At the conclusion of this interview, I gave him a small sea-shell from

my cabinet, as a mark of my respect, and a token which would remind him

of my advice. I remembered that the Indians of the continent have always

set a high value on wampum, which is made solely from sea-shells, and

have attributed a kind of sacredness for this class of productions.

_31st. Indian Mythology_.--Nothing has surprised me more in the

conversations which I have had with persons acquainted with the Indian

customs and character, than to find that the Chippewas amuse themselves

with oral tales of a mythological or allegorical character. Some of

these tales, which I have heard, are quite fanciful, and the wildest of

them are very characteristic of their notions and customs. They often

take the form of allegory, and in this shape appear designed to teach

some truth or illustrate some maxim. The fact, indeed, of such a fund of

fictitious legendary matter is quite a discovery, and speaks more for

the intellect of the race than any trait I have heard. Who would have

imagined that these wandering foresters should have possessed such a

resource? What have all the voyagers and remarkers from the days of

Cabot and Raleigh been about, not to have discovered this curious trait,

which lifts up indeed a curtain, as it were, upon the Indian mind, and

exhibits it in an entirely new character?

_August 1st_. Every day increases the interest which the question of the

investigation of the Indian languages and customs assumes in my mind. My

facilities for pursuing these inquiries and for the general transaction

of the official business has been increased this day by my removing into

a new and more convenient office, situated some ninety or a hundred

yards west of my former position, but on a line with it, and fronting,

like the former room, on an ancient green on the river's banks. The St.

Mary's River is here about three-fourths of a mile wide, and the green

in front of my office is covered with Indian lodges, and presents a

noble expanse. I have now a building some thirty-six feet square, built

of squared timber, jointed with mortar and whitewashed, so as to give it

a neat appearance. The interior is divided into a room some twenty feet

by thirty-six, with two small ante-rooms. A large cast iron Montreal

stove, which will take in three feet wood, occupies the centre. The

walls are plastered, and the room moderately lighted. The rear of the

lot has a blacksmith shop. The interpreter has quarters near by. The

gate of the new cantonment is some three hundred yards west of my door,

and there is thus brought within a small compass the means of

transacting the affairs of the agency during the approaching and

expected severe winter. These are the best arrangements that can be

made, better indeed than I had reason to expect on first landing here.

_3d_. I wrote to-day to Dr. Hosack, expressing my thanks for the extract

of a letter, which he had enclosed me from Sir Humphrey Davy, dated

London, March 24th, 1822, in which this eminent philosopher expresses

his opinion on my _Narrative Journal_, a copy of which Dr. Hosack had

sent him. "Schoolcraft's _Narrative_ is admirable," observes Sir

Humphrey Davy, "both for the facts it develops, and for the simplicity

and clearness of the details. He has accomplished great things by such

means, and offers a good model for a traveler in a new country. I lent

his book to our veteran philosophical geographer, Major Kennel, who was

highly pleased with it. Copies of it would sell well in England."

A friend sends me a prospectus for a paper under the title of

"_Washington Republican_," which has just been established at the seat

of government, earnestly advocating the election of John C. Calhoun for

the presidency in 1824.

_4th_. A chief of a shrewd and grave countenance, and more than the

ordinary cast of thought, visited me this morning, and gave me his hand,

with the ordinary salutation of Nosa (my father). The interpreter

introduced him by the name of Little Pine, or Shingwalkonee, and as a

person of some consequence among the Indians, being a meta, a wabeno, a

counselor, a war chief, and an orator or speaker. He had a tuft of beard

on his chin, wore a hat, and had some other traits in his dress and gear

which smacked of civilization. His residence is stated to be, for the

most part, on the British side of the river, but he traces his lineage

from the old Crane band here. I thought him to be a man of more than the

ordinary Indian forecast. He appeared to be a person who, having seen

all the military developments on these shores during the last month,

thought he would cross over the channel with a retinue, to see what the

Chemoquemon [20] was about. He had also, perhaps, a shrewd Indian inkling

that some presents might be distributed here during the season.

[Footnote 20: Chemoquemon, an American; from _Gitchee_ great, _moquemon_

a knife.]

_10th_. A strange-looking Indian came in from the forest wearing an

American silver medal. He looked haggard and forsaken. It will be

recollected by those who have read my _Narrative Journal_ of the

expedition of 1820, that Governor Cass became lost and entangled among

the sharp mountainous passes of the River Ontonagon, in his attempts to

reach the party who had, at an early part of the day, gone forward to

the site of the Copper Rock; and that he bestowed a medal on a young

Chippewa, who had rendered his party and himself services during its

stay on that river. This individual was among the earlier visitors who

presented himself at my office. He recognized me as one of the party on

that occasion. He was introduced to me by the name of Wabish-ke-pe-nace,

or the White Bird, and seemed to rouse up from a settled look of

melancholy when referring to those events. It appears that his conduct

as a guide on that occasion had made him unpopular with the band, who

told him he had received an honor for that which should be condemned.

That it was a crime to show the Americans their wealth, and the Great

Spirit did not approve it. His dress had something wild and forlorn, as

well as his countenance.

_17th_. A week or two ago, an Indian, called Sa-ne-baw, or the Ribbon,

who encamped on the green in front of my office, fell sick. I requested

Dr. Wheaton to visit him, but it did not appear that there was any

disease of either an acute or chronic character which could be

ascertained. The man seemed to be in a low desponding state. Some small

medicines were administered, but he evinced no symptoms of restoration.

He rather appeared to be pining away, with some secret mental canker.

The very spirit of despair was depicted in his visage. Young Wheaton, a

brother of the Doctor, and Lieutenant C. Morton, United States Army,

visited him daily in company, with much solicitude; but no effort to

rally him, physically or mentally, was successful, and he died this

morning. "He died," said the former to me, "because he _would_ die." The

Indians seem to me a people who are prone to despond, and easily sink

into frames of despair.

I received a letter to-day from the veteran geographer, Mr. W. Darby, of

Philadelphia, brought by the hands of a friend, a Mr. Toosey, through

whom he submitted to me a list of geographical and statistical queries

relating to some generic points, which he is investigating in connection

with his forthcoming Gazetteer of the United States.

CHAPTER XII.

A pic-nic party at the foot of Lake Superior--Canoe--Scenery--Descent of

St. Mary's Falls--Etymology of the Indian names of Sault Ste. Marie, and

Lake Superior--The wild rice plant--Indian trade--American Fur

Company--Distribution of presents--Death of Sassaba--Epitaph--Indian

capacity to count--Oral literature--Research--Self-reliance.

1822. _August 20th_. I Went with a pic-nic to Gross Cape, a romantic

promontory at the foot of Lake Superior. This elevation stands on the

north shore of the straits, and consequently in Canada. It overlooks a

noble expanse of waters and islands, constituting one of the most

magnificent series of views of American scenery. Immediately opposite

stands the scarcely less elevated, and not less celebrated promontory of

Point Iroquois, the Na-do-wa-we-gon-ing, or Place of Iroquois Bones, of

the Chippewas. These two promontories stand like the pillars of Hercules

which guard the entrance into the Mediterranean, and their office is to

mark the foot of the mighty Superior, a lake which may not, inaptly, be

deemed another Mediterranean Sea. The morning chosen to visit this scene

was fine; the means of conveyance chosen was the novel and fairy-like

barque of the Chippewas, which they denominate _Che-maun_, but which we,

from a corruption of a Charib term as old as the days of Columbus, call

_Canoe_. It is made of the rind of the betula papyracea, or white birch,

sewed together with the fine fibrous roots of the cedaror spruce, and is

made water-tight by covering the seams with boiled pine rosin, the whole

being distended over and supported by very thin ribs and cross-bars of

cedar, curiously carved and framed together. It is turned up, at either

end, like a gondola, and the sides and gunwales fancifully painted. The

whole structure is light, and was easily carried by two men on their

shoulders; yet will bear a weight of more than a ton on the water. It is

moved with cedar paddles, and the Canadians who managed it, kept time in

their strokes, and regulated them to the sonorous cadence of some of

their simple boat songs. Our party consisted of several ladies and

gentlemen. We carried the elements of a pic-nic. We moved rapidly. The

views on all sides were novel and delightful. The water in which the men

struck their paddles was pure as crystal. The air was perfectly

exhilarating from its purity. The distance about three leagues. We

landed a few moments at Point aux Pins, to range along the clean sandy

shore, and sandy plains, now abounding in fine whortleberries. Directly

on putting out from this, the broad view of the entrance into the lake

burst upon us. It is magnificent. A line of blue water stretched like a

thread on the horizon, between cape and cape, say five miles. Beyond it

is what the Chippewas call _Bub-eesh-ko-be,_ meaning the far off,

indistinct prospect of a water scene, till the reality, in the feeble

power of human vision, loses itself in the clouds and sky. The two

prominences of Point Iroquois and Gross Cape are very different in

character. The former is a bold eminence covered with trees, and having

all the appearance of youth and verdure. The latter is but the end, so

to say, of a towering ridge of dark primary rocks with a few stunted

cedars. The first exhibits, on inspection, a formation of sandstone and

reproduced rocks, piled stratum super stratum, and covered with boulder

drifts and alluvion. The second is a massive mountain ridge of the

northern sienite, abounding in black crystaline hornblende, and flanked

at lower altitudes, in front, in some places, by a sort of trachyte. We

clambered up and over the bold undulations of the latter, till we were

fatigued. We stood on the highest pinnacle, and gazed on the "blue

profound" of Superior, the great water or Gitchegomee of the Indians. We

looked down far below at the clean ridges of pebbles, and the

transparent water. After gazing, and looking, and reveling in the wild

magnificence of views, we picked our way, crag by crag, to the shore,

and sat down on the shining banks of black, white, and mottled pebbles,

and did ample justice to the contents of our baskets of good things.

This always restores one's spirits. We forget the toil in the present

enjoyment. And having done this, and giving our last looks at what has

been poetically called the Father of Lakes, we put out, with paddles and

song, and every heart beating in unison with the scene, for our

starting-point at Bá-wa-teeg, or Pa-wa-teeg, alias Sault Ste. Marie. But

the half of my story would not be told, if I did not add that, as we

gained the brink of the rapids, and began to feel the suction of the

wide current that leaps, jump after jump, over that foaming bed, our

inclinations and our courage rose together to go down the formidable

pass; and having full faith in the long-tried pilotage of our guide, Tom

Shaw, down we went, rushing at times like a thunderbolt, then turned by

a dab of the pole of our guide, on a rock, shooting off in eschelon, and

then careering down another _schute_, or water bolt, till we thus dodged

every rock, and came out below with a full roaring chorus of our

Canadians, who, as they cleared the last danger, hoisted our starry flag

at the same moment that they struck up one of their wild and

joyous, songs.

_22d_. I have questioned the Indians closely for the names of Sault Ste.

Marie and Lake Superior. They are destined to hold an important rank in

our future geography. But the result is not agreeable to preconceived

poetic notions. When the French first came to these falls, they found

the Chippewas, the falls signifying, descriptively, Shallow water

pitching over rocks, or by a prepositional form of the term, at the

place of shallow water, pitching over rocks. Such is the meaning of the

words Pa-wa-teeg and Pa-wa-ting. The terms cover more precisely the idea

which we express by the word cascade. The French call a cascade a Leap

or Sault; but Sault alone would not be distinctive, as they had already

applied the term to some striking passes on the St. Lawrence and other

places. They therefore, in conformity with their general usage, added

the name of a patron saint to the term by calling it Sault de Ste.

Marie, i.e. Leap of Saint Mary, to distinguish it from other Leaps, or

Saults. Now as the word Sainte, as here used, is feminine, it must, in

its abbreviated form, be written Ste. The preposition _de_ (the) is

usually dropped. Use has further now dropped the sound of the letter _l_

from Sault. But as, in the reforms of the French dictionary, the ancient

geographical names of places remain unaffected, the true phraseology is

SAULT STE. MARIE.

Having named the falls a _Sault_, they went a step further, and called

the Odjibwa Indians who lived at it, _Saulteurs,_ or People of the

Sault. Hence this has ever remained the French name for Chippewas.

In the term Gitchegomee, the name for Superior, we have a specimen of

their mode of making compounds. _Gitche_ signifies something great, or

possessing the property of positive magnitude. _Gomee_ is itself a

compound phrase, denoting, when so conjoined, a large body of water. It

is the objective member of their term for the sea; but is governed by

its antecedent, and may be used in describing other and minor, even the

most minute liquid bodies, as we hear it, in the compound term

_mushkuagomee, i.e._ strong drink. Under the government of the term

_gitchee_, it appears to express simply the sense of great water, but

conveys the idea, to the Indian mind, of sea-water. I have cast about,

to find a sonorous form of elision, in which it may come into popular

use, but find nothing more eligible than _I-go-mee_, or _Igoma_. A more

practical word, in the shape of a new compound, may be made in Algoma, a

term in which the first syllable of the generic name of this tribe of

the Algonquin stock, harmonizes very well with the Indian idea of goma

(sea), giving us, Sea of the Algonquins. The term may be objected to, as

the result of a grammatical abbreviation, but if not adopted

practically, it may do as a poetical synonym for this great lake. Such

is, at least, the result of a full discussion of these names, with the

very best speakers of the language.

_30th. The Wild Rice Plant_.--Having received a request for some of this

native grain to send abroad, and knowing that the smoked rice, such as

the Indians usually bring in, will not germinate, I this day dispatched

my interpreter in a canoe, with some Indians, to the northern shores of

the straits to gather some of it for seed; the result was successful.

This plant may be deemed a precious gift of nature to the natives, who

spread over many degrees of northern latitude. They call it _mon-ó-min_,

a compound descriptive phrase, which differs only from their name for

the zea maize in putting an _o_--the third syllable--for the imperative

future in _dau_.

_Sept. 1st. Indian Trade_.--Congress has provided a code of laws to

regulate this, the object of which is a good one, and the provisions of

the various enactments appear to be founded on the highest principles of

justice and benevolence. It is still a question, it appears to me,

whether some of these provisions do not merely sanction by the forms of

law what was formerly done, not always well, without it, and whether

the measure of protection which they afford to the tribes against the

cupidity of the whites is very efficacious. It was heretofore pretended

by the British traders that all this country belonged to Great Britain,

and they told the Indians that the war of 1812 would settle all this. It

did so; but, contrary to their wishes and the predictions to the

Indians, it settled it precisely on the basis of the treaty of 1783,

which ran the boundary line through the straits of Saint Mary's and Lake

Superior to the Lake of the Woods. As soon as the smoke of the war

cleared off, namely, in 1816, Congress enacted that British traders and

capital should be excluded from the American lines, that no British

subjects should receive licenses to trade, and that all such persons who

went inland in subordinate capacities should be bonded for by the

American traders who employed them. This law seemed to bear particularly

on this section of country, and is generally understood to have been

passed to throw the old North West Company, and other British traders,

trading on their own account, out of this hitherto very lucrative branch

of trade. John Jacob Astor, of New York, went immediately to Montreal

and bought out all the posts and factories of that company, situated in

the north-west, which were south of the lines. With these posts, the

factors, trading clerks, and men were, as a matter of course, cast on

the patronage and employment of that eminent German furrier. That he

might cover their employment, he sent an agent from Montreal into

Vermont to engage enterprising young men, in whose names the licenses

could be taken out. He furnished the entire capital for the trade, and

sent agents, in the persons of two enterprising young Scotch gentlemen,

from Montreal and New York to Michilimackinack, to manage the business.

This new arrangement took the popular name of the American Fur Company.

In other respects, except those related, the mode of transacting the

trade, and the real actors therein, remained very much as they were.

American lads, whose names were inscribed in the licenses at

Michilimackinack, as principals, went inland in reality to learn the

business and the language; the _engagees_, or boatmen, who were chiefly

Canadians or metifs, were bonded for, in five hundred dollars each. In

this condition, I found things on my arrival here. The very thin

diffusion of American feeling or principle in both the traders and the

Indians, so far as I have seen them, renders it a matter of no little

difficulty to supervise this business, and it has required perpetual

activity in examining the boats and outfits of the traders who have

received their licenses at Mackinack, to search their packages, to

detect contraband goods, _i.e._ ardent spirits, and grant licenses,

passports, and permits to those who have applied to me. To me it seems

that the whole old resident population of the frontiers, together with

the new accessions to it, in the shape of petty dealers of all sorts,

are determined to have the Indians' furs, at any rate, whether these

poor red men live or die; and many of the dealers who profess to obey

the laws wish to get legally inland only that they may do as they

please, law or no law, after they have passed the flag-staff of Sainte

Marie's. There may be, and I trust there _are_, higher motives in some

persons, but they have not passed this way, to my knowledge, the present

season. I detected one scamp, a fellow named Gaulthier, who had carried

by, and secreted above the portage, no less than five large kegs of

whisky and high wines on a small invoice, but a few days after my

arrival. It will require vigilance and firmness, and yet mildness, to

secure anything like a faithful performance of the duties committed to

me on a remote frontier, and with very little means of action beyond the

precincts of the post, and this depends much on the moral influence on

the Indian mind of the military element of power.

_6th. First Distribution of Presents_.--In fulfilment of a general

declaration of friendly purposes, made on my opening speech to the

Chippewas in July last, the entire home band of St. Mary's, men, women,

and children, were assembled on the green in front of my office, this

morning, to receive a small invoice of goods and merchandise, which were

distributed amongst them as presents. These goods were the best that

could be purchased in the Detroit market, and were all of the best

description; and they were received with a lively satisfaction, which

betokened well for my future influence. Prominent among the pleased

recipients were the chiefs of the village, Shin-ga-ba-was-sin, the Image

Stone, She-wa-be-ke-tone, the Man of Jingling Metals, Kau-ga-osh, or the

Bird in Eternal Flight, Way-ish-kee, or The First Born Son, and two or

three others of minor note. Behind them were the warriors and young men,

the matrons and maids; and peppered in, as it were, the children of all

ages. All were in their best attire. The ceremony began by lighting the

pipe, and having it passed by suitable officials to the chiefs and

warriors in due order, and by placing a pile of tobacco before them, for

general use, which the chiefs with great care divided and distributed,

not forgetting the lowest claimant. I then stated the principles by

which the agency would be guided in its intercourse with them, the

benevolence and justice of the views entertained by their great father,

the President, and his wishes to keep improper traders out of their

country, to exclude ardent spirits, and to secure their peace and

happiness in every practicable way. Each sentence, as it was rendered

into Indian, was received with the response of Hoh! an exclamation of

approbation, which is uttered feebly or loud, in proportion as the

matter is warmly or coldly approved. The chiefs responded. All looked

pleased; the presents were divided, and the assembly broke up in harmony

and good will. It _does_ seem that, according to the oriental maxim,[21]

a present is the readiest door to an Indian's heart.

[Footnote 21: "Let thy present go before thee."--Proverbs of Solomon.]

_25th_. The Indian mind appears to lack the mathematical element. It is

doubtful how far they can compute numbers. The Chippewas count

decimally, and after ten, add the names of the digits to the word ten,

up to twenty; then take the word for twenty, and add them as before, to

thirty; and so on to a hundred. They then add them to the term for a

hundred, up to a thousand.

They cannot be made to understand the value of an American dollar,

without reducing it to the standard of skins. A striking instance of

this kind happened among the Potowattomies at Chicago last year (1821).

The commanding officer had offered a reward of thirty dollars for the

apprehension of a deserter. The Potowattomies pursued and caught him,

and received a certificate for the reward. The question with them now

was, how much they had got. They wished to sell the certificate to a

trader, and there were five claimants. They sat down and counted off as

many racoon skins. They then made thirty equal heaps, substituting

symbols for skins. Taking the store price of a racoon at five skins to

the dollar, they then found they had received the equivalent of one

hundred and fifty racoons, and at this price they sold the order or

certificate.

_26th. Death of Sassaba,[22] or the Count_.--This chief, who has from the

day of our first landing here, rendered himself noted for his sentiments

of opposition to the Americans, met with a melancholy fate yesterday. He

was in the habit of using ardent spirits, and frequently rose from a

debauch of this kind of two or three days' continuance. Latterly he has

exhibited a singular figure, walking through the village, being divested

of every particle of clothing except a large gray wolf's skin, which he

had drawn over his body in such a manner as to let its tail dangle down

behind. It was in this unique costume that I last saw him, and as he was

a tall man, with rather prominent features, the spectacle was the more

striking. From this freak of dress he has been commonly called, for some

time, My-een-gun, or the Wolf. He had been drinking at Point aux Pins,

six miles above the rapids, with Odabit and some other boon companions,

and in this predicament embarked in his canoe, to come to the head of

the portage. Before reaching it, and while still in the strong tide or

suck of the current, he rose in his canoe for some purpose connected

with the sail, and tipped it over. Odabit succeeded in making land, but

the Count, his wife and child, and Odabit's wife, went over the rapids,

which was the last ever seen of them. Sassaba appeared to me to be a man

of strong feelings and an independent mind, not regarding consequences.

He had taken a deep prejudice against the Americans, from his brother

having been shot by his side in the battle under Tecumseh on the Thames.

This appeared to be the burden of his complaints. He was fond of

European dress, and articles of furniture. It was found that he had in

his tent, which was of duck, a set of silver tea and tablespoons,

knives, forks, cups and saucers, and a tea tray. Besides his military

coat, sword, and epaulets, and sash, which were presented to him, he had

some ruffled linen shirts, gloves, shoes and stockings, and an umbrella,

all of which were kept, however, in the spirit of a virtuoso, and he

took a pride in displaying these articles to visitors.

[Footnote 22: The word means finery.]

Many a more worthless man than Sassaba has had his epitaph, or elegiac

wreath, which may serve as an apology for the following lines:--

The Falls were thy grave, as they leapt mad along,

And the roar of their waters thy funeral song:

So wildly, so madly, thy people for aye,

Are rapidly, ceaselessly, passing away.

They are seen but a moment, then fade and are past,

Like a cloud in the sky, or a leaf in the blast;

The path thou hast trodden, thy nation shall tread,

Chief, warrior, and kin, to the _Land_ of the _Dead_;

And soon on the lake, or the shore, or the green,

Not a war drum shall sound, not a smoke shall be seen.

_27th. Oral Literature of the Indians_.--"I am extremely anxious,"

writes a friend, "that Mr. Johnston and his family should furnish full

and detailed answers to my queries, more particularly upon all subjects

connected with the language, and, if I may so speak, the polite

literature of the Chippewas (I write the word in this way because I am

apprehensive that the orthography is inveterately fixed, and not because

I suppose it is correct)[23]. There is no quarter from which I can expect

such full information upon these topics as from this. I must beg you to

aid me in the pursuit. Urge them during the long winter evenings to the

task. The time cannot be more profitably or pleasantly spent, and, as I

am told you are somewhat of an aboriginal scholar, you can assist them

with your advice and judgment. A perfect analysis of the language is a

great desideratum. I pray you, in the spring, to let me have the fruits

of their exertions."

[Footnote 23: I had written, announcing the word _Od-jib-wa_ to be the

true Indian pronunciation, and recommending its adoption.]

With a strong predisposition to these inquiries, with such additional

excitement to the work, and with the very highest advantages of

interpretation and no little fixity of application from boyhood, it must

go hard with me this winter if I do not fish up something from the well

of Indian researches and traditionary lore.

Go, student, search, and if thou nothing find,

Go search again; success is in the mind.--ALGON.

_28th. The right spirit, humble yet manful_.--A young man of purpose

and some talent, with considerable ambition, who is diligently seeking a

place in the world, writes me from Detroit to-day, in this strain: "True

it is, I have determined to pass the winter either in New York or

Washington, probably the latter place. But, my dear sir, my hope of

doing anything for myself in this world is the faintest possible, and I

begin to fatigue with the exertion. If I do not succeed this winter in

obtaining something permanent,[24] I shall probably settle down, either

in this place or somewhere in New York, _a poor devil!_--from all which,

and many other things, 'good Lord deliver us!' Farewell; my best wishes

be with you this winter, to keep you warm. I shall expect next spring to

see you an accomplished _nichee_" [25] [Në-jë].

[Footnote 24: He did succeed at W.]

[Footnote 25: A term signifying, in the Chippewa, _my friend_, but

popularly used at the time to some extent at Detroit to denote

an Indian.]

CHAPTER XIII.

My first winter at the foot of Lake Superior--Copper mines--White

fish--A poetic name for a fish--Indian tale--Polygamy--A

reminiscence--Taking of Fort Niagara--Mythological and allegorical tales

among the aborigines--Chippewa language--Indian vowels--A polite and a

vulgar way of speaking the language--Public worship--Seclusion from

the world.

1822. _Oct. 1st. Copper Mines of Lake Superior._--On the 8th of May

last, the Senate of the United States passed a resolution in

these words:--

"_Resolved_, that the President of the United States be requested to

communicate to the Senate, at the commencement of the next session of

Congress, any information which may be in the possession of the

government, derived from special agents or otherwise, showing the

number, value, and position of the copper mines on the south shore of

Lake Superior; the names of the Indian tribes who claim them; the

practicability of extinguishing their title, and the probable advantage

which may result to the Republic from the acquisition and working

these mines."

The resolution having been referred to me by the Secretary of War, I,

this day, completed and transmitted a report on the subject, embracing

the principal facts known respecting them, insisting on their value and

importance, and warmly recommending their further exploration and

working.[26]

[Footnote 26: See Public Doc. No. 365, 2d Sess., 17th Congress.]

_4th. White Fish Fishery_.--No place in America has been so highly

celebrated as a locality for taking this really fine and delicious fish,

as Saint Mary's Falls, or the _Sault_,[27] as it is more generally and

appropriately called. This fish resorts here in vast numbers, and is in

season after the autumnal equinox, and continues so till the ice begins

to run. It is worthy the attention of ichthyologists. It is a

remarkable, but not singular fact in its natural history, that it is

perpetually found in the attitude of ascent at these falls. It is taken

only in the swift water at the foot of the last leap or descent. Into

this swift water the Indians push their canoes. It requires great skill

and dexterity for this. The fishing canoe is of small size. It is

steered by a man in the stern. The fisherman takes his stand in the

bows, sometimes bestriding the light and frail vessel from gunwale to

gunwale, having a scoop-net in his hands. This net has a long slender

handle, ten feet or more in length. The net is made of strong twine,

open at the top, like an entomologist's. When the canoe has been run

into the uppermost rapids, and a school of fish is seen below or

alongside, he dexterously puts down his net, and having swooped up a

number of the fish, instantly reverses it in water, whips it up, and

discharges its contents into the canoe. This he repeats till his canoe

is loaded, when he shoots out of the tail of the rapids, and makes for

shore. The fish will average three pounds, but individuals are sometimes

two and three times that weight. It is shad-shaped, with well-developed

scales, easily removed, but has the mouth of the sucker, very small. The

flesh is perfectly white and firm, with very few bones. It is boiled by

the Indians in pure water, in a peculiar manner, the kettle hung high

above a small blaze; and thus cooked, it is eaten with the liquid for a

gravy, and is delicate and delicious. If boiled in the ordinary way, by

a low hung pot and quick fire, it is soft and comparatively flabby. It

is also broiled by the inhabitants, on a gridiron, after cutting it open

on the back, and brought on the table slightly browned. This must be

done, like a steak, quickly. It is the most delicious when immediately

taken from the water, and connoisseurs will tell you, by its taste at

the table, whether it is immediately from the water, or has lain any

time before cooking. It is sometimes made into small ovate masses,

dipped into batter, and fried in butter, and in this shape, it is called

_petite pâte._ It is also chowdered or baked in a pie. It is the great

resource of the Indians and the French, and of the poor generally at

these falls, who eat it with potatoes, which are abundantly raised here.

It is also a standing dish with all.

[Footnote 27: This word is pronounced as if written _so_, not _soo_. It

is a derivative, through the French, from the Latin _saltus_.]

_A Poetic Name for a Fish._--The Chippewas, who are ready to give every

object in creation, whose existence they cannot otherwise account for,

an allegorical origin, call the white fish _attikumaig_, a very curious

or very fanciful name, for it appears to be compounded of attik, a

reindeer, and the general compound _gumee_, or _guma_, before noticed,

as meaning water, or a liquid. To this the addition of the letter _g_

makes a plural in the animate form, so that the translation is _deer of

the water_, an evident acknowledgment of its importance as an item in

their means of subsistence. Who can say, after this, that the Chippewas

have not some imagination?

_Indian Tale_.--They have a legend about the origin of the white fish,

which is founded on the observation of a minute trait in its habits.

This fish, when opened, is found to have in its stomach very small white

particles which look like roe or particles of brain, but are, perhaps,

microscopic shells. They say the fish itself sprang from the brain of a

female, whose skull fell into these rapids, and was dashed out among the

rocks. A tale of domestic infidelity is woven with this, and the

denouement is made to turn on the premonition of a venerable crane, the

leading Totem of the band, who, having consented to carry the ghost of a

female across the falls on his back, threw her into the boiling and

foaming flood to accomplish the poetic justice of the tale.

_17th. Polygamy_.--This practice appears to be less common among the

Chippewas than the more westerly tribes. An instance of it came to my

notice to-day, in a complaint made by an Indian named Me-ta-koos-se-ga,

i.e. Smoking-Weed, or Pure Tobacco, who was living with two wives, a

mother and her daughter. He complained that a young woman whom he had

brought up had left his lodge, and taken shelter with the family of the

widow of a Canadian. It appears that the old fellow had been making

advances to this girl to become his _third wife_, and that she had fled

from his lodge to avoid his importunities.

_18th. Historical Reminiscences_.--This day sixty-three years ago,

General Wolf took Quebec, an event upon which hinged the fall of Canada.

That was a great historical era, and it is from this date, 1759, that we

may begin to date a change in the Indian policy of the country. Before

that time, the French, who had discovered this region of country and

established trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, were

acknowledged supreme by the natives. Since this event, the English rule

has been growing, and the allegiance of the tribes has been gradually

strengthened and fixed. It is not a light task to change habits of

political affiance, cemented by so many years. The object which is only

sought so far as the tribes fall within the American lines, may,

however, be attained by a mild, consistent, and persevering course of

policy. Time is a slow but sure innovator. A few years will carry the

more aged men, whose prejudices are strongest, to their graves. The

young are more pliant, and will see their interests in strengthening

their intercourse with the Americans, who can do so much to advance

them, and probably long before half another period of sixty-three years

is repeated, the Indians of the region will be as firmly attached to us

as they ever were to the French or the English.

Never to doubt, and never to despair,

Is to make acts what once but wishes were. ALGON.

_26th. Allegorical and Mythological Tales_.--"I shall be rejoiced,"

observed Governor C., in a letter of this day, in reply to my

announcement of having detected fanciful traditionary stories among the

Chippewas, "to receive any mythological stories to which you allude,

even if they are enough to rival old Tooke in his Pantheon." He had put

into my hands, at Detroit, a list of printed queries respecting the

Indians, and calls me to remember them, during my winter seclusion here,

with the knowledge of the advantages I possess in the well-informed

circle of the Johnston family.

_25th. Chippewa Language_.--There is clearly a polite and a vulgar way

of speaking the language. Tradition says that great changes have taken

place, and that these changes keep pace with the decline of the tribe

from their ancient standard of forest morals and their departure from

their ancient customs. However this may be, their actual vocabulary is

pretty full. Difficulties exist in writing it, from the want of an exact

and uniform system of notation. The vowels assume their short and

slender as well as broad sounds. The language appears to want entirely

the consonant sounds of f, l, r, v, and x. In conjugating their verbs,

the three primary tenses are well made out, but it is doubtful how much

exactitude exists in the forms given for the oblique and conditional

tenses. If it be true that the language is more corrupt now than at a

former age, it is important to inquire in what this corruption consists,

and how it came about. "To rescue it," I observe at the close of a

letter now on my table to his Excellency Governor C., transmitting him a

vocabulary of one hundred and fifty words, "To rescue it from that

oblivion to which the tribe itself is rapidly hastening, while yet it

may be attempted, with a prospect of success, will constitute a novel

and pleasing species of amusement during the long evenings of that

dreary cold winter of which we have already had a foretaste."

_31st. Public Worship_.--As Colonel Brady is about to leave the post for

the season, some conversation has been had about authorizing him to get

a clergyman to come to the post. It is thought that if such a person

would devote a part of his time as an instructor, a voluntary

subscription could be got among the citizens to supply the sum requisite

for his support. I drew up a paper with this view this morning, and

after handing it round, found the sum of _ninety-seven dollars_

subscribed--seventy-five dollars of which are by four persons. This is

not half the stipend of "forty pounds a year" that poor Goldsmith's

brother thought himself rich upon; and it is apprehended the colonel

will hardly find the inducement sufficient to elicit attention to so

very remote a quarter.

_Nov. 1st_. We have snow, cold, and chilly winds. On looking to the

north, there are huge piles of clouds hanging over Lake Superior. We may

say, with Burns,

"The wintry wind is gathering fast."

This is a holiday with the Canadian French--"All Saints." They appear as

lively and thoughtless as if all the saints in the calendar were to join

them in a dance. Well may it be said of them, "Where ignorance is bliss,

'tis folly to be wise."

_20th. Seclusion from the World realized_.--We are now shut out from the

world. The season of navigation has closed, the last vessel has

departed. Philosophers may write, and poets may sing of the charms of

solitude, but when the experiment comes to be tried, on a practical

scale, such as we are now, one and all, about to realize, theories and

fancies sink wonderfully in the scale. For some weeks past, everything

with the power of motion or locomotion has been exerting itself to quit

the place and the region, and hie to more kindly latitudes for the

winter. Nature has also become imperceptibly sour tempered, and shows

her teeth in ice and snows. _Man-kind_ and _bird-kind_ have concurred in

the effort to go. We have witnessed the long-drawn flight of swans,

brant, and cranes, towards the south. Singing birds have long since

gone. Ducks, all but a very few, have also silently disappeared, and

have probably gone to pick up spicy roots in the Susquehannah

or Altamaha.

Prescient in the changes of the season, they have been the first to go.

Men, who can endure greater changes and vicissitudes than all the animal

creation put together, have lingered longer; but at last one after

another has left Pa-wa-teeg, till all who _can_ go have gone. Col. Brady

did not leave his command till after the snow fell, and he saw them

tolerably "cantoned." The last vessel for the season has departed--the

last mail has been sent. Our population has been thinned off by the

departure of every temporary dweller, and lingering trader, and belated

visitor, till no one is left but the doomed and fated number whose duty

is here, who came here to abide the winter in all its regions, and who

cannot, on any fair principle or excuse, get away. They, and they alone,

are left to winter here. Of this number I am a resigned and willing

unit, and I have endeavored to prepare for the intellectual exigencies

of it, by a systematic study and analysis of the Indian language,

customs, and history, and character. My teachers and appliances are the

best. I have furnished myself with vocabularies and hand-books,

collected and written down, during the season. I have the post library

in my room, in addition to my own, with a free access to that of "mine

host" of the Emerald Isle, Mr. Johnston, to while away the time. My huge

Montreal stove will take long billets of wood, which, to use the

phraseology of Burns, "would mend a mill." The society of the officers

and their families of the garrison is at hand. The amusements of a

winter, in this latitude, are said to be rather novel, with their dog

trains and creole sleighs. There are some noble fellows of the old

"North West" order in the vicinity. There are thus the elements, at

least, of study, society, and amusement. Whatever else betide, I have

good health, and good spirits, and bright hopes, and I feel very much in

the humor of enjoying the wildest kind of tempests which Providence may

send to howl around my dwelling.

We have, as the means of exchanging sentiment, one English family of

refinement and education, on the American side of the river, and two

others, an English family and the Hudson Bay House in charge of a Scotch

gentleman, on the Canada shore. We have the officers attached to a

battalion of infantry, most of them married and having their ladies and

families with them, and about a dozen American citizens besides, engaged

in traffic and other affairs. These, with the resident _metif_

population of above 300 souls, and the adjacent Indian tribes,

constitute the world--the little isolated world--in which we must move

for six months to come. About fifty miles off, S.E., is the British post

of Drummond Island, and about forty west of the latter, the ancient

position and island settlement of Michilimackinack, that bugbear to

children in all our earlier editions of Webster's Spelling Book.

All the rest of the United States is a far-off land to us. For one, I

draw around my fire, get my table and chair properly located, and resort

to my books, and my Indian _ia-ne-kun-o-tau-gaid_ let the storm whistle

as it may.

_25th_. Zimmerman may write as much as he pleases about solitude. It is

all very well in one's study, by his stove, if it is winter, with a good

feather bed, and all comforts at hand; but he who would test his

theories should come _here_. It is a capital place, in the dead of

winter, for stripping poetic theories of their covering.

CHAPTER XIV.

Amusements during the winter months, when the temperature

is at the lowest point--Etymology of the word Chippewa--A

meteor--The Indian "fire-proof"--Temperature and weather--Chippewa

interchangeables--Indian names for the seasons--An incident in

conjugating verbs--Visiting--Gossip--The fur trade--Todd, McGillvray,

Sir Alexander Mackenzie--Wide dissimilarity of the English and Odjibwa

syntax--Close of the year.

_1822. December 1st_. We have now plunged into the depths of a boreal

winter. The blustering of tempests, the whistling of winds, and the

careering of snow drifts form the daily topics of remark. We must make

shift to be happy, with the most scanty means of amusement. Books and

studies must supply the most important item in this--at least, so far as

I am concerned.

It is observed by Dr. Johnson "that nothing can supply the want of

prudence, and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will

render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible." This

sententious apothegm is thrown out in contemplating the life of Savage,

one of the English poets who united some of the highest requisites of

genius with the lowest personal habits. But how much instruction does it

convey to all! It does not fall to the lot of all to have wit or genius,

or to be eminent in knowledge. None, however, who are not absolute

idiots are without some share of the one or the other. And in proportion

as these gifts are possessed, how fruitless, and comparatively useless

do they become, if not governed by prudence, assiduity, and regularity!

_3d_. The Indian tribes in this vicinity call themselves Ojibwäg. This

expression is in the plural number. It is rendered singular by taking

off the _g_. The letter _a_, in this word, is pronounced like _a_ in

hate, or _ey_ in obey. Chippewa--often written with a useless terminal

_y_--is the Anglicized pronunciation. The meaning of this seems obscure.

The final syllable _wä_, in compound words, stands for voice. In the

ancient Massachusetts language, as preserved by Eliot, in his

translation of the Bible, as in Isaiah xi. 14, Chepwoieu means the east.

What a curious subject for speculation the Indian language presents!

Since I began to dip into this topic, I have found myself irresistibly

carried forward in the inquiry, and been led to resume it, whenever the

calls of business or society have been intermitted. I have generally

felt, however, while pursuing it, like a mechanist who is required to

execute a delicate and difficult work without suitable implements.

Technical words may be considered as the working tools of inquiry, and

there seems to be a paucity of terms, in our common systems, to describe

such a many-syllabled, aggregated language as the Indian. I have been

sometimes half inclined to put my manuscripts in the fire, and to

exclaim with Dryden, respecting some metaphysical subject--

"I cannot bolt this matter to the bran."

It is not, however, the habitual temper of my mind to give up. "The

spider," it is said, "taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's

palaces;" and should a man have less perseverance than a _spider?_

_4th_. A meteor, or fire-ball, passed through the village at twilight

this evening. The weather, which has been intensely cold for the last

three days, indicates a change this evening. Meteoric phenomena of a

luminous character were universally referred to electricity, after

Franklin's day. Chemistry has since put forth reasons why several of

these phenomena should be attributed to phosphorus or hydrogen liberated

by decomposition.

_5th_. The Chippewa jugglers, or Jassakeeds, as they are called, have an

art of rendering their flesh insensible, probably for a short time, to

the effects of a blaze of fire. Robert Dickson told me that he had seen

several of them strip themselves of their garments, and jump into a

bonfire. Voltaire says, in his Essay on History, that rubbing the hand

for a long time with spirit of vitriol and alum, with the juice of an

onion, is stated to render it capable of enduring hot water

without injury.

_7th_. Acting as librarian for the garrison during the season, I am

privileged to fill up many of the leisure hours of my mornings and

evenings by reading. The difficulty appears to be, to read with such

reference to system as to render it profitable. History, novels,

voyages and travels, and various specific treatises of fancy or fact,

invite perusal, and like a common acquaintance, it requires some moral

effort to negative their claims. "Judgment," says a celebrated critic,

"is forced upon us by experience. He that reads many books must compare

one opinion, or one style with another, and when he compares must

necessarily distinguish, reject, prefer."

_Sunday 8th_. Quintilian says, "We palliate our sloth by the specious

pretext of difficulty." Nothing, in fact, is too difficult to

accomplish, which we set about, with a proper consideration of those

difficulties, and pursue with perseverance. The Indian language cannot

be acquired so easily as the Greek or Hebrew, but it can be mastered by

perseverance. Our Indian policy cannot be understood without looking at

the Indian history. The taking of Fort Niagara was the first decisive

blow at French power. Less than three months afterwards, that is, on the

18th of October of that year, General Wolf took Quebec. Goldsmith wrote

some stanzas on this event, eulogizing the heroism of the exploit.

England's consolation for the loss of Wolf is found in his heroic

example, which the poet refers to in his closing line,

"Since from thy tomb a thousand heroes rise."

_11th_. Names are the pegs of history. Velasco, it is said, on visiting

the gulf which receives the St. Lawrence, and finding the country cold

and inhospitable, cried out _aca nada_--"there is nothing here." This is

said to be the origin of the word Canada. Nothing could be more

improbable: Did the Indians of Canada hear him, and, if so, did they

understand or respect the language of a foreigner hovering on their

coast? We must look to the Iroquois for the origin of this word. Jacques

Cartier, in 1534, evidently mistook the Indian word Canada, signifying a

town, for the whole country. The Indians have no geographical terms for

districts. They name a hill, a river, or a fall, but do not deal in

generics. Some _à priori_ reasoning seems constrained, where the facts

are granted, as this: All animals at Nova Zembla, it is said, are

carnivorous, because there is no grass.

_12th_. Snow covers everything. We are shut out from the civilized

world, and thrown entirely on our own resources. I doubt, if we were in

Siberia, or Kamschatka, if we could be so completely isolated.

_13th_. Ellis, in one of his northern voyages, asserts the opinion that

the northern lights kindle and disperse the vapors requisite to the

formation of lightning. Hence there is no thunder in high northern

latitudes. We admit the fact, but doubt the reasoning. Vapor is but

water in a gaseous state. It is a fine medium for the exhibition of

electricity, and we cannot say that electricity exists without it.

_14th_. When Lucas Fox sailed to discover the north-west passage to

India, in 1631, he carried a letter from Charles the First to the

Emperor of Japan. Such was public information, in Europe, twenty-two

years after the discovery of the River Hudson, and the settlement of New

England, eleven years later.

_15th_. The state of the weather, during this month, has exhibited some

striking changes. The first three or four days were quite severe. On the

fifth it became mild, and continued so for eight or nine days. During

this time, nearly all the snow which had previously fallen was carried

off by rains, or the heat of the sun. The weather was so mild that I sat

in my office, on the 13th, without fire, for about two hours. Two

evenings previous, the snow fell from the roofs of buildings at nine

o'clock, and it continued thawing through the night. To day, the wind

has veered round to a northerly point, and the weather has resumed its

wintry temperature.

_22d_. The River St. Mary's froze over during the night of this day. The

stream had been closed below, for about a week previous.

_24th_. The Tartars cannot pronounce the letter _b_. Those of Bulgaria

pronounce the word blacks as if written Iliacs. The Chippewas in this

quarter usually transpose the _b_ and _p_ in English words. They

substitute _n_ for _l_, pronouncing Louis as if written Nouis. The

letter _r_ is dropped, or sounded _au_. _P_ is often substituted for

_f_, _b_ for _v_, and _ch_ for _j_. In words of their own language, the

letters _f, l, r, v_, and _x_, do not occur. The following are their

names for the seasons.

Pe-boan, Winter.

Se-gwun, Spring.

Ne-bin, Summer.

Ta-gwa-ge, Autumn.

Years are counted by winters, months by moons, and days by nights. There

are terms for morning, mid-day, and evening. The year consists of

thirteen moons, each moon being designated by a descriptive name, as the

moon of flowers (May), the moon of strawberries (June), the moon of

berries (July), &c. Canoe and tomahawk are not terms belonging to the

Chippewa language. From inquiries I think the former is of Carib origin,

and the latter Mohegan. The Chippewa equivalents are in the order

stated, Cheman and Agákwut.

_26th_. In going out to dinner at 3 o'clock, a sheet of paper containing

conjugations of verbs, which had cost me much time and questioning, had

fallen from my table. On returning in the evening, I found my dog,

Ponty, a young pet, had torn my care-bought conjugations into small

pieces. What was to be done? It was useless to whip the dog, and I

scarcely had the courage to commence the labor anew. I consequently did

neither; but gathering up the fragments, carefully soaked the gnawed and

mutilated parts in warm water, and re-arranged and sealed them together.

And before bedtime I had restored the manuscript so as to be

intelligibly read. I imposed this task upon myself, but, had it been

imposed by another, I would have been ready to pronounce him a madman.

_27th_. I devoted the day and evening in transcribing words into my

"Ojibwa Vocabulary." This is a labor requiring great caution. The

language is so concrete, that often, when I have supposed a word had

been dissected and traced to its root, subsequent attention has proved

it to be a compound. Thus verbs have been inserted with pronouns, or

with particles, indicating negation, or the past or future tense, when

it has been supposed they had been divested of these appendages. I am

now going over the work the third time. The simplest forms of the verb

seem to be the first and third persons singular of the imperative mood.

Ennui, in situations like the present, being isolated and shut up as it

were from the world, requires to be guarded against. The surest

preventive of it is employment, and diversity in employment. It has been

determined to-day to get up a periodical sheet, or _jeu d'esprit_

newspaper, to be circulated from family to family, commencing on the

first of January. Mrs. Thompson asked me for a name. I suggested the

"Northern Light." It was finally determined to put this into Latin, and

call it Aurora Borealis.

_28th_. Visits make up a part of the winter's amusements. We owe this

duty to society; but, like other duties, which are largely connected

with enjoyment, there is a constant danger that more time be given up to

it than is profitable. Conversation is the true index of feeling. We

read wise and grave books, but are not a whit better by them, than as

they introduce and fix in our minds such principles as shall shine out

in conversation or acts. Now were an ordinary social winter evening

party tested by such principles, what would a candid spectator judge to

have been the principal topics of reading or study? I remember once, in

my earlier years, to have passed an evening in a room where a number of

my intimate friends were engaged in playing at cards. As I did not play,

I took my seat at an office-table, and hastily sketched the conversation

which I afterwards read for their amusement. But the whole was in

reality a bitter satire on their language and sentiments, although it

was not so designed by me, nor received by them. I several years

afterwards saw the sketch of this conversation among my papers, and was

forcibly struck with this reflection.

Let me revert to some of the topics of conversation introduced in the

circles where I have visited this day, or in my own room. It is

Goldsmith, I think, who says that our thoughts take their tinge from

contiguous objects. A man standing near a volcano would naturally speak

of burning mountains. A person traversing a field of snow would feel his

thoughts occupied with polar scenes. Thus are we here thrown together.

Ice, snow, winds, a high range of the thermometer, or a driving tempest,

are the almost ever present topics of remark: and these came in for a

due share of the conversation to-day. The probability of the ice in the

river's breaking up the _latter part of April_, and the arrival of a

vessel at the post _early in May!_--the dissolution of the seventeenth

Congress, which must take place on the 4th of March, the character and

administration of Governor Clinton (which were eulogized), were

adverted to.

In the evening I went, by invitation, to Mr. Siveright's at the North

West House. The party was numerous, embracing most of the officers of

the American garrison, John Johnston, Esq., Mr. C.O. Ermatinger, a

resident who has accumulated a considerable property in trade, and

others. Conversation turned, as might have been expected, upon the topic

of the Fur Trade, and the enterprising men who established, or led to

the establishment of, the North West Company. Todd, Mackenzie, and

M'Gillvray were respectively described. Todd was a merchant of Montreal,

an Irishman by birth, who possessed enterprise, courage, address, and

general information. He paved the way for the establishment of the

Company, and was one of the first partners, but died untimely. He

possessed great powers of memory. His cousin, Don Andrew Todd, had the

monopoly of the fur trade of Louisiana.

M'Gillvray possessed equal capacity for the trade with Todd, united to

engaging, gentlemanly manners. He introduced that feature in the Company

which makes every clerk, at a certain time, a partner. This first

enabled them successfully to combat the Hudson's Bay Company. His

passions, however, carried him too far, and he was sometimes unjust.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie was at variance with M'Gillvray, and they never

spoke in each other's praise. Mackenzie commanded great respect from all

classes, and possessed a dignity of manners and firmness of purpose

which fitted him for great undertakings. He established the X.Y.

Company, in opposition to the North West.

_29th_. The days are still very short, the sun having but just passed

the winter solstice. We do not dine till four; Mr. Johnston, with whom I

take my meals, observing this custom, and it is dark within the coming

hour. I remained to family worship in the evening.

_30th_. Read the articles in the "Edinburgh Review" on Accum's work on

the adulteration of food, and Curran's Life by his Son. Accum, it is

said, came to England as an adventurer. By assiduity and attention, he

became eminent as an operative chemist, and accumulated a fortune.

Curran was also of undistinguished parentage. His mother, in youth,

seems to have judged rightly of his future talents.

Mr. Johnston returned me "Walsh's Appeal," which he had read at my

request, and expressed himself gratified at the ability with which the

subject is handled. Captain Clarke, an industrious reader on local and

general subjects, had come in a short time before. Conversation became

general and animated. European politics, Greece, Turkey, and Russia, the

state of Ireland, radicalism in England, the unhappy variance between

the king and queen, Charles Fox, &c., were successively the subjects of

remark. We adjourned to Mr. Johnston's.

In the evening I went into my office and wrote to Mr. Calhoun, the

Secretary of War, recommending Captain H.'s son William, for the

appointment of a cadet in the Military Academy.[28]

[Footnote 28: The appointment was made.]

_31st_. Devoted the day to the Indian language. It scarcely seems

possible that any two languages should be more _unlike_, or have fewer

points of resemblance, than the English and Ojibwa. If an individual

from one of the nomadic tribes of farther Asia were suddenly set down in

London, he could hardly be more struck with the difference in buildings,

dress, manners, and customs, than with the utter discrepance in the

sounds of words, and the grammatical structure of sentences. The Ojibwa

has this advantage, considered as the material of future improvement; it

is entirely homogeneous, and admits of philosophical principles being

carried out, with very few, if any, of those exceptions which so

disfigure English grammar, and present such appalling obstacles to

foreigners in learning the language.

On going to dine at the usual hour, I found company invited, among whom

were some gentlemen from Upper Canada. Conversation rolled on smoothly,

and embraced a wide range of topics. Some of the dark doings of the

North West Company, in their struggle for exclusive power in the Indian

country, were mentioned. Nobody appeared to utter a word in malice or

ill will. Dark and bright traits of individual character and conduct

floated along the stream of conversation, without being ruffled with a

breeze. In the evening I attended a party at the quarters of one of the

officers in the fort. Dancing was introduced. The evening passed off

agreeably till the hour of separation, which was a few minutes before

twelve. And thus closed the year eighteen hundred and twenty-two.

CHAPTER XV.

New Year's day among the descendants of the Norman

French--Anti-philosophic speculations of Brydone--Schlegel

on language--A peculiar native expression evincing

delicacy--Graywacke in the basin of Lake Superior--Temperature--Snow

shoes--Translation of Gen. i. 3--Historical reminiscences--Morals of

visiting--Ojibwa numerals--Harmon's travels--Mackenzie's

vocabularies--Criticism--Mungo Park.

_January 1st_. This is a day of hilarity here, as in New York. Gayety

and good humor appear on every countenance. Visiting from house to house

is the order. The humblest individual is expected to make his appearance

in the routine, and "has his claims allowed." The French custom of

salutation prevails. The Indians are not the last to remember the day.

To them, it is a season of privileges, although, alas! it is only the

privilege to beg. Standing in an official relation to them, I was

occupied in receiving their visits from eight o'clock till three. I

read, however, at intervals, Dr. Johnson's Lives of Rochester,

Roscommon, Otway, Phillips, and Walsh.

_2d_. Brydone, the traveler, says, on the authority of Recupero, a

priest, that in sinking a pit near Iaci in the region of Mount Etna,

they pierced through seven distinct formations of lava, with parallel

beds of earth interposed between each stratum. He estimates that two

thousand years were required to decompose the lava and form it into

soil, and consequently that fourteen thousand years were needed for the

whole series of formations. A little further on, he however furnishes

data, showing to every candid mind on what very vague estimates he had

before relied. He says the fertile district of Hybla was suddenly turned

to barrenness by an eruption of lava, and soon after restored to

fertility by a shower of ashes. The change which he had required two

thousand years to produce was here accomplished suddenly, and the whole

argument by which he had arrayed himself against the Mosaical

chronology overturned. Of such materials is a good deal of modern

pseudo-philosophy constructed.

I received, this morning, a number of mineralogical specimens from Mr.

Johnston, which had been collected by him at various times in the

vicinity. Among them were specimens of copper pyrites in quartz,

sulphate of strontian, foliated gypsum, and numerous calcareous

petrifactions. He also presented me a fine antler of the Caribo, or

American reindeer, a species which is found to inhabit this region. This

animal is called Addik by the Ojibwas. _Ik_ is a termination in the

Ojibwa denoting some hard substance.

_3d_. Forster, in his "History of Northern Voyages," mentions some facts

which appear to be adverse to Mr. Hayden's theory of a north-western

current. The height of islands observed by Fox, in the arctic regions,

was found to be greatest on their eastern sides, and they were depressed

towards the west. "This observation," he says, "seems to me to prove

that, when the sea burst impetuously into Hudson's Bay, and tore away

these islands from the main land, it must have come rushing from the

east and south-east, and have washed away the earth towards the west--a

circumstance which has occasioned their present low position."

_4th_. I read the review of Schlegel's "Treatise on the Sanscrit

Language." How far the languages of America may furnish coincidences in

their grammatical forms, is a deeply interesting inquiry. But thus

insulated, as I am, without books, the labor of comparison is, indeed,

almost hopeless! I must content myself, for the present, with furnishing

examples for others.

The Indians still continue their New Year's visits. Fresh parties or

families, who come in from the woods, and were not able to come on the

day, consider themselves privileged to present their claims. It should

not be an object of disappointment to find that the Indians do not, in

their ordinary intercourse, evince those striking traits of exalted and

disinterested character which we are naturally accustomed to expect from

reading books. Books are, after all, but men's holiday opinions. It

requires observation on real life to be able to set a true estimate upon

things. The instances in which an Indian is enabled to give proofs of a

noble or heroic spirit cannot be expected to occur frequently. In all

the history of the seaboard tribes there was but one Pocahontas, one

Uncas, and one Philip. Whereas, everyday is calling for the exercise of

less splendid, but more generally useful virtues. To spare the life of a

prisoner, or to relieve a friend from imminent peril, may give applause,

and carry a name down to posterity. But it is the constant practice of

every day virtues and duties, domestic diligence, and common sense, that

renders life comfortable, and society prosperous and happy. How much of

this everyday stamina the Indians possess, it would be presumptuous in

me, with so short an opportunity of observation, to decide. But I am

inclined to the opinion that their defect of character lies here.

Our express for Detroit, via Michilimackinack, set out at three o'clock

this morning, carrying some few short of a hundred letters. This, with

our actual numbers, is the best commentary on our insulated situation.

We divert ourselves by writing, and cling with a death-grasp, as it

were, to our friends and correspondents.

_5th. Gitche ie nay gow ge ait che gah_, "they have put the sand over

him" is a common expression among the Indians to indicate that a man is

dead and buried. Another mode, delicate and refined in its character, is

to suffix the inflection for perfect past tense, _bun_, to a man's name.

Thus Washington e bun would indicate that Washington is no more.

I read the Life of Pope. It is strange that so great a poet should have

been so great a lover of wealth; mammon and the muses are not often

conjointly worshiped. Pope did not excel in familiar conversation, and

few sallies of wit, or pointed observation, are preserved. The following

is recorded: "When an objection raised against his inscription for

Shakspeare was defended by the authority of Patrick, he replied,

'horresco referens,' that he would allow the publisher of a dictionary

to know the meaning of a single word, but not of two words put

together."

In the evening I read a number of the "London Literary Gazette," a

useful and interesting paper, which, in its plan, holds an intermediate

rank between a newspaper and a review. It contains short condensed

criticisms on new works, together with original brief essays and

anecdotes, and literary advertisements, which latter must render it a

valuable paper to booksellers. I think we have nothing on this plan, at

present, in the United States.

_6th_. I received a specimen of slaty graywacke from Lake Superior. The

structure is tabular, and very well characterized. If there be no

mistake respecting the locality, it is therefore certain that this rock

is included among the Lake Superior group.[29] It was not noticed in the

expedition of 1820. I also received a specimen of iron sand from _Point

aux Pins_.

[Footnote 29: I found graywacke _in sitû_ at Iron River, in Lake

Superior, in 1826, and subsequently at Presque Isle River, where it is

slaty, and fine even grained, and apparently suitable for some

economical uses.]

The thermometer has stood at 25° below zero a few days during the

season. It was noticed at 10° below, this morning. Notwithstanding the

decidedly wintry character of the day, I received a visit from Mr.

Siveright, a Canadian gentleman, who came across the expanse of ice on

snow shoes. I loaned him Silliman's "Travels in England and Scotland,"

feeling a natural desire to set off our countrymen, as authors and

travelers, to the best advantage. Mr. S., who has spent several years at

the north, mentioned that each of the Indian tribes has something

peculiar in the fashion of their snow shoes. The Chippewas form theirs

with acute points fore and aft, resembling two inverted sections of a

circle. The Crees make a square point in front, tapering away gradually

to the heel. The Chippewyans turn up the fore point, so that it may

offer less resistance in walking. Females have their snow shoes

constructed different from the men's. The difference consists in the

shape and size of the bows. The netting is more nicely wrought and

colored, and often ornamented, particularly in those worn by girls, with

tassels of colored worsted. The word "shoe," as applied to this

apparatus of the feet, is a complete _misnomer_. It consists of a

net-work of laced skin, extended between light wooden bows tied to the

feet, the whole object of which is to augment the space pressed upon,

and thus bear up the individual on the surface of the snow.

I devoted the leisure hours of the day to the grammatical structure of

the Indian language. There is reason to suppose the word _moneto_ not

very ancient. It is, properly speaking, not the name for God, or

Jehovah, but rather a generic term for spiritual agency in their

mythology. The word seems to have been derived from the notion of the

offerings left upon rocks and sacred places, being supernaturally _taken

away_. In any comparative views of the language, not much stress should

be laid upon the word, as marking a difference from other stocks.

_Maneton_, in the Delaware, is the verb "to make." _Ozheton_ is the same

verb in Chippewa.

_7th_. History teaches its lessons in small, as well as great things.

Vessels from Albemarle, in Virginia, in 1586, first carried the potato

to Ireland. Thomas Harriot says the natives called it _open-awk_. The

Chippewas, at this place, call the potato _open-eeg_; but the

termination _eeg_ is merely a form of the plural. _Open_ (the _e_

sounded like short _i_) is the singular form. Thomas Jefferson gives the

word "Wha-poos" as the name of the Powhatanic tribes for hare. The

Chippewa term for this animal is _Wa-bos_, usually pronounced by white

men Wa-poos.

Longinus remarks the sublimity of style of the third verse of Genesis i.

I have, with competent aid, put it into Chippewa, and give the

re-translation:--

Appee dush and then

Gezha Monedo Merciful Spirit

Akeedood He said

Tah Let

Wassay-au, Light be,

Appee dush And then

Wassay-aug Light was.

It is not to be expected that all parts of the language would exhibit

equal capacities to bear out the original. Yet in this instance, if the

translation be faithful, it is clearly, but not, to our apprehension,

elegantly done. I am apprehensive that the language generally has a

strong tendency to repetition and redundancy of forms, and to clutter

up, as it were, general ideas with particular meanings. At three o'clock

I went to dine with Mr. Siveright, at the North West Company's House.

The party was large, including the officers from the garrison.

Conversation took a political turn. Colonel Lawrence defended the

propriety of his recent toast, "The Senate of the United States, the

guardians of a free people," by which a Boston paper said "more was

meant than met the eye." The evening was passed with the ordinary

sources of amusement. I have for some time felt that the time devoted to

these amusements, in which I never made much advance, would be better

given up to reading, or some inquiry from which I might hope to derive

advantage. An incident this evening impressed me with this truth, and I

came home with a resolution that one source of them should no longer

engross a moment of my time.

Harris, the author of Hermes, says, "It is certainly as easy to be a

scholar as a gamester, or any other character equally illiberal and low.

The same application, the same quantity of habit, will fit us for one as

completely as for the other. And as to those who tell us, with an air of

seeming wisdom, that it is men, and not books, that we must study to

become knowing; this I have always remarked, from repeated experience,

to be the common consolation and language of dunces." Now although I

have no purpose of aiming at extreme heights in knowledge, yet there are

some points in which every man should have that precision of knowledge

which is a concomitant of scholarship. And every man, by diligence, may

add to the number of these points, without aiming at all to put on a

character for extraordinary wisdom or profundity.

* * * * *

_9th. Historical Reminiscences_.--On the third of April, 1764, Sir

William Johnson concluded preliminary articles of peace and friendship

with eight deputies of the Seneca nation, which was the only one of the

Iroquois who joined Pontiac. This was done at his residence at Johnson

Hall, on the Mohawk.

In August, 1764, Colonel Bradstreet granted "Terms of Peace" to certain

deputies of the Delaware, Huron, and Shawnee tribes at Presque Isle,

being then on his way to relieve Detroit, which was then closely

invested by the Indians. These deputies gave in their adhesion to the

English cause, and agreed to give up all the English prisoners.

In October of the same year, Colonel Bouquet granted similar terms to

another deputation of Shawnees, Delawares, &c., at Tuscarawas.

The best account of the general transactions of the war of that era,

which I have seen, is contained in a "History of the Late War in North

America, and Islands of the West Indies. By Thomas Mante, Assistant

Engineer, &c., and Major of a Brigade. London, 1772:" 1 vol. quarto, 552

pages. I am indebted to Governor Clinton for my acquaintance with

this work.

_10th_. I have employed the last three days, including this, very

diligently on my Indian vocabulary and inquiries, having read but

little. Too exclusive a devotion to this object is, however, an error. I

have almost grudged the time I devoted to eating and sleeping. And I

should certainly be unwilling that my visitors should know what I

thought of the interruptions created by their visits. It is true,

however, that I have gained but little by these visits in the way of

conversation. One of my visitors, a couple of days since, made me waste

a whole morning in talking of trifling subjects. Another, who is a

gourmand, is only interested in subjects connected with the

gratification of his palate. A third, who is a well-informed man, has

such lounging habits that he remained two hours and a half with me this

morning. No wonder that men in office must be guarded by the

paraphernalia of ante-rooms and messengers, if a poor individual at this

cold end of the world feels it an intrusion on his short winter days to

have lounging visitors. I will try to recollect, when I go to see

others, that although _I_ may have leisure, perhaps _they_ are engaged

in something of consequence.

* * * * *

_11th. History abounds in examples of excellence_.--Xenophon says of

Jason, "All who have served under Jason have learned this lesson, that

pleasure is the effect of toil; though as to sensual pleasures, I know

no person in the world more temperate than Jason. They never break in

upon his time; they always leave him leisure to do what must be done."

Of Diphridas, the same author observes, "No bodily indulgence ever

gained the ascendant over him, but, on the contrary, he gave all his

attention to the business in hand." What admirable maxims for real life,

whether that life be passed in courts or camps, or a humble sphere!

_12th_. I finished reading Thiebault's "Anecdotes of Frederick the

Great," which I had commenced in December. This is a pleasing and

instructive work. Every person should read it who wishes to understand

the history of Prussia, particularly the most interesting and important

period of it. We here find Frederick I. and II., and William depicted to

the life. We are made acquainted also with national traits of the

Russian, English, German, and French character, which are nowhere else

to be found.

_13th_. The ancient Thracians are thus described by Herodotus: "The most

honorable life with them is a life of indolence; the most contemptible

that of a husbandman. Their supreme delight is war and plunder." Who, if

the name and authority were concealed, but would suppose the remarks

were made of some of the tribes of the North American Indians?

I divided the day between reading and writing. In the evening I went by

invitation to a party at Lieutenant B.'s in the cantonment.

_14th_. The Chippewa names of the numerals, from one to ten,

are--pazhik, neezh, niswee, newin, nanun, neen-goodwaswa, neezh-waswa,

swaswa, shonguswa, metonna.

Dined at Mr. Ermatinger's, a gentleman living on the Canada shore, who,

from small beginnings, has accumulated a considerable property by the

Indian trade, and has a numerous Anglo-Odjibwa family.

_15th_. Completed the perusal of Harmon's Travels, and extracted the

notes contained in memorandum book N. Mr. Harmon was nineteen years in

the service of the North West Company, and became a partner after the

expiration of the first seven years. The volume contains interesting

data respecting the topography, natural history (incidental), and Indian

tribes of a remote and extensive region. The whole scope of the journal

is devoted to the area lying north of the territory of the United

States. It will be found a valuable book of reference to those who are

particularly directing their attention to northern scenes. The journal

was revised and published by a Mr. Haskell, who, it is said _here_, by

persons acquainted with Mr. Harmon, has introduced into the text

religious reflections, not believed to have been made by the author at

the time. No exceptions can be taken to the reflections; but his

companions and co-partners feel that they should have led the individual

to exemplify them in his life and conversation while _inland_.

Mr. Harmon says, of the Canadians--"All their chat is about horses,

dogs, canoes, women, and strong men, who can fight a good battle."

Traders and Indians are placed in a loose juxtaposition. "Their

friendship," he states, "is little more than their fondness for our

property, and our eagerness to obtain their furs." European manufactures

are essential to the natives. "The Indians in this quarter have been so

long accustomed to European goods, that it would be with difficulty that

they could now obtain a livelihood without them. Especially do they

need firearms, axes, kettles, knives, &c. They have almost lost the use

of bows and arrows, and they would find it nearly impossible to cut

their fire wood with implements made of stone or bone."

_16th_. Examined Mackenzie's Travels, to compare his vocabulary of

Knisteneaux and Algonquin, with the Odjibwa, or Chippewa. There is so

close an agreement, in sense and sound, between the two latter, as to

make it manifest that the tribes could not have been separated at a

remote period. This agreement is more close and striking than it appears

to be by comparing the two written vocabularies. Mackenzie has adopted

the French orthography, giving the vowels, and some of the consonants

and diphthongs, sounds very different from their _English_ powers. Were

the words arranged on a common plan of alphabetical notation, they would

generally be found to the eye, as they are to the ear, nearly identical.

The discrepancies would be rendered less in cases in which they appear

to be considerable, and the peculiarities of idiom, as they exist, would

be made more striking and instructive. I have heard both idioms spoken

by the natives, and therefore have more confidence in speaking of their

nearness and affinity, than I could have had from mere book comparison.

I am told that Mackenzie got his vocabulary from some of the priests in

Lower Canada, who are versed in the Algonquin. It does not seem to me at

all probable that an Englishman or a Scotchman should throw aside his

natural sounds of the vowels and consonants, and adopt sounds which are,

and must have been, from infancy, foreign.

As I intend to put down things in the order of their occurrence, I will

add that I had a visitor to-day, a simple mechanic, who came to talk to

me about _nothing_; I could do no less than be civil to him, in

consequence of which he pestered me with hems and haws about one hour. I

think Job took no interest in philology.

_17th_. Devoted the day to the language. A friend had loaned me a file

of Scottish papers called the _Montrose Review_, which I took occasion

to run over. This paper is more neatly and correctly printed than is

common with our papers of this class from the country. The strain of

remark is free, bold, and inquisitive, looking to the measures of

government, and advocating principles of rational liberty throughout

the world.

Col. Lawrence, Capt. Thompson, and Lieut. Griswold called in the course

of the day. I commenced reading Mungo Parke's posthumous volume.

_18th_. The mind, like the body, will get tired. Quintilian remarks,

"Variety refreshes and renovates the mind." Composition and reading by

turns, wear away the weariness either may create; and though we have

done many things, we in some measure find ourselves fresh and recruited

at entering on a new thing. This day has been almost entirely given up

to society. Visitors seemed to come in, as if by concert. Col. Lawrence,

Capts. Clarke and Beal, Lieuts. Smith and Griswold. Mr. S.B. Griswold,

who was one of the American hostage officers at Quebec, Dr. Foot, and

Mr. Johnston came in to see me, at different times. I filled up the

intervals in reading.

_19th, Sabbath_. A party of Indians came to my door singing the begging

dance. These people do not respect the Sabbath.[30] The parties who came

in, on New Year's day, still linger about the settlements, and appear to

be satisfied to suffer hunger half the time, if their wants can be

gratuitously relieved the other half.

[Footnote 30: About eighteen months afterwards, I interdicted all visits

of Indians on the _Sabbath_, and adopted it as an invariable rule, that

I would not transact any business, or receive visits, from any Indian

under the influence of liquor. I directed my interpreter to tell them

that the President had sent me to speak to _sober_ men only.]

_20th_. I continued to transcribe, from loose papers, into my Indian

lexicon. A large proportion of the words are derivatives. All are, more

or less, compounded in their oral forms, and they appear to be _glued_,

as it were, to objects of sense. This is not, however, peculiar to this

language. The author of "Hermes" says--"The first words of men, like

their first ideas, had an immediate reference to sensible objects, and

that in after days, when they began to discern with their intellect,

they took those words which they found already made, and transferred

them, by metaphor, to intellectual conceptions."

On going to dinner, I found a party of officers and their ladies. "Mine

host," Mr. Johnston, with his fine and frank Belfast hospitality, does

the honors of his table with grace and ease. Nothing appears to give him

half so much delight as to see others happy around him. I read, in the

evening, the lives of Akenside, Gray, and Littleton. What a perfect

crab old Dr. Johnson was! But is there any sound criticism without

sternness?

_21st_. I finished the reading of Mungo Parke, the most enterprising

traveler of modern times. He appears to me to have committed two errors

in his last expedition, and I think his death is fairly attributable to

impatience to reach the mouth of the Niger. He should not have attempted

to pass from the Gambia to the Niger during the rainy season. By this,

he lost thirty-five out of forty men. He should not have tried to

_force_ a passage through the kingdom of Houssa, without making presents

to the local petty chiefs. By this, he lost his life. When will

geographers cease to talk about the mouth of the Niger? England has been

as indefatigable in solving this problem as she has been in finding out

the North West Passage, and, at present, as unsuccessful. We see no

abatement, however, in her spirit of heroic enterprise. America has sent

but one explorer to this field--Ledyard.

CHAPTER XVI.

Novel reading--Greenough's "Geology"--The cariboo--Spiteful

plunder of private property on a large scale--Marshall's

Washington--St. Clair's "Narrative of his Campaign"--Etymology of

the word _totem_--A trait of transpositive languages--Polynesian

languages--A meteoric explosion at the maximum height of the winter's

temperature--Spafford's "Gazetteer"--Holmes on the Prophecies--Foreign

politics--Mythology--Gnomes--The Odjibwa based on monosyllables--No

auxiliary verbs--Pronouns declined for tense--Esprella's

letters--Valerius--Gospel of St. Luke--Chippewayan group of

languages--Home politics--Prospect of being appointed superintendent of

the lead mines of Missouri.

1823. _Jan. 22d_. A pinching cold winter wears away slowly. The whole

village seems to me like _so_ many prescient beavers, in a vast

snow-bank, who cut away the snow and make paths, every morning, from one

lodge to another. In this reticulation of snow paths the drum is sounded

and the flag raised. Most dignified bipeds we are. Hurrah for progress,

and the extension of the Anglo-Saxon race!

I read the "Recluse," translated from D'Arlincourt's popular novel _Le

Solitaire_, and think the commendations bestowed upon it, in the

translator's preface, just in the main. It is precisely such a novel as

I should suppose would be very popular in the highest circles of France,

and consequently, owing to difference of character, would be less

relished by the same circles in England. I suspect the author to be a

great admirer of Chateaubriand's "Atala," whose death is brought to mind

by the catastrophe of Elode's. Here, however, the similitude ends. There

is nothing to be said respecting the comparative features of Charles the

Bold and Chactas, except that the Indian possessed those qualities of

the heart which most ennoble human nature.

To the readers of Scott's novels, however (for he is certainly the

"Great Unknown"), this pleasing poetical romance, with all its sparkling

passages, will present one glaring defect--it is not sufficiently

descriptive. We rise from the perusal of it with no definite ideas of

the scenery of the valley of Underlach. We suppose it to be sublime and

picturesque, and are frequently told so by the author; but he fails in

the description of particular scenes. Scott manages otherwise. When he

sends Baillie Nicoll Jarvie into the Highlands, he does not content

himself with generalities, but also brings before the mind such groups

and scenes as make one fear and tremble. To produce this excitement is

literary power.

_23d_. I devoted the time before breakfast, which, with us, happens at a

late hour, to the _Edinburgh Review_. I read the articles on Greenough's

"First Principles of Geology," and a new edition of Demosthenes. When

shall we hear the last panegyric of the Grecian orator, who, in the two

characteristics of his eloquence which have been most praised,

simplicity and nature, is every day equalled, or excelled, by our

Indian chiefs?

Greenough's Essays are bold and original, and evince no weak powers of

observation and reasoning. But he is rather a leveler than a builder. It

seems better that we should have a poor house over our heads than none

at all. The facts mentioned on the authority of a traveler in Spain,

that the pebbles in the rivers of that country are not carried down

streams by the force of the current, are contradicted by all my

observations on the rivers of the United States. The very reverse is

true. Those streams which originate in, or run through districts of

granite, limestone, graywacke, &c., present pebbles of these respective

rocks abundantly along their banks, at points below the termination of

the fixed strata. These pebbles, and even boulders, are found far below

the termination of the rocky districts, and appear to owe their

transportation to the force of existing currents. I have found the

peculiar pebbles of the sources of the Mississippi as low down as St.

Louis and St. Genevieve.

I resumed the perusal of Marshall's "Life of Washington," which I had

laid by in the fall. Lieutenants Barnum and Bicker and Mr. Johnston came

to visit me.

_24th_. I made one of a party of sixteen, who dined with Mr. Ermatinger.

I here first tasted the flesh of the _cariboo_, which is a fine flavored

venison. I do not recollect any wise or merry remark made during dinner,

which is worth recording. As toasts show the temper of the times, and

bespeak the sentiments of those who give them, a few of them may be

mentioned. After several formal and national toasts, we had Mr. Calhoun,

Governor Cass, General Brown, Mr. Sibley, the representative of

Michigan, Colonel Brady, and Major Thayer, superintendent of the

military academy. In coming home in the cariole, we all missed the

_balizes_, and got completely upset and pitched into the snow.

_25th_. Mr. John Johnston returned me Silliman's Travels, and expressed

himself highly pleased with them. Mr. Johnston evinces by his manners

and conversation and liberal sentiments that he has passed many of his

years in polished and refined circles. He told me he came to America

during the presidency of General Washington, whom he esteems it a

privilege to have seen at New York, in 1793. Having letters to Lord

Dorchester, he went into Canada, and through a series of vicissitudes,

finally settled at these falls about thirty years ago. In 1814, his

property was plundered by the Americans, through the false

representations of some low-minded persons, his neighbors and opponents

in trade, with no more patriotism than he; in consequence of which he

returned to Europe, and sold his patrimonial estate at "Craige," in the

north of Ireland, within a short distance of the Giant's Causeway, and

thus repaired, in part, his losses.

_26th_. Devoted to reading--a solid resource in the wilderness.

_27th_. Finished the perusal of Marshall's Washington, and took the

notes contained in memorandums P. and R. The first volume of this work

is intended as introductory, and contains the best recital of the

political history of the colonies which I have read. The other four

volumes embrace a wide mass of facts, but are rather diffuse and prolix,

considered as biography, A good life of Washington, which shall comprise

within a small compass all his prominent public and private acts, still

remains a desideratum.

_28th_. Our express returned this morning, bringing me New York papers

to the 11th of November. We are more than two months and a half behind

the current news of the day. We have Washington dates to the 9th of

November, but of course they convey nothing of the proceedings

of Congress.

_29th_. I read St. Clair's "Narrative of his Campaign" against the

Indians in 1791, and extracted the notes contained in memorandum A.A.

The causes of its failure are explained in a satisfactory manner, and

there is proof of Gen. St. Clair's vigilance and intrepidity.

Dissensions in his camp crippled the old general's power.

_30th_. I took up the subject of the Indian language, after an interval

of eight or nine days, and continued to transcribe into my vocabulary

until after the hour of midnight. It comprises now rising of fifteen

hundred words, including some synonyms.

_31st_. "_Totem_" is a word frequently heard in this quarter. In tracing

its origin, it is found to be a corruption of the Indian "_dodaim_,"

signifying family mark, or armorial bearing. The word appears to be a

derivative from _odanah_, a town or village. Hence _neen dodaim_, my

townsman, or kindred-mark. Affinity in families is thus kept up, as in

the feudal system, and the institution seems to be of some importance to

the several bands. They often appeal to their "totem," as if it were

a surname.

At three o'clock I went to dine at Col. Lawrence's. The party consisted

of Capts. Thompson and Beal, Lieuts. Barnum, Smith, Waite, and Griswold,

Mr. Johnston, Mr. Ermatinger and son, Dr. Foot and Mr. Siveright of the

H.B. House. In the evening the party adjourned to Mr. Johnston's.

_February 1st_. Transpositive languages, like the Indian, do not appear

to be well adapted to convey familiar, easy, flowing conversation. There

seems to be something cumbrous and stately in the utterance of their

long polysyllabic words, as if they could not readily be brought down to

the minute distinctions of every day family conversation. This may

arise, however, from a principle adverted to by Dr. Johnson, in speaking

of the ancient languages, in which he says "nothing is familiar," and by

the use of which "the writer conceals penury of thought and want of

novelty, often from the reader, and often from himself." The Indian

certainly has a very pompous way of expressing a common thought. He sets

about it with an array of prefix and suffix, and polysyllabic strength,

as if he were about to crush a cob-house with a crowbar.

_2d_. The languages of New Zealand, Tonga, and Malay have no declension

of nouns, nor conjugation of verbs. The purposes of declension are

answered by particles and prepositions. The distinctions of person,

tense, and mode are expressed by adverbs, pronouns, and other parts of

speech. This rigidity of the verb and noun is absolute, under every

order of arrangement, in which their words can be placed, and their

meaning is not helped out, by either prefixes or suffixes.

I read Plutarch's "Life of Marcellus," to observe whether it bore the

points of resemblance to Washington's military character, suggested

by Marshall.

_3d. Abad_ signifies abode, in Persian. _Abid_ denotes where he is, or

dwells, in Chippewa.

I refused, on an invitation of Mr. Ermatinger, to alter the resolution

formed on the seventh ultimo, as to _one_ mode of evening's amusement.

_4th_. A loud meteoric report, as if from the explosion of some aerial

body, was heard about noon this day. The sound seemed to proceed from

the south-west. It was attended with a prolonged, or rumbling sound, and

was generally heard. Popular surmise, which attempts to account for

everything, has been very busy in assigning the cause of this

phenomenon.

A high degree of cold has recently been experienced. The thermometer

stood at 28° below zero at one o'clock this morning. It had risen to 18°

at day-break--being the greatest observed degree of cold during the

season. It did not exceed 4° above zero during any part of the day.

_5th_. A year ago to-day, a literary friend wrote to me to join him in

preparing a Gazetteer of the State of New York, to supplant Spafford's.

Of the latter, he expresses himself in the letter, which is now before

me, in unreserved terms of disapprobation. "It is wholly unworthy," he

says, "of public patronage, and would not stand in the way of a good

work of the kind; and such a one, I have the vanity to believe, our

joint efforts could produce. It would be a permanent work, with slight

alterations, as the State might undergo changes. My plan would be for

you to travel over the State, and make a complete geological,

mineralogical, and statistical survey of it, which would probably take

you a year or more. In the mean time, I would devote all my leisure to

the collection and arrangement of such other materials as we should need

in the compilation of the work. I doubt not we could obtain the prompt

assistance of the first men in the State, in furnishing all the

information required. Our State is rapidly increasing in wealth and

population, and I am full in the faith that such a work would sell well

in different parts of the country."

_6th_. I did nothing to-day, by which I mean that it was given up to

visiting and talking. It is Dr. Johnson, I think, who draws a

distinction between "_talk_ and conversation." It is necessary, however,

to assign a portion of time in this way. "A man that hath friends must

show himself _friendly_," is a Bible maxim.

_7th_. The garrison library was this morning removed from my office,

where it had been placed in my charge on the arrival of the troops in

July, the state of preparations in the cantonment being now sufficiently

advanced to admit its reception. A party of gentlemen from the British

garrison on Drummond Island came up on a visit, on snow shoes. The

distance is about 45 miles.

_8th_. I commenced reading Holmes on "The Fulfilment of the Revelation

of St. John," a London work of 1819. The author says "that his

explanation of the symbols is founded upon one fixed and universal

rule--that the interpretation of a symbol is ever maintained; that the

chronological succession of the seals, trumpets, and vials is strictly

preserved; and that the history contained under them is a uniform and

homogeneous history of the Roman empire, at once comprehensive and

complete."--Attended a dining-party at Mr. Johnston's.

_9th_. Continued the reading of Holmes, who is an energetic writer, and

appears to have looked closely into his subject. The least pleasing

trait in the work is a polemic spirit which is quite a clog to the

inquiry, especially to those who, like myself, have never read the

authors Faber, Cunningham, and Frere, whose interpretations he combats.

For a clergyman, he certainly handles them without gloves.

_10th_. The principal Indian chief of the vicinity, Shingabawossin, sent

to inquire of me the cause of the aerial explosion, heard on the 4th. At

four I went to dine with Mr. Ermatinger on the British shore.

_11th_. I did something, although, from the round of visiting and gayety

which, in consequence of our Drummond Isle visitors, has existed for a

few days, but little, at my vocabulary. At half-past four, I went to

dine with Lieutenants Morton and Folger in the cantonment. The party was

nearly the same which has assembled for a few days, in honor of the

foreign gentlemen with us. In the evening a large party, with dancing,

at Mr. Johnston's.

_12th_. I read Lord Erskine's Letter to Lord Liverpool on the policy to

be pursued by Great Britain in relation to Greece and Turkey. The

arguments and sentiments do equal credit to his head and heart, and

evince no less his judgment as a statesman, than they do his taste and

erudition as a scholar. This interesting and valuable letter breathes

the true sentiments of rational liberty, such as must be felt by the

great body of the English nation, and such as must, sooner or later,

prevail among the enlightened nations of the earth. How painful to

reflect that this able appeal will produce no favorable effect on the

British ministry, whose decision, it is to be feared, is already made in

favor of the "legitimacy" of the Turkish government!

At four o'clock, I laid by my employments, and went to dine at the

commanding officer's quarters, whence the party adjourned to a

handsomely arranged supper table at Capt. Beal's. The necessity of

complying with times and occasions, by accepting the current invitations

of the day, is an impediment to any system of intellectual employment;

and whatever the world may think of it, the time devoted to public

dinners and suppers, routs and parties, is little better than time

thrown away.

"And yet the fate of all extremes is such;

Books may be read, as well as men, too much."

_13th_. I re-perused Mackenzie's "History of the Fur Trade," to enable

me more fully to comprehend the allusions in a couple of volumes lately

put into my hands, on the "Disputes between Lord Selkirk and the North

West Company," and the "Report of Trials" for certain murders

perpetrated in the course of a strenuous contest for commercial mastery

in the country by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Finding an opportunity of sending north, I recollected that the

surveyors of our northern boundary were passing the winter at Fort

William, on the north shore of Lake Superior; and wrote to one of the

gentlemen, enclosing him some of our latest papers.

_14th_. The gentlemen from the neighboring British post left us this

morning. I devoted the day to my Indian inquiries.

_15th_. I commenced a vocabulary of conversation, in the Odjibwa.

_17th. Native Mythology_.--According to Indian mythology, _Weeng_ is the

God of sleep. He has numerous emissaries, who are armed with war clubs,

of a tiny and unseen character. These fairy agents ascend the forehead,

and knock the individual to sleep. Pope's creation of Gnomes, in the

Rape of the Lock, is here prefigured.

_18th_. It has been said that the Indian languages possess no

monosyllables. This remark is not borne out with regard to the Chippewa.

Marked as it is with polysyllables, there are a considerable number of

exceptions. _Koan_ is snow, _ais_ a shell, _mong_ a loon, _kaug_ a

porcupine, &c. The number of dissyllables is numerous, and of

trisyllables still more so. The Chippewa has no auxiliary verbs. The

Chippewa primitive pronouns are, Neen, Keen, and Ween (I, Thou, He or

She). They are rendered plural in _wind_ and _wau_. They are also

declined for tense, and thus, in the conjugation of verbs, take the

place of our auxiliary verbs.

_19th_. Resumed the perusal of Holmes on "Revelations." He establishes a

dictionary of symbols, which are universally interpreted. In this

system, a day signifies a natural year; a week seven years; a month

thirty years; a year a period of 360 years. The air means "church and

state;" waters, "peoples, multitudes, tongues;" seven, the number of

perfection; twelve, totality or all; hail storms, armies of northern

invaders. If the work were divested of its controversial character, it

would produce more effect. Agreeably to this author, the downfall of

Popery will take place about the year 1866.

_20th_. I read "Esprella's Letters on England," a work attributed to

Southey, whose object appears to have been to render English manners and

customs familiar in Spain, at a time when the intercourse between the

two countries had very much augmented, and their sympathies were drawn

together by the common struggle against Napoleon Bonaparte.

_21st_. I commenced "Valerius, a Roman Story." In the evening the

commanding officer (Col. L.) gave a party, in honor of Washington's

birthday. That the time might not be wholly anticipated, dancing was

introduced to give it wings, and continued until two o'clock of the

morning of (the actual birthday) the twenty-second.

_22d_. Finished "Valerius." This is an interesting novel on the Waverley

plan, and must certainly be considered a successful attempt to

familiarize the class of novel-readers with Roman history and Roman

domestic manners. The story turns on the persecution of the Christians

under Trajan. The expression "of a truth," which is so abundantly used

in the narrative, is a Scripture phrase, and is very properly put into

the mouth of a converted Roman. I cannot say as much for the word

"alongst" used for along. There are also some false epithets, as "drop,"

for run or flow, and "guesses" for conjectures. The only defect in the

plot, which occurs to me, is, that Valerius, after his escape with

Athanasia from Ostium, should have been landed safely in Britain, and

thus completed the happiness of a disconsolate and affectionate mother,

whom he left there, and who is never afterwards mentioned.

_23d_. From the mention which is made of it in "Valerius," I this day

read the Gospel of Luke, and truly am surprised to find it so very

important a part of the New Testament. Indeed, were all the rest of the

volume lost, this alone would be sufficient for the guidance of the

Christian. Divines tell us that Luke was the most learned of the

evangelists. He is called "the beloved physician," by St. Paul. His

style is more descriptive than the other evangelists, and his narrative

more clear, methodical, and precise, and abounds equally with sublime

conceptions.[31]

[Footnote 31: This opinion was thrown out from mere impulse, on a single

perusal, and so far as it may be regarded as a literary criticism, the

only possible light in which it can be considered, is vaguely hazarded,

for I had not, at that time, read the other Gospels with any degree of

care or understanding, so as to be capable thereby of judging of their

style or merits as compositions. _Spiritually_ considered, I did not

understand Luke, or any of the Evangelists, for I regarded the Gospels

as mere human compositions, without the aid of inspiration. They were

deemed to be a true history of events, interspersed with moral axioms,

but derived no part of their value, or the admiration above expressed,

as revealing the only way of salvation through Christ.]

_24th_. Mr. Harman, from a long residence in the Indian country, in high

northern latitudes, was qualified by his opportunities of observation,

to speak of the comparative character of the Indian language in that

quarter. He considers them as radically different from those of the

Algonquin stock. The group which may be formed from his remarks, will

embrace the Chippewayans, Beaver Indians, Sicaunies, Tacullies, and

Nateotetains. If we may judge of this family of dialects by Mackenzie's

vocabulary of the Chippewayan, it is very remote from the Chippewa, and

abounds in those consonantal sounds which the latter studiously avoids.

Harman says, "The Sicaunies bury, while the Tacullies burn their dead."

"Instances of suicide, by hanging, frequently occur among the women of

all the tribes, with whom I have been acquainted; but the men are seldom

known to take away their own lives."

These Indians entertain the same opinions respecting the dress of the

dead, with the more southerly tribes. "Nothing," he says, "pleases an

Indian better than to see his deceased relative handsomely attired, for

he believes that they will arrive in the other world in the same dress

with which they are clad, when they are consigned to the grave."

_27th_. Our second express arrived at dusk, this evening, bringing

papers from the seaboard to the 14th of January, containing the

President's message, proceedings of Congress, and foreign news, up to

that date. A friend who is in Congress writes to me--"We go on slowly,

but so far very harmoniously, in Congress. The Red Jackets [32] are very

quiet, and I believe are very much disposed to cease their warfare

against Mr. Monroe, as they find the nation do not relish it."

[Footnote 32: Opponents of the then existing administration, who looked

to Gen. Cocke, of Tennessee, as a leader.]

Another friend at Washington writes (15th Dec.): "The message of the

President you will have seen ere this reaches you. It is thought very

well of here. He recommends the appointment of a Superintendent of the

Western Lead Mines, skilled in mineralogy. If Congress should make

provision for one, it is not to be doubted _who_ will receive the

situation. In fact, in a conversation a few days since with Mr. C., he

told me he had you particularly in view when he recommended it to the

President."

_28th_. Wrote an application to the Postmaster General for the

appointment of S.B. Griswold as postmaster at this place.[33]

[Footnote 33: Mr. G. was appointed.]

CHAPTER XVII.

Close of the winter solstice, and introduction of a northern

spring--News from the world--The Indian languages--Narrative

Journal--Semi-civilization of the ancient Aztec tribes--Their arts and

languages--Hill's ironical review of the "Transactions of the Royal

Society"--A test of modern civilization--Sugar making--Trip to one of

the camps--Geology of Manhattan Island--Ontwa, an Indian poem--Northern

ornithology--Dreams--The Indian apowa--Printed queries of General

Cass--Prospect of the mineral agency--Exploration of the St.

Peter's--Information on that head.

1823. _March 1st_. My reading hours, for the last few days, have been,

in great part, devoted to the newspapers. So long an exclusion from the

ordinary sources of information has the effect to increase the appetite

for this kind of intellectual food, and the circumstance probably leads

us to give up more time to it than we should were we not subject to

these periodical exclusions. The great point of interest is the

succession in the Presidential chair. Parties hinge upon this point.

Economy and retrenchment are talismanic words, used to affect the

populace, but used in reality only as means of affecting the balance of

party power. Messrs. Calhoun, Crawford, and Adams are the prominent

names which fill the papers.

There is danger that newspapers in America will too much supersede and

usurp the place of books, and lead to a superficial knowledge of things.

Gleaning the papers in search of that which is really useful, candid,

and fair seems too much like hunting for grains of wheat in a chaos

of chaff.

_3d_. Our third express went off this morning, freighted with our

letters, and, of course, with our reasons, our sentiments, our thanks,

our disappointments, our hopes, and our fears.

_6th_. I resumed the subject of the Indian language.

_Osánimun_ is the word for vermilion. This word is compounded from

_unimun_, or plant yielding a red dye, and _asawa_, yellow. The peculiar

color of yellow-red is thus indicated. _Bëizha_ is the neuter verb "to

come." This verb appears to remain rigid in its conjugation, the tenses

being indicated exclusively by inflections of the pronoun. Thus _nim

beizha, I_ come; _ningee peizha_, I came; _ninguh peizha_, I will come.

The pronoun alone is declined for past and future tense, namely _gee_

and _guh_.

There does not appear to be any definite article in the Chippewa

language. _Pazhik_ means one, or an. It may be doubtful whether the

former sense is not the exclusive one. _Ahow_ is this person in the

animate form. _Ihiw_ is the corresponding inanimate form. More care than

I have devoted may, however, be required to determine this matter.

Verbs, in the Chippewa, must agree in number and tense with the noun.

They must also agree in gender, that is, verbs animate must have nouns

animate. They must also have animate pronouns and animate adjectives.

Vitality, or the want of vitality, seems to be the distinction which the

inventors of the language, seized upon, to set up the great rules of

its syntax.

Verbs, in the Chippewa language, are converted into nouns by adding the

particle _win_.

_Kegido_, to speak. _Kegido-win,_ speech. This appears to be a general

rule. The only doubt I have felt is, whether the noun formed is so

purely elementary as not to partake of a participial character.

There are two plurals to express the word "we," one of which _includes_,

and the other _excludes_, the person addressed. Neither of these forms

is a dual.

_Os_ signifies father; _nos_ is my father; _kos_, thy father; _osun_,

his or her father. The vowel in this word is sounded like the _o_,

in note.

The language has two relative pronouns, which are much used--_awanan_,

who; and _wagonan_, what. The vowel _a_, in these words, is the sound of

_a_ in fate.

There are two classes of adjectives, one of which applies to animate,

the other to inanimate objects.

The Chippewa word for Sabbath is _animea geezhig_, and indicates

prayer-day. There is no evidence, from inquiry, that the Indians divided

their days into weeks. A moon was the measure of a month, but it is

questionable whether they had acquired sufficient exactitude in the

computation of time to have numbered the days comprehended in each

moon. The phases of the moon were accurately noted.

_8th_. Professor S., of Yale College, writes to me under this date,

enclosing opinions respecting my "Narrative Journal" of travels,

contained in a familiar private letter from D. Wadsworth, Esq., of

Hartford. They terminate with this remark: "All I regret about it (the

work) is, that it was not consistent with his plans to tell us more of

what might be considered the _domestic_ part of the expedition--the

character and conduct of those who were of the party, their health,

difficulties, opinions, and treatment of each other, &c. As his book was

a sort of official work, I suppose he thought it would not do, and I

wish now, he would give his friends (and let us be amongst them) a

manuscript of the particulars that are not for the public."

_17th. Semi-civilization of the Mexican Tribes_.--Nothing is more

manifest, on reading the "Conquest of Mexico" by De Solis, than that the

character and attainments of the ancient Mexicans are exalted far above

the reality, to enhance the fame of Cortez, and give an air of splendor

to the conquest. Superior as the Aztecs and some other tribes certainly

were, in many things, to the most advanced of the North American tribes,

they resemble the latter greatly, in their personal features, and mental

traits, and in several of their arts.

The first presents sent by Montezuma to Cortez were "cotton cloths,

plumes, bows, arrows and targets of wood, collars and rings of gold,

precious stones, ornaments of gold in the shape of animals, and two

round plates of the precious metals resembling the sun and moon."

The men had "rings in their ears and lips, which, though they were of

gold, were a deformity instead of an ornament."

"Canoes and periogues" of wood were their usual means of conveyance by

water. The "books" mentioned at p. 100, were well-dressed skins, dressed

like parchment, and, after receiving the paintings observed, were

accurately folded up, in squares or parallelograms.

The cacique of Zempoala, being the first dignitary who paid his respects

personally to Cortez on his entry into the town, is described, in

effect, as covered with a cotton blanket "flung over his naked body,

enriched with various jewels and pendants, which he also wore in his

ears and lips." This chief sent 200 men to carry the baggage of Cortez.

By the nearest route from St. Juan de Ulloa, the point of landing to

Mexico, it was sixty leagues, or about 180 miles. This journey

Montezuma's runners performed to and fro in seven days, being

thirty-five to thirty-six miles per day. No great speed certainly;

nothing to demand astonishment or excite incredulity.

Distance the Mexicans reckoned, like our Indians, by _time_, "A sun" was

a day's journey.

De Solis says, "One of the points of his embassy (alluding to Cortez),

and the principal motive which the king had to offer his friendship to

Montezuma, was the obligation Christian princes lay under to oppose the

errors of idolatry, and the desire he had to instruct him in the

knowledge of the truth, and to help him to get rid of the slavery of

the devil."

The empire of Mexico, according to this author, stretched "on the north

as far as Panuco, including that province, but was straitened

considerably by the mountains or hilly countries possessed by the

Chichimecas and Ottomies, a barbarous people."

I have thought, on reading this work, that there is room for a literary

essay, with something like this title: "Strictures on the Hyperbolical

Accounts of the Ancient Mexicans given by the Spanish Historians,"

deduced from a comparison of the condition of those tribes with the

Indians at the period of its settlement. Humboldt states that there are

twenty languages at present in Mexico, fourteen of which have grammars

and dictionaries tolerably complete. They are, Mexican or Aztec,

Otomite, Tarase, Zapatec, Mistec, Maye or Yucatan, Tatonac, Popolauc,

Matlazing, Huastec, Mixed, Caquiquel, Tarauma, Tepehuan, Cara.

_20th_. When the wind blows high, and the fine snow drifts, as it does

about the vernal equinox, in these latitudes, the Indians smilingly say,

"Ah! now Pup-puk-e-wiss is gathering his harvest," or words to this

effect. There is a mythological tale connected with it, which I

have sketched.

_21st_. I have amused myself in reading a rare old volume, just

presented to me, entitled "A Review of the Works of the Royal Society of

London, &c., by John Hill, M.D., London, 1751." It evinces an acute

mind, ready wit, and a general acquaintance with the subjects of

natural history, antiquities, and philosophical research, adverted to.

It is a racy work, which all modern naturalists, and modern discoverers

of secrets and inventions ought to read. I should think it must have

made some of the contributors to the "Transactions" of the Royal Society

wince in its day.

_22d_. Knowledge of foreign nations has increased most wonderfully in

our day, and is one of the best tests of civilization. Josaphat Barbaro

traveled into the East in 1436. He says of the Georgians, "They have the

most horrid manners, and the worst customs of any people I ever met

with." Surely this is vague enough for even the clerk who kept the

log-book of Henry Hudson. Such items as the following were deemed "food"

for books of travels in those days: "The people of Cathay, in China,

believe that they are the only people in the world who have two eyes. To

the Latins they allow _one_, and all the rest of the world none at all."

Marco Polo gives an account of a substance called "Andanicum," which he

states to be an _ore of steel_. In those days, when everything relating

to metallurgy and medicine was considered a secret, the populace did not

probably know that steel was an artificial production. Or the mineral

may have been sparry iron ore, which is readily converted into steel.

_26th_. It is now the season of making sugar from the rock maple by the

Indians and Canadians in this quarter. And it seems to be a business in

which almost every one is more or less interested. Winter has shown some

signs of relaxing its iron grasp, although the quantity of snow upon the

ground is still very great, and the streams appear to be as fast locked

in the embraces of frost as if it were the slumber of ages. Sleighs and

dog trains have been departing for the maple forests, in our

neighborhood, since about the 10th instant, until but few,

comparatively, of the resident inhabitants are left. Many buildings are

entirely deserted and closed, and all are more or less thinned of their

inhabitants. It is also the general season of sugar-making with

the Indians.

I joined a party in visiting one of the camps. We had several carioles

in company, and went down the river about eight or nine miles to Mrs.

Johnston's camp. The party consisted of several officers and ladies from

the fort, Captain Thompson [34] and lady, Lieutenant Bicker and lady and

sister, the Miss Johnstons and Lieutenants Smith [35] and Folger. We

pursued the river on the ice the greater part of the way, and then

proceeded inland about a mile. We found a large temporary building,

surrounded with piles of ready split wood for keeping a fire under the

kettles, and large ox hides arranged in such a manner as to serve as

vats for collecting the sap. About twenty kettles were boiling over an

elongated central fire.

[Footnote 34: Killed in Florida, at the battle of Okechobbee, as Lt. Col.

of the 6th U.S. Infantry.]

[Footnote 35: Died at Vera Cruz, Mexico, as Quarter-Master U.S.A.]

The whole air of the place resembled that of a manufactory. The custom

on these occasions is to make up a pic-nic, in which each one

contributes something in the way of cold viands or refreshments.

The principal amusement consisted in pulling candy, and eating the sugar

in every form. Having done this, and received the hospitalities of our

hostess, we tackled up our teams, and pursued our way back to the fort,

having narrowly escaped breaking through the river at one or two points.