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Les diagrammes suivants iliustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ONEOTA, OB CHARACTERISTICS OF THE r EED EACE OF AMEfilCA. FROM ORIGINAL NOTES AND MANUSCRIPTS. t^- BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, Memb. Royal Genera phicnl Society or London, anil of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, Copenhagen ; lion. Motnb. of the Natnrul Hlntory Society of Montreal, Canada Boat; 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 EthnoloKicul 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. nf the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society ; Cor. M'imb. of the New York Lyceum of NutumI History, and of the Lyceunn ot^ 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 mcllorHting the condition of the Native Race in the United States, Instituted in 1831; Hon, Memb. of the Goethcan and of the Philo L. Collegiate Societies of Pennsylvania, &c. fcc. NEW YORK & LONDON; WILEY & PUTNAM. 1847. -^ eiT ^^^ ^^^"^ Entered iccording to Act of Congress, in the yi'ivi' 181'/. !)y HENRY R. S C H O O L C R A F J' , in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Slate«. lb:- i'.il- Southern District of New York. B W. BBKEDIOT, 8TKB. AND PRINT., 16 Spruce Street, New York, hem 1 i: M J|#^- PREFACE The following announcement in the First Number of this work, in August, 1844, denotes its origin : " More than thirty years have passed since, by a change of residence from Central lo Western New York, the writer was first placed in a position to observe the Red Race of this continent. . The public are apprised, that he had devoted several years of this period in exploratory journeys, in the valleys of the Mississippi and the Mis- souri, before he entered the service of the U. S. Government, as an Agent for these tribes. Two and twenty years of his life, he may add, have been passed in the various capacities of an Executive Agent, a Commissioner, and a Superintendant of Indian Affairs, for the Northern Department. " Having received numerous letters of inquiry from various quarters on this head, since his return from the Eastern Hemisphere to his iiative State, it is supposed that a general interest may be felt to know something more fully of the results of his experience, observation and adventurous positions, in so wide a field. It is, in truth, to test this opinion, which is not, perhaps, well founded or general, that the following extracts and memoranda, selected from his notes and papers, are published. The design is to continue them for a few numbers, at convenient intervals, to enable the reader to form his own opinion on the subject. " In making this essay, it was thought appropriate that a title for it should be selected from the language of the people, whose history and traits are brought into discussion. The term Oneota is the name of one of these aboriginal tribes (the Oneidas). It signifies, in the Mohawk dialect, the people who are sprung from a Rock. It is a term which will do as well as any for the entire race, until we obtain better lights." In giving to these detached issues a consolidated form, the author has thought that some further notice of his plan and details would not be inappropriate. Some readers have expressed to him strong objections to the retention of the title Oneotjl, as a synonym for the volume ; others have been equally candid in their disapproval of the plan of a miscellany ; but while he respects the opinions of friends, he has not been able to yield to the force of these objections. No one has so com- plete a view of the materials at his qommand, as the author himself. It still appears to him that a term derived from one of the languages of the people who are the subject of remark, is best suited to give individuality to the work ; while the materials themselves, being chiefly membra disjecta of his researches and studies in the American forest, naturally assume a miscellaneous aspect. The work is, indeed, essentially a miscellany ; its papers are, to a great extent, independent of each other, often diverse in their subject, and owing thei character to witnesses living at, or traditions gleaned from, remote places ; and no attempt has been made, or was originally designed, to digest them into a compact whole. rRF.FACE. 1 In the courgfi of many years of socliision in scenes and situations very favorable for making observations on the Race, whose traits and character constitute the chief topics of remark, his portfolios had become crowded with materials and notes, some- times hastily accumulated, which, it was hoped, there would be a suitable occasion, at some future period, to prepare for the press. But these accumulations in the various departments of oral legends, customs, language, history, picture-writing, antiquities, geographical names, &c., assumed such a shape as to require much leisure for their consideration, and rendered it less and less probiible, every year, that this amount of leisure could be h»d. Besides, he doubted in the end, and as years advanced, whether he should not be doini; better to print the rough materials of this part of his collection, than to atti-mpt to give a polish and elementary completeness to them, which, after all his best efforts, it might be found more appropriately the vocation of another to execute. Some exceptions to this remark ihere were, arising from several causes : 1. That branch of the inquiry consisting of the geographical names of the native tribes for the local divisions and features of the continent, in all its length and breadth, it had been a Ions; cherished object with him to make as full and complete as possible, aVid the results have been, to a great extent, prepared under the title of a Cyclopedia, or Ethnographical Gazetteer and Geographical and Historical Dictionary. 2. The topic of Philology had also appeared to him a suitable one, with his means of original inquiry, and study of the various dialects of the Algonquin, for a separate treatise. 3. Very few persons have been much abroad in the Indian territories, without observing evidences of the skill of the native tribes in picture-v^riting — a subject, which, on inquiry, revealed an art of mnemonics, chiefly cultivated by the Indian metais and prophets, while it opened a curious avenue to their religious views and opinions. 4. To these topi( thus suggested fVom his materials, the writer has added,— or rather, it was one of the earliest themes which arrested his attention, their curious oral fictitious legends, tales and fables, which are told for the amusement of the lodge circle, and thus handed down by tradition, from generation to generation. A part only of his observations in each of these departments has been published.* Abstracting the consideration of these four topics, from his MS. materials, there still remained a large amount of miscellaneous matter, which he deemed it best to preserve, and yet felt but little disposition to re-compose and classify. It is to this residuary portion of his materials, that he refers as the origin of the publi- cation of On EOT A. The papers inserted in this work often bring out traits of the people, with a freshness which they could hardly retain in more elaborate essays. Above all, they are deemed to abound in " characteristics" of the Race, and this secondary title has, therefore, been adopted. The amount of this species of miscel- laneous matter, in his hands, is still unexhausted. How far the volume, now put forth, may be approved, it is for the public to judge. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. New Yokk, June 1st, 1845. * Cyclopedia Indiaiiensis. Prospectus No. N. York. 1841. Also, Letter A. herein lyom oft to ap. Indian Language. Appendix No. 2. Expedition to the Actual Source of the Mississippi in Itasca Lake. N. Y. Harper tc. Brothers. 1 Vol. 8vo. 1834. Also, Lectures on the Adjective and Noun herein. Considerations on the Art of Plcture-Writing, fcc, herein. Chap. I. Atgic Researches, noir. 'tising Inquiries respecting the Mental Characteristics of the North Ameri- can Indians. First Series. Indian Tales and Legends. S Vols. 8vo. N. V. Harper tc. Brothers. 1839 .---ji — ii ' .i a . i j.wttW4 ei INDEX The White Stone Canoe 7 The Lynx and Hare, a Fable 9 Onawutaquotto, or the Worship of the Sun 10 Shingebiss , , . 13' Names of the American Lakes 15 Shingaba-Wossins, or Image Stones (with a Print) 17 Pawnee Barbarity • .' 911 Personal Reminiscences 3S Picture Writing among the North American Indians (with a Print) S7 Notice of Grave Creelt Mound 35 Geographical 7'ermlnology of the United States 3S Indian Music, Songs and Poetry 41 Piskaret, an Algonquin Chief. SO A Wyandot Tradition, recorded by J. H. Kinzle, Esq., under the name of Ho-tshung-rah 54 Wood's Account of Indian Women on the Settlement of New England 57 Chant of Indian Children to the Wa-tal-see, or Fire-Fly 61 0(UibwaSong 09 Plan and Objects of Inquiry in this Work 05 Personal Reminiscences (Continued) 00 Wasbashas, an Osage Legend of the Origin of that Tribe 7S The Sun Catcher,' or Exploits of a Pigmy 74 Ampata Sapa,aSioux Legend 70 Mukakee Mindemcea, or the Toad Woman 78 Corn Planting and its Incidents 81 Indian Ideas of the Immortality of the Soul 84 Game of the Bowl (withaPrint) 85 Reverence and Affection for Parents 88 Andaig Weos, or Crowsflesh— a Biographical Sketch 80 Grammatical Observations on the Chippewa AAjective 93 A Mohegan Tradition of the Southern Origin of the Shawanoes 105 Era of the Arrival of the French in the Upper Lakes 107 Faith of a Converted Jossakeed 108 Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains 109 Grave— Light 118 Standard of'VHliin In Riiile Nations 118 Ethii..|i>«|, 119 A I'luyer or Psaim in the Indian Tongue, by Mrs. H. R. S ..190 Grammatical distinction between the Active and Passive Voice 137 Names of the Seasons, jcc, in the Oi^ibwa 138 Personal Incidents and Impressions of tlie Red Race. Part 1 139 Hurtful Influence of the example of drinking on the Red Race 135 BoshKwa Hosh, a Tr.'iilition of the Elephant or some large Pachydermata 130 The Legend of the Red Head and his two Sons 139 Wa- wa-be-zo-wln, or the Swing , 140 Personal Reminiscences (( 'oiitinued) , 148 Language of Mexico 153 Ethnology (Continued) I54 Toteiu . .172: Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains (Continued) 173 Apothegms, by Hibernicua 178 IV INDEX. ASynoplliofCartler'i ririt Voynge In 1534 !?• Tikoxld, or tbe Shnrt-fbot, « Blndrnphlcal Sketch 18T The Manila Tree (a lUHntltlon of the U(Ulbwa«) 101 Niagara, an Allegory IM Penonal li.elilar.ia anil Impreuloni. Part II 189 To I >Hope. .IW Scenes uni\ Adventurei In the Ozark Mountain! (Contlnned) 900 Wyandot TradlUoiii of Orlwnhento 907 Nunery and Crndle Hongs of the Forest 919 Languages of Polynoola ■ ,...,, .900 Grammatical Observations on the Indian Pronoun 991 Chronology ^. 939 AutoblogrB' " ' '' '»'' ' * Who so free as Shingebiss ? The hunter knew that Kabebonicca was at his door, for he feh 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 ifmst 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 Kabebon- icca 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 mtroduction 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 fhe 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 profite i by this, her could not help it. Tuscaloosa fought for his tribe's supremacy ; Osceola for revenge. . ^ _ . ^ . ii!' ^»l^■ • t. : ) h .\ ■ ,r..l ({ NAMES OP THE AMERICAN LAKES. d three They nethod ace.— but a , was ■e race, heela, white might d not a for Ontario, is a word from the Wyandot, or, as called by the Iroquois, duatoghie 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 und debarkation, or, in other words, at once the commencement and the i^rminus 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 u«e. 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.* 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 ofCadaracqui; 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.f It is descriptive of an extended and beautiful 'vater prospect, or landscape. It possesses all the ■• iperties of an exclamation, in other languages, but according to the unique principles of the Indian grammar, it is an exclamation-substan- tive. 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 Erics 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. * Vide a Reminiscence of Oswego. t The sound of i in this word, as in Ontario, is long e in the Indian. 14 NAMES OF THE AMERICAN LAi^^. When this nation, with their confederates, the Algonquins, or Adiron- daks, as the Iroquois called them, were overthrown in several decisive battles on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Cluebec, 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 stme others of the tribes who made a part of the people called by the Fiet ch, Algonquins, or Nijiercineans, and who thus constituted the several tiioea, speaking a closely cognate language, whose descendants are regarded by philologists, as the modern Lake- Algonquins. The French sometunes 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 Ticdonderaghie. Michigan is a derivative from two Odjibwa-Algonquin words, signify* ing 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 lllinese, 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 ryhme, 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 regu- lar government, for fear it might prove oppressive. To be governed and to be enslaved, are ideas which have been con- founded by the Indians. .71 ODJIBWA SONG. Tire following song, taken from the oral traditions of the north, is con* nected with a historical incident, of note, in the Indian wars of Canada. In 17.59, great exertions were made by the French Indian department, Under Qen. Montcalm, to bring a body of Indians into the valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and invitations, for this purpose reached the u'mort shores of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from that quarter, which was lefl on their way down, at the lake of Two Mountains, near the mouth of the Utawas, while the warriors proceeded farther, was a Chip- pewa 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 duebec, 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 trana" lation, are subjoined: con- la indenaindura ;^. la 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 raooshain we Odishquagumee. As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck — a pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin. IIL % ' ^ 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. A' III If *: St '1 [•: 16 ODJIBWA SONG. IV. Nial nin de nah duah . Wassahwud gushuh ;.. .'tin Aindahnuk ke yaun , .. Ke yau ninemooshai wee Odishquagumee. Alast I replied — my native country is far, far away — my sweetheart; my Algonquin. V. -n j 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 lookmg after me, my sweetheart ; my Algonquin. . . . , VI. Apee nay we ne bow • Unishe bun Aungwash agushing Ne ne mooshai we Odishquagumee. He was still standmg on a fallen tree — that had fallen into the water, my sweetheart ; my Algonquin. VII. Nia I 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 -,var. .i.M:'.-f-' \y. n. %>:'■ ,. '•>. ,t »?■■, ,,'■,) ,i' yV' SHINGABA-WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES, The native tribes who occupy the borders of the great kkes, are very ingenious in converting to the uees of superstition, such masses of loos 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 ofna- ment. In the following figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, some of these masses are repre- sented. Number 3. was brought to the office of the Indian Agent at Michili- mackinac in 1839, and placed among objects of analogous 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 quartz" portion predominated, and had, by its superior hardness, r^ ' ited 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, sub- mitted to an equal force of attrition, such as is ordinarily givjen by the upheaving and rolling force of waves on a lake, or ocean beaclv 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 8 m SHINGABA WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES. i i !^ warrior, who is travelling along the coast, and finds one of these self- eculptured stones, is not sure that it is not a direct interposition of his God, or gus'dian 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 stag- gered 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 ope- rating cause of the respect he pays to the imitative rolled stones, which he calls Shingaba-wossins, and also by the general phrase of Maz-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 offer- ing 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 weie 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 bear- ing 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 a Indian might be supposed to have se- lected 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 •niles above the falls of St. Anthony. 1 landed at the point to see it, hav- q heard, from my interpreter, that such an object was set up and dedi- ■ated to some unknown Manito there. It was a pleasant level point of laiid 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 encircW it, at the first narrowed point of its circumference, to give it the refifeinblance of a human neck ; and there were some rude dabs to denote other features. The Indian is not precise in the matter oi SHINGABA WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES. 19 proportion, either in his d rawing, or in his attempts at statuary. He seizes upon some minute and characteristic trait, which is at once sufHcient to de- note 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 any thing else — certainly for any other object in the animal creation. which in 1832, cape, in 1000 it, hav- id dedi- )oint of •ubbery placed, ring of ence, to rude itter of THE TITLE PAGE OF THIS WORK. The various figures composing the borders of our title page are accu- rate copies from drawings made by western Indians, and are designed to be fully explained in future. Some introductory remarks will be neces- sary, to acquaint the reader with the objects and uses of the rude pictures of our savages. The subject will be new to him, as it has never been eorrectly and fully made known to the world. It is interesting, as it is made highly useful, and frequently resorted to for a variety of purposes. The drawings raay appear too simple and rude to merit attention ; but, like the few forms of our own alphabet, the ideas they are employed to represent render them objects well worthy of regard and of study. They will be found to be connected with the habits and chai acter, the supersti- tions, history and language of the peculiar race of men to whom they belong \ and, if we mistake not, will afford some illustrations or hints relating to the monuments and records of other and distant nations. The ways in which they are applied are various. They are sometimes mere guide-posts, sometimes epitaphs, histories or mnemonics, often con- nected with figurative meanings, and sometimes have a mysterious signif- icancy which cannot be unravelled without an acquaintance with some of the profoundest of Indian superetitions, which are reluctantly commu- nicated to a white man. This subject will have a very prominent place in our pages ; and we wish to acquaint the reader with a very interesting result towards which we shall begin, in this number, to conduct him, viz : the interpretation of the inscription or drawing on the celebrated Dighton Rock. The learned men of Sweden have recently displayed great zeal and industry, in their attempts to explain it as a work of their Northmen, the discoverers of the coast of New England about A. D. 1000 : but our readers, we believe, will soon be able to prove for themselves that it is a genuine specimen of Indian picture writing, and to comprehend the prin- ciples on which it has been interpreted by some aged Western Indians, at the request of Mr. Schoolcraft. His remarks on Picture writing, inserted in the present number of this magazine, are intended as an introduction to that extensive and interesting department of inquiry on which we are en> tering.— £. • m vt* ?.-v '.■fi'i'y.o'Jt : il i. 'recept in teaching an Indian. Tell h'.Ti 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. . ^-zr>^ PERSONAL REMINISCENCES RELATIVE TO THE OFnCIAL CONNECTION OF THE WRITER WITH THE: ABORIGINAL RACE. It is now twenty-six years since I first entered the ; .ea of the Missiff- sippi valley, with the view of exploring its then hnt imperfectly known features, geographical and geological. Twenty-two years of thi» 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 In- dian tribes in the west. Having devoted so large a portion of my life in an active sphere, in which the intervals of travel left Tie favourable oppor- tunities 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 remarbs, to ap- prise the reader bow and why it is, that his attention is recalled to a topic which he may have supposed to be well nigh exhaustedr This it is pro- posed to do by some brief personal reminiscences, beginBing at the time above alluded to. The year 1814 constituted a cri»s, 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 eonse- quences, 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 pecuUarity of the crisis, that these persons had been stimulated by double motives, to invest their capital and skill in the perfecting and estab- lishment of the manufactories referred to, by the actunl 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 v.as 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 mr.y, however, it fell with crushing force upon that branch in which I was jngaged. As soon as the American ports were opened to these fabric:;, 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 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 23 HabitB 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 pleas- ing 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 pre- pared 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 Tvould not go down so. The result of seven years of strenuous exertions, applied with persevering diligence and suc- cess, 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 suppiltd by another quarter. I turned my thoughts to the west, and diligently read all I could find on the subject. The resuh 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 Aileghanies. 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 observtition attractive scenes for settlement ; and the sword was no sooner c»st aside, than emi- grants seized hold of the axe and the plough. This result was worth the cost of the whole contest, honour and glory included. The total prostra- tion of the moneyed s j'stem 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 terri- tories of Wisconsin and Iowa, and the mo/e 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 ; 24 PERSONAL REMINISCENCE!. It. ■''' ,', (.■' Till some sunny spot invite me, Till some guardian bid me bide. " Snow or tempest — plain the drearest Shall oppose a feeble bar, I't' • Since I go from friends the dearest, ■■.. , :..•■■ IS 'Tis no matter then how far. •" ' " On ! — 'tis useless here to dally ; On I — 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 pre- pared 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, fvom 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 in quiries, (which I followed with ardour but with very slight helps,) to add to this some knowledge of elementary chemistry and experimental philos* ophy, 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 roach. 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 depart- ments. He was a man strongly devoted to some of the natural sciences, particularly mineralogy ; and was erudite in the old authors on the sub- ject, whom he liked to quote ; and I may say that I continued to enjoy his confidence and mendship 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, Ver- mont 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 Con- necticut 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 teiw-..^ PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 25 •;-■'? my 'cr- isis in )n- he !se 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 col- lection Oi 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 mate- rials. I had connected these things in some way with my future success. In other ^Faspects, I had the means, as above hinted, of making a respect- able 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 tc 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 em- phasis, " 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, ftlE INDIAN LANGVA0E8. ii^': 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 aa 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 towed and man- aged 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 Alle- ghanies. The tone, air, and masculine strength of these girl-boatmen, reminded me of nothing this side of RoUin'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 Monon- gahela ; but long before this point, the stream is one of noble dimensions, clear, broad, and strong. After a voyage of exciting and vi' id interest, I reached and landed at Pittsburgh. {To be eontinued.) "' '" THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. Most persons are not acquainted with the nature of the languages of our Indians. Many of them are so entirely different that no words have been found alike in them. At the same time, they are all formed on a plan so diflferent from ours, and indeed from other common languages, that our rules of grammar give us very little assistance in investigating them. But there are some very important particulars in which they are all alike, that is, they, have a few simple roots, and certain short sounds to express time, number and other circumstances, and these are put together in a manner generally similar throughout North and South America. This renders many of the words very long : but every syllable is ex- pressive. To analyze Indian words, therefore, is a very interesting exercise ; and as we are invited to it by the names of many places and objects connected with our national history, and with the endearing associations of child- hood, it is to be presumed that some of our readers will require nothing but the opportunity to direct some attention to the subject. Many books exist which attempt to trace some of the Indian Jangua- g6$ to those of other nations, but most of them were written by persons unacquainted with their construction, and guided only by the sounds of a few words, written by others incorrectly, or in an uncertain manner. Good gramihars of some of the languages exist ; and the American Bible Society has published parts of the scriptures in several Indian tongues. The reader is referred for more particular information to Mr. Duponceau's and Mr. Gallatin's works on this subject, as well as to some of Mr. Schoolcraft's former publications. — E. ,vv.r«'i 1 J V A'- > •' I'' '*•'• :^ CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING, AND TIU BYSTKH OF MNEMONIC SYMBOLS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. M'f CHAPTER I. rREUMINART REMARKS. — SYMBOUCAL REFREBENTATIONB AND HIEROaLTPHIOB, ONE OF THE EARLIEBT OBSERVED TRAITS IN THE CUSTOMS AND ARTS OK THE AMERICAN ABORI- GINES ; BUT THIS ART NOT BUBPECTED TO HAVE A SYSTEMATIC rORM AMONG THE RUDE HUNTER TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA, UNTIL THE YEAR 1620, WHEN IT WAS DIS- COVERED ON THE SOURCE OF THE HIBSIBSirFI. THIS INSTARCB OIVEN, WITH A DRAW* JNO: 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 north- erly 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 devi- ces are cut, or drawn in colours on the trunks of trees, more rarely on rocks or boulders. According to Golden 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 Atlan- tic 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 cf these simple and unenduring monuments. Pictures and symbols of this kind are now to be found only on the unreclaimed bor- ders 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 Missis- sippi. 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 Algon- quin 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 m 28 ART OF PICTURE WRITING. on observations of this kind, will find figures and rude hieroglyphics in- variably 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 bufTalo. North of latitude 42°, the bark of the birch, which furnishes at once the mate- rial of canoes, tents, boxes, water-dippers, and paper, constitutes the com- mon 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 Sus- quehanna, of an Indian map, drawn on stone, with intermixed devices, a copy of which appears in the 1st volume of the collections of the Histor- ical 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. Golden, in his history of the Five Nations, * 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 IndSns 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 in- form 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 Mo hawks 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 acc')unt of the nations of Canada, makes observations on this subject to whicl'i 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 Al- gonquin 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 tradi- • London, 1747, p. 190. THE ART OP PICTURE WRITING* 39 tion had fa.Iod 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 dis- junctive, yet generally connected ideas, were denoted ; or that the most prom- inent 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 sym- bolic 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 frontiem, and of persons exercising occasional duties in civil life, who have passed through their territories. But there is no clasti of p^mns 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 re- mark. 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, /here was an Indian grave fenced around v/ith saplings, and protected with much care. At its head stood a post, or tabular stick, upon w xich 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 9^ THE ART OP PICTURE WKTING. the Mississippi, tlie way led through heavy and dense woods and swamps, and the weather proved dark and rainy, so that, for a couple of days to- gether, 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 tb'i swamp. The next morning as we prepared to leave the camp, a small sheet of birch bark containing de- vices 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 interoreter, to be a symbolic record of the circum- stances of o rv ^ ^i if:- ;■ ; -X ■ '' . Ji-., "^i AA ] A y^ - \\ ryv v-r&y v A fX "^-' ,A/^ Fig. No. 1. represents the subaltern officer in command of tne party of the U. S. troops. He is drawn with a sword to denote hv. ofHcial THE ART OF PICTURE WRITINO. 31 rank. No. 2 denotes the person who officiated in quality of Secretary, He is represented holding a book. No. 3 denotes the geologist and min- eralogist of the party. He is drawn with a hammer. Nos. 4 and 5 are attaches ; No. 6, the interpreter. The group of figures marked 9 represents eight mfantry soldiers, each of whom, as shown in group No. 10, was armid with a musket. No. 15 denotes that they had a separate fire, and constituted a ssparate 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 sum- mit. These are the only human figures on this unique bark letter, who are drawn without a hat. This was the characteristic seissed on, by thom, and generally employed by the tribes, to distinguish the Red from the white race. Figures 1 1 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 tha head of the portage Aux Couteaux on the St. i •« river, to the open shores of Sandy lake, the Ka-ma-ton-g'^-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 counlryrven, who might thance 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 succcissful 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 these contrivances whicli they denominate Man-i-to-wa-teg, or Manito Poles. On reaching this our guides shouted, whether from a supersti- tious impulse, or the joy of having found a spot they certainly could rec- ognize, we could not tell. We judged the latter. It consisted of eight Doles, 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 .Tiedicine lodge. There had been far more care in its construction. " " ' ' •* On leaching the vllhge of Sandy lake, on the upper Mississippi, the figures of animals, birds, and other devices were found, on the rude cof- fins, or wrappings of their dead, which were scafTolded around the pre- cincts 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 K m THE ART OP PICTURE WRITING. 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 rodky 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 negocia- tion for bringing about a permanent peace between the Sioux and Chippe* was. 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 "ve the name of the Chief who- had led ihe party, and the number of his followers, and gave that chief the first assurance he had, that his mis- sion for the same purpose, wouU be favourably received. After our arrival at St. Anthony's Falls, it was found tha* this system of picture writmg 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 Win- nebagoes, at Chicago among the P*. towottomies, and at Michilimakinac, among the Chippevvas 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 Manomonee tribe, who had been known by his French name of Toma, i. e. Thomas. He had been buried on the hill west ol the village ; ano on looking at his Ad-je-da-tig or grave post, it bore a pictorial inscription, commemoratmg some of the prominent achievements of his life. These hints served to direct my attention to the subject when I returned to the countiy 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 cor^'ersant 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 syjtem went no farther, the record would yield a kind of in- formation both gratifying and useful to one of his countrynten who had THE ART OP PICTURE WRITING. 33 no letters and was expert in the use of symbols ; and the interpreiation 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 ii telli gence, and well versed in their customs, religion, and history, that a more enlarged application of it appeared to be practicable. I observed in ti 9 hi nds 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 tOj 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 cu- rious scheme of symbolic notation. All the figures thus employed, as the initiatory points of study, related exclusi vf ly to either the medicine dance, or the wabeno dance ; and each sectir f ■<'-T-\ci?.s, related exclusively to one or the other. There was no inteTf: . ' a: commingling of characters, although the class of subjects were soil)' iVj common to each. It was perceived, subsequently, that this classificati , ;. of symbols extended to the songs devoted to war, to hunting, and to other specific topics. The entire inscriptive system, reach- ing 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 magi- cir IS and prophets, derived a new interest from this feature. It was easy to perceive that much comparav^.e precision was impacted to interpreta- tions in the hands of the initiated, which before, or to others, had very liti. . An interest was thus cast over it dit'inct from its noirelty. And in f u»^, the e-^^re pictorial system was thus invested with the character of as lOjject of acurate investigation, which promised both interest and in- struction. 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 5 34 'I THE ART OP PICTURE WRITING. I !" of the system, after much reflection, it is thought, however, that a few re- marks 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 for communicating ideas, but it is the mode of communicating all classes of ideas commonly entertained hy 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 ob- jects, their ideas of immortality and a future state, and the prevalent no- tions of the union of spiritual and material matter. So wide and varied, indeed, is the range ope '. W the subject, that we may consider the In- dian system of picture wk( ' 'he thread which ties up the scroll of the Red man's views of lilt .1 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 hio 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 Ain, the idea of a supreme, all-seeing intelligence. But he is not pre- pared 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 succesr 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 suc- cess 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 foirh the Indian intellect, it stands in the place of letters for the Unishinaba. * It shows the Red man in all pe- riods 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 * A generic term denoting the common people of the Indian race. GRAVE CREEK MOUND. been beyond a few external customs, such as dress, &.C., any appreciable and permanent change in the Indian character since Columbus first djxjpped anchor at the island of Guanahana. (To be contir ;d.) 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 sepul- chral 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 o^ 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 ro- tunda 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 n^and, They sweep away our pleasant land, And bid us, as sonlie giant-foe, Or willing, or unwilling go ! But they must ope our very graves To tell the def'- they too, are slaves." -'1 X "i i: :\is Ut'J hm T£r> « %\ \ r#* GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OF THE U. STATES, DERIVED FROM THE INDIAN LANGVAGE. T^ae Extracts are made from " CydopcBdia tndiaenfU " a MS. work in preparatUn. 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 '•iver was called Shatemuc — which is believed to be a de- rivative 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 Ijenni Lenape, or Delawares proper, called it Mobicanittuck — 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 in- terpreters 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 Aa, thrown in between, Hatatea is clearly one of those de- scriptive and aiBrmative 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 Iro- quois, the river was called Sanataty. Albany. — The name by which this place was Imown 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 '^a the first, and the accent strongly on the second syllable, the third and lou^^h being pronounced rapidly and short. The transference of this name, to its present location, by the Eng lish, 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 connecteu 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 appeam to have been called Gaishtinic. The Mohegans, who long continued to occupy the present area of Rens- selear 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 GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OF THE U. STATES. 37 name, aa having \ of the Minci, e above ishtinic. Rens- say, the 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. Yatea, 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 pre- conception. 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-d-tun-ong : both terms sig- nify 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 other- wise inattentive to the courscsi, 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 ia 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. Fiom the Chacta words tushka, a warrior, and lusa black. — (Gallatin.] AuAGisKE, the Iroquois name for Virginia. AssARiGOA, the name of the Six Nations for the Governor of Virginia. OwENAouNGAS, a general name of the Iroquois for the New England Indians. Oteseonteo, a spring which is the head of the river Delaware. ■ p 111 38 GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OP THE V. STATES. Ontonagon ', a considerable river of lake Superior, noted from early times, for the large mass of native copper fotind on its bankit^, This name is said to have been derived from the foUowhig incident. It is known that there is a small bay and dead vrater for some distance within it3 mouth. In and out of this embayed water, the kke alternately flows, ac* cording to the influence of the winds, and other causes, npon its leveK An Indian woman had left her wooden dis)», or Onag&n, 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 cmious piece of workmanship. That is to say — Alas ! my dish f Chuah-nah-whah-hah, or Valley of the Mountains. A new pass in the Rocky Mountains, discovered withirt 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 way^^ buf the eastern stream dries early in the season, while there is a continuous flow of water west. In its course, it has severpl beautiful, but low cascades, andierminates in a placid and delightful stream. This pass is now used by emigrants. Aqvidneck. — The Narragansett name for Rhode Island. Roger Wi^ liams observes, that he could never obtain the meaning of it from the na- tives. The Dutch, as appears by a map of Novi Belgii published at Am*- sterdam ha 1659, calkd it Roode Eylant, or Red Island, from the autum- nal colour of its foliage. The present term, as is noticed, m Vol. III. of the Collections of the R. I. Hist. Soc. is derived from thi?. Incapatchow, a beautifal lake in the mounta'ins at the sources of the river Hudson. — [Charles F. Hoffinan, Esq.} Housatonic ; a river originating in the south-western part of Massa:- chusetts, and flowing through the State of Connecticut into Long Island Sound, at Stratford It i& a term of Mohegan origin. This tribe orr retiring eastward from the bank9 of the HudsfOn, 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 ott, the notarial sign of wudjo, a mountain, atun, a generic phrase for stream or channel, and re, the inflecti'on 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 deriva- tive from Wa-we-a, round, i. e. any thing rotmd or crooked, in the inani- mate creation. Ma-hai-we ; The Mohegan term, as given by Mr. Bryant [N. Y. E. P.l for Great Barrington, Berkshire County^ Massachusetts. GEOGRAPHICAL TEUMINOLOOY OP THE U. STATES. 39 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 th« 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 Hillu. 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 Eng- land-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 deriva- tive from tribes still farther south. The general meaning given by Wil- liams seems, however, to be sustained, so far aa can now be judged. The terminations in eti, 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.] Mono, 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 succesful, in this en- terprize, he had promised his younger sister. [Such are the leading events symbolized by this inscription, of which extracts giving full details, as in- terpreted by an Indian chief, now living, and read before the Am. Ethno- logical 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 Eng'^nd, as printed 10 AMERICAN ANTiaVITIES, ETC. on the Amsterdam map of 1659, in which it is stated that it was thus " hy 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 applica- tion of the word, it is perceived that the French were not alone m the use they made of the apparently derivative term "Iroquois," which they gave to the (then) Five Nations. AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. It is desirable that all the remains of the original inhabitants of our soil, which are discovered, should be preserved. We know, from frequent ex- amples, that many persons in our country feel an interest in such objects ; but they are scattered individuals, and seldom found together or in cor- respondence with each other. Probably one such person might be met with in almost every neighborhood ; but it is difficult to keep up much interest in a subject to which others around us are indifferent We wish to have it generally understood, that American antiquities are worthy of attention and study, and that they are rising in importance in the opinions of many intelligent people, both at home and abroad. We urgently invite all, who have the opportunity, to collect and preserve ob- jects connected with history, to seek for local traditions and record them with the evidences, and to forward to the editor of this work, by private h .nds, such information with local names, queries &c. — E. The influence of association is benign, if it be but the association of barba.ians. Were it not for woman, the Indians would be as reckless savages as the animals they hunt. The duty of caring for others, teaches the hunters to care for them- selves. If the Indian female be compared to a shadow, it is a shadow which reflects the softer outlines of the substance. There is a grace and mod. esty in the rudest female of the forest. Ridicule is very powerful on the mind of art Indian. He can bear the iaggot, better than the taunt of laughter. I knew an instance of a young Saganaw, who took up a pot ladle and fractured the skull of an elderly hunter, because the latter laughed at him, for a great swelling that had taken place on a part of his body, owing to a fall from a tree. > it •o INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. No. I. The North American tribes have the elements of music and poetry. Their vvar songs frequently contain flights of the finest heroic sentiment, clothed in poetic imagery. And numbers of the addresses of the speak- ers, both occasional and public, abound in eloquent and poetic thought. " We would anticipate eloquence," observes a modern American writer, " from an Indian. H" '.as animating remembrances— a poetry of lan- guage, which exacts rich and apposite metaphorical allusions, even for ordinary conversation — a mind which, like his body, has never been trammelled and mechaaized 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 litera* ture, 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 char- acteristic 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 ap- pealed to, as evidences of the current opinion, on these heads. With fa- vourable opportunities of observation among the tribes, we have but to add our testimony to the difficuUies of making collections in these depart- ments, 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 remote- ness of the points at which observations must be made, the heavy demands made upon hours of leisure or business by such inquiries, and the incon- venience of making notes and detailed memoranda on the spot. The little that it is in our power to offer, will therefore be submitted as contri- butions 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 instru- ments. 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 6 42 INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. which has been persevered in, with the least variation, through all phases of their history, and probably exists among the remote tribes, pr cisely at this time, as it did in the era of Columbus. It is observed to be the last thing abandoned by bandi and individualA, 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 in- struments 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 (hem, which is not attended with dancing and songs. Thanks are thus ex- pressed for Success in hunting, for triumphs in war, and for ordinary providential cares. I^dblic opinion is called to pressing objects by a dunce, 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, when- ever 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 tradi* tions, and general lore of the tribes. ' Dancing is thus interwoven throughout the whole texture of Indian so- ciety, 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 con- fined 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 slum- bers of the child, which, being suspended in a kind of cradle receives, at the same time avibratory 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 ficti- tious tales, are always sung in the recital. '^ Their instruments of music are few and simple. The only wind in- strument existing among them is the Pibbegwon, a kind of fiute, resem- bling 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 INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETHt. 43 Pr 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'eoun, (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 heavieif sound is required, a tree of larger circumference is chosen, and both ends closed with skins. The latter is called Mittiqwvkeek, i. e. Wood-Kettle-Drum, and is appro- priately used in religious ceremonies, but is nut, perhaps, confined to this occasion. To these may be added a fourth instrument, called the Shesheowon, or Rattle, which is constructed in various ways, according to the purpose or means of the maker. Sometimes it ie made of animal bladder, from which the name is derived, sometimes of a wikl gourd ; in others, by at- taching the dried hoofs of the deer to a stick. This instrument is em^ ployed both to mark time, and to produce variety in sounds ORAL COMPOSITIOP^. Common as the Indian songs are, it is found to be no otdinary acqui- sition to obtain acc^urate specimens df them. Even after the difficulties of the notation have been accompHshed, it is not easy to satisfy the re- quisitions of a correct (aste 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 sleep- ing suspicion, or the superstitious fear of disclosure, o."> the part of the Indian. To these must be added, the idiomatic and imaginative peculiari' ties of this species of wild composition — so very difTereilt from every no- tion 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 arid the description, when introduced, is very imperfect, broken, or disjointed. Prominent ideas flash out, and are dropped. These are often most striking and beauti- ful, but we wait in vain for any sequence. A brief allusion — a shinin g 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 com- position to indicate the leading theme which is, as it were, kept in mental reserve, by the singer. Popular, or favourite expressions are often re- peated, often transposed, and often exhibited with some new shade of meaning. The structure and flexibility of the language is highly favour- able to this kind of wild improvisation. But it is difBcult to translate, and next to impossible to preserve its spirit. Two languages moro 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 44 INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 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 woida. So that to find equivalent single words in translation, appears often as hope- less as the quadrature of the circle. The great storc-hc ;ie of Indian imagery is the heavens. Ihe clouds, the planets, the eun, and moon, the ^jhenomena of lightning, thunuo'. elec- tricity, aerial sounds, electric or atmospheric, and the endless var'cly pro- duced in the htavens by light and shade, and by elemental actio i, — 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 can 'rase, 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 bra- very, and their wing and tail feathers are appropriated as marks of honor, by the successful v/arrior. 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 tu the agency of thijs class of birds. Hence the frequent allusions to them, in their songs. The following stanza is made up of expressions brought into con- nection, from difllerent fragments, but expresses no more than the native sentiments : ■ , • '1^1 The eagles scream on high, - ■ • "■ •'!• They whet their forked beaks, ii ' .' Raise — raise the battle cry, ■' 'Tis farae our leader seeks. Generally the expressions are of an exaked and poetic character, but the remark before made o)" their efforts in song, bei.ig 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 car- nagt: 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. r. , . iifDiAN MUSIC, Bonaa, and poetry. 45 Very little efTort in the collocation and e'-pansion of some of their senti- ments, would impart to these bold and unfettered raphsodies, ar 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 ^.re marked by all the fluc- tuation of extempore composition, the air and the chorus appear to be per- manent, consisting not only of a graduated succession of fixed sounds, but, always exact in their enanciation, their quantity, and their wild and startling musical expression. It has always appeared to me that the In- dian music is marked by a nationality, above many other traits, and it is t subject inviting future attention. It is certain that the Indian ear is ex- act 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 cf unmeasured and fluctuating poetry in their songs, it may require studied attention to answer. It is to be ob- served, 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 cho- ruses and the character of the music, will prove one of the greatest facil- ities to this inquiry. Most of the graver pieces, which have been written out, are arranged in metres of sixes, "evens, and eights. The lighter chants are in threes or fours, and consist of iambics and trochees irregu- larly. Those who have translated hymns into the various languages, have followed the English metres, not always without the necessity of elis- ion, or employing constrained or crampt modes of expression. A worse system could not have been adopted to show Indian sentimen The mu- sic 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 oflen far from being literal, and often omit parts of the original. On the other hand, by throwing away adjectives, in a great degi-ee, and droppjnfif all incidental or side thoughts, and confining the Indian to the leading thought or sentiment, they are, sometimes, rendered more simple, appropriate, and efTective. 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, ihat the native compositions were without metre. The natives appear to have sung a sufficient number of syllables to comply with the air, and efTecced the necessary pauses, for sense or sound, by either slurring over, *4f . INDIAN MUSIC, aONG8, AND POETRY. i^ 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 vo- cabulary ie 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 havt been ob- served ir. the native songs are few, and appear to be the result of the for tuitous positions of words, rather than o{ art. The following juvenile see-saw is one of the most perfect specimens noticed, being esaict in both particulars : Ne ogh im aun Ne way be naun. r' v" <: •'vrt '.'^.-^o 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 " "s'^ . .•- J _ 1 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 tog 1* S'tr f, ,. I , . .-; Ne mud wa wa wau we ne g6g. •.•:'' • ■ s" The Spirit on high, . .- . ; . , •: ■: Repeats my warlike name. , , , In the translation of hymns, made during the modern period of mis- sionary effort, there has been no general attempt to secure rhyme ; and as these translations are generally due to educated natives, under the inspec- tion 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 acci- dent. Eliot, who translated the psalms of David into the Massachusetts language, which were first printed in 1661, appears to have deemed it im- portant enough to aim at its attainment : but an examination of the work, now before us, gives but little encouragement to others to follow his ex- ample, at least while the languages remain in their present rude and un- cultivated state. The following is the XXIII Psalm from this version : -. . 1. Mar teag nukquenaabikoo '' ■ shepse nanaauk God. ' Nussepsinwahik ashkoshqut . ' nuttinuk ohtopagod • ' : < ■ INDIAN MUSIC, SONOS, AND POETRY. 2. Nagum nukketeahog kounoh ^• wutomohkinuh wonk NutusB Qounuk ut sampoi may newutch ocwesnoDk. 3. Wutonkauhtamut pomuishaon muppooonk oonauhkoe Woskehettuonk mo nukqueh tamoo newutch koowetomah : 4. Kuppogkojtnunk kutanwohon nish noonenehikquog Koonochoo hkah auquabhettit wame nummatvvomog 6. Kussussequnum nuppuhkuk weeteputnmee nashpea Wonk woi God nootallamwaitch pomponetupobs hau 47 6. OOniyeuonk monaneteonk • ■ • nutasukkonkqunash ■ ■ Tohsohke pomantam wekit God -^^ " ' " ' 'V-' *■ michem nuttain pish *. '^ This appears to have been rendered from the version of the psalms ap- pended to an old edition of King James' Bible of 1611, not from the versification of Watts. By comparing it with this, as exhibited below, there will be found the same metre, eights and sixes, luc aame 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 re- quired 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 con- nection with his entire version, including the Old and New Testament, evinces a degree of patient assiduity on the part of that eminent mission- ary, which is truly astonishing : The Lord is my shepherd, I'll not want ; • r ■ '^; * ■ 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 rignteousness . E'en for his own name's sake. . Eliot employed the fipire 8, set horizontally, to exprew a peonliar Mnad : otherwiN h« used the English alphabet in its ordinary powers. ^ ,, , , . F 1 j - ii . ^8 INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 1 I - i; 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 ray cup overflows. f ! 6. Goodness and mercy all my life 1! shall surely follow me ; And in God'n 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 succeedo'l.- does not come up, in any respect, to the full literal meaning of the origi- nal, which is well preserved, with the requisite hai.-nony, in the old ver- sion. There is one species of oral composition existing among all the tribes^ which, from its peculiarities, deserves to be separately mentioned. I al- lude to the hieratic chants, choruses and incantations of their professed prophets, medicine men and jugglers — constituting, as these men do, ad«s. tinct order in Indian society, who are entitled by their supposed skill, wis- dom or sanctity, to exercise the offices of a priesthood. Affecting mys- tery in the discharge of their functions, their songs and choruses ara couchef' in language which is .studiously obscure, oftentimes cabalistic, and generally not well understood by any but professed initiates. ?'othing, however, in this department of my inquiries, has opened a more pleasing view of society, exposed to the liitter vii issitudes of Indian life, than the little domestic chants of mothers, and tht poetic see-saws of children, of which specimens are furnished. These show the universal- ity of the sentiments of natural affection, and supply another proof, were any wanting, to demonstrate that it is only ignorance, indolence and pov- erty, 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 in- dustry, order and cleanlinesis, there is no doubt that the mass of 1 lian society would be meliorated in a comparatively short period ; and by a continuance of efforts soon e.xalted 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 INOIAlf MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 49 are submitted as facts or materials, in the mental condition of the tribes, and not as evidences of attainment ia 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 senti- ments to account, in original composition. No such idea is entertainer.. If materials be supplied from which some judgment maybe 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 it less, with the exception of a single department, i. e. versification and com- position 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 dis- proportionate to the result. It is hoped at least, that it may indicate the mode in whkh such collections may be made, among the tribes, and be- come 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 esti- mate placed on the literary value of these contributions, and translations, while the main object is, to exhibit them in the series, as illustrations of liie mental peculiarities of the tribes. To dismiss them, however, with a bare, frigid word for word translation, such as is required for the pur- poses 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. sses hey 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 con- necting 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 Ameri- can Indian, {I ■J (i EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. It I' )f 1 1' <» " :lti \ %^ ■'/■( t, PISKARET There lived a noted chief on the north banks of the St. Lawrence in he latter part of the 16th century, who wa« called by the Iroquois, Piskaret, but the true pronunciation of whose name, by his own people, was Bisco- nace, 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 prac- tice among this people to conceal their real names, from a subtle, supersti- tious 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 diiTered 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 peo- ple 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 distin- guished 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 repu- tation 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. Law- Tence, below Montreal, and carried on his wars against the Indians inhabit- ing 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 l5th century and the beginning of the I6th, and at this time the people be- gan to derive great power and boldness, from the. possession of fire arms, with which the French supplied them, before thbir southern and western neighbours came to participate in this great improvement, this striking era of the Red man, in the art of war. Golden 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 warriorai, and hunters, and manufactured arms and canoes, with great skill. They I; ■f'^ EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. w 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 Iro- quois 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 ia 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 pre- eminence. It was in that early period of the history of these nations that Bisconace exerted his powei^ 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 Br» astonishing. With only four chiefs to aid him, he left Trois Rivieres, on one occa- sion, in a single canoe, with fifteen loaded muskets, thus giving three pieces, to each man. Each piece was charged with two balls, joined jya small chain ten inches long. Soon after entering the Sorel river, he en- countered 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 dis- parity 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 accasion 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 v^as mehing, 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 en- tered 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 da^ 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. Pis* i ii Ijxi.. lf» EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. karet, anticipating this, gathered up his scalps, and stole forth slyly, but found the inhabitants of every lodge on the alert, save one, where the sen* tinel 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 ia himself was found in the fact that he was the swiflest 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 Wy- andots, or to adopt the ancient terms, the Adirondaks and duatoghies. These latter they defeated in a great battle, fought within two miles of Q,uebec. 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 sooa 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 deci- sive 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 tri- umph on ihe 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 oflf his head, and carried it to the Iro- quois army. To have killed him, was regarded as an assurance of ulti- mate 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 Wabmeka, on the north side of the St. Lawrence. They immedi- rv ^:■^:■'^e.\■' 1 r:\RLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. 63 ately 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 Hu- ron, to which they imparted their name. Some of the Adirondaks took shelter near duebec, 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 hud 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 Michili- mackinac, and pushed them even to Lake Superior, where for many years, this ancient tribe continued to dwell. to eat Iti- 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. t 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 be- come a christian. '.{:■.' JM . ; t ' ' HISTORICAL TRADITIONS. THE SAUSTAWRAYTSEES, OR I. ,; THE ORIGIN OU THE WYANDOT AND SENECA TKIBE3. I \l^ 4 m I'll ii A WYANDOT TRADITION. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, a body of Indians, com- posed of the Wyandots (or as they weie then called the Saus-taw-ray' tsee) and Seneca tribes inhabited the borders of Lake Ontario. The pre- sent 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 attrac- tions, 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 in- dication of a preference shown by Oon-yay-stee to himself, upon which to found a reasonable hope of uUimately succeeding, it was finally deter- mined, 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 advan cing the interests of another to the prejudice of their own, as to avoid tht 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, capablf of containing 20 or 30 families, the domestic arrangements of which wer« regulated by a war chief, acknowledged as the head of that particular sub- ordinate band. Many objections to the task imposed on him by this proposition were HTSTOHICAL TRADITIONS. 55 interposed by the chief, the principal of which were, the great disparity of age and the utter futility of any further attempt, upon the aflections of one «o obdurate of heart. The first was obviated by some well applied com- mendations of his person, and the second yielded to the suggestion that women were often en ricious, were not always influenced by considera- tions 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 them- selves, 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 hhn in its accomplishment, and sustain him against its consequences to the last extremity. It was re- served for 80 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 condition- ally 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 afTection should ever prevail with him to desist, imprecating the vengeance of Hau-men-dee-zhoo, 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 Avhom she desig- nated, 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 con- fidence 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. m^ HISTORICAL TRADITIONS. '4i- . An hour had hardly elapsed, before the infuriated Wynndot blackened his fiice, entered the Seneca Village, tomahawked and scalped his friend, and as he rushed out of the lodge shouted the scalp-whoop. In the dark- ness of the night his person could not bo distinguished, and he was chal- lenged by a Seneca to whom he gave his name^ purpose, and u defiance and then continued his flight. But before it had terminated, the long mournful scalp-whoop of the Senecas was resounding through the Wy- andot Village; and the chief had hardly joined in the furious conflict that ensued between the avengers of his murdered victim and his own retain- ers, before ne 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 inf iriated ^nemy. Those who were kfl, 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 eiTorts 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 de- stroy each other, like so many beasts of the forest. These resuhed gene- rally 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 arul exterminating character, closed this long and merciless conte.'st. 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 Hu- ron 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 Wyan- dot 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 de- spatched 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 hail 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 EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. 67 the nearest point of land in wooden canoes. Immediately the war-whoopa were sounded and the hostile bands began to chnn* 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 ni rows, and aAer 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 man- gled 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. Onf ?f 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. Thu£, say the Wyandots, originated this long, bloody and disastrouB war, and thus it terminated after proving nearly the ruin of our nation. HO-TSHUNG-RAH. Uppn- Sandusky, J^arch 1st, 1827. EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. The oldest books we possess written by the first observers of our In- dians 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 unimportar.t passages in a few places, marked with asterisks. £. 8 ff s* m I ii 58 ■ \ EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. From " New England Pro$pectt" CHAPTER XIX. «F TUm WOUN, THKIR DIBPOttTIONS, EMPLCYMENTS, U8A0S BY THKIR BIMBANDS, THEIR ATPAREIX, AND M0DE87V. To satire the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might thiuke 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 bailance of these ruder Indians, who scorne the tuterings of their wives, or to admit them as their equals, though their qualities and indus- trious deservings may justly claime the preheminence, and command bet- ter 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, whoP«i 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 U come both fierce and long, neither can the piercing North winde, finde a crannie, through which he can conveigh his cooling breath, they be warmc 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 renson of heate and occasions. In Winter they make some fiftie or thcieescore 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 come, wherein ihpy 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 tufTering a choaking weede to advance his audacious head above their in- &nt corne, or an undermining worme to spoile his spumes. Their come 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 brtisse pot, seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their come, cover- ing 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 un< hindge their barne doores, and robbe their garners, they are glad to inv EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. 69 Sng- kere rein leir I not in- Irne It to irer- i fho ley lini plore their husbands helpe to route the bodies of trees over their boles, to prevent those pioners, whose theeverie they as much hate as their flesh. An other of their employments is their Summer processions to get Lob< sters 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, tliey 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 f&rre 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 aitd prime, they drie them to keepe for Winter, erecting sca^olds in the hot aun-shine, making fires likewise underneath them, by whose smoake the fiies 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 houseat and Hempe and rushes, with dying stufife 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 thnir 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 bear one of these Indians unseene, a 60 EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. u ^^; good eare might easily mistake their untaught voyce for the warbling of a well tuned instrument. Such command have they of their voices. . \,^i . • • • • • • Commendable is their milde carriage and obedience to their husbands, not- withstanding all this their customarie churlishnesse and salvage inhu- manitie, 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 un- der 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 condemns 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 condetpne the English for their folly in spoyling good working creatures. These women resort often to the English houses, where pares cum paribus congregates *, 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 blus- ter, the English woman betakes her to her armes which are the war- like 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 historic, 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, Cher- ries, Plummes, Fish, and other such gifts as their poore treasury yeelds them. But now it may be, that this relation of the churlish and inhu- mane 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 sub- jection, as to sit on the lower hand, and to carrie water and the like drudgerie : but if my own experience may outballance an illgrouiiOed 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 Eng- land doe the same ; witnosse your London Tankard-bearers, and your countrie-cottagers ? But this may well be knovvne to be nothing, but the rancorous venome of some that b^are 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 con- cerning the relation of these Indians Squawes. * Equals aseembled with equals. CHANT TO THE FIREFLY. In the hot summer evenings, the children of the Chippewa Algon- quins, 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 fol- lowing succession of words was caught. They were addressed to this insect : Wau wau tay see ! , .{ • >, ^ * i, , . Wau wau tay seel ,. , i . . E mow e shin Tshe bwau ne baun-e wee ! Be eghdun — be eghaun — .wee! • • 'w Wa Wau tay see ! ' • ' J Wa wau tay see I ; 3 : . .' : . • ^ 'I Was sa koon ain je gun ,. , f ^ -, , > Was sa koon ain je gun. LITERAL TRANSLATION. Flitting-white-fire-insect ! waving-white-fire-bug ! give me light before 1 go to bed ! give me light before I go to sleep. Come, little dancing •- vi'hite-fire-bug ! Come little flitting-white-fire-beast ! Light me with your bright vvhite-flame-instrument — your little candle f- Metre there was none, at least, of a regular character : they were the wild improvisations of children in a merry mood. ng- our the •'or I his of Ion- • In giving the particle wa, the various meanings of «' flitting," " waving," and " dancing," the Indian idiom is fully preserved. The final particle sei), in the terra wa wa tai see, is from the generic root asee, meaning u 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 8a koon ain je gun, is literally rendered from its elements — " bright — white — flamed — instrument." It is by the very concrete cnamcter of these compounds that bo much moaning results from a few words, and so considerable a latitude in tTunslatton is given to Indian words generally. :. v ^ 1 [t Fire-fly, fire-fly ! bright little thing. Light me to bed, and my song I will sing. , , r ;, Give me your light, as you fly o'er my head, That I may merrily go to my bed. ' ■ ' ' Give me your light oVr the grass as yon 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. .. r,.. 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, ' ' ' ' ' , . .. ji, Come, and I'll pay you, my bug, with a song.] .,, . «ii » 1 «. A. t . .- J . ; I ii^? M INDIAN ARROW HEADS, &c. Bt far the most numerous relics of the Red Race, now found in those parts of our countrj' from which it has disappeared, are the small stonef 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 hard- ness and i'Tiperishable nature. Muhitudes 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 pre- servation, as well by the skilfulno'-' 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 sand- stone, 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 comer of Front and Mill streets. The spot was indeed on the bank of the Little River, pro- bably at the head of Indian Canoe navigation : but yet no rational con* jecture could be formed, to account for the discovery, except one. It was con- cluded 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 coun- try. About two miles below Middletown, Connecticut, on the slope of a \ INDIAN ARROW HEADS, ETC. 63 lirty and pro- Icon- con- barse ioun- of a liill on the southern side of the Narrows, we discovered, aome 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 inspec- tion, 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 in- stances, it was easy to see that the workman might well have been discour- aged from proceeding any farther, by a fkw, 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 w^ith 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 inven 64 INDIAN ARROW HEADS, ETC ted by men in particular states of society and under certain circumstanced, as the result of their wants and the means at hanc^ to supply them. It is not, however, always easy to reconcile this doctrire with facts. For ex- ample, 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, mo,<:£ 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 ex- tensively diffused over the globe by repeaJed inventions, or by an inter- course 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 evi- dence 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 ethers of a more doubtful character, are quite sufHcient 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 individu- als, 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. ':,:?■ '.iirai itttJCrk t^ t.-i ■ ^^irtii M.iy.'i: Lt :. . , n. OR THE BED EACE OF AMERICA ^W^^«MMMM«^WMkAMM^ ■»^^V^^*N^*S^^^'^^<»it8. On returning from this trip, night set in, very dark : on the evening I approached the summit of the valley of the Monongchela, 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 animil choose his own path, and could only give him aid, when the flashes r,£' lightning lit up the scene with a momentary brilliance, which, however, had often no other efTect 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 madt self familiar with its characteristics, and finding nothing to invite my funiier 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 Massa- chusetts, 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 prome- naded the decks, and scanned the ever changing scenery, at every bend, with unalloyed delight. At night we lay down across the boat, w^ith 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 in&ntry 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 * to PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. it, nd lly las ita ■ trod on, in scrambling on deck. We tooic 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 wore 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 Cincinnntti, 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 Ibrest trees of the native growth, some of which were several ■ feet in diameter, and it had indeed, essen- tially 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 som-i 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, buih 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 occur- ring 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 ;'or the discovery, in one of the vaults, of a small flat stone of an oval forio, ro PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 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 ut the time of my flrst visit in 1818, on the very summit of the mound, a large dead or decayed white oak, which was cut down, h 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 in- scription 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, (ahhough corrupted, varied and complicated by its spread) among the native priest- hood 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. AH 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 In- dians, and during what phasis of the early history of the continent ? A covered way had, evidently, been constructed, from the margin of PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. n • I '\^ the Muskingum to the elevated s(iuare, evincing more than the ordi- nary 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 stylo 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. 1 749, during the reign o( 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 occa- sions. 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 efTorts 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 forco. 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, ail round, and led per- 72 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. Kl ' hap'i, 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 boar^* Such little incidents serve as new points of encouragement to travellers: the very shores of the river looked more delightful, after we p'll out, and went on our way t^at morn- ing. 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 delight- ful. 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 ouv party, occurred on the descent to Cincinnati, where we landed in safety. j3ut long before we reached this city, its outliers, to use a geological phrase, were encoun- tered, in long lines and rafts of boards and pine timber, from the sources of the Alleghany, and arks and flat-boats, ffom all imaginable places, with all imaginable names, north of its latitude. Next, steamboats lying along the gravel or clay ba ' s, 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 ojt, on his ill-fated expedition in 1791, against the hostile Indians. Twenty-five years had served to transform the wilderness into scenes of cuUivntion and elegance, realizing, with no fai""'. outlines, the gay creatio is of eastern fable. War, sloth, and intemperance, are tfie three great curses which have fallen upon the Red Race of America. Many whole tribes have gone down and perished under their triple influence ; but it is not too late for those who remain to reform and recover themselves. The natives are more easily pleased than instructed. A harsh or un- gracious method with them, is always unfavourable to good results. That instruction which comes from a mild voice and pleasing manners, is fraught with power, even upon the roughest savage. TALES OF A WIGWAM. WASBASHAS; THE TRIBE THAT GREW OUT OF A SHELL. h 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 be- gan to rise and overflow its banks, and although the little animal clung to a log, the flood carried them b'»nd in the tribe increased, and he soon came to be regarded as a Weetshahstgiftiy Atapee, or chief. This opened a new field for his ambition and pride. The fame of a chief, it well known, is often increased by the number of bis wivim His lodge was now thronged with visitors. Some cam<^ to coitftit him ; some to gain his favour. All this gave Ampata Sapa no uneasin* •«, for the P«d People like to have visitors, and to show hospitality. The first thing thai 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 sharmg his affections with another. But she found that the idea had already got strong hold of her husband's mind, and he» lemon- strances 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 78 AMPATA SAPA. 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 de- scended to the Falls of sjt. Anthony. Ampata Sapa lingered behind a short time the morning of tn^'r embarkation, as they began to draw near the rapids which precede the grec * 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, w^ith 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, Ciid I rejoiced in my heart when I heard his manly footsteps ap- proach 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, li'ven my children add to my griefs — they look so much like him. Howr 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 ijnstens to fulfil my prayer. I s**i> 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 ev<>r Such was the end of Ampata Sapa ; and they say her caooe can sometimes W seen, by moonlight, plunging over the falls. Internal disaAntion has done more to destroy the Indian power fl» America, than the white man's sword. Could the tribes loam the wis- dom of confederation, they might yet be saved. This is a problem now undergoing an interesting process of solution. in Is- .. MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA; OK, • 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 sur- prise, she found fresh meat every morning at her door. She fell 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 tikenagun, or cradlp, 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 rifhning 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, tbnt 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 instruc. tions 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 80 MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA. she heard her son, now grown, going out 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 hot his mother, that she had stolen him when an infant in his cradle, and that he had himself followed her in hopes of get- ting him back. The young man and his dog then went on their hunting excursion, and brought back a great quantity of meat of all kinc^s. 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 I why should I send to her — the Sheegowish."* Hft. 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 hia real mother, and that he had been stole^ 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 1 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 * Sheegowisa, a widow, and motoigh, sometfaing nasty. MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA. 81 but I can get it," so ofT&he 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 mul' 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 th^ 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 add 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 thou- sand gods. The Hindoos toorship 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 sjpark amid a shower of ashes. . •: ' >" . ■T MANMES, CUSTOMS, AND OPINIOIS. CORN-PLAJVTING, AND ITS INCIDENTS. The zca, mais, originally furnished the principal article of subsistence among all the tribes of this race, north and south. It laid at the founda- tion of the Mexican and Peruvian types of civilization, as well as the in- cipient 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-Aigonquins, who call it Mon-da-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 handsom.e 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 hos- pitality, 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 circum- stances. Spring is a leisure season with them, and by its genial and re- viving 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 apukvvas 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 ofl'', and nature itself teaches the hunter, that the species must have repose, and be allowed a listle time to replenish. Under these circumstances the mistress CORN, PLANTING, AND ITS INCIDENTS. 83 of the lodge and her train, sally out of the lodge into the corn-field, and with the light pemidgc-ag nkwut, or «inall hoe, open up the soft ground and deposit their treasured mondurnin. The Indian is emphatically a superstitious being, believing in all sorts of magical, and secret, ;ind wonderful influences. Woman, herself, comes in for no small share of these supposed influences. 1 shrewdly suspect that one half of the credit we have been in the habit of ffiving the war- rior, o^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 wewun, or wife — the cqua, or woman, to the guh'or mother, — to the cquiizas, or girl, and to the diinis, or daughter, and slieraa, or sister, he looks, ns 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 ex- cursion, 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 \\ lan on the vegetable and insect creation, is found in an ancient custom, whu /) 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, san^ habilement, around th' 'eld. For this purpose she slipt out of the lodge in the evening, unob ved, to son. obscure nook, where she completely disrobed. Then taking her matchecota, or princi- pal garment in one iiand, she dragged it around the field This was thought to ensure a prolific crop, and to prevent the assaults oi 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 hankfulness and merriment. At these gatherings, the chiefs and old men are mere specta- tors, 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 senatorif i <>. Or the other hand, turning to the group of nature's red daughiiMS d their young cohorts, it may be safe- ,'ity constitute no part of the character- t;]se custom has bound fast, in the do- mestic female circle of forest life, the tongue is left loose. Nor does it re- quire, our observation leads us to think, one tenth part of the wit or drollery of ancient Athens, to set their risible faculties in motion. ly affirmed that laughter and i r istics of civilization. Whatever c^^ ^~^>^ ^>, \>.f^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I U;|28 |2..5 150 ^^^ tmlHil ■^ IM 112.2 i£ nil 2.0 ut J& III '-2^ 11'-^- ii ^ 6" ► V. V] /] °>» /^ c Photographii Sciences Corporation ^^ r r WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 ^ INDIAN IDEAS OF IMMORTALITY, AND THE REPOSE OF THE SOUL. ^ When an Indian corpse is put in a coffin, among the tribes of 'he Lake- Algonquins, the lid is tied down, and not nailed. On depositii t 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. " Row 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 afTect 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 In- dian very well, and had noticed the practice, not general now, on the fron- tiers, 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 th& 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, ](adian superstition, ever ready to turn slight appearances of this kind to account, should attribute its abstraction to the spirit of the deceased. When Lucas Fox sailed to discover the northwest passage to India iti 1631, he carried a letter from Charles I. to the Emperor of Japan. Geo- graphy has been slower in settling the question of the northwest passage and the mouth of the Niger, than any other points on the globe. It is only in our age that both these questions have been satisfactorily solved. r i ■,w PUGASAING; 01, THE GAME OF THE BOWL. ' 1 '^T ^- I^^^P""*^'!^^ g^"^« °f hazard among the northern tribes. It is played wuh thirteen pieces, hustled in a vessel called onagun, ^hich is a kmd of wooden bowl. They are represented, and named, as foLows •>ll. -in. TTL. QOOO ja ^ The pieces marked No. 1, in this cut, of which there are two, are called Inmewug, or men. They are made tapering, or wedge-shaped in thick- ness, so as to make it possible, in throwing them, that thev may stand on tZ^T r ^'"^'^ '' " '^"'^ '''''^'' ^^"^b^'^' «' •h^ «rea' Serpent. It consists of two pieces, one of which is fin-tailed, or a water-seroent, the 86 PUGASAING. 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 Pugamagun, 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, Avhich is the generic name for a fish. The four circular pieces of brass, slightly concave, with a flat sur- face on the apex, are called Ozawabiks. 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 onagun, as dice. The term pugasaing denotes this act of throwing. It is the parti- cipial form of the verb. — The following rules govern the game : 1. When the pieces are turned ou the red side, and one of the Inine- wugs stands upright on the bright side of one of the brass peces, 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 Ozawd- biks, 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 Ozawabiks 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 OzawaLiks 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. PUGASAING. 87 14. When the Gitshee Kenabik in chief, and one of the men turn up red, the Ozawabiks, 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. 1 6. 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 com- mon 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 per- sons who bear the term of lenadizze-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 dis- paragingly 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 refer- red 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 cus- toms 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 ex- perienced 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 Comanches ? REVERENCE AND AFFECTION FOR PARENTS. li Ij it 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 ioray, 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 whicli enters the northern shores of Lake Michigan. It was his last win- ter on earth; his heart was gladdened by once more feeling the ge- nial 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 Michili- mackinac, in 1833. I asked her how she had carried him. She re- plied, 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 Nadowakwa, 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 afl!ections 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 beins:. 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 coa- ceptions. SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF NOTED RED MEN AND WOMEN, WHO HAVE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT, m irith I the eas, Uy Ley AND AIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. M.\inr persons among the Indian race, have attracted notice from their exploits on the war-path. Andaig Weos was not among the num- ber 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 iu 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 cac/ie, 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 gbss 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 theui, that the trader had 90 ANDAIO WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. il M » administered poison to the Indian who died so suddenly after taking the glass of spirits. And this opinion gained ground, ahhough the widow wo- man 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 reman 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 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 in- tended to make them drink." The politic Frenchman remonstrated, saying, "that if this was done, he should surely he 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 reluc- tance. 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 oflf, 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 re- ward for the trouble and the anxiety he has undergone ! This is no way ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. fli an ng ay 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 Wcos 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 Poinle La Petite Fille, be- fore the ice arrested his progress. Here he was obliged to build his winter- ing 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 In- dians 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 tr-'der'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 care- fully packed the furs, and piled the packs, and covered them with an oil- cloth. 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 enter- ing 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. #' ANOAIO WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. ! It I ] 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 con- fined 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 oflfence 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 suit- able 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 ur- banity. 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 notoa 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 re- lated by Mr. Cadotte, of Lapointe, in the year 1829, and are believed to be entided to full confidence. i The Tartars cannot pronounce the letter b. Those of Bulgaria pro- nounce the word blacks as if written ilacs. It is noticeable, that the ( )dji- bwas 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 1. 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 per- son, they assemble in a lodge, to sing and dance. No grave act is per* formed without singing and dancing. ^ ..,»■ LANGUAGE. ' ' I I ■ 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. Obiervations 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 those derivatives, and the manner of forming compound terms from adjective bases, to describe the various natu- ral phenomena — The application of these principles in common conversation, and in tlif description of natural and artificial objects — Adjectives always preserve the dis- tiuution of number — Numerals — Arithmetical capacity of the langna^ , — 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 PI " LANGUAGE. Other laws impose, they all agree, and are made subservient in the estab- lishmeril 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 en- dows 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 ge- neral 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 aUf «ut, or wad, the impersonal forms. Adj : Inanimate. Adj: Animate. Bad Monaud ud Monaud izzi Ugly Gushkoonaug wud Gushkoonaug oozzi. Beautiful Bishegaindaug wud Bishegaindaug oozzi. Strong Song un Song izzi. Soft Ndk un Nok izzi. Hard Mushkow au Mushkow izzi. Smooth Shoiskw au Shoisk oozzi. Black Mukkudd&w au Mukkuddaw 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 evi ntly derived from radically difTerent roots, are, in some few instan- ces, employed, as in the following examples: live, ind, kan- LANQUAGE. Adj : Inanimate. Adj Animate. Good Onishoshin Minno. Bad Monaudud Mudjee. Iinrge •'■ _ Mitshau Mindiddo, Small Pun gee , Uggaushi inn. Qeekau _ 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 rainno, and mindiddo, and gitizzi, and all words similarly situated, remain unchangeably onimates. The word pungee, is limited to fhu expression of quantity, and its correspondent uggaushi, to size, or quality. Kishe- A&, (hot) is restricted to the heat of a fire ; keezhauta, to the heat of the sun. There is still a third term to indicate the natural htut of the body, Kizzizoo. Mitshau (large) is generally applied to countries, lakes, riv- ers, &c. Mindiddo, to the body, and gitshee, indiscriminately. Onishi- shin, and its correspondent onishishsha, signify, handsome ui fair, as well as good. Kwonaudj a. a. and kwonaudj ewun a. i. mean, strictly, hand- some, and imply nothing further. Minno, is the appropriate persor.ni form for good. Mudgee and monaudud, may reciprocally change gen- ders, tiio first by the addition of i-c-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 pronomi- nal, 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 Wanish- ishid, 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. "' SiMffS 96 LANGUAGE. M %■ H Noun-Adjective Inanimate. Black Mukkuddaw au Mukkuddaw aug. White Waubishk au Wj'aubishk aug. Yellow Ozahw au Wazhauw 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 permu- tation 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 percon. Wanishish-eyaun I (am) good, or fair. Wiinishish-eyun Thou (art) good, or fair. Wanishishid He (is) good or fair. Wanishish-eyang We (are) good or fair (ex.) Wanishish-eyung We (are) good a fair (in.) Wanishish-eyaig Ye (are) good or fair. Wanishish-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 sig- nification 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 wii, muk to mak, waub to wy-aub, ozau to wazau, 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 pronom- ico-substantive form, leads to the employment of many words in a par- ticular, or exclusive sense. And in any future practical attempts with the language, it will be found greatly to facilitate its acquisition if the adjec- tives are arranged in distinct classes, separated by this characteristic prin- ciple 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, nOkaugumme, a weak drmk, nokaugwud, a weak, or soft piece of wood. Sussagau, is fine, but can only be applied to per- sonal appearance ; beesau, indicates fine grains. Keewushkwa is giddy, and keewushkwabee, giddy with drink, both being restricted to the third person. SOngun and songizzi, are the personal and impersonal forms of strong, as given above. But Mushkowaugumme, is strong drink. In like mpuner the two words for hard, as above, are restricted to solid sub- LANGUAGE. fit art, IS, jnom- par- 1 the |adjec- piin- those [ouble in the icrete I'ewe, |ik, or per- [iddy, I third IS of la sub- stances. Sunnuhgud is hard (to endure,) waindud, is easy (to perform.) Sdngedaa is brave, ShaugedaS, cowardly, keezhinzhowizzi, active, kizhe* kau, swift, onaunegoozzi lively, minwaindum happy, gushkwaindum, sor- rowful, but all these forms are confined to the third person of the indica- tive, singular. Pibbigwau, is a rough or knotted substance. Pubbiggo- ozzi, a rough person. Keenwau is long, or tall, (any solid mass.) Kay- nozid is a tall person. Tahkozid a short person. Wassayau is light j wassaubizzoo, the light of the eye; wasshauzha,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. Aubudgeetdn, is useful, — a useful thing. Wauweeug is frivolous, any thing frivolous in word, or deed. Tubbushish, appears to be a gene- ral 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. Taush- kaubikau, 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 ex- plained. Ask him the name for red rock, and he will answer miskwau- bik, — for white rock, and he will answer waubaubik, for black rock mukkuddawaubik, — for yellow rock, ozahwaubik, — for green rock, oz- hahwushkwaubik, — for bright rock, wassayaubik, for smooth rock, shois- hkwaubik, &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. Waubaubik-ud. Mukkuddawaubik-ud. Ozahwaubik-ud. Wassayaubik-ud. Shoiskwaubik-ud. Miskwaubik-izzi. Waubaubik-izzi. Mukkuddawaubik-izzi. Ozahwaubik-izzi. Wassayaubik-izzi. Shoiskwaubik-izzi. Personal. It (is) a red rock. It (is) a white rock. It (is) a black rock. It (is) a yellow rock. It (is) a bright rock. It (is) a smooth rock. He (is) a red rock, He (is) a white rock. He (is) a black rock. He (is) a yellow rock. He (is) a bright rock. He (is) a smooth rock. Add bun to these terms, and they are made to have passed away, — ^pre* 13 98 LANGUAGE. fix 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 ad- jectives, 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 ; mukkaddaminnis, a black island ; wau- beminnis, 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 adjec- tive. 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. N6kauguma, Weak drink. Mushkowau, Strong. Mushkowauguma , Strong drink. Weeshkobun , Sweet. Weeshkobauguma, Sweet drink. Sheewun, Sour. Sheewauguma, Sour drink. Weesugun, Bitter. Weesugauguma, Bitter drink. Miiino, Good. Minwaugiuna, Good drink. Monaudud, Bad. Mahnauguma, Bad drink. Miskwau, Red. Miskwauguma, Red drink. Ozahwau, YeUow. Ozahwauguma, Yellow drink. Weenun, Dirty. Weenauguma, Dirty water. Peenud, Clear. Peenauguma, Clear Water. From minno, and from monaudud, good and bad, are derived the fol- lowing 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 ; mag- ghemaugawud, it smells bad ; mawhemaugoozzi, he smells bad. The in- flections gwud, and izzi, here employed, are clearly indicative, as in other combinations, of the words it and him. Baimwa is sound. Baimwawa, the passing sound. Minwetwa, a pleasant sound. Minwawa, a pleasant sound. Maunwawa, a disagree- able sound. Mudwayaushkau, the sound of waves dashing on the shore. Mudwayaunnemud, the sound of winds. Mudway au kooskau, the sound of falling trees. Mudwakumigishin, the sound of a person falling upon the eaith. Mudwaysin, the sound of any inanimate mass falling on the earth. These examples might be continued ad infinitum. Every mo- dification of circumstances — almost every peculiarity of thought is ex- LANGUAGE. 99 other gree- hore. the Uing gon 'mo- pressed 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 rest- ing upon a broader basis, but if so, they do not appear to be very obvious. Perhaps the simple adjectives are oflenest employed before verbs and nouns, in the first and second persons singular. • , I have slept well. I have eaten a good meal. I have walked well, or a good distance. It (is) a very pleasant day. I have a handsome garment. Are you well? What ails you? God prosper you. Ningee minno neebau-nabun, Ningee minno weesin, Ningee minno pinimoossay, Kagat minno geeghigud, Kwunaudj ningddahs, Ke minno iau nuh ? Auneende ain deyun ? Keezhamonedo aupadushsha- wainenik, Aupadush Shawaindaugoozze- > ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ Aupadush nau kinwainzh pim maudizziyun, Onauneegoozzin, Ne miuwaindum waubumaun, Kwanaudj Kweeweezains, K&g&t Sdngeedaa, K&g&t onishishsha, Gitshee kindzee, Uggausau bd,wizzi, Gitshee sussaigau, Bishegaindaugooziwu g vimnug, Ke daukoozzinuh ? May you live long. Be (thou) cheerful. I (am) glad to see you. A pretty boy. He (is) a brave man. She (is) handsome. He (is) very tall. She (is) slender. He (is) fine dressed. "^ ^' ( They (are) beautiful feathers. Are you sick. Monaudud maundun muskeekee. This (is) bad medicine. Monaudud aindauyun, Aindauyaun mitshau, Ne mittigwaub onishishsha, Ne bikwukdn monaududOn, Ne minwaindaun appaukooz- zegun, My place of dwelling (is) bad. My place of dwelling is large. My bow (is) good. But my arrows (are) bad. I love mild, or mixed, tobacca ex- It , It ' u H ;i; ^l; 100 LANGUAGE. 'i 3»s But I never smoke pure tobacco. The Great Spirit made water. Kauweekau neezhikay ussa- mau ne sugguswaunausee, Monaudud maishkovvaugumig, Strong drink (is) bad. Keeguhgee baudjeegonaun, It makes us foolish. Gitshee Monedo nebee ogee ozhetbn, Inineewugdushweenishkada.)-, j i . , , I, .X 1, ?But man made whiskey, waubo ogeo ozhetOnahwaun. S •' 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 In- dian in the most natural manner, and of course, withou*. always giving adjective for adjective, or noun for noun. Thus, God is rendered, not " Monedo," but, " Geezha Monedo," Merciful Spirit. Good luck, is ren- dered by the compound phrase " Shawaindaugoozzeyun," indicating, in a very general sense the infiuence of kindness or benevolence on success in life. " Sdngedaii is alone, a brave man ; and the word " Kagat," 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." " BikwakOn," 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 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 ishkddawaubo, 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 differ- ence. In giving anything like the spirit of the original, much greater de- viations, in the written forms, must appear. A nd in fact, not only the structure of the language, but the mode and order of thought of the Indians is so essentially different, thai 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. .\ LANGUAGE. 101 inot be in the I phrase 1 ardent eptions and J differ- (ter de- the idians idiom ier the 2. Varied as the adjective is, in its changes it has no comparative in- flection. 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 ad- jectives. 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. Izzhewabizziwin, is a term near akin to it, but more appropriately applied to the ads^ conduct, manner^ or personal deport- ment 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 dizekewabizziwin, My personal deportment. Ke dizhewabizziwin. Thy personal deportment. O Izzhewabizziwin, 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, Ke minno pimmaudizziwin, Minno pimmaudizziwin, Ne mudjee pimmaudizziwin, Ke mudjee pimmaudizziwin, Mudjee pimmaudizziwin. My good tenor of life. Thy good tenor of life. His good tenor of life. My bad tenor of life. Thy bad tenor of life. His bad tenor of life. To place these forms in the comparative degree, nahwudj, more, is pre- fixed to the adjective ; and the superlative is denoted by mahmowee, an ad- verb, or an adjective as it is variously applied, but the meaning of which, is, in this connexion, j.iost. The degrees of comparison may be therefore set down as follows : — ■ s ositive, Kisheda, Hot, (restricted to the heat of a fire.) Camp. Nahwudj Kisheda, More hot. Super. Mahmowee Kisheda, Most hot. Ke dizzihewabizziwin onishishin. Ke d izzhewabizziwin nahwudj onis- hishin. Ke dizzhewabizziwin mahmowe6 onishishin. { Odizzhewabizziwin mahmowee onish- I ishinine. Mikkenokdns sdnged&abun. Your manner of life is good, Your manner of life is better, Your manner of life is best. His manner of life is best, Little Turtle was brave, 102 LANGUAGE. I :. I Tecumseh was bratrer, Tecumseh nahwidj sdnged&abun. Pontiac was bravest, Pontiac mahmowee sdngedd&bun. 3. The adjective assumes a negative form when it is preceeded by the adverb. Thus the phrase sdngedaa, he is brave, is changed to, Kah' ween sOnged&Eisee, he is not brave. • Positive. Neebwaukah, He is wise. Kwonaudjewe, She is handsome, Oskineegee, He is young. Shaugweewee, He is feeble. Geekkau, He is old. Mushkowizzi, He is strong. Negative. Kahween neebwaukah-see, He is not wise. Kahween kwonaudjewe-see, She is not handsome. Kahween oskineegee-see. He is not young. Kahween Shaugweewee-see, He is not feeble. Kahween Geekkau-see, He is not old. Kahween Mushkowizzi-see, He is not strong. From this rule the indeclinable adjectives — ^by which is meant those ad- jectives which do not put on the personal and impersonal forms by inflec- tion, but consist of radically different roots — form exceptions. Ke dahkoozzi nuh'? Kahween ke dahkoozzi-see ! Ne minwaindum. Kahween ne minwuinduz-see Mudjee izzhewabizzi. Kahween mudjee a izzhewabizzirsee. Mitshau muggud. Kahween mitshau-seendn. Are you sick ? You are not sick ! I am happy. I am unhappy. His manner of life is bad. His manner of life is not bad. It is large. . It is not large. 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 respect- ing 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 in- flection 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 mtimated 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 ex- amples till they could be introduced without abstracting the attention from other points of discussion. an. un. by the , Kah- lose ad> J inflec- irsee. m see. latter espect- shown limates an in- rsorily lounds. pect to )nly in ng ex. n from LANGUAGE. 103 Minno and mudjee, good and bad, being of the limited number of per- sonal 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 — adjec- tives 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 "se, as the substantive, personal adjectives requiring per- sonal plurals, &c. . ' y Adjectives Animate. , ' Singular. Onishishewe mishemin, Kwonaudjewe eekwa, Songed^a inine, Bishegaindaugoozzi peenasee, Ozahwizzi ahmo. Plural. Onishishewe-wug mishemin-ug, Kwonaudjewe-wug eekwa-wug, Songedaa-wug inine-wug, Bishegaindaugoozzi-wug peenasee-\vug. Beautiful birds. Ozahwizzi-wug ahm-Og, Yellow bees. Adjectives Inanimate. Singular. Onishishin mittig. Good apple. Handsome woman. Brave man. Beautiful bird. Yellow bee. Good apples. Handsome women. Brave men. Kwonaudj tshemaun, Monaudud ishkoda, Weeshkobun aidetaig, Plural. Onishishin-6n mittig-On, Kwonaudjewun-On tshemaun-un, Monaudud-6n ishkod-an, Weeshkobun-On aidetaig-in. Good tree. Handsome canoe. Bad fire. Sweet fruit. Good trees. Handsome canoes. Bad fires. 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 noua would precede the adjective, and oftentimes, particularly where a second allusion to objects previously named became necessary, the compound ex- pressions would be used. Thus instead of saying the yellow bee, wfty- zahwizzid, would distinctly convey the idea of that insect, had the species been before named. Under similar circumstances kaiawaukoozzid, agau< ii f ■ f i i; 104 LANGUAGE. sheid sOngaunemud, mushkowaunemud, would respectively signify, a tall tree, a small fly, a strong wind, a hard wind. And these terms would be- come plural in jig, which, as before mentioned, is a mere modification of ig, one of the five general animate plural inflections of the language. K&gat wahwinaudj abbenojeeug, is an expression indicating they are very haTidsome children. Bubbeeweezheewug monetOsug, denotes small insects. Minno neewugizzi, is good tempered, he is good tempered. Mawshininewugizzi, is bad tempered, both having their plural in vmg. 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. ( Wcenikwy his scalp.) Hence Weevvukwon, 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 in- flection ing^ making one., 07ice, &c. The unit exists in duplicate. Piizhik, One, general unit j Ingoot, One, numerical unit Neesh, Two. Niswee, Three. Neewin, Four. Aubeding, Once. Naunun, Five. N'goodwaswa, Six. Neeshwauswa, Seven. Shwauswe, Eight. Shongusswc, Nine. Meetauswee, Ten. Neeshing, Twice. Nissing, Thrice. . . Neewing, Four-times. Nauning, Five-times. N'goodwautshing, Six-times. Neeshwautshing, Seven-times. Shwautshing, Eight-times. Shongutshing, Nine-times. 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^good- wak. 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, owe hundred times one hundred. This is the probable extent of all certain computation. The term Critshee, (great,) prefixed to the last denomination, leaves the number indefinite. There is no form of the niunerals corresponding to second, third, fourth, &c. They can only further say, nittum first, and ishkwaudj, last. ORIGIN AMD HISTORY OF THE EACE, AS EXHIBITED IN THEIR OWN TRADITIONS. ten I tens, ^ood- [the ften Jxing the ition Ired the irth, THE FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES FROM THE SOUTH. A MOHEOAN 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 in- terference 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 tretities, and this was the cause of perpetual troubles and wars. At length the nations of the south resolved, by a general ef- fort, 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 re- solved to rescue him. He raised a war-party and being joined by the Le- napees, since called Delawares, they marched to their relief, and brought off the remnant of the tribe to the country of th j 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 16 106 FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES. I under the old man's legs,, and get into trouble — implying that the Shaw nees 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 mi- grated 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 pc^'Mon 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, be- fore 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 south- em position, and irrascible temper of the Shawnee tribe. Their name it- self, which is a derivative from 0-shd-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 govern- ment agent of this tribe at Piqua, in Ohio, traces them, in an article in the Archselogia 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'^ 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 civiliza- tion. To abandon the lodge of bark — to throw aside the blanket — to dis- continue the use of paints — or to neglect the nocturnal orgies of the wa- beno, are as certain indications of incipient civilization, as it unquestion- ably is, to substitute alphabetical charavters for rude hieroglyphics, or to prefer the regular cadences of the gamut, to the wild chanting of the chi- chigwun. ;,>,.;,■-:■'■'■•■■' "■"'.',.. CHRONOLOGY. riliza- Ito dis- |e wa- tstion* lor to |echi> THE ERA OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH IN 1 THE UPPER LAKES. Ke-wa-kons, a chief of the straits of St. Mary's, told me, during an in- terview, 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'is 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 en- tirely 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 mako 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 gene- ral 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. 108 FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES. J I w specified objects. There were none, to record accurately, their arts, and other peculiarities, which now excite intense interest. They died uway very fust, 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 practisi 1, at least in our northern latitudes. Now adventurers followed -.. the tri-iiC of Colum- bus, Amerigo, Cabot, nnd 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 t — 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 anti- quities of a far higher era, and nobler caste, but merely to impress upon in- quirers, 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 in- troduced, 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 seatites and other soft materials. S B 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 peo> pie 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. ■ ■,. ? ■ . When Chusco was converted to Christianity at the mission of Michi- linackinac, 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 unceremoni- ously about, as soon as they got into the field. " Stop I" 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 Med up his voice, in his imtive language, in thanks. 4; ;■ SCENES AND ADVENTUEES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. A. D. 1818 AND 1819. niOM THE ORIGINAL NOTES AND JOURNAL. that land It, or peo- bea I does lichi- [ring his loni- old in PRELIMINARY REMARKS. Very little, it is conceived, is necessary to enable the reader to determine the writer's position on the extreme south vvcstorn frontiers, in the year 1818. Ho had spent the summer of that year in traversing the mine dis- trict, 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., und 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, be- tween St. Genevieve and St. Louis. There was, at the time, a general apprehension felt and expressed, by hunters and others who had pene- trated those wilds in quest of deer and buffalo, or of saltpetre-earth in the limestone caves, of the predatory tribe of theOsages, — 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 learii 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 110 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. subsequently published an account of a trip to Council Bluffs,* But nei- ther of these routes crossed the wide and mountanious 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 wattr, 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 pohtical 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 pro- ductions 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 Mined 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 p/eparing 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. * The United States government, the very next year, 1819, sent out Col. Long to the Yellow Stouti. > 'I r ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. Ill CHAPTER I. cetches, Things to be thought of before plunging into the woods — Coroposition 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 expe- rience. 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 intelligonce, 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 o:\ 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 residenc(3 on the American bottom, in Illinois, the prior sum- mer, had exposed him to the malaria of that otherwise attractive agricul- tural area, and an interaiittent fever, which he had thus contracted, forbade his venturing beyond the settlementr. So that when the appointed day arrived, Enobitti and myself and my good landlord, Ficklin — a warm hearted Ilentuckian, who had been a hunter and border spy in his youth, were all the persons I co'.\ld number, and the lattei,only went a short dis- tance, out of ♦> e goodness of his heart, and love of forest adventure, to set iia, as it were, on the way, and initiate us into some necessary forest arts. It was a bi ! jht 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 d 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 -.v.- 112 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS Mi 1 I:.', I ■■ '^l; 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 prepa- rations 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 appro- priate 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, instinc- tively, 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 for- ward in vain, to bite off a green leaf. Here we took the first lesson in duly hobbling a horse — a very neces- sary lesson: for if not hobbkd, he will stray away, and cause great deten- tion in the morning, and if not well hobbled he will injre his legs. We found, near the banks of the stream, a deserted Indian lodge, which ap- peared susceptible, by x little effort, of affording us a very comfortable night's lodging, and would furthermore, should it rain, prove an effectual sheher. This arrangement we immediately set about : the horse was un- packed, 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 anumber of fine fox and grey squirrels — beingthe 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 charac- terestics 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. Oa sallying out, I found the horse was gone, and set out in pursuit of ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 113 id species. foxy charac- supper, ut our 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 a 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 be'l 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 po£'tive 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 orio-inal French term of Fourche a Courtois. We had travelled a dis- tance 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. 15 suit cf 114 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 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 th- Delaware Indians — Character of the country — Its alpine air, and the purity of its waters, — Ascend to the source of the Merrimack — Reacli 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 en- gaged 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 pro- ijress ; 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 Ro- berts, and distant about 20 miles from, and south-west of Potosi. Our ap- proach here was also heralded by dogs. Had we been wolves or pan- thers, creeping upon the premises at midnight, they could not have performed their duty more noisily. Truly this was a very primitive dwelling, and ai? 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 eflect 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 buc'-skin, who issued from the dooi before we reached it, and welcomed us by the term of " Strangers." Al though 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 de- partment relative to thft chace. She inquired our object — the course and distance we proposed to travel, and the general arrangements of horse- ADVENTUEES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 115 and t of had iimd. ewd Idooi Al irord be Deen de- land i)rse- 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 irumps, who had come prepared for his first quarter's examination at a country academy. She told us, con amore, that h^r 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 ras- cally 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 talk- ing 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 uni- versally called and written, Merrimack. After travelling about four miles we suddenly descended from an acclivity into a grassy, Avoodless 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 re- 116 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. mained 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, de*. mod to have been injudici- ously located, by intelligent persons in the west, and have long since re- moved to a permanent location, out of the corporate limits of the States and Territories, at the junction of the river Konga with the Missouri. 1 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 fu- ture cultivation. The intervening ridges and mountains are nearly desti- tute 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 co- vered 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 carbo- naceous 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 autunm, rough, red, dry and hard. When a plough comes to be put into such a surface, it throws up quite a difll^rent 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 pro- duce 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. ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 117 inanans. e Ozark actually ages by lot only rticles of , rough, surface, e sun's to pro- id ge of rimack. ppeared rk hue. ' This soon revealed itself, in passing a short distance, in an abundant lo- cality of black and coloured oxide of manganese — lying in masses in the arid soil. The Indian trail which we were pursuing led across the val- ley. 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 exag- gerated. The river pours its transparent mountain waters over a wide bed of pebbles and small boulders, and, at this season, offered but little im- pediment 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 en- camped 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 adven- tures, 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 d Burton corn fodder had not deserted him, and he tool; 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 a Courtois man, Roberts : for the rascal, a few hours afterwards, deserted us, and went back. Had he given any intima- tion of dissatisfaction, or a des;re to return, we should have been in a measure prepared for it. It is probable his fears of the then prevalent bug- bear 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 &, 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. 118 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. «i ' ' \i m To cloak hia plan, ho 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 b«ar 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 scries of little lakes or ponds, communicating with each other, where wo 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 forgetful- ness, 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 %■) 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. (To be continued.) NOCTURNAL LIGHT ON INDIAN GRAVES. Some of the northern tribes of Algonquin origin, build a small fire on newly made graves for four nights after the interment. This was an an- cient custom. The reason assigned is, that there is a journey of four days to the land of spirits, and if this symbolic fire be made, the disembodied soul is savi I the necessity of kindling a fire at its nightly encampments. STANDARD OF VALUE FN RUDE NATIONS. " In 1821 the commanding officer of the fort at Chicago, authorized a re- ward of thirty dollars to be offered for the apprehension of a deserter. The matter was communicated to the Pottowattomies, who soon brought in the fugitive and claimed the reward. Thirty dollars was, however, a sum which brought no definite idea to their minds. There were five claimants to divide the reward amongst. They immediately sat down, and by the aid of an interpreter reduced it into racoon skins, and divided the number into five parts. It was not till this had been done, that they comprehended the true value of the rewa^-d. ETHNOLOGY. I\ SCHOOLCRAFT'S AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA, OR ETHNOLOGICAL GAZETTEER OF THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT, NORTH AND SOUTH, COMPRISING THEIR HISTORY, JEOGRAPHY, AND NOMENCLATURE, FROM THE DISCOVERY IN 1432, TO THE PRESENT PERIOD. on an- lays lied bnts. re- [ter. |ght a ive irn, led liey 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 encyclopaedia of topics rela- tive 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 distinc- tive character. Where the scene or era of their e.xpansion, 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 efiected, 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 oflen recall both associations and descriptions of deep 120 ETHNOLOGY. interest in contemplating tho fate and fortunes of this unfortunate race. Without intruding upon the reader disquisitions which would be out of place, no opportunity hos been omitted, from the consideration of their names, to throw around tho sites of their former or present residence, this species of interest. But half tho work would have been done, it is conceived, to have con- fined 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 picturq 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 inter- spersed with similar evidences of their wild polytheism, shocking man- ners, 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 nati 'e 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 origi- nal 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 ETHNOLOGY. ttt much, to comprtsss a body of leading and characteristic facts, in the shortest practicable compass, which should, at the same time, present an ethnologi- cal view of the various families and groups of the rape. In each department of inquiry, which admitted of it, the author haa 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. I , sea the the and and the Drigi- kof are n as thout d, to the t too 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 Topaniiiubes. This tribe is under the instruction of the Carmelites. They retain many of their early peculiarities of manners and modes of of life. They subsist by the cuhivation 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 con- sist 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 16 122 ETIINOLOOY. ! ' I of the rnnchos and haciendas, they steal cattle and sheep. If on the wide and destitute plains which they traverse, they thieve and murder. Some- times 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 disregord, 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 We- tumpka 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, "", .'abunakies. Abancay, the capital of a province of the same name 20 leagues from Cuzco, in Peru. It is memorable for the victories gamed 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 Atha- basca, 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 ♦Iifcm-.elves from the effects of a tropical sun, in the open plains, by erecting thiir 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 inhabi- tants were discovered by A. Numez, in 1541. Abecoochi, see Abacooche. Abeicas, an ancient name for a tribe of Indians, in the present erea 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 ETHNOLOGY. 123 •ea of 3f the m 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 Iro- quois. Abenakies, a nation formerly inhabiting a largo 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 Pcnobscots, the Nor- redgewocks, 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. Theio 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 Penob- scots, removed into Canada. This nation had directed their attention, al- most exclusively, to hunting. At the mouth of the Kennebec they absolute- ly planted nothing. Their language, as observed by Mr. Gallatin, has strong affmities with those of the Etchemins, and of the Micmacs, of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ; there are fewer resemblances in its vocabu- lary 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 uni^now.i. 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 Eng- land, 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 Bos- ton 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. Abioiras, 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 duito. 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. 124 ETHNOLOGY. I I !i' 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 wo- men wear little ornamented skins called queyapi. Physically, the people are well formed, of a lofty stature and bearing, robust and good featured. They pamt their bodies profusely, and take great pains to inspire hardi- hood. For this purpose they cut and scarify themselves from childhood ; they esteem tiger's flesh one of the greatest dainties, believing its proper- ties to iiifuse sticngth and valor. In war they are most duel, 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 fi^-h. The females occupy themselves in sewing hides, or spinning rude fabrics. When the men are intoxicated — a prev'pn* vice — they conceal their husbands' knives to prevent assassi- nations. They rear but two or three children, killing all above this number. Abijca, an extensive mountainous territory of Peru, lying between the Yetau and Amoramago rivers, east of the Andes, noted from the earliest times, fc the number of barbarous nations w'lO occupy it. It is a wild and picturesque region, abounding in foree _, lakes and streams, and af- fording faciluies for the chase, and means of retreat from civilization, so congenial to savage tribes. An attempt to subjugate these fierce »ribes made by Pedro de Andm 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 Q,uet- chuan tongue, it signifies the ore of gold, from a mine of this metal, which is now nearly abandoned. ABiTTmi, the name of one of the tributaries of Moose River, of James' Bay, Canada. Also u small lake in Canada West, near the settlement of Frederick, in north latitude 48°, 35' and v. est longitude 82° : also, a lake north of lake Nepissmg, in the direction to Moose Fort It is a term, ap- parently derived from nibee, water, and wab, light. Abitigas, a lierce and warlike nation of Indians, in the province oil Tarma in Peru, of the original duetche 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 he non-agricultural tribes of ETHNOLOGY. 125 the region, they are often in want and wretchedness. They are bounded on the south by their enemies the Ipilcos. Abo, Abouor MiciiABO,or ihe Great Hare, a personage rather of mytholo- gical, than historical note, in the traditions of the Lake Algonquin tribes. Jt 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 Wabo- jeeg, 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 Mohaw'f 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, \trhich 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 ' not known that he excelled in war, and, at all events, he wa ' succeeded, about this time, in fame and authority, by a new man in the chieftainship, who rose in the person of Tbyendanegea, better known as Joseph Brant. Abraham, or little Abraham, as he was generally called, appears from his speeches aiiJ policy, to have thorough- ly 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 in- clined, 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. 'Vith 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 \ respect- able raii'<^ . 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. (To be continued.) :!*, Before a man dies, he is partly dead. His hearing is faint — his sight is gone — his feelings are blunted — his whole nervous system is, in effect, paralysed ; and the process o."" the extinction of life comes on so gradually and imperceptibly, both to himself and the bystanders, that the latter are sometimes in doubt of the precise moment when the vital spark fled. 1 A PSALM. ;:, OR SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY, AND A CONFESSION OF £-N, ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR OP LIFE, IN THE ODJIBWA-.ILGONQUIN TONGUE. BY THE LATE MRS. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 11 im 1. Gaitshe minno pitnaudizzeyun, Gezha Monedo, gezhigong aibeyua 2. Keen, maumauwaikumig v. aozhemigoyun. 3. Keen, kah ozhi6eyong, keen gaugegaikumig, kai nuhwauneme- yong, aikoobemaudizzeyong. ^ 4. Keen, kainuhwaubaimeyong, geezhig tibbikuk tibishko. 6. Keen, Keozheahn-geezhik-geezis, dibbik-geezis, aunungug gia 6. Keen, kegeozhetoan tshe kimmewung, gia tshe annimikeeaug, tshc sai sai yung, tshe sogepoog gia. 7. Keen kau ozheiyong tshe unnevvegauboweyaung, kakinnuk kau ozheudjig akeeng. 8. Kee, gemishemin odjechaugwug, wekaukaine bosigoog. Kee gemishemin kebauzhigo kegwiss Jesus Christ, tshe oonjenebood neeno- wind. 9. Mozhug issuh nemudjee-inaindumin, kag-iit mozhug nemudjee-eki- domin ; nahvvudj neminwaindumin tshe mudjee-dodijimaung. 10. Kagaitego me kaisoondje izhauyaungebun mudjee Moneto. 11. Showainemishinaum, Gezha Monedo. 12. Showainenishinaum, Jesus Christ. 13. Maishkoodjetoan ne mudjee-odai-enaunin. 14. Meezhishenaun edush oushke odaiyun. 15. Aj'aidush nah saugeigsayun, gia dush todumaung kau izhe gugeek- wayun. • *16. Me ozhissinaum odaiyun tshe minwaindumaung, tshe annahme autogoyun. 17. Showainim neendunahwaitmaugunenaunig unishenaubaig. 18. Showainim kukinnuh menik pemaudizzejig akeeng. 19. Showainemishenaum kaidokoo peraaudizzeyong, appe dush nee- boyong. 20. Showainemishenaum neen jeechaugor''.unig tshe izhowaud keen. 21. Kaugegaikumig edush tshe menawaunegooz eyong ozaum ne mudje-pemaudizzewin auno unnahmeyauyongin. 22. Kauween edush kewee pemaudizzewin, kishpin aitah appainemo- yong Kegwiss Jesus Christ. 23. Aioetainemud kegwiss jjhowainemishennum. Kunnah gai kunnah. A PSALM. 127 3SED ibeyun uneme- ;ia ag, tslie uk kau . Kee . neeno- Ijee-eki- igeek- inahme th nee- 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 aon Jesus Christ to die for us. 9. Continually are our thoughts evil, and truly, our words are evil con- tinually. 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.) IS. 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 tl'O 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, ruf - 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 per- mitted, some other select piqpes from the sacred writings, ard hymns, of which, one or two s. jctions may, perhaps, hereafter be made. I keen, turn ne Linemo- lunnah. I 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. . 128 NAMES OP THE SEASONS. DfAMES OF THE SEASONS. Snow. Running water. A leaf. Theradi-x of behind A/vi • The following are tne names of the four seasons, in the Odjibwa tongue: ■• i Pe-bon, Winter, From Kone, Se-gwun, Spring, " Seeg, Ne-bin, Summer, " Anib, Ta-gwa-gi, Autumn, " Gwag, 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 lu: n months, or moons. A moon is called Geezis, or when spoken of . i (.distinction to the sun, Dibik Geezis, or night-sun. The cardiri, ints are as follows. (a) . North, Ke wa din-ung. (*) South, sha, wan-ung, . {c) East, Wa bun-ung. (d) West, Ka 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 terra, denotes course, place, or locality. There is no generic word in the Indian languages, except the plural for man, to designate mankind. The term for their own race, among the Al- gonquin stocks, is lavvba, or laba, a male. They prefi.x to this, the ad- jective term unish, meaning common or general. The compound phrase thus formed, namely unish-in-aba, is their term for the entire Red Race. Nearly the same meaning is attached to the ancient, and somewhat mysti- fied term of the Delawares, Lenni-lenape. Put the interchangibles 1 form, and b for p, and the two words are assimilated. This assimilation would be complete, had not the latter, to designate the race, taken the Indian word for vian instead of that for common, as the first member of the term. A writer in the North American Review, contends, indeed, that "linne," or " linno," means " common," and is not the equivalent of inine, as we sup- pose. And if so, the two terms are identical in meaning. *ff*Some delay has been unavoidable in the issue of this number, which the succeed- ing ones Kill not, it is believed, experience. The matter for No, 3 it in hand, and its publication will follota this in a couple of toeeki. .. . ;i-. OR THE RED EACE OF AMEEICA r^ART^THTREL ] 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. iNauiRY I. — What kind of a b ,ng is the North American Indian 1 — Have we judged rightly of him? — What are his peculiar traits, his affections, and his intellectual qualities ? — la he much influenced by his religion, his mode of government, and his ■^ complicated language. Ny earliest impressions of the Indian race, were drawn from the fire- side 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 reci- tals, 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 sometunes called in my native precincts, " the bow and arrow race." To give a definite conception of the Indian man, there lived in my na- tive valley, a family of Indians of the Iroquois stock, who often went off 17 130 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. i I!' to their people in the west, and as often retarned 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 an- cestors had formerly possessed, and to which they still claimed some right. In this family, which was of the Oneida tribe, and consisted of the hus- band and wife, with two grown up sons, I iirst 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 impint variety, and with nice ash brooms. These fabrics made them wt-lcome guests with every good housewife, who had forgotten the horrific stories of the revolution, and who was ever ready to give a chair an 1 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 knewj 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 parte 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, indep-^ndently of their gross acts, under the strong excitements of war and revenge, goaded by wrongs, and led on by the class of revo- lutionary tcries, 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 thoufifhts occurred. The word " Indian," was synoi.^mous then, as perhaps now, with half the opprobri- ous 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 Indiana be. Fortunately I was still young when my sphere of observation was en- larged, 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 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 131 was en- er a few ig tribes, re. My joyhood. ■ho were •egarded poor old in their breasts. I had seen many of them in my travels in the west, and I feh 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 com- monly 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, con- tracted 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 pow- erful 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 exer- cise among the Indian race, than is generally believed, although necessa- rily developed with less refinement than in civilized society. Their pater* 132 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. i M il nal and fraternal afTections, have long been known to be very str, ig, 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 afl!ection, 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 bis 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 con- duct of Indians and that of white men, in given cases, he can easily per- ceive, why the latter have so oflen 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 afl!brd 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, ond their consequent claims on the philanthropy of the age. As a class of men, it is thought their ttative 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, with- out 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 develope- ment, rests upon questionable data. The two principal causes, which have prolonged their continuance in a state of barbarism, on this continent PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPIIESSIONS. 133 for 80 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 neigh- bours, they may be said to have had no government at all. Personal inde- pendence, has kept the petty chiefs from forming confederacies for the com- mon 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 pic- torial signs, and mnemonic symbols, has attracted particular attention, and gives the author hopes, that he has been enabled to collect, and bring for- ward, a body of facts, in this department, which will recommend them- selves by their interest and novelty. Confidence, inspired by long resi- dence 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 pre- vious inquirers. There is one more point, to which he will here invite a momentary at- tention, and which, although not usually enumerated as among the prac- tical 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 ;he origin of national government languages and institutions, difficult or impossible to be conformed with the nature of man in society, and un- supported by such evidence as their doctrines require. Such, he regards, the theory of the " social compact," except it be viewed in the most un- defined and general sense possible. Such, also, is the theory of the origin and improvement of languages. Thi iystem of government gene- II 111 !i 'I 134 PRRSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. f rally prevailing ftmong the (iidinn tribes, is indeed so simple and natural, under their ciicuiiistances, thiU 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 exist- ing in the Greek. As the lulter has long been held up as a model, and the excellencies of its plan attributed to some unknown, but great and sa- gacious, learned and refined mind, we might feel justified in assigning the richness of forms, the exceeding flexibility, and the characteristic beau- ties and excellencies of the Indian tongues, to a mind of far superior wis- dom, ingenuity, and experience. Yet how perfectly gratuitous would this be! All history bears testimony against the human invention and de- signed alteration of language ; and none but a mere theorist can ever em- brace the idea that it is, or ever was, in the power of any man, to fabricate and introduce a now language, or to efl!ect 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 inevita- bly 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 per- plex the study of the Indian character. Fewer theories and more obser- vation, 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 be- cause 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 know- ledge 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 PERSOWAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 135 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 drawings his conclusions as we draw them. Placed under precisely similar circumstances, wo should perhaps coincide in his opinion and judgments. But aside from those er- roneous views, and after making just allowances for his ignorance and moral depression, the Indian is a man of plain common sense judg- ment, acting from what he knows, and sees, and feels, of objects immedi- ately 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 extrava- gant and ufien wild demonic fancy, ho is very far from being a man who, in his afTiurs 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 afiects 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. TEMPERANCE. An Indian living at the Porcupine Hills, near Little Traverse Bay, on lake Michigan, determined to purchase a piece of land from government, build a house, and cultivate the ground ; but before he executed his design he went to Michilimackinac to consult the agent, and ascertain whether he would be molested. He was told that his plan was a good one, and he would not be molested ; but was asked in return by the agent, whether he was a Christian, or praying Indian. He answered in the affirmative. " Are you sober ?" He said he considered himself so, although he imi- tated the white men by taking a glass in the morning. " This is wrong," said the official agent of the tribe, " you should not do so, but abandon the habit at once, lest it should imperceptibly overcome you." " I will do so," replied the Red Man, after a moment's thought, " as soon as I see the white men abandon the use of it." ,19 i£[ TALES OF A WI&WAM. BOSH-KWA-DOSII, )VtT'.'iv:?« ■}>•■■-■■;■ - y. oa THE aUADRUPED WITH THE HAIR BLOWN OFF ITS SKIN. There was once a man who found himself alone in the world. Ho 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 ' him, " My grandson, you will call me Bosh-kwa-dosh. Why are you i 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-a-ba. See his eyes, and his teeth in a half circle — see the Wyaukenavvbedaid ! See his bowels, how they are formed ;" — for it seems they could look through him. The king's son, the Mudjekewis, 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 re- BOSH-KWA-DOSH. 137 freshed 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 Ukewise, only keeping on the narrow mogic 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 be- numbed already, I am but just beginning to feel a little cold." All was si- lence. 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 their together, and carried them towards the village. As he came in sight, those who had wished his death were disappointed, but the Mudj6kewis, who was really his friend, rejoiced. " See I" 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, M'hom 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 spc^d. He was chal- lenged 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 beh, 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 lollinp out his tongue. His friend the Mudj^kewis 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 afler re- proaching 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 Mudj6kewis. Still the villagers were not satisfied. They thought the trial of frost, • .11' 138 BOSH-KWA-DOSH. bad not been fairly accomplished, and wiched 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 re- freshed, 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 do\\-:^ 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 ; '"1 up and carried him to the village, where the loudest tumult of vic- torious joy was made, and they cut the boOy into a thousand pieces, that each one might eat a piece. The Mudj6kewis bemoaned his fate, but hfs 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 hus- band had last reposed. "Aubishin!" cried the belt — that is, untie me, or unloose me. Looking carefully, she found the small seam which enclosed tile tiny little animal. It cried out the more earnestly "Aubishin!" and when she had carefully ripped the seams, she beheld, to her surprise, a mi- nute, naked little beast, smaller than the sr.allest new born mouse, without any vestige of hair, except at the tip of its tail, it could crawl a r3w 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 continupd 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 siiters were out of the camp, according to custom, at the time the body was cut up, and this heel was sent out to them. Tho 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 tho two sisters. The younger sister was pleased to see him, and admired and patted the pretty dog, bui ihe elder sat mi'mbling 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 ch«ek, 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 toge- ther. He then modulated his howl, when the bones knit together and y for the 3t as he rn.ed all .ed that Ihe hody id every sought r sister lie elder ,d sour, |er face, At last he dog, ay and [itered a lly toge- ler and BOSH-KWA-DOSH. \ ; 139 became tense. The third howl brought sinews apon them, and the fourth, flesh. He then turned his head upwards, looking into the sky, and gave a howl, which caused every ont 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 kowl" 1 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 deieated, and your frozen body cut into a thousand pieces, and scattered over the village, but my skill has restored you. Now I will de- clare 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, "ith 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 wi'l bestow on you. The animals shall hencefortu 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 m a traditionary tale of Maidosegee, an aged and respected hunter, of Sault-ste-Mairio, 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 ]810, and was happy to while away many of his winter's evenings, in return for the ready liospitalities which were sure to await him at the house of the Indian's friend.] , MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG, • OR THE TRADITIONARY STORY OF THE RED HEAD AND HIS TWO SONS. BY NABINOI, AN AGED ODIIBWA cmEF. ' Mash-kwa-sha-kwgng, 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 i i 140 MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. ^i>'^ K'* he started upon his daily chase. This circumstance was not unknown to Mash-kwa-sha-kwong, but he seemed fally 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 Mash-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 cou- rage, 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 preparation? and startin^ much earlier than usual, he travelled but a short distance from his lof ge, when he hahed and secretlbd himself. After waiting a short time, he saw his wife coming out of thenr lodge, and immediately after a man made his appearance and meetina M&sh-kwa-sha-kwong's wrife, they greeted one another. His suspicions were now confirmed, and when he saw them in the act of car- rying 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 im- mediate 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 Mash-kwa-sha- kwong to his sons, " persons will come to you anl 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 I 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." Miish-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 sou to place his brother in the leather bag, and in that manner carry him upon his back ; he then bade them liirewell. 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 ;nown to his boys behaved woman, tit of her take cou- led them ;tion was rlier than lalted and iming out ranee and ei. His ict of car- them and odge, and lodge and he should leir safety He gave r his small ed, he also of his ira- expedient minds for L-kwa-sha- le and for your little !, this will ,se of this pasting for liry at the lurneying ou, I will ly to day." er's tooth, il piece of encamp, his eldest arry him in the act and then Ingest boy MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. 141 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 out- skirts 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, how- ever, and during the absence of the ton men, Mash-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 dig- ging ; 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 Mash-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 Mash-kwa-sha-kwon" in order to avoid instant death, had sought a large hoDow tree, and en^ ,g 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 ti-ee, and into the sky, with loud and un- ceasing impercations of revenge and their determination to kill him. The spirit of the mother alone followed her ch, n About mid-day the boys heard, as they ran, a noise in the heavens likt. ihf rolling of distant thunder.* The boys continued their journey south, \iV) u the noise ceased ; towards night they encamped ; they put a small piece of the coai on the ground, then a log of fii-e-wood was dropped down Ironi 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 higii upon the fire, and in this manner the boys were fed, and this over-ruliri;j 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 pro- * Note by Mr. George Johnsi. -«. from whom this tale was received. — Any thing of the kind, or a Bimilar noise heard, is attributed by the Indian, to this day, as an indica- tion of the contention between Mash-kwa-sha-kwor.g and his pursuers, and hence a prelude to wars and contentions among the nations of the world. i 142 MA8H-KWA-SHA-KW0NG. gress, tearing away her vhole body and leaving nothing but the head. So they escaped the first diiy. The next day they resunned 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 th'^ breast to his brother ; then again Miish-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 t!ie evening of the second day the boys prepared to encamp, and tiie noise o.^ 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 madj&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 con- sequently the rugged and tef'aous travelling now experienced. On the third day the boys resumed their flight, and ihr^w away the?: hone, and it became a high roc.'fv 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, be- cause 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 placo known as the eddy of Wah-zah-zhawing, at the rapids of Bawating, situated on the north shore of the river. Here Mash- 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 biought yi'i 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 cc>rry 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 ihe boys in safety, upon a prairie: t' o crane was seen walking in state, up and down the prairie. The persevering mother soon arrived at VVah-zah-hawing, and im- mediately requesced the Oshuggay to cross her over, that she was in pur- MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. le head. hear the hey also St son to 3t to his s sons to le would , and the s coal on (reccJliig on it for that they was here T abounds and con- way thei; now seen it obstacle name, be- t she was lys finally ,ng, at the re Mash- :en in his shape of seldom or lever seen td headed see your '" Then [w in the 3shuggay Iting him thing his . them to ^vn shore, walking and im- is in pur- suit of her children and stating that she wished to overtake them ; but the Oshuggay seemed well aware of her character, and objected to conveyiitg her across, giving her to understand that she was a lewd and bad wo- man ; 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 tha Head persisted in her request of being conveyed across. Objections and entreaties followed. She talked as if she were still a woman, who?ie favour was to be sought ; and iie, 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 genera- tion to generation."* 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 Mash-kwa-sha-kwong's sons they agreed to invite two womer from the eastward, of the tribe of the Was- SI6SIG, 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 Was- sissig, and the circumstance of the Oshuggay and Crane interesting them- selves in behalf of the boys and the gift to them of their feathers and the result, is the origin of the Indian Totem. Here Milsh-kwa-sha-kwong's sons were told that they would be con- sidered 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 * Tho small white shells that the white fish live upon, and the white substance found iu ite gizzard are to this day considered by the Indians, the brain and skull of the woman of tho Head. 144 MASH-KWA-3HA-KW0NG. y 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 promis- ing 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 ths 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 re- fusal 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 muhitudes 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, v/here- by 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 ihey must not covet their neighbours property, bui acquire it by labour and honest industry. He then instituted the grand medicine or metay we win dance : this ceremony was to be observed finnually, and with due solemnity, and the Indians, said Nabinoi, e.xperienced much good from it ; but unfortunately, the foolish young men were cheated by Mache MASH-KWA-SHA.KWONG. 145 ;oes, and rays and I calling mitted to attained, upon the essary to upon the ph's, and (ne down iras seated hich this i heaven, nate tone, that they nedo who where he that it was ) was their m promis- lity would But the appeared )ear their , however, la Monedo jared, and this re- ith which esult was, to them i 'd them to |es, v/here- and next ahle ; and J acquire it ledicine or |ually, and luch good Ihy 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. Afler 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 at- tains 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 In- dians. There was in those ancient times an annual meetmg among the In- dians, resembling the French New Year's Day, which was generally ob- served 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 In- dian mind, indicating the drawing near and .approach of the end of time. The Indians who still adhere to the laws of the heavenly messenger ex- perience happiness ; and, on the contrary, concluded the old man, those who are wicked and adhere to the Wabano institution, generally meet \\ith 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 ^ ' irrrated south, and are now known as the Shawnees. rays 19 "• t WA-WA-BE-ZO-WIN, OR THE SWING ON THE LAKE SHORE. vmi FROM THE TRADITIONS OF THE 0DJIBWA8. There was an old hag of a woman living with her daughtei-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 in- fant 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 dis- guised went home in the dusk of the evening and counterfeited her ap- pearance 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 hus- band 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 \ WA-WA-BE-ZOWIN. 147 )ice, hter dis- X ap- reast, was. look •or ?" orsel hing. hus- ' face, that id no lis out then painted IjIs fnce black, and placed his spear upside down in the earth and requested the Qit-at 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 s>ne 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 com- ing 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 bek around her IcJns, 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 mo- ment, 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 sel- dom found, except in compound phrases. Among the Mohawks and (Dnondagas, 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 ahsolutely fixed in the sounds of languages ? , : r-^ In. ,n ■!»' ,1 ■ ' ' I2^f ,f HORj; INDICiE PERSONAL UEMIiVISCENCES. * ■ , ' f, , [CONTINUKD KKOM PART II.] - Cincinnati had, at this time, (1818,) the appearance of a rapidly grow- ing 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 corpornte and manu- facturing companies, were not unfrequently found shut. Nor did it re- quire long looking or much inquiry to learn that it had seen more pros- perous 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 ex- isted, 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 Presi- dent Harrison, a Jerseyraan by birth, who, in planning it, took Philadel- phia as his model. This has imparted a regularity to its streets, and squares, that visitors will at once recognize, as characteristic of its paren- tage. 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, to- gether 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 cor- roborative testimony affovdcd them by other discoveries in the great geolo- gical 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 PERSONAL RKMINISOKNCES. 149 Incy land ting community separated, each to pursue his several way, and separate views. 1 made several acquaintances, whoso names nvo recollected with pleasure. Dr. S. invited me to dine with him, introduced me to his young partner, Dr. Moorhead, and put mo in the way of obtaining eligible private lodg- ings. Th(! three weeks I spent in this city were agreeably passed, varied as thi" were, by short excursions in the vicinity, including the lacking valley — a stream which comes in, on the Kentucky side, directly opposite the city. 1 went, one day, to see an experimental structure, built at the foot of the Walnut hills, with a very long j)ipe, or wooden chamber lead- ing 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 con- lident hope of his realizing ii practical mechanical power from the raii- j'aclitm of (Umosplicric air. There was confessedly ft pmcer, but the diffi- culty was in multiplying this power, so as to render it practically appli- cable 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 sculp- tured 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 unneces- sary 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 ordtr. It was during my stay here that I first felt the effects of the western limestone waters in deranging tlie 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 perma- nently injurious effects on my general health. When I was ready to procoed down the river, I went to seek a passage along the landing, but found no boat (steamboats were few and far be- tween in those days.) While pacing the beach, I met a man of gentle- manly 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 pur- chased 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, 160 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. and I had no cause to regret it. This gentleman, whose name I have for* gotten, but which is soniowhere among my papers, was a native of thd city of Nancy, but a resident of Baltimore. Ho was, like the city itself I believe, Franco-CJerman, speaking the two languages very well, and the English with peculiarities. He had a benevolent and honest countenance and social, iigrneablc manners, not two free, nor stiffly reserved ; and wo 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 cat 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 re- semble. 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 Horid 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 destina- tion in safety, and landed on tlio 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 dnwnuiards. 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, PERHONAL RBMINISCENCRS. 151 and ind. just took lend ivord in, 1 iver, man eks, 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 conr.tructed n*'ound the fulls 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, wo are informed the workmen came, at the depth of fourteen feet below the surface of tho 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 -;r arks and boats. On one of these oc- casions, there came in a largo ark, which had been freighted at Perryo- polis, on the Yioughagany, some thirty miles from Pittsburgh. The two proprietors were K. and K., Marylandors, 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 1 thought I could trust in for an agree- able 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 ob- servations on a country, always excepting the last improvement on loco- motive rail-roads. To a naturalist, especially, they are really horrible. Not a tree or plant can be examnied ; not a shell, or a rock certainly iden- tified. 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 ho has seen, and what he has not seen, and is as much puz- zled 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 u 16 ffif 152 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. ■ ill I '4'' 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 powerl'ul re- flux, 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 bur- den to pass. It was about the falls of the Ohio, or a little above, that I first saw the gay and noisy y.aroquet, or little parrot of the west ; a gregarious bird, whose showy green and yellow plumage makes it fpiitc 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 ; ahhongh 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, imtil we reached the mouth of the Wabash and Shawneetown, where I went on a shooting excursion with a young Kentuckian, who gave mo 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 Ame- iican tribes, who, between 1G32 and the present time, figure as one of tlio 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, cer- tainly 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, f^nd tlipnce west. They are now on the Konga, west of the Missouri. So much for the association of names, PERSONAL REMINrSCENCES. 153 History never remembers any thing which she can possibly forget, and 1 found at least, one high-feeling personage here, who did rot like the man- ner 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 lair 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 thewigwam and the council-fire, and wampum coir-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 .ipon a love of home and locality, honorable and praise-worthy in my fellow traveller, the chilling influence of cold historical facts. My allu- sions 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. (To be continued.) LANGUAGES OF MEXICO. lital bout Humboldt observes that there are twenty languages in Mexico and New Spain, of which fourteen have grammars and dictionaries tolerably com- plete. T lai 1. ter are Mexican, or Aztec. 9. Matlazing 2. Otomite. 0. Huastec. 3. Tarasc. 11. Mixed. 4. Zapotec. 12. Caquiquel 5. Mistec. 13. Tarauma. G. Mia, or Yucatan. 14. Tepehuan. 7. Zotonac. 15. Cora. 8. Popolouc. The languages of New Zealand, Tonga and Malay, have no declension of nouns, nor conjugation of verbs. The purposes of declension are an- swered 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 ar- raiiginicnt, in which the words can be placed, and their meaning b not helped out, by either prefixes or suffixes, as it is in the dialects of the Al- gonquin and other North American languages. s; ETHNOLOGY. (CONTINITED FROM NO. H.) [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 cndmg a syllable or word, they are generally long. Diphthongs are used with their ordinary power.] k: ■'^^, Absecon. a beach of the sea coast of New Jersey, si.Kteen miles south- west of Little Egg Harbor, The word is a derivative from Wabisee, a Swan, and Ong, a Place. Absoroka, a name for the Minnetaree tribe of Indians on the river Mis- souri. They are philologically of the Dacotah family. See Minnetaree. Abucees, a mission of the Sucumbias Indians, ir *he province of Q,ui.v:os, Gluito, 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 0° 36' lonsritude 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 BvvoiN, a name of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and other mod- ern Algonquin tribes of the upper Lakes, for the Dacotah or Sioux na- tion. 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 re- proach from the ancient barbarities practised toward^ their prisoners taken captive in war. For an account of this tribe, see Dacotah and Siou.x. Abwoinac ; Abwoina : Terms applied to the general area between the Mississippi and Missouri, lying north of t.ie 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 as.sin, (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, ETHNOLOGY. 150 |er mod- [oux na- ibwai, a le, in re- 's taken mx. ^een the ly Sioux [in parts fent, but ;s from I (opsin,) belonging to the order of St. Francis, in the district of Zelaya, in the province and bishopric of Mechoacan, deven leagues S. of its capital. AcAMisTLAHUAC, a Settlement of 30 Indian iarailies in the district of Tas CO, 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 TIapa, embracing 92 Indian fami- lies, including another small settlement in its vicinity, all of whom main- tain 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 subjuga- tion by the Spanish. This mv^untain 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 inhab- itants. 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 cuhivated 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 In- dians who live on the banks of a broad and lapid 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 be- tween 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 TIacobula. 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 166 ETHNOLOGY. 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 almldia of this name, embracing some 20 Spaniards and Miistrrs. In the vicinity are some ex- cellent 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 tem perature, in consequence of which, and its being subject to N. winds, fruits, in this neighbourhood, do not ripen. Other branches of cuUiva tion succeed from the abundance of streams of water, and their fertili zing 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 dis- trict. 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 tempe- rature 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. Augus- tine. It is 2 leagues N. of its head settlement. AcATLANZiNGo, a Settlement of 67 Indian families of Xicula of the al- cadia mayor of Nexapa, who employ themselves in the culture of cochi- neal plants. It lies in a plain, surrounded on all sides by mountains. AcAXEE, a nation of Indians in the province of Topia. They are re- presented to have been converted to the catholic faith by the society of Jesuits in 1G02. 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 hav- ing 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 Topcaca, on the slope of the sierra of Tlascala. it consists of 1 76 Mexican Indians, the al- cochi- ms. are re- ety of bilities. eir dead rock, pposed ce Avith ws with woman as hav- inst the (y were rdinola. cpcaca, ndians, ETHNOLOGY. 157 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. Ac'AXUCHiTLAN, a curacy consisting of 406 Indian families of the bishopric of La Peubla de los Angelos. It is in the alcaldia of Tulanzingo, Ij'^ing 4 leagues E. of its capital. •; <• v • ' 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 lUU leagues S. E. of Mexico, in lat. 17° 53' N. AcAZiNGo, St Juan de, a settlement of the district of Tepcaca, consist- ing of 700 families of Indians, ISO 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." T . ' ' ' Acc6oESAWS, a tribe of Indians of erratic habits, of Texas, whose prin- cipal 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 Chesa- peak 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 vo- cabulary 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 wood- lands. AccoMACs, one of the sub tribes inhabiting the boundaries of Virginia on its discovery and first settlement. Mr. Jeflerson states their numbers in 1607 at 80. In 1669, whan the legislature of Virginia directed a cen- sus of the Indian population, within her jurisdiction, there appears no no- tice 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, numbermg 40, in 1607. They lived on the Accohanoc river, in eastern Virginia. i 168 ETHNOLOGY. »* '' '> J t 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 poipon their weapons. They are fond of horses, and rub their bodies with oil, to make their hair shine. They go naked except a small azeaiin made of the fibres of the aloe. They anoint their children with a bituminous ointment at their birth, to prevent the gro^A^th of hair. The brows of females are also deprived of hair, and immediately rubbed with the juice oijagua, which renders them bald ever after. They are of a gentle disposition but addicted to intoxication. The Jesuits for- merly 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 falai/a, long. (Gallatin.) AcKowAYS, a synonym fqs, 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 seebc, 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. AcHQUANCHicoLA, 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 provmce 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 ot Tezcoco in Mexico. It is situated in a pleasant valley, with a benign tem- Derature, and has a convent of Augustine monks. ETHNOLOGY. 169 now in the :ult to near labited hiefly, uches, ans ot n teni' AcoMEs, a fall in the river Amariscoggin, Maine, denoting, m 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. AcQuiNOSHioNEE, 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 1 559 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 ; Verri- zani, is said to have entered the bay of New York ten years before. Hud- son entered the river in 1609. Jamestown vi^as 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 OcTTTPAN, a town and settlement of the Othomies Lidians, 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 atten- tion to the raising of sheep and goats. In this vicinity are found numbers of the singular bird, called zeiizontla by the Mexican Indians. AcTUPAN, a settlement of 210 families of Indians in the district of Xoci- milco, Mexico. AcuiAPAN, a settlement of 58 Indian families, in the alcaldia mayor ol Zultepec, annexed to the curacy of Temascaltepec. They live by dress- ing hides for the market — ib. AcDiLPA, 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 jn a trade. 160 ETHNOLOGY. |-??r 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 Pculla 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. ActJTiTLAN, 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 Valla- dolid, and bishopric of Mechoacan, Mexico. It contains 136 Indian families, and i 1 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 consti- tutes 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 assauh upon them in 179S. 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. Adauio, a celebrated chief of the Wyandot nation, who was at the height of his usefulness and reputation, about 1G90. He was able in the councils of his tribe, shrewd and wily in bis plans, and firm and courage- ous 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 be- tween them and their kindred, the Iroquois, still raged. They remained the firm allies of the French ; but they were living in a state of expatri- ation from their own country, and dependant on the friendship and cour- tesy of the Algonquins of the uppor lakes, among whom they had found a refuge. Adario, at this period, found a.i opportunity of making him- self 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 ETHNOLOGY. 161 themselves of a recent alliance between the two crowns, to attempt a par- ticipiition in the fur trade of the upper lakes. They persuaded the Iro- quois to set free a number of Wyandot captives to guide tliom 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 peo- ple, 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, co- vertly countenanced this attempt, were thrown back entirely on the French trade, and subjected to suspicions which made them uneasy in their coun- cils, and anxious to do away with the suspicions entertained of their fidel- ity 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, F^enonville, 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, be- fore 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 sur- prised, 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 pri- soners, 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 liim at the same time, that they were truly and indeed on a message of peace. Adario afT'Cted 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 trea- chery. 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 engage- t» ETHNOLOOY. W. ment. By one bold efTort 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 en- mity between the Wyandots and the F'ive 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 es- cape to his own country, and give an account of the cruelly of the French, from whom it was not in his power to save a prisoner he had himself taken. This incveascd the rage of the Five Nations to such a pitch, that when Mons. Drnonville sent a message to disown the act of Adario, they put no faith in it, but burned for revenge. Nor was it long beibre the French felt the ciTects 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 des- truction wherever thoy went. Houses were burnt, plantations sacked, and men, women and children massacred. A' ve a thousand of the French inhabitants were killed, and twenty-six c.ried away pri!<, who notice this belief, repre- sent its shores to be covered with golden sands, but that these sand. band. They are a fierce, wild, untamed race, strong in their numliers, and proud and confident in iheir success in war, and the comparative ease 'ith which they procure a subsistence from the chase. They adhere to their ancient religious cere- ETHNOLOGY. 167 dig- lake iind treaty to or rn by s, 49 •hili- )ota- jiitois illed irces riors. their tiik- thf erce, lit in ire a cere- monies and incantations, and are under the government of their native priests, jossakeods and seers. Aishkebugekozh, has for many years exer- cised tlic political sway over them, Itiading them, ■•sometimes to war, and presiding, at all times, in their councils. He ia a shrewd man, of much observation and experience in the affairs of the froiiiiers. lie is of a large, rather stout frame, broad shoulders and chest, and broad face, with a somewhat stern countenance, denoting decision of character and capa- city to command. Thin and extended lips, ported in a rijrht line over a prominent jaw, render the nami', which his p(H)ple have bestowed on him, characteristic. By the term Kozh, in^iead of Odoan, the true meaning of it is rather muzzle, or snout, than moutii, a distinction which the French have preserved in the term Gtielle. AiuiNus, 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 eflects of war with other nations. In 1624, the Jesuits established a mission amongst them. They are docile, well in- clined, and of good habits. AiuTLA, a settleiront of New Spain, containing 187 Indian families. Another location of the same name contains 23 lamilies. Ajoues, a tribe of Indians of Louisiana, in its ancient extent, while it existed under the go^ernmpnt of the French Tli« word, as expressed in English orthography, is lowas, and the tribe will be considered under that head. Akosa, an Odjibwa chief, living on the peninsula of Grand Traverse Bay, lake Michigan, known for his good will towards the mission esta- Mished 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 luusehold furniture. He is of a mild and pleasing character, and appreciates and acknowledges the superiority of agriculture and civi- lization over the uncertainties of the chase. Withou* distinction in war, or eloquence, or a gfncniogy 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 80 children. They receive their annuities at Michilimackinac. Akansa, a synonym of Arkansas. Alajiama, 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 iii the occupancy of this :f}'' #' ir«if M ■ 168 ETHNOLOGY. 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 hill? 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 cross- ing 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. Pan 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 set- tled near the Caddoes, where they raised good crops of corn. An- other 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 as- sociated with the Coshuttas, forming two villag(.'S, numbering two hundred warriors, or about 1000 souls. They preserve, in this new location, the pacific and agricultural traits noticed during their rf^idence in Lousiana. Alachua, an extensive level prairie, in Florida, about 75 miles west of St. Augustine. The ancient Indian town of Alachua, stood on its bor- ders, but its inhabitants removed to a more healthful position at Cusco- willa. Alaclatzala, a settlement in the district of St. Lewis, New Spain, con- taining 125 Indian i'amilies. Alaiiuitzlan, 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 clus- ter 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 fami- lies. Algansee, a township of the county of Branch, Michigan. It is a compound derivative from \.lgonkin, 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 Ian ETHNOLOGY. m gfuage. 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 be- tween ducbec, 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 Gluebec, 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 power- ful people in North America, and the most advanced in their policy and intelligence. Golden speaks of them as excelling all others. On the ar- rival of Champlain, who, aUhough 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 ene- mies, the Iroquois. They were stimulated to renewed exertions in vari- ous 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 Gluatoghies 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 aa the Iroquois had been supplied with the same weapons, and learned their use, the Algonquins were made to feel the efTects of their courage, and combined strength. The Wyandots were fhoi defeated in a great battle fought within two leagues of duebec. 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 Ca- nada, they introduced a thousand men into the valley of the St Lawrence, when, finding their enemies separstted into two bodies, the one at the river Nicolet, and the other at Trois Riviere, they fell upon them unawares, and defeated both divisions. In this defeat the Ninerccrinians (Nipes- sings) and the Atawuwas (Otlowas) who then liv^' th». banks of the St. I-iawrence, participated. The former, who vvt i: \Gd but the Al gonquins, under their proper name, drew off towards the north-west. The Atawawas migrated to the great chain of the Manatoulines ot lake Huron, whence they have still profoeded furrb*-* U/wards the west and south, until they reached L'arbre Croche and (irand River of Michigan, their present seats. The Gluatoghies or Wyandots fled to the banks of the same Lake (Huron) which has derived its name frow the celebrity of their flight to, and residence on its banks. Of the .Algonfjuin.? 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 iew village* near Quebec, who were then said to be " wasted, and wasting away under tlw cftscts of ardent spirits." Subsequently, they were collected, by the {22 170 ETHNOLOGY. M >! '1 ; i Catholic Church, into a mission, and settled at the Lake of Two Moun- tains, on the Utawas or Grand River of Canada, where they have been instructed in various arts, and eflectually civilized. There, their descend- ants still remain. They are a tall, active, shrewd, lithe, energic race. Parties of them have been engaged as voyagers and hunters, within mo- dern times, and led in the prosecution of the fur trade into the remote for- ests 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 Adiron- dacks, 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 numbei 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 Winnebairoes and small bands of the Doco- tahs. The grammatical principles of these dialncts, coincide. As a gene- ral 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 1 and n, b and p. d and t, g and k, in some of which, there is a variance even m distant bands of the same tribe. The language is transposiiive. In its conjugations, tne 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 th« other hand, receive substantive inflections. Gender is, as a rule, lost siirht of, in the uniform attempt, to preserve, by iatitjctions, a distinction between aiumate and ituuumate, and personal or impersonal objects. It is letnark- ETHNOLOGY. 171 (Jhio. York, Doco- -ene- I'he iiiges vhich, guage with with other rht Oi, tween mark- able for the variety of its compounds, although the vocabulary itself, is manifestly constructed from monosyllabic roois. 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 redun- dancies, which would be pruned ofll" by cultivation. It has many liquid and labial sounds. It has a soft flow and is easy of attainment. It is pe- culiarly 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 clouiLs 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, SjHJcific 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 dif- ferences in the orthography, between the French and English writers consist in the lalter's spelling the last .syllable guiii, while the former em- ploy kin.. In old encycloptndius and gazcVers, the phrase Algon(juinen- sis, is used, 'lite term Abernaiied at this tim« to a specific band. The word Algic, derived from the same rothe pcene a /ith an [tramp- found In. It |h wall Ivvould |\v and )f de- iiling 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 num- ber, 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 i irbade ac- cess. One of our first objects, after examining the neighbourhood, was to re- move our baggage and location up the glen, into one of these caves, which at the distance of about a mile, promised us an effectual sheUer 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 uncere- moniously thrust ourselves. It had evidently been visited before, by per- sons 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 pre- sented 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 pas- sages 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 tlrrough 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 re- garded as the eflfective 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 majses of compact reddish clay and pebble diluvium, which exist? These seem rather to denote that these caves were open o.ifices, 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, V'<^ il Pi ■I?'' s 1 n ■ '' i :^j^. a:\ R « ..•: i'^ ■i 11 ;| ii''-T P 4t 176 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. ■% we had lit upon another inquiry, very prominent on our minds in making this exploration, namely, whether there were any wild beasts shehered in its fissures. Satisfied that we were safe on this score, we re- traced 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 in- stance, 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 as- cended this tree, and found the cave accessible. It yielded some wax yellow and white translucent stalactites, and also very delicate white crys- tals 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 cal- careous clifTs, 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 jaspcry texture. The wood-duck and the duck and mallard some- times 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 up- lands, and its sole object appeared to be to drink. Sitting in the lUth of our cave, we often had a fine opportunity to see flocks of these nuisy and fine birds flying down from the clifTs, 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 se- ▼eral 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 \)y holding south-west, across these eminences, we should strike the valley i '■' ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 177 re se- ■ this ts of trail, iman ness, )zark souri that alley 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 nuuitious grass for our horse, required that we should lighten and curtail our baggage as much as pos- sible, and put all our ejects 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 Cave* ; 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 those 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 nigh land plains was magnificent. It was ..overed 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 light- nil / The bleached skull of the buflalo, was sometimes met, and proved that tr.is 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 ' ^'ht the quail or the prainc hen. There was no prominent feature for ^ eye to r' ^t upon. The unvaried proiipect produced satiety. We felt i, a peculiar manner the solitariness of the wilderiif.ss. We travelled silently and diligently. It was a a ly and thirsty barren. From morning'' till sun set we did ncX encounter a drop of water. This became the absorbing object. Hill after hill, and vale after vale were patiently scanned, and diligently footed, withoi bringing the ex- pected boon. At length we rame, without the expectation of it, to a small running stream in the plain, where v ^^ gladly encamped. There was also some grass which preserved a gre* nish hue. and which enablec our horse also to recruit himself. Early the next morning we repacked him, and continued our course, travelling die wtist 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 pebbii ui i small secondary boulders. This stream ran towards the north west, .ind gave us the first intimation we had, that we had crossed the summit and were on the ofT drain of the Missouri. We sup- posed it to be the source of the Gasconade, or at ferthest some eastern tri- butary of the Little Osage. A few hours travelling brought us to the banks of another stream of 23 m ' (St 1 m IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) V. ^ ^ o z A v^4 f/. % 1.0 I.I 1.25 1^ US lU u m 12.0 ills ^ iiiiii .^ V

. 184 cartier's voyages of discovert. their families behind. About 300 men women and children were esti- mated 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 proc'uctions 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* It was now near the middle of July, and the degree of heat ex- perienced on the excursion induced Cartier to name the inlet, Baie du Chaleur — a name it still retains. On the 12th of July Cartier \e(t his moorings at St. Martin's crfiek, 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 inter- course 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 Graspe Indians are represented as diflfering, 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 tiift at the crown ; shehered 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 land- ing 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, * Koshee and Bahkon. These are not the tenna for a hatchet and a knife in the Mie* maci nor in the old Algonquin, nor in the Wyandot. cartier's voyages of discovery. 180 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 wae 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 indi- genous 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, ex- cept 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 bnguage spoken by these Gbspe Indians is manifestly of the Iroquois type. "Cahehya," is, with a slight difierence, 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 cere- mony, 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 under- stand " 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 na- tives 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 ihouth 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 cir- cumstances he assembled his captains and principal men, " to put the ques- tion as to the expediency of continuing the voyage." They advised him to this efiect : 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 en- countered 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 am' sixteen days. This comprises the substance of the first voyage of discovery, of which 24 186 cartier's voyages op discovert. 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 heen 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, ahhough he was not its founder. The latter hon- our was reserved for another. In the two succeeding voyages made by Car- tier, of which it is proposed to make a synopsis, his title as a discoverer, is still more fully established. But it will beseen, that he still thought Canada to be an island, and he has left a lasting monument of the still prevalent no- tion of a north-west passage to China, in the name of Lachine, which was bestowed by him and his followers upon the noted point of embarkation for the interior, nine miles above the city of Montreal. My object in taking up these obsolete voyages, as they are given in his quaint language in Hakluyt, has been to determine the particular races or tribes among whom the French first landed, and the utmost points, to which the Iroquios and Algonquin stocks, respectively descended towards the sea, in their summer fishing excursions, during the early part of th; 16th century. By a close scrutiny of their customs and lan- guages, the line of territorial separation, may also, it is believed, be denoted between these, and the Labrador Algonquins, and their northern neighbours, the Esquimaux. (To be continued.) All who have served under Jason, says Xenophon, have learned this lesson, that pleasure is the effect of toil ; though as to sen.sual pleas- ures, I know no person in the world more temperate than Jason. They never break in upon his time; they always leave him leisuio to do, what must be done. Some men are contemptible for one thing, and some for another, but no one has earned a better claim to the word, than the foreign tourist or ob- server,* who can see nothing in his travels to approve or admire; whose mind is so jaundiced by prior association, and so wedded to the narrow precincts of his native localities, as to think every particle of praise or ap- probation bestowed upon the features, institutions or manners of other lands, as so much abstracted from his own, and who, having been received in his visits, with courtesy and attention, mayhap far above his merits,, repays it on his return home, in strains of detraction and abuse. «I TAKOZID, 0> THE SHORT-FOOT. ft' /»• A DIOORArillCAL 8KBTCH. ,,v; ■/>■ ip- er ed ts. 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 vory scanti- ness of events determines this. A man suddenly appears srnong these tribes as a warrior, a negociator, an orator, or a prophet, by a i.sme 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 evi- dences of talent, and energy of thought or action, which, under better au- spices, 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 circum- stances 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 pil- lager; a fierce, warlike, and predatory tribe of the Odjibwa Algonquin 188 TAKOZID, OR THE SHORT-FOOT. •tock, who, at an early time seated themselves on the sources of the Mis- sissippi, making their head quarters at Leech Lake. To this place, their traditions assert, they came from Chagoimogon, 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 tra- versed it at sundry times, and in various directions. It is in local remi* niscence, little more than a widely extended scene of Indian battles, ambus- cades 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 tho 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 in- cessant devotion than the Chippewas. Takozid determined from his earliest youth to take a part in the strife for Imrbaric 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 popu- larity by generosity, self denial, and attention to their religious rites and ceremonies. These things may be done on a smaller scale, as efTectually 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 tri- umph with their scalps to his village. His deep and hollow che kwan DUM, or death-cry of victory as he come 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 tL take another wife. In this, his friends and partizans concurred, although he had no cause of dissatisfaction with his first wife, to whom he TAKOZIO, OR THE BHORT-FOOT. 189 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, nny, 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 pints she was above the generality of her country women. Like oth'^r j, however, in a community where poligamy was common, she might huve submitted at length, to her fate, had not her rival in the affections uf Takozid, ap- peuled to a deeper seated principle, and waked up, in the breast of the in- jured wife, the feeling of revenge : a principle reckless enough, in com- munities where there are the safeguards of education and Christianity to restrain and regulate it ; but horrible in wild and roving bands of bar- barians. IMonon'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 chan- nel 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 oflen 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 lefl with her child, at the chieilain'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. " Thisj vociferated the enraged Monon, This for the bastard!" and at each repeti- mm. 190 TAKOZID, OR THE SHORT-FOOT. tion of the words, she raised an Indian poignard, in her hand. The sud- denness 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 ii> little to be added to such a catastrophe. Its very suddenness and atrocity appalled every one. Nobody arrested her, and nobody pur- sued her. She returned as she came, and re-entered her lodge. Her victim never Fpoke. 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 reminis- cences 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, m 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 shalt 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. IMPROMPTtl. On passing the Inn of "A Failing*' on the Mohawk, in 1810. Sure fortune's a bubble, and life is a joke, Or fate would this man be assailing ; For pray where's the mortal who would not have broke, If he'd forty long years been a— failing. Men who sincerely desire peace, says Xenophon, ought not to expect from others a thorough compliance with their own demands, whilst they manifest a disposition to engross all power to themselves. THE MANITO TREE. =» I There is a prominent liill in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, at the out^ let of lake Superior, called by the French La Butte des Terres. An In- dian 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 pro- cess 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 offer- ing 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 offer- ings 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 men- tioned 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 prohe to regard the coming of the white man, as fulfilling certain obscure prophecies of their own priests ; and that they are, at beat, 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 wor- ship of a local manito, by saying : it is the tread of the white man that has desecrated the ground. Many who praise virtue, says the author of the Rambler, do no more than praise it. 192 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 I cried the youngest one, Let us off to look at the sea, And out tliey ran in their gayest robes, And skipped and ran with glee. Come Su,* come Mi,t come HUjf come Sa,§ Cried laughing little Er,|| 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 mountam high. Inya !][ cried Er, here's a dreadful leap, But we are gone so far, That if we flinch and return in fear, Nos,** 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. * Superior. t Michigaa t Huron. T An exclamation of wonder and surprize.— O^'. Ian. § St. Claro. II Erie. •• My father- ^mmm^M, OR TEE EED KACE OF AMEEICA. JPART fourth) PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE RED RACE, DRAWN FROM NOTES OF RESIDENCE AND TRAVEL IN THE IN- DIAN TERRITORIES. DOMESTIC CONDITION OP THE TRIBES AND CONSTUTION OP THE INDIAN PAMILY. ■Vi Erie. iNaumy II. — ^What is the domestic condition and organization of the Indian family t 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 7 Are the relative duties and labours of the hunter and his wife, equally or unequally divided 7 Who builds the lodge, and how is it constructed t There is a very striking agreement, in the condition, relative dufiM 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 expc'tness, 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 ment&l development, than those who were, and still are, obliged to pick a scanty subsistence, among the frigid, and half marine regions in the latitudeR 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 25 194 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. !. Missouri, and the lean and rigid Montaignes, Muskeego, and 7{!enisteno, 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 ex- pected 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 con- dition of the members of a family, within, and without the pale of civiliza- tion. Nothing of the kind could be done, without showing up pictures of want in the hun'.er-life which are wholly unknown in the agricultural state. It cannot perhaps, in fair justice, be said that the tie of consan- guinity, 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 inter- twined ligaments of interest, which often weakens the tie of relationship in refined and affluent society. The true idea of matrimoriy, 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 fcund, among bands who are favour- ably located, and have the best meuns 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 gene- rally uniform. Various incidents, or motives determine a union. Some- times 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 mar- riage, 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 hun- ter 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 tlic bridegroom, at the lodge ; but these are in most PERSONAL INOIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. m cases, what we should denominate matches of state, or expediency, in which the hravery, or other public services of a chief or leader, has in- clined 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 of dinary 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 hus- band 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 subsis- tence. Another cause is to be found in the accidents and exposure to hich young children are liable, but still more to their shocking ignorance of medicine. I once* knew a child a, three years of age to be killed by an alieiiipt 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 reproduc- tion are relieved from these depressing circumstances, the number of chil- dren is seen to be increased. The chief laba-Waddick, who lived on a small bay at the foot of lake 196 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. V f • ii ii ICt Superior, and had abundance of means of subsistence, had fourteen chil- dren by ono 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 possibk, and such us 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 ex* ternal 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 nn employment and not a pastime, but the care of the territory, and keeping off intruders and enemies, and the pre- paration 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 hus- band'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 at- tached 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 en- cumber 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 sleep- PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 197 lap- land Ircle en- brest ing 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 vari- ous 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 Michili- mackinac, where it is now difficult to get fresh lodge poles, without going some distance, or trespassing on priv«fte rights, the natives who resort thi- ther, of late years, have adopted an ingenious change, by which two ob- jects are accomplished at the same time, and the labour of the females dis- pensed with in getting new poles. It is known, that the bark canoe, be- ing 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, afler 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 particu- lars, both on the side of the male and female. Much of the time of an In- dian female, is passed in idleness. This is tpie 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 arc 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 eiTort, and such is, somtimes the case, there is much unoccupied time, while her bus- band is compelled by their necessities, to traverse large tracts, and endure -t 198 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 'A I It* greal fatigues, in all weathers in quest of food. He must defend his hunt- ing grounds, in peace and war, and has his life daily in his handa- 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, in- vites 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 havei.thd means of drying his wet mocca- sins, and a cheerful spot, where he may light his pipe, and regain his mental equilibrium, wKile she prepares his meals. The very idea of a female's chopping wood, is to some horrifRc. 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 natura 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 heavi( ot 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 afler 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 diame- ter, but few are required to boil her pot. The lodge, being of small cir cumference, 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 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 199 owner, they have uniformly set a high estimate upon these ancient clear- ings, 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 at the industrial sum of the agricultural labours of all ages and sexes, during perhaps, ten generations. Could the whole of this physical effort, there- fore, be traced to female hands, which is doubtful, for the old men and boys, will oilen 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 oAen only known as the lord of the lodge, by the attention and res- pect 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 pro- vince 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 al- tercation. TO HOPE. BT THE LATE JOHN JOHMSTON BflO. Hope, deceiver of my soul, Who with lures, from day to day Hast permitted years to roll, Almost unperceived away. Now no longer, try thine art, Fools alone, thy power shall own, Who, with simple vacant heart, Dream of bliss to mortals known. Every efTort have I try'd AH that reason could suggest, Cruel 1 cease then to deride, One, by fortune still unblest. Ah ! yet stay, for when thou'rt gone. Where shall sorrow lay her head, Where, but on the chilling stone. That marks the long forgotten dead. ■i.ei H UI SCENES AND ADVENTURE& IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. (Coatiaaed from Put 3.) CHAPTER IV. !i 1 Heanay ioformation of the huntoia tunu out falae — We alter our coune — 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 production! —A ^eat Spring — Incidents of the route — Pack hone rolls down a precipice— Plungei in the river — A cavern — Otage 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 Mis- souri proper ; and that the information ohtained of the hunters on the source of the Merrimack, was not to he implicitly relied on. It is not prohable 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 ex- perience in the case of Roberts denoted. Willing to test it farther, how- ever, 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 coniiulting 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 as- sumed 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 chal- lenge 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 be^rs, who one after the other quickly nn in from the extremities of the limbs to the trunk, which they descended ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 201 head first, and scamperAd 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 pre- vented 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 in* fiamn. There was nothing but rest and continued repose that promised relief. I selected a fine q^rassy 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 wholo 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 oflTered, 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 play- ing 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 fied, 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 hol- low black oak, in the direction he had disappeared, which showed the nail marks of some animal, which I believed to be his. While exa- mining these signs more closely my companion made his appear- ance. How he had got there I know not. The excitement had well orifice, while I went for igh by the axe to our camp, and when I was tired chopping, he laid hold. I » 802 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. I I' 'i Ik' !* We clioppod ultorimtcly, and big as it was, thu treo at last camo down with u crusli that made thu lurust ring. Fur a few iiiomurits wo looked at the huge and partly broken trunk us if a bear would start from it; but all was silence. Wo thoroughly searched thu hollow part but found nothing. I went over another ridgu of forest land, started a noble elk, but saw nothitig more of my bear. Here terminated this adventure. We retraced our footsteps back to the valley, and proceeded on our ru. te. This inci- dent had led us u little south of our true course , ^nd it l. turned out that it was uto point, where a mile or two one way or the other, was calculated to mako a wide did'erence ia 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. Thu pursuit of the bear had carried us near to the head of the valley, and by crossing the intervening summit, we found ourselves ut 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 m pools, or standing springs, which soak through the gravel and boulders, and it is many miles before it assumes the cha- racter of a continuous stream. Even then it proceeds in plateaux or ■teps, 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 vin- dicate the propriety of their original name of la Riviere Blaiic, They all originate in mountain springs, are cool and sparkling, and give assurance in this feature, that they will carry heahh to the future inhabitants of the Talley 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 bot- tom 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 ad- ventures 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 emcampcd. It was evidently the source of a stream of some note. It ran in the re- quired 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 lapidly 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 ADVENTURES IN THE OZAIIK MOUNTAINS. 203 its waters, which bubbled up iu copious springs, from the rock, or pebble stratum. For a long distanco tho stream increased from such accession! 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, ut tho point of ita issue from tho rock and soil. Its outlet after running about a thousand yards, joined tho main stream, to which it brings a volume fully equal to it. This spring 1 named tho Elk Spring, from the circumstance of finding a largo pair of the horns of this animal, partly buried in the leaves, at a spot where I stooped down to drink. I took tho horns, and hung tiictn in tae forks of a young oak tree. Wo 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 tur- key were of daily occurrence. Tho 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 to- gether, 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 difliculties, 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 hors3, and was conducting him from a lofly 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 fbund that he was but little injured, and when repacked, sull capable of going forward. On another occasion, I had been leading him for several hours, along a high terrace of cliffs on the lefl banks where this terrace was, as it were, suddenly rut off by the intersection of a lateral valley. The view was a sublime one, standing at the pinna- cle of junction ; but there was no possible v ay of descent, and it was neces- sary to retrace my steps, along — long vyay. As an instance of the very 111' k '. .11 ' I .Pi SM ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. ill! nil ^\*' 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 J ?bbles at the bottom, and their apparent nearness to the surface. But PMch 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 cloth- ing 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 cf 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 even- ing 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 rcky 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 hecame 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 enter- ing it, we foun'' 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 hob- bled, 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 ex- plore 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 \ \ ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 205 lightning, illumined with momentary brilliancy, the dark and frowning precipices of this romantic gorge. The excitement and novelty of our po- sition, 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 fol- lowed 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 wj pursued it down. Wide open oak plains extended on the left bank, which appeared very eligible for the puxposes of set- tlement. On an oak tree, at this spot, we observed some marks, which haa 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 com- ing in on the lefl 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 mem- ber 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 th«m to the United States by a treaty concluded at St. Louis. From whiitever causes, however, the district had been left free from their roving partios, it was certain that thu game had recovered un- der sue h 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 ob- serving their graceful motions. My position was, within point blank shot of them, bu' f was screened from their gaze. I sat, with gun cocked, meaning to secure one of them after they came to the shore. Both ani- mals canu 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 descend- ing a long slope of rising ground, u hitter's cabin, covered with narrow it 206 ADVENTURES IN TlIE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 1; il: oak boards, split with a frow; and were exhilarated with the idea of find- ing it occupied. But this turned out a delusive hope. It had been de- serted, from appearance, the year before. We found, among the surround- ing 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 be- ing 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. I I! 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 v ith 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, Ti ill to Delia, the gift I'll convey. And besf 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 hear 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. a. \ ORIGIN AND HISTOKY OF THE EACE 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 no- tice of the first arrival of Europeans on the continent, together with the allegories of Good and Evil, and of Civilization and Barbarism, are ex- tracted from a private journal, kept during the period of my official inter- course 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 0-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 spr:.og 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 Motw* iw I ill 20S WYANDOT TRADITIOMS OF THE CREATION. Ii.'ii i^ TAINS. It was eastward. When he had made the earth and those moun* tains, he covered something over the earth, ns it were, wiih 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. Ho followed it, to the place whore 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 ir.tu 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 us 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 I 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 iL This sustained him, and he tired down his brother before night, who WYANDOT TRADITIONS OP THE CREATION. 80ft 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 ho 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 be* gan 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 be- fore 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. 17 810 WTANDOT TRADITIONS OF THE CREATION. Oriwahento continued : — It is said that Evil killed his mother at his birth. He did not enter the world the right way, but burSled 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 it- self by spontaneous growth, without planti'' g ; but the clothed man is re- quired 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 an<* smoke their pipes, I returned to the ofhce 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. Ori- wahento 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 <.^pied 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 difllerent 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 tne 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 re- newal 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 WYANDOT TRADITIONS OP THE CREATION. 211 shore, was made he said of the Lenapees ; alluding to the cognate branches of this stock, who were anoiently 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 hold- ing the council fire.* 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 f rst chieftainship was in their tribe. ater. Vom rence ipees, stinct e in this, hore. nland He ts re- bull's n the SUPPLEMENTARY aUESTIONS TO THE INTERPRTER. 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 lan- guage is on the tongue., the Wyandot is in the throat. 2. Give me some examples : Read some of this translation of the Mo- hawk, (handing him John's Gospel printed by the American Bible So- ciety 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 be- tween 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. • This is certainly a dignified and wise answer ; designed as it was, to cover their dbastrouB defeat and flight from the St. Lawrence valley to the north. The prece- dence to which he alludes, on reaching the straits of Detroit, as having been theirs be- fore, is to be understood, doubtless, of the era of their residence on the lower St. Iiaw- rence, where they were at the head of the French and Indian confederacy against the Iroquois. Amopg the latter, they certainly had no precedency, so far as history reachea Their council iiro was kept by the Onondagas. H. R. S ■iV. NURSERY AND CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. >' i(.*ii :te * 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 ornament- ing 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 struc- ture 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 mununy. 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 otber 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 wield- ing 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 CRADLE SONQS OF THE FOREST. S18 Iraiice, llf the inger jroomy 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 vi- bratory motion given to it from head to foot by the mother or some atten- dant. The motion thus communicated, is that of the pendulum or com- mon 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, lei- surely swinging a pretty ornamented cradle to and fro in this way, in order to put the child to sleep, or simply tu amuse it. The following spe- cimens of these wild-wood chauncs, 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 plea- sant 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 tpave of the air, or the circle des- cribed 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 play- ful 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 1 Ah wa nain? Wa yau was sa — fi[p pwasod. (Who is this?) (Who is this?) (Giving light — meaning the light of the eye) (On the top of my lodge.) Who is this? who is this? eye-light bringing To the roof of the lodge ? 814 CRADLK BONGS OF THE F0RB8T. And then she aasumes 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 I down I) 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 ii 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 utmoK 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 Ian- guage 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 pro- gress, 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. b 1( si t1 ii n 01 m CRADLE BONOS OF THE FOREST. 811 ttf noit 2. The original words of this, with their literal import, are also added, to preserve the identity. Wa wa — wa wa — wa wc yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.) Nebaun — nebaun — nobaun, (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 — nebaup — 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, no 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.*) •' "'-^ hese ime, lan- eme tn in pro- man m to 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 nur- sery 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 al- ternately the Hare, and its enemy, the Lynx. There was once, she says, a little Hare living in the lodge with its grand- mother, 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, * These translations are entirely literal — the verbs to " sleep" and to " fear," requir- ing 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 luUIa-by, is the only one in our language, which conveys the evident meaning of the choral term e-we-yea. The sub- stantive 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 sliglitest inte> Test to the common reader, but that they may be examined by philologists, or perBoM curious in the Indian grammar. 816 CBADLE BONOS OF THE FOREST. If!*f ,1' Where pretty white one ? Where little white one, if Where do you go ? Tshweel tshweel tshweel uhweel cried the Hare, and ran back to itfl grandmother. "See, grandmother," said the timid little creature, " what the Lynx is saying to me," and ahe repeated the song. *' Ho I 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 be. gan 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 aing, Little white one, tell me why Like to leather, thin and dry. Are your pretty ears ? Tshwee I tshwee I tshwee ! tshwee I 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 bu.ig, 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 I tshwee ! tshwee ! tshwee ! said ths poor little Hare, and she ran back again to the lodge to ask again. " Ho ! Nosis !" said the grand- mother, who was old and tirod, " 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 shb 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. CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 3t7 The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in Ibis fashion, word for word. Lynx. Hare. Lynx. 01 . Hare. Lynx Tah kau (where ahl) Tah hau (where ah 1) Wabose (httle white one) Wa hose (little white one) Ke te e zha (are you going?) Na kwa oushing (to the point of land) Ain dah nuk e aum baun (in my native country) In de e zha (I go) Au neen (whati) Au neen (whati) A nau be kaus o yun aig (causes it,) Kish ke mun ing (why like stripes of leather) Ish tow ug a una, (are your ears ?) Nish ish sha ug (my uncles,) sha wun e nong (when from the south) Ke e zha waud (they came,) ^ Ningee aizh e goob un eeg (they did fix me so.) '?* (where ah I) "J; (where ah!) ■ X dh kau Tah kau Wabose (little white one,) Wa bose (little white one,) Ke de e zha (are you going?) Au neen (wl^y?) 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 EAOLE. iiT 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 dis- paragingly of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He began to sing in a loud voice, I upward fly 1 1 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 tu •boTc the Kite, .la ■i-y' 38 ,■ -ux ii/ i'i!; if 1 I'liu W 8t6 i m asa/a r^/v»i.J»t 1 ; The Kite in § .., CiiADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. Who mounts the sky ? Who is this, with babbling tongue ' '^'-^^ As he had on the storm-cloud hung, , Who flies so high ? The great Khakake I've sometimes thought he flew so high That he must see within the sky 1 •. The dawn awake. The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer, _^ t T spurn you all, ye prating throng How often have I passed ye by . ' 4w«iV' When my broad pinions fleet and strong, Soared up where leapt the thunder cry i ' , Nor ye with feeble wing might dare, v^ Those hill-tops high, to mount in air. snd he soared oflf, up, up into thr, sky till the boaster could not behold him. But no sooner was the Kite left alone to himself than he began to sing again no as to be heard on every side, i i upwlird fly ( I, I alone disdain the air I Till I hang as by a hair Poised in the sky. r,i Literally thus. Kite. (I alone) (I alone) (can go up) / (so as to seem as if hanging [ by a hair Neen a . Neen a Ta wa e ya Bai bwau '[ ; * . As shau dau Wa ke ge naun O shau wush ko geezhig oong a (from the blue sky.) Eagle. Auwanain (Who is this?) Au wa nain (Who is this ?) Tshe mud je wa wa (with babbling torgue, who boasts) *•' Ke pim o saing. (of flying so high?) Kite (shrinkingly) replies, " Oh I was only singing of the great Kha- kake, it is he who is said to fly so high." Eagle disdainfully repli s, « Tshe mud j6 Wa wa, that ib gifeat bab- bler, or bad-tongue, you arc belov/ my notice," &.c., and soars aloft. Kite, resuming its boasting tone, as soon as he eagle is out of hearing, if CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 219 (I alone &c., the whole being a repetition of the first part.) eMiff aid Neen a Neen a Ta we ya Bai bwau As shau dau Wa ke ge naun, ' O shau wush ko, geezhig cong a. i i 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 futuie and approaching emergency. A raven, perched on a neighbouring treu, espies her, at her work, and begins to sing ; assuming the expected infant to be a boy. In dosli ke zhig o mun In dosb ke zhig o mun In dosh «.o <.hig o mun My eyes I my eyed ! my eyes ! Alluding to the boy (and future man) killing animals as well as men, whose eyes will be led, as the singer and« cipates, to be picked out by ravenous birds. Jo early iare the first notions of war implanted. A woodpecker, silting 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 I Alluding to the cuitom of the female's breaking up dry and dozy wood, out of which, it couiJ pick itc favourite food, being the mdsa or wood-worm. Want of space induces the writer to defer, to a future number, the re- mainder of his collection of these cradle and nursery chants. They con- stitute in his view, rude as they are, and destitute of metrical attractionJi a chapter in tho history of the human heart, in the savage phasis, which dc»,erves to be carefully recorded. It has fallen to his lot, to obser .a more perhaps, in this department of Indian life, than ordinary, ^nd he wo.'ild not acquit himself of his duty to the raceytwere he to omit these small link;^ out of their domestic and social chain. The tie which binds the niptlf^^, to the child, in Indian life, io a very strong one, and it is conceived to admit of illustration in this manner. It is not ftlone in the war-pAth lahd m I'.F 220 CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 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 cut 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. (To be continued.) t < m i i; Um: y-An:\ »l',l 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 worc^- toe, ours, and us. They have also causative verbs such as, to make ? " il to make happy, &c., but while there appears this analogy in grammalicui 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, Aus- tral island, Hervey island, Samoan, Tongatabu, and New Zealand. In seven of thes j, 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 conso^.^nts r and 1, 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 pv rson. 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 Greeic , with some modi- fications. Thus they have introduced hipo for horse, arenio for lamb, areto for bread, and baplizo 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 re- membered. There are but two sourcea only, says Poly^ius, from whence any real benefit can be derived, our own mi^ortunes and those that have happened to other men. One wise counsel, says Euripides, is better than the strength of many. a P a ii ii s n 81 ai ti M d tl ni ssst GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. LECTURE IV. Nature and principles of the pronoun — Its distinction into preformative and subfor- mative 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 im- ply existence, individuality, possession, ownership, position and other accideutf> — Declen- siou 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 mean- ing by themselves, and are thus distinguished from the inflective and subformative pronouns, and pronominal particles significant only, in con- nection 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 per- "ons in the following manner : I, Neen. We We Thou, Keen. Ye , r,i He or She, Ween or O. They Here the plural persons are formed by a numerical inflection of the singular. The double plural of the first person, of Avhich both the rule and examples have been incidentally given in the remarks on the substan- tive, is one of those peculiarities of the language, which may, perhaps, 3erve to aid in a comparison cf it, with other dialects, kindred and foreign. . .s a mere conventional agreement, for denoting whether the person ad- dressed, be included, or excluded, it may be regarded as an advantage to the language. It enables the speakerj by the change of a single conso- nant, to make a full and clear discrimination, and relieves the narration Keen owind (in.) Neen owind (ex.) Keen owau. Ween owau. 222 INDIAN LANGUAGES. m r^l •^,.! ?^|: 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 gene- ral plural But in the Indian it would produce confusion. And it is perhaps to that cautious desire of persoiiai discrimination, whicii is so ap- parent in the structure of the language, that we should look for 'he rea- son 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 ex- clusivp 'brm, it throws him out of the family, and may embrace every liv- ing beii ; ' .'e Deity. Yet, neither of these forms can be used well in prayer, Ub cannot be applied directly to the object addressed. It is only when speaking of the Deity, under the name of father, to other per- sons, that the inclusive and exclusive forms of the word "our" can be used. The dilemma may be obviated, by the use of a compound descrip- tive phrase — Wa 6 se mig o yun, signifying — thou who art the fa- ther 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 ad- dress 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 mn, 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 in- dicated by the sign, O. The particle suh added to the complete forms of the disjunctive pro- nouns, imparts a verbal sense to them ; and appears in this instance, to be a succedaneum foi 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. Kef;nowind suh. Neenowind suh. Keenowa suh. W«nnnwau suh. It is we (in.) It is we (ex.) It is ye, or you. It is they. R Vr' INDIAN LANGUAGES. 223 If the word aittah be substituted for suh, a set of adverbial phrases axe We &c. (ex.) formed. Neea aittah, I only. We &c. (in.) You &c. They &c. In like manner niltum first, and ishkwavdj last, give rise to the follow- ing arrangement of the pronoun : Keen aittah. Thou only. Ween aittah, He or ^e only. Neen aittah wind, Keen aittah wind. Keen aittah wau. Ween aittah wau. e«i Neen nittum, Keen nittum, Ween nittum, Keen nittum ewind, Neon nittum ewind. Keen nittum ewau, Ween nittum ewau. I first. You or thou first. He or she first. We first, (in.) We first. (e.x.) Ye or you first They first ISHKWAUDJ. Neen ishkwaudj. Keen ishkwaudj. Ween ishkwandj, Keenowind isL.twaudj, Neenowind ishkwaudj, Keenowau ishkwaudj, Weenowau ishkwaudj, I last. Thou last He or she last We last (in.) We last (ex.) Ye or you last. They last. ,.^ The disjunctive forms of the pronoun are also sometimes preserved be- fore verbHand adjectives. NEEZHIKA. Neen neezhika, Keen neezhika, Ween neezhika, Keenowind neezhika, Neenowind neezhika, Keenowau neezhika, Weenowau neezhika, Alone, {an.) I alone. Thou alone. He or she alone. We alone (in.) We alone (ex.) Ye or you alone. They alone. To give these expressions a verbal form, the substantive verb, with its pronominal modifications, must be superadded. For instance, / am alone, &c., is thus rendered : Neen neezhika nindyau, I am alone, X aumin. Keen neezhika keedyau, Thou art alone, x aum. Ween neezhika lyau, He or she is alone, &c. x wug. In the subjoined examples the noun ow, body« is chanj^ed to a verb, by rrvji 224 INDIAN LANGUAGES. id^ 1: IJ?'- K;-* 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, Thou art a man, He is a man. We are men, (in.) We are men, (ex.) Ye are men. They are men, Neen nin dauw. Keen ke dauw. Ween ah weeh. Ke dauw we min. Ne dauw we min. Ke dauw min. Weenowau ah weeh wug. In the translation of these expressions " man" is used as synonomous with person. If the specific term mine, had been introduced in the origi- ns, 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, Ke debaindaun, O debaindaun, N' debaindaun-in, Ke debaindaun-in, Ke debaindaun-ewau, O debaindaun-ewau, I own it. Thou ownest it. He or she owns it We own it (ex.) We own it (in.) Ye own it. They own it. These examples are cited as exhibiting the manner in which the pre- fixed and preformative pronouns are employed, both in their full and con- tracted forms. To denote possession, nouns specifying the things pos- sessed, are required ; and, what would not be anticipated, had not full examples of this necies of declension been given in another place, the purposes of distinction are not effected by a simple change of the pronoun, as / to mifie, &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 im- portant principle, to present a generic substantive under their compound forms. I have selected for this purpose one of the primitives. Ie-au, is the abstract term for existing matter. It is in the animate form and declarative. Its inani- mate correspondent is ie-ee. These are two important roots. And they are INDIAN LANGUAGES. 226 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 pro- duction of a class of terms in very general use. Animate Forms. Singular. Poss, Obj. Nin dye aum, Mine. Ke dye aum, Ody6aum-un, Thine. His or Hers. Plural. Nin dyS auminaun, Ours, (ex.) Ke dye auminaun. Ours, (in.) Ke dye aumewau. Yours. O dye aumewaun, Theirs. Inanimate Forms. Poss Obj. S Singular. Plural. Nin dye eem. Mine. Nin dye eeminaun. Ours, (ex.) Ke dye eeminaun. Ours, (in.) Ke dye eem, Thine. Ke dye eemewau. Yours. O dye eem-un. His or Hers. O dye 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 mflection 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 ww, 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. Sing. Place of the Noun. Po.sessive inflection. Obj. inflec. to the noun sing. Connect, vowel. Plu. inflec. of the pronoun. Obj. inflec. n.plu. Plural of the Noun. Ne Ke aum aum aum aum - i - - e - - e - - naun - wau - wau -n - s- un To render this formula of general use, six variations, (five in addition 29 INDIAN LANOUAGEfl. \" m A'' :« i--^ i to the above) of the possessive inflection, are required, corresp'>nding to the six classes of substantives, whereby aum would be changed to am, eem, im, 6m, and oom, conformably to the examples heretofore given in treating of the substantive. The objective inflection, would also be some- times 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 mu- tation 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 pro- nouns 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 trans- forming genius of the language. Not only are the three great modi- fications of time accurately marked in the verbal forms of the Chippe- was, but by the inflection of the pronoun they are enabled to indicate some of the oblique tenses, and thereby to conjugate their verbs with ac- curacy 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. ai Secovd Person. Thou. Ke gee, Ke gah, Ke gah gee, Thou didst — hast — hadst Thou shalt— wilt. Thou shalt have — wilt have. Third Person, He, or She. He or she did — has — had. He or she did — has — had. He or she shall have — will have. Ogee, Ogah, O gah gee. 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, Ac. m ma INDIAN LANGUAGES. 227 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, 6cc. O dau gee. He or she may have — can have, dec. In conjugating the verbs through the plural persons, the singular terms for the pronoun remain, and they are rendered plural by a retro- spective 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, Yun, Id, or d, My. Thy. His, or hers. Yaung, Yung, Yaig, Waud, Our. (ex.) Our. (in.) Your. 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 distinc- tions 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 indica- tive, 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 sep- arate 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 keegoedood? Who told you ? Ahwaynain -au ween dumoak ? 228 INDIAN LANOUAGKS. ¥\\ ^rfl m t<}: ■:. Who are you ? Who sent you ? Who is your father ? Who did it ? Whose dog is it ? Whose pipe is that? Whoso lodge is it ? Whom do you seek ? Whom have you here ? Ahwnynain iau we yun ? Ahwaynain waynOnik? Ahwaynain kOs? Ahwaynain kau tOdung? Ahwaynain way dyid? Ahwaynain dOpwaugunid en-eu ? Ahwaynain way woegewomid ? Ahwaynain nain dau wau bumud? 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 unnOnik, Ween, kau geedood, Ween, ai-aud e-mah, Ween, kau weendumoak, Ween, kau td dung. He (who) sent you. He (who) spoke. He (who) is there. He (who) told you. He (who) did it, &c. If we object that, that in these forms, there is no longer the relative pro- noun 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 unnOnig. He (sent) you. AinnOzhid, He (sent) me. AinnOnaud, 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 dif ference only between sent and send, spolce 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. '6 ,ii INDIAN r.ANGUAaES. 229 Muinwaindumeyaug, Mainwuindumfiinnaig, Mainvvaindumiiigowaud, 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 nomi- native persons, are incorporated as a part of the verb, and are not prefixes to it. This may bo shown in the causative verb, To make Happy. Mainwaindumfiid, He (who) makes me happy. Mainwaindumeik, He (who) makes thee happy. Mainwaindumeaud, Ho (who) makes him happy. Mainwaindumtiinung, He (who) makes us happy, (inclusive.) Ho (who) makes us happy, (exclusive.) He (who) makes yc or you happy. He (who) makes them happy. And 80 the forms might be continued, throughout all the objective persons. — Mainwaindumfiyun, Thou (who) makest me happy, &c. The basis of these compounds is minyio, good, and aindum, the mind. Hence rainwaindum, he happy. The adjective in this connexion, can- not 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 ex- pressions, 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 mainwaindumfiyun. 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, tliat if the marked e, stands for «ie 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, minwaindumfiigowaud. 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 vero plural, and implies that several per- 230 INDIAN LANGUAGES. ■■4 »'»•. J fM "■ ' :1 I** ions are niudo happy, ond, in like manner, the suHixed personal pronouns plural, mark the distinctions between we, ye, they, &c. For it is a rule of the language, that a strict concordonce 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 succedaneurn, contend for something like the following form of translation : — He makes them happy — him I or Him — he (meaning who) makes them happy. The equivalent for what, is Waygotiain. What do you want? What have you lost? What do you look for ? What is this? What will you have ? What detained you ? What are you making? What have you there ? Waygonain wau iauyun ? Waygonain kau wonetttyun ? Waygonain nain dahwaubundamun ? Waygonain ewinain maundun ? Waygonain kau iauyun 7 Waygonain kau otn dahme egOyun ? Waygonain wayzhetOyun? Waygonain e-mau iauyun 1 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 akeedOyun ? What do you call this? Auneen aizheneekaudahmun maun- dun?(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 g£unau ewidde ? Whichdoyoumean; this or that? (in.) Auneen eh eu ewaidumun oh-oo gamau 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? INDIAN LANUUAOlEi:). 231 Where did you see it ? Where are you going? Where did you come from? Where ia your pipe ? Where is your gun ? Auneendo Vo waubundumun t Auneendo azhauyun ? Auneendo ka oonjcebauyun ? Auneende ke dOpwaugun? Auneende ke baushkizzigua? By a still further modification it is rendered an adverb of enquiry of the cause or motive. Why do you do so ? Why do you say so? Why are you angry ? Why will you depart 1 Why will you not depart? Why have you come ? Tell me why? Wherefore is it so ? Auneeshween eh eu todumun? Auneeshween eh eu ekeedoyun ? Auneeshween nishkaudizzeyun? Auneeshween wee mahjauyun? Auneeshween mahjauseewun ? Auneeshween ke pefizhauyun ? Weendumowishin auneeshween ? Auneeshween eh-eu izzhewaibuk(in.) Wherefore did you strike him? Auneeshween ke pukketay wud ? 3. Demonstrative pronouns are either animate or inanimate ^ and may be arranged as follows : — Animate. Mnu-bum, (impersonal,) Woh-ow, (personal,) Ah-ow Mau-mig, Ig-eu, (personal,) 0-goo, (impersonal,) This, Inani'iate. Maun-dini, (inanimate proper.) Oh-oo, (inanimate conventional.) That, Eh-eu. These, Mau-min. { In-eu, (inanimate proper.) ' ( O-noo, (inanimate conventional.) These words are not always used merel]/ to ascertain the object ; but often, perhaps always, when the object is present to the sight, have a sub- stantive meaning, and are used without the noun. It creates no uncer- tainty, if a man be standing at some distance to .say, Ah-ow, or if a catioo be lying at some distance to say Eh-eu — the meaning is clearly, that person, or that canoe, whether the noun be added or not. Or if there be two animate objects standing together, or two inanimate ob- jects lying together, the words maumig (a) or maumin (i) if they be near, or Ig-eu (a) or In-eu (i) if they be distant, are equally expressive of the materiality of the objects, as well as their relative position. Under other circumstances, the noun would be required, as where two animate objects of diverse character, a man and _ horse for instance, were standing near each other ; or a canoe and a package of goods were lying near each other. And in fact, under all circumstances, the noun may be used after the demonstrative pronoun, without violating any rule of grammar, although not without the imputation in many instances of being oixr formal and unnecessarily minute. What is deemed redundant, however, in oral use, and amongst a people who supply much by sight and gesticulptio'Q, 232 INDIAN LANGUAGES- ^■:*l 1'^ ,; i; becomes quite necessary in writing the language. And in tho foUowinj sentences, the substantive is properly employed after the pronoun. This dog is very lean, These dogs are very lean, Those dogs are fat, That dog is fat, This is a handsome knife, These are handsoniO knives. Those are bad knives, Give me that spear, Give me those spears, That is a fine boy. Those are fine boys, This boy is larger than that. That is what I wanted. Gitshee bukaukdoozo vvoh-ow anncmoosh. Gitshee bukauddoozowug o-goo annem- ooshug. Ig-eu anncTiooshug ween-in-oawug. Ah-ow annemoosh ween-in-ao. Gagait onishishin maundun mokomahn. Gagait Avahwinaudj o-noo mokornahnun. MonauduJAn in-euwaidde mokornahnun. Meezhishin »>h-eu ahnitt. Meezhish n in-eu unnewaidde ahnitteen. Gagait kwonaudj ah-ow kweewezains. Gaguit wahwinaudj ig-eu waidde kwee- wezainsug. Nahwudj mindiddo woh-ow kweewezains ewaidde dush. Meeh-eu wau iauyaumbaun. j This is the very thing I wanted, Mee-suh oh-oo wau iauyaumbaun. In some of these expressions, the pronran combines with an adjective, as in the compound word."^, ineuwaidde, and igeuwaidde, those yonder, (in.) Mid those yonder (an.) Compounds which exhibit the full pronoun in co- alescence 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. Lfiwrence, 1534. Jamestown, in Virginia, is founded, 1608. Acknowledged date of the settlement of Canada, 1608. Hudson discovers the liver 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 Louisaina 1678. discovers Lower Louisiana, and is killed 1685. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL LETTERS or THE LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ., OF TUB FALU OF ST. HARv'b, HIOHIQAN, WITH SKETCHES OF HIS LIFE, IN CONTINUATION OF THESE LETTERS, AND SOMB SELECTIONS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE AND OCCASIONAL WRITINGS. lany INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Few men have connected their names more widely or reputably with the Red Race of Ameri^.a, than the late John Johnston, Esq., to whose life the present pages are devoted. A native of Ireland, he came to th's coun- try the yeur after the adoption of the constitution, a young man, having been brought up in ease and affluence, mixed freely in the polished cir- cles of his times, and knowing nothing of society, or the world, but what he had seen in these circles, or read of in books. In a spirit of honour- able adventure, he went up into the region of the great lakes, engaged in the alluring and then half chivalrous pursuit of the fur trade ; but intend- ing in a few years to go back to his estate, then in the possession of his mother, in Antrim. With the elasticity of spirits of his countrymen, and the love of novelty, independence and romance, of which the region in question then furnished stimulants, he pursued this business till he had assimilated his habits to it. He saw in it the means of honourable inde- pendency, without submitting to the actual drudgery of the exchanges and traffic at the interior villages. His first position was at Chagoimegon, near the south-western head of lake Superior, wher j he married a daugh- ter of a celebrated warrior, who was the reignirg Chief He then fixed his residence at the Falls, or as it is commonly called by Americans, the Sault of St, Mary's, In this position he exercised that peculiar species of factorship, (although he was himself the outfitter and not concerned with a company,) which is necessary to conduct a department of the Indian trade. From his connexion with the leading chief, his frank and honour- able dealing, the reception he always gave the red men, and his general intelligence, he exercised a wide influence over the native tribes. His original letters on coming out, and his known connexions at home, had given him a reputable standing in the high government and business cir- 30 234 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESa. !lfl cles of Montreal and duebec. His residence at St. Mary's was known as the seat of hospitality. He had early taught the forest maid whom he had selected and placed at the head of his house, the duty of refined hospi- tality — a duty it may be said, easily engrafted on the native stock ; and as his children grew up, they soon became adepts in all the arts and atten- tions of receiving and entertaining company. T'le greatest pains were taken with their education and manners. He posf/essed a choice library of standard English works. Ho was a man of taste, and great fondness for reading. He amused the deep solituc's of his po8i:>on, during the win- ters, in this way, and sometimes indulged in comp sition. In this manner his house became, in fact, a seat of refinement in ihe heart of the wilder- ness. And in this position, with frequent journeys, local and foreign, he passed the remaining eight and thirty years of his life. This period covers a very interesting era in our national history. It embrace^ the coming on, progress and termination of the war of 1812, in some of the events of which he became involved ; the survey and settle- ment of the boundary lines on that wild frontier, extending to north latitude 49°, and the incipient movements in our Indians affairs, which have even- tuated in large cessions of territory by the tribes, and the acceptance by most of them of the plan of a removal, and colonization west of the Mis- sissippi. Mr. Johnson himself, ever felt the deepest interest in the fate and fortunes of the race, in plans for the introduction of education and Chris- tianity amongst them, and in their general exaltation in mind and morals, and restoration to all possible political rights. It is owing to these considerations that I have introduced the present paper, which will, in the sequel, be perceived to connect itself intimately with the condition, character and history of the sJdjibwas and ^ .'" a nume- rous family of kindred tribes. My acquaintance with Mr. Johnston com- menced in 1822, and was continued from that time to the period of his death. Convinced that his reminiscences of life, would present subjects of future and deep interest, I frequently solicited his undertaking it, but owing chiefly, if not entirely, to the plea of ill health, and chronic pains, he deferred it till his last year, and unfortunately, as it is thought, for this species of literature, he did not live to complete it. He chose the ibrm of letters, which, while they left him to a free and familiar manner, had the effect, he said, to separate his labour into distinct portions, the comple- tion of one of which, encouraged him to begin another. They are ad- dressed to me. rij/ l»*N| r;i i\X > AUTOBIOaRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 235 LETTER I. it, but jic pains, for this le lorm had mple- ad- ler, CO are St. Mary's FaUs, 14 Jan. 1828. MY DEAR SIR, I at length have made up my mind to comply with your request and that of my beloved Jane, by throwinij together a few recollections re- specting my family, and of my own life : subjects that could not possibly have any interest with the world, and are only suited to the eye of friend- ship and of love. As to my father's family I know nothing but what I have heard in con- versation between my mother and my aunt Nancy Johnston, from whom I learned that my great grandfather John, left Scotland after the massacre of Glencoe under William the third. He, and I believe his sister, married into the houses of Loathes of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, and Mussin- den of Herringfleet Hall, in Norfolk. My grandfather William possessed an estate in the county of Antrim, held by lease under the Earl of Donne- gal, and an estate in the county Down, called Newtonbreda, ' ;ring on the estate of Lord Dungannon, to whom he sold it as being contiguous to his demesne of Belvoir Castle. My eldest uncles, Tjcathes, John and Michael, were educated at the famous school of Armagh, along- with Mr. Macartney and Mr. Carleton. The first became an Earl, and the second Viscount Dorchester. My grandfath. t"t his house of Newforge and came to reside in Belfast, for the education ol his younger children. Having a considerable sum of money oi. han^f from tlie sal of his New- tonbreda estate, he planned and executed the Water Works of TJelfnst, ou the security of a lease of 41 years. The then Lord Donnegal being insane, his Tutors could only grant leases, but the next heir pledged himself and family at a public dinner given by the town to my grandfather, that tli works should be granted in perpetuity as soon as the circumstances of ' e family would admit of it. But this word of honour, so publicly plighted, was afterwards shamefully broken ; and the reason adduced for ii was that from the increased growth and opulence of the town, the Water Works gave an influence nearly equal to that of the Lord of the soil ! though it wag allowed by all that the increase, prosperity, and health of the place was chiefly owing to the abundant supply of an article so essential to health and manufacture. My grandfather's younger children were six, two sons and four daughters. One of his daughters married the Rev. Wm. Saurin Rector of the town, a second married an opulent merchant, whose nam6 was Johnson, a third married the Rev. Robert Heyland, Rector of Colerain, and the fourth, my dear aunt Nancy, gave up the pleasures of a fashionable life to live with my mother, when a widow, and assist her with her income I 1 1 236 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESa. 1 %4 and in our education. My uncles Leathes and John went early over to their uncle Leathes, who, independent of his estates, had a good deal of in- terest from always representing the Borough of St. Edmunds Bury in Parliament. They both went into the army ; Leathes had soon a company in the guards, and John in a marching regiment ; but their ea/ly intro- duction into fashionable life had a fatal effect on the fortune of both, for they soon plunged into all the dissipation and extravagan s of the period ; and got so much embarrassed that they joined their uncle in cutting ofT the entail of the estates, and for £25,000 and an annuity, to one of £500, and the other of £200 per annum, sold their right of inheritance to their uncle, who bequeathed the whole to his natural children, who are now in full possession of both estates. My uncle Michael had a chaplaincy iu the army, and died of 'Consumption. Leathes married the daughter of the late Sir Benjamin Bloomiield, and had a family of four sons and a daugh- ter ; he then went out to India, where he died a Lieut. Colonel. John after losing three or four commissions, died at last a Lieut. Colonel of marines, instead of being an old Lieut. General. I have never seen any of my uncle Leathes's child'-en, I only know that his eldest son William is now a Lieut. General of Engineers, residing at Co'letje Green Bristol, after having spent many years in the West Indies. The two yc'jng-est "^ons of my grandfather, William ana Mussinden, chose the Navy and Army for their professions. They made a tour into Scotland, where my Uncle Mussinden raised a company in the neighbourhood of Glenco in a few weeks. They then visited Edinburgh, and were severally presented with the freedom of the city I remember the beautiful illuminated vellum, with large green wax seals r.ppended, which my sisters cut up to make patterns for working bobbin lace when we were children. William was a midship- man at the taking of Louisburgh I think in 1759. As soon as peace was proclaimed he quit the navy, and was appointed Surveyor of Port Bush, in the North of Ireland. The family were -ill grown up and dispersed when my grandfather was made Collector of Colerain. He had lost his first wife for some years, and being tired o! living alone made a visit to Liverpool, where he married a widow lady of high connections, but before embark- ing for Ireland he had to pay £800 sterling, for debts she had formerly contracted. I believe he only lived two or three years after his second marriage. About this time my father married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of John Mc Neil, Esq. of Coulresheskan, in English, Wheat- land. He got as a marriage portion the reversion of the quarter land of Craige, less than three miles from the Giant's causeway, a beautiful situa- tion and f .le land, which did not come into my mother's possession till the expiration of 20 years after signing the m.caiage articles. I was born the 25th of August 1762, and was sent to school in Colerain in my seventh year. When I left home-my father was on his death bed, he had been much afflicted with dyspepsia, for which his friend and physician, a III K ,,. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESft. 237 Doctor Stephenson of Colerain, had administered mercury without in- forming him of it. He had been on a visit to a friend beyond the river Bush, and on returniiig in the evening found the tide in, and rather than go two miles farther up to a bridge, he swam his horse over, and caught a cold which immediately fell upon his lungs, and in less than three months carried him to an untimely grave, in his 43d year, to the irreparable loss of his family, and regret of all who knew him. My mother was left a widow with two sons and three daughters. Jane was the oldest, by a year, I was the next, Eliza, yet living, the third, William the fourth, and Charlotte, the youngest and most beautiful, but the earliest in her grave, being carried off by the small pox in her seventh year, I could long dwell on her sweetness of temper, her early piety, her beauty and her grace, and above all her distinguished love for me, but the subject has over been too painful for me. And now my dear sir, having given you nearly all the knowledge I possess respecting my family, I shall conclude this hasty sketch by promising that when another scribbling fit comes on I shall again renew the subject, though I feel it will become more irksome to me as my picture gradually fills the foreground. Ever affectionately yours, JOHN JOHNSTON. LETTER II. Isician, a St. Mary's Falls, I9th Jan. 1828. MT DEAR SIR, In compliance with my promise, I resume the subject of my " Simple Annals." My mother's income was much circumscribed by the death of my father, so much so, that she was obliged to withdraw me from school in my tenth year. Instead of having a handsome income from three fourths of the Water Works, which devolved on her and my aunt Nancy, such had been the mismanagement, not to give it a harsher name, of the Rev. Robert Heyland, who had a fourth of the income by his wife, that several sums were demanded of my mother and aunt, said to be expended in repairs over and above the rental, which was more than £400 sterling a year. On my return from school I was examined by my aunt, who found that I neither knew Latin or English grammatically, and could scarcely write my name ; so much for an Irish Latin school ; and that too kept by an Episcopalian clergyman! My aunt immediately set me on a course of English grammar, and of reading ancient and modern history, I had a kind of tutor also for writing and arithmetic. To con- quer the idle habits I had acquired for three years was no easy task, and 238 AUTOBIUUKAVHT OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. ;i;-; perhaps no other person could have induced me to application, or have given me a taste for reading but my aunt, whose gentle and prlished man- ners gained her alike our love and our respect. My dear mother's house- hold cares gave her little time to attend to us, until after tea, when she, my aunt, and sisters sat down to work, and I read to them for two or three hours, which would have been very tiresome, but for intervals in which my mother and aunt pointed out to us the beauties of particular passages, and the virtues and vices of the different characters which history presented to us, and the consequent effect on their lives and fortunes But the British classics and our best Dramatists were to our young and just expanding minds a source of the purest delight. This state of innocent enjoyment and consequent happiness, continued, with little intermission, for five years, until I began to fancy myself a man, and that I ought to break through the trammels of female influence and control. These ideas were much strengthened by the conversation of servants and the country people in our neighbourhood, who, as all the lower class of Irish ever have been, are the most cunning and fulsome flatterers in the world. I now betook myself to coursing with greyhounds, shooting, fishing, &c., instead of taking the advantage offered me by the Rev. Robert Sturrock, of studying, at his Academy of White Park, within one mile of my mother's house, where he instructed some of the first gentlemen's sons of the kingdom ; among whom were my two friends and neighbours, Edmund and Francis McNaughton ; the eldest now a Lord of the Treasury, and member of Parliament for the county of Antrim ; the second Sir Francis, at present Chief Justice of Calcutta ; the Hon. Robert Stuart, afterwards too well known as Lord Castlereagh ; James Alexander, nephew to the Earl of Caldon, and now an India Director and member of Parliament, with many more, whose subsequent history I am but little acquainted with. All the advantages of such society, and the instructions of a man of ex- amplary piety, learning, and the most polished manners, who was on terms of friendship and good neighbourhood with my mother and aunt, I foolishly abandoned, for the pursuit of field sports and still more debasing gratifications. In my seventeenth year I was sent to Belfast to take charge of the Water Works, and for some time attended steadily to my business, by which means I raised the value of the property considerably ; but I had still a great den I of idle time on my hands, and having sufficient means of indulging myself, I squandered my time and money in vanity and dissipation, with no other saving quality but a detestation of low and vulgar company, into which I was never led but once or twice, and for which I paid dearly both in purse and peace of mind. In the midst of ail my folly and extravagance I still retained a love of reading. But unfortunately I had no guide or instructor to make a proper selection for me, so that the trash of a circulating library wasi read over with trery Jittie taste or discrimination, and was therefore a mere sacrifice of AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 239 love of proper Iver with rifice oi time. I as yet knew nothing of politics, and had been only taught that loyalty to my king was absolutely necessary to every gentleman. My ideas of love of country were vague. I thought obedience to the laws, and respect for the constitution, constituted all the duties of a Patriot. I was too blind and ignorant to perceive that my country, properly speak- ing, had no constitution ; and that the laws forced upon her by another state were unjust and oppressive, and studiously calculated to repress every effort at improvement or independence. I seldom or ever recollect dates, but believe volunteering was at its height about 1783 or 4; but I never would join any of their corps, being possessed with the idea that they were on the eve of rebellion, when only temperately, but firmly, demand- ing their just and natural rights, so long withheld by an ignorant, selfish, and jealous government. The corporation of Belfast now fixed their eyes on the Water Works as a means of greatly increasing their wealth and infiuence ; and had art and address sufficient to induce the weak and un- principled Earl of Donnegal to break the promise of his ancestor, to grant the property in perpetuity to my family. It is true the first lease was re- newed when still there were ten or fifteen years unexpired, but the second was now drawing to a close, and I took advantage of his lordship's being on a visit to his Irish estates to solicit the fulfilment of his promise, or at least a renewal of the lease. But as I could not succeed, from the reasons already mentioned, I made up my mind not to remain a burthen on my family, but to go abroad as soon as I could procure sufficient means. In the interim I sent out my dear brother William to New York, where he bound himself apprentice to a merchant of the name of Henry, who in two or three years failed, but was so pleased with him as to give him up his indentures. He then went into company with a Mr. Samuel Hill, brother to the Rev. Charles Hill of Ballycastle, my particular friend. They did business for some time at New York, and then removed to Al- bany, where Mr. Hill married. As to myself, I continued my idle and debauched life for several years, until the lease of the Water W^orks was within four or five years of expiring, when, finding that all my efforts to obtain justice from Lord Donnegal were unavailing, I, by the consent of all the parties concerned, raised £400 on the remainder of the lease from Mr. Alexander, his Lordship's agent for the Belfast estate, giving up the pro- perty as security ; the remaining avail to be accounted for to my family, which by the way, was never done ; and then prepared to leave the scene of my follies and misfortunes. In 1 789 Lord Macartney came to visit his castle at Lisanore, within 1 4 miles of my mother's residence, where I waited on him with a letter of introduction from my aunt. He received me with great kindness, and after stating to him my disappointments at home, I mentioned my wish to go to India, from whence he had recently returned, and where of course his interest chiefly lay. He took me into his library and showed mo a list of 26 persons he was bound to provide for, condescendingly adding, he 240 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESft. had not advanced himself in the world without being undei obligations to many friends, whose services it was his first duty to repay ; he however said if I was determined to go to India in preference to any where else he would, during the winter, do everything he could to forward my wishes. He farther remarked that we heard n great deal of those who came from India with fortunes, but not a word of the hundreds who fell victims to the climate, and the excesses into which young men were liable to be led in such a voluptuous country. I then proposed to go to Canada, in case of procuring letters to Lord Dorchester, the then Governor General. To this he in the most friendly manner assented, and said, though he himself was not on terms of intimacy with Lord D. his friends were, and that I should write to him when nearly ready to set out, when he would forward me letters from Lord Liverpool and Mr. Brook Watson, two of Lord D's. best friends, whose recommendations would have the greatest weight with him. Accordingly in spring, as soon as my affairs were all arranged, I wrote to his Lordship, who in a post or two sent me the promised letters, accompanied with one from himself containing the most friendly advice and good wishes. And now that I have brought my brief and little eventful history to the eve of that step on which my subsequent fortune so entirely hinged, I shall lay down my pen and give j'ou a little reprieve from the tedium of a recital so little interesting even to a partial ear. Believe me ever truly your's, JOHN JOHNSTON. LETTER III. m St. Mary's Falls, 26th Feb. 1820. MT DEAR SIR, III heahh, indolence, and the pursuit of idle amusements, which only end in vanity and vexation of spirit, have diverted my attention from writing for some time past. But I now resume the subject with the hope of pursuing it with more steadiness and perseverance than 1 have hitherto done. I had many acquaintances in Belfast and the neigh- boring counties, which, while we are linked in the pursuit of pleasure, we are apt to call friends, but the moment a change takes place in our circumstances, the illusion vanishes, and as if touched by the spear of Ithurial, they soon start up in their proper form, and the chain of connec- tion is broken for ever. However, I had the consolation of two particular exceptions, in my excellent and ever esteemed friends. Doctor Mc Donald and Narcissus Batt, over whom the lapse of time and change of circum- AUTOBIOORAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, £Sa« 241 lich only ion from with the I have neigh- pleasure, in our spear of connec- )articular Donald circum- stances have had no other efTecl than to prove, that true honour and worth, such uc theirs, are immutable. In the latter ;'nd of June, 1790, 1 embarked on board the Clara, Captain Collins, for New York. We were detained for several hours off Carick- fergus in the middle of the night, by a Naval Officer and boat's crew, who took possession of the ship, and made a strict search for British seamen \ though then at peace with the United States. I represented to the officer the cruelty and injustice of detaining an outward bound vessel with a fair wind, especially as the captain assured him that there was not a man of the description he sought for on board ; but when I saw he was deter- mined to detain the ship all night, I addressed a letter to the Marquis of Dovvnshire, to whom I had the honour of being particularly known, stat- ing the circumstance. I read the letter publicly, and prepared to send it by a gentleman just going ashore, but shortly after, "the man of brief authority," gave up the ship to the captain, and having eaten a snack and drank a pint of half and half grog, he civilly bade us good night and a safe passage. I had never been at sea before, though bred up on the coast, which caused me to suffer more from sea sickness than some of my fellow passengers. I lay down on the floor of the round house, from whence no inducement could tempt me to stir for nearly two days ; at the expiration of which I found myself perfectly well, and as hungry as a hawk. I got a beef steak and some porter, and never felt sea sickness after. We were four who messed together in the round house with the captain, the Rev. Charles Gray of Coleraine ; the Rev. Robert Cathcart, an old friend and neighbour ; and a Mr. Mathews from Edinburgh. We fared as well as peo- ple at sea could possibly wish, and had such an abundance of wine, porter and spirits, that I was enabled to bestow a large hamper of wine, spruce beer, oranges and lemons, sent on board for me by my friend Mr. Batt, amongst the passengers in the hold, several of whom were sick. Our fare was only ten guineas each, though since risen to forty ; such has been the ad- vance in living within the last thirty years ! We had a favourable pas- sage until we arrived off the Azores, where we were chased by a sixty gun ship, which having hoisted Spanish and then French colours, induced the captain to believe was one of the ships of war presented to the Al- gerincs by France. He altered his course and put before the wind, the ship repeatedly firing at us; but our vessel being a prime sailer, and light, we soon increased our distance, and the next morning, when scarcely visible, she altered her onnrse and gave up the chase. The second or third day after, when crossing the Gulf stream, we were overtaken by a heavy gale, which raised a tremendous sea. In the night our cabin win- dows were stove in ; we had two or three feet water on the floor ; trunks and boxes broke from their dealings ; the poor people in the under births were all afloat, and such a scene of terror and confi^ion took place as I shall never forget. Some were praying aloud, others con- 31 242 AUTOBIOQRAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESa* fessing their sins, others screaming from fear and pain, whilst escaping from drowning in their births ; and at every roll of the ship dashed into contact with trunks, chests and boxes. Amongst the latter sufferers was a Mrs. Lindsey, the wife of a clergyman from the Highlands of Scotland. Whilst sprawling on the floor she was struck in the head by an iron bound trunk, which laid it open for about three inches. When candles came down, and the dead lights lashed in, the scene exhibited such a mixture of the frighful and ludicrous as fairly surpassed description ; poor Mrs. Lindsey, who at best might have passed for one of the witches in Mac- beth, now looked a perfect Hecate ; her matted locks dripping with gore, and her vulgar unmeaning countenance distorted into a most unearth- ly grin. No one pitied her or her fanatic husband. He had made him- self particularly obnoxious to me from his language to the captain when chased by the Algerine. Ho told him it was an act of cowardice to run away from any vessel whilst we were all Englishmen ; with a great deal more of the most illiberal and vulgar abuse. The captain mildly answered that he could appeal to most of his men, who had sailed with him when commanding a privateer during the revolutionary war, whether he had ever evinced any signs of cowardice when in conflict with the enemy? But now, as accountable to his owners for the ship, and to the passengers for their safety, he only performed his duty by avoiding danger, even sup- posing the vessel was not what we supposed her to be. I had at length to interfere, and sent the very Rev. Mr. Lindsey to his cabin rather pre- cipitately. Nothing farther occurred worth noting until we got in sight of Long Island, which, as we approached, the trees seemed to start one after another from the water, and the scenery every instant developed new and interesting beauties; but on rounding Governor'.? Island, when the city, like a splendid amphitheatre, burst upon the view, I was absolutely transported with pleasure and delight We came to our moorings after sunset, and 1 slept on board, that I might put my foot on American ground the day of my birth ; having just attained my 28th year. And as this begins a new epoch in my existence, I shall here conclude the story of my voyage. Remaining ever truly and affectionately yours. JOHN JOHNSTON. LETTER IV St. Mary's FallSf Ut March, 1828. HT DEAR SIB., The first thing that struck me on entering New York was the kind- neas and urbanity of the people. I had asked my three fellow passengers AUTOBIOORAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESq. 243 Long another resting lendid I with and 1 day of a new L828. ke kind- Isengeis to breakfast with me, and entered into the first coffee house we saw. Thfl people told me they were not in the habit of providing meals for those who called at their house, but as we were strangers, they would give us the best breakfast they could : accordingly we had fresh rolls, excellent butter, fresh eggs, cream, tea, coffee, smoked beef and ham, for about one shilling sterling each, which I thought augured well for our future com- fort w' ilst in the country. I then went and called upon Mrs. Sadler, in Water street, who was a distant connection of my mother's. I found her and Mr. Sadler himself, kind, friendly, and hospitable. They insisted on my residing with them whilst I remained in town. Mr. Sadler then took me to Hill & Johnston's store, and I soon found myself in the arms of the best and most affectionate of brothers. I passed a very happy week in New York, and saw in church the great and good Washington, to whom I should hatre had the honour of being introduced, had I been able to make a longer stay : but my passage was taken for Albany in a fine sloop, called the Hibernia, Captain Moor, where for the first time I saw my na- tional flag displayed in all its beauty. We had a delightful passage of three days, though we stopped repeatedly to put ashore passengers and take in others. The romantic beauties of the Hudson have been so often and ably described, that any attempt on my part would be absolute pre- sumption. Amongst my fellow passengers were several genteel well- bred ladies. The men were plain, friendly, and unaffected ; and I found a very agreeable companion in a Mr. Noble, who was going to visit an estate his father had lately bought near Johnstown, in the centre of the state of New York. We put up at Lewis's Hotel, then the first in Albany ; where we spent four or five days very pleasantly. I one day took a stroll for about a mile up the hill from Mr. Lewis's, and saw five or six men, all armed with rifles, dash out of the wood to my left. I was at first a little startled at their uncouth appearance, but they accosted me civily, and said they presumed I was a stranger, from my walking unarmed so far from the city. They told me they were in pursuit of a pack of wolves that had attacked a gen- tleman on horseback, the day before, on the very place where we now stood ; when nothing but the power and speed of his horse saved him. The horse was cut in several places, and the gentleman's boots nearly torn off his legs — you may think I was very thankful for the warning. My informants entered the wood on the opposite side of the road, and I did not pursue my walk any farther in that direction. I got acquainted with a Mr. Bedient of Boston, who was on his way to Montreal, as well as my- self ; we therefore hired a waggon between us, there being no other mode of conveyance. We travelled through a fine but only partially cultivated country, until we came to Saratoga, where the scenery whs dark and gloomy, and the roads most intolerably bad, being made of round logs 244 AUrulUOUUAI'IIY OF JOHN JOHNSTON) ESQ. laid besido each other, forming causeways often for miles. These roads I was informed wrro made by general Burgoyne in his ill-conducted, and cnnscqucDtly ill-futed expedition. I saw the height on which the gallant Frnzor fell, and went over part of the battle ground with painful and liimiiliated feelings, which I was obliged to conceal, as no one would have sympathized with me. How different are my present ideas on the subject, when pride and prejudice no longer blind my eyes, and I can trace the hand of Omnipotence, baffling the eflTorts of tyrannic power to strangle the infant Hercules, who is destined to give law to the western world ! I do not now recollect Avhether we slept more than one night on the road from Albany to Fort Edward, but we arrived late in the evening, and Mr. Bedient immediately hired a batteau to take us down Ijake George early in the morning ; which deprived me from visiting the ruins of the Fort. The passage down the Lake was beautiful, and the scenery romantic in the highest degree. We stopped at the only house then on the borders of the Lake: I think the place was called Rattlesnake Point There I saw a hunter for the first time. His costume was so different from anything I had hitherto seen, that I conceived him to be an Indian, but on accosting him found he spoke good English. He told me he had been m the woods three months, and had not been as successful as usual : he had two or three dogs with him, the merest skeletons I ever beheld. He told me that in a fortnight he would make them quite fat, by feeding them on rattlesnakes, for which purpose he had come to the Lake, where they were abundant ; as also to refresh himself Cooper's description of Leatherstocking has repeatedly recalled this man to my mind. In the evening we passed the rock called Roger's leap, which certainly was a feat of activity few men would be equal to, unless pursued as he was by an unrelenting foe ; which reduced it to a mere matter of " neck or nothing," with him. We passed the ruins of Ticonderoga in the night, and slept at an inn, the lower story of which was literally washed by the waters of Lake Champlain ; here we were obliged to spend a day before we could pro- cure a boat to convey us down to St. John's at its northern extremity. We passed the first night at a blacksmith and farmer's, where we had every thing clean and comfortable ; the contrast between their mode of living and the beings we call farmers in the north of Ireland was pain- fully striking. The second night we passed at a Judge McNeale's, who I found was a descendant of the McNeales of Clogher, near Bush Mills, and Giant's Causeway : the estate when I left home, was possessed by Sir William Duncan, late of Calcutta in India. We arrived at St. John's in the night ; the commandant had gone to bed, and I was obliged to wait more than an hour in the guard house before I got liberty to seek an inn. In the morning I met Lieut. Boyd of Clare AUTOBIOORAI'IIY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, KSd. 246 1 near Ballycnstle, ia the nurth of Ireland, uii ukl ucquuintance and neigh- bour wilh whom I spent the duy. I took a culaish from St. Johns to Laprairie, and then hired u canoe and man to tuUo me over to Montreal. Tlie follow took me to a small island about a mile above the town, wuerc ho landed and went into the wood. 1 waited in the canoe for near an hour, and then wont in search of him. 1 found him skulking in the wood. There was something so sinister in his looks, that [ began to suspect him uf a design to rob me. I made him come to the canoe and embark, swearing that if he did not take me to the main land I would split him to the teeth Avith my paddle. When we got opposite the windmill above the town, I made him land and shoulder my portmanteau, and thus marched him before me into town. I was directed to O'Sullivnn's coffee house, where I took up my abode, intending to rest a few days before I proceeded to dueboc ; chiefly that I might get over the effects of the Musquito bites, by which I was absolutely deformed and feverish. I had brought over with me a few guineas of the latest coinage, one of which I gave Mr. O'Sullivan to get changed, and had a hearty laugh at his ignorance and impertinence, when he turned it in his fingers, and with a look half wise half cunning said, It is a very pretty counter. I told him to go and get it weighed, and on his return he was full as servile as before he had been insolent. The next evening I met in the coffee room my old acquaintance and friend, Mr. Andrew Todd. His family and mine had been intimate friends, when we were children. He was now a partner in the house of Todd, Magill <&. Co.; his uncle Isaac being one of the first merchants in Montreal since the con- quest in 1760. To him I imparted my object in going to Quebec ; he with great candor and friendship pointed out the chances against my suc- ceeding with Lord Dorchester, and advised me, if nothing satisfactory was done for me, to return to Montreal and pass the winter ; and in the spring I should accompany him to Michilimachinac, where a fair field was open to adventurers in the Indian trade ; to which proposition I gave my assent. And now, my dear sir, having arrived at a new resting place, " shall I not take mine ease in mine inn," only promising to take up the thread of my narrative as soon as you express a desire to hear farther from Your ever affectionate, JOHN JOHNSTON. { (To be continued.) i Expedition, says Xenophon, carrieth a point much better than strength. No modern hero profited more by the adoption of this mnTim than Bonaparte. A PROSPECTIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE. SUPERINDUCED UPON INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. In bringing forward his collection of the historical and imaginative traditions of the Indian tribes, the writer has been aware, that he might, herein, be at the same time the medium of presenting the germs of a future mythology, which, in the hands of our poets, and novelists, and fic- titious writers, might admit of being formed and moulded to the purposes, of a purely vernacular literature. So far as his reading of popular literature extends, the tendency ot public taste, to avail itself of such a mythology, (notwithstanding those who turn up their nose at it, and affect vast dislike for the " nasty Indians,") and to seize upon it as a basis for the exhibition of new and peculiar lines of fictitious creations, is distinctly per- ceptible. This is shown in various ways, but takes its most formal shape perhaps, if not its exact era, in a series of legends, which first appeared, a few years ago, in London, under the title of " Wild Scenes in the Prairies and Forest," a volume not as well known as it deserves to be, on this side of the water. This volume is subsequently known to have come from the pen of the author of " Greyslaer," and a " Winter in the West." Mr, Hoffman has looked with the eyo of an artist, and the taste of a connoisseur, on the scenes spread before him, in the wide prairies, the towering peaks, the deep matted forests, and the wide winding lakes of the western world. Wherever his view was directed, in that wild theatre of western life, or at the Alpine sources of his native stream, the Hudson, he has seen the footprints of the red man, and felt rising in his mind, the strong associations which the sonorous aboriginal names of streams and places have awakened. It is under such views of western scenery that he has, in his " Vigil of Faith," in- vested with flesh and blood, an aboriginal theory of a future state, and it is in the same spirit that he has cast his tales and legends, and drawn out his geographical descriptions. There are also frequent evidences in the diurnal and magazine press of the country, of late years, in a kind of mixed historical legends, of a growing taste on this subject. Writers seem, at intervals, at least, to be more aware of the eminent difficulty of getting laurels by following the old track of Grecian mythology, beaten as that track was by Greece herself, and smoothed and polished as it has subsequenty been by Roman and En- glish and Continental authors. Germany, has to a great extent, reinvigorated ''i INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 247 ancient literature, and made it national and peculiar, by an appeal to her own myths and popular legends, while our writers, for the most part, are yet endeavouring to re-do, re-enact, and re-produce, what the barda and essayists of England alcne have forever settled, and rendered it hopeless to eclipse. Originality of literature, if it can be produced in the West, as the critics of Europe leave us room to think, must rely on the scenes, associations, and institutions of the West. Nor will American lite- rature, we apprehend, ever command the attention and receive the sealing approbation of the old world, while it is either built witl. the materials or dressed out and adorned with the cast off literary decorations of her own authors. These remarks refer exclusively to an imaginative literature, and have no relation to subjects of science. The defects which have been no- ticed, in the wide and scattered range of American magazines, and other periodicals, in city and country, east and west, exist in verbosity and redundant description, ialse sentiment, and erroneous manners. Most of the attempts noticed, at the same time exhiltit vigour, and some talent, but they fail strikingly in those essentials of mental costume. They are, to characterize them by a stroke, English figures, drest in moccasins, and holding a bow and arrows. To render an Indian tale successful, Indian manners, and sentiments, and opinions must be accurately copied. Above all, the Indian mytho- logy and superstitions, as shown in their religious rites and ceremonies, must be observed. It is this mythology that furnishes the poetic ma- chinery of the native fictions. It does more. It furnishes the true theory of their mental philosophy, and lies at the foundation of their often strange and unaccountable acts and policy. It is by the power of Indian manitoes and the Indian Jeesukav^in, that all their wonders and impossibilities are performed. The chief points of failure, in the mere literary execution of attempted In- dian legends, consist in want of simplicity, conciseness and brevity. Nothing can exceed the doric simplicity of an aboriginal talc. It admits of scarcely any adjectives, and no ornaments. A figure of speech, or a symbol is employed, in cases where comparisons and illustrations, would be used in English composition, or where the native language falls short in words. But ordinary scenes and desires, are expressed in ordinary words. The closest attention, indeed, is required, in listening to, and taking notes of an original legend, to find language simple and child-like enough to narrate what is said, and to give it, as said, word by word, and sentence by sentence. A school boy, who is not yet smitten with the am- bition of style, but adheres to the natural method, of putting down no more words than are just necessary to express the precise ideas, would do it best. And when this has been done, and the original preserved in the words of the Indian story teller, it is often but a tissue of common events 248 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. which would possess very little interest, were it not for the mystery or melodramic effect, of their singular mythology. To imitate such a tale successfully, is to demand of the writer an accurate knowledge of Indian manners and customs, often his history and traditions, and always his re- ligion and opinions, with some gleams of the language. In the introduction of the following legend of the origin of the Evil Spirit, it is only justice to it to say, that the false theory and defects alluded to, as marking the popular effort of writers, have been avoided both in manner and matter, to a degree which surpasses any thing of the kind, which has fallen under our notice. It is in fact, completely successful, and furnishes a model for things of the kind. It is true to the Indian myths — it possesses the appropriate simplicity of thought. It proceeds by the true modus operandi of the natives of telling the story. Its reasonings are not a white man's reasonings. It depicts the Great Spirit, as being characterized not by christian attributes, but by the reasons and caprices of a man. He makes things to please himself, not knowing exactly what they will be, and when they do not strike his fancy, he casts them aside and makes others. He never sees the end from the beginning. He is always trying and try- ing and "making and making." He is the impersonation in mind, of a perfect Indian philosopher, who only sees and hears, and tastes and de- sires, like any other Indian. He pitches a lun.^ of clay in the water, and it becomes an island. He casts an old woman against the moon, and there she sticks to this day. (Vide Wyandot Traditions of Good and Evil, No. 3.) He does not reveal any traits — any high moral qualities — any- thing approaching to the innate holiness of the immaculate Alohim. He is the veritable Indian master of life — the great Wazheaud or maker ; and the idea which Mrs. Smith has eliminated, that Machineto, or the God of Evil, was accidentally created out of the leavings and cast away things of the Creator, helped out with the ravenous and venomous creatures of the sea and land, is a poetical conception worthy the pencil of Salvator Rosa, or the pen of Dante. We commend it to the pencil of Chapman. MACHINITO, THE EVIL SPIRIT; t^-' FROM THE liEQEN.M OF I.VGOU. BY MRS. E. OAKES SMITH. " The Pagan world not only believes in a myriad of gods, but wonhlps them also It is the peculiarity of the North American Indian, that while he believes in aa many, he wortMps but one, the Great Spirit." — (^Schoolcraft.) Chemanitov, 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 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 249 a great deal of disquiet. His birth was owing to an accident. It was in this wise. Met6wac, or as the white people uow call it, Long Island, was origi- nally 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 hfc wished to bring any new creation to the life. The place heing 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 ele- ments, 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 crea- tures, to set them in motion upon the island of Metowac, and if they did not please him, he took the life out before they were suffered to escape. He would set up a mammotli or other large animal, in the centre of the island, and huild 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 whet 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 iixssocks, 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 *) and indeed all the lesser manit- toes, 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 inony days. * Literally, little men, who vanish. 32 }■» « 260 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 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 .-naster of life he was suflered 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 cne time Chemanitou was a very long while building an ani- mal, of such great bulk, that it looked like a mountain upon the cen- tre 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, think- ing Chemanitou, who was finishing off other parts of the animal, could not see them. i i; 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 fear- ful to give it life, and so it was left upon the island, or work-table of Che- manitou, 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 amv.sed himself by making creatures very small and ac- tive, 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. a,-- 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. .ayiu- t., . ^,.■- l»i J'lS im INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. m Then 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 Che- nianitou 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 waa 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 un 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, it gusty wind swept in from the ocean, and passed over the island of Metowac, 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 smeh 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 hburs, 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. c^mn 263 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. kM mm m i>h«^ m ..'1* 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 et;rth, but after himself He should link this world to the spirit world, — being made in the like- ness of the Great Spirit, he should be drawn unto his likeness. Many days and nights, whole seasons, passed while Chemanitou thought upon those things. He saw all things. Then the Master of Life lifted up his head ; the stars were looking down upon 'he image, and a bat had alighted upon the forehead, spreading its great wirgs 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 slight. 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 I 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 ex- ceedingly 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 Met6wac, 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. Che- manitou saw the aspect of the creature would be very terrible, and yet that INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 253 lemanitou 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 try- ing 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 passsed and the noise grew louder within the cave. The earth shook, and hot smoke came from the ground. The Manittoes crowded to Metowac 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 I The above legend is gathered from the traditions of lagou, the great Indian narrator, who seems to have dipped deeper into philosophy than most of his compeers. The aboriginal language abounds with stories re- lated 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. How- ever 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 cool- ness 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. £. 0. S. i&wiNwiin CORN PLANTING AND ITS INCIDENTS. (concluded from rAUK 83.) If one of the young female buskers 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 tbe 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 vi- vidly bring to the minds of the merry group, the idea of a pilferer of their favourite monddmin. 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 Wavveau, that which is bent or crooked. The termination in g, is tbe 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, agreea- bly 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 corn- field. 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 Bung by the northern Algonquin tribes. It is coupled with the phraso 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 com. It offers, therefore, a kind of parallelism in expression, to the pre- ceding term. The chorus is entirely composed of these two terms, vari- ously repeated, and may be set down as follows : Wagemin, Wagemin, Paimosaid. Wagemin, Wagemin, Paimosaid. CORN PLANTING AND ITS INCIDENTS. 256 is typical ne young alter what rd shouted tred as the the chisel )t more vi- er of their IS, that the been thus lis, as by a literal term 1 g, is the one object, if animated ened sound see, agreea- in, between meaning of n so called, 1 in a corn- ese curious ve can thus at to excite rn song, as the phrase de from the ilks, or the ;ht to pilfer to the pre- Iterms, vari- 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 in- tonation is given, and generally interrogates the supposed pilferer, as if he were present to answer questions, or accusations. There can be no pre- tence, 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 phrase- ology. On the contrary, it is often an object to vary it. It is a perfect improvisation, and it may be supposed that tho 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 iun 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 trans- posed or repeated, and, unlike an English song, precedes the stanza or narrative. CORN SONO. Cereal chorus. Wagemin ! wagemin I 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* indeed. * A Juggler. 23() CORN PLANTING AND ITS INCIDENTS. Sec how ho stoops, as ho l)reaks off the ear, Niishka !* he sconis for a moment in fear ; Walker, be nimble — oh ! walker be brief, Ilooh If it is plnin the old man is the thief Cereal chorus. Wagemin ' vvagemin I Thief in the blade, Blight of the cornfield Paimosaid. Recitative. Wabuma!| corn-taker, why do you lag? None but the stars see you — fill up your bag ! Why do you linGfer to gaze as you pull, Tell me, my little man, is it most full? A-tia ! ^ see, a red spot on the leaf, Surely a warrior cannot be a thief! Ah, little nijrht-thief, be deer your pursuit, And leave here no print of your dastardly foot TO H. ALTH. BY THE LATF. JOHN JOIINBTON, E84. Health ! dearest of the heavenly powers. With thee to pass my evening hours, Ah ! deign to hear my prayer ; For what can weaUh or beauty give, If still in anguish doomed to live ^ ':^ t i 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. * A pharp exclamation quickly to behold something striking. .:*« t A derogatory exclamation. 4 A masculine exclamation, to express sunwise I Behold thou. >itf¥f^*f rt ® In B ^ X iSL» OR THE EED RACE OF AMERICA. j PART FIFTH. ^ TALES OF A WIGWAM These legendary tales are collected from Indian tradition, as it now exists. They are not creations of the writer's imagination, but results of his researches. This constitutes at once their peculiarity, and their value. They are — the wildest and simplest of them, so many media for the exhibi- tbn of Indian thought, Indian reasoning, Indian mythology, and Indian opinion. They open a vista into the structure of Indian mind, which was before unknown. The very existence of such legends in the oral traditions of the tribes, is a discovery of recent date. The writer first found them, among the war- like and hunter tribes of the Odjibwas, at the outlet and around the bor* ders of Lake Superior ; and this district has, to the present time, furnished the most fruitful source of them. It was at this place, at the Falls of St Mary's, that a gay and light hearted adventurer from the fashionable cir- cles of the gentry and clergy of the north of Ireland seated himself, a few years after the close of the American Revolution, and linked in matrimo- nial ties with a noble chieftan's daughter, the Erse and Algonquin races. A , family of four sons and four daughters ensued, which had the further pe- culiarity, that in their education and manners, they exhibited a blending of the refinement and taste of the father, with the strong love of country and peculiar nationality of the mother. If the red man has been correctly de- picted as " a stoic of the woods," here were sources of warmth and of enthu- ■ siasm, and a love of social life, which might be fairly said to bring a coun- terpoise. Both the languages were spoken and written and read, with the same ease, fluency and propriety. IMr. Johnston himself was a man of extensive reading, of a taste for letters, and of elegant and easy man- 33 268 TALES OF A WIQWAM. '.? ners and refined hospitality. There never was, perhaps, a union between the European and the Indian stocks, so auspicious to the acquisition of a true knowledge of Indian history, ninnners and customs. The con- nexion of Sir William Johnson, with the Mohawk tribe, might indeed, have been equally so, had the tastes of that distinguished individual not led him rather to the sterner realities of war and national policy. The latter too, was rather a union of the heroic age of the race, when tiiey were still feared and courted, than of the milder era, which began to dawn on them before the close of the 18th century. John Johnston, Esq. had all the enthusiasm and warmth of character of his nation, lie went into the Indian country, in a spirit of romantic ad- venture, und ho abode in it, in a spirit of honor, and just impulse to the ties of nature. It is from the various members of this family that a large number of these legends have been derived. They embrace the traditions of Wabojeeg, of Maidosagee, of Nabunwa, of Paigwaineosh, and of many other individuals, male and female, who were once well known, and some of them, distinguished in that quarter. Others are due to individuals of the same general area of country, who were either connected by descent, or intermarriage with the same people, or with their kindred, the Ottowas, the Potto watlomies and other tribes. Opportunities for extending the en- quiry and increasing the collection, were sought during various journeys in the west, south-west, and north, and many proofs received, of the exis- tence of a like story-telling faculty, and the existence of oral legends, among other stocks not related to the Algonquins. These were found, not only among tribes where they were expected, but also among the Wyan- dots and the Dacotahs, or Sioux. A few specimens of them were published, in my Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley in 1825, and in the Narrative of an Ex- pedition to Itasca Lake in 1834. Feeling that they opened a new and most interesting means for considering the mental characteristics of the race, two octavo volumes, devoted wholly to these legends, were published, under the title of Algic Researches, in 1839. These volumes have been favorably received, and noticed, over a wide area, both in England and America, and an increasing enquiry is made for them. It is under these circumstances, that I add to these miscellaneous papers, from my portfolio, such of the tales as have not yet been published. I submit these remarks for the in- formation of readers who may not have been apprized of my prior re- searches in this department, or who may lie under any misapprehension as to the true character of the legends themselves. Perhaps a few remarks may not be out of place respecting the peculiar thought-work, and story-craft, exhibited in these creations of the wigwam. They supply, what has heretofore been deemed a wide hiatus in the Indian mind, and denote some of its peculiar supports, under circumstances of ttiai and difficulty. They show that the man is not, what he has been I, w TALKS OF A WIQWAM. jeculiar ; Igwam. 1 1ndian Itces of been confidently represented, a statue — a cold and carved image of stone, with- out feelings or sensibilities, thoughts or thcori(!s. Truth to tell, we find this unmoved exterior filled up with stores of legendary matter— often jumbled and mixed up together, without method or order — but so replete in quantity, or so curious in character, that we are often tempted to en- quire where ho could have derived such notions. And ho must be u care- less reader of the text, who does not perceive in ita mythology and opinions, some striking coincidences between the eastern and western continents. As a general remark, it may be snid that amusement and instruction are combined. While the sago amuses the young circle in the lodge with strange adventures of heroes and manittocs, he not unfrcquently conveys a moral, or throws in a piece of advice, or some wise admonition, which is evidently designed to form the character of the credulous and suscepti- ble group. He makes very largo drafts on their credulity, particularly on the score of ilic powers of their necromancers and jugglers. It is no longer a wonder that the grown man is so prone to be influenced by popular belief and rumours, of the most improbable events, when the boy has been so thoroughly schooled in this branch. In framing their stories there is no little ingenuity displayed, in cover- ing up their almost total lapses of history and chronology. Not knowing, or their ancestors having forgotten the tradition of the world's creation, if they ever had it, they have, in their stories, delegated the power of crea- tion, under the symbolic forms of birds and quadrupeds, who did so and so m curtain emergencies. One half of the tales, one would think, have been mvented for no other purpose, but to answer the enquiries of inquisitive children, who are prone in all states of society, to demand of their parents why this and that is so, and who made things. It is in this department, that the Indian story tellers seem never to be at a loss. They excel in their naive and expert manner of accounting for the origin of things, from the dab of red on a bird's wing, to the making of the globe. Spirits of the earth and air abound on every hand, who stand ready to lend their aid by inhabiting human bodies, or by sending monsters, or giants, or pigmies, to do the needed work. The whole creation is filled with these lesser spirits, of benign or malignant character, who at one moment spring out of a rock, a tree, or a plant, or animate a shell, an insect or a bird. To make pleasure result from surprises agreeable or comical, is one of the manifest objects of Indian story tellers. Giants are made to quail before men, and extravagant feats heaped upon characters and persons, of whom nothing of this kind is to be expected. One of the leading me- thods of bringing this about, is to make tiny little beings — a kind of Tom Thumbs, perform exploits. In these the object is, to exhibit the full powers, not only of men, but of manittoes or gods, in combination with the mOBt diminutive stature. The pith and wit of this kind of stories, of' I . i^ tW tl^'-^'V •*^*'fc "»*W ■• It' U.T.I -T 'TT** 960 TALEb OF A WIGWAM. in,. ■ ..:• which a number will be given, are expected to turn, or result from, this apposition of personal appearance, and actual powers. The red man does not require much to excite his risible faculties. Something odd, .r droll, in incident or manner, or quaint in expression, or the mere tone of voice, is suHicient to set u lodge-circle in a roar. When the matier is explained to a bystanHer, it is often very simple or jejune, and entitled to little notice except what it may derive from its character as illustrating the manners and customs and opinions of a curious branch of the human family. Every literary effort should be judged by the law of composition or theory on which it is put forth. And if we liA up an Indian's door-cloth, and take a seat in his lodge-circle to hear stories, we must award him his share, however humble, of this right. We must judge of his efforts by such lights and theories of the art of oral narration, and of the laws of fiction, as he gives us, or has received from his fathers. We should at all times well consider and admit the circumstances and opportunities of knowledge under which he puts himself forth is a fabulist, a story-teller, or a narrator of traditions. The chief and often oni'r value of these tales arises from their being true transcripts of Indian thought, or if the case requires the term, want of thought. Their very inci)ngruities often make them a picture of the Indian mind, in which incidents queer, and things diverse, follow each other, in a manner, which characterizes them as peculiar, or original. To origiadlity, therefore, and to authenticity in their collection fiom true aboriginal sources, we may appeal for their value. The very fact of the Indian race having stories and legendary tales at all, is a fact of moment — the discovery throws a new light upon the character of the man ; it clothes him with a new kind of drapery, which hangs in graceful folds over his club and spear ; and gives the race, we apprehenu, now claims to the world's consideration. THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. AN ODJIBWA FAIRY TALE. WRriTEN OUT FROM THE VERBAL NARRATIVE BY THE LATE URS. H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT. There was once a little boy, remarkable for the smallness of his stature. He was living alone with his sister older thnn himself They were orphans, th^y lived in a beautiful ^pot on the Lake shore ; many large rocks wero THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. 261 N. ^tatuie. Iphans, b wero 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 lust 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 sur- prised to see four large, tall men lying on the ice, spearing fish. When he went up to them, the neartist looked up and in turn was surprised to see such a diminutive being, p.nd turinr.g to his brothers, he said, " Tia! look ! see what a little fello'v is hert'." After they had all looked a mo- ment, they resumed tboir position, covered their heads, intent in searching for lish. 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 ba)' before him, ran off" at full speed. When the roan 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 js he should do so." The boy reached home, and told his sister to go out and get the fish he had brought homo. 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" per- sisted 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 m 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, ' Noejee, pray hand me my ball." " No indeed," answered tho 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 ir\ speed, ho 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 fm2 THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. the uoy'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 in- difference. 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 raonedo, or he could not perform such feats." But her sons would not lis- ten ; and taking their wounded brother along, started for the boy's lodge, having lenrnt 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 ad- vancing. She saw the large, tali 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 u.. d them? give me something to eat." " How can you think of eating at such a tinje," 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 tbi* 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 wtiat 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 na- ture that required manual labour, though he provided for thei"" 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 wsided 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, " yoM, of the red fins come and swallow me." Immediately that monstrous fieh came and swallowed him ; and seeing his .sister standing on the shore in despair, he hallooed out to he*-, " 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 H 1 THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOT-MAN. 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 hoU 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. «TORT OP A FAMILY OF NADOWaS, OR PEOPLE OP THE SIX NATIONS OP TORONTO, CONSISTINO OP BIX BROTHERS, THEIR YOUNGEST SISTER, AND TWO AUNTS. THEIR FATHER AND MOTHER HAVING DIED, THEY WERE LEFT ORPHANS, THEIR ORIOIK, HOWEVER, WAS FROM THE FIRST CLASS OP CHIEFTAINS IN THEIR NATION. NARRATED PROM THE ORAL RELATION OF NABANOI, MR. GEORGE JOHNSTON. BY In the days of this story, wars, murders, and cruelty existed in the country now comprising th(! province of Upper < 'unada, or that portion bordering upon Lakes Simco*". Eric, and Ontario, which was claimed and belonged to the powerful tribe of the eight nations of the Navvtovvays. The young men had, on a day, started for a ^ uing excursion: in the evening five only of the brothers returned, . "ssing. Upon search being mad* the body was found and it appeared evident thnt he had been killed; this gave a great blow to the family, but particularly causing great affliction to the sister, who was the yowigew 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 couH to afTord consolation to their pining siEler, but .she would not be consoU/ they did all they could to divert her mind from so much mourning, but all their endeavourt 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 264 AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. i 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 bro- ther 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 be- came 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 pre- vailed 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 disance 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 1 will give you all the land, and deliver into your hands the persons who have killed your brothers. All thin^ living and created are mine, I give and take away. Now therefore arise, slay and cat of my dog that lap there. You will go to your village and firstly tell your relatives and na- tion 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 visum 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 tke bear^was to be tbund , it was AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. 266 lays na- the will 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 im- mediately 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 a^inst 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 Na- dowas, reigning together, keeping the other nations in great fear and awe. and enslaving them ; particularly the Indians of the Deer totem, who re sided 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 Nayioadaha. When the Chippewas received the young girl's messengers, they were told that they must rescue their re- latives, 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 quan- tity 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 assem- bled allies marched, headed by the young girl. She passed through lake Simcoe, and the lino 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 m. and thej'^ were singed, and the feast of sacrifiie offiuiHl. At this place the jperson from on high appeared to the girl in presence of the assembled multi^iide, and he stretched forth his hand and shook hand* with her only. He hero directed her to 8eB»i secret messengers into the land, '.^, warii \Jit^. Ind »«<,»« who had the deer totem to put out their lolems on poles befof*, th«if Mge door, in order thai they might be known and saved from the approaching destruc- tion ; 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 de- stroyed ; 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. )i The mcpsengcvs were sent to the Deer Totems, and they entered the town at night, and commuaicated their message to them. After tiuf all 2b6 AINOODON AND NATWADAHA. ft- I 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 ven- geance 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 d reams, 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, de- stroying all its inhabitants. The Deer Totems escaped. Aingodon and Na- wadaha were not consumed. The allied Indians drew their bows and shot their arrows at them, but they bounded ofl^, 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 viastroyed 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 ven- geance was taken the young girl returned with her host, and n£;^ain en- camped 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 imple- ments 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 arc 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 re- COgnixi^l by the Indians of this generation as the two tyrants, cv 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 duebec. After this the young girl was taken away by the god of light. GEO. JOHNSTON. SmU S$e. Marie, May 12J souri 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 foliag?, by which means the unsuspecting voyagers with their upward freight were waylaid. We overtook the slowly float- ing 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 un- finished 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 vegeta- ble 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 diam- eter, 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 oa PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 269 man, very the shores of the rirer 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 per- colated ovor and amongst this mass. This was the last glimpse of consol- idated msitcer. 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 feU the most intense interest as we approached and came to the point of confluence. I had followed the Ohio, in all its sinuosities, a thoo- sand miles. I had spent more than three months in its beautiful and va- ried 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 melt' ing 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 float- ing 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 tur- bid 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 towi. . f 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 270 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 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 truo magnate of those dominions. The next morning at an early hour our stout-hearted cqmmander 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, pro- pelling the boat by their feet in the contrary direction. This is a very laborious and slow mode of ascent, which has now been entirely super- seded 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 overwliplm us by the falling earth and the recoil of the waves, and we got away i he 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 arras, 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 furi- ous. Both white and furious it certainly was, but after much delay, com- mendable caution, and no wtmt 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 8uperhu0ian power. Often not more than a few miles can be made with NAL REMINISCENCES. 9ffl ^hateyer nosquito, I of those nder put such was 9, that I d a^inst idem era ossible to ms to be 5t-hearted ink walk the men. den knob other end vith their hem, pro- is a very sly super- 3 at every s through me. We I we were Im us by he main I, and the struck a ave been id turned Some Ifar below All who citement to be a Imed furi- Qay, corn- led out to kead, and Irs of the almost lade with a hard day's oxortions. We wont the first day six miles, the second about the same distance, and the third eight miles, which brought us to the first cultivated lurid along u low disli id 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 ob- served here the pupaw. The no.\t day wo ascended but three miles and stopped, the crew being found too weak to proceed. While moored to tho bank, \vc wore passed by several boats destined for St. Louis, which were loaded with pine boards and platik from Glenn, on the sources of tho Al- leghany. They told us that sixty dollars per thousand feet could be ob< tained for them. Additional men having been hired, wo wont 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 tho banks of the river. This soil is of a sterile and mineral cha- racter. 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 desti- tute of carbonic acid ; it appears to be a condition of alumine or nearly pure clay. Large masses of pudding-stone, disrupted from their original poBi« .on, were seen lying along the shore at this locality, being similar ia their i haracter to that seen on approaching the mouth of the Ohio. .^ We ascended the river this day teu miles, and the next five miles, which brought us to Cape Girard'-au, at the estimated distano of fifty miles above the mouth of the Ohio. /. tus place I was received with attention by one of the principal residents, w. on learning that my objec; was to examine the natural history of the couiitry, invited me to his house. In rambling the vicinity, they showed me a soimnvh. • extra but dilapidated and deserted house, which hud been built by one /-.oramee, 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 m_ 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 >oth 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 h*"- breasts. The jour..f ,• j . n Cape Girardeau to St. Louis occupied nineteen days, and was frauflit >, ith scenes and incidents of interest, which I should de- tail with pleas it .vere 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 iqi j^ht be said particularly !fl.'ij -Ti^JM -iWiV IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) t ^ ^/ A 1.0 I.I 11.25 2.0 P7 ■^ ^^^ % ^ "y ^J^.? ^ ^§. ^ y Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 \ LV a; :\ \ 272 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. of its geological structure and its tnineralogical 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 fallins We came to, the same night, at a well known fountain, called the Mu^ sin 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, v/here 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 encoun- tered 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 rep- resentatives from a great number of the states in these accidental meetings ; ihey 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 th>^ isolated clifl^. Standing in its vraters, called Grand Tower, with the corresponding de- velopments 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 numtrous eddies and strong jets or currents along this precipi- tous 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 charac- teristic antique French town, and reminds one strongly of the style and PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 273 manner of building of the provincial villages and towns of the parent country, as still existing. Three miles pbove this place we came to a noted point of crossing called the Little Rock Ferry ; a spot worthy of note at that time '',s 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 ouilding of Fort Chartres, in Illinois; and at Braddock's defeat. Afler 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 con* tinuous clifi* 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 cliiTs, which, in this case, were rendered stiil more picturesque by their elevated shot towers. I land«d at this place about noon of my twenty-second day's ascent, and find- ing 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 Richmondi 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 af^er 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 execu- tion, 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 en- tered very warmly into all his plans and views, whatever they were. He was hospitable, fiank, intelligent, and it is with feelings of unmixed plea- sure, 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. 36 EISTOEY. A SYNOPSIS OF CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY TO NORTH AMERICA. 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 Toyege mentions, " Master Claudius de Pont Briand, son to the Lord of Montceuell, and cup-bearer to the Dauphin of France ; Charles of Pome- rais, 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 ves- sels 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 alony 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 pro- bably, with the uncertainty cf the era. Nothing of importance occurred until the 8th of August, when Cartier entered the gulf, where he had pre- viously encountered such storms, and which he now named St. Law- rence. From thence on the 12ih, 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 ■'^VUB before (1497.) He constantly speaks of his discoveries as "islands" cartibr's voyages of discovert. 275 and the great object of anxiety seeros 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." n In consequence of this information, and a wish to revisit " the land he had before espied," Cartier turned his course towards the north, and re* entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, came to the entrance of the river, which is stated to be " about thirty leagues" across. Here, the two na- tives 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 Car- tier, 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 Ist 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 charac- teristic caution and shyness. On being hailed, however, by the two cap- tive 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, Virith 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 wore both industriously sought, and readily credited, than to convey any accurate idea of their true characters and proDertieB. 276 CAHTIEK8 V0VAGE3 OF DISCOVERY. On the 7th of Sept. they reached the island now called Orleans, Trhere, 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 ex- clusively 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 In- dians. The report of the arrival of their lost countrymen D. and T. seemed to have put all the surrounding villages in commotion, and Car- tier 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 how- ever, 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 treat- ment they had e.xperienced. 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 Hoche- laga (now Montreal) before the ice formed, admonished Cartier to look for a harbour, which would afford a safe anchorage for his largest ves- sels 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 bring- ing 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 CARTIER'S VOYAQES OP DISCOVERT. 277 Dcmaigaia were suffered to return to their villages, and it soon becaiiae 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 after- wards 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 Don- nacona and his counsellors on his own grounds, and the virhole 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 hor- rible 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, wo- men 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 accompany- ing 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, bring- ing presents of fish, singing and dancing. He then caused all his people CO pass to one side, and drawing a circle in the sand, requested Cartier and his followers, to enter into it. This arrangement concluded, he be- gan 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 278 cartier's voyages of discovert. at each presentation, expressing their assent by shouts. Taignoagny, who by this time had drawn upon himself tho epithet of " crafty knave" told tne " 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, Domai- gaia 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 dissuar'ing 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 how- ever, took the children, and gave Donnacona " two swords and two cop- per basins," for which he returned thanks, and " commanded all his peo- ple 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 them- selves to flight, howling, crying, and shrieking, so that it seemed hell was broke loose." These attempts to frustrate the purposed voyage, having failed, the na- tives 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 waj's, 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 Hoche- laga" — 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 Donna- cona, " 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 cartier's voyages op discovert. m told gny and Hoche- nt these w in the ogatives as oddly ," both Donna- vith him might stay, and he would prosecute the voyage without them. Accord* ingly, having finished mooring his vessels, on the I9th September he set out to explore the upper portions of the river, taking his smallest vessel and two boats with fiAy mariners, and the supernumerary gentlemen of hit 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 oAen were, with the vine loaded with clusters of grapes, the variety of water fowl, and above all the friendly treatment they every where re- ceived 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 com- pany touoh 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 "retured 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 him- self," 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 re- tinue, 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 dis- course," 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. 280 cartier's votaoes of discovery. This done the procession advanced, without further interruption, to the " city of Hochelaga," which is described as seated in the midst of culti- vated fields, at the distance of a league from the mountain. It was secured by three ramparts " one within another," about 2 rods in height, " cun- ningly joined together aAer 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 face*) and arms of the strangers, or whatever parts of their bodies they could ap- proach. The men now caused the females to retire, and seated them- selves 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 chiefs 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 por- tion 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 CARTIER8 VOYAGES OF DISCOVBRY. 281 por- latives I us in auted, ^hen irtake tlined, lowed out of the town by " divers men and won.en," 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 resppcting the adjoining regions, as their imperfect knowledge of the Indian lan- guage would permit, they returned to their boats, accompanied by a pro- miscuous 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 thoso incidents in it. In which the Indians are represented as looking upon Cartier in the iight of a divinity, clothed with power to heal the sick and restore sight to .iif« blind, every one will yield the degree of faith, which his credulity permits. The whole proceeding bears so striking a resemblance to " Christ heal- ing 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 de- scription 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 follow- ing day. Finding all well, he continued the descent, without meeting much entitled to notice, and reached the " port of the Holy Cross," on the 1 Ith of the month. During his absence the ships' crews had erected a breastwork before the vessels, and mounted several pieces of ships' can- non for their defence. Donnacona renewed his acquaintance on the fol- lowing day, attended by Taignoagny, Domaiga, and others, who were treated with an appearance of friendship, which it could hardly be ex- pected Cartier could sincerely feel. He, in return visited their village of Stadacona, and friendly relations being thus restored, the French pre- pared 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 licentious 36 982 OARTIER'S V0TAOE8 OF DI8C0VBRT. intercourse 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 com- mencement, 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 aick by the middle of February. Eight had already died, and 50 were supposed to be past recovery. Gartier, 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 remem- brance 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 whoso- ever 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 stutc of his crews from the Indians, and he sought unremit- tingly 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 cer- tain tree, which is stated to be "the Sassafras tree,"* 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 no- tice. 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 cus- toms, ceremonies and occupations of the Indians, and to detail the informa- tion derived from them, and from personal observations respecting the geo- grapf "al features and the productions of the country. * As the tree is afterwards stated to be " as big as any oak in France," it was probki- bly the box elder, and not the sassaTras, which never attained to much size. cartier'b voyacbs of discovert. 283 he had a cer- of his ly, and igaia, to women use it." lire no- lenaion savage of the ortunity ind cus- n forma- thegeo- Touching the faith of the Indiana, it is said, they believed no trhii in God, but in one whom they call Cudruiagni," to whom, they say, they are oflen 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 to- wards 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 tillinj^' the grounds, dtc, principally devolves. The young women live a dissolute life, until marriage, and married women, after the death of their husbands, are con- demned to a state of perpetual widowhood. Polygamy is tolerated. Both sexes are represented as very hardy, and capable of enduring the most in- tense 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 muitatos* and except the remark respecting the condition of widows, the accuracy of which, as it was made upon slight acquaintance, may be rea- sonably 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 origi- nated 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 ven- ison, &c., and sojnetimes 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 aspiolA- * Robe of beaver skms. Eight skins of two year old beaver are required to make such a robe. 284 CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERT. by neglectinr 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-iit 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 be- seech Cartier to take off " a lord of the country," called Agonna, who probably stood in the way of his own advancement. Cartier availed him- self of this request to bring on an interview with Taignoagny, and by flat- tering 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, mak- ing 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 arras of France, and the following inscription : " Franciscus primum dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat," a sentence upon which this unjustifiable outrage formed a practical com- ment. 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. Ib the meantime many of the natives of Sagnenay visited the ships, and find ing Donnacona a prisoner, they presented liim three packs of beaver. Or 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 \va ters" 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 New- foundland coast till the 19th June. He then took advantage of a favorable CARTIERS VXrfAQEa OF DISCOVERT. 285 wind, and performed the homftward 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. It is to be remarked, on this voyage, that the names of persons intro- duced, and the aboriginal terms employed, are exclusively of the Iroquois type. (To be continued.) To preserve order in the lodge, each person is assigned a fixed seat, or place to sit. This is called Abinos. It would be a gross impropriety for one inmate of the lodge to take the abinos of the other. The husband's, the wife's, the son's, and the daughter's abinos may not be invaded with- out a violation of good manners. It is only children who need not observe this rule. Woman was created for the domicil, and not for the forest. It is her change and transference from this scene to woods and wilds, that has caused her degradation there. It is indispensable to feminine develop- ment, independence, and exaltation, that she should have allotted to her apartments shielded from the family gaze and intrusion, which it is impos- sible to secure in the wigwam. Ablution is the parent of purity. Woman is a modest and tender flower, which for its proper growth and the development of all its beauties and fragrance, must be cultivated in the garden. If planted beneath the dark shades of the forest, it will become sickly, pale, and lose its sweetness. Can a rose tree have health and beauty, which is oflen plucked up and removed from spot to spot, without regard to air, sunshine, or water? Neither can a mother of a family, if compelled to follow the fortunes of the chase. There is a perpetual attempt made to secure a state of domestic fixity, which is perpetually disturbed, recommenced, and redisturbed. A wild flower is often a pretty flower, but it is subject to be trodden down by the bear or panther's paw. Thus it is with the maid of the forest. All children are lovely while they are children. A baby swung in a tickenagon, or rocked in a cradle, is equally the ready subject of early impressions, and may be moulded either to habits of civilization or barba- rism. It is EDUCATION that makes the diflerence. To conceal emotion is a point every chieftain wishes to carry, merest children are taunted if they flinch. The ETHNOLOGY. (continued from no. III.) 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 de- rived ^rom the word Algonquin, and akee, earth or land. Algonqtjinensis, a term used in old gazetteers and geographical die tionaries, for the Algonquins. Alietans, a name for the Shoshones, or Snake Indians. See letans. Alibamons, or Alibamis, ancient forms of orthography for the tribe of the Alabamas. Alina, a settlement of Pinzandarc, New Spain, containing 20 Indian &milies, who have a commerce in maize and wax. Alifkonck, 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.] Anee- bikong? place of leaves, or rich foliage. Allca, an ancient province of the kingdom of Peru, south of Cuczo, in- habited 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. ii 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-gi-6-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 anciei.t race of In- dians who were called Tallegewy, or AUegewy. 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 ; ftlso, in Metepec, in the same kingdom, of 156 families. BTHNOLOOT. 287 zo, in- anco In »untry, nes. liigan, word, term >8 east river, ofln- dition Ohio. bloody tribes, Such AiiMOitOLOAUN, a settlement in the district of Cohma, New Spain, of 60 Indian families. Alotefec, ib. has 67 families. Alozozingo, ib. has 110 families, ^. Alpizagua, ib. has 36 families. tf Alpoieca, ib. has 42 families. Another, same name, of 1 15 families. Alfoiecazingo, ib. has 140 families. Alponeca, ib. has 30 famihes. Another, same name, 77 families. ., Altamaha, a river of Georgia. Altotonoa, 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 ' 297 bishop of Canada, where I would spend the winter agreeably, and learn to speak the French language, and vvus so kind ns to add that if in the in- terim, uny place worth my occeptance became vacant 1 should be ap- pointed to it. However, I persisted in my resolution, not deeming it prudent to spend my time and money, waiting for a contingency that might never occur. A few days after I took my leave, and was to set off the second day after, in company with a young ensign, who was going to join his regiment at St. John's. But before I left town, Mr. Motz came to mo with an onfer from his lordship, of a township on the Acadian line, but on enquiry, I found it would require a consideroble sum of money to make the requisite locations to secure the title. I therefore begged leave to decline the offer, as neither suiting my means or in :lination. In a short time after, Mr. Motz again returned — and in the most delicate manner told me, ho was authorised to offer mo any money 1 might stand in need of for the winter. But as my funds were still far from exhausted, and as my determination was never to lie under a pecuniary obligation, I might not easily be able to repay, I excused myself by assuring him I had a sufficient supply for the winter. But I requested that his lordship would favour me with a letter of introduction to Sir John Johnson, of whom, and of his father Sir William, I had read and heard enough to in- spire mo with admiration, and a wish to have the honour of his acquain- tance. I received the desired letter in the evening, and the next morning left Quebec in a carriole, with my young Scots companion. Though early in November, there was nearly a foot of snow upon the ground, and we continued the use of carrioles until we came to Three Rivers, from whence we took calaishes into Montreal. My friend Mr. Tod received me with the utmost kindness, and intro- duced me to several officers and gentlemen of the town. Sir John John- son was absent on an excursion to the lake of Two Mountains, but his cousin Capt. Dease, showed me the kindest attentions and hospitality, and took mo with him to his house in the country, where I remained until the arrival of Sir John, on whom we called the day after, and I presented my letter from Lord Dorchester. The reception I met with has left an im- pression that can never be effaced from my heart ; and the unabated friendship and hospitality I have ever since been honoured with by him, Lady Johnson, and the ladies of the family, when several times passing a w' Iter in Montreal, shall ever remain amongst my most grateful and pleasing recollections. As I could not think of being a tax on the hc?nitality of my Montreal friends all winter, though much pressed by Sir John to take up my abode with him, I took lodgings at the village of Varennes, about fifteen miles from town, on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence, at a Mr. Vienne's, where I continued my study of the French language, which I had com- 38 m AUTODIOQRAPIIY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESa. monced boforo I lofl Ireland, and bcgnn to spcnk it protty much as a child bogins to walk, stumbling ot ovory stop ; but to thn honour of French urbanity and politeness, my greatest blunders were corrected without subjecting mo to the pain of scoiiig my awkwardness and ignorance, the subject of mirth or ridicule. I visited Montroiil several times during the winter, and ottendcd the as- semblies, which were conducted with groat decorum, und where Lady John- son and her daughter, just then brought out, were received with every degree of deforonco and respect. TIjo winter passed off very ngreonbly, and in the beginning of May 1791, I returned to Montreal, to take my passage w.ih my friend Andrew Tod for Michitimackinac, by the North or Otawis river. The mode of travelling in a birch canoe, the wild and romantic scenery on each side of the river, all was new and charming to me, except the last five or six days of our voyage, when the mus- quitoes annoyed us beyond all endurance. I, who had nothing else to do but defend myself from them the best way I could, was left a perfect spectacle of doformity, my eyes near closed up, und my mouth distorted in a most frightful manner ; judge then the condition of the poor men, engaged iu carrying the baggage over the portages with their faces, necks, and breasts, exposed, and the blood and sweat in commingled streams running from them. But ihcy seemed to mind it very little, making game of some young men whoso first trip it was, whom they called man- gers de lard, or pork oators, and treated with great contempt, if they ex- pressed pain or fatigue. Wo arrived the IClh at Mackinac, and were re- ceived with groat politeness and hospitality by Capt. Charleton, of the 5th foot, then commanding. I had been acquainted with him in the north of Ireland, when in command in the town of Coleraine. Our meeting so unexpectedly at a distance of more than four thousand miles from home, was very pleasing to both, and called up a variety of mixed ideas, some of which to me were rather painful, as they contrasted my present situa tion, with the time I had received him hospitably at my mother's house, when placing a detachment to guard the wreck of a ship cast away, with- in less than half a mile of Craiire. As the traders, neither from the Mis- sissippi or the Luke Superior, had yet arrived, I had some weeks leisure, which 1 employed in exploring the island and in reading. I shall there- fore here conclude this tedious epistle with a piomi^e, that my next shall have at least the merit of novehy to recommend it. Ever truly yours, , JOHN JOHNSTON. AUTOBIOQRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, BiQ. 299 LETTER VI. Si. MarTf's Falls, 10/A JuTte, 1828. ' tho 5th )rth of Tl there- Ixt shall irs. rON. MY DEAR Hin, lu. kuiilth nnd oAon depression of spirits, owing to tho iniquitous man- ner in which tho Indian trndo is, und hus been always carried on here, and in fact alt over the continent, with the addition of painful reflections, on my own imprudence and inability to compete with opponents equally active a« unprincipled, have been the cause of my lotting so long an inter- val lapse sinco tho date of my last. IJut I now resume my pon in hopes of presenting you with a sketch of the arrival of tho traders, and the shift- ing of tho scene from strcols unoccupied, where dulness and silence reigned unmolested, to houses crowded to overflowing, where riot and revelry, festivity and song, swept all descriptions down its heady current with scarcely a single exception. Tho excuse pleaded by tho traders is their many fatigues, risks and privations during the whiter, and often an en- tire seclusion from all society, so that when they again meet at Mackinac, where they aro sure to see their Montreal friends, and an ample supply of wines, spirits, &c. dec, they think themselves entitled to make up for what they call lost time, by making the most of the short interval that elapses between tho sale of their furs, and their repurchase of goods for a new adventure. The chief traders and Montreal merchants keep open table for their friend.s and dependants, and vie with each other in hospitality to strangers. But the excess to which their indulgence ia carried, s'^ldom ends without a quarrel, when old grudges arc opened up, and language mado use of that would disgrace a Wapping tavern, and tho fmalo a boxing match, as brutal and ferocious as any exhibited in an- cient times by tho Centaurs and Lapythe. But were I to relate all I have hoard and been an unwilling witness of, this would bcHjnmo a chronicle of scandal instead of a letter, 1 shall therefore let the curiam drop for the present, only retaining the liberty of taking it up occasionally, as new acts of this far from delightful drama, may presort themselves to my recollection. The Montreal canoes began to move ofTwith their cargoes of furs and peltries, during the month of July, and the trader.^ whose posts were the most distant, were chiefly all off by I'le beginning of August, so that tranquillity and rationality began to reassumc their long forgotten sway. About the middle of August my friend Mr. Tod, fitted mo out with a canoe of the largest size, with five Canadian boatmen or voyagers, to win- ter at La Point, in Lake Superior, which station I preferred to one more to the South. Owing to constant high winds, it^ was late in September before I 300 AtTTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESft. I IF arrived at my destined winter ground, where I met with Count Andriani, an Italian nobleman and philosopher, who was taking observations to as- certain whether the earth was more elevated or depressed towards the poles. The conclusion he had come to was, that at the poles the earth must be flatter than at the equator, for we were then at Lapoint, a distance of two thousand miles from the ocean, not more than 690 feet above its level. The subject was then much discussed amongst naturalists, but is now given decidedly in favour of the equator, and I hope the di/ficulty is now set at rest for ever, for were the high aspiring parties to move to- wards each other in hostile array, the consequences would be rather dis- agreeable to us emmits occupying the intermediate mole hills. As soon as the count left me to continue his tour of the lake, I sent off two of my men with a small equipment, to winter in the Mauvaise or Bad River. The others I set to fishing, that we might lay in a stock for winter store, the cold weather having commenced early in October. I now got a house of round logs finished for myself, the interstices plastered with clay, and a chimney of the same material ; my men had also a similar house for themselves, and I began to get fire wood cut and brought home, while the weather was yet favourable. But on the 17th of November my faithful Canadians deserted, taking with them my fishing canoe, an oil cloth, nets, axes, &c. and nearly all my fish, leaving me only a lad of 17 or 18, who slept in my little kitchen, and who luckily could speak a little Ottowa, by which he could make the Chippeways understand him. I had as neigh- bours two Canadians, who from having acquired a knowledge of the Ian guage, had become traders ; they, as well as their men. knew of the deser- tion of my people, and had connived at, if not encouraged them in it. 1 was thus left in the midst of savages and Canadians, much baser and more treacherous than they, to encounter a winter on the shore of Lake Superior, with only one attendant, a very short allowance of provisions, and deprived of the means of fishing, which I had flattered myself would have been a sure rer urce, at least against actual want. I sat down rather in bad spirits to rumin. te on my situation, and at length it struck me that my case in many particulars, had a resemblance to that of Robinson Crusoe, and I got up determined to follow his example by malring every exertion in my power to ameliorate it. I began immediately to prepare axes, and set to chopping hre wood, which I and my man carried home on our shoulders. The distance luckily was not great, for I was unwilling to touch about five cords left by my men, which I considered a dernier resort, in cases of bad weather or any accident. We got on very well the first day, but the second my hands became blistered, and I persisted till my axe handle was stained with my blood. I then proposed to my man that he should continue to chop and I would be carrier ; this induced emulation, for I proposed to carry as fast as he could chop, and in less than a fortnight we had six AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESa. 301 cord more at our door, besido a good many large logs that we were obliged to roll. Constant exercise gave appetite for our humble fare, and fatigue inducsd sound sleep that left little time for painful reflection. The Indians had left us for some time, and had gone to a considerable distance on their hunting excursions, all except the old father of the chief, who only went to a small river in the bay of St. Charles, from whence, however, he returned just as the ice in our bay was closing. My good neighbours rushed into the water and hauled the canoe to shore, and without ceremony possessed themselves of eight or ten beavers the old man had killed. They kept him, his two wives, and a Mrs. layer, one of his daughters, who wintered with him, in a constant state of intoxication for some days, at the end of which they fairly turned them out of doors, telling them they must provide for themselves, as they would feed them no longer. Some time after the old man came to me and complained of hunger, as his wives could not go to a deposite of wild rice they had con- cealed at a considerable distance, the weather having become very bad, and the snow too deep to walk without snow shoes. I told him I would not see him or his family starve, though I much feared I should want food long before spring, and that he ought to recollect he had not paid me a small credit I had made him, before he went to hunt. He acknow- ledged the fact, but said, those who had taken him to shore made him drunk, and kept him so, until his little stock of furs was exhausted, though he knew not what he had received in return, except his meat and drink for a few days. I accepted his excuse, and continued to treat him all winter with great respect, as he showed me a large bugle belt, with which, and a silver gorget, he had been presented by Sir William Johnson after the fall of fort Niagara to the British forces. He said he had kept his belt free from stain until now, and hoped his son Waoajec would continue to do so after he should be gone to the land of spirits. Mr. Johnston thus lays down his pen at the threshold of his entrance upon a new theatre of life, presenting to him objects and means so differ- ent from all he had left behind, that the experience of the past afforded but little to guide him in the conduct of the future. The disappointments he had met with had not, however, soured his temper, or damped his spirits. He was ardent, young, active, possessed a constitution naturally vigorous, with a disposition social, frank, and open, a high sense of pro- bity, a firm dependance upon providence, and a heart glowing with ardent aspirations after truth, and governed by the broadest principles of active benevolence. He was now about to commence the most important period of his life, embracing a residence of the better part of half a century in 'He remote solitudes of the American forest, separated from the society in which he had derived so much of his former enjoyments, and thrown d02 ATTTOBIOGRAPHT OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. wholly upon his own resources. He was brought to endure privations and to encounter perils, of which he had heard before only in the history of suffering humanity. The incidents of his new situation also brought him into contact and acquaintance with some of the most noted individuals who have figured in the commerce and politics of the Canadas during the last forty yearo. And had he been spared to complete his autobiography, it would have led him to mention the names and characters of many of his cotemporaries, and to advance a fund of anecdote, and historical and other data, exhibiting a lively picture of his times. Ssveral of the occur- rences of this era, relative to the northwest Fur Trade, are of dramatic in- terest; but the veil which covers perfidy and crime would have been Taised by him with extreme reluctance. He evidently contemplated with pain the approach of his narrative to the period when it would become necessary to allude to the fierce strifes carried on between rival monopo- lists in this trade, and as imposing a task which seemed like " walking upon the ashes under which the fire is not yet extinguished." What he has not, however, furnished, it would be difficult to supply, few materials for the purpose being known to exist. He very rarely kept copies of his letters, none of his private letters, and never preserved the letters sent to him by others. The scanty materials I have been able to collect, were preserved entirely by other hands. He had an aversion in his latter years to writing at all, or rather the irksomeness of the task, was owing to ill health, which lefl him but a small portion of his time without the sense of acute pain. And he destroyed many letters and communica- tions which a person of greater business habits, or more distrust of the world's sincerity, would have induced him to preserve. Facts, dates, and occurrences have thus, in a measure, become blended in vague recollec- tions on the part of his friends and family. A continuation of his Life, on any thing like the plan commenced by himself, is therefore impossible, and will not be attempted. Even the brief notices which follow would hardly be undertaken, were it not for the abruptness with which his man- uscript terminates, and for a desire to aid in holding from oblivion the name of a man, who, gifted with powers to shine in polished circles, gave up the world for the sake of raising up to virtue and piety a numerous family, under peculiar circumstances. For it was in this region, to which he has conducted the reader in his letters, that he connected himself, by inter- marriage, with one of the leading families of the native race. Mr. Johnston's earliest efforts in the fur trade were successful, notwith- standing the perfidy of his men, who deserted him during his first season. And he continued his efforts with prospects more flattering, as experience made him acquainted with the difficulties to be encountered, and the pre- cautions necessary to ensure success. This traffick has always been pur- sued at great personal, as well as pecuniary risk ; but he soon found him- self placed in a situation, in which it became the duty of subordinates to AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 303 make those exchanges with the natives, which frequently require a patient submission to caprices and superstitions repugnant to a sensitive mind. And while every season was supposed to abridge the period of his stay in the country, he indulged in those reflections and anticipations, arising from a temporary pursuit. Mr. Tod, under whose auspices he had entered the Indian country, in- vited him to settle at New Orleans, where this enterprising merchant had obtained from the Spanish Governor General of Louisiana, the monopoly of the fur trade of that province. But the invitation was declined from a dread of the climate, to which Mr. Tod himself soon fell a victim. About the same time an opening presented itself to Mr. Johnston, for his settle- ment at Green Bay ; but his predelictions in favor of a more northern position predominated, and he fixed his residence at the Falls of St. Mary, in 1793. He had the year previous married the youngest daughter of Waub Qjeeg, the hereditary and war chief of Lapointe, in lake Superior, and now came to establish himself in permanent buildings at a spot com- manding the great thoroughfare into the Northwest. By this term we include an immense tract of wilderness, intersected with lakes, rivers, and mountains, which has been distinguished from the earliest times as the seat of that great and hazardous branch of internal commerce, known under the name of the Fur Trade. A high, and it may be thought, a proud spirit of personal independence, which had been one of the original causes of his coming to America, and which disdained all secondary modes of action, kept him aloof from the great rival companies, who have, at various times, borne sway over the northern regions. He either declined the offers of participation in these somewhat two celebrated fraternities, or neglected the means necessary to a copartnercy. While he thus kept free from entanglements in a system which he could not always approve, he, however, ran risks of another kind, and stood somewhat in the position of a man between two fires, who can neither flee to the right nor to the left. Luckily his course lay straight forward, but it is scarcely possible that a man of less intrepidity of charac- ter in the hour of need, or urbanity of manners in the social circle, could have sustained himself. Just and honorable in all his intentions, though they were sometimes grossly misinterpreted, he expected equal justice and fair dealing from others. And when not thus openly met, he did not hesitate to give vent to a strong and manly expression of his feelings, regardless of consequen- ces. This was sometimes the cause of future bitterness and petty resent- ments. He escaped once the blow of a secret assassin ; once the risk of a combat with pistols, with the slight loss of a lock from his temples ; and twice, so far as I recollect his own relation, the brutal fury of the Indian knife. His own resentments were momentary, and he took a delight, when circumstances had placecd an antagonist in his power, in forgiving 804 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESft. m s^Jiwi injuries and relinquishing advantages, and in throwing the shade of obIiv< ion over all the errors and frailties of the past. His reliance upon the overruling hand of providence, wherever placed, was unbounded ; and I know not that it has ever fallen to my lot to become intimately acquainted with any person who could, at the seasons of his greatest affliction, exclaim with such trusting confidence, " Thy will be done." It may be inferred from these passages, that the business in which Mr. Johnston was engaged, was one for which ins disposition and mental habits did not particularly qualify him, and which he would not himself have chosen, could it have been presented to him with all its repulsive, as well as attractive features, on his first coming to the country. Nothing, in fact, could be less congenial to his taste. Once, however, engaged in it, and he appeared, as he himself observed, to be hurried on by a fatality whicli seemed to forbid a return to his native land. And the prospect of getting on in the world, without imposing any pecuniary burthens upon his rela- tives — a point on which he was peculiarly sensitive — determined him to continue, as a fixed employ, what he can hardly be said to have selected of his own free will. In the ordinary intercourse of the Indians with Mr. Johnston, at his residence at St. Mary's, he was their adviser, physician, and friend. And his disinterested conduct on many occasions led them to perceive that he had placed his claims to their friendship, on higher grounds than the mere prospect of gain. His house was the resort of the needy Indian and Canadian — " And ev'ry stranger found a ready chair." He possessed an active coadjutor, in acts of charity, in Mrs. Johnston, the daughter of Wabojeeg, whose kindness and practical benevolence were in full unison with his own. He always kept in his dwelling a full supply of medicines, which he administered gratis to all who applied. He used the lancet freely in cases of pleurisy, which is a common complaint among the natives. Although he had made no profiessed study of medicine, his practical knowledge, aided by books of reference, was respectable; and when the Surgeons of the United States Army afterwards came to be placed in his vicinity, they deemed several of his modes of practice judi- cious. He was often the means of granting relief, where relief depended upon the ordinary remedies of common complaints, and he seldom ven- tured upon other prescriptions. But his tact and decision in this depart- ment proved that, had he given early and proper attention to it, he was capacitated to have excelled in it. The readiness with which he could be approached by complaints of poverty and bad luck, and the little eflTort it required to enkindle his charitable feelings, sometimes led him to be imposed upon by the inland clerks and servants in his employ. A tale of suffering seldom failed to reconcile him to loss or disappointment, which, there is good reason to AUTOBIOOUAPHY OP JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 305 believe, was frequently attributable to a want of proper diligence and economy, or still more inexcusable faults on thjir parts. With dispositions thus liberal, and surrounded by opponents whose vigi- lance was constantly on the watch, and who, in some instances, were re- lieved from those scruples of conscience which kept him ever above 11 mean act, and led him to despise trick and finesse, it may be anticipated that his march in the road to wealth was not so rapid as those who could reconcile themselves to life in the Indian country without ordinary comforts, and who looked upon every dollar spent to purchase a hook, or a vase, as so much money thrown away. If Mr. Johnston had any fault in this respect, it certainly bordered on the opposite extreme ; and in ordering his household expenses, he might sometimes incur the imputation of being profuse. Yet he succeeded from the outset, often meeting with successes which he had not anticipated, and added steadily to that income, on the yearly re-investment and increase of which, he depended. Twenty years devoted to this pursuit, placed him in a state of comparative independence, and gave him the chief control of the trade of the southern shores of lake Superior, and some of the adjacent regions. He contemplated his declin- ing years, and the provision he would be able to make for his children with satisfaction. But even now causes began to be put into operation, which were destined to undermine the sources of his prosperity. These will be mentioned at the particular time that their effects became visible, and in the meantime I shall advert to domestic incidents, which had a powerful effect both in creating joy and sorrow. « (To be continued.) Barbarism is a declension from civilization. Man was created in a civilized, not a savage state. Adam was a horticulturalist ; Abel a shep- herd ; Cain a farmer. They greatly err, who lay down the theory that the primitive ages were ages of barbarism. We see by the example of Noah and his family, that the declension had not happened in sixteen cen- turies. The postdiluvian race were vintners and cultivators of the soil, and not hunters. Hunting, it is clearly revealed, began after the express permission to use animal food, and is rightly to be traced to the epoch of Nimrod. The Indian is the proudest man in the human family. Pride makes him a warrior and a hunter. Pride grants him his triumph at the stake. Pride keeps his hand from the axe, the hoe, and the plough. He con- nects the idea of slavery and degredation with labour. It was pride, doubtless, that first led him into the woods, and pride, we mav add, keeps him there. SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF NOTED JIED MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE ArrEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT. II WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. This individual has indolibly interwoven his name with the history of the Chippewa nation, during the hitter half of the 18th century. His an- cestors had, from the earliest times, held tiie 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 Qen. Montcalm, at the loss of Quebec, in 1759. He carried u short speech from that celebrated ofiicer 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 iifTuirs were better than they now are; and I have heard them lament over the change as one which was in every re.spect 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 exist- ing customs of forest life. The common people, who went up into the in- terior to trade, fell in with their customs with o degree of plasticity and an air of gaiety and full assent, which no other foreigners have, at least to th( aame extent, shown. These Couriers dw Bois had not much to boast of on the score of rigid morals themselves. They had nearly as much su- perstition 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. "WABOJEKO, OR THE WniTE FISHER. 307 IN istory of His an- p in lake iring the common ast friend ider Qen. eech from 1 to have I is one of 1 northwest kind of now are ; lich was lUropean 1. The the exisl- ito the in- itio ity and at least to to boast much su- ine-tenths ir in their med and gious and ughed ai Montreal, ives, and between This is tho 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 tho fleets and armies of Great Britain. They rallied freely to their aid at Detroit, Vincennes, tho present sites of Pittsburg and Erie, at Fort Niagara, Montreal, and (iueboc, and they hovered with in- furiated zeal around tho outskirts of tho northern and western settlements, during the many and sanguinary wars carried on between tho 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 tho contest, even after tho fall of Niagara and Quebec, with a heroic consistency of purpose, which reflects credit upon their fore- sight, bravery, and constancy. We hope in a future number to bring for- ward a sketch of the man who put himself at the head of this latter effort, who declared he would drive the Saxon race into tho sen, 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 tho country. We refer to the great Algic leader, Pontiac. At present our attention is culled to a cotemporary chief, of equal per- sonal bravery and conduct, certainly, but who lived and exercised his au- thority 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 revoaled in our positive geography, is the AKGA OF Lake Superior. It is hero 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 with- drew his attention more from the actual conflicts between the French and English, and flxed them upon his western and southern frontiers, which were menaced and invaded by the numerous bands of the Dacotahs, and by the perfldious kinsmen of his nation, the Outagamics 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 pub- lic policy was concerned, must bo 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 light, 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 308 WABUJEEO, OR THE WHITE FIBHEfi. of their power appeared to be near the southwestern extremity of the lake, at Chagoimegon, where fathers Marquette and AUoez 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. Mario. 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 mo- derate era into tliree tribes, calling themselves, respectively, Odjibwas, Odawas, and Poduwadumeos. What their name was before this era, is not known. It is manifest that the term CXljibwa is not a very ancient one, for it does not occur in the earliest authors. They were probably of the Niperciaean or true Algonquin stock, and had tcken 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 upf 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 advanc- ing towards the west and northwest The tribe known as Kenistenos, had passed through the Lake of the Woods, through the great lake Nipe- sing, 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 Missis- sippi 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 in- deed, the force of early tradition asserts there was maintained somethini^ like a frame of both civil and ec.lesiastical polity and government. It is said in the traditions related to me by the Chippewas, that the Ou- tagamies, or Foxes, had preceded them into that particular section of coun- try 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 e lake, r way, incipal, illet of illusion to say, y by far per. It eaching re\y mo- )djibwaB, is era, is cient one, ily of the leUtawas n itself is designed I, gathered ute up the ftr beyond, t that their ire advanc- ienistenos, lake Nipe- Lge of the Lke, called the Missis- [vhere they |he central where in- isomethinij mt. lat the Ou- in of coun- :, of Green well nigh occupied lonsin, the associated above the Dacotahs Ld it was WAnOJEEO, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 309 the meons 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 arc of the same general origin and speak the same general language, the chief difference in sound being :hat the Foxes use the letter I, where the Odjibwos 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 rico lakes ond away from the Fox and upper Wisconsin. To main- tain 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 vin- dicated 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 tlieir hunting grounds and at their villages, a Sioux chief, of distinction, admired and married a Chip- pewa 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, re- mained 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 31U WABOJEKO, Oa THE WHITE FISHBR. first child by this second marriage, wus Ma Mungazida, the father of Wabojeog. In this manner, u connexion existed between two families, of separate hostile nations, each of which distinguished itself, for bravery and skill in war and council. It bus already been stated that Mu Monga- zida, wos prt.sont, on the side of the French, in the great action in which both Montcuhu and Wolf fell, and ho continued to exercise the chieftain- ship till his death, wIumi 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 loft, 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, Mu 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 Chip- pewas 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 wai parties. In making traditionary enquiries I have found that the Indian narra- tors 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 Mu Mongazida generally went to make his fall hunts on the middle grounds towards the Siou.x territory, taking with him all his near relatives, amount- ing 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 th'y 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 tuis'h, and killed a dog. Ma Mongazida immediately sallied out with Lis young men, and pronouncing his name aloud in the Sioux language, de;aanded 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 in- stant 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 pur- pose. It was the young Wabojeeg. Wabasha, pleased with this early indication of courage, took the little lad in his arms, caressed him, and WABOJERO, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 9U pronounced thnt ho would becomo a bravo man, and prove an inveterate enemy of the Sioux. The bordor warfare in which the father of tlie infant warrior was con- stantly enj^o^cd, * >> ng, and you cannot take her as white men have too often taken our dau , :s. It will be time enough to think of complying with your request, when you return again to this lake in the summer. My daughter b 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 inces.-'int exertion, brought on a premature decay. Consumption ^fivealed 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 revela- tion 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, ac- cording to a custom prevalent in the remoter bands of this tribe, on a form supported by posts, or a scaffold. hunter state. This trait is, perhaps, natural to the 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, Jtfk^ WABOJEEG, OE THE WHITE FISHER. But lay me up scaffolded high — all high, Chiefs lay me up scafiblded 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 frorr he 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 chieflan deplore — deplore. And the fate of their chieftain deplore. 817 which at his ! forest revela- a truth ivse, not hing, he ced, ac- i a form al to the J 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 iar, 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 s- unds, and we shali 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 6 ga. Os we go. I'-o-wa. Wis con' sin. Chi cd go. Wa bash. Pe 6 ri a. Ti con de ro ga. Mis siss ip pi. O nei da. Al ab a 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, 0, 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. '! .» ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE EACE. TRADITIONS OF THE ARCTIDES. 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 dis- tinctive character and language, relates as well to the Dogribs, the Cop- permines, the Strongbows, the Ambawtawoots, the Hares, the Brush- woods, the Sursees, the TacuUies, the Nateotetains, and other tribes lo- cated north of them, extending to the Arctic Ocean, and west through the Peace river puoS nf the Rocky Mountains. Philology brings into one groupe all these dialects of a wide spread race, who extend from the bor- ders 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 gc. graphical 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 north- west. 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 in- ferred, from more unmixed and primitive sources. Some of these tradi- tions 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 Greai TRADITIONS OP THE ARCTIDES. 319 Spirit, or creator of the globe, under the allegory of a gigantic bird. They believe, thai 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 scries, 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 320 TRADITIONS OF THE AHCTIDE8. branch of these tribes Jn their geograghicul position, call themr Ives, 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 v/ith some fore- shadowings of future punishment. 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 soil intelligence, to show me where they he, 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. It is certainly as easy, says Harris, the author of " Hermes," to be a scholar us a gamester, or any other character equally illiberal and low. The same application, the same quantity of habit, will fit us for one as completely as for the other. And as to those who tell us, with an air of seeming wisdom, that it is men, and not books that we must study to be- come knowing ; this I have always remarked, from repeated experience, to be the common consolation and language of dunces. ^01 ® H It 4 ^ ^» OR THE RED RACE OF AMERICA. ! PART SIXTH. i SCENERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR. Few portions of America can vie in scenic attractions with this interior sea. Its size alone gives it all the elements of grandeur, hut these have been heightened by the mountain masses which nature has piled along ita shores. In some places these masses consist of vast walls of coarse grey or drab sandstone, placed horizontally until they have attained many hun- dred feet in height above the water. The action of such an immense liquid area, forced against these crumbling walls by tempests, has caused wide and deep arches to be worn into the solid structure at their base, into which the billows rush with a noise resembling low pealing thunder. By this means, large areas of the impending mass are at length under« mined and precipitated into the lake, leaving the split and rent parts from ' which they have separated, standing like huge misshapen turrets and bat' tlements. Such is the varied coast called the Pictured Rocks. At other points of the coast volcanic forces have operated, lifting up these level strata into positions nearly vertical, and leaving them to stand like the leaves of an open book. At the same time, the volcanic rocks "Sent up from below have risen in high mountain piles. Such is the con* dition of things at the Porcupine Mountains. The basin and bed of this lake act as a vast geological mortar, in which the masses of broken and fallen stones are whirled about and ground down, till all the softer ones, such as the sand-stones, are brought into the state of pure yellow sand. This sand is driven ashore by the waves, where it is shoved up in long wreaths tilt dried by the sun. The winds now take it up and spread it inland, or pile it immediately along the coast, where it presents itself in mountain maasv Such are the great Sand Dunes of the Grande Sables. There are yet other theatres of action for this sublime mass of inland 41 323 SCENERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR. waters, where it has manifested perhaps still more strongly, if not so stri kingly, its abrasive powers. The whole force of the lake, under the impulse of a northwest tempest, is directed against prominent portions of the shore, which consist of the black and hard volcanic rocks. Solid as these are, the waves have found an entrance in veins of spar or minerals of softer structure, and have thus been led inland, and torn up large fields of amyg- daloid and other rock, or lefl portions of them standing in rugged knobs or promontories. Such are the east and west coasts of the great peninsula of Keweena, which has recently become the theatre of mining operations. When the visitor to these remote and boundless waters comes to see this wide and varied scene of complicated attractions, he is absorbed in wonder and astonishment. The eye, once introduced to this panorama of waters, is never done looking and admiring. Scene ahei scene, clifi* afler cliff, island after island, and vista after vista are presented. One days' scenes are but the prelude to another, and when weeks and months have been spent in picturesque rambles along its shores, the traveller has only to ascend some of its streams, and go inland, to find falls and cascades, and cataracts of the most beautiful or magnificent character. Qo where he will, there is something to attract him. Beneath his feet the pebbles are agates. The water is of the most crystaiine purity. The sky is filled at sunset with the most gorgeous piles of clouds. The air itself is of the purest and most inspiriting kind. To visit such a scene is to draw health from its purest fountains, and to revel in intellectual delights. These remarks are made to introduce the following letters, written by an intelligent, modest, intellectual young man, a printer, who by way of recreation and to recruit his health, accompanied me on an expedition through this lake into the Indian country, in the summer of 1831. They were addressed to friends of mine, who have permitted them to be used for this purpose. There is a vividness and freshness about them which will repay their perusal. I remember seeing the writer sitting on heaps of clean gravel on the shore, or perched on a rock, while he penned these letters, on the spur of the moment, to be sent back to St. Mary's, by some returning trader or Indian canoe. His sudden death, the following year, in the city of New York, was deeply regretted ; and the letters, while they will aflTord pleasure in their perusal, are offered^ at the same time, as a fitting memento to his memory. Crranite Point, Lake Superior, July 3, 1831, ESTEEMED FRIEND. While looking over the Life of Dr. Payson, at your house, I was pleased with a remark of his, in which he says " that a formal letter to a friend is like ' Madam, I hope I have the pleasure to see you in good health,' ad- SCENERY OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 323 dressed by a son to his mother, aAer a year's absence." These may not be the exact words, but they convey the sentiment. Had I the disposition to write to you such a letter, the circumstances of my situation would most efiectually preclude its gratification. One week has now elapsed, since we were climbing the rugged sides of the Iroquois mountain, and together gazing upon the peaceful lake, whose waters reposed in quietness at its base. During that week you may well imagine that scenes have passed before me, as diverse and varied in interest and excitement, as the vicissitudes of human life. We have glided over the U-^pid waters of the Superior, when its broad surface lay stretched out before us with all the placidity of a polished mirror, and anon our slender barks have been tossed like a feather upon the rushing billows. We have rambled along the sandy beach or the gravelled shore, or bounded from rock to rock in search of new objects of attraction. We have ascended the sliding sands of the Grande Sable ; viewed with admi- ation and awe the variegated walls of the Pictured Rocks ; passed under the Doric's arches, and scaled its summit ; and last, but not hsast, climbed a weary way up the Mountain of the Breast. But I shall not be thanked for filling up my sheet with such general observations. Very little of interest is to be found upon the coast from Point Iroquois to the Qrande Marais. Nothing but a continuous sandy beach meets the eye, which at length becomes tedious in the extreme. At the Grande Maraio, however, the scene changes. Here the lofty mountains of Sable commence, which, in themselves, are sufficient to occupy the mind until new wonders are presented. Mr. Johnston and mjrself, accompanied by two of the Indian lads, ascended them near the beginning of the range. Upon arriving at the summit, the prospect was at once impressive and sub- lime. Behind us was the Superior, bounded but by the horizon — ^before us a gigantic amphitheatre, whose walls on either side rose into the mag- nitude of mountains. We descended into the area, and it was one in which the Olympian combatants would have delighted to wage their con- tests for a false and short-lived fame. It was early when we embarked, and being invigorated by the night's repose, we felt inclined, despite fa- tigue, to make a survey of all that might prove interesting. Passing on,, we found that the winds had disposed of the sand alternately in hills and valleys. Nothing but an arid waste met the eye, except when here and there a hardy plant had reared its head above the yellow surface, or a little islet oasis of green was observed on a hillock's side, struggling with sur- rounding desolation. Being informed that a small lake lay beyond the Grande Sables, we immediately resolved upon paying it a visit. The distance we had to traverse was about a mile, and as we wound our way along, I involuntarily drew the comparison between the journey of life and our morning's excursion. How true is ft that the great portion of our jxistence in this world, is filled up with events that but leave the 324 SCENERY or LAKE SUPERIOR. soul in bitterness, while at times some bright flower, some sunny spot will appear, to which memory can recur with pleasure, and draw new hopes for the future. How miserable the condition of those whose ideas of hap- piness are bounded by present enjoyment ; to them, futurity appears a something gloomy and undefinable, the very thoughts of which are un- welcome. But the Christian can look into a world beyond the grave, and the vista, like the green forest around this miniature Zahara, is pleasant to the sight. And even here, although his course may be over a desert, yet every l^ud of promise, every opening flower, serve but as a source of new excitement, and from them he gathers strength to press his onward march amid the many thorns that beset his path. But ere I had con< eluded moralizing, upon gaining the top of a sand hill, a scene opened to the view of the most romantic beauty. Unconsciously I stopped, lest I should too soon rush upon a prospect of such quiet loveliness. Wo had passed over a desert, whose only attraction consisted in the novelty of its character and the majesty of its outline, but the repetition of its barrenness began to pall upon the sight, and oppress the mind with a sensation of weariness, when instantly the entire scene was changed. Instead of sterile heights, every thing bloomed in the vigor and freshness ot vege- tation. The forest resounded with " the sweet notes of the summer birds," and as the eye sought for the merry warblers, it caught a glimpse of the blue water as its ripples sparkled in the morning sun. My hesitation was but for a moment, and bounding down the precipitous sand hills, the iso* lated lake, that seemed to exult in its wild solitude, with its richly diversi- fled and picturesque enclosures, were spread before me. O, it was a scene that the poet and the painter would love to dwell upon. Cold must be the heart, ungrateful the affections of that being, who, blessed with intelligence, can behold the fairest of Nature's works, and not adore the God of nature. My fancy might have been highly wrought, but it all appeared more like a pleasant dream that fills the mind, when slumber steals over the senses as we are thinking upon absent friends, and the haunts of happy hours. The lake itself is about nine miles in circumference, and in general form, as near as a comparison can be made, resembles a heart. The shores are deeply indented and irregular, now projecting into the water in small semi-circular promontories, and again retiring, as if half afraid of the embraces of the limpid element. On the south and west, as far as the eye can reach, the land rises into mountainous elevations ; on the north, stands the lofty sand banks, affording a fine contrast with the fertility around, while on the east it is bounded by lower grounds, that in one in- stance descend to a beautiful grassy lawn. The water appears to be very deep, and as we sent a shout over its surface, we were answered by a startled water fowl, that seldom, very seldom, hears the sound of a human voice in its wild retreat. Every thing seemed to conspire to render this SCENERY OP LAKE SUPERIOR. 325 one of the most enchanting spots in nature, and it was with regret that we turned to regain our canoe. Such is Lake Leelinau; and while the breeze that moved ovef its waters sent its waves to my feet, I thought of the friend after whom I named it, and from my heart wished that her life might be as calm and joyous as the bright prospect before me. By that name it shall be known, and if this faint description of the beauties it unfolds will serve to beguile a passing moment, a double object will have been achieved. As we hurried along on our return, George pointed out to me the fairy tracks that occasionally are seen on these hills. They were, in fact, exact representations of the print of the human foot, and about the size of your Chinese lady's. But alas I how unpoetical ; we were forced to come to the conclusion that our fairy was nothing more than a porcvpinc. Al- though the SOth of June, we stopped at a snow bank, and after indulging for a moment in a winter's sport, filled one of our Indian's hats with spe- cimens for Mr. S. We travelled over nearly Hjur miles of these sondy mountains. Their summit, near the lake, is covered with pebbles, among^ which I found several carnelians. It was nearly six o'clock when we descended to our canoes, and the thought crossed my mind that probably our friends at St. Mary's were be* ginning to shake the poppies from their eyes, and seriously think of taking a peep at the sunny sky. At eight we landed to breakfast, and need I tell you that consumption presided at the board. Not the arch fiend with the bright, though sunken eye, the hectic cough, .■«nd the delicate, but death- boding tint, but a consumption that caused the bolid viands before us to disappear with a marvellous quickness. But to ensure the perusal of any future production, I must tax your patience no farther now. Suflico it to say that the farther I advance, the better am I pleased with the tour I have undertaken. Let the issue bo what it may, the commencement has introduced to me a friend whom 1 shall Tiever forget. May the blessing of the Christian's God attend you. MELANCTHON L. WOOLSEY. To Mrs. . ■•{ Lake Superior, July 5, 1831. MY DEAR It was my intention to have had a letter for you in readiness to send by Mr. Aikin, but we met hhn sooner than we expected, and I was obliged to postpone the fulfilment of my promise until the Indian boys returned. In my letter to Mrs. S., I conducted her as far as Lake Leelinau. Sup- posing that an account of our further progress would be as acceptable as any thing I can write, I will give you an invitation to a seat in our canoe, as we depart for the Pictured Rocks. These you have often heard de< 326 SCENERY OF LAKE SUPEHIOR. scribed, and nothing can be added by my poor pen to what has already been said about them. They were all, and more than an excited imagin* ation had conceived them to be. As we approach them, the mind is struck with awe at their lolly battlements, and in comparison, the most stupendous of the works of art sink into insignificance. Netr their Lommencement, a beautiful cascade comes tumbling down the rocks, and finally makes a leap of about thirty feet into the waters below. Pas<*>rig on from this, we soon cumt to a most singular arrangement of rocks and arches; and the first thought that striken the mind is, to ascend and give them an examination. It is the work but of a moment, for the eye is unsa>'sfied until it has drunk in all the wonders before it. Our first resting )lace was under the main arch, from which we had a bird's-eye view of the world of woods, and waters, and rocks, by which we were surrounded. While here, Mr. Clary, with his barge, came along, and jumping upon the rocks, he soon made one of our party, when we commenced a minute examination of the celebrated Doric Rock. The principal arch, under which we were, is about twenty feet in height ; and while standing under its crumbling walls, our sensations were not lessened by the idea that in an instant it might be said of us, we had been. At our left, r,nd in the centre of one of the large pillars, another arch !s formed ; upon entering this we siill find one more at our right, and which commands a view of the lake. Between the two stands a pillar of stones, near four feet in height, entirely de- tatched at the sideS; and composed of thin plates of sand-rock. As we go out from these, for the purpose of ascending the roof, a large urn of nature's own design and workmanship appears before us. It might be a fit depository for the ashes of some df those mighty men, who, before the children *• with a white, white face," overran their country, strode through these forests, or, in their light canoes bounded over these vast waters ; but alas I their graves, and those oi their fathers, are mingling with the common dust. Near this urn are the remains of an Indian's fire, which he had lighted at the close of his fast when propitiating his Manito ; a place well calculated to foster the wildness of superstition, and which, to a mind more enlightened than that of the poor wanderer of the wildernesa, would not be deficient in suggestions of mystery. Who can wonder that the untaugh'; natives of a region like this should make to themselves a deity in the rushing stream, or the beetling cliff ? They act from the impulse v)f nature ; and well will it be for those who enjoy every advantage that civilization and Christianity can bestow, if when weighed in the balance, even with the pagan Indian, they are not found wanting. We were soon at the top of the Doric Rock, and from its dizzy height the prospect was such as to preclude all attempt at delineation, at least by language. Your brother expressed bis emotion as well as it was in the power of any mortal to do. Clapping his hands together, and putting a peculiar em- phasis ipon the last syllable, he exclaimed " Oh ! Oh /" Nothing more SCENERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 327 IS le. could be said. But while enjoying the grandeur of the scene, I wished that M , was at my side, for my pleasure woul'' hove been increased ten-fold by sharing it with her. The summit of the arch is itself a curi- osity. It does not appear to be more than three feet in thickness, and yet it supports and nourishes several lofty pine trees, whose weight alone I should think would crush it to a*:-ns. The root of one of them winds around the outer edge cf the rock, as if to support the source of its exist- ence. But we had not long to indulge our admiration, for our table was spread under the shade of one of these immense rocks, and all the sub- limity around us could not satisfy the imperious demands of appetite ; so aAer regaling ourselves on some of the dainties furnished by our e.\ silent friends at the Sault, we departed to behold new wonders, and utter repeated exclamations of. Oh I Oh I Turning a point of the rocks, we came in view of those natural excavations that have excited so much asto- nishment. It was our intention to pass through one of them, but the entrance was blocked up by the fulling of an arch, the ruins of which were scattertid around. We were obliged to content ourselves with an outside view, but this surpassed every thing of the kind I had before seen. We were in a bay formed by a semi-circle in the rocks. Above us the cliff, at the height of upwards of a hundred feet, projected far beyond our canoes, and formed a canopy of the most terrific description. We could not behold it without a shudder of awe. Upon leaving it we discharged our gun, and the reverberations were almost deafening. The sound rolled through these vast ramparts, and seemed to shake them to their foundations. It was like the groaning of an imprisoned spirit in its strug- gle to be free. At every stage of our progress we had new cause for amazement, and when we left them it was with the impression that we "ne'er should look upon their like again." Our encampment was at Grand Island. The next day we reached the Riviere des Moine ; here we pitched our tents, and immediately commenced a search for some of the precious minerals. The locality proved so interesting that it was de- termined we should devote a day or two to its exair.ination. For the first time we were compclLd to resort to our musquito bars, and it afforded me infinite amusement upon waking in the morning, to see about fifty of these insects puzzling their brains to discover the meaning of certain initials that seemed to attract their attention. We removed our encampment this day four miles. In so doing we passed a rocky mountain that filled us instantly with a desire to ascend to its summit. This was resolved on, and at five in the aflemoon we procured an Indian guide, and were soon clinging to the roots and branches that overhung its precipitous sides, as we scrambled up the ascent. We were amply repaid for our fatigue by the prospect from its peak. Immediately before us was a beautiful bay, studded with numerous islands, some of which were crowned with verdure, while others were immense masses of rock. The bay was formed by the 388 aCENERY OP LAKE SUPERIOR. projections of Granite Point and Presqiie Isle, both of which terminated in circular mountainous elevations that were connected to the main land, but by very narrow isthmuses. At the distance of fifty miles were seen Grand Island and the Pictured Rocks. To the northwest are seen seven large bays, and Point Kewena, from which we are 65 miles distant. In the back ground mou:jtain rises on mountain as far as the eye cnn reach. Here and there, to add variety to the scene, a lofty peak rf massy, naked granite rears its head high above its less aspiring neif ^ibors, and to soften the asperity of the view, there are two beautiful open rpots of level green, that might be taken for fairy play grounds ; so secluded and so environed, that even the spirits of the air in them could find a resting place. And think you not when my eyes were gazing at the splendor of this scene, glowing as :r was in the last rays of a glorious sunset, that my mind wan- dered to the Being who is the author of these creations. When we have occasionally m'-t the traders, as they were returning from their years' residence among the Indians, I have asked myself what mysterious excitement there could be in the spirit of gain, that will cause men to separate themselves from society, and voluntarily renounce those privileges incident to an intercourse with the world. But as I pass along my wonder ceases. There is such an union of beauty and grandeur in all the works of nature throughout this region, that it is impossible to be acquainted with them, and not wish to pass a life in their admiration. Following the impulse of my present feelings, I could joyfully make my home among these hills and valleys, and I should want no other. 'Tis true the busy hum of men would not reach such a wild retreat, neither would their faithlessness and cold deceit ^ And now let me tell you how I have written this letter. We are wait- mg at the Kewena Bay, for the arrival of some Indians to transport part of our baggage to the Ontonagon. Mr. S. and Mr. Houghton, with Lt. Clary, are, by this time, over the traverse. It was uncertain how soon we might be able to embark, but I resolved to devote what time I had to you. Accordingly, at 5 o'clock this morning, I turned a chest upside down for a desk, planted myself against the tent pole, and, with the stump of a pen, commenced operations. But alas, the uind flies and musquitoes made such a desperate onset, that I was obliged to haul down my colors, and inglorl- ously fly for my life. I then waited until after breakfast, and commenced again with no better success. I then resorted to the open air, and placing my paper on a small bank, and standing on the stones below, with the sua at 90^, pouring its rays upon my head, while with one hand, and some- times two, I battled insects of divers descriptions, at last have made black marks over the greater part of this sheet. Should you, in decyphermg these hyeroglyphics, come to any place where the subject was suddenly dropped and another commenced, without any apology, attribute it to a huge horse fly, which, lighting on my nasal protuberance, caused p*' SCENERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 329 to drop my pea, and with it my ideas. But here come a dozen of them ; 80 good bye till you hear from me again. M. L. WOOLSEY. To Miss , ■ It La Poink, Lake Superior., July 17, 1831. MY DEAR FUIRNI), Instead of a sand bank for a writing desk, I am now seated by the side of a good table in your brother's house, and surrounded by comforts and conveniences that would bo no discredit to a place less out of the world than La Pointe. We have luxuries that even the inhabitants of St. Mary's might envy. Our table groans beneath its load of white fish and trout, veal and pigeons, rice puddings and strawberries ; all of which are served up a-la-mode, in Joseph's best style, assisted by the culinary skill of Plufe, the cook. We at present adopt the maxim, " Live while you may," for we well know that soon we will be out of the reach of every ihi' of this sort, and be glad to get our dish of cora soup. This is a very ^ leasant island, and presents quite a village-like appearance. There are several large dwelling houses, besides the trading establishment ; and cultivated fields, with cattle strolling about, that altogether make up a scene ijuite different from any thing I expected to see befor<- rriving at Green Bay. Since my first and last letter to you, we havt . d through a variety of interesting incidents. As I closed ir.y letter oui indiums arrived, and in a short time we were on our way across the Kewena traverse. But now a fresh breeze had supplanted the calm atmosphere of the i orning, and before we were half way over the bay we began to anticipate a second edition of the troubles and danger experienced by Mr. S. in 1820. But we fortunately escaped, with no inconvenience but a slight wetting, and at 1 2 at night came up to the encampment of our friends, when not wishing !o disturb them, we spread our blankets upon the gravel, with the heaven* for our canopy, and sought a few hours repose, previous to commencing an examination of Kewena Point. In this we promised ourselves an abundance of interest, and we suffered no disappointment. Such a bang- ing the rocks have not experienced for many a day, and we robbed them of no inconsiderable quantity of their precious contents. The " King of the metals" will be under the necessity of holding another convention,* and if some of the delegates do not appear with battered visages and broken bones, then there is u" virtue in our well tried hammers. Now you know, as we go skipping down the vale of life, that it is not every circumstance that assumes a serious cast, but that we have a mixture, or a kind of dish which in Scotland, and by Dr. Johnson, would be called * Alludes to a.jeu d^eiprit poem. 42 ■ "I 330 SCENE.tlT OF LAKE SUPERIOR. I « hodge podge. So with us. After wearying ourselves in discovering copper mines, and bunting from their dark and stony enclosure" the precious gems which here abounded, we would join with no little zest in the pleasures of the chase. One or two opportunities of doing this oc- curred while going round this Point. This was in the pr suit oiquacks; and impelled by the purest ;)« furnish excellent game for the table. Consequently it was a trial of skill beiv.'wen rar canoe-men and the poor quacklings, to see who could paddle the fastest, but like the boys and the frogs, while it was sport to the former it was death to the latter. Ahhough at first they literally walked over the water, yet their strength was soon exhausted, and what with the shouts of the men, which of themselves were sufficient to scare a duck out of its senses, and their own fatigue, they fell an easy prey to their enemies. But to secure the victims after they were run down afforded us the most amuse- ment. The men seemed to have given up their whole souls to the chase, and as the ducks would dive to escape being taken, they would endeavour to spear them with their poles and paddles, and these proving ineflTectuai, plunge in themselves, regardless of the consequences. Their zeal was rewarded by the capture of twelve or fifteen of the unfortunate birds. The only fear I experienced during this enlivening scene was that the Doctor would exhaust his stock of risibility, and in future we should be deprived of his hearty ha, ha! that makes one join in sympathy with him before the story comes. He surrendered himself entirely to the power of Momus, but we have had abundant demonstration since that he is still a subjb^tof the laughing deity. But the afterpiece was the most interesting to us individually ; what that was you must guess. But luckily the clouds now " began to gather blackness," and befor<' we had proceeded many miles we were favored with a couple of smart snowers, and finally obliged by the rain to go on shore. Luckily, because «his spot proved to be the richest in minerals and metals that we had yet visited. Your brother dis- covered two rich veins of copper ore, and we found agates and other gems in quantities. While we were thumping about us, the Doctor got into the canoe for the purpose of seeking an encamping place. This w^ SCENERY OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 831 no! found at the bottom of a very pretty bay, but which nevertheless we dig- nified with the name of Musquito Cove. Here we were wind-bound, and I spent a half-hour very pleasantly on the rocks, witnessing the foaming and dashing o[ the waves, that seemed enraged at the resistance which they met, while the rocks themselves groaned at the rencounter, as if fearful of being shaken from their solid foundations. Here was a place for melancholy, and a mind like yours would have held a revelry with the wildness of the scene. My curiosity to witness the onset of the winters prompted me to venture too near them, as I found by a salute, not very friendly, that left me in rather a moist condition ; but ahhough experience is the best school, yet forgetting myself I was again reminded that being but a spectator it would be well to retire from the influence of the battle shock. This was so pleasing that I felt no disposition to quit it, and con- tinued my way over the rocks, until weariness alone induced me to re- turn. My path was through a pleasant wood, and as I was loitering along I was startled by the report of a gun, repeated three or four tunes in quick succession, and upon making up to the place from whence the sound proceeded, found that two of the men had been sent out to search for the supposed lost one. The wind had abated, and we left our camp as the sun began to creep below the horizon. The rest of my story I hope to have the pleasure of communicating to you by word of mouth. You will not probably hear from us again until our arrival at the Sauk. In the mean time remember me to William, and the young gentlemen of Your household. M. L. WOOLSEY. .■'■,',■ '.: '; ,-'» '^W'-fi RELUCTANCE TO TELL NAMKS. Indian children are taught by their mothers to forbear telling their names, by being told that if they impart their names to strangers they will never grow to be men and women. This hau a powerful influence, but the real cause of the advice is still hid from them, and is very difHcult to explain. It seems probable that it is caused by a ftar of offending those personal gods whom they have taken for their protectors, or after whom they have been named. A name is often the result of a dream. Dreams are deemed to be revelations, and are held sacred. J13- The Creeks have passed a law expelling all white men from the limits of the nation, who play at cards, whether they have Indian wives or not. W- 't ,«.'*'j$rf p«f. EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN RACE. A PAPEIl ORIOIn/iXT WHITTKN roil THB AMBMCAN LTCIOH, 1834. Si, r. I 1^ ' *:■- Whatever traits of the Indian character may be singled out as favouring their advance, the inquiry still returns upon us : how can those points which best betoken the possession of a capacity to rise, be most advanta- geously improved ? What is the best mode of educating them, and of in- troducing civilization and Christianity f Knowledge, to be attractive to the Indian tribes, must possess a de- cidedly practical character. All the sources of their moral depression, are such as are peculiar to the earliest stages of society. Their wants, both intellectual and physical, are the primary wants. Most of them are of the most simple and obvious kind ; they are the wants of a hunter, a fisher- man, a wanderer of the forest — a man without a house, without cattle, without agriculture. These are only in danger of being lost sight of, by straining after some great and sudden efforts to remodel the internal con- stitution of their society — to produce effects in a brief period which de- mand a long one — to make, as it were, the red man, a white man, in a day. History gives us very little reason to suppose that such changes, or any permanently beneficial changes, will happen, by any other, but the patient and faithful application of the common means. To read and to write, to build and to plant, household economy, domestic comfort and order, tem- perance and assiduity, dress and address, are among the chief elements of civilization and civil knowledge. And this knowledge may be deemed as a series, which begins in the profoundest condition of ignorance and barbarism, and terminates in the most polished state of moral refinement. To depart one step from the former, is to take one step towards the latter. To abandon the temporary lodge, to throw aside the blanket, to discontinue the use of paints, are as certain indications of incipient civili- zation, as it unquestionably is, at a more advanced stagOj to substitute al- phabetical for heiroglyphic signs, or machine for hand labour. It is some- thing to gain one influential man to the side of industry, good order, and THOUGHT. The e.xample of consistent individuals in a tribe, will be- come the means of influencing communities. If we can convince them of the superiority of agriculture over mere gardening, of grazing over hunting, of pacific over warlike achievements, of writter. over oral laws, of temperance over intemperance, of industry over inanity, we have gained so many points in their positive reformation. It will then become easier to convince them that true independence consists in a life of self exertion, that it is dishonourable to be lazy, and infamous to be dishonest. EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN RACE. 333 The Indian must abandon his lodg^e, and live in a house; he must throw off the blanket, and put on a coat. He must cast away moccasins and wear shoes. He must put off his feathers and wear a hat. Externals are important to him. Other truths lie in the direct train of these improvements, and are in- seperable from them, such as relate to the varied economy of life, the re- ciprocal duties of society, and the principles of government To assent to these truths, and to adopt them in practice, cannot it is conceived, be oc- currences very widely separated in point of time. But in order to the In- dian mind's giving this assent, in the true sense, there must be such a pre- vious understanding, appreciation and application of moral truths, as is totally irreconcilable with the condition of Indians living in an idolatrous and unregeaerate state. Hence, there is a still higher and nobler duty — the duty of preparing the Indian mind for giving this assent. And it is one which is conceived to be alike essential to the commencement and to the completion of their moral elevation. It is not only deemed a point of primary importance to teach Jiem their true relation to civilized communities, and to each other, and the principles which lead such communities to rise and fall in the scale of wealth and power ; but a little reflection must make it manifest, that they should, at the «ame time, be taught the solemn and important relation, in which the volume of inspiration places them, with respect to the Author of their existence. Christianity is applicable to barbarism. Else Paul knew nothing of it. By imparting this light at the commencement of their career of civiliza- tion, they will be enabled to take a view of the whole ground of their re- sponsibilities. And to see whether it is worth their while to commence a moral race, the rewards of victorious competitorship in which are fully held up, and displayed to their view. If this paramount obligation can be impressed on their minds, while they exist in the state of hunters and war- riors, they will be placed in a position, in which they can the more readily judge whether a continuance in these pursuits, wholly or in part, or the adoption of civilized modes of industry, wholly or in part, will best sub- serve the fuiniment of the whole circle of their obligations. And, if there be no error in this conclusion, they will thus be led to esteem industry, and the acquisition of property and education, as means essential to the attainment of an end, and not, as they are otherwise apt to become, the end itself They will not mistake civilization for Christianity. Christianity everywhere inculcates order, obedience, wisdom and virtue. Its order, educed from chaos, as depicted in Genesis, leads the mind through an infinite and connected series of beautiful creations of both ani- mate and inanimate classes, from " nature up to nature's God." And its maxims of obedience, wisdom and virtue, are the most perfect and sublime to which the human intellect can refer. An Indian can be made to com- * I 334 EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN RAC£. prebend the^e truths, as displayed in the Bible. Considered merely aa a code of morals, and were there no futurity to test their immutability, the meaims of Christianity, which he can be taught, will produce the greatest amount of happiness to families, and to communities. They are so inter* woven in their practical application with the duties and relations of life, and evince so intimate a knowledge of human nature, that they are found to be adapted to all periods and states of buman life. Cannot an Indian be made to understand them 1 They form a system which applies to man in the forest, as well as the field, in the wigwam as well as the palace, in his infancy and in his age ; in his weakness and in his strength ; in his joy and in his sorrow ; in bis life and in his death. Has not an In- dian feelings) Can he not be acted on by hope and /ear) — It is the admiration of this system, that it is equally applicable to every condition of society. The governor and the subject, the master and the servant, the parent and the child, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, are placed on an equality of faith. Science and learning, splendour and penury, lose their distinctions before the two-edged sword of its requisi- tions. It considers all as subject to its laws. It deems all capable of obey- ing them. It prescribes no standard of art, or book knowledge. It looks to no necessary amount of human attainment in the occupations or rank of life. Felix, trembling before the moral majesty of Paul, or Tinda quailing under the denunciations of Brainerd are equally just demonstra- tions of its applicability and power. To love, and to hate, are the ends of its requirement. And these are exercises of the affections, at the command of every rational being, savage or civilized. All its promises, all its denun- ciatiQns; all the inducements it holds out to obedience, all its solemn threatenings of disobedience, are equally addressed to the '* Jew and the gentile, the bond and the free." Were it not so — if truth could disprove one of its precepts ; if justice could point out any portion of the human family who were exempt from its laws ; or if any candid interpretation of language could be made, tending to invalidate its obligations, then the exhibition of this single truth, so established to be a troth, would be, in effect, to knock the key stone from the Christian's temple, and tumble the the whole superstructure in splendid fragments. Who shall say the Red man is not born to an inheritance with the other members of tho family ) Who shall deny his right ) What scripture teaches it ) If these positions be correct, then it is an object of the highest moment with all who purpose to better the ccmdition of the Indians, to begin their labours by the introduction of Christianity. This should be the corner stone. We are not willing to stop here. It should also cement the ma- terials of the whole edifice. And it should constitute the capitals and ornaments of its final finish. Without it, there may indeed, be a pseudo civilization. Several of the states of antiquity are pronounced to have been em'nently civilized before the Christian era. But wo are inclined to EDUCATION OP THE INDIAN RACE. 335 think it was the civilization of the kead, rather than the heart. Body and mind w«re brought to unite their aid in this effort. Sculpture, painting, and architecture, were carried to their highest pitch. All the arts, which require great physical skill were successfully cultivated. History and poeftry were nnexcelled. But they owed no part of their excellence to the virtwies of society. Viewed in the era of its highest refinements, it was corrupt to the core. Profligacy, rev«nge, and refined error, in morals and pliilosophy, were its striking characteristics. There was an utter destitu> tion of moral loveliness. And we cannot select an era in ancient history which will bear the scrutinizing glare of biblical truth. The very highest efforts of Greece and Rome were made in times of the greatest moral las- situde, affording proof that while the mind was disciplined for its most ex- traordinary achievements, and while the taste was cuhivatei, and the mtn- Iters refined, the affections of the heart, like an uncaged lion, were left to rage in all their native fury. We merely allude to this species of civili- zation for the purpose of pointing out its enormities. And to illustrate the position, that mere civilization of manners, and changes of philosophical opinions, will not, as a necessary consequence, produce Christanity, although they may alike precede ovft/Uow it. While we may confidently appeal to history to show, that the introduction of the Gospel among the rudest na- tions, has withmit prodtrcing luxury, been attended by an almost immediate pefopmation of manners and a resort to the arts of civilization. We are aware that we are trenching on disputed ground, and that many have entertained a difllerent theory respecting the Indian race. By these, Christianity has been deemed the peculiar growth of a more advanced period of attainment It has been deemed necessary first to learn to build and sow, and then to learn to pray. It has been regarded, so to say, as the fruit rather tJaan the seed of civilization. We believe this opinion to be unsound, as a practicable maxim. We do not knovir that the church of Christ, has, «8t any period of its history, had doubts respecting the perfect applicability -of the gospel to uncivilized nations. Paul had none. The Moravians had none, when they entered the missionary fields of India and GreenSand. Elliot had none. Brainerd and Martyn had none. And whatever of doubt there may still rest on the minds of candid inquirers after truth, on this point, the history and progress of misswns, in our day, and in our own land, furnishes a triumphant answer on the subject. The sublime experiment of Owyhee alone, settles the question. They found the true G«d first, and all else followed. So far as my own observation has gone on the American frontiers, I feel impelled by the force of faofc to affirm, that, as a general axiom^ Christianity must be regarded as the precursor of civilization. That with the Red man, as with the White, it is a caus&, and not an effect. And that if the action of these appear to be often reciprocal, such reciprocity is, to huMlaD view, the result of a belief and a condition of the affections, which ^ 336 EDUCATION or THE INDIAN RACE. i I i may nevertheless be esercised by individuals the most rude and nomadicr in their habits. Were the reverse true — were not uncultivated and hunter nations susceptible to gospel impressions in their wild and erratic state, the whole missionary effort of modern days, would be either a labour of almost endless duration, or an utter failure. Millions might be shown to be required to make a Christian. Gold would usurp the office and place of prayer, and no small pait of the word of God itself, must be regarded as a total mistranslation. The field of missionary labour among the American tribes is a very extensive one, and is daily acquiring a new interest. The claims of the Indians, on the one hand, and the ditties of an enlightened population oa the other, are beginning to be more fully appreciated. The American church in all its vital branches is zealously alive on the subject. But it is- a mistake to suppose that they alone are responsible for the faithful per- formance o( this duty. Much of it indeed rests facially upon the churches and the ministry. But there is nothing, in a candid examina- tion of truth, to exonerate any portions of community front the exercise of an active benevolence in promoting the cause of religion and educa- tion among the various Indian tribes. The true enquiry respecting these tribes is not, whether the duty of instructing them be an imperative one, but how this duty can be most speedily, usefully and efficiently per- formed. And the question, which we take to be the pressing one, in the present condition of evangelical operations is, whether there be any thing in the condition and present state of dispersion of the Indians^ which requires a peculiar adaptation *:-i >u..^ d, both )bviou8 :ents, is whole only to thout a It is a curious fact, that the word " Puck," which has been thought so Shaksperian, and which has puzzled so many commentators upon the ■^■ great dramatist, is a generic term in the Algonquin dialect It requires no very great stretch of fancy to suppose that the ready ear of Shakspeare caught the peculiar and most daintily appropriate term from the relations of those accomplished navigators, with whom he was undoubtedly famil- iar, and who, according to Gallatin and other researchers, had been for more than thirty years before the death of the great poet, intimately acquainted with that part of the coast where the Algonquin dialect was spoken, and had even attempted to colonize so early as 1585, on the coast of North Carolina, at the small island of Roanoke, which, as elsewhere on the coast, was inhabited by the Algonquin tribes. — Elizabeth Oakes Smith. Wabeno is the name of a society of men who perform their orgies at night. They invoke foul spirits, and affect malignant arts. It is the most debased of all the Indian associations. The term is from Wabun, day- light, and may be idiomatically expressed in English, by the phrase day- lighters, or mea who dance till day-break. ji^: '•.' •-,->»'' / I'i I . : ORIGIN AND HISTOEY OF THE RACE. i St I HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE CHIPPEWAS, ODJIB- .. WAS, OR ODJIBWA-ALGONaUINS. Of all the existing branches of the Algonquin stock in America, this extensive and populous tribe appears to Live the strongest claims to intel< lectual distinction, on the spore of their traditions, so far, at least, as the present state of our inquiries extendi. 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, ot more fortunate, in the pieservation of this very an- cient 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, uy the power of his wilL He afterwards made animal» 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 afiect the fortunes and lives of men. This constitutes the ground- work of their religion, sacrifices and worship. They believe that animals were created before men, and that they origi- nally 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 now form, began to hunt the animals, and make war against them. It is INDIAN TRADITIONS. 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 sepul- ture. A future state is regarr'od 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 G^zha Monedo, that is to say. Merciful Spirit. Gitchy Monedo, which is also employed, is often an equivocal phrase. The term Waz- hedud, or Maker, is used to designate the Cif^ator, when speaking of his animated works. The compound phrase Wiiosemigoyan, 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 $h by which Moiieto 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 demi-god of their fictions, who is called Mana* bozho, by whose means the waters were stayed and the earth re-created. He employed for this purpose various animals who were sent to dive 344 INDIAN TRADITIONS. 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 be- liefs. 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 posi- tion 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 tliat 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 tho conti- nent. Whether this tradition is to be interpreted as an ancient one, having reference to thei" arrival on the continent, or merely to the track of their mi- gration, 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-wdg, 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 carious (pinions 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 con- INDIAN TRADITIONS. 346 nection 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 no- ticed, of which the traditions and belief, are .still generally preserved. The existence among them of the numerous classes of jossakeeds, or mut- terers — (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 siock, than with the less mentally refined Mongolian hordes. •: TO A niRD, SEEN UNDER MY WINDOW IN THE GARDEN. By the late Mrs. H. R. Scuoolcraft, who was a grand daughter of the war chief Wabojeeo. 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. ,;■'..>*■ •t .11 ,,■*/.-<, ! The time allowed for pleasures sweet, To thee is short as it is bright. Then sing ! rejoice I before it fleet, And cheer me ere you take your flight. i ',■;<■• t the all pes of mit on- PoNTiAC, when he determined to oppose the settling of the Saxon race west of the AUeghanies, sought to invent a currency, to carry on his war. He bethought him of this expedient. He drew his totem on pieces of bark, or paper, and these, putting over it a figure of the thing he wanted, tradition says, he faithfully redeemed. Whatever else the Indian lacks, in his mental constitution, he does not lack belief. He believes, among other things, that, by an act of necromancy, a part of the human family were transformed into bears, wolves and other animals, who are to be restored to their original shapes in another world. Dr. Johnson says — The source of intellectual pleasure is variety: uniformity must tire at last, though it be uniformity of excellence. 44 ■?v--. mvix i:* I ' A'l' TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS OF THE ODJIBWA ALGONQUINS. Whoever has heanl 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 vic- tory 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 ut- terance, 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 con- scious 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 TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. 347 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 themef 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. m WAR SONG. a. In beginning this song the warrior has turned his eyes to the clouds. O shd wan ong Un dos' e wug, Pe na' se wug, Ka baun wai wa dung-ig. (From the place of the south) (They come,) repeat. (The birds, i. e. the warlike birds.) (Hear the sound of their passing screams on the air.) b. The idea of ravenous birds hovering in the sky, still prevails — Tod of to be (I wish to change myself to be) Pe na' se. (A bird.) Ka dow' we d we yun'. (His swift body — to be like him.) c. The warrior now rises above all thoughts of fear. Ne wa be na, (I cast it away.) Ne ow a. (My body.) '■''■'■ Ne wa be na, {Repeats.) This is a high symbolical boast of per- N6 ow a. sonal bravery. d. He appeals to the Great Spirit for extraordinary power. (On the front part of the earth,) (First shines [strikes] the light.) (Such power to me,) (My God,) (In thy mercy give ') By the boldness of this figure he claims the cninipotent power of th« sun to see and discover his enemies. •'•^•' * Na bun a kum ig, Tshe bd be wish' em ug. In do main' em ik, Men- e do, Sha wa nem id. 348 TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. e. He upbraids such of his people as hold back, and do not join in tho dance — that is to say, enlist in the war. Wa go nain', e win ? (Why do ye, warriors,) A be yun ah, (Stand back ?) Wa 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. / He declares his full purpose to enter into the war. Ne m& je, e yeh ! Ne ma je, e yeh I Ne me kun ah, e yeh i Ge zhig neen vvd tin, Hoh ! Ne monedo netaibua- tum win. (I go to the spot — the war path t) {Repeats.) (My war path!) (My sky is fair and clear.) The com- mon phrase to denote good fortune. (Let others linger. Onward! my 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-na' se-wug.' (From the Al^nquin of Schoolcmft.) BY C. F. HOFFMAN. 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 f TRAOITIOlfARY WAR SOlTOS. 349 u. m. 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. rv. Why stand ye back idly, ye Sons of the Lakes 1 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 Rioht. Take the foUowmg additiosal example, of a death song. These stan- zas 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 W&' 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 tub ge' zhig, (Under the centre of the sky,) Ne ba baim wa' wft. (I utter my baim wa wA. Baimwawa, 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 I) Ke gd gun o wd bom in. (I gaze at you.) It is the morning star that is here alluded to. 350 TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. 3. He sees the birds of carnage hovering over the field. A' be luh geizhig (The half of the day) Ai be yaun (I abide — gazing) Penasewug. (Ye warlike birds.) 4. He keeps the flight of these birds before his mind and hears their shrill cries. Pe misk wosh e wug Pe nii' se wug A' bf, tuh geezh ig oag. (They fly round the circuit of the sky.) (The birds— circling) (Hound 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 (T' ' cross the enemy's line) Penasewug. ('li. birds.) 6. He feels that he is called to another world. A pit she Mon e doag Ne mud wa wa Wd we ne goag. 7. He is content and willing to go. Ka gait', ne min wain' dum Ne bun ai kum ig Tshe hi, be wish e naun. (The high gods) (My praise) (They sound.) (Full happy— I) (To lie on the battle-field) (Over the enemy's line.) m: DEATH-SONG—" A' be tuh g6 zhig." (From the Algonqum of Schoolcraft.) BY C. F. HOFFMAN. I. Under the hollow sky, Stretched on the Prairie lone, Centre of glory, I e Bleeding, disdain to groan, i But like a battle cry ,;:^ Peal forth my thunder moan, Baim-^d-wd I ■*' n. Star — Moming-Star, whose ray Still with the dawn I see, TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. Quenchless through half the day Gazing thou seest me — Yon birds of carnage, they Fright not my gaze from thee \ Baim-icd-wd I 351 III. Bird, in thine niry rings Over the foeman's line, Why do thy flapping wings Nearer me thus Incline 1 Blood of the Dauntless brings* Courage, oh Bird to thine I Baim-wd-wd ! Hark to those Spirit-notes ! Ye high Heroes divine, Hymned from your god-like throats That Song of Praise is mine I Mine, whose grave-pennon floatsf Over the foeman's line I Baini'wd-wd ! Brant, notwithstanding the views presented, in the meritorious life of him, in connection with the revolutionary border wars, by the late Col. Stone, was in a false position, bore a double character, and was the object of just suspicion and reproach, during the entire period. The attempt to wipe this stigma from his memory, which does so much credit to the heart of the writer, has been made at too recent a period, while many of the actors of those scenes are yet alive, to be successful. He was the bitter and implacable foe of the Americans, in every phase of the con- test. No plea can excuse his barbarities ; they 'are aggravated by the circumstances of his education. The Algonquin tribes believe in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. This appears clearly in some of their legends. Pappuckewis, the Indian Merry Andrew, was once a wolf, and once a wild goose, or brant. Being sore pressed in one of his adventures, he was, at another time, changed into a rock, to escape a stroke of lightning. * Nan-pah-thene, or " The DauntlcM," is a title given among lome tribea of the Northwest to those fraternized bands of warriors, in which each member is conse* crated to death on the battie-field, or rather is awom never to desert a brother of the band in battle. t The Indians plant flags at the head of the grave, which it is deemed sacrilegiouf even for an enemy to disturb. Ifi • ' t'ry \ ■ ; \ SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF NOTED RED MEI AND AYOMEN, WHO HAVE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT. BRANT, RED JACKET, UNCAS, MIONTONIMO. A NOTICE OF TUB BIOORAPIIIF.R OP TIIK LATR COL. WILMAM L. BTONE, PREPARED FOR THE DKMOCRATIO REVIEW — lti43. ; i • t 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 perma- nent 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 boun- daries 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 de- scriptions 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 newspa- per. 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 fol- lowed up for a few years to come, even the desponding strains of one of INDIAN RULERS. 353 It; 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 res- cuing 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 ques- tions 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 for- tunes, on the one hand, and the paramount claims of letters and Christian- ity 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 em- braces 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 contempo- raneous matter brought in, has, in the minds of some, abstracted too large a share of attention, and left the biographies with less unity and compact- ness 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 qf 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 scries of these biographies in their order of publication. In his first work on Brant, he has presented, in liv- ing colors, the great Mohawk of 1776, who rose up to crush that confed- eracy 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 hos- tile chiefs of the Red Race put together. If he could not, like Ariel, call 45 ill 394 INDIAN RULERS. 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 ham' J. ! 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 diflicuh, however, to disturb the judgments of a preceding age, on the character of individi'ils who have long passed off the stage of action, whether those judgments be favorable or unfetvcable ; and it is, in fact, impossible to re- verse them. It is only necessary tc glace 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 8ometi...jg 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 W2ll as the Mehemet Alls 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 Mencn 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 ha 'ing dazzled or astounded, or like Brant himself, excited the >iirrof of those who opposed them. In the case of the latter, a change ci opin- ion 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 thei» blessings among those who had perhaps his bravery, without his lalents or his knowledge. Those who fought against him were ill qualified, we confess, to be his judges. He had not jnly espoused the wrong cause, wrong because it was adverse to the progress of national freedom and those very principles his people coQleaded for ; but he battled for it with a INDIAN RULERS. 355 ♦error master's hand, and made th« force of his energy felt, as the author has more fully indicated than was before known, from the banks of the Mo- hawk 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 civ- ilization 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 ga _ 'hem, too high — they had exhib- ited to the ne3rt 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 ilso be without a spot on his humanity. We deem the feeling as honor- ible to all who have the blood of the chieftain in their veins as it is praise- worthy in hia biographer. We cannot, however, consent to forget, that historical truth is ver^ 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 fa<^ that both the invader and the invaded in the long and bloody border warfare of the revolution, were, »r* all that constitutes charac- ter, the same people. They were of the same blood and lineage, spoke the same language, had the same laws and customs, and the same litera- ture 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 civiliration evinced a strong and singular con- test. 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 re- spect, 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, be- come 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 ■yt A. 3&5 INDIAN KULERS. 4l U1^ train of reasoning or motives to account for this characteristic, or to recon* cile 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, aa 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 in- superable 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 sume impediment, which served aa an excuse, as whtn 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 con- strued it into an aci 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 Tecumthu realized it after him. Neither attained the object he sought. One of these chiefs was assassi- nated, 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 shuflled 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, symboUically, the Band of his tribe,* 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 revolu- tion, 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 chiefs character, which are not in coincidence with the generally received opinion, or ai^ now first introduced by way of palliation, or vin- dication. We confess, that so far as the presence or absence of the Great Mohawk in the massacre of Wyoming, is concerned, the statements are * The qame is usually translated, two^sUcks tied, or united. INDIAN RULERS. 357 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 with- out 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 ele- vated 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 «achem to men of talents, courage or eloquence among our tribes gene- rally ; and while mere descent would -devolve it upon a chief's son, what- ever 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 ex- amine 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 wUr, a coniest 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 liave had any participation in the events of that war. In the life of Red Jacket, or Sagoyewata, we have a different order of In- dian intellect brought "to view. He was an orator and a d'plornatisf, atid was at no period of his life noted for his skill as a w Nay, there are indubitable prooft that his personal courage could nv.. ...w-^jS be " screwed up to the stickin<< porint." 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, tmtne of arg-ument, or rhap- sodies of thought, which \vere irresistible. And of him, it m«y be sym- bolically said, that his tongue was his tomahawk, and the grandiloquent vocabulary of the Seneca language, his war-«lub. Nor has any native chieftain wielded the weapon to more purpose, or wkh 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 col- lected and preserved in a permanent shape, together with such particulars of hif iife and career as could be obtained. This task has been performed 3S8 INDIAN BVLERgfk I I by Gol. Stone, in a manner which leaves nothing more to he 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 j^poofs and reminifr* cences, 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. Brecken- ridge, Mr. Pariah, and Mr. Hosmer, to show the character of this part of hia materials. Other chiefs of the native stock, have produced oeeasional pieces of elo' quence, or admired oratory, but Red-Jacket is the only prominonO individual who has devoted his whole career to it. That he did, indeed, excel, pro- ducing 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 fre($uent occa- sions to bring him out. And these, in the end, assumed a complicated shape, from either the vague nature, or ill tinderstood eonditiono of prior grants. In all these discussions, he preserved a unity and consistency in the set of opinions he had adopted. He wa» opposed to further sales, to removal, to civilization, and to the introduction of Christianity among hi» people. What Brant had done in politics, Red-Jacket repeated in morals. Both took the wrong side, and both foiled. But it L to be said of the Sen« eca 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 Colden, furnishes ample proofs. The ^eech of Gar- angula, 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 elTeet of it is due to the superior and heroic po- sition 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 tae transmission of this trait, trorn 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 anether link in the chain of Iroquois history, bv favtwing the pabiic with the life of the noted Oneida chief, Shenandoah, for which materials musi exist in the Kirkland fiimiiy. 1 The lives of the two men, Uncaa aad Miontonimo, whose leading acfe INDIAN RULERS. 369 jiar- 18- the oted and are described in one of the Tolumes named \\\ 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 sav- age ignorance and hereditary prejudice, branded under the name of Pe« quods. They were of that type of languages and lineage, which was very well characterized generically, at least ns 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 superin- duced forms, as the Mohegan. This term had been dropped by the Pe- quods, if it was ever their specific cognomen, but it is a proof, and we think a very conclusive proof, of the yet freshly remembered alHIiation with Taminund* 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 luid the foundation of the Uncas dynasty. Placed thus by circumstances in a position in which ho 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 ou*; era ; and «« the alliance was founded on mutual interest and safely, it only grew »tongef with time. A man of less ibrc« of character or natural sagacity than Unca«, wo'jld have vacillated when he saw the colonists becoming more p4A i I t" m m ,;ibVv-?i:J ^■liJ' < " 'V* •" -i,-^.--: 'i? ■,/■ U.' ,;JC . ..>r--i -v.rw'f^i i^ /;«.:•*<'. ^ .!. HOEJ: INDICJl. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. [continued noH no. v.] Herculametjm had nothing in common with its sombre Italian proto- type, 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, mc^^t 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 vaUies 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 re- semblance to an ample smoke-house, and my kind host, Ellis, who was a na- tive of South Carolina, was content to serve up substantial and good cheer in articles, not exhumed from a city bur'ed in volcanic ashes, but . 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 depart- ment of a public ferry, established at this place, across the wild and fluc- tuating 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 whilo 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 ex- ception, 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. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 365 on foot, for St. Louia, accompanied by two young men from Pennsylvania^ with whom I had become acquainted on prior parts of my route. They i lad come with an adventure of merchandize from the waters of the Yioughagany, and were desirous of seeing the (then) capitol of the Terri- tory. Nothing untoward occurred, until we reached and crossed the river Merrimack, where night overtook us, and set in with intense dark- ness, 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, tliat we lost the road, wandered in the woods for some hours, during which the rain com- menced, 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 bruad spaces be- tween the trees. There was no habitation visible on the route — a stand- ing 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 Ai ,'"ist day. We encountered several deer, and from the frequent occur- rence city, which we reached about four o'clock in the afternoon. On entering its ancient Spanish barritrs, we noticed one of the old stone towers, or defences, which constituted a part of the enclosure. This town, I afterwards learned, had been regu- larly walled n;.l '"irtified, during the possession of the country by the Spanish crov«ii. a > soon as I had taken lodgings, I called on R. Petti- bone Esq., a f^'f^.ti 'ormerly of Vernon, in western N. Y. who had estab- lished himself .n t'us 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 in- terest a stranger, such as the private museum of the late Gen. Wm. Clark, ' m Jim 1 tea ^f^_^. *.^. >. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4 "% >^^ o / %^ ^> ^> / ;^ f Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4S03 A ries, 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 resi- dence at Potosi, but made excursions, from time to time, in various direc- tions. Some of these excursions were fruitful of incidents, which would be worth recording, did the cursory character of these reminiscences per- mit 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 lefl. 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 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 371 t'jis 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 ex- «>rted some striking effects in the lower part of the valley of the Missis- sippi, sending down into the channel of the latter, large areas of deluvial earth, as was instanced, in a remarkable manner, at New Madrid. Por- tions 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 metallifer- ous 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 de- scended 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 intelli- gent 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 remin- iscences. 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 etratificatioa 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 direc- tion of their action, were slight. A Mr. Watkins, of Cincinnati, accom- panied 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 a 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 Chir^viri? 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 plaoe -in the village, whioh is not in exact accordance with their opinions of its propriety. I was, by this incident, in- 372 PERSONAL REMI?"ISCENCES. formed 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 cection of the mine country than I had before seen. A ride on hor%back over the mine hills, offers one of tLe moat delightful prospects of picturesque sylvan beauty that can be well conceived of. The hills are, with a few exceptions, not precipitona 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, al- ternately 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 trans* parency of rock crystal. Sometimes a range of red clay hillocks, put- ting up rank shrubs and vines of species which were wnkiunDn 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, per- haps holsters and pistols, sometimes a rifie, 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 Pctosi 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 Flatten, 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 cotmtry to perfect torrents, and this explains one cause of the wash* PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 373 the giU) ces, cted isit. rain der. the ash- ing 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, accom- panied by Mrs. Austin. On descending the long hill, near Donnell's, be- yond 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 sk)wly 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 1 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 unre- mitting assiduity, the enquiry in hand, and by that time had made a cabi- net collection, illustrating fully the mineralogy, and, to some extent, the geo- logical structure of the country. I erected a small chemical furnace for assays. Sonte of the clays of the country were found to stand a high heat, tind 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 pei cent. Accident threw in my way, on the 25th of August, a fact which led to the d.scovery of a primitive tract, on the southern borders of the mine country, the true geological relation of which to the surrounding second- ary formations, formed at the outset rather a puzzla I rode out on horse- back 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 exami- nation, 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 smce 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, 1 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 mineialogical features. I first saw this red ' ift 374 PERSONAL REMINISCENOES. syenite, in place, on Blackford's Fork. The westernmost limits of thit ancient mine extends to within a mile or two of this primitive formation. The red clay forihation extends to the granitic elerations, 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 sf the pas* 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 who>le tract is one of highi 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 greens- stone constitute prominent tracts, and exist in the condition of dykes in the syenite, or feldspathique granite, i sought i> vain for mica in the form of distinct plates. Some of the greenstone is handsomely porpho- rytic, and embraces green crystals of feldspar. Portions of this rock are sprinkled with masses of bright sulphuret of iron. Indeed iron in severalf of its forms abounds. By far the largest portion of it is in the shape of the micaceous oxyde. I searched, without success, for tke irridescenfi 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 ny examination. It wa» dark when I reached the oipposite bank : wet and tired I puehed ii>r the only house in sight. As 1 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 (he 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 miW riding through an untenanted forest, and a dark and blind rocKi, brought us to a Mr, Murphy's, the sponsof of Murphy's settlement. .•-*! ■!i!i : ?. LmxE Turtle was a Miami, yet Little Turtle made a visit to Ken- tucky, and induced its legislature to pass a law against the sale of ardent spirits to the Indian lace. wyi Sfiw -wwi.t: ? •v.-ou'iaJiKf a.jj.j.ny ^m THE RABID WOLF. !ii I VERITABLE TRADITION OF THE VALLEY OF TIIE TAWA8ENTHA. 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 rail- road track from Albany to Schenectady, passes over a part of these plains, which stretch away in the direction of the blue outlines of the Hel- derberg mountains. It is many miles across the narrowest pan of them, and they reach down to the very outskirts of the city of Albany, where they have of Inte years, and since Duel'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 pre- cise 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 mnintuined 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 j so that there was no ^'1 m I I'M m i sre VILLAGE TRADITION. jdst 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 oesofcedita> 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 school- master 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 aeries 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 fre* quent alarms, but also the privilege and benefit of hearing all the won- derful stories of wolf-adventure, to man and beast, for a wide circle. In- deed, these sirries 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 Hnngerkill, aAer gathering its crystal tributaries front the deep gorges of the plains, ran through the village, and afforded one or two seats for mills, and after winding and doobling 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 sleep< ing dead, the Tpwasentha. 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. **;:jtfj|lr 1n««>«W{)»rt ■^'^ ' 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 dia- lects of the German between the Rhine and the Danube ; the Low Dutch as spoken by the common country people on the manor of Rensselaer- wyck, the Erse and Gaelic, as not unfrequently used by the large pro- portion of its Irish and Scotch, and what seemed quite as striking to one brought up in seclusion from it, the genuine Yankee, as discoursed h^ TILLAGE TRADITION. 377 I Iwas Ihed It at In Idia- itch 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 meet- ings 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 Yeeders, the Van Valkenburgs, the Truaxes, and the Lagranges, rendered it a terror to all children under twelve to stir out of doorn after dark. There were in the annals of Iosco, several events in the historical way which . liimi >'j>^ Forest rover,- Where art thou? " *-' Ah my bravest, gayest lover. Guide me now. .KPi'f.'i.- ii» iiiiM;,A' ;.'"' I'— V';.''. Moowis ! Moowis ! Ah believe me. List my moan. Do not— do not, brave heart, leave me All alone. 1 ;:Uiy. y- 't'), Tit I) • .1, Aj;. [If"', :l 'i '( *' '.■{£'. •:). ... Whither wend I, •• ;i^ •• . Fated, lost, detested, banished, '>• - " '' ^ji Must I die. At .;.';•",.. : ^^ , rr^-rf Moowis! Moowis! ,t*! ^ ), Foot-prints vanished, ■'' " Moowis ! Moowis! Whither goest, *:,'! ,.■*/'. "Ki. ; IV !;l'(. ^t;;j' - riul i^'j Eye-bright lover. Ah thou ravenous bird that knowest, I see you hover. Circling — circling, v'-. ■■ As I wander, ;,g> •^w.K*' ! viiniV But to spy '^'lyMh jt^ \is*y Where I fall, and then to batten, .duKfe^i w >r J"^ I 10 (MD^ VQgB| *Ujfi^ fiff^ Qjd^ Am^ W <£€ W ^ ^ ^\^ h . ..u '':,''< > farxt rTf./l.;.! '"Ium OR I -.1 A* THE BED EACE OF AMERICA. PART SEVENTH. LETTERS ON THE. ANTIQUITIES OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY, ;tna a. - A9SRX8SID TO THK LATE WILLIAM L. STONE, EDITOK OV THE HIW TOKK COMMERCIAL ADVEBTKER. .■«r.,; ,,,. !',• - ■ -i '»K'!' '>*.>{£>'<.« i^"**"^'*'*- .,.'• ,. 5;;..... : ;'• VT-:r ir? -.f=i.i>i::-iiii.» *d ? . i)' i^ Jfi^tESJ-iiistii ••}; J>^. .<^T n:ttM I Wheeling (Va.), August 19th, 1843. I HATE just accomplished the passage of the AHeghany mountains, io the direction from Baltimore to this place, anv^, must say, that aside fromr the necessary fatigue of night riding, the puss 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 s 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 th3 first principal place west. The Monongahela is crossed at Browns- ville, 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. 49 386 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES The entire distance ttom the head of the Chesapeake to the waters of the Ohio is not essentially different from tiiree 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 strati- fied 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 iJJS '^^1 :-S' •m 388 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES of the modern Runic as well as the Bardic. It ia now some four or five years since the completion of the excavations, so fiu: 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 prov < -, r •^• ».-./ .. • ■.,,^- . t , i 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^ wide at one end, and l-j^ 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 con- tinued to within about three-eighths of an inch of the larger end, through which but a small aperture is lefl. 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 construc- tion 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. .. , ^.'l -u; OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. ■ ' ■■• » ■. ••• ;.,|p :,.■'■ ;. • ••■ •' '^' III. -'"..i.,* .w.'.. 389 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 rjiunda, 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 charcter. 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 fes- tooned, 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 I, 4 390 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 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 anti* quary ever have busied themselves farther in the mntter had not the inscribed stone come to light, in the year \EZa. I \.>.j informed, yes- terday, 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 thes^ 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 Wars the character of that unique type of architecture found by Mr. ihens and Mr. Catherwood in Central America and Yucatan. With J 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 orna- ments of Yucatan — the material being a wax yellow sand-stone, dark- ened 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 con- nected account of them to our incipient society. 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 Mounds- ville, 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 hord for the pos- session 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 OP THE MTEITERN COUNTRT. 391 uprcad of ciriliMtion over the world a theatre so rife with partinaa adventure, maRsacre and murder, as the valley of the Ohio and the country west of the Alleghany generally presented between the break- ing 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 tinder 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 pur- sued it to within six miles of the latter place. You will recollect this locality as the scene of the '.nfamous 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 un 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 Cleve- land. Towns and villages have sprung up along its banks, where before there was a wilderness. Lothing 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 fiivorable specimen of the present state of horticulture. ■I \ LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES One of the assistants very kindly plucked for me some fine fruit, and voluntarily offered it. Zoar is quite a pince 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 predomi- natmg. Amcjg 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 atBxed 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 Lu- therans 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 ai Canton. 1 j;. iA 'SAij. J i*i 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 ex- tensive 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 t^e Mississippi valley. As my attention has, however, been more taken OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 393 m 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 charac- ter of pseudo-civilisation, or modified barfaarianism, of which the works and mounds and circumvallations at Grave Creek Flats, at Marietta, at Gircleville and other well known points, are evidences. That this Improved condition of the hunter state had an ancient but partial con- nectioa 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 idol- atry and horrid rites, and was merged in the better known and still ex- isting 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 coun- try that the teocalli type of the Indian civilisation, so to call it, devel- oped itself from the banks of the Ohio, in Tennessee and Virginia, west nnd north-westwardly across the sources of the Wabash, the Musking- um and other streams, toward Lake Michigan and the borders of Wis- consin territory. The chief evidences of it, in Michigan and Indiana, consist of a remarkable series of curious garden beds, or accurately fur- rowed fields, the perfect outlines of which have been preserved by the grass of the oak openings and prairies, and even among the heaviest for- ests. These remains of an ancient cultivation have attracted much atten- tion from obser/ing settlers on the Elkhart, the St. Joseph's, the Kala- mazoo and Grand river of Michigan I possess some drawings of these anomalous remains of by-gone industry in the hunter race, taken in for- mer 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 re- positories 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 sacri- fice. I have, within a day or two, received a singular implement or or- nament 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 60 Mm fp ipfii 394 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES VI. \ Detroit, Sept. 16th, 1843. The antiquities of Westeni America are to be judged of by isolat- ed and disjointed discoveries, which are often znade 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 discov- eries establish, is increased by this diffusion and disconnection of the times and places of their occurrence, And is, more than all, perhaps, hin- dered 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, honcrer 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 in- stitution. 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 renoark- able 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 qua- drangular bowl, and having imnressed 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 pecu- liarity 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 veiry 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 contairied 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 an- cient 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 en- tire 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 OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 395 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, look- ing 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 vene- ration 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 corres- ponds, 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 be- neath. 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 arrrived in the lakes. I i'',^ vn '^ " ■ "'" ' 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 gath- ered 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 ma- ple and other trees of the hard wood species. This repository was first disclosed by th^ action of the lake against a diluvial shore, in which the bones were buried. At the time of my visit, vertebne, tibise, 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 sneci- men, 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 pre- sent tribes of red men, the skeletons were laid north and south. I asked f \'i.} :l^\ m il 396 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES several of the most aged Indian chiefs in that vicinity for information re- si)ecting 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 uni- formly bury. But, with the usual result as t :> 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, sol- diers 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 coun- try by the French. There were found the oxydated remains of the brass mountings of a chiefs fusil, corroded fire steels and other steel imple- ments, Vermillion, wampum, and other cherished or valued articles. I sent a perfect skull, taken from oue 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 In- Jian 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 Michili- mackinac, 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 pro- duced 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 stock- ade, 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 176!' —twelve years before the opening of the American war. OP THE WESTERN COUNTRY. VIII. 397 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 trans- ported 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 Supe- rior. It has been somewhat diminished in size and weight, in the mean- time, 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 thiqkness 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 olB*. 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 here- tofore 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 de.scribed 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 extraordi- nary 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 busi- ness, 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 w^orked 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. ■' i 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 li * . i J r I 'a I) 'I 398 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 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 museu n of the National Institute in the new patent office at Washington. Thi 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 year? 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 natimutl pre- servation. It is clearly a boulder, and bears marks of attrition firom the action of water, on some parts of its rocky surface as well as the metallic portions. A minute mineralogical examination and descripticm 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. 't -i ■' i ■' .' . IX. '-rVff '. t ,- i ;J IVlu'i". /' 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 Buffiilo 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 estinaated distance of about thirty- OP THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 399 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 olEcers Macomb and Warner, of the topogra- phical engineers, in 1842, is verj' similar to the bars at the mouths of the upper lake rivers, and appears to be susceptible of removal, or improve- ment, 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 tor- tuous channel, which is above ten miles farther round than the middle chsinnel, 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 ChcneSy 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 Territo- ries, and would constitute a subject of useful consideration for Con- gress. Every year is adding to the number and size of our lake vessels. The rate of increase which doubles our population in a given Dun&er of years must also increase the lake tonns^, 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 Bufialo and Chicago, which prudeace and good seamanship, and well found vessels, may not ordinarily surmount. The rapids at Black Rock, once so formi- dable, have long beea 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 sulBciency «f water for vessels of the largest cbss, and only require a &ir 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 aa average altitude of something less than 600 feet above the tide level m i 400 LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 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 rap- idly 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 ves- sels of heavy tonnage to cross the bar in Lake George ol those straits. X. Mi' DuNDAs, Canada West, Ofct. 26th, 1843. FoRTlTNATELT fof the stody of American antiquities the aborigines have, from the earliest period, practised the interment of their arms, utensib and ornaments, with the dead, thus furaishing evidence of the par- ticular 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 in- dex than such domestic monuments furnish, to determine these eras ; and it is hence that the examination of their mounds and borial-plac^s assumes so important a character in the investigation of history. Here- tofore 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, ore beginning to dis- close objects of this kind, and thus enlarge the field of inquiry. I had, yesterday, quite an interestfhg 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 Dundasw 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 horse- back, the air being keen, and the mud and water in the road so com<- pletely frozen a» 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. Divergi'ng 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, Blirlington Bay; andun 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 fre- quently to inquire our way, and at length stopped on the skirts of an elevated beech ridge, upon which the trees stood as large and tliickly as OF THB WESTERN COUNTRY. 401 'in other parU 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 sub- sequent times, the result of which has been the disclosure of human ske- letons in such abundance and massive quantities as to produce astonish- ment. 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. Dot 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 lon- gitudinally upon each other. In this respect they resemble a single de- posit, mentioned in a prior letter, as occurring on Jak 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 In- dians 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 accu- mulation, but this idea does not appear to be sustained by an examina- tion 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 depo- sited with the dead. The supposition of pestilence, to account for the number, is subject to less objection ; yet, if admitted, there is no imagi- nable state of Indian population in this quarter, which could have pro- duced 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. 61 m ^ \ m m 402 ANTIQUITIES OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 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 peri- odical deposit or re-interment of exhumed bones brought from contigu- ous 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 euch 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. Wo! passed some ancient beaver damu, 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 repre- senting 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 prohsble that they were intended to intercept the passage of game, and compel the deer to pass through these artificial defiles, where the hunteo> 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 difierent 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 north- westwardly, by that route, on the increase of the Iroquois power. Who- ever 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 dis- covery of Canada, and also continued to occupy it, after the French had introduced the fur trade into the interior. For we find, in the manufac- tured articles buried, the distinctive evidences of both periods. The antique bone beads, of which we raised many, in •■ ... mj , ,, Angelerai), Jesuiie. , De la Duranthaye [laGarduer]. 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, sub- scribed, and each page paraphe. Collated at Quebec, this 11th September, 1712. [Signed], Byon et VANDREtrtL. Memoir of Motmeur de la Mothe Cadillac^ relative to the establishment of Detroit^ addressed to the Minister of Marine, \4tk September, 1704 ; La Mothe Cadillac renders an account of his conduct relative to the esta- blishment of Detroit, by questions and answers. It i$ the Minister mho qttestions, and La Mothe wIm answers: i . < ^u'. Um Q. Was it not in 1699 that you proposed to me an establishment in the Stri-its 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 'i >'• 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 ■.'II,': 408 THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. of French and Savages, in order to curb the Iroquois, who had conatant-- ly 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 12tb, 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, Cap- tain, 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 tradi- tion of the first arrival of the French, in the upper lakes, recorded li page 107, Oneota, No. 2. THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. The Vickibui^ SeiUinel 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 froiti infancy, it brings associations of pe^'^liar 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 :>f oar infancy were the young Choctaw boys of the theci woods of Warren county. Their language was once scarcely less fami- liar 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 dis- guise, 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 keen- ness of apprehension, that marks and remembers everything that occurs, and every insult he receives. Cunni-at a hah ! They are going a'^vay ! 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.' cartibr's voyages of discovery. 409 A SYNOPSIS OP CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY TO NORTH AMERICA. , . 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 Rob- erval, 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 opi- nion on the subject, the result in this instance proved that there was a settled dissatisfaction in the mind of Cartier respecting the general ar« rangements 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 laat the conquest of Mexico had then but recently been accomplished ^1520), and it is not improbable that Cartier, who had taken some pains ^~ exalt Donnacona into another Montezuma, thought himself entitled to receive from Francis, rewards and emoluments in some measure cor- responding to those which his great rival, Charles, had finally bestowed upon Cortez. Whatever were the causes, four years elapsed before ^he ahips were prepared, and M l-a 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 arriv- ed 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 sh uld proceed, while the King's Lieuten- ant 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 52 iVf, }h 'am Im mi ^\ ..J*; :m 410 cartibr's voyages of discovery. '^flr Donnacoua and his companions in captivity. Carticr . "inacona was doail, and his bones rested in the ground powers to act until his arrival, and the latter set sail with five ships, *' well furnished and victualled for two ycors," on the 23d of May, 1040. Storms and contrary winds attended the passage. The ships parted com* pany, and were kept so long at sea, that they were comi^lled to water the cattle, &c., they took out for breed, with cider. At length, the ves- sels re-assembled in the harbor of Carpunt in Newfoundland, and -^fter taking in wood and water, proceeded on the voyage, Cartier not deem- ing 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 voy- age), on the 23d of August. His arrival was welcomed by the natives, vrho crowded around his vessels, with Agona at their head, making iuquiri replied, »* —that the t»i.. ■ 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 lat- ter 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. Ho returned the chieftain's simple " crown." They then ate, drank, and departed. Having thus formally renewed intercourse with the natives, Carticr sent his boats to explore a more suitable harbor and x)lace 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,/ks 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 betwe'jn it and the river, an inter- val 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 discov- ered near the fort, " adjoining whereunto," says the narrator, " w6 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 OARTmas vovieRB op disoovbrt. 411 iron, ntui nt the water's edge " certain leavea of fine gold (mica) as thick as a niati'H nail." Tlio ground was so favoraUo for tillage, that twenty men labored at an aero and n half in on<> day. Cabbage, turnip, and lettuce seed, Bprung up th<.> eighth day. A .uxuriouo meadow waH found along the river, and the woodit were clustered with a species of the native grnpe. Such were the niilurul appearance and advantages of n spot which wm destined to be the future site of the city and fortress of Quebec,* " but to which he gave the name of * Oharlesbourg Royal.' " Curtior lost no time in despatching two of his vessels to France, under command of Mac:; JoUobert and Stephen Noel, his brother-in-law and nephew, with letters to the king, containing an account of his voyage and proceeding:^, accompanied with Npccimens of the mineral treasures he supposed himself to have discovered ; and taking care to add " how Mons. Koberval had not yet come, and that he feared that by occasioo of contrary winds and tempestt, he was driven back again into France." These vessels left the newly discovered town and fort of*' Oharlcsbottrg Royal" on the 2d of September. And they were no sooner despatched, than Carticr determined to explore the " Saults" or rapids of the St. Lawrence, which had been I'tscribed to him, and partly pointed out, dur- ing his nHcent 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 '' gentle* iiion," with a suitable complement of mariners. The only incident re- corded 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 " SauU" 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 ytath 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 tho 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 ap- * Queiy — Is not the worn Quebec a derivative from the Algonquin phrase Ktbic— a term uttered in pasning by a dangerous and rocky coast ? <»*': ^fm ^m ,mp-m\ ^^i:,\ '■'M\ 412 CARTIERS VOYAGES OF DISCOVERT. peased their curiosity, by ioterchanging civilitieci, 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 voy«ge is wanting. Hackluyt hiMS, however, pre- served 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 1.542, and a fragment of Roberval's nar- rative, 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 pre- sented 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 men- tioned 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 experi- menter. Carrier spoke highly of the advantages the country presented for settlement, m ^int 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, be- cause they would have all the glory of the discovery of these parts to themselves." -■•>■.■ >• . ■ ;.• January 21flt, 1829. '' ^ • THE INFLVENCE OF AIU>ENT SPIRITS. 413 THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS ON THE CONDI- TION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. AN ADDBESS BEAD BEFORE THE CHIPrEWA COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETT, AT 8AULT STE-MARIE, MAY 8th, 1832. The effects of intemperance on the character of nations and indiridu- als 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 modem benevolence have dispelled the illusion, and taught us that genius has no higher ob- jects 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 morels 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 influ- ence, and which has already carried its precepts and examples from the little sea-board village,* 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 Csesar, but for giving their aid in staying the tide of intemperance which has been rolling westward for more than three centuries, sweeping away thou- sands 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 bashfiilness for confidence." It was as true then, as now, that the " neg- m 'M * Andovcr. ■■■C f( 1 414 THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS ligence and irregularity" which arc the fruits of this habit," if long con- tinued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius con- temptible," " Who," he exclaims, " that ever asked succors from Bacchus, was able to preserve himself from being enslaved by his aux- iliary ?"• And is there a species of servitude more pernicious in its in- fluence, 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 efiects. 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 phy- sical. Its direct efiects are to blunt the faculty of correct thinking, and to paralyse the power of vigorous action. Nothing more effectually takes away from the human mind, its ordinary practical powers of dis- crimination and decision, without which man is like a leaf upon the tem- pest, or the chaff before the wind. Dr. Darwin has aptly compared the efiects of spirituous liquors upon the lungs to the ancient fable of Pro- metheus stealing fire from heaven, who was punished for the theft by a vulture gnawing on the liver.f 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 spir- ituous drinks, to the artificial mensuration of heat by the thermometer, and took a decided stand in pointing out its poisonous efiects 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 cer- tainly be to arrest the functions of life. Yet he will drink of this pow- erful 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 prepucatioos which were brought to light in the * Dr. Johnson. t Zoonomia. ON THi3 INDIAN RACE. 415 kge of the Alchemysts — when the human mind had run mad in a philo* sophic research after two substances which were not found in nature — the philosopher's stone, and the universal panacea. One, it was believed, W{^ to transmute all substances it touched into gold, and the other, to cure all diseases. The two great desires of the world— weaftA and long fi/e, 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 wit- nessed ; 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 anticipa- tions 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 sub- stances — 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 a*'e indispensable in several operations, in the present state of our knowle^ ge — does this furnish a just plea for its ordi- nary use, as a beverage, in a state of health 1 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 diur- nal 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 temp<;rate 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 phan- tom. And all its exhiblaons of changing passion, oo many melancholy proofs of .' •'i .' ".ii .' ' " the reasonable loul rur tiad." • • Angelic beings are probably exalted above all human weaknesses.— i(:-V m. 416 THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS 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 decry- ing the evils of intemperance. Physicians have described its effects in deranging the absorbent vessels of the stomach, and changing the heal- thy organization of the system. Moralists have portrayed its fatal influ- ence on the intellectual faculties. Divines have pointed out its destruc- tive 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 ao frightful mien, That to be Aa(«/, need* but to be fftn." ' 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, jojr, 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 (Am— This onZy — mortal canker of the mind. Grim Belial's latt attempt on human kind." If such, then, are the effects of ardent spirits upon the condition of civi- lized 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 dis- claim 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 inferredj 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 ON THE INDIAN RACE. 417 or fermented liquor appears to have been, in no instance, overlooked or for- gotten. It would be easy to show the use made of them in the West In- dies, and in the southern part of our hemisphere. But our object is con- dined to the colonies planted in the North. And in this portion of the contment 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 bad 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 intempe- rance among the Indians ; in gleaning, with avaricious hand, the furs from their h^-os ; in stimulating them to fight in their battles, and iu 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 pos- sessed. 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 poveity, 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 obsta- cle to the exercise of the most enlarged charity, and enlightened philan- thropy, 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 spir- its. 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 In- dian 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 unfur- 53 418 TUB INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS red, 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 owir 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 employ- ment, ardent spirits became the bounty, rather th»n 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. i- > Historical writers do not always agree : but they coincide in their tes- timony respecting the absence of any intoxicating drink among the north- ern Indians, at the time of the discovery. It is well attested that the Azteeks, 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 *h the plants employed, to those latitudes. And there is no histori> dence 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 faith- ful 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, intoxica- tion became as common among the northern as the southern tribes.* 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 ^^tu- * Robertson's History of America. ON THE INDIAN RACE. 419 por immediately ensued. He sank down and fell into a sleep — the sleep of death, as his companions thought. Ijut in due time he awoke — de- clared the happiness he had experienced from its effects — asked again for the cup, and the whole assembly followed his example.* Nor was the first meeting with the New England tribes very dissimi- lai'. 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 «ome 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 penpiration during the remainder of the interview.! 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 Indii iS, 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 ves- sels. When he drew near the headmost vet:sel, he began to utter an earnest address, accompanied with violent gesticclatiou. Cartier bailed 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 lan- guage 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 watch- ful caution did not, however, permit him to venture on board. Cartier, willing to give him a proof of his confidence, then descended into the chiefs canoe, and ordered bread ,y. It was impossible thatj and it is impossible now : and (he missionary who entered the forest, with the Bible and crucifix in one hand, and the bottle in the other, might say, with the Ronoan soliloquist, who deliberated on self-murder, " My bane and antidote are both betore me ; While tkU informs me I shall never die, TAu in a moment brings n>8 to my end " National rivalry, between the En[;iish and French governments, gave a character of extreme bitterness to the feelings of the lnd:ans,and served to promote the passion for strong drink. It added to the horrors of war, and accumubted the miseries of peace. It was always a straggle be- tween 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 nieans of putting into motion : but neither had the complete means of controlling ii., 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 dtate of war, but it was kept np daring 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 ■wam trade, the possession of the fur trade, that gav^ the preponderating weight. And there is noth- ing in the history of this rivalry, from the arrival of Iloberval to the r^eath 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, ON THE INDIAN ^\CE. 421 the sources of the Multnoir ih, or the Rio del Norde — the passes of the Rocky MountaJHS 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 itis sel- dom seen. But we also believe mat in proportion as it is scarce — in pro- portion 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 pernidous in effect, unnecessary in practice, unwise in policy. The French, who have endeared themselves so much in the a^&ctions of the Indians, were earlier in Canada than the English upon the United States' coast. Carlier's treat of wine and bread to the Iroquois of the St. Lawrence, happened eighty -five years before the landing of the Pil- grims. They were also earlier to perceive the evils of an unrestrained trade, in which nothing was stipulated, and nothing prohibited. To pre- vent its irregularities, licenses were granted by the French government to individuals, on the payment of a price. It was a boon to superannu- ated officers, and the number was lir«(ited. I« 16S5, 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, end gave birth to a traffic, which assumed the same character in tempo- ral affiiirs, that " iadulgenocs" did in spiritiMl. 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 iot them, they were sure tc make it up by excessive exactions upon the Indians. Courier du bois, was the term Hrst applied to thein. Merchant voyageur, was the appellation at a subsequent period. But whatever they were called, one spirit actuated them — the spirit of acquiring wealth hy driving a gainful traffic wi*h aa ignot'ant people, and for this purpose ardent spirits was but too well adapted. They L \nsported it, along with articles of necessity, up long rivers, and ovei 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 i» much dread of them. Feuds, strifes, and murders ensued. Crime strode unchecked through the land. Every Indian trader became a legislator and a judge. Hi^ 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 ac- cumulated, it is not intended to infer that the pressing wants of the In> dians were not relieved — that the trade was not a very acceptable and impurtant one to them, and that great peril and expense were iu>t encoun- m m 482 THE INFLUENCE OF AHDENT SPIRITS tered, and a high degree of enterprise displayed in its prosecution. Bot It is contended, that Ureal wants were relieved, ttrHficial ones were cre- ated—that if it substituted the gun for the bow, and shrouds and blan- kets 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 r^uebec, celebrated Id England and America as a high military achif 'ement, and the conse- quent surrender of Canada, produced any verj 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 4>f 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 enno- bling maxims of Christianity. Whoever feels interested in looking back into this period of our com- mercial Indian affairs, is reccxnmended to peruse the published statistical and controversial volumes, growing out oi 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'Tavii^bes, and M^Gillvrays, who first visited h, that every bold D»n, 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 Uojiigah and the Oregon, were reached in a few years. All Arctic America was penetrated. The British government h much indebted to Scottish enterpdse for the ex- tension 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 u belief in the neces^ty of u^ng ardent spirits caused them to be introduced, in any quantity, "^mong the North West tribesv 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 moch to say, that wherever the current of the fur trade set, the nations were intoxicated, demoralised, depopulated. The terrible scourge of the small pox, which broke out in the country north west of Lake Superior in 1782, was scarcely more &tal to the natives, though more rapid aud striking io its effects, than the ON THE INDIAN RACE. 423 sd. to lite pc^er of ardent spirits. Nor did it produce so gre.^t a moral affliction. For those who died of the varioloid, were spared the death of ebriety. Furs weie 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 ais that which carried Cortez to Mexico, and Pizarro to Peru. It had deadened the ties of humanity, and cut asunder *^e cords of private faith.* 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 vic- tim 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, liice the child in the parab' xd 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 -th« blight of hu llSB< 1' to thie." ,.f Curse to all ttatet of map. bui Let me not be mistaken, in ascribuig effects " 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 eou»- cilSf convened specially, and opened formally by smoking the pipe, h 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 winter- ing grounds and beyond the reach, certainly beyond the free or ordinary use of ardent spirits), to extract from their hunts and adventures, what- ever will admit of a pleasant turn, draw forth a joke, or excite a laugh. Ridiculous misadventures, or comical 8ituations,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. !j Religion (we use this term for what concerns the great spirit, sacred dreams, and the ceremonies of the Meda or medicine dance), like busi- ness, 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 in- vited. There is, however, another feast instituted, at certain times 1 Kl m M 428 DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL during the season, to which young persons only are invited, or admitted, except the entertainer and his wife, and generally two other aged per- sons, who preside over the feast aid 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 admo- nishes 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 had. 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 sup- plied." The feast then commences, and the elders relax their manner and mix with the rest, but are still careful to preserve order, and a de- cent, respectful behavior among the quests. 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 an I 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 concefn on this account, and seek to divert their thoughts by con- versation 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 sufier and be silent. Gene- rally, something is reserved by the mother, when food becomes scarce, X, I MANNERS OF THE INDIANS. 429 of e ;n. to satisfy thei.' clamors, and they are satisfied with little. On such occa- sions, 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 com- plain, 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 wretch- edness 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 |.3]t, 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 tend- ing, 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 fatal- ists, 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 affiiirs. October 29th, 1826. I he in- s* M '^w "'■hkv SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OP NOTED EED MEN AND WOIEI WHO liVB iPPEARED ON TUE WESTERN CONTINENT. V CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE OGEE WYAN AKWUT OKWA; OR THE WOMAN OF THE BLUE-ROBED CLOUD, THB PBOPHETESS or cuxaoiMsaoN. [TheM confessions of the Western Pythoness were made after she had relin- quished the prophetic office, discarded all the ceremonies of the Indian Meddtvin&nd inkeiwin, and united herself to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which, up to our latest dates, shs 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 momiag 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 pre- pared 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 disap- pointment she brought nothing. I suffered more from thirstf than hun- ger, though I felt my somach gnawing. My mother sat quietly down and said (after ascertaining that I bad 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 THE PROPHETESS OF CHEOOIMEOON. 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. 1 1 ok my little hatchet and cut plenty of wood, and twisted the cord that was to be used in sewing ap puk way oon un, or mats, for the use of the family. Gradually, I began to feel less appetite, but my thirst con- tinued ; still I Afas 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 iind that I had followed her injunc- tions. 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 beneKt 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 ever- lasting. 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 yqur first son. It is my life. Go to the place you are called to visit." I fol- lowed 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 Shau voau e geeghiekf or the Bright Blue Sky. I am the veil that covers the opening into the sky. Stand and listen to me. 433 CONFESSIONS OF TUB Do not be afraid. I am going to endow you with gifts of lifo, 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 repeat- ed 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. Ad- vance a little farther," said he. I did so, and stood at the commence- ment of the opening. " You have arrived," said he, " at the limityou can- not pass. I give you my name, you can give it to another. Now, re- turn ! 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 aa 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 dy« ing." She prepared to cook it, but I said, " Mother, forbear, I do not vrish 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 tha 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 tnother 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. PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEOON. 433 After the fleventh day of my fast (she coniinued), while I was lying in my lodge, I saw a darL 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 fulurity, that you may use it, for the benefit of youreeif 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 soli- citations of my friends. It was in the winter season, and they were then encamped west of the Wisacoda, or Brule river of Liake Superior, and between it and the plains west. Ti^iere 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 he asleep, and he request- ed 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 con- sent. I told them to build the Jte suk auti, 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 com- pressed current of air above, and the noise of motion. This being regard- ed 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 toest 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 positior. My reputation was established by this success, and I was after- 55 484 THE PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEOON. wards noted in the tribe, in the art of a medicine woman, and sung the songs which 1 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 llv^d 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 Pauwa^ting (the Falls of St. Mary's), angry words passed betw-een 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 hirn 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 re newed my efforts in vain. He told me to return, and as I had two chil dren 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 lefl as she had been, years before, with nobody to provide for us. With Superi Thu further specim Died Mary's, IJfincipa Chief •ng in E river, op the late ( the chiei birth. J was in se brated sli designate< General I dians, wli whites wl a number fortunate ^ TheCh prisoners- restored, 1 whites to well as his antly situa open for tl pleasure, v The old terest, and consisting c most valual among his always exp that the tin: perfect com was then re His remain; gious cerem RULING CHrEF OF THE MIAMIS. 435 With her I returned to my native country at Chegolmegon on Lake Superior. Thus far, het 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. iirnf Z'*-!' RULING CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS. Died, on the 13di inst. (August, 1841), at his residence op the St. Mary's, four and a half miles south-west of this city, John B. Richcrdville, jwincipal chief of the Miami nation of Indians, aged about eighty years. Chief Richardville, or " Piskewnh''^ (which is an Indian name, mean- ing in English " wiW-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 j 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 cele- brated slaughter on the St Joseph River, on«: 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 In- dians, 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 un- fortunate 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 ad his native tongue ; and for many years his house, which is pleas- antly 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 in- terest, and amassed a fortune exceeding probably a million of dollar?, 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 reli- gious ceremonies. — Fort Wayne {Ind.) Sentinel. ' .-,Vi ■''4' '' ■ ;:. THE PHILOSOPHER OF ALGOMA, . OR OUTLINES OP THE TRAVKLS AND OPINIONS OF AN , INDIAN SACHEM, .. V N ON A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES: in A SBEIES OF LKTTKRS FROM AN EDUCATED ALGONQUIN TO OMK OF BI» DISTANT COUNTRYMEN IN THE NORTH. \ „ ..= .-.-.■..■■. -. . . PROEM. ^' Wawanosh, the author of these unique letters, is conceived to be doubly worthy of notice. He is both original and an aboriginal. He has chosen to connmunicate his ideas, not like his countrymen with a pencil of burnt pine, on a scroll of bark, but wHh veritable pen and ink, on the papyrus of modern days, in good Roman characters, using, however, his own language. In truth, of all my gleanings in the forests of the north &nd west, I expect the most cordial thanks for the discovery of these curious bark letters. All nations have something peculiar to their physical existence which naturalists comprehend under the term of habitat. Doubtless, the things herein narrated would have been differently managed, had they come from the pen of Confucius or Zoroaster, Yet the descriptions and re- flections are considered not unworthy of a descendant, if we may sup- pose him to be a descendant of the latter. Oriental fancy might have clothed the descriptions in different language. The conclusions of the western philosopher may not have secured as ready an acquiescence on the banks of the Euphrates, the Indus, or Burampooter, as they did on the long-descending Mississippi. Yet, v/e are not sure that the drift of thought is not more decidedly tinged with the philosophy of the orient- als, than of the occedantals. An Algonquin must needs hold the pen of an Algonquin. There are peculiarities in the Indian man of the west- ern continent which mark and distinguish him from his eastern proto- type and kinsmen, and we must make large allowances for habits and associations which are the result of long eras of separation. Yet, all the proo& of ethnological assimilation are assimilations with the man of the East. There is absolutely nothing, mental or physical, by which we can trace any analogies to the Saxon, or any other stock of the man of Europe. -, ^, ,-._.■ -,; ■,.;:>.:,, ■,n.;;.'. ,. --^ .■;,:.• ^ . Thousands of years of wanderings, by sea and land, have produced some mi We s{)e mode of structure est evidt new adv< of the ch and ink, i state of S ticlpants. thinks of which th( upon him Dial founc powers o, CSuriosity even com love of nc thejr will I this, we a] Wawan merely to i low ; but c every dedi occidental criminatior illustration! society, wl cases, to al There is reveals its 1 'f^ familiari throughout praiseworth his opi»ions outbursts ol try. His at g'on, appeal of the state come, like s whose ances centuries bei ove all, a faculty of beholding analogies and making tUustrations, and *finding out parallelisms between barbaric and civilized society, which, if they sometimes provoke a smile, are entitled, in most cases, to all praise. There is atwsther trait, in which the mind of the erudite Wawanosh reveals its legitimate workings and characte.-istics. He never descends ■■ri familiarities -or puerilities of manner or description, but preserves throughout a conscious dignity. He admits freely, what is noble or praiseworthy in a foreign people j but he, at the same time, so manages his opinions, and the expressions of his admiration, and charitable outbursts of feeling, as never to throw disparagement on his own coun- try. His admiratioH of the institutions of civilisation, letters and reli- gion, appears to be the spontaneous effusion of a noble mind, irrespective of the state of things at home, and in his own wigwam. He does not come, like some of the nice and tasty visitors of Europe to this land, whose ancestors have chanced to leave the state of barbarism some centuries before him, and rid themselves of most of its traits, to concen- trate his criticisms and philosophy upon the viands of a table, the ar- rangements of a stage coach, or the jwsition of small personal conveni- '^m ",:'(<( ■dtm 438 TRAVELS OF AN INDIAN »AC1»EM ences, toitkin or wilhout a hotel, to the utter neglect of our actual tnstitU" tions, growing wealth and power, population and resources. He sec», in the latler, the true index to our rise, and whatever may be his thoughts on trifling imperfections, or minor details, they are lost in the force of his general estimates. We doubt, indeed, whether, in this very particular, he does not offer a fair subject of imitation, to the worthy class of refined visitors before mentioned, who have oeen pleased to speak of the United States of America, as a very respectable appendage to the royal family of well ruled and hopeful Christian na- tions, very much in the vein, however, of Mrs. Hardcastle, who, in speaking the praises of her favorite son, could not pretend to say what " a year's Latin would do for him." We ought, in all frankness^ to make another aduoission to the credit of the northern philosopher. In copying his letters in the original Indian tongue from the bark of the betula papyracea, upon which they were written, some inaccuracies may have supervened. And with every adi- vantage of our familiarity with the original, with the aid of the ripe knowledge and judgment of other interpreters, we cannot at all times be sure that we have caught the true force of idiomatic expressions' Transpositive languages possess a great advantage iu their descriptive powers over our more rigid and inflexible. English. Yet, the hope is indulged that thn spirit and substance of' the observations of this noble son of the Red Race have been, in the main, faithfully rendered. A single word is to be added by way of precaution. A few of these letters were communicated to a friend, since dead, who published them in 1821, in the New York Statesman. Thence, some of them were transferred to the doric pages of the Knickerbocker. It is hoped that the public's approval of this miscellany may enable us now to submit the whole. And so believing, we add, in the original, Kunna ga Kunna. . . NOU I. ...V ..,':>, ., Nebjee* : — More than forty years have elapsed since my father, who received a gratuitous education at one of the universities of New Eng- land, had returned to his native village, with the stores of knowledge which he had there acquired. I had often listened to him in my child- hood while he described the singular manners, customs, laws, dress, and mstitutions of white men — the large buildings in which they reside — the tall ships in which they cross the ocean — the many fields which they till ; and all the arts of peace and war, so difierent from those which prevail among the children of the forest. And I felt a burning curiosity lo visit those scenes which he had depicted in such glowing colors, and to form my own estimate of the comparative happiness of the savage * My Friend. , • • . . IN THE UNITED STATE8. 439 and civilized state. He had early tauglit me one of the most valuable arts ■which he had brought from the land of white men, — the curious and per- fect mode which they possess of communicating their ideas to one another, by means of certain characters, which are either written or printed ; and by the use of which, persons at the greatest distance may indulge in a free, precise, and ready interchange of sentiment. In other words, he had taught me to read and write. The elements of the latter art have, perhaps, always existed among our tribes, so that by tracing certain figures of beasts, birds, &c., upon slips of bark, our warriors and hun- ters have been able to decypher the meaning, and avail themselves of the information thus communicated. But who could have imagined that there is so vast a difference between the hierogiyphical and the alphabetic method ; or that this art, which is now in the same rude state among us that it was a hundred years ago, has been carried to such a wonderful state of perfection by the man of Europe, that every sound of the human voice, every word uttered, and every thought conceived, can be conveyed in the most precise manner, and by the most appropriate and unerring signs. Ewa wyaubisk Kewayjig Tyau! neeb wa Kawin wabish Kizijig. Hand-talking, or gesticulation, so important with us, is almost wholly unknown among this people, and the tongue is the only organ of intelli- gence. Everything I had seen of this people, — everything I had heard of their customs, and the prevalent state of society, only seemed to in- flame my curiosity ; and years rolled away without diminishing my desire to perform a journey into those countries of which my imagina- tion had formed the most exalted notions. '-' . ■'! ' " Father !" I exclaimed one evening as we returned unsuccessful from the chase, " I will go into the land of the white men. I can no longer resist the desire I feel of seeing their towns and cities — their roads and fields — their ships and palaces — their mills and manufactories, and all those useful and elegant arts — those manners and customs — those laws and institutions, which at once proclaim them the wisest, the great- est, and the happiest of men. Ever since you have spoken to me of these things, my thoughts have wandered far from the land of my na- tivity. I have sat lonely in the woods, while the deer passed unheeded within roach of my rille. I have sighed to look beyond those blue hills which cast their awful tops into the clouds, and which have heretofore formed the boundary to my moral, as well as physical inquiries. But the charm is broken ; you have only allowed me to taste of that foun- tain of information for which I feel a burning thirst. The chase has day after day become less and less attractive to mp, till that noble pur- suit, which has always been the proudest aim of our tribe, has dwindled icto a drudgery and lost all its charms. Our precarious mode of life — Jit 440 TRAVELS OF AN INDIAN SACHEM our rude arts — our laws — our employments and amusements, bare grown diminutive and humble in my eyes. Put, therefore, oh father, I beseech you, no obstacle in my way. If I had never known that there were other people, whose modes of thinking and habits of life were so essentially different from our own, I should still have been happy." " My son," he replied, " happy is the man who is contented with his lot. Happy is he, whom ambition hath never tempted to quit the en- deared scenes of his youth, his home, and his country. Happy is he, who hath neve.' counted the stars, nor analyzed the sUn-beams ; and who neither sighs for the knowledge which is hid in books, nor the honors which can be given by men. Happy is the man whom neither fame nor riches entice to quit the humble shades of sequestered life, for the pomp of power, or the dazzling voice of human applause. Thrice happy is he who hath never dropt a tear in the land of strangers, whose wants are few, and whose only fear is God. I tell thee, oh Wawanosh, that peace dwells not among the splendid of the earth. It is not science that creates happiness — it is not palaces that convey comfort — it is not ships that can protect us from the rage of the ocean — it is not cultivated fields that lead on to human repose, fm well thou knowest that the earth has been cursed, and in tears and bitterness shall it only be tilLd. Our wants increase with increasing knowledge ; and the ploughshare that is driven through the tent of the savage, and the axe that fells the oak that overshadows it, only expose the fresh ground to the sun, that it may produce weeds which never grew there before, and thistles which are sharjier than an arrow. But go, my son, thou hast a wish to see other countries. Thou art young, and ardent, and full of health. Ex- perience is the mother of wisdom. It will teach thee how wide the difference is, between a splendid and a happy people, and that humaQ laws, however wise, may punish, but cannot prevent the commission of crime. It will teach thee that the vices increase with the luxuries of a people, and that half the woes, the wars and the quarrels which afflict the human race, arise from mere differences of opinion upon points which are insignificant in themselves. It will also teach thee how few realize in afler-life the schemes which they have planned in youth, and how little, after all, is the real sum of human bliss. Be cautious, and thou wilt escape danger — be temperate, and thou wilt not be troubled with disease — be virtuous, and thou mayest hope to be happy.^ So saying, he hung around my neck a string of wampum ; he put into my hand a rifle of curious workmanship; a packet of papers designed to recommend me to the acquaintance of his former col- legiate friends, and he ordered a slave, whom he had captured in war, to put into my canoe three hundred bimver skins of the blackest dye, besides a choice pack of the silver and cross fox, and two others of selected otters and martins. Thus prepared, I embarked upon the Lake IN THE UNITED STATES. 441 of the Hills— I passed rapidly through those waters which conduct tho traveller into the Lake of the Woods, and the Rainy lakes. I urged my way, with little difficulty, through a chain of connected waters^ filled with immense fields of wild rice, or sometimes choked with the pointed bulrush. My canoe was then transported by the slaves who accompanied me, over the highlands that separate the waters of the arctic circle, from those which flow into temperate latitudes. I passed the stormy shores of Lake Superior, after pausing upon the waves, to admire the striking scenes of picturesque beauty and magnificence, which mark these rocky and rtimantic coasts. I guided my canoe down the foaming rapids of St. Mary — I visited the island of Michilimackinac, that ancient seat of the fur trade, and passed along the sandy shores of Lake Huron, and through the beautiful river of St. Clair. After a journey of three moons, during which my canoe had twice been dashed upon the rocks, and I had encountered many perils by storms, by huD' ger, and by fatigue, I reached the city of Detroit in safety. Thus far I have detailed to you my journey, which I transmit by my friend Geonida, who, already sick of the land of white men, cannot be prevailed upon to accompany me farther, and takes the opportunity of a trading canoe to return to his friends. I shall soon resume my narra- tive, and the remarks which have occurred to me, upon the manners and customs of this extraordinary people. Ever thine, . - .'- .,- ■.-■'-:■- r /; '> . .. !•;,•% WaWANOSH. ■~>^i No. IL Detroit. Nejee : — At every point of my journey where I had encountered white men, new ideas had been created by seeing the spacious buildings, the singular costume, and the more singular physiognomies of this uniform people. But nothing struck me with more force than the garrulity which I everywhere observed, even between people who would not seem to belong to the highest order of society, or to have much of importance to communicate to each other ; and I frequently said to myself, this is surely a talking people. O spirit of the great Altelago, chief of speak- ers, wouidst thou believe it, that there are more words passed here, on the occasion of selling an awl*blade of the value of three cents, than were uttered in the great council, when our tribes went to war against the Ticaunees ! If, however, I expressed my astonishment at what I K iw in the detached settlements of white men whom I encountered in my voyage through the upper lakes, judge what it must be on seeing a city built of brick and wood, towering into the clouds, and assuming 56 mm 442 TRAVELS OP AN INDIAN SACHEM every fantastic shape which the genius of architecture can invent — a city surrounded in part by tall ships and military M'orks — its streets filled with men hurrying to and fro— with horses and carriages literally hid in the clouds of dust raised by their own motion — and its sides walled up with shops stored with the different products of all parts of the world. '. ' So many new objects crowded upon my notice, that it was a long time before I could think with precision, on any subject, or form an ade- quate idea of the people before me. I felt like a man, who suddenly starting from a dream, finds himself, as if by enchantment, at the foot of a tremendous cataract, where nothing can be heard for the appalling thunder of the waters, and no object distinctly seen for the clouds of glittering spray. For a moment, i shrunk '.vithin myself, and cast " one long lingering look" towards the peaceful haunts of my nativity. Bu*. soon this mental trepidation and obscurity began to pass away, and I saw that all is not dangerous that is noisy, and that every sparkling stone is not a gem. As I passed through the various shades of society which this frontier presents, I observed that the wants of man increase in the exact degree that he has proceeded beyond the simple comforts, and in- genuous manners, of the sons of the forest. And that if an agricultural state and a code of written laws, procured him many enjoyments and many securities, which are unknown to the hunter, they also brought with them accumulated ills, and wants, and perplexities, which are equally un- known to the hunter state. But I could not contain my admiration for the mechanic arts, which are so completely subservient to the manifold necessities and comforts and elegancies of life. I saw the stone-hatchet, that antique instrument so long in use by our forefathers, exchanged for the ponderous iron axe, by which the largest trees can be felled in a few moments. I saw the tent of bark, exchanged for large and square build- ings, fabricated out of entire trees, sawed, and smoothed, and painted; and what is very remarkable, many of these buildings are several stories in height, and contain a number of rooms which are unoccupied, and do not appear necessary to any purpose of the domestic economy. Are these, as with us, appropriated for the residence of their monetoes, or to the ceremonies necessary for the cure of the sick .'' I saw the simple canoe of bark, exchanged for large and heavy ships, bearing immense sheets of canvass, which it requires several men to hoist. I saw men dragged through the streets upon four wheels, upon which a curious piece of mechanism was fixed, and before h several horses were attached by means of leather thongs, ornamented with plates and buckles of gold and silver. Strange people, I exclaimed, that they should thus tamely submit to be transported through the streets like masses of stone or wood, without having the properties of these bodies, to resist every jostle and bruise arising from inequalities in the surface. They might walk with much more convenience to themselves, and at the same time spare the IN THE UNITED STATES. 443 fitsh of their horses. Surely, I thought, this must be a lazy people, and all the accounts which we have heard of their industry unfounded. And I saw many other things that were new to me, and many that I cannot as yet comprehend; but every moment couvinces me, that however great, and powerful, and wise, this cannot be a happy people. Society, here, is a heterogeneous mixture of all that can ennoble or degrade the human species — of all that can charm or disgust. The mind is at one inoment carried into heaven in their dreams of philosophy and tenets of religion, or depressed to the abodes of eternal misery in their toleration of vice, or their traits of depravity. Such a singular mixture of good and evil, of wisdom and folly, of splendor and misery, of joy and sorrow, as does not perhaps exist in any other state of society under the sun. But I must see more of this people, before I can pronounce upon their com- parative happiness. When I first quitted my native forest in Kupertsland, I had supposed the American people a nation of philosophers. Their garrulity soon led me to pronounce them a nation of talkers — their ships and commerce, a nation of merchants — their houses, implements, and machines, a nation of mechanics — their gilt works, plated harness, and baubles, a nation of spendthrifts. In their stores, filled with spices and intoxicating liquors from all parts of the globe, I saw luxury and all her at- tendant train of disease, poverty, misery, and death. In their dresa, I saw pride and extravagance. In their manners and conversation, frivo- lity and trifling. In their conduct towards their dependents and infe- riors, harshness and overbearing. In their opinions of their neighbors, uncharitableness. In their politeness, insincerity ; in their gravity, malice ; in their admiration, cupidity ; and in all their charitable and literary contributions, illiberality. But I am convinced that neither of these traits is peculiarly appropriate, and the more I see of them, the more fully am I inclined to the opinion that the Americans are a people of inconsistencies. O spirit of the great Algoliro ! is it credible, that the same people who build castles and palaces that rise into the clouds, who erect ships which brave the dangers of the ocean, and whose heavy artillery is only exceeded by the thunders of the Great Spirit, should yet retain the savage custom of sewing strips of red cloth upon the gar- ments of their warriors and war chiefs, decking their hats with horse- hair and feathers, and removing their trinkets from their noses and ankifis, only that they might dangle in more prodigious quantities from the front pockets of their pantaloons ? O spirit of Inconsistencies ! this is surely thy home. Ever thine, •;/« • ■'.!'-.-i-i.''' i<-''"'' WaWANOSH. [To be continued.! , - . '_.,.■, ,» i'l.' ■ i\\^'- '■^im il. >'l ,,,.<; ,. n BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE : LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. ) r. ' (.:.'■ 1, ^j ■ [continued f: cm paue 305, part v.] In 1804 his mother, who was a M'Neil, died at ♦he family residence at Craige, in Antrim, an event which brought him into possession of the estate, and put an end to the design she had formed of taking his eldest daughter, Jane, to be brought up under her care. His eldest sister, Mrs. Moore, consort of John Moore, Esq., of the Royal Navy, Wexford, being without children, nowsolicito ' )e allowed to fulfil her mother's intentions, and being joined by Mr. .aoore in the request, Mr. John- ston yielded his assent. As the situation of the Irish property now re- quired his attention, he determined to take his daughter with him in the contemplated visit ; and accompanied by her he embarked at Quebec in the autumn of 1S09. After a tedious and tempestuous passage, owing to the advanced fitate of the season, he landed at Cork, late in the au- tumn. He proceeded by land to visit his friends in Dublin, and after- wards in Wexford, where he left his daughter, whose health had suffered severely on the passage and since their landing. He then continued his journey to the North of Ireland. His visit occupied the remainder of that, and part of tho following year. On his return to America, he visited London. The particular object of this visit is not known to me, but is believed to have arisen in part from a correspondence with certain members of the North West or Hud- son's Bay Companies. It had also been his wish, on going to England, to provide for the entry of his sons, Lewis and George, into the Army and Navy, to effect which he counted upon the influence of the Mar- quis of Hereford, and Sir Edmund M'Naughton, the latter of whom was a friend and kinsman. One of the first incidents after his arrival in the city was the loss of his pocketbook, containing letters of introduction, having been picked in a crowd near the Exchange. During his stay in the metropolis he received from Lord Selkirk the offer of the Governorship of Hudson's Bay with suitable appointments — an offer which, after mature deliberation and several conferences with his Lordship, he prudently, as it is thought, declined. Among the reasons which had weight with him, was the remntek.>oss and unsettled state of the territory, which offered no advantage for the education of his child- ren, 'emJ ceptj wit! defia whol instiji panj fider disac THE LATB JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 445 ren, now become numerous, and the consequent unpleasantneM of the removal to their feelings. It is since known that Mr. Semple, who ac- cepted the post, was shot on the plains of Red River, in a rencontre with a party of £oia Brutes and Indians, who had set his authority at defiance, and he was actually tomahawked and scalped by the Indians, who, as well as their Christian associates, were supposed to have been instigated to this atrocious act by the partners of the North West Com- pany. Mr. Johnston, who, from his experience in the country, bed con- fidently predicted this state of things to the Directors in London, was not disappointed in the result. While in London he made acquaintance with a Mr. Black — a gentle- man in some way connected with the British Bible and Foreign Mission- ary Society, in consequence of which a box of Bibles, and a missionary to labor in the conversion of the Indians, were sent to Canada. The missionary having probably formed no definite idea of the true state of settlements in that quarter, and the privations to be encountered, declined proceeding to the territories of the Chippewas, where it was designed he should have commenced his labors ; and left an inference to be drawn, that his zeal in this object needed stronger excitements. In a Poetical " Petition to the Ojibwa nation of the North American Indians, to the London Society for Missions," which was addressed lo Mr. Black, and published among the missionary papers, he shows the claims of the Red Race on the civilized world, and it may be referred to as denoting hi^ opinion of the radical defects of the Jesuit missions in Canada. Before quitting the British metropolis, an opportunity was opened of his being presented to the king, along with several other gentlemen who were waiting for the purpose — an honor which he had the firmness to decline. For it must be allowed that firmness was required, when we reflect that he was an ardent admirer of the king and constitution, and deemed the honor of an introduction one of the most fluttering kind. But it is probable that, in his actual position, as a resident of a remote part of a remote province, he saw less advantage to be derived from it, than would have attended a person diflferently placed. And he said himself, that it would probably have increased his vanity and pride, which he found it a sufficient task to restrain, without extra excite- ment. On the route from London to Liverpool, his travelling desk, contain- ing money, jewelry, and papers, was stolen from the carriage. He em- barked at Liverpool near the middle of June, but the delays attending a passage across the Atlantic, before the present improved facilities were introduced, consumed the summer, and a long inland voyage, in which the mode of conveyance is oflen shifted, made it very late in November before he reached St. Mary's. Here he had cause, as he remarked, to felicitate himself on the enjoyment of domestic quiet, and a peaceful ' i' 'mPv < 'ltfe''-M'' 446 bll/GRAPHICAL SKl/rcilKS OF THE seclusion, so diOerent from the pomp and splendor, which his recent visit served to remind him prevailed in the polished circles of his native land, and among several of his friends and relatives, whom he had found greatly advanced in wealth and place. And from this period he appears to have relinquished all idea of a permanent return to Ireland. It had been proposed to him while in Dublin at the table of his cousin, the Right Honorable William Sauriu, Attorney General of Ireland, that his friends should unite their influence in making provision for his return, and the advantages of a permanent place and adequate salary were stren- uously urged. But the proposal was finally met, on his part, by thn insuperable objection, that he could not abandon his wife in America, by whom he had several children, and to whom he was tenderly attached, and that it was equally impossible to introduce her into a state of society which was so diflerent from all she had before known, that she could not fail to be insupportably unhappy. His strong attachment to his wife and children, formed indeed a striking trait of his character. And to their happiness he now devoted himself with unceasing care. He placed his eldest sons Lewis and George at Montreal, as soon as they became of proper age, with the advantage of attending the best school the place afforded, where they were taught the common branches of an English education and the French language. They had joined the family at St. Mary's before his late visit, and the family being now once more embodied, he found himself surrounded by an interesting group of children, whose health and education had formed one of his most pleasing cares during their infancy, and whose welfare and steadfast adherence to principles of virtue, honor and piety, formed the subject of his most anxious solicitude, now that the elder of them began to verge on maturity. It should not be omitted, that in addition to his own chil- dren, he had adopted in infancy, Miss Nancy Campbell, the daughter of a friend and countryman, who fell in a duel near St. Joseph's, in which he had attended him to the field, and she was brought up and treated in every respect, with the care and tenderness of one of his own children. He had early imbued the minds of his own family with the leading principles of the Christian religion, as explained and enforced in the church service, and was constant and zealous in the observance of its forms, accompanying morning and evening prayer with a portion of the Psalms, and a sermon (most commonly of Blair, Saurin, or Chalmers), on the Sabbath. He read impressively, and generally closed the service with some extemporaneous practical remarks. He ardently felt himself, and he had habitually taught every member of his family, to look to God, through the merits of the Saviour, as the giver of every enjoyment and the sole object of rational supplication. If any signal success attend- ed his business, or household, he made it the occasion of special acknow- ledgment, and was equally attentive to refer to its true source, and to LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 447 admit with most heartfelt conviction, the justicn of loissos and afHictions. Life and death, riches i\nd poverty, honor and disgrace, were, in hia mind, the ready gifts of a superintending Deity, who could never err, either in giving or withholding. And though the di.strihution was often contrary to the awards of human reason, he did not the less doubt that it was most just, and fully comformable to the dictates of a Higher Intelli- gence. Feeling thus, and living in a full reliance upon scripture promi- ses — upon which he meditated deeply and spoke often, he was soon reconciled to the untoward occurrences of life, though from the sensi- tiveness of his mind, and irritability of his temperament, few persons ex- perienced more acute pain on the first intelligence of misfortune or disap- pointment. He had formed a most noble and ennobling conception of the sublime character and attributes of God, as being most immaculate and irreproachable. And he considered the irreverent use of his name, &a being not only a gross want of piety, but altogether incompatible with the character of a gentleman. I have before spoken of his active benevolence, the ready access which a plea of misfortune gained to his heart, and the forgiving nature of his disposition. Punctilious in exacting the respect due to himself, and sen- sitive to the point of honor, he was equally ready to extend the hand of friendship and reconciliation, and could never rest under the impression that he had been the first to provoke offence, or inflict injury. If he was disposed to entertain settled antipathy to any class of the human fam- ily, it was to sceptics in religion, whom he could neither spare in their persons, or their works. He looked with abhorrence upon such writers as Paine, and could not bring himself to think that the genius or talents of Gibbon and Hume formed any adequate counterpoise to their want of faith in the Gospel of Christ. ■ i'Tr-l ,•.-»» '1! U.-'i M 1. (To be continued.) \y:rf Indolence. — The Indian disappears before the white man, simply because he will not work. The struggle (in their history) was, between inveterate indolence and the most active and energetic industry, and the result could not be doubtful. ... . ., Gallatin. Mental Capacitv. — They have exhibited repeated proofs of intellec- tual powers apparently very superior to those of the African, and not very inferior to those of the European race. lb. Father Le Jeune Oays that it is admitted on all hands, that they were superior in intellect to the French peasantry of that time. lb. 'Ul- ■/v't^ru'-Ji. /.j^ ■s .'■■■■! ;.\ ,.' I.' 1 •T-Jv. ETHIOLOGY. Apallachians ; a nation of Indians who formerly inhabited the ex- treme 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 at- tacks, or remedy injustice. They treated their prisoners with humanity, and like other persons of their households. They were long lived, some personp reaching a hundred years. Tuey 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 institution" with other tribes, cannot be accurately decided. Much that is said of tueir 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 vol- ume was published in London in 1666, by John Davies. under tho 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 incidt-nts, and narrates a series of surprising wars and battles, reaching, '- their "ffects, through the Mississippi vaUey up to the great lakes, w I ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ THE EED EACE OF AMERICA. PART EIGHTH, MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND KELIGIOIf OF THE ALGONQUINS. THXIR SYSTEM OF MANITO WORSHIP, AS RECENTI.r Dli»Ct.OSBD BT THE CONFES- SIONS OF 0N3 OF THEIR prophets; THEIR LANO IAI.BCTS ; AND THE LBAS- INa aiOTIVES OF CHRISTIANS AND PUILANTHaOFLSTS TO FEBSEVSKS IN TUSIB CIVILISATION AND CONVERSION.* It is knowQ that the Indian tribes of this continent lire in a staite of mental bondage to a class of men, who officiate as their priests and soothsayers. These men found their claim,'! to supernatural power on early fi\stings, dream.9, 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 im- plements, the contents of which are exhibited in the course of their cere- monies, 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 influ- ence to political purposes, either personally or through some popular warrior, as was instanced in the success of the sachems Buchanjahela, Little Turtle and Tecumthe. 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 • New York Lit. & Theo. Review. 57 450 MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 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 siature, somewhat bent forward, and supports the infirmities of age by walking with a staff. His sight is impaired, but his memory ac- curate, 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 b"s native country in the upper lakes, and fixed his residence at Michilimackinac, ;vhore in late years, his wife became a convert to the Christian faith, and unit- ed 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 Chris- tianity, indicating the progress of truth on his mind, which he did in sub- stance,through an interpreter,as follows : " In the early part of my life I lived very wickedly, following the McTA, the Jeesukan, and the Wabeno, the three great superstitious ob- servances of my people. I did not know that tliese societies were made up of errors until my wife, whose heart had been turned by the mission- aries, informed me of iU 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, /owr long talks with me on the sub- ject, and explained to me who God was, and what sin was, as it is writ- ten 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 .Teswi Christ. By degrees I came to understand it. She told me thai: 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 missionariefi had directed her to speak to me and put words in her mouth ; and she said so much that. OP THE ALG0NQU1N3. 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. { determined that I would not undertake to jeestikh or to look into futurity any longer for the Indians, nor practice the Mela's art. After a while I began to see more fully that the Indian ceremonies were all bad, and I de- termined 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 some- times like a person wishing to cry, but I thought it would be unman- ly 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 w<^'k. 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 ap- peared to animate my own shadow. " My strength wod« of procedure, he stated that his first essay, after entering the lod;^«, was U> strike the drum and commence his incantations. At this ^ime ut* ^rsotnit manitos assumed thtir agency, and received, it is to be inferred, « salanit enfrgy. Not that ho affects that there was any visible form assumed. But he felt their spirit-like presence. He repr»iient« 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 influ- ence 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 wer« antibtitous or otherwise sanatory. ^ He used two bones in the exhibition of his y^lJ m i' ■ ■'- 1 •ilf *>i *'l mi 454 MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION physical skill, one of which was while and the other green. His arca- num 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 trans- lated deviltry. Yet he discriminated between these two popular insti* tutions by adding that the meta included the use of medicines, good and bad. The wabeno, on the contrary, consisted wholly in a wild exhibi- tion of mere braggadocio and trick. It is not, according to him, an an- cient institution. It originated, he said, with a Pottawattomie, who was sick and lunatic a month When this nrian recovered he pretended that he had ascended to heaven, and had brought the nee 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 effec- tual in the way he designed, by aatanic 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 wo per- ceive 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, refera- ble, in its operative effects on the minds of individuals, to the " Prince of the powor of the air." As such the Bible depicts it. We have not been in the habit of conceding the existence of demoniacal possessions, in tikt prestnt era of Christis^.itu. 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 tlK" passages referred to, the declaration of the full and free existence of such Mil ttgei.cy in the general import, and apprehend that it cannot be plucked out of the sacred writings. The language of such an agoncy appears to be fully developed among the northern tribes. Spirit-ridden they certainly are ; and the mental slavery in which they live, under the fenr df 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, OF THE ALQONqUlNB. 455 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 re- flneniuut of mechanical power in art. A watch is, in the intricacy of it» macliinery, a spirit. A piece of blue j;.loth— cast and blistered steel — a compass, a jewel, an insect, &c., arc, respectively, a spirit. Thunder consists, in their transcendental astronomy, of so many distiact 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 ho 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 rela- tion to matter that the soul does to the body : they pervade it. They believe not only that every man, but also that every animaly 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 faculty. The movements of birds and other animals are deemed to be the result, not of mere instinctive animal powers im- planted 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 fami- liar with the vast operations of the world above. Hence the great re- spect 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 bet- ter 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 mcta exhibits a sack containing the carved or stuffed images of animals, with medicines and bones coastituting the sacred charms. These are never exhibited to the cummun gaze, but, on a march, the sack is hung up in plain view. To profane the medicine sack would be equivalent to violating the atlar. '"V ;1i.s' m 456 MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 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 dream- ing is deemed as essential by them as any religious rite whatever em- ployed 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 per- son, 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 par- ticipation in the prophetical office or jugglership. Instances of their hav- ing 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 pro- nounced, 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, ai terms of endearment, or bad boy, evil-doer, &c., in the way of light re- proach ; and these names often adhere to the individual through life. Parents avoid the true name often by sp.ying 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 invok- ed 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 havd 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 super- OP THE AI.GONQUINS. 457 stitious observances, and are not peculiar to one class alone. In the wabeno dance, which is esteemed by the Indians as the most latitudina- rian 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 tvorship has another peculiarity, which is illus- trative of Indian character. During the fasts and ceremonial dances by which a warrior prepares himself to come up to the duties of war, every- thing 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 ia war, to entangle himself by another, or more tender sentiment. We think this opinion should be duly estimated in the gen- eral 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,\n 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 philo- sophy may be perceived the ground-work of their mythology, and the general motive for selecting familiar spirits. Manito, or as the Chippe- was pronounce it, mone'do, 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 rela- tion, indicates a witch. Like numerous other nouns, it has its diminu- tive in o», 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 gczka, signifying merciftil. 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 deroga- tive sense. The love for mystery and magic which pervades the native ceremo- nies, has affected the forms of their language. They have given it a power to impart life to dead masses. Vitality in their forms of utter- ance is deeply implanted in all these dialects, which have been examin- ed ; they provide, by the process of inflection, for keeping a perpetual 53 I m^ f . • . -ji I! 45S MYTHOLOGY, 8UPER8TITION8, AND KELIOIOK distinction between the animate and inanimate kingdoms. But wheie vitality and spirituality are uo blended as we see them in their doctrine of animal souls, the inevitable result must be, either to exalt the princi- ple of life, in all the classes of nature, into immortality, or to sink the lat- ter 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. Spir< ituality is thus clogged with sensual accidents. The human soul hungers., and it must liave food deposited upon the grave, // sufftra 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 wao- ders through plains and across streams, subject to the providences of this life, in quest of its place of enjoyment, and when it reaches it, >t 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 nothiiig ; 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 ofBces of the Holy Ghost. Darker and more chilling views to a theolo- gian, 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, expos, to sore vicissitudes in their lives and fortunes, and without the guidance ot the light of Revelation } Of their mythology proper, we have space only to make a few re- marks. 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 sods, by a maid who incautiously exposed herself to the west wind. Iaqoo (lagoo) 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 Cy- clops cast at Mentor. Weenq is the god of sleep, who is represented to have numerous small emissaries at his service, reminding us ot Pope's OF THE ALGONQU1N.S. 429 creation of gnomes. These minute emissaries climb up the forehead, and wielding a tiny club, knock individuals to sleep. Pauquk is death, in hh 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 nuinifest that some of their peculiari- ties 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 brunch 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 iiffbrd great fii- cilities, by their long and stately words, and multitbrm inflexions. A drift of thought — an elevation of style, is observable in their public speak- ing which is dropt in private conversation. Voice, attitude and motion, •H» deemed of the highest consequence. Much of the meaning of their expr**s8ions 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 «'f|uanimity of tone, and easy vein of narration OT dialogue, in which th ■'ower of mimicry is most strikingly brought out. The very voice am "ords of th« supposed speakers, in their ficti- tious legends, are assumeu Fear, supplication, timiditv or boasting, are e? actly depicted, and the deepest interest excited. ^\11 is ease and freedom from restraint. There is nothing uf the coldness or severe for- mality of the council. The pipe is put to its ordinary use, and all its symbolic sanctity is laid aside with the wampum belt md the often reiter- ated state epithets, *' Nosa" and " Kosinan," i. e. myjuther and our father. Another striking trait of the race . found in their legends and tales. Those of the aboriginal race who excel n 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 th ; ^sip and the historian, the narrator of real events, and of nursery lalet. For they gather together everything from the fabu- lous feats of M.inebozho and Misshozha, to the hair-breadth escapes of a Pontiac, or '; 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 ::«:;isj. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) fe ^/ 4 /.. m Ze ^ 1.0 I.I l^iiiS 12.5 | 50 ■^" ■■■ ■^ ^ 1 2.2 2.0 Uj iJ£ 1.25 — Ill '-^ *■ 6" ► V] »^ >.^^' "t ? /A W^'W y Photographic Sciences Corporation <^ ^^^ . ^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 ^ ^^ ■*" %^A^ ^O %> fel 460 MYTHOLOGY, aUPERflTlTIOXS, AND RELIGIOW ooosulted in their production. Many objects in the inanioiaie creation, according to these tales, were originally men and women. And nume- rous animals had other forms in their first stages of existence, which the}', 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, travel- ling in a canoe, were translated into a group of stars. The fox, lynx, hare, robin, eagle and numerous other species, retain places in the In- didn system of astronomy. The mouse obtained celestial elevation 7 creeping up the rainbow, which Indian story makes a flossy mass 01' bright threads, and by the power of gnawing them, he relieved a captive in the sky. It is a coincidence, which we note, that una tnajor 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 addikuTKoig^ or white 6sk. The power of transformation was variously exercised. It most com- monly existed in magicians, of whom Abo, Manabosh or Manabozha, and Mishosha, retain much celebrity. The latter possessed a magic canoe which wou)(> 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 eges 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 canni- bals, 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 pro- montories, water-falls and solemn groves. The water, besides its appro- priate 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 ordi- nary 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. 1 'v ' -^ ^! : > ■ \ (To be continued.) .■., ; ■* •; (.' ^;i( ' THE PHILOSOPHER OF ALG6mA, n..A, 1.1' !/<'i' ' ".; !''■! 'fit ■ r t''' '"»■!') OR OUTLINES OF THE TRAVELS AND OPINIONS OF AN INDIAN SACHEM, *?«l:it;' ■ .. ,;»>T . My Friend : — ^Feeling an insatiable desire to see the interior of a country whose frontiers had afforded me so many subjects of remark, and of whose wealth and population I continued to hear new and inte- resting accouBts, I determined to make but a short stay at Detroit, and to select some of the great commercial cities of the Atlantic, as the tbeatTd of my remarks. I frequently met people who said to me : — " O Wawanosh, if thou wouldst form an adequate idea of the American people, hasten to view their populous inland towns and great trading cities. If thou wouldst see ships that can withstand the tempest, or brave the battle, visit their navy-yards and their spacious harbors. If thou hast a cariosity to know the principles of their government and laws, .ind to hear their great civil chiefs speak in council, visit their political capitals and legislative assemblies. In short, in whatsoever department of knowledge thou wouldst perfect thyself, whether it be to contrast the manners, customs, laws, or opinions of the civilized and savage state — to acquire a just conception of their agriculture, com- merce, and manufactures — their sources of national wealth — their sys- tem of domestic economy, and mode of transacting business — their sciences, their arts, their painting, their statuary, their poetry, their music, or their national character — the sea-board is thy field for observa- tion, stricture, and comparison.'^ So fully was I convinced of the justness of these remarks, that I de- termined to lose not a moment in profiting by them ; and making the necessary disposition, I embarked with my attendants on board of a vessel which, by some extraordinary effort of human ingenuity, was rapidly propelled through the water, without the aid of oars or of sails. Thou art ready to say that my credulity has been imposed upon, but I can nevertheless assure thee of the truth of my assertion. I was told that its ii' I ' I; «1 lilll i il i^^ mi n h ii 'y''-i 1 1. '■■«.; 'i ;3;;iil| m I'* 462 TRAVELS OP AN INDIAN SACHEM motion was produced by the power of steam ; but it was a long time, and not until after repeated examinations, that I could be convinced of the mode of its production and operation, which is truly wonderful ; and of all that I have seen of the mechanic arts of this ingenious people, this is by far the most extraordinary example. This species of vessel is claimed by the Americans as an invention peculiarly their own, and truly, I think we cannot deny them the merit of the invention, " Who," I observed to a person standing near a wheel on deck, and who appeared to have this powerful engine as much at command, as our young warriors who, with their paddles, guide their buoyant canoes over the limpid bosom of the northern lakes ; " Who," I observed, " was the inventor of this mighty work, which equally defies the currents of the wind, and the force of the tide." " Fulton," was the reply. " Surely," I resumed, '' the admiration of his genius and his services cannot be restricted to his own country, of which he has been the more immediate benefactor, but must extend over the other quarters of the world, who may avail themselves fA the advantages which this invention affords to accelerate the motions of commerce, and facilitate a speedy exchange of products." " Nevertheless," he replied, '* the merit of tha discovery has been denied in certain parts of the European continent and Euro- pean Isles, ^n(. there have not been wanting those who have made the most stivr.aouii efforts to rob him of his well-earned fame." " Is it pos- sible then," I exclaimed, " that civilized nations are unjmt /" This reveals a new trait of refined society, which I have heretofore thoughl was only the reproach of savages and barbarians. Among the number of passengers who crowded this vehicle, I ob- served a singular custom which prevailed among the men during the evening. Four persons sat upon opposite sides of a table, and alter-i nately threw down pieces of stiff paper, containing certain hieroglyphical marks, and I frequently heard them vociferate, clubs ! diamonds ! spades ! It was a long time before I ventured to interrogate any person on the subject, lest I should disturb a ceremony, which, from the great earnestness and fixed attention of the persons, I concluded might pos~ sibly be a part of their religion. Again, it occurred to me that this was some mathematical process, and the result would be carefully published in the transactions of their learned societies. The Ameri- cans, thought I, are a grave, a thinking, anc*' a philosophical people ; and all their efforts are directed towards the promotion of great and useful objects. But, oh spirit of the groat Garahungo, chief of many tribes ! how prone is a stranger to fall into errors of the grossest kind ! Wouldst thou believe it, that '«hat I supposed to be a phi- losophical inquiry, or a ceremony of religion, turns out to be a mere amusement of the game of cards. Canst thou credit it, that the same people who invent steamboats, build cities of brick, squander a IN THE UNITED STATES. M 463 great portion of their time in this idle, insipid, and (as I am told) ex- penaite amusement. I have since found, on inquiry, that to supply these cards forms the business, not only of a particular class of native artizans, but that vast quantities are imported from foreign markets ; and tiiat the country is thus annually drained of a considerable amount of money. Thus thou wilt see, my friend, that the amusements of one class of society constitute the business of others, and in this way trades and manufactures are prodigiously multiplied. There is another custom prevalent among this people, which has struck me as very extraordinary. It is that wilh regard to eating. The Indian always eats when be is hungry : the white man, when the bell rings. The Indian makes a meal from one dish of meat or fish : the white man gets up dissatisfied if he has not tasted of twenty ; and besides, he must have tarts and sauces, and creams, and sugar, and vinegar, and oil, and jnustard, and all, perhaps, in the same dish. Why should he therefore complain, if his frame is mcked with rheumatism and the gout at the age of thirty ? But this exercise and frequent eating creates employment for several other classes of men — of the market-man, who fattens poultry — of the cook, who stews them — of the waiter, who carries them on the table — of the potter, who furnishes the plates — of the cutler, who fabricates knives, &c. Thus are wants and the miseries of the people accumulated beyond mea- sure. We reached the town of Buffalo, after a pleasant voyage of two days. I shall only remain long enough to re^peat my observations upon the style of architecture, the mode of merchandizing, the dress, and other points, with which I am not jet sufficiently familiar to hazard a definite •opinion. . , . Ever thine, ,. ,, Wawanosh. u- - nary parades of the local militia, who are frequently thus exercised during a time of peace, that they may become more expert in the emergency of war .' Hence, all their warriors, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, are called out under their respective war chiefs. sevt trait curi( cal I- I IN THE UNITED STATES. 465 several times in the course of the year, and wheeled, and marched, and trained to arrange themselves into mathematical figures, which are curiously changed and multiplied, as if they meant to accomplish physi- cal results by th" same process which is attained with such certainty by the inductive powers of a disciplined imagination. But those who have given most attention to this subject, observe that they cannot per- ceive that their warriors are more perfect in the manoeuvres and military manual now, than they were forty years ago. Nay, it is even asserted by some, that there is an actual retrogression in these particulars. I am, of course, unable to judge ; but there appear to me to be two re- sults which are certainly attained by this system of holiday exercise ; first, the warriors have an opportunity of displaying their fondness for feathers and pie-colored coats ; and secondly, the tavern-keepers, who are a very numerous class of society, are enabled to dispose of a greater quantity of rum and bmndy, than otherwise would be called for. Thus the feather merchant, the dyer of red cloth, and the distiller of whole- some grain into noxious liquors, are at once encouraged and supported. These parades also give employment to the tailor who bedizens their garments with tinsel lace — the cutler who equips them with iron knives of prodigious length— the tanner who furnishes sheep skins for their drums, and to various other trades and manufactures, which are more or less dependent upon those periodical trainings. Nor should we over- look the powder-maker, who ransacks coal-pits and nitre caves, and sulphur mines, and even more noxious places, to procure the constitu- ents of that detonating mixture, which enables the fair-weather warriors, at least four times per annum, to disturb the student in his closet, and throw delicate ladies into fits. Oh, genius of valor ! which presides over the land of my forefathers, whisper it not to the spirit of Pontiac, lest he should laugh in his grave, nor to the spirit of Powhatan, lest he should re-animate his mouldering bones, and appear upon earth to deride such a mockery of war. ' ' i" ■ '• •'' Nothing excited in me a greater curiosity than the warlike music which forms so conspicuous a part of every military parade ; and there is this difference between an Indian and American army going to battle, that the former strike terror into the hearts of their enemies by raising the shout of defiance, while the latter endeavor to inspirit and fortify theirs, by the incessant rolling of their drums. The latter instrument is merely an improvement upon the Indian drum, which has only one head, and perhaps more nearly resembles the tamborine of the whites. It must be confessed, however, that the one-headed drum, or tamborine, of these people is provided with a greater profusion of bells, for which they appear to possess a great fondness. And here, let it be remarked, that this passion is alike strong both in the white and red man, the only diflference consisting in the position in which they are worn, or em- da • ■ •.fvh 466 THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. ployed. Thus the white man piques himself upon his modesty if ho has only forty large bells around the necks of a pair of horses, or only three yards of jinglino; chains to hia sword belt, whereas the Indian prefers all his bells upon the fringe of his deer-skin shoes, or upon his leggings, or depending from his ears. I have already seen much of this people, but have not yet been able to perceive that they are happier than the simple sons of the forest. But I entreat thee, wc't with patience, and I will endeavor to unfold to thy imagination, many sources of their miseries, their follies, and their multiplied vicev. Ever thine, Wawanosh. i ^vV-i)! n-fi ''''i^^i THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. By a letter from Fort Towson, dated October 23d, we learn (says the Arkansas Banner) that the past season has been unfavorable to health, and to the labors of the agriculturists of that region. Many of the Choctaws and Chickasaws have died. Their corn and cotton crops have not been so productive as in former years, although they have devoted more labor to their fields, abandoning almost entirely their idle and vicious amusement of ball-playing, and employing their whole time upon their farms. Civilisation is rapidly progressing among these Indians, under .the humane policy of our government in its protecting intercourse with them. They now, with the simple domestic loom, manufacture nearly all their wearing apparel, and their farms furnish them with money, while they also barter with their traders for such luxuries and other articles as they may require. They have teachers, preachers, and temperance lecturers among them ; and with all these advantages, together with the richness of the soil and location of their country, if they do not become rich and happy, they are truly a perverse race. ..??.«■:■?- ns^-'iqi^ ■■*'"*-• '■■.■ JV* '~!f,-. Observation the parent of science. — One of the ancient modes of kindling a fire by friction, among the Red men, was this : two pieces of wood were taken, one soft and dry, the other hard. A cavity was made in the soft piece, and the hard one, brought to a point, so as to fit the cavity. The soft piece was then held between the knees, and the hard one turned swiftly between the hands, in the manner of a drill. :! I I ! f\ MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. ABSTRACT OF MINUTES KEPT AT THE SAULT STE-MARIE, AT THE OUTLET OP . LAKE SUPERIOR, DURING A PART OF THE YEAR 1S28, EMBEACINO THE PERIOD OF THE SUMMER VISITS MADE TO THE ASBNCY BY DEPUTATIOM* OF THK INTERIOR BANDS OF INDIANS.I*^ 1828, July 12th. Aatoine Maucee, Alexis Blais, and Joseph Mon- tree, freed men of Indian blood or connexions, ordered froox the Indian villages last fall, presented themselves for a decision on their respective cases. , , Maucee stated several facts in extenuation of his offence. He said he had served as a boatman in the Indian trade eighteen years — had married an Indian wife and raised a family, and during all this time, with the ex- ception of short visits to M ackenac with his bourgois^ had resided in the Indian country. On the expiration of his last engagement he went to Si. Peter's, and while there, made eight canoes for Mr. Bailly, from whom he got the few goods that were seized at Sandy Lake by Mr. Johnston. He had intended, however, to go to Mr. Johnston fur a license, and he had used the goods, in a great measure, to procure a mere support for his family. He had left Sandy Lake last &11, passed the winter at La Pointe ; and had come down early in the spring, and, as he had lost a great deal of time, and performed a very long journey, leaving his fam- ily behind him, he requested that he might be allowed to return, with a permit to trade. I told him, that his remaining inland, after the expira- tion of his engagement, was contrary to instructions. That being a Ca- nadian by birth, he could not be licensed as a trader. That he might go inland in his old capacity of a boatman, should any American citizen be willing to employ him and give a bond for his future conduct ; and that I should refer the final decision upon his goods and peltries to Mr. Johnston, on account of my imperfect knowledge of some circumstances necessary to a correct decision. Alexis Blais pleaded ignorance of the instructions which were given to traders. He had no other object in remaining inland than to get a livelihood. He came out, as soon after being notified, as his health would allow. And he supposed, had he been willing to serve Mr. Ait- e, or to sive him the avails of his hunt. Sandy '. compla ir \ m * Enclosed in an official letter to the War Department of the date. m .ill tip ■ ' i ' i'c' m 468 MATERIALS FOR I?^DIA^f HISTORY. would have been mnde against him. No goods or peltries were foand in his possession, and he did not desire to return to the Indian country. I informed him, that the construction put on the Indian laws, prohibited any white man from following the pursuits of a hunter on Indian land, that it also forbids the residence of boatmen at Indian camps or villages, after they have served out their engagements, &c. Joseph Montree is a metif, step-son of Macee. Says he was born and brought up in the Indian country, and has subsisted by hunting. Is unacquainted with the laws, but will follow the directions given him, 1 took pains to impress upon his mind, through the medium of an interpre- ter, the situation in which he was placed with respect to our govern- ment and laws, and the steps it would be necessary for him hereafter to pursue. Cracofee (The Six), a minor chief from Snake river on the St Croix, visited the office, accompanied by seven young warriors. He brought a note from the sub-agent at La Fointe, in which he is recommended as a "deserving, manly Indian, attached to the U. S. government." As he had been several days without food, on his voyage through Lake Superior, I dire^'ted a requisition to be made out for him and his young men, and told them to call on me after they had appeased their hunger. Neenaby (the person who hitches on his seat), of Sault Ste-Marie, lodges a complaint against Mr. Butterfield and one of his runners (i. e., persons employed to look after credits given to Indians, or carry on a petty traffic by visiting their camps). He states that in making the tra- verse from Point Iroquois across the straits of St. Mary, he was met by young Holliday, who lashed his canoe alongside, and after giving him a drink of whisky, persuaded him to land on the Canada shore, where they are out of the reach of the trade and intercourse laws. They land- ed at Pt. axtx Chenes, where H.'s tent was found pitched, who invited him into it, and gave him more drink. He then went to the Indian's canoe, and brought in his furs. Something was then given him to eat, and they embarked together in H.'s canoe, taking the furs, and leaving his own canoe, with his wife, to follow. On reaching St. Marie's he was conducted to Mr. B.'s store, and told to trade. He consented to trade six large and two small beavers, and twenty musk rats, for which he acknowledged to have received satisfaction. He was freely supplied with whisky, and strongly urged to trade the other pack, containing the principal part of the hunt, but he refused, saying he had brought it to pay a credit taken of Mr. Johnston. This pack, he says, consisted of six large, and two small beavers, two otters, six martins, ninety muskrats, and four minks. As an equivalent for it, they proceeded to lay out for him, as he was told and shown next morning, a blanket, hat, pair of legging of green cloth, two fathoms strouds, one barrel of flour, one bag of corD) and three kegs of whiskey. He, however, on examining it, MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. 469 refused to receive it, and demanded the pack of furs to go and pay his credit. — Decision deferred for inquiry into the facts. July 12th. Chegud, accompanied by a train, &c., made a visit of con- gratulation on my return (after a temporary absence). July 14th Revisited by Chacopee and his young men. He addressed me in a fine, manly tone and air. He referred to his attendance and conduct at the treaties of Prairie du Chien and Fond du Lac, as an era from which it might be known that he was attached to our government and counsel. The object of his present visit was to renew the acquaint- ance he had formed with me at those places — to say that he had not forgotten the good advice given him, and to solicit charity for his followers. He presented an ornamented pipe as an evidence of his friendship. July 15th. Visited by Monoraine Cashe (the rice maker), a chief from Post Lake in that part of the Chippewa country bordering on Green Bay. He was accompanied by Muckwakwut (Satan's ball in the clouds) and five other persons composing their families. In the speech made by this chief, whose influence and authority are, I believe, quite limited, he said that his visit to me had been produced by the favora- ble impressions he had received, while attending the treaty of Butte de JIforrs (Wisconsin). That he had preserved the words which had been uttered in council by his American fathers, and was happy that all cause of difference with their neighbors, the Winnedaooes and Monohinebs, had been taken away, by fixing the liaes of their lands, &c. He pre- sented four strands of wampum to confirm his professions of good will. His companion also got up, and spoke for several minutes, and conclud- ed by requestmg, " that his father would not overlook him, in distribut- ing any preseats he intended to make them." Ho presented a pipe. After he was seated, I asked him, as I was penning these minutes, the signification of his name, Muckwakwut, as the meaning did not appear obvious. He smiled, and replied, that in former times his ancestors had seen devils playing ball in the air, and that his name was in allusion to the baJl ' ' , ' . ^ , • « .-}•{ July I6th. Visited by Terns Couvret (the Lowering or Dark Cloud), a noted war chief of Leech Lake, Upper Mississippi, He states that Mr. Oaks took from him, two years ago, nine plus* and has not yet paid him ; together with a medal, which last was not returned to him until his arrival at Fond du Lac this spring. He also states, that Mr. War- ren took from him, while he was at La Pointe on his way out, a pack of thirty abiminicqua* (equal to thirty full-sized, seasonable beavers), and has not, as yet, offered him anything in payment. Shingaba Wossen (the Image Stone), Shewabiketon (the Jingling Metals), and Wayishky (the First born-Son), the three principal chiefs of the Home band, with seventy-one men, women and children, visited me to * Phu, Fi. Jlbiminicqua. Alg. The value «f a full beaver skin. |i r\- I' "I ' •■■ r ' li i ' if 'Hi m I 1 i 470 MATF.RIAL8 FOR INDIAN HISTORY. congratulate me on my safe return from Detroit. The old cliicf Inqaired if there was any news, and whether all remained quiet between u» and the English. Gueule Plat, or Ashlcebuggecoa: '^ (the flat moulh) of Leech Lake, Upper Mississippi, announced his arrival, with sixty persons, chiefly warriors and hunters. He brought a letter from one of the principal traders in that quarter, backed by the 8ub>agent of La Pointe, re' commending him as " the most respectable man in the Chippewa nation." He is said, by general consent, to be the most influential nnan in the large and powerful band of Leech Lake, comprising, by my latest accounts, seventeen hundred souls. His authority is, however, that of a village or civil chief, his coadjutor, the Lowering Cloud, having long had the principal sway with the warriors. Being his first visit to this agency, although he had sent me his pipe in 1S22, and as he said, the flrst time he had been so far from his native place in a south-easterly course, i offered him the attentions due to his rank, and his visit being an intro- ductory one, was commenced and ended by the Qustomary ceremonies of the pipe. The chief, Gros GueuUe (Big Throat), together with Majegd- bowe, and the Breche's son, all of Sandy Lake, arrived this day, accom* panied by four other persons, and were received with the customary respect and attention. Having come a loi^ distance, their first and most pressing want was food. It i) indeed astonishing, that the desire ef show- ing themselves off as men ct' consequence in their notion, the- expecta- tion of any presents or gratifications, or the hope of any notice or pre- ferment whatever, should induce these people to undertake such lon^ and hazardous journeys, with such totally inadequate means ! July 17th. The Groa GutuUe repented his visit, saying that his fam- ily had been so long without a meal of hearty fooil, that the issue of yes- terday had not sufficed to satisfy them. Magissaniekwy (Wampum Hair), of the Little Nebeech rapids, ap- plied for provisions for himself three souls, visited the office, and received issues of provisions, this day. 2l8t. MiKKEENowEsii, of Ottowa Lake, made complaint that his canoe had been stolen, and he was left with his family on the beach, with- out the means of returning. On inquiry into the facts, and finding them as stated, I purchased and presented him a canoe uf a capacity suitable to convey his family home. Chkanocwut (Lowering Cloud), called Tenu Couvret by the French, principal war chief of Leech Lake, addressed me in a speech of some length, and presented a garnished war-club, which he requested might be hung up in the office. He had done using it, and wished to put it aside. He had followed the war path much in his youth, but he was now getting old, and he desired peace. He had attended the treaty of Prairie du Chien to assist in fixing the lines of their lands. He recol- lected the good counsel given him at that place. He should respect the treaty, and his ears were open to the good advice of his great American father the President, to whose words he had listened for the last ten years. He referred to the treachery of the Sioux, their frequent viola- tion ot treaties, &c. He hoped they should hear no bad news (alluding to the Sioux), on their return home, &c. VVabishkb penais (The White Bird) solicited food. This young chief had volunteered to carry an express from the Sub-agency of La- pointe in the spring, and now called to announce his intention of return- ing to the upper part of Lake Superior. His attachment to the Ameri- can government, his having received a small medal from His Excellency, Governor Cass, on his visit to the Ontonagon river in 1826, added to the circumstance of his having served as a guide to the party who visited the mass of native copper in that quarter, in 1820, had rendered him quite unpopular with his band, and led to his migration farther west. He appears, however, recently to have re-assured himself of success, and is as anxious as ever to recommend himself to notice. This anxiety is, however, carried to a great fault, being unsupported by an equal degree of good sense. Annamikies (Little Thunder), a Chippewa of mixed blood, from Red River, expressed a wish to speak, preparatory to his return, and drew a vivid outline of his various journeys on the frontiers, and his inter- course with the Hudson's Bay and Canadian governments. This man had rendered himself noted upon the frontiers by a successful rencontre with three grizly bears, and the hair-breadth escape he had made from their clutches. He made, however, no allusion to this fact in his speech,, i>u his An I to In(] ful MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. 475 liut referred in general terms to the Indians present for testimonials of his character as a warrior and a hunter. He said he had novr taken the American government fast by the hand, and offered to carry any counsel I might wish to send to the Indians on Red River, Red Lake, &c., and to use his influence in causing it to be respected. His appeal to the Indians was subsequently responded to by the chief, Tem» Couvret, who fully confirmed his statements, &c. DuGAH BGSHUE (Spotted Lynx), of Pelican Lake, requested an- other trader to be sent to that place. Complains of the high prices of goods, the scarcity of animals, and the great poverty tO' which they are reduced. Says the traders are very rigorous in their dealings, that they take their furs from their lodges without ceremony, and that ammonitioc in particular is so high, they cannot get skins enougli to purchase a supply. , . r .' ?' fci! . Visited by nine parties, comprising mnety-one souls, 22d. Received visits from and issued provisions to eighty-one persons. 23d. Wayoond applied for food for bis family, consisting of six per- sons, saying that they had been destitute for some time. I found on inquiry, that he had been drinking for several days previous, and his haggard looks sufficiently bespoke the excesses he had indulged in. [On the following day, being in a state of partial deliriuin, he ran into the river, and was so far exhausted before he could be got out, that he died in the course of the night. It is my custom to bury all Indians who die at the post at the public expense. A plain coffin, a new blanket, and shirt, and digging a grave, generally comprise this expense, which is paid out of the contingent fund allowed the office.] ',; IVIizzYB (The Catfish) called on me, being on his return voyage from Drummond Island, begging that I would give him some food to en- able him to reach his home at Lapointe. This Indian has the character of being very turbulent, and active in the propagation of stories calcolat- ed to keep up a British feeling amongst the Indians of Lapointe. The re- primands he has received, would probably have led him to shun the office, were he not prompted by hunger, and the hope of relief. Whole number of visitors, one hundred and thirty-five. •• ^ . 24th. MoNGAziD entered the office with his ornannented pipe, anu pipe-bearer, and expressed his wish to speak. He went at some length into the details of his own life, and the history of the Fond du Lac band, with which he appears to be very well acquainted. Referred to the proofs he had given of attachment to government, in his conduct at the treaties of Prairie du Chien and Fond du Lac ; and to his services as a speaker for the Fond du Lac bnnd which had been acknowledged by the Chippewas generally, and procured him many followers. Said the influ- ence of the old chief at Fond du Lac (Sappa) had declined, as his own h^ i-nt m ■>"!!.1 II i'AU Ik m 476 MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. had extended, &c. He complained in general terms of the conduct of the traders of that post, but did not specify any acts. Said he had ad- vised his young men to assent to their Father's request respecting the copper lands on lake Superior, &c. Having alluded in his speech to the strength of the band, and the amount of their hunt, I asked him, after he had seated himself, what was the population of Fond du Lac post. He replied with readiness, two hundred and twenty, of whom sixty-six were males grown, and fifty-four hunters. He said that these fiffy-four hunters had killed dur- ing the last year (1828), nine hundred and ninety-four bears — that thir- ty-nine packs of furs were made at the post, and ninety packs in the whole depaitment. Grosse Gueulb made a formal speech, the drift of which was, to show his influence among the Indians, the numerous places in which he had acted in an official capacity for them, and the proofs of attachment fee had given to the American government. He rested his merits upon these points. He said he and his people had visited the Agency on ac- count of what had been promised at Fond du Lac ; several of his peo- ple had h«wever gone home, fearing sickness, others had gone to Drum- mond Island for their presents. For himself he said, he should remain content to .take what his American father should see fit to offer him. I inquired of him if his influence with his people and his attachment to the American government were such as he had represented, how it came that so many of the Sandy Lake Indians, of whom he was the chief, had gone to Drummond Island ? Shinqaba Wossin requested that another Chippewa interpreter might be employed, in which he was seconded by Kagayosh (A bird in ever- lasting flight), Wayishkee, and Shewabekaton, chiefs of the home band. They did not wish me to put the present interpreter out of his place, but hoped I would be able to employ another one, whom they could better understand, and who could understand them better. They pointed out a person whom they would be better pleased with. But his qualifica- tions extended only to a knowledge of the Chippewa and French lan- guages ; he was deficient in moral character and trustworthiness, and it was sufficiently apparent that the person thus recommended had solicited them to make this novel application. 28th. The wife of Metakossesgav (pure Tobacco) applied for food for her husband, whom she represented as being sick at his lodge, and unable to apply himself The peculiar features and defective Chippe- wa pronunciation of this woman indicated her foreign origin. She is a Sioux by birth, having been taken captivs by the Chippewas when quite young. A residence of probably thirty years has not been sufficient to give her a correct knowledge of the principles or pronunciation of the language. She often applies animate verbs and adjectives to inanimate nov natil hes spel thoJ MATERIALS FOR IROIAN HISTORY. 477 noans, &c., a proof, perhaps, that &o auch distinctions are known in her native tongae. 28th. Chacopbe, a chief of Snake River, intimated his wish to be heard. He said he had visited the agency in the hope that some re- spect* would be shown the medal he carried. The government had thought him worthy of this honor, the traders had also thought him de- serving of it ; and many of the young men of Snake River looked up to him to speak for them. " But what," he asked, ^' can I say i* My father knows how we live, and what we want. We are always needy. My young men are expecting something. I do not speak for myself, but I must ask my father to take compassion on those who have followed me, &c. We expect from what our great father said to us at the treaty of Fond du Lac, that they would all be clothed yearly.'^ 28th. Ahkakanonowa presented a note from Mr. Johnson, sub-agent at Lapointe, recommending him as " a peaceable and obedient Indian." He requested permission to be allowed to take a keg of whisky, inland, on his return, and to have a permit for it in writing. I asked him the name of the trader who had sold him the liquor, and who had sent him to ask this permit. Wayoond's widow, requested provisions, to enable her to return to her country. Granted. 30th. Chegud, a minor chief of Tacquimenon r'ver, embraced the opportunity presented, by his applying for food for his family, to add some remarks on the subject of the school promised them at the signing of the treaty of Fond du Lac. He was desirous of sending three of his children. The conduct of this young man for several years past, his sobriety, industry in hunting, punctuality in paying debts contracted with the traders, and his modest, and at the same time manly deport- ment, have attracted general notice. He is neat in his dress, wearing a capot, like the Canada French, is emulous of the good will of white men, and desirous to adopt, in part, their mode of living, and to have his children ed icdd. I informed him, that the U. S. Senate, in ratifying this treaty, had struck out the article providing for a school. 31st. Shaneqwukaibe, a visiting Indian from the sources of Mono- mone river of Green Bay, stated his object in making so circuitous a journey (he had come by way of Michilimackinac), to visit the agency. He had been induced, from what he had heard of the Lake Superior Indians, to expect that general presents of clothing would be issued to all the Chippewas. " Nothing," observes the sub-agent at Lapointe, " but their wretch- edness, could induce the Indians to wander." Aug. 3d. GuEULE Plat returned from his visit to Michilimackinac. * This term was not meant to apply to personal respect, bat to presents of goods. :;!!< m 478 MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. States that the agent at that post (Mr. Boyd) had given him a sheep, but had referred hiin to me, when speaking on the subject of presents, &c., saying that he belonged to my agency. Finding in this chief a degree of intelligence, united to habits of the strictest order aod sobriety, and a vein of reflection which had enabled him to observe more than I thought he appeared anxious to communicate, I invited him into my house, and drew him into a con- versation on the state of the trade, and the condition of the Indians at Leech Lake, kc. He said the prices of goods were high, that the traders were rigorous, and that there were some practices which he couid wish to see abolished, not so much for his own sake,* as for the sake oi the Indians generally. That the traders found it for their inte- rest to treat him and the principal chiefs well ; that he hunted diligently, and supplied himself with necessary articles. But the generality of the Indians were miserably poor, and were severely dealt by. tie said, the la.st thing they had enjoined upon him, on leaving Leech Lake, was to solicit from me, another trader. He had not, however, deemed it pro- per to make the request in public council. He states that the Indians are compelled to sell their furs to one matif and to take what he pleases to give them in return. That the trader fixes his own prices, both on the furs, and on the goods he gives in ex- change. The Indians have no choice in the matter. And if it happens, as it did last spring (1828), that there is a deficiency in the outfit of goods, they are not permitted quietly to bring out their surplus furs, and sell them to whom they please. He says that he saw a remarkable instance of this at Point au Pint, on his way out, where young Holi- day drew a diilc on an Indian on refusing to let him take a pack of furs from his canoe. He said, in speaking of this subject, " I wish my father to take away the sword that hangs over us, and let us bring down our furs, and sell them to whom we please." He says that he killed last fall nearly one thousand muskrats, thirteen bears, twenty martins, twelve fishers. Beaver he killed none, as they were all killed off some years i^o. He says that fifty rats are exacted for cloth for a coat (this chief wears coats), the same for a three point blanket, forty for atwo and a half point blanket, one hundred for a Mon- treal gun, one pbu for a gill of powder, for a gill of shot, or for twenty- five bullets ; thirty martins for a beaver trap, fifteen for a rat trap. Speaking of the war which has be^i so long waged between the Chip- pewas and Sioux, to the mutual detriment of both, he said, that it had originated in the rival pretensions of a Sioux and Chippewa chief, for a Sioux woman, and that various causes had since added fuel to the flame. He said that in this long war, the Chippewas had been gainers of territory. * He was flattered and pampered by them. .Vt'^lf.'! MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. 479 that they were better woodsmen than the Sioux, and were able to stand their ground. But that the fear of an enemy prevented the Chippewas from hunting some of the best beaver land, without imminent hazard. He had himself, in the course of his life, been a member of twenty-five different war parties, and had escaped without even a wound, though, on one occasion, he with three companions, was compelled to cut his way through the enemy, two of whom were slain. These remarks were made in private conversation. Anxious to se- cure the influence and good will of a man so respectable, both for his standing and understanding, I had presented him, on his previous visit (July 19), with the President's large medal, accompanied by silver wrist- bands, gorget, &c., silver hat-band, a hat for himself and son, &c. I now added full patterns of clothing for himself and family, kettleS) traps, a fine rifle, ammunition, &c., and observing his attachment for dress of European fashion, ordered an ample cloak of plaid, which would, in point of warmth, make a good substitute for the blanket. On a visit which he made to Fort Brady on the following day. Dr. Pitcher presented his only son, a fine youth of sixteen, a gilt sword, and I be- lieve some other presents were made by the officers of the 2d Regi- ment. dth. Issued an invoice of goods, traps, kettles, &c., to the Indians, who were assembled in front of the office, and seated upon the green for the purpose of making a proper distribution. I took this occasion to remind them of the interest which their Great Father, the President, constantly took in their welfare, and of his ardent desire, that they might live in peace and friendship with each other, and with their an- cient enemies the Sioux. That he was desirous to see them increase in numbers as well as prosperity, to cultivate the arts of peace, to par- ticipate in the benefits of instruction, and to abstain from the use of ardent spirits, that they might continue to live upon the lands of their forefathers, and increase in all good knowledge. I told them they must consider the presents that had now been distributed as an evidence of these feelings and sentiments on the part of the President, who ex- pected that they would be ready to hearken to his counsels, £cc. I deemed this a suitable opportunity to reply to some remarks that had fallen from several of the speakers, in the course of their summer visits, on the subject of the stipulations contained at the treaty of Fond du Lac, and informed them that I had put the substance of their re- marks into the shape of a letter to the Department (see official Letter, Aug. 2d, 1828), that this letter would be submitted to the President, and when I received a reply, it should be communicated to them. - 6th. Shinoaba WossiKf and his band called to take leave previous to their setting out on their fall hunts. He thanked me in behalf of all the Indians, for the presents distributed to them yesterday. -'>:, ill m III 480 MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. Wayishkec (the first born), a chief of the Home band, on calling to take leave for the season, stated that he had been disabled by sickness from killing many animals during the last year, that his family was large, and that he felt grateful for the charity shown to his children, &c. This chief is a son of the celebrated war chief Waubojeeg- (the White Fisher), who died at Lapointe about thirty years ago,from whom ' he inherited a broad wampum belt and gorget, delivered to his grand- father (also a noted chief), by Sir William Johnson, on the taking of Fort Niagara, in 1759. The allusion made to his family, recalled to my mind the fact, that he has had twelve children by one wife, nine of whom are now living — a proof that a cold climate and hardships are not always adverse to the increase of the human species. 7th. Annamikees made a speech, in which he expressed himself very favorably of our government ; and said he should carry back a good report of his reception. He contrasted some things, very adroitly with the practices he had observed at Red River, Fort William, and Drum- mond Island. Deeming it proper to secure the influence of a person who stands well with the Indians on that remote frontier, I presented him a medal of the 2d class, accompanying it by some presents of clothing, &c., and an address to be delivered to the Chippewas at the sources of the Mississippi, in which I referred to the friendly and hu> mane disposition of our government, its desire that the Indians should live in peace, refrain from drink, &c. % Tems Couvret, in a short speech, expressed himself favorably towards Annamikees, corroborating some statements the latter had made. Chacopee came to make his farewell speech, being on the point of embarking. He recommended some of his followers to my notice, who were not present when the goods were distributed on the 5th instant. He again referred to the wants and wishes of the Indians of Snake river, who lived near the boundary lines, and were subject to the incursions of the Sioux. Says that the Sioux intrude beyond the line settled at the Prairie, &c. Requests permission to take inland, for his own use, two kegs of whisky, which had been presented to him by Mr. Dingley and Mr. Warren. [This mode of evading the intercourse act, by pre- senting or selling liquor, in a territory where the laws of Congress do not operate, shifting on the Indians the risk and responsibility of luking it inland, is a new phase of the trade, and evinces the moral ingenuity of the Fur Company, and their servants.] 8th. Geosse Gueule stated that, as he was nearly ready to return, he wished to say a few words, to which he hoped I would listen. He complained of the hardness of the times, high prices of goods, and poverty of the Indians, and hoped that presents would be given to MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. 481 ihem.* He alleged these causes for his visit, and that of the Sandy Lake Indians generally. Adverted to the outrage committed by the Sioux at St Peter's, and to the treaty of Prairie du Chien, ut which his fathers (alluding to Gen. Clarke and Gov. Cass) promised to punish the first aggressors. Requested permission to take inland some whisky — presses this topic, and says, in reply to objections, that " Indians die whether they drink whisky or not." He presented a pipe in his own name, and another in the names of the two young chiefs, Wazhus Kuc- koon (muskrat's liver,) and Nauganosh, who both received small medals at the treaty of Fond du Lac. 8th. Breche, having announced his wish to speak to me on the 6th instaal, came into the office for that purpose. He took a view of the standing his family had maintained among the Sandy Lake Indians from an early day, and said that he had in his possession, until very lately, a French flag, which had been presented to some of his ancestors, but it had been taken to exhibit at Montreal, by his son-in-law (Mr. Ermatin- ger, an English trader, recently retired from business). He had re- received a muzzinyegayf from Lieut Pike, on his visit to Sandy Lake, in ISOti, but it had been lost in a war excursion on the Missis- sippi. He concluded by asking a permit to return, wik,>. jome merchan- dize and liquor, upon the sale of which, and not on hunting, he de- pended for his support.;]: I took occasion to inform him, that I had been well acquainted \.'ith his standing, character and sentiments, from the time of my arrival in the country in the capacity of an agent. That I knew him to be friendly to the traders who visited the Upper Missis- sippi, desirous to keep the Indians at peace, and not less desirous to keep up friendly relations with the authorities of both the British and American governments. But that I also very well knew that whatever political influence he exerted, was not exerted to instil into the minds of the Indians sentiments favorable to our system of government, or to make them feel the importance of making them strictly comply with the American intercourse laws, &c. I referred to the commencement of my acquaintance with him twenty days after my first landing at St. Mary's; and by narrating facts, and naming dates and par- ticulars, endeavored to convince him that I had not been an in- different observer of what had passed, both within and without the Indian country. I also referred to recent events here, to which I attributed his application to trade, which he had not thought proper, or deemed it ne- cessary to make in previous years. I concluded by telling him, that • By visiting Drnmmond Island, contrary to instructions, this chief and his band had excluded themselves from the distribution made on the 5lh Aug. t A paper — any written or printed document is so called. X This is one oif the modern modes of getting go jds into the country, in con- travention of law ; Mr. Ermatinger being a f reigner, trades on the Canada side of the river. 61 I li 492 MATERIALS FOR INDIAN HISTORY. he would see, that it was impossible, in conformity with the principles I acted upon, und the respect which I claimed of Indians for my coun- sel, to grant his request. 11th. GuEULE* Plat came to take leave, preparatory to his return. He expressed his sense of the kindness and re.spect with which he had been treated, and intimated his intention of repeating his visits to the agency, during the next seasu.. should his health be spared. He said, in the course of conversation, that '* there was one thing in which he had observed a great dilfercnce between the practices of this, and St. Peter's agency. There^ whisky is given put in bbundance — here^ 1 see it is your practice to give none." 12th. Invested Oshkinawa (the young man), of the totem of the Loon of Leech Lake, with a medal. 15th. Issued provisions to the family of Kcssepoooo, a Chippewyan woman from Attrabasca, recently settled at St. Mary's. It seems the name by which this remote tribe is usually known, is of Chippewa origin (being a corruption of Ojeegewyan (a Fisher's skin), but they trace no affinity with the Chippewa stock, and the language is radically different, having very little analogy either in its structure or sounds. It is comparatively harsh and barren, and so defective and vague in its application, that it even seems questionable whether nouns and verbs have number. 18th. Visited by the Little Pine (Shingwaukonce), the leading chief on the British shores of St. Mary's — a shrewd and polite man, who has united, at sundry periods, in himself, the ofHces and influence of a war chief, a priest or Jossakeed, and a civil ruler. The giving of public presents, on the 5th, had evidently led to his visit, although he had not pursued the policy expected from him, so far as his influence reached among the Chippewas on the American shores of the Straits. He made a speech, well suited to his position, and glossed off with some fine generalities, avoiding comnniitments on main points, and making them on minor ones, concluding with a string of wampum. I smoked and shook hands with him, and accepted his tenders of friendship, by re-pledging the pipe, but narrowed his visit to official proprieties, and refused his wampum. 22d. Magi&anikwa, or the Wampum Hair, renewed his visit — gave me another opportunity to remember his humane act in the spring, and had his claims on this score allowed. The Indians never forget a good act done to them, and we should not permit them to surpass us in this respect. Office of Indian Agency, Sault Ste-Marie, October 29th, 1828. [Signed.] HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT, U. S. I. Agent. ?.< 'i.,.¥iCK'ft' ii "-.*. It** THE MAGICIAN OF LAKE HURON. AN OTTOWA TALK RKLATED BY MAB:;NWA IN THK INDIAN TONOVI, TO MR. OEORaS J0RN«'rON. |0' Id At the time that the Ottowas inhabited the Manatoline Islands, in Lak(! Huron, there was a famous ma^rician living; amona:st them whose name was Masswiiweinini, or the Living Statue. It happened, by tlie fortune of war, that the Ottowa tribe were driven off that chain of islands by the Iroquois, and obliged to llee 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 migra- tion, Lac Cmirlorielle, or the lake of the Cut-ears, a term which is their nom de guerre for this tribe. But the magician MasswSweinini re- mained behind on the wide-stretching and picturesque Manatoulins, a group of islands which had been deemed, from the earliest times, a fa- vorite residence of the manitoes or spiritts. His object was to act as a sei ^'^el 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, leav- ing 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 ap- peared 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 Masswaweinini 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 Masswaweinini, " 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 »a." As soon as they had finished smoking and put up their pipe, the wrest- ling began. For a long time the strife was doubtful. The strength of I if:l 'if u 484 TALES OF A WIOWAM. MasswUwt'inini was every moment growing fainter. The man of the red feather, though siimll of stature, proved himself very active, but at length he waa foiled and thrown to the ground. Immediately his ad vi r- aary cried out, " I have thrown you : ton ye 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 gaz- ing at this strange !>ight, and wondering what it could mean, a voice ad' dressed him from the ground. '* Now," said the speaking ear, for the voice came from it, " divest me of my covering — leave nothing to bide my body from your eyes. You must then separate me into parts, pull- ing off my body from the spine upon which I grow. Throw me into ditlerent 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 moony Masswiweinini obeyed these directions, and immediately set out on his return to his lodge. On the way he killed a deer, and on reaching hii 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, alonef 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 con- cealed 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. " Masswaweinini, 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 hu- man race.*' Thus his ancestors received the gift of corn. Masswaweinini now returned to his canoe, and informed the young men of his discovery, and showed them specimens. They were aston- ished and delighted with the novelty. There were, in those days, many wonderful things done on these islands. One night, while Masswaweinini 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 MasswSweinini, and we must get his heart." " In what way can we get it ?" said another voice. " You TALF.S OF A WIGWAM. 485 tli' 18 'a roust pnt j-our hnnil in his mouth," replied the first voice, "and draw it out that way." Masswiiweinini 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 nwlested. On examining the fingers in the morning, what was his surprise to find them long wampum beads, which are hekl in such high estimation by all the Indian tribes. He had slppt, as was his custom, in the thick woods. On going out to the open chore, at a very early hour, he sow a canoe at a small distance, tempora- rily drawn up on the bu«ch ; 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 hit) throat They were two Pukwudjininees, oi* fAiries. But on looking closer, they were found (o be transformed into statues of stone. He took these stone images on shore, and set them up in the woods. Their c«no3 was one of the most beautiful structures which it is possi- ble to imatgiae, ft)ur 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 fdry images then spoke to him and said : " In tliis 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, w'.en he returned to his two young companions, who were still asleep. He awoke them, and exultiogly 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 Mass- waweinini. One night as he lay awake, reflecting on their coodition, far away from their '.ative fields, and in exile, he resolved to visit them, and bring them bock to behold and to participate in his abundance. To a common traveller, it would be a journey of twenty or thirty days, but Masswaweinini was at their lodge before daylight. He found them asleep, and took them up softly in his ai-nis 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 high- est pitch ; and was only equalled by their delight in finding themselves in their son's lodge, in ttieir native countiy, and surrounded with abun- dance. M^ m I 'II w 486 TALES OF A WIGWAM. i. Masswawl'inini went and built them a lodge, near the corn and wrest- ling plain. He then plucked some ears of the corn, and taking some of the pumpkins, brought them to his fathtr 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. Cut one thing seemed necessary to complete the hapi aess of his father, which he observed by seeing him repeatedly at - ight looking into his smoking pouch. He compre- hended 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 sur- rounded by your enemies .'" " My enemies," he answered," shall sup- ply it — I will go over to the Nadowas of the Bear totem, living at Penctanguishine." The old man endeavored to dissuade him from the journey, knowing their blood-thirsty character, but in vain. MasswUweinini determined immediately to go. It was now winter weather, the lal^e was frozen over, but be set out on the ice, and although it is forty leagues, he reach- ed 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 vrsited him, and were anxious to know the object of his jouniey, at so inclement a season. He said it was merely to get .some tobacco for his father. They immediately made a ccMitribution 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 ?rying out to him, " You are a dead man." " No, I am not," said Masswaweinini, " but you are," accompanying his words with a blow of his tomahawk, which laid the Nadowa dead at his feet- Anolher and another came, to supply the place of tl^ir 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 bis father's lodge, which he reached with incredible speed, and before twilight, spread out his trophies before the old man. When spriJBg returned, his cornfield grew up, without planting, or any care on his part, and thus the inaizc 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 cultivai- tion. It is from their custom of trading in this article, that this tribe ate called Ottowas. :p! FATE OF THE HED EACE IN AMERICA: THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE REMOVED WEST OP THE MISSISSIPPI.* I The reiiijval of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable ulti- mate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation, misunder- standing, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of them, ar J particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result, thus far, of >;heir experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public. ^ • i ■ ' The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, in- deed, like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment in peril, and subject to be filled up und 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 lime. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the other. A wolf and a lanih are not more antagonislical in the system of organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great ethno- logical impulse oi man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse, bar- barism may temporarily triumph, as wo see it has done by many striking examples m 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 irre- sistible on-rush ; but they were thereby only the more deeply implanted * Democratic Review, 1844. i •I? fi * 488 INDIAN POLICY. 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 industiial Inhor. Wherever agri- cultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtapobltion 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, hun- ters 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 mjurious tendency, may accelerate the period of their decline — a result which is still further helped forward by inter- nal 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 ob- serve the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of civilisation have had upon the wi i hordes of men with whom it has come into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original effici ency, 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 Teu- tons conveys, perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the com- paratively later one of Saxons. The object of this race appears con- tinually 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 INDIAN POLICY. 489 on man to ois 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 distinc- tive 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 inhabit- ants 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 Car- tier 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 be- yond military subjugation, and less accomplished. The seaboard tribes received the ritual of the Romish church. Many of those in the inte- rior, comprehending the higher ranges of the Andes and Cordilleras, re- main 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 disco- very. These remarlts 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, m'litary renown, and an eccle- siastical 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 sus- tain themselves, not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape an ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture them- selves 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, in- 62 I •M i' Vi^' 490 INDIAN POLICY. dustrial, 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 neighbor- hoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in the Gos- pel, 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 conid 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 Para- guay. They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross pnd 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. Thev founded churches and established schools among them. They trans- lated 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 prin- ciples of endurance and progress than barbarism ; because Christianity was superior to paganism ; industry to idleness ; agriculture to hunting ; Iett<3rs 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. I. 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 Chr" jtians might hope to re- claim them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in agri- cultural 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, INDIAN POLICY. 491 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 wo.ld, 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 sove- reign 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 per- petually 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 cut the latter remark, to say, that among the sages who deemed this subject important, were a Roger Williams, a Penn, a Frank'in, 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 P^ngland 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 re- mesentatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the fee of ail public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all inhabit- ants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This doc- trine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them neither \^ I Pi I m m m II I . Si"- 492 INDIAN POLXCY. 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, an 1 hunting, and planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of occupancy ; but this right ceased just as soo*), 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 in- dependence 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 pre- sent 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 re- cords, 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 con- veyed 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 ofl'ences and animosities " shall be mutually forgiven, and buried in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."* * Treaty of;Fort Pitt, 1778. ^ 't INDIAN POLICY. 493 The iirst step to advance thrs aboriginal man to hi» natural and just political rights, namely, the acknowledgment of his right to the soi7, we have mentioned ; but those that were to succeed it were more difficult and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces ot their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined the operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by negotia- tion, 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 Slate lines, fell, by the terms of our politi- cal compact, under State laws, and the jurisdiction of the State courts ; and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory, thus within State boun- daries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact corresponding exten- sion until the whole of such Indian lands had been acquired. This pro- vided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it wore sometimes the subject of doubt or confiiction, such perplexity arose from the great ex- tension 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 wil- derness, 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 com- pulsory 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 excep- tion 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 ^j«i '■^^i I I 494 INDIAN POLICY. the early stages of society, while population was sparse and the two races, as bodies, kept fur apart, than for its maturer periods. As the in- tervening lands became ceded, and soltl, and settled, and the tribes them- selves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of the sys- tem, and its want of hoinogeneousncss and harmony, becameniore appa- rent. 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 wclfiire 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, tht greatly ad- vanced 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 communi- ties, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent, and gov- erned by a widely different system of laws, arts, and customs, could not be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while thus lo- cally situated. The tendency of the Saxon institutions, laws, and juris- prudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb the less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no rea- sonable hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sus- tain 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 j3f certain tribes, liv- ing on their own original territories, within the State boundaries, and INDIAN POLICY. 495 who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The question assumed its principal interest in the State of Georgia, within which por- tions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes wtre 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 set- tlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began strong- ly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the human race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse legal, po- litical, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found to ex- ist, when, in this area, the descendant s from the old Saxons, north-men and Ilugenots from Europe, came in 'ontact with the descendants (we speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, inphilosophic, 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 with- in her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could be done " peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they ad- vanced 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 impor- tance 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 (lid, 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 pre- mised of it.* 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 spe- cial message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1S25, recommending the removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and pro- viding for their future " location and government." This is the ofBcial date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so generally, ■11 I I. ■Jk !l, * We have only space to say here, that the cession of the Georgia lands was sub- sequently made by the Lower Creeks under the chieftaincy of General M'Intosh, who was the first to aflSx 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 distinguish- ed inmate. I 11 ■■ 1*. 496 INDIAN POLICY. and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the best inte- rests of the tribes, carried into effect. " Ueing 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 occu- py, within the limits of the several States and Territories, to the coun- try lying westward and northward thereof, within our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union, and may be accom- plished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the interests and hap- piness 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 Geor- gia, the motive ha.«i been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact with that State, wbereby the United States are bound to extinguish the In- dian 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 dis- charge of these important duties, in regard to both the parties alluded to, the Unitiid States will have to encounter no conflicting interests with either : on the contrary, that the removal of the tribes from the Territo- ries 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 civili- sation, in a mode agreeable to themselves, would not only shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness. Experi- ence 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 anticipa- tion of, and provision against, the dangers to which they are exposed, under causes which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to control, their degrada- tion 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 govern- ment, 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 watch- ed the operation of our laws and customs upon the isolated Indian com- munities in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of rais- ing them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or cha- racter, while thus situated ; nor, indeed, has it been practicable to shield INDIAN POLICY. 497 ihem effectually against the combined effects of intemperance, personal eloth, and of popular and vulgar contumely. Mr. Calhoun, whose report on the subject was transmitted to Con- gress, with the message above named, communicates the details essen- tial to the execution of the proposed plan. He states the whole num- ber 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 re- port 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 respec- tive 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 me- chanic 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 sur- rounding 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 solenm act of Congress, guaranteeing the country to them, and exclud- ing 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 pros- pects of the expatriated tribes, in the country to which they have been transferred. By a report from the proper department, transmitted to Congress with 63 ■'1 i I mi m i ..J. 498 INDIAN POLICY. the President's message in 183ll, the result of the first ten years' expe- riment is s!iown to have been the actual migration of 40,000 from their original seats, cast, to the allotted Indian territory, west of tlie Mis- sissippi. Of this number, 18,000 were Creeks, 15,000 Choctuws, 6,000 Cherokees, 2,000 Chippewas, Oltuwas, and Pottowattomies, 1,300 Shawnees, 800 Delawares, 000 (iuapaws, 400 Seminoles, 600 Kicka- pous, 400 Scnecas, and an average of, say 250 each, of AppalacliicoiB=, VVeas, Piankashaws, P(!oriaa and Kuskuskias. 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 b«>en removed. Portions of other tribes, not then full, have joined their kindred ; and some whole tribes, who had not before come into the ar- rangement, and ceded their lands eas' as the Miamas of the \Vaba.sh, and the VVyandots of Sanduskey, have since accepted locations in the Indian territory. The Chickasaws are all located with their afliliateil countrymen, the Choctaws ; and numbers of the ancient Iroquois con- federacy, the Six Nations of New York, as well as the ancient Mohe- gans 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 ofHcial report of 1841, but 21,774 of the original estimated number of 1825, to be remov- ed ; exclusive of those west of the straits of Michilimachinac and St. Clary's. From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to Congress by the President, in December, IRIO, 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 $131,05. Twenty-four of the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per an- num, for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, and the number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is grati- fying 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 ex- tent, with smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other branches. Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some ex- tent. There are native merchants, among the three principal southern tribes, who ship their own cotton and other products to market, and sup- INDIAN POLICY. 499 ply their peopl«', in return, with iuch products of the East and Went In- dies, aud other parts of the world, as they require. A large part of the contracts, |)«rticulurly fur ludiun corn, required to subsist the United States troojMi in tliat quiirter of the Union, is furniiihcd by native con- tractors. Their Ifgisiutiun is performed in representative councils, and is well adapted to the actual and advancing state of society. Many of their leading men itro 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 ar- rived 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 ia position. They occupy the country above il:e State of Ar- kansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, toilowing 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 intelli- gent Choctaw. Iron we 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 ter- ritory 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 dbtricts. 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. :S! i I I*- 500 INDIAN POLICY. In addition to this evidence of capacity for aelf-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 whote being placed under the orders of a general. The council has passed many good ami wholesome laws ; nmong 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 r"^d seller. The country is too sparsely settled, ^rd the popular odium against incarceration too strong, to permit a resort tt 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 coiiservative power to guard against sudden popular etfervescence. The ChoctaM's have twelve public school?, estaUisbed 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 b'priDg and summer, in planting anu crop time. The mechanics in these are na> tives, 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 1S40. 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 puvposes. 2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage %s the Choctaw» ; and, by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same teniury, and live intermixed with them. It consvjtu'ps a part of this compact, that the Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and fr ;ng civilized oations. In this effort it has passed through some iR^ -ore aH'l tragic ordeals from interoal dissensions, from which it would Br -•:•>, vU't in proportion an the prize is brought within their grasp, are ihc L^'.i" lultiplied which delay its seizure. And, notwithstanding its strong c.ai*^s to consideration on this head, they have, it must be ad- mitted, 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 favor- able to their increase and advance. No tribe in North America had remained so completely w Hsturbed, by red or white men, up t't the year 1836. They were early, aad to a considerable extent, cultiva- tors ; anJ whatever they were in ancient times, they have been a Illation at peace, for a long period. Soon after the close of the late r ■«? cf Jbi2, « 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 II c • flecretarjr of War's report, 1843. 504 INDIAN POLICY. 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 formes drew a number of the best educated chiefs and men to his side. Availing himself of the temporary absence ' hi« antagonist, Ross, from the country, he ceded the country, and ^^. t'>e fate of his tribe east of the Mis- sissippi. It was a minority t. /, 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 compensa- tion, 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, consist- ing of a house of delegates or representatives, annually chosen by dis- tricts ; a senatorial council, with powers of revision or co>-action, and an executive elective heed. A code of laws has been adopted, and a judiciary created to carry them into effect. This system, which has beeq in operation some six or seven years, has been found adequate tci sustain itself through scenes of severe trial ; and it must be regarde(( as one which, mAdified as it may be, is destined to endure. The territory of the Cherokees is between that of the Creeks an4 Osages. 't is ample beyond their wants, fertile, and generally well watered. The Arkansas crosses it centrally ; it has the Neosho ancf the State of Arkansas as its eastern boundary. It is well adapted ti^ the cereal grains. Corn, wheat and oats succeed weU, together will) melons and culinary vegetables of all descriptions. The Cherokeei have been long accustomed to husbandry. They own large stocks oL horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. They occupy substantial and comforta* ble houses. Many of their females spin and weave, and numbers of their people are clothed in their own manufactures^ WeH improvecf farms extend through their settlements. A number of their merchants are natives, who buy and sell praduce, p.nd import foreign merchandise. Reading and writing are common attainknents. They have schools anq 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 INDIAN POLICY. 505 cured, is little inferior to timothy. With a country which has thus the elements of prosperity in itself, and an intelligent and industrious popu- lation, this tribe must, ere long, pre- '^nt the gratifying spectacle of a civilized race. 6. The dsages. 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. Tvi this end stock and agricultural imple- ments 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 fron- tier, among red and white men. Possessing a large territory, formerly well supplied with the deer, elk and buffalo, powerful in numbers, cou- rageous in spirit, and enjoying one of the finest climates, these early predatory habits have been transmitted io the present day. They are loth to relinquish this wild license of the prairies — the so-called free- dom of the roving Indian. But it is a species of flreedom which the settlement of Missouri and Arkansas, and the in-gathering of the semi- civilized tribes tVom 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 itize of civilisation. .^ . .,;.,ij. , 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 impos- ing and interesting colony, where, for the first time since the settlement of the Continent, the Indian race is presented in an independent, com- pact, and prosperous condition. But it would manifestly extend this article beyond its just limits, and we must therefore generalize our re- maining 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 64 iL' ," 1; 606 INDIAN POLICV. boundary of Missouri. They possess a hundred thousand acres of choice lands. The Sanduskies number 251 souls ; the mixed band, 322. 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 a'luicted 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 predilec- tion 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, immedi- ately 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 '^und of 61 of the Chippewas of Swan Creek and Black River in Michi- gan. 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 theu: advance in agriculture. They subsist themselves by raising corn and cattle and hogs, '''hey evince an advancing condi- tion, and are surrounded by circumstances eminently favorable to it. The Shawnees are placed at the junction of the Konza with the Mis- souri, extending south and west. They number a little short of 1300, 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 im- perative, 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 INDIAN POLICY. 507 pe 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 descend- ants of the ancient Lenno Lenapecs of Pennsylvania. Allies and kin- dred 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 us 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 posi- tion, out of the State limits, where they are exclusively under the influ- ence 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,* skipped over half the continent, to the manifest discomfort of both German and American philologists and ethnographers, who, in searching for the so-called '* Mas- cotins," have followed, so far as their results are concerned, an ignis fatuua. 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 Delewares 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 indige- nes — we mean the Otoes, the Pawnees, the Omahaws, and the Sioux, who extend over vast tracts, and exist without any .sensible improve- ment in their condition. The same remark may be applied to the Kon- zas, who are, however, hemmed in between the Delawares and the f , i 1 1 * This is said, by one interpretation, to mean Rabbit's Ghost. 508 INDIAN POLICY. 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 whidh has required little compa- rative 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 qual- ity, 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 growtli 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 ths Rocky Moun- tains, and consequently affords sites for water-mills, which are scarce and almost unknown on the lower Arkansas. There is, indeed, a com- bination of circumstances, which are calculated to fa/or the General Government plan, and foster the Indians in a general attempt at civilisa- tion 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 cf 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 some- thing 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 INDIAN POLICY. 509 watched, and often begrudged when given. The acts of ttieir public men nre uniformly impugned. The thought seems hardly to be enter- tained 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 ho watches his chiefs, his neighbors, and his very family. Exaltation of feeling, liberality of sentiment, justness of reasoning, a spirit of conces- sion, and that noble faith and trust which arise from purity and virtue, nre the characteristics of civilisation ; and we should not be disappointed if they do not, all at once, grow and flourish in these nascent communi- ties. Still, our hopes predominate over our fears. Where so much has been accomplished as we see by the Cherokees, (he Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and our most advanced northern tribes, we expect more. From the tree that bear:* 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 rem- nants 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 con- tinent, 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, reflec- tion, and education must tend to correct this. More than all, their civil dissensions must tend to show the necessity of a more enlarged and gen- eral frame of government, in which some individual rights must be yield- ed 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, Fianka- shaws, Weas, Osages, Senecas, Stockbridges, Ottowas, Chippewas, Peorias, Pottowattomies, and Seminoies. The result of these delibera- tions, we are informed, was a compact in which it was agreed : — 1 . To maintain peace and friendship among each othe' 2. To abstain from the law of retaliation for oflFences. ' r. . * ; , i 3. To provide for improvements in agriculture, the arts, and manu- factures. , . i« CIO INDIAN POLICY. 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 cither 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 ma- jority 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, ;be 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 Con- gress for the removal and subsistence of the Choctaws now in Missis- sippi. 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 leflt free to go West or remain in their homes in Mississippi. — Southern Reformer. INDIAN rnoi'ERTY IN MICHIGAN. 611 VALUE OF INDIAN PROPERTY IN MICHIGAN. MiCHILIMACKlNAC, Nov. 28th, 1837. Judge McDonald and Captain Clark, appraisers under the Sth article of the treaty with the Ottowas and Chippewas of March 2Sth, 1836, presented their report of the appraisement of Indian improve- ments, between Grand River and this place, made during the summer and autumn. The abstract indicates the following facts : Whole number of improvements, 4S5. Number of villages, 22. Number of houses of all classes, wood, log, and bark, 609. Aggregate value of houses, $23,310. Number of acres cultivated, 2,477, valued at $17,423. Number of acres improved, at prior periods, but now lying waste, 6,098. Value of the waste lands, thus improved, $18,344. Number of apple trees, 3,212, valued at $5,181. Number of mills and barns, 4, valued at $2,100. Number of churches, 10, valued at $2,600. Total valuation of improvements, $74',998 00. . Total population of the 22 villages, &c., 3,257 souls. • When the foundation of the flag-staff of the old French fort at Os- wego was removed, during the recent improvements — say 1836 to '40, there was found at the bottom, a flat piece of sandstone, with this in- scription : ..,•, '■ GLIUNA. 1727. ... ' ' ' ' ; ' '' . ' This was the actual date, as found by historical reference, of the first fort built at Oswego. The above fact was communicated to me in 1842, during a visit to the place, by Mr. McNeil, the engineer employed in opening the streets, at the time named. He showed me the stone, with the inscription. Was Guuna a geographical name ? i , Sandusky. — ^This word is of Wyandot origin. It is derived, ac- cording to William Walker, from San-doos-tee, and means, " at the cold water." The terms. Upper and Lower Cold Water, were descriptive names, of long standing, for the two places, on San- dusky bay, now called Upper and Lower Sandusky. .jL.1. INDIAN NAMES. Death op Gbn. William Clark. — It is with great regret that we announce the decease of this veteran. He expired in St. Louis oti the Ist instant, aged about seventy years, having been gradually declining under the operation of age and disease for the last two or three years. Few men in the Northwest were more generally known, or more sin- cerely respected, than General ClArk. He had been prominently and constantly before the public for more than thirty years, and it is believed his integrity and honor were never impeached. When but seventeen years of age, he accompanied his brother, General Georoe RooSRs Clark, in his celebrated and daring expedition across Illinois ; and as early as 1790 was in the service of the Government as confidential Indian agent. His connection with the Indians, in various capacities, continued till his death, At which time he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis. For many years, and up to the period when Missouri became a State, he was Governor of the Territory. In conjunction with Captain Mehri- WETHER Lewis, he performed the celebrated journey to the mouth of the Columbia River, and was consequently one of the first of our citi- zens that ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. No white man ever pos- sessed as much influence with the Northwestern Indians, by whom he was universally respected and confided in. In his death the Indian De- partment has sustained a loss which can scarcely be repaired, and with him perished a fund of information, in regard to our relations with the aborigines, which can never be supplied from any other 80urce.-T-G/o6e, Sept. 15th, 1838. Wheeling. — This term is derived from the local form of the Dela- ware word for the human head, wceling, that is to say, Place of the head. Its origin was this : a white man having been killed by the In- dians at the mouth of the creek, now called Wheeling, which enters the Ohio at this place, his head was set up on a pole, in terrorem to the emi- grants. Head, in Delaware is wee/, or as it is written, according to the foreign system of vowel sounds, wil. Claverack. — ^This is not an Indian name. It is derived from the Dutch word c/ot>e, a gorge, or side valley, and rack, a reach of the river. This character of the east banks of the Hudson, is observable at Hudson, the old Claverack landing — where prominent points of land and inlets or bays of waior give a serrated appearance to the shore. In early Dutch days, the skippers had divided the whole river into racks, or reaches, giving each a distinctive name, as appears by ancient maps. THE END.