
+his system in the Indian view of benign and malignant agents. To reveal
+this to others, even to his own people, is, he believes, to expose
+himself to the counteracting influence of other agents known to his
+subtle scheme of necromancy and superstition, and to hazard success and
+life itself. This conduces to make the Red man eminently a man of fear,
+suspicion, and secrecy. But he cannot avoid some of these disclosures in
+his pictures and figures. These figures represent ideas--whole ideas,
+and their juxtaposition or relation on a roll of bark, a tree, or a
+rock, discloses a continuity of ideas. This is the basis of the system.
+
+Picture writing is indeed the literature of the Indians. It cannot be
+interpreted, however rudely, without letting one know what the Red man
+thinks and believes. It shadows forth the Indian intellect, it stands in
+the place of letters for the Unishinaba.[24] It shows the Red man in all
+periods of our history; both as he _was_, and as he _is_; for there is
+nothing more true than that, save and except the comparatively few
+instances where they have truly embraced experimental christianity,
+there has not
+
+[At this point, there is at least one missing page, though the
+pagination is continuous.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [23] London, 1747, p. 190.
+
+  [24] A generic term denoting the common people of the Indian race.
+
+
+
+
+GRAVE CREEK MOUND.
+
+
+This gigantic tumulus, the largest in the Ohio valley, was opened some
+four or five years ago, and found to contain some articles of high
+antiquarian value, in addition to the ordinary discoveries of human
+bones, &c. A rotunda was built under its centre, walled with brick, and
+roofed over, and having a long gallery leading into it, at the base of
+the mound. Around this circular wall, in the centre of this heavy and
+damp mass of earth, with its atmosphere of peculiar and pungent
+character, the skeletons and other disinterred articles, are hung up for
+the gratification of visiters, the whole lighted up with candles, which
+have the effect to give a strikingly sepulchral air to the whole scene.
+But what adds most to this effect, is a kind of exuded flaky matter,
+very white and soft, and rendered brilliant by dependent drops of water,
+which hangs in rude festoons from the ceiling.
+
+To this rotunda, it is said, a delegation of Indians paid a visit a year
+or two since. In the "Wheeling Times and Advertiser" of the 30th August
+1843, the following communication, respecting this visit, introducing a
+short dramatic poem, was published.
+
+"An aged Cherokee chief who, on his way to the west, visited the rotunda
+excavated in this gigantic tumulus, with its skeletons and other relics
+arranged around the walls, became so indignant at the desecration and
+display of sepulchral secrets to the white race; that his companions and
+interpreter found it difficult to restrain him from assassinating the
+guide. His language assumed the tone of fury, and he brandished his
+knife, as they forced him out of the passage. Soon after, he was found
+prostrated, with his senses steeped in the influence of alcohol.
+
+          "'Tis not enough! that hated race
+          Should hunt us out, from grove and place
+          And consecrated shore--where long
+          Our fathers raised the lance and song--
+          'Tis not enough!--that we must go
+          Where streams and rushing fountains flow
+          Whose murmurs, heard amid our fears,
+          Fall only on a stranger's ears--
+          'Tis not enough!--that with a wand,
+          They sweep away our pleasant land,
+          And bid us, as some giant-foe,
+          Or willing, or unwilling _go_!
+          But they must ope our very graves
+          To tell the _dead_--they too, are slaves."
+
+
+
+
+NAMES OF THE AMERICAN LAKES.
+
+
+Ontario, is a word from the Wyandot, or, as called by the Iroquois,
+Quatoghie language. This tribe, prior to the outbreak of the war against
+them, by their kindred the Iroquois, lived on a bay, near Kingston,
+which was the ancient point of embarkation and debarkation, or, in other
+words, at once the commencement and the terminus of the portage,
+according to the point of destination for all, who passed into or out of
+the lake. From such a point it was natural that a term so euphonous,
+should prevail among Europeans, over the other Indian names in use. The
+Mohawks and their confederates, generally, called it Cadaracqui--which
+was also their name for the St. Lawrence. The Onondagas, it is believed,
+knew it, in early times, by the name of Oswego.[25] Of the meaning of
+Ontario, we are left in the dark by commentators on the Indian.
+Philology casts some light on the subject. The first syllable, _on_, it
+may be observed, appears to be the notarial increment or syllable of
+Onondio, a hill. Tarak, is clearly, the same phrase, written darac, by
+the French, in the Mohawk compound of Cadaracqui; and denotes rocks,
+i.e. rocks standing in the water. In the final vowels _io_, we have the
+same term, with the same meaning which they carry in the Seneca, or old
+Mingo word Ohio.[26] It is descriptive of an extended and beautiful
+water prospect, or landscape. It possesses all the properties of an
+exclamation, in other languages, but according to the unique principles
+of the Indian grammar, it is an exclamation-substantive. How beautiful!
+[the prospect, scene present.]
+
+Erie is the name of a tribe conquered or extinguished by the Iroquois.
+We cannot stop to inquire into this fact historically, farther than to
+say, that it was the policy of this people to adopt into their different
+tribes of the confederacy, the remnants of nations whom they conquered,
+and that it was not probable, therefore, that the Eries were
+annihilated. Nor is it probable that they were a people very remote in
+kindred and language from the ancient Sinondowans, or Senecas, who, it
+may be supposed, by crushing them, destroyed and exterminated their name
+only, while they strengthened their numbers by this inter-adoption. In
+many old maps, this lake bears the name of Erie or "Oskwago."
+
+Huron, is the _nom de guerre_ of the French, for the "Yendats," as they
+are called in some old authors, or the Wyandots. Charlevoix tells us
+that it is a term derived from the French word _hure_, [a wild boar,]
+and was applied to this nation from the mode of wearing their hair.
+"Quelles Hures!" said the first visiters, when they saw them, and hence,
+according to this respectable author, the word Huron.
+
+When this nation, with their confederates, the Algonquins, or
+Adirondaks, as the Iroquois called them, were overthrown in several
+decisive battles on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, and
+compelled to fly west; they at first took shelter in this lake, and thus
+transferred their name to it. With them, or at least, at the same
+general era, came some others of the tribes who made a part of the
+people called by the French, Algonquins, or Nipercineans, and who thus
+constituted the several tribes, speaking a closely cognate language,
+whose descendants are regarded by philologists, as the modern
+Lake-Algonquins.
+
+The French sometimes called this lake _Mer douce_, or the Placid sea.
+The Odjibwas and some other northern tribes of that stock, call it
+Ottowa lake. No term has been found for it in the Iroquois language,
+unless it be that by which they distinguished its principal seat of
+trade, negociation and early rendezvous, the island of Michilimackinac,
+which they called Tiedonderaghie.
+
+Michigan is a derivative from two Odjibwa-Algonquin words, signifying
+large, i.e. large in relation to masses in the inorganic kingdom, and a
+lake. The French called it, generally, during the earlier periods of
+their transactions, the lake of the Illinese, or Illinois.
+
+Superior, the most northwesterly, and the largest of the series, is a
+term which appears to have come into general use, at a comparatively
+early era, after the planting of the English colonies. The French
+bestowed upon it, unsuccessfully, one or two names, the last of which
+was Traci, after the French minister of this name. By the
+Odjibwa-Algonquins, who at the period of the French discovery, and who
+still occupy its borders, it is called Gitch-Igomee, or The Big
+Sea-water; from Gitchee, great, and guma, a generic term for bodies of
+water. The term IGOMA, is an abbreviated form of this, suggested for
+adoption.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The poetry of the Indians, is the poetry of naked thought. They have
+neither rhyme, nor metre to adorn it.
+
+Tales and traditions occupy the place of books, with the Red Race.--They
+make up a kind of oral literature, which is resorted to, on long winter
+evenings, for the amusement of the lodge.
+
+The love of independence is so great with these tribes, that they have
+never been willing to load their political system with the forms of a
+regular government, for fear it might prove oppressive.
+
+To be governed and to be enslaved, are ideas which have been confounded
+by the Indians.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [25] Vide a Reminiscence of Oswego.
+
+  [26] The sound of i in this word, as in Ontario, is long e in the
+Indian.
+
+
+
+
+GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OF THE U. STATES,
+
+DERIVED FROM THE INDIAN LANGUAGE.
+
+_These Extracts are made from "Cyclopædia Indiænsis" a MS. work in
+preparation._
+
+
+No. I.
+
+HUDSON RIVER.--By the tribes who inhabited the area of the present
+County of Dutchess, and other portions of its eastern banks, as low down
+as Tappan, this river was called Shatemuc--which is believed to be a
+derivative from Shata, a pelican. The Minisi, who inhabited the west
+banks, below the point denoted, extending indeed over all the east half
+of New Jersey, to the falls of the Raritan, where they joined their
+kindred the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares proper, called it
+Mohicanittuck--that is to say, River of the Mohicans. The Mohawks, and
+probably the other branches of the Iroquois, called it Cahohatatea--a
+term of which the interpreters who have furnished the word, do not give
+an explanation. The prefixed term Caho, it may be observed, is their
+name for the lower and principal falls of the Mohawk. Sometimes this
+prefix was doubled, with the particle _ha_, thrown in between. Hatatea
+is clearly one of those descriptive and affirmative phrases representing
+objects in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, which admitted as we see,
+in other instances of their compounds, a very wide range. By some of the
+more westerly Iroquois, the river was called Sanataty.
+
+ALBANY.--The name by which this place was known to the Iroquois, at an
+early day, was Schenectady, a term which, as recently pronounced by a
+daughter of Brant, yet living in Canada, has the still harsher sound of
+Skoh-nek-ta-ti, with a stress on the first, and the accent strongly on
+the second syllable, the third and fourth being pronounced rapidly and
+short. The transference of this name, to its present location, by the
+English, on the bestowal on the place by Col. Nichols, of a new name,
+derived from the Duke of York's Scottish title, is well known, and is
+stated, with some connected traditions, by Judge Benson, in his
+eccentric memoir before the New York Historical Society. The meaning of
+this name, as derived from the authority above quoted, is _Beyond the
+Pines_, having been applied exclusively in ancient times, to the
+southern end of the ancient portage path, from the Mohawk to the Hudson.
+By the Minci, who did not live here, but extended, however, on the west
+shore above Coxackie, and even Coeymans, it appears to have been called
+Gaishtinic. The Mohegans, who long continued to occupy the present area
+of Rensselear and Columbia counties, called it Pempotawuthut, that is to
+say, the City or Place of the Council Fire. None of these terms appear
+to have found favour with the European settlers, and, together with
+their prior names of Beaverwyck and Fort Orange, they at once gave way,
+in 1664, to the present name. A once noted eminence, three miles west,
+on the plains, i.e. Trader's Hill, was called Isutchera, or by prefixing
+the name for a hill, Yonondio Isutchera. It means the hill of oil.
+Norman's Kill, which enters the Hudson a little below, the Mohawks
+called Towasentha, a term which is translated by Dr. Yates, to mean, a
+place of many dead.
+
+NIAGARA.--It is not in unison, perhaps, with general expectation, to
+find that the exact translation of this name does not entirely fulfil
+poetic preconception. By the term O-ne-aw-ga-ra, the Mohawks and their
+co-tribes described on the return of their war excursions, the neck of
+water which connects lake Erie with Ontario. The term is derived from
+their name for the human neck. Whether this term was designed to have,
+as many of their names do, a symbolic import, and to denote the
+importance of this communication in geography, as connecting the head
+and heart of the country, can only be conjectured. Nor is it, in this
+instance, probable. When Europeans came to see the gigantic falls which
+marked the strait, it was natural that they should have supposed the
+name descriptive of that particular feature, rather than the entire
+river and portage. We have been assured, however, that it is not their
+original name for the water-fall, although with them, as with us, it may
+have absorbed this meaning.
+
+BUFFALO.--The name of this place in the Seneca, is Te-ho-sa-ro-ro. Its
+import is not stated.
+
+DETROIT.--By the Wyandots, this place is called Teuchsagrondie; by the
+Lake tribes of the Algic type, Wa-we-á-tun-ong: both terms signify the
+Place of the turning or Turned Channel. It has been remarked by visiters
+who reach this place at night, or in dark weather, or are otherwise
+inattentive to the courses, that owing to the extraordinary involutions
+of the current the sun appears to rise in the wrong place.
+
+CHICAGO.--This name, in the Lake Algonquin dialects, to preserve the
+same mode of orthography, is derived from Chicagowunzh, the wild onion
+or leek. The orthography is French, as they were the discoverers and
+early settlers of this part of the west. Kaug, in these dialects is a
+porcupine, and She kaug a polecat. The analogies in these words are
+apparent, but whether the onion was named before or after the animal,
+must be judged if the _age_ of the derivation be sought for.
+
+TUSCALOOSA, a river of Alabama. From the Chacta words _tushka_,
+warrior, and _lusa_ black.--[Gallatin.]
+
+ARAGISKE, the Iroquois name for Virginia.
+
+ASSARIGOA, the name of the Six Nations for the Governor of Virginia.
+
+OWENAGUNGAS, a general name of the Iroquois for the New England Indians.
+
+OTESEONTEO, a spring which a the head of the river Delaware.
+
+ONTONAGON; a considerable river of lake Superior, noted from early
+times, for the large mass of native copper found on its banks. This name
+is said to have been derived from the following incident. It is known
+that there is a small bay and dead water for some distance within its
+mouth. In and out of this embayed water, the lake alternately flows,
+according to the influence of the winds, and other causes, upon its
+level. An Indian woman had left her wooden dish, or Onagon, on the
+sands, at the shore of this little bay, where she had been engaged. On
+coming back from her lodge, the outflowing current had carried off her
+valued utensil. Nia Nin-do-nau-gon! she exclaimed, for it was a curious
+piece of workmanship. That is to say--Alas! my dish!
+
+CHUAH-NAH-WHAH-HAH, or Valley of the Mountains. A new pass in the Rocky
+Mountains, discovered within a few years. It is supposed to be in N.
+latitude about 40°. The western end of the valley gap is 30 miles wide,
+which narrows to 20 at its eastern termination, it then turns oblique to
+the north, and the opposing sides appear to close the pass, yet there is
+a narrow way quite to the foot of the mountain. On the summit there is a
+large beaver pond, which has outlets both ways, but the eastern stream
+dries early in the season, while there is a continuous flow of water
+west. In its course, it has several beautiful, but low cascades, and
+terminates in a placid and delightful stream. This pass is now used by
+emigrants.
+
+AQUIDNECK.--The Narragansett name for Rhode Island. Roger Williams
+observes, that he could never obtain the meaning of it from the natives.
+The Dutch, as appears by a map of Novi Belgii published at Amsterdam in
+1659, called it Roode Eylant, or Red Island, from the autumnal colour of
+its foliage. The present term, as is noticed, in Vol. III. of the
+Collections of the R. I. Hist. Soc. is derived from this.
+
+INCAPATCHOW, a beautiful lake in the mountains at the sources of the
+river Hudson.--[Charles F. Hoffman, Esq.]
+
+HOUSATONIC; a river originating in the south-western part of
+Massachusetts, and flowing through the State of Connecticut into Long
+Island Sound, at Stratford. It is a term of Mohegan origin. This tribe
+on retiring eastward from the banks of the Hudson, passed over the
+High-lands, into this inviting valley. We have no transmitted etymology
+of the term, and must rely on the general principles of their
+vocabulary. It appears to have been called the valley of the stream
+beyond the Mountains, from _on_, the notarial sign of wudjo, a mountain,
+atun, a generic phrase for stream or channel, and ic, the inflection for
+locality.
+
+WEA-NUD-NEC.--The Indian name, as furnished by Mr. O'Sullivan, [D. Rev.]
+for Saddle Mountain, Massachusetts. It appears to be a derivative from
+Wa-we-a, round, i.e. any thing round or crooked, in the inanimate
+creation.
+
+MA-HAI-WE; The Mohegan term, as given by Mr. Bryant [N. Y. E. P.] for
+Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
+
+MASSACHUSETTS.--This was not the name of a particular tribe, but a
+geographical term applied, it should seem, to that part of the shores of
+the North Atlantic, which is swept by the tide setting into, and around
+the peninsula of Cape Cod, and the wide range of coast trending
+southerly, It became a generic word, at an early day, for the tribes who
+inhabited this coast. It is said to be a word of Narragansett origin,
+and to signify the Blue Hills. This is the account given of it by Roger
+Williams, who was told, by the Indians, that it had its origin from the
+appearance of an island off the coast. It would be more in conformity to
+the general requisitions of ethnography, to denominate the language the
+New England-Algonquin, for there are such great resemblances in the
+vocabulary and such an identity in grammatical construction, in these
+tribes, that we are constantly in danger, by partial conclusions as to
+original supremacy, of doing injustice. The source of origin was
+doubtless west and south west, but we cannot stop at the Narragansetts,
+who were themselves derivative from tribes still farther south. The
+general meaning given by Williams seems, however, to be sustained, so
+far as can now be judged. The terminations in _ett_, and _set_, as well
+as those in _at_ and _ak_, denoted locality in these various tribes. We
+see also, in the antipenultimate Chu, the root of Wudjo, a mountain.
+
+TA-HA-WUS, a very commanding elevation, several thousand feet above the
+sea, which has of late years, been discovered at the sources of the
+Hudson, and named Mount Marcy. It signifies, he splits the
+sky.--[Charles F. Hoffman, Esq.]
+
+MONG, the name of a distinguished chief of New England, as it appears to
+be recorded in the ancient pictorial inscription on the Dighton Rock, in
+Massachusetts, who flourished before the country was colonized by the
+English. He was both a war captain, and a prophet, and employed the arts
+of the latter office, to increase his power and influence, in the
+former. By patient application of his ceremonial arts, he secured the
+confidence of a large body of men, who were led on, in the attack on his
+enemies, by a man named Piz-hu. In this onset, it is claimed that he
+killed forty men, and lost three. To the warrior who should be
+successful, in this enterprize, he had promised his younger sister.
+[Such are the leading events symbolized by this inscription, of which
+extracts giving full details, as interpreted by an Indian chief, now
+living, and read before the Am. Ethnological Society, in 1843, will be
+furnished, in a subsequent number.]
+
+TIOGA.--A stream, and a county of the State of New-York. From Teoga, a
+swift current, exciting admiration.
+
+DIONDEROGA, an ancient name of the Mohawk tribe, for the site at the
+mouth of the Schoharie creek, where Fort Hunter was afterwards built.
+[Col. W. L. Stone.]
+
+ALMOUCHICO, a generic name of the Indians for New England, as printed
+on the Amsterdam map of 1659, in which it is stated that it was thus "by
+d inwoonders genaemt." (So named by the natives.)
+
+IROCOISIA, a name bestowed in the map, above quoted, on that portion of
+the present state of Vermont, which lies west of the Green Mountains,
+stretching along the eastern bank of Lake Champlain. By the application
+of the word, it is perceived that the French were not alone in the use
+they made of the apparently derivative term "Iroquois," which they cave
+to the (then) Five Nations.
+
+
+NAMES OF THE SEASONS.
+
+The following are the names of the four seasons, in the Odjibwa tongue:
+
+  Pe-bon,      Winter,      From Kone,      Snow.
+  Se-gwun,     Spring,       "   Seeg,      Running water.
+  Ne-bin,      Summer,       "   Anib,      A leaf.
+  Ta-gwá-gi,   Autumn,       "   Gwag,      The radix of behind etc.
+
+By adding the letter g to these terms, they are placed in the relation
+of verbs in the future tense, but a limited future, and the terms then
+denote _next winter_, &c. Years, in their account of time, are counted
+by winters. There is no other term, but pe-boan, for a year. The year
+consists of twelve lunar months, or moons. A moon is called Geézis, or
+when spoken of in contradistinction to the sun, Dibik Geezis, or
+night-sun. The cardinal points are as follows.
+
+          (_a_)    North,    Ke wá din-ung.
+          (_b_)    South,    O shá wan-ung.
+          (_c_)    East,     Wá bun-ung.
+          (_d_)    West,     Ká be un-ung.
+
+_a._ Kewadin is a compound derived from Ke-wa, to return, or come home,
+and nodin, the wind. _b._ Oshauw is, from a root not apparent, but which
+produces also ozau, yellow, &c. _c._ Waban is from ab, or wab, light.
+_d._ Kabeun, is the name of a mythological person, who is spoken of, in
+their fictions, as the father of the winds. The inflection ung, or oong,
+in each term, denotes course, place, or locality.
+
+
+
+
+LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY,
+
+     ADDRESSED TO THE LATE WILLIAM L. STONE, EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK
+     COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.
+
+
+I.
+
+                         WHEELING (Va.), August 19th, 1843.
+
+I have just accomplished the passage of the Alleghany mountains, in the
+direction from Baltimore to this place, and must say, that aside from
+the necessary fatigue of night riding, the pass from the Cumberland
+mountains and Laurel Hill is one of the easiest and most free from
+danger of any known to me in this vast range. An excellent railroad now
+extends from Baltimore, by Frederick and Harper's Ferry, up the Potomac
+valley and its north branch quite to Cumberland, which is seated just
+under the mountains, whose peaks would seem to bar all farther approach.
+The national road finds its way, however, through a gorge, and winds
+about where "Alps on Alps arise," till the whole vast and broad-backed
+elevation is passed, and we descend west, over a smooth, well
+constructed macadamized road, with a velocity which is some compensation
+for the toil of winding our way up. Uniontown is the first principal
+place west. The Monongahela is crossed at Brownsville, some forty miles
+above Pittsburgh, whence the road, which is everywhere well made and
+secured with fine stone bridges, culverts and viaducts, winds around a
+succession of most enchanting hills, till it enters a valley, winds up a
+few more hills, and brings the travellers out, on the banks of the Ohio,
+at this town.
+
+The entire distance from the head of the Chesapeake to the waters of the
+Ohio is not essentially different from three hundred miles. We were less
+than two days in passing it, twenty-six hours of which, part night and
+part day, were spent in post-coaches between Cumberland and this place.
+Harper's Ferry is an impressive scene, but less so than it would be to a
+tourist who had not his fancy excited by injudicious descriptions. To
+me, the romance was quite taken away by driving into it with a
+tremendous clattering power of steam. The geological structure of this
+section of country, from water to water, is not without an impressive
+lesson. In rising from the Chesapeake waters the stratified rocks are
+lifted up, pointing west, or towards the Alleghanies, and after crossing
+the summit they point east, or directly contrary, like the two sides of
+the roof of a house, and leave the inevitable conclusion that the
+Alleghanies have been lifted up by a lateral rent, as it were, at the
+relative point of the ridge pole. It is in this way that the granites
+and their congeners have been raised up into their present elevations.
+
+I did not see any evidence of that wave-like or undulatory structure,
+which was brought forward as a theory last year, in an able paper
+forwarded by Professor Rogers, and read at the meeting of the British
+Association for the Advancement of Science at Manchester. No organic
+remains are, of course, visible, in this particular section, at least
+until we strike the coal and iron-stone formation of Pittsburgh. But I
+have been renewedly impressed with the opinion, so very opposite to the
+present geological theory, that less than seven thousand years is
+sufficient, on scientific principles, to account for all the phenomena
+of fossil plants, shells, bones and organic remains, as well as the
+displacements, disruptions, subsidences and rising of strata, and other
+evidences of extensive physical changes and disturbances on the earth's
+surface. And I hope to live to see some American geologist build up a
+theory on just philosophical and scientific principles, which shall bear
+the test of truth.
+
+But you will, perhaps, be ready to think that I have felt more interest
+in the impressions of plants in stone, than is to be found in the field
+of waving corn before the eye. I have, however, by no means neglected
+the latter; and can assure you that the crops of corn, wheat and other
+grains, throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and Western Virginia, are
+excellent. Even the highest valleys in the Alleghanies are covered with
+crops of corn, or fields of stacked wheat and other grains. Generally,
+the soil west of the mountains is more fertile. The influence of the
+great western limestones, as one of its original materials, and of the
+oxide of iron, is clearly denoted in heavier and more thrifty cornfields
+along the Monongahela and Ohio valleys.
+
+Of the Ohio River itself, one who had seen it in its full flow, in April
+and May, would hardly recognize it now. Shrunk in a volume far below its
+noble banks, with long spits of sand and gravel running almost across
+it, and level sandy margins, once covered by water, where armies might
+now manoeuvre, it is but the skeleton of itself. Steamboats of a
+hundred tons burden now scarcely creep along its channel, which would
+form cockboats for the floating palaces to be seen here in the days of
+its vernal and autumnal glory.
+
+                              Truly yours,
+                                           HENRY R. COLCRAFT
+
+
+II.
+
+                         GRAVE CREEK FLATS (Va.), August 23, 1843.
+
+I have devoted several days to the examination of the antiquities of
+this place and its vicinity, and find them to be of even more interest
+than was anticipated. The most prominent object of curiosity is the
+great tumulus, of which notices have appeared in western papers; but
+this heavy structure of earth is not isolated. It is but one of a series
+of mounds and other evidences of ancient occupation at this point, of
+more than ordinary interest. I have visited and examined seven mounds,
+situated within a short distance of each other. They occupy the summit
+level of a rich alluvial plain, stretching on the left or Virginia bank
+of the Ohio, between the junctions of Big and Little Grave Creeks with
+that stream. They appear to have been connected by low earthen
+entrenchments, of which plain traces are still visible on some parts of
+the commons. They included a well, stoned up in the usual manner, which
+is now filled with rubbish.
+
+The summit of this plain is probably seventy-five feet above the present
+summer level of the Ohio. It constitutes the second bench, or rise of
+land, above the water. It is on this summit, and on one of the most
+elevated parts of it, that the great tumulus stands. It is in the shape
+of a broad cone, cut off at the apex, where it is some fifty feet
+across. This area is quite level, and commands a view of the entire
+plain, and of the river above and below, and the west shores of the Ohio
+in front. Any public transaction on this area would be visible to
+multitudes around it, and it has, in this respect, all the advantages of
+the Mexican and Yucatanese teocalli. The circumference of the base has
+been stated at a little under nine hundred feet; the height is
+sixty-nine feet.
+
+The most interesting object of antiquarian inquiry is a small flat
+stone, inscribed with antique alphabetic characters, which was disclosed
+on the opening of the large mound. These characters are in the ancient
+rock alphabet of sixteen right and acute angled single stokes, used by
+the Pelasgi and other early Mediterranean nations, and which is the
+parent of the modern Runic as well as the Bardic. It is now some four
+or five years since the completion of the excavations, so far as they
+have been made, and the discovery of this relic. Several copies of it
+soon got abroad, which differed from each other, and, it was supposed,
+from the original. This conjecture is true; neither the print published
+in the Cincinnati Gazette, in 1839, nor that in the American Pioneer, in
+1843, is correct. I have terminated this uncertainty by taking copies by
+a scientific process, which does not leave the lines and figures to the
+uncertainty of man's pencil.
+
+The existence of this ancient art here could hardly be admitted,
+otherwise than as an insulated fact, without some corroborative
+evidence, in habits and customs, which it would be reasonable to look
+for in the existing ruins of ancient occupancy. It is thought some such
+testimony has been found. I rode out yesterday three miles back to the
+range of high hills which encompass this sub-valley, to see a rude tower
+of stone standing on an elevated point, called Parr's point, which
+commands a view of the whole plain, and which appears to have been
+constructed as a watch-tower, or look-out, from which to descry an
+approaching enemy. It is much dilapidated. About six or seven feet of
+the work is still entire. It is circular, and composed of rough stones,
+laid without mortar, or the mark of a hammer. A heavy mass of fallen
+wall lies around, covering an area of some forty feet in diameter. Two
+similar points of observation, occupied by dilapidated towers, are
+represented to exist, one at the prominent summit of the Ohio and Grave
+Creek hills, and another on the promontory on the opposite side of the
+Ohio, in Belmont county, Ohio.
+
+It is known to all acquainted with the warlike habits of our Indians,
+that they never have evinced the foresight to post a regular sentry, and
+these rude towers may be regarded as of cotemporaneous age with the
+interment of the inscription.
+
+Several polished tubes of stone have been found, in one of the lesser
+mounds, the use of which is not very apparent. One of these, now on my
+table, is 12 inches long, 1-1/4 wide at one end, and 1-1/2 at the other.
+It is made of a fine, compact, lead blue steatite, mottled, and has been
+constructed by boring, in the manner of a gun barrel. This boring is
+continued to within about three-eighths of an inch of the larger end,
+through which but a small aperture is left. If this small aperture be
+looked through, objects at a distance are more clearly seen. Whether it
+had this telescopic use, or others, the degree of art evinced in its
+construction is far from rude. By inserting a wooden rod and valve, this
+tube would be converted into a powerful syphon, or syringe.
+
+I have not space to notice one or two additional traits, which serve to
+awaken new interest at this ancient point of aboriginal and apparently
+mixed settlement, and must omit them till my next.
+
+
+III.
+
+                         GRAVE CREEK FLATS, August 24, 1843.
+
+The great mound at these flats was opened as a place of public resort
+about four years ago. For this purpose a horizontal gallery to its
+centre was dug and bricked up, and provided with a door. The centre was
+walled round as a rotunda, of about twenty-five feet diameter, and a
+shaft sunk from the top to intersect it; it was in these two excavations
+that the skeletons and accompanying relics and ornaments were found. All
+these articles are arranged for exhibition in this rotunda, which is
+lighted up with candles. The lowermost skeleton is almost entire, and in
+a good state of preservation, and is put up by means of wires, on the
+walls. It has been overstretched in the process so as to measure six
+feet; it should be about five feet eight inches. It exhibits a noble
+frame of the human species, bearing a skull with craniological
+developments of a highly favorable character. The face bones are
+elongated, with a long chin and symmetrical jaw, in which a full and
+fine set of teeth, above and below, are present. The skeletons in the
+upper vault, where the inscription stone was found, are nearly all
+destroyed.
+
+It is a damp and gloomy repository, and exhibits in the roof and walls
+of the rotunda one of the most extraordinary sepulchral displays which
+the world affords. On casting the eye up to the ceiling, and the heads
+of the pillars supporting it, it is found to be encrusted, or rather
+festooned, with a white, soft, flaky mass of matter, which had exuded
+from the mound above. This apparently animal exudation is as white as
+snow. It hangs in pendent masses and globular drops; the surface is
+covered with large globules of clear water, which in the reflected light
+have all the brilliancy of diamonds. These drops of water trickle to the
+floor, and occasionally the exuded white matter falls. The wooden
+pillars are furnished with the appearance of capitals, by this
+substance. That it is the result of a soil highly charged with particles
+of matter, arising from the decay or incineration of human bodies, is
+the only theory by which we may account for the phenomenon. Curious and
+unique it certainly is, and with the faint light of a few candles it
+would not require much imagination to invest the entire rotunda with
+sylph-like forms of the sheeted dead.
+
+An old Cherokee chief, who visited this scene, recently, with his
+companions, on his way to the West, was so excited and indignant at the
+desecration of the tumulus, by this display of bones and relics to the
+gaze of the white race, that he became furious and unmanageable; his
+friends and interpreters had to force him out, to prevent his
+assassinating the guide; and soon after he drowned his senses in
+alcohol.
+
+That this spot was a very ancient point of settlement by the hunter
+race in the Ohio valley, and that it was inhabited by the present red
+race of North American Indians, on the arrival of whites west of the
+Alleghanies, are both admitted facts; nor would the historian and
+antiquary ever have busied themselves farther in the matter had not the
+inscribed stone come to light, in the year 1839. I was informed,
+yesterday, that another inscription stone had been found in one of the
+smaller mounds on these flats, about five years ago, and have obtained
+data sufficient as to its present location to put the Ethnological
+Society on its trace. If, indeed, these inscriptions shall lead us to
+admit that the continent was visited by Europeans prior to the era of
+Columbus, it is a question of very high antiquarian interest to
+determine who the visitors were, and what they have actually left on
+record in these antique tablets.
+
+I have only time to add a single additional fact. Among the articles
+found in this cluster of mounds, the greater part are commonplace, in
+our western mounds and town ruins. I have noticed but one which bears
+the character of that unique type of architecture found by Mr. Stephens
+and Mr. Catherwood in Central America and Yucatan. With the valuable
+monumental standards of comparison furnished by these gentlemen before
+me, it is impossible not to recognize, in an ornamental stone, found in
+one of the lesser mounds here, a specimen of similar workmanship. It is
+in the style of the heavy feather-sculptured ornaments of Yucatan--the
+material being a wax yellow sand-stone, darkened by time. I have taken
+such notes and drawings of the objects above referred to, as will enable
+me, I trust, in due time, to give a connected account of them to our
+incipient society.
+
+
+IV.
+
+                         MASSILLON, Ohio, August 27th, 1843.
+
+Since my last letter I have traversed the State of Ohio, by stage, to
+this place. In coming up the Virginia banks of the Ohio from
+Moundsville, I passed a monument, of simple construction, erected to the
+memory of a Captain Furman and twenty-one men, who were killed by the
+Indians, in 1777, at that spot. They had been out, from the fort at
+Wheeling, on a scouting party, and were waylaid at a pass called the
+narrows. The Indians had dropped a pipe and some trinkets in the path,
+knowing that the white men would pick them up, and look at them, and
+while the latter were grouped together in this act, they fired and
+killed every man. The Indians certainly fought hard for the possession
+of this valley, aiming, at all times, to make up by stratagem what they
+lacked in numbers. I doubt whether there is in the history of the
+spread of civilisation over the world a theatre so rife with partisan
+adventure, massacre and murder, as the valley of the Ohio and the
+country west of the Alleghany generally presented between the breaking
+out of the American revolution, in '76, and the close of the Black Hawk
+war in 1832. The true era, in fact, begins with the French war, in 1744,
+and terminates with the Florida war, the present year. A work on this
+subject, drawn from authentic sources, and written with spirit and
+talent, would be read with avidity and possess a permanent interest.
+
+The face of the country, from the Ohio opposite Wheeling to the waters
+of the Tuscarawas, the north fork of the Muskingum, is a series of high
+rolling ridges and knolls, up and down which the stage travels slowly.
+Yet this section is fertile and well cultivated in wheat and corn,
+particularly the latter, which looks well. This land cannot be purchased
+under forty or fifty dollars an acre. Much of it was originally bought
+for seventy-five cents per acre. It was over this high, wavy land, that
+the old Moravian missionary road to Gnadenhutten ran, and I pursued it
+to within six miles of the latter place. You will recollect this
+locality as the scene of the infamous murder, by Williamson and his
+party, of the non-resisting Christian Delawares under the ministry of
+Heckewelder and Ziesberger.
+
+On the Stillwater, a branch of the Tuscarawas, we first come to level
+lands. This stream was noted, in early days, for its beaver and other
+furs. The last beaver seen here was shot on its banks twelve years ago.
+It had three legs, one having probably been caught in a trap or been
+bitten off. It is known that not only the beaver, but the otter, wolf
+and fox, will bite off a foot, to escape the iron jaws of a trap. It has
+been said, but I know not on what good authority, that the hare will do
+the same.
+
+We first struck the Ohio canal at Dover. It is in every respect a well
+constructed work, with substantial locks, culverts and viaducts. It is
+fifty feet wide at the top, and is more than adequate for all present
+purposes. It pursues the valley of the Tuscarawas up to the summit, by
+which it is connected with the Cuyahuga, whose outlet is at Cleveland.
+Towns and villages have sprung up along its banks, where before there
+was a wilderness. Nothing among them impressed me more than the town of
+Zoar, which is exclusively settled by Germans. There seems something of
+the principles of association--one of the fallacies of the age--in its
+large and single town store, hotel, &c., but I do not know how far they
+may extend. Individual property is held. The evidences of thrift and
+skill, in cultivation and mechanical and mill work, are most striking.
+Every dwelling here is surrounded with fruit and fruit trees. The
+botanical garden and hot-house are on a large scale, and exhibit a
+favorable specimen of the present state of horticulture. One of the
+assistants very kindly plucked for me some fine fruit, and voluntarily
+offered it. Zoar is quite a place of resort as a ride for the
+neighboring towns. I may remark, _en passant_, that there is a large
+proportion of German population throughout Ohio. They are orderly,
+thrifty and industrious, and fall readily into our political system and
+habits. Numbers of them are well educated in the German. They embrace
+Lutherans as well as Roman Catholics, the latter predominating.
+
+Among the towns which have recently sprung up on the line of the canal,
+not the least is the one from which I date this letter. The name of the
+noted French divine (Massillon) was affixed to an uncultivated spot, by
+some Boston gentlemen, some twelve or fourteen years ago. It is now one
+of the most thriving, city-looking, business places in the interior of
+Ohio. In the style of its stores, mills and architecture, it reminds the
+visitor of that extraordinary growth and spirit which marked the early
+years of the building of Rochester. It numbers churches for
+Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, and also
+Lutherans and Romanists. About three hundred barrels of flour can be
+turned out per diem, by its mills. It is in the greatest wheat-growing
+county in Ohio (Stark), but is not the county-seat, which is at Canton.
+
+
+V.
+
+                         DETROIT, Sept. 15th, 1843.
+
+In passing from the interior of Ohio toward Lake Erie, the face of the
+country exhibits, in the increased size and number of its boulder
+stones, evidences of the approach of the traveller toward those
+localities of sienites and other crystalline rocks, from which these
+erratic blocks and water-worn masses appear to have been, in a remote
+age of our planet, removed. The soil in this section has a freer mixture
+of the broken down slates, of which portions are still in place on the
+shores of Lake Erie. The result is a clayey soil, less favorable to
+wheat and Indian corn. We came down the cultivated valley of the
+Cuyahoga, and reached the banks of the lake at the fine town of
+Cleveland, which is elevated a hundred feet, or more, above it, and
+commands a very extensive view of the lake, the harbor and its ever-busy
+shipping. A day was employed, by stage, in this section of my tour, and
+the next carried me, by steamboat, to this ancient French capital.
+Detroit has many interesting historical associations, and appears
+destined, when its railroad is finished, to be the chief thoroughfare
+for travellers to Chicago and the Mississippi valley. As my attention
+has, however, been more taken up, on my way, with the past than the
+present and future condition of the West, the chief interest which the
+route has excited must necessarily arise from the same source.
+
+Michigan connects itself in its antiquarian features with that character
+of pseudo-civilisation, or modified barbarianism, of which the works and
+mounds and circumvallations at Grave Creek Flats, at Marietta, at
+Circleville and other well known points, are evidences. That this
+improved condition of the hunter state had an ancient but partial
+connection with the early civilisation of Europe, appears now to be a
+fair inference, from the inscribed stone of Grave Creek, and other
+traces of European arts, discovered of late. It is also evident that the
+central American type of the civilisation, or rather advance to
+civilisation, of the red race, reached this length, and finally went
+down, with its gross idolatry and horrid rites, and was merged in the
+better known and still existing form of the hunter state which was
+found, respectively, by Cabot, Cartier, Verrezani, Hudson, and others,
+who first dropped anchor on our coasts.
+
+There is strong evidence furnished by a survey of the western country
+that the teocalli type of the Indian civilisation, so to call it,
+developed itself from the banks of the Ohio, in Tennessee and Virginia,
+west and north-westwardly across the sources of the Wabash, the
+Muskingum and other streams, toward Lake Michigan and the borders of
+Wisconsin territory. The chief evidences of it, in Michigan and Indiana,
+consist of a remarkable series of curious garden beds, or accurately
+furrowed fields, the perfect outlines of which have been preserved by
+the grass of the oak openings and prairies, and even among the heaviest
+forests. These remains of an ancient cultivation have attracted much
+attention from observing settlers on the Elkhart, the St. Joseph's, the
+Kalamazoo and Grand river of Michigan. I possess some drawings of these
+anomalous remains of by-gone industry in the hunter race, taken in
+former years, which are quite remarkable. It is worthy of remark, too,
+that no large tumuli, or teocalli, exist in this particular portion of
+the West, the ancient population of which may therefore be supposed to
+have been borderers, or frontier bands, who resorted to the Ohio valley
+as their capital, or place of annual visitation. All the mounds
+scattered through Northern Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, are mere barrows,
+or repositories of the dead, and would seem to have been erected
+posterior to the fall or decay of the gross idol worship and the offer
+of human sacrifice. I have, within a day or two, received a singular
+implement or ornament of stone, of a crescent shape, from Oakland, in
+this State, which connects the scattered and out-lying remains of the
+smaller mounds, and traces of ancient agricultural labor, with the
+antiquities of Grave Creek Flats.
+
+
+VI.
+
+                         DETROIT, Sept. 16th, 1843.
+
+The antiquities of Western America are to be judged of by isolated and
+disjointed discoveries, which are often made at widely distant points
+and spread over a very extensive area. The labor of comparison and
+discrimination of the several eras which the objects of these
+discoveries establish, is increased by this diffusion and disconnection
+of the times and places of their occurrence, and is, more than all,
+perhaps, hindered and put back by the eventual carelessness of the
+discoverers, and the final loss or mutilation of the articles disclosed.
+To remedy this evil, every discovery made, however apparently
+unimportant, should in this era of the diurnal and periodical press be
+put on record, and the objects themselves be either carefully kept, or
+given to some public scientific institution.
+
+An Indian chief called the Black Eagle, of river Au Sables (Michigan),
+discovered a curious antique pipe of Etruscan ware, a few years ago, at
+Thunder Bay. This pipe, which is now in my possession, is as remarkable
+for its form as for the character of the earthenware from which it is
+made, differing as it does so entirely from the coarse earthen pots and
+vessels, the remains of which are scattered so generally throughout
+North America. The form is semi-circular or horn-shaped, with a
+quadrangular bowl, and having impressed in the ware ornaments at each
+angle. I have never before, indeed, seen any pipes of Indian manufacture
+of baked clay, or earthenware, such articles being generally carved out
+of steatite, indurated clays, or other soft mineral substances. It is a
+peculiarity of this pipe that it was smoked from the small end, which is
+rounded for the purpose of putting it between the lips, without the
+intervention of a stem.
+
+The discoverer told me that he had taken it from a very antique grave. A
+large hemlock tree, he said, had been blown down on the banks of the
+river, tearing up, by its roots, a large mass of earth. At the bottom of
+the excavation thus made he discovered a grave, which contained a vase,
+out of which he took the pipe with some other articles. The vase, he
+said, was broken, so that he did not deem it worth bringing away. The
+other articles he described as bones.
+
+Some time since I accompanied the chief Kewakonce, to get an ancient
+clay pot, such as the Indians used when the Europeans arrived on the
+continent. He said that he had discovered two such pots, in an entire
+state, in a cave, or crevice, on one of the rocky islets extending
+north, of Point Tessalon, which is the northern cape of the entrance of
+the Straits of St. Mary's into Lake Huron. From this locality he had
+removed one of them, and concealed it at a distant point. We travelled
+in canoes. We landed on the northern shore of the large island of St.
+Joseph, which occupies the jaws of those expanded straits. He led me up
+an elevated ridge, covered with forest, and along a winding narrow path,
+conducting to some old Indian cornfields. All at once he stopped in this
+path. "We are now very near it," he said, and stood still, looking
+toward the spot where he had concealed it, beneath a decayed trunk. He
+did not, at last, appear to be willing to risk his luck in life--such is
+Indian superstition--by being the actual discoverer of this object of
+veneration to a white man, but allowed me to make, or rather complete,
+the re-discovery.
+
+With the exception of being cracked, this vessel is entire. It
+corresponds, in material and character, with the fragments of pottery
+usually found. It is a coarse ware, tempered with quartz or feld-spar,
+and such as would admit a sudden fire to be built around it. It is some
+ten inches in diameter, tulip-shaped, with a bending lip, and without
+supports beneath. It was evidently used as retorts in a sand bath, there
+being no contrivance for suspending it. I have forwarded this curious
+relic entire to the city for examination. I asked the chief who
+presented it to me, and who is a man of good sense, well acquainted with
+Indian traditions, how long it was since such vessels had been used by
+his ancestors. He replied, that he was the seventh generation, in a
+direct line, since the French had first arrived in the lakes.
+
+
+VII.
+
+                         DETROIT, Sept. 16th, 1843.
+
+There was found, in an island at the west extremity of Lake Huron, an
+ancient repository of human bones, which appeared to have been gathered
+from their first or ordinary place of sepulture, and placed in this rude
+mausoleum. The island is called Isle Ronde by the French, and is of
+small dimensions, although it has a rocky basis and affords sugar maple
+and other trees of the hard wood species. This repository was first
+disclosed by the action of the lake against a diluvial shore, in which
+the bones were buried. At the time of my visit, vertebræ, tibiæ,
+portions of crania and other bones were scattered down the fallen bank,
+and served to denote the place of their interment, which was on the
+margin of the plain. Some persons supposed that the leg and thigh bones
+denoted an unusual length; but by placing them hip by hip with the
+living specimen, this opinion was not sustained.
+
+All these bones had been placed longitudinally. They were arranged in
+order, in a wide grave, or trench. Contrary to the usual practice of the
+present tribes of red men, the skeletons were laid north and south. I
+asked several of the most aged Indian chiefs in that vicinity for
+information respecting these bones--by what tribe they had been
+deposited, and why they had been laid north and south, and not east and
+west, as they uniformly bury. But, with the usual result as to early
+Indian traditions, they had no information to offer. Chusco, an old
+Ottawa prophet, since dead, remarked that they were probably of the time
+of the Indian bones found in the caves on the island of Michilimackinac.
+
+In a small plain on the same island, near the above repository, is a
+long abandoned Indian burial-ground, in which the interments are made in
+the ordinary way. This, I understood from the Indians, is of the era of
+the occupation of Old Mackinac, or Peekwutinong, as they continue to
+call it--a place which has been abandoned by both whites and Indians,
+soldiers and missionaries, about seventy years. I caused excavations to
+be made in these graves, and found their statements to be generally
+verified by the character of the articles deposited with the skeletons;
+at least they were all of a date posterior to the discovery of this part
+of the country by the French. There were found the oxydated remains of
+the brass mountings of a chief's fusil, corroded fire steels and other
+steel implements, vermillion, wampum, and other cherished or valued
+articles. I sent a perfect skull, taken from one of these graves, to Dr.
+Morton, the author of "Crania," while he was preparing that work. No
+Indians have resided on this island within the memory of any white man
+or Indian with whom I have conversed. An aged chief whom I interrogated,
+called Saganosh, who has now been dead some five or six years, told me
+that he was a small boy when the present settlement on the island of
+Michilimackinac was commenced, and the English first took post there,
+and began to remove their cattle, &c., from the old fort on the
+peninsula, and it was about that time that the Indian village of
+Minnisains, or Isle Ronde, was abandoned. It had before formed a link,
+as it were, in the traverse of this part of the lake (Huron) in canoes
+to old Mackinac.
+
+The Indians opposed the transfer of the post to the island of
+Michilimackinac, and threatened the troops who were yet in the field.
+They had no cannon, but the commanding officer sent a vessel to Detroit
+for one. This vessel had a quick trip, down and up, and brought up a
+gun, which was fired the evening she came into the harbor. This produced
+an impression. I have made some inquiries to fix the date of this
+transfer of posts, and think it was at or about the opening of the era
+of the American revolution, at which period the British garrison did not
+feel itself safe in a mere stockade of timber on the main shore. This
+stockade, dignified with the name of a fort, had not been burned on the
+taking of it, by surprise, and the massacre of the English troops by the
+Indians, during Pontiac's war. This massacre, it will be recollected,
+was in 1763--twelve years before the opening of the American war.
+
+
+VIII.
+
+                         DETROIT, Oct. 13th, 1843.
+
+The so-called copper rock of Lake Superior was brought to this place, a
+day or two since, in a vessel from Sault Ste-Marie, having been
+transported from its original locality, on the Ontonagon river, at no
+small labor and expense. It is upwards of twenty-three years since I
+first visited this remarkable specimen of native copper, in the forests
+of Lake Superior. It has been somewhat diminished in size and weight, in
+the meantime, by visitors and travellers in that remote quarter; but
+retains, very well, its original character and general features.
+
+I have just returned from a re-examination of it in a store, in one of
+the main streets of this city, where it has been deposited by the
+present proprietor, who designs to exhibit it to the curious. Its
+greatest length is four feet six inches; its greatest width about four
+feet; its maximum thickness eighteen inches. These are rough
+measurements with the rule. It is almost entirely composed of malleable
+copper, and bears striking marks of the visits formerly paid to it, in
+the evidences of portions which have from time to time been cut off.
+There are no scales in the city large enough, or other means of
+ascertaining its precise weight, and of thus terminating the uncertainty
+arising from the several estimates heretofore made. It has been
+generally estimated here, since its arrival, to weigh between six and
+seven thousand pounds, or about three and a half tons, and is by far the
+largest known and described specimen of native copper on the globe.
+Rumors of a larger piece in South America are apocryphal.
+
+The acquisition, to the curious and scientific world, of this
+extraordinary mass of native metal is at least one of the practical
+results of the copper-mining mania which carried so many adventurers
+northward, into the region of Lake Superior, the past summer (1843). The
+person who has secured this treasure (Mr. J. Eldred) has been absent, on
+the business, since early in June. He succeeded in removing it from its
+diluvial bed on the banks of the river, by a car and sectional railroad
+of two links, formed of timber. The motive power was a tackle attached
+to trees, which was worked by men, from fourteen to twenty of whom were
+employed upon it. These rails were alternately moved forward, as the car
+passed from the hindmost.
+
+In this manner the rock was dragged four miles and a half, across a
+rough country, to a curve of the river below its falls, and below the
+junction of its forks, where it was received by a boat, and conveyed to
+the mouth of the river, on the lake shore. At this point it was put on
+board a schooner, and taken to the falls, or Sault Ste-Marie, and
+thence, having been transported across the portage, embarked for
+Detroit. The entire distance to this place is a little within one
+thousand miles; three hundred and twenty of which lie beyond St. Mary's.
+
+What is to be its future history and disposition remains to be seen. It
+will probably find its way to the museum of the National Institute in
+the new patent office at Washington. This would be appropriate, and it
+is stated that the authorities have asserted their ultimate claim to it,
+probably under the 3d article of the treaty of Fond du Lac, of the 5th
+of August, 1826.
+
+I have no books at hand to refer to the precise time, so far as known,
+when this noted mass of copper first became known to Europeans. Probably
+a hundred and eighty years have elapsed. Marquette, and his devoted
+companion, passed up the shores of Lake Superior about 1668, which was
+several years before the discovery of the Mississippi, by that eminent
+missionary, by the way of the Wisconsin. From the letters of D'Ablon at
+Sault Ste-Marie, it appears to have been known prior to the arrival of
+La Salle. These allusions will be sufficient to show that the rock has a
+historical notoriety. Apart from this, it is a specimen which is, both
+mineralogically and geologically, well worthy of national preservation.
+
+It is clearly a boulder, and bears marks of attrition from the action of
+water, on some parts of its rocky surface as well as the metallic
+portions. A minute mineralogical examination and description of it are
+required. The adhering rock, of which there is less now than in 1820, is
+apparently serpentine, in some parts steatitic, whereas the copper ores
+of Keweena Point on that lake, are found exclusively in the amygdaloids
+and greenstones of the trap formation. A circular depression of opaque
+crystalline quartz, in the form of a semi-geode, exists in one face of
+it; other parts of the mass disclose the same mineral. Probably 300 lbs.
+of the metal have been hacked off, or detached by steel chisels, since
+it has been known to the whites, most of this within late years.
+
+
+IX.
+
+                         DETROIT, Oct. 16th, 1843.
+
+In the rapid development of the resources and wealth of the West, there
+is no object connected with the navigation of the upper lakes of more
+prospective importance than the improvement of the delta, or flats of
+the St. Clair. It is here that the only practical impediment occurs to
+the passage of heavy shipping, between Buffalo and Chicago. This delta
+is formed by deposits at the point of discharge of the river St. Clair,
+into Lake St. Clair, and occurs at the estimated distance of about
+thirty-six miles above the city. The flats are fan-shaped, and spread,
+I am inclined to think, upward of fifteen miles, on the line of their
+greatest expansion.
+
+There are three principal channels, besides sub-channels, which carry a
+depth of from four to six fathoms to the very point of their exit into
+the lake, where there is a bar in each. This bar, as is shown by the
+chart of a survey made by officers Macomb and Warner, of the
+topographical engineers, in 1842, is very similar to the bars at the
+mouths of the upper lake rivers, and appears to be susceptible of
+removal, or improvement, by similar means. The north channel carries
+nine feet of water over this bar, the present season, and did the same
+in 1842, and is the one exclusively used by vessels and steamboats. To
+the latter this tortuous channel, which is above ten miles farther round
+than the middle channel, presents no impediment, besides the intricacies
+of the bar, but increased distance.
+
+It is otherwise, and ever must remain so, to vessels propelled by sails.
+Such vessels, coming up with a fair wind, find the bend so acute and
+involved at _Point aux Chenes_, at the head of this channel, as to bring
+the wind directly ahead. They are, consequently, compelled to cast
+anchor, and await a change of wind to turn this point. A delay of eight
+or ten days in the upward passage, is not uncommon at this place. Could
+the bar of the middle channel, which is direct, be improved, the saving
+in both time and distance above indicated would be made. This is an
+object of public importance, interesting to all the lake States and
+Territories, and would constitute a subject of useful consideration for
+Congress. Every year is adding to the number and size of our lake
+vessels. The rate of increase which doubles our population in a given
+number of years must also increase the lake tonnage, and add new motives
+for the improvement of its navigation.
+
+Besides the St. Clair delta, I know of no other impediment in the
+channel itself, throughout the great line of straits between Buffalo and
+Chicago, which prudence and good seamanship, and well found vessels, may
+not ordinarily surmount. The rapids at Black Rock, once so formidable,
+have long been obviated by the canal dam. The straits of Detroit have
+been well surveyed, and afford a deep, navigable channel at all times.
+The rapids at the head of the river St. Clair, at Port Huron, have a
+sufficiency of water for vessels of the largest class, and only require
+a fair wind for their ascent.
+
+The straits of Michilimackinac are believed to be on the same water
+level as Lakes Huron and Michigan, and only present the phenomenon of a
+current setting east or west, in compliance with certain laws of the
+reaction of water driven by winds. Such are the slight impediments on
+this extraordinary line of inland lake navigation, which is carried on
+at an average altitude of something less than 600 feet above the tide
+level of the Atlantic. When this line of commerce requires to be
+diverted north, through the straits of St. Mary's into Lake Superior, a
+period rapidly approaching, a short canal of three-fourths of a mile
+will be required at the Sault Ste-Marie, and some excavation made, so as
+to permit vessels of heavy tonnage to cross the bar in Lake George of
+those straits.
+
+
+X.
+
+                         DUNDAS, Canada West, Oct. 26th, 1843.
+
+Fortunately for the study of American antiquities the aborigines have,
+from the earliest period, practised the interment of their arms,
+utensils and ornaments, with the dead, thus furnishing evidence of the
+particular state of their skill in the arts, at the respective eras of
+their history. To a people without letters there could scarcely have
+been a better index than such domestic monuments furnish, to determine
+these eras; and it is hence that the examination of their mounds and
+burial-places assumes so important a character in the investigation of
+history. Heretofore these inquiries have been confined to portions of
+the continent south and west of the great chain of lakes and the St.
+Lawrence; but the advancing settlements in Canada, at this time, are
+beginning to disclose objects of this kind, and thus enlarge the field
+of inquiry.
+
+I had, yesterday, quite an interesting excursion to one of these ancient
+places of sepulture north of the head of Lake Ontario. The locality is
+in the township of Beverly, about twelve miles distant from Dundas. The
+rector of the parish, the Rev. Mr. McMurray, had kindly made
+arrangements for my visit. We set out at a very early hour, on
+horseback, the air being keen, and the mud and water in the road so
+completely frozen as to bear our horses. We ascended the mountain and
+passed on to the table land, about four miles, to the house of a worthy
+parishioner of Mr. McM., by whom we were kindly welcomed, and after
+giving us a warm breakfast, he took us on, with a stout team, about six
+miles on the Guelph road. Diverging from this, about two miles to the
+left, through a heavy primitive forest, with occasional clearings, we
+came to the spot. It is in the 6th concession of Beverly.
+
+We were now about seventeen miles, by the road, from the extreme head of
+Lake Ontario, at the town of Hamilton, Burlington Bay; and on one of the
+main branches of the bright and busy mill-stream of the valley of
+Dundas. As this part of the country is yet encumbered with dense and
+almost unbroken masses of trees, with roads unformed, we had frequently
+to inquire our way, and at length stopped on the skirts of an elevated
+beech ridge, upon which the trees stood as large and thickly as in
+other parts of the forest. There was nothing at first sight to betoken
+that the hand of man had ever been exercised there. Yet this wooded
+ridge embraced the locality we were in quest of, and the antiquity of
+interments and accumulations of human bones on this height is to be
+inferred, from their occurrence amidst this forest, and beneath the
+roots of the largest trees.
+
+It is some five or six years since the discovery was made. It happened
+from the blowing down of a large tree, whose roots laid bare a quantity
+of human bones. Search was then made, and has been renewed at subsequent
+times, the result of which has been the disclosure of human skeletons in
+such abundance and massive quantities as to produce astonishment. This
+is the characteristic feature. Who the people were, and how such an
+accumulation should have occurred, are questions which have been often
+asked. And the interest of the scene is by no means lessened on
+observing that the greater part of these bones are deposited, not in
+isolated and single graves as the Indians now bury, but in wide and long
+trenches and rude vaults, in which the skeletons are piled
+longitudinally upon each other. In this respect they resemble a single
+deposit, mentioned in a prior letter, as occurring on _Isle Ronde_, in
+Lake Huron. And they would appear, as is the case with the latter, to be
+re-interments of bodies, after the flesh had decayed, collected from
+their first places of sepulture.
+
+No one--not the oldest inhabitant--remembers the residence of Indians in
+this location, nor does there appear to be any tradition on the subject.
+It is a common opinion among the settlers that there must have been a
+great battle fought here, which would account for the accumulation, but
+this idea does not appear to be sustained by an examination of the
+skulls, which, so far as I saw, exhibit no marks of violence. Besides,
+there are present the bones and crania of women and children, with
+implements and articles of domestic use, such as are ordinarily
+deposited with the dead. The supposition of pestilence, to account for
+the number, is subject to less objection; yet, if admitted, there is no
+imaginable state of Indian population in this quarter, which could have
+produced such heaps. The trenches, so far as examined, extend over the
+entire ridge. One of the transverse deposits, I judged, could not
+include less than fifteen hundred square feet. The whole of this had
+been once dug over, in search of curiosities, such as pipes, shells,
+beads, &c., of which a large number were found. Among the evidences of
+interments here since the discovery of Canada, were several brass
+kettles, in one of which were five infant skulls.
+
+Could we determine accurately the time required for the growth of a
+beech, or a black oak, as they are found on these deposits, of sixteen,
+eighteen and twenty inches and two feet in diameter, the date of the
+abandonment or completion of the interments might be very nearly fixed.
+The time of the growth of these species is, probably, much less, in the
+temperate latitudes, and in fertile soils, than is commonly supposed. I
+am inclined to think, from a hasty survey, that the whole deposit is the
+result of the slow accumulation of both ordinary interment, and the
+periodical deposit or re-interment of exhumed bones brought from
+contiguous hunting camps and villages. To this, pestilence has probably
+added. The ridge is said to be the apex or highest point of the table
+lands, and would therefore recommend itself, as a place of general
+interment, to the natives. Bands, who rove from place to place, and
+often capriciously abandon their hunting villages, are averse to leaving
+their dead in such isolated spots. The surrounding country is one which
+must have afforded all the spontaneous means of Indian subsistence, in
+great abundance. The deer and bear, once very numerous, still abound.
+
+We passed some ancient beaver dams, and were informed that the country
+east and north bears similar evidences of its former occupation by the
+small furred animals. The occurrence of the sugar maple adds another
+element of Indian subsistence. There are certain enigmatical walls of
+earth, in this vicinity, which extend several miles across the country,
+following the leading ridges of land. Accounts vary in representing them
+to extend from five to eight miles. These I did not see, but learn that
+they are about six feet high, and present intervals as if for gates.
+There is little likelihood that these walls were constructed for
+purposes of military defence, remote as they are from the great waters,
+and aside from the great leading war-paths. It is far more probable that
+they were intended to intercept the passage of game, and compel the deer
+to pass through these artificial defiles, where the hunters lay in wait
+for them.
+
+Ancient Iroquois tradition, as preserved by Colden, represents this
+section of Canada, extending quite to Three Rivers, as occupied by the
+Adirondacks; a numerous, fierce, and warlike race, who carried on a
+determined war against the Iroquois. The same race, who were marked as
+speaking a different type of languages, were, at an early day, called by
+the French by the general term of Algonquins. They had three chief
+residences on the Utawas and its sources, and retired northwestwardly,
+by that route, on the increase of the Iroquois power. Whoever the people
+were who hunted and buried their dead at Beverly, it is manifest that
+they occupied the district at and prior to the era of the discovery of
+Canada, and also continued to occupy it, after the French had introduced
+the fur trade into the interior. For we find, in the manufactured
+articles buried, the distinctive evidences of both periods.
+
+The antique bone beads, of which we raised many, _in situ_, with crania
+and other bones, from beneath the roots of trees, are in every respect
+similar to those found in the Grave Creek mound, which have been
+improperly called "ivory." Amulets of bone and shell, and pipes of fine
+steatite and indurated red clay, are also of this early period, and are
+such as were generally made and used by the ancient inhabitants prior to
+the introduction of European wrought wampum or seawan, and of beads of
+porcelain and glass, and ornamented pipes of coarse pottery. I also
+examined several large marine shells, much corroded and decayed, which
+had been brought, most probably, from the shores of the Atlantic.
+
+Having made such excavations as limited time and a single spade would
+permit, we retraced our way to Dundas, which we reached after nightfall,
+a little fatigued, but well rewarded in the examination of an object
+which connects, in several particulars, the antiquities of Canada with
+those of the United States.
+
+
+
+
+ERA OF THE SETTLEMENT OF DETROIT, AND THE STRAITS BETWEEN LAKES ERIE AND
+HURON.
+
+
+The following papers, relative to the early occupancy of these straits,
+were copied from the originals in the public archives in Paris, by Gen.
+Cass, while he exercised the functions of minister at the court of
+France. The first relates to an act of occupancy made on the banks of a
+tributary of the Detroit river, called St. Deny's, probably the river
+_Aux Canards_. The second coincides with the period usually assigned as
+the origin of the post of Detroit. They are further valuable, for the
+notice which is incidentally taken of the leading tribes, who were then
+found upon these straits.
+
+It will be recollected, in perusing these documents, that La Salle had
+passed these straits on his way to "the Illinois," in 1679, that is,
+_eight_ years before the act of possession at St. Deny's, and
+_twenty-two_ years before the establishment of the post of Detroit. The
+upper lakes had then, however, been extensively laid open to the
+enterprise of the missionaries, and of the adventurers in the fur trade.
+Marquette, accompanied by Alloez, had visited the south shore of Lake
+Superior in 1668, and made a map of the region, which was published in
+the _Lettres Edifiantes_. This zealous and energetic man established the
+mission of St. Ignace at Michilimackinac, about 1669 or 1670, and three
+years afterwards, entered the upper Mississippi, from the Wisconsin.
+Vincennes, on the Wabash, was established in 1710;[27] St. Louis, not
+till 1763.[28]
+
+
+CANADA, 7th June, 1687.
+
+  _A renewal of the taking possession of the territory upon the Straits
+    [Detroit] between Lakes Erie and Huron, by Sieur de la Duranthaye._
+
+  _Oliver Morel, Equerry, Sieur de la Duranthaye, commandant in the name
+    of the King of the Territory of the Ottawas, Miamis, Pottawatamies,
+    Sioux, and other tribes under the orders of Monsieur, the Marquis de
+    Denonsville, Governor General of New France._
+
+This day, the 7th of June, 1687, in presence of the Rev'd Father
+Angeleran, Head of the Missions with the Ottawas[29] of Michilimackinac,
+the Miamis of Sault Ste-Marie, the Illinois, and Green Bay, and of the
+Sioux of Mons. de la Forest, formerly commandant of Fort St. Louis on
+the Illinois, of Mons. de Lisle, our Lieutenant, and of Mons. de
+Beauvais, Lieutenant of Fort St. Joseph, on the Straits [Detroit]
+between Lakes Huron and Erie. We declare to all whom it may hereafter
+concern, that we have come upon the banks of the river St. Deny's,
+situated three leagues from Lake Erie, in the Straits of the said Lakes
+Erie and Huron, on the south of said straits, and also at the entrance
+on the north side, for and in the name of the King, that we re-take
+possession of the said posts, established by Mons. La Salle for
+facilitating the voyages he made or caused to be made in vessels from
+Niagara to Michilimackinac, in the years * * * * * * at each of which we
+have caused to be set up anew a staff, with the arms of the King, in
+order to make the said renewed taking possession, and ordered several
+cabins to be erected for the accommodation of the French and the Indians
+of the Shawnees and Miamis, who had long been the proprietors of the
+said territory, but who had some time before withdrawn from the same for
+their greater advantage.
+
+The present act passed in our presence, signed by our hands, and by Rev.
+Father Angeleran, of the society of Jesuits, by MM. De la Forest, De
+Lisle and De Beauvais, thus in the original:
+
+                    Angeleran, Jesuite.
+                    De la Duranthaye [la Garduer].
+                    De Beauvais, and
+                    De la Forest.
+
+Compared by me with the original in my hands, Councillor Secretary of
+the King, and Register in Chief of the Royal Council at Quebec,
+subscribed, and each page _paraphe_.
+
+Collated at Quebec, this 11th September, 1712.
+
+      [Signed],
+                                    BYON ET VANDREUIL.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Memoir of Monsieur de la Mothe Cadillac, relative to the
+    establishment of Detroit, addressed to the Minister of Marine, 14th
+    September, 1704:_
+
+_La Mothe Cadillac renders an account of his conduct relative to the
+    establishment of Detroit, by questions and answers. It is the
+    Minister who questions, and La Mothe who answers:_
+
+Q. Was it not in 1699 that you proposed to me an establishment in the
+Straits which separate Lake Erie from Lake Huron?
+
+A. Yes, my Lord.
+
+Q. What were the motives which induced you to wish to fortify a place
+there, and make an establishment?
+
+A. I had several. The first was to make a strong post, which should not
+be subject to the revolutions of other posts, by fixing there a number
+of French and Savages, in order to curb the Iroquois, who had constantly
+annoyed our colonies and hindered their prosperity.
+
+Q. At what time did you leave Quebec to go to Detroit?
+
+A. On the 8th of March, 1701. I reached Montreal the 12th, when we were
+obliged to make a change. * * * * I left La Chine the 5th of June with
+fifty soldiers and fifty Canadians--Messrs. De Fonty, Captain, Duque and
+Chacornach, Lieutenants. I was ordered to pass by the Grand River of the
+Ottawas, notwithstanding my remonstrances. I arrived at Detroit _the
+24th July_ and fortified myself there immediately; had the necessary
+huts made, and cleared up the grounds, preparatory to its being sowed in
+the autumn.
+
+Compare these data, from the highest sources, with the Indian tradition
+of the first arrival of the French, in the upper lakes, recorded at page
+107, ONEOTA, No. 2.
+
+
+THE CHOCTAW INDIANS.
+
+The _Vicksburg Sentinel_ of the 18th ult., referring to this tribe of
+Indians, has the following:--"The last remnant of this once powerful
+tribe are now crossing our ferry on their way to their new homes in the
+far West. To one who, like the writer, has been familiar to their bronze
+inexpressive faces from infancy, it brings associations of peculiar
+sadness to see them bidding here a last farewell perhaps to the old
+hills which gave birth, and are doubtless equally dear to him and them
+alike. The first playmates of our infancy were the young Choctaw boys of
+the then woods of Warren county. Their language was once scarcely less
+familiar to us than our mother-English. We know, we think, the character
+of the Choctaw well. We knew many of their present stalwart braves in
+those days of early life when the Indian and white alike forget
+disguise, but in the unchecked exuberance of youthful feeling show the
+real character that policy and habit may afterwards so much conceal; and
+we know that, under the stolid stoic look he assumes, there is burning
+in the Indian's nature a heart of fire and feeling, and an all-observing
+keenness of apprehension, that marks and remembers everything that
+occurs, and every insult he receives. Cunni-at a hah! They are going
+away! With a visible reluctance which nothing has overcome but the stern
+necessity they feel impelling them, they have looked their last on the
+graves of their sires--the scenes of their youth--and have taken up
+their slow toilsome march, with their household gods among them, to
+their new home in a strange land. They leave names to many of our
+rivers, towns and counties; and so long as our State remains, the
+Choctaws, who once owned most of her soil, will be remembered."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [27] Nicollet's Report.
+
+  [28] Law's Historical Dis.
+
+  [29] This is, manifestly, an error. The writer of this act of possession
+appears to have mistaken the bank of the St. Mary's, one of the
+tributaries of the Miami of the Lakes, in the Miami country, for the
+Sault de Ste-Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior. The latter position
+was occupied, at the earliest dates, to which tradition reaches, by a
+branch of the Algonquins, to whom the French gave the name, from the
+falls of the river at that locality, of _Saulteux_. They are better
+known, at this day under the name of Chippewas and Odjibwas.
+
+
+
+
+A SYNOPSIS OF CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AT NORTH AMERICA.
+
+
+FIRST VOYAGE.
+
+Forty-two years had elapsed from the discovery of America by Columbus,
+when Jacques Cartier prepared to share in the maratime enterprise of the
+age, by visiting the coast. Cartier was a native of Normandy, and sailed
+from the port of St. Malo, in France, on the 20th April, 1534. It will
+be recollected that the conquest of Mexico had been completed 13 years
+previous. Cartier had two small vessels of 60 tons burden and 61 men
+each. The crews took an oath, before sailing, "to behave themselves
+truly and faithfully in the service of the most Christian king," Francis
+I. After an unusually prosperous voyage of 20 days, he made cape "Buona
+Vista" in Newfoundland, which he states to be in north latitude, 48°
+30´. Here meeting with ice, he made the haven of St. Catherine's, where
+he was detained ten days. This coast had now been known since the voyage
+of Cabot, in 1497, and had been frequently resorted to, by fishing
+vessels. Jean Denis, a native of Rouen, one of these fishermen, is said
+to have published the first chart of it, in 1506. Two years after wards,
+Thomas Aubert, brought the first natives from Newfoundland to Paris, and
+this is the era, 1508, commonly assigned as the discovery of Canada. The
+St. Lawrence remained, however, undiscovered, nor does it appear that
+any thing was known, beyond a general and vague knowledge of the coast,
+and its islands. The idea was yet entertained, indeed, it will be seen
+by subsequent facts, that America was an island, and that a passage to
+the Asiatic continent, existed in these latitudes.
+
+On the 21st May, Cartier continued his voyage, sailing "north and by
+east" from cape Buona Vista, and reached the Isle of Birds, so called
+from the unusual abundance of sea fowl found there, of the young of
+which the men filled two boats, "so that" in the quaint language of the
+journal, "besides them which we did eat fresh, every ship did powder and
+salt five or six barrels." He also observed the godwit, and a larger and
+vicious bird, which they named margaulx. While at this island, they
+descried a polar bear, which, in their presence leapt into the sea, and
+thus escaped. On their subsequent passage to the main land, they again
+encountered, as they supposed, the same animal swimming towards land.
+They manned their boats, and "by main strength overtook her, whose flesh
+was as good to be eaten, as the flesh of a calf two years old." This
+bear is described to be, "as large as a cow, and as white as a swan."
+
+On the 27th he reached the harbour of "Carpunt" in the bay "Les
+Chastaux," latitude 51°, where he was constrained to lay by, on account
+of the accumulation of ice, till the 9th of June. The narrator of the
+voyage takes this occasion to describe certain parts of the coast and
+waters of Newfoundland, the island of St. Catherine, Blanc Sablon,
+Brest, the Isle of Birds, and a numerous group of Islands called the
+Islets. But these memoranda are not connected with any observations or
+discoveries of importance. Speaking of Bird and Brest Islands, he says,
+they afford "great store of godwits, and crows, with red beaks and red
+feet," who "make their nests in holes underground, even as conies." Near
+this locality "there is great fishing."
+
+On the 10th June, he entered a port in the newly named island of Brest,
+to procure wood and water. Meantime, boats were dispatched to explore
+among the islands, which were found so numerous "that it was not
+possible they might be told, for they continued about 10 leagues beyond
+the said port." The explorers slept on an island. The next day they
+continued their discoveries along the coast, and having passed the
+islands, found a haven, which they named St. Anthony: one or two leagues
+beyond, they found a small river named St. Servansport, and here set up
+a cross. About three leagues further, they discovered another river, of
+larger size, in which they found salmon, and bestowed upon it the name
+of St. Jacques.
+
+While in the latter position, they descried a ship from Rochelle, on a
+fishing voyage, and rowing out in their boats, directed it to a port
+near at hand, in what is called "Jaques Cartier's Sound," "which," adds
+the narrator, "I take to be one of the best, in all the world." The face
+of the country they examined, is, however, of the most sterile and
+forbidding character, being little besides "stones and wild crags, and a
+place fit for wild beasts, for in all the North Island," he continues,
+"I did not see a cart load of good earth, yet went I on shore, in many
+places, and in the Island of White Sand, (Blanc Sablon,) there is
+nothing else but moss and small thorns, scattered here and there,
+withered and dry. To be short, I believe that this was the land that God
+allotted to Cain."
+
+Immediately following this, we have the first description of the
+natives. The men are described as being "of an indifferent good stature
+and bigness, but wild and unruly. They wear their hair tied on the top,
+like a wreath of hay, and put a wooden pin within it, or any other such
+thing, instead of a nail, and with them, they bind certain birds
+feathers. They are clothed with beast skins, as well the men as women,
+but that the women go somewhat straiter and closer in their garments,
+than the men do, with their waists girded. They paint themselves with
+certain roan colours; their boats are made of the bark of birch trees,
+with the which they fish, and take great store of seals. And as far as
+we could understand, since our coming thither, that is not their
+habitation, but they come from the main land, out of _hotter_[30]
+countries to catch the said seals, and other necessaries for their
+living."
+
+From this exploratory trip, the boats returned to their newly named
+harbour of Brest, on the 13th. On the 14th, being the Sabbath, service
+was read, and the next day Cartier continued his voyage, steering
+southerly, along the coast, which still wore a most barren and cheerless
+aspect. Much of this part of the narrative is taken up with distances
+and soundings, and the naming of capes and islands of very little
+interest at the present day. They saw a few huts upon the cliffs on the
+18th, and named this part of the coast "Les Granges," but did not stop
+to form any acquaintance with their tenants. Cape Royal was reached and
+named the day prior, and is said to be the "greatest fishery of cods
+there possibly may be, for in less than an hour we took a hundred of
+them." On the 24th they discovered the island of St. John. They saw
+myriads of birds upon the group of islands named "Margaulx," five
+leagues westward of which they discovered a large, fertile, and
+well-timbered island, to which the name of "Brion" was given. The
+contrast presented by the soil and productions of this island, compared
+with the bleak and waste shores they had before encountered, excited
+their warm admiration; and with the aid of this excitement, they here
+saw "wild corn," peas, gooseberries, strawberries, damask roses, and
+parsley, "with other sweet and pleasant herbs." They here also saw the
+walrus, bear, and wolf.
+
+Very little is to be gleaned from the subsequent parts of the voyage,
+until they reached the gulf of St. Lawrence. Mists, head winds, barren
+rocks, sandy shores, storms and sunshine, alternately make up the
+landscape presented to view. Much caution was evinced in standing off
+and on an iron bound coast, and the boats were often employed in
+exploring along the main land. While thus employed near a shallow
+stream, called the "River of Boats," they saw natives crossing the
+stream in their canoes, but the wind coming to blow on shore, they were
+compelled to retire to their vessels, without opening any communication
+with them. On the following day, while the boats were traversing the
+coast, they saw a native running along shore after them, who made signs
+as they supposed, directing them to return towards the cape they had
+left. But as soon as the boat turned he fled. They landed, however, and
+putting a knife and a woollen girdle on a staff, as a good-will
+offering, returned to their vessels.
+
+The character of this part of the Newfoundland coast, impressed them as
+being greatly superior to the portions which they had previously seen,
+both in soil and temperature. In addition to the productions found at
+Brion's Island, they noticed cedars, pines, white elm, ash, willow, and
+what are denominated "ewe-trees." Among the feathered tribes they
+mention the "thrush and stock-dove." By the latter term the passenger
+pigeon is doubtless meant. The "wild corn" here again mentioned, is said
+to be "like unto rye," from which it may be inferred that it was the
+zizania, although the circumstance of its being an aquatic plant is not
+mentioned.
+
+In running along the coast Cartier appears to have been engrossed with
+the idea, so prevalent among the mariners of that era, of finding a
+passage to India, and it was probably on this account that he made such
+a scrupulous examination of every inlet and bay, and the productions of
+the shores. Wherever the latter offered anything favourable, there was a
+strong disposition to admiration, and to make appearances correspond
+with the theory. It must be recollected that Hudson, seventy-five years
+later, in sailing up the North River, had similar notions. Hence the
+application of several improper terms to the vegetable and animal
+productions of the latitudes, and the constant expectation of beholding
+trees bending with fruits and spices, "goodly trees" and "very sweet and
+pleasant herbs." That the barren and frigid shores of Labrador, and the
+northern parts of Newfoundland, should have been characterised as a
+region subject to the divine curse, is not calculated to excite so much
+surprise, as the disposition with every considerable change of soil and
+verdure, to convert it into a land of oriental fruitfulness. It does not
+appear to have been sufficiently borne in mind, that the increased
+verdure and temperature, were, in a great measure, owing to the
+advancing state of the season. He came on this coast on the 10th of May,
+and it was now July. It is now very well known that the summers in high
+northern latitudes, although short, are attended with a high degree of
+heat.
+
+On the 3d of July Cartier entered the gulf to which the name of St.
+Lawrence has since been applied, the centre of which he states to be in
+latitude 47° 30´. On the 4th he proceeded up the bay to a creek called
+St. Martin, near bay De Chaleur, where he was detained by stress of
+weather eight days. While thus detained, one of the ship's boats was
+sent a-head to explore. They went 7 or 8 leagues to a cape of the bay,
+where they descried two parties of Indians, "in about 40 or 50 canoes,"
+crossing the channel. One of the parties landed and beckoned them to
+follow their example, "making a great noise" and showing "certain skins
+upon pieces of wood"--i. e. fresh stretched skins. Fearing their
+numbers, the seamen kept aloof. The Indians prepared to follow them, in
+two canoes, in which movement they were joined by five canoes of the
+other party, "who were coming from the sea side." They approached in a
+friendly manner, "dancing and making many signs of joy, saying in their
+tongue Nape tondamen assuath."[31] The seamen, however, suspected their
+intentions, and finding it impossible to elude them by flight, two shots
+were discharged among them, by which they were so terrified, that they
+fled precipitately ashore, "making a great noise." After pausing awhile,
+the "wild men" however, re-embarked, and renewed the pursuit, but after
+coming alongside, they were frightened back by the strokes of two
+lances, which so disconcerted them that they fled in haste, and made no
+further attempt to follow.
+
+This appears to have been the first rencontre of the ship's crew with
+the natives. On the following day, an interview was brought on, by the
+approach of said "wild men" in nine canoes, which is thus described. "We
+being advertised of their coming, went to the point where they were with
+our boats; but so soon as they saw us they began to flee, making signs
+that they came to traffic with us, showing us such skins as they clothed
+themselves withal, which are of small value. We likewise made signs unto
+them, that we wished them no evil, and in sign thereof, two of our men
+ventured to go on land to them, and carry them knives, with other iron
+wares, and a red hat to give unto their captain. Which, when they saw,
+they also came on land, and brought some of their skins, and so began to
+deal with us, seeming to be very glad to have our iron wares and other
+things, dancing, with many other ceremonies, as with their hands to cast
+sea water on their heads. They gave us whatever they had, not keeping
+any thing, so that they were constrained to go back again naked, and
+made us signs, that the next day, they would come again and bring more
+skins with them."
+
+Observing a spacious bay extending beyond the cape, where this
+intercourse had been opened, and the wind proving adverse to the vessels
+quitting their harbour, Cartier despatched his boats to examine it,
+under an expectation that it might afford the desired passage--for it is
+at all times to be observed that he was diligently seeking the long
+sought passage to the Indies. While engaged in this examination, his men
+discovered "the smokes and fires" of "wild men" (the term constantly
+used in the narrative to designate the natives.) These smokes were upon
+a small lake, communicating with the bay. An amiable interview took
+place, the natives presenting cooked seal, and the French making a
+suitable return "in hatchets, knives and beads." After these
+preliminaries, which were conducted with a good deal of caution, by
+deputies from both sides, the body of the men approached in their
+canoes, for the purpose of trafficking, leaving most of their families
+behind. About 300 men women and children were estimated to have been
+seen at this place. They evinced their friendship by singing and
+dancing, and by rubbing their hands upon the arms of their European
+visitors, then lifting them up towards the heavens. An opinion is
+expressed that these people, (who were in the position assigned to the
+Micmacs in 1600 in Mr. Gallatin's ethnological map,) might very easily
+be converted to Christianity. "They go," says the narrator, "from place
+to place. They live only by fishing. They have an ordinary time to fish
+for their provisions. The country is _hotter_ than the country of Spain,
+and the fairest that can possibly be found, altogether smooth and
+level." To the productions before noticed, as existing on Brion's island
+&c., and which were likewise found here, he adds, "white and red roses,
+with many other flowers of very sweet and pleasant smell." "There be
+also," says the journalist, "many goodly meadows, full of grass, and
+lakes, wherein plenty of salmon be." The natives called a hatchet
+_cochi_, and a knife _bacon_.[32] It was now near the middle of July,
+and the degree of heat experienced on the excursion induced Cartier to
+name the inlet, Baie du Chaleur--a name it still retains.
+
+On the 12th of July Cartier left his moorings at St. Martin's creek, and
+proceeded up the gulf, but encountering bad weather he was forced into a
+bay, which appears to have been Gaspe, where one of the vessels lost her
+anchor. They were forced to take shelter in a river of that bay, and
+there detained thirteen days. In the mean while they opened an
+intercourse with the natives, who were found in great numbers engaged in
+fishing for makerel. Forty canoes, and 200 men women and children were
+estimated to have been seen, during their detention. Presents of
+"knives, combs, beads of glass, and other trifles of small value," were
+made to them, for which they expressed great thankfulness, lifting up
+their hands, and dancing and singing.
+
+These Gaspe Indians are represented as differing, both in nature and
+language, from those before mentioned. They presented a picture of
+abject poverty, were partially clothed in "old skins," and lived without
+the use of tents. They may, says the journalist, "very well and truly be
+called _wild_, because there is no poorer people in the world, for I
+think, all they had together, besides their boats and nets, was not
+worth five sous." They shaved their heads, except a tuft at the crown;
+sheltered themselves at night under their canoes on the bare ground, and
+ate their provisions very partially cooked. They were wholly without the
+use of salt, and "ate nothing that had any taste of salt." On Cartier's
+first landing among them, the men expressed their joy, as those at bay
+Chaleur had done, by singing and dancing. But they had caused all their
+women, except 2 or 3, to flee into the woods. By giving a comb and a
+tin bell to each of the women who had ventured to remain, the avarice of
+the men was excited, and they quickly caused their women, to the number
+of about 20, to sally from the woods, to each of whom the same present
+was made. They caressed Cartier by touching and rubbing him with their
+hands; they also sung and danced. Their nets were made of a species of
+indigenous hemp; they possessed also, a kind of "millet" called
+"kapaige," beans called "Sahu," and nuts called "Cahehya." If any thing
+was exhibited, which they did not know, or understand, they shook their
+heads saying "Nohda." It is added that they never come to the sea,
+except in fishing time, which, we may remark, was probably the cause of
+their having no lodges, or much other property about them. They would
+naturally wish to disencumber their canoes as much as possible, in these
+summer excursions, that they might freight them back with dried fish.
+The language spoken by these Gaspe Indians is manifestly of the Iroquois
+type. "Cahehya," is, with a slight difference, the term for fruit, in
+the Oneida.
+
+On the 24th July, Cartier set up a cross thirty feet high, inscribed,
+"_Vive le Roy de France_." The natives who were present at this
+ceremony, seem, on a little reflection, to have conceived the true
+intent of it, and their chief complained of it, in a "long oration,"
+giving them to understand "that the country was his, and that we should
+not set up any cross, without his leave." Having quieted the old chief's
+fears, and made use of a little duplicity, to get him to come alongside,
+they seized two of the natives for the purpose of taking them to France,
+and on the next day set sail, up the gulf. After making some further
+examinations of the gulf, and being foiled in an attempt to enter the
+mouth of a river, Cartier turned his thoughts on a return. He was
+alarmed by the furious tides setting out of the St. Lawrence; the
+weather was becoming tempestuous, and under these circumstances he
+assembled his captains and principal men, "to put the question as to the
+expediency of continuing the voyage." They advised him to this effect:
+That, considering that easterly winds began to prevail--"that there was
+nothing to be gotten"--that, the impetuosity of the tides was such "That
+they did but fall," and that storms and tempests began to reign--and
+moreover, that they must either promptly return home, or else remain
+where they were till spring, it was expedient to return. With this
+counsel he complied. No time was lost in retracing their outward track,
+along the Newfoundland coast. They reached the port of "White Sands," on
+the 9th of August. On the 15th, being "the feast of the Assumption of
+Our Lady," after service, Cartier took his departure from the coast. He
+encountered a heavy storm, of three days continuance, "about the middle
+of the sea," and reached the port of St. Malo, on the 5th of September,
+after an absence of four months and sixteen days.
+
+This comprises the substance of the first voyage of discovery, of which
+we have knowledge, ever made within the waters of the St. Lawrence. The
+Newfoundland and Nova Scotia coasts, together with the shores of the
+North Atlantic generally, had been discovered by Cabot, 37 years before.
+The banks of Newfoundland had been resorted to, as is known pretty
+freely for the purpose of fishing, for 26 years of this period, and the
+natives had been at least, in one instance, taken to Europe. But the
+existence of the St. Lawrence appears not to have been known. Cartier,
+is, therefore, the true discoverer of Canada, although he was not its
+founder. The latter honour was reserved for another. In the two
+succeeding voyages made by Cartier, of which it is proposed to make a
+synopsis, his title as a discoverer, is still more fully established.
+
+
+SECOND VOYAGE.
+
+A. D. 1535, May, 19th, Cartier left St. Malo, on his second voyage of
+discovery, "to the islands of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay," with
+three ships--the "Hermina" of 100 to 120 tons--the "little Hermina" of
+60 tons, and the "Hermerillon" of 40 tons, commanded by separate
+masters, acting under his orders as "General." He was accompanied by
+several gentlemen and adventurers, among whom the narrator of the voyage
+mentions, "Master Claudius de Pont Briand, son to the Lord of
+Montceuell, and cup-bearer to the Dauphin of France; Charles of
+Pomerais, and John Powlet." He suffered a severe gale on the outward
+passage, in which the ships parted company. Cartier reached the coast of
+Newfoundland on the 7th July, and was not rejoined by the other vessels
+till the 26th, on which day the missing vessels entered "the port of
+White Sands" in the _bay des Chasteaux_, the place previously designated
+for their general rendezvous.
+
+On the 27th he continued his voyage along the coast, keeping in sight of
+land, and consequently running great risks, from the numerous shoals he
+encountered in seeking out anchorages. Many of the islands and headlands
+named in the previous voyage, were observed, and names were bestowed
+upon others, which had before escaped notice. Soundings and courses and
+distances, are detailed with the tedious prolixity, and probably, with
+the uncertainty of the era. Nothing of importance occurred until the 8th
+of August, when Cartier entered the gulf, where he had previously
+encountered such storms, and which he now named ST. LAWRENCE. From
+thence on the 12th, he pursued his voyage westward "about 25 leagues" to
+a cape named "Assumption," which appears to have been part of the Nova
+Scotia coast. It is quite evident that the idea of a continuous
+continent was not entertained by Cartier at this period, although the
+Cabots had discovered and run down the coast nearly 40 years before
+(1497.) He constantly speaks of his discoveries as "islands" and the
+great object of anxiety seems to have been, to find the long sought
+"passage" so often mentioned in his journals.
+
+The two natives whom he had seized on the previous voyage, now told him,
+that cape Assumption was a part of the "southern coast," or main,--that
+there was an island north of the passage to "Honguedo" where they had
+been taken the year before, and that "two days journey from, the said
+cape, and island, began the kingdom of Saguenay."
+
+In consequence of this information, and a wish to revisit "the land he
+had before espied," Cartier turned his course towards the north, and
+reentering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, came to the entrance of the river,
+which is stated to be "about thirty leagues" across. Here, the two
+natives told him, was the commencement of "Saguenay,"--that it was an
+inhabited country, and produced "red copper." They further informed him,
+that this was the mouth of the "great river of Hochelaga, and ready way
+to Canada,"--that it narrowed in the ascent towards Canada, the waters
+becoming fresh; that its sources were so remote that they had never
+heard of any man who had visited them, and that boats would be required
+to complete the ascent.
+
+This information appears to have operated as a disappointment on
+Cartier, and he determined to explore northward from the gulf, "because
+he would know" to use the quaint language of the narrator, "if between
+the lands towards the north any passage might be discovered." No such
+passage could however be found, and after devoting ten or twelve days to
+re-examinations of points and islands before but imperfectly discovered,
+or to the discovery of others, he returned to the river St. Lawrence,
+which he began to ascend: and on the 1st Sept. he came to the entrance
+of the Saguenay river, which is described as a bold and deep stream,
+entering the St. Lawrence, between bare, precipitous rocks, crowned with
+trees. Here they encountered four canoes of Indians, who evinced their
+characteristic caution and shyness. On being hailed, however, by the two
+captive natives, who disclosed to them, their names, they came along
+side. But the journal records no further particulars of this interview.
+They proceeded up the river next day. The tides are noticed as being
+"very swift and dangerous," and the "current" is described as equalling
+that at Bordeaux. Many tortoises were seen at the "Isle of Condres," and
+a species of fish, which are described of equalling a porpoise in size,
+with a head resembling a greyhound's, and of unspotted whiteness. It may
+be vague to offer a conjecture from such a description as to the species
+of fish intended, but as the natives reported them to be "very savoury
+and good to be eaten," it may be inferred, that the sturgeon was meant.
+Many of the descriptions of the animal productions of America, given by
+Cartier, appear to be drawn up, rather with a view to excite wonder, in
+an age when wonders were both industriously sought, and readily
+credited, than to convey any accurate idea of their true characters and
+properties.
+
+On the 7th of Sept they reached the island now called Orleans, where, it
+is said "the country of Canada beginneth." This island is stated to be
+ten leagues long, and five broad, being inhabited by natives who lived
+exclusively by fishing. Having anchored his vessels in the channel, he
+made a formal landing in his boats, taking the two captives, Domaigaia,
+and Taignoagny, as interpreters. The natives at first fled, but hearing
+themselves addressed in their own tongue, and finding the captives to be
+their own countrymen, friendly intercourse at once ensued. The natives
+evinced their joy by dancing, and "showing many sorts of ceremonies."
+They presented Cartier, "eels and other sorts of fishes, with two or
+three burdens of great millet, wherewith they make their bread, and many
+great mush mellons." This "great millet" appears to have been _zea
+mais_, which is here for the first time noticed, amongst the northern
+Indians. The report of the arrival of their lost countrymen D. and T.
+seemed to have put all the surrounding villages in commotion, and
+Cartier found himself thronged with visitors, to whom he gave presents,
+trifling in themselves, but of much value in the eyes of the Indians.
+The utmost harmony and good feeling appear to have prevailed.
+
+On the following day Donnacona, who is courteously styled the Lord of
+Agouhanna, visited the ships, with 12 boats, or canoes--ten of which
+however, he directed to stay at a distance, and with the other two and
+16 men approached the vessels. A friendly conference ensued. The chief,
+when he drew near the headmost vessel began "to frame a long oration,
+moving all his body and members after a strange fashion." When he
+reached Cartier's ship, the captives entered into free discourse with
+him, imparting the observations they had made in France, and the kind
+treatment they had experienced. At this recital Donnacona was so much
+pleased, that he desired Cartier to reach him his arm, that he might
+kiss it. He not only kissed it, but "laid it about his neck, for so they
+use to do, when they will make much of one." Cartier then entered into
+the chief's boat, "causing bread and wine to be brought," and after
+eating and drinking with him and his followers, the interview terminated
+in mutual satisfaction.
+
+The advanced state of the season, and the determination to visit
+Hochelaga (now Montreal) before the ice formed, admonished Cartier to
+look for a harbour, which would afford a safe anchorage for his largest
+vessels during the winter. He selected "a little river and haven,"
+opposite the head of the island, to which he gave the name of "Santa
+Croix," being in the vicinity of Donnacona's village. No time was lost
+in bringing up and mooring the vessels, and driving piles into the
+harbour for their better security. While engaged in this work, further
+acquaintance was made with the natives, and their opinion of Cartier's
+visit, began to manifest itself, by which it appeared, that the
+friendship established with him was rather apparent, than real. About
+this time Taignoagny and Domaigaia were suffered to return to their
+villages, and it soon became apparent, that the knowledge they had
+acquired of the French, would be wielded to put their countrymen on
+their guard against encroachments upon their soil. Taignoagny, in
+particular, rendered himself obnoxious to the French, by his sullen and
+altered conduct, and the activity he afterwards manifested in thwarting
+Cartier's design of visiting the island of Hochelaga, although it
+appears, he had, previous to leaving the vessels, promised to serve as a
+guide on the expedition.
+
+Donnacona himself opposed the projected visit, by argument, by artifice,
+and finally, by the extraordinary resource of human gifts. His aversion
+to it first evinced itself by keeping aloof, and adopting a shy and
+suspicious demeanour. Cartier finding this chief, with T. and D. and a
+numerous retinue in his vicinity, "under a point or nook of land,"
+ordered a part of his men to follow him, and suddenly presented himself
+in the midst of them. After mutual salutations, Taignoagny got up and
+addressed him, in behalf of Donnacona, complaining that they came armed,
+to which Cartier replied that, it was the custom of his country, and a
+custom he could not dispense with. The bustle and heat of the
+introduction being over, Cartier played the part of a politic
+diplomatist, and was met by Donnacona and his counsellors on his own
+grounds, and the whole interview, though it resulted in what is called
+"a marvellous steadfast league of friendship" can only be looked upon,
+as a strife, in which it is the object of both parties to observe the
+most profound dissimulation. This "league" was ratified by the natives,
+with three loud cries, "a most horrible thing to hear" says the
+narrator.
+
+On the very next day Donnacona, attended with T. and D. and 10 or 12 "of
+the chiefest of the country, with more than 500 persons, men, women and
+children," came on board of the vessels, at their moorings, to protest
+against the intended voyage of exploration. Taignoagny opened the
+conference, by saying to Cartier, that Donnacona regretted his design of
+visiting Hochelaga, and had forbid any of his people from accompanying
+him, because the river itself "was of no importance." Cartier replied
+that his decision was made, and urged the speaker to go with him, as he
+had promised, offering to make the voyage every way advantageous to him.
+A prompt refusal, on the part of T. and the sudden withdrawal of the
+whole collected multitude, terminated this interview.
+
+On the next day Donnacona re-appeared with all his followers, bringing
+presents of fish, singing and dancing. He then caused all his people to
+pass to one side, and drawing a circle in the sand, requested Cartier
+and his followers, to enter into it. This arrangement concluded, he
+began an address, "holding in one of his hands a maiden child ten or
+twelve years old," whom he presented to Cartier, the multitude at the
+same time giving three shouts. He then brought forward two male
+children, separately, presenting them in the same manner, and his
+people at each presentation, expressing their assent by shouts.
+Taignoagny, who by this time had drawn upon himself the epithet of
+"crafty knave" told the "captain" (as Cartier is all along termed,) that
+one of the children was his own brother, and that the girl was a
+daughter of Donnacona's "own sister," and that this presentation, was
+made to him, solely with a view of dissuading him from his expedition.
+Cartier persisted in saying, that his mind was made up, and could not be
+altered. Here, Domaigaia interposed, and said, that the children were
+offered as "a sign and token of good will and security," and not with
+any specific purpose of dissuading him from the expedition. High words
+passed between the two liberated captives, from which it was evident
+that one, or the other, had either misconceived or misrepresented the
+object of the gift. Cartier however, took the children, and gave
+Donnacona "two swords and two copper basins," for which he returned
+thanks, and "commanded all his people to sing and dance," and requested
+the captain to cause a piece of artillery to be discharged for his
+gratification. Cartier readily improved this hint, to show them the
+destructive effects of European artillery, and at a signal, ordered
+twelve pieces, charged with ball, to be fired into the contiguous
+forest, by which they were so astounded that they "put themselves to
+flight, howling, crying, and shrieking, so that it seemed hell was broke
+loose."
+
+These attempts to frustrate the purposed voyage, having failed, the
+natives endeavoured to put the captain's credulity to the test, and
+operate upon his fears. For this purpose three natives were disguised to
+play the part of "devils," wrapped in skins, besmeared, and provided
+with horns. Thus equipped they took advantage of the tide, to drop down
+along side Cartier's vessels, uttering words of unintelligible import as
+they passed, but keeping their faces steadfastly directed toward the
+wood. At the same time Donnacona, and his people rushed out of the wood
+to the shore,--attracting the attention of the ships' crews in various
+ways, and finally seized the mock "devils" at the moment of their
+landing, and carried them into the woods, where their revelations were
+uttered.
+
+The result of this clumsy trick, was announced by Taignoagny and
+Domaigaia, who said, that their god "Cudruaigny had spoken in
+Hochelaga"--importing ill tidings to the French, and that he had sent
+these three men to inform them that, there was so much ice and snow in
+the country, that whoever entered it, must die. After some
+interrogatives pro and con, in the course of which the power of "his
+Priests" was oddly contrasted by the French commander with that of the
+"devils," both Taignoagny and Domaigaia coincided in finally declaring
+that Donnacona, "would by no means permit that any of them should go
+with him to Hochelaga," unless he would leave hostages in his hands.
+
+All these artifices appear to have had but little effect on Cartier's
+plan. He told his freed interpreters, that if they would not go
+willingly, they might stay, and he would prosecute the voyage without
+them. Accordingly, having finished mooring his vessels, on the 19th
+September he set out to explore the upper portions of the river, taking
+his smallest vessel and two boats with fifty mariners, and the
+supernumerary gentlemen of his party. A voyage of ten days brought him
+to an expansion of the river, which he named the lake of Angolesme, but
+which is now known under the name of St. Peter. Here the shallowness of
+the water, and rapidity of the current above, induced him to leave the
+"Hermerillon," and he proceeded with the two boats and twenty-eight
+armed men. The fertility of the shore, the beauty and luxuriance of the
+forest trees, mantled as they often were, with the vine loaded with
+clusters of grapes, the variety of water fowl, and above all the
+friendly treatment they every where received from the Indians, excited
+unmingled admiration. One of the chiefs whom they encountered presented
+Cartier with two children, his son and daughter, the latter of whom,
+being 7 or 8 years old, he accepted. On another occasion he was carried
+ashore by one of a party of hunters, as "lightly and easily as if he had
+been a child of five years old." Presents of fish were made, at every
+point, where he came in contact with the natives, who seemed to vie with
+each other in acts of hospitality.
+
+These marks of welcome and respect continued to be manifested during the
+remainder of the journey to Hochelaga, where he arrived on the 2d of
+October. A multitude of both sexes and all ages had collected on the
+shore to witness his approach, and welcome his arrival. They expressed
+their joy by dancing, "clustering about us, making much of us, bringing
+their young children in their arms only to have our captain and his
+company touch them." Cartier landed, and spent half an hour in receiving
+their caresses, and distributed tin beads to the women, and knives to
+some of the men, and then "returned to the boats to supper." The natives
+built large fires on the beach, and continued dancing, and merry making
+all night, frequently exclaiming _Aguiaze_, which is said to signify
+"mirth and safety."
+
+Early the next morning Cartier having "very gorgeously attired himself,"
+and taking 20 mariners, with his officers and supernumeraries, landed
+for the purpose of visiting the town, taking some of the natives for
+guides. After following a well beaten path, leading through an oak
+forest, for four or five miles, he was met by a chief, accompanied by a
+retinue, sent out to meet him, who by signs gave him to understand, that
+he was desired to rest at that spot, where a fire had been kindled, a
+piece of civility, which it may be supposed, was something more than an
+empty compliment on an October morning. The chief here made "a long
+discourse," which, of course, was not understood, but they inferred it
+was expressive of "mirth and friendship." In return Cartier gave him 2
+hatchets, 2 knives and a cross, which he made him kiss, and then put it
+around his neck.
+
+This done the procession advanced, without further interruption, to the
+"city of Hochelaga," which is described as seated in the midst of
+cultivated fields, at the distance of a league from the mountain. It was
+secured by three ramparts "one within another," about 2 rods in height,
+"cunningly joined together after their fashion," with a single gate
+"shut with piles and stakes and bars." This entrance, and other parts of
+the walls, had platforms above, provided with stones for defensive
+operations. The ascent to these platforms was by ladders.
+
+As the French approached, great numbers came out to meet them. They were
+conducted by the guides, to a large square enclosure in the centre of
+the town, "being from side to side a good stone's cast." They were first
+greeted by the female part of the population, who brought their children
+in their arms, and rushed eagerly to touch or rub the faces and arms of
+the strangers, or whatever parts of their bodies they could approach.
+The men now caused the females to retire, and seated themselves formally
+in circles upon the ground; as if, says the narrator, "some comedy or
+show" was about to be rehearsed. Mats were then brought in by the women,
+and spread upon the ground, for the visitors to sit upon. Last came the
+"Lord and King" Agouhanna, a palsied old man, borne upon the shoulders
+of 9 or 10 attendants, sitting on a "great stag skin." They placed him
+near the mats occupied by Cartier and his party. This simple potentate
+"was no whit better apparelled than any of the rest, only excepted, that
+he had a certain thing made of the skins of hedgehogs, like a red
+wreath, and that was instead of his crown."
+
+After a salutation, in which gesticulation awkwardly supplied the place
+of language, the old chief exhibited his palsied limbs, for the purpose
+of being touched, by the supposed celestial visitants. Cartier, although
+he appeared to be a man of sense and decision, on other occasions, was
+not proof against the homage to his imputed divinity; but quite
+seriously fell to rubbing the credulous chief's legs and arms. For this
+act, the chief presented him his fretful "crown." The blind, lame, and
+impotent, of the town were now brought in, and laid before him, "some so
+old that the hair of their eyelids came down and covered their cheeks,"
+all of whom he touched, manifesting his own seriousness by reading the
+Gospel of St. John, and "praying to God that it would please him to open
+the hearts of this poor people, and to make them know his holy word, and
+that they might receive baptism and Christendom." He then read a portion
+of the catholic service, with a loud voice, during which the natives
+were "marvellously attentive, looking up to heaven and imitating us in
+gestures." Some presents of cutlery and trinkets were then distributed,
+trumpets sounded, and the party prepared to return to their boats. When
+about to leave their place, the women interposed, inviting them to
+partake of the victuals they had prepared--a compliment which was
+declined, "because the meats had no savour at all of salt." They were
+followed out of the town by "divers men and women," who conducted the
+whole party to the top of the mountain, commanding a wide prospect of
+the plain, the river and its islands, and the distant mountains.
+Transported with a scene, which has continued to afford delight to the
+visitors of all after times, Cartier bestowed the name of "Mount Royal"
+upon this eminence--a name which has descended, with some modifications,
+to the modern city. Having satisfied their curiosity, and obtained such
+information respecting the adjoining regions, as their imperfect
+knowledge of the Indian language would permit, they returned to their
+boats, accompanied by a promiscuous throng of the natives.
+
+Thus ended, on the 3rd Oct. 1535, the first formal meeting between the
+French and the Indians of the interior of Canada, or what now began to
+be denominated _New France_. As respects those incidents in it, in which
+the Indians are represented as looking upon Cartier in the light of a
+divinity, clothed with power to heal the sick and restore sight to the
+blind, every one will yield the degree of faith, which his credulity
+permits. The whole proceeding bears so striking a resemblance to "Christ
+healing the sick," that it is probable the narrator drew more largely
+upon his New Testament, than any certain knowledge of the faith and
+belief of a savage people whose traditions do not reach far, and whose
+language, granting the most, he but imperfectly understood. As respects
+the description of a city with triple walls, those who know the manner
+in which our Indian villages are built, will be best enabled to judge
+how far the narrator supplied by fancy, what was wanting in fact. A
+"walled city" was somewhere expected to be found, and the writer found
+no better place to locate it. Cartier no sooner reached his boats, than
+he hoisted sail and began his descent, much to the disappointment of the
+Indians. Favoured by the wind and tide, he rejoined his "Pinnace" on the
+following day. Finding all well, he continued the descent, without
+meeting much entitled to notice, and reached the "port of the Holy
+Cross," on the 11th of the month. During his absence the ships' crews
+had erected a breastwork before the vessels, and mounted several pieces
+of ships' cannon for their defence. Donnacona renewed his acquaintance
+on the following day, attended by Taignoagny, Domaiga, and others, who
+were treated with an appearance of friendship, which it could hardly be
+expected Cartier could sincerely feel. He, in return visited their
+village of Stadacona, and friendly relations being thus restored, the
+French prepared for the approach of winter.
+
+Winter came in all its severity. From the middle of Nov. to the middle
+of March, the vessels were environed with ice "two fathoms thick," and
+snow upwards of four feet deep, reaching above the sides of the vessels.
+And the weather is represented as being "extremely raw and bitter." In
+the midst of this severity, the crews were infected with "a strange and
+cruel disease," the natural consequence of a too licentiousintercourse
+with the natives. The virulence of this disorder exceeded any thing that
+they had before witnessed, though it is manifest, from the journal, that
+it was in its virulence only, that the disease itself presented any new
+features. A complete prostration of strength marked its commencement,
+the legs swelled, the "sinews shrunk as black as any coal." The
+infection became general, and excited the greatest alarm. Not more than
+10 persons out of 110 were in a condition to afford assistance to the
+sick by the middle of February. Eight had already died, and 50 were
+supposed to be past recovery.
+
+Cartier, to prevent his weakness being known, as well as to stop further
+infection, interdicted all intercourse with the natives. He caused that
+"every one should devoutly prepare himself by prayer, and in remembrance
+of Christ, caused his image to be set upon a tree, about a flight shot
+from the fort, amid the ice and snow, giving all men to understand that
+on the Sunday following, service should be said there, and that
+whosoever could go, sick or whole, should go thither in procession,
+singing the seven psalms of David, and other Litanies, praying, &c."
+
+The disorder, however, continued to spread till there were not "above
+three sound men in the ships, and none was able to go under hatches to
+draw drink for himself, nor for his fellows." Sometimes they were
+constrained to bury the dead under the snow, owing to their weakness and
+the severity of the frost, which rendered it an almost incredible labour
+to penetrate the ground. Every artifice was resorted to by Cartier, to
+keep the true state of his crews from the Indians, and he sought
+unremittingly for a remedy against the disorder.
+
+In this his efforts were at last crowned with success, but not till he
+had lost 25 of his men. By using a decoction of the bark and leaves of a
+certain tree, which is stated to be "the Sassafras tree,"[33] the
+remainder of his crews were completely recovered. The decoction was
+drank freely, and the dregs applied externally, agreeably to the
+directions of Domaigaia, to whom he was indebted for the information,
+and who caused women to bring branches of it, and "therewithal shewed
+the way how to use it."
+
+The other incidents of the winter were not of a character to require
+notice. Mutual distrust existed. Cartier was in constant apprehension of
+some stratagem, which the character and movements of his savage
+neighbours gave some grounds for. He was detained at the bay of the Holy
+Cross till the 6th May, 1536. The narrator takes the opportunity of this
+long season of inaction to give descriptions of the manners and customs,
+ceremonies and occupations of the Indians, and to detail the information
+derived from them, and from personal observations respecting the
+geographical features and the productions of the country.
+
+Touching the faith of the Indians, it is said, they believed no whit in
+God, but in one whom they call "Cudruiagni," to whom, they say, they are
+often indebted for a foreknowledge of the weather. And when he is angry,
+his displeasure is manifested by casting dust in their eyes. They
+believe that, after death, they go into the stars, descending by degrees
+towards the horizon, and are finally received into certain green fields,
+abounding in fruits and flowers.
+
+They are represented as possessing all property in common, and as being
+"indifferently well stored" with the useful "commodities" of the
+country--clothing themselves imperfectly in skins, wearing hose and
+shoes of skins in winter, and going barefooted in summer. The men labour
+little, and are much addicted to smoking. The condition of the women is
+one of drudgery and servitude. On them the labour of tilling the
+grounds, &c., principally devolves. The young women live a dissolute
+life, until marriage, and married women, after the death of their
+husbands, are condemned to a state of perpetual widowhood. Polygamy is
+tolerated. Both sexes are represented as very hardy, and capable of
+enduring the most intense degree of cold. In this there is little to
+distinguish the native of 1536 from that of the present day, if we
+substitute the blanket for the _muttatos_,[34] and except the remark
+respecting the condition of widows, the accuracy of which, as it was
+made upon slight acquaintance, may be reasonably doubted. It may also be
+remarked, that the condition of young women, as described by Cartier,
+was more degraded and vitiated than it is now known to be among any of
+the North American tribes.
+
+The geographical information recorded respecting the St. Lawrence and
+its tributaries is generally vague and confused. But may be referred to
+as containing the first notice published by the French of the Great
+Lakes. Cartier was told by Donnacona and others that the river
+originated so far in the interior, that "there was never man heard of
+that found out the end thereof," that it passed through "two or three
+great lakes," and that there is "a sea of fresh water," alluding,
+probably, to Superior.
+
+At what time the ice broke up, is not distinctly told. It is stated that
+"that year the winter was very long," and a scarcity of food was felt
+among the Indians, so much so, that they put a high price upon their
+venison, &c., and sometimes took it back to their camps, rather than
+part with it "any thing cheap." Donnacona and many of his people
+withdrew themselves to their hunting grounds, under a pretence of being
+absent a fortnight, but were absent two months. Cartier attributed this
+long absence to a design of raising the country, and attacking him in
+his fortified positions--a design which no cordiality of friendship on
+the part of D. would prevent his entertaining, and which the latter gave
+some colour to by neglecting to visit Cartier on his return with great
+numbers of natives not before seen, and by evading the attempts made to
+renew an intercourse, by feigning sickness as the cause of his neglect.
+Cartier felt his own weakness, from the death of so many of his crew and
+the sickness of others, and has recorded for his government on this
+occasion the proverb, that "he that takes heed and shields himself from
+all men, may hope to escape from some." He determined to abandon one of
+his vessels, that he might completely man and re-fit the others, and
+appears to have been diligent in making early preparations to return.
+While thus engaged, Donnacona (April 22,) appeared with a great number
+of men at Stadacona, and John Powlet, "who being best believed of those
+people," he sent to reconnoitre them in their principal villages,
+reported that he saw so many people, that "one could not stir for
+another, and such men as they were never wont to see." Taignoagny, whom
+he saw on this occasion, requested him to beseech Cartier to take off "a
+lord of the country," called Agonna, who probably stood in the way of
+his own advancement. Cartier availed himself of this request to bring on
+an interview with Taignoagny, and by flattering his hopes, finally
+succeeded in the execution of a project he appears to have previously
+entertained. This was nothing less than the seizure of Donnacona,
+Taignoagny, Domaigaia, (his previous captives,) and "two more of the
+chiefest men," whom, with the children before received, making ten
+persons in all, he conveyed to France.
+
+This seizure was made on the 3d of May, being "Holyrood day," at a time
+when Cartier had completed his preparations for sailing. He took formal
+possession of the country, under the name of New France, by erecting a
+cross "thirty-five feet in height," bearing a shield with the arms of
+France, and the following inscription:
+
+        "Franciscus primum dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat,"
+
+a sentence upon which this unjustifiable outrage formed a practical
+comment. Three days afterwards he sailed from the port of the Holy
+Cross, leaving crowds of the natives to bewail the loss of their chiefs.
+And whose kindness led them to send on board a supply of provisions,
+when they found they could not effect their liberation. Finding the
+current of the St. Lawrence much swoln, he came to anchor at the isle of
+Filberds, near the entrance of the Sagnenay, where he was detained nine
+days. In the meantime many of the natives of Sagnenay visited the ships,
+and finding Donnacona a prisoner, they presented him three packs of
+beaver. On the 17th May, he made an unsuccessful attempt to proceed, but
+was forced back and detained four days longer, waiting "till the
+fierceness of the waters" were past. He entered and passed out of the
+gulph on the 21st, but encountering adverse winds, did not take his
+final departure from the Newfoundland coast till the 19th June. He then
+took advantage of a favorable wind, and performed the homeward voyage
+in 17 days. He entered the port of St. Malo, July 6, 1536, having been
+absent less than 14 months, 8 of which had been passed in the St.
+Lawrence.
+
+
+THIRD VOYAGE.
+
+The reports and discoveries of Cartier were so well received by the King
+of France (Francis I.), that he determined to colonize the newly
+discovered country, and named John Francis de la Roche, Lord of
+Roberval, his "Lieutenant and Governor in the countries of Canada and
+Hochelaga." Cartier retained his former situation as "Captain General
+and leader of the ships," and to him was entrusted the further
+prosecution of discoveries. Five vessels were ordered to be prepared at
+St. Malo, and measures appear to have been taken to carry out settlers,
+cattle, seeds, and agricultural implements. Much delay, however, seems
+to have attended the preparations, and before they were completed,
+Donnacona and his companions, who had been baptized, paid the debt of
+nature. A little girl, ten years old, was the only person surviving out
+of the whole number of captives.
+
+It is seldom that a perfect harmony has prevailed between the leaders of
+naval and land forces, in the execution of great enterprises. And though
+but little is said to guide the reader in forming a satisfactory opinion
+on the subject, the result in this instance proved that there was a
+settled dissatisfaction in the mind of Cartier respecting the general
+arrangements for the contemplated voyage. Whether he thought himself
+neglected in not being invested with the government of the country he
+had discovered, or felt unwilling that another should share in the
+honors of future discoveries, cannot now be determined. It should be
+recollected that the conquest of Mexico had then but recently been
+accomplished (1520), and it is not improbable that Cartier, who had
+taken some pains to exalt Donnacona into another Montezuma, thought
+himself entitled to receive from Francis, rewards and emoluments in some
+measure corresponding to those which his great rival, Charles, had
+finally bestowed upon Cortez.
+
+Whatever were the causes, four years elapsed before the ships were
+prepared, and M. La Roche, on visiting the vessels in the road of St.
+Malo, ready for sea, then informed Cartier that his artillery,
+munitions, and "other necessary things" which he had prepared, were not
+yet arrived from Champaigne and Normandy. Cartier, in the meantime, had
+received positive orders from the King to set sail. In this exigency, it
+was determined that Cartier should proceed, while the King's Lieutenant
+should remain "to prepare a ship or two at Honfleur, whither he thought
+his things were come."
+
+This arrangement concluded, La Roche invested Cartier with full powers
+to act until his arrival, and the latter set sail with five ships, "well
+furnished and victualled for two years," on the 23d of May, 1540. Storms
+and contrary winds attended the passage. The ships parted company, and
+were kept so long at sea, that they were compelled to water the cattle,
+&c., they took out for breed, with cider. At length, the vessels
+re-assembled in the harbor of Carpunt in Newfoundland, and after taking
+in wood and water, proceeded on the voyage, Cartier not deeming it
+advisable to wait longer for the coming of La Roche. He reached the
+little haven of Saincte Croix (where he wintered in the former voyage),
+on the 23d of August. His arrival was welcomed by the natives, who
+crowded around his vessels, with Agona at their head, making inquiries
+after Donnacona and his companions in captivity. Cartier replied, that
+Donnacona was dead, and his bones rested in the ground--that the other
+persons had become great lords, and were married, and settled in France.
+No displeasure was evinced by the intelligence of Donnacona's death.
+Agona, on the contrary, seemed to be well pleased with it, probably, as
+the journalist thinks, because it left him to rule in his stead. He took
+off his head-dress and bracelets, both being of yellow leather edged
+with wampum, and presented them to Cartier. The latter made a suitable
+return to him and his attendants in small presents, intimating that he
+had brought many new things, which were intended for them. He returned
+the chieftain's simple "crown." They then ate, drank, and departed.
+
+Having thus formally renewed intercourse with the natives, Cartier sent
+his boats to explore a more suitable harbor and place of landing. They
+reported in favor of a small river, about four leagues above, where the
+vessels were accordingly moored, and their cargoes discharged. Of the
+spot thus selected for a fort and harbor, as it was destined afterwards
+to become celebrated in the history of Canada, it may be proper to give
+a more detailed notice of Cartier's original description. The river is
+stated to be fifty paces broad, having three fathoms water at full tide,
+and but a foot at the ebb, having its entrance towards the south, and
+its course very serpentine. The beauty and fertility of the lands
+bordering it, the vigorous growth of trees, and the rapidity of
+vegetation, are highly and (I believe) very justly extolled. Near it,
+there is said to be "a high and steep cliff," which it was necessary to
+ascend by "a way in manner of a pair of stairs," and below it, and
+between it and the river, an interval sufficiently extensive to
+accommodate a fort. A work of defence was also built upon the cliff, for
+the purpose of keeping the "nether fort and the ships, and all things
+that might pass, as well by the great, as by this small river." Upon the
+cliff a spring of pure water was discovered near the fort, "adjoining
+whereunto," says the narrator, "we found good store of stones, which we
+esteemed to the diamonds" (limpid quartz). At the foot of the cliff,
+facing the St. Lawrence, they found iron, and at the water's edge
+"certain leaves of fine gold (mica) as thick as a man's nail."
+
+The ground was so favorable for tillage, that twenty men labored at an
+acre and a half in one day. Cabbage, turnip, and lettuce seed, sprung up
+the eighth day. A luxurious meadow was found along the river, and the
+woods were clustered with a species of the native grape. Such were the
+natural appearance and advantages of a spot which was destined to be the
+future site of the city and fortress of Quebec,[35] "but to which he
+gave the name of 'Charlesbourg Royal.'"
+
+Cartier lost no time in despatching two of his vessels to France, under
+command of Mace Jollobert and Stephen Noel, his brother-in-law and
+nephew, with letters to the king, containing an account of his voyage
+and proceedings, accompanied with specimens of the mineral treasures he
+supposed himself to have discovered; and taking care to add "how Mons.
+Roberval had not yet come, and that he feared that by occasion of
+contrary winds and tempests, he was driven back again into France."
+These vessels left the newly discovered town and fort of "Charlesbourg
+Royal" on the 2d of September. And they were no sooner despatched, than
+Cartier determined to explore the "Saults" or rapids of the St.
+Lawrence, which had been described to him, and partly pointed out,
+during his ascent to the mountain of Montreal. Leaving the fort under
+the command of the Viscount Beaupre, he embarked in two boats on the 7th
+of September, accompanied by Martine de Painpont and other "gentlemen,"
+with a suitable complement of mariners. The only incident recorded of
+the passage up, is his visit to "the Lord of Hochelay"--a chief who had
+presented him a little girl, on his former visit, and evinced a
+friendship during his stay in the river, which he was now anxious to
+show that he preserved the recollection of. He presented the chief a
+cloak "of Paris red," garnished with buttons and bells, with two basins
+of "Laton" (pewter), and some knives and hatchets. He also left with
+this chief two boys to acquire the Indian language.
+
+Continuing the ascent, he reached the lower "Sault" on the 11th of the
+month, and, on trial, found it impossible to ascend it with the force of
+oars. He determined to proceed by land, and found a well-beaten path
+leading in the desired course. This path soon conducted him to an Indian
+village, where he was well received, and furnished with guides to visit
+the second "Sault." Here he was informed that there was another Sault at
+some distance, and that the river was not navigable--a piece of
+information that meant either that it was not navigable by the craft
+Cartier had entered the river with, or was intended to repress his
+further advance into the country. The day being far spent, he returned
+to his boats, where four hundred natives awaited his arrival. He
+appeased their curiosity, by interchanging civilities, and distributing
+small presents, and made all speed to return to Charlesbourg Royal,
+where he learned that the natives, alarmed by the formidable defences
+going on, had intermitted their customary visits, and evinced signs of
+hostility. This inference was confirmed by his own observations on the
+downward passage, and he determined to use the utmost diligence and
+precaution to sustain himself in his new position.
+
+The rest of this voyage is wanting. Hackluyt has, however, preserved two
+letters of Jacques Noel, a relative of Cartier, written at St. Malo in
+1587, with the observations of latitude, courses, and distances, made by
+"John Alphonso of Xanctoigne," who carried out La Roche, Lord of
+Roberval, to Canada, in 1542, and a fragment of Roberval's narrative,
+which indicated the sequel of Cartier's third and last voyage. From the
+latter, it appears that Roberval entered the harbor of Belle Isle in
+Newfoundland, on the 8th of June, 1542, on his way to Canada; and while
+there, Cartier unexpectedly entered the same harbor, on his return to
+France. He reported that he was unable "with his small company" to
+maintain a footing in the country, owing to the incessant hostility of
+the natives, and had resolved to return to France. He presented the
+limpid quartz, and gold yellow mica, which he had carefully cherished,
+under a belief that he had discovered in these resplendent minerals, the
+repositories of gold and diamonds. An experiment was made the next day,
+upon what is denominated "gold ore," by which term the journalist does
+not probably refer to the "mica," considered, in an age in which
+mineralogy had not assumed the rank of a science, as "leaves of gold,"
+but to pieces of yellow pyrites of iron, which it is mentioned in the
+description of the environs of "Charlesbourg Royal" Cartier had
+discovered in the slate rock. And the ore was pronounced "good"--a proof
+either of gross deception, or gross ignorance in the experimenter.
+Cartier spoke highly of the advantages the country presented for
+settlement, in point of fertility. He had, however, determined to leave
+it. He disobeyed Roberval's order to return, and "both he and his
+company" secretly left the harbor, and made the best of their way to
+France, being "moved," as the journalist adds, "with ambition, because
+they would have all the glory of the discovery of these parts to
+themselves."
+
+January 21st, 1829.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [30] I underscore the word "hotter," to denote the prevalent theory.
+They were searching for China or the East India.
+
+  [31] In Mr. Gallatin's comparative vocabulary, "Napew" means man, in the
+Sheshatapoosh or Labrador. It is therefore fair to conclude that these
+were a party of Sheshatapoosh Indians, whose language proves them to be
+of the kindred of the great Algonquin family.
+
+  [32] Koshee and Bahkon. These are not the terms for a hatchet and a
+knife in the Micmac, nor in the old Algonquin, nor in the Wyandot.
+
+  [33] As the tree is afterwards stated to be "as big as any oak in
+France," it was probably the _box elder_, and not the sassafras, which
+never attained to much size.
+
+  [34] Robe of beaver skins. Eight skins of two year old beaver are
+required to make such a robe.
+
+  [35] Query--Is not the word Quebec a derivative from the Algonquin
+phrase _Kebic_--a term uttered in passing by a dangerous and rocky
+coast?
+
+
+
+
+THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS ON THE CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN
+INDIANS.
+
+AN ADDRESS READ BEFORE THE CHIPPEWA COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, AT SAULT
+STE-MARIE, MAY 8th, 1832.
+
+
+The effects of intemperance on the character of nations and individuals
+have been often depicted, within a few years, in faithful colors, and by
+gifted minds. "Thoughts that breathe and words that burn" were once
+supposed to be confined, exclusively, to give melody to the lyre, and
+life to the canvass. But the conceptions of modern benevolence have
+dispelled the illusion, and taught us that genius has no higher objects
+than the promotion of the greatest amount of good to man--that these
+objects come home to the "business and bosoms" of men in their every day
+avocations--that they lie level to every capacity, and never assume so
+exalted a character, as when they are directed to increase the sum of
+domestic happiness and fireside enjoyment--
+
+          "To mend the morals and improve the heart."
+
+It is this consideration that gives to the temperance effort in our day,
+a refined and expansive character--
+
+          "Above all Greek, above all Roman fame"--
+
+which has enlisted in its cause sound heads and glowing hearts, in all
+parts of our country--which is daily augmenting the sphere of its
+influence, and which has already carried its precepts and examples from
+the little sea-board village,[36] where it originated, to the foot of
+Lake Superior. And I have now the pleasure of seeing before me a
+society, assembled on their first public meeting, who have "banded
+together," not with such mistaken zeal as dictated the killing of Paul,
+or assassinating Cæsar, but for giving their aid in staying the tide of
+intemperance which has been rolling westward for more than three
+centuries, sweeping away thousands of white and red men in its
+course--which has grown with the growth of the nation, and strengthened
+with its strength, and which threatens with an overwhelming moral
+desolation all who do not adopt the rigid maxim--
+
+          "Touch not, taste not, handle not."
+
+The British critic of the last century little thought, while moralizing
+upon some of the weaknesses of individual genius, that he was uttering
+maxims which would encourage the exertions of voluntary associations of
+men to put a stop to intemperance. It was as true then as now, that "in
+the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and
+bashfulness for confidence." It was as true then, as now, that the
+"negligence and irregularity" which are the fruits of this habit, "if
+long continued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and
+genius contemptible." "Who," he exclaims, "that ever asked succors from
+Bacchus, was able to preserve himself from being enslaved by his
+auxiliary?"[37] And is there a species of servitude more pernicious in
+its influence, more degrading in its character, more destructive of all
+physical and intellectual power, than the slavery of inebriation? The
+rage of the conflagration--the devastation of the flood--the fury of the
+tempest, are emblematic of the moral fury of the mind under the
+influence of alcohol. It is equally ungovernable in its power, and
+destructive in its effects. But its devastations are more to be
+deplored, because they are the devastations of human faculties--of
+intellectual power--of animal energy--of moral dignity--of social
+happiness--of temporal health--of eternal felicity.
+
+Intemperance is emphatically the parent of disease, mental and physical.
+Its direct effects are to blunt the faculty of correct thinking, and to
+paralyze the power of vigorous action. Nothing more effectually takes
+away from the human mind, its ordinary practical powers of
+discrimination and decision, without which man is like a leaf upon the
+tempest, or the chaff before the wind. Dr. Darwin has aptly compared the
+effects of spirituous liquors upon the lungs to the ancient fable of
+Prometheus stealing fire from heaven, who was punished for the theft by
+a vulture gnawing on the liver.[38] A striking allegory: but one which
+is not inaptly applied to characterize the painful and acute diseases
+which are visited upon the inebriate. Dr. Rush was an early advocate of
+the cause. He likened the effects of the various degrees of alcohol, in
+spirituous drinks, to the artificial mensuration of heat by the
+thermometer, and took a decided stand in pointing out its poisonous
+effects upon the system, in the generation of a numerous class of
+diseases, acute and chronic.
+
+If unhealthy food had been the cause of such disorders, the article
+would be rigidly shunned. No man would choose to eat twice of the
+cicuta; to use bread having a portion of lime in it; or to drink
+frequently of a preparation of sugar of lead. Even the intemperate would
+fear to drink of alcohol, in its state of _chemical_ purity, for its
+effects would certainly be to arrest the functions of life. Yet he will
+drink of this powerful drug, if diluted with acids, saccharine and
+coloring matter, water and various impurities, under the disguised names
+of wine, brandy, rum, malt liquors, whisky, cordials, and mixed
+potations, which all tend to pamper the natural depravity of the human
+heart, and poison its powers of healthful action.
+
+Alcohol is one of the preparations which were brought to light in the
+age of the Alchemysts--when the human mind had run mad in a philosophic
+research after two substances which were not found in nature--the
+philosopher's stone, and the universal panacea. One, it was believed,
+was to transmute all substances it touched into gold, and the other, to
+cure all diseases. The two great desires of the world--_wealth_ and
+_long life_, were thus to be secured in a way which Moses and the
+Prophets had never declared. A degree of patient ascetic research was
+devoted to the investigation of natural phenomena, which the world had
+not before witnessed; and modern science is indebted to the mistaken
+labors of this race of chemical monks, for many valuable discoveries,
+which were, for the most part, stumbled on. So far as relates to the
+discovery of the alcoholic principle of grains, a singular reversal of
+their high anticipations has ensued. They sought for a substance to
+enrich mankind, but found a substance to impoverish them: they sought a
+power to cure all diseases, but they found one to cause them. Alcohol is
+thus invested with great talismanic power: and this power is not to
+create, but to destroy--not to elevate, but to prostrate--not to impart
+life, but death.
+
+How extensive its uses are, as a re-agent and solvent, in medicine and
+the arts--or if its place could be supplied, in any instances, by other
+substances--are questions to be answered by physicians and chemists. But
+admitting, what is probable to my own mind, that its properties and uses
+in pharmacy and the arts are indispensable in several operations, in the
+present state of our knowledge--does this furnish a just plea for its
+ordinary use, as a beverage, in a state of health? No more than it
+would, that because the lancet and the probe are useful in a state of
+disease, they should be continued in a state of health. And do not every
+class of men who continue the use of ardent spirits, waste their blood
+by a diurnal exhaustion of its strength and healthy properties, more
+injurious than a daily depletion; and probe their flesh with a fluid too
+subtle for the physician to extract?
+
+The transition from temperate to intemperate drinking, is very easy. And
+those who advocate the _moderate_ use of distilled spirits are indeed
+the _real_ advocates of intemperance. No man ever existed, perhaps, who
+thought himself in danger of being enslaved by a practice, which he, _at
+first_, indulged in moderation. A habit of relying upon it is
+imperceptibly formed. Nature is soon led to expect the adventitious aid,
+as a hale man, accustomed to wear a staff, may imagine he cannot do
+without it, until he has thrown it aside. If it communicates a partial
+energy, it is the energy of a convulsion. Its joy is a phrenzy. Its hope
+is a phantom. And all its exhibitions of changing passion, so many
+melancholy proofs of
+
+          "the reasonable soul run mad."
+
+Angelic beings are probably exalted above all human weaknesses.--But if
+there be anything in their survey of our actions which causes them to
+weep, it is the sight of a drunken father in the domestic circle.
+
+Instructed reason, and sound piety, have united their voices in decrying
+the evils of intemperance. Physicians have described its effects in
+deranging the absorbent vessels of the stomach, and changing the healthy
+organization of the system. Moralists have portrayed its fatal influence
+on the intellectual faculties. Divines have pointed out its destructive
+powers on the soul. Poetry, philosophy and science, have mourned the
+numbers who have been cut down by it. Common sense has raised up its
+voice against it. It is indeed--
+
+          "----a monster of so frightful mien,
+          That to be _hated_, needs but to be _seen_."
+
+Like the genie of Arabic fable, it has risen up, where it was least
+expected, and stalked through the most secret and the most public
+apartments. And wherever it has appeared, it has prostrated the human
+mind. It has silenced the voice of eloquence in the halls of justice and
+legislation. It has absorbed the brain of the scientific lecturer. It
+has caused the sword to drop from the hand of the military leader. It
+has stupefied the author in his study, and the pastor in his desk. It
+has made the wife a widow in her youth, and caused the innocent child to
+weep upon a father's grave. We dare not look beyond it. Hope, who has
+attended the victim of intemperance through all the changes of his
+downward fortune, and not forsaken him in any other exigency, has
+forsaken _here_. Earth had its vanities to solace him, but eternity has
+none.
+
+         "Wounds of the heart--care, disappointment, loss,
+         Love, joy, and friendship's fame, and fortune's cross,
+         The wound that mars the flesh--the instant pain
+         That racks the palsied limb, or fever'd brain,
+         All--all the woes that life can _feel_ or miss,
+         All have their hopes, cures, palliatives, but _this_--
+         This _only_--mortal canker of the mind,
+         Grim Belial's _last_ attempt on human kind."
+
+If such, then, are the effects of ardent spirits upon the condition of
+civilized man, who has the precepts of instructed reason to enlighten
+him, and the consolations of Christianity to support him, what must be
+the influence of intemperate habits upon the aboriginal tribes? I
+propose to offer a few considerations upon this subject. And in so doing
+I disclaim all intention of imputing to one nation of the European
+stock, more than the other, the national crime of having introduced
+ardent spirits among the American Indians. Spaniards, Portuguese,
+Swedes, Dutch, Italians, Russians, Germans, French and English, all come
+in for a share of the obloquy. They each brought ardent spirits to the
+New World--a proof, it may be inferred, of their general use, as a drink
+in Europe, at the era of the discovery. Whatever other articles the
+first adventurers took to operate upon the hopes and fears of the new
+found people, distilled or fermented liquor appears to have been, in no
+instance, overlooked or forgotten. It would be easy to show the use made
+of them in the West Indies, and in the southern part of our hemisphere.
+But our object is confined to the colonies planted in the North. And in
+this portion of the continent the English and French have been the
+predominating powers. It had been well, if they had predominated in
+everything else--if they had only been rivals for courage, wisdom and
+dominion. If they had only fought to acquire civil power--conquered to
+spread Christianity--negotiated to perpetuate peace. But we have too
+many facts on record to show, that they were also rivals in spreading
+the reign of intemperance among the Indians; in gleaning, with
+avaricious hand, the furs from their lodges; in stimulating them to
+fight in their battles, and in leaving them to their own fate, when the
+battles were ended.
+
+Nor do we, as Americans, affect to have suddenly succeeded to a better
+state of feelings respecting the natives than our English ancestry
+possessed. They were men of sterling enterprise; of undaunted
+resolution; of high sentiments of religious and political liberty. And
+we owe to them and to the peculiar circumstances in which Providence
+placed us, all that we are, as a free and a prosperous people. But while
+they bequeathed to us these sentiments as the preparatives of our own
+national destiny, they also bequeathed to us their peculiar opinions
+respecting the Indian tribes. And these opinions have been cherished
+with obstinacy, even down to our own times. The noble sentiments of
+benevolence of the 19th century had not dawned, when we assumed our
+station in the family of nations. If they were felt by gifted
+individuals, they were not felt by the body of the nation. Other
+duties--the imperious duties of self-existence, national poverty, wasted
+resources, a doubtful public credit, a feeble population, harassing
+frontier wars, pressed heavily upon us. But we have seen all these
+causes of national depression passing away, in less than half a century.
+With them, it may be hoped, have passed away, every obstacle to the
+exercise of the most enlarged charity, and enlightened philanthropy,
+respecting the native tribes.
+
+Nationality is sometimes as well characterized by small as by great
+things--by names, as by customs. And this may be observed in the
+treatment of the Indians, so far as respects the subject of ardent
+spirits. Under the French government they were liberally supplied with
+brandy. Under the English, with Jamaica rum. Under the Americans, with
+whisky. These constitute the fire, the gall, and the poison ages of
+Indian history. Under this triple curse they have maintained an
+existence in the face of a white population. But it has been an
+_existence_ merely. Other nations are said to have had a golden age. But
+there has been no golden age for them. If there ever was a state of
+prosperity among them, which may be likened to it, it was when their
+camps were crowned with temporal abundance--when the races of animals,
+furred and unfurred, placed food and clothing within the reach of
+all--and when they knew no intoxicating drink. To counterbalance these
+advantages, they were, however, subject to many evils. They were then,
+as they are now, indolent, improvident, revengeful, warlike. Bravery,
+manual strength, and eloquence, were the cardinal virtues. And their own
+feuds kept them in a state of perpetual insecurity and alarm. The
+increased value given to furs, by the arrival of Europeans, created a
+new era in their history, and accelerated their downfall. It gave an
+increased energy and new object to the chase. To reward their activity
+in this employment, ardent spirits became the _bounty_, rather than the
+_price_. A two-fold injury ensued. The animals upon whose flesh they had
+subsisted became scarce, and their own constitutions were undermined
+with the subtle stimulant.
+
+Historical writers do not always agree: but they coincide in their
+testimony respecting the absence of any intoxicating drink among the
+northern Indians, at the time of the discovery. It is well attested that
+the Aztecks, and other Mexican and Southern tribes, had their _pulque_,
+and other intoxicating drinks, which they possessed the art of making
+from various native grains and fruits. But the art itself was confined,
+with the plants employed, to those latitudes. And there is no historical
+evidence to prove that it was ever known or practised by the tribes
+situated north and east of the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Robertson, an able
+and faithful describer of Indian manners, fully concurs with the Jesuit
+authors, in saying that no such beverage was known in the north, until
+Europeans found it for their pecuniary interest to supply it. After
+which, intoxication became as common among the northern as the southern
+tribes.[39]
+
+Three hundred and forty years ago there was not a white man in America.
+Columbus discovered the West India Islands; but Cabot and Verrizani were
+the discoverers of North America. Cartier and Hudson followed in the
+track. The first interview of Hudson with the Mohegan tribes, took place
+at the mouth of the river which now bears his name. It is remarkable as
+the scene of the first Indian intoxication among them. He had no sooner
+cast anchor, and landed from his boat, and passed a friendly salutation
+with the natives, than he ordered a bottle of ardent spirits to be
+brought. To show that he did not intend to offer them what he would not
+himself taste, an attendant poured him out a cup of the liquor, which he
+drank off. The cup was then filled and passed to the Indians. But they
+merely smelled of it and passed it on. It had nearly gone round the
+circle untasted, when one of the chiefs, bolder than the rest, made a
+short harangue, saying it would be disrespectful to return it untasted,
+and declaring his intention to drink off the potion, if he should be
+killed in the attempt. He drank it off. Dizziness and stupor
+immediately ensued. He sank down and fell into a sleep--the sleep of
+death, as his companions thought. But in due time he awoke--declared the
+happiness he had experienced from its effects--asked again for the cup,
+and the whole assembly followed his example.[40]
+
+Nor was the first meeting with the New England tribes very dissimilar.
+It took place at Plymouth, in 1620. Massasoit, the celebrated chief of
+the Pokanokets, came to visit the new settlers, not long after their
+landing. He was received by the English governor with military music and
+the discharge of some muskets. After which, the Governor kissed his
+hand. Massasoit then kissed him, and they both sat down together. "A pot
+of strong water," as the early writers expressed it, was then ordered,
+from which both drank. The chief, in his simplicity, drank so great a
+draught that it threw him into a violent perspiration during the
+remainder of the interview.[41]
+
+The first formal interview of the French with the Indians of the St.
+Lawrence is also worthy of being referred to, as it appears to have been
+the initial step in vitiating the taste of the Indians, by the
+introduction of a foreign drink. It took place in 1535, on board one of
+Cartier's ships, lying at anchor near the Island of Orleans, forty-nine
+years before the arrival of Amidas and Barlow on the coast of Virginia.
+Donnaconna, a chief who is courteously styled the "Lord of Agouhanna,"
+visited the ship with twelve canoes. Ten of these he had stationed at a
+distance, and with the other two, containing sixteen men, he approached
+the vessels. When he drew near the headmost vessel, he began to utter an
+earnest address, accompanied with violent gesticulation. Cartier hailed
+his approach in a friendly manner. He had, the year before, captured two
+Indians on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and he now addressed the chief
+through their interpretation. Donnaconna listened to his native language
+with delight, and was so much pleased with the recital they gave, that
+he requested Cartier to reach his arm over the side of the vessel, that
+he might kiss it. He was not content with this act of salutation, but
+fondled it, by drawing the arm gently around his neck. His watchful
+caution did not, however, permit him to venture on board. Cartier,
+willing to give him a proof of his confidence, then descended into the
+chief's canoe, and ordered bread and wine to be brought. They ate and
+drank together, all the Indians present participating in the banquet,
+which appears to have been terminated in a temperate manner.[42]
+
+But like most _temperate_ beginnings in the use of spirits, it soon led
+to intemperance in its most repulsive forms. The taste enkindled by
+wine, was soon fed with brandy, and spread among the native bands like a
+wildfire. It gave birth to disease, discord, and crime, in their most
+shocking forms. Too late the government and the clergy saw their error,
+and attempted to arrest it; but it was too deeply seated among their own
+countrymen, as well as among the Indians. Every effort proved
+unsuccessful; and the evil went on until the Canadas were finally
+transferred to the British crown, with this "mortal canker" burning upon
+the northern tribes. Those who have leisure and curiosity to turn to the
+early writers, will see abundant evidence of its deep and wide-spread
+influence. It became the ready means of rousing to action a people
+averse to long continued exertion of any kind. It was the reward of the
+chase. It was the price of blood. It was the great bar to the successful
+introduction of Christianity. It is impossible that the Indian should
+both drink and pray. It was impossible _then_, and it is impossible
+_now_: and the missionary who entered the forest, with the Bible and
+crucifix in one hand, and the bottle in the other, might say, with the
+Roman soliloquist, who deliberated on self-murder,
+
+          "My bane and antidote are both before me:
+          While _this_ informs me I shall never die,
+          _This_ in a moment brings me to my end."
+
+National rivalry, between the English and French governments, gave a
+character of extreme bitterness to the feelings of the Indians, and
+served to promote the passion for strong drink. It added to the horrors
+of war, and accumulated the miseries of peace. It was always a struggle
+between these nations which should wield the Indian power; and, so far
+as religion went, it was a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant
+tenets. It was a power which both had, in a measure, the means of
+putting into motion: but neither had the _complete_ means of controlling
+it, if we concede to them the _perfect_ will. It would have mitigated
+the evil, if this struggle for mastering the Indian mind had terminated
+with a state of war, but it was kept up during the feverish
+intermissions of peace. Political influence was the ever-present weight
+in each side of the scale. Religion threw in her aid; but it was trade,
+the possession of the fur trade, that gave the preponderating weight.
+And there is nothing in the history of this rivalry, from the arrival of
+Roberval to the death of Montcalm, that had so permanently pernicious an
+influence as the sanction which this trade gave to the use of ardent
+spirits.
+
+We can but glance at this subject; but it is a glance at the track of a
+tornado. Destruction lies in its course. The history of the fur trade is
+closely interwoven with the history of intemperance among the Indians.
+We know not how to effect the separation. Look at it in what era you
+will, the barter in ardent spirits constitutes a prominent feature. From
+Jamestown to Plymouth--from the island of Manhattan to the Lake of the
+Hills, the traffic was introduced at the earliest periods. And we cannot
+now put our finger on the map, to indicate a spot where ardent spirits
+is not known to the natives. Is it at the mouth of the Columbia, the
+sources of the Multnomah, or the Rio del Norde--the passes of the Rocky
+Mountains on Peace River, or the shores of the Arctic Sea? it is known
+at all these places. The natives can call it by name, and they place a
+value on its possession. We do not wish to convey the idea that it is
+abundant at these remote places. We have reason to believe it is seldom
+seen. But we also believe that in proportion as it is scarce--in
+proportion as the quantity is small, and the occasion of its issue rare,
+so is the price of it in sale, and the value of it in gift, enhanced.
+And just so far as it is used, it is pernicious in effect, unnecessary
+in practice, unwise in policy.
+
+The French, who have endeared themselves so much in the affections of
+the Indians, were earlier in Canada than the English upon the United
+States' coast. Cartier's treat of wine and bread to the Iroquois of the
+St. Lawrence, happened eighty-five years before the landing of the
+Pilgrims. They were also earlier to perceive the evils of an
+unrestrained trade, in which nothing was stipulated, and nothing
+prohibited. To prevent its irregularities, licenses were granted by the
+French government to individuals, on the payment of a price. It was a
+boon to superannuated officers, and the number was limited. In 1685, the
+number was twenty-five. But the remedy proved worse than the disease.
+These licenses became negotiable paper. They were sold from hand to
+hand, and gave birth to a traffic, which assumed the same character in
+_temporal_ affairs, that "indulgences" did in _spiritual_. They were, in
+effect, licenses to commit every species of wrong, for those who got
+them at last, were generally persons under the government of no high
+standard of moral responsibility; and as they may be supposed to have
+paid well for them, they were sure to make it up by excessive exactions
+upon the Indians. _Courier du bois_, was the term first applied to them.
+_Merchant voyageur_, was the appellation at a subsequent period. But
+whatever they were called, one spirit actuated them--the spirit of
+acquiring wealth by driving a gainful traffic with an ignorant people,
+and for this purpose ardent spirits was but too well adapted. They
+transported it, along with articles of necessity, up long rivers, and
+over difficult portages. And when they had reached the borders of the
+Upper Lakes, or the banks of the Sasketchawine, they were too far
+removed from the influence of courts, both judicial and ecclesiastical
+to be in much dread of them. Feuds, strifes, and murders ensued. Crime
+strode unchecked through the land. Every Indian trader became a
+legislator and a judge. His word was not only a law, but it was a law
+which possessed the property of undergoing as many repeals and mutations
+as the interest, the pride, or the passion of the individual rendered
+expedient. If wealth was accumulated, it is _not_ intended to infer that
+the pressing wants of the Indians were not relieved--that the trade was
+not a very acceptable and important one to them, and that great peril
+and expense were not encountered, and a high degree of enterprise
+displayed in its prosecution. But it is contended, that if _real_ wants
+were relieved, _artificial_ ones were created--that if it substituted
+the gun for the bow, and shrouds and blankets in the place of the more
+expensive clothing of beaver skins, it also substituted ardent spirits
+for water--intoxication for sobriety--disease for health.
+
+Those who entertain the opinion that the fall of Quebec, celebrated in
+England and America as a high military achievement, and the consequent
+surrender of Canada, produced any very important improvement in this
+state of things, forget that the leading principles and desires of the
+human heart are alike in all nations, acting under like circumstances.
+The desire of amassing wealth--the thirst for exercising power--the
+pride of information over ignorance--the power of vicious over virtuous
+principles, are not confined to particular eras, nations, or latitudes.
+They belong to mankind, and they will be pursued with a zeal as
+irrespective of equal and exact justice, wherever they are not
+restrained by the ennobling maxims of Christianity.
+
+Whoever feels interested in looking back into this period of our
+commercial Indian affairs, is recommended to peruse the published
+statistical and controversial volumes, growing out of the Earl of
+Selkirk's schemes of colonization, and to the proceedings of the North
+West Company. This iron monopoly grew up out of private adventure. Such
+golden accounts were brought out of the country by the Tods, the
+Frobishers, and the M'Tavishes, and M'Gillvrays, who first visited it,
+that every bold man, who had either talents or money, rushed to the
+theatre of action. The boundary which had been left to the French, as
+the limit of trade, was soon passed. The Missinipi, Athabasca, Fort
+Chipewyan, Slave lake, Mackenzie's and Copper Mine Rivers, the Unjigah
+and the Oregon, were reached in a few years. All Arctic America was
+penetrated. The British government is much indebted to Scottish
+enterprise for the extension of its power and resources in this quarter.
+But while we admire the zeal and boldness with which the limits of the
+trade were extended, we regret that a belief in the necessity of using
+ardent spirits caused them to be introduced, in any quantity, among the
+North West tribes.
+
+Other regions have been explored to spread the light of the gospel. This
+was traversed to extend the reign of intemperance, and to prove that the
+love of gain was so strongly implanted in the breast of the white man,
+as to carry him over regions of ice and snow, woods and waters, where
+the natives had only been intruded on by the Musk Ox and the Polar bear.
+Nobody will deem it too much to say, that wherever the current of the
+fur trade set, the nations were intoxicated, demoralized, depopulated.
+The terrible scourge of the small pox, which broke out in the country
+north west of Lake Superior in 1782, was scarcely more fatal to the
+natives, though more rapid and striking in its effects, than the power
+of ardent spirits. Nor did it produce so great a moral affliction. For
+those who died of the varioloid, were spared the death of ebriety. Furs
+were gleaned with an iron hand, and rum was given out with an iron
+heart. There was no remedy for the rigors of the trade; and there was no
+appeal. Beaver was sought with a thirst of gain as great as that which
+carried Cortez to Mexico, and Pizarro to Peru. It had deadened the ties
+of humanity, and cut asunder the cords of private faith.[43] Like the
+Spaniard in his treatment of Capolicon, when the latter had given him
+the house full of gold for his ransom, he was himself basely executed.
+So the northern chief, when he had given his all, gave himself as the
+victim at last. He was not, however, consumed at the _stake_, but at the
+_bottle_. The sword of his executioner was _spirits_--his gold, _beaver
+skins_. And no mines of the precious metals, which the world has ever
+produced, have probably been more productive of wealth, than the
+fur-yielding regions of North America.
+
+But while the products of the chase have yielded wealth to the white
+man, they have produced misery to the Indian. The latter, suffering for
+the means of subsistence, like the child in the parable, had asked for
+bread, and he received it; but, with it, he received a scorpion. And it
+is the sting of the scorpion, that has been raging among the tribes for
+more than two centuries, causing sickness, death, and depopulation in
+its track. It is the venom of this sting, that has proved emphatically
+
+        "----the blight of human bliss!
+      Curse to all _states_ of man, but most to _this_."
+
+Let me not be mistaken, in ascribing effects disproportionate to their
+cause, or in overlooking advantages which have brought along in their
+train, a striking evil. I am no admirer of that sickly philosophy, which
+looks back upon a state of nature as a state of innocence, and which
+cannot appreciate the benefits the Indian race have derived from the
+discovery of this portion of the world by civilized and Christian
+nations. But while I would not, on the one hand, conceal my sense of the
+advantages, temporal and spiritual, which hinge upon this discovery, I
+would not, on the other, disguise the evils which intemperance has
+caused among them; nor cease to hold it up, to the public, as a great
+and destroying evil, which was early introduced--which has spread
+extensively--which is in active operation, and which threatens yet more
+disastrous consequences to this unfortunate race.
+
+Writers have not been wanting, who are prone to lay but little stress
+upon the destructive influence of ardent spirits, in diminishing the
+native population, and who have considered its effects as trifling in
+comparison to the want of food, and the enhanced price created by this
+want.[44] The abundance or scarcity of food is a principle in political
+economy, which is assumed as the primary cause of depopulation. And, as
+such, we see no reason to question its soundness. If the value of labor,
+the price of clothing and other necessary commodities, can be referred
+to the varying prices of vegetable and animal food, we do not see that
+the fact of a people's being civilized or uncivilized, should invalidate
+the principle; and when we turn our eyes upon the forest we see that it
+does not. A pound of beaver, which in 1730, when animal food was
+abundant, was worth here about a French crown, is now, when food is
+scarce and dear, worth from five to six dollars; and consequently, one
+pound of beaver _now_ will procure as much food and clothing as five
+pounds of the like quality of beaver _then_. It is the failure of the
+race of furred animals, and the want of industry in hunting them, that
+operate to produce depopulation. And what, we may ask, has so powerful
+an effect in destroying the energies of the hunter, as the vice of
+intemperance? Stupefying his mind, and enervating his body, it leaves
+him neither the vigor to provide for his temporary wants, nor the
+disposition to inquire into those which regard eternity. His natural
+affections are blunted, and all the sterner and nobler qualities of the
+Indian mind prostrated. His family are neglected. They first become
+objects of pity to our citizens, and then of disgust. The want of
+wholesome food and comfortable clothing produce disease. He falls at
+last himself, the victim of disease, superinduced from drinking.
+
+Such is no exaggerated picture of the Indian, who is in a situation to
+contract the habit of intemperance. And it is only within the last year
+or eighteen months--it is only since the operation of Temperance
+principles has been felt in this remote place, that scenes of this kind
+have become unfrequent, and have almost ceased in our village, and in
+our settlement. And when we look abroad to other places, and observe the
+spread of temperance in the wide area from Louisiana to Maine, we may
+almost fancy we behold the accomplishment of Indian fable. It is
+related, on the best authority, that among the extravagances of Spanish
+enterprise, which characterized the era of the discovery of America, the
+natives had reported the existence of a fountain in the interior of one
+of the islands, possessed of such magical virtues, that whoever bathed
+in its waters would be restored to the bloom of youth and the vigor of
+manhood. In search of this wonderful fountain historians affirm, that
+Ponce de Leon and his followers ranged the island. They only, however,
+drew upon themselves the charge of credulity. May we not suppose this
+tale of the salutary fountain to be an Indian allegory of temperance? It
+will, at least, admit of this application. And let us rejoice that, in
+the era of temperance, we have found the spring which will restore bloom
+to the cheeks of the young man, and the panacea that will remove disease
+from the old.
+
+When we consider the effects which our own humble efforts as inhabitants
+of a distant post have produced in this labor of humanity, have we not
+every encouragement to persevere? Is it not an effort sanctioned by the
+noblest affections of our nature--by the soundest principles of
+philanthropy--by the highest aspirations of Christian benevolence? Is it
+not the work of patriots as well as Christians? of good citizens as well
+as good neighbors? Is it not a high and imperious duty to rid our land
+of the foul stain of intemperance? Is it a duty too hard for us to
+accomplish? Is there anything unreasonable in the voluntary obligations
+by which we are bound? Shall we lose property or reputation by laboring
+in the cause of temperance? Will the debtor be less able to pay his
+debts, or the creditor less able to collect them? Shall we injure man,
+woman or child, by dashing away the cup of intoxication? Shall we incur
+the charge of being denominated fools or madmen? Shall we violate any
+principles of morality, or any of the maxims of Christianity? Shall we
+run the risk of diminishing the happiness of others, or putting our own
+in jeopardy? Finally, shall we injure man--shall we offend God?
+
+If neither of these evils will result--if the highest principles of
+virtue and happiness sanction the measure--if learning applauds it, and
+religion approves it--if good must result from its success, and injury
+cannot accrue from its failure, what further motive need we to impel us
+onward, to devote our best faculties in the cause, and neither to faint
+nor rest till the modern hydra of intemperance be expelled from our
+country?
+
+
+VENERABLE INDIAN CHIEF.
+
+The Cattaraugus (N. Y.) Whig, of a late date, mentions that Gov.
+Blacksnake, the Grand Sachem of the Indian nation, was recently in that
+place. He resides on the Alleghany Reservation, about twenty miles from
+the village; is the successor of Corn Planter, as chief of the Six
+Nations--a nephew of Joseph Brant, and uncle of the celebrated Red
+Jacket. He was born near Cayuga Lake in 1749, being now ninety-six years
+of age. He was in the battle of Fort Stanwix, Wyoming, &c., and was a
+warm friend of Gen. Washington during the Revolution. He was in
+Washington's camp forty days at the close of the Revolution--was
+appointed chief by him, and now wears suspended from his neck a
+beautiful silver medal presented to him by Gen. Washington, bearing date
+1796.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [36] Andover.
+
+  [37] Dr. Johnson.
+
+  [38] Zoonomia.
+
+  [39] Robertson's History of America.
+
+  [40] Heckewelder's Account of the Indians.
+
+  [41] Purchas' Pilgrims, Part iv., book x.
+
+  [42] Hackluyt's Voyages.
+
+  [43] The murder of Wadin, the cold-blooded assassination of Keveny, and
+the shooting of Semple, are appealed to, as justifying the force of this
+remark.
+
+  [44] The North American Review. Sanford's History of the United States,
+before the Revolution.
+
+
+
+
+FATE OF THE RED RACE IN AMERICA:
+
+THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND THE PRESENT CONDITION
+OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE REMOVED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[45]
+
+
+The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the
+west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable
+ultimate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation,
+misunderstanding, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few
+years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of
+them, and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result,
+thus far, of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic
+sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public.
+
+The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within
+themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, indeed,
+like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment in
+peril, and subject to be filled up and destroyed by the in-rushing of
+the surrounding element. Civilisation is that element, in relation to
+non-agricultural and barbaric tribes, and the only question with respect
+to their continuance as distinct communities has been, how long they
+could resist its influence, and at what particular era this influence
+should change, improve, undermine, or destroy them. It is proved by
+history, that two essentially different states of society, with regard
+to art and civilisation, cannot both prosperously exist together, at the
+same time. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the
+other. A wolf and a lamb are not more antagonistical in the system of
+organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great
+ethnological impulse of man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse,
+barbarism may temporarily triumph, as we see it has done by many
+striking examples in the history of Asia and Europe. But such triumphs
+have been attended with this remarkable result, that they have, in the
+end, reproduced the civilisation which they destroyed. Such, to quote no
+other example, was the effect of the prostration of the Roman type of
+civilisation by the warlike and predatory tribes of Northern Europe.
+Letters and Christianity were both borne down, for a while, by this
+irresistible on-rush; but they were thereby only the more deeply
+implanted in the stratum of preparing civilisation; and in due time,
+like the grain that rots before it reproduces, sprang up with a vigor
+and freshness, which is calculated to be enduring, and to fill the
+globe.
+
+Civilisation may be likened to an absorbent body, placed in contact with
+an anti-absorbent, for some of the properties of which it has strong
+affinities. It will draw these latter so completely out, that, to use a
+strong phrase, it may be said to eat them up. Civilisation is found to
+derive some of the means of its perfect development from letters and the
+arts, but it cannot permanently exist without the cultivation of the
+soil. It seems to have been the fundamental principle on which the
+species were originally created, that they should derive their
+sustenance and means of perpetuation from this industrial labor.
+Wherever agricultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtaposition to
+hunters and erratic races, they have been found to withdraw from the
+latter the means of their support, by narrowing the limits of the forest
+and plains, upon the wild animals of which, both carnivorous and
+herbivorous, hunters subsist. When these have been destroyed, the grand
+resources of these hunters and pursuers have disappeared. Wars, the
+introduction of foreign articles or habits of injurious tendency, may
+accelerate the period of their decline--a result which is still further
+helped forward by internal dissensions, and the want of that political
+foresight by which civil nations exist. But without these, and by the
+gradual process of the narrowing down of their hunting grounds, and the
+conversion of the dominions of the bow and arrow to those of the plough,
+this result must inevitably ensue. There is no principle of either
+permanency or prosperity in the savage state.
+
+It is a question of curious and philosophic interest, however, to
+observe the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of
+civilisation have had upon the wild hordes of men with whom it has come
+into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original efficiency,
+or effeminacy of the civil type, in the blood of predominating races,
+who have been characterized by it. In some of the European stocks this
+type has remained nearly stationary since it reached the chivalric era.
+In others, it had assumed a deeply commercial tone, and confined itself
+greatly to the drawing forth, from the resources of new countries, those
+objects which invigorate trade. There is no stock, having claims to a
+generic nationality, in which the _principle of progress_ has, from the
+outset, been so strongly marked, as in those hardy, brave and athletic
+tribes in the north of Europe, for whom the name of Teutons conveys,
+perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the comparatively later one
+of Saxons. The object of this race appears continually to be, and to
+have been, to do more than has previously been done; to give diffusion
+and comprehension to designs of improvement, and thus, by perpetually
+putting forth new efforts, on the globe, to carry on man to his highest
+destiny. The same impulsive aspirations of the spirit of progress, the
+same energetic onwardness of principle which overthrew Rome, overthrew,
+at another period, the simple institutions of the woad-stained Britons;
+and, whatever other aspect it bears, we must attribute to the same
+national energy the modern introduction of European civilisation into
+Asia.
+
+When these principles come to be applied to America, and to be tested by
+its native tribes, we shall clearly perceive their appropriate and
+distinctive effects. In South America, where the type of chivalry marked
+the discoverers, barbarism has lingered among the natives, without being
+destroyed, for three centuries. In Canada, which drew its early
+colonists exclusively from the feudal towns and seaports, whose
+inhabitants had it for a maxim, that they had done all that was required
+of good citizens, when they had done all that had been _previously
+done_, the native tribes have remained perfectly stationary. With the
+exception of slight changes in dress, and an absolute depreciation in
+morals, they are essentially at this day what they were in the
+respective eras of Cartier and Champlain. In the native monarchies of
+Mexico and Peru, Spain overthrew the gross objects of idolatrous
+worship, and intercalated among these tribes the arts and some of the
+customs of the 16th century. With a very large proportion of the tribes
+but little was attempted beyond military subjugation, and less
+accomplished. The seaboard tribes received the ritual of the Romish
+church. Many of those in the interior, comprehending the higher ranges
+of the Andes and Cordilleras, remain to this day in the undisturbed
+practice of their ancient superstitions and modes of subsistence. It is
+seen from recent discoveries, that there are vast portions of the
+interior of the country, unknown, unexplored and undescribed. We are
+just, indeed, beginning to comprehend the true character of the
+indigenous Indian civilisation of the era of the discovery. These
+remarks are sufficient to show how feebly the obligations of letters and
+Christianity have been performed, with respect to the red men, by the
+colonists of those types of the early European civilisation, who rested
+themselves on feudal tenures, military renown, and an ecclesiastical
+system of empty ceremonies.
+
+It was with very different plans and principles that North America was
+colonized. We consider the Pilgrims as the embodiment of the true
+ancient Teutonic type. Their Alaric and Brennus were found in the pulpit
+and in the school-room. They came with high and severe notions of civil
+and religious liberty. It was their prime object to sustain themselves,
+not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape an
+ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture themselves
+in new climes. But they meant to triumph in the arts of peace. They
+embarked with the Bible as their shield and sword, and they laid its
+principles at the foundation of all their institutions, civil, literary,
+industrial, and ecclesiastic. They were pious and industrious
+themselves, and they designed to make the Indian tribes so. They bought
+their lands and paid for them, and proceeded to establish friendly
+neighborhoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in
+the Gospel, was the fundamental principle of all their acts. In its
+exposition and daily use, they followed no interpretations of councils
+at variance with its plain import. This every one was at liberty to
+read.
+
+Placed side by side with such an enlightened and purposed race, what had
+the priests of the system of native rites and superstitions to expect?
+There could be no compromise of rites--no partial conformity--no giving
+up a part to retain the rest--as had been done in the plains of Central
+America, Mexico and Yucatan. No toleration of pseudo-paganism, as had
+been done on the waters of the Orinoco, the Parana and the Paraguay.
+They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross and total.
+They must abjure it. They had mistaken darkness for light; and they were
+now offered the light. They had worshipped Lucifer instead of Immanuel.
+This the tribes who spread along the shores of the North Atlantic were
+told, and nothing was held back. They founded churches and established
+schools among them. They translated the entire Bible, and the version of
+David's Psalms, and the Hymns of Dr. Watts, into one of their languages.
+Two types of the human race, more fully and completely antagonistical,
+in all respects, never came in contact on the globe. They were the alpha
+and omega of the ethnological chain. If, therefore, the Red Race
+declined, and the white increased, it was because civilisation had more
+of the principles of endurance and progress than barbarism; because
+Christianity was superior to paganism; industry to idleness; agriculture
+to hunting; letters to hieroglyphics; truth to error. Here lie the true
+secrets of the Red Men's decline.
+
+There are but three principal results which, we think, the civilized
+world could have anticipated for the race, at the era of the discovery.
+1. They might be supposed to be subject to early extermination on the
+coasts, where they were found. A thousand things would lead to this,
+which need not be mentioned. Intemperance and idleness alone were
+adequate causes. 2. Philanthropists and Christians might hope to reclaim
+them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in
+agricultural communities in adjacent parts. 3. Experience and forecast
+might indicate a third result, in which full success should attend
+neither of the foregoing plans, nor yet complete failure. There was
+nothing, exactly, in the known history of mankind, to guide opinion. A
+mixed condition of things was the most probable result. And this, it
+might be anticipated, would be greatly modified by times and seasons,
+circumstances and localities, acting on particular tribes. Nothing less
+could have been expected but the decline and extinction of some tribe,
+whilst the removal of others, to less exposed positions, would be found
+to tell upon their improvement. The effects of letters and Christianity
+would necessarily be slow; but they were effects, which the history of
+discovery and civilisation, in other parts of the world, proved to be
+effective and practical. What was this mixed condition to eventuate
+in?--how long was it to continue? Were the tribes to exercise sovereign
+political jurisdiction over the tracts they lived on? Were they to
+submit to the civilized code, and if so, to the penal code only, or also
+to the civil? Or, if not, were they to exist by amalgamation with the
+European stocks, and thus contribute the elements of a new race? These,
+and many other questions, early arose, and were often not a little
+perplexing to magistrates, legislatures, and governors. It was evident
+the aboriginal race possessed distinctive general rights, but these
+existed contemporaneously, or intermixed with the rights of the
+discoverers. How were these separate rights to be defined? How were the
+weak to be protected, and the strong to be restrained, at points beyond
+the ordinary pale of the civil law? If a red man killed a white, without
+the ordinary jurisdiction of the courts, could he be seized as a
+criminal? And if so, were civil offences, committed without the
+jurisdiction of either territory, cognizable in either, or neither?
+Could there be a supremacy within a supremacy? And what was the limit
+between State and United States laws? Such were among the topics
+entering into the Indian policy. It was altogether a mixed system, and
+like most mixed systems, it worked awkwardly, confusedly, and sometimes
+badly. Precedents were to be established for new cases, and these were
+perpetually subject to variation. Legislators, judges, and executive
+officers were often in doubt, and it required the wisest, shrewdest, and
+best men in the land to resolve these doubts, and to lay down rules, or
+advice, for future proceeding in relation to the Red Race. It will be
+sufficient to bear out the latter remark, to say, that among the sages
+who deemed this subject important, were a Roger Williams, a Penn, a
+Franklin, a Washington, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Crawford, and a
+Calhoun.
+
+It must needs have happened, that where the Saxon race went, the
+principles of law, justice, and freedom, must prevail. These principles,
+as they existed in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century,
+were transferred to America, with the Cavaliers, the Pilgrims, and the
+Quakers, precisely, as to the two first topics, as they existed at home.
+Private rights were as well secured, and public justice as well awarded
+here, as there. But they also brought over the aristocratic system,
+which was upheld by the royal governors, who were the immediate
+representatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the
+fee of all public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all
+inhabitants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This
+doctrine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them
+neither fee-simple in the soil, nor political sovereignty over it. It
+cut them down to vassals, but, by a legal solecism, they were regarded
+as a sort of free vassals. So long as the royal governments remained,
+they had the usufruct of the public domain--the right of fishing, and
+hunting, and planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of
+occupancy; but this right ceased just as soon, and as fast, as patents
+were granted, or the public exigency required the domain. The native
+chiefs were quieted with presents from the throne, through the local
+officers, and their ideas of independence and control were answered by
+the public councils, in which friendships were established, and the
+public tranquillity looked after. Private purchases were made from the
+outset, but the idea of a public treaty of purchase of the soil under
+the proprietary and royal governors, was not entertained before the era
+of William Penn.
+
+It remained for the patriots of 1775, who set up the frame of our
+present government, by an appeal to arms, to award the aboriginal tribes
+the full proprietary right to the soil they respectively occupied, and
+to guarantee to them its full and free use, until such right was
+relinquished by treaty stipulations. So far, they were acknowledged as
+sovereigns. This is the first step in their political exaltation, and
+dates, in our records, from the respective treaties of Fort Pitt,
+September 17, 1778, and of Fort Stanwix, of October 22, 1784. The latter
+was as early after the establishment of our independence, as these
+tribes--the Six nations, who, with the exception of the Oneidas, sided
+with the parent country--could be brought to listen to the terms of
+peace. They were followed by the Wyandots, Delawares, and Chippewas, and
+Ottowas, in January, 1785; by the Cherokees, in November of the same
+year; and by the Choctaws and Shawnees, in January, 1786. Other western
+nations followed in 1789; the Creeks did not treat till 1790. And from
+this era, the system has been continued up to the present moment. It may
+be affirmed, that there is not an acre of land of the public domain of
+the United States, sold at the land offices, from the days of General
+Washington, but what has been acquired in this manner. War, in which we
+and they have been frequently involved, since that period, has conveyed
+no _territorial right_. We have conquered them, on the field, not to
+usurp territory, but to place them in a condition to observe how much
+more their interests and permanent prosperity would be, and have ever
+been, promoted by the plough than the sword. And there has been a prompt
+recurrence, at every mutation from war to peace, punctually, to that
+fine sentiment embraced in the _first_ article of the _first_ treaty
+ever made between the American government and the Indian tribes, namely,
+that all offences and animosities "shall be mutually forgiven, and
+buried in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."[46]
+
+The first step to advance the aboriginal man to his natural and just
+political rights, namely, the acknowledgment of his _right to the soil_,
+we have mentioned; but those that were to succeed it were more difficult
+and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces of
+their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined
+the operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by
+negotiation, and treaties duly ratified by the Senate, and proclaimed,
+agreeably to the Constitution, by the President. So much of this public
+territory as fell within the respective _State lines_, fell, by the
+terms of our political compact, under _State laws_, and the jurisdiction
+of the State courts; and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory,
+thus within State boundaries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact
+corresponding extension until the whole of such Indian lands had been
+acquired. This provided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it
+were sometimes the subject of doubt or confliction, such perplexity
+arose from the great extension of the country, its sparsely settled
+condition, and the haste or ignorance of local magistrates. And these
+difficulties were invariably removed whenever the cases came into the
+Supreme Court of the United States.
+
+Without regard to the area of the States, but including and having
+respect only to the territories, and to the vast and unincorporated
+wilderness, called the "Indian country," Congress provided a _special
+code_ of laws, and from the first, held over this part of the Union, and
+holds over it now, full and complete jurisdiction. This code was
+designed chiefly to regulate the trade carried on at those remote points
+between the white and red men, to preserve the public tranquillity, and
+to provide for the adjudication of offences. Citizens of the United
+States, carrying the passport, license, or authority of their
+government, are protected by their papers thus legally obtained; and the
+tribes are held answerable for their good treatment, and if violence
+occur, for their lives. No civil process, however, has efficacy in such
+positions; and there is no compulsory legal collection of debts, were it
+indeed practicable, on the Indian territories. The customs and usages of
+the trade and intercourse, as established from early times, prevail
+there. These customs are chiefly founded on the patriarchal system,
+which was found in vogue on the settlement of the country, and they
+admit of compensations and privileges founded on natural principles of
+equity and right. The Indian criminal code, whatever that is, also
+prevails there. The only exception to it arises from cases of Americans,
+maliciously killed within the "Indian country," the laws of Congress
+providing, that the aggressors should be surrendered into the hands of
+justice, and tried by the nearest United States courts.
+
+These preliminary facts will exhibit some of the leading features of the
+mixed system alluded to. Its workings were better calculated for the
+early stages of society, while population was sparse and the two races,
+as bodies, kept far apart, than for its maturer periods. As the
+intervening lands became ceded, and sold, and settled, and the tribes
+themselves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of
+the system, and its want of homogeneousness and harmony, became more
+apparent. Throughout the whole period of the administrations of
+Washington, and John Adams, and Jefferson, a period of twenty years, the
+low state of our population, and the great extent and unreclaimed
+character of the public domain, left the Indians undisturbed, and no
+questions of much importance occurred to test the permanency of the
+system as regards the welfare of the Indians. Mr. Jefferson foresaw,
+however, the effect of encroachments beyond the Ohio, and with an
+enlightened regard for the race and their civilisation, prepared a new
+and consolidated code of all prior acts, with some salutary new
+provisions, which had the effect to systematize the trade and
+intercourse, and more fully to protect the rights of the Indians. This
+code served, with occasional amendments, through the succeeding
+administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, into that of
+General Jackson, when, in 1834, the greatly advanced line of the
+frontiers, the multiplied population, and necessarily increased force of
+the Indian department, and the large amount of Indian annuities to be
+paid, called for its thorough revision, and a new general enactment was
+made.
+
+Previously, however, to this time, during the administration of Mr.
+Monroe, it was perceived that the Indian tribes, as separate
+communities, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent,
+and governed by a widely different system of laws, arts, and customs,
+could not be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while
+thus locally situated. The tendency of the Saxon institutions, laws, and
+jurisprudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb the
+less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no reasonable
+hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sustain
+themselves in independency or success as foreign elements in the midst
+of the State communities. It was impossible that two systems of
+governments, so diverse as the Indian and American, should co-exist on
+the same territory. All history proved this. The most rational hope of
+success for this race, the only one which indeed appeared practical on a
+scale commensurate with the object, was to remove them, with their own
+consent, to a position entirely without the boundaries of the State
+jurisdictions, where they might assert their political sovereignty, and
+live and develope their true national character, under their own laws.
+
+The impelling cause for the action of the government, during Mr.
+Monroe's administration, was the peculiar condition of certain tribes,
+living on their own original territories, within, the State boundaries,
+and who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The
+question assumed its principal interest in the State of Georgia, within
+which portions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes were then living. About
+ten millions of acres of lands were thus in the occupancy of these two
+tribes. As the population of Georgia expanded and approached the Indian
+settlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began
+strongly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the
+human race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse
+legal, political, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found
+to exist, when, in this area, the descendants from the old Saxons,
+north-men and Hugenots from Europe, came in contact with the descendants
+(we speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, unphilosophic,
+non-inductive race of central Asia, living in the genial climate and
+sunny valleys of Georgia and Alabama.
+
+The American government had embarrassed itself by stipulating at an
+early day, with the State of Georgia, to extinguish the Indian title
+within her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could
+be done "peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they
+advanced in agriculture, became averse to sell. The Georgians, as they
+increased in numbers, became importunate for the territory to which they
+had, in this event, the reversionary right. The President was frequently
+importuned by the State authorities. The Indians were frequently brought
+to consider the subject, which was one that increased its importance
+with years.
+
+We have deemed it proper to put this matter in its right attitude in
+relation to the great question of Indian removal; and as furnishing, as
+it did, reasons for the early consideration and action of the
+government. It is not our intention to pursue the Georgia question
+disjunctively--we have neither time nor space for it here, and will only
+further premise, that it is susceptible of some very different views
+from those often premised of it.[47] That it was one of the prominent
+considerations which led the administration of Monroe to take up betimes
+the general question of the Indian tribes, is well known and remembered,
+and apparent from a perusal of the public documents of the era.
+
+Governed by such considerations, Mr. Monroe communicated a special
+message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1825, recommending the
+removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and
+providing for their future "location and government." This is the
+official date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so
+generally, and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the
+best interests of the tribes, carried into effect. "Being deeply
+impressed with the opinion," observes this venerated statesman, who has,
+years since, gone to join the patriot spirits who achieved our
+independence--"that the removal of the Indian tribes from the land which
+they now occupy, within the limits of the several States and
+Territories, to the country lying westward and northward thereof, within
+our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union,
+and may be accomplished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the
+interests and happiness of those tribes, the attention of the government
+has been long drawn, with great solicitude, to the object.
+
+"For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of
+Georgia, the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact
+with that State, whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the
+Indian title to the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably,
+and on reasonable conditions.
+
+"In the fulfilment of this compact, I have thought that the United
+States should act with a generous spirit, that they should omit nothing
+which should comport with a liberal construction of the instrument, and
+likewise be in accordance with the just rights of those tribes. From the
+view which I have taken of the subject, I am satisfied that, in the
+discharge of these important duties, in regard to both the parties
+alluded to, the United States will have to encounter no conflicting
+interests with either: on the contrary, that the removal of the tribes
+from the Territories which they inhabit, to that which was designated in
+the message at the commencement of the session, which would accomplish
+the object for Georgia, under a well digested plan for their government
+and civilisation, in a mode agreeable to themselves, would not only
+shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and
+happiness. _Experience has clearly demonstrated that, in their present
+state, it is impossible to incorporate them, in such masses, in any form
+whatever, into our system. It has also demonstrated, with equal
+certainty, that without a timely anticipation of, and provision against,
+the dangers to which they are exposed, under causes which it will be
+difficult, if not impossible, to control, their degradation and
+extermination will be inevitable._"
+
+We have underscored the last two sentences, because they express in
+forcible and just language, the experience of the American government,
+in relation to the subject, after an experiment of fifty years, dating
+from '75, and lie, indeed, at the foundation of the present Indian
+policy. It is also the experience of sound and calm observers, who have
+watched the operation of our laws and customs upon the isolated Indian
+communities in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of
+raising them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or
+character, while thus situated; nor, indeed, has it been practicable to
+shield them effectually against the combined effects of intemperance,
+personal sloth, and of popular and vulgar contumely.
+
+Mr. Calhoun, whose report on the subject was transmitted to Congress,
+with the message above named, communicates the details essential to the
+execution of the proposed plan. He states the whole number of Indians to
+be removed from the States and Territories, excluding those located west
+and north of Lake Michigan and the Straits of St. Mary's, at 97,000
+souls, who occupy about 77 millions of acres of land. The country
+proposed for their location is that stretching immediately west, beyond
+the boundaries of the States of MISSOURI and ARKANSAS, having the River
+Arkansas running through its centre from west to east, the Missouri and
+Red rivers respectively as the northern boundary, and the vast grassy
+plains east of the Rocky Mountains, as its western limit.
+
+The map which we publish of this territory, is drawn on the basis of one
+which was published by Congress in 1834, in illustration of the report
+of the committee on Indian affairs of May 30th of that session. It
+embraces all the locations of tribes to that period.
+
+The plan proposed the gratuitous grant of the country to the respective
+tribes, and their removal to it at government expense. It embraces the
+transference to it, of their schools established by religious societies,
+and supported, in part, by the civilisation fund, and all their means of
+moral and religious culture. It is based on the pursuit of agriculture,
+the mechanic arts, and the raising of cattle and stock. It invests the
+tribes with full power of making and executing all their laws and
+regulations, civil and criminal. It stipulates military protection, to
+keep the surrounding tribes at peace. It leaves them their political
+sovereignty; being without the boundary of the States, under their own
+chiefs and local governors, with such aids as are necessary to enable
+the various tribes to associate and set up the frame of an associated
+government to be managed by themselves, and as subsequently proposed in
+Congress, to be represented in that body whenever the system shall be
+perfected so as to justify this measure. It proposed, as the basis of
+removal, a solemn act of Congress, guaranteeing the country to them, and
+excluding its future incorporation into the States. A second location,
+in the northern latitudes, was proposed for the Indians west of
+Michigan, where a further body of 32,266 souls were estimated to reside.
+
+Such were the general principles of Mr. Monroe's plan, submitted in
+1825, and subsequently adopted by Congress, in its essential features.
+It has now been in operation EIGHTEEN YEARS, and it is proposed, in
+bringing this paper to a close, briefly to examine the condition and
+prospects of the expatriated tribes, in the country to which they have
+been transferred.
+
+By a report from the proper department, transmitted to Congress with
+the President's message in 1836, the result of the first ten years'
+experiment is shown to have been the actual migration of 40,000 from
+their original seats, east, to the allotted Indian territory, west of
+the Mississippi. Of this number, 18,000 were Creeks, 15,000 Choctaws,
+6,000 Cherokees, 2,000 Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies, 1,300
+Shawnees, 800 Delawares, 500 Quapaws, 400 Seminoles, 600 Kickapoos, 400
+Senecas, and an average of, say 250 each, of Appalachicolas, Weas,
+Piankashaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. In this statement, small fractions
+over or under, are omitted. A location and permanent home has been
+provided for seventeen tribes and parts of tribes; a number which, in
+the succeeding seven years, we speak from documents before us, has been
+largely augmented. The whole body of the Cherokees, of the Creeks, or
+Muscogees, of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, &c., and also, with the
+exception of one principal band, of the Seminoles, have been removed.
+Portions of other tribes, not then full, have joined their kindred; and
+some whole tribes, who had not before come into the arrangement, and
+ceded their lands east, as the Miamas of the Wabash, and the Wyandots of
+Sanduskey, have since accepted locations in the Indian territory. The
+Chickasaws are all located with their affiliated countrymen, the
+Choctaws; and numbers of the ancient Iroquois confederacy, the Six
+Nations of New York, as well as the ancient Mohegans and Munsees, have,
+within a few years, selected locations south of the Missouri. The entire
+number of red men now concentrated on those plains and valleys, where
+winter scarcely exerts any severity of power, may be set down at 77,000
+souls, leaving, from the official report of 1841, but 21,774 of the
+original estimated number of 1825, to be removed; exclusive of those
+west of the straits of Michilimachinac and St. Mary's.
+
+From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to
+Congress by the President, in December, 1840, the amount of funds
+invested by the government in stocks, for the Indians, was $2,580,000,
+on which the annual interest paid to them was $131,050. Twenty-four of
+the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per annum,
+for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, and the
+number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is gratifying to
+know, from this source, that civilisation, agriculture, and the mechanic
+arts, are making a rapid progress, and that education and Christianity
+are walking hand-in-hand. Planting and raising cattle are adopted
+generally. Portions of the most advanced tribes have devoted themselves
+to the mechanic arts, supplying themselves, to a limited extent, with
+smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other branches.
+Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some extent. There are
+native merchants, among the three principal southern tribes, who ship
+their own cotton and other products to market, and supply their people,
+in return, with such products of the East and West Indies, and other
+parts of the world, as they require. A large part of the contracts,
+particularly for Indian corn, required to subsist the United States
+troops in that quarter of the Union, is furnished by native contractors.
+Their legislation is performed in representative councils, and is well
+adapted to the actual and advancing state of society. Many of their
+leading men are well educated; some of them classically; and the general
+moral and intellectual tone and habits of the tribes, are clearly and
+strikingly on the advance. It requires, it is believed, but time and
+perseverance in civil associations, to lead them to the same results
+arrived at by other barbarous nations, and to demonstrate to them the
+value and importance of a general political confederation, founded on
+the principles of equal rights and equal representation, supported by
+public virtue and intelligence.
+
+Having sketched the cause of the decline of that portion of the North
+American Indians, who were seated along the Atlantic, and the plan
+proposed for checking it, we shall now, with the map and documentary
+evidence before us, devote a few moments to the present condition and
+prospects of the more prominent tribes.
+
+1. The Choctaws, beginning at the extreme south of the territory, are
+the first in position. They occupy the country above the State of
+Arkansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, following up the
+Canadian branch of the former, comprising an area of about 150 miles in
+breadth, by 200 in length. They are bounded by Texas south-west. The
+country is well adapted for grain and the raising of stock, in its
+middle and northern parts, and for cotton on the south. Many of the
+natives have large fields, where, but a few years since, the forest was
+untouched. Saw mills, grist mills, and cotton gins, are either erecting
+or erected throughout the country. Salt is manufactured by an
+intelligent Choctaw. Iron ore has been found, and specimens of gold have
+been picked up in various places.
+
+This tribe is governed by a written constitution and laws. Their
+territory is divided into three districts, each of which elects, once in
+four years, a ruling chief, and ten representatives. The general
+council, thus constituted, and consisting of thirty councillors, meets
+annually, on the first Monday in October. Voters must be Choctaws, of
+age, and residents of the districts. The three chiefs have a joint veto
+power on all laws passed; but two-thirds of the council may re-pass them
+after such rejection.
+
+The council of thirty appoint their own speaker and clerk, and keep a
+journal. They meet in a large and commodious council-house, fitted up
+with seats for members and spectators, and committee rooms. Their
+sessions are, usually, about ten days in duration. They are paid two
+dollars per diem for their services, out of public funds.
+
+In addition to this evidence of capacity for self-government, there are
+judicial districts established, the right of trial by jury is secured,
+and there is an appeal to the highest tribunal. All the males, of a
+special age, are subject to do military duty: for this purpose the
+territory is subdivided into thirty two captaincies, the whole being
+placed under the orders of a general. The council has passed many good
+and wholesome laws; among them, one against intemperance and the sale of
+ardent spirits. The collection of debts is at present not compulsory,
+being regulated by questions of credit, punctuality, and honor, which
+are to be adjusted between the buyer and seller. The country is too
+sparsely settled, and the popular odium against incarceration too
+strong, to permit a resort to it. Thus, it will be seen, this tribe
+exhibit in their frame of government the elements of a representative
+republic, not a pure democracy, with perhaps sufficient conservative
+power to guard against sudden popular effervescence.
+
+The Choctaws have twelve public schools, established by treaty
+stipulations with the United States. There are several missionaries
+amongst them, of the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, whose
+labors are reported by the public agents to be beneficial, and
+calculated to advance their condition. There are four public blacksmith
+shops, two of which are exclusively worked by the natives. The strikers,
+or assistants, at all the shops, are natives. Shops have also been
+erected, in various parts of the nation, which are occupied only in the
+spring and summer, in planting and crop time. The mechanics in these are
+natives, who are paid, not by the individuals requiring aid, but out of
+public funds. The nation has an academy located in Scott county,
+Kentucky, at which 125 students were taught in 1839 and 1840. This
+institution is now in the process of being established in their own
+territory. This tribe we learn by the Secretary of War's report,
+appropriated $18,000 of their annuities, in 1843, to educational
+purposes.
+
+2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage as the Choctaws; and,
+by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same territory, and live
+intermixed with them. It constitutes a part of this compact, that the
+Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and form a fourth
+election district, which shall be entitled to elect ten representatives,
+and three senatorial chiefs, to the national Council. The aggregate
+amount of the vested funds of this tribe, in 1840, was $515,230 44; of
+which $146,000 is devoted to orphans. The annual interest paid by the
+government is $27,063 83. They participate equally in the advantages of
+the Choctaw academy, and have had many of their youth educated at that
+institution.
+
+3. Next, in geographical position, to the united Choctaws and
+Chickasaws, are the Muskogees, who are more generally known under the
+name of Creeks. They occupy a territory one hundred and fifty miles in
+length, by ninety in breadth. They are bounded on the south by the
+Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and by the district of the Seminoles,
+which lies between the main branch of this stream and its north fork.
+Their territory reaches to a point opposite the junction of the Neosho,
+and is protracted thence north to the Cherokee boundary. It is a rich
+tract, well adapted to the growth of corn, vegetables, and esculents,
+and the raising of stock. It is not as abundantly watered by running
+streams as some of the tracts, or rather, it is a characteristic of its
+smaller streams that they run dry, or stand in pools, during the latter
+part of summer. In place of these, it has some good springs. The main
+and the north fork of the Canadian are exemptions from the effects of
+summer drouth. In point of salubrity, the country is not inferior to
+other portions of the Indian territory.
+
+The government of the Creeks is still essentially the same which they
+exercised on the banks of the Chattahoochee and the plains of Georgia.
+They exist in chieftainships, each head of which has his own local
+jurisdiction, civil and criminal. Each ruling chief has his village and
+his adherents; and the condition of things partakes of what we shall be
+understood by designating feudal traits. They have no written
+constitution; their laws are, however, now reduced in part to writing.
+General councils, or conventions, not exact in the period of their
+occurrence, consider and decide all general questions. At these, the
+chieftainships are all entitled to representation. Local questions, of
+right and police, come before the local chiefs, and are settled
+according to usage. They adhere to the original mode of working common
+or town fields, at which it is the duty of all to assist, both in the
+original clearing and in the annual labor of planting and reaping. There
+are also individuals, possessing slaves, who manage pretty extensive
+plantations. More corn is raised by this tribe than by any other now
+located West. Over and above their own wants, they have for several
+years had a large amount for sale and exportation. Less attention has
+been paid to the raising of stock, for which, indeed, the country has
+been deemed less propitious; but this branch of industry has of late
+years attracted more attention.
+
+The Creeks had, for many years prior to their removal, been divided into
+_upper and lower towns_--a distinction which has been transferred to the
+West. Opothleyoholo is the chief of the Upper, and Roly McIntosh of the
+Lower Creeks. These two chieftainships embrace the lesser ones, and
+divide the nation into two parties. It was the Lower towns, headed by
+the father of the present chief (whose tragic death we have mentioned),
+that ceded the Georgian territory, and thus sided in the policy of that
+State. The condition in which this tribe existed, in portions of
+Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, was, in other respects, peculiar. In
+emerging, as they were well in the process of doing, from the _hunter_
+to the _agricultural_ state, the institution of slavery, by which they
+were surrounded, and in which they participated, gave a peculiar
+development to their industry. Chiefs, who were averse to work
+themselves, employed slaves, and thus the relation of planter and slave
+was established long before the question of their removal occurred. The
+effects of this were to exalt a portion of the nation above, and to
+depress others below, the average standing. The disparity which took
+place in laborious habits and in wealth, also impressed itself on
+education, dress, manners, and information generally. Although the idea
+of slavery was well known to the red race from the earliest times, and
+they all have a word for it, in their native vocabularies, and practised
+it on their prisoners, yet the result we are considering was accelerated
+by an admixture of European blood in their chieftains. Hence it is that
+this tribe, and one or two others in the south, have for years been able
+to put forth intelligent chiefs to transact their public business, who
+have astonished the circles at Washington. Yet, if they were followed to
+the huts of the common people, at home, there was a degree of ignorance
+and barbarity, even below the standard of our leading northern tribes.
+Two kinds of testimony, respecting the condition of the southern tribes,
+both very different, and both true, could therefore be given.
+
+The Creeks came west, soured and disappointed, and but little disposed
+for the effort before them. They had suffered in various ways, and they
+had left the southern slopes and sunny valleys of the southern
+Alleganies with "a longing, lingering look." They had never manifested a
+general interest in schools, and none whatever in religion. The latter
+is still the prevalent feeling. It is believed there is not a missionary
+now tolerated among them. There is a more friendly feeling towards
+education. Neither had they made much advance in mechanic arts. The
+chiefs were too proud, the common people too indolent, to learn the use
+of the saw or the hammer. Some change, in this respect, is thought to
+have ensued. Mechanics are employed for their benefit and at their
+charges, by the government, which must introduce the elements of
+mechanical industry. They dress in a rather gaudy, but picturesque
+manner. They live in comfortable houses of squared or scored logs,
+fitted up with useful articles of furniture, and they employ beasts of
+burthen and of pleasure. It is the evidence of the government agents,
+that the signs of advancing thrift and industry are among them. Time
+alone, it is believed, is necessary, with a perseverance in present
+efforts, to carry them onwards to civilisation and prosperity.[48]
+
+4. Seminoles. This tribe is of the language and lineage of the Creeks.
+They are appropriately placed on a tract within the general area of the
+latter, bounded on the south by the Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and
+by the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The tract has an extent of
+seventy miles from east to west, and is fully adequate to their wants. A
+blacksmith's shop is maintained for them; they are furnished with
+agricultural implements, and have been gratuitously subsisted, as other
+tribes, one year, at the public expense. It is thought to be unfavorable
+to their progress, that they have been allowed to migrate, with their
+slaves, who are averse to labor and exert a paralysing influence on
+their industry. This tribe is far behind the other southern tribes in
+civilisation and manners. They occupied, while in Florida, a region
+truly tropical in its climate, and which yielded spontaneously no
+unimportant part of their subsistence, in the arrowroot and in sea fish.
+Their chief product thus far, in the west, has been corn. They live
+under the authority of local chiefs, who, as in all their past history,
+exercise influence in proportion to their talents and courage. Their
+withdrawal from scenes and situations which served as nurseries of idle,
+savage habits, and their association with the other leading tribes, who
+are now bent on supporting themselves exclusively by agriculture, have
+been favorable. They have been at peace since their arrival on the
+waters of the Arkansas; and it is anticipated that they will, by example
+and emulation, assimilate themselves in industry with the pre-existing
+tribes. It has already been demonstrated that they will sustain
+themselves in their new field of labor. But few of their numbers--from
+the last accounts not exceeding 100[49]--now remain in Florida.
+
+5. Cherokees. This tribe is prominent among the native stocks in the
+United States, and is foremost in the efforts it has made to take rank
+among civilized nations. In this effort it has passed through some
+severe and tragic ordeals from internal dissensions, from which it would
+seem, that in proportion as the prize is brought within their grasp, are
+the trials multiplied which delay its seizure. And, notwithstanding its
+strong claims to consideration on this head, they have, it must be
+admitted, much to attain. The original position of the Cherokees, in the
+valleys and the western spurs of the Alleganies, and remote from the
+disturbing causes which agitated the other tribes, was highly favorable
+to their increase and advance. No tribe in North America had remained so
+completely undisturbed, by red or white men, up to the year 1836. They
+were early, and to a considerable extent, cultivators; and whatever they
+were in ancient times, they have been a nation at peace, for a long
+period. Soon after the close of the late war of 1812, a portion of this
+tribe went over the Mississippi, and, by a compact with government,
+placed themselves between the waters of the White river and the
+Arkansas. This advance formed the nucleus of that political party, who
+have mingled in their recent assemblies under the name of Western
+Cherokees, and who deemed themselves to be entitled to some rights and
+considerations above the Eastern Cherokees. The principal dissensions,
+however, grew out of the question of the cession of the territory east
+of the Mississippi. This was a broad question of _sale_ or _no sale_,
+_emigration_ or _non-emigration_. At the head of the affirmative party
+was Ridge; at the head of the negative, Ross. The latter, in addition to
+his being the leading chief and most prominent man, was in a large
+majority, and, for a time, successfully resisted the measure. The former
+drew a number of the best educated chiefs and men to his side. Availing
+himself of the temporary absence of his antagonist, Ross, from the
+country, he ceded the country, and sealed the fate of his tribe east of
+the Mississippi. It was a minority treaty, but the consideration was
+ample; it secured large prospective advantages, besides a large and rich
+domain in the West. It was, therefore, sustained by the government; the
+U. S. Senate ratified it, adding some further immunities and further
+compensation, at the instance of Ross. The tribe was removed, but it
+went west with a deadly feud. In the end, Ridge, like McIntosh, paid for
+his temerity with his life. A representative government was set up,
+consisting of a house of delegates or representatives, annually chosen
+by districts; a senatorial council, with powers of revision or
+co-action, and an executive elective head. A code of laws has been
+adopted, and a judiciary created to carry them into effect. This system,
+which has been in operation some six or seven years, has been found
+adequate to sustain itself through scenes of severe trial; and it must
+be regarded as one which, modified as it may be, is destined to endure.
+
+The territory of the Cherokees is between that of the Creeks and Osages.
+It is ample beyond their wants, fertile, and generally well watered. The
+Arkansas crosses it centrally; it has the Neosho and the State of
+Arkansas as its eastern boundary. It is well adapted to the cereal
+grains. Corn, wheat and oats succeed well, together with melons and
+culinary vegetables of all descriptions. The Cherokees have been long
+accustomed to husbandry. They own large stocks of horses, cattle, hogs
+and sheep. They occupy substantial and comfortable houses. Many of their
+females spin and weave, and numbers of their people are clothed in their
+own manufactures. Well improved farms extend through their settlements.
+A number of their merchants are natives, who buy and sell produce, and
+import foreign merchandise. Reading and writing are common attainments.
+They have schools and churches. They have mills for grinding grain. They
+manufacture salt to a limited extent. The country yields stone coal and
+gypsum. The prairies, which are interspersed through the tract, yield a
+fine summer range for cattle, and produce a species of grass, which,
+when properly cured, is little inferior to timothy. With a country
+which has thus the elements of prosperity in itself, and an intelligent
+and industrious population, this tribe must, ere long, present the
+gratifying spectacle of a civilized race.
+
+6. The Osages. This tribe is indigenous, and formerly owned a large part
+of the territory which is now assigned to others. Their habits and
+condition have been, however, but little benefited by the use which they
+have made of their annuities. Great exertions have been made by the
+local agents to induce them to give up their erratic mode of life, and
+become agriculturists. To this end stock and agricultural implements
+have been furnished them, and other facilities given, but without any
+general effects. Among these may be named the building of mills, and the
+erection of well built cabins for their chiefs. There is no tribe to
+which the term predatory may be so appropriately applied as to the
+Osages. They have, from an early day, been plunderers on that frontier,
+among red and white men. Possessing a large territory, formerly well
+supplied with the deer, elk and buffalo, powerful in numbers, courageous
+in spirit, and enjoying one of the finest climates, these early
+predatory habits have been transmitted to the present day. They are loth
+to relinquish this wild license of the prairies--the so-called freedom
+of the roving Indian. But it is a species of freedom which the
+settlement of Missouri and Arkansas, and the in-gathering of the
+semi-civilized tribes from the south and the north, has greatly
+restricted. Game has become comparatively scarce. The day of the hunter
+is well nigh past in those longitudes. When to this is added the example
+of the expatriated Indians, in tillage and grazing, their field labors
+in fencing and erecting houses, their improved modes of dress, their
+schools, and their advanced state of government and laws, the hope may
+be indulged that the Osages will also be stimulated to enter for the
+prize of civilisation.
+
+Such are the six principal tribes who form the nucleus, or, to use a
+military phrase, the right wing of the expatriated aboriginal
+population, as the bands are arranged in their order from south to
+north, in the trans-Ozark or Indian territory. It would afford us
+pleasure to devote some separate considerations to each of the remaining
+nineteen tribes and half tribes, or remnants and pioneers of tribes, who
+make up this imposing and interesting colony, where, for the first time
+since the settlement of the Continent, the Indian race is presented in
+an independent, compact, and prosperous condition. But it would
+manifestly extend this article beyond its just limits, and we must
+therefore generalize our remaining notices.
+
+We still, however, adhere to a geographical method. The Senecas from
+Sandusky, and the mixed Senecas and Shawnees, are situated northeast of
+the Cherokees, and between the latter and the western boundary of
+Missouri. They possess a hundred thousand acres of choice lands. The
+Sanduskies number 251 souls; the mixed band, 222. They are represented
+as farmers and stock-raisers, frugal, industrious, and less addicted to
+intemperance than their neighbors. They cultivated, in 1839, from two
+hundred and fifty to three hundred acres of corn. They have a
+blacksmith's shop, under treaty stipulations, and possess good stocks of
+horses, cattle, and hogs. The Quapaws adjoin the Senecas and Shawnees on
+the north, and, as the latter, have their lands fronting on the Neosho.
+This band formerly owned and ceded the south banks of the Arkansas from
+its mouth as high as the Canadian fork. They are indolent, much addicted
+to the use of ardent spirits, and depressed in numbers. They have a
+tract of 96,000 acres. They cultivate, generally, about one hundred
+acres of corn, in a slovenly manner. Part of their numbers are seated on
+the waters of Red River, and the Indian predilection for rowing is
+nourished by the frequent habit of passing to and fro. This erratic
+habit is an unerring test of the hunter state.
+
+The Piankashaws and Weas are of the Miami stock, and came from the
+waters of the Wabash. They are located on 255 sections, immediately west
+of the western boundary of Missouri, and about 40 miles south of the
+Konza. Their population is 384, of which 222 are Weas. Immediately west
+of them are the Peorias and Kaskaskias of the Illinois family. They
+number 132, and possess 150 sections, which gives an average of more
+than a square mile to each soul. Still west of these, are the Ottowas of
+Ohio, about 200 in number, and above them, a small band of 61 of the
+Chippewas of Swan Creek and Black River in Michigan. These locations are
+all on the sources of the Osage River. The lands are fine, partly woods
+and partly prairie, and are easily cultivated. These six fragmentary
+bands are not dissimilar in their habits of living and the state of
+their advance in agriculture. They subsist themselves by raising corn
+and cattle and hogs. They evince an advancing condition, and are
+surrounded by circumstances eminently favorable to it.
+
+The Shawnees are placed at the junction of the Konza with the Missouri,
+extending south and west. They number a little short of 1,300, and own a
+territory of ten thousand square miles, or 6,400,000 acres. They are
+cultivators and graziers in an advanced state of improvement. Hunting
+may be occasionally resorted to as a sport or amusement, but it has,
+years since, been abandoned as a source of subsistence. Indeed, the
+failure of the game in that region would have rendered the latter
+imperative, had not their improved habits of industry led to it. This
+tribe have essentially conquered their aversion to labor. They drive
+oxen and horses trained to the plough. They split rails and build
+fences. They erect substantial cabins and barns. They have old corn in
+their cribs from year to year. They own good saddle-horses and saddles,
+and other articles of caparison, and a traveller or visitor will find a
+good meal, a clean bed, and kind treatment in their settlements.
+
+Next in position to the Shawnees are the Delawares, the descendants of
+the ancient Lenno Lenapees of Pennsylvania. Allies and kindred in their
+ancient position, they are still in juxtaposition in their new. Their
+tract begins at the junction of the Konza and Missouri on the north, and
+after running up the former to the Konza reserve, extends north and west
+so as to embrace it on the north. It contains about 2450 square miles,
+or 2,208,000 acres. They number, at the last dates to which we have
+referred, 826 souls, and are on the increase. In point of habits,
+industry, and improvement, they are perhaps not inferior to any of the
+northern stocks. Shielded from intemperance by their position, out of
+the State limits, where they are exclusively under the influence and
+protection of Congress laws, this tribe, together with the entire circle
+of Indian communities on that frontier, has been for some years in a
+favourable position for recovering and developing their true energies.
+They have, within a few years, received into their protection a small
+band (182) of the Monceys, and a smaller one, of 74, of the
+Stockbridges: the latter, we need hardly inform the intelligent reader,
+are descendants of the ancient Mohegans, and the former of the Minsi and
+Minnisinks, who, at the era of the colonization of "Nova Belgica" and
+New York, were respectively located on the east and the west banks of
+the Hudson. The Stockbridges are civilized; the Munsees less so, but
+industrious. Both are poor, and without funds.
+
+Immediately succeeding the Delawares are the Kickapoos, an erratic race,
+who, under various names, in connection with the Foxes and Sacs, have,
+in good keeping with one of their many names,[50] skipped over half the
+continent, to the manifest discomfort of both German and American
+philologists and ethnographers, who, in searching for the so-called
+"Mascotins," have followed, so far as their results are concerned, an
+_ignis fatuus_. The Kickapoos have 12,000 square miles, or 768,000
+acres. It is a choice, rich tract, and they are disposed, with the
+example of the Delawares and Shawnees, to profit by it. They raise corn
+and cattle, hogs and horses, and are prosperous. Their numbers, in 1840,
+were 470. There is a tract of 200 square miles, on the Great and Little
+Namaha, assigned to the metifs, or descendants of mixed blood, of the
+lowas, Otoes, and Missouris. These separate the removed and
+semi-civilized tribes, south and west of the Missouri, from the wild
+indigenes--we mean the Otoes, the Pawnees, the Omahaws, and the Sioux,
+who extend over vast tracts, and exist without any sensible improvement
+in their condition. The same remark may be applied to the Konzas, who
+are, however, hemmed in between the Delawares and the Shawnees, except
+on their western borders. It is no part of our purpose to consider these
+tribes, as, over and above the influence of contiguous examples, they
+constitute no part of the evidence affecting the general question of the
+plan of removal.
+
+That this evidence, as now briefly sketched, is favorable, and indeed
+highly favorable, to the general condition and prosperity of the removed
+tribes, is, we apprehend, clearly manifest. Not only have they been
+placed beyond the wasting influence of causes which oppressed them,
+within the circle of the State communities; but they have received in
+exchange for their eastern lands, a territory which, as a whole, is
+highly fertile and salubrious. It is a territory which has required
+little comparative labor to cultivate, made up as it is of mixed forests
+and prairies. It is also, viewed _in extenso_, well watered, having
+those noble streams, the Red River, the Arkansas, the Konza, the Platte,
+and the Missouri, with their tributaries, running through it. The range
+which it affords for cattle and stock, and the abundance of wild hay, of
+a nutritious quality, has proved very favorable to an incipient
+agricultural population, and greatly mitigated the ordinary labors of
+farming in northern climates. There are no latitudes in North America
+more favorable to the growth of corn. The cotton plant has been
+introduced by the Choctaws and Chickasaws, on the banks of Red river. It
+is a region abounding in salt springs and gypsum beds, both which must
+hereafter be fully developed, and will prove highly advantageous. It is
+above the first or principal rapids of the great streams running down
+the plateau of the Rocky Mountains, and consequently affords sites for
+water-mills, which are scarce and almost unknown on the lower Arkansas.
+There is, indeed, a combination of circumstances, which are calculated
+to favor the General Government plan, and foster the Indians in a
+general attempt at civilisation and self-government. And we look with
+interest, and not without anxiety, at the result of the experiment.
+
+We are aware that there are trials before them, arising from great
+diversity of feelings and opinions, and states of civilisation. Some of
+the tribes are powerful, advanced, and wealthy; some feeble and poor.
+Education has very unequally affected them. Laws are in their embryo
+state. The Gospel has been but partially introduced. In clothing the
+native councils with some of the powers of a congress, and regulating
+their action by constitutional fixity, there is great care and
+deliberation required, not, at once, to grasp too much. There is perhaps
+yet greater danger in enlarging the authority of the chiefs and
+sagamores into something like presidential dimensions. The natives have
+great powers of imitation; and it is to be feared that they will content
+themselves by imitating things which they do not fully understand or
+appreciate. The national character of the Indians is eminently
+suspicious. There is a fear to trust others, even themselves. Delegated
+power is narrowly watched, and often begrudged when given. The acts of
+their public men are uniformly impugned. The thought seems hardly to be
+entertained by the common Indians, that an officer may be guided by
+right and honest motives. The principle of suspicion has, so to say,
+eaten out the Indian heart. The jealousy with which he has watched the
+white man, in all periods of his history, is but of a piece with that
+with which he watches his chiefs, his neighbors, and his very family.
+Exaltation of feeling, liberality of sentiment, justness of reasoning, a
+spirit of concession, and that noble faith and trust which arise from
+purity and virtue, are the characteristics of civilisation; and we
+should not be disappointed if they do not, all at once, grow and
+flourish in these nascent communities. Still, our hopes predominate over
+our fears. Where so much has been accomplished as we see by the
+Cherokees, the Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and our most advanced northern
+tribes, we expect more. From the tree that bears blossoms, we expect
+fruit.
+
+We have no expectation, however, that without some principles of general
+political association, the tribes can permanently advance. To assume the
+character and receive the respect of a commonwealth, they must have the
+political bonds of a commonwealth. Our Indian tribes have never
+possessed any of these bonds. They are indeed the apparent remnants of
+old races, which have been shivered into fragments, and never found the
+capacity to re-unite. The constant tendency of all things, in a state of
+nature, has been to divide. The very immensity of the continent, its
+varied fertility and resources, and its grand and wild features, led to
+this. Hitherto, the removed tribes in the West have opposed an
+associated government. They have stoutly and effectually resisted and
+rejected this part of the government scheme. They fear, the agents say,
+it is some plan to bring them under the civil yoke. Time, reflection,
+and education must tend to correct this. More than all, their civil
+dissensions must tend to show the necessity of a more enlarged and
+general frame of government, in which some individual rights must be
+yielded to the public, to secure the enjoyment of the rest. We think
+there is some evidence of the acknowledgment of this want, in their
+occasional general councils, at which all the tribes have been invited
+to be present. During the last year (1843) such a convocation was held
+at Tahlequah, the seat of the Cherokee government. At this, there were
+delegates present from the Creeks, Chickasaws, Delawares, Shawnees,
+Piankashaws, Weas, Osages, Senecas, Stockbridges, Ottowas, Chippewas,
+Peorias, Pottowattomies, and Seminoles. The result of these
+deliberations, we are informed, was a compact in which it was agreed:--
+
+  1. To maintain peace and friendship among each other.
+
+  2. To abstain from the law of retaliation for offences.
+
+  3. To provide for improvements in agriculture, the arts, and
+  manufactures.
+
+  4. To provide against any cession of their territory, in any form.
+
+  5. To punish crimes, committed by one tribe, in the bounds of another.
+
+  6. To provide for a general citizenship among the contracting parties.
+
+  7. To suppress the use or introduction of ardent spirits.
+
+These are very mixed principles, containing no basis of a government;
+yet, futile as they are, we apprehend they contain no effective power
+for their enforcement. A law without a penalty is like a rope of sand.
+Any of these parties might nullify either of these acts, by neglecting
+to enforce it. It is, we apprehend, the mere expression of the popular
+will, in a council, without any binding obligation of the whole, or a
+majority of the tribes, to compel obedience from the delinquent members.
+It may, however, lead to further deliberations; and we cannot but regard
+the movement as one which betokens political forethought and purpose.
+
+Our greatest apprehensions, we must confess, before closing this paper,
+arise from the peculiar geographical position of the Indian territory
+with relation to our own. And this could not, perhaps, have been
+anticipated twenty years ago, when the plan was formed. Our population
+is on the broad move west. Nothing, it is evident, will now repress them
+this side of the Pacific. The snowy heights of the Rocky Mountains are
+already scaled; and we but apply the results of the past to the future,
+in saying that the path which has been trod by a few, will be trod by
+many. Now, the removed tribes are precisely in the centre of this path.
+From the mouth of the Platte, or the Konza, the great highway to the
+Oregon must run west. Whether this new tide of emigration will be
+successful or unsuccessful, will those who compose it spare to trample
+on the red man? Will they suddenly become kind to him, to whom they have
+been unkind? Will they cease to desire the lands which their children
+want? Will they consent to see the nation separated by an Indian state?
+Will they award honors, nay, justice, to that state? Twenty years will
+answer these questions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHOCTAWS.--An appropriation of $113,000 has been made by Congress for
+the removal and subsistence of the Choctaws now in Mississippi. There
+are upwards of six thousand in our state, comprising about eleven
+hundred families. These are under Colonels Johnson and Fisher. The half
+of the money due the Indians, and to be paid after their landing in
+their new homes in the West, is to be funded. This will effectually
+prevent all speculation, and enable the Indians to obtain and hold what
+is due them. Those now in the state are guarded against all coercive
+measures for their removal, and left free to go West or remain in their
+homes in Mississippi.--_Southern Reformer._
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [45] Democratic Review, 1844.
+
+  [46] Treaty of Fort Pitt, 1778.
+
+  [47] We have only space to say here, that the cession of the Georgia
+lands was subsequently made by the Lower Creeks under the chieftaincy of
+General M'Intosh, who was the first to affix his signature to it. For
+this act he paid the penalty of his life; the Upper Creeks and their
+adherents, having assembled in arms, surrounded his house, and fired
+three hundred balls into it, killing its unhappy, but distinguished
+inmate.
+
+  [48] This tribe has, the past year (1843), passed a law expelling all
+white men who play at cards, from the limits of the nation, whether they
+have Indian wives or not.
+
+  [49] Secretary of War's report, 1843.
+
+  [50] This is said, by one interpretation, to mean Rabbit's Ghost.
+
+
+
+
+NURSERY AND CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST.
+
+
+The tickenagun, or Indian cradle, is an object of great pride with an
+Indian mother. She gets the finest kind of broad cloth she possibly can
+to make an outer swathing band for it, and spares no pains in
+ornamenting it with beads and ribbons, worked in various figures. In the
+lodges of those who can afford it, there is no article more showy and
+pretty than the full bound cradle. The frame of the cradle itself is a
+curiosity. It consists of three pieces. The vertebral board, which
+supports the back, the hoop or foot-board, which extends tapering up
+each side, and the arch or bow, which springs from each side, and
+protects the face and head. These are tied together with deer's sinews
+or pegged. The whole structure is very light, and is carved with a knife
+by the men, out of the linden or maple tree.
+
+Moss constitutes the bed of the infant, and is also put between the
+child's feet to keep them apart and adjust the shape of them, according
+to custom. A one-point blanket of the trade, is the general and
+immediate wrapper of the infant, within the hoop, and the ornamented
+swathing band is wound around the whole, and gives it no little
+resemblance to the case of a small mummy. As the bow passes directly
+above the face and eyes, trinkets are often hung upon this, to amuse it,
+and the child gets its first ideas of ornament from these. The hands are
+generally bound down with the body, and only let out occasionally, the
+head and neck being the only part which is actually free. So bound and
+laced, hooped and bowed, the little fabric, with its inmate, is capable
+of being swung on its mother's back, and carried through the thickest
+forest without injury. Should it even fall no injury can happen. The bow
+protects the only exposed part of the frame. And when she stops to rest,
+or enters the lodge, it can be set aside like any other household
+article, or hung up by the cradle strap on a peg. Nothing, indeed, could
+be better adapted to the exigencies of the forest life. And in such tiny
+fabrics, so cramped and bound, and bedecked and trinketed, their famous
+Pontiacs and King Philips, and other prime warriors, were once carried,
+notwithstanding the skill they afterwards acquired in wielding the lance
+and war club.
+
+The Indian child, in truth, takes its first lesson in the _art of
+endurance_, in the cradle. When it cries it need not be unbound to nurse
+it. If the mother be young, she must put it to sleep herself. If she
+have younger sisters or daughters they share this care with her. If the
+lodge be roomy and high, as lodges sometimes are, the cradle is
+suspended to the top poles to be swung. If not, or the weather be fine,
+it is tied to the limb of a tree, with small cords made from the inner
+bark of the linden, and a vibratory motion given to it from head to foot
+by the mother or some attendant. The motion thus communicated, is that
+of the pendulum or common swing, and may be supposed to be the easiest
+and most agreeable possible to the child. It is from this motion that
+the leading idea of the cradle song is taken.
+
+I have often seen the red mother, or perhaps a sister of the child,
+leisurely swinging a pretty ornamented cradle to and fro in this way, in
+order to put the child to sleep, or simply to amuse it. The following
+specimens of these wild-wood chaunts, or wigwam lullabys, are taken from
+my notes upon this subject, during many years of familiar intercourse
+with the aboriginals. If they are neither numerous nor attractive,
+placed side by side with the rich nursery stores of more refined life,
+it is yet a pleasant fact to have found such things even existing at all
+amongst a people supposed to possess so few of the amenities of life,
+and to have so little versatility of character.
+
+Meagre as these specimens seem, they yet involve no small degree of
+philological diligence, as nothing can be more delicate than the
+inflexions of these pretty chaunts, and the Indian woman, like her white
+sister, gives a delicacy of intonation to the roughest words of her
+language. The term wa-wa often introduced denotes a _wave_ of the air,
+or the circle described by the motion of an object through it, as we
+say, swing, swing, a term never applied to a wave of water. The latter
+is called tegoo, or if it be crowned with foam, beta.
+
+In introducing the subjoined specimens of these simple see saws of the
+lodge and forest chaunts, the writer felt, that they were almost too
+frail of structure to be trusted, without a gentle hand, amidst his
+rougher materials. He is permitted to say, in regard to them, that they
+have been exhibited to Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, herself a refined
+enthusiast of the woods, and that the versions from the original given,
+are from her chaste and truthful pen.
+
+In the following arch little song, the reader has only to imagine a
+playful girl trying to put a restless child to sleep, who pokes its
+little head, with black hair and keen eyes over the side of the cradle,
+and the girl sings, imitating its own piping tones.
+
+     Ah wa nain?          (Who is this?)
+     Ah wa nain?          (Who is this?)
+     Wa yau was sa--      (Giving light--meaning the light of the eye)
+     Ko pwasod.           (On the top of my lodge.)
+
+             Who is this? who is this? eye-light bringing
+                 To the roof of the lodge?
+
+And then she assumes the tone of the little screech owl, and answers--
+
+     Kob kob kob            (It is I--the little owl)
+     Nim be e zhau            (Coming,)
+     Kob kob kob            (It is I--the little owl)
+     Nim be e zhau            (Coming,)
+     Kit che--kit che.      (Down! down!)
+
+         It is I, it is I, hither swinging,      (wa wa)
+           Dodge, dodge, baby dodge;
+
+And she springs towards it and down goes the little head. This is
+repeated with the utmost merriment upon both sides.
+
+     Who is this, who is this eye-light bringing
+       To the roof of my lodge?
+     It is I, it is I, hither swinging.
+       Dodge, dodge, baby dodge.
+
+Here is another, slower and monotonous, but indicating the utmost
+maternal content:
+
+          Swinging, swinging, lul la by,
+            Sleep, little daughter sleep,
+          'Tis your mother watching by,
+            Swinging, swinging she will keep,
+          Little daughter lul la by.
+
+          'Tis your mother loves you dearest,
+            Sleep, sleep, daughter sleep,
+          Swinging, swinging, ever nearest,
+            Baby, baby, do not weep;
+          Little daughter, lul la by.
+
+          Swinging, swinging, lul la by,
+            Sleep, sleep, little one,
+          And thy mother will be nigh--
+            Swing, swing, not alone--
+          Little daughter, lul la by.
+
+This of course is exceedingly simple, but be it remembered these chaunts
+are always so in the most refined life. The ideas are the same, that of
+tenderness and protective care only, the ideas being few, the language
+is in accordance. To my mind it has been a matter of extreme interest to
+observe how almost identical are the expressions of affection in all
+states of society, as though these primitive elements admit of no
+progress, but are perfect in themselves. The e-we-yea of the Indian
+woman is entirely analogous to the lul la by of our language, and will
+be seen to be exceedingly pretty in itself.
+
+2. The original words of this, with their literal import, are also
+added, to preserve the identity.
+
+  (a.)
+
+  Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.)
+  Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep thou, thrice.)
+  Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter, lullaby.)
+  Wa wa--wa wa--wa wa, (Swinging, thrice.)
+  Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter lullaby.)
+
+  (b.)
+
+  Keguh, ke gun ah wain e ma, (Your mother cares for you.)
+  Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, e we yea, (Sleep, thrice, lullaby.)
+  Kago, saigizze-kain, nedaunis-ais, (Do not fear, my little daughter.)
+  Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep, thrice.)
+  Kago, saigizze-kain, wa wa, e we yea, (third line repeated.)
+
+  (c.)
+
+  Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.)
+  Kaween neezheka kediausee, (Not alone art thou.)
+  Ke kan nau wai, ne me go, suhween, (Your mother is caring for you.)
+  Nebaun--nebaun--nedaunis-ais, (Sleep, sleep, my little daughter.)
+  Wa wa--wa wa--wa we yea, (Swinging, &c. lullaby.)
+  Nebaun--nebaun--nebaun, (Sleep! sleep! sleep.[51])
+
+
+THE HARE AND THE LYNX.
+
+3. The story of the Wabose, (Hare,) and the Pighieu, (Lynx,) will at
+once remind the reader of the so often recited tale of little Red Riding
+Hood, in which the reciter imitates the tones of the wolf, and the
+little nursery listener hears with a growing amazement, and starts as if
+he felt the real wolf's teeth at the close.
+
+This story is partly spoken and partly sung. The Teller imitating
+alternately the Hare, and its enemy, the Lynx.
+
+There was once, she says, a little Hare living in the lodge with its
+grandmother, who was about to send it back to its native land. When it
+had gone but a little way, a Lynx appeared in the path, and began to
+sing,
+
+          Where pretty white one?
+          Where little white one,
+              Where do you go?
+
+Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and ran back to its
+grandmother. "See, grandmother," said the timid little creature, "what
+the Lynx is saying to me," and she repeated the song. "Ho! Nosis," that
+is to say, courage my grandchild, run along, and tell him you are going
+home to your native land: so the Hare went back and began to sing,
+
+          To the point of land I roam,
+          For there is the white one's home,--
+              Whither I go.
+
+Then the Lynx looked at the trembling Hare, and began to sing,
+
+          Little white one, tell me why
+          Like to leather, thin and dry,
+              Are your pretty ears?
+
+Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and she ran back to her
+grandmother, and repeated the words. "Go Nosis, and tell him your uncles
+fixed them so, when they came from the South." So the Hare ran back and
+sang,
+
+          From the south my uncles came,
+          And they fixed my ears the same,--
+              Fixed my slender ears.
+
+and then the Hare laid her pink ears upon her shoulders, and was about
+to go on, but the Lynx began to sing again,--
+
+          Why, why do you go away?
+          Pretty white one, can't you stay?
+          Tell me why your little feet,
+          Are made so dry and very fleet?
+
+Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! said the poor little Hare, and she ran
+back again to the lodge to ask again. "Ho! Nosis!" said the grandmother,
+who was old and tired, "do not mind him, nor listen to him, nor answer
+him, but run on."
+
+The Hare obeyed, and ran as fast as she could. When she came to the spot
+where the Lynx had been, she looked round, but there was no one there,
+and she ran on. But the Lynx had found out all about the little Hare,
+and knew she was going across to the neck of land; and he had nothing to
+do but reach it first, and waylay her; which he did: and when the
+innocent creature came to the place, and had got almost home, the Lynx
+sprang out of the thicket and eat her up.
+
+The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in
+this fashion, word for word.
+
+  Lynx.  Tah kau                     (where ah!)
+         Tah hau                     (where ah!)
+         Wa bose                     (little white one)
+         Wa bose                     (little white one)
+         Ke te e zha                 (are you going?)
+
+  Hare.  Na kwa oushing              (to the point of land)
+         Ain dah nuk e aum baun      (in my native country)
+         In de e zha                 (I go.)
+
+  Lynx.  Au neen                     (what!)
+         Au neen                     (what!)
+         A nau be kaus o yun aig     (causes it,)
+         Kish ke mun ing             (why like stripes of leather,)
+         Ish o tow ug a una,         (are your ears?)
+
+  Hare.  Nish ish sha ug             (my uncles,)
+         O sha wun e nong            (when from the south)
+         Ke e zha waud               (they came,)
+         Ningeeaizh e goob un eeg    (they did fix me so.)
+
+  Lynx.  Tah kau                     (where ah!)
+         Tah kau                     (where ah!)
+         Wa bose                     (little white one,)
+         Wa bose                     (little white one,)
+         Ke de e zha                 (are you going?)
+         Au neen                     (why?)
+         Na naub o kos o yun         (look they so,)
+         Kish ke mun a,              (like dry bits of leather,)
+         I izh e zida una,           (your feet ha!)
+
+
+4. THE KITE AND THE EAGLE.
+
+This is a specimen of Indian satire. The coward is boastful when there
+is no danger: pretension succeeds in the absence of real merit! A Kite
+was boasting how high he could fly, and ventured to speak disparagingly
+of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He began to
+sing in a loud voice,
+
+            I upward fly
+          I! I alone disdain the air
+          Till I hang as by a hair
+            Poised in the sky.
+
+The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far above the
+Kite,
+
+            Who _mounts_ the sky?
+          Who is this, with babbling tongue
+          As he had on the storm-cloud hung,
+            Who flies so high?
+
+The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice,
+
+            The great Khakake
+          I've sometimes thought he flew so high
+          That he must see within the sky
+            The dawn awake.
+
+The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer.
+
+          I spurn you all, ye prating throng
+          How often have I passed ye by
+          When my broad pinions fleet and strong,
+          Soared up where leapt the thunder cry!
+          Nor ye with feeble wing might dare,
+          Those hill-tops high, to mount in air.
+
+and he soared off, up, up into the sky till the boaster could not behold
+him. But no sooner was the Kite left alone to himself than he began to
+sing again so as to be heard on every side,
+
+            I upward fly
+          I, I alone disdain the air
+          Till I hang as by a hair
+            Poised in the sky.
+
+Literally thus.
+
+          Kite.    Neen a            (I alone)
+                   Neen a            (I alone)
+                   Ta wa e ya        (can go up)
+                   Bai bwau        } (so as to seem as if hanging
+                   As shau dau     }           by a hair)
+                   Wa ke ge naun   }
+                   O shau wush ko geezhig oong a   (from the blue sky.)
+
+          Eagle.   Au wa nain        (Who is this?)
+                   Au wa nain        (Who is this?)
+                   Tshe mud je wa wa (with babbling tongue, who boasts)
+                   Ke pim o saing.   (of flying so high?)
+
+Kite (shrinkingly) replies, "Oh I was only singing of the great Khakake,
+it is he who is said to fly so high."
+
+Eagle disdainfully replies, "Tshe mud je wa wa, that is great babbler,
+or bad-tongue, you are below my notice," &c., and soars aloft.
+
+Kite, resuming its boasting tone, as soon as the eagle is out of
+hearing,
+
+          Neen a      (I alone &c., the whole being a
+          Neen a       repetition of the first part.)
+          Ta we ya
+          Bai bwau
+          As shau dau
+          Wa ke ge naun,
+          O shau wush ko, geezhig oong a.
+
+
+5. THE RAVEN AND WOODPECKER.
+
+A still farther view of Indian manners and opinions is hid under this
+simple chant. Opinion among the forest race, makes the whole animated
+creation cognizant and intelligent of their customs.
+
+A young married woman is supposed to go out from the lodge, and busy
+herself in breaking up dry limbs, and preparing wood, as if to lay in a
+store for a future and approaching emergency.
+
+A raven, perched on a neighbouring tree, espies her, at her work, and
+begins to sing; assuming the expected infant to be _a boy_.
+
+          In dosh ke zhig o mun
+          In dosh ke zhig o mun
+          In dosh ke zhig o mun
+
+My eyes! my eyes! my eyes! Alluding to the boy (and future man) killing
+animals as well as men, whose eyes will be left, as the singer
+anticipates, to be picked out by ravenous birds. So early are the first
+notions of war implanted.
+
+A woodpecker, sitting near, and hearing this song, replies; assuming the
+sex of the infant to be _a female_.
+
+          Ne mos sa mug ga
+          Ne mos sa mug ga
+          Ne mos sa mug ga.
+
+My worms! my worms! my worms! Alluding to the custom of the female's
+breaking up dry and dozy wood, out of which, it could pick its favourite
+food, being the mösa or wood-worm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Want of space induces the writer to defer, to a future number, the
+remainder of his collection of these cradle and nursery chants. They
+constitute in his view, rude as they are, and destitute of metrical
+attractions, a chapter in the history of the human heart, in the savage
+phasis, which deserves to be carefully recorded. It has fallen to his
+lot, to observe more perhaps, in this department of Indian life, than
+ordinary, and he would not acquit himself of his duty to the race, were
+he to omit these small links out of their domestic and social chain. The
+tie which binds the mother to the child, in Indian life, is a very
+strong one, and it is conceived to admit of illustration in this manner.
+It is not alone in the war-path and the council, that the Red Man is to
+be studied. To appreciate his whole character, in its true light, he
+must be followed into his lodge, and viewed in his seasons of social
+leisure and retirement. If there be any thing warm and abiding in the
+heart or memory of the man, when thus at ease, surrounded by his family,
+it must come out here; and hence, indeed, the true value of his lodge
+lore, of every kind.
+
+It is out of the things mental as well as physiological, that pertain to
+maternity, that philosophy must, in the end, construct the true
+ethnological chain, that binds the human race, in one comprehensive
+system of unity.
+
+
+LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.
+
+The Polynesian languages, like those of the Algonquin group of North
+America, have inclusive and exclusive pronouns to express the words
+_we_, _ours_, and _us_. They have also causative verbs such as, to make
+afraid, to make happy, &c., but while there appears this analogy in
+grammatical principles, there are some strong points of disagreement,
+and there appears to be no analogy whatever in the sounds of the
+language. There are eight well characterized dialects in the Polynesian
+family. They are the Tahitian, the Owyhee, [Hawaiian] Marquesan, or
+Washingtonian, Austral island, Hervey island, Samoan, Tongatabu, and New
+Zealand. In seven of these, the name for God is Atua, in the eighth, or
+Tongua dialect, it is Otua. Great resemblances exist in all the
+vocabularies. Much of the actual difference arises from exchanges of the
+consonants r and l, h and s, and a few others. They possess the dual
+number. The scheme of the pronouns is very complete, and provides for
+nearly all the recondite distinctions of person. Where the vocabulary
+fails in words to designate objects which were unknown to them before
+their acquaintance with Europeans, the missionaries have found it to
+fall in better with the genius of the language, to introduce new words
+from the Greek, with some modifications. Thus they have introduced
+_hipo_ for horse, _arenio_ for lamb, _areto_ for bread, and _baptizo_
+for baptism.
+
+To continue faithful during a course of prosperity, says Xenophon, hath
+nothing wonderful in it, but when any set of men continue steadily
+attached to friends in adversity, they ought, on that account, to be
+eternally remembered.
+
+There are but two sources only, says Polybius, from whence any real
+benefit can be derived, our own misfortunes and those that have happened
+to other men.
+
+One wise counsel, says Euripides, is better than the strength of many.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [51] These translations are entirely literal--the verbs to "sleep" and
+to "fear," requiring the imperative mood, second person, present tense,
+throughout. In rendering the term "wa-wa" in the participial form some
+doubt may exist, but this has been terminated by the idea of the
+_existing_ motion, which is clearly implied, although the word is not
+marked by the usual form of the participle in _ing_. The phrase
+lul-la-by, is the only one in our language, which conveys the evident
+meaning of the choral term e-we-yea. The substantive verb is wanting, in
+the first line of b. and the third of c. in the two forms of the verb,
+to care, or take care of a person; but it is present in the phrase
+"kediausee" in the second line of c. These facts are stated, not that
+they are of the slightest interest to the common reader, but that they
+may be examined by philologists, or persons curious in the Indian
+grammar.
+
+
+
+
+EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN.
+
+_From "New England Prospect."_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+OF THEIR WOMEN, THEIR DISPOSITIONS, EMPLOYMENTS, USAGE BY THEIR
+HUSBANDS, THEIR APPARELL, AND MODESTY.
+
+
+To satisfie the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might thinke
+their sex forgotten, or not worthy a record, let them peruse these few
+lines, wherein they may see their owne happinesse, if weighed in the
+womans ballance of these ruder _Indians_, who scorne the tuterings of
+their wives, or to admit them as their equals, though their qualities
+and industrious deservings may justly claime the preheminence, and
+command better usage and more conjugall esteeme, their persons and
+features being every way correspondent, their qualifications more
+excellent, being more loving, pittifull, and modest, milde, provident,
+and laborious than their lazie husbands. Their employments be many:
+First their building of houses, whose frames are formed like our
+garden-arbours, something more round, very strong and handsome, covered
+with close-wrought mats of their owne weaving, which deny entrance to
+any drop of raine, though it come both fierce and long, neither can the
+piercing North winde, finde a crannie, through which he can conveigh his
+cooling breath, they be warmer than our _English_ houses; at the top is
+a square hole for the smoakes evacuation, which in rainy weather is
+covered with a pluver; these bee such smoakie dwellings, that when there
+is good fires, they are not able to stand upright, but lie all along
+under the smoake, never using any stooles or chaires, it being as rare
+to see an _Indian_ sit on a stoole at home, as it is strange to see an
+_English_ man sit on his heels abroad. Their houses are smaller in the
+Summer, when their families be dispersed, by reason of heate and
+occasions. In Winter they make some fiftie or thereescore foote long,
+fortie or fiftie men being inmates under one roofe; and as is their
+husbands occasion these poore tectonists are often troubled like
+snailes, to carrie their houses on their backs sometimes to
+fishing-places, other times to hunting places, after that to a
+planting-place, where it abides the longest: an other work is their
+planting of corne, wherein they exceede our _English_ husband-men,
+keeping it so cleare with their Clamme shell-hooes, as if it were a
+garden rather than a corne-field, not suffering a choaking weede to
+advance his audacious head above their infant corne, or an undermining
+worme to spoile his spurnes. Their corne being ripe, they gather it, and
+drying it hard in the Sunne, conveigh it to their barnes, which be great
+holes digged in the ground in forme of a brasse pot, seeled with rinds
+of trees, wherein they put their corne, covering it from the inquisitive
+search of their gurmandizing husbands, who would eate up both their
+allowed portion, and reserved seede, if they knew where to finde it. But
+our hogges having found a way to unhindge their barne doores, and robbe
+their garners, they are glad to implore their husbands helpe to roule
+the bodies of trees over their holes, to prevent those pioners, whose
+theeverie they as much hate as their flesh. An other of their
+employments is their Summer processions to get Lobsters for their
+husbands, wherewith they baite their hookes when they goe a fishing for
+Basse or Codfish. This is an every dayes walke, be the weather cold or
+hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes over head and
+eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a
+churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they trudge
+home two or three miles, with a hundred weight of Lobsters at their
+backs, and if none, a hundred scoules meete them at home, and a hungry
+belly for two days after. Their husbands having caught any fish, they
+bring it in their boates as farre as they can by water, and there leave
+it; as it was their care to catch it, so it must be their wives paines
+to fetch it home, or fast: which done, they must dresse it and cooke it,
+dish it, and present it, see it eaten over their shoulders; and their
+loggerships having filled their paunches, their sweete lullabies
+scramble for their scrappes. In the Summer these _Indian_ women when
+Lobsters be in their plenty and prime, they drie them to keepe for
+Winter, erecting scaffolds in the hot sun-shine, making fires likewise
+underneath them, by whose smoake the flies are expelled, till the
+substance remains hard and drie. In this manner they drie Basse and
+other fishes without salt, cutting them very thinne to dry suddainely,
+before the flies spoile them, or the raine moist them, having a speciall
+care to hang them in their smoakie houses, in the night and dankish
+weather.
+
+In Summer they gather flagges, of which they make Matts for houses, and
+Hempe and rushes, with dying stuffe of which they make curious baskets
+with intermixed colours and portractures of antique Imagerie, these
+baskets be of all sizes from a quart to a quarter, in which they carry
+their luggage. In winter time they are their husbunds Caterers, trudging
+to the Clamm bankes for their belly timber, and their Porters to lugge
+home their Venison which their lazinesse exposes to the Woolves till
+they impose it upon their wives shoulders. They likewise sew their
+husbands shooes, and weave coates of Turkie feathers, besides all their
+ordinary household drudgerie which daily lies upon them. * * * * [Of the
+treatment of babes the writer says]: The young Infant being greased and
+sooted, wrapt in a beaver skin, bound to his good behaviour with his
+feete upon a board two foote long and one foote broade, his face exposed
+to all nipping weather; this little _Pappouse_ travells about with his
+bare footed mother to paddle in the ice Clammbanks after three or foure
+dayes of age have sealed his passeboard and his mothers recoverie. For
+their carriage it is very civill, smiles being the greatest grace of
+their mirth; their musick is lullabies to quiet their children, who
+generally are as quiet as if they had neither spleene or lungs. To hear
+one of these _Indians_ unseene, a good eare might easily mistake their
+untaught voyce for the warbling of a well tuned instrument. Such command
+have they of their voices.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Commendable is their milde carriage and obedience to their husbands,
+notwithstanding all this their customarie churlishnesse and salvage
+inhumanitie, not seeming to delight in frownes or offering to word it
+with their lords, not presuming to proclaime their female superiority to
+the usurping of the least title of their husbands charter, but rest
+themselves content under their helplesse condition, counting it the
+womans portion: since the _English_, arrivall comparison hath made them
+miserable, for seeing the kind usage of the _English_ to their wives,
+they doe as much condemne their husbands for unkindnesse, and commend
+the _English_ for their love. As their husbands commending themselves
+for their wit in keeping their wives industrious, doe condemne the
+_English_ for their folly in spoyling good working creatures. These
+women resort often to the _English_ houses, where _pares cum paribus
+congregatæ_[52], in Sex I meane, they do somewhat ease their miserie by
+complaining and seldome part without a releefe. If her husband come to
+seeke for his _Squaw_ and beginne to bluster, the _English_ woman
+betakes her to her armes which are the warlike Ladle, and the scalding
+liquors, threatening blistering to the naked runnaway, who is soon
+expelled by such liquid comminations. In a word to conclude this womans
+historie, their love to the _English_ hath deserved no small esteeme,
+ever presenting them some thing that is either rare or desired, as
+Strawberries, Hurtleberries, Rasberries, Gooseberries, Cherries,
+Plummes, Fish, and other such gifts as their poore treasury yeelds them.
+But now it may be, that this relation of the churlish and inhumane
+behaviour of these ruder _Indians_ towards their patient wives, may
+confirme some in the beliefe of an aspersion, which I have often heard
+men cast upon the _English_ there, as if they should learne of the
+_Indians_ to use their wives in the like manner, and to bring them to
+the same subjection, as to sit on the lower hand, and to carrie water
+and the like drudgerie: but if my own experience may out-ballance an
+ill-grounded scandalous rumour, I doe assure you, upon my credit and
+reputation, that there is no such matter, but the women finde there as
+much love, respect, and ease, as here in old _England_. I will not deny,
+but that some poore people may carrie their owne water, and doe not the
+poorer sort in _England_ doe the same; witnesse your _London_
+Tankard-bearers, and your countrie-cottagers? But this may well be
+knowne to be nothing, but the rancorous venome of some that beare no
+good will to the plantation. For what neede they carrie water, seeing
+every one hath a Spring at his doore, or the Sea by his house? Thus much
+for the satisfaction of women, touching this entrenchment upon their
+prerogative, as also concerning the relation of these _Indians_ Squawes.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [52] Equals assembled with equals.
+
+
+
+
+PAWNEE BARBARITY.
+
+
+That the tribes west of the Missouri, and beyond the pale of the
+ordinary influence of civilization, should retain some shocking customs,
+which, if ever prevalent among the more favoured tribes east of the
+Mississippi and the Alleghenies, have long disappeared, may be readily
+conceived. Wild, erratic bands, who rove over immense plains on
+horseback, with bow and lance, who plunge their knives and arrows daily
+into the carcasses of the buffalo, the elk and the deer, and who are
+accustomed to sights of blood and carnage, cannot escape the mental
+influence of these sanguinary habits, and must be, more or less, blunted
+in their conceptions and feelings. Where brute life is so recklessly
+taken, there cannot be the same nice feeling and sense of justice, which
+some of the more favoured tribes possess, with respect to taking away
+human life. Yet, it could hardly have been anticipated, that such deeds
+as we are now called upon to notice, would have their place even in the
+outskirts of the farther "Far West," and among a people so sunk and
+degraded in their moral propensities, as the Pawnees. But the facts are
+well attested.
+
+In the fierce predatory war carried on between the Pawnees and Sioux,
+acts of blood and retaliation, exercised on their prisoners, are of
+frequent occurrence. In the month of February, 1838, the Pawnees
+captured a Sioux girl only fourteen years of age. They carried her to
+their camp on the west of the Missouri, and deliberated what should be
+done with her. It is not customary to put female captives to death, but
+to make slaves of them. She, however, was doomed to a harder fate, but
+it was carefully concealed from her, for the space of some sixty or
+seventy days. During all this time she was treated well, and had
+comfortable lodgings and food, the same as the rest enjoyed. On the 22nd
+of April, the chiefs held a general council, and when it broke up, it
+was announced that her doom was fixed, but this was still carefully
+concealed from her. This doom was an extraordinary one, and so far as
+the object can be deduced, from the circumstances and ceremonies, the
+national hatred to their enemies was indulged, by making the innocent
+non-combatant, a sacrifice to the spirit of corn, or perhaps, of
+vegetable fecundity.
+
+When the deliberations of the council were terminated, on that day, she
+was brought out, attended by the whole council, and accompanied on a
+visit from lodge to lodge, until she had gone round the whole circle.
+When this round was finished, they placed in her hands a small billet of
+wood and some paints. The warriors and chiefs then seated themselves in
+a circle. To the first person of distinction she then handed this billet
+of wood and paint; he contributed to this offering, or sort of
+sacrificial charity some wood and paint, then handed it to the next,
+who did likewise, and he passed it to the next, until it had gone the
+entire rounds, and each one had contributed some wood and some paint.
+She was then conducted to the place of execution. For this purpose they
+had chosen an open grassy glade, near a cornfield, where there were a
+few trees. The spot selected was between two of these trees, standing
+about five feet apart, in the centre of which a small fire was kindled,
+with the wood thus ceremoniously contributed. Three bars had been tied
+across, from tree to tree, above this fire, at such a graded height,
+that the points of the blaze, when at its maximum, might just reach to
+her feet. Upon this scaffold she was compelled to mount, when a warrior
+at each side of her held fire under her arm pits. When this had been
+continued as long as they supposed she could endure the torture, without
+extinguishing life, at a given signal, a band of armed bow-men let fly
+their darts, and her body, at almost the same instant, was pierced with
+a thousand arrows. These were immediately withdrawn, and her flesh then
+cut with knives, from her thighs, arms and body, in pieces not longer
+than half a dollar, and put into little baskets. All this was done
+before life was quite extinct.
+
+The field of newly planted corn reached near to this spot. This corn had
+been dropped in the hill, but not covered with earth. The principal
+chief then took, of the flesh, and going to a hill of corn, squeezed a
+drop of blood upon the grains. This was done by each one, until all the
+grains put into the ground, had received this extraordinary kind of
+sprinkling.
+
+This horrible cruelty took place in the vicinity of Council Bluffs.
+Offers to redeem the life of the prisoner had been made by the traders,
+in a full council of eighty chiefs and warriors, but they were rejected.
+The original narrator was an eye witness. He concludes his description
+by adding, that his wife's brother, a Pawnee, had been taken prisoner by
+the Sioux, in the month of June following, and treated in the same
+manner. Truly, it may be said that the precincts of the wild roving Red
+man, are "full of the abodes of cruelty."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hunting and war are arts which require to be taught. The Indian youth,
+if they were not furnished with bows and arrows, would never learn to
+kill. The same time spent to teach them war and hunting, if devoted to
+teach them letters, would make them readers and writers. Education is
+all of a piece.
+
+Example is more persuasive than precept in teaching an Indian. Tell him
+that he should never touch alcohol, and he may not see clearly why; but
+show him, by your invariable practice, that you never do, and he may be
+led to confide in your admonitions.
+
+
+
+
+"THE LOON UPON THE LAKE."
+
+BY C. F. HOFFMAN.
+
+[From the Chippewa.[53]]
+
+
+                  I looked across the water,
+                    I bent o'er it and listened,
+                  I thought it was my lover,
+                    My true lover's paddle glistened.
+    Joyous thus his light canoe would the silver ripples wake.--
+    But no!--it is the Loon alone--the loon upon the lake.
+    Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.
+
+                  I see the fallen maple
+                    Where he stood, his red scarf waving,
+                  Though waters nearly bury
+                    Boughs they then were newly laving.
+    I hear his last farewell, as it echoed from the brake.--
+    But no, it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake,
+    Ah me! it is the loon alone--the loon upon the lake.
+
+
+TO A BIRD, SEEN UNDER MY WINDOW IN THE GARDEN.
+
+By the late Mrs. H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT, who was a grand daughter of the war
+chief WABOJEEG.
+
+          Sweet little bird, thy notes prolong,
+            And ease my lonely pensive hours;
+          I love to list thy cheerful song,
+            And hear thee chirp beneath the flowers.
+
+          The time allowed for pleasures sweet,
+            To thee is short as it is bright,
+          Then sing! rejoice! before it fleet,
+            And cheer me ere you take your flight.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [53]    Nenemoshain nindenaìndum
+          Meengoweugish abowaugoda
+          Anewahwas mongoduga,
+          &c., &c.
+
+
+
+
+ODJIBWA SONG.
+
+
+The following song, taken from the oral traditions of the north, is
+connected with a historical incident, of note, in the Indian wars of
+Canada. In 1759, great exertions were made by the French Indian
+department, under Gen. Montcalm, to bring a body of Indians into the
+valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and invitations, for this purpose
+reached the utmost shores of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from
+that quarter, which was left on their way down, at the lake of Two
+Mountains, near the mouth of the Utawas, while the warriors proceeded
+farther, was a Chippewa girl called Paig-wain-e-osh-e, or the White
+Eagle, driven by the wind. While the party awaited there, the result of
+events at Quebec, she formed an attachment for a young Algonquin
+belonging to the French mission of the Two Mountains. This attachment
+was mutual, and gave origin to the song, of which the original words,
+with a literal prose translation, are subjoined:
+
+I.
+
+          Ia indenaindum
+          Ia indenaindum
+          Ma kow we yah
+          Nin denaindum we.
+
+Ah me! when I think of him--when I think of him--my sweetheart, my
+Algonquin.
+
+II.
+
+          Pah bo je aun
+          Ne be nau be koning
+          Wabi megwissun
+          Nene mooshain we
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck--a
+pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin.
+
+III.
+
+          Keguh wejewin
+          Ain dah nuk ke yun
+          Ningee egobun
+          Nene mooshain we
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+I shall go with you, he said, to your native country--I shall go with
+you, my sweetheart--my Algonquin.
+
+
+IV.
+
+          Nia! nin de nah dush
+          Wassahwud gushuh
+          Aindahnuk ke yaun
+          Ke yau ninemooshai wee
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+Alas! I replied--my native country is far, far away--my sweetheart; my
+Algonquin.
+
+V.
+
+          Kai aubik oween
+          Ain aube aunin
+          Ke we naubee
+          Ne ne mooshai we
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+When I looked back again--where we parted, he was still looking after
+me, my sweetheart; my Algonquin.
+
+VI.
+
+          Apee nay we ne bow
+          Unishe bun
+          Aungwash agushing
+          Ne ne mooshai we
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+He was still standing on a fallen tree--that had fallen into the water
+my sweetheart; my Algonquin.
+
+VII.
+
+          Nia! indenaindum
+          Nia! in denaindum
+          Ma kow we yuh
+          Nin de nain dum we
+                    Odishquagumee.
+
+Alas! when I think of him--when I think of him--It is when I think of
+him; my Algonquin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Eloquence on the part of the speakers, is not so much the result of
+superior force of thought, as of the strong and clear positions of
+right, in which they have been placed by circumstances. It is the force
+of truth, by which we are charmed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An Indian war song, sung in public, by the assembled warriors on the
+outbreak of hostilities, is a declaration of war.
+
+
+  NIAGARA, AN ALLEGORY.
+
+  An old grey man on a mountain lived,
+    He had daughters four and one,
+  And a tall bright lodge of the betula bark
+    That glittered in the sun.
+
+  He lived on the very highest top,
+    For he was a hunter free,
+  Where he could spy on the clearest day,
+    Gleams of the distant sea.
+
+  Come out--come out! cried the youngest one,
+    Let us off to look at the sea,
+  And out they ran in their gayest robes,
+    And skipped and ran with glee.
+
+  Come Su,[54] come Mi,[55] come Hu,[56] come Sa,[57]
+    Cried laughing little Er,[58]
+  Let us go to yonder broad blue deep,
+    Where the breakers foam and roar.
+
+  And on they scampered by valley and wood,
+    By earth and air and sky,
+  Till they came to a steep where the bare rocks stood,
+    In a precipice mountain high.
+
+  Inya![59] cried Er, here's a dreadful leap,
+    But we are gone so far,
+  That if we flinch and return in fear,
+    Nos,[60] he will cry ha! ha!
+
+  Now each was clad in a vesture light,
+    That floated far behind,
+  With sandals of frozen water drops,
+    And wings of painted wind.
+
+  And down they plunged with a merry skip,
+    Like birds that skim the plain;
+  And hey! they cried, let us up and try
+    And down the steep again.
+
+  And up and down the daughters skipped,
+    Like girls on a holiday,
+  And laughed outright, at the sport and foam
+    They called Niagara.
+
+  If ye would see a sight so rare,
+    Where nature's in her glee,
+  Go, view the spot in the wide wild west,
+    The land of the brave and free.
+
+  But mark--their shapes are only seen
+    In fancy's deepest play,
+  But she plainly shews their wings and feet
+    In the dancing sunny spray.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [54] Superior.
+
+  [55] Michigan.
+
+  [56] Huron.
+
+  [57] St. Claro.
+
+  [58] Erie.
+
+  [59] An exclamation of wonder and surprize.--_Odj. lan._
+
+  [60] My father.--_ib._
+
+
+
+
+A PSALM.
+
+OR SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY, AND A CONFESSION OF SIN, ADDRESSED TO THE
+AUTHOR OF LIFE, IN THE ODJIBWA-ALGONQUIN TONGUE.
+
+BY THE LATE MRS. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
+
+
+1. Gaitshe minno pimaudizzeyun, Gezha Monedo, gezhigong aibeyun.
+
+2. Keen, maumauwaikumig waozhemigoyun.
+
+3. Keen, kah ozhiéeyong, keen gaugegaikumig, kai nuhwaunemeyong,
+aikoobemaudizzeyong.
+
+4. Keen, kainuhwaubaimeyong, geezhig tibbikuk tibishko.
+
+5. Keen, Keozheahn-geezhik-geezis, dibbik-geezis, aunungug gia.
+
+6. Keen, kegeozhetoan tshe kimmewung, gia tshe annimikeeaug, tshe sai
+sai yung, tshe sogepoog gia.
+
+7. Keen kau ozheiyong tshe unnewegauboweyaung, kakinnuk kau ozheudjig
+akeeng.
+
+8. Kee, gemishemin odjechaugwug, wekaukaine bosigoog. Kee gemishemin
+kebauzhigo kegwiss Jesus Christ, tshe oonjenebood neenowind.
+
+9. Mozhug issuh nemudjee-inaindumin, kagait mozhug nemudjee-ekidomin;
+nahwudj neminwaindumin tshe mudjee-dodumaung.
+
+10. Kagaitego me kaisoondje izhauyaungebun mudjee Moneto.
+
+11. Showainemishinaum, Gezha Monedo.
+
+12. Showainemishinaum, Jesus Christ.
+
+13. Maishkoodjetoan ne mudjee-odai-enaunin.
+
+14. Meezhishenaun edush oushke odaiyun.
+
+15. Apaidush nah saugeigsayun, gia dush todumaung kau izhe gugeekwayun.
+
+16. Me ozhissinaum odaiyun tshe minwaindumaung, tshe annahme autogoyun.
+
+17. Showainim neendunahwaitmaugunenaunig unishenaubaig.
+
+18. Showainim kukinnuh menik pemaudizzejig akeeng.
+
+19. Showainemishenaum kaidokoo pemaudizzeyong, appe dush neeboyong.
+
+20. Showainemishenaum neen jeechaugonaunig tshe izhowaud keen.
+
+21. Kaugegaikumig edush tshe menawaunegooz eyong ozaum ne
+mudje-pemaudizzewin auno unnahmeyauyongin.
+
+22. Kauween edush kewee pemaudizzewin, kishpin aitah appainemoyong
+Kegwiss Jesus Christ.
+
+23. Aioetainemud kegwiss showainemishenaum. Kunnah gai kunnah.
+
+
+TRANSLATION.
+
+1. Great good author of Life, Gezha Monedo, abiding in the heavens
+
+2. Thou hast made all things.
+
+3. Thou art the giver,--Thou, the everlasting preserver of life.
+
+4. Thou hast guarded me, by day and by night.
+
+5. Thou hast made the sun and moon, and the stars.
+
+6. Thou makest the rain, the thunder, the hail, and the snows.
+
+7. Thou didst make man to stand upright, and has placed him over all
+that is on the earth.
+
+8. Thou hast given us souls, that will never die. Thou hast sent thy son
+Jesus Christ to die for us.
+
+9. Continually are our thoughts evil, and truly, our words are evil
+continually.
+
+10. Verily, we deserve punishment with the Spirit of Evil.
+
+11. Show pity on us, Gezha Monedo.
+
+12. Show pity on us, Jesus Christ.
+
+13. Reform our wicked hearts.
+
+14. Give us new hearts.
+
+15. May we love thee with all our hearts, and by our acts obey thy
+precepts, (or sayings.)
+
+16. Give us hearts to delight in prayer.
+
+17. Show mercy to all our kindred, unishenaubaig, or common people,
+(means exclusively the Red Men.)
+
+18. Show mercy to all who live on the earth.
+
+19. Pity us, and befriend us, living and dying.
+
+20. And receive our souls to thyself.
+
+21. Ever to dwell in thine abiding place of happiness.
+
+22. Not in our own frail strength of life, do we ask this; but alone in
+the name of Jesus Christ.
+
+23. Grant us thy mercy, in the name of thy Son. So be it ever.
+
+Those who take an interest in the structure of the Indian languages, may
+regard the above, as an _improvised_ specimen of the capacity of this
+particular dialect for the expression of scripture truth. The writer,
+who from early years was a member of the church, had made a translation
+of the Lords prayer, and, occasionally, as delicate and declining health
+permitted, some other select pieces from the sacred writings, and hymns,
+of which, one or two selections may, perhaps, hereafter be made.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The distinction between the active and passive voice, in the Odjibwa
+language, is formed by the inflection ego.
+
+          Ne sageau,            I love.
+          Ne sageau-ego,        I am loved.
+
+
+
+
+TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS
+
+OF THE
+
+ODJIBWA ALGONQUINS.
+
+
+Whoever has heard an Indian war song, and witnessed an Indian war dance,
+must be satisfied that the occasion wakes up all the fire and energy of
+the Indian's soul. His flashing eye--his muscular energy, as he begins
+the dance--his violent gesticulation as he raises his war-cry--the whole
+frame and expression of the man, demonstrate this. And long before it
+comes to his turn to utter his stave, or portion of the chant, his mind
+has been worked up to the most intense point of excitement: his
+imagination has pictured the enemy--the ambush and the onset--the
+victory and the bleeding victim, writhing under his prowess: in
+imagination he has already stamped him under foot, and torn off his
+reeking scalp: he has seen the eagles hovering in the air, ready to
+pounce on the dead carcass, as soon as the combatants quit the field.
+
+It would require strong and graphic language to give descriptive
+utterance, in the shape of song, to all he has fancied, and seen and
+feels on the subject. He, himself, makes no such effort. Physical
+excitement has absorbed his energies. He is in no mood for calm and
+connected descriptions of battle scenes. He has no stores of measured
+rhymes to fall back on. All he can do is to utter brief, and often
+highly symbolic expressions of courage--of defiance--of indomitable
+rage. His feet stamp the ground, as if he would shake it to its centre.
+The inspiring drum and mystic rattle communicate new energy to every
+step, while they serve, by the observance of the most exact time, to
+concentrate his energy. His very looks depict the spirit of rage, and
+his yells, uttered quick, sharp, and cut off by the application of the
+hand to the mouth, are startling and horrific.
+
+Under such circumstances, a few short and broken sentences are enough to
+keep alive the theme in his mind; and he is not probably conscious of
+the fact, that, to an unimpassioned and calm listener, with note book in
+hand, there is not sufficient said to give coherence to the song. And
+that such a song, indeed, under the best auspices, is a mere wild
+rhapsody of martial thought, poured out from time to time, in detached
+sentences, which are, so to say, cemented into lines by a flexible
+chorus and known tune. The song and the music are all of a piece. Vivid
+and glowing, and poetic pictures will float in such a train, and often
+strike the imagination by their graphic truth and boldness; but the
+poet must look elsewhere for finished melody, and refined and elaborate
+composition.
+
+The Indian is to be viewed here, as elsewhere, as being in the highest
+state of his _physical_, not of his _mental_ phasis. Such glimmerings
+may however be picked out of these warlike rhapsodies, as denote that he
+is of a noble and independent tone of thinking. We shall at least enable
+the reader to judge. The following specimens, which have been derived
+from actors in the depths of the forest, consist of independent songs,
+or stanzas, each of which is sung by a different or by the same warrior,
+while the dance is in progress. The words have been taken down from a
+young Chippewa warrior of lake Superior, of the name of Che che-gwy-ung.
+It will be perceived that there is a unity in the _theme_, while each
+warrior exercises the freest scope of expression. This unity I have
+favoured by throwing out such stanzas as mar it, and afterwards
+arranging them together.
+
+
+WAR SONG.
+
+_a._ In beginning this song the warrior has turned his eyes to the
+clouds.
+
+   O shá wan ong             (From the place of the south)
+   Un dos´ e wug,            (They come,) _repeat_.
+   Pe nä´ se wug,            (The birds, _i. e._ the warlike birds.)
+   Ka baim wai wá dung-ig.   (Hear the sound of their passing screams
+                                   on the air.)
+
+_b._ The idea of ravenous birds hovering in the sky, still prevails--
+
+   Tod ot´ to be             (I wish to change myself to be)
+   Pe nä´ se.                (A bird.)
+   Ka dow´ we á we yun´.     (His swift body--to be like him.)
+
+_c._ The warrior now rises above all thoughts of fear.
+
+   Ne wä be na,              (I cast it away.)
+   Né ow a.                  (My body.)
+   Ne wá be na,              (_Repeats._) This is a high symbolical boast
+   Né ow a.                        of personal bravery.
+
+_d._ He appeals to the Great Spirit for extraordinary power.
+
+   Na bun á kum ig,          (On the front part of the earth,)
+   Tshe bá be wish´ em ug.   (First shines [strikes] the light.)
+   In do main´ em ik,        (Such power to me,)
+   Mon´ e do,                (My God,)
+   Shä wa nem id.            (In thy mercy give!)
+
+By the boldness of this figure he claims the omnipotent power of the sun
+to see and discover his enemies.
+
+_e._ He upbraids such of his people as hold back, and do not join in the
+dance--that is to say, enlist in the war.
+
+   Wä go nain, e win?        (Why do ye, warriors,)
+   A be yun ah,              (Stand back?)
+   Wä wos is se, we yun.     (Ye who bear the mark of the Awasees.)
+
+The Awasee is a kind of fish, which is the _totem_ of a clan.
+
+_f._ He declares his full purpose to enter into the war.
+
+   Ne má je, e yeh!            (I go to the spot--the war path!)
+   Ne má je, e yeh!            (_Repeats._)
+   Ne me kun ah, e yeh!        (My war path!)
+   Ge zhig neen wá tin,        (My sky is fair and clear.) The common
+                                  phrase to denote good fortune.
+   Hoh! Ne monedo netaibuätum  (Let others linger.  Onward! my
+     o win.                       God!--my right!)
+
+In presenting these specimens of the original words of some of our
+western warriors, we are permitted to give the annexed versions of them
+from the pen of one of our most gifted writers.
+
+
+WAR-SONG--"Pe-nä´ se-wug."
+
+(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft)
+
+BY C. F. HOFFMAN.
+
+I.
+
+  Hear not ye their shrill-piping screams on the air?
+  Up! Braves for the conflict prepare ye--prepare!
+  Aroused from the canebrake, far south by your drum,
+  With beaks whet from carnage, the Battle Birds come.
+
+II.
+
+  Oh God of my Fathers, as swiftly as they,
+  I ask but to swoop from the hills on my prey:
+  Give this frame to the winds, on the Prairie below,
+  But my soul--like thy bolt--I would hurl on the foe!
+
+III.
+
+  On the forehead of Earth strikes the Sun in his might,
+  Oh gift me with glances as searching as light.
+  In the front of the onslaught, to single each crest,
+  Till my hatchet grows red on their bravest and best.
+
+IV.
+
+  Why stand ye back idly, ye Sons of the Lakes?
+  Who boast of the scalp-locks, ye tremble to take.
+  Fear-dreamers may linger, _my_ skies are all bright--
+  Charge--charge--on the War-Path, FOR GOD AND THE RIGHT.
+
+Take the following additional example, of a death song. These stanzas
+have all been actually sung on warlike occasions, and repeated in my
+hearing. They have been gleaned from the traditionary songs of the
+Chippewas of the north, whose villages extend through the region of lake
+Superior, and to the utmost sources of the Mississippi. Those bands are
+the hereditary foes of their western neighbours, the Dacotahs or Sioux,
+who are generally called by them, by way of distinction, Na do wä´ sees,
+that is to say, OUR ENEMIES. The allusions in the songs are exclusively
+to them. In writing the original, I omit the chorus, as it is not
+susceptible of translation, and would increase considerably the space
+occupied.
+
+
+DEATH SONG.
+
+1. In opening this song the warrior is to be contemplated as lying
+wounded on the field of battle.
+
+  A´ be tuh ge´ zhig,        (Under the centre of the sky,)
+  Ne bá baim wä´ wä.         (I utter my baim wä wä.)
+
+Baimwäwä, is the sound of passing thunders, which will convey a just
+idea of the violence of this figure.
+
+2. His thoughts revert to the star of his destiny.
+
+  Ain dah´ so gezhig         (Every day, thou star!)
+  Ke gá gun o wá bom in.     (I gaze at you.)
+
+It is the morning star that is here alluded to.
+
+3. He sees the birds of carnage hovering over the field.
+
+  A´ be tuh geézh-ig         (The half of the day)
+  Ai be yaun                 (I abide--gazing)
+  Pe nä se wug.              (Ye warlike birds.)
+
+4. He keeps the flight of these birds before his mind and hears their
+shrill cries.
+
+  Pe misk wosh e wug         (They fly round the circuit of the sky.)
+  Pe nä´ se wug              (The birds--circling)
+  A´ be tuh geezh ig oag.    (Round half the circuit of the sky.) The
+                                meaning is, approaching him in circle,
+                                more nearly, as life becomes fainter in
+                                him.
+
+5. This figure is continued. He lies bleeding.
+
+  A´ zha waush e wug         (They cross the enemy's line)
+  Pe nä se wug.              (The birds.)
+
+6. He feels that he is called to another world.
+
+  A pit she Mon e doag       (The high gods)
+  Ne mud wä wä               (My praise)
+  Wá we ne goag.             (They sound.)
+
+7. He is content and willing to go.
+
+  Kä gait´, ne min wain´ dum (Full happy--I)
+  Ne bun aí kum ig           (To lie on the battle-field)
+  Tshe bá be wish e naun.    (Over the enemy's line.)
+
+
+DEATH-SONG--"A´ be tuh gé zhig."
+
+(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft.)
+
+BY C. F. HOFFMAN.
+
+                           I.
+
+
+            Under the hollow sky,
+          Stretched on the Prairie lone,
+            Centre of glory, I
+          Bleeding, disdain to groan,
+            But like a battle cry
+          Peal forth my thunder moan,
+                      _Baim-wä-wä_!
+
+                          II.
+
+            Star--Morning-Star, whose ray
+          Still with the dawn I see,
+
+            Quenchless through half the day
+          Gazing thou seest me--
+            Yon birds of carnage, they
+          Fright not my gaze from thee!
+                       _Baim-wä-wä!_
+
+                         III.
+
+            Bird, in thine airy rings
+          Over the foeman's line,
+            Why do thy flapping wings
+          Nearer me thus incline?
+            Blood of the Dauntless brings
+          Courage, oh Bird to thine!
+                      _Baim-wä-wä!_
+
+          Hark to those Spirit-notes!
+            Ye high Heroes divine,
+          Hymned from your god-like throats
+            That Song of Praise is mine!
+              Mine, whose grave-pennon floats
+            Over the foeman's line!
+                      _Baim-wä-wä_!
+
+
+                                  WAR SONG.
+
+   Where are my foes? say, warriors, where? No forest is so black,
+   That it can hide from my quick eye, the vestige of their track:
+   There is no lake so boundless, no path where man may go,
+   Can shield them from my sharp pursuit, or save them from my blow.
+   The winds that whisper in the trees, the clouds that spot the sky,
+   Impart a soft intelligence, to show me where they lie,
+   The very birds that sail the air, and scream as on they go,
+   Give me a clue my course to tread, and lead me to the foe.
+
+   The sun, at dawn, lifts up his head, to guide me on my way,
+   The moon, at night, looks softly down, and cheers me with her ray.
+   The war-crowned stars, those beaming lights, my spirit casts at night,
+   Direct me as I thread the maze, and lead me to the fight.
+   In sacred dreams within my lodge, while resting on the land,
+   Bright omens of success arise, and nerve my warlike hand.
+   Where'er I turn, where'er I go, there is a whispering sound,
+   That tells me I shall crush the foe, and drive him from my ground.
+
+   The beaming WEST invites me on, with smiles of vermil hue,
+   And clouds of promise fill the sky, and deck its heavenly blue,
+   There is no breeze--there is no sign, in ocean, earth or sky,
+   That does not swell my breast with hope, or animate my eye.
+   If to the stormy beach I go, where heavy tempests play,
+   They tell me but, how warriors brave, should conquer in the fray.
+   All nature fills my heart with fires, that prompt me on to go,
+   To rush with rage, and lifted spear, upon my country's foe.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+     The intent of the corrections listed below is to restore the text
+     to the author's intent, as best as that can be surmised.
+
+     Minor inconsistencies of punctuation have been resolved. On
+     occasion, the quotation marks, especially, have been added where
+     the quotation extends across paragraphs. If an ending mark has been
+     omitted, it has been added. Usually, but not always, a space is left
+     where a missing character should have appeared.
+
+     Clear typographical errors (e.g. "emcamped" for "encamped", "atlar"
+     for "altar") have also been corrected. A non-standard or variable
+     spelling has been left as printed, unless it is the sole instance
+     of a word repeatedly otherwise spelled (e.g. characterestic (1) /
+     characteristic (35)).
+
+     The spelling of names of persons and places, especially when derived
+     from Indian dialects vary considerably. For instance "Allegheny" is
+     also found multiple times as "Alleghany" and "Allegany". "Ottawa"
+     and "Ottowa" are each found several times. Nabinoi / Nabanoi /
+     Nabunwa seem to refer to the same Ojibwa elder. Nearly all such
+     variants are left as printed, except where explicitly noted below.
+
+     Words that were hyphenated at the ends of line have been joined
+     with or without the hyphen, depending on the frequency of the
+     word's spelling elsewhere. No attempt was made to regularize other
+     cases. They are kept as printed.
+
+     Corrections:
+
+     Characters that have been removed, corrected, or which have been
+     added are noted using [] as delimiters. Where misprinted characters
+     are changed, the original and corrected characters are noted as
+     [x/y], where x is the original. Punctuation corrections are not
+     included in this list.
+
+
+  Page| Correction                       | Comment
+  ----+----------------------------------+------------------------------
+    7 | river at Brattleboro[,'/',]      | The apostrophe may have been
+      |                                  |    meant as a contraction of
+      |                                  |    'Brattleborough', which in
+      |                                  |    1848 had yet to be
+      |                                  |    abbreviated. It should
+      |                                  |    precede the comma.
+      |                                  |
+   19 | not two free                     | _sic_.
+      |                                  |
+   40 | irridescen[t]                    | Added.
+      | brought us to a Mr. Murphy[']s   | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   42 | inj[u]re                         | Added.
+      | mounta[ni/in]ous                 | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   44 | thus uniting character[e/i]stics | Corrected.
+      |    of three varieties            |
+      |                                  |
+   48 | and valetudinarians[.]           | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   51 | Gascon[a]de                      | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   52 | highten                          | _sic_.
+      |                                  |
+   59 | e[m/n]camped                     | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+   71 | CONST[IT]UTION                   | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   75 | som[e]times                      | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   76 | horriffic                        | _sic_.
+      |                                  |
+   83 | wife from that time[.]           | Added.
+      |                                  |
+   88 | On another [a/o]occasion         | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+   93 | Senecas was discovered, turnin[g]| Added.
+      |                                  |
+  102 | calling ou[t]                    | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  114 | assured that th[s/e] cord        | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  124 | had made [u/a]n                  | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+      | many days pass[s]ed              | Removed.
+      |                                  |
+  145 | fate of their chiefta[i]n        | Added to match spelling in
+      |                                  |    following line.
+      |                                  |
+  148 | necessary to gla[n]ce backward   | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  153 | such a bloody fellow was         | Line break hyphenation
+      | [al-]allowed                     |    error corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  179 | allowed a li[s/t]tle time to     | Corrected.
+      | replenish:                       |
+      |                                  |
+  189 | brass p[i]eces                   | Added.
+      |                                  |
+      | Ozaw[a/á]biks                    | Corrected to match all other
+      |                                  |    occurences.
+      |                                  |
+  193 | and [and ]not to throw           | Line break repetition
+      |                                  |    removed.
+      |                                  |
+  197 | ["]Having taught this man ...    | Added continuing and end
+      | and what they must not do.["]    |    quotes.
+      |                                  |
+  200 | INTERPR[E]TER                    | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  203 | geogra[p/g]hical                 | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  212 | a[tl/lt]ar                       | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  225 | r[aph/hap]sodies                 | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  227 | [oo] / [OO]                      | Represent the figure 8, set
+      |                                  |    horizontally, per FN on
+      |                                  |    p. 227.
+      |                                  |
+      | My soul he doth restore aga[in]  | Missing characters inferred.
+      |                                  |
+  233 | modes of [of ]life               | Line break error corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  234 | the present [e/a]rea of          | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  250 | [t/T]hey are a brave and warlike | Corrected.
+      | people                           |
+      |                                  |
+  252 | Lou[i]siana                      | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  259 | Guadaxalara                      | _sic_--Guadalaxara?
+      |                                  |
+  273 | the [the ]word itself            | Line break repetition
+      |                                  |    removed.
+      |                                  |
+      | "Söngedää"                       | Missing close quote.
+      |                                  |
+  274 | Ke dizz[i]hewäbizziwin           | Removed, based on following
+      | onishishin.                      |    text.
+      |                                  | Missing punctuation in tables
+      |                                  |    has been added for
+      |                                  |    consistency.
+      |                                  |
+  280 | Ween ishkwa[n/u]dj,              | Corrected based on
+      | He or she last.                  |    adjacent text.
+      |                                  |
+  282 | Pos[s]essive                     | Added 's' for consistency.
+      |                                  |
+  288 | in upper Louis[ai/ia]na          | Corrected to adjacent text.
+      |                                  |
+  290 | s[t]eatites                      | Corrected to match all other
+      |                                  |    spellings.
+      | Michili[n/m]ackinac              | Corrected to match all other
+      |                                  |    spellings.
+      |                                  |
+  301 | [']Tis not enough!               | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  303 | r[yh/hy]me                       | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  307 | succes[s]ful                     | Added to match all other
+      |                                  |    spellings.
+      |                                  |
+  308 | [_c._] Waban is from ab, or      | Italicized to match
+      | wab, light.                      |     a., b., d.
+      |                                  |
+  313 | char[a]cter                      | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  319 | arr[r]ived                       | Removed.
+      |                                  |
+  332 | with[ ]them                      | Added.
+      |                                  |
+      | [e/a]quatic                      | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  343 | retur[n]ed                       | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  377 | ... the amount of funds invested | '0' added, consistent with 5%
+      | by the government in stocks,     |    interest rate. See similar
+      | for the Indians,was $2,580,000,  |    statements on p. 379.
+      | on which the annual interest     |
+      | paid to them was $131,05[0].     |
+      |                                  |
+  386 | Del[e/a]wares                    | Corrected.
+      |                                  |
+  402 | Feb[r]uary                       | Added.
+      |                                  |
+  404 | [E/C]. F. HOFFMAN.               | Corrected, reference to
+      |                                  | Charles Fenno Hoffman.
+      |                                  |
+  415 | Blood of the Dauntless brings[*] | Two footnotes, anchored
+      | ...                              |   on the following lines,
+      | Mine, whose grave-pennon         |   were not provided. To
+      |    floats[*]                     |   avoid confusion, the
+      |                                  |   anchors have been removed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Indian in his Wigwam, by Henry R. Schoolcraft
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40475 ***