That floated far behind,
With sandals of frozen water drops,
And wings of painted wind.
And down they plunged with a merry skip,
Like birds that skim the plain;
And hey! they cried let us up and try
And down the steep again.
And up and down the daughters skipped,
Like girls on a holiday,
And laughed outright, at the sport and foam
They called Niagara.
If ye would see a sight so rare,
Where nature's in her glee,
Go, view the spot in the wide wild west,
The land of the brave and free.
But mark--their shapes are only seen
In fancy's deepest play,
But she plainly shews their wings and feet
In the dancing sunny spray.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] Superior.
[55] Michigan.
[56] Huron.
[57] St. Claro.
[58] Erie.
[59] An exclamation of wonder and surprize.--_Odj. lan._
[60] My father.--_ib._
A PSALM.
OR SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY, AND A CONFESSION OF SIN, ADDRESSED TO THE
AUTHOR OF LIFE, IN THE ODJIBWA-ALGONQUIN TONGUE.
BY THE LATE MRS. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT.
1. Gaitshe minno pimaudizzeyun, Gezha Monedo, gezhigong aibeyun.
2. Keen, maumauwaikumig waozhemigoyun.
3. Keen, kah ozhieeyong, keen gaugegaikumig, kai nuhwaunemeyong,
aikoobemaudizzeyong.
4. Keen, kainuhwaubaimeyong, geezhig tibbikuk tibishko.
5. Keen, Keozheahn-geezhik-geezis, dibbik-geezis, aunungug gia.
6. Keen, kegeozhetoan tshe kimmewung, gia tshe annimikeeaug, tshe
sai sai yung, tshe sogepoog gia.
7. Keen kau ozheiyong tshe unnewegauboweyaung, kakinnuk kau
ozheudjig akeeng.
8. Kee, gemishemin odjechaugwug, wekaukaine bosigoog. Kee
gemishemin kebauzhigo kegwiss Jesus Christ, tshe oonjenebood
neenowind.
9. Mozhug issuh nemudjee-inaindumin, kagait mozhug nemudjee-eki-domin;
nahwudj neminwaindumin tshe mudjee-dodumaung.
10. Kagaitego me kaisoondje izhauyaungebun mudjee Moneto.
11. Showainemishinaum, Gezha Monedo.
12. Showainemishinaum, Jesus Christ.
13. Maishkoodjetoan ne mudjee-odai-enaunin.
14. Meezhishenaun edush oushke odaiyun.
15. Apaidush nah saugeigsayun, gia dush todumaung kau izhe gugeekwayun.
16. Me ozhissinaum odaiyun tshe minwaindumaung, tshe annahme
autogoyun.
17. Showainim neendunahwaitmaugunenaunig unishenaubaig.
18. Showainim kukinnuh menik pemaudizzejig akeeng.
19. Showainemishenaum kaidokoo pemandizzeyong, appe dush neeboyong.
20. Showainemishenaum neen jeechaugonaunig tshe izhowaud keen.
21. Kaugegaikumig edush tshe menawaunegooz eyong ozaum ne
mudje-pemaudizzewin auno unnahmeyauyongin.
22. Kauween edush kewee pemaudizzewin, kishpin aitah appainemo
yong Kegwiss Jesus Christ.
23. Aipetainemud kegwiss showainemishenaum. Kunnah gai kunnah
TRANSLATION.
1. Great good author of Life, Gezha Monedo, abiding in the heavens.
2. Thou hast made all things.
3. Thou art the giver,--Thou, the everlasting preserver of life.
4. Thou hast guarded me, by day and by night.
5. Thou hast made the sun and moon, and the stars.
6. Thou makest the rain, the thunder, the hail, and the snows.
7. Thou didst make man to stand upright, and has placed him over all
that is on the earth.
8. Thou hast given us souls, that will never die. Thou hast sent thy
son Jesus Christ to die for us.
9. Continually are our thoughts evil, and truly, our words are evil
continually.
10. Verily, we deserve punishment with the Spirit of Evil.
11. Show pity on us, Gezha Monedo.
12. Show pity on us, Jesus Christ.
13. Reform our wicked hearts.
14. Give us new hearts.
15. May we love thee with all our hearts, and by our acts obey thy
precepts, (or sayings.)
16. Give us hearts to delight in prayer.
17. Show mercy to all our kindred, unishenaubaig, or common people,
(means exclusively the Red Men.)
18. Show mercy to all who live on the earth.
19. Pity us, and befriend us, living and dying.
20. And receive our souls to thyself.
21. Ever to dwell in thine abiding place of happiness.
22. Not in our own frail strength of life, do we ask this; but alone in
the name of Jesus Christ.
23. Grant us thy mercy, in the name of thy Son. So be it ever.
Those who take an interest in the structure of the Indian languages, may
regard the above, as an _improvised_ specimen of the capacity of this
particular dialect for the expression of scripture truth. The writer,
who from early years was a member of the church, had made a translation
of the Lords prayer, and, occasionally, as delicate and declining health
permitted, some other select pieces from the sacred writings, and hymns,
of which, one or two selections may, perhaps, hereafter be made.
* * * * *
The distinction between the active and passive voice, in the Odjibwa
language, is formed by the inflection ego.
Ne sageau, I love.
Ne sageau-ego, I am loved.
TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS
OF THE
ODJIBWA ALGONQUINS.
Whoever has heard an Indian war song, and witnessed an Indian war dance,
must be satisfied that the occasion wakes up all the fire and energy of
the Indian's soul. His flashing eye--his muscular energy, as he begins
the dance--his violent gesticulation as he raises his war-cry--the whole
frame and expression of the man, demonstrate this. And long before it
comes to his turn to utter his stave, or portion of the chant, his mind
has been worked up to the most intense point of excitement: his
imagination has pictured the enemy--the ambush and the onset--the
victory and the bleeding victim, writhing under his prowess: in
imagination he has already stamped him under foot, and torn off his
reeking scalp: he has seen the eagles hovering in the air, ready to
pounce on the dead carcass, as soon as the combatants quit the field.
It would require strong and graphic language to give descriptive
utterance, in the shape of song, to all he has fancied, and seen and
feels on the subject. He, himself, makes no such effort. Physical
excitement has absorbed his energies. He is in no mood for calm and
connected descriptions of battle scenes. He has no stores of measured
rhymes to fall back on. All he can do is to utter brief, and often
highly symbolic expressions of courage--of defiance--of indomitable
rage. His feet stamp the ground, as if he would shake it to its centre.
The inspiring drum and mystic rattle communicate new energy to every
step, while they serve, by the observance of the most exact time, to
concentrate his energy. His very looks depict the spirit of rage, and
his yells, uttered quick, sharp, and cut off by the application of the
hand to the mouth, are startling and horrific.
Under such circumstances, a few short and broken sentences are enough to
keep alive the theme in his mind; and he is not probably conscious of
the fact, that, to an unimpassioned and calm listener, with note book in
hand, there is not sufficient said to give coherence to the song. And
that such a song, indeed, under the best auspices, is a mere wild
rhapsody of martial thought, poured out from time to time, in detached
sentences, which are, so to say, cemented into lines by a flexible
chorus and known tune. The song and the music are all of a piece. Vivid
and glowing, and poetic pictures will float in such a train, and often
strike the imagination by their graphic truth and boldness; but the
poet must look elsewhere for finished melody, and refined and elaborate
composition.
The Indian is to be viewed here, as elsewhere, as being in the highest
state of his _physical_, not of his _mental_ phasis. Such glimmerings
may however be picked out of these warlike rhapsodies, as denote that he
is of a noble and independent tone of thinking. We shall at least enable
the reader to judge. The following specimens, which have been derived
from actors in the depths of the forest, consist of independent songs,
or stanzas, each of which is sung by a different or by the same warrior,
while the dance is in progress. The words have been taken down from a
young Chippewa warrior of lake Superior, of the name of Che che-gwy-ung.
It will be perceived that there is a unity in the _theme_, while each
warrior exercises the freest scope of expression. This unity I have
favoured by throwing out such stanzas as mar it, and afterwards
arranging them together.
WAR SONG.
_a._ In beginning this song the warrior has turned his eyes to the
clouds.
O sha wan ong (From the place of the south)
Un dos' e wug, (They come,) _repeat_.
Pe nae' se wug, (The birds, _i.e._ the warlike birds.)
Ka baim wai wa dung-ig. (Hear the sound of their passing screams
on the air.)
_b._ The idea of ravenous birds hovering in the sky, still prevails--
Tod ot' to be (I wish to change myself to be)
Pe nae' se. (A bird.)
Ka dow' we a we yun'. (His swift body--to be like him.)
_c._ The warrior now rises above all thoughts of fear.
Ne wae be na, (I cast it away.)
Ne ow a. (My body.)
Ne wa be na, (_Repeats._) This is a high symbolical boast of personal
bravery.
Ne ow a.
_d._ He appeals to the Great Spirit for extraordinary power.
Na bun a kum ig, (On the front part of the earth,)
Tshe ba be wish' em ug. (First shines [strikes] the light.)
In do main' em ik, (Such power to me,)
Mon' e do, (My God,)
Shae wa nem id. (In thy mercy give!)
By the boldness of this figure he claims the omnipotent power of the sun
to see and discover his enemies.
_e._ He upbraids such of his people as hold back, and do not join in the
dance--that is to say, enlist in the war.
Wae go nain', e win? (Why do ye, warriors,)
A be yun ah, (Stand back?)
Wae wos is se, we yun. (Ye who bear the mark of the Awasees.)
The Awasee is a kind of fish, which is the _totem_ of a clan.
_f._ He declares his full purpose to enter into the war.
Ne ma je, e yeh! (I go to the spot--the war path!)
Ne ma je, e yeh! (_Repeats_.)
Ne me kun ah, e yeh! (My war path!)
Ge zhig neen wa tin, (My sky is fair and clear.) The common
phrase to denote good fortune.
Hoh! Ne monedo netaibuaetum (Let others linger. Onward! my
o win. God!--my right!)
In presenting these specimens of the original words of some of our
western warriors, we are permitted to give the annexed versions of them
from the pen of one of our most gifted writers.
WAR-SONG--"Pe-nae' se-wug."
(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft.)
BY C. F. HOFFMAN.
I.
Hear not ye their shrill-piping
screams on the air?
Up! Braves for the conflict
prepare ye--prepare!
Aroused from the canebrake,
far south by your drum,
With beaks whet from carnage,
the Battle Birds come.
II.
Oh God of my Fathers,
as swiftly as they,
I ask but to swoop
from the hills on my prey:
Give this frame to the winds,
on the Prairie below,
But my soul--like thy bolt--
I would hurl on the foe!
III.
On the forehead of Earth
strikes the Sun in his might,
Oh gift me with glances
as searching as light.
In the front of the onslaught,
to single each crest,
Till my hatchet grows red
on their bravest and best.
IV.
Why stand ye back idly,
ye Sons of the Lakes?
Who boast of the scalp-locks,
ye tremble to take.
Fear-dreamers may linger,
_my_ skies are all bright--
Charge--charge--on the War-Path,
FOR GOD AND THE RIGHT.
Take the following additional example, of a death song. These stanzas
have all been actually sung on warlike occasions, and repeated in my
hearing. They have been gleaned from the traditionary songs of the
Chippewas of the north, whose villages extend through the region of lake
Superior, and to the utmost sources of the Mississippi. Those bands are
the hereditary foes of their western neighbours, the Dacotahs or Sioux,
who are generally called by them, by way of distinction, Na do wae' sees,
that is to say, OUR ENEMIES. The allusions in the songs are exclusively
to them. In writing the original, I omit the chorus, as it is not
susceptible of translation, and would increase considerably the space
occupied.
DEATH SONG.
1. In opening this song the warrior is to be contemplated as lying
wounded on the field of battle.
A' be tuh ge' zhig, (Under the centre of the sky,)
Ne ba baim wae' wae. (I utter my baim wae wae.)
Baimwaewae, is the sound of passing thunders, which will convey a just
idea of the violence of this figure.
2. His thoughts revert to the star of his destiny.
Ain dah' so gezhig (Every day, thou star!)
Ke ga gun o wa bom in. (I gaze at you.)
It is the morning star that is here alluded to.
3. He sees the birds of carnage hovering over the field.
A' be tuh geezh-ig (The half of the day)
Ai be yaun (I abide--gazing)
Pe nae se wug (Ye warlike birds.)
4. He keeps the flight of these birds before his mind and hears their
shrill cries.
Pe misk wosh e wug (They fly round the circuit of the sky.)
Pe nae' se wug (The birds--circling)
A' be tuh geezh ig oag. (Round half the circuit of the sky.) The
meaning is, approaching him in circle
more nearly, as life becomes fainter
in him.
5. This figure is continued. He lies bleeding.
A' zha waush e wug (They cross the enemy's line)
Pe nae se wug. (The birds.)
6. He feels that he is called to another world.
A pit she Mon e doag (The high gods)
Ne mud waeae (My praise)
Wa we ne goag. (They sound.)
7. He is content and willing to go.
Kae gait', ne min wain' dum (Full happy--I)
Ne bun ai kum ig (To lie on the battle-field)
Tshe ba be wish e naun. (Over the enemy's line.)
DEATH-SONG--"A' be tuh ge zhig."
(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft.)
BY C. F. HOFFMAN.
I.
Under the hollow sky,
Stretched on the Prairie lone,
Centre of glory, I
Bleeding, disdain to groan,
But like a battle cry
Peal forth my thunder moan,
_Baim-wae-wae_!
II.
Star--Morning-Star, whose ray
Still with the dawn I see,
Quenchless through half the day
Gazing thou seest me--
Yon birds of carnage, they
Fright not my gaze from thee!
_Baim-wae-wae_!
III.
Bird, in thine airy rings
Over the foeman's line,
Why do thy flapping wings
Nearer me thus incline?
Blood of the Dauntless brings[*]
Courage, oh Bird to thine!
_Baim-wae-wae_!
Hark to those Spirit-notes!
Ye high Heroes divine,
Hymned from your god-like throats
That Song of Praise is mine!
Mine, whose grave-pennon floats[*]
Over the foeman's line!
_Baim-wae-wae_!
WAR SONG.
Where are my foes? say, warriors, where? No forest is so black,
That it can hide from my quick eye, the vestige of their track:
There is no lake so boundless, no path where man may go,
Can shield them from my sharp pursuit, or save them from my blow.
The winds that whisper in the trees, the clouds that spot the sky,
Impart a soft intelligence, to show me where they lie,
The very birds that sail the air, and scream as on they go,
Give me a clue my course to tread, and lead me to the foe.
The sun, at dawn, lifts up his head, to guide me on my way,
The moon, at night, looks softly down, and cheers me with her ray.
The war-crowned stars, those beaming lights, my spirit casts at night
Direct me as I thread the maze, and lead me to the fight.
In sacred dreams within my lodge, while resting on the land,
Bright omens of success arise, and nerve my warlike hand
Where'er I turn, where'er I go, there is a whispering sound,
That tells me I shall crush the foe, and drive him from my ground.
The beaming WEST invites me on, with smiles of vermil hue,
And clouds of promise fill the sky, and deck its heavenly blue,
There is no breeze--there is no sign, in ocean, earth or sky,
That does not swell my breast with hope, or animate my eye.
If to the stormy beach I go, where heavy tempests play.
They tell me but, how warriors brave, should conquer in the fray.
All nature fills my heart with fires, that prompt me on to go,
To rush with rage, and lifted spear, upon my country's foe.
APPENDIX
NARRATIVE
OF THE CAPTIVITY OF
ALEXANDER HENRY, ESQ.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
When I reached Michilimackinac I found several other traders, who had
arrived before me, from different parts of the country, and who, in
general, declared the disposition of the Indians to be hostile to the
English, and even apprehended some attack. M. Laurent Ducharme
distinctly informed Major Etherington that a plan was absolutely
conceived for destroying him, his garrison, and all the English in the
upper country; but the commandant believing this and other reports to be
without foundation, proceeding only from idle or ill-disposed persons,
and of a tendency to do mischief, expressed much displeasure against M.
Ducharme, and threatened to send the next person who should bring a
story of the same kind, a prisoner to Detroit.
The garrison, at this time, consisted of ninety privates, two subalterns
and the commandant; and the English merchants at the fort were four in
number. Thus strong, few entertained anxiety concerning the Indians, who
had no weapons but small arms.
Meanwhile, the Indians, from every quarter, were daily assembling, in
unusual numbers, but with every appearance of friendship, frequenting
the fort, and disposing of their peltries, in such a manner as to
dissipate almost every one's fears. For myself, on one occasion, I took
the liberty of observing to Major Etherington that, in my judgment, no
confidence ought to be placed in them, and that I was informed no less
than four hundred lay around the fort.
In return the major only rallied me on my timidity; and it is to be
confessed that if this officer neglected admonition on his part, so did
I on mine. Shortly after my first arrival at Michilimackinac, in the
preceding year, a Chippeway, named Wawatam, began to come often to my
house, betraying in his demeanor strong marks of personal regard. After
this had continued some time, he came, on a certain day, bringing with
him his whole family, and, at the same time, a large present consisting
of skins, sugar, and dried meat. Having laid these in a heap, he
commenced a speech, in which he informed me that some years before he
had observed a fast, devoting himself, according to the custom of his
nation, to solitude, and to the mortification of his body, in the hope
to obtain, from the Great Spirit, protection through all his days; that
on this occasion he had dreamed of adopting an Englishman as his son,
brother and friend; that, from the moment in which he first beheld me,
he had recognized me as the person whom the Great Spirit had been
pleased to point out to him for a brother; that he hoped that I would
not refuse his present; and that he should forever regard me as one of
his family.
I could not do otherwise than accept the present, and declare my
willingness to have so good a man as this appeared to be for my friend
and brother. I offered a present in return for that which I had
received, which Wawatam accepted, and then, thanking me for the favor
which he said that I had rendered him, he left me, and soon after set
out on his winter's hunt.
Twelve months had now elapsed since the occurrence of this incident, and
I had almost forgotten the person of my brother, when on the second day
of June, Wawatam came again to my house, in a temper of mind visibly
melancholy and thoughtful. He told me that he had just returned from his
_wintering ground_, and I asked after his health; but without answering
my question, he went on to say, that he was sorry to find me returned
from the Sault; that he intended to go to that place himself,
immediately after his arrival at Michilimackinac; and that he wished me
to go there along with him and his family the next morning. To all this
he joined an inquiry, whether or not the commandant had heard bad news,
adding that during the winter he had himself been frequently disturbed
with the _noise of evil birds_; and further suggesting that there were
numerous Indians near the fort, many of whom had never shown themselves
within it. Wawatam was about forty-five years of age, of an excellent
character among his nation, and a chief.
Referring much of what he heard to the peculiarities of the Indian
character, I did not pay all the attention which they will be found to
have deserved to the entreaties and remarks of my visitor. I answered
that I could not think of going to the Sault so soon as the next
morning, but would follow him there after the arrival of my clerks.
Finding himself unable to prevail with me, he withdrew for that day; but
early the next morning he came again, bringing with him his wife, and a
present of dried meat. At this interview, after stating that he had
several packs of beaver, for which he intended to deal with me, he
expressed a second time his apprehensions, from the numerous Indians who
were around the fort, and earnestly pressed me to consent to an
immediate departure for the Sault. As a reason for this particular
request, he assured me that all the Indians proposed to come in a body,
that day, to the fort, to demand liquor of the commandant, and that he
wished me to be gone before they should grow intoxicated.
I had made, at the period to which I am now referring, so much progress
in the language in which Wawatam addressed me, as to be able to hold an
ordinary conversation in it; but the Indian manner of speech is so
extravagantly figurative that it is only for a perfect master to follow
and comprehend it entirely. Had I been further advanced in this respect,
I think that I should have gathered so much information, from this my
friendly monitor, as would have put me into possession of the design of
the enemy, and enable me to save, as well others, as myself; as it was,
it unfortunately happened that I turned a deaf ear to every thing,
leaving Wawatam and his wife, after long and patient, but ineffectual
efforts, to depart alone, with dejected countenances, and not before
they had each let fall some tears.
In the course of the same day, I observed that the Indians came in great
numbers into the fort, purchasing tomahawks, (small axes of one pound
weight,) and frequently desiring to see silver arm-bands, and other
valuable ornaments, of which I had a large quantity for sale. The
ornaments, however, they in no instance purchased, but, after turning
them over, left them, saying that they would call again the next day.
Their motive, as it afterward appeared, was no other than the very
artful one of discovering, by requesting to see them, the particular
places of their deposit, so that they might lay their hands on them in
the moment of pillage with the greater certainty and dispatch.
At night, I turned in my mind the visits of Wawatam; but, though they
were calculated to excite uneasiness, nothing induced me to believe that
serious mischief was at hand. The next day, being the fourth of June,
was the king's birth-day.
The morning was sultry. A Chippeway came to tell me that his nation was
going to play at _baggatiwag_, with the Sacs or Saakies, another Indian
nation, for a high wager. He invited me to witness the sport, adding
that the commandant was to be there, and would bet on the side of the
Chippeways. In consequence of this information, I went to the
commandant, and expostulated with him a little, representing that the
Indians might possibly have some sinister end in view; but the
commandant only smiled at my suspicions.
_Baggatiway_, called by the Canadians _le jeu de la crosse_, is played
with a bat and ball. The bat is about four feet in length, curved, and
terminating in a sort of racket. Two posts are planted in the ground, at
a considerable distance from each other, as a mile or more. Each party
has its post, and the game consists in throwing the ball up to the post
of the adversary. The ball at the beginning is placed in the middle of
the course, and each party endeavors as well to throw the ball out of
the direction of its own post, as into that of the adversary's.
I did not go myself to see the match which was now to be played without
the fort, because, there being a canoe prepared to depart, on the
following day for Montreal, I employed myself in writing letters to my
friends; and even when a fellow-trader, Mr. Tracy, happened to call upon
me, saying that another canoe had just arrived from Detroit, and
proposing that I should go with him to the beach, to inquire the news,
it so happened that I still remained, to finish my letters; promising to
follow Mr. Tracy in the course of a few minutes. Mr. Tracy had not gone
more than twenty paces from the door, when I heard an Indian war-cry,
and a noise of general confusion.
Going instantly to my window, I saw a crowd of Indians within the fort,
furiously cutting down and scalping every Englishman they found. In
particular, I witnessed the fate of Lieutenant Jemette.
I had in the room in which I was a fowling piece, loaded with swan-shot
This I immediately seized, and held it for a few minutes, waiting to
hear the drum beat to arms. In this dreadful interval I saw several of
my countrymen fall, and more than one struggling between the knees of an
Indian, who, holding him in this manner, scalped him while yet living.
At length, disappointed in the hope of seeing resistance made to the
enemy, and sensible of course that no effort of my own unassisted arm
could avail against four hundred Indians, I thought only of seeking
shelter. Amid the slaughter which was raging, I observed many of the
Canadian inhabitants of the fort calmly looking on, neither opposing
the Indians nor suffering injury; and from this circumstance I conceived
a hope of finding security in their houses.
Between the yard door of my own house and that of M. Langlade, my next
neighbor, there was only a low fence, over which I easily climbed. At my
entrance I found the whole family at the windows, gazing at the scene of
blood before them. I addressed myself immediately to M. Langlade,
begging that he would put me into some place of safety, until the heat
of the affair should be over; an act of charity by which he might
perhaps preserve me from the general massacre; but while I uttered my
petition, M. Langlade, who had looked for a moment at me, turned again
to the window, shrugging his shoulders, and intimating that he could do
nothing for me: "_Que voudriez-vous que j'en ferais?_"
This was a moment for despair; but the next, a Pani woman,[61] a slave
of M. Langlade's, beckoned to me to follow her. She brought me to a
door, which she opened, desiring me to enter, and telling me that it led
to the garret, where I must go and conceal myself. I joyfully obeyed her
directions; and she, having followed me up to the garret-door, locked it
after me, and with great presence of mind took away the key.
This shelter obtained, if shelter I could hope to find it, I was
naturally anxious to know what might still be passing without. Through
an aperture, which afforded me a view of the area of the fort, I beheld,
in shapes the foulest and most terrible, the ferocious triumphs of
barbarian conquerors. The dead were scalped and mangled; the dying were
writhing and shrieking under the unsatiated knife and tomahawk; and from
the bodies of some, ripped open, their butchers were drinking the blood,
scooped up in the hollow of joined hands, and quaffed amid shouts of
rage and victory. I was shaken not only with horror, but with fear. The
sufferings which I witnessed, I seemed on the point of experiencing. No
long time elapsed before, every one being destroyed who could be found,
there was a general cry of "All is finished!" At the same instant I
heard some of the Indians enter the house in which I was.
The garret was separated from the room below only by a layer of single
boards, at once the flooring of the one and the ceiling of the other. I
could therefore hear every thing that passed; and the Indians no sooner
came in than they inquired whether or not any Englishmen were in the
house. M. Langlade replied that "he could not say; he did not know of
any;" answers in which he did not exceed the truth; for the Pani woman
had not only hidden me by stealth, but kept my secret and her own. M.
Langlade was therefore, as I presume, as far from a wish to destroy me
as he was careless about saving me, when he added to these answers, that
"they might examine for themselves, and would soon be satisfied as to
the object of their question." Saying this, he brought them to the
garret-door.
The state of my mind will be imagined. Arrived at the door, some delay
was occasioned by the absence of the key, and a few moments were thus
allowed me in which to look around for a hiding place. In one corner of
the garret was a heap of those vessels of birch bark, used in maple
sugar making, as I have recently described.
The door was unlocked and opened, and the Indians ascending the stairs,
before I had completely crept into a small opening which presented
itself at one end of the heap. An instant after, four Indians entered
the room, all armed with tomahawks, and all besmeared with blood upon
every part of their bodies.
The die appeared to be cast. I could scarcely breathe; but I thought the
throbbing of my heart occasioned a noise loud enough to betray me. The
Indians walked in every direction about the garret, and one of them
approached me so closely that at a particular moment, had he put forth
his hand, he must have touched me. Still I remained undiscovered; a
circumstance to which the dark color of my clothes, and the want of
light in the room, which had no window, and in the corner in which I
was, must have contributed. In a word, after taking several turns in the
room, during which they told M. Langlade how many they had killed, and
how many scalps they had taken, they returned down stairs, and I, with
sensations not to be expressed, heard the door, which was the barrier
between me and my fate, locked for the second time.
There was a feather-bed on the floor; and on this, exhausted as I was by
the agitation of my mind, I threw myself down and fell asleep. In this
state I remained till the dusk of the evening, when I was awakened by a
second opening of the door. The person that now entered was M.
Langlade's wife, who was much surprised at finding me, but advised me
not to be uneasy, observing that the Indians had killed most of the
English, but that she hoped I might myself escape. A shower of rain
having begun to fall, she had come to stop a hole in the roof. On her
going away, I begged her to send me a little water to drink; which she
did.
As night was now advancing, I continued to lie on the bed, ruminating on
my condition, but unable to discover a resource from which I could hope
for life. A flight to Detroit had no probable chance of success. The
distance from Michilimackinac was four hundred miles; I was without
provisions; and the whole length of the road lay through Indian
countries, countries of an enemy in arms, where the first man whom I
should meet would kill me. To stay where I was threatened nearly the
same issue. As before, fatigue of mind, and not tranquility, suspended
my cares, and procured me further sleep.
The game of baggatiway, as from the description above, will have been
perceived, is necessarily attended with much violence and noise. In the
ardor of contest, the ball, as has been suggested, if it cannot be
thrown to the goal desired, is struck in any direction by which it can
be diverted from that designed by the adversary. At such a moment,
therefore, nothing could be less liable to excite premature alarm, than
that the ball should be tossed over the pickets of the Fort, nor that,
having fallen there, it should be followed on the instant by all engaged
in the game, as well the one party as the other, all eager, all
struggling, all shouting, all in the unrestrained pursuit of a rude
athletic exercise. Nothing could be less fitted to excite premature
alarm; nothing, therefore, could be more happily devised, under the
circumstances, than a stratagem like this; and this was, in fact, the
stratagem which the Indians had employed, by which they had obtained
possession of the Fort, and by which they had been enabled to slaughter
and subdue its garrison, and such of its other inhabitants as they
pleased. To be still more certain of success, they had prevailed upon as
many as they could, by a pretext the least liable to suspicion, to come
voluntarily without the pickets; and particularly the commandant and
garrison themselves.
The respite which sleep afforded me, during the night, was put an end to
by the return of morning. I was again on the rack of apprehension. At
sunrise, I heard the family stirring; and presently after Indian voices,
informing M. Langlade that they had not found my hapless self among the
dead, and they supposed me to be somewhere concealed. M. Langlade
appeared, from what followed, to be by this time acquainted with the
place of my retreat, of which, no doubt, he had been informed by his
wife. The poor woman, as soon as the Indians mentioned me, declared to
her husband, in the French tongue, that he should no longer keep me in
his house, but deliver me up to my pursuers; giving as a reason for this
measure, that should the Indians discover his instrumentality in my
concealment, they might revenge it on her children, and that it was
better that I should die than they. M. Langlade resisted at first this
sentence of his wife's, but soon suffered her to prevail, informing the
Indians that he had been told I was in his house, that I had come there
without his knowledge, and that he would put me into their hands. This
was no sooner expressed than he began to ascend the stairs, the Indians
following upon his heels.
I now resigned myself to the fate with which I was menaced; and
regarding every attempt at concealment as vain, I arose from the bed,
and presented myself full in view to the Indians who were entering the
room. They were all in a state of intoxication, and entirely naked,
except about the middle. One of them, named Wenniway, whom I had
previously known, and who was upward of six feet in height, had his
entire face and body covered with charcoal and grease, only that a white
spot, of two inches in diameter, encircled either eye. This man walked
up to me, seized me with one hand by the collar of the coat, while in
the other he held a large carving knife, as if to plunge it in my
breast; his eyes meanwhile were fixed steadfastly on mine. At length,
after some seconds of the most anxious suspense, he dropped his arm,
saying, "I won't kill you!" To this he added, that he had frequently
engaged in wars against the English, and had brought away many scalps;
that on a certain occasion he had lost a brother, whose name was
Musinigon, and that I should be called after him.
A reprieve upon any terms placed me among the living, and gave me back
the sustaining voice of hope; but Wenniway ordered me down stairs, and
there informed me that I was to be taken to his cabin, where, and indeed
every where else, the Indians were all mad with liquor, death again was
threatened, and, not as possible only, but as certain. I mentioned my
fears on this subject to M. Langlade, begging him to represent the
danger to my master. M. Langlade, in this instance, did not withhold his
compassion, and Wenniway immediately consented that I should remain
where I was, until he found another opportunity to take me away.
Thus far secure, I reascended my garret stairs, in order to place myself
the furthest possible out of the reach of insult from drunken Indians;
but I had not remained there more than an hour, when I was called to the
room below, in which was an Indian, who said that I must go with him out
of the Fort, Wenniway having sent him to fetch me. This man, as well as
Wenniway himself, I had seen before. In the preceding year, I had
allowed him to take goods on credit, for which he was still in my debt;
and some short time previous to the surprise of the Fort, he had said,
upon my upbraiding him with want of honesty, that "he would pay me
before long!" This speech now came fresh into my memory, and led me to
suspect that the fellow had formed a design against my life. I
communicated the suspicion to M. Langlade; but he gave for answer that
"I was not now my own master, and must do as I was ordered."
The Indian, on his part, directed that before I left the house, I should
undress myself, declaring that my coat and shirt would become him better
than they did me. His pleasure in this respect being complied with, no
other alternative was left me than either to go out naked, or put on the
clothes of the Indian, which he freely gave me in exchange. His motive
for thus stripping me of my own apparel was no other, as I afterwards
learned, than this, that it might not be stained with blood when he
should kill me.
I was now told to proceed; and my driver followed me close, until I had
passed the gate of the Fort, when I turned toward the spot where I knew
the Indians to be encamped. This, however, did not suit the purpose of
my enemy, who seized me by the arm, and drew me violently in the
opposite direction, to the distance of fifty yards above the Fort. Here,
finding that I was approaching the bushes and sand hills, I determined
to proceed no further, but told the Indian that I believed he meant to
murder me, and if so he might as well strike where I was as at any
greater distance. He replied with coolness, that my suspicions were
just, and that he meant to pay me in this manner for my goods. At the
same time he produced a knife, and held me in a position to receive the
intended blow. Both this and that which followed were necessarily the
affair of a moment. By some effort, too sudden and too little dependent
on thought to be explained or remembered, I was enabled to arrest his
arm, and give him a sudden push, by which I turned him from me, and
released myself from his grasp. This was no sooner done than I ran
toward the Fort, with all the swiftness in my power, the Indian
following me, and I expecting every moment to feel his knife. I
succeeded in my flight; and, on entering the Fort, I saw Wenniway
standing in the midst of the area, and to him I hastened for protection.
Wenniway desired the Indian to desist; but the latter pursued me round
him, making several strokes at me with his knife, and foaming at the
mouth with rage at the repeated failure of his purpose. At length
Wenniway drew near to M. Langlade's house; and the door being open, I
ran into it. The Indian followed me; but on my entering the house, he
voluntarily abandoned the pursuit.
Preserved so often, and so unexpectedly, as it had now been my lot to
be, I returned to my garret, with a strong inclination to believe that,
through the will of an over-ruling power, no Indian enemy could do me
hurt; but new trials, as I believed, were at hand, when, at ten o'clock
in the evening, I was roused from sleep, and once more desired to
descend the stairs. Not less, however, to my satisfaction than surprise,
I was summoned only to meet Major Etherington, Mr. Bostwick, and
Lieutenant Lesslie, who were in the room below.
These gentlemen had been taken prisoners, while looking at the game,
without the Fort, and immediately stripped of all their clothes. They
were now sent into the fort, under the charge of Canadians, because, the
Indians having resolved on getting drunk, the chiefs were apprehensive
that they would be murdered if they continued in the camp. Lieutenant
Jemette and seventy soldiers had been killed; and but twenty Englishmen,
including soldiers, were still alive. These were all within the fort,
together with nearly three hundred Canadians belonging to the canoes,
&c.
These being our numbers, myself and others proposed to Maj. Etherington
to make an effort for regaining possession of the fort, and maintaining
it against the Indians. The Jesuit missionary was consulted on the
project; but he discouraged us, by his representations, not only of the
merciless treatment which we must expect from the Indians, should they
regain their superiority, but of the little dependence which was to be
placed upon our Canadian auxiliaries. Thus the fort and prisoners
remained in the hands of the Indians, though, through the whole night,
the prisoners and whites were in actual possession, and they were
without the gates.
That whole night, or the greater part of it, was passed in mutual
condolence; and my fellow-prisoners shared my garret. In the morning,
being again called down, I found my master, Wenniway, and was desired to
follow him. He led me to a small house, within the fort, where, in a
narrow room, and almost dark, I found Mr. Ezekiel Solomons, an
Englishman from Detroit, and a soldier, all prisoners. With these, I
remained in painful suspense, as to the scene that was next to present
itself, till ten o'clock in the forenoon, when an Indian arrived, and
presently marched us to the lake side, where a canoe appeared ready for
departure, and in which we found that we were to embark.
Our voyage, full of doubt as it was, would have commenced immediately,
but that one of the Indians, who was to be of the party, was absent. His
arrival was to be waited for; and this occasioned a very long delay,
during which we were exposed to a keen north-east wind. An old shirt
was all that covered me; I suffered much from the cold; and in this
extremity, M. Langlade coming down to the beach, I asked him for a
blanket, promising if I lived to pay him for it, at any price he
pleased; but the answer I received was this, that he could let me have
no blanket unless there were some one to be security for the payment.
For myself, he observed, I had no longer any property in that country. I
had no more to say to M. Langlade; but presently seeing another
Canadian, named John Cuchoise, I addressed to him a similar request, and
was not refused. Naked as I was, and rigorous as was the weather, but
for the blanket I must have perished. At noon, our party was all
collected, the prisoners all embarked, and we steered for the Isle du
Castor, [Beaver Island,] in Lake Michigan.
The soldier, who was our companion in misfortune, was made fast to a bar
of the canoe, by a rope tied round his neck, as is the manner of the
Indians in transporting their prisoners. The rest were left unconfined;
but a paddle was put into each of our hands, and we were made to use it.
The Indians in the canoe were seven in number, the prisoners four. I had
left, as it will be recollected, Major Etherington, Lieutenant Lesslie
and Mr. Bostwick, at M. Langlade's, and was now joined in misery with
Mr. Ezekiel Solomons, the soldier, and the Englishman who had newly
arrived from Detroit. This was on the sixth day of June. The Fort was
taken on the fourth; I surrendered myself to Wenniway on the fifth; and
this was the third day of our distress.
We were bound, as I have said, for the Isles du Castor, which lie in the
mouth of Lake Michigan; and we should have crossed the lake, but that a
thick fog came on, on account of which the Indians deemed it safer to
keep the shore close under their lee. We therefore approached the lands
of the Ottawas, and their village of L'Arbre Croche, already mentioned
as lying about twenty miles to the westward of Michilimackinac, on the
opposite side of the tongue of land on which the Fort is built.
Every half hour, the Indians gave their war-whoop, one for every
prisoner in their canoe. This is a general custom, by the aid of which,
all other Indians, within hearing, are apprised of the number of
prisoners they are carrying.
In this manner we reached Wagoshense, Fox-point, a long point,
stretching westward into the lake, and which the Ottawas make a carrying
place, to avoid going round it. It is distant eighteen miles from
Michilimackinac. After the Indians had made their war-whoop, as before,
an Ottawa appeared upon the beach, who made signs that we should land.
In consequence, we approached. The Ottawa asked the news, and kept the
Chippeways in further conversation, till we were within a few yards of
the land, and in shallow water. At this moment, a hundred men rushed
upon us, from among the bushes, and dragged all the prisoners out of the
canoe, amid a terrifying shout.
We now believed that our last sufferings were approaching; but no sooner
were we fairly on shore, and on our legs, than the chiefs of the party
advanced, and gave each of us their hands, telling us that they were our
friends, and Ottawas, whom the Chippeways had insulted, by destroying
the English without consulting with them on the affair. They added that
what they had done was for the purpose of saving our lives, the
Chippeways having been carrying us to the Isles du Castor only to kill
and devour us.
The reader's imagination is here distracted by the variety of our
fortunes, and he may well paint to himself the state of mind of those
who sustained them, who were the sport or the victims of a series of
events, more like dreams than realities, more like fiction than truth!
It was not long before we were embarked again, in the canoes of the
Ottawas, who, the same evening, relanded us at Michilimackinac, where
they marched us into the Fort, in view of the Chippewas, confounded at
beholding the Ottawas espousing a side opposite to their own.
The Ottawas, who had accompanied us in sufficient numbers, took
possession of the Fort. We, who had changed masters, but were still
prisoners, were lodged in the house of the commandant, and strictly
guarded.
Early the next morning, a general council was held, in which the
Chippeways complained much of the conduct of the Ottawas, in robbing
them of their prisoners; alleging that all the Indians, the Ottawas
alone excepted, were at war with the English; that Pontiac had taken
Detroit; that the King of France had awoke, and repossessed himself of
Quebec and Montreal; and that the English were meeting destruction, not
only at Michilimackinac, but in every other part of the world. From all
this they inferred that it became the Ottawas to restore the prisoners,
and to join in the war; and the speech was followed by large presents,
being part of the plunder of the Fort, and which was previously heaped
in the center of the room. The Indians rarely make their answers till
the day after they have heard the arguments offered. They did not depart
from their custom on this occasion; and the council therefore adjourned.
We, the prisoners, whose fate was thus in controversy, were unacquainted
at the time with this transaction; and therefore enjoyed a night of
tolerable tranquility, not in the least suspecting the reverse which was
preparing for us. Which of the arguments of the Chippeways, or whether
or not all were deemed valid by the Ottawas, I cannot say; but the
council was resumed at an early hour in the morning and, after several
speeches had been made in it, the prisoners were sent for, and returned
to the Chippeways.
The Ottawas, who now gave us into the hands of the Chippeways, had
themselves declared that the latter designed no other than to kill us,
and _make broth of us_. The Chippeways, as soon as we were restored to
them, marched us to a village of their own, situate on the point which
is below the Fort, and put us into a lodge, already the prison of
fourteen soldiers, tied two and two, with each a rope about his neck,
and made fast to a pole which might be called the supporter of the
building.
I was left untied; but I passed a night sleepless and full of
wretchedness. My bed was the bare ground, and I was again reduced to an
old shirt, as my entire apparel; the blanket which I had received,
through the generosity of M. Cuchoise, having been taken from me among
the Ottawas, when they seized upon myself and the others, at Wagoshense.
I was, besides, in want of food, having for two days eaten nothing.
I confess that in the canoe with the Chippeways I was offered bread;
but, bread, with what accompaniment? They had a loaf, which they cut
with the same knives that they had employed in the massacre--knives
still covered with blood. The blood they moistened with spittle, and
rubbing it on the bread, offered this for food to their prisoners,
telling them to eat the blood of their countrymen.
Such was my situation on the morning of the seventh of June, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; but a few hours produced an
event which gave still a new color to my lot.
Toward noon, when the great war-chief, in company with Wenniway was
seated at the opposite end of the lodge, my friend and brother, Wawatam,
suddenly came in. During the four days preceding, I had often wondered
what had become of him. In passing by he gave me his hand but went
immediately toward the great chief, by the side of whom and Wenniway, he
sat himself down. The most uninterrupted silence prevailed; each smoked
his pipe; and this done, Wawatam arose, and left the lodge, saying to
me, as he passed, "Take courage!"
An hour elapsed, during which several chiefs entered, and preparations
appeared to be making for a council. At length, Wawatam re-entered the
lodge, followed by his wife, and both loaded with merchandise, which
they carried up to the chiefs, and laid in a heap before them. Some
moments of silence followed, at the end of which, Wawatam pronounced a
speech, every word of which, to me, was of extraordinary interest:
"Friends and relations," he began, "what is it that I shall say? You
know what I feel. You all have friends and brothers and children, whom
as yourselves you love; and you, what would you experience, did you,
like me, behold your dearest friend--your brother--in the condition of a
slave; a slave exposed every moment to insult, and to menaces of death?
This case, as you all know, is mine. See there, (_pointing to myself_,)
my friend and brother among slaves, himself a slave!
"You all well know that long before the war began, I adopted him as my
brother. From that moment he became one of my family, so that no change
of circumstances could break the cord which fastened us together.
"He is my brother; and, because I am your relation, he is therefore your
relation, too: and how, being your relation, can he be your slave?
"On the day on which the war began, you were fearful, lest on this very
account, I should reveal your secret. You requested, therefore, that I
would leave the Fort, and even cross the lake. I did so, but did it with
reluctance. I did it with reluctance, notwithstanding that you,
Menehwehna, who had the command in this enterprise, gave me your promise
that you would protect my friend, delivering him from all danger, and
giving him safely to me.
"The performance of this promise I now claim. I come not with empty
hands to ask it. You, Menehwehna, best know whether or not, as it
respects yourself, you have kept your word; but I bring these goods, to
buy off every claim which any man among you all may have on my brother,
as his prisoner."
Wawatam having ceased, the pipes were again filled; and, after they were
finished, a further period of silence followed. At the end of this,
Menehwehna arose and gave his reply:
"My relation and brother," said he, "what you have spoken is the truth.
We were acquainted with the friendship which subsisted between yourself
and the Englishman, in whose behalf you have now addressed us. We knew
the danger of having our secret discovered, and the consequences which
must follow; and you say truly that we requested you to leave the Fort.
This we did out of regard for you and your family; for, if a discovery
of our design had been made, you would have been blamed, whether guilty
or not; and you would thus have been involved in difficulties from which
you could not have extricated yourself.
"It is also true that I promised you to take care of your friend; and
this promise I performed, by desiring my son, at the moment of assault,
to seek him out, and bring him to my lodge. He went accordingly, but
could not find him. The day after I sent him to Langlade's, when he was
informed that your friend was safe; and had it not been that the Indians
were then drinking the rum which had been found in the Fort, he would
have brought him home with him, according to my orders.
"I am very glad to find that your friend has escaped. We accept your
present; and you may take him home with you."
Wawatam thanked the assembled chiefs, and taking me by the hand, led me
to his lodge, which was at the distance of a few yards only from the
prison lodge. My entrance appeared to give joy to the whole family; food
was immediately prepared for me; and I now ate the first hearty meal
which I had made since my capture. I found myself one of the family; and
but that I had still my fears, as to the other Indians, I felt as happy
as the situation could allow.
In the course of the next morning, I was alarmed by a noise in the
prison lodge; and looking through the openings of the lodge in which I
was, I saw seven dead bodies of white men dragged forth. Upon my inquiry
into the occasion, I was informed that a certain chief, called by the
Canadians Le Grand Sable, had not long before arrived from his winter's
hunt; and that he having been absent when the war begun, and being now
desirous of manifesting to the Indians at large his hearty concurrence
in what they had done, had gone into the prison lodge, and there, with
his knife, put the seven men, whose bodies I had seen, to death.
Shortly after, two of the Indians took one of the dead bodies, which
they chose as being the fattest, cut off the head, and divided the whole
into five parts, one of which was put into each of five kettles, hung
over as many fires kindled for this purpose, at the door of the prison
lodge. Soon after things were so far prepared, a message came to our
lodge, with an invitation to Wawatam to assist at the feast.
An invitation to a feast is given by him who is the master of it. Small
cuttings of cedar wood, of about four inches in length, supply the place
of cards; and the bearer by word of mouth states the particulars.
Wawatam obeyed the summons, taking with him, as usual, to the place of
entertainment, his dish and spoon.
After an absence of about half an hour, he returned, bringing in his
dish a human hand, and a large piece of flesh. He did not appear to
relish the repast, but told me that it was then, and always had been the
custom among all the Indian nations, when returning from war, or on
overcoming their enemies, to make a war-feast from among the slain. This
he said inspired the warrior with courage in attack, and bred him to
meet death with fearlessness.
In the evening of the same day, a large canoe, such as those which came
from Montreal, was seen advancing to the fort. It was full of men, and I
distinguished several passengers. The Indian cry was made in the
village; a general muster ordered; and to the number of two hundred they
marched up to the fort, where the canoe was expected to land. The canoe,
suspecting nothing, came boldly to the fort, where the passengers, as
being English traders, were seized, dragged through the water, beat,
reviled, marched to the prison lodge, and there stripped of their
clothes and confined.
Of the English traders that fell into the hands of the Indians at the
capture of the Fort, Mr. Tracy was the only one who lost his life. Mr.
Ezekiel Solomons and Mr. Henry Bostwick were taken by the Ottawas, and
after the peace carried down to Montreal, and there ransomed. Of ninety
troops, about seventy were killed; the rest, together with those of the
posts in the Bay des Puants, and at the river St. Joseph, were also kept
in safety by the Ottawas till the peace, and then either freely
restored, or ransomed at Montreal. The Ottawas never overcame their
disgust at the neglect with which they had been treated, in the
beginning of the war, by those who afterwards desired their assistance
as allies.
In the morning of the ninth of June, a general council was held, at
which it was agreed to remove to the island of Michilimackinac, as a
more defensible situation in the event of an attack by the English. The
Indians had begun to entertain apprehensions of want of strength. No
news had reached them from the Potawatamies, in the Bay des Puants; and
they were uncertain whether or not the Monomins would join them. They
even feared that the Sioux would take the English side.
This resolution fixed, they prepared for a speedy retreat. At noon the
camp was broken up, and we embarked, taking with us the prisoners that
were still undisposed of. On our passage we encountered a gale of wind,
and there were some appearances of danger. To avert it, a dog, of which
the legs were previously tied together, was thrown into the lake; an
offering designed to soothe the angry passions of some offended Manito.
As we approached the island, two women in the canoe in which I was,
began to utter melancholy and hideous cries. Precarious as my condition
still remained, I experienced some sensations of alarm from these dismal
sounds, of which I could not then discover the occasion. Subsequently, I
learned that it is customary for the women, on passing near the burial
places of relations, never to omit the practice of which I was now a
witness, and by which they intend to denote their grief.
By the approach of evening we reached the island in safety, and the
women were not long in erecting our cabins. In the morning, there was a
muster of the Indians, at which there were found three hundred and fifty
fighting men.
In the course of the day, there arrived a canoe from Detroit, with
ambassadors, who endeavored to prevail on the Indians to repair thither
to the assistance of Pontiac; but fear was now the prevailing passion. A
guard was kept during the day, and a watch by night, and alarms were
very frequently spread. Had an enemy appeared, all the prisoners would
have been put to death; and I suspected that, as an Englishman, I should
share their fate.
Several days had now passed, when one morning a continued alarm
prevailed, and I saw the Indians running in a confused manner toward the
beach. In a short time I learned that two large canoes from Montreal
were in sight.
All the Indian canoes were immediately manned, and those from Montreal
were surrounded and seized, as they turned a point behind which the
flotilla had been concealed. The goods were consigned to a Mr. Levy, and
would have been saved if the canoe men had called them French property;
but they were terrified and disguised nothing.
In the canoes was a large proportion of liquor, a dangerous acquisition,
and which threatened disturbance among the Indians, even to the loss of
their dearest friends. Wawatam, always watchful of my safety, no sooner
heard the noise of drunkenness, which in the evening did not fail to
begin, than he represented to me the danger of remaining in the village,
and owned that he could not himself resist the temptation of joining his
comrades in the debauch. That I might escape all mischief he therefore
requested that I would accompany him to the mountain, where I was to
remain hidden till the liquor should be drank.
We ascended the mountain accordingly. It is this mountain which
constitutes that high land in the middle of the island, of which I have
spoken before, as a figure considered as resembling a _turtle_, and
therefore called _Michilimackinac_. It is thickly covered with wood, and
very rocky toward the top. After walking more than half-a-mile, we came
to a large rock, at the base of which was an opening, dark within, and
appearing to be the entrance of a cave.
Here, Wawatam recommended that I should take up my lodging, and by all
means remain till he returned.
On going into the cave, of which the entrance was nearly ten feet wide,
I found the further end to be rounded in its shape, like that of an
oven, but with a further aperture, too small, however, to be explored.
After thus looking around me, I broke small branches from the trees, and
spread them for a bed; then wrapped myself in my blanket and slept till
daybreak.
On awaking I felt myself incommoded by some object upon which I lay; and
removing it, found it to be a bone. This I supposed to be that of a
deer, or some other animal, and what might very naturally be looked for
in the place in which it was; but, when daylight visited my chamber, I
discovered, with some feelings of horror, that I was lying on nothing
less than a heap of human bones and skulls, which covered all the floor!
The day passed without the return of Wawatam, and without food. As night
approached, I found myself unable to meet its darkness in the
charnel-house, which, nevertheless, I had viewed free from uneasiness
during the day. I chose, therefore, an adjacent bush for this night's
lodging, and slept under it as before; but in the morning, I awoke
hungry and dispirited, and almost envying the dry bones, to the view of
which I returned. At length the sound of a foot reached me, and my
Indian friend appeared, making many apologies for his long absence, the
cause of which was an unfortunate excess in the enjoyment of his liquor.
This point being explained, I mentioned the extraordinary sight that had
presented itself in the cave to which he had commended my slumbers. He
had never heard of its existence before; and, upon examining the cave
together, we saw reason to believe that it had been anciently filled
with human bodies.
On returning to the lodge, I experienced a cordial reception from the
family, which consisted of the wife of my friend, his two sons, of whom
the eldest was married, and whose wife, and a daughter of thirteen years
of age, completed the list.
Wawatam related to the other Indians, the adventure of the bones. All of
them expressed surprise at hearing it, and declared that they had never
been aware of the contents of this cave before. After visiting it, which
they immediately did, almost every one offered a different opinion as to
its history.
Some advanced, that at a period when the waters overflowed the land, (an
event which makes a distinguished figure in the history of their world,)
the inhabitants of this island had fled into the cave, and been there
drowned; others, that those same inhabitants, when the Hurons made war
upon them, (as tradition says they did,) hid themselves in the cave, and
being discovered, were there massacred. For myself, I am disposed to
believe that this cave was an ancient receptacle of the bones of
prisoners, sacrificed and devoured at war-feasts. I have always observed
that the Indians pay particular attention to the bones of sacrifices,
preserving them unbroken, and depositing them in some place kept
exclusively for that purpose.
A few days after the occurrence of the incidents recorded above,
Menehwehna, whom I now found to be the great chief of the village of
Michilimackinac, came to the lodge of my friend; and when the usual
ceremony of smoking was finished, he observed that Indians were now
daily arriving from Detroit, some of whom had lost relations or friends
in the war, and who would certainly retaliate on any Englishman they
found; upon which account, his errand was to advise that I should be
dressed like an Indian, an expedient whence I might hope to escape all
future insult.
I could not but consent to the proposal, and the chief was so kind as to
assist my friend and his family in effecting that very day the desired
metamorphosis. My hair was cut off, and my head shaved, with the
exception of a spot on the crown, of about twice the diameter of a
crown-piece. My face was painted with three or four different colors;
some parts of it red, and others black. A shirt was provided for me,
painted with vermilion, mixed with grease. A large collar of wampum was
put round my neck, and another suspended on my breast. Both my arms were
decorated with large bands of silver above the elbow, besides several
smaller ones on the wrists; and my legs were covered with _mitases_, a
kind of hose, made, as is the favorite fashion, of scarlet cloth. Over
all, I was to wear a scarlet blanket or mantle, and on my head a large
bunch of feathers. I parted, not without some regret, with the long hair
which was natural to it, and which I fancied to be ornamental; but the
ladies of the family, and of the village in general, appeared to think
my person improved, and now condescended to call me handsome, even among
Indians.
Protected, in a great measure, by this disguise, I felt myself more at
liberty than before; and the season being arrived in which my clerks
from the interior were to be expected, and some part of my property, as
I had a right to hope, recovered, I begged the favor of Wawatam that he
would enable me to pay a short visit to Michilimackinac. He did not fail
to comply, and I succeeded in finding my clerks; but, either through the
disturbed state of the country, as they represented to be the case, or
through their misconduct, as I had reason to think, I obtained nothing;
and nothing, or almost nothing, I now began to think would be all that I
should need during the rest of my life. To fish and to hunt, to collect
a few skins, and exchange them for necessaries, was all that I seemed
destined to do, and to acquire, for the future.
I returned to the Indian village, where at this time much scarcity of
food prevailed. We were often for twenty-four hours without eating; and
when in the morning we had no victuals for the day before us, the custom
was to black our faces with grease and charcoal, and exhibit, through
resignation, a temper as cheerful as if in the midst of plenty.
A repetition of the evil, however, soon induced us to leave the island
in search of food; and accordingly we departed for the bay of
Boutchitaouy; distant eight leagues, and where we found plenty of wild
fowl and fish.
While in the bay, my guardian's daughter-in-law was taken in labor of
her first child. She was immediately removed out of the common lodge;
and a small one, for her separate accommodation was begun and finished
by the women in less than half an hour.
The next morning we heard that she was very ill, and the family began to
be much alarmed on her account; the more so, no doubt, because cases of
difficult labor are very rare among Indian women. In this distress,
Wawatam requested me to accompany him into the woods; and on our way
informed me that if he could find a snake, he should soon secure relief
to his daughter-in-law.
On reaching some wet ground, we speedily obtained the object of our
search, in a small snake, of the kind called the garter snake. Wawatam
seized it by the neck, and holding it fast, while it coiled itself round
his arm, he cut off its head, catching the blood in a cup that he had
brought with him. This done, he threw away the snake, and carried home
the blood, which he mixed with a quantity of water. Of this mixture he
administered first one table-spoonful, and shortly after a second.
Within an hour the patient was safely delivered of a fine child; and
Wawatum subsequently declared that the remedy, to which he had resorted,
was one that never failed.
On the next day, we left the bay of Boutchitaouy; and the young mother,
in high spirits, assisted in loading the canoe, barefooted, and
knee-deep, in the water.
The medical information, the diseases, and the remedies of the Indians,
often engaged my curiosity during the period through which I was
familiar with these nations; and I shall take this occasion to introduce
a few particulars connected with their history.
The Indians are in general free from disorders; and an instance of their
being subject to dropsy, gout, or stone, never came within my knowledge.
Inflammations of the lungs are among their most ordinary complaints; and
rheumatism still more so, especially with the aged. Their mode of life,
in which they are so much exposed to the wet and cold, sleeping on the
ground, and inhaling the night air, sufficiently accounts for their
liability to these diseases. The remedies on which they most rely are
emetics, cathartics, and the lancet; but especially the last. Bleeding
is so favorite an operation among the women that they never lose an
occasion of enjoying it, whether sick or well. I have sometimes bled a
dozen women in a morning as they sat in a row, along a fallen tree,
beginning with the first, opening the vein, then proceeding to the
second, and so on, having three or four individuals bleeding at the same
time.
In most villages, and particularly in those of the Chippeways, this
service was required of me; and no persuasion of mine could ever induce
a woman to dispense with it.
In all parts of the country, and among all the nations that I have seen,
particular individuals arrogate to themselves the art of healing, but
principally by means of pretended sorcery; and operations of this sort
are always paid for by a present made before they are begun. Indeed,
whatever, as an impostor, may be the demerits of the operator, his
reward may generally be said to be fairly earned by dint of corporeal
labor.
I was once present at a performance of this kind, in which the patient
was a female child of about twelve years of age. Several of the elder
chiefs were invited to the scene; and the same compliment was paid to
myself, on account of the medical skill for which it was pleased to give
me credit.
The physician (so to call him) seated himself on the ground; and before
him, on a new stroud blanket, was placed a basin of water, in which were
three bones, the larger ones, as it appeared to me, of a swan's wing. In
his hand he had his _shishiquoi_, or rattle, with which he beat time to
his _medicine song_. The sick child lay on a blanket, near the
physician, she appeared to have much fever, and a severe oppression of
the lungs, breathing with difficulty, and betraying symptoms of the last
stage of consumption.
After singing for some time, the physician took one of the bones out of
the basin: the bone was hollow; and one end being applied to the breast
of the patient, he put the other into his mouth, in order to remove the
disorder by suction. Having persevered in this as long as he thought
proper, he suddenly seemed to force the bone into his mouth, and swallow
it. He now acted the part of one suffering severe pain; but, presently,
finding relief, he made a long speech, and after this returned to
singing, and to the accompaniment of his rattle. With the latter during
his song, he struck his head, breast, sides, and back, at the same time
straining, as if to vomit forth the bone.
Relinquishing this attempt, he applied himself to suction a second time,
and with the second of the three bones; and this also he soon seemed to
swallow.
Upon its disappearance, he began to distort himself in the most
frightful manner, using every gesture which could convey the idea of
pain; at length he succeeded, or pretended to succeed, in throwing up
one of the bones. This was handed about to the spectators, and strictly
examined; but nothing remarkable could be discovered. Upon this, he went
back to his song and rattle; and after some time threw up the second of
the two bones. In the groove of this, the physician upon examination,
found, and displayed to all present, a small while substance, resembling
a piece of the quill of a feather. It was passed round the company from
one to the other; and declared, by the physician, to be the thing
causing the disorder of his patient.
The multitude believe that these physicians, whom the French call
_jongleurs_, or jugglers, can inflict as well as remove disorders. They
believe that by drawing the figure of any person in sand or ashes, or on
clay, or by considering any object as the figure of a person, and then
pricking it with a sharp stick, or other substance, or doing, in any
other manner, that which done to a living body would cause pain or
injury, the individual represented, or supposed to be represented, will
suffer accordingly. On the other hand, the mischief being done, another
physician, of equal pretensions, can by suction remove it. Unfortunately
however, the operations which I have described were not successful in
the instance referred to; for, on the day after they had taken place,
the girl died.
With regard to flesh-wounds, the Indians certainly effect astonishing
cures. Here, as above, much that is fantastic occurs; but the success of
their practice evinces something solid.
At the Sault de Sainte-Marie I knew a man who, in the result of a
quarrel, received the stroke of an axe in his side. The blow was so
violent, and the axe driven so deep, that the wretch who held it could
not withdraw it, but left it in the wound, and fled. Shortly after, the
man was found, and brought into the fort, where several other Indians
came to his assistance. Among these, one, who was a physician
immediately withdrew, in order to fetch his _penegusan_, or medicine
bag, with which he soon returned. The eyes of the sufferer were fixed,
his teeth closed, and his case apparently desperate.
The physician took from his bag a small portion of a very white
substance, resembling that of a bone; this he scraped into a little
water, and forcing open the jaws of the patient with a stick, he poured
the mixture down his throat. What followed was, that in a very short
space of time the wounded man moved his eyes; and beginning to vomit,
threw up a small lump of clotted blood.
The physician now, and not before, examined the wound, from which I
could see the breath escape, and from which a part of the omentum
depended. This the physician did not set about to restore to its place,
but, cutting it away, minced it into small pieces, and made his patient
swallow it.
The man was then carried to his lodge, where I visited him daily. By the
sixth day he was able to walk about; and within a month he grew quite
well, except that he was troubled with a cough. Twenty years after his
misfortune he was still alive.
Another man, being on his wintering-ground, and from home, hunting
beaver, was crossing a lake, covered with smooth ice, with two beavers
on his back, when his foot slipped, and he fell. At his side, in his
belt, was his axe, the blade of which came upon the joint of his wrist;
and, the weight of his body coming upon the blade, his hand was
completely separated from his arm, with the exception of a small piece
of the skin. He had to walk three miles to his lodge, which was thus far
away. The skin, which alone retained his hand to his arm, he cut
through, with the same axe which had done the rest; and fortunately
having on a shirt, he took it off, tore it up, and made a strong
ligature above the wrist, so as in some measure to avoid the loss of
blood. On reaching his lodge, he cured the wound himself, by the mere
use of simples. I was a witness to its perfect healing.
I have said that these physicians, jugglers, or practitioners of
pretended sorcery, are supposed to be capable of inflicting diseases;
and I may add, that they are sometimes themselves sufferers on this
account. In one instance I saw one of them killed, by a man who charged
him with having brought his brother to death by malefic arts. The
accuser, in his rage, thrust his knife into the belly of the accused,
and ripped it open. The latter caught his bowels in his arms, and thus
walked toward his lodge, gathering them up, from time to time, as they
escaped his hold. His lodge was at no considerable distance, and he
reached it alive, and died in it.
Our next encampment was on the island of Saint-Martin, off Cape
Saint-Ignace, so called from the Jesuit mission of Saint Ignatius to the
Hurons, formerly established there. Our object was to fish for sturgeon,
which we did with great success; and here, in the enjoyment of a
plentiful and excellent supply of food, we remained until the twentieth
day of August. At this time, the autumn being at hand, and a sure
prospect of increased security from hostile Indians afforded, Wawatam
proposed going to his intended wintering-ground. The removal was a
subject of the greatest joy to myself, on account of the frequent
insults, to which I had still to submit, from the Indians of our band or
village, and to escape from which I would freely have gone almost
anywhere. At our wintering-ground we were to be alone; for the Indian
families, in the countries of which I write, separate in the winter
season, for the convenience as well of subsistence as of the chase, and
re-associate in the spring and summer.
In preparation, our first business was to sail for Michilimackinac,
where being arrived, we procured from a Canadian trader, on credit, some
trifling articles, together with ammunition, and two bushels of maize.
This done, we steered directly for lake Michigan. At L'Arbre Croche we
stopped one day on a visit to the Ottawas, where all the people, and
particularly Okinochumaki, the chief, the same who took me from the
Chippeways, behaved with great civility and kindness. The chief
presented me with a bag of maize. It is the Ottawas, it will be
remembered, who raise this grain for the market of Michilimackinac.
Leaving L'Arbre Croche, we proceeded direct to the mouth of the river
Aux Sables, on the south side of the lake, and distant about a hundred
and fifty miles from fort Michilimackinac. On our voyage we passed
several deep bays and rivers, and I found the banks of the lake to
consist in mere sands, without any appearance of verdure; the sand
drifting from one hill to another, like snow in winter. Hence, all the
rivers, which here entered the lake, are as much entitled to the epithet
of _sandy_ as that to which we were bound. They are also distinguished
by another particularity, always observable in similar situations. The
current of the stream being met, when the wind is contrary, by the waves
of the lake, it is driven back, and the sands of the shore are at the
same time washed into its mouth. In consequence, the river is able to
force a passage into the lake, broad only in proportion to its utmost
strength; while it hollows for itself, behind the sand-banks, a basin of
one, two, or three miles across. In these rivers we killed many wildfowl
and beaver.
To kill beaver, we used to go several miles up the rivers, before the
approach of night, and after the dusk came on suffer the canoe to drift
gently down the current, without noise. The beaver in this part of the
evening come abroad to procure food, or materials for repairing their
habitations; and as they are not alarmed by the canoe, they often pass
it within gun-shot.
While we thus hunted along our way, I enjoyed a personal freedom of
which I had been long deprived, and became as expert in the Indian
pursuits as the Indians themselves.
On entering the river Aux Sables, Wawatam took a dog, tied its feet
together, and threw it into the stream, uttering, at the same time, a
long prayer, which he addressed to the Great Spirit, supplicating his
blessing on the chase, and his aid in the support of the family, through
the dangers of a long winter. Our lodge was fifteen miles above the
mouth of the stream. The principal animals which the country afforded
were the stag or red deer, the common American deer, the bear, raccoon,
beaver and marten.
The beaver feeds in preference on young wood of the birch, aspen, and
poplar tree, (_populus nigra_ called by the Canadians _liard_,) but in
defect of these on any other tree, those of the pine and fir kinds
excepted. These latter it employs only for building its dams and houses.
In wide meadows, where no wood is to be found, it resorts, for all its
purposes, to the roots of the rush and water lily. It consumes great
quantities of food, whether of roots or wood; and hence often reduces
itself to the necessity of removing into a new quarter. Its house has an
arched dome-like roof, of an elliptical figure, and rises from three to
four feet above the surface of the water. It is always entirely
surrounded by water; but, in the banks adjacent, the animal provides
holes or _washes_, of which the entrance is below the surface, and to
which it retreats on the first alarm.
The female beaver usually produces two young at a time, but not
unfrequently more. During the first year the young remain with their
parents. In the second they occupy an adjoining apartment, and assist in
building, and in procuring food. At two years old, they part, and build
houses of their own; but often rove about for a considerable time,
before they fix upon a spot. There are beavers, called by the Indians
_old bachelors_, who live by themselves, build no houses, and work at no
dams, but shelter themselves in holes. The usual method of taking these
is by traps, formed of iron, or logs, and baited with branches of
poplar.
According to the Indians, the beaver is much given to jealousy. If a
strange male approaches the cabin, a battle immediately ensues. Of this
the female remains an unconcerned spectator, careless to which party the
law of conquest may assign her. Among the beaver which we killed, those
who were with me pretended to show demonstrations of this fact; some of
the skins of the males, and almost all of the older ones, bearing marks
of violence, while none were ever to be seen on the skins of the
females. The Indians add, that the male is as constant as he is jealous,
never attaching himself to more than one female; while the female, on
her side, is always fond of strangers.
The most common way of taking the beaver is that of breaking up its
house, which is done with trenching tools, during the winter, when the
ice is strong enough to allow of approaching them; and when, also, the
fur is in its most valuable state.
Breaking up the house, however, is only a preparatory step. During this
operation, the family make their escape to one or more of their
_washes_. These are to be discovered by striking the ice along the bank,
and where the holes are, a hollow sound is returned. After discovering
and searching many of these in vain, we often found the whole family
together in the same wash. I was taught occasionally to distinguish a
full wash from an empty one, by the motion of the water above its
entrance, occasioned by the breathing of the animals concealed in it.
From the washes they must be taken out with the hands; and in doing
this, the hunter sometimes receives severe wounds from their teeth.
While a hunter, I thought, with the Indians, that the beaver flesh was
very good; but after that of the ox was again within my reach, I could
not relish it. The tail is accounted a luxurious morsel.
Beavers, say the Indians, were formerly a people endowed with speech,
not less than with the other noble faculties they possess; but the Great
Spirit has taken this away from them, lest they should grow superior in
understanding to mankind.
The raccoon was another object of our chase. It was my practice to go
out in the evening, with dogs, accompanied by the youngest son of my
guardian, to hunt this animal. The raccoon never leaves its hiding place
till after sunset.
As soon as a dog falls on a fresh track of the raccoon, he gives notice
by a cry, and immediately pursues. His barking enables the hunter to
follow. The raccoon, which travels slowly, and is soon overtaken, makes
for a tree, on which he remains till shot.
After the falling of the snow, nothing more is necessary, for taking the
raccoon, than to follow the track of his feet. In this season, he seldom
leaves his habitation; and he never lays up any food. I have found six
at a time, in the hollow of one tree, lying upon each other, and nearly
in a torpid state. In more than one instance, I have ascertained that
they have lived six weeks without food. The mouse is their principal
prey.
Raccoon hunting was my more particular and daily employ. I usually went
out at the first dawn of day, and seldom returned till sunset, or till I
had laden myself with as many animals as I could carry. By degrees I
became familiarized with this kind of life; and had it not been for the
idea, of which I could not divest my mind, that I was living among
savages, and for the whispers of a lingering hope, that I should one day
be released from it--or if I could have forgotten that I had ever been
otherwise than as I then was--I could have enjoyed as much happiness in
this as in any other situation.
One evening, on my return from hunting, I found the fire put out, and
the opening in the top of the lodge covered over with skins; by this
means excluding, as much as possible, external light. I further observed
that the ashes were removed from the fire-place, and that dry sand was
spread where they had been. Soon after, a fire was made withoutside the
cabin, in the open air, and a kettle hung over it to boil.
I now supposed that a feast was in preparation. I supposed so only, for
it would have been indecorous to inquire into the meaning of what I saw.
No person, among the Indians themselves, would use this freedom. Good
breeding requires that the spectator should patiently wait the result.
As soon as the darkness of night had arrived, the family, including
myself, were invited into the lodge. I was now requested not to speak,
as a feast was about to be given to the dead, whose spirits delight in
uninterrupted silence.
As we entered, each was presented with his wooden dish and spoon, after
receiving which we seated ourselves. The door was next shut, and we
remained in perfect darkness.
The master of the family was master of the feast. Still in the dark, he
asked every one, by turn, for his dish, and put into each two boiled
ears of maize. The whole being served, he began to speak. In his
discourse, which lasted half an hour, he called upon the manes of his
deceased relations and friends, beseeching them to be present, to assist
him in the chase, and to partake of the food which he had prepared for
them. When he had ended, we proceeded to eat our maize, which we did
without other noise than what was occasioned by our teeth. The maize was
not half boiled, and it took me an hour to consume my share. I was
requested not to break the spikes, [cob,] as this would be displeasing
to the departed spirits of their friends.
When all was eaten, Wawatam made another speech, with which the ceremony
ended. A new fire was kindled, with fresh sparks, from flint and steel;
and the pipes being smoked, the spikes were carefully buried, in a hole
made in the ground for that purpose, within the lodge. This done, the
whole family began a dance, Wawatam singing, and beating a drum. The
dance continued the greater part of the night, to the great pleasure of
the lodge. The night of the feast was that of the first day of November.
On the twentieth of December, we took an account of the produce of our
hunt, and found that we had a hundred beaver skins, as many raccoons,
and a large quantity of dried venison; all which was secured from the
wolves, by being placed upon a scaffold.
A hunting excursion, into the interior of the country, was resolved on;
and early next morning the bundles were made up by the women for each
person to carry. I remarked that the bundle given to me was the
lightest, and those carried by the women the largest and heaviest of the
whole.
On the first day of our march, we advanced about twenty miles, and then
encamped. Being somewhat fatigued, I could not hunt; but Wawatam killed
a stag, not far from our encampment. The next morning we moved our lodge
to the carcass. At this station we remained two days, employed in drying
the meat. The method was, to cut it into slices, of the thickness of a
steak, and then hang it over the fire in the smoke. On the third day we
removed, and marched till two o'clock in the afternoon.
While the women were busy in erecting and preparing the lodges, I took
my gun and strolled away, telling Wawatam that I intended to look out
for some fresh meat for supper. He answered that he would do the same;
and on this we both left the encampment, in different directions.
The sun being visible, I entertained no fear of losing my way; but in
following several tracks of animals, in momentary expectation of falling
in with the game, I proceeded to a considerable distance, and it was not
till near sunset that I thought of returning. The sky, too, had become
overcast, and I was therefore left without the sun for my guide. In this
situation, I walked as fast as I could, always supposing myself to be
approaching our encampment, till at length it became so dark that I ran
against the trees.
I became convinced that I was lost; and I was alarmed by the reflection
that I was in a country entirely strange to me, and in danger from
strange Indians. With the flint of my gun I made a fire, and then laid
me down to sleep. In the night, it rained hard. I awoke cold and wet;
and as soon as light appeared, I recommenced my journey, sometimes
walking and sometimes running, unknowing where to go, bewildered, and
like a madman.
Toward evening, I reached the border of a large lake, of which I could
scarcely discern the opposite shore. I had never heard of a lake in this
part of the country, and therefore felt myself removed further than ever
from the object of my pursuit. To tread back my steps appeared to be the
most likely means of delivering myself; and I accordingly determined to
turn my face directly from the lake, and keep this direction as nearly
as I could.
A heavy snow began to descend, and night soon afterward came on. On
this, I stopped and made a fire; and stripping a tree of its sheet of
bark, lay down under it to shelter me from the snow. All night, at small
distances, the wolves howled around, and to me seemed to be acquainted
with my misfortune.
Amid thoughts the most distracted, I was able at length to fall asleep;
but it was not long before I awoke, refreshed, and wondering at the
terror to which I had yielded myself. That I could really have wanted
the means of recovering my way, appeared to me almost incredible, and
the recollection of it like a dream, or as a circumstance which must
have proceeded from the loss of my senses. Had this not happened, I
could never, as I now thought, have suffered so long, without calling to
mind the lessons which I had received from my Indian friend, for the
very purpose of being useful to me in difficulties of this kind. These
were, that, generally speaking, the tops of pine trees lean toward the
rising of the sun; that moss grows toward the roots of trees on the side
which faces the north; and that the limbs of trees are most numerous,
and largest on that which faces the south.
Determined to direct my feet by these marks, and persuaded that I should
thus, sooner or later, reach lake Michigan, which I reckoned to be
distant about sixty miles, I began my march at break of day. I had not
taken, nor wished to take, any nourishment since I left the encampment;
I had with me my gun and ammunition, and was therefore under no anxiety
in regard to food. The snow lay about half a foot in depth.
My eyes were now employed upon the trees. When their tops leaned
different ways, I looked to the moss, or to the branches; and by
connecting one with another, I found the means of traveling with some
degree of confidence. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the sun, to my
inexpressible joy, broke from the clouds, and I had now no further need
of examining the trees.
In going down the side of a lofty hill, I saw a herd of red deer
approaching. Desirous of killing one of them for food, I hid myself in
the bushes, and on a large one coming near, presented my piece, which
missed fire, on account of the priming having been wetted. The animals
walked along, without taking the least alarm; and, having re-loaded my
gun, I followed them, and presented a second time. But now a disaster of
the heaviest kind had befallen me; for, on attempting to fire, I found
that I had lost the cock. I had previously lost the screw by which it
was fastened to the lock; and to prevent this from being lost also, I
had tied it in its place, with a leather string. The lock, to prevent
its catching in the boughs, I had carried under my molton coat.
Of all the sufferings which I had experienced, this seemed to me the
most severe. I was in a strange country, and knew not how far I had to
go. I had been three days without food; I was without the means of
procuring myself either food or fire. Despair had almost overpowered me;
but I soon resigned myself into the hands of that Providence, whose arm
had so often saved me, and returned on my track, in search of what I had
lost. My search was in vain, and I resumed my course, wet, cold, and
hungry, and almost without clothing.
The sun was setting fast, when I descended a hill, at the bottom of
which was a small lake, entirely frozen over. On drawing near, I saw a
beaver lodge in the middle, offering some faint prospect of food; but I
found it already broken up. While I looked at it, it suddenly occurred
to me that I had seen it before; and turning my eyes round the place, I
discovered a small tree which I had myself cut down, in the autumn,
when, in company with my friends, I had taken the beaver. I was no
longer at a loss, but knew both the distance and the route to the
encampment. The latter was only to follow the course of a small stream
of water, which ran from the encampment to the lake on which I stood. An
hour before, I had thought myself the most miserable of men; and now I
leaped for joy, and called myself the happiest.
The whole of the night, and through all the succeeding day, I walked up
the rivulet, and at sunset reached the encampment, where I was received
with the warmest expressions of pleasure by the family, by whom I had
been given up for lost, after a long and vain search for me in the
woods.
Some days elapsed, during which I rested myself, and recruited my
strength; after this, I resumed the chase, secure that, as the snow had
now fallen, I could always return by the way I went.
In the course of the month of January, I happened to observe that the
trunk of a large pine tree was much torn by the claws of a bear, made
both in going up and down. On further examination, I saw that there was
a large opening in the upper part, near which the smaller branches were
broken. From these marks, and from the additional circumstance that
there were no tracks on the snow, there was reason to believe that a
bear lay concealed in the tree.
On returning to the lodge, I communicated my discovery; and it was
agreed that all the family should go together in the morning, to assist
in cutting down the tree, the girth of which was not less than three
fathoms. The women at first opposed the undertaking, because our axes,
being only of a pound and a half weight, were not well adapted to so
heavy a labor; but the hope of finding a large bear, and obtaining from
its fat a great quantity of oil, an article at the time much wanted, at
length prevailed.
Accordingly, in the morning, we surrounded the tree, both men and women,
as many at a time as could conveniently work at it; and here we toiled
like beavers till the sun went down. This day's work carried us about
half way through the trunk; and the next morning we renewed the attack,
continuing it until about two o'clock in the afternoon, when the tree
fell to the ground. For a few minutes, every thing remained quiet, and I
feared that all our expectations were disappointed; but as I advanced to
the opening, there came out, to the great satisfaction of all our party,
a bear of extraordinary size, which, before she had proceeded many
yards, I shot.
The bear being dead, all my assistants approached, and all, but more
particularly my old mother, (as I was wont to call her,) took her head
in her hands, stroking and kissing it several times; begging a thousand
pardons for taking away her life; calling her their relation and
grandmother; and requesting her not to lay the fault upon them, since it
was truly an Englishman that had put her to death.
This ceremony was not of long duration; and if it was I that killed
their grandmother, they were not themselves behindhand in what remained
to be performed. The skin being taken off, we found the fat in several
places six inches deep. This being divided into two parts, loaded two
persons; and the flesh parts were as much as four persons could carry.
In all, the carcass must have exceeded five hundred weight.
As soon as we reached the lodge, the bear's head was adorned with all
the trinkets in the possession of the family, such as silver arm bands
and wrist bands, and belts of wampum, and then laid upon a scaffold, set
up for its reception, within the lodge. Near the nose was placed a large
quantity of tobacco.
The next morning no sooner appeared than preparations were made for a
feast to the manes. The lodge was cleaned and swept; and the head of the
bear lifted up, and a new stroud blanket, which had never been used
before, spread under it. The pipes were now lit; and Wawatam blew
tobacco smoke into the nostrils of the bear, telling me to do the same,
and thus appease the anger of the bear, on account of my having killed
her. I endeavored to persuade my benefactor and friendly adviser that
she no longer had any life, and assured him that I was under no
apprehension from her displeasure; but the first proposition obtained no
credit, and the second gave but little satisfaction.
At length, the feast being ready, Wawatam commenced a speech, resembling
in many things his address to the manes of his relations and departed
companions; but having this peculiarity, that he here deplored the
necessity under which men labored thus to destroy their _friends_. He
represented, however, that the misfortune was unavoidable, since without
doing so they could by no means subsist. The speech ended, we all ate
heartily of the bear's flesh; and even the head itself, after remaining
three days on the scaffold, was put into the kettle.
It is only the female bear that makes her winter lodging in the upper
parts of trees, a practice by which the young are secured from the
attacks of wolves and other animals. She brings forth in the winter
season; and remains in her lodge till the cubs have gained some
strength.
The male always lodges in the ground, under the roots of trees. He takes
to this habitation as soon as the snow falls, and remains there until it
has disappeared. The Indians remark that the bear comes out in the
spring with the same fat which he carried in in the autumn, but after
exercise of only a few days becomes lean. Excepting for a short part of
the season, the male lives constantly alone.
The fat of our bear was melted down, and the oil filled six porcupine
skins. A part of the meat was cut into strips and fire-dried, after
which it was put into the vessels containing the oil, where it remained
in perfect preservation until the middle of summer.
February, in the country and by the people where and among whom I was,
is called the Moon of Hard or Crusted Snow; for now the snow can bear a
man, or at least dogs, in pursuit of animals of the chase. At this
season, the stag is very successfully hunted, his feet breaking through
at every step, and the crust upon the snow cutting his legs with its
sharp edges to the very bone. He is consequently, in this distress, an
easy prey; and it frequently happened that we killed twelve in the short
space of two hours. By this means we were soon put into possession of
four thousand weight of dried venison, which was to be carried on our
backs, along with all the rest of our wealth, for seventy miles, the
distance of our encampment from that part of the lake shore at which in
the autumn we left our canoes. This journey it was our next business to
perform.
Our venison and furs and peltries were to be disposed of at
Michilimackinac, and it was now the season for carrying them to market.
The women, therefore, prepared our loads; and the morning of departure
being come, we set off at daybreak, and continued our march till two
o'clock in the afternoon. Where we stopped, we erected a scaffold, on
which we deposited the bundles we had brought, and returned to our
encampment, which we reached in the evening. In the morning, we carried
fresh loads, which being deposited with the rest, we returned a second
time in the evening. This we repeated till all was forwarded one stage.
Then, removing our lodge to the place of deposit, we carried our goods,
with the same patient toil, a second stage; and so on, till we were at
no great distance from the shores of the lake.
Arrived here, we turned our attention to sugar making, the management of
which, as I have before related, belongs to the women, the men cutting
wood for the fires, and hunting and fishing. In the midst of this, we
were joined by several lodges of Indians, most of whom were of the
family to which I belonged, and had wintered near us. The lands belonged
to this family, and it had, therefore, the exclusive right to hunt on
them. This is according to the custom of the people; for each family has
its own lands. I was treated very civilly by all the lodges.
Our society had been a short time enlarged by this arrival of our
friends, when an accident occurred which filled the whole village with
anxiety and sorrow. A little child, belonging to one of our neighbors,
fell into a kettle of boiling syrup. It was instantly snatched out, but
with little hope of its recovery.
So long, however, as it lived, a continual feast was observed; and this
was made to the Great Spirit and Master of Life, that he might be
pleased to save and heal the child. At this feast I was a constant
guest; and often found difficulty in eating the large quantity of food
which, on such occasions as these, is put upon each man's dish. The
Indians accustom themselves both to eat much and to fast much with
facility.
Several sacrifices were also offered; among which were dogs, killed and
hung upon the tops of poles, with the addition of stroud blankets and
other articles. These also were given to the Great Spirit, in humble
hope that he would give efficacy to the medicines employed.
The child died. To preserve the body from the wolves, it was placed upon
a scaffold, where it remained till we went to the lake, on the border of
which was the burial ground of the family.
On our arrival there, which happened in the beginning of April, I did
not fail to attend the funeral. The grave was made of a large size, and
the whole of the inside lined with birch bark. On the bark was laid the
body of the child, accompanied with an axe, a pair of snow shoes, a
small kettle, several pairs of common shoes, its own strings of beads,
and because it was a girl, a carrying belt and a paddle. The kettle was
filled with meat.
All this was again covered with bark; and at about two feet nearer the
surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so
that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse.
The last act before the burial performed by the mother, crying over the
dead body of her child, was that of taking from it a lock of hair for a
memorial. While she did this I endeavored to console her, by offering
the usual arguments: that the child was happy in being released from the
miseries of this present life, and that she should forbear to grieve,
because it would be restored to her in another world, happy and
everlasting. She answered that she knew it, and that by the lock of hair
she should discover her daughter, for she would take it with her. In
this she alluded to the day when some pious hand would place in her own
grave, along with the carrying belt and paddle, this little relic,
hallowed by maternal tears.
I have frequently inquired into the ideas and opinions of the Indians in
regard to futurity, and always found that they were somewhat different
in different individuals.
Some suppose their souls to remain in this world, although invisible to
human eyes; and capable, themselves, of seeing and hearing their
friends, and also of assisting them, in moments of distress and danger.
Others dismiss from the mortal scene the unembodied spirit, and send it
to a distant world or country, in which it receives reward or
punishment, according to the life which it has led in its prior state.
Those who have lived virtuously, are transported into a place abounding
with every luxury, with deer and all other animals of the woods and
water, and where the earth produces, in their greatest perfection, all
its sweetest fruits. While, on the other hand, those who have violated
or neglected the duties of this life, are removed to a barren soil,
where they wander up and down, among rocks and morasses, and are stung
by gnats as large as pigeons.
While we remained on the border of the lake, a watch was kept every
night, in the apprehension of a speedy attack from the English, who were
expected to avenge the massacre of Michilimackinac. The immediate
grounds of this apprehension were the constant dreams, to this effect,
of the more aged women. I endeavored to persuade them that nothing of
the kind would take place; but their fears were not to be subdued.
Amid these alarms, there came a report concerning a real, though less
formidable enemy discovered in our neighborhood. This was a panther,
which one of our young men had seen, and which animal sometimes attacks
and carries away the Indian children. Our camp was immediately on the
alert, and we set off into the woods, about twenty in number. We had not
proceeded more than a mile before the dogs found the panther, and
pursued him to a tree, on which he was shot. He was of a large size.
On the twenty-fifth of April, we embarked for Michilimackinac. At La
Grande Traverse we met a large party of Indians, who appeared to labor,
like ourselves, under considerable alarm; and who dared proceed no
further, lest they should be destroyed by the English. Frequent councils
of the united bands were held; and interrogations were continually put
to myself as to whether or not I knew of any design to attack them. I
found that they believed it possible for me to have a foreknowledge of
events, and to be informed by dreams of all things doing at a distance.
Protestations of my ignorance were received with but little
satisfaction, and incurred the suspicion of a design to conceal my
knowledge. On this account, therefore, or because I saw them tormented
with fears which had nothing but imagination to rest upon, I told them,
at length, that I knew there was no enemy to insult them; and that they
might proceed to Michilimackinac without danger from the English. I
further, and with more confidence, declared, that if ever my countrymen
returned to Michilimackinac I would recommend them to their favor, on
account of the good treatment which I had received from them. Thus
encouraged, they embarked at an early hour the next morning. In crossing
the bay we experienced a storm of thunder and lightning.
Our port was the village of L'Arbre Croche, which we reached in safety,
and where we staid till the following day. At this village we found
several persons who had been lately at Michilimackinac, and from them
we had the satisfaction of learning that all was quiet there. The
remainder of our voyage was therefore performed with confidence.
In the evening of the twenty-seventh we landed at the fort, which now
contained only two French traders. The Indians who had arrived before us
were very few in number; and by all, who were of our party, I was used
very kindly. I had the entire freedom both of the fort and camp.
Wawatam and myself settled our stock, and paid our debts; and this done,
I found that my share of what was left consisted in a hundred beaver
skins, sixty raccoon skins, and six otter, of the total value of about
one hundred and sixty dollars. With these earnings of my winter's toil I
proposed to purchase clothes, of which I was much in need, having been
six months without a shirt; but, on inquiring into the prices of goods,
I found that all my means would not go far. I was able, however, to buy
two shirts, at ten pounds of beaver each; a pair of _leggins_, or
pantaloons, of scarlet cloth, which, with the ribbon to garning them
_fashionably_, cost me fifteen pounds of beaver; a blanket, at twenty
pounds of beaver; and some other articles, at proportionable rates. In
this manner my wealth was soon reduced; but not before I had laid in a
good stock of ammunition and tobacco. To the use of the latter I had
become much attached during the winter. It was my principal recreation
after returning from the chase; for my companions in the lodge were
unaccustomed to pass the time in conversation. Among the Indians the
topics of conversation are but few, and limited, for the most part, to
the transactions of the day, the number of animals which they have
killed, and of those which have escaped their pursuit, and other
incidents of the chase. Indeed, the causes of taciturnity among the
Indians may be easily understood, if we consider how many occasions of
speech, which present themselves to us, are utterly unknown to them; the
records of history, the pursuits of science, the disquisitions of
philosophy, the systems of politics, the business and the amusements of
the day, and the transactions of the four corners of the world.
Eight days had passed in tranquillity, when there arrived a band of
Indians from the bay of Saguenaum. They had assisted at the siege of
Detroit, and came to muster as many recruits for that service as they
could. For my own part, I was soon informed that, as I was the only
Englishman in the place, they proposed to kill me, in order to give
their friends a mess of English broth to raise their courage.
This intelligence was not of the most agreeable kind; and in consequence
of receiving it, I requested my friend to carry me to the Sault de
Saint-Marie, at which place I knew the Indians to be peaceably inclined,
and that M. Cadotte enjoyed a powerful influence over their conduct.
They considered M. Cadotte as their chief; and he was not only my
friend, but a friend to the English. It was by him that the Chippeways
of Lake Superior were prevented from joining Pontiac.