Donnacona himself opposed the projected visit, by argument, by artifice,

and finally, by the extraordinary resource of human gifts. His aversion

to it first evinced itself by keeping aloof, and adopting a shy and

suspicious demeanour. Cartier finding this chief, with T. and D. and a

numerous retinue in his vicinity, "under a point or nook of land,"

ordered a part of his men to follow him, and suddenly presented himself

in the midst of them. After mutual salutations, Taignoagny got up and

addressed him, in behalf of Donnacona, complaining that they came armed,

to which Cartier replied that, it was the custom of his country, and a

custom he could not dispense with. The bustle and heat of the

introduction being over, Cartier played the part of a politic

diplomatist, and was met by Donnacona and his counsellors on his own

grounds, and the whole interview, though it resulted in what is called

"a marvellous steadfast league of friendship" can only be looked upon,

as a strife, in which it is the object of both parties to observe the

most profound dissimulation. This "league" was ratified by the natives,

with three loud cries, "a most horrible thing to hear" says the

narrator.

On the very next day Donnacona, attended with T. and D. and 10 or 12 "of

the chiefest of the country, with more than 500 persons, men, women and

children," came on board of the vessels, at their moorings, to protest

against the intended voyage of exploration. Taignoagny opened the

conference, by saying to Cartier, that Donnacona regretted his design of

visiting Hochelaga, and had forbid any of his people from accompanying

him, because the river itself "was of no importance." Cartier replied

that his decision was made, and urged the speaker to go with him, as he

had promised, offering to make the voyage every way advantageous to him.

A prompt refusal, on the part of T. and the sudden withdrawal of the

whole collected multitude, terminated this interview.

On the next day Donnacona re-appeared with all his followers, bringing

presents of fish, singing and dancing. He then caused all his people to

pass to one side, and drawing a circle in the sand, requested Cartier

and his followers, to enter into it. This arrangement concluded, he

began an address, "holding in one of his hands a maiden child ten or

twelve years old," whom he presented to Cartier, the multitude at the

same time giving three shouts. He then brought forward two male

children, separately, presenting them in the same manner, and his

people at each presentation, expressing their assent by shouts.

Taignoagny, who by this time had drawn upon himself the epithet of

"crafty knave" told the "captain" (as Cartier is all along termed,) that

one of the children was his own brother, and that the girl was a

daughter of Donnacona's "own sister," and that this presentation, was

made to him, solely with a view of dissuading him from his expedition.

Cartier persisted in saying, that his mind was made up, and could not be

altered. Here, Domaigaia interposed, and said, that the children were

offered as "a sign and token of good will and security," and not with

any specific purpose of dissuading him from the expedition. High words

passed between the two liberated captives, from which it was evident

that one, or the other, had either misconceived or misrepresented the

object of the gift. Cartier however, took the children, and gave

Donnacona "two swords and two copper basins," for which he returned

thanks, and "commanded all his people to sing and dance," and requested

the captain to cause a piece of artillery to be discharged for his

gratification. Cartier readily improved this hint, to show them the

destructive effects of European artillery, and at a signal, ordered

twelve pieces, charged with ball, to be fired into the contiguous

forest, by which they were so astounded that they "put themselves to

flight, howling, crying, and shrieking, so that it seemed hell was broke

loose."

These attempts to frustrate the purposed voyage, having failed, the

natives endeavoured to put the captain's credulity to the test, and

operate upon his fears. For this purpose three natives were disguised to

play the part of "devils," wrapped in skins, besmeared, and provided

with horns. Thus equipped they took advantage of the tide, to drop down

along side Cartier's vessels, uttering words of unintelligible import as

they passed, but keeping their faces steadfastly directed toward the

wood. At the same time Donnacona, and his people rushed out of the wood

to the shore,--attracting the attention of the ships' crews in various

ways, and finally seized the mock "devils" at the moment of their

landing, and carried them into the woods, where their revelations were

uttered.

The result of this clumsy trick, was announced by Taignoagny and

Domaigaia, who said, that their god "Cudruaigny had spoken in

Hochelaga"--importing ill tidings to the French, and that he had sent

these three men to inform them that, there was so much ice and snow in

the country, that whoever entered it, must die. After some

interrogatives pro and con, in the course of which the power of "his

Priests" was oddly contrasted by the French commander with that of the

"devils," both Taignoagny and Domaigaia coincided in finally declaring

that Donnacona, "would by no means permit that any of them should go

with him to Hochelaga," unless he would leave hostages in his hands.

All these artifices appear to have had but little effect on Cartier's

plan. He told his freed interpreters, that if they would not go

willingly, they might stay, and he would prosecute the voyage without

them. Accordingly, having finished mooring his vessels, on the 19th

September he set out to explore the upper portions of the river, taking

his smallest vessel and two boats with fifty mariners, and the

supernumerary gentlemen of his party. A voyage of ten days brought him

to an expansion of the river, which he named the lake of Angolesme, but

which is now known under the name of St. Peter. Here the shallowness of

the water, and rapidity of the current above, induced him to leave the

"Hermerillon," and he proceeded with the two boats and twenty-eight

armed men. The fertility of the shore, the beauty and luxuriance of the

forest trees, mantled as they often were, with the vine loaded with

clusters of grapes, the variety of water fowl, and above all the

friendly treatment they every where received from the Indians, excited

unmingled admiration. One of the chiefs whom they encountered presented

Cartier with two children, his son and daughter, the latter of whom,

being 7 or 8 years old, he accepted. On another occasion he was carried

ashore by one of a party of hunters, as "lightly and easily as if he had

been a child of five years old." Presents of fish were made, at every

point, where he came in contact with the natives, who seemed to vie with

each other in acts of hospitality.

These marks of welcome and respect continued to be manifested during the

remainder of the journey to Hochelaga, where he arrived on the 2d of

October. A multitude of both sexes and all ages had collected on the

shore to witness his approach, and welcome his arrival. They expressed

their joy by dancing, "clustering about us, making much of us, bringing

their young children in their arms only to have our captain and his

company touch them." Cartier landed, and spent half an hour in receiving

their caresses, and distributed tin beads to the women, and knives to

some of the men, and then "returned to the boats to supper." The natives

built large fires on the beach, and continued dancing, and merry making

all night, frequently exclaiming _Aguiaze_, which is said to signify

"mirth and safety."

Early the next morning Cartier having "very gorgeously attired himself,"

and taking 20 mariners, with his officers and supernumeraries, landed

for the purpose of visiting the town, taking some of the natives for

guides. After following a well beaten path, leading through an oak

forest, for four or five miles, he was met by a chief, accompanied by a

retinue, sent out to meet him, who by signs gave him to understand, that

he was desired to rest at that spot, where a fire had been kindled, a

piece of civility, which it may be supposed, was something more than an

empty compliment on an October morning. The chief here made "a long

discourse," which, of course, was not understood, but they inferred it

was expressive of "mirth and friendship." In return Cartier gave him 2

hatchets, 2 knives and a cross, which he made him kiss, and then put it

around his neck.

This done the procession advanced, without further interruption, to the

"city of Hochelaga," which is described as seated in the midst of

cultivated fields, at the distance of a league from the mountain. It was

secured by three ramparts "one within another," about 2 rods in height,

"cunningly joined together after their fashion," with a single gate

"shut with piles and stakes and bars." This entrance, and other parts of

the walls, had platforms above, provided with stones for defensive

operations. The ascent to these platforms was by ladders.

As the French approached, great numbers came out to meet them. They were

conducted by the guides, to a large square enclosure in the centre of

the town, "being from side to side a good stone's cast." They were first

greeted by the female part of the population, who brought their children

in their arms, and rushed eagerly to touch or rub the faces and arms of

the strangers, or whatever parts of their bodies they could approach.

The men now caused the females to retire, and seated themselves formally

in circles upon the ground; as if, says the narrator, "some comedy or

show" was about to be rehearsed. Mats were then brought in by the women,

and spread upon the ground, for the visitors to sit upon. Last came the

"Lord and King" Agouhanna, a palsied old man, borne upon the shoulders

of 9 or 10 attendants, sitting on a "great stag skin." They placed him

near the mats occupied by Cartier and his party. This simple potentate

"was no whit better apparelled than any of the rest, only excepted, that

he had a certain thing made of the skins of hedgehogs, like a red

wreath, and that was instead of his crown."

After a salutation, in which gesticulation awkwardly supplied the place

of language, the old chief exhibited his palsied limbs, for the purpose

of being touched, by the supposed celestial visitants. Cartier, although

he appeared to be a man of sense and decision, on other occasions, was

not proof against the homage to his imputed divinity; but quite

seriously fell to rubbing the credulous chief's legs and arms. For this

act, the chief presented him his fretful "crown." The blind, lame, and

impotent, of the town were now brought in, and laid before him, "some so

old that the hair of their eyelids came down and covered their cheeks,"

all of whom he touched, manifesting his own seriousness by reading the

Gospel of St. John, and "praying to God that it would please him to open

the hearts of this poor people, and to make them know his holy word, and

that they might receive baptism and Christendom." He then read a portion

of the catholic service, with a loud voice, during which the natives

were "marvellously attentive, looking up to heaven and imitating us in

gestures." Some presents of cutlery and trinkets were then distributed,

trumpets sounded, and the party prepared to return to their boats. When

about to leave their place, the women interposed, inviting them to

partake of the victuals they had prepared--a compliment which was

declined, "because the meats had no savour at all of salt." They were

followed out of the town by "divers men and women," who conducted the

whole party to the top of the mountain, commanding a wide prospect of

the plain, the river and its islands, and the distant mountains.

Transported with a scene, which has continued to afford delight to the

visitors of all after times, Cartier bestowed the name of "Mount Royal"

upon this eminence--a name which has descended, with some modifications,

to the modern city. Having satisfied their curiosity, and obtained such

information respecting the adjoining regions, as their imperfect

knowledge of the Indian language would permit, they returned to their

boats, accompanied by a promiscuous throng of the natives.

Thus ended, on the 3rd Oct. 1535, the first formal meeting between the

French and the Indians of the interior of Canada, or what now began to

be denominated _New France_. As respects those incidents in it, in which

the Indians are represented as looking upon Cartier in the light of a

divinity, clothed with power to heal the sick and restore sight to the

blind, every one will yield the degree of faith, which his credulity

permits. The whole proceeding bears so striking a resemblance to "Christ

healing the sick," that it is probable the narrator drew more largely

upon his New Testament, than any certain knowledge of the faith and

belief of a savage people whose traditions do not reach far, and whose

language, granting the most, he but imperfectly understood. As respects

the description of a city with triple walls, those who know the manner

in which our Indian villages are built, will be best enabled to judge

how far the narrator supplied by fancy, what was wanting in fact. A

"walled city" was somewhere expected to be found, and the writer found

no better place to locate it. Cartier no sooner reached his boats, than

he hoisted sail and began his descent, much to the disappointment of the

Indians. Favoured by the wind and tide, he rejoined his "Pinnace" on the

following day. Finding all well, he continued the descent, without

meeting much entitled to notice, and reached the "port of the Holy

Cross," on the 11th of the month. During his absence the ships' crews

had erected a breastwork before the vessels, and mounted several pieces

of ships' cannon for their defence. Donnacona renewed his acquaintance

on the following day, attended by Taignoagny, Domaiga, and others, who

were treated with an appearance of friendship, which it could hardly be

expected Cartier could sincerely feel. He, in return visited their

village of Stadacona, and friendly relations being thus restored, the

French prepared for the approach of winter.

Winter came in all its severity. From the middle of Nov. to the middle

of March, the vessels were environed with ice "two fathoms thick," and

snow upwards of four feet deep, reaching above the sides of the vessels.

And the weather is represented as being "extremely raw and bitter." In

the midst of this severity, the crews were infected with "a strange and

cruel disease," the natural consequence of a too licentiousintercourse

with the natives. The virulence of this disorder exceeded any thing that

they had before witnessed, though it is manifest, from the journal, that

it was in its virulence only, that the disease itself presented any new

features. A complete prostration of strength marked its commencement,

the legs swelled, the "sinews shrunk as black as any coal." The

infection became general, and excited the greatest alarm. Not more than

10 persons out of 110 were in a condition to afford assistance to the

sick by the middle of February. Eight had already died, and 50 were

supposed to be past recovery.

Cartier, to prevent his weakness being known, as well as to stop further

infection, interdicted all intercourse with the natives. He caused that

"every one should devoutly prepare himself by prayer, and in remembrance

of Christ, caused his image to be set upon a tree, about a flight shot

from the fort, amid the ice and snow, giving all men to understand that

on the Sunday following, service should be said there, and that

whosoever could go, sick or whole, should go thither in procession,

singing the seven psalms of David, and other Litanies, praying, &c."

The disorder, however, continued to spread till there were not "above

three sound men in the ships, and none was able to go under hatches to

draw drink for himself, nor for his fellows." Sometimes they were

constrained to bury the dead under the snow, owing to their weakness and

the severity of the frost, which rendered it an almost incredible labour

to penetrate the ground. Every artifice was resorted to by Cartier, to

keep the true state of his crews from the Indians, and he sought

unremittingly for a remedy against the disorder.

In this his efforts were at last crowned with success, but not till he

had lost 25 of his men. By using a decoction of the bark and leaves of a

certain tree, which is stated to be "the Sassafras tree,"[33] the

remainder of his crews were completely recovered. The decoction was

drank freely, and the dregs applied externally, agreeably to the

directions of Domaigaia, to whom he was indebted for the information,

and who caused women to bring branches of it, and "therewithal shewed

the way how to use it."

The other incidents of the winter were not of a character to require

notice. Mutual distrust existed. Cartier was in constant apprehension of

some stratagem, which the character and movements of his savage

neighbours gave some grounds for. He was detained at the bay of the Holy

Cross till the 6th May, 1536. The narrator takes the opportunity of this

long season of inaction to give descriptions of the manners and customs,

ceremonies and occupations of the Indians, and to detail the information

derived from them, and from personal observations respecting the

geographical features and the productions of the country.

Touching the faith of the Indians, it is said, they believed no whit in

God, but in one whom they call "Cudruiagni," to whom, they say, they are

often indebted for a foreknowledge of the weather. And when he is angry,

his displeasure is manifested by casting dust in their eyes. They

believe that, after death, they go into the stars, descending by degrees

towards the horizon, and are finally received into certain green fields,

abounding in fruits and flowers.

They are represented as possessing all property in common, and as being

"indifferently well stored" with the useful "commodities" of the

country--clothing themselves imperfectly in skins, wearing hose and

shoes of skins in winter, and going barefooted in summer. The men labour

little, and are much addicted to smoking. The condition of the women is

one of drudgery and servitude. On them the labour of tilling the

grounds, &c., principally devolves. The young women live a dissolute

life, until marriage, and married women, after the death of their

husbands, are condemned to a state of perpetual widowhood. Polygamy is

tolerated. Both sexes are represented as very hardy, and capable of

enduring the most intense degree of cold. In this there is little to

distinguish the native of 1536 from that of the present day, if we

substitute the blanket for the _muttatos_,[34] and except the remark

respecting the condition of widows, the accuracy of which, as it was

made upon slight acquaintance, may be reasonably doubted. It may also be

remarked, that the condition of young women, as described by Cartier,

was more degraded and vitiated than it is now known to be among any of

the North American tribes.

The geographical information recorded respecting the St. Lawrence and

its tributaries is generally vague and confused. But may be referred to

as containing the first notice published by the French of the Great

Lakes. Cartier was told by Donnacona and others that the river

originated so far in the interior, that "there was never man heard of

that found out the end thereof," that it passed through "two or three

great lakes," and that there is "a sea of fresh water," alluding,

probably, to Superior.

At what time the ice broke up, is not distinctly told. It is stated that

"that year the winter was very long," and a scarcity of food was felt

among the Indians, so much so, that they put a high price upon their

venison, &c., and sometimes took it back to their camps, rather than

part with it "any thing cheap." Donnacona and many of his people

withdrew themselves to their hunting grounds, under a pretence of being

absent a fortnight, but were absent two months. Cartier attributed this

long absence to a design of raising the country, and attacking him in

his fortified positions--a design which no cordiality of friendship on

the part of D. would prevent his entertaining, and which the latter gave

some colour to by neglecting to visit Cartier on his return with great

numbers of natives not before seen, and by evading the attempts made to

renew an intercourse, by feigning sickness as the cause of his neglect.

Cartier felt his own weakness, from the death of so many of his crew and

the sickness of others, and has recorded for his government on this

occasion the proverb, that "he that takes heed and shields himself from

all men, may hope to escape from some." He determined to abandon one of

his vessels, that he might completely man and re-fit the others, and

appears to have been diligent in making early preparations to return.

While thus engaged, Donnacona (April 22,) appeared with a great number

of men at Stadacona, and John Powlet, "who being best believed of those

people," he sent to reconnoitre them in their principal villages,

reported that he saw so many people, that "one could not stir for

another, and such men as they were never wont to see." Taignoagny, whom

he saw on this occasion, requested him to beseech Cartier to take off "a

lord of the country," called Agonna, who probably stood in the way of

his own advancement. Cartier availed himself of this request to bring on

an interview with Taignoagny, and by flattering his hopes, finally

succeeded in the execution of a project he appears to have previously

entertained. This was nothing less than the seizure of Donnacona,

Taignoagny, Domaigaia, (his previous captives,) and "two more of the

chiefest men," whom, with the children before received, making ten

persons in all, he conveyed to France.

This seizure was made on the 3d of May, being "Holyrood day," at a time

when Cartier had completed his preparations for sailing. He took formal

possession of the country, under the name of New France, by erecting a

cross "thirty-five feet in height," bearing a shield with the arms of

France, and the following inscription:

"Franciscus primum dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat,"

a sentence upon which this unjustifiable outrage formed a practical

comment. Three days afterwards he sailed from the port of the Holy

Cross, leaving crowds of the natives to bewail the loss of their chiefs.

And whose kindness led them to send on board a supply of provisions,

when they found they could not effect their liberation. Finding the

current of the St. Lawrence much swoln, he came to anchor at the isle of

Filberds, near the entrance of the Sagnenay, where he was detained nine

days. In the meantime many of the natives of Sagnenay visited the ships,

and finding Donnacona a prisoner, they presented him three packs of

beaver. On the 17th May, he made an unsuccessful attempt to proceed, but

was forced back and detained four days longer, waiting "till the

fierceness of the waters" were past. He entered and passed out of the

gulph on the 21st, but encountering adverse winds, did not take his

final departure from the Newfoundland coast till the 19th June. He then

took advantage of a favorable wind, and performed the homeward voyage

in 17 days. He entered the port of St. Malo, July 6, 1536, having been

absent less than 14 months, 8 of which had been passed in the St.

Lawrence.

THIRD VOYAGE.

The reports and discoveries of Cartier were so well received by the King

of France (Francis I.), that he determined to colonize the newly

discovered country, and named John Francis de la Roche, Lord of

Roberval, his "Lieutenant and Governor in the countries of Canada and

Hochelaga." Cartier retained his former situation as "Captain General

and leader of the ships," and to him was entrusted the further

prosecution of discoveries. Five vessels were ordered to be prepared at

St. Malo, and measures appear to have been taken to carry out settlers,

cattle, seeds, and agricultural implements. Much delay, however, seems

to have attended the preparations, and before they were completed,

Donnacona and his companions, who had been baptized, paid the debt of

nature. A little girl, ten years old, was the only person surviving out

of the whole number of captives.

It is seldom that a perfect harmony has prevailed between the leaders of

naval and land forces, in the execution of great enterprises. And though

but little is said to guide the reader in forming a satisfactory opinion

on the subject, the result in this instance proved that there was a

settled dissatisfaction in the mind of Cartier respecting the general

arrangements for the contemplated voyage. Whether he thought himself

neglected in not being invested with the government of the country he

had discovered, or felt unwilling that another should share in the

honors of future discoveries, cannot now be determined. It should be

recollected that the conquest of Mexico had then but recently been

accomplished (1520), and it is not improbable that Cartier, who had

taken some pains to exalt Donnacona into another Montezuma, thought

himself entitled to receive from Francis, rewards and emoluments in some

measure corresponding to those which his great rival, Charles, had

finally bestowed upon Cortez.

Whatever were the causes, four years elapsed before the ships were

prepared, and M. La Roche, on visiting the vessels in the road of St.

Malo, ready for sea, then informed Cartier that his artillery,

munitions, and "other necessary things" which he had prepared, were not

yet arrived from Champaigne and Normandy. Cartier, in the meantime, had

received positive orders from the King to set sail. In this exigency, it

was determined that Cartier should proceed, while the King's Lieutenant

should remain "to prepare a ship or two at Honfleur, whither he thought

his things were come."

This arrangement concluded, La Roche invested Cartier with full powers

to act until his arrival, and the latter set sail with five ships, "well

furnished and victualled for two years," on the 23d of May, 1540. Storms

and contrary winds attended the passage. The ships parted company, and

were kept so long at sea, that they were compelled to water the cattle,

&c., they took out for breed, with cider. At length, the vessels

re-assembled in the harbor of Carpunt in Newfoundland, and after taking

in wood and water, proceeded on the voyage, Cartier not deeming it

advisable to wait longer for the coming of La Roche. He reached the

little haven of Saincte Croix (where he wintered in the former voyage),

on the 23d of August. His arrival was welcomed by the natives, who

crowded around his vessels, with Agona at their head, making inquiries

after Donnacona and his companions in captivity. Cartier replied, that

Donnacona was dead, and his bones rested in the ground--that the other

persons had become great lords, and were married, and settled in France.

No displeasure was evinced by the intelligence of Donnacona's death.

Agona, on the contrary, seemed to be well pleased with it, probably, as

the journalist thinks, because it left him to rule in his stead. He took

off his head-dress and bracelets, both being of yellow leather edged

with wampum, and presented them to Cartier. The latter made a suitable

return to him and his attendants in small presents, intimating that he

had brought many new things, which were intended for them. He returned

the chieftain's simple "crown." They then ate, drank, and departed.

Having thus formally renewed intercourse with the natives, Cartier sent

his boats to explore a more suitable harbor and place of landing. They

reported in favor of a small river, about four leagues above, where the

vessels were accordingly moored, and their cargoes discharged. Of the

spot thus selected for a fort and harbor, as it was destined afterwards

to become celebrated in the history of Canada, it may be proper to give

a more detailed notice of Cartier's original description. The river is

stated to be fifty paces broad, having three fathoms water at full tide,

and but a foot at the ebb, having its entrance towards the south, and

its course very serpentine. The beauty and fertility of the lands

bordering it, the vigorous growth of trees, and the rapidity of

vegetation, are highly and (I believe) very justly extolled. Near it,

there is said to be "a high and steep cliff," which it was necessary to

ascend by "a way in manner of a pair of stairs," and below it, and

between it and the river, an interval sufficiently extensive to

accommodate a fort. A work of defence was also built upon the cliff, for

the purpose of keeping the "nether fort and the ships, and all things

that might pass, as well by the great, as by this small river." Upon the

cliff a spring of pure water was discovered near the fort, "adjoining

whereunto," says the narrator, "we found good store of stones, which we

esteemed to the diamonds" (limpid quartz). At the foot of the cliff,

facing the St. Lawrence, they found iron, and at the water's edge

"certain leaves of fine gold (mica) as thick as a man's nail."

The ground was so favorable for tillage, that twenty men labored at an

acre and a half in one day. Cabbage, turnip, and lettuce seed, sprung up

the eighth day. A luxurious meadow was found along the river, and the

woods were clustered with a species of the native grape. Such were the

natural appearance and advantages of a spot which was destined to be the

future site of the city and fortress of Quebec,[35] "but to which he

gave the name of 'Charlesbourg Royal.'"

Cartier lost no time in despatching two of his vessels to France, under

command of Mace Jollobert and Stephen Noel, his brother-in-law and

nephew, with letters to the king, containing an account of his voyage

and proceedings, accompanied with specimens of the mineral treasures he

supposed himself to have discovered; and taking care to add "how Mons.

Roberval had not yet come, and that he feared that by occasion of

contrary winds and tempests, he was driven back again into France."

These vessels left the newly discovered town and fort of "Charlesbourg

Royal" on the 2d of September. And they were no sooner despatched, than

Cartier determined to explore the "Saults" or rapids of the St.

Lawrence, which had been described to him, and partly pointed out,

during his ascent to the mountain of Montreal. Leaving the fort under

the command of the Viscount Beaupre, he embarked in two boats on the 7th

of September, accompanied by Martine de Painpont and other "gentlemen,"

with a suitable complement of mariners. The only incident recorded of

the passage up, is his visit to "the Lord of Hochelay"--a chief who had

presented him a little girl, on his former visit, and evinced a

friendship during his stay in the river, which he was now anxious to

show that he preserved the recollection of. He presented the chief a

cloak "of Paris red," garnished with buttons and bells, with two basins

of "Laton" (pewter), and some knives and hatchets. He also left with

this chief two boys to acquire the Indian language.

Continuing the ascent, he reached the lower "Sault" on the 11th of the

month, and, on trial, found it impossible to ascend it with the force of

oars. He determined to proceed by land, and found a well-beaten path

leading in the desired course. This path soon conducted him to an Indian

village, where he was well received, and furnished with guides to visit

the second "Sault." Here he was informed that there was another Sault at

some distance, and that the river was not navigable--a piece of

information that meant either that it was not navigable by the craft

Cartier had entered the river with, or was intended to repress his

further advance into the country. The day being far spent, he returned

to his boats, where four hundred natives awaited his arrival. He

appeased their curiosity, by interchanging civilities, and distributing

small presents, and made all speed to return to Charlesbourg Royal,

where he learned that the natives, alarmed by the formidable defences

going on, had intermitted their customary visits, and evinced signs of

hostility. This inference was confirmed by his own observations on the

downward passage, and he determined to use the utmost diligence and

precaution to sustain himself in his new position.

The rest of this voyage is wanting. Hackluyt has, however, preserved two

letters of Jacques Noel, a relative of Cartier, written at St. Malo in

1587, with the observations of latitude, courses, and distances, made by

"John Alphonso of Xanctoigne," who carried out La Roche, Lord of

Roberval, to Canada, in 1542, and a fragment of Roberval's narrative,

which indicated the sequel of Cartier's third and last voyage. From the

latter, it appears that Roberval entered the harbor of Belle Isle in

Newfoundland, on the 8th of June, 1542, on his way to Canada; and while

there, Cartier unexpectedly entered the same harbor, on his return to

France. He reported that he was unable "with his small company" to

maintain a footing in the country, owing to the incessant hostility of

the natives, and had resolved to return to France. He presented the

limpid quartz, and gold yellow mica, which he had carefully cherished,

under a belief that he had discovered in these resplendent minerals, the

repositories of gold and diamonds. An experiment was made the next day,

upon what is denominated "gold ore," by which term the journalist does

not probably refer to the "mica," considered, in an age in which

mineralogy had not assumed the rank of a science, as "leaves of gold,"

but to pieces of yellow pyrites of iron, which it is mentioned in the

description of the environs of "Charlesbourg Royal" Cartier had

discovered in the slate rock. And the ore was pronounced "good"--a proof

either of gross deception, or gross ignorance in the experimenter.

Cartier spoke highly of the advantages the country presented for

settlement, in point of fertility. He had, however, determined to leave

it. He disobeyed Roberval's order to return, and "both he and his

company" secretly left the harbor, and made the best of their way to

France, being "moved," as the journalist adds, "with ambition, because

they would have all the glory of the discovery of these parts to

themselves."

January 21st, 1829.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] I underscore the word "hotter," to denote the prevalent theory.

They were searching for China or the East India.

[31] In Mr. Gallatin's comparative vocabulary, "Napew" means man, in the

Sheshatapoosh or Labrador. It is therefore fair to conclude that these

were a party of Sheshatapoosh Indians, whose language proves them to be

of the kindred of the great Algonquin family.

[32] Koshee and Bahkon. These are not the terms for a hatchet and a

knife in the Micmac, nor in the old Algonquin, nor in the Wyandot.

[33] As the tree is afterwards stated to be "as big as any oak in

France," it was probably the _box elder_, and not the sassafras, which

never attained to much size.

[34] Robe of beaver skins. Eight skins of two year old beaver are

required to make such a robe.

[35] Query--Is not the word Quebec a derivative from the Algonquin

phrase _Kebic_--a term uttered in passing by a dangerous and rocky

coast?

THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS ON THE CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN

INDIANS.

AN ADDRESS READ BEFORE THE CHIPPEWA COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, AT SAULT

STE-MARIE, MAY 8th, 1832.

The effects of intemperance on the character of nations and individuals

have been often depicted, within a few years, in faithful colors, and by

gifted minds. "Thoughts that breathe and words that burn" were once

supposed to be confined, exclusively, to give melody to the lyre, and

life to the canvass. But the conceptions of modern benevolence have

dispelled the illusion, and taught us that genius has no higher objects

than the promotion of the greatest amount of good to man--that these

objects come home to the "business and bosoms" of men in their every day

avocations--that they lie level to every capacity, and never assume so

exalted a character, as when they are directed to increase the sum of

domestic happiness and fireside enjoyment--

"To mend the morals and improve the heart."

It is this consideration that gives to the temperance effort in our day,

a refined and expansive character--

"Above all Greek, above all Roman fame"--

which has enlisted in its cause sound heads and glowing hearts, in all

parts of our country--which is daily augmenting the sphere of its

influence, and which has already carried its precepts and examples from

the little sea-board village,[36] where it originated, to the foot of

Lake Superior. And I have now the pleasure of seeing before me a

society, assembled on their first public meeting, who have "banded

together," not with such mistaken zeal as dictated the killing of Paul,

or assassinating Cæsar, but for giving their aid in staying the tide of

intemperance which has been rolling westward for more than three

centuries, sweeping away thousands of white and red men in its

course--which has grown with the growth of the nation, and strengthened

with its strength, and which threatens with an overwhelming moral

desolation all who do not adopt the rigid maxim--

"Touch not, taste not, handle not."

The British critic of the last century little thought, while moralizing

upon some of the weaknesses of individual genius, that he was uttering

maxims which would encourage the exertions of voluntary associations of

men to put a stop to intemperance. It was as true then as now, that "in

the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and

bashfulness for confidence." It was as true then, as now, that the

"negligence and irregularity" which are the fruits of this habit, "if

long continued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and

genius contemptible." "Who," he exclaims, "that ever asked succors from

Bacchus, was able to preserve himself from being enslaved by his

auxiliary?"[37] And is there a species of servitude more pernicious in

its influence, more degrading in its character, more destructive of all

physical and intellectual power, than the slavery of inebriation? The

rage of the conflagration--the devastation of the flood--the fury of the

tempest, are emblematic of the moral fury of the mind under the

influence of alcohol. It is equally ungovernable in its power, and

destructive in its effects. But its devastations are more to be

deplored, because they are the devastations of human faculties--of

intellectual power--of animal energy--of moral dignity--of social

happiness--of temporal health--of eternal felicity.

Intemperance is emphatically the parent of disease, mental and physical.

Its direct effects are to blunt the faculty of correct thinking, and to

paralyze the power of vigorous action. Nothing more effectually takes

away from the human mind, its ordinary practical powers of

discrimination and decision, without which man is like a leaf upon the

tempest, or the chaff before the wind. Dr. Darwin has aptly compared the

effects of spirituous liquors upon the lungs to the ancient fable of

Prometheus stealing fire from heaven, who was punished for the theft by

a vulture gnawing on the liver.[38] A striking allegory: but one which

is not inaptly applied to characterize the painful and acute diseases

which are visited upon the inebriate. Dr. Rush was an early advocate of

the cause. He likened the effects of the various degrees of alcohol, in

spirituous drinks, to the artificial mensuration of heat by the

thermometer, and took a decided stand in pointing out its poisonous

effects upon the system, in the generation of a numerous class of

diseases, acute and chronic.

If unhealthy food had been the cause of such disorders, the article

would be rigidly shunned. No man would choose to eat twice of the

cicuta; to use bread having a portion of lime in it; or to drink

frequently of a preparation of sugar of lead. Even the intemperate would

fear to drink of alcohol, in its state of _chemical_ purity, for its

effects would certainly be to arrest the functions of life. Yet he will

drink of this powerful drug, if diluted with acids, saccharine and

coloring matter, water and various impurities, under the disguised names

of wine, brandy, rum, malt liquors, whisky, cordials, and mixed

potations, which all tend to pamper the natural depravity of the human

heart, and poison its powers of healthful action.

Alcohol is one of the preparations which were brought to light in the

age of the Alchemysts--when the human mind had run mad in a philosophic

research after two substances which were not found in nature--the

philosopher's stone, and the universal panacea. One, it was believed,

was to transmute all substances it touched into gold, and the other, to

cure all diseases. The two great desires of the world--_wealth_ and

_long life_, were thus to be secured in a way which Moses and the

Prophets had never declared. A degree of patient ascetic research was

devoted to the investigation of natural phenomena, which the world had

not before witnessed; and modern science is indebted to the mistaken

labors of this race of chemical monks, for many valuable discoveries,

which were, for the most part, stumbled on. So far as relates to the

discovery of the alcoholic principle of grains, a singular reversal of

their high anticipations has ensued. They sought for a substance to

enrich mankind, but found a substance to impoverish them: they sought a

power to cure all diseases, but they found one to cause them. Alcohol is

thus invested with great talismanic power: and this power is not to

create, but to destroy--not to elevate, but to prostrate--not to impart

life, but death.

How extensive its uses are, as a re-agent and solvent, in medicine and

the arts--or if its place could be supplied, in any instances, by other

substances--are questions to be answered by physicians and chemists. But

admitting, what is probable to my own mind, that its properties and uses

in pharmacy and the arts are indispensable in several operations, in the

present state of our knowledge--does this furnish a just plea for its

ordinary use, as a beverage, in a state of health? No more than it

would, that because the lancet and the probe are useful in a state of

disease, they should be continued in a state of health. And do not every

class of men who continue the use of ardent spirits, waste their blood

by a diurnal exhaustion of its strength and healthy properties, more

injurious than a daily depletion; and probe their flesh with a fluid too

subtle for the physician to extract?

The transition from temperate to intemperate drinking, is very easy. And

those who advocate the _moderate_ use of distilled spirits are indeed

the _real_ advocates of intemperance. No man ever existed, perhaps, who

thought himself in danger of being enslaved by a practice, which he, _at

first_, indulged in moderation. A habit of relying upon it is

imperceptibly formed. Nature is soon led to expect the adventitious aid,

as a hale man, accustomed to wear a staff, may imagine he cannot do

without it, until he has thrown it aside. If it communicates a partial

energy, it is the energy of a convulsion. Its joy is a phrenzy. Its hope

is a phantom. And all its exhibitions of changing passion, so many

melancholy proofs of

"the reasonable soul run mad."

Angelic beings are probably exalted above all human weaknesses.--But if

there be anything in their survey of our actions which causes them to

weep, it is the sight of a drunken father in the domestic circle.

Instructed reason, and sound piety, have united their voices in decrying

the evils of intemperance. Physicians have described its effects in

deranging the absorbent vessels of the stomach, and changing the healthy

organization of the system. Moralists have portrayed its fatal influence

on the intellectual faculties. Divines have pointed out its destructive

powers on the soul. Poetry, philosophy and science, have mourned the

numbers who have been cut down by it. Common sense has raised up its

voice against it. It is indeed--

"----a monster of so frightful mien,

That to be _hated_, needs but to be _seen_."

Like the genie of Arabic fable, it has risen up, where it was least

expected, and stalked through the most secret and the most public

apartments. And wherever it has appeared, it has prostrated the human

mind. It has silenced the voice of eloquence in the halls of justice and

legislation. It has absorbed the brain of the scientific lecturer. It

has caused the sword to drop from the hand of the military leader. It

has stupefied the author in his study, and the pastor in his desk. It

has made the wife a widow in her youth, and caused the innocent child to

weep upon a father's grave. We dare not look beyond it. Hope, who has

attended the victim of intemperance through all the changes of his

downward fortune, and not forsaken him in any other exigency, has

forsaken _here_. Earth had its vanities to solace him, but eternity has

none.

"Wounds of the heart--care, disappointment, loss,

Love, joy, and friendship's fame, and fortune's cross,

The wound that mars the flesh--the instant pain

That racks the palsied limb, or fever'd brain,

All--all the woes that life can _feel_ or miss,

All have their hopes, cures, palliatives, but _this_--

This _only_--mortal canker of the mind,

Grim Belial's _last_ attempt on human kind."

If such, then, are the effects of ardent spirits upon the condition of

civilized man, who has the precepts of instructed reason to enlighten

him, and the consolations of Christianity to support him, what must be

the influence of intemperate habits upon the aboriginal tribes? I

propose to offer a few considerations upon this subject. And in so doing

I disclaim all intention of imputing to one nation of the European

stock, more than the other, the national crime of having introduced

ardent spirits among the American Indians. Spaniards, Portuguese,

Swedes, Dutch, Italians, Russians, Germans, French and English, all come

in for a share of the obloquy. They each brought ardent spirits to the

New World--a proof, it may be inferred, of their general use, as a drink

in Europe, at the era of the discovery. Whatever other articles the

first adventurers took to operate upon the hopes and fears of the new

found people, distilled or fermented liquor appears to have been, in no

instance, overlooked or forgotten. It would be easy to show the use made

of them in the West Indies, and in the southern part of our hemisphere.

But our object is confined to the colonies planted in the North. And in

this portion of the continent the English and French have been the

predominating powers. It had been well, if they had predominated in

everything else--if they had only been rivals for courage, wisdom and

dominion. If they had only fought to acquire civil power--conquered to

spread Christianity--negotiated to perpetuate peace. But we have too

many facts on record to show, that they were also rivals in spreading

the reign of intemperance among the Indians; in gleaning, with

avaricious hand, the furs from their lodges; in stimulating them to

fight in their battles, and in leaving them to their own fate, when the

battles were ended.

Nor do we, as Americans, affect to have suddenly succeeded to a better

state of feelings respecting the natives than our English ancestry

possessed. They were men of sterling enterprise; of undaunted

resolution; of high sentiments of religious and political liberty. And

we owe to them and to the peculiar circumstances in which Providence

placed us, all that we are, as a free and a prosperous people. But while

they bequeathed to us these sentiments as the preparatives of our own

national destiny, they also bequeathed to us their peculiar opinions

respecting the Indian tribes. And these opinions have been cherished

with obstinacy, even down to our own times. The noble sentiments of

benevolence of the 19th century had not dawned, when we assumed our

station in the family of nations. If they were felt by gifted

individuals, they were not felt by the body of the nation. Other

duties--the imperious duties of self-existence, national poverty, wasted

resources, a doubtful public credit, a feeble population, harassing

frontier wars, pressed heavily upon us. But we have seen all these

causes of national depression passing away, in less than half a century.

With them, it may be hoped, have passed away, every obstacle to the

exercise of the most enlarged charity, and enlightened philanthropy,

respecting the native tribes.

Nationality is sometimes as well characterized by small as by great

things--by names, as by customs. And this may be observed in the

treatment of the Indians, so far as respects the subject of ardent

spirits. Under the French government they were liberally supplied with

brandy. Under the English, with Jamaica rum. Under the Americans, with

whisky. These constitute the fire, the gall, and the poison ages of

Indian history. Under this triple curse they have maintained an

existence in the face of a white population. But it has been an

_existence_ merely. Other nations are said to have had a golden age. But

there has been no golden age for them. If there ever was a state of

prosperity among them, which may be likened to it, it was when their

camps were crowned with temporal abundance--when the races of animals,

furred and unfurred, placed food and clothing within the reach of

all--and when they knew no intoxicating drink. To counterbalance these

advantages, they were, however, subject to many evils. They were then,

as they are now, indolent, improvident, revengeful, warlike. Bravery,

manual strength, and eloquence, were the cardinal virtues. And their own

feuds kept them in a state of perpetual insecurity and alarm. The

increased value given to furs, by the arrival of Europeans, created a

new era in their history, and accelerated their downfall. It gave an

increased energy and new object to the chase. To reward their activity

in this employment, ardent spirits became the _bounty_, rather than the

_price_. A two-fold injury ensued. The animals upon whose flesh they had

subsisted became scarce, and their own constitutions were undermined

with the subtle stimulant.

Historical writers do not always agree: but they coincide in their

testimony respecting the absence of any intoxicating drink among the

northern Indians, at the time of the discovery. It is well attested that

the Aztecks, and other Mexican and Southern tribes, had their _pulque_,

and other intoxicating drinks, which they possessed the art of making

from various native grains and fruits. But the art itself was confined,

with the plants employed, to those latitudes. And there is no historical

evidence to prove that it was ever known or practised by the tribes

situated north and east of the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Robertson, an able

and faithful describer of Indian manners, fully concurs with the Jesuit

authors, in saying that no such beverage was known in the north, until

Europeans found it for their pecuniary interest to supply it. After

which, intoxication became as common among the northern as the southern

tribes.[39]

Three hundred and forty years ago there was not a white man in America.

Columbus discovered the West India Islands; but Cabot and Verrizani were

the discoverers of North America. Cartier and Hudson followed in the

track. The first interview of Hudson with the Mohegan tribes, took place

at the mouth of the river which now bears his name. It is remarkable as

the scene of the first Indian intoxication among them. He had no sooner

cast anchor, and landed from his boat, and passed a friendly salutation

with the natives, than he ordered a bottle of ardent spirits to be

brought. To show that he did not intend to offer them what he would not

himself taste, an attendant poured him out a cup of the liquor, which he

drank off. The cup was then filled and passed to the Indians. But they

merely smelled of it and passed it on. It had nearly gone round the

circle untasted, when one of the chiefs, bolder than the rest, made a

short harangue, saying it would be disrespectful to return it untasted,

and declaring his intention to drink off the potion, if he should be

killed in the attempt. He drank it off. Dizziness and stupor

immediately ensued. He sank down and fell into a sleep--the sleep of

death, as his companions thought. But in due time he awoke--declared the

happiness he had experienced from its effects--asked again for the cup,

and the whole assembly followed his example.[40]

Nor was the first meeting with the New England tribes very dissimilar.

It took place at Plymouth, in 1620. Massasoit, the celebrated chief of

the Pokanokets, came to visit the new settlers, not long after their

landing. He was received by the English governor with military music and

the discharge of some muskets. After which, the Governor kissed his

hand. Massasoit then kissed him, and they both sat down together. "A pot

of strong water," as the early writers expressed it, was then ordered,

from which both drank. The chief, in his simplicity, drank so great a

draught that it threw him into a violent perspiration during the

remainder of the interview.[41]

The first formal interview of the French with the Indians of the St.

Lawrence is also worthy of being referred to, as it appears to have been

the initial step in vitiating the taste of the Indians, by the

introduction of a foreign drink. It took place in 1535, on board one of

Cartier's ships, lying at anchor near the Island of Orleans, forty-nine

years before the arrival of Amidas and Barlow on the coast of Virginia.

Donnaconna, a chief who is courteously styled the "Lord of Agouhanna,"

visited the ship with twelve canoes. Ten of these he had stationed at a

distance, and with the other two, containing sixteen men, he approached

the vessels. When he drew near the headmost vessel, he began to utter an

earnest address, accompanied with violent gesticulation. Cartier hailed

his approach in a friendly manner. He had, the year before, captured two

Indians on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and he now addressed the chief

through their interpretation. Donnaconna listened to his native language

with delight, and was so much pleased with the recital they gave, that

he requested Cartier to reach his arm over the side of the vessel, that

he might kiss it. He was not content with this act of salutation, but

fondled it, by drawing the arm gently around his neck. His watchful

caution did not, however, permit him to venture on board. Cartier,

willing to give him a proof of his confidence, then descended into the

chief's canoe, and ordered bread and wine to be brought. They ate and

drank together, all the Indians present participating in the banquet,

which appears to have been terminated in a temperate manner.[42]

But like most _temperate_ beginnings in the use of spirits, it soon led

to intemperance in its most repulsive forms. The taste enkindled by

wine, was soon fed with brandy, and spread among the native bands like a

wildfire. It gave birth to disease, discord, and crime, in their most

shocking forms. Too late the government and the clergy saw their error,

and attempted to arrest it; but it was too deeply seated among their own

countrymen, as well as among the Indians. Every effort proved

unsuccessful; and the evil went on until the Canadas were finally

transferred to the British crown, with this "mortal canker" burning upon

the northern tribes. Those who have leisure and curiosity to turn to the

early writers, will see abundant evidence of its deep and wide-spread

influence. It became the ready means of rousing to action a people

averse to long continued exertion of any kind. It was the reward of the

chase. It was the price of blood. It was the great bar to the successful

introduction of Christianity. It is impossible that the Indian should

both drink and pray. It was impossible _then_, and it is impossible

_now_: and the missionary who entered the forest, with the Bible and

crucifix in one hand, and the bottle in the other, might say, with the

Roman soliloquist, who deliberated on self-murder,

"My bane and antidote are both before me:

While _this_ informs me I shall never die,

_This_ in a moment brings me to my end."

National rivalry, between the English and French governments, gave a

character of extreme bitterness to the feelings of the Indians, and

served to promote the passion for strong drink. It added to the horrors

of war, and accumulated the miseries of peace. It was always a struggle

between these nations which should wield the Indian power; and, so far

as religion went, it was a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant

tenets. It was a power which both had, in a measure, the means of

putting into motion: but neither had the _complete_ means of controlling

it, if we concede to them the _perfect_ will. It would have mitigated

the evil, if this struggle for mastering the Indian mind had terminated

with a state of war, but it was kept up during the feverish

intermissions of peace. Political influence was the ever-present weight

in each side of the scale. Religion threw in her aid; but it was trade,

the possession of the fur trade, that gave the preponderating weight.

And there is nothing in the history of this rivalry, from the arrival of

Roberval to the death of Montcalm, that had so permanently pernicious an

influence as the sanction which this trade gave to the use of ardent

spirits.

We can but glance at this subject; but it is a glance at the track of a

tornado. Destruction lies in its course. The history of the fur trade is

closely interwoven with the history of intemperance among the Indians.

We know not how to effect the separation. Look at it in what era you

will, the barter in ardent spirits constitutes a prominent feature. From

Jamestown to Plymouth--from the island of Manhattan to the Lake of the

Hills, the traffic was introduced at the earliest periods. And we cannot

now put our finger on the map, to indicate a spot where ardent spirits

is not known to the natives. Is it at the mouth of the Columbia, the

sources of the Multnomah, or the Rio del Norde--the passes of the Rocky

Mountains on Peace River, or the shores of the Arctic Sea? it is known

at all these places. The natives can call it by name, and they place a

value on its possession. We do not wish to convey the idea that it is

abundant at these remote places. We have reason to believe it is seldom

seen. But we also believe that in proportion as it is scarce--in

proportion as the quantity is small, and the occasion of its issue rare,

so is the price of it in sale, and the value of it in gift, enhanced.

And just so far as it is used, it is pernicious in effect, unnecessary

in practice, unwise in policy.

The French, who have endeared themselves so much in the affections of

the Indians, were earlier in Canada than the English upon the United

States' coast. Cartier's treat of wine and bread to the Iroquois of the

St. Lawrence, happened eighty-five years before the landing of the

Pilgrims. They were also earlier to perceive the evils of an

unrestrained trade, in which nothing was stipulated, and nothing

prohibited. To prevent its irregularities, licenses were granted by the

French government to individuals, on the payment of a price. It was a

boon to superannuated officers, and the number was limited. In 1685, the

number was twenty-five. But the remedy proved worse than the disease.

These licenses became negotiable paper. They were sold from hand to

hand, and gave birth to a traffic, which assumed the same character in

_temporal_ affairs, that "indulgences" did in _spiritual_. They were, in

effect, licenses to commit every species of wrong, for those who got

them at last, were generally persons under the government of no high

standard of moral responsibility; and as they may be supposed to have

paid well for them, they were sure to make it up by excessive exactions

upon the Indians. _Courier du bois_, was the term first applied to them.

_Merchant voyageur_, was the appellation at a subsequent period. But

whatever they were called, one spirit actuated them--the spirit of

acquiring wealth by driving a gainful traffic with an ignorant people,

and for this purpose ardent spirits was but too well adapted. They

transported it, along with articles of necessity, up long rivers, and

over difficult portages. And when they had reached the borders of the

Upper Lakes, or the banks of the Sasketchawine, they were too far

removed from the influence of courts, both judicial and ecclesiastical

to be in much dread of them. Feuds, strifes, and murders ensued. Crime

strode unchecked through the land. Every Indian trader became a

legislator and a judge. His word was not only a law, but it was a law

which possessed the property of undergoing as many repeals and mutations

as the interest, the pride, or the passion of the individual rendered

expedient. If wealth was accumulated, it is _not_ intended to infer that

the pressing wants of the Indians were not relieved--that the trade was

not a very acceptable and important one to them, and that great peril

and expense were not encountered, and a high degree of enterprise

displayed in its prosecution. But it is contended, that if _real_ wants

were relieved, _artificial_ ones were created--that if it substituted

the gun for the bow, and shrouds and blankets in the place of the more

expensive clothing of beaver skins, it also substituted ardent spirits

for water--intoxication for sobriety--disease for health.

Those who entertain the opinion that the fall of Quebec, celebrated in

England and America as a high military achievement, and the consequent

surrender of Canada, produced any very important improvement in this

state of things, forget that the leading principles and desires of the

human heart are alike in all nations, acting under like circumstances.

The desire of amassing wealth--the thirst for exercising power--the

pride of information over ignorance--the power of vicious over virtuous

principles, are not confined to particular eras, nations, or latitudes.

They belong to mankind, and they will be pursued with a zeal as

irrespective of equal and exact justice, wherever they are not

restrained by the ennobling maxims of Christianity.

Whoever feels interested in looking back into this period of our

commercial Indian affairs, is recommended to peruse the published

statistical and controversial volumes, growing out of the Earl of

Selkirk's schemes of colonization, and to the proceedings of the North

West Company. This iron monopoly grew up out of private adventure. Such

golden accounts were brought out of the country by the Tods, the

Frobishers, and the M'Tavishes, and M'Gillvrays, who first visited it,

that every bold man, who had either talents or money, rushed to the

theatre of action. The boundary which had been left to the French, as

the limit of trade, was soon passed. The Missinipi, Athabasca, Fort

Chipewyan, Slave lake, Mackenzie's and Copper Mine Rivers, the Unjigah

and the Oregon, were reached in a few years. All Arctic America was

penetrated. The British government is much indebted to Scottish

enterprise for the extension of its power and resources in this quarter.

But while we admire the zeal and boldness with which the limits of the

trade were extended, we regret that a belief in the necessity of using

ardent spirits caused them to be introduced, in any quantity, among the

North West tribes.

Other regions have been explored to spread the light of the gospel. This

was traversed to extend the reign of intemperance, and to prove that the

love of gain was so strongly implanted in the breast of the white man,

as to carry him over regions of ice and snow, woods and waters, where

the natives had only been intruded on by the Musk Ox and the Polar bear.

Nobody will deem it too much to say, that wherever the current of the

fur trade set, the nations were intoxicated, demoralized, depopulated.

The terrible scourge of the small pox, which broke out in the country

north west of Lake Superior in 1782, was scarcely more fatal to the

natives, though more rapid and striking in its effects, than the power

of ardent spirits. Nor did it produce so great a moral affliction. For

those who died of the varioloid, were spared the death of ebriety. Furs

were gleaned with an iron hand, and rum was given out with an iron

heart. There was no remedy for the rigors of the trade; and there was no

appeal. Beaver was sought with a thirst of gain as great as that which

carried Cortez to Mexico, and Pizarro to Peru. It had deadened the ties

of humanity, and cut asunder the cords of private faith.[43] Like the

Spaniard in his treatment of Capolicon, when the latter had given him

the house full of gold for his ransom, he was himself basely executed.

So the northern chief, when he had given his all, gave himself as the

victim at last. He was not, however, consumed at the _stake_, but at the

_bottle_. The sword of his executioner was _spirits_--his gold, _beaver

skins_. And no mines of the precious metals, which the world has ever

produced, have probably been more productive of wealth, than the

fur-yielding regions of North America.

But while the products of the chase have yielded wealth to the white

man, they have produced misery to the Indian. The latter, suffering for

the means of subsistence, like the child in the parable, had asked for

bread, and he received it; but, with it, he received a scorpion. And it

is the sting of the scorpion, that has been raging among the tribes for

more than two centuries, causing sickness, death, and depopulation in

its track. It is the venom of this sting, that has proved emphatically

"----the blight of human bliss!

Curse to all _states_ of man, but most to _this_."

Let me not be mistaken, in ascribing effects disproportionate to their

cause, or in overlooking advantages which have brought along in their

train, a striking evil. I am no admirer of that sickly philosophy, which

looks back upon a state of nature as a state of innocence, and which

cannot appreciate the benefits the Indian race have derived from the

discovery of this portion of the world by civilized and Christian

nations. But while I would not, on the one hand, conceal my sense of the

advantages, temporal and spiritual, which hinge upon this discovery, I

would not, on the other, disguise the evils which intemperance has

caused among them; nor cease to hold it up, to the public, as a great

and destroying evil, which was early introduced--which has spread

extensively--which is in active operation, and which threatens yet more

disastrous consequences to this unfortunate race.

Writers have not been wanting, who are prone to lay but little stress

upon the destructive influence of ardent spirits, in diminishing the

native population, and who have considered its effects as trifling in

comparison to the want of food, and the enhanced price created by this

want.[44] The abundance or scarcity of food is a principle in political

economy, which is assumed as the primary cause of depopulation. And, as

such, we see no reason to question its soundness. If the value of labor,

the price of clothing and other necessary commodities, can be referred

to the varying prices of vegetable and animal food, we do not see that

the fact of a people's being civilized or uncivilized, should invalidate

the principle; and when we turn our eyes upon the forest we see that it

does not. A pound of beaver, which in 1730, when animal food was

abundant, was worth here about a French crown, is now, when food is

scarce and dear, worth from five to six dollars; and consequently, one

pound of beaver _now_ will procure as much food and clothing as five

pounds of the like quality of beaver _then_. It is the failure of the

race of furred animals, and the want of industry in hunting them, that

operate to produce depopulation. And what, we may ask, has so powerful

an effect in destroying the energies of the hunter, as the vice of

intemperance? Stupefying his mind, and enervating his body, it leaves

him neither the vigor to provide for his temporary wants, nor the

disposition to inquire into those which regard eternity. His natural

affections are blunted, and all the sterner and nobler qualities of the

Indian mind prostrated. His family are neglected. They first become

objects of pity to our citizens, and then of disgust. The want of

wholesome food and comfortable clothing produce disease. He falls at

last himself, the victim of disease, superinduced from drinking.

Such is no exaggerated picture of the Indian, who is in a situation to

contract the habit of intemperance. And it is only within the last year

or eighteen months--it is only since the operation of Temperance

principles has been felt in this remote place, that scenes of this kind

have become unfrequent, and have almost ceased in our village, and in

our settlement. And when we look abroad to other places, and observe the

spread of temperance in the wide area from Louisiana to Maine, we may

almost fancy we behold the accomplishment of Indian fable. It is

related, on the best authority, that among the extravagances of Spanish

enterprise, which characterized the era of the discovery of America, the

natives had reported the existence of a fountain in the interior of one

of the islands, possessed of such magical virtues, that whoever bathed

in its waters would be restored to the bloom of youth and the vigor of

manhood. In search of this wonderful fountain historians affirm, that

Ponce de Leon and his followers ranged the island. They only, however,

drew upon themselves the charge of credulity. May we not suppose this

tale of the salutary fountain to be an Indian allegory of temperance? It

will, at least, admit of this application. And let us rejoice that, in

the era of temperance, we have found the spring which will restore bloom

to the cheeks of the young man, and the panacea that will remove disease

from the old.

When we consider the effects which our own humble efforts as inhabitants

of a distant post have produced in this labor of humanity, have we not

every encouragement to persevere? Is it not an effort sanctioned by the

noblest affections of our nature--by the soundest principles of

philanthropy--by the highest aspirations of Christian benevolence? Is it

not the work of patriots as well as Christians? of good citizens as well

as good neighbors? Is it not a high and imperious duty to rid our land

of the foul stain of intemperance? Is it a duty too hard for us to

accomplish? Is there anything unreasonable in the voluntary obligations

by which we are bound? Shall we lose property or reputation by laboring

in the cause of temperance? Will the debtor be less able to pay his

debts, or the creditor less able to collect them? Shall we injure man,

woman or child, by dashing away the cup of intoxication? Shall we incur

the charge of being denominated fools or madmen? Shall we violate any

principles of morality, or any of the maxims of Christianity? Shall we

run the risk of diminishing the happiness of others, or putting our own

in jeopardy? Finally, shall we injure man--shall we offend God?

If neither of these evils will result--if the highest principles of

virtue and happiness sanction the measure--if learning applauds it, and

religion approves it--if good must result from its success, and injury

cannot accrue from its failure, what further motive need we to impel us

onward, to devote our best faculties in the cause, and neither to faint

nor rest till the modern hydra of intemperance be expelled from our

country?

VENERABLE INDIAN CHIEF.

The Cattaraugus (N. Y.) Whig, of a late date, mentions that Gov.

Blacksnake, the Grand Sachem of the Indian nation, was recently in that

place. He resides on the Alleghany Reservation, about twenty miles from

the village; is the successor of Corn Planter, as chief of the Six

Nations--a nephew of Joseph Brant, and uncle of the celebrated Red

Jacket. He was born near Cayuga Lake in 1749, being now ninety-six years

of age. He was in the battle of Fort Stanwix, Wyoming, &c., and was a

warm friend of Gen. Washington during the Revolution. He was in

Washington's camp forty days at the close of the Revolution--was

appointed chief by him, and now wears suspended from his neck a

beautiful silver medal presented to him by Gen. Washington, bearing date

1796.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Andover.

[37] Dr. Johnson.

[38] Zoonomia.

[39] Robertson's History of America.

[40] Heckewelder's Account of the Indians.

[41] Purchas' Pilgrims, Part iv., book x.

[42] Hackluyt's Voyages.

[43] The murder of Wadin, the cold-blooded assassination of Keveny, and

the shooting of Semple, are appealed to, as justifying the force of this

remark.

[44] The North American Review. Sanford's History of the United States,

before the Revolution.

FATE OF THE RED RACE IN AMERICA:

THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND THE PRESENT CONDITION

OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE REMOVED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.[45]

The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the

west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable

ultimate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation,

misunderstanding, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few

years past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of

them, and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result,

thus far, of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic

sources, may prove not unacceptable to the public.

The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within

themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, indeed,

like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment in

peril, and subject to be filled up and destroyed by the in-rushing of

the surrounding element. Civilisation is that element, in relation to

non-agricultural and barbaric tribes, and the only question with respect

to their continuance as distinct communities has been, how long they

could resist its influence, and at what particular era this influence

should change, improve, undermine, or destroy them. It is proved by

history, that two essentially different states of society, with regard

to art and civilisation, cannot both prosperously exist together, at the

same time. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the

other. A wolf and a lamb are not more antagonistical in the system of

organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great

ethnological impulse of man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse,

barbarism may temporarily triumph, as we see it has done by many

striking examples in the history of Asia and Europe. But such triumphs

have been attended with this remarkable result, that they have, in the

end, reproduced the civilisation which they destroyed. Such, to quote no

other example, was the effect of the prostration of the Roman type of

civilisation by the warlike and predatory tribes of Northern Europe.

Letters and Christianity were both borne down, for a while, by this

irresistible on-rush; but they were thereby only the more deeply

implanted in the stratum of preparing civilisation; and in due time,

like the grain that rots before it reproduces, sprang up with a vigor

and freshness, which is calculated to be enduring, and to fill the

globe.

Civilisation may be likened to an absorbent body, placed in contact with

an anti-absorbent, for some of the properties of which it has strong

affinities. It will draw these latter so completely out, that, to use a

strong phrase, it may be said to eat them up. Civilisation is found to

derive some of the means of its perfect development from letters and the

arts, but it cannot permanently exist without the cultivation of the

soil. It seems to have been the fundamental principle on which the

species were originally created, that they should derive their

sustenance and means of perpetuation from this industrial labor.

Wherever agricultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtaposition to

hunters and erratic races, they have been found to withdraw from the

latter the means of their support, by narrowing the limits of the forest

and plains, upon the wild animals of which, both carnivorous and

herbivorous, hunters subsist. When these have been destroyed, the grand

resources of these hunters and pursuers have disappeared. Wars, the

introduction of foreign articles or habits of injurious tendency, may

accelerate the period of their decline--a result which is still further

helped forward by internal dissensions, and the want of that political

foresight by which civil nations exist. But without these, and by the

gradual process of the narrowing down of their hunting grounds, and the

conversion of the dominions of the bow and arrow to those of the plough,

this result must inevitably ensue. There is no principle of either

permanency or prosperity in the savage state.

It is a question of curious and philosophic interest, however, to

observe the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of

civilisation have had upon the wild hordes of men with whom it has come

into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original efficiency,

or effeminacy of the civil type, in the blood of predominating races,

who have been characterized by it. In some of the European stocks this

type has remained nearly stationary since it reached the chivalric era.

In others, it had assumed a deeply commercial tone, and confined itself

greatly to the drawing forth, from the resources of new countries, those

objects which invigorate trade. There is no stock, having claims to a

generic nationality, in which the _principle of progress_ has, from the

outset, been so strongly marked, as in those hardy, brave and athletic

tribes in the north of Europe, for whom the name of Teutons conveys,

perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the comparatively later one

of Saxons. The object of this race appears continually to be, and to

have been, to do more than has previously been done; to give diffusion

and comprehension to designs of improvement, and thus, by perpetually

putting forth new efforts, on the globe, to carry on man to his highest

destiny. The same impulsive aspirations of the spirit of progress, the

same energetic onwardness of principle which overthrew Rome, overthrew,

at another period, the simple institutions of the woad-stained Britons;

and, whatever other aspect it bears, we must attribute to the same

national energy the modern introduction of European civilisation into

Asia.

When these principles come to be applied to America, and to be tested by

its native tribes, we shall clearly perceive their appropriate and

distinctive effects. In South America, where the type of chivalry marked

the discoverers, barbarism has lingered among the natives, without being

destroyed, for three centuries. In Canada, which drew its early

colonists exclusively from the feudal towns and seaports, whose

inhabitants had it for a maxim, that they had done all that was required

of good citizens, when they had done all that had been _previously

done_, the native tribes have remained perfectly stationary. With the

exception of slight changes in dress, and an absolute depreciation in

morals, they are essentially at this day what they were in the

respective eras of Cartier and Champlain. In the native monarchies of

Mexico and Peru, Spain overthrew the gross objects of idolatrous

worship, and intercalated among these tribes the arts and some of the

customs of the 16th century. With a very large proportion of the tribes

but little was attempted beyond military subjugation, and less

accomplished. The seaboard tribes received the ritual of the Romish

church. Many of those in the interior, comprehending the higher ranges

of the Andes and Cordilleras, remain to this day in the undisturbed

practice of their ancient superstitions and modes of subsistence. It is

seen from recent discoveries, that there are vast portions of the

interior of the country, unknown, unexplored and undescribed. We are

just, indeed, beginning to comprehend the true character of the

indigenous Indian civilisation of the era of the discovery. These

remarks are sufficient to show how feebly the obligations of letters and

Christianity have been performed, with respect to the red men, by the

colonists of those types of the early European civilisation, who rested

themselves on feudal tenures, military renown, and an ecclesiastical

system of empty ceremonies.

It was with very different plans and principles that North America was

colonized. We consider the Pilgrims as the embodiment of the true

ancient Teutonic type. Their Alaric and Brennus were found in the pulpit

and in the school-room. They came with high and severe notions of civil

and religious liberty. It was their prime object to sustain themselves,

not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape an

ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture themselves

in new climes. But they meant to triumph in the arts of peace. They

embarked with the Bible as their shield and sword, and they laid its

principles at the foundation of all their institutions, civil, literary,

industrial, and ecclesiastic. They were pious and industrious

themselves, and they designed to make the Indian tribes so. They bought

their lands and paid for them, and proceeded to establish friendly

neighborhoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in

the Gospel, was the fundamental principle of all their acts. In its

exposition and daily use, they followed no interpretations of councils

at variance with its plain import. This every one was at liberty to

read.

Placed side by side with such an enlightened and purposed race, what had

the priests of the system of native rites and superstitions to expect?

There could be no compromise of rites--no partial conformity--no giving

up a part to retain the rest--as had been done in the plains of Central

America, Mexico and Yucatan. No toleration of pseudo-paganism, as had

been done on the waters of the Orinoco, the Parana and the Paraguay.

They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross and total.

They must abjure it. They had mistaken darkness for light; and they were

now offered the light. They had worshipped Lucifer instead of Immanuel.

This the tribes who spread along the shores of the North Atlantic were

told, and nothing was held back. They founded churches and established

schools among them. They translated the entire Bible, and the version of

David's Psalms, and the Hymns of Dr. Watts, into one of their languages.

Two types of the human race, more fully and completely antagonistical,

in all respects, never came in contact on the globe. They were the alpha

and omega of the ethnological chain. If, therefore, the Red Race

declined, and the white increased, it was because civilisation had more

of the principles of endurance and progress than barbarism; because

Christianity was superior to paganism; industry to idleness; agriculture

to hunting; letters to hieroglyphics; truth to error. Here lie the true

secrets of the Red Men's decline.

There are but three principal results which, we think, the civilized

world could have anticipated for the race, at the era of the discovery.

1. They might be supposed to be subject to early extermination on the

coasts, where they were found. A thousand things would lead to this,

which need not be mentioned. Intemperance and idleness alone were

adequate causes. 2. Philanthropists and Christians might hope to reclaim

them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in

agricultural communities in adjacent parts. 3. Experience and forecast

might indicate a third result, in which full success should attend

neither of the foregoing plans, nor yet complete failure. There was

nothing, exactly, in the known history of mankind, to guide opinion. A

mixed condition of things was the most probable result. And this, it

might be anticipated, would be greatly modified by times and seasons,

circumstances and localities, acting on particular tribes. Nothing less

could have been expected but the decline and extinction of some tribe,

whilst the removal of others, to less exposed positions, would be found

to tell upon their improvement. The effects of letters and Christianity

would necessarily be slow; but they were effects, which the history of

discovery and civilisation, in other parts of the world, proved to be

effective and practical. What was this mixed condition to eventuate

in?--how long was it to continue? Were the tribes to exercise sovereign

political jurisdiction over the tracts they lived on? Were they to

submit to the civilized code, and if so, to the penal code only, or also

to the civil? Or, if not, were they to exist by amalgamation with the

European stocks, and thus contribute the elements of a new race? These,

and many other questions, early arose, and were often not a little

perplexing to magistrates, legislatures, and governors. It was evident

the aboriginal race possessed distinctive general rights, but these

existed contemporaneously, or intermixed with the rights of the

discoverers. How were these separate rights to be defined? How were the

weak to be protected, and the strong to be restrained, at points beyond

the ordinary pale of the civil law? If a red man killed a white, without

the ordinary jurisdiction of the courts, could he be seized as a

criminal? And if so, were civil offences, committed without the

jurisdiction of either territory, cognizable in either, or neither?

Could there be a supremacy within a supremacy? And what was the limit

between State and United States laws? Such were among the topics

entering into the Indian policy. It was altogether a mixed system, and

like most mixed systems, it worked awkwardly, confusedly, and sometimes

badly. Precedents were to be established for new cases, and these were

perpetually subject to variation. Legislators, judges, and executive

officers were often in doubt, and it required the wisest, shrewdest, and

best men in the land to resolve these doubts, and to lay down rules, or

advice, for future proceeding in relation to the Red Race. It will be

sufficient to bear out the latter remark, to say, that among the sages

who deemed this subject important, were a Roger Williams, a Penn, a

Franklin, a Washington, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Crawford, and a

Calhoun.

It must needs have happened, that where the Saxon race went, the

principles of law, justice, and freedom, must prevail. These principles,

as they existed in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century,

were transferred to America, with the Cavaliers, the Pilgrims, and the

Quakers, precisely, as to the two first topics, as they existed at home.

Private rights were as well secured, and public justice as well awarded

here, as there. But they also brought over the aristocratic system,

which was upheld by the royal governors, who were the immediate

representatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the

fee of all public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all

inhabitants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This

doctrine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them

neither fee-simple in the soil, nor political sovereignty over it. It

cut them down to vassals, but, by a legal solecism, they were regarded

as a sort of free vassals. So long as the royal governments remained,

they had the usufruct of the public domain--the right of fishing, and

hunting, and planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of

occupancy; but this right ceased just as soon, and as fast, as patents

were granted, or the public exigency required the domain. The native

chiefs were quieted with presents from the throne, through the local

officers, and their ideas of independence and control were answered by

the public councils, in which friendships were established, and the

public tranquillity looked after. Private purchases were made from the

outset, but the idea of a public treaty of purchase of the soil under

the proprietary and royal governors, was not entertained before the era

of William Penn.

It remained for the patriots of 1775, who set up the frame of our

present government, by an appeal to arms, to award the aboriginal tribes

the full proprietary right to the soil they respectively occupied, and

to guarantee to them its full and free use, until such right was

relinquished by treaty stipulations. So far, they were acknowledged as

sovereigns. This is the first step in their political exaltation, and

dates, in our records, from the respective treaties of Fort Pitt,

September 17, 1778, and of Fort Stanwix, of October 22, 1784. The latter

was as early after the establishment of our independence, as these

tribes--the Six nations, who, with the exception of the Oneidas, sided

with the parent country--could be brought to listen to the terms of

peace. They were followed by the Wyandots, Delawares, and Chippewas, and

Ottowas, in January, 1785; by the Cherokees, in November of the same

year; and by the Choctaws and Shawnees, in January, 1786. Other western

nations followed in 1789; the Creeks did not treat till 1790. And from

this era, the system has been continued up to the present moment. It may

be affirmed, that there is not an acre of land of the public domain of

the United States, sold at the land offices, from the days of General

Washington, but what has been acquired in this manner. War, in which we

and they have been frequently involved, since that period, has conveyed

no _territorial right_. We have conquered them, on the field, not to

usurp territory, but to place them in a condition to observe how much

more their interests and permanent prosperity would be, and have ever

been, promoted by the plough than the sword. And there has been a prompt

recurrence, at every mutation from war to peace, punctually, to that

fine sentiment embraced in the _first_ article of the _first_ treaty

ever made between the American government and the Indian tribes, namely,

that all offences and animosities "shall be mutually forgiven, and

buried in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."[46]

The first step to advance the aboriginal man to his natural and just

political rights, namely, the acknowledgment of his _right to the soil_,

we have mentioned; but those that were to succeed it were more difficult

and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces of

their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined

the operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by

negotiation, and treaties duly ratified by the Senate, and proclaimed,

agreeably to the Constitution, by the President. So much of this public

territory as fell within the respective _State lines_, fell, by the

terms of our political compact, under _State laws_, and the jurisdiction

of the State courts; and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory,

thus within State boundaries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact

corresponding extension until the whole of such Indian lands had been

acquired. This provided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it

were sometimes the subject of doubt or confliction, such perplexity

arose from the great extension of the country, its sparsely settled

condition, and the haste or ignorance of local magistrates. And these

difficulties were invariably removed whenever the cases came into the

Supreme Court of the United States.

Without regard to the area of the States, but including and having

respect only to the territories, and to the vast and unincorporated

wilderness, called the "Indian country," Congress provided a _special

code_ of laws, and from the first, held over this part of the Union, and

holds over it now, full and complete jurisdiction. This code was

designed chiefly to regulate the trade carried on at those remote points

between the white and red men, to preserve the public tranquillity, and

to provide for the adjudication of offences. Citizens of the United

States, carrying the passport, license, or authority of their

government, are protected by their papers thus legally obtained; and the

tribes are held answerable for their good treatment, and if violence

occur, for their lives. No civil process, however, has efficacy in such

positions; and there is no compulsory legal collection of debts, were it

indeed practicable, on the Indian territories. The customs and usages of

the trade and intercourse, as established from early times, prevail

there. These customs are chiefly founded on the patriarchal system,

which was found in vogue on the settlement of the country, and they

admit of compensations and privileges founded on natural principles of

equity and right. The Indian criminal code, whatever that is, also

prevails there. The only exception to it arises from cases of Americans,

maliciously killed within the "Indian country," the laws of Congress

providing, that the aggressors should be surrendered into the hands of

justice, and tried by the nearest United States courts.

These preliminary facts will exhibit some of the leading features of the

mixed system alluded to. Its workings were better calculated for the

early stages of society, while population was sparse and the two races,

as bodies, kept far apart, than for its maturer periods. As the

intervening lands became ceded, and sold, and settled, and the tribes

themselves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of

the system, and its want of homogeneousness and harmony, became more

apparent. Throughout the whole period of the administrations of

Washington, and John Adams, and Jefferson, a period of twenty years, the

low state of our population, and the great extent and unreclaimed

character of the public domain, left the Indians undisturbed, and no

questions of much importance occurred to test the permanency of the

system as regards the welfare of the Indians. Mr. Jefferson foresaw,

however, the effect of encroachments beyond the Ohio, and with an

enlightened regard for the race and their civilisation, prepared a new

and consolidated code of all prior acts, with some salutary new

provisions, which had the effect to systematize the trade and

intercourse, and more fully to protect the rights of the Indians. This

code served, with occasional amendments, through the succeeding

administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, into that of

General Jackson, when, in 1834, the greatly advanced line of the

frontiers, the multiplied population, and necessarily increased force of

the Indian department, and the large amount of Indian annuities to be

paid, called for its thorough revision, and a new general enactment was

made.

Previously, however, to this time, during the administration of Mr.

Monroe, it was perceived that the Indian tribes, as separate

communities, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent,

and governed by a widely different system of laws, arts, and customs,

could not be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while

thus locally situated. The tendency of the Saxon institutions, laws, and

jurisprudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb the

less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no reasonable

hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sustain

themselves in independency or success as foreign elements in the midst

of the State communities. It was impossible that two systems of

governments, so diverse as the Indian and American, should co-exist on

the same territory. All history proved this. The most rational hope of

success for this race, the only one which indeed appeared practical on a

scale commensurate with the object, was to remove them, with their own

consent, to a position entirely without the boundaries of the State

jurisdictions, where they might assert their political sovereignty, and

live and develope their true national character, under their own laws.

The impelling cause for the action of the government, during Mr.

Monroe's administration, was the peculiar condition of certain tribes,

living on their own original territories, within, the State boundaries,

and who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The

question assumed its principal interest in the State of Georgia, within

which portions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes were then living. About

ten millions of acres of lands were thus in the occupancy of these two

tribes. As the population of Georgia expanded and approached the Indian

settlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began

strongly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the

human race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse

legal, political, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found

to exist, when, in this area, the descendants from the old Saxons,

north-men and Hugenots from Europe, came in contact with the descendants

(we speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, unphilosophic,

non-inductive race of central Asia, living in the genial climate and

sunny valleys of Georgia and Alabama.

The American government had embarrassed itself by stipulating at an

early day, with the State of Georgia, to extinguish the Indian title

within her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could

be done "peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they

advanced in agriculture, became averse to sell. The Georgians, as they

increased in numbers, became importunate for the territory to which they

had, in this event, the reversionary right. The President was frequently

importuned by the State authorities. The Indians were frequently brought

to consider the subject, which was one that increased its importance

with years.

We have deemed it proper to put this matter in its right attitude in

relation to the great question of Indian removal; and as furnishing, as

it did, reasons for the early consideration and action of the

government. It is not our intention to pursue the Georgia question

disjunctively--we have neither time nor space for it here, and will only

further premise, that it is susceptible of some very different views

from those often premised of it.[47] That it was one of the prominent

considerations which led the administration of Monroe to take up betimes

the general question of the Indian tribes, is well known and remembered,

and apparent from a perusal of the public documents of the era.

Governed by such considerations, Mr. Monroe communicated a special

message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1825, recommending the

removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and

providing for their future "location and government." This is the

official date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so

generally, and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the

best interests of the tribes, carried into effect. "Being deeply

impressed with the opinion," observes this venerated statesman, who has,

years since, gone to join the patriot spirits who achieved our

independence--"that the removal of the Indian tribes from the land which

they now occupy, within the limits of the several States and

Territories, to the country lying westward and northward thereof, within

our acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union,

and may be accomplished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the

interests and happiness of those tribes, the attention of the government

has been long drawn, with great solicitude, to the object.

"For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of

Georgia, the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact

with that State, whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the

Indian title to the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably,

and on reasonable conditions.

"In the fulfilment of this compact, I have thought that the United

States should act with a generous spirit, that they should omit nothing

which should comport with a liberal construction of the instrument, and

likewise be in accordance with the just rights of those tribes. From the

view which I have taken of the subject, I am satisfied that, in the

discharge of these important duties, in regard to both the parties

alluded to, the United States will have to encounter no conflicting

interests with either: on the contrary, that the removal of the tribes

from the Territories which they inhabit, to that which was designated in

the message at the commencement of the session, which would accomplish

the object for Georgia, under a well digested plan for their government

and civilisation, in a mode agreeable to themselves, would not only

shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and

happiness. _Experience has clearly demonstrated that, in their present

state, it is impossible to incorporate them, in such masses, in any form

whatever, into our system. It has also demonstrated, with equal

certainty, that without a timely anticipation of, and provision against,

the dangers to which they are exposed, under causes which it will be

difficult, if not impossible, to control, their degradation and

extermination will be inevitable._"

We have underscored the last two sentences, because they express in

forcible and just language, the experience of the American government,

in relation to the subject, after an experiment of fifty years, dating

from '75, and lie, indeed, at the foundation of the present Indian

policy. It is also the experience of sound and calm observers, who have

watched the operation of our laws and customs upon the isolated Indian

communities in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of

raising them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or

character, while thus situated; nor, indeed, has it been practicable to

shield them effectually against the combined effects of intemperance,

personal sloth, and of popular and vulgar contumely.

Mr. Calhoun, whose report on the subject was transmitted to Congress,

with the message above named, communicates the details essential to the

execution of the proposed plan. He states the whole number of Indians to

be removed from the States and Territories, excluding those located west

and north of Lake Michigan and the Straits of St. Mary's, at 97,000

souls, who occupy about 77 millions of acres of land. The country

proposed for their location is that stretching immediately west, beyond

the boundaries of the States of MISSOURI and ARKANSAS, having the River

Arkansas running through its centre from west to east, the Missouri and

Red rivers respectively as the northern boundary, and the vast grassy

plains east of the Rocky Mountains, as its western limit.

The map which we publish of this territory, is drawn on the basis of one

which was published by Congress in 1834, in illustration of the report

of the committee on Indian affairs of May 30th of that session. It

embraces all the locations of tribes to that period.

The plan proposed the gratuitous grant of the country to the respective

tribes, and their removal to it at government expense. It embraces the

transference to it, of their schools established by religious societies,

and supported, in part, by the civilisation fund, and all their means of

moral and religious culture. It is based on the pursuit of agriculture,

the mechanic arts, and the raising of cattle and stock. It invests the

tribes with full power of making and executing all their laws and

regulations, civil and criminal. It stipulates military protection, to

keep the surrounding tribes at peace. It leaves them their political

sovereignty; being without the boundary of the States, under their own

chiefs and local governors, with such aids as are necessary to enable

the various tribes to associate and set up the frame of an associated

government to be managed by themselves, and as subsequently proposed in

Congress, to be represented in that body whenever the system shall be

perfected so as to justify this measure. It proposed, as the basis of

removal, a solemn act of Congress, guaranteeing the country to them, and

excluding its future incorporation into the States. A second location,

in the northern latitudes, was proposed for the Indians west of

Michigan, where a further body of 32,266 souls were estimated to reside.

Such were the general principles of Mr. Monroe's plan, submitted in

1825, and subsequently adopted by Congress, in its essential features.

It has now been in operation EIGHTEEN YEARS, and it is proposed, in

bringing this paper to a close, briefly to examine the condition and

prospects of the expatriated tribes, in the country to which they have

been transferred.

By a report from the proper department, transmitted to Congress with

the President's message in 1836, the result of the first ten years'

experiment is shown to have been the actual migration of 40,000 from

their original seats, east, to the allotted Indian territory, west of

the Mississippi. Of this number, 18,000 were Creeks, 15,000 Choctaws,

6,000 Cherokees, 2,000 Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies, 1,300

Shawnees, 800 Delawares, 500 Quapaws, 400 Seminoles, 600 Kickapoos, 400

Senecas, and an average of, say 250 each, of Appalachicolas, Weas,

Piankashaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. In this statement, small fractions

over or under, are omitted. A location and permanent home has been

provided for seventeen tribes and parts of tribes; a number which, in

the succeeding seven years, we speak from documents before us, has been

largely augmented. The whole body of the Cherokees, of the Creeks, or

Muscogees, of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, &c., and also, with the

exception of one principal band, of the Seminoles, have been removed.

Portions of other tribes, not then full, have joined their kindred; and

some whole tribes, who had not before come into the arrangement, and

ceded their lands east, as the Miamas of the Wabash, and the Wyandots of

Sanduskey, have since accepted locations in the Indian territory. The

Chickasaws are all located with their affiliated countrymen, the

Choctaws; and numbers of the ancient Iroquois confederacy, the Six

Nations of New York, as well as the ancient Mohegans and Munsees, have,

within a few years, selected locations south of the Missouri. The entire

number of red men now concentrated on those plains and valleys, where

winter scarcely exerts any severity of power, may be set down at 77,000

souls, leaving, from the official report of 1841, but 21,774 of the

original estimated number of 1825, to be removed; exclusive of those

west of the straits of Michilimachinac and St. Mary's.

From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to

Congress by the President, in December, 1840, the amount of funds

invested by the government in stocks, for the Indians, was $2,580,000,

on which the annual interest paid to them was $131,050. Twenty-four of

the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per annum,

for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, and the

number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is gratifying to

know, from this source, that civilisation, agriculture, and the mechanic

arts, are making a rapid progress, and that education and Christianity

are walking hand-in-hand. Planting and raising cattle are adopted

generally. Portions of the most advanced tribes have devoted themselves

to the mechanic arts, supplying themselves, to a limited extent, with

smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other branches.

Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some extent. There are

native merchants, among the three principal southern tribes, who ship

their own cotton and other products to market, and supply their people,

in return, with such products of the East and West Indies, and other

parts of the world, as they require. A large part of the contracts,

particularly for Indian corn, required to subsist the United States

troops in that quarter of the Union, is furnished by native contractors.

Their legislation is performed in representative councils, and is well

adapted to the actual and advancing state of society. Many of their

leading men are well educated; some of them classically; and the general

moral and intellectual tone and habits of the tribes, are clearly and

strikingly on the advance. It requires, it is believed, but time and

perseverance in civil associations, to lead them to the same results

arrived at by other barbarous nations, and to demonstrate to them the

value and importance of a general political confederation, founded on

the principles of equal rights and equal representation, supported by

public virtue and intelligence.

Having sketched the cause of the decline of that portion of the North

American Indians, who were seated along the Atlantic, and the plan

proposed for checking it, we shall now, with the map and documentary

evidence before us, devote a few moments to the present condition and

prospects of the more prominent tribes.

1. The Choctaws, beginning at the extreme south of the territory, are

the first in position. They occupy the country above the State of

Arkansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, following up the

Canadian branch of the former, comprising an area of about 150 miles in

breadth, by 200 in length. They are bounded by Texas south-west. The

country is well adapted for grain and the raising of stock, in its

middle and northern parts, and for cotton on the south. Many of the

natives have large fields, where, but a few years since, the forest was

untouched. Saw mills, grist mills, and cotton gins, are either erecting

or erected throughout the country. Salt is manufactured by an

intelligent Choctaw. Iron ore has been found, and specimens of gold have

been picked up in various places.

This tribe is governed by a written constitution and laws. Their

territory is divided into three districts, each of which elects, once in

four years, a ruling chief, and ten representatives. The general

council, thus constituted, and consisting of thirty councillors, meets

annually, on the first Monday in October. Voters must be Choctaws, of

age, and residents of the districts. The three chiefs have a joint veto

power on all laws passed; but two-thirds of the council may re-pass them

after such rejection.

The council of thirty appoint their own speaker and clerk, and keep a

journal. They meet in a large and commodious council-house, fitted up

with seats for members and spectators, and committee rooms. Their

sessions are, usually, about ten days in duration. They are paid two

dollars per diem for their services, out of public funds.

In addition to this evidence of capacity for self-government, there are

judicial districts established, the right of trial by jury is secured,

and there is an appeal to the highest tribunal. All the males, of a

special age, are subject to do military duty: for this purpose the

territory is subdivided into thirty two captaincies, the whole being

placed under the orders of a general. The council has passed many good

and wholesome laws; among them, one against intemperance and the sale of

ardent spirits. The collection of debts is at present not compulsory,

being regulated by questions of credit, punctuality, and honor, which

are to be adjusted between the buyer and seller. The country is too

sparsely settled, and the popular odium against incarceration too

strong, to permit a resort to it. Thus, it will be seen, this tribe

exhibit in their frame of government the elements of a representative

republic, not a pure democracy, with perhaps sufficient conservative

power to guard against sudden popular effervescence.

The Choctaws have twelve public schools, established by treaty

stipulations with the United States. There are several missionaries

amongst them, of the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, whose

labors are reported by the public agents to be beneficial, and

calculated to advance their condition. There are four public blacksmith

shops, two of which are exclusively worked by the natives. The strikers,

or assistants, at all the shops, are natives. Shops have also been

erected, in various parts of the nation, which are occupied only in the

spring and summer, in planting and crop time. The mechanics in these are

natives, who are paid, not by the individuals requiring aid, but out of

public funds. The nation has an academy located in Scott county,

Kentucky, at which 125 students were taught in 1839 and 1840. This

institution is now in the process of being established in their own

territory. This tribe we learn by the Secretary of War's report,

appropriated $18,000 of their annuities, in 1843, to educational

purposes.

2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage as the Choctaws; and,

by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same territory, and live

intermixed with them. It constitutes a part of this compact, that the

Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and form a fourth

election district, which shall be entitled to elect ten representatives,

and three senatorial chiefs, to the national Council. The aggregate

amount of the vested funds of this tribe, in 1840, was $515,230 44; of

which $146,000 is devoted to orphans. The annual interest paid by the

government is $27,063 83. They participate equally in the advantages of

the Choctaw academy, and have had many of their youth educated at that

institution.

3. Next, in geographical position, to the united Choctaws and

Chickasaws, are the Muskogees, who are more generally known under the

name of Creeks. They occupy a territory one hundred and fifty miles in

length, by ninety in breadth. They are bounded on the south by the

Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and by the district of the Seminoles,

which lies between the main branch of this stream and its north fork.

Their territory reaches to a point opposite the junction of the Neosho,

and is protracted thence north to the Cherokee boundary. It is a rich

tract, well adapted to the growth of corn, vegetables, and esculents,

and the raising of stock. It is not as abundantly watered by running

streams as some of the tracts, or rather, it is a characteristic of its

smaller streams that they run dry, or stand in pools, during the latter

part of summer. In place of these, it has some good springs. The main

and the north fork of the Canadian are exemptions from the effects of

summer drouth. In point of salubrity, the country is not inferior to

other portions of the Indian territory.

The government of the Creeks is still essentially the same which they

exercised on the banks of the Chattahoochee and the plains of Georgia.

They exist in chieftainships, each head of which has his own local

jurisdiction, civil and criminal. Each ruling chief has his village and

his adherents; and the condition of things partakes of what we shall be

understood by designating feudal traits. They have no written

constitution; their laws are, however, now reduced in part to writing.

General councils, or conventions, not exact in the period of their

occurrence, consider and decide all general questions. At these, the

chieftainships are all entitled to representation. Local questions, of

right and police, come before the local chiefs, and are settled

according to usage. They adhere to the original mode of working common

or town fields, at which it is the duty of all to assist, both in the

original clearing and in the annual labor of planting and reaping. There

are also individuals, possessing slaves, who manage pretty extensive

plantations. More corn is raised by this tribe than by any other now

located West. Over and above their own wants, they have for several

years had a large amount for sale and exportation. Less attention has

been paid to the raising of stock, for which, indeed, the country has

been deemed less propitious; but this branch of industry has of late

years attracted more attention.

The Creeks had, for many years prior to their removal, been divided into

_upper and lower towns_--a distinction which has been transferred to the

West. Opothleyoholo is the chief of the Upper, and Roly McIntosh of the

Lower Creeks. These two chieftainships embrace the lesser ones, and

divide the nation into two parties. It was the Lower towns, headed by

the father of the present chief (whose tragic death we have mentioned),

that ceded the Georgian territory, and thus sided in the policy of that

State. The condition in which this tribe existed, in portions of

Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, was, in other respects, peculiar. In

emerging, as they were well in the process of doing, from the _hunter_

to the _agricultural_ state, the institution of slavery, by which they

were surrounded, and in which they participated, gave a peculiar

development to their industry. Chiefs, who were averse to work

themselves, employed slaves, and thus the relation of planter and slave

was established long before the question of their removal occurred. The

effects of this were to exalt a portion of the nation above, and to

depress others below, the average standing. The disparity which took

place in laborious habits and in wealth, also impressed itself on

education, dress, manners, and information generally. Although the idea

of slavery was well known to the red race from the earliest times, and

they all have a word for it, in their native vocabularies, and practised

it on their prisoners, yet the result we are considering was accelerated

by an admixture of European blood in their chieftains. Hence it is that

this tribe, and one or two others in the south, have for years been able

to put forth intelligent chiefs to transact their public business, who

have astonished the circles at Washington. Yet, if they were followed to

the huts of the common people, at home, there was a degree of ignorance

and barbarity, even below the standard of our leading northern tribes.

Two kinds of testimony, respecting the condition of the southern tribes,

both very different, and both true, could therefore be given.

The Creeks came west, soured and disappointed, and but little disposed

for the effort before them. They had suffered in various ways, and they

had left the southern slopes and sunny valleys of the southern

Alleganies with "a longing, lingering look." They had never manifested a

general interest in schools, and none whatever in religion. The latter

is still the prevalent feeling. It is believed there is not a missionary

now tolerated among them. There is a more friendly feeling towards

education. Neither had they made much advance in mechanic arts. The

chiefs were too proud, the common people too indolent, to learn the use

of the saw or the hammer. Some change, in this respect, is thought to

have ensued. Mechanics are employed for their benefit and at their

charges, by the government, which must introduce the elements of

mechanical industry. They dress in a rather gaudy, but picturesque

manner. They live in comfortable houses of squared or scored logs,

fitted up with useful articles of furniture, and they employ beasts of

burthen and of pleasure. It is the evidence of the government agents,

that the signs of advancing thrift and industry are among them. Time

alone, it is believed, is necessary, with a perseverance in present

efforts, to carry them onwards to civilisation and prosperity.[48]

4. Seminoles. This tribe is of the language and lineage of the Creeks.

They are appropriately placed on a tract within the general area of the

latter, bounded on the south by the Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and

by the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The tract has an extent of

seventy miles from east to west, and is fully adequate to their wants. A

blacksmith's shop is maintained for them; they are furnished with

agricultural implements, and have been gratuitously subsisted, as other

tribes, one year, at the public expense. It is thought to be unfavorable

to their progress, that they have been allowed to migrate, with their

slaves, who are averse to labor and exert a paralysing influence on

their industry. This tribe is far behind the other southern tribes in

civilisation and manners. They occupied, while in Florida, a region

truly tropical in its climate, and which yielded spontaneously no

unimportant part of their subsistence, in the arrowroot and in sea fish.

Their chief product thus far, in the west, has been corn. They live

under the authority of local chiefs, who, as in all their past history,

exercise influence in proportion to their talents and courage. Their

withdrawal from scenes and situations which served as nurseries of idle,

savage habits, and their association with the other leading tribes, who

are now bent on supporting themselves exclusively by agriculture, have

been favorable. They have been at peace since their arrival on the

waters of the Arkansas; and it is anticipated that they will, by example

and emulation, assimilate themselves in industry with the pre-existing

tribes. It has already been demonstrated that they will sustain

themselves in their new field of labor. But few of their numbers--from

the last accounts not exceeding 100[49]--now remain in Florida.