When nearly a whole month had been consumed in these negotiations, a

treaty of limits was signed, which will long be remembered in the Indian

reminiscences. This was on the 19th of August (1825), _vide_ Indian

Treaties, p. 371. It was a pleasing sight to see the explorer of the

Columbia in 1806, and the writer of the proclamation of the army that

invaded Canada in 1812, uniting in a task boding so much good to the

tribes whose passions and trespasses on each other's lands keep them

perpetually at war.

'Tis war alone that gluts the Indian's mind,

As eating meats, inflames the tiger kind.

HETH.

At the close of the treaty, an experiment was made on the moral sense of

the Indians, with regard to intoxicating liquors, which was evidently of

too refined a character for their just appreciation. It had been said by

the tribes that the true reason for the Commissioners of the United

States government speaking against the use of ardent spirits by the

Indians, and refusing to give them, was not a sense of its bad effects,

so much, as the fear of the expense. To show them that the government

was above such a petty principle, the Commissioners had a long row of

tin camp kettles, holding several gallons each, placed on the grass,

from one end of the council house to the other, and then, after some

suitable remarks, each kettle was spilled out in their presence. The

thing was evidently ill relished by the Indians. They loved the whisky

better than the joke.

_Impostor_.--Among the books which I purchased for General Cass, at New

York, was the narrative of one John Dunn Hunter. I remember being

introduced to the man, at one of my visits to New York, by Mr. Carter.

He appeared to be one of those anomalous persons, of easy good nature,

without much energy or will, and little or no moral sense, who might be

made a tool of. It seems no one at New York was taken in by him, but

having wandered over to London, the booksellers found him a good subject

for a book, and some hack there, with considerable cleverness, made him

a pack-horse for carrying a load of stuff about America's treatment of

the Indians. It was called a "captivity," and he was made to play the

part of an adventurer among the Indians--somewhat after the manner of

John Tanner. C. reviewed the book, on our route and at the Prairie, for

the _North American_, in an article which created quite a sensation, and

will be remembered for its force and eloquence. He first read to me some

of these glowing sentences, while on the portages of the Fox. It was

continued, during the leisure hours of the conferences, and finally the

critique was finished, after his visiting the place and the person, in

Missouri, to which Hunter had alluded as his sponsor in baptism. The man

denied all knowledge of him. Hunter was utterly demolished, and his book

shown to be as great a tissue of misrepresentation as that of

Psalmanazar himself.

_August 21st_. The party separates. I had determined to return to the

Sault by way of Lake Superior, through Chippewa River. But, owing to the

murder of Finley and his men at its mouth in 1824, I found it impossible

to engage men at Prairie du Chien, to take that route. I determined

therefore to go up the Wisconsin, and by the way of Green Bay. For this

purpose, I purchased a light canoe, engaged men to paddle it, and laid

in provisions and stores to last to Green Bay. Having done so, I

embarked about 3 o'clock P.M., descending the majestic Mississippi, with

spirits enlivened by the hope of soon rejoining friends far away. At the

same time, Mr. Holliday left for the same destination in a separate

canoe. On reaching the mouth of the Wisconsin, we entered that broad

tributary, and found the current strong. We passed the point of rocks

called _Petite Grès_, and encamped at _Grand Grès_.

Several hours previous to leaving the prairie, a friend handed me an

enveloped packet, saying, "Read it when you get to the mouth of the

Wisconsin." I had no conception what it related to, but felt great

anxiety to reach the place mentioned. I then opened it, and read as

follows: "I cannot separate from you without expressing my grateful

acknowledgments for the honor you have done me, by connecting my name

with your _Narrative of Travels in the Central Portions of the

Mississippi Valley, &c._" Nothing could have been more gratifying or

unexpected.

_22d_. A fog in the valley detained us till 5 o'clock A.M. After

traveling about two hours, Mr. Holliday's canoe was crushed against a

rock. While detained in repairing it, I ordered my cook to prepare

breakfast. It was now 9 o'clock, when we again proceeded, till the heat

of noon much affected the men. We pushed our canoes under some

overhanging trees, where we found fine clusters of ripe grapes.

In going forward we passed two canoes of Menomonies, going out on their

fall hunt, on the Chippewa River. These people have no hunting grounds

of their own, and are obliged to the courtesy of neighboring nations for

a subsistence. They are the most erratic of all our tribes, and may be

said to be almost nomadic. We had already passed the canoes, when Mr.

Lewis, the portrait painter, called out stoutly behind us, from an

island in the river. "Oh! ho! I did not know but there was some other

breaking of the canoe, or worse disaster, and directed the men to put

back. See, see," said he, "that fellow's nose! Did you ever see such a

protuberance?" It was one of the Menomonies from _Butte des Morts_, with

a globular irregular lump on the end of his nose, half as big as a man's

fist. Lewis's artistic risibles were at their height, and he set to work

to draw him. I could think of nothing appropriate, but Sterne and

Strasbourg.

_23d_. A heavy fog detained us at Caramani's village, till near 6 A.M.

The fog, however, still continued, so thick as to conceal objects at

twenty yards distance. We consequently went cautiously. Both this day

and yesterday we have been constantly in sight of Indian canoes, on

their return from the treaty. Wooden canoes are exclusively used by the

Winnebagoes. They are pushed along with poles.

We passed a precipitous range of hills near Pine Creek, on one of which

is a cave, called by our boatmen _L'diable au Port_. This superstition

of peopling dens and other dark places with the "arch fiend," is common.

If the "old serpent" has given any proofs to the French boatmen of his

residence here, I shall only hope that he will confine himself to this

river, and not go about troubling quiet folks in the land of the Lakes.

At Pine River we went inland about a mile to see an old mine, probably

the remains of French enterprise, or French credulity. But all its

golden ores had flown, probably frightened off by the old fellow of

_L'diable au Port_. We saw only pits dug in the sand overgrown

with trees.

Near this spot in the river, we overtook Shingabowossin and his party

of Chippewas. They had left the prairie on the same day that we did, but

earlier. They had been in some dread of the Winnebagoes, and stopped on

the island to wait for us.

In passing the channel of _Detour_, we observed many thousand tons of

white rock lying in the river, which had lately fallen from the bank,

leaving a solid perpendicular precipice. This rock, banks and ruins, is,

like all the Wisconsin Valley rocks, a very white and fine sandstone.

We passed five canoes of Menomonies, on their way to hunt on Chippewa

River, to whom I presented some powder, lead, and flour. They gave me a

couple of fish, of the kind called _pe-can-o_ by the Indians.

_24th_. We were again detained by the fog, till half past five A.M., and

after a hard day's fatiguing toil, I encamped at eight o'clock P.M. on a

sandy island in the centre of the Wisconsin. The water in the river is

low, and spreads stragglingly over a wide surface. The very bed of the

river is moving sand. While supper was preparing, I took from my trunk a

towel, clean shirt, and cake of soap, and spent half an hour in bathing

in the river upon the clean yellow sand. After this grateful

refreshment, I sank sweetly to repose in my tent.

_25th_. The fog dispersed earlier this morning than usual. We embarked a

few minutes after four A.M., and landed for breakfast at ten. The

weather now, was quite sultry, as indeed it has been during the greater

part of every day, since leaving _Tipesage_--i.e. the Prairie. Our route

this day carried us through the most picturesque and interesting part of

the Wisconsin, called the Highlands or River Hills. Some of these hills

are high, with precipitous faces towards the river. Others terminate in

round grassy knobs, with oaks dispersed about the sides. The name is

supposed to have been taken from this feature.[44] Generally speaking,

the country has a bald and barren aspect. Not a tree has apparently been

cut upon its banks, and not a village is seen to relieve the tedium of

an unimproved wilderness. The huts of an Indian locality seem "at random

cast." I have already said these conical and angular hills present

masses of white sandstone, whereever they are precipitous. The river

itself is almost a moving mass of white and yellow sand, broad, clear,

shallow, and abounding in small woody islands, and willowy sandbars.

[Footnote 44: _Sin_, the terminal syllable, is clearly from the

Algonquin, _Os-sin_, a stone. The French added the letter _g_, which is

the regular _local_ form of the word, agreeably to the true Indian.]

While making these notes I have been compelled to hold my book, pencil

and umbrella, the latter being indispensable to keep off the almost

tropical fervor of the sun's rays. As the umbrella and book must be held

in one hand, you may judge that I have managed with some difficulty; and

this will account to you for many uncouth letters and much disjointed

orthography. Between the annoyance of insects, the heat of the sun, and

the difficulties of the way, we had incessant employment.

At three o'clock P.M. we put ashore for dinner, in a very shaded and

romantic spot. Poetic images were thick about us. We sat upon mats

spread upon a narrow carpet of grass between the river and a high

perpendicular cliff. The latter threw its broad shade far beyond us.

This strip of land was not more than ten feet wide, and had any

fragments of rock fallen, they would have crushed us. But we saw no

reason to fear such an event, nor did it at all take from the relish of

our dinner. Green moss had covered the face of the rock, and formed a

soft velvet covering, against which we leaned. The broad and cool river

ran at our feet. Overhanging trees formed a grateful bower around us.

Alas, how are those to be pitied who prefer palaces built with human

hands to such sequestered scenes. What perversity is there in the human

understanding, to quit the delightful and peaceful abodes of nature, for

noisy towns and dusty streets.

"To me more dear, congenial to my heart,

One native charm than all the gloss of art."

At a late hour in the evening we reached the Wisconsin portage, and

found Dr. Wood. U.S.A., encamped there. He had arrived a short time

before us, with four Indians and one Canadian in a canoe, on his way to

St. Peter's. He had a mail in his trunk, and I had reasons to believe I

should receive letters, but to my sore disappointment I found nothing. I

invited Dr. Wood to supper, having some ducks and snipes to offer in

addition to my usual stock of solids, such as ham, venison and

buffalo tongues.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Descent of Fox River--Blackbirds--Menomonies--Rice fields--Starving

Indians--Thunder storm--Dream--An Indian struck dead with

lightning--Green Bay--Death of Colonel Haines--Incidents of the journey

from Green Bay to Michilimackinack--Reminiscences of my early life and

travels--Choiswa--Further reminiscences of my early life--Ruins of the

first mission of Father Marquette--Reach Michilimackinack.

1825. _August 26th_. A PORTAGE of about one mile and a quarter was

before us.

At day-break two ox carts, which I had ordered in the evening, came, and

took our baggage across to the banks of Fox River. The canoes were

carried over by the different crews. On reaching the banks of the Fox

River, I concluded to stay for the purpose of breakfasting. I added to

my stock of eatables, a bag of potatoes, and some butter and milk,

purchased from a Frenchman, who resided here. It was about nine o'clock

A.M. when we embarked on the Fox, and we began its descent with feelings

not widely different from those of a boy who has carried his sled, in

winter, _up_ the steep side of a hill, that he may enjoy the pleasure of

riding _down_. The Fox River is serpentine, almost without a parallel;

it winds about like a string that doubles and redoubles, and its channel

is choked with fields of wild rice; from which rose, continually,

immense flocks of blackbirds. They reminded me very forcibly of the

poet's line--

"The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain."

Mr. Holliday the elder and his son made several unsuccessful shots at

them. I did not regret their ill success, and was pleased to hear

them singing--

"As sweetly and gayly as ever before."

We met several canoes of Menomonies. We stopped for dinner near a lodge

of them, who were in a starving condition. I distributed bread and corn

among them. They presented me a couple of dishes of a species of berry,

which they call _Neekimen-een_, or Brant-berry. It is a black, tasteless

berry, a little larger than the whortleberry. We encamped at the head of

_Pukwa_ Lake.

_27th_. A very severe shower of rain fell about three o'clock A.M.; it

detained us in our camp until five, when we embarked. Why should I

relate to you our dull progress through fields of rice--through

intricate channels, and amidst myriads of ducks and wild water fowl.

This day has been hot, beyond any experience on the journey. I sank back

in my canoe, in a state of apathy and lassitude, partly from the heat,

and partly from indisposition. My thoughts were employed upon home. A

thousand phantoms passed through my head. I tried to imagine how you

were employed at this moment, whether busy, or sick in your own room. It

would require a volume to trace my wandering thoughts. Let it suffice

that another day is nearly gone, and it has lessened the distance which

separated us, about seventy miles.

_28th_. I encamped, last night, near a large village of Winnebagoes and

Menomonies. They complained to me of want of food and ammunition. I

distributed among them a quantity of powder, ball, and shot, and some

bread, hard biscuit, pork, and tobacco. Never were people more grateful,

and never, I believe, was a more appropriate distribution made. I had

purchased these articles for the Chippewa Nation, to be used on my

contemplated voyage home, from the Prairie, through Chippewa River and

Lake Superior, before the design of going that way was relinquished. The

fact was, I could get no men to go that way, so alarmed were they by the

recent murder of Finley and his party.

About two o'clock A.M. I was awoke by a very heavy storm of rain and

wind, attended with loud peals of thunder. The violence of the wind blew

down my tent, and my blankets, &c. received some damage. After this

mishap the wind abated, and having got my tent re-arranged, I again went

to sleep. I dreamt of attending the funeral of an esteemed friend, who

was buried with honors, attended to the grave by a large train. I have

no recollection of the name of this friend, nor whether male or female.

I afterwards visited the house of this person, and the room in which he

(or she) died. I closed the door with dread and sorrow, afflicted by the

views of the couch where one so much esteemed had expired. The mansion

was large, and elegantly furnished. I lost my way in it, and rung a

large bell that hung in the hall. At this, many persons, male and

female, came quickly into the hall from folding doors, as if, I thought,

they had been summoned to dinner. As you have sometimes inclined to

believe in these fantastic operations of the human mind, when asleep, I

record them for your amusement, or reflection. Was this an allegory of

the destructive effects of the storm, mixed with my banquet to my Indian

friends, the Menomonies and Winnebagoes?

After descending the river more than twenty miles we landed at _la Butte

des Morts_ to cook breakfast. Immediately on landing my attention was

attracted by a small white flag hanging from a high pole. I went to It

and found a recent Indian grave, very neatly and carefully covered with

boards. The Indian had been struck dead by lightning a few days

previous. Is this the interpretation of my dream, or must I follow my

fears to St. Mary's, to witness some of our family suffering on the bed

of sickness. God, in his mercy, forbid!

This day was comparatively cool. On the previous days it was my custom

to sit in my shirt and sleeves. To-day, I kept on my surtout all day,

and my cloak over it until twelve. Such sudden changes in the

temperature of the seasons are the reproach of our climate. My health

has been better than for a few days back, owing, I believe, solely to my

abstinence both yesterday and the day before. How much illness would be

prevented by a proper attention to regimen. It is now eight o'clock in

the evening, I am sitting in my tent with a candle standing on a rush

mat, and my black trunk for a writing desk. I am interrupted by the news

that my supper is ready to be brought in. How happy I should be if you

could participate in my frugal meal. In the language of Burns--

"Adieu a heart-warm fond adieu."

_29th_. I encamped last night, at the foot of the Winnebago Rapids, one

mile below Winnebago Lake. I found the rapids of Fox River, which begin

here, more difficult to pass than on our ascent, the water being much

lower. We were necessarily detained many hours, and most of the men

compelled to walk. About six o'clock, P.M. we reached the upper part of

the settlement of Green Bay. I stopped a few moments at Judge Doty's,

and also a little below at Major Brevoort's, the Indian agent of the

post. We then proceeded to the lower settlements, and encamped near the

fort at Arndt's. Dr. Wheaton met me on the beach, with several others. I

supped and lodged at Arndt's, having declined Dr. Wheaton's polite

invitation to sup, and take a bed with him. At tea I saw Mrs. Cotton,

whom you will recollect as Miss Arndt, and was introduced to her

husband, Lieutenant Cotton, U.S.A. I was also introduced to the Rev. Mr.

Nash, a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal order, on missionary duty

here. I went to my room, as soon as I could disentangle myself from

these greetings, with a bundle of papers, to read up the news, and was

truly pained to hear of the death of my early friend Colonel Charles G.

Haines of New York, an account of which, with the funeral honors paid to

him, I read in the papers.

_30th_. The repair of my canoe, and the purchase of provisions to

recruit my supplies, consumed the morning, until twelve o'clock, when I

embarked, and called at the fort to pay my respects to Dr. Wheaton. I

found the dinner-table set. He insisted on my stopping with Mr. H. to

dinner, which, being an old friend and as one of my men had absconded,

and I was, therefore, delayed, I assented to. The doctor and family

evinced the greatest cordiality, and he sent down to my canoe, after

dinner, a quantity of melons, some cabbages, and a bag of new potatoes.

Before I could obtain another man and set out again, it was three

o'clock. I was obliged to forego the return of some visits. We continued

our voyage down the bay about 40 miles, and encamped at 8 o'clock,

having run down with a fair wind.

_31st_. Soon after quitting our camp this morning, a heavy wind arose.

It was partly fair, so as to permit our hoisting sail for a few hours,

but then shifted ahead, and drove us ashore. We landed on a small island

called Vermilion, off the south cape of Sturgeon Bay. Here we remained

all the remainder of the day and night. While there detained I read

"China, its Arts, Manufactures, &c.," a work translated from the French,

and giving a lively, and apparently correct account of that

singular people.

About two o'clock, P.M., we cut some of the water and musk-melons

presented by Dr. Wharton, and found them delicious. About 6 o'clock,

P.M., my cook informed me that he had prepared a supper, agreeably to my

directions, and we found his skill in this way by no means despicable.

Such are the trifles which must fill up my journal, for did I only write

what was fit for grave divines, or the scrutinizing eye of philosophy to

read, I fear I should have but a few meagre sheets to present you on my

return, and perhaps not a single syllable witty or wise.

_Sept. 1st_. The wind abated during the night, and we were early on the

waters, and went on until eleven o'clock, when we landed for breakfast.

At twelve o'clock we went forward again, with a fair wind. I read

another volume of "China." "The Chinese ladies," says the author, "live

very retired, wholly engaged in their household affairs, and how to

please their husbands. They are not, however, confined quite so closely

as is commonly supposed. The females visit entirely amongst each other.

There is no society or circles in China to which the women are admitted.

Marriages are a mere matter of convenience, or, to speak with greater

propriety, a kind of bargain settled between the parents and relatives."

We came on very well, and encamped at the Little Detroit, or strait, so

called, in the Grand Traverse. This traverse separates Green Bay from

Lake Michigan. It is computed to be twenty miles over. A cluster of

islands enables canoes to pass. There are some hieroglyphics on

the rocks.

_2d_. We embarked at three o'clock, A.M., and went on very well, until

ten, when we stopped on one of the islands for breakfast, having nearly

completed the traverse. In the meantime the wind arose in our favor, and

we went on along the north shore of Lake Michigan gayly. We passed the

mouth of the Manistee River, which interlocks with the Tacquimenon of

Lake Superior, where some of our St. Mary's Chippewas make their

gardens. An aft wind and light spirits are inseparable, whether a man be

in a frigate or a canoe. There is something in the air exhilarating. I

have been passing in retrospect, the various journeys I have made, but

during none has my anxieties to return been so great as this. What a

wonderful destiny it is that makes one man a traveler and another a

poet, a mathematician, &c. We appear to be guided by some innate

principle which has a predominating force. No man was more unlikely to

be a traveler than myself. I always thought myself to be domestic in my

feelings, habits, and inclinations, and even in very early youth,

proposed to live a life of domestic felicity. I thought such a life

inseparable from the married state, and resolved, therefore, to get

married, as soon as prudence and inclination would permit.

Notwithstanding this way of thinking my life has been a series of active

employment and arduous journeyings. I may say my travels began even in

childhood, for when only six or seven years old, I recollect to have

wandered off a long distance into the pine plains of my native town, to

view Honicroisa Hill, a noted object in that part of the country, to the

great alarm of all the family, who sent out to search for me. My next

journey was in my eleventh year, when I accompanied my father, in his

chaise, he dressed out in his regimentals, to attend a general

court-martial at Saratoga. I had not then read any history of our

Revolution, but had heard its battles and hardships, told over by my

father, which created a deep interest, and among the events was

Burgoyne's surrender. My mind was filled with the subject as we

proceeded on our way, and I expected to see a field covered with skulls,

and guns, and broken swords.

In my fifteenth year I accompanied my father, in his chaise, up the

Valley of the Mohawk to Utica. This gave me some idea of the western

country, and the rapid improvements going on there. I returned with some

more knowledge of the world, and with my mind filled with enthusiastic

notions of new settlements and fortunes made in the woods. I was highly

pleased with the frank and hospitable manners of the west. The next

spring I was sent by a manufacturing company to Philadelphia, as an

agent to procure and select on the banks of the Delaware, between

Bristol and Bordentown, a cargo of crucible clay. This journey and its

incidents opened a new field to me, and greatly increased my knowledge

of the world; of the vastness of commerce; and of the multifarious

occupations of men. I acquitted myself well of my agency, having made a

good selection of my cargo. I was a judge of the mineralogical

properties of the article, but a novice in almost everything else. I

supposed the world honest, and every man disposed to act properly and to

do right. I now first witnessed a theatre. It was at New York. When the

tragedy was over, seeing many go out, I also took a check and went home,

to be laughed at by the captain of the sloop, with whom I was a

passenger. At Philadelphia I fell into the hands of a professed

sharper; He was a gentleman in dress, manners, and conversation. He

showed me the city, and was very useful in directing my inquiries. But

he borrowed of me thirty dollars one day, to pay an unexpected demand,

as he said, and that was the last I ever saw of my money. The lesson was

not, however, lost upon me. I have never since lent a stranger or casual

acquaintance money.

_3d_. I was compelled to break off my notes yesterday suddenly. A storm

came on which drove us forward with great swiftness, and put us in some

peril. We made the land about three o'clock, after much exertion and

very considerable wetting. After the storm had passed over, a calm

succeeded, when we again put out, and kept the lake till eight o'clock.

We had a very bad encampment--loose rough stones to lie on, and scarcely

wood enough to make a fire. To finish our misery, it soon began to rain,

but ceased before ten. At four o'clock this morning we arose, the

weather being quite cold. At an early hour, after getting afloat, we

reached and passed a noted landing for canoes and boats, called

_Choishwa_ (Smooth-rock.) This shelter, is formed by a ledge of rock

running into the lake. On the inner, or perpendicular face, hundreds of

names are cut or scratched upon the rock. This _cacoethes scribendi_ is

the pest of every local curiosity or public watering-place. Even here,

in the wilderness, it is developed.

Wise men ne'er cut their names on doors or rock-heads,

But leave the task to scribblers and to blockheads;

Pert, trifling folks, who, bent on being witty,

Scrawl on each post some fag-end of a ditty,

Spinning, with spider's web, their shallow brains,

O'er wainscots, borrowed books, or window panes.

At one o'clock the wind became decidedly fair, and the men, relieved

from their paddles, are nearly all asleep, in the bottom of the canoe.

While the wind drives us forward beautifully I embrace the time to

resume my narrative of early journeyings, dropt yesterday.

In the year 1808, my father removed from Albany to Oneida County. I

remained at the old homestead in Guilderland, in charge of his affairs,

until the following year, when I also came to the west. The next spring

I was offered handsome inducements to go to the Genesee country, by a

manufacturing company, who contemplated the saving of a heavy land

transportation from Albany on the article of window-glass, if the rude

materials employed in it could be found in that area of country. I

visited it with that view; found its native resources ample, and was

still more delighted with the flourishing appearance of this part of the

Western country than I had been with Utica and its environs. Auburn,

Geneva, Canandaigua, and other incipient towns, seemed to me the germs

of a land "flowing with milk and honey."

In 1811, I went on a second trip to Philadelphia, and executed the

object of it with a success equal to my initial visit. On this trip I

had letters to some gentlemen at Philadelphia, who received me in a most

clever spirit, and I visited the Academy of Arts, Peale's Museum, the

Water Works, Navy Yard, &c. I here received my first definite ideas of

painting and sculpture. I returned with new stores of information and

new ideas of the world, but I had lost little or nothing of my primitive

simplicity of feeling or rustic notions of human perfection. And, as I

began to see something of the iniquities of men, I clung more firmly to

my native opinions.

My personal knowledge of my native State, and of the States of New

Jersey and Pennsylvania, was now superior to that of most men with whom

I was in the habit of conversing, and I subsequently made several little

journeys and excursions that furthered me in the knowledge.

As yet, I knew nothing by personal observation of New England. In the

early part of 1813, having completed my nineteenth year, I went to

Middlebury, in Vermont, on the banks of Otter Creek, where, I

understand, my great-grandfather, who was an Englishman, to have died.

Soon after I accompanied Mr. Ep. Jones, a man of decided enterprise, but

some eccentricities of character, on an extensive tour through the New

England States. We set out from Lake Dunmore, in Salisbury, in a chaise,

and proceeding over the Green Mountains across the State of Vermont, to

Bellows' Falls, on the Connecticut River, there struck the State of New

Hampshire, and went across it, and a part of Massachusetts, to Boston.

Thence, after a few days' stop, we continued our route to Hartford, the

seat of government of Connecticut, and thence south to the valley of the

Hudson at Rhinebeck. Here we crossed the Hudson to Kingston (the Esopus

of Indian days), and proceeded inland, somewhat circuitously, to the

Catskill Mountains; after visiting which, we returned to the river, came

up its valley to Albany, and returned, by way of Salem, to Salisbury.

All this was done with one horse, a compact small-boned animal, who was

a good oats-eater, and of whom we took the very best care. I made this

distich on him:--

Feed me well with oats and hay,

And I'll carry you forty miles a-day.

This long and circuitous tour gave me a general idea of this portion of

the Union, and enabled me to institute many comparisons between the

manners and customs and advantages of New York and New England.

I am again compelled to lay my pencil aside by the quantity of water

thrown into the canoe by the paddles of the men, who have been roused up

by the increasing waves.

_4th_. We went on under a press of sail last evening until eight

o'clock, when we encamped in a wide sandy bay in the Straits of

Michigan, having come a computed distance of 80 miles. On looking about,

we found in the sand the stumps of cedar pickets, forming an antique

enclosure, which, I judged, must have been the first site of the Mission

of St. Ignace, founded by Pierre Marquette, upwards of a hundred and

eighty years ago. Not a lisp of such a ruin had been heard by me

previously. French and Indian tradition says nothing of it. The

inference is, however, inevitable. Point St. Ignace draws its name from

it. It was afterwards removed and fixed at the blunt peninsula, or

headland, which the Indians call _Peekwutino_, the old Mackinac of

the French.

Leaving this spot at an early hour, we went to Point St. Ignace to

breakfast, and made the traverse to the Island of Michilimackinac by

eleven o'clock. We were greeted by a number of persons on the beach;

among them was Mr. Agnew, of the _Sault_, who reported friends all well.

This was a great relief to my mind, as I had been for a number of days

under the impression that some one near and dear to me was ill. It was

Sunday morning; many of the inhabitants were at church, and appearances

indicated more respect for the day than I recollect to have noticed

before. The good effect of the mission established in the island, under

the auspices of the Rev. Mr. Ferry, are clearly visible. Mr. Robert

Stuart invited me to take a room at the company's house, which I

declined, but dined and supped there.

CHAPTER XXV.

Journey from Mackinac to the Sault Ste. Marie--Outard Point--Head

winds--Lake Huron in a rage--Desperate embarkation--St. Vital--Double

the Detour--Return to St. Mary's--Letters--"Indian girl"--New volume of

travels--Guess' Cherokee alphabet--New views of the Indian languages and

their principles of construction--Georgia question--Post-office

difficulties--Glimpses from the civilized world.

1825. _Sept. 5th_. I arose at seven, and we had breakfast at half-past

seven. I then went to the Company's store and ordered an invoice of

goods for the Indian department. This occupied the time till dinner was

announced. I then went to my camp and ordered the tent to be struck and

the canoe to be put into the water; but found two of my men so ill with

the fever and ague that they could not go, and three others were much

intoxicated. The atmosphere was very cloudy and threatening, and to

attempt the traverse to Goose Island, under such circumstances, was

deemed improper. Mr. Robert and David Stuart, men noted in the Astoria

enterprise; Mr. Agnew, Capt. Knapp, Mr. Conner, Mr. Abbott, Mr. Currey,

&c., had kindly accompanied me to the beach, but all were very urgent in

their opinion that I should defer the starting. I ordered the men to be

ready at two o'clock in the morning should the weather not prove

tempestuous.

_6th_. I arose at three o'clock, but found a heavy fog enveloping the

whole island, and concealing objects at a short distance. It was not

till half-past six that I could embark, when the fog began to disperse,

but the clearing away of the fog introduced a light head wind. I reached

Goose Island, a distance of ten miles, after a march of three hours, and

afterwards went to Outard Point, but could go no further from the

increased violence of the wind.

_Outard Point, 8 o'clock P.M._ Here have I been encamped since noon,

with a head wind, a dense damp atmosphere, and the lake in a foam. I

expected the wind would fall with the sun, but, alas! it blows stronger

than ever. I fondly hoped on quitting Mackinac this morning, that I

should see home to-morrow, but that is now impossible. How confidently

do we hope and expect in this life, and how little do we know what is to

befall us for even a few hours beyond the present moment. It has pleased

the All-wise Being to give me an adverse wind, and I must submit to it.

I, doubtless, exulted too soon and too much. On reaching Mackinac, I

said to myself: "My journey is accomplished; my route to the Sault is

nothing; I can go there in a day and a half, wind or no wind." This

vanity and presumption is now punished, and, I acknowledge, justly. I

should have left it to Providence. Wise are the ways of the Almighty,

and salutary all His dispensations to man. Were we not continually put

in mind of an overruling Providence by reverses of this kind, the human

heart, exalted with its own consequence, would soon cease to implore

protection from on high.

I feel solitary. The loud dashing of the waves on shore, and the

darkness and dreariness of all without my tent, conspire to give a

saddened train to my reflections. I endeavored to divert myself, soon

after landing, by a stroll along the shore. I sought in vain among the

loose fragments of rock for some specimens worthy of preservation. I

gleaned the evidences of crystallization and the traces of organic forms

among the cast-up fragments of limestone and sandstone. I amused myself

with the reflection that I should, perhaps, meet you coming from an

opposite direction on the beach, and I half fancied that, perhaps, it

would actually take place. Vain sport of the mind! It served to cheat

away a tedious hour, and I returned to my tent fatigued and half sick. I

am in hopes a cup of tea and a night's rest will restore my equipoise of

mind and body. Thus

"Every pang that rends the heart,

Bids expectation rise."

_7th_. Still detained on this bleak and desolate Point. A heavy rain and

very strong gale continued all night. The rain was driven with such

violence as to penetrate through the texture of my tent, and fall

copiously upon me. Daybreak brought with it no abatement of the storm,

but presented to my view a wide vista of white foaming surge as far as

the eye could reach. In consequence of the increasing violence of the

storm, I was compelled to order my baggage and canoe to be removed, and

my tent to be pitched back among the trees. How long I am to remain here

I cannot conjecture. It is a real equinoxial storm. My ears are stunned

with the incessant roaring of the water and the loud murmuring of the

wind among the foliage. Thick murky clouds obscure the sky, and a chill

damp air compels me to sit in my tent with my cloak on. I may exclaim,

in the language of the Chippewas, _Tyau, gitche sunnahgud_ (oh, how hard

is my fate.)

At two o'clock I made another excursion to view the broad lake and see

if some favorable sign could not be drawn, but returned with nothing to

cast a gleam on the angry vista. It seemed as if the lake was convulsed

to its bottom.

OUTARD POINT.

What narrowed pleasures swell the bosom here,

A shore most sterile, and a clime severe,

Where every shrub seems stinted in its size,

"Where genius sickens and where fancy dies."

If to the lake I cast my longing view,

The curling waves their noisy way pursue;

That noise reminds me of my prison-strand,

Those waves I most admire, but cannot stand.

If to the shore I cast my anxious eye,

There broken rocks and sand commingled lie,

Mixed with the wrecks of shells and weeds and wood,

Crushed by the storm and driven by the flood.

E'en fishes there, high cast upon the shore,

Yet pant with life and stain the rocks with gore.

Would here the curious eye expect to meet

Aught precious in the sands beneath his feet,

Ores, gems, or crystals, fitting for the case,

No spot affords so poor, so drear a place.

Rough rounded stones, the sport of every wind,

Is all th' inquirer shall with caution find.

A beach unvaried spreads before the eye;

Drear is the land and stormy is the sky.

Would the fixed eye, that dotes on sylvan scenes,

Draw pleasure from these dark funereal greens,

These stunted cedars and low scraggy pines,

Where nature stagnates and the soil repines--

Alas! the source is small--small every bliss,

That e'er can dwell on such a place as this.

Bleak, barren, sandy, dreary, and confined,

Bathed by the waves and chilled by every wind;

Without a flower to beautify the scene,

Without a cultured shore--a shady green--

Without a harbor on a dangerous shore,

Without a friend to joy with or deplore.

He who can feel one lonely ray of bliss

In such a thought-appalling spot as this,

His mind in fogs and mists must ever roll,

Without a heart, and torpid all his soul.

About three o'clock P.M. there was a transient gleam of sunshine, and,

for a few moments, a slight abatement of wind. I ordered my canoe and

baggage taken inland to another narrow little bay, having issue into the

lake, where the water was calm enough to permit its being loaded; but

before this was accomplished, a most portentous cloud gathered in the

west, and the wind arose more fierce than before. Huron, like an

offended and capricious mistress, seemed to be determined, at last, on

fury, and threw herself into the most extravagant attitudes. I again had

my tent pitched, and sat down quietly to wait till the tempest should

subside; but up to a late hour at night the elemental war continued,

and, committing myself to the Divine mercy, I put out my candle and

retired to my pallet.

_8th_. The frowning mistress, Lake Huron, still has the pouts. About

seven o'clock I walked, or scrambled my way through close-matted spruce

and brambles to get a view of the open lake. The force of the waves was

not, perhaps, much different from the day before, but they were directly

from the west, and blowing directly down the lake. Could I get out from

the nook of a bay where I was encamped, and get directly before them, it

appeared possible, with a close-reefed sail, to go on my way. My

_engagees_ thought it too hazardous to try, but their habitual sense of

obedience to a _bourgeoise_ led them to put the canoe in the water, and

at 10 o'clock we left our encampment on Outard Point, got out into the

lake, not without imminent hazard, and began our career "like a

racehorse" for the Capes of the St. Mary's. The wind blew as if "'twad

blawn its last." We had reefed our sail to less than four feet, and I

put an extra man with the steersman. We literally went "on the wings of

the wind." I do not think myself ever to have run such hazards. I was

tossed up and down the waves like Sancho Panza on the blanket. Three

hours and twenty minutes brought me to Isle St. Vital, behind which we

got shelter. The good saint who presides over the island of gravel and

sand permitted me to take a glass of cordial from my basket, and to

refresh myself with a slice of cold tongue and a biscuit. Who this St.

Vital may have been, I know not, having been brought up a Protestant;

but I suppose the Catholic calendar would tell. If his saintship was as

fond of good living as some of his friends are said to be, I make no

doubt but he will freely forgive this trespass upon his territory.

Taking courage by this refreshment, we again put out before the gale,

and got in to the De Tour, and by seven o'clock, P.M., were safely

encamped on an island in St. Mary's Straits, opposite St. Joseph's. The

wind was here ahead.

On entering the straits, I found a vessel at anchor. On coming alongside

it proved to be the schooner Harriet, Capt. Allen, of Mont Clemens, on

her way from the Sault. A passenger on board says that he was at Mr.

Johnston's house two days ago, and all are well. He says the Chippewa

chiefs arrived yesterday. Regret that I had not forwarded by them the

letter which I had prepared at the Prairie to transmit by Mr. Holliday,

when I supposed I should return by way of Chippewa River and

Lake Superior.

I procured from the Harriet a whitefish, of which I have just partaken a

supper. This delicious fish is always a treat to me, but was never more

so than on the present occasion. I landed here fatigued, wet, and cold,

but, from the effects of a cheerful fire, good news from home, and

bright anticipations for to-morrow, I feel quite re-invigorated. "Tired

nature's sweet restorer" must complete what tea and whitefish have so

successfully begun.

_9th_. My journal has no entry for this day, but it brought me safely

(some 40 miles) to my own domicil at "Elmwood." The excitement of

getting back and finding all well drove away almost all other thoughts.

The impressions made on society by our visit to New York, and the

circles in which we moved, are given in a letter from Mr. Saml. C.

Conant, of the 19th July, which I found among those awaiting my arrival.

To introduce a descendant of one of the native race into society, as

had been done in my choice, was not an ordinary event, and did not

presuppose, it seems, ordinary independence of character. Her

grandfather, by the maternal side, had been a distinguished chief of his

nation at the ancient council-fire, or seat of its government at

Chegoimegon and Lapointe. By her father, a native of Antrim, in the

north of Ireland, she was connected with a class of clergy and gentry of

high respectability, including the Bishop of Dromore and Mr. Saurin, the

Attorney-General of Ireland. Two very diverse sources of pride of

ancestry met in her father's family--that of the noble and free sons of

the forest, and that of ancestral origin founded on the notice of

British aristocracy. With me, the former was of the highest honor, when

I beheld it, as it was in her case, united to manners and education in a

marked degree gentle, polished, retiring, and refined. No two such

diverse races and states of society, uniting to produce such a result,

had ever come to my notice, and I was, of course, gratified when any

persons of intellect and refinement concurred in the wisdom of my

choice. Such was Mr. Conant and his family, a group ever to be

remembered with kindness and respect. Having passed some weeks in his

family, with her infant boy and nurse, during my absence South, his

opportunities for judging were of the best kind.

"If you will suffer me to indulge the expression of both my own and Mrs.

Conant's feelings, I am sure that you cannot but be pleased that the

frankness and generosity of one, and the virtues and gentleness of the

other of you, have made so lively an impression on our hearts, and

rendered your acquaintance to us a matter of very sweet and grateful

reflection. Truly modest and worthy persons often exhibit virtues and

possess attainments so much allied to their nature as to be themselves

unconscious of the treasures. It does not hurt such ones to be informed

of their good qualities.

"When I first visited Mr. Schoolcraft, I looked about for his _Indian

girl_. I carried such a report to my wife that we were determined to

seek her acquaintance, and were not less surprised than recompensed to

find such gentleness, urbanity, affection, and intelligence, under

circumstances so illy calculated, as might be supposed, to produce such

amiable virtues. But all have learned to estimate human nature more

correctly, and to determine that nature herself, not less than the

culture of skillful hands, has much to do with the refinement and polish

of the mind.

"Mr. S.'s book ('Trav. Cent. Ports. Miss. Valley') has also received

several generous and laudatory notices; one from the _U.S. Literary

Gazette_, printed at Boston. I saw Gov. Clinton, also, who spoke very

highly both of the book and the author. He thought that Mr. W.'s

ill-natured critique would not do any injury either here or in Europe."

_Oct. 23d_. C.C. Trowbridge, Esq., sends me a copy of "Guess' Cherokee

Alphabet." It is, with a few exceptions, syllabic. Eighty-four

characters express the whole language, but will express no other

Indian language.

Maj. John Biddle communicates the result of the delegate election. By

throwing out the vote of Sault Ste. Marie, the election was awarded by

the canvassers to Mr. Wing.

New views of Indian philology. "You know," says a literary friend, "I

began with a design to refute the calumnies of the _Quarterly_

respecting our treatment of the Indians, and our conduct during the

recent war. This is precisely what I have not done. My stock of

materials for this purpose was most ample, and the most of the labor

performed. But I found the whole could not be inserted in one number,

and no other part but this could be omitted without breaking the

continuity of the discussion. I concluded, therefore, it would be better

to save it for another article, and hereafter remodel it."

_28th_. Mr. C. writes that he has completed his review, and transmits,

for my perusal, some of the new parts of it. "I also transmit my rough

draft of those parts of the review which relate to Hunter, to Adelang's

survey, and to ----. These may amuse an idle hour. The remarks on ----

are, as you will perceive, materially altered. The alteration was

rendered necessary by an examination of the work. The 'survey' is a new

item, and I think, you will consider, the occasion of it, with me, a

precious specimen of Dutch impudence and ignorance. Bad as it is, it is

bepraised and bedaubed by that quack D. as though it were written with

the judgment of a Charlevoix."

This article utters a species of criticism in America which we have long

wanted.

It breaks the ice on new ground--the ground of independent

philosophical thought and inquiry. Truth to tell, we have known very

little on the philosophy of the Indian languages, and that little has

been the re-echo of foreign continental opinions. It has been written

without a knowledge of the Indian character and history. Its allusions

have mixed up the tribes in double confusion. Mere synonyms have been

taken for different tribes, and their history and language has been

criss-crossed as if the facts had been heaped together with a pitchfork.

Mr. C. has made a bold stroke to lay the foundation of a better and

truer philological basis, which must at last prevail. It is true the

_prestige_ of respected names will rise up to oppose the new views,

which, I confess, to be sustained in their main features by my own views

and researches here on the ground and in the midst of the Indians, and

men will rise to sustain the _old_ views--the original literary mummery

and philological hocus-pocus based on the papers and letters and

blunders of Heckewelder. There was a great predisposition to admire and

overrate everything relative to Indian history and language, as detailed

by this good and sincere missionary in his retirement at Bethlehem. He

was appealed to as an oracle. This I found by an acquaintance which I

formed, in 1810, with the late amiable Dr. Wistar, while rusticating at

Bristol, on the banks of the Delaware. The confused letters which the

missionary wrote many years later, were mainly due to Dr. Wistar's

philosophical interest in the subject. They were rewritten and

thoroughly revised and systematized by the learned Mr. Duponceau, in

1816, and thus the philological system laid, which was published by the

Penn. Hist. Soc. in 1819. During the six years that has elapsed, nobody

has had the facts to examine the system. It has been now done, and I

shall be widely mistaken if this does not prove a new era in our Indian

philology.

Whatever the review does on this head, however, and admitting that it

pushes some positions to an ultra point, it will blow the impostor

Hunter sky high. His book is an utter fabrication, in which there is

scarcely a grain of truth hid in a bushel of chaff.

_Nov. 4th_. Difficulties have arisen, at this remote post, between the

citizens and the military, the latter of whom have shown a disposition

to feel power and forget right, by excluding, except with onerous

humiliations, some citizens from free access to the post-office. In a

letter of this date, the Postmaster-General (Mr. McLean) declines to

order the office to be kept out of the fort, and thus, in effect,

decides against the citizens. How very unimportant a citizen is 1000

miles from the seat of government! The national aegis is not big enough

to reach so far. The bed is too long for the covering. A man cannot wrap

himself in it. It is to be hoped that the Postmaster-General will live

long enough to find out that he has been deceived in this matter.

_29th_. Mr. Conant, of New York, writes: "I hope you will not fail to

prosecute your Indian inquiries this winter, getting out of them all the

stories and all the _Indian_ you can. I conclude you hear an echo now

and then from the big world, notwithstanding your seclusion. The Creek

Delegation is at Washington, unfriendly to the late treaty, and I expect

some changes not a little interesting to the aboriginal cause. Mr. Adams

looks at his 'red children' with a friendly eye, and, I trust, 'the men

of his house,' as the Indian orator called Congress, will prove

themselves so. I have been charmed with the quietude and coolness

manifested in Congress in reference to the Georgia business."

And with these last words from the civilized world, we are prepared to

plunge into another winter, with all its dreary accompaniments of ice

and snow and tempests, and with the _consoling_ reflection that when our

poor and long-looked-for monthly express arrives, we can get our letters

and papers from the office after duly performing our genuflections to a

petty military chief, with the obsequiousness of a Hindoo to the image

of Juggernaut.

CHAPTER XXVI.

General aspects of the Indian cause--Public criticism on the state of

Indian researches, and literary storm raised by the new views--Political

rumor--Death of R. Pettibone, Esq.--Delegate election--Copper mines of

Lake Superior--Instructions for a treaty in the North--Death of Mr.

Pettit--Denial of post-office facilities--Arrival of commissioners to

hold the Fond du Lac treaty--Trip to Fond du Lac through Lake

Superior--Treaty--Return--Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

_1826. Feb. 1st_. The year opens with unfavorable symptoms for the

Indian cause. The administration is strong in Congress, and the

President favorable to the Indian view of their right to the soil they

occupy east of the Mississippi until it is acquired by free cession. But

the doctrine of state sovereignty contended for by Georgia, seems to be

an element which all the States will, in the end, unite in contending

for. And the Creeks may settle their accounts with the fact that they

must finally go to the West. This is a practical view of the subject--a

sort of political necessity which seems to outride everything else.

Poetry and sympathy are rode over roughshod in the contest for the race.

We feel nothing of this _here_ at present, but it is only, perhaps,

because we are too remote and unimportant to waste a thought about.

Happy insignificance! As one of the little means of supporting existence

in so remote a spot, and keeping alive, at the same time, the spark of

literary excitement, I began, in December, a manuscript _jeu d'esprit_

newspaper, to be put in covers and sent from house to house, with the

perhaps too ambitious cognomen of "The Literary Voyager."

_6th_. The author of a leading and pungent critique for the _North

American Review_ writes in fine spirits from Washington, and in his

usual literary tone and temper about his review: "Dr. Sparks' letter

will show you his opinion. He altered the manuscript in some places, and

makes me say of--what I do not think and what I would not have

said. But let that pass. I gave him _carte blanche_, so I have no right

to find fault with his exercise of his discretion. W. is in a terrible

passion. He says that the article is written with ability, and that he

always entertained the opinion expressed in the review of Heckewelder's

work. But he is provoked at the comments on ----'s work, and, above all,

at the compliment to you. Douglass, who is here, says this is merely

Philadelphia _versus_ New York, and that it is a principle with the

former to puff all that is printed there, and to decry all that is not."

This appears to have been known to Gov. Clinton, and is the ground of

the opinion he expressed of W. to Mr. Conant.

_March 6th_. Col. De Garmo Jones writes from Detroit that it is rumored

that McLean is to leave the General Post-office Department, and to be

appointed one of the United States Judges.

Mr. L. Pettibone, of Missouri, my companion in exploring the Ozark

Mountains in 1818 and 1819, writes from that quarter that his brother,

Rufus Pettibone, Esq., of St. Louis, died on the 31st July last. He was

a man of noble, correct, and generous sentiments, who had practiced law

with reputation in Western New York. I accompanied him and his family on

going to the Western country, on his way from Olean to Pittsburgh. His

generous and manly character and fair talents, make his death a loss to

the community, and to the growing and enterprising population of the

West. He was one of the men who cheered me in my early explorations in

the West, and ever met me with a smile.

_7th_. My sister Maria writes, posting me up in the local news of

Detroit.

_9th_. Mr. Trowbridge informs me that Congress settled the contested

delegate question by casting aside the Sault votes. We are so

unimportant that even our votes are considered as worthless. However

that may be, nothing could be a greater misrepresentation than that

"Indians from their lodges were allowed to vote."

_14th_. Col. Thomas H. Benton, of the Senate, writes that an

appropriation of $10,000 has been granted for carrying out a clause in

the Prairie du Chien treaty, and that a convocation of the Indians in

Lake Superior will take place, "so that the copper-mine business is

arranged."

_17th_. Maj. Joseph Delafield, of New York, says that Baron Lederer is

desirous of entering into an arrangement for the exchange of my large

mass of Lake Superior copper, for mineralogical specimens for the

Imperial Cabinet of Vienna.

_April 16th_. A letter from the Department contains incipient directions

for convening the Indians to meet in council at the head of Lake

Superior, and committing the general arrangements for that purpose to my

hands, and, indeed, my hands are already full. Boats, canoes, supplies,

transportation for all who are to go, and a thousand minor questions,

call for attention. A treaty at Fond du Lac, 500 miles distant, and the

throwing of a commissariat department through the lake, is no

light task.

_27th_. A moral question of much interest is presented to me in a

communication from the Rev. Alvan Coe. Of the disinterested nature and

character of this man's benevolence for the Indian race, no man knowing

him ever doubted. He has literally been going about doing good among

them since our first arrival here in 1822. In his zeal to shield them

from the arts of petty traders, he has often gone so far as to incur the

ill-will and provoke the slanderous tongues of some few people. That he

should deem it necessary to address me a letter to counteract such

rumors, is the only thing remarkable. Wiser, in some senses, and more

prudent people in their worldly affairs, probably exist; but no man of a

purer, simpler, and more exalted faith. No one whom I ever knew lives

less for "the rewards that perish." Even Mr. Laird, whose name is

mentioned in these records, although he went far beyond him in talents,

gifts, and acquirements of every sort, had not a purer faith, yet he

will, like that holy man, receive his rewards from the same "Master."

_May 2d_. Mr. Trowbridge writes me of the death of Wm. W. Pettit, Esq.,

of Detroit, a man respected and admired. He loaned me a haversack,

suitable for a loose mineral bag, on my expedition in 1820.

_8th_. Difficulties between the military and citizens continue. The

Postmaster-General declined, on a renewed memorial of the citizens, to

remove the post-office without the garrison. He says the officers have

evinced "much sensibility" on the subject, and denied that "any

restraints or embarrassments" have been imposed, when every man and

woman in the settlement knows that the only way to the _post-office_

lies through the _guard-house_, which is open and shut by tap of drum.

Restraints, indeed! Where has the worthy Postmaster-General picked up

his military information?

_June 6th_. Definite information is received that the appropriation for

the Lake Superior treaty has passed Congress.

_10th_. Mr. John Agnew, designated a special agent for preliminaries at

Fond du Lac, writes of his prompt arrival at that place and

good progress.

Gov. C. writes: "We must remove the copper-rock, and, therefore, you

will have to provide such ropes and blocks as may be necessary."

_22d_. The citizens on this frontier, early in the season, petitioned

the Legislative Council for the erection of a new county, embracing the

Straits of St. Mary's and the Basin of Lake Superior, proposing to call

it Chippewa, in allusion to the tribe occupying it. Maj. Robert A.

Forsyth, of Detroit, M.C., writes of the success of the

contemplated measure.

_July 4th_. The proposed treaty of Fond du Lac has filled the place with

bustle for the last month. At an early hour this morning expectation was

gratified by the arrival of His Excellency, Gov. Cass, accompanied by

the Hon. Thomas L. McKenney, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. They

reached the village in boats from Mackinac.

These gentlemen are appointed by the President to hold the conferences

at Fond du Lac.

_10th_. Everything has been put in requisition for the last six days to

facilitate the necessary embarkation. Jason could not have been more

busy in preparing for his famous expedition to Argos. The military

element of the party consisted of a company of the 2d Infantry, with its

commissariat and medical department, numbering, all told, sixty-two men.

It was placed under the command of Capt. Boardman. They embarked in

three twelve-oared barges, and formed the advance. The provisions,

presents of goods, and subsistence supplies of the commissioners' table,

occupied four boats, and went next. I proceeded in a canoe _allége_ with

ten men, with every appendage to render the trip convenient and

agreeable. Col. McKenney, struck with "the coach-and-six" sort of style

of this kind of conveyance, determined to take a seat with me, and

relying upon our speed and capacity to overtake the heavy boats, we

embarked a day later. The whole expedition, with flags and music, was

spread out over miles, and formed an impressive and imposing spectacle

to the natives, who saw their "closed lake," as Superior was called in

1820, yield before the Anglo-Saxon power. The weather was fine, the

scenery enchanting, and the incidents such as might fill a volume.[45] We

were eighteen days in traversing the lake by its shores and bays. The

distance is about 530 miles, which gives an average of thirty miles

per day.

[Footnote 45: Vide "Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, of the Character and

Customs of the Chippewa Indians, and of Incidents connected with the

Treaty of Fond du Lac, by Thomas L. McKenney." Baltimore, Fielding

Lucas, 1827; one vol. 8vo., 493 pp.]

On reaching the post of Fond du Lac, of St. Louis, near the point where

that bold stream deploys below the Cabotian Mountains,[46] we found a

large assemblage of Indians from every part of the wide-spread Chippewa

territories. It embraced delegations from the extreme sources of the

Mississippi, the Rainy Lake borders, and Old Grand Portage, besides the

entire American borders of Lake Superior and the Rice Lake region, the

sources of the Wisconsin, Chippewa, and St. Croix valleys. The

negotiations were held under a large bower, supported by posts, and

provided with rude seats. The principles of the treaty of Prairie du

Chien, of 1825, were fully explained and assented to. They ceded the

right to explore and take away the native copper and copper-ores, and to

work the mines and minerals in the country. They agreed to surrender the

murderers still inland, who belonged to the misguided war party of 1824.

They fully acknowledged the sovereign authority of the United States,

and disclaimed all connection whatever with foreign powers. They

stipulated that the boundary lines of the treaty of Prairie du Chien

should be carried out in 1827 with the Menomonies and Winnebagoes, in

the region of the sources of the Fox, Wisconsin, and Menomonee rivers.

They provided for an Indian school at St. Mary's, and made some further

important stipulations respecting their advance in the arts and

education, through the element of their half-breeds. The effects of this

treaty were to place our Indian relations in this quarter on a permanent

basis, and to ensure the future peace of the frontier. My agency was now

fixed on a sure basis, and my influence fully established among the

tribes. During the treaty I had been the medium of placing about forty

silver medals, of the first, second, and third classes, on the necks of

the chiefs. A list of their names is appended.

[Footnote 46: From Cabot.]

While the Commissioners were engaged in the treaty, an effort was made,

under their direction, to get out the large copper-boulder on the

Ontonagon. It was entrusted to Col. Clemens, of Mount Clemens, and a Mr.

Porter. The trucks and ropes taken inland by them proved inadequate.

They then piled up the dry trees in the valley on the rock, and set them

on fire. They found this effort to melt it inefficacious. They then

poured on water from the river on whose brink it lays. This cracked off

some of the adhering rock. And this attempt to mutilate and falsify the

noblest specimen of native copper on the globe was the result of

this effort.

The whole expedition re-embarked on the 9th of August, and being now

relieved of its heavy supplies and favored with winds, returned to the

Sault St. Marie on the 18th of that month.

No sooner were we arrived at St. Mary's than we were informed of the

remarkable coincident deaths, on the 4th July, 1826, of John Adams and

Thomas Jefferson, the second and third Presidents of the United States.

Among the letters accumulated during my absence, was one of Aug. 2d,

from Gov. Clinton, requesting some wild rice for foreign distribution.

Another one was from my excellent friend Conant, of N.Y., who, with a

fine sensitive mind, just appreciation of facts, and no ordinary

capacity, appears to be literally breaking down in health and spirits,

although still a young man. In a joint letter to Mrs. S. and myself, he

says: "It appears you do not escape afflictions and visitations to teach

you 'how frail you are,' how liable at any moment to render up to Him

who gave them, your spirit and your life. Mr. S.," he adds, in evident

allusion to my excess of "hope," "firm in body and ambitious in his

pursuits, does not, I suppose, give over yet, and can scarcely

understand how anybody should tire of life, and look at its pursuits

with disgust."

Among my unread letters was one, Aug. 28th, from a Mr. Myer and Mr.

Cocke, of Washington, District of Columbia, who propose to establish a

periodical to be called "The Potomac Magazine," and solicit

contributions. These abortive attempts to establish periodicals by

unknown men are becoming more frequent as population increases in the

land. It is felt truly that the number of _readers_ must increase, but

it is a mistake to suppose that they will read anything but the very

best matter from the first sources, European and American. It is, at any

rate, a mistake to suppose that a man who has attained reputation in any

branch of science, literature, or general knowledge, should not seek the

highest medium of communicating it, or that he would throw away his time

and efforts in writing for these mere idealities of magazines without

the strong inducements of either fame, money, or, at least, personal

friendship.

E.A. Brush, Esq., of Detroit, writes (Aug. 28th) from Mackinac, that

honors were performed that day by the military authorities on the

island, in commemoration of the deaths of Adams and Jefferson. "The

obsequies have this morning commenced here; but at this moment it is

rather difficult to select the report of a cannon, at intervals of half

an hour, from the claps of thunder at those of half a minute."

_Aug. 20th_. Mr. Robert Stuart, agent of the A.M. Fur Co., writes a

letter of congratulations on the good policy to result from placing a

sub-agent at La Pointe, in Lake Superior, a location where the interior

tricks of the trade may be reported for the notice of the government.

The selection of the sub-agent appointed by Commissioner McKenney is

gall and wormwood to him. He strives to conceal the deep chagrin he

feels at the selection of Mr. George Johnston as the incumbent.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Epidemical condition of the atmosphere at Detroit--Death of Henry J.

Hunt and A. G. Whitney, Esqrs.--Diary of the visits of Indians at St.

Mary's Agency--Indian affairs on the frontier under the supervision of

Col. McKenney--Criticisms on the state of Indian questions--Topic of

Indian eloquence--State of American researches in natural science--Dr.

Saml. L. Mitchell.

1826. _September_. Sickness, which often assumed a mortal type, broke

out during this month at Detroit, and carried away many of its most

esteemed citizens. Col. McKenney writes (Sep. 13th) that the

Commissioners reached that place from Mackinac in ten days, and that an

alarming sickness prevails--one hundred cases! Among the latter is Mrs.

Judge Hunt, an esteemed lady.

Gov. C. (Sep. 14th) announces the death of Col. Henry J. Hunt, one of

the most respectable citizens; a man who, for many years, has occupied a

position of the highest respect and esteem. His honor, integrity, and

general usefulness, urbanity of manners and kindness to all classes,

have never been called in question, and his loss to society will create

a vacancy which will long be felt. Called away suddenly, his death has

produced a shock in all classes, from the highest to the lowest.

Edmund A. Brush, Esq., writes (Sept. 17th): "Our unhappy mortality

prevails." On the 23d, he says: "Mr. Whitney has been lying at the point

of death for the last ten or twelve days. We hope he begins to improve."

These hopes were delusive. He died. Mr. Whitney had been abroad; he was

an assiduous and talented advocate--a native of Hudson, N.Y.--was on the

high road to political distinction--a moral man and a public loss.

I amused myself this fall by keeping notes of the official visits of my

Indian neighbors. They may denote the kind of daily wants against which

this people struggle.

_Oct. 2d_. Monetogeezhig complained that he had not been able to take

any fish for several days, and solicited some food for himself and

family, being five persons. The dress and general appearance of himself

and wife and the children, nearly naked, bore evidence to the truth of

his repeated expressions, that they were "poor, very poor, and hungry."

He also presented a kettle and an axe to be repaired. I gave him a

ticket on the Agency blacksmith, and caused sixteen rations of flour and

pork to be issued to him.

_3d_. The petty chief, Cheegud, with his wife and two children, arrived

from Lake Superior, and reported that since leaving the Taquimenon he

had killed nothing. While inland, he had broken his axe and trap. This

young chief is son-in-law of Shingauba W'ossin, principal chief of the

Chippewas. He is one of the home band, has been intimate at the agency

from its establishment, and is very much attached to the government. He

attended the treaty of Prairie du Chien, in 1825, and the treaty of Fond

du Lac, in 1826, and received at the latter a medal of the third size.

He has always properly appreciated the presents given him, and by his

temperate, consistent, and respectable course of life, merited

attention. Directed a ticket on the shop and twenty rations.

_6th_. An Indian woman, wife of Sirdeland, a resident Canadian, in very

low circumstances, and living in the Indian mode, requested a kettle to

be mended. My rule, in cases of this sort, excludes Indian females who

are under the protection of Canadian husbands from a participation in

the presents distributed at the office. But it is proper to make

exceptions, in some instances, where repairs of ironwork are solicited.

Directed a ticket on the blacksmith.

_13th_. Issued to Waykwauking and family twelve rations.

_16th_. Shingwaukoance, _The Little Pine_ (17th July, 1822, first

visit), accompanied by twenty persons, visited the office. This is one

of the signers of the Treaty of St. Mary of 1820, where his mark is

prefixed to his _French_ name, Augustin Bart. He told me he had come to

visit me, attended with all his young men, and requested I would listen

to what he had to say. He made a speech at great length, in which he

recapitulated his good offices and exertions towards the Americans, from

the time of Gov. Cass's arrival in 1820. He stated that a plot had then

been formed to cut off the Gov.'s party, and that he and Mr. G. Johnston

had been instrumental in thwarting the design. He was glad to see the

fire I had lighted up here in 1822 was kept burning, that the Indians

might come and warm themselves by it. He had now determined to come and

live permanently on the American side of the river, and put himself

under my protection.

He repeated his friendship, and gave a "parole" of blue wampum to

confirm his words. One of his party then lighted a pipe and handed it to

me to smoke in the usual manner. Caused tobacco and sixty rations of

food to be distributed among his band.

_20th_. Oshawano solicited food, declaring that his boys had not been

able to take any fish from the rapids for several days. This is an old

man, and a chief resident at St. Mary's. I told him that it was not my

practice, which he knew, to issue provision to the families of fishermen

during the fishing season, and that I expected his children to supply

him; that, besides, he was one of the persons who had visited the B.

Post at D. Isd. during the last summer, and that he knew I made no

presents of any kind to Indians who received presents there; that if he

went to his B. father in the summer, when it was pleasant weather, he

must also go in the fall and winter, when the weather was bad; that if

they gave him presents of goods, they must also give him food. He looked

very grave, and, after a short silence, said that he had got little or

nothing at D.I. He said his home was _here_, and he was very poor, &c.

Knowing, from personal observation, that he was suffering for food, I

ordered twenty-six-rations.

_21st_. Cheegud came to say that he was about to go to his wintering

grounds, and wished some provisions to commence the journey. This young

chief has been welcomed at the agency, and is friendly to the American

government. He attended the treaties of P.D.C. and F. du Lac; at the

latter he received a medal. He has always appreciated attentions, and by

his sober, consistent, and respectful course of life, merits the notice

of the office. I gave him some necessary ironwork, a knife, tobacco,

ammunition, provisions (18).

_23d_. Visited by Shingauwosh (4 p.)

_24th_. Akeewayzee (4 per.)

_26th_. Keewikoance and band, eleven persons. This is a chief residing

on the lower part of the river St. Mary. Having visited him last spring,

he gave me an ancient clay pot, such as the Indians used before the

arrival of Europeans. He told me he was the seventh chief, in a direct

line, since the French first arrived. He and his band plant some corn

and potatoes upon an island. He appears a sensible discreet man, and has

a good deal of the pride and dignity of the Indian character. He is in

the British interest, and his feelings are all that way, being always

received at D. I. with marked attention. He has a British medal, but

wishes to keep on friendly terms here.

_28th_. Metosh came in the office and said: "My father, I am very poor;

I have nothing, not even an axe to cut wood. Show me pity."

Thirteen rations.

_30th_. Visited by Wayishkee, a chief, having a medal of the first

class, formerly of La Pointe, in Lake Superior, and of an ancient line

of chiefs, but for the last three years a resident of St. Mary's. He had

a wife and nine children. Has been in the constant habit of visiting the

office since its establishment; but it is only within the last year that

he has given up visiting D. I. He is one of the signers of the treaty of

St. Mary. He attended the treaty of F. du Lac last summer. Received a

medal and flag from me in the spring. Is a good hunter and a kind and

affectionate parent. Had all his children by one wife. Came to inform me

that he was on his way to make his first hunt on Red Carp river, L. S.

Gave him ironwork, &c.

_30th_. Neegaubeyun, _The West Wind_, a chief by descent of the home

band; is a man about forty; has lost one eye; much given to

intemperance, and generally badly clothed; will sometimes labor for

whisky; visits D.I. every season. In consequence of his poor character

and political bias, has never been recognized by me as a chief, nor

honored with the marks of one. He said that he was poor, and did not

come to trouble me often, and hoped I would show him charity. I told him

he must not construe my charity into approbation of his conduct,

particularly his visits to D.I., which were displeasing to me and had

been forbidden by his American Father (3b.)

_30th_. Muckudaywuckooneyea. This is a young man about 18. His father

was a steady friend to the American cause even during the late war, and

many years before an Agent resided here. He had received a Jefferson

medal at Detroit; was drowned in the St. Mary a few years ago. The son

has been an irregular visitor at the office for the last four years, and

is ambitious to be invested with the authority of his father, but

possesses neither age, ability, or discretion. In consequence of his

visiting D.I., contrary to my request and _his_ promise, I took away his

father's medal from him, in 1823, hanging it up in my office, and

telling him when he was worthy of it, and not before, he should have it.

His conduct of late has been more considerate, and his professions of

friendship for the American government are profuse; but he has not

ceased his Canada visits. Ten rations.

_Nov. 5th_. Ketuckeewagauboway. This being Sunday, I told him he knew

very well that I never listened to Indians on the Prayer Day unless they

were just come from a journey, &c. He went away, saying he had

forgot, &c.

_6th_. Oshkinaway and brother, 18 p., of the British shore. Brought a

present of some partridges.

_7th_. Metacosegay. This man resides the greater part of the time on the

Canadian side of the river, but hunts often on the American shore. He

resided many years ago with a French family at St. Mary, and has imbibed

something of the French taste and manners, always wearing an ornamental

hat, and making a bow on entering and leaving the office. He has been in

the regular habit of visiting me from the year 1822, and generally

applies for what is termed _nwappo_ on setting out for his fall and

winter hunts. His elder wife, for he has two, is a Sioux slave, taken in

youth. (3, 12 r.)

_7th_. Nauwequay Wegauboway. (4, 20.)

_9th_. This day Bisconaosh visited me for the first time since my

residence here. He came with his wife and two children. This man is of

the ancient band of the Falls, but being strongly attached to the

British government, has been shy of approaching me. This has been taken

advantage of by Mr. E., a trader on the opposite shore, who told him the

Americans would cause him to be whipped, with other idle stuff of that

sort, if he came over. He stated these facts as the cause for his not

coming earlier to see me, and said he was anxious to return to the seat

of his forefathers, &c. Presented him with an axe, pair of spears,

ice-chisel, knife, and a couple of flints, and with sixteen rations of

flour, pork, and beans. _10th_. Ketuckeewagauboway. This is a resident

Indian of this place. He is a fisherman during the summer, and scarcely

ever does more in the winter than to snare hares or kill partridges,

which he exposes for sale. He also makes snow-shoes, &c. He is

intemperate and improvident, wasting in liquor what would be useful to

his family if laid out for provisions, &c. It is impossible to avoid

issues to such persons occasionally. Advice and reproof he always takes

well, acknowledges their justice with good nature, and is even

facetiously pleasant. This man used formerly to come to the office

intoxicated; but my undeviating rule of listening to no Indian in that

state, has had good effect.

_10th_. Kewazee, a fisherman in the fall, a hunter in the winter, is the

eldest son of the old hereditary chief Oshawano. Keeps himself well

clothed, and supports his family of four persons comfortably in the

Indian way. Having concluded to stop fishing for the season, he came to

solicit some provision to go inland. This is one of the home band who

adheres to the American government, and has entirely broken off all

visits to D.I., even contrary to the practice of his father and all the

other members of his family.

_13th_. Iawbeance, _The Little Male_, a young man.

_14th_. Margret, wife of Metakoosega, came in the name of her husband,

confined by a sore hand and unable to work. 3, 10.

_15th_. Wabishkipenaysee, 6, 18, an Ontonagon Indian, who thinks he is

abandoned by his Manito.

_16th_. Naugitshigome and band, 12, 48. This is an old man, a chief by

descent, but has neither medal nor flag from the British or American

government. His followers, consisting of some relations, entitle him to

some respect, although his foreign attachments have prevented my

receiving him as a chief. His visits are, however, constant, and he

professes himself friendly. His prejudices have evidently given way a

good deal, and the kindness and charity shown to him, mixed with

admonition, have produced a sensible change in his feelings.

_18th_. Caubaonaquet, 6, 36.

_21st_. Moazomonee, 4, 14, of St. Croix, L.S., made a speech, stating

the circumstances which brought him down, and imploring charity in

clothes, &c. Presented a pipe to him; gave him an axe, spears, chisel,

fire-steel, leggings, &c.

_24th_. Oaugaugee, _Little Crow_, 4, 12, a son-in-law of Naugitchigome,

brought some hares as a present.

_27th_. Ochipway, a stout, athletic young Indian, having a wife and

children. He said his youngest child was ill, and requested a physician

to be sent to see him.

_27th_. Negaubeyun, 12, 36.

Oshawano. Told him to come some other time. Axe and spears.

_29th_. Akewaizee applied for provisions and an axe, saying his axe had

been stolen; that he wished to go down the river. I taxed him with

selling his axe for liquor, but he denied this, saying that he never

sold what he received as presents, and that it was stolen while he was

fishing. Gave him an axe, with an injunction that he must take better

care of it than he did of the last. Ten rations.

_30th_. Metacosseguay and wife. Said he had not been able to hunt or

fish for some time, and had been disappointed in getting flour for some

fish he had sold; that the trader had promised him flour when the vessel

came, but no vessel had come. This being the _third_ visit of this man

and family within three weeks, I told him that while he was unwell I had

given him, but now he was able to hunt or trap or fish, he must do so;

that he came to me too often, and sometimes after he had sold the avails

of his hunt, and taken the whole in liquor, he relied upon me for

provisions; that I saw clearly what was going on about me, and he could

not deceive me by idle stories, &c.; that he was constantly calling me

father, and entreating me to look upon him as a child, and I did so, not

only in giving, but also in refusing; that reasonable children did not

trouble their fathers too often, and never requested anything but when

they were _really_ in need, &c. I ordered him a plug of tobacco, and

told him to go to his lodge and _smoke upon my words_, and he would find

them good. He went away seemingly as well pleased as if I had met his

requests, shaking me and my interpreter cordially by the hand, and his

wife dropping a curtsey as she left the office.

_30th_. Moazomonee, nephew, and brother-in-law, came for some muskrat

traps I had promised him on his last visit. As this man belongs to a

band on the head of River St. Croix, 700 miles inland, and will return

there in the spring, the opinions he may imbibe of our government may

have an important influence with his relatives, and I therefore

determined to make a favorable impression upon him by issuing some

presents. In his lodge are four men, three women, and a number of

children. Issued sixteen rations.

_Decr. 1st_. Cath. and Gikkaw applied for awls.

_2d_. Oshawano and his youngest son. Said he had three daughters who had

to cut wood every day, and had no axe of their own; that he was in want

of an ice-chisel; fever in family. Gave him twenty rations. Thanked me

and bade me good-day.

_4th_. Caubamossa, nephew, wife, and child. Twelve rations.

_4th_. Odawau, Refused provisions. Elder brother to Oshawano, alias

Weenekiz.

_4th_. Getsha Akkewaize. Refused provisions. Told him that on account of

visits to D.I., &c.

_4th_. Moazonee came for traps promised him, also a knife and

fire-steel. Told him to hunt assiduously, but if he could procure

nothing, to come to me for provisions.

_7th_. Merchand. Old iron to mend.

_7th_. Nauwaquaygahig. 12, axe, &c.

_9th_. Namewunagunboway. 12.

_9th_. Merchand. Twenty rations, five persons.

_9th_. Meesho.

_13th_. Ketetckeewagauboway. Axe and spears.

_13th_. Gitshee Ojibway.

_13th_. Metackossegay.

_17th_. Naugitchigome called at house. Sent off with, a reprimand never

to call on Sunday.

_18th_. Iaubence brought some birds. Gave rations.

My correspondence during the autumn was by no means neglected. Col.

McKenney, Com. Ind. Affairs, writes (Oct. 17th) in his usual friendly

vein. The official influence of his visit to this remote portion of the

country is seen in several things. He has placed a sub-agent at La

Pointe. He has approved the agent's course of policy pursued here, and

placed the Indian affairs generally on a better basis.

In his "sketches" of his recent tour, he seeks to embody personal and

amusing things which daily befell the party--matters upon which he was

quite at home. I had mentioned to him, while here, that the time and

labor necessary to collect information on Indian topics, of a literary

character, imposed a species of research worthy of departmental

patronage; that I was quite willing to contribute in this way, and to

devote my leisure moments to further researches on the aboriginal

history and languages, if the government would appropriate means to this

end. I took the occasion to put these views in writing, and, by way of

earnest, enclosed him part of a vocabulary.

_Nov. 1st._ The false views of Indian history and philology, engendered

in some degree by the misapprehensions of Mr. Heckewelder and some other

writers, which were exposed by a glowing article in the _North American

Review_ last year, have had the effect to provoke further discussion. C.

is disposed to prepare another article for that paper, and is looking

about him keenly for new facts. In a letter of this date, he says: "I am

extremely anxious for your conjugation of the Chippewa substantive verb.

Let nothing prevent you from sending it to me, as it is more essential

than I have time to explain to you. Send me also your observations on

the Chippewa language. Let them come as you had them. Take no time to

copy them."

_11th_. Mr. R. S. writes one of his peculiar letters, in which the

sentiments seem to be compressed, as if some species of _finesse_ were

at work--an attenuated worldly precaution which leads him perpetually to

half conceal sentiment, purpose and acts, as if the operations and

business of life were not ten times better effected by plain

straightforwardness than by any other mode. He has, however, so long

dealt with tricky fur-traders and dealers in interested sentiment, that

it seems his intellectual habits are formed, to some extent, on that

model. What annoys me is, that he supposes himself hid, when, like the

ostrich, it is only his own head that is concealed in the sand. Yet this

man is alive to general moral effort, unites freely in all the

benevolent movements of the day, and has the general air of friendliness

in his personal manners. It continually seems that all the outer world's

affairs are well judged of, but when he comes to draw conclusions of

moral men who have the power of affecting his own interests, there is

apparent constraint, or palpable narrow-mindedness.

_29th_. Professor Chas. Anthon, of Columbia College, writes for

specimens of Indian eloquence. The world has been grossly misled on this

subject. The great simplicity, and occasional strength, of an Indian's

thoughts, have sometimes led to the use of figures and epithets of

beauty. He is surrounded by all the elements of poetry and

eloquence--tempests, woods, waters, skies. His mythology is poetic. His

world is replete with spirits and gods of all imaginable kinds and hues.

His very position--a race falling before civilization, and obliged to

give up the bow and arrow for the plough--is poetic and artistic. But he

has no sustained eloquence, no continuous trains of varying thought. It

is the flash, the crack of contending elements. It is not the steady

sound of the waterfall. Such was the eloquent appeal of Logan, revised

and pointed by Gibson. Such was the more sustained speech of Garangula

to La Barrie, the Governor-General of Canada, with La Hontan as a

reporter. Such were the speeches of Pontiac and the eloquent Sagoyawata,

or Red Jacket, the readiest reasoner of them all, which were diluted

rather than improved by admiring paragraphists. Many persons have

purposed to write a volume of Indian eloquence. Mr. Conant's design on

this subject is fresh. The present request is to supply Mr. Barker, the

publisher of "Stephen's Greek Thesaurus," Cambridge, England. What under

the sun do the learned world suppose the Indians are made of? A man

spending his time painfully to catch a beaver, or entrap an enemy,

without stores of thought, without leisure, with nothing often to eat,

and nothing to put on but tatters and rags, and, withal, with the whole

Anglo-Saxon race treading on his toes and burning out his vitals with

ardent spirits. Such is the Indian.

I sent the learned professor some perfectly truthful specimens, recently

delivered here on the occasion of a surgeon from the fort digging up the

body of an Indian woman for dissection. They expressed plain truth

without eloquence, and I never heard anything more of the professor.

_30th. Science in America_.--I received a friendly letter from Dr.

Samuel L. Mitchell, N. Y. There are, of recent years, more purely

scientific men in the land, no doubt, than the venerable doctor. But

could this have been said truly even ten years ago? He is now, perhaps,

the best ichthyologist in the Union. He is a well-read zoologist, an

intelligent botanist and a general physiologist, and has been for a long

series of years the focus of the diffusion of knowledge on a great

variety of subjects. Gov. Clinton has well called him the "Delphic

Oracle" in one of his Letters of Hibernicus, because every one who has a

scientific question to ask comes to him.

"The Lyceum of Natural History," he writes, "is going on prosperously in

the collection of articles and in the publication of intelligence. The

museum is enlarging and the annals progressing. The intercourse of New

York city with almost numberless parts of the globe, aided by the

enterprise and generosity of our navigating citizens, is productive of

an almost constant supply of natural productions, some familiar, some

known to naturalists, but not before seen by us, and others new to the

whole class of observers."

_Dec. 1st_. Much leisure during the four years I have been at this

agency, added to an early developed distaste for the ordinary modes of

killing time, has enabled me to give no little of my leisure to literary

pursuits. The interesting phenomena of the Indian grammar have come in

for a large share of my attention. This has caused me to revise and

extend my early studies, and to rummage such books on general grammar

and philology as I could lay my hands on. Every winter, beginning as

soon as the navigation closes and the world is fairly shut out, has thus

constituted a season of studies. My attention has been perpetually

divided between books and living interpreters. This may be said to be my

fourth year's _course_ with the Johnstons on the languages.

I have also resumed, as an alternate amusement, "The Literary Voyager."

I wrote this year "The Man of Bronze," an essay on the Indian character,

which has contributed to my own amusement, nor have I determined to show

it to a human eye.

Let others write what others deftly may,

I aim with thought to fill my wintry day.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Mineralogy--Territorial affairs--Vindication of the American policy by

its treatment of the Indians--New York spirit of improvement--Taste for

cabinets of natural history--Fatalism in an Indian--Death of a first

born son--Flight from the house--Territorial matters--A literary

topic--Preparations for another treaty--Consolations--Boundary in the

North-west under the treaty of Ghent--Natural history--Trip to Green

Bay--Treaty of Butte des Morts--Winnebago outbreak--Intrepid conduct of

General Cass--Indian stabbing--Investment of the petticoat--Mohegan

language.

_1827. January 10th_.--Mineralogy became a popular study in the United

States, I believe, about 1817 or thereabouts, when Professor Cleveland

published the first edition of his _Elements of Mineralogy_, and

Silliman began his _Journal of Science_. It is true Bruce had published

his _Mineralogical Journal_ in 1814, but the science can, by no means,

be said to have attracted much, or general attention for several years.

It was not till 1819 that Cleveland's work first came into my hands. The

professor writes me under this date, that he is about preparing a new

edition of the work, and he solicits the communication of new

localities. This work has been about ten years before the public. It was

the first work on that subject produced on this side of the Atlantic,

and has acquired great popularity as a text-book to classes and

amateurs. It adopts a classification on chemical principles; but

recognizes the Wernerian system of erecting species by external

characters; and also Hany's system of crystallography, so far as it

extends, as being coincident, in the respective proofs which these

systems afford to the chemical mode of pure analysis. As such it

commends itself to the common sense of observers.

_20th_. Territorial affairs now began more particularly to attract my

attention. Robert Irwin, Jr., Esq., M.C. of Detroit, writes on

territorial affairs, growing out of the organization of a new county, on

the St. Mary's, and in the basin of Lake Superior. I had furnished him

the choice of three names, Allegan, Algonac, and Chippewa.

Major R.A. Forsyth, M.C., says (Jan. 22d), "the new county bill passed

on the last of December (1826). It is contemplated to tender to you the

appointment of first judge of the new county. We have selected the name

of 'Chippewa.'"

Mr. C.C. Trowbridge writes (25th) that "it is proposed in Congress to

lay off a new territory, embracing all Michigan west of the lake. This

territory, at first proposed to be called Huron, was eventually named

Wisconsin."

_25th_. Mr. Cass has examined, in an able article in the _North American

Review_, the policy of the American government in its treatment of the

Indians, in contrast with that of Great Britain. In this article, the

charges of the _London Quarterly_ are controverted, and a full

vindication made of our policy and treatment of these tribes, which must

be gratifying to every lover of our institutions, and our public sense

of justice. As between government and government, this paper is a

powerful and triumphant one. As a legal question it is not less so. The

question of political sovereignty is clear. Did our English Elizabeths,

James', and Charles', ever doubt their full right of sovereignty? The

public sense of justice and benevolence, the Republic, if not the parent

monarchy, fully recognized, by tracing to these tribes the fee of the

soil, and by punctually paying its value, as established by public

treaties, at all times.

_26th_. Mr. T.G. Anderson, of Drummond Island, transmits a translation

of the Lord's Prayer, in Odjibwa, which he requests to be examined.

_Feb. 5th_. No State seems comparable, for its enterprise and rapid

improvements, to New York. Mr. E.B. Allen, who recently removed from

this remote village to Ogdensburgh, New York, expresses his agreeable

surprise, after seven years' absence in the West, at the vast

improvements that have been made in that State. "There is a spirit of

enterprise and energy, that is deeply interesting to men of business and

also men of science."

_March 1st_. Dr. Martyn Paine, of New York, proposes a system of

philosophic exchanges. The large and fine collection of mineralogical

and geological specimens which I brought from Missouri and other parts

of the Mississippi valley in 1819, appears to have had an effect on the

prevalent taste for these subjects, and at least, it has fixed the eyes

of naturalists on my position on the frontiers. Cabinets of minerals

have been in vogue for about nine or ten years. Mr. Maclure, of

Philadelphia, Colonel Gibbs, of New Haven, and Drs. De Witt, Bruce and

Mitchill, of New York, and above Profs. Silliman and Cleveland, may be

said to have originated the taste. Before their day, minerals were

regarded as mere "stones." Now, it is rare to find a college or academy

without, at least, the nucleus of a cabinet. By transferring my

collection here, I have increased very much my own means of intellectual

enjoyment and resistance to the power of solitariness, if it has not

been the means of promoting discovery in others.

* * * * *

_4th. Fatalism_,--An Indian, called Wabishkipenace, _The White Bird_,

brings an express mail from the sub-agency of La Pointe, in Lake

Superior. This proved to be the individual who, in 1820, acted as one of

the guides of the exploring expedition to the Copper Rock, on the

Ontonagon River. Trifles light as air arouse an Indian's suspicions, and

the circumstance of his being thus employed by the government agents,

was made use of by his fellows to his prejudice. They told him that this

act was displeasing to the Great Spirit, who had visited him with his

displeasure. Whatever influence this idea had on others, on

Wabishkipenace it seemed to tell. He looked the image of despair. He

wore his hair long, and was nearly naked. He had a countenance of the

most melancholy cast. Poverty itself could not be poorer. Now, he

appears to have taken courage, and is willing once more to enter into

the conflicts of life. But, alas! what are these conflicts with an

Indian? A mere struggle for meat and bread enough to live.

_13th_. This is a day long to be remembered in my domestic annals, as it

carried to the tomb the gem of a once happy circle, the cherished

darling of it, in the person of a beloved, beautiful, intellectually

promising, and only son. William Henry had not yet quite completed his

third year, and yet such had been the impression created by his manly

precocity, his decision of character, perpetual liveliness of temper and

manners, and sweet and classic lineaments, and attachable traits, that

he appeared to have lived a long time. The word _time_ is, indeed, a

relative term, and ever means much or little, as much or little has been

enjoyed or suffered. Our enjoyment of him, and communion with him, was

intimate. From the earliest day of his existence, his intelligence and

quick expressive eye was remarkable, and all his waking hours were full

of pleasing innocent action and affectionate appreciation.

We took him to the city of New York during the winter of 1824-25, where

he made many friends and had many admirers. He was always remembered by

the youthful name of Willy and _Penaci_, or the bird--a term that was

playfully bestowed by the Chippewas while he was still in his cradle. He

was, indeed, a bird in our circle, for the agility of his motions, the

liveliness of his voice, and the diamond sparkle of his full hazel eyes,

reminded one of nothing so much. The month of March was more than

usually changeable in its temperature, with disagreeable rains and much

humidity, which nearly carried away the heavy amount of snow on the

ground. A cold and croup rapidly developed themselves, and no efforts of

skill or kindness had power to arrest its fatal progress. He sank under

it about eleven o'clock at night. Such was the rapidity of this fatal

disease, that his silver playful voice still seemed to ring through the

house when he lay a placid corpse. Several poetic tributes to his memory

were made, but none more touching than some lines from his own mother,

which are fit to be preserved as a specimen of native composition.[47]

[Footnote 47:

Who was it nestled on my breast,

And on my cheek sweet kisses prest,

And in whose smile I felt so blest?

Sweet Willy.

Who hail'd my form as home I stept,

And in my arms so eager leapt,

And to my bosom joyous crept?

My Willy.

Who was it wiped my tearful eye,

And kiss'd away the coming sigh,

And smiling, bid me say, "good boy?"

Sweet Willy.

Who was it, looked divinely fair,

Whilst lisping sweet the evening pray'r,

Guileless and free from earthly care?

My Willy.

Where is that voice attuned to love,

That bid me say "my darling dove?"

But, oh! that soul has flown above,

Sweet Willy.

Whither has fled the rose's hue?

The lily's whiteness blending grew

Upon thy cheek--so fair to view,

My Willy.

Oft have I gaz'd with rapt delight,

Upon those eyes that sparkled bright,

Emitting beams of joy and light!

Sweet Willy.

Oft have I kiss'd that forehead high,

Like polished marble to the eye,

And blessing, breathed an anxious sigh,

For Willy.

My son! thy coral lips are pale--

Can I believe the heart-sick tale,

That I thy loss must ever wail?

My Willy.

The clouds in darkness seemed to low'r,

The storm has past with awful pow'r,

And nipt my tender, beauteous flow'r!

Sweet Willy.

But soon my spirit will be free,

And I my lovely son shall see,

For God, I know did this decree!

My Willy.

]

_17th_. This being St. Patrick's day, we dined with our excellent,

warm-hearted, and truly sympathizing friend, Mr. Johnston, in a private

way. He is the soul of hospitality, honor, friendship, and love, and no

one can be in his company an hour without loving and admiring a man who

gave up everything at home to raise up a family of most interesting

children in the heart of the American wilderness. No man's motives have

been more mistaken, no one has been more wronged, in public and private,

by opposing traders and misjudging governments, than he, and no one I

have ever known has a more forgiving and truly gentle and

high-minded spirit.

_28th_. I began housekeeping, first on my return from the visit to New

York, in the spring of 1825, in the so-called Allen House, on the

eminence west of the fort, having purchased my furniture at Buffalo, and

made it a pretty and attractive residence. But after the death of my

son, the place became insupportable from the vivid associations which it

presented with the scenes of his daily amusements.

I determined this day to close the house, and, leaving the furniture

standing, we took refuge at Mr. Johnston's. Idolatry such as ours for a

child, was fit to be rebuked, and the severity of the blow led me to

take a retrospect of life, such as it is too common to defer, but,

doubtless, wise to entertain. Why Providence should have a controversy

with us for placing our affections too deeply on a sublunary object, is

less easy at all times to reconcile to our limited perceptions than it

is to recognize in holy writ the existence of the great moral fact. "I

will be honored," says Jehovah, "and my glory will I not give to

another." It is clear that there is a mental assent in our attachments,

in which the very principle of idolatry is involved. If so, why not give

up the point, and submit to the dispensations of an inevitable and

far-seeing moral government, of affairs of every sort, with entire

resignation and oneness of purpose? How often has death drawn his dart

fatally since Adam fell before it, and how few of the millions on

millions that have followed him have precisely known _why_, or been

_entirely prepared_ for the blow! To me it seems that it has been the

temper of my mind to fasten itself too strongly on life and all its

objects; to hope too deeply and fully under all circumstances; to

grapple, as it were, in its issues with as "hooks of steel," and never

to give up, never to despair; and this blow, this bereavement, appears

to me the first link that is broken to loosen my hold on this sublunary

trust. My thoughts, three years ago, were turned strongly, and with a

mysterious power, to this point, namely, my excessive ardor of earthly

pursuits, of men's approbation. Here, then, if these reflections be

rightly taken, is the _second_ admonition. Such, at least, has been the

current of my thoughts since the 13th of the present month, and they

were deeply felt when I took my Bible, the first I ever owned or had

bought with my own money, and requested that it might be placed as the

basis of the little pillow that supported the head of the lifeless child

in his coffin.

_April 30th_. A progress in territorial affairs, in the upper lakes,

seems to have commenced; but it is slow. Emigrants are carried further

south and west. Slow as it is, however, we flatter ourselves it is of a

good and healthy character. The lower peninsula is filling up. My

letters, during this spring, denote this. Our county organization is

complete. Colonel McKenney, on the 10th, apprises me that he is coming

north, to complete the settlement of the Indian boundary, began in 1825,

at Prairie du Chien, and that his sketches of his tour of last year is

just issued from the press. He adds, "It is rather a ladies' book. I

prefer the sex and their opinions. They are worth ten times as much as

we, in all that is enlightened, and amiable, and blissful." Undoubtedly

so! This is gallant. I conclude it is a gossiping tour; and, if so, it

will please the sex for whom it is mainly intended. But will not the

graver male sex look for more? Ought not an author to put himself out a

little to make his work as high, in all departments, as he can?

Governor C. informs me (April 10th) that he will proceed to Green Bay,

to attend the contemplated treaty on the Fox River, and that I am

expected to be there with a delegation of the Chippewas from the

midlands, on the sources of the Ontonagon, Wisconsin, Chippewa, and

Menominie rivers.

Business and science, politics and literature, curiously mingle, as

usual, in my correspondence. Mr. M. Dousman (April 10) writes that a

knave has worried him, dogged his heels away from home, and sued him, at

unawares. Mr. Stuart (April 15) writes about the election of members of

council. Dr. Paine, of New York, writes respecting minerals.

_May 10th_. An eminent citizen of Detroit thus alludes to my recent

bereavement: "We sympathize with you most sincerely, in the loss you

have sustained. We can do it with the deeper interest, for we have

preceded you in this heaviest of all calamities. Time will soothe you

something, but the solace of even time will yet leave too much for the

memory and affections to brood over."

Another correspondent, in expressing his sympathies on the occasion

says: "The lines composed by Mrs. Schoolcraft struck me with such

peculiar force, as well in regard to the pathos of style, as the

singular felicity of expression, that I have taken the liberty to submit

them for perusal to one or two mutual friends. The G---- has advised me

to publish them."

_14th_. National boundary, as established by the treaty of Ghent. Major

Delafield, the agent, writes: "Our contemplated expedition, however, is

relinquished, by reason of instructions from the British government to

their commissioners. It had been agreed to determine the par. of lat. N.

49°, where it intersects the Lake of the Woods and the Red River. But

the British government, for reasons unknown to us, now decline any

further boundary operations than those provided for under the

Ghent treaty.

"We have been prevented closing the 7th article of that treaty, on

account of some extraordinary claims of the British party. They claim

Sugar, or St. George's Island, and inland, by the St. Louis, or Fond du

Lac. Both claims are unsupported by either reason, evidence, or anything

but their desire to gain something. We, of course, claim Sugar Island,

and will not relinquish it under any circumstances. We also claim inland

by the Kamanistiquia, and have sustained this claim by much evidence.

The Pigeon River by the Grand Portage will be the boundary, if our

commissioners can come to any reasonable decision. If not, I have no

doubt, upon a reference, we shall gain the Kamanistiquia, if properly

managed; the whole of the evidence being in favor of it."

ORNITHOLOGY.--An Indian boy brought me lately, the stuffed skin of a new

species of bird, which appeared early in the spring at one of the sugar

camps near St. Mary's. "We are desirous," he adds, "to see the

Fringilla, about which you wrote me some time ago."

NATIVE COPPER.--"The copper mass is safe, and the object of admiration

in my collection. Baron Lederer is shortly expected from Austria, when

he will, no doubt, make some proposition concerning it, which I will

communicate."

_29th_. Many letters have been received since the 13th of March,

offering condolence in our bitter loss; but none of them, from a more

sincere, or more welcome source, than one of this date from the Conants,

of New York.

_June 3d_. Mr. Carter (N.H.) observes, in a letter of this date: "If

there be any real pleasure arising from the acquisition of reputation,

it consists chiefly in the satisfaction of proving ourselves worthy of

the confidence reposed in our talents and characters, and in the

strengthening of those ties of friendship which we are anxious to

preserve."

_8th_. Mr. Robert Stuart says, in relation to our recent affliction:

"Once parents, we must make up our minds to submit to such grievous

dispensations, for, although hard, it may be for the best."

I embarked for Green Bay, to attend the treaty of _Butte des Morts_

early in June, taking Mrs. S. on a visit to Green Bay, as a means of

diverting her mind from the scene of our recent calamity. At Mackinac,

we met the steamboat Henry Clay, chartered to take the commissioners to

the bay, with Governor Cass, Colonel McKenney, and General Scott on

board, with a large company of visitors, travelers and strangers, among

them, many ladies. We joined the group, and had a pleasant passage till

getting into the bay, where an obstinate head wind tossed us up and down

like a cork on the sea. Sea-sickness, in a crowded boat, and the

retching of the waves, soon turned everything and every one topsy-turvy;

every being, in fine, bearing a stomach which had not been seasoned to

such tossings among anchors and halyards, was prostrate. At last the

steamer itself, as we came nearer the head of the bay, was pitched out

of the right channel and driven a-muck. She stuck fast on the mud, and

we were all glad to escape and go up to the town of Navarino in boats.

After spending some days here in an agreeable manner, most of the party,

indeed nearly all who were not connected with the commission, returned

in the boat, Mrs. S. in the number, and the commissioners soon proceeded

up the Fox River to _Butte des Morts_. Here temporary buildings of logs,

a mess house, etc., were constructed, and a very large number of Indians

were collected. We found the Menomonies assembled in mass, with full

delegations of the midland Chippewas, and the removed bands of Iroquois

and Stockbridges, some Pottowattomies from the west shores of Lake

Michigan, and one hand of the Winnebagoes. Circumstances had prepared

this latter tribe for hostilities against the United States. The replies

of the leading chief, Four-Legs, were evasive and contradictory; in the

meantime, reports from the Wisconsin and the Mississippi rivers denoted

this tribe ripe for a blow. They had fired into a boat descending the

Mississippi, at Prairie du Chien, and committed other outrages. General

Cass was not slow to perceive or provide the only remedy for this state

of things, and, leaving the camp under the charge of Colonel McKenney

and the agents, he took a strongly manned light canoe, and passed over

to the Mississippi, and, pushing night and day, reached St. Louis, and

ordered up troops from Jefferson Barracks, for the protection of the

settlement. In this trip, he passed through the centre of the tribe, and

incurred some extraordinary risks. He then returned up the Illinois, and

through Lake Michigan, and reached the _Butte des Morts_ in an

incredibly short space of time. Within a few days, the Mississippi

settlements were covered; the Winnebagoes were overawed, and the

business of the treaty was resumed, and successfully concluded on the

11th of August.

During the long assemblage of the Indians on these grounds, I was

sitting one afternoon, in the Governor's log shanty, with the doors

open, when a sharp cry of murder suddenly fell on our ears. I sprang

impulsively to the spot, with Major Forsyth, who was present. Within

fifty yards, directly in front of the house, stood two Indians, who

were, apparently, the murderers, and a middle aged female, near them,

bleeding profusely. I seized one of them by his long black hair, and,

giving him a sudden wrench, brought him to his back in an instant, and,

placing my knees firmly on his breast, held him there, my hand clenched

in his hair. The Major had done something similar with the other fellow.

Inquiry proved one of these men to be the perpetrator of the deed. He

had drawn his knife to stab his mother-in-law, she quickly placed her

arms over her breast and chest and received the wounds, two strokes, in

them, and thus saved her life. It was determined, as her life was saved,

though the wounds were ghastly, to degrade the man in a public

assemblage of all the Indians, the next day, by _investing him with a

petticoat_, for so unmanly an act. The thing was, accordingly, done with

great ceremony. The man then sneaked away in this imposed _matchcota_,

in a stolid manner, slowly, all the Indians looking stedfastly, but

uttering no sound approvingly or disapprovingly.

I embraced the opportunity of the delay created by the Winnebago

outbreak, and the presence of the Stockbridges on the treaty ground, to

obtain from them some outlines of their history and language. Every day,

the chiefs and old men came to my quarters, and spent some time with me.

Metoxon gave me the words for a vocabulary of the language, and,

together with Quinney, entered so far into its principles, and furnished

such examples, as led me, at once, to perceive that it was of the

Algonquin type, near akin, indeed, to the Chippewa, and the conclusion

followed, that all the New England dialects, which were cognate with

this, were of the same type. The history of this people clears up, with

such disclosures, and the fact shows us how little we can know of their

history without the languages.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Treaty of Butte des Morts--Rencontre of an Indian with grizzly

bears--Agency site at Elmwood--Its picturesque and sylvan

character--Legislative council of the Territory--Character of its

parties, as hang-back and toe-the-marks--Critical Reviews--Christmas.

_1827. August 11th_.--The treaty of Butte des Morts was signed this day.

It completes the system of Indian boundaries, which was commenced by the

treaty of Prairie du Chien, on the 19th of August, 1825, and continued

by the treaty of Fond du Lac of the 5th of August, 1826. These three

conferences, which may, from their having been concluded in the month of

August of the respective years, be called the _Augustic_ treaties,

embody a new course and policy for keeping the tribes in peace, and are

founded on the most enlarged consideration of the aboriginal right of

fee simple to the soil. They have been held exclusively at the charges

and expenses of the United States, and contain no cession of territory.

As soon as it was signed I embarked for Green Bay, on a gloomy,

drizzling day, and pursued my way to Michilimackinac and the Sault,

without a moment's loss of time. I found the place still active, and

filled with the summer visiting parties of Indians from the Lake

Superior, the Upper Mississippi, and even from Pembina and the plains of

Red River of the North.

Among the latter I observed a small and lithe Indian called Annamikens,

or Little Thunder, also called Joseph, whose face had been terribly

lacerated in a contest on the plains west of Pembina, with grizzly

bears. The wounds were now closed, but the disfiguration was permanent.

He told me the following story of the affair:--

The Sioux, Chippewas, Assinaboines, Crees, and Mandans, called by him in

general Miggaudiwag, which means fighters, were at variance. About 400

half-breeds and 100 Chippewas went out from Pembina to make peace, and

hunt the buffalo.

On the fourth day's march they reached the open plains, and met a large

body of Assinaboines and Crees encamped. Their camp was fixed on

eligible ground, and the lodges extended across the plain. Annamikens

and his followers encamped with them. After they had encamped, they

observed every hour during the night that fresh arrivals of Assinaboines

and Crees took place. On the third day of their encampment he was sent

for to Cuthbert Grant's tent, where he found a large circle of Indians

formed, and all things in readiness for a council of the three nations,

Assinaboines, Chippewas, and Crees. Grant was the trader of the Pembina

metifs, and had followed them out. In the centre of the ring, buffalo

robes were spread, and he with others was given a seat there. The object

of this council was to decide upon a plan to attack a body of 200 Sioux

lodges, which had been discovered at half a day's ride on horseback

distant. The principal chiefs, &c., were agreed as to the propriety of

an attack. He was asked to unite with them. He said he felt not only for

the chiefs and young men, but also for the women and children, hereby

expressing his dissent. Two of the principal chiefs stood up, each

holding a pipe. He was then asked to take one of the pipes and hand it

to the bravest man, giving him the power to elect the war chief. He gave

it to one he knew to be brave.

This chief had no sooner received it than he presented it to Francis,

his brother, to hand it round, thereby hoping that he would not refuse

to smoke the war-pipe when handed by his brother. He took the pipe in

both hands and smoked, then handed it to his brother, who also smoked

it, and handed it to a chief who stood next to him, and it went round.

He said, however, after smoking, "I do not consent to go to war, I am

against it." After some talk the council broke up, it beginning to be

late. At night he heard that some movement was on foot. He went to the

quarter of the camp indicated, and used his influence against the plan.

He had scarcely reached his tent when other reports of a like nature

were brought from various parts of the camp, and he was most of the

night busied in controverting the war spirit.