_Sept. 2d_. Mr. David Green, Secretary of the Board of Commissioners for

American Missions, Missionary Rooms, Boston, depicts a crisis in the

mission at Mackinack. "Your favor by Mr. Ferry," he remarks, "has come

to hand. As you anticipated, he has requested our Missionary Board to

relieve him from the missionary service, and they, though with much

reluctance, have granted his request. He seems fully convinced that he

is not likely to be hereafter useful, to any great extent, in connection

with the Mackinack mission; and that the claims of his family call him

to a different situation. This movement on his part, though he has

before suggested that such a step might be expedient, was quite

unexpected by us at this time; and I fear that we shall not find it easy

to obtain a suitable man to fill his place. No such person is now at our

disposal. I have written to the Rev. Dr. Peters, of New York, Secretary

of the American Home Missionary Society, stating the circumstances of

the place, inquiring if it would not properly fall within that portion

of the Lord's Vineyard, and whether they could not furnish a suitable

man to cultivate it.

"That Society, as well as ours, is, I believe, pressed for missionaries

on every hand. The prayers of all the Lord's people should be, in these

exigencies, 'Send forth laborers into thy harvest.' _Men of devoted

piety and zeal, and of high intellectual character, and judgment, and

enterprise, are needed in great numbers both in our own land and

abroad_. The want of such men is now the most serious impediment which

our societies have to contend with.

"You may be assured, sir, that we shall do all in our power, consistent

with the claims of our other missions, to send some person to Mackinack;

but we cannot promise to succeed immediately. Mr. Ferry, we hope, will

remain the next spring.

"Some embarrassment is felt by our Board, from the fact that foreign

fields, offering access to densely populated districts, where millions

speaking the same language, can be easily approached--are more

attractive to the candidates for the missionary work than the small,

scattered, and migratory bands of our Indians.

"I fear that a preference of this nature will cause our friends--the

Indians--to be neglected, if not forgotten. As Providence seems, in so

many ways, to be against the Indians, I often fear that no considerable

portion of them are ever to enjoy the blessings of civilization and

Christianity. But we must leave them in the hands of God, after using

faithfully the means which he places at our disposal."

"We are glad to hear that you still approve of the course pursued by our

missionaries in the north-west, and that the advancement of the cause of

Christ, in that quarter, is still a subject of care with you, and truth,

and divine grace, will enable you rightly to bear the responsibility in

this respect, which rests on you."

I have put in italics, in the above letter, a high moral truth, which

accords with all my observation and experience on the frontiers; and

upon the due appreciation and carrying out of which, the success of the

missionary cause over the world, in my judgment, depends. It is a

sentence that should be inscribed in letters of gold in every missionary

room in America. It is certainly a mistake to send feeble men on the

frontier, who are not deemed to have sufficient energy, talents, and

sound discretion to enter foreign fields. Our frontiers are full of

cavillers, and shrewd and bold gainsayers of Christianity, men of

personal energy and will, who generally stand aloof from such efforts,

and who, when they come into contact with missionary laborers, judge

them by common rules of judgment--who are, indeed, not the best fitted

to estimate "devoted piety and zeal," but who are, nevertheless,

disposed to respect it, in proportion as it is joined with "high

intellectual character, and judgment, and enterprise." In the frequent

want of this--we do not include Mackinack in this category--is to be

sought the true cause of our failures with the Indians, to whom the

strange and intense story of the Gospel appears at first in something as

wild and marvelous as some of their own relations; and who are, at any

rate, firmly fixed in their heathenish rites and devotions to a subtil

system of deism, and the invocation of gods of the elements and demons.

With respect to the mission of Mackinack, its influence, on the whole,

has been eminently good, and not evil. Mr. Ferry possessed business

talents of a high order, with that strict reference to moral

responsibilities and accountabilities, which compose the golden fibres

of the Gospel net. He sought to bring all, white and red men, into this

net; and its influences were extensively spread from that central point

into the Indian country. He gathered, from the remotest quarters, the

half-breed children of the traders and clerks, into a large and well

organized boarding school, where they were instructed in the points

essential to their becoming useful and respectable men and women. They

were then sent abroad as teachers and interpreters, and traders' clerks,

over a wide space of wilderness, where they disseminated Gospel

principles. Many of their parents also embraced Christianity. Many of

the girls turned out to be ladies of finished education and manners, and

married officers of the army or citizens. There were some pure Indian

converts of both sexes, among whom was the chief prophet of the

Ottawas--the aged Chusco. In 1829, after seven years' labor, he

witnessed a revival among the citizens of that town, which appeared to

be his crowning labor, and it had the effect to renovate the place, and

for many years to drive vice and disorder, if not entirely away, into

holes and corners, where they avoided the light. He came to this island

first, to begin his mission, I believe, in 1822. The effort to set up a

mission there seemed as wild and hopeless, to common judgments, as it

would be to dig down the pyramids of the Nile with a pin. I defended its

course of proceedings from an unjust attack in the legislative council

of the territory, in 1830, having had extensive opportunities to scan

its principles and workings--which were only offensive to worldly men,

because, in upholding the Gospel banner, a shrewd knowledge of business

transactions was at the same time evinced. To be a fool in worldly

things is sometimes supposed, by the wits of the world, to be an

evidence of pious zeal.

_6th_. Being on my passage this day up the River St. Clair, in the

steamboat "Gen. Gratiot," in company with several others, I asked Capt.

Wm. Thorn several historical questions respecting the settlement of

Michilimackinack. The following memoranda embrace his replies: He is a

native of Newport, Rhode Island, although he was for many years engaged,

before the transfer of posts in 1796, in sailing British vessels on the

lakes, and therefore deemed, when he was taken prisoner during the late

war, to have been a British subject.

He says he began his voyages to old Mackinack seven years before the

removal of the post to the Island. This was, he says, in 1767. The post

was then in command of a Capt. Glazier, afterwards of De Peyster (who

subsequently commanded at Detroit), then of Patrick Sinclair (who had

previously built a fort at the mouth of Pine River--St. Clair Co. seat),

and then of Gov. Sinclair (so called). The Indians, at the massacre of

the garrison of old Mackinack, did not burn the fort. It was

re-occupied, and it was not till the breaking out of the revolutionary

war that the removal from the main to the island took place. It must

have been (if he is correct as to the period of seven years) in 1774,

and the occupancy of the island is, therefore, coincident with the

earliest period of the movement for Independence--fifty-nine years.[74]

[Footnote 74: See _ante_.]

Previous to that era, Mackinack was the spot where the men stopped to

shave and dress preparatory to the traverse. About the time Capt. Thorn

first began sailing to old Mackinack, the Indians plundered a boat at

the island while the owner stopped to dress, in consequence of which

the interpreter at the old post (Hanson, I think) went over to demand

redress, and killed the depredator, an Indian.

My inquiries on this topic of old men, red and white, which were

commenced last spring, may here drop. It is now rendered certain that

the occupancy of old Mackinack--the Beekwutinong of the Indians--was

kept up by British troops till 1774; between that date and 1780 the flag

was transferred (the letters of the commanding officers to their

generals would alone give this date). The principal traders, probably,

went with it; the Indian intercourse likewise. Some residents lingered a

few years, but the place was finally abandoned, and the town site is now

covered with loose sand. The walls of the fort, which are of stone,

remain, and the whole site constitutes an interesting ruin. The post was

first founded by Marquette as a missionary station about 1668.

_11th_. Major Whiting, of Detroit, writes a letter of introduction in

the following terms:--

"Captain Tchehachoff, of the Russian Imperial Guards, is traveling

through our country with a view to see its extent and null--its

geographical and scenic varieties. As he proposes to visit

Michilimackinack, I wish him to become acquainted with you, who can give

him so much information relative to those portions of it which he may

not be able to visit. I have put into his hands some of your works,

which may have anticipated something you will have to say.

"He is, probably, the first Russian who has been on our N.W. interior

since the enterprising gentlemen who thought to speculate on the 'copper

rock.' But Capt. Tchehachoff has no other views than those of an

enlightened and disinterested observer. I am sure that it will give you

pleasure to show him all kindly attentions."

Capt. Tchehachoff visited the island during the month, and accepted an

invitation to spend a few days with me. He repaid me for this attention

with much agreeable conversation and many anecdotes of Russia, Germany

(where he was educated), and Poland. He possesses a character of extreme

interest to me, as being a Circassian, or descendant of that people, who

are the local representatives of the Circassian race. He was very fair

in complexion, and possessed a fine, manly, tall, and well-proportioned

figure, and a beautiful red and white countenance, with dark hair and

eyes. He spoke English very well, but with a broad Scottish, or rather

provincial accent, on some words, which he had evidently got from his

early teacher--whom he told me was a female--such as _ouwn_, for

own, &c.

He told me that, on Mr. Randolph's first presentation to the Russian

Empress, he kneeled, although he had been notified that such a ceremony

would not be expected of him. He told some very characteristic anecdotes

of the wild pranks of the German students at the university. He was, I

think, in some way related to descendants of Count Orloff, who was so

remarkably strong and compact of muscle that he could push an iron

spike, with his thumb, to its head in the sides or planking of a vessel.

Capt. Tchehachoff was certainly strong himself; he had a powerful

strength of hands and arms. He used great politeness, and was very

punctilious on entering the dining-room, &c. He interested himself in

the apparently tidal phenomena of strong currents setting through the

harbor and straits, which were in fine view from the piazza of my house,

and made some notes upon them. He asked me why I had not concentrated

and published my travels, and various works respecting the geology of

the Western country, and the history and philology of the aboriginal

tribes--subjects of such deep and general interest to the philosopher of

Europe. One morning early in October (9th), he bade us an affectionate

adieu, and embarked in a schooner for Chicago.

_Oct. 10th_. Chicago is now the centre of an intense and everyday

growing commercial excitement, and however the value of every foot of

ground and _water_ of its site is over-estimated, and its prospects

inflated, it is evidently the nucleus of a permanent city, destined to

be one of the great lake capitals.

The Rev. Jer. Porter, our former pastor at St. Mary's, who was the first

of his church order, I believe, to carry the Gospel there in 1833,

writes me, under this date, detailing his labors and prospects. These

are flattering, and go to prove that the religious element, if means be

used, is everywhere destined to attend the tread of the commercial and

political elements of power into the great area of the Valley of the

Mississippi. Chicago is, in fact, the first and great city of the

prairies, where the abundance of its products are destined to be

embarked to find a northern market by the way of the lakes, without the

risks of entering southern latitudes. This is an advantage which it will

ever possess. Nature has opened the way for a heavy tonnage by the lake

seas. Other modes of transportation may divert passengers and light

goods, but the staples must ever go in ships, propelled by wind or

steam, through the Straits of Mackinack.

CHAPTER LII.

Philology--Structure of the Indian languages--Letter from Mr.

Duponceau--Question of the philosophy of the Chippewa syntax--Letter

from a Russian officer on his travels in the West--Queries on the

physical history of the North--Leslie Duncan, a maniac--Arwin on the

force of dissipation--Missionary life on the sources of the

Mississippi--Letter from Mr. Boutwell--Theological Review--The Territory

of Michigan, tired of a long delay, determines to organize a State

Government.

1834. _Oct. 11th_. Mr. Peter S. Duponceau, of Philadelphia, addresses me

on the structure of the Indian languages, in terms which are very

complimentary, coming, as they do, as a voluntary tribute from a person

whom I never saw, and who has taken the lead in investigations on this

abtruse topic in America. "I have read," he remarks, "with very great

pleasure, your interesting narrative of the expedition to the sources of

the Mississippi, and particularly your lectures on the Chippewa

language, and the vocabulary which follows it. It is one of the most

philosophical works on the Indian languages I have ever read; it gives a

true view of their structure, without exaggeration or censure, and must

satisfy the mind of every rational man. It is a matter of sincere regret

that you have proceeded in your lectures no farther than the noun, and

your vocabulary no farther than the letter B. It is much to be hoped

that the work will be completed. I should hope that our government could

have no objection to printing it at its expense, as a national work,[75]

indispensably necessary for the instruction of our agents and

interpreters, and even the military officers employed among the Indians."

[Footnote 75: This was begun thirteen years afterwards, when a general

investigation into the subject of the Indians generally, was directed by

Congress, and placed in my hands. _Vide_ Information respecting the

History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United

States. Part I. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1851.]

"The Chippewa, like the Algonquin of old,[76] is the common language of

business among the Indians, and is as necessary among them as the French

is in the courts of Europe. The object of this letter, sir, is to be

informed whether the remainder of the work is to be published. If

government will not do it, some of our learned societies might. At any

rate, sir, if my services can be of use to you for this object, I shall

be happy to do everything in my power to aid it."

[Footnote 76: The languages are, in fact, identical in structure; the

word Chippewa being a comparatively modern term, which was not used by

the old French writers of the missionary era.]

This testimony, from the first and most learned philologist in America,

gratified and agreeably surprised me. I had studied the Chippewa

language alone in the forest, without the aid of learned men, or books

to aid me. I addressed myself to it with ardor, it is true, and with the

very best oral helps, precisely as I would to investigate any moral or

physical truth. I found that nouns and verbs had a ground form, or root;

that this root carried its general and primary meaning into all words or

phrases of which it was a compound; and that every syllable or sound of

a letter, put before or behind it, conveyed a new and distinct meaning.

By keeping the purposes of a strict philological analysis before me, and

by preserving a record of my work, the language soon revealed its

principles. When I had attained a clear idea of these principles myself,

and had verified them by reference to, and discussion with, the best

native speakers, I could as clearly state them to another. This is what

Mr. Duponceau means by the term "most philosophical." The philosophy of

the syntax I did not in any respect overstate, but merely recognized or

discovered.

In one respect it seemed to me a far more simple language than this

eminent writer had represented the Indian languages generally. And this

was in this very philosophy of its syntax. By synthesis I understand the

opposite of analysis--the one resolving into its elements what the other

compounds. If so, the synthesis of the Chippewa language is clearly, to

my mind, homogeneous and of a piece--a perfect unity, in fact It seems

to be, all along, the result of one kind of reasoning, or thinking, or

philosophizing. If, therefore, by the term "polysynthetic," which Mr.

Duponceau, in 1819, introduced for the class of Indian languages, it be

meant that its grammar consists of many syntheses, or plans of thought,

it did not appear to me that the Chippewa was polysynthetic. But this I

could not state to a man of his learning and standing with the literary

public, without incurring the imputation of rashness or assumption.

_15th_. P. de Tchehachoff, the Russian gentleman before named, writes to

me in the idiom of a foreigner, from Peoria, on his progress through the

western country. "I am anxious," he remarks, "to take advantage of the

first opportunity of writing to you from this remote western world,

where since seven days I did not meet with any other beings but wolves

and money-getting Yankees. I must acknowledge that one must have a large

lot of curiosity to visit these one-fourth civilized regions (that are

by far worse than any real wilderness), for, although they are getting

settled at an incredible speed, they don't offer to the mere lover of

the beauties of nature, or improvement of human civilization, any great

charm. Here nature is rich, but, _farmerly_ or _businessly_ speaking,

killingly prosaic--no romance--no Lake Superior water--no

scenery--nothing, finally, that could captivate a poetical glance.

"I am now writing these poor lines under a regular storm of

smoke-clouds, and chewing tobacco expectorations. I never experienced so

much the benefit of being brought up as a warlike soldier, to stand all

that. However, my courage is sinking down, and, therefore, I shoot ahead

to-morrow at day-break, as fast as possible, either by water or by land.

The coaches here are rather comfortable, but extremely slow.

"As I intend to make but a very short stay in St. Louis and Ohio, I'll

not be able to have the pleasure of writing to you again before reaching

New York or Havana; but, if you continue always to be, for me, as kind

as formerly, I hope you'll grant me the particular favor of writing to

me once in a while. This will be an impudent theft, on my part, of time

so usefully consecrated to scientific pursuits. Still I flatter myself

you'll pardon it, consequently founded on that (perhaps gratuitous)

supposition. I'll ask you to direct your letter to Charleston, South

Carolina (until called for), towards the middle of the next month, and,

if possible, answer me on the following queries: 1. What are the

inducements to imagine that any volcanic action exists in the Porcupine

Mountains, and mentioning, approximately, their distance from the

Ontonagon River; and their probable influence on the diffusion of the

copper ores and copper boulders on its shores? 2. What are the most

accurate or probable limits (by degrees) of the primitive region of

North America; and whether it forms any chain, or has any probable

communication with all its different branches, or the main ridges of the

Cordilleras or Andes? 3. Is there any remarkable evaporation, or any

other hygrometric phenomenon, or influence of currents that sustains the

level of Lakes Superior and Michigan, so diametrically opposite in their

geographical situation? 4. What constitutes, mainly, the predominating

geognostic features of Lake Superior, the Upper Mississippi, and the

Missouri? I shall be extremely happy to see these problems solved."

_17th_. This day terminated, at St. Mary's, the melancholy fate of poor

Leslie Duncan. Insanity is dreadful in all its phases. This man wrote to

me early in the spring for some favor, which I granted. He was a dealer

in merchandise, in a small way, at St. Mary's, where he was known as a

reputable, modest, and temperate man, who had been honorably discharged,

with some small means, from the army. He visited Detroit in May to renew

his stock. Symptoms of aberration there showed themselves, which became

very decided after his return. Utter madness supervened. It was

necessary to confine him in a separate building, and to chain him to a

post, where he passed five months as an appalling spectacle of a human

being, without memory, affection, or judgment, and perpetually goaded by

the most raving passion. It appeared that the piles--a disease under

which he had suffered for many years--had been cured by exsection or

scarifying, which healed the issue, but threw the blood upon his brain.

_23d_. A functionary of the general government at Washington writes me,

to bespeak my favorable interest for the wayward son of a friend. Arwin,

for I will call him by this name, was the son of a kind, intelligent,

and indulgent father, dwelling in the District of Columbia, who had

spared nothing to fit him for a useful and honorable life. The young man

also possessed a handsome person, and agreeable and engaging manners and

accomplishments. But his love for the coarser amusements of the world

and its dissipations, absorbed faculties that were suited for higher

objects. As a last, resort, he was commended to some adventurous

gentleman engaged in the fur trade on the higher Missouri; where, it was

hoped, the stern realities of life would arrest his mind, and fix it on

nobler pursuits. But a winter or two in those latitudes appeared to have

wrought little change. He came to Mackinack, on his way back to

civilized life, late in the fall of 1834, exhausted in means, poor and

shabby in his wardrobe, and evidently not a pilgrim from the "land of

steady habits."

I invited him to my house, in the hope of winning him over to the side

of morals, gave him a bed and plate, and treated him with courteous and

respectful attention. He was placed under restraint by these attentions,

but it was found to be restraint only. He was secretly engaged in

dissipations, which finally became so low, that I was compelled to leave

him to pursue his course, and thus to witness another example of the

application of that striking remark of Dr. Johnson, "that negligence and

irregularity, if long continued, will render knowledge useless, wit

ridiculous, and genius contemptible."

_Nov. 29th_. The rough scenes required by a missionary life on the

sources of the Mississippi, are depicted in a letter from the Rev. W.S.

Boutwell, who has just planted himself among the Pillagers at Leech

Lake. This is the same gentleman who accompanied me to Itasca Lake in

1835. "Your favors," he says, "of April 28th and July 26th, are before

me; and would that I could command time to compensate you for at least

half! But look at a man whose head and hands are full of cares and

duties. The only time I get to write is stolen, if I may so say, from

the hours of repose. October the ninth I arrived here. There was not a

sack of corn nor rice to be bought or sold. I had but two men, and with

these a house must be built and a winter's stock of fish laid up. What

must be done? I will briefly tell you what I did. Four days after my

arrival I sent my fisherman to Pelican Island, and pulled off my coat

and shouldered my axe, and led the other into the bush to make a house.

In about ten days, with the help of one man, I had the timber cut and on

the spot for a log-cottage twenty-two by twenty-four. Some part of this

I not only cut, but assisted in carrying on my own back. But for every

inch of over-exertion I got my pay at night, when I was sure to be

'double and twisted' with the rheumatism. I have located about two miles

east of the old fort, where you counseled with the Indians at this

place. As you cross the point of land upon which the old fort is built,

you fall on a beautiful bay, a mile and a half broad, on the east side

of which I have located, in the midst of a delightful grove of maples.

South-west, three-fourths of a mile, is the present trading house.

"When I arrived I had not sufficient corn to feed my men three days.

There was also at that time a great scarcity of fish. But the God of

Elijah did not forsake us. We soon were in the midst of plenty. On the

11th of the present instant my fisherman returned, having been absent

not quite four weeks, and with but four nets, yet I had nearly 6000

tulibees (this is a small species of whitefish) on my scaffold. My

house, in the meantime, was going forward, though rather tardily, with

but one man. In two days more I hope to quit my bark lodge for my log

and mud-walled cottage, though it has neither chair nor three-legged

stool, table nor bedstead. But all this does not frighten me. No, it is

good for a man sometimes to stand in need, that he may the better know

how to feel for his fellow-man.

"You mention the receipt of a letter from Mr. Greene, relative to the

field at Fond du Lac. I am happy to hear so full an expression of your

views in relation to that post. As the Board were unable to supply a

teacher, Mr. Hall, on visiting them in September, with myself and Mr.

Ely--we were all of the same opinion, that it must be occupied--and

finally, with the advice of Mr. Aitkin, concluded that it was best for

Mr. Ely to pass the winter there. Mr. Cotè was also very desirous of a

school being opened. Sandy Lake, of course, is without a teacher this

winter. I was not a little disappointed, after the repeated assurances

and encouragements of the Board to expect aid, and after the provision I

had made for a fellow-laborer, to be directed to return and pass another

winter as I did the past. Suffice it to say, I have learned more of

Indian habits, customs, prejudices, &c., than I knew two years, or even

one year before.

"To pass my time in the family of the trader, I could not avoid giving

the impression that I was more interested in the trade than in their

temporal and spiritual welfare. To live alone I could not, and live

above their suspicion from the habits of single men who are engaged in

the trade. To live in the family with my hired man, would be quite as

bad. I, therefore, concluded that the time had now come when duty was

too imperious not to receive a hearing. A sense of duty, duty to God,

the cause of Christianity, myself and this people, therefore, led me to

change my condition.

"I am giving you no news (I presume), only the reasons which satisfy

myself, and that for an enlightened moral being is enough, at least it

is all I need or wish to meet friend or foe.

"The Indians now are all at their wintering grounds, and on good terms

with the Sioux, as I, this evening, learn from Mr. D., who has just

returned from an excursion among them. They have appeared quite as

friendly, and by far more civil, this fall than last."

_Dec. 8th_. Mr. Leonard Woods, and Dr. A.W. Ives, of New York, press me

to write for the pages of the _Theological Review_, a periodical of

great spirit and judgment in its department.

_31st_. The people of this territory have evinced, in various ways,

great uneasiness in not being admitted, by a preparatory act of

Congress, to the right of forming a state constitution, and admission

into the Union, agreeably to the Ordinance of 1787. The population has,

for some time, been more than sufficient to authorize one

representative. In some respects, the term of territorial probation and

privilege has been extraordinary, and bears a striking analogy to that

of a plant, thrice plucked up by the roots, and watered, and nourished,

and set out again. It has been _twenty-nine_ years a territory, having

been first organized, I believe, in 1805, For the first seven years it

was under the government of Gen. Hull, by whom it was lost, and fell

under foreign conquest. It then had about a year of military government

under Gen. Brock, and, after being re-conquered in 1814, lived on,

awhile, under the rule of our own commanding generals. Gen. Cass was, I

think, appointed by Mr. Monroe, late in 1814, and governed it for the

long period of eighteen years. Geo. B. Porter succeeded, and, since his

death, there has been a confused interregnum of secretaries.

"Thrice plucked up" was it, by the total destruction of Detroit (which

was in fact the territory) by fire in 1806, by the terrible Indian and

British war in 1812, and by the Indian war of the Black Hawk of 1832. It

has suffered in blood and toil more than any, or all the other

north-western territories together. It has been the entering point for

all hostilities from Canada; and, to symbolize its position, it has

been the anvil on which all the grand weapons of our Indian scath have

been hammered. Its old French and American families have been threshed

by the flail of war, like grain on a floor. And it is no wonder that the

people are tired of waiting for sovereignty, and think of taking the

remedy into their own hands. On the 9th of September, the Legislative

Council passed an act for taking the census. The result shows a

population of 85,856, in the fourteen lower counties, and the first

steps for a self-called convention are in progress.

CHAPTER LIIII.

Indications of a moral revolution in the place--Political movements at

Detroit--Review of the state of society at Michilimackinack, arising

from its being the great central power of the north-west fur trade--A

letter from Dr. Greene--Prerequisites of the missionary

function--Discouragements--The state of the Mackinack Mission--Problem

of employing native teachers and evangelists--Letter of Mr.

Duponceau--Ethnological gossip--Translation of the Bible into

Algonquin--Don M. Najera--Premium offered by the French

Institute--Persistent Satanic influence among the Indian

tribes--Boundary dispute with Ohio--Character of the State Convention.

1835. _Jan. 10th._ The year opened with some bright moral gleams. The

members of the church had, early in the autumn, felt the necessity of a

close union. Left by their esteemed pastor, who had been their "guide,

philosopher, and friend" for twelve years, and by some of its leading

members, they rested with more directness and simplicity of faith on

God. They ordained a fast. Evening and lecture meetings were observed to

be full of eager listeners. A marked attention was paid on the Sabbath

when Mr. J.D. Stevens, who had come into the harbor late in the fall,

bound westward, agreed to pass the winter and occupied Mr. Ferry's empty

desk. The Sabbath schools in the village and at the mission were

observed to be well attended. Indeed, it was not long in being noticed

that we were in the midst of a quiet and deeply-spread revival. Never,

it would seem, was there a truer exemplification of the maxim that "the

race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong," for we

had supposed ourselves to be shorn of all strength by the loss of our

pastor, by the failure of help from the Home Missionary Society, and by

the withdrawal from the island of some of our most efficient members.

This feeling of weakness and desertion was, in fact, the secret of our

strength, which laid in the church's humility. Ere we were aware of it,

a spirit of profound seriousness stole over the community like a soft

and gentle wind.

_28th_. Maj. Whiting writes, from Detroit: "There is nothing new in the

political world, excepting that Michigan has no governor yet, and that

the council has authorized a convention to form a State Government next

April. Some think the step premature; others that it is all a matter of

course. The cold has been excessive on the Atlantic seaboard--down to

about 40° below zero in New England, and even 22° below at Washington.

Here we have had it hardly down to 0."

_Feb. 3d_. Mr. Robert Stuart writes, from Brooklyn, in relation to the

revival in a portion of the inhabitants of this island, among whom he

has so long lived, in terms of Christian sympathy. Mackinack is a point

where, to amass "silver and gold," has been the great struggle of men

from the earliest days of our history. Few places on the continent have

been so celebrated a locality, for so long a period, of wild and

unlicensed enjoyment, for both _burgeois_ and _voyageur_ engaged in the

perilous and adventuresome business of the fur trade. Those who speak of

its history during the last half of the eighteenth and beginning of the

nineteenth century, depict the periods of the annual return of the

traders from their wintering stations in the great panorama of the

wilderness, east, west, north, and south, as a perfect carnival, in

which eating and drinking and wild carousals prevailed. The earnings of

a year were often spent in a week or a day. As to practical morality, it

was regarded by the higher order of "merchant-voyageurs" as something

spoken of in books, but not worth the while of a _bon vivant_. The

common hands, who paddled canoes and underwent the drudgery of the trade

(who were exclusively of the lower order of Canadian peasantry), squared

their moral accounts once a year with a well-conducted confessional

interview and a crown, and felt as happy as the "Christian Pilgrim" when

he had been relieved of his burden. It would, probably, be wrong to say

that the lordly Highlander, the impetuous son of Erin, or the proud and

independent Englishman, who vied with each other in feats of sumptuous

hospitality during these periods of relaxation, did much better on the

score of moral responsibilities. They broke, generally, nine out of the

ten commandments without a wince, but kept the other very scrupulously,

and would flash up and call their companions to a duel who doubted them

on that point. But of the practical things of religion, as they are

depicted by Paul and the Apostles, they lived in utter disregard; these

things were laid aside, like the heavier parts of Dr. Drowsy's sermon,

for "some more fitting opportunity," that is to say, till a fortune was

secured from the avails of "skins and peltries," and they returned

triumphantly to the precincts of civilized and Christian society. Of the

wild and picturesque Indian, who was ever a man most scrupulous of rites

and ceremonies, it was hardly deemed worth inquiry whether he had a

soul, or whether the deity of the elements, whom he worshiped under the

name of the Great Spirit, was not, in the language of the Universalist

Poet, "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

A society which, like that of Michilimackinack, was based on such a

state of affairs but a few years back, could hardly be regarded without

strong solicitude, for my correspondent had been a witness, in the first

revival under Mr. Ferry, in 1828, of which he was himself a subject,

that there is a "POWER that breaketh the flinty heart in pieces, who

also giveth freely and upbraideth not." Most, of the subjects of hope at

this time were, however, of a younger growth and a more recent type of

migration. "May the spirit of Lord Jesus Christ," is his pious remark,

"be with, and direct you all in the great work of leading souls into the

kingdom of his grace! It is a fearful responsibility, but if you look to

him, and him alone, for guidance, he will bless and prosper

your efforts."

_19th_. Rev. David Greene, Missionary Rooms, Boston, discusses in a

letter of this date, some questions respecting the policy and high

function of missionary labor--the present state of the Mackinack

mission; and the character and fitness of educated persons of the native

stocks for evangelists, which are of high importance. He remarks:--

"All you write respecting the impropriety of being disheartened--the

demand of the Indians on our church, and candidates for missionary

service--the necessity of withdrawing our dependence for success and the

work of converting men, from any particular human instruments, and

placing them on God alone; and the propriety of having missionaries

released from secular cares and labors, as far as practicable, accords

perfectly with my own views, and, so far as I know, with those

entertained by our committee.

"But the difficulty, after all, remains, of obtaining suitable persons

to carry forward our plans--of making our young men feel that they ought

to turn away from the millions, in the populous nations of Asia, and go

among our scattered tribes. Here is our whole ground of discouragement.

So far as conversions are concerned (and these are the great objects of

a missionary's labor), none of our missions have been more successful

than those among the Indians; and if we had a hundred men of the spirit

and activity of David Brainerd, or Eliot, I should have the strongest

expectations that all our Indian tribes would be converted without great

delay. But we have no prospect of obtaining them. I fear there are few

such in our churches.

"I think that the mission of Mackinack has been a very successful one,

especially in exerting an extensive religious influence, and being, as

you justly remark, 'the nucleus of Christianity in the north-west.' How

far the recent changes in the arrangements of the American Fur Company

are going to affect its importance in these respects and others, I

cannot say, but our Committee are by no means disposed to relinquish it,

while there is a hope of doing sufficient good there to justify the

keeping up of the requisite establishment. The farm we do not wish to

retain, if we can sell it at a reasonable price. All the secular affairs

we would be glad to reduce, and intend to do it as soon as it can be

done without too great sacrifice of property. The family, we know, is

too large, and we hope it may be reduced; but there are some impediments

in the way of doing it at once, especially as the females there have

been worn out in the service, and possess a genuine missionary spirit.

We desire to obtain a missionary, and have made many inquiries for one,

but hear of none with whom the church and other residents, together with

the visitors at Mackinack, would be satisfied.

"As to a school for evangelists and teachers. Do you think, dear sir,

that the persons of Indian descent could now be found, possessed of

piety, talents, good character, and a disposition to take this course of

life, in sufficient numbers to justify giving the school such a turn?

Or, are there youths sufficiently promising, though not pious, with

whose education you would think it advisable to proceed, hoping that, by

the blessings of God, they would be converted and made heralds of mercy

to their red brethren? I have supposed there were not, and that an

attempt of this kind would almost certainly prove abortive. A more

detailed knowledge of facts, which you are in a situation to possess,

might change my opinion. There is nothing we more desire and labor for,

at all our missions, than _good native helpers_. They are an invaluable

acquisition, but our experience teaches us that they are exceedingly

rare. Not one educated heathen youth in ten, even if pious when he

commences his studies, has been found fit for an office requiring

judgment, good common sense, and energy of character. Still we do not

think that this ought to deter us from attempts to raise up native

teachers and evangelists. Most of the work of converting the heathen

nations must unquestionably be performed by them. If the opening should

seem fair, we would try it at Mackinack."

_28th._ In a letter from Mr. Duponceau, respecting the publication of my

lectures on the grammatical structure of the Chippewa language, he

communicates the latest philological news in this and other parts of the

world, respecting the Indian languages.

"You will not be a little astonished that a translation of the _Bible_

is now making at Rome into the Algonquin (which I presume to be the

same, or nearly the same as the Chippewa) language, under the auspices

of the present Pope, Gregory XVI. The translator is a French missionary,

who has long resided among those Indians in Canada. He has written a

grammar and dictionary of that idiom, which he writes me he is shortly

going to put to press. It will be curious to compare that grammar and

that dictionary with your own, and to see how far the two languages, the

Algonquin and the Chippewa, agree with or differ from each other. When I

was in Canada I heard much of this Mr. Thavenet, the name of that

missionary. He enjoys a great reputation in this country, and it seems

he has obtained the favor of the Pope.

"We have in this city a Mexican gentleman, Don Manuel Najera, a man of

letters, well skilled in the Mexican and other Indian languages of that

country. He says they are all, as I call them, polysynthetic, and

resemble in that respect those of the Indians of the United States. One

only he excepts, the Othomi, and that, he says, is monosyllabic, like

the Chinese. He has translated into it, from the Greek, the eleventh Ode

of Anacreon, which I am going to present to the Philosophical Society.

He has added grammatical notes, which are extremely curious. He has also

written in Latin, several interesting dissertations on other Mexican

idioms, also for the society, which I expect will be published in their

transactions, either in the original or in a translation. He is greatly

pleased with your specimen of a Chippewa grammar. He understands English

very well, also French, Italian, and, of course, his native Spanish.

"The philosophy of our Indian languages has become very fashionable

among the learned in Europe. The Institute of France has offered a

premium of a gold medal, of the value of 1200 francs, for the best essay

on the grammatical construction of the family of North American

languages, of which the Chippewa, the Delaware and Mohegan are

considered the principal branches, of course including the Iroquois,

Wyandot, Naudowessie, &c. The premium is to be awarded on the 1st of May

next. I would have informed you of it at the time, if it had not been

made a _sine qua non_ that the memoirs should be written in Latin or

French. I have, therefore, ventured on sending one, in which I have

availed myself of your excellent grammar, giving credit for it, as in

duty bound. I have literally translated what you say at the beginning of

your first and of your second lecture, which will be found the best part

of my work, as it is impossible to describe the character of those

languages with more clearness and elegance."

_10th_. A young gentleman (Mr. W. Fred. Williams) spent a few days at my

house, at Michilimackinack, much to our gratification, and, it seems

from a kind letter of this date, written from Buffalo, also to his own.

He sends me a box of geological specimens, and a Chinese idol, and some

sticks of frankincense--just received by him from a relative, who is a

missionary in Canton, as an offering of remembrance. The heart is

gratified with friendly little interchanges of respect, and it is a

false sense of human dignity that prevents their instant acknowledgment.

We study, read, investigate, compare, experiment, judge as philosophers,

but we live as men--as common men. Facts move or startle the judgment;

but such little things as the gift of even an apple, or a smiling

friendly countenance, appeal to the heart.

_13th_. My article for the _Theological Review_ was well received. "It

was in time," says the editor, "for the March number, and you will

receive it in a few days. I read it, and so did the committee, with the

highest satisfaction. It contains much new information relating to the

superstitions of the Indians, and is well calculated to have the effect

you designed, of awakening the interest of the Christian community in

behalf of our aborigines. I was particularly gratified with the

coincidence of your judgment with the opinion I have entertained for

some years, respecting the _reality of Satanic influence at the present

time_. We intend shortly to publish on this point."

This is a point incidentally brought out, in the examination of the aged

converted _jossakeed_, or prophet of the Ottawa nation, called Chusco.

He insisted, and could not be made, to waver from the point, that

Satanic influences alone helped him to perform his tricks of jugglery,

particularly the often noted one of shaking and agitating the

tight-wound pyramidal, oracular lodge. No cross-questioning could make

him give up this explanation. He avowed, that, aside of his

incantations, he had no part in the matter, and never put his hands to

the poles. It resulted, as the only conclusion to be drawn from this

instance of his art, that the Satanic influence, although invisible, was

veritably present, adapting itself to the devices of the Indian

priesthood, for the purpose of deceiving the tribe. I reported this to

his pastor who had admitted his evidences of faith, who replied, on

reflection, that this was the Gospel doctrine, which was everywhere

disclosed by the New Testament, which depicts the "Prince of the Power

of the Air" as really present and free to act in the deception of men

and nations, the world over. If so, we should no longer wonder at human

crime and folly. Murders and robberies of the blackest dye become

intelligible. And every plan of false prophecy, from the Arabian, who

has enslaved half Asia, to the simple performer of forest juggling on

the banks of Lakes Huron and Michigan, is explained as with beams

of light.

_31st_. A Mr. H. Howe, of Worcester, Mass., writes, wishing to be

informed of same stream of the Upper Mississippi, having sufficient

water power, with pine timber, and means of ready issue into the

Mississippi, to furnish a suitable site for a saw-mill. The question is

readily answered: there are many such, but it is entirely Indian

country, and cannot be entered for such a purpose without violating the

Indian intercourse act, which it is a part of my duty, as an Indian

Agent, to enforce. It would be a trespass, subjecting him to a suit in

the U.S. District Court. I replied to him, stating these views.

_April 7th_. The dispute with Ohio, respecting our southern boundary,

grows warmer, and is fomented, on her part, by speculators in public

lands on the western shores of Maumee Bay. Otherwise it could be easily

settled. The mere historical and geographical question, as founded on

the language of the Ordinance of 1787, would appear to leave the right

with Michigan. Ohio legislation, or constitutional encroachment, could

not surely overrule an act of Congress. "The difficulty with Ohio," says

Major W., of Detroit, "is of a threatening character. It is not now,

perhaps, any nearer adjustment that at any previous stage, although

pacificators have been sent on by the President. But the 'million of

freemen' State does not think it comports with her dignity to desist, or

vacate Michigan, is prepared for war, and is determined to proceed to

blood if need be. Gov. Cass will be here, it is said on good authority,

in May or June. Political divisions here, unfortunately, run too high

for a proper convention. Party feeling has governed exclusively, in a

case where they, perhaps, can have no operation. Whoever goes into the

convention will probably have nearly the same views, and it would have

been well to have sent the best and most intelligent. But, on the whole,

probably three-fourths of the members will find it as new business as if

they were to undertake astronomy."

_14th_. Charles Fotheringay, of Toronto, U.C., issues and forwards a

circular headed "Lyceum of Natural History and the Fine Arts." The

object is to found, in that city, a cabinet which shall do justice to

the claims of science and philosophical learning on this subject.

CHAPTER LIV.

Requirements of a missionary laborer--Otwin--American

quadrupeds--Geological question--Taste of an Indian chief for

horticulture--Swiss missionaries to the Indians--Secretary of War visits

the island--Frivolous literary, diurnal, and periodical press--Letter of

Dr. Ives on this topic--Lost boxes of minerals and fresh-water

shells--Geological visit of Mr. Featherstonehaugh and Lieut. Mather--Mr.

Hastings--A theological graduate.

_April 21st_. Missionary labor requires an energy and will that surmount

aft obstacles and brave all climates and all risks. A feeble

constitution, a liability to take colds on every slight change of

temperature, a sick wife who fears to put her feet on the ground, are

the very last things to bring on to the frontiers. The risks must be

run; the determined mind makes a way for everything. To ponder and doubt

on a thousand points which may occur on such a subject, is something in

effect like asking a bond of the Lord, in addition to his promises, that

he will preserve the man and his family in all scenes of sickness and

dangers, in the forest and out of the forest, scathless. Such a man has

no call clearly for the work; but he may yet labor efficiently at home.

There is a species of moral heroism required for the true missionary,

such as Brainerd and Henry Martin felt.

These feelings result from a letter of this date, written by a reverend

gentleman of Phillipsburg, N.Y., whose mind has been directed to the

Mackinack field. He puts too many questions respecting the phenomena of

temperature, the liability to colds, and the general diseases of the

country, for one who has fearlessly "put on the whole armor of God," to

invade the heathen wilderness. The truth is, in relation to this

position, the climate is generally dry, and has no causes of disease in

it. The air is a perfect restorative to invalids, and never fails to

provoke appetite and health. It is already a partial resort for persons

out of health, and cannot fail to be appreciated as a watering place in

the summer months as the country increases in population. To Chicago,

St. Louis, Natchez, and New Orleans, as well as Detroit, Cleveland,

Cincinnati, and Buffalo, I should suppose it to be a perfect Montpelier

in the summer season.

_May 6th_. In the scenes of domestic and social and moral significancy,

which have rendered the island a place of delight to many persons during

the seclusion of the winter, no one has entered with a more pleasing

zeal into the area than a young man whose birth, I think, was not far

from the Rock of Plymouth. I shall call him Otwin. I invited him to pass

the winter as a guest in my house, where his conversation, manners, and

deep enthusiastic and poetic feeling, and just discrimination of the

moral obligation in men, rendered him an agreeable inmate. He had a

saying and a text for almost everybody, but uttered all he said in such

a pleasing spirit as to give offence to none. He was ever in the midst

of those who came together to sing and pray, and was quite a favorite

with the soldiers of the garrison. He wrote during the season some

poetic sketches of Bible scenes, which he sent by a friend to New York

in the hope that they might merit publication. Dr. Ives, of N.Y., to

whom I wrote in relation to them, put the manuscript into the hands of

the Sabbath School Publishing Committee, which appeared to be a

judicious disposition. It was, probably, thought to require something

more than moral didactic dialogues to justify the experiment of printing

them. Otwin himself went into the missionary field of Lake Superior.

_10th_. The Indians have brought me at various times the skins of a

white deer, of an Arctic fox, of a wolverine, and some other species

which have either past out of their usual latitudes or assumed some new

trait. Elks' and deers' horns, the foot, horns, and skin of the cariboo,

which is the _C. Sylvestris_, are deposited in my cabinet, and are

mementos of their gifts from the forest. One of the questions hardest

for the Christian geologist to solve is--how the animals of our forests

got to America. For there is every evidence, both from the Sacred Record

and from the examination of the strata, that the ancient disruption was

universal, and destroyed the species and genera which could not exist in

water. One of two conditions of the globe seems necessary, on the basis

of the Pentateuch, to account for their migration--either that a

continental connection existed, or that the seas in northern latitudes

were frozen over. But, in the latter case, how did the tropical animals

_subsist_ and _exist?_ The Polar bear, the Arctic fox, and the musk ox

would do well enough; but how was the armadillo, the cougar, the lama,

and even the bison to fare?

This question is far more difficult to solve than that of the migration

of the aborigines, for they could cross in various ways; but quadrupeds

could not come in boats. Birds could fly from island to island, snakes

and dogs might swim, but how came the sloth and the other quadrupeds of

the torrid zone? Who can assert that there has not been a powerful

disruptive geological action in the now peaceable Pacific? It is replete

with volcanic powers.

_15th_. Chabowawa, an Indian chief, a Chippewa, called to get some slips

of the currant-bush from my garden, to take to his village. Although the

buds were too near the point of expansion, in the open and sunny parts

of the garden, some slips were found near the fences more backward, and

he was thus supplied.

_25th_. I have long deliberated what I should do with my materials,

denoting a kind of oral literature among the Chippewas and other tribes,

in the shape of legends and wild tales of the imagination. The

narrations themselves are often so incongruous, grotesque, and

fragmentary, as to require some hand better than mine, to put them in

shape. And yet, I feel that nearly all their value, as indices of Indian

imagination, must depend on preserving their original form. Some little

time since, I wrote to Washington Irving on the subject. In a response

of this date, he observes:--

"The little I have seen of our Indian tribes has awakened an earnest

anxiety to know more concerning them, and, if possible, to embody some

of their fast-fading characteristics and traditions in our popular

literature. My own personal opportunities of observing them must,

necessarily, be few and casual; but I would gladly avail myself of any

information derived from others who have been enabled to mingle among

them, and capacitated to perceive and appreciate their habits, customs,

and moral qualities. I know of no one to whom I would look with more

confidence, in these respects, than to yourself; and, I assure you, I

should receive as high and unexpected favors any communication of the

kind you suggest, that would aid me in furnishing biographies, tales or

sketches, illustrative of Indian life, Indian character, and Indian

mythology and superstitions."

I had never regarded these manuscripts, gleaned from the lodges with no

little pains-taking, as mere materials to be worked up by the literary

loom, although the work should be done by one of the most popular and

fascinating American pens. I feared that the roughness, which gave them

their characteristic originality and Doric truthfulness, would be

smoothed and polished off to assume the shape of a sort of Indo-American

series of tales; a cross between the Anglo-Saxon and the Algonquin.

_28th_. Switzerland enters the missionary field of America for the

purpose of improving the condition of the aborigines. This impressed me

as well. We leave the red man sitting in every want, at our doors, and

rush to India. It is true, that field counts its millions, where we can

thousands. But an appeal to the missionary record shows, if I am not

greatly mistaken, that the proportionate number of converts from an

Indian tribe is greater than that of the tribes of Asia, and that an

infinitely greater sum is expended by our churches for every convert to

Christianity made among the heathen of Asia than of America. The Rev.

Henry Olivier, from the Evangelical Society in Switzerland, visited me,

this day, with a companion in his labors. He detailed to me his plans.

It is his design to select the Dacotah tribe, on the Upper Mississippi,

as the object of his exertions.

_June 2d_. Commenced setting new pickets in front of the agency lot, and

removing the old ones of white cedar, which, tradition says, have stood

near half a century.

_15th_. The editors of the Knickerbocker Magazine (Clark and Edson)

solicit contributions to its pages. This periodical has always

maintained a respectable rank, and appears destined to hold on its

course. I am too far out of the world to judge well. The conflict of

periodicals appears to increase; but I do not think that the number of

sound readers, who seek useful knowledge, keeps pace with it. I think

not. We seem to be on the eve of a light and trifling kind of

literature, which is hashed up with condiments for weak stomachs.

_July 2d_. The weather, for the entire month of June, was most

delightful and charming. On one of the latter days of the month the

fine and large steamer "Michigan" came into the harbor, with a brilliant

throng of visitors, among the number the Secretary of War (Gen. Cass)

and his daughter. The arrival put joy and animation into every

countenance. The Secretary reviewed the troops, and visited the Agency,

and the workshops for the benefit of the Indians. He, and the gay and

brilliant throng, visited whatever was curious and interesting, and

embarked on their return to Detroit, after receiving the warm

congratulations of the citizens. I took the occasion to accompany the

party to Detroit.

_4th_. The debasing character of the light and popular literature which

is coming into vogue, is happily alluded to in a casual letter from Dr.

A.W. Ives, of New York. "I regret," he says, "that the well directed

labors of the excellent Otwin cannot be made available, but the truth

is, there is such an unspeakable mass of matter written for the press at

the present day, that all of it cannot be printed, much less be read. I

think it one of the great toils of the age. Indolence is a natural

attribute of man, and he dislikes intellectual even more than physical

toil. Most men read, therefore, only such things as require no thought,

and consequently there is a bounty offered for the most frivolous

literary productions....

"Your isolated position prevents your realizing, to its greatest extent,

the evil of this superfluity of books; but if you were constantly

receiving from thirty to forty daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals,

besides one or more ponderous volumes, every week, I cannot but think

that, with all your ambition and thirst for knowledge, you would wish

rather for an Alexandrian conflagration than an increase of books.

"Every man who thinks he has a new thought, or striking thought, thinks

himself justified in writing a volume. Of this I would not complain if

he would have the ingenuousness to inform the reader, in a _nota bene_,

on what page the new idea could be found, so that, if he paid for the

book, he should be spared the trouble of hunting for the kernel in the

bushel of compiled and often incongruous chaff, in which the author has

dexterously hid it.

"But the labor and expense of new publications are the least of their

evils. You cannot imagine what an influence is exerted, in this city, at

the present time, by 'penny newspapers.' There are from fifteen to

twenty, I believe, published daily, and not less on an average, I

presume, than 5000 copies of each. A number of them strike off from

10,000 to 20,000 every day. They have no regular subscribers, or at

least, they do not depend upon subscribers for a support. They are

hawked about the streets, the steamboats and taverns by boys, and are,

for the most part, extravagant stories, caricature descriptions, police

reports, infidel vulgarity and profanity, and, in short, of just such

matter as unprincipled, selfish, and bad men know to be best fitted to

pamper the appetites and passions of the populace, and so uproot and

destroy all that is valuable and sacred in our literary, civil, and

religious institutions.

"A spirit of ultraism seems to pervade the whole community. The language

of Milton's archdevil 'Evil, be thou my good,' is the creed of modern

reformers, or, in other words--_anything for a change_. What is to come

of all this, I have not wisdom even to guess. It is an age of

_transition_, and whether you and I live to see the elements of the

moral and political world at rest, is, I think, extremely doubtful. But

our consolation should be that the Lord reigns--that he loves good order

and truth better than we do--and, blessed be his name, he is able to

establish and maintain them.

"This is the anniversary of our national independence, and ought to be

celebrated with thanksgiving and praise to God. Alas! how it is

perverted."

_22d_. Mr. Green, of the Missionary Rooms, Boston, again writes about

the Mackinack Mission. "I believe that my views accord very nearly with

your own, as to what it would be desirable to do, provided the suitable

persons could be procured to perform the work. There is a great

deficiency in well qualified laborers. We can generally obtain persons

who will answer our purpose, if we will wait long enough, but it often

happens, in the mean time, that the circumstances so change that the

proposed plan becomes of doubtful expediency. We have been continually

on the lookout, since Mr. Ferry left Mackinack, for some one to fill his

place, but as yet have found no one, and have no one in view."

_28th_. Mr. W. Fred. Williams, of Buffalo, communicates information

respecting three boxes of specimens of natural history, which I lost in

the fall of 1821. "My conversation with you having made me acquainted

with the fact that you once lost two boxes of minerals and one of

shells, I have been rather on the lookout for information respecting

them, and am now able to inform you as to what became of them, and to

correct the statement which I made (as I said) on supposition of the

manner in which Edgerton became possessed of them.

"In the spring of 1832, a stranger from Troy or Albany came to Mr.

Edgerton, at Utica, and told him that he had two boxes of minerals which

he had received from Mr. Schoolcraft, and that if he (E.) would label

them, he (E.) might take what he wished to retain for his trouble. He

said, also, that he was about to establish a school at Lockport, but,

knowing nothing of mineralogy, he wished to get the specimens labeled.

Mr. Edgerton unpacked the boxes, took a few for himself, labeled and

repacked the rest, and returned them to the stranger.

"The box of shells was left at the tavern of Levi Cozzens, in Utica,

where they remained two years, waiting for some one to claim them; about

this time Mr. C., closing up his concern, opened the box and gave the

shells to his children for playthings, and sent the _mocock_ of sugar

(which had your name on or about it) to his mother. If the person who

had the minerals still remains at Lockport, perhaps they may be

recovered, but the shells are all destroyed."

The minerals referred to consisted of choice and large specimens of the

colored and crystaline fluates of lime from Illinois, and the attractive

species and varieties of sulphates of barytes, sulphurets of lead,

radiated quartz, &c. &c., from Missouri, which I had revisited in 1821.

They were fine cabinet specimens, but contained no new species or

varieties. Not so with the fresh-water shells. They embraced all the

species of the Wabash River, whose entire length I had traversed that

year, from its primary forks to its entrance into the Ohio. Among them

were some new things, which would, at that time, have proved a treat to

my conchological friends.

_8th_. Mukonsewyan, or the Little Bear Skin, visited the office, with a

retinue. He asked whether any Indians from the Fond du Lac, or Upper

Mississippi, had visited the office this season. I stated to him the

renewal of hostilities between the Sioux and Chippewas, as a probable

reason why they had not. He entered freely into conversation on the

history of the Sioux, and spoke of their perfidy to the Chippewas. I

asked him if they were as treacherous to the Americans as they had been

to the British--several of whose traders they had in former days killed.

He said he had seen the Sioux offenders of that day, encamped at

Mackinack, while the British held it, under the guns of the fort, and

all the Indians expected that they would have been seized. But they were

suffered to retire unmolested.

_14th_. I went to Round Island with Mr. Featherstonehaugh and Lieut.

Mather. Examined the ancient ossuaries and the scenery on that island.

Mr. F. is on his way to the Upper Mississippi as a geologist in the

service of the Topographical Bureau. He took a good deal of interest in

examining my cabinet, and proposed I should exchange the Lake Superior

minerals for the gold ores of Virginia, &c. He showed me his idea of the

geological column, and drew it out. I accompanied him around the island,

to view its reticulated and agaric filled limestone cliffs; but derived

no certain information from him of the position in the geological scale

of this very striking stratum. It is, manifestly, the magnesian

limestone of Conybeare and Phillips, or _muschelkalk_ of the Germans.

Lieut. Mather brought me a letter from Major Whiting, from which I learn

that he has been professor of mineralogy in the Military Academy at West

Point. I found him to be animated with a zeal for scientific discovery,

united with accurate and discriminating powers of observation.

Among my visitors about this time, none impressed me more pleasingly

than a young gentleman from Cincinnati--a graduate of Lane Seminary--a

Mr. Hastings, who brought me a letter from a friend at Detroit. He

appeared to be imbued with the true spirit of piety, to be learned in

his vocation without ostentation, and discriminating without ultraism.

And he left me, after a brief stay, with an impression that he was

destined to enter the field of moral instruction usefully to his

fellow-men, believing that it is far better to undertake to persuade

than to drive men by assault, as with cannon, from their strongholds

of opinion.

CHAPTER LV.

Rage for investment in western lands--Habits of the common

deer--Question of the punishment of Indian murders committed in the

Indian country--A chief calls to have his authority recognized on the

death of a predecessor--Dr. Julius, of Prussia--Gen. Robert

Patterson--Pressure of emigration--Otwin--Dr. Gilman and Mr.

Hoffman--Picturesque trip to Lake Superior--Indians desire to cede

territory--G.W. Featherstonehaugh--Sketch of his geological

reconnoisance of the St. Peter's River--Dr. Thomas H. Webb--Question of

inscriptions on American rocks--Antiquities--Embark for Washington, and

come down the lakes in the great tempest of 1835.

1835. _August_. The rage for investment in lands was now manifest in

every visitor that came from the East to the West. Everybody, more or

less, yielded to it. I saw that friends, in whose prudence and judgment

I had confided for years, were engaged in it. I doubted the soundness of

the ultra predictions which were based on every sort of investment of

this kind, whether of town property or farming land, and held quite

conservative opinions on the subject, but yielded partially, and in a

moderate way, to the general impulse, by making some investments in

Wisconsin. Among other plans, an opinion arose that Michilimackinack

must become a favorite watering place, or refuge for the opulent and

invalids during the summer; and lots were eagerly bought up from Detroit

and Chicago.

_17th_. I embarked in a steamer for Green Bay--where I attended the

first land sales, and made several purchases. While there, I remarked

the curious fluctuations in the level of the waters at the mouth of Fox

River. The lake (Michigan) and the bay appear to hold the relation of

separate parts of a syphon. It was now fourteen years since I had first

noticed this phenomenon, as a member of the expedition to the sources of

the Mississippi. While at Green Bay I procured a young fawn, and carried

it to be a tenant of my garden and grounds. This animal grew to its

full size, and revealed many interesting traits. Its motions were most

graceful. It was perfectly tame. It would walk into the hall and

dining-room, when the door was open, and was once observed to step up,

gracefully, and take bread from the table. It perambulated the garden

walks. It would, when the back-gate was shut, jump over a six feet

picket fence, with the ease and lightness of a bird.

Some of its instincts were remarkable. At night it would choose its

place of lying down invariably to the leeward of an object which

sheltered it from the prevailing wind. One of its most remarkable

instincts was developed with respect to ladies. On one occasion, while

an unattended lady was walking up the avenue from my front gate to the

door, through the garden grounds, the animal approached from behind, in

the gentlest manner possible, and placed his fore feet on her shoulders.

This happened more than once. Its propensity to eat plum leaves at last

banished it from the garden. It was then allowed to visit distant parts

of the island, and, at length, some vicious person broke one of its

legs, from its propensity to browse on the young leaves of fruit trees.

This was fatal to it, and I was induced to allow its being shot, after

it had been an inmate of my grounds for about three years, where it was

familiarly known to all by the name of Nimmi.

Poor Nimmi, some are hanged for being thieves,

But thou, poor beast! wast killed for eating leaves.

_24th_. I received instructions from Washington respecting recent

murders of Chippewas by the Sioux. This is a constantly recurring topic

for the action of an Indian agent. Unfortunately, his powers in the

matter are only advisory. The intercourse act does not declare it a

crime for one Indian nation to make reprisals, club in hand, on another

Indian nation, on the area in which their sovereignty is acknowledged.

It only makes it a criminal offence to kill a white man in such a

position, for which his nation can be invaded, and the murderer seized

and delivered up to justice.

_28th_. Ottawance, chief of the Beaver Islands, died last summer (1834).

Kin-wa-be-kiz-ze, or Man of the Long Stone (noun inanimate), called to

day, and announced himself as the successor, and asked for the usual

present of tobacco, &c. By this recognition of the office, his authority

was sought to be confirmed.

_29th_. Dr. Julius, of Prussia, visited me, being on his return from

Chicago. He evinced a deep interest in the history of the Indian race.

He remarked the strong resemblance they bore in features and manners to

the Asiatics. He had remarked that the Potawattomies seem like dogs,

which he observed was also the custom of the Tartars; but that the eyes

of the latter were set diagonally, whereas the American Indians had

theirs parallel. In other respects, he saw great resemblances. He

expressed himself as greatly interested in the discovery of an oral

literature among the Indians, in the form of imaginative legends.

Gen. Robert Patterson, of Philadelphia, with his daughter and niece,

make a brief visit, on their way from Chicago and the West, and view the

curiosities of the island. These visits of gentlemen of wealth, to the

great area of the upper lakes, may be noticed as commencing with this

year. People seem to have suddenly waked up in the East, and are just

becoming aware that there _is a West_--to which they hie, in a measure,

as one who hunts for a pleasant land fancied in dreams. But the great

Mississippi Valley is a waking reality. Fifty years will tell her story

on the population and resources of the world.

_Sept. 12th_. Received instructions from the Department, to ascertain

whether the Indians north of Grand River would sell their lands, and on

what terms. The letter to which this was a reply was the first official

step in the causes which led to the treaty of March 28th, 1836. A

leading step in the policy of the Department respecting the tribes of

the Upper Lakes.

_15th_. The great lakes can no longer be regarded as solitary seas,

where the Indian war-whoop has alone for so many uncounted centuries

startled its echoes. The Eastern World seems to be alive, and roused up

to the value of the West. Every vessel, every steamboat, brings up

persons of all classes, whose countenances the desire of acquisition, or

some other motive, has rendered sharp, or imparted a fresh glow of hope

to their eyes. More persons, of some note or distinction, natives or

foreigners, have visited me, and brought me letters of introduction this

season, than during years before. Sitting on my piazza, in front of

which the great stream of ships and commerce passes, it is a spectacle

at once novel, and calculated to inspire high anticipations of the

future glory of the Mississippi Valley.

_Oct. 5th_. Washington Irving responds, in the kindest terms, to my

letter transmitting some manuscript materials relative to the

Indian history.

_12th_. Mr. Green, of Boston, wrote me on the 8th instant unfavorably to

the stability of the Christian character of my friend Otwin, whom I had

recommended to the Board for employment in the missionary field in Lake

Superior, in connection with the missionary family at La Pointe. Mr. S.

Hall, the head of that Mission, writes (Oct. 12th): "I am glad that the

providence of God directed (him) this way, and trust his coming into

this region will be for the interest of Zion's Kingdom here. He appears

to be a man of faith and prayer. I trust he will be the means of

stirring up to more diligence in the service of our Master." What

greater aid could be given to a lone far off Indian mission, than "a man

of faith and prayer." When an observer in the vast panorama of the West

and North has seen a poor missionary and his family, living five-hundred

miles from the nearest verge of civilization, solitary and desolate,

surrounded with heathen red men, and worse than heathen white men, with

none out of his little circle to honor God or appreciate his word, it is

presumable to him that any reinforcement of help must be hailed as cold

water to a parched tongue. Not that there is any supposed difference of

opinion on the main question, between the Head and the forest hands, so

to say, of the Board, but it is difficult, at Boston, to appreciate the

disheartening circumstances surrounding the missionary in the field. And

any youthful instability, or eccentricity of means in the way of

advancing the Gospel, should be forgiven, for the cause, after years of

experience, and not written against "a man of faith and prayer," as it

appears to have been by the pastor of Middleburgh, as with a pen

of iron.

_14th_. Pendonwa, son of Wahazo, a brother of the Ottawa chief, Wing,

reports himself as electing to become "an American," and says he had so

declared himself to Col. Boyd, the former Indian agent.

_27th_. Dr. C.R. Gilman, of New York, having, with Major M. Hoffman, of

Wall Street, paid me a visit and made a picturesque "trip to the

Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior," writes me after his safe return to the

city, piquing himself on that adventure, after having exchanged

congratulations with his less enterprising cityloving friends. It was

certainly an event to be booked, that two civilians so soldered down to

the habits of city life in different lines as the Doctor and the Major,

should have extended their summer excursion as far as Michilimackinack.

But it was a farther evidence of enterprise, and the love of the

picturesque, that they should have taken an Indian canoe, and a crew of

engagees, at that point, and ventured to visit the Pictured Rocks in

Lake Superior. "Life on the Lakes" (the title of Dr. G.'s book) was

certainly a widely different affair to "Life in New York."

_31st_. Circumstances had now inclined the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes of

Indians to cede to the United States a portion of their extensive

territory. Game had failed in the greater part of it, and they had no

other method of raising funds to pay their large outstanding credits to

the class of traders, and to provide for an interval of transition,

which must indeed happen, in view of their future improvement, between

the hunter and agricultural state.

The Drummond Island band had, for a year or two, advocated a sale. The

Ottawas of the peninsula determined to send a delegation to Washington

on the subject. I could not hesitate as to the course which duty

proscribed to me, under these important circumstances, and determined to

proceed to Washington, although the Secretary and acting Governor of the

Territory, Mr. Horner, on being consulted by letter, refused his assent

to this step. His want of proper information on the subject, being but

recently come to the territory, did not appear to be such as to justify

me in remaining on the island, while the question had been carried by

the Indians themselves to, and was, probably, to be decided at

Washington before another season. I determined, therefore, to proceed to

Washington, taking one of the latest vessels for the season, on their

return from the ports on Lake Michigan.

_Nov. 2d_. Mr. Featherstonehaugh writes to me from Galena, on his return

from his geological reconnoisance in the north-west, sketching some of

the leading events of his progress:--

"Desirous of giving you a passing notice of my progress, I make time, a

few moments' leisure, to say that, when I had entered the Terre Bleu

River, which you remember is that tributary of the St. Peter's I was

anxious to visit, I found I could not penetrate to the Coteau de Prairie

from that quarter, and no resource was left to me but to return, or go

about three hundred miles higher up, where I was aware I should meet a

pretty insolent set of fellows amongst the Yanktons and Tetons. The

Sioux, who had committed pretty bad Indian murders amongst the

Chippewas, were in great numbers about Lac qui Parle, and there was no

avoiding them. However, it was in the line of the duty I had undertaken,

and I was willing to run some risks to see them. They were a precious

set when I got to them, but by prudence and presents I got along with

them, and, having began to sputter a little Sioux, I took courage, left

my canoe and men there, and took a guide and interpreter and pushed on

to Lac Traverse, and from thence to Coteau de Prairie, the head waters

of the St. Peter's, and to within four days' march of the Mandan

Village, Here I wheeled about back, afraid of winter. Indeed, on my

arrival at Lac Traverse, the weather was bitterly cold, and wood and

water were sometimes found with great difficulty, in the intermediate

prairies. The day I left Fort Snelling, the thermometer was very low,

the snow six or eight inches deep on the ground; in fact it was quite

winter, and all were of opinion, at the fort, that ice would form and

drive in a few days.

"I found Mr. Keating's account of the Mississippi, and especially of the

St. Peter's, most surprisingly erroneous, and old Jonathan Carver's

book, which he is constantly denouncing, _very accurate_.

"I ascertained, to my perfect satisfaction, the termination of the

horizontal beds of sandstone of carboniferous limestone formation, and

came upon the outcrop of the adjacent granite, just where I expected to

find the primary rocks."

"You will greatly oblige me by communicating to me your opinion,

approximatively, of the course held by the primary rocks south of Lake

Superior, as far as you are acquainted with it, or with the edges of the

secondary rocks, which have a junction line with, or near them. I found

no primary rocks on my way from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien. The rocks

in place at Fort Winnebago, are secondary sandstone of the

carboniferous series."

_2d_. The question of "inscriptions" on rocks by the aborigines has

recently attracted some attention. Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Providence,

Rhode Island, in a letter of this date, notifying me of my election as

an honorary member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, calls my

attention to this subject. "In your last work," he remarks, "you allude

to some hieroglyphics on a tree. Have you particularly examined any on

rocks; and if so, were they mere paintings, or were they inscribed

thereon? If the latter, in what manner do they appear to have been

done--pecked in with a pointed instrument, or chizzled out? Are they

simply representations of men and animals, without method in their

arrangement, or combinations of these, with other characters bearing

evidence of greater design? Will you be kind enough to furnish me with

the locations of those with which you are acquainted? Is it possible for

me to procure drawings of them? Do you know any one living near such

rocks, whom I could hire to take copies of them, and upon the accuracy

of whose work reliance can be placed?

"I do not wish finished views--correct drawings of the _characters_ with

a pen will be amply sufficient for my purposes; although I should not

object to outlines of the rocks themselves. I would also ask if some of

the 'relics of things that have passed away,' which are found so

abundantly in the west, _e.g._, articles of pottery, iron and copper

implements, &c., can be procured by purchase, or in the way of exchange

for minerals, or in some other way?"

Imprimis--no "iron" implements have ever been found. Secondly, no

observations not made by an antiquarian can be relied on.

_9th_. I embarked for Detroit, on board a schooner under command of an

experienced navigator (Capt. Ward), just on the eve, unknown to us, of a

great tempest, which rendered that season memorable in the history of

wrecks on the great lakes. We had scarcely well cleared the light-house,

when the wind increased to a gale. We soon went on furiously. Sails were

reefed, and every preparation made to keep on our way, but the wind did

not admit of it. The captain made every effort to hug the shore, and

finally came to anchor in great peril, under the highlands of Sauble.

Here we pitched terribly, and were momently in peril of being cast on

shore. In the effort to work the ship, one of the men fell from the

bowsprit, and passed under the vessel, and was lost. It was thought that

our poor little craft must go to the bottom; it seemed like a chip on

the ocean contending against the powers of the Almighty. It seemed as

if, agreeably to Indian fable, Ishkwondameka himself was raising a

tempest mountain high for some sinister purposes of his own. But, owing

to the skill of the old lake mariner, we eventually triumphed. He never

faltered in the darkest exigency. For a day and night he struggled

against the elements, and finally entered the straits at Fort Gratiot,

and he brought us safely into the port of our destination.

On reaching Detroit, the lateness of the season admonished me to lose no

time in making my way over the stormy Erie to Buffalo, whence I pursued

my journey to New York. I reached the latter city the day prior to the

great fire, in December. I took lodgings at the Atlantic Hotel, which is

near the foot of Broadway, and immediately west of the great scene of

conflagration. The cold was so bitter while the fire raged that I could

not long endure the open air, which seemed to be surcharged with oxygen.

I reached Philadelphia the 19th, and Washington a day or two after.

CHAPTER LVI.

Florida war--Startling news of the Massacre of Dade--Peoria on the

Illinois--Abanaki language--Oregon--Things shaping for a territorial

claim--Responsibility of claim in an enemy's country--A true

soldier--Southern Literary Messenger--Missionary cause--Resources of

Missouri--Indian portfolio of Lewis--Literary gossip--Sir Francis

Head--The Crane and Addik totem--Treaty of March 28th, 1836, with the

Ottawas and Chippewas--Treaty with the Saginaws of May 20th--Treaty with

the Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas of May 9th--Return to

Michilimackinack--Death of Charlotte, the daughter of Songageezhig.

1836. The year opened with the portentous news of Indian hostilities.

The massacre of Major Dade and his entire command on the waters of the

Wythlacootche River in Florida, and the prospect of an Indian war in

Florida, excited great sensation in all circles. I was at the Secretary

of War's domicil one evening, when he first received and read out the

shocking details. The same night troops were ordered to be put in motion

from every point in the Union, to be concentrated in that territory; and

the greatest activity pervaded the departments. Gen. Jackson expressed

himself with energy on the subject. He had formerly conducted a

successful campaign against the Seminoles, but he could not be persuaded

that there were more than five hundred of this tribe in the whole

territory. This led him to believe that the troops actually put in

motion for the field of action, were fully adequate to cope with the

enemy, and promptly to put them down.

_Jan. 4th_. The American Lyceum request me to prepare a paper for their

sixth anniversary.

_6th_. I received a letter from my former pastor, Rev. J. Porter, at

Peoria, Ill., denoting him to be in a new field of ministerial labor.

"I bade adieu to my dear people at Chicago, on the second Sabbath in

November, and commenced my labors here on the fourth Sabbath of the

same month--just four years from the day I first preached at the Sault.

"The town is on the north bank of Lake Peoria, which is an expansion of

the Illinois. The site is one of the first in our land. The ground rises

with a delightful slope from the water's edge for the distance of half a

mile--then there is table land for another half mile back to a high

bluff. The town began to be built about two years since; it has now a

population of eight hundred and fifty."

A descendant of the great theologian Edwards, it is pleasing to note

that this gentleman is destined to be employed in various fields, in

diffusing Christianity through the great valley.

_8th_. Mr. Thomas L. Winthrop, of Boston, transmits me "the first volume

of a new series of the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and

Sciences. This volume, amongst other valuable matter, contains a

Dictionary of the Abinaki Language of North America, by Father

Sebastian Rasles."

_10th_. I addressed a memoir to the Secretary of War on the state of

Indian affairs in Oregon. My position at St. Mary's being on the great

line of communication between Montreal and the principal posts at

Vancouver, &c., north of the Columbia, has afforded me opportunities of

becoming familiar with the leading policy of the Hudson's Bay factors in

relation to that region. The means pursued are such as must influence

all the Indian tribes in that quarter strongly in favor of the political

power wielded by that company, and as strongly against the government of

the United States, which has not a shadow of a power of any kind on the

Pacific. Silently, but surely, a vast influence is being built up on

those coasts, adverse to our claims to the territory, and it cannot be

long till those intrepid factors, sustained by the government at home,

will assert it in a manner not easy to be resisted. I embodied these

ideas strongly in my paper. The Secretary was arrested by the justice of

my conclusions, and seemed disposed to do something, but the subject

was, apparently, weighed down and forgotten in the press of

other matters.

_13th_. Hon. E. Whittlesey, Chairman of the Committee on Claims, House

of Representatives, remarks in effect, in a letter of this date, that to

create a just claim against the United States, it must be shown that

property and provisions taken by the troops, when operating in an

enemy's country, were applied to the subsistence or clothing of the

army or navy, although it was private property, and the orders of the

commandant were, in all cases, to respect "private property."

Consequently, that the disrespect of such orders might make the

commander or his troops _personally_ liable to amercement; but the

government is not justly liable. Certainly, that officer is to be pitied

whose sovereign will not stand by him in the execution of written

orders! Nor do I see how the strict legality and morality of the

question is to be got along with. May the government turn pirate with

impunity? Does it war against women and children, and the ordinary

private and domestic rights guaranteed to the citizen by the original

rights of society defined in Blackstone?

_14th_. A soldier, in garrison at Fort Mackinack, writes to me, wishing,

on the expiration of his term of enlistment, to become "a soldier of

Christ," and to enter the missionary field. That is a good thought,

Sergeant Humphrey Snow! Better to fight against human sins than to shoot

down sinners.

_18th_. Dr. C.R. Gilman inquires, "Is the rock at Gros Cap granite? Can

you give me particulars about the Indian fairies?"

_27th_. I am requested, from a high quarter, to furnish an article for

the _Southern Literary Messenger_. "You are in for a scrape," says a gay

note on the subject. "I have told Mr. White all about it. I am greatly

obliged to you for relieving me." Truth is, I have never regarded the

employment of literary time as thrown away. The discipline of the mind,

induced by composition, is something, and it is surprising what may be

done by a person who carefully "redeems" all his time. It does not, in

the least, incapacitate him for business. It rather quickens his

intellect for it.

_Feb. 1st_. My former agreeable guest at Mackinack (Rev. Geo. H.

Hastings) writes me from Walnut Hills, Ohio: "There is a missionary

spirit in our institution (Lane Seminary) that responds to the wants of

the world. The faculty have pressed upon the minds of us all the duty of

examining early the question, 'Ought I to be a missionary?'"

_16th_. My brother James writes from St. Mary's, foot of Lake Superior:

"The month has been remarkably cold, the thermometer having ranged from

13°.23 to 38° below zero. Snow we have had in great abundance."

_17th_. Hon. Lewis F. Linn, U.S. Senator, writes respecting the

scientific character and resources of Missouri, in view of a project,

matured by him, for establishing a western armory: "Your intimate

knowledge of the Ozark Mountains, its streams descending north and

south, and those passing through to the east, with its unequaled mineral

resources, would be, to me, of infinite service, to accomplish the

purpose I have in view, should you be so kind as to communicate them, in

reference to this particular measure, and by so doing you would confer a

lasting obligation."

The resources of Missouri in iron, lead, and coal, to which I first

called attention in 1819, are of such a noble character as surely to

require no bolstering from the effects of particular measures.

_March 4th_. Mr. J.O. Lewis, of Philadelphia, furnishes me seven numbers

of his _Indian Portfolio_. Few artists have had his means of observation

of the aboriginal man, in the great panorama of the west, where he has

carried his easel. The results are given, in this work, with

biographical notices of the common events in the lives of the chiefs.

Altogether, it is to be regarded as a valuable contribution to this

species of knowledge. He has painted the Indian lineaments on the spot,

and is entitled to patronage--not as supplying all that is desirable, or

practicable, perhaps, but as a first and original effort. We should

cherish all such efforts.

_9th_. A shrewd and discriminating judge of literary things in New York,

writes: "Have you seen the last number of Hoffman's Magazine? There is a

pretty thing of his in it about Indian corn, and an Indian story by the

author of 'Tales in the North-west,' which I do not, think good. The

number generally is indifferent. Some one recently told me, that the

true orthography of Illinois is Illinwa, like Ottawa, &c. Do you think

that the fact?[77] By the way, why have you, and all other Indian

travelers, used the French word 'lodge,' instead of the Indian wigwam?

Don't you think the latter the better term? I do, and if my book was to

print again, I would always use wigwam instead of _lodge_. We have so

few relics of the poor Indians, that I am unwilling to part with any

one, even so trifling as adopting the red man's name for the red

man's house."

[Footnote 77: No.]

We have no news here. Paulding's book on slavery has been little

noticed. Dr. Hawk's 'History of Episcopacy in Virginia' is good--very

good, so they say, for I have not read it. Some Jerseyman has written a

bad novel called "Herbert--" something or other--I forget what. What do

they say at Washington, and what do you say about Gen. Macomb's

'Pontiac?'[78] Is the Indian Prince, who was traveling in these parts a

while ago, one of the getters up of this affair? I suspect him. Does the

prince go to 'profane stageplays and such like vanities,' as the dear

old Puritans would say?

[Footnote 78: Fudge!]

"I hear nothing of Mr. Gallatin and his Indian languages. Do you? I see,

by the English magazines, that Willis and his 'pencilings' get little

quarter there; they deserve none. The book is not yet published here.

Walsh, they say, will kill it, unless it should chance to be still-born.

Hoffman is a friend of it, or rather he has made up his mind to join

hands with the 'Mirror' set. I think he has made a mistake. They will

sink him before he raises them. I suppose, however, if he will praise

them they will praise him, and praise is sweet, we all know."

_9th_. Rev. William McMurray writes, from the Canadian side of Sault St.

Marie: "Our excellent governor, Sir John Colbourne, has resigned his

situation, which is at present filled by Sir Francis Head, who has

recently arrived from England. As far as I can learn, he is rather a

literary character, and is the same person who, some years ago, visited

South America on a mining expedition. The most correct intelligence I

have received respecting him is by an express from Toronto. From it I

learn that he is disposed to be kind and good towards the poor Indians.

As an instance of which, he intends visiting every Indian mission next

summer, in order that he may see for himself their secret wants, and how

their condition may be best ameliorated."

My brother James gives a somewhat amusing account of Indian matters at

the Sault after the leaving of their delegates for Washington.

"Since Whaiskee's departure, the whole Sault has been troubled; I mean

the 'busy bodies,' and this, by the way, comprises nearly the whole

population. A council has accordingly been held before the Major-Agent,

in which the British chief, Gitshee Kawgaosh, appeared as orator. The

harangue from the sachem ran very much as follows:--"

'Father, _why_ and for what purpose has the man Whaiskee gone to the

home of our great father? _Why_ did he leave without notifying _me_, and

the other men of _influence_ of my tribe, of the nature of his mission?

Why should he, whose _totem-fathers_ live about Shaugawaumekong (La

Pointe), be, at his own will, made the representative of the ancient

band of the red men whose _totem_ is the lofty Crane? Say, father?

Father, we ask you to know; we ask of you to tell _why_ this strange man

has so strangely gone to smoke with the great chief of the "long

knives?" Kunnah-gakunnah!'

"Here the chief, drawing the folds of his blanket with perfect grace,

and extending his right arm with dignity to the agent, seated himself

again upon the floor, while, at the same time, a warrior of distinction,

whose eagle-plumed head spoke him the fiercest of his tribe, gave to the

sachem the lighted pipe. The eyes of the red men, like those of their

snowy chief, were now riveted to the floor."

'Sons of the forest,' answered the American agent, '_I_, like

yourselves, know nothing of this strange business! _I_, the father of

all the red men, have not been consulted in this man's going beyond the

lakes to "the great waters!" _I_ am the man through whom such messages

should come! _I_, the man who should hand the wampum, and _I_, the man

to whom the red men should look for redress! Friends, your speech shall

reach the ears of our great father, and then this strange man of the

far-off _totem_ of Addik shall know that the Crane _totem_ is protected

by me, the hero of the Southern clime! Men of the forest, I am done.'

"Tobacco was then distributed to the assembly, and, after many _hoghs_,

the red men dispersed."

_24th_. Mr. Bancroft, bringing a few lines from the Secretary of War,

came to see me to confer on the character of the Indians, which he is

about to handle in the next volume of his History. This care to assure

himself of the truth of the conclusions to be introduced in his work, is

calculated to inspire confidence in his mode of research.

_28th_. Washington. My reception here has been most cordial, and such

as to assure me in the propriety of the step I took, in resolving to

proceed to the capital, without the approval of the secretary and acting

governor (Horner), who was, indeed, from his recent arrival and little

experience in this matter, quite in the dark respecting the true

condition of Indian affairs in Michigan. The self-constituted Ottawa

delegation of chiefs from the lower peninsula had preceded me a few

days. After a conference between them and the Secretary of War, they

were referred to me, under authority from the President, communicated by

special appointment, as commissioner for treating with them. It was

found that the deputation was quite too local for the transaction of any

general business. The Ottawas, from the valley of Grand River, an

important section, were unrepresented. The various bands of Chippewas

living intercalated among them, on the lower peninsula, extending down

the Huron shore to Thunder Bay, were unapprized of the movement. The

Chippewas of the upper peninsula, north of Michilimackinack, were

entirely unrepresented. I immediately wrote, authorizing deputations to

be sent from each of the unrepresented districts, and transmitting funds

for the purpose. This authority to collect delegates from the two

nations, whose interests in the lands were held in common, was promptly

and efficiently carried out; and, when the chiefs and delegates arrived,

they were assembled in public council, at the Masonic Hall, corner of

4-1/2 street, and negotiations formally opened. These meetings were

continued from day to day, and resulted in an important cession of

territory, comprising all their lands lying in the lower peninsula of

Michigan, north of Grand River and west of Thunder Bay; and on the upper

peninsula, extending from Drummond Island and Detour, through the

Straits of St. Mary, west to Chocolate River, on Lake Superior, and

thence southerly to Green Bay. This cession was obtained on the

principle of making limited reserves for the principal villages, and

granting the mass of Indian population the right to live on and occupy

any portion of the lands until it is actually required for settlement.

The compensation, for all objects, was about two millions of dollars. It

had been arranged to close and sign the treaty on the 26th of March, but

some objections were made by the Ottawas to a matter of detail, which

led to a renewed discussion, and it was not until the 28th that the

treaty was signed. It did not occur to me, till afterwards, that this

was my birth-day. The Senate who, at the same time, had the important

Cherokee treaty of New Echota before them, did not give it their assent

till the 20th of May, and then ratified it with some essential

modifications, which have not had a wholly propitious tendency.

Liberal provisions were made for their education and instruction in

agriculture and the arts. Their outstanding debts to the merchants were

provided for, and such aid given them in the initial labor of subsisting

themselves, as were required by a gradual change from the life of

hunters to that of husbandmen. About twelve and a half cents per acre

was given for the entire area, which includes some secondary lands and

portions of muskeegs and waste grounds about the lakes--which it was,

however, thought ought, in justice to the Indians, to be included in the

cession. The whole area could not be certainly told, but was estimated

at about sixteen millions of acres.

About the beginning of May a delegation of Saginaws arrived, for the

purpose of ceding to the government the reservations in Michigan, made

under the treaty of 1819. This delegation was referred to me, with

instructions to form a treaty with them. The terms of it were agreed on

in several interviews, and the treaty was signed on the 20th of

May, 1836.

A third delegation of Chippewas, from Michigan, having separate interest

in the regions of Swan Creek and Black River, presented themselves, with

the view of ceding the reservations made to them by a treaty concluded

by Gen. Hull, Nov. 17th, 1807. They were also referred to me to adjust

the terms of a sale of these reservations. The treaty was signed by

their chiefs on the 9th of May, 1836.

As soon as these several treaties were acted on by the Senate, I left

the city on my return. It was one of the last days of May when I left

Washington. A new era had now dawned in the upper lake country, and joy

and gladness sat in every face I met. The Indians rejoiced, because they

had accomplished their end and provided for their wants. The class of

merchants and inland traders rejoiced, because they would now be paid

the amount of their credits to the Indians. The class of metifs and

half-breeds were glad, because they had been remembered by the chiefs,

who set apart a fund for their benefit. The citizens generally

participated in these feelings, because the effect of the treaties

would be to elicit new means and sources of prosperity.

I reached Mackinack on the 15th of June, in the steamer "Columbia." I

found all my family well and ready to welcome me home, but

one--Charlotte, the daughter of Songageezhig, who had been brought up

from a child as one of my family. Her father, a Chippewa, had been

killed in an affray at the Sault St. Marie in 1822, leaving a wife and

three children. She had been adopted and carefully instructed in every

moral and religious duty. She could read her Bible well, and was a

member of the Church, in good standing at the time of her death. A rapid

consumption developed itself during the winter of my absence, which no

medical skill could arrest. She had attained about her fifteenth year,

and died leaving behind her a consecrated memory of pleasing piety and

gentle manners.

A forest flower, but few so well could claim

A daughter's, sister's, and a Christian's name.

CHAPTER LVII.

Home matters--Massachusetts Historical Society--Question of the U.S.

Senate's action on certain treaties of the Lake Indians--Hugh L.

White--Dr. Morton's Crania Americana--Letter from Mozojeed--State of the

pillagers--Visit of Dr. Follen and Miss Martineau--Treaty

movements--Young Lord Selkirk--Character and value of Upper

Michigan--Hon. John Norvell's letter--Literary Items--Execution of the

treaty of March 28th--Amount of money paid--Effects of the treaty--Baron

de Behr--Ornithology.

1836. _June 16th_. My winter in Washington had thrown my correspondence

sadly in the rear. Most of my letters had been addressed to me directly

at Mackinack, and they were first read several months after date. Whilst

at the seat of government my duties had been of an arduous character,

and left me but little time on my hands. And now, that I had got back to

my post in the interior, the duties growing out of the recent treaties

had been in no small degree multiplied. While preparing for the latter,

the former were not, however, to be wholly neglected, or left unnoticed.

I will revert to them.

_April 28th_. The Massachusetts Historical Society this day approved a

report from a committee charged with the subject--"That, in their

opinion, the dissertation on the Odjibwa language with a vocabulary of

the same, contemplated by Mr. Schoolcraft, would be a suitable and

valuable contribution to our collections, and that he be requested to

proceed and complete the work, and transmit it to the society for

publication." This was communicated to me by Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop,

their president, on the 2d of May, and opened an eligible way for my

bringing forward my investigations of this language, without expense to

myself. The difficulty now was, that the offer had come, at a time when

it was impossible to complete the paper. I was compelled to defer it

till the pressure of business, which now began to thicken on my hands,

should abate. It was in this manner, and in the hope that the next

season would afford me leisure, that the matter was put off, from time

to time, till it was in a measure cast behind and out of sight, and not

from a due appreciation of the offer.

_May 17th_ In the letter of appointment to me, of this date, from the

Secretary of War, to treat with the Saginaws, it is stated: "You are

authorized to offer them the proceeds which their lands may bring,

deducting such expenses as may be necessary for its survey, sale, &c.

You will take care that a sufficient fund is reserved to provide for

their removal, and such arrangements made for the security and

application of the residue as will be most beneficial to them." These

instructions were carried out, in articles of a compact, in which the

government furthermore agreed, in view of the lands not being

immediately brought into market, to make a reasonable advance to these

Indians. Yet the Senate rejected it, not, it would seem, for the

liberality of the offer of the nett proceeds of the lands, but for the

almost _per necessitate_ offer of a moderate advance, to enable the

people to turn themselves in straitened circumstances, which had been

the prime motive for selling.

The advance was, in fact, as I have reason to believe, a mere bagatelle,

but the chairman of the Indian Committee in the Senate was rather on the

lookout for something, or anything, to embarrass or disoblige General

Jackson and his agents, having fallen out with him, and being then,

indeed, a candidate for President of the U.S. himself, at the coming

election. If I had not heard the pointed expressions of Hon. Hugh L.

White, on more than one occasion, in which my three treaties were before

him, in relation to this matter of not affording the presidential

incumbent new sources of patronage, &c., I should not deem it just to

add the latter remark. He was a man of strong will and feelings, which

often betrayed themselves when subjects of public policy were the

topics. And, so far as he interfered with the principles of the treaties

which I had negotiated with the Lake Indians in 1836, he evinced an

utter ignorance of their history, character, and best interests. He

violated, in some respects, the very principle on which alone two of the

original cessions, namely, those of the Ottawas and Chippewas and of the

Saginaws, were obtained; and introduced features of discord, which

disturb the tribes, and some of which will long continue to be felt. And

the result is a severe caution against the Senate's ever putting

private reasons in the place of public, and interfering with matters

which they necessarily know but little about.

_16th_. Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia, makes an appeal to

gentlemen interested in the philosophical and historical questions

connected with the Indians, to aid him in the collection of crania--to

be used in the comprehensive work which he is preparing on the subject.

_26th_. Hon. J. B. Sutherland expresses the wish to see an Indian

lexicography prepared under the auspices of the Indian Department, and

urges me to undertake it.

_30th_. Mozojeed, or the Moose's Tail, an Ojibwa chief of Ottawa Lake,

in the region at the source of Chippewa River of the Upper Mississippi,

dictates a letter to me. The following is an extract:--

"My Father--I have a few remarks to make. Every _morning of the year_ I

wish to come and see you. As soon as I take up my paddle I fall sick. It

is now two years since I began to be sick. Sometimes I am

better--sometimes worse. I am pained in mind that I am not to see you

this summer.

"Since you gave me the shonea nahbekawahgun (silver medal) I think I

_have walked in your commands_. I have done all I could to have the

Indians sit still. Those that are far off I could not sway, but those

that are near have listened to me."

His influence to keep the Indians at peace, and the reasons which have

hindered the influence in part, are thus, partly by symbolic figures, as

well expressed as could be done by an educated mind. I have italicised

two sentences for their peculiarity of thought.

_31st_. Mr. Featherstonehaugh expresses a wish to have me point out the

best map extant of the eastern borders of the Upper Mississippi, above

the point visited by him in his recent reconnoissance, in order "to

avoid gross blunders--_all_ I do not expect to avoid!" Why undertake to

make a map of a part of the country which he did not see?

_31st_. Rev. Alvan Coe, of Vernon, O., expresses his interest in the

provisions of the late treaty with the Ottawas and Chippewas, which

regards their instruction.

_June 1st_. Mr. W. T. Boutwell, from Leech Lake, depicts the present

condition of the Odjibwas on the extreme sources of the Mississippi.

"There has been nothing, so far as I have discovered, or been informed,

like a disposition to go to war this spring. There is, evidently, a

growing desire on the part of not a few, to cultivate their gardens more

extensively and better. These are making gardens by the side of me. I

have furnished them with seed and lent them hoes, on condition that they

do not work on the Sabbath. From fifteen to twenty bushels of potatoes I

have given to one and another to plant.

"The Big Cloud has required his two children to attend regularly to

instruction; others occasionally. The Elder Brother has procured him a

comfortable log house to be built--bought a horse and cow. I have bought

a calf of Mr. A. for him.

"I am making the experiment whether I can keep cattle here. They have

wintered and passed the spring, and we are now favored with milk, which

is a rarity and luxury here.

"Mr. Aitkin is establishing a permanent post at Otter Tail Lake. G.

Bonga had gone with a small assortment of goods to build and pass the

summer there. The Indians are divided in opinion and feeling with regard

to the measure. Those who belong to this lake, or who make gardens in

this vicinity, are opposed to the measure. Those who pass the summer in

the deer country and make rice towards the height of land, are in its

favor. It is on the line dividing us and our enemies--some say, where we

do not wish to go. Whether he has consulted the agent on the subject,

I know not.

"The past winter has been severe--the depth of snow greater, by far,

than has fallen for several years. Feb. 1 the mercury fell to 40° below

zero. This is the extreme. Graduated on the scale I have--it fell nearly

into the ball."

_9th_. The Secretary of War writes me a private letter, suggesting the

employment of Mr. Ryly, of Schenectady, in carrying out the large

deliveries of goods ($150,000) required by the late treaty, and speaking

most favorably of him, as a former resident of Michigan, and a patriotic

man in days when patriotism meant something.

_14th_. My brother James writes in his usual frank and above-board

manner: "If the Indians are to audit accounts against the Indians

(agreeably to the Senate's alteration of the treaty), there will be a

pretty humbug made of it; then he that has most _whisky_ will get

most _money_."

_July 5th_. Dr. Follen and lady, of Cambridge, Mass., accompanied by

Miss Martineau, of England, visited me in the morning, having landed in

the ship Milwaukee. They had, previously, visited the chief curiosities

and sights on the island. Miss Martineau expressed her gratification in

having visited the upper lakes and the island. She said she had, from

early childhood, felt an interest in them. I remarked, that I supposed

she had seen enough of America and the Americans, to have formed a

definite opinion, and asked her what she thought of them? She said she

had not asked herself that question. She had hardly made up an opinion,

and did not know what it might be, on getting back to England. She

thought society hardly formed here, that it was rather early to express

opinions; but she thought favorably of the elements of such a mixed

society, as suited to lead to the most liberal traits. She spoke highly

of Cincinnati, and some other places, and expressed an enthusiastic

admiration for the natural beauties of Michilimackinack. She said she

had been nearly two years in America, and was now going to the seaboard

to embark on her return to England.

_9th_. Instructions were issued at Washington for the execution of the

treaty, which had been ratified, with amendments, by the Senate.

_10th_. The admission of Michigan as one of the States, had left the

office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, for the region, vacant. An

Act of Congress, passed near the close of the session, had devolved the

duties of this office on the agent at Michilimackinack. Instructions

were, this day, issued to carry this act into effect.

_12th_. The chiefs in general council assembled by special messengers at

the Agency at Mackinack, this day assented to the Senate's alterations

of the treaty. Its principles were freely and fully discussed.

_13th_ and _14th_. Signatures continue to be affixed to the articles of

assent.

_15th_. I notified the various bands of Indians to attend in mass, the

payments, which were appointed to commence on the 1st of September.

_27th_. A friend writes from Detroit: "Lord Selkirk, from Scotland,

is on his route to Lake Superior, and, as he passes through Mackinack, I

write to introduce him to you, as a gentleman with whom you would be

pleased to have more than a transient association. The name of his

father is connected with many north-western events of much interest and

notoriety, and a most agreeable recollection of his mother, Lady

Selkirk, has recommended him strongly to our kindness. I feel assured

you will befriend him, in the way of information, as to the best means

of getting on to the Sault St. Marie."

I found the bearer an easy, quiet, young gentleman, with not the least

air of pretence or superciliousness, and one of those men to whom

attentions ever become a pleasure.

_Aug. 2d_. Hon. John Norvell, U.S.S., calls my attention to the recent

annexation to Michigan of the vast region north of the Straits of

Michilimackinack.

"Your personal knowledge," he observes, "of the country on Lake

Superior, which, by a late act of Congress has been annexed to, and made

a part of the State of Michigan, induces me respectfully to request of

you information concerning the nature and extent of the territory thus

attached to the State; the qualities of its various soils; the timber

and water-powers embraced in it; its minerals and their probable value;

the extent of lake-coast added to Michigan; the fisheries and their

probable value and duration; the capabilities and conveniences of Lake

Superior and the northern Michigan shores, and the cheapness and

facility with which a communication may be opened with the lower lakes;

together with such other information as it may be in your power to

furnish, and as may enable the people of Michigan duly to appreciate the

importance of the acquisition." _Vide_ Letters of Albion in reply.

_16th_. Mr. Daniel B. Woods, of New York, announces the project of the

publication of "a religious and missionary souvenir," and solicits my

aid in the preparation of an article.

_26th_. The citizens, merchants, and traders of the town agree not to

sell or furnish whisky or ardent spirits to the Indians during the

payments and preliminary examinations--a conclusive evidence this that,

where the _interests_ of the population combine to stop the traffic in

ardent spirits, it requires no Congressional or State laws.

_Sept. 26th_. John G. Palfrey, Esq., editor of the _North American

Review_, wishes me to review Mr. Gallatin's forthcoming paper on the

Indian languages, which is about to appear in the second volume of the

collections of the American Antiquarian Society.

_28th_. A busy business summer, replete with incident and excitement on

the island, closes this day by the termination of the several classes of

payments made under the treaty of March 28th, 1836. Upwards of four

thousand Indians have been encamped along the pebbly beaches and coves

of the island, and subsisted by the Indian Department for about a month.

To these an annuity of $42,000 has been paid _per capita_. Of these

there were 143 chiefs, namely, 25 of the first class, 51 of the second,

and 67 of the third class, who received an additional payment of

$30,000. In addition to the provisions consumed, two thousand dollars

worth of flour, pork, rice, and corn were delivered to the separate

villages in bulk prior to their departure, and one hundred and fifty

thousand dollars in the best quality of Indian goods and merchandise,

cutlery, and other articles of prime necessity, systematically divided

amongst the mass. The sum of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars has

been paid on accounts exhibited to the agent, and approved by the

creditors of the two tribes. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars have

also been paid to the half-breed relatives of the two tribes on

carefully prepared lists.

These several duties required care and involved responsibilities of no

ordinary character. They have been shared by Major H. Whiting, the

Paymaster of the Northern Department, by whom the funds were exclusively

paid, and John W. Edwards, Esq., of New York, who divided the half-breed

fund, to both of whom I am indebted for the diligence with which they

addressed themselves to the duty, and the kindness and urbanity of

their manners.

So large an assemblage of red and white men probably never assembled

here before, and a greater degree of joy and satisfaction was never

evinced by the same number. The Indians went away with their canoes

literally loaded with all an Indian wants, from silver to a steel trap,

and a practical demonstration was given which will shut their mouths

forever with regard to the oft-repeated scandal of the stinginess and

injustice of the American government.

Not a man was left, of any caste or shade of nativity, to utter a word

to gainsay or cavil with the noble and high public manner in which

these proceedings were done. The blood-relatives of the Indian found

that the two nations, actuated by a sense of their kindness and real

friendship for years, had remembered them in the day of their

prosperity. The large number of Indian creditors, who had toiled and

suffered and lost property in a trade which is always hazardous, were

glad in seeing the ample provision for their payment.

The agents of the government also rejoiced in the happy termination of

their labors, and the drum, whose roll had carried away the troops who

had been present to preserve order, now converted to a symbol of peace,

was never more destined to be beaten to assemble white men to march in

hostility against these tribes. They were forever our friends. What war

had not accomplished, the arts of peace certainly had. Kindness,

justice, and liberality, like the "still small voice" at Sinai, had done

what the whirlwind and the tempest failed to do.

Fourteen years before, I had taken the management of these tribes in

hand, to conduct their intercourse and to mould and guide their

feelings, on the part of the government. They were then poor, in a

region denuded of game, and without one dollar in annuities. They were

yet smarting under the war of 1812, and all but one man, the noble Wing,

or Ningwegon, hostile to the American name. They were now at the acme of

Indian hunter prosperity, with every want supplied, and a futurity of

pleasing anticipation. They were friends of the American government. I

had allied myself to the race. I was earnest and sincere in desiring and

advancing their welfare. I was gratified with a result so auspicious to

every humane and exalted wish.

War, ye wild tribes, hath no rewards like this;

'tis peaceful labors that result in bliss.

_29th_. Baron de Behr, Minister of Belgium, presented himself at my

office. He was cordially received, although bringing me no letter to

apprize me of his official standing at Washington. He had been to the

Sault Ste. Marie, and visited the entrance into Lake Superior. He

presented me a petrifaction picked up on Drummond Island, and looked at

my cabinet with interest.

The troops under Major Hoffman embarked in a steamer for Detroit. Also

Major Whiting, the U.S. Paymaster, and Mr. Edmonds, my adjuncts in

official labor.

_Oct. 17th._ Old friends from Middlebury, Vermont, came up in a steamer

bound to Green Bay, among whom I was happy to recognize Mrs. Henshaw,

mother of the bishop of that name of Rhode Island.

_18th_. Alfred Schoolcraft, who had commenced the study of ornithology

with decided ability, hands me the following list of birds, which have

been observed to extend their visits to this island and the basin of

Lake Huron.

_________________________________________________________________________

| | | |

Common Name. | Order. | Family. | Genus. |

___________________|__________|_____________|___________|________________

| | | |

Brown Thrush |Passeres |Canori |Turdus |T. Rufus.

Cedar Bird | " |Sericati |Bonelycilla|B. Carolinensis.

Canada Jay | " |Gregarii |Corvus |C. Canadensis.

Crow | " | " | " |C. Corone.

House Wren | " | " |Trylodites |T. Edom.

Blue Jay | " | " |Corvus |C. Vociferus.

Raven | " | " | " |C. Corax.

Snow Bird | " |Passerini |Fringilla |F. Hyemalis.

Sing Cicily | " | " | " |F. Melodia.

Robin | " |Canori |Turdus |T. Migratoria.

| " |Passerini |Loxia |L. Corvurostra.

Red Winged Starling| " |Gregarii |Icterus |I. Phoenicus.

Goldfinch | " |Passerini |Fringilla |F. Tristis.

Little Owl |Accipetres|Stapaces |Stryx |S.

Sparrow Hawk | " | " |Falco |F. Sparverius.

Golden Plover |Gralle |Pressirostre |Charadrus |C. Plurailis.

Woodcock | " |Semicole |Scolipax |S. Minor.

Green Winged Teal | |Lamelasodenta|Anas |Anas Crecca.

Wood Duck | | " | " |A. Sponsa.

Golden Eyed Duck | | " |Fatigula |F. Clengula.

Hooping Crane | |Herodii |Grus |G. Americana.

Kingfisher |Passeres |Augubrostres |Alcedo |A. Alcyon.

Loon | |Pygopodes |Colymbus |C. Glacialis.

Partridge | |Galinacia |Perdix |P. Virginiana.

Of their habits he appends the following remarks:--

"The Canada Jay (_C. Canadensis_) preys upon smaller birds of the

sparrow kind. This fact has been related to me by persons of undoubted

veracity, and I have myself seen one of them in pursuit of small birds.

"There is a small species of sparrow, that inhabits the forests near the

settlements in this region, of a very interesting character. It matters

not how intense the cold, it never deserts our woods, but remains

hunting for insects in the cavities and among the branches of the trees

with the most assiduous caution. They hatch their young in holes, which

they perforate in decayed trees with their sharp bills. If a person

happens to come near their nests during the time of incubation, it

vociferates most strenuously against the intrusion, while its feathers

expand, its eyes sparkle with rage, and it darts from branch to branch

with the most astonishing rapidity. It is frequently to be seen near our

houses in the winter, and in the most severe and inclement weather they

will tend, by their chirping and gambols, to amuse and enliven our

minds, while at the same time they afford us an entertaining study.