Feb. 3d. Mr. Robert Stuart writes, from Brooklyn, in relation to the revival in a portion of the inhabitants of this island, among whom he has so long lived, in terms of Christian sympathy. Mackinack is a point where, to amass "silver and gold," has been the great struggle of men from the earliest days of our history. Few places on the continent have been so celebrated a locality, for so long a period, of wild and unlicensed enjoyment, for both burgeois and voyageur engaged in the perilous and adventuresome business of the fur trade. Those who speak of its history during the last half of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, depict the periods of the annual return of the traders from their wintering stations in the great panorama of the wilderness, east, west, north, and south, as a perfect carnival, in which eating and drinking and wild carousals prevailed. The earnings of a year were often spent in a week or a day. As to practical morality, it was regarded by the higher order of "merchant-voyageurs" as something spoken of in books, but not worth the while of a bon vivant. The common hands, who paddled canoes and underwent the drudgery of the trade (who were exclusively of the lower order of Canadian peasantry), squared their moral accounts once a year with a well-conducted confessional interview and a crown, and felt as happy as the "Christian Pilgrim" when he had been relieved of his burden. It would, probably, be wrong to say that the lordly Highlander, the impetuous son of Erin, or the proud and independent Englishman, who vied with each other in feats of sumptuous hospitality during these periods of relaxation, did much better on the score of moral responsibilities. They broke, generally, nine out of the ten commandments without a wince, but kept the other very scrupulously, and would flash up and call their companions to a duel who doubted them on that point. But of the practical things of religion, as they are depicted by Paul and the Apostles, they lived in utter disregard; these things were laid aside, like the heavier parts of Dr. Drowsy's sermon, for "some more fitting opportunity," that is to say, till a fortune was secured from the avails of "skins and peltries," and they returned triumphantly to the precincts of civilized and Christian society. Of the wild and picturesque Indian, who was ever a man most scrupulous of rites and ceremonies, it was hardly deemed worth inquiry whether he had a soul, or whether the deity of the elements, whom he worshiped under the name of the Great Spirit, was not, in the language of the Universalist Poet, "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

A society which, like that of Michilimackinack, was based on such a state of affairs but a few years back, could hardly be regarded without strong solicitude, for my correspondent had been a witness, in the first revival under Mr. Ferry, in 1828, of which he was himself a subject, that there is a "POWER that breaketh the flinty heart in pieces, who also giveth freely and upbraideth not." Most, of the subjects of hope at this time were, however, of a younger growth and a more recent type of migration. "May the spirit of Lord Jesus Christ," is his pious remark, "be with, and direct you all in the great work of leading souls into the kingdom of his grace! It is a fearful responsibility, but if you look to him, and him alone, for guidance, he will bless and prosper your efforts."

19th. Rev. David Greene, Missionary Rooms, Boston, discusses in a letter of this date, some questions respecting the policy and high function of missionary labor—the present state of the Mackinack mission; and the character and fitness of educated persons of the native stocks for evangelists, which are of high importance. He remarks:—

"All you write respecting the impropriety of being disheartened—the demand of the Indians on our church, and candidates for missionary service—the necessity of withdrawing our dependence for success and the work of converting men, from any particular human instruments, and placing them on God alone; and the propriety of having missionaries released from secular cares and labors, as far as practicable, accords perfectly with my own views, and, so far as I know, with those entertained by our committee.

"But the difficulty, after all, remains, of obtaining suitable persons to carry forward our plans—of making our young men feel that they ought to turn away from the millions, in the populous nations of Asia, and go among our scattered tribes. Here is our whole ground of discouragement. So far as conversions are concerned (and these are the great objects of a missionary's labor), none of our missions have been more successful than those among the Indians; and if we had a hundred men of the spirit and activity of David Brainerd, or Eliot, I should have the strongest expectations that all our Indian tribes would be converted without great delay. But we have no prospect of obtaining them. I fear there are few such in our churches.

"I think that the mission of Mackinack has been a very successful one, especially in exerting an extensive religious influence, and being, as you justly remark, 'the nucleus of Christianity in the north-west.' How far the recent changes in the arrangements of the American Fur Company are going to affect its importance in these respects and others, I cannot say, but our Committee are by no means disposed to relinquish it, while there is a hope of doing sufficient good there to justify the keeping up of the requisite establishment. The farm we do not wish to retain, if we can sell it at a reasonable price. All the secular affairs we would be glad to reduce, and intend to do it as soon as it can be done without too great sacrifice of property. The family, we know, is too large, and we hope it may be reduced; but there are some impediments in the way of doing it at once, especially as the females there have been worn out in the service, and possess a genuine missionary spirit. We desire to obtain a missionary, and have made many inquiries for one, but hear of none with whom the church and other residents, together with the visitors at Mackinack, would be satisfied.

"As to a school for evangelists and teachers. Do you think, dear sir, that the persons of Indian descent could now be found, possessed of piety, talents, good character, and a disposition to take this course of life, in sufficient numbers to justify giving the school such a turn? Or, are there youths sufficiently promising, though not pious, with whose education you would think it advisable to proceed, hoping that, by the blessings of God, they would be converted and made heralds of mercy to their red brethren? I have supposed there were not, and that an attempt of this kind would almost certainly prove abortive. A more detailed knowledge of facts, which you are in a situation to possess, might change my opinion. There is nothing we more desire and labor for, at all our missions, than good native helpers. They are an invaluable acquisition, but our experience teaches us that they are exceedingly rare. Not one educated heathen youth in ten, even if pious when he commences his studies, has been found fit for an office requiring judgment, good common sense, and energy of character. Still we do not think that this ought to deter us from attempts to raise up native teachers and evangelists. Most of the work of converting the heathen nations must unquestionably be performed by them. If the opening should seem fair, we would try it at Mackinack."

28th. In a letter from Mr. Duponceau, respecting the publication of my lectures on the grammatical structure of the Chippewa language, he communicates the latest philological news in this and other parts of the world, respecting the Indian languages.

"You will not be a little astonished that a translation of the Bible is now making at Rome into the Algonquin (which I presume to be the same, or nearly the same as the Chippewa) language, under the auspices of the present Pope, Gregory XVI. The translator is a French missionary, who has long resided among those Indians in Canada. He has written a grammar and dictionary of that idiom, which he writes me he is shortly going to put to press. It will be curious to compare that grammar and that dictionary with your own, and to see how far the two languages, the Algonquin and the Chippewa, agree with or differ from each other. When I was in Canada I heard much of this Mr. Thavenet, the name of that missionary. He enjoys a great reputation in this country, and it seems he has obtained the favor of the Pope.

"We have in this city a Mexican gentleman, Don Manuel Najera, a man of letters, well skilled in the Mexican and other Indian languages of that country. He says they are all, as I call them, polysynthetic, and resemble in that respect those of the Indians of the United States. One only he excepts, the Othomi, and that, he says, is monosyllabic, like the Chinese. He has translated into it, from the Greek, the eleventh Ode of Anacreon, which I am going to present to the Philosophical Society. He has added grammatical notes, which are extremely curious. He has also written in Latin, several interesting dissertations on other Mexican idioms, also for the society, which I expect will be published in their transactions, either in the original or in a translation. He is greatly pleased with your specimen of a Chippewa grammar. He understands English very well, also French, Italian, and, of course, his native Spanish.

"The philosophy of our Indian languages has become very fashionable among the learned in Europe. The Institute of France has offered a premium of a gold medal, of the value of 1200 francs, for the best essay on the grammatical construction of the family of North American languages, of which the Chippewa, the Delaware and Mohegan are considered the principal branches, of course including the Iroquois, Wyandot, Naudowessie, &c. The premium is to be awarded on the 1st of May next. I would have informed you of it at the time, if it had not been made a sine qua non that the memoirs should be written in Latin or French. I have, therefore, ventured on sending one, in which I have availed myself of your excellent grammar, giving credit for it, as in duty bound. I have literally translated what you say at the beginning of your first and of your second lecture, which will be found the best part of my work, as it is impossible to describe the character of those languages with more clearness and elegance."

10th. A young gentleman (Mr. W. Fred. Williams) spent a few days at my house, at Michilimackinack, much to our gratification, and, it seems from a kind letter of this date, written from Buffalo, also to his own. He sends me a box of geological specimens, and a Chinese idol, and some sticks of frankincense—just received by him from a relative, who is a missionary in Canton, as an offering of remembrance. The heart is gratified with friendly little interchanges of respect, and it is a false sense of human dignity that prevents their instant acknowledgment. We study, read, investigate, compare, experiment, judge as philosophers, but we live as men—as common men. Facts move or startle the judgment; but such little things as the gift of even an apple, or a smiling friendly countenance, appeal to the heart.

13th. My article for the Theological Review was well received. "It was in time," says the editor, "for the March number, and you will receive it in a few days. I read it, and so did the committee, with the highest satisfaction. It contains much new information relating to the superstitions of the Indians, and is well calculated to have the effect you designed, of awakening the interest of the Christian community in behalf of our aborigines. I was particularly gratified with the coincidence of your judgment with the opinion I have entertained for some years, respecting the reality of Satanic influence at the present time. We intend shortly to publish on this point."

This is a point incidentally brought out, in the examination of the aged converted jossakeed, or prophet of the Ottawa nation, called Chusco. He insisted, and could not be made, to waver from the point, that Satanic influences alone helped him to perform his tricks of jugglery, particularly the often noted one of shaking and agitating the tight-wound pyramidal, oracular lodge. No cross-questioning could make him give up this explanation. He avowed, that, aside of his incantations, he had no part in the matter, and never put his hands to the poles. It resulted, as the only conclusion to be drawn from this instance of his art, that the Satanic influence, although invisible, was veritably present, adapting itself to the devices of the Indian priesthood, for the purpose of deceiving the tribe. I reported this to his pastor who had admitted his evidences of faith, who replied, on reflection, that this was the Gospel doctrine, which was everywhere disclosed by the New Testament, which depicts the "Prince of the Power of the Air" as really present and free to act in the deception of men and nations, the world over. If so, we should no longer wonder at human crime and folly. Murders and robberies of the blackest dye become intelligible. And every plan of false prophecy, from the Arabian, who has enslaved half Asia, to the simple performer of forest juggling on the banks of Lakes Huron and Michigan, is explained as with beams of light.

31st. A Mr. H. Howe, of Worcester, Mass., writes, wishing to be informed of same stream of the Upper Mississippi, having sufficient water power, with pine timber, and means of ready issue into the Mississippi, to furnish a suitable site for a saw-mill. The question is readily answered: there are many such, but it is entirely Indian country, and cannot be entered for such a purpose without violating the Indian intercourse act, which it is a part of my duty, as an Indian Agent, to enforce. It would be a trespass, subjecting him to a suit in the U.S. District Court. I replied to him, stating these views.

April 7th. The dispute with Ohio, respecting our southern boundary, grows warmer, and is fomented, on her part, by speculators in public lands on the western shores of Maumee Bay. Otherwise it could be easily settled. The mere historical and geographical question, as founded on the language of the Ordinance of 1787, would appear to leave the right with Michigan. Ohio legislation, or constitutional encroachment, could not surely overrule an act of Congress. "The difficulty with Ohio," says Major W., of Detroit, "is of a threatening character. It is not now, perhaps, any nearer adjustment that at any previous stage, although pacificators have been sent on by the President. But the 'million of freemen' State does not think it comports with her dignity to desist, or vacate Michigan, is prepared for war, and is determined to proceed to blood if need be. Gov. Cass will be here, it is said on good authority, in May or June. Political divisions here, unfortunately, run too high for a proper convention. Party feeling has governed exclusively, in a case where they, perhaps, can have no operation. Whoever goes into the convention will probably have nearly the same views, and it would have been well to have sent the best and most intelligent. But, on the whole, probably three-fourths of the members will find it as new business as if they were to undertake astronomy."

14th. Charles Fotheringay, of Toronto, U.C., issues and forwards a circular headed "Lyceum of Natural History and the Fine Arts." The object is to found, in that city, a cabinet which shall do justice to the claims of science and philosophical learning on this subject.



CHAPTER LIV.

Requirements of a missionary laborer—Otwin—American quadrupeds—Geological question—Taste of an Indian chief for horticulture—Swiss missionaries to the Indians—Secretary of War visits the island—Frivolous literary, diurnal, and periodical press—Letter of Dr. Ives on this topic—Lost boxes of minerals and fresh-water shells—Geological visit of Mr. Featherstonehaugh and Lieut. Mather—Mr. Hastings—A theological graduate.

April 21st. Missionary labor requires an energy and will that surmount aft obstacles and brave all climates and all risks. A feeble constitution, a liability to take colds on every slight change of temperature, a sick wife who fears to put her feet on the ground, are the very last things to bring on to the frontiers. The risks must be run; the determined mind makes a way for everything. To ponder and doubt on a thousand points which may occur on such a subject, is something in effect like asking a bond of the Lord, in addition to his promises, that he will preserve the man and his family in all scenes of sickness and dangers, in the forest and out of the forest, scathless. Such a man has no call clearly for the work; but he may yet labor efficiently at home. There is a species of moral heroism required for the true missionary, such as Brainerd and Henry Martin felt.

These feelings result from a letter of this date, written by a reverend gentleman of Phillipsburg, N.Y., whose mind has been directed to the Mackinack field. He puts too many questions respecting the phenomena of temperature, the liability to colds, and the general diseases of the country, for one who has fearlessly "put on the whole armor of God," to invade the heathen wilderness. The truth is, in relation to this position, the climate is generally dry, and has no causes of disease in it. The air is a perfect restorative to invalids, and never fails to provoke appetite and health. It is already a partial resort for persons out of health, and cannot fail to be appreciated as a watering place in the summer months as the country increases in population. To Chicago, St. Louis, Natchez, and New Orleans, as well as Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Buffalo, I should suppose it to be a perfect Montpelier in the summer season.

May 6th. In the scenes of domestic and social and moral significancy, which have rendered the island a place of delight to many persons during the seclusion of the winter, no one has entered with a more pleasing zeal into the area than a young man whose birth, I think, was not far from the Rock of Plymouth. I shall call him Otwin. I invited him to pass the winter as a guest in my house, where his conversation, manners, and deep enthusiastic and poetic feeling, and just discrimination of the moral obligation in men, rendered him an agreeable inmate. He had a saying and a text for almost everybody, but uttered all he said in such a pleasing spirit as to give offence to none. He was ever in the midst of those who came together to sing and pray, and was quite a favorite with the soldiers of the garrison. He wrote during the season some poetic sketches of Bible scenes, which he sent by a friend to New York in the hope that they might merit publication. Dr. Ives, of N.Y., to whom I wrote in relation to them, put the manuscript into the hands of the Sabbath School Publishing Committee, which appeared to be a judicious disposition. It was, probably, thought to require something more than moral didactic dialogues to justify the experiment of printing them. Otwin himself went into the missionary field of Lake Superior.

10th. The Indians have brought me at various times the skins of a white deer, of an Arctic fox, of a wolverine, and some other species which have either past out of their usual latitudes or assumed some new trait. Elks' and deers' horns, the foot, horns, and skin of the cariboo, which is the C. Sylvestris, are deposited in my cabinet, and are mementos of their gifts from the forest. One of the questions hardest for the Christian geologist to solve is—how the animals of our forests got to America. For there is every evidence, both from the Sacred Record and from the examination of the strata, that the ancient disruption was universal, and destroyed the species and genera which could not exist in water. One of two conditions of the globe seems necessary, on the basis of the Pentateuch, to account for their migration—either that a continental connection existed, or that the seas in northern latitudes were frozen over. But, in the latter case, how did the tropical animals subsist and exist? The Polar bear, the Arctic fox, and the musk ox would do well enough; but how was the armadillo, the cougar, the lama, and even the bison to fare?

This question is far more difficult to solve than that of the migration of the aborigines, for they could cross in various ways; but quadrupeds could not come in boats. Birds could fly from island to island, snakes and dogs might swim, but how came the sloth and the other quadrupeds of the torrid zone? Who can assert that there has not been a powerful disruptive geological action in the now peaceable Pacific? It is replete with volcanic powers.

15th. Chabowawa, an Indian chief, a Chippewa, called to get some slips of the currant-bush from my garden, to take to his village. Although the buds were too near the point of expansion, in the open and sunny parts of the garden, some slips were found near the fences more backward, and he was thus supplied.

25th. I have long deliberated what I should do with my materials, denoting a kind of oral literature among the Chippewas and other tribes, in the shape of legends and wild tales of the imagination. The narrations themselves are often so incongruous, grotesque, and fragmentary, as to require some hand better than mine, to put them in shape. And yet, I feel that nearly all their value, as indices of Indian imagination, must depend on preserving their original form. Some little time since, I wrote to Washington Irving on the subject. In a response of this date, he observes:—

"The little I have seen of our Indian tribes has awakened an earnest anxiety to know more concerning them, and, if possible, to embody some of their fast-fading characteristics and traditions in our popular literature. My own personal opportunities of observing them must, necessarily, be few and casual; but I would gladly avail myself of any information derived from others who have been enabled to mingle among them, and capacitated to perceive and appreciate their habits, customs, and moral qualities. I know of no one to whom I would look with more confidence, in these respects, than to yourself; and, I assure you, I should receive as high and unexpected favors any communication of the kind you suggest, that would aid me in furnishing biographies, tales or sketches, illustrative of Indian life, Indian character, and Indian mythology and superstitions."

I had never regarded these manuscripts, gleaned from the lodges with no little pains-taking, as mere materials to be worked up by the literary loom, although the work should be done by one of the most popular and fascinating American pens. I feared that the roughness, which gave them their characteristic originality and Doric truthfulness, would be smoothed and polished off to assume the shape of a sort of Indo-American series of tales; a cross between the Anglo-Saxon and the Algonquin.

28th. Switzerland enters the missionary field of America for the purpose of improving the condition of the aborigines. This impressed me as well. We leave the red man sitting in every want, at our doors, and rush to India. It is true, that field counts its millions, where we can thousands. But an appeal to the missionary record shows, if I am not greatly mistaken, that the proportionate number of converts from an Indian tribe is greater than that of the tribes of Asia, and that an infinitely greater sum is expended by our churches for every convert to Christianity made among the heathen of Asia than of America. The Rev. Henry Olivier, from the Evangelical Society in Switzerland, visited me, this day, with a companion in his labors. He detailed to me his plans. It is his design to select the Dacotah tribe, on the Upper Mississippi, as the object of his exertions.

June 2d. Commenced setting new pickets in front of the agency lot, and removing the old ones of white cedar, which, tradition says, have stood near half a century.

15th. The editors of the Knickerbocker Magazine (Clark and Edson) solicit contributions to its pages. This periodical has always maintained a respectable rank, and appears destined to hold on its course. I am too far out of the world to judge well. The conflict of periodicals appears to increase; but I do not think that the number of sound readers, who seek useful knowledge, keeps pace with it. I think not. We seem to be on the eve of a light and trifling kind of literature, which is hashed up with condiments for weak stomachs.

July 2d. The weather, for the entire month of June, was most delightful and charming. On one of the latter days of the month the fine and large steamer "Michigan" came into the harbor, with a brilliant throng of visitors, among the number the Secretary of War (Gen. Cass) and his daughter. The arrival put joy and animation into every countenance. The Secretary reviewed the troops, and visited the Agency, and the workshops for the benefit of the Indians. He, and the gay and brilliant throng, visited whatever was curious and interesting, and embarked on their return to Detroit, after receiving the warm congratulations of the citizens. I took the occasion to accompany the party to Detroit.

4th. The debasing character of the light and popular literature which is coming into vogue, is happily alluded to in a casual letter from Dr. A.W. Ives, of New York. "I regret," he says, "that the well directed labors of the excellent Otwin cannot be made available, but the truth is, there is such an unspeakable mass of matter written for the press at the present day, that all of it cannot be printed, much less be read. I think it one of the great toils of the age. Indolence is a natural attribute of man, and he dislikes intellectual even more than physical toil. Most men read, therefore, only such things as require no thought, and consequently there is a bounty offered for the most frivolous literary productions....

"Your isolated position prevents your realizing, to its greatest extent, the evil of this superfluity of books; but if you were constantly receiving from thirty to forty daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals, besides one or more ponderous volumes, every week, I cannot but think that, with all your ambition and thirst for knowledge, you would wish rather for an Alexandrian conflagration than an increase of books.

"Every man who thinks he has a new thought, or striking thought, thinks himself justified in writing a volume. Of this I would not complain if he would have the ingenuousness to inform the reader, in a nota bene, on what page the new idea could be found, so that, if he paid for the book, he should be spared the trouble of hunting for the kernel in the bushel of compiled and often incongruous chaff, in which the author has dexterously hid it.

"But the labor and expense of new publications are the least of their evils. You cannot imagine what an influence is exerted, in this city, at the present time, by 'penny newspapers.' There are from fifteen to twenty, I believe, published daily, and not less on an average, I presume, than 5000 copies of each. A number of them strike off from 10,000 to 20,000 every day. They have no regular subscribers, or at least, they do not depend upon subscribers for a support. They are hawked about the streets, the steamboats and taverns by boys, and are, for the most part, extravagant stories, caricature descriptions, police reports, infidel vulgarity and profanity, and, in short, of just such matter as unprincipled, selfish, and bad men know to be best fitted to pamper the appetites and passions of the populace, and so uproot and destroy all that is valuable and sacred in our literary, civil, and religious institutions.

"A spirit of ultraism seems to pervade the whole community. The language of Milton's archdevil 'Evil, be thou my good,' is the creed of modern reformers, or, in other words—anything for a change. What is to come of all this, I have not wisdom even to guess. It is an age of transition, and whether you and I live to see the elements of the moral and political world at rest, is, I think, extremely doubtful. But our consolation should be that the Lord reigns—that he loves good order and truth better than we do—and, blessed be his name, he is able to establish and maintain them.

"This is the anniversary of our national independence, and ought to be celebrated with thanksgiving and praise to God. Alas! how it is perverted."

22d. Mr. Green, of the Missionary Rooms, Boston, again writes about the Mackinack Mission. "I believe that my views accord very nearly with your own, as to what it would be desirable to do, provided the suitable persons could be procured to perform the work. There is a great deficiency in well qualified laborers. We can generally obtain persons who will answer our purpose, if we will wait long enough, but it often happens, in the mean time, that the circumstances so change that the proposed plan becomes of doubtful expediency. We have been continually on the lookout, since Mr. Ferry left Mackinack, for some one to fill his place, but as yet have found no one, and have no one in view."

28th. Mr. W. Fred. Williams, of Buffalo, communicates information respecting three boxes of specimens of natural history, which I lost in the fall of 1821. "My conversation with you having made me acquainted with the fact that you once lost two boxes of minerals and one of shells, I have been rather on the lookout for information respecting them, and am now able to inform you as to what became of them, and to correct the statement which I made (as I said) on supposition of the manner in which Edgerton became possessed of them.

"In the spring of 1832, a stranger from Troy or Albany came to Mr. Edgerton, at Utica, and told him that he had two boxes of minerals which he had received from Mr. Schoolcraft, and that if he (E.) would label them, he (E.) might take what he wished to retain for his trouble. He said, also, that he was about to establish a school at Lockport, but, knowing nothing of mineralogy, he wished to get the specimens labeled. Mr. Edgerton unpacked the boxes, took a few for himself, labeled and repacked the rest, and returned them to the stranger.

"The box of shells was left at the tavern of Levi Cozzens, in Utica, where they remained two years, waiting for some one to claim them; about this time Mr. C., closing up his concern, opened the box and gave the shells to his children for playthings, and sent the mocock of sugar (which had your name on or about it) to his mother. If the person who had the minerals still remains at Lockport, perhaps they may be recovered, but the shells are all destroyed."

The minerals referred to consisted of choice and large specimens of the colored and crystaline fluates of lime from Illinois, and the attractive species and varieties of sulphates of barytes, sulphurets of lead, radiated quartz, &c. &c., from Missouri, which I had revisited in 1821. They were fine cabinet specimens, but contained no new species or varieties. Not so with the fresh-water shells. They embraced all the species of the Wabash River, whose entire length I had traversed that year, from its primary forks to its entrance into the Ohio. Among them were some new things, which would, at that time, have proved a treat to my conchological friends.

8th. Mukonsewyan, or the Little Bear Skin, visited the office, with a retinue. He asked whether any Indians from the Fond du Lac, or Upper Mississippi, had visited the office this season. I stated to him the renewal of hostilities between the Sioux and Chippewas, as a probable reason why they had not. He entered freely into conversation on the history of the Sioux, and spoke of their perfidy to the Chippewas. I asked him if they were as treacherous to the Americans as they had been to the British—several of whose traders they had in former days killed. He said he had seen the Sioux offenders of that day, encamped at Mackinack, while the British held it, under the guns of the fort, and all the Indians expected that they would have been seized. But they were suffered to retire unmolested.

14th. I went to Round Island with Mr. Featherstonehaugh and Lieut. Mather. Examined the ancient ossuaries and the scenery on that island. Mr. F. is on his way to the Upper Mississippi as a geologist in the service of the Topographical Bureau. He took a good deal of interest in examining my cabinet, and proposed I should exchange the Lake Superior minerals for the gold ores of Virginia, &c. He showed me his idea of the geological column, and drew it out. I accompanied him around the island, to view its reticulated and agaric filled limestone cliffs; but derived no certain information from him of the position in the geological scale of this very striking stratum. It is, manifestly, the magnesian limestone of Conybeare and Phillips, or muschelkalk of the Germans.

Lieut. Mather brought me a letter from Major Whiting, from which I learn that he has been professor of mineralogy in the Military Academy at West Point. I found him to be animated with a zeal for scientific discovery, united with accurate and discriminating powers of observation.

Among my visitors about this time, none impressed me more pleasingly than a young gentleman from Cincinnati—a graduate of Lane Seminary—a Mr. Hastings, who brought me a letter from a friend at Detroit. He appeared to be imbued with the true spirit of piety, to be learned in his vocation without ostentation, and discriminating without ultraism. And he left me, after a brief stay, with an impression that he was destined to enter the field of moral instruction usefully to his fellow-men, believing that it is far better to undertake to persuade than to drive men by assault, as with cannon, from their strongholds of opinion.



CHAPTER LV.

Rage for investment in western lands—Habits of the common deer—Question of the punishment of Indian murders committed in the Indian country—A chief calls to have his authority recognized on the death of a predecessor—Dr. Julius, of Prussia—Gen. Robert Patterson—Pressure of emigration—Otwin—Dr. Gilman and Mr. Hoffman—Picturesque trip to Lake Superior—Indians desire to cede territory—G.W. Featherstonehaugh—Sketch of his geological reconnoisance of the St. Peter's River—Dr. Thomas H. Webb—Question of inscriptions on American rocks—Antiquities—Embark for Washington, and come down the lakes in the great tempest of 1835.

1835. August. The rage for investment in lands was now manifest in every visitor that came from the East to the West. Everybody, more or less, yielded to it. I saw that friends, in whose prudence and judgment I had confided for years, were engaged in it. I doubted the soundness of the ultra predictions which were based on every sort of investment of this kind, whether of town property or farming land, and held quite conservative opinions on the subject, but yielded partially, and in a moderate way, to the general impulse, by making some investments in Wisconsin. Among other plans, an opinion arose that Michilimackinack must become a favorite watering place, or refuge for the opulent and invalids during the summer; and lots were eagerly bought up from Detroit and Chicago.

17th. I embarked in a steamer for Green Bay—where I attended the first land sales, and made several purchases. While there, I remarked the curious fluctuations in the level of the waters at the mouth of Fox River. The lake (Michigan) and the bay appear to hold the relation of separate parts of a syphon. It was now fourteen years since I had first noticed this phenomenon, as a member of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi. While at Green Bay I procured a young fawn, and carried it to be a tenant of my garden and grounds. This animal grew to its full size, and revealed many interesting traits. Its motions were most graceful. It was perfectly tame. It would walk into the hall and dining-room, when the door was open, and was once observed to step up, gracefully, and take bread from the table. It perambulated the garden walks. It would, when the back-gate was shut, jump over a six feet picket fence, with the ease and lightness of a bird.

Some of its instincts were remarkable. At night it would choose its place of lying down invariably to the leeward of an object which sheltered it from the prevailing wind. One of its most remarkable instincts was developed with respect to ladies. On one occasion, while an unattended lady was walking up the avenue from my front gate to the door, through the garden grounds, the animal approached from behind, in the gentlest manner possible, and placed his fore feet on her shoulders. This happened more than once. Its propensity to eat plum leaves at last banished it from the garden. It was then allowed to visit distant parts of the island, and, at length, some vicious person broke one of its legs, from its propensity to browse on the young leaves of fruit trees. This was fatal to it, and I was induced to allow its being shot, after it had been an inmate of my grounds for about three years, where it was familiarly known to all by the name of Nimmi.

Poor Nimmi, some are hanged for being thieves, But thou, poor beast! wast killed for eating leaves.

24th. I received instructions from Washington respecting recent murders of Chippewas by the Sioux. This is a constantly recurring topic for the action of an Indian agent. Unfortunately, his powers in the matter are only advisory. The intercourse act does not declare it a crime for one Indian nation to make reprisals, club in hand, on another Indian nation, on the area in which their sovereignty is acknowledged. It only makes it a criminal offence to kill a white man in such a position, for which his nation can be invaded, and the murderer seized and delivered up to justice.

28th. Ottawance, chief of the Beaver Islands, died last summer (1834). Kin-wa-be-kiz-ze, or Man of the Long Stone (noun inanimate), called to day, and announced himself as the successor, and asked for the usual present of tobacco, &c. By this recognition of the office, his authority was sought to be confirmed.

29th. Dr. Julius, of Prussia, visited me, being on his return from Chicago. He evinced a deep interest in the history of the Indian race. He remarked the strong resemblance they bore in features and manners to the Asiatics. He had remarked that the Potawattomies seem like dogs, which he observed was also the custom of the Tartars; but that the eyes of the latter were set diagonally, whereas the American Indians had theirs parallel. In other respects, he saw great resemblances. He expressed himself as greatly interested in the discovery of an oral literature among the Indians, in the form of imaginative legends.

Gen. Robert Patterson, of Philadelphia, with his daughter and niece, make a brief visit, on their way from Chicago and the West, and view the curiosities of the island. These visits of gentlemen of wealth, to the great area of the upper lakes, may be noticed as commencing with this year. People seem to have suddenly waked up in the East, and are just becoming aware that there is a West—to which they hie, in a measure, as one who hunts for a pleasant land fancied in dreams. But the great Mississippi Valley is a waking reality. Fifty years will tell her story on the population and resources of the world.

Sept. 12th. Received instructions from the Department, to ascertain whether the Indians north of Grand River would sell their lands, and on what terms. The letter to which this was a reply was the first official step in the causes which led to the treaty of March 28th, 1836. A leading step in the policy of the Department respecting the tribes of the Upper Lakes.

15th. The great lakes can no longer be regarded as solitary seas, where the Indian war-whoop has alone for so many uncounted centuries startled its echoes. The Eastern World seems to be alive, and roused up to the value of the West. Every vessel, every steamboat, brings up persons of all classes, whose countenances the desire of acquisition, or some other motive, has rendered sharp, or imparted a fresh glow of hope to their eyes. More persons, of some note or distinction, natives or foreigners, have visited me, and brought me letters of introduction this season, than during years before. Sitting on my piazza, in front of which the great stream of ships and commerce passes, it is a spectacle at once novel, and calculated to inspire high anticipations of the future glory of the Mississippi Valley.

Oct. 5th. Washington Irving responds, in the kindest terms, to my letter transmitting some manuscript materials relative to the Indian history.

12th. Mr. Green, of Boston, wrote me on the 8th instant unfavorably to the stability of the Christian character of my friend Otwin, whom I had recommended to the Board for employment in the missionary field in Lake Superior, in connection with the missionary family at La Pointe. Mr. S. Hall, the head of that Mission, writes (Oct. 12th): "I am glad that the providence of God directed (him) this way, and trust his coming into this region will be for the interest of Zion's Kingdom here. He appears to be a man of faith and prayer. I trust he will be the means of stirring up to more diligence in the service of our Master." What greater aid could be given to a lone far off Indian mission, than "a man of faith and prayer." When an observer in the vast panorama of the West and North has seen a poor missionary and his family, living five-hundred miles from the nearest verge of civilization, solitary and desolate, surrounded with heathen red men, and worse than heathen white men, with none out of his little circle to honor God or appreciate his word, it is presumable to him that any reinforcement of help must be hailed as cold water to a parched tongue. Not that there is any supposed difference of opinion on the main question, between the Head and the forest hands, so to say, of the Board, but it is difficult, at Boston, to appreciate the disheartening circumstances surrounding the missionary in the field. And any youthful instability, or eccentricity of means in the way of advancing the Gospel, should be forgiven, for the cause, after years of experience, and not written against "a man of faith and prayer," as it appears to have been by the pastor of Middleburgh, as with a pen of iron.

14th. Pendonwa, son of Wahazo, a brother of the Ottawa chief, Wing, reports himself as electing to become "an American," and says he had so declared himself to Col. Boyd, the former Indian agent.

27th. Dr. C.R. Gilman, of New York, having, with Major M. Hoffman, of Wall Street, paid me a visit and made a picturesque "trip to the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior," writes me after his safe return to the city, piquing himself on that adventure, after having exchanged congratulations with his less enterprising cityloving friends. It was certainly an event to be booked, that two civilians so soldered down to the habits of city life in different lines as the Doctor and the Major, should have extended their summer excursion as far as Michilimackinack. But it was a farther evidence of enterprise, and the love of the picturesque, that they should have taken an Indian canoe, and a crew of engagees, at that point, and ventured to visit the Pictured Rocks in Lake Superior. "Life on the Lakes" (the title of Dr. G.'s book) was certainly a widely different affair to "Life in New York."

31st. Circumstances had now inclined the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes of Indians to cede to the United States a portion of their extensive territory. Game had failed in the greater part of it, and they had no other method of raising funds to pay their large outstanding credits to the class of traders, and to provide for an interval of transition, which must indeed happen, in view of their future improvement, between the hunter and agricultural state.

The Drummond Island band had, for a year or two, advocated a sale. The Ottawas of the peninsula determined to send a delegation to Washington on the subject. I could not hesitate as to the course which duty proscribed to me, under these important circumstances, and determined to proceed to Washington, although the Secretary and acting Governor of the Territory, Mr. Horner, on being consulted by letter, refused his assent to this step. His want of proper information on the subject, being but recently come to the territory, did not appear to be such as to justify me in remaining on the island, while the question had been carried by the Indians themselves to, and was, probably, to be decided at Washington before another season. I determined, therefore, to proceed to Washington, taking one of the latest vessels for the season, on their return from the ports on Lake Michigan.

Nov. 2d. Mr. Featherstonehaugh writes to me from Galena, on his return from his geological reconnoisance in the north-west, sketching some of the leading events of his progress:—

"Desirous of giving you a passing notice of my progress, I make time, a few moments' leisure, to say that, when I had entered the Terre Bleu River, which you remember is that tributary of the St. Peter's I was anxious to visit, I found I could not penetrate to the Coteau de Prairie from that quarter, and no resource was left to me but to return, or go about three hundred miles higher up, where I was aware I should meet a pretty insolent set of fellows amongst the Yanktons and Tetons. The Sioux, who had committed pretty bad Indian murders amongst the Chippewas, were in great numbers about Lac qui Parle, and there was no avoiding them. However, it was in the line of the duty I had undertaken, and I was willing to run some risks to see them. They were a precious set when I got to them, but by prudence and presents I got along with them, and, having began to sputter a little Sioux, I took courage, left my canoe and men there, and took a guide and interpreter and pushed on to Lac Traverse, and from thence to Coteau de Prairie, the head waters of the St. Peter's, and to within four days' march of the Mandan Village, Here I wheeled about back, afraid of winter. Indeed, on my arrival at Lac Traverse, the weather was bitterly cold, and wood and water were sometimes found with great difficulty, in the intermediate prairies. The day I left Fort Snelling, the thermometer was very low, the snow six or eight inches deep on the ground; in fact it was quite winter, and all were of opinion, at the fort, that ice would form and drive in a few days.

"I found Mr. Keating's account of the Mississippi, and especially of the St. Peter's, most surprisingly erroneous, and old Jonathan Carver's book, which he is constantly denouncing, very accurate.

"I ascertained, to my perfect satisfaction, the termination of the horizontal beds of sandstone of carboniferous limestone formation, and came upon the outcrop of the adjacent granite, just where I expected to find the primary rocks."

"You will greatly oblige me by communicating to me your opinion, approximatively, of the course held by the primary rocks south of Lake Superior, as far as you are acquainted with it, or with the edges of the secondary rocks, which have a junction line with, or near them. I found no primary rocks on my way from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien. The rocks in place at Fort Winnebago, are secondary sandstone of the carboniferous series."

2d. The question of "inscriptions" on rocks by the aborigines has recently attracted some attention. Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Providence, Rhode Island, in a letter of this date, notifying me of my election as an honorary member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, calls my attention to this subject. "In your last work," he remarks, "you allude to some hieroglyphics on a tree. Have you particularly examined any on rocks; and if so, were they mere paintings, or were they inscribed thereon? If the latter, in what manner do they appear to have been done—pecked in with a pointed instrument, or chizzled out? Are they simply representations of men and animals, without method in their arrangement, or combinations of these, with other characters bearing evidence of greater design? Will you be kind enough to furnish me with the locations of those with which you are acquainted? Is it possible for me to procure drawings of them? Do you know any one living near such rocks, whom I could hire to take copies of them, and upon the accuracy of whose work reliance can be placed?

"I do not wish finished views—correct drawings of the characters with a pen will be amply sufficient for my purposes; although I should not object to outlines of the rocks themselves. I would also ask if some of the 'relics of things that have passed away,' which are found so abundantly in the west, e.g., articles of pottery, iron and copper implements, &c., can be procured by purchase, or in the way of exchange for minerals, or in some other way?"

Imprimis—no "iron" implements have ever been found. Secondly, no observations not made by an antiquarian can be relied on.

9th. I embarked for Detroit, on board a schooner under command of an experienced navigator (Capt. Ward), just on the eve, unknown to us, of a great tempest, which rendered that season memorable in the history of wrecks on the great lakes. We had scarcely well cleared the light-house, when the wind increased to a gale. We soon went on furiously. Sails were reefed, and every preparation made to keep on our way, but the wind did not admit of it. The captain made every effort to hug the shore, and finally came to anchor in great peril, under the highlands of Sauble. Here we pitched terribly, and were momently in peril of being cast on shore. In the effort to work the ship, one of the men fell from the bowsprit, and passed under the vessel, and was lost. It was thought that our poor little craft must go to the bottom; it seemed like a chip on the ocean contending against the powers of the Almighty. It seemed as if, agreeably to Indian fable, Ishkwondameka himself was raising a tempest mountain high for some sinister purposes of his own. But, owing to the skill of the old lake mariner, we eventually triumphed. He never faltered in the darkest exigency. For a day and night he struggled against the elements, and finally entered the straits at Fort Gratiot, and he brought us safely into the port of our destination.

On reaching Detroit, the lateness of the season admonished me to lose no time in making my way over the stormy Erie to Buffalo, whence I pursued my journey to New York. I reached the latter city the day prior to the great fire, in December. I took lodgings at the Atlantic Hotel, which is near the foot of Broadway, and immediately west of the great scene of conflagration. The cold was so bitter while the fire raged that I could not long endure the open air, which seemed to be surcharged with oxygen. I reached Philadelphia the 19th, and Washington a day or two after.



CHAPTER LVI.

Florida war—Startling news of the Massacre of Dade—Peoria on the Illinois—Abanaki language—Oregon—Things shaping for a territorial claim—Responsibility of claim in an enemy's country—A true soldier—Southern Literary Messenger—Missionary cause—Resources of Missouri—Indian portfolio of Lewis—Literary gossip—Sir Francis Head—The Crane and Addik totem—Treaty of March 28th, 1836, with the Ottawas and Chippewas—Treaty with the Saginaws of May 20th—Treaty with the Swan Creek and Black River Chippewas of May 9th—Return to Michilimackinack—Death of Charlotte, the daughter of Songageezhig.

1836. The year opened with the portentous news of Indian hostilities. The massacre of Major Dade and his entire command on the waters of the Wythlacootche River in Florida, and the prospect of an Indian war in Florida, excited great sensation in all circles. I was at the Secretary of War's domicil one evening, when he first received and read out the shocking details. The same night troops were ordered to be put in motion from every point in the Union, to be concentrated in that territory; and the greatest activity pervaded the departments. Gen. Jackson expressed himself with energy on the subject. He had formerly conducted a successful campaign against the Seminoles, but he could not be persuaded that there were more than five hundred of this tribe in the whole territory. This led him to believe that the troops actually put in motion for the field of action, were fully adequate to cope with the enemy, and promptly to put them down.

Jan. 4th. The American Lyceum request me to prepare a paper for their sixth anniversary.

6th. I received a letter from my former pastor, Rev. J. Porter, at Peoria, Ill., denoting him to be in a new field of ministerial labor.

"I bade adieu to my dear people at Chicago, on the second Sabbath in November, and commenced my labors here on the fourth Sabbath of the same month—just four years from the day I first preached at the Sault.

"The town is on the north bank of Lake Peoria, which is an expansion of the Illinois. The site is one of the first in our land. The ground rises with a delightful slope from the water's edge for the distance of half a mile—then there is table land for another half mile back to a high bluff. The town began to be built about two years since; it has now a population of eight hundred and fifty."

A descendant of the great theologian Edwards, it is pleasing to note that this gentleman is destined to be employed in various fields, in diffusing Christianity through the great valley.

8th. Mr. Thomas L. Winthrop, of Boston, transmits me "the first volume of a new series of the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This volume, amongst other valuable matter, contains a Dictionary of the Abinaki Language of North America, by Father Sebastian Rasles."

10th. I addressed a memoir to the Secretary of War on the state of Indian affairs in Oregon. My position at St. Mary's being on the great line of communication between Montreal and the principal posts at Vancouver, &c., north of the Columbia, has afforded me opportunities of becoming familiar with the leading policy of the Hudson's Bay factors in relation to that region. The means pursued are such as must influence all the Indian tribes in that quarter strongly in favor of the political power wielded by that company, and as strongly against the government of the United States, which has not a shadow of a power of any kind on the Pacific. Silently, but surely, a vast influence is being built up on those coasts, adverse to our claims to the territory, and it cannot be long till those intrepid factors, sustained by the government at home, will assert it in a manner not easy to be resisted. I embodied these ideas strongly in my paper. The Secretary was arrested by the justice of my conclusions, and seemed disposed to do something, but the subject was, apparently, weighed down and forgotten in the press of other matters.

13th. Hon. E. Whittlesey, Chairman of the Committee on Claims, House of Representatives, remarks in effect, in a letter of this date, that to create a just claim against the United States, it must be shown that property and provisions taken by the troops, when operating in an enemy's country, were applied to the subsistence or clothing of the army or navy, although it was private property, and the orders of the commandant were, in all cases, to respect "private property." Consequently, that the disrespect of such orders might make the commander or his troops personally liable to amercement; but the government is not justly liable. Certainly, that officer is to be pitied whose sovereign will not stand by him in the execution of written orders! Nor do I see how the strict legality and morality of the question is to be got along with. May the government turn pirate with impunity? Does it war against women and children, and the ordinary private and domestic rights guaranteed to the citizen by the original rights of society defined in Blackstone?

14th. A soldier, in garrison at Fort Mackinack, writes to me, wishing, on the expiration of his term of enlistment, to become "a soldier of Christ," and to enter the missionary field. That is a good thought, Sergeant Humphrey Snow! Better to fight against human sins than to shoot down sinners.

18th. Dr. C.R. Gilman inquires, "Is the rock at Gros Cap granite? Can you give me particulars about the Indian fairies?"

27th. I am requested, from a high quarter, to furnish an article for the Southern Literary Messenger. "You are in for a scrape," says a gay note on the subject. "I have told Mr. White all about it. I am greatly obliged to you for relieving me." Truth is, I have never regarded the employment of literary time as thrown away. The discipline of the mind, induced by composition, is something, and it is surprising what may be done by a person who carefully "redeems" all his time. It does not, in the least, incapacitate him for business. It rather quickens his intellect for it.

Feb. 1st. My former agreeable guest at Mackinack (Rev. Geo. H. Hastings) writes me from Walnut Hills, Ohio: "There is a missionary spirit in our institution (Lane Seminary) that responds to the wants of the world. The faculty have pressed upon the minds of us all the duty of examining early the question, 'Ought I to be a missionary?'"

16th. My brother James writes from St. Mary's, foot of Lake Superior: "The month has been remarkably cold, the thermometer having ranged from 13 deg..23 to 38 deg. below zero. Snow we have had in great abundance."

17th. Hon. Lewis F. Linn, U.S. Senator, writes respecting the scientific character and resources of Missouri, in view of a project, matured by him, for establishing a western armory: "Your intimate knowledge of the Ozark Mountains, its streams descending north and south, and those passing through to the east, with its unequaled mineral resources, would be, to me, of infinite service, to accomplish the purpose I have in view, should you be so kind as to communicate them, in reference to this particular measure, and by so doing you would confer a lasting obligation."

The resources of Missouri in iron, lead, and coal, to which I first called attention in 1819, are of such a noble character as surely to require no bolstering from the effects of particular measures.

March 4th. Mr. J.O. Lewis, of Philadelphia, furnishes me seven numbers of his Indian Portfolio. Few artists have had his means of observation of the aboriginal man, in the great panorama of the west, where he has carried his easel. The results are given, in this work, with biographical notices of the common events in the lives of the chiefs. Altogether, it is to be regarded as a valuable contribution to this species of knowledge. He has painted the Indian lineaments on the spot, and is entitled to patronage—not as supplying all that is desirable, or practicable, perhaps, but as a first and original effort. We should cherish all such efforts.

9th. A shrewd and discriminating judge of literary things in New York, writes: "Have you seen the last number of Hoffman's Magazine? There is a pretty thing of his in it about Indian corn, and an Indian story by the author of 'Tales in the North-west,' which I do not, think good. The number generally is indifferent. Some one recently told me, that the true orthography of Illinois is Illinwa, like Ottawa, &c. Do you think that the fact?[77] By the way, why have you, and all other Indian travelers, used the French word 'lodge,' instead of the Indian wigwam? Don't you think the latter the better term? I do, and if my book was to print again, I would always use wigwam instead of lodge. We have so few relics of the poor Indians, that I am unwilling to part with any one, even so trifling as adopting the red man's name for the red man's house."

[Footnote 77: No.]

We have no news here. Paulding's book on slavery has been little noticed. Dr. Hawk's 'History of Episcopacy in Virginia' is good—very good, so they say, for I have not read it. Some Jerseyman has written a bad novel called "Herbert—" something or other—I forget what. What do they say at Washington, and what do you say about Gen. Macomb's 'Pontiac?'[78] Is the Indian Prince, who was traveling in these parts a while ago, one of the getters up of this affair? I suspect him. Does the prince go to 'profane stageplays and such like vanities,' as the dear old Puritans would say?

[Footnote 78: Fudge!]

"I hear nothing of Mr. Gallatin and his Indian languages. Do you? I see, by the English magazines, that Willis and his 'pencilings' get little quarter there; they deserve none. The book is not yet published here. Walsh, they say, will kill it, unless it should chance to be still-born. Hoffman is a friend of it, or rather he has made up his mind to join hands with the 'Mirror' set. I think he has made a mistake. They will sink him before he raises them. I suppose, however, if he will praise them they will praise him, and praise is sweet, we all know."

9th. Rev. William McMurray writes, from the Canadian side of Sault St. Marie: "Our excellent governor, Sir John Colbourne, has resigned his situation, which is at present filled by Sir Francis Head, who has recently arrived from England. As far as I can learn, he is rather a literary character, and is the same person who, some years ago, visited South America on a mining expedition. The most correct intelligence I have received respecting him is by an express from Toronto. From it I learn that he is disposed to be kind and good towards the poor Indians. As an instance of which, he intends visiting every Indian mission next summer, in order that he may see for himself their secret wants, and how their condition may be best ameliorated."

My brother James gives a somewhat amusing account of Indian matters at the Sault after the leaving of their delegates for Washington.

"Since Whaiskee's departure, the whole Sault has been troubled; I mean the 'busy bodies,' and this, by the way, comprises nearly the whole population. A council has accordingly been held before the Major-Agent, in which the British chief, Gitshee Kawgaosh, appeared as orator. The harangue from the sachem ran very much as follows:—"

'Father, why and for what purpose has the man Whaiskee gone to the home of our great father? Why did he leave without notifying me, and the other men of influence of my tribe, of the nature of his mission? Why should he, whose totem-fathers live about Shaugawaumekong (La Pointe), be, at his own will, made the representative of the ancient band of the red men whose totem is the lofty Crane? Say, father? Father, we ask you to know; we ask of you to tell why this strange man has so strangely gone to smoke with the great chief of the "long knives?" Kunnah-gakunnah!'

"Here the chief, drawing the folds of his blanket with perfect grace, and extending his right arm with dignity to the agent, seated himself again upon the floor, while, at the same time, a warrior of distinction, whose eagle-plumed head spoke him the fiercest of his tribe, gave to the sachem the lighted pipe. The eyes of the red men, like those of their snowy chief, were now riveted to the floor."

'Sons of the forest,' answered the American agent, 'I, like yourselves, know nothing of this strange business! I, the father of all the red men, have not been consulted in this man's going beyond the lakes to "the great waters!" I am the man through whom such messages should come! I, the man who should hand the wampum, and I, the man to whom the red men should look for redress! Friends, your speech shall reach the ears of our great father, and then this strange man of the far-off totem of Addik shall know that the Crane totem is protected by me, the hero of the Southern clime! Men of the forest, I am done.'

"Tobacco was then distributed to the assembly, and, after many hoghs, the red men dispersed."

24th. Mr. Bancroft, bringing a few lines from the Secretary of War, came to see me to confer on the character of the Indians, which he is about to handle in the next volume of his History. This care to assure himself of the truth of the conclusions to be introduced in his work, is calculated to inspire confidence in his mode of research.

28th. Washington. My reception here has been most cordial, and such as to assure me in the propriety of the step I took, in resolving to proceed to the capital, without the approval of the secretary and acting governor (Horner), who was, indeed, from his recent arrival and little experience in this matter, quite in the dark respecting the true condition of Indian affairs in Michigan. The self-constituted Ottawa delegation of chiefs from the lower peninsula had preceded me a few days. After a conference between them and the Secretary of War, they were referred to me, under authority from the President, communicated by special appointment, as commissioner for treating with them. It was found that the deputation was quite too local for the transaction of any general business. The Ottawas, from the valley of Grand River, an important section, were unrepresented. The various bands of Chippewas living intercalated among them, on the lower peninsula, extending down the Huron shore to Thunder Bay, were unapprized of the movement. The Chippewas of the upper peninsula, north of Michilimackinack, were entirely unrepresented. I immediately wrote, authorizing deputations to be sent from each of the unrepresented districts, and transmitting funds for the purpose. This authority to collect delegates from the two nations, whose interests in the lands were held in common, was promptly and efficiently carried out; and, when the chiefs and delegates arrived, they were assembled in public council, at the Masonic Hall, corner of 4-1/2 street, and negotiations formally opened. These meetings were continued from day to day, and resulted in an important cession of territory, comprising all their lands lying in the lower peninsula of Michigan, north of Grand River and west of Thunder Bay; and on the upper peninsula, extending from Drummond Island and Detour, through the Straits of St. Mary, west to Chocolate River, on Lake Superior, and thence southerly to Green Bay. This cession was obtained on the principle of making limited reserves for the principal villages, and granting the mass of Indian population the right to live on and occupy any portion of the lands until it is actually required for settlement. The compensation, for all objects, was about two millions of dollars. It had been arranged to close and sign the treaty on the 26th of March, but some objections were made by the Ottawas to a matter of detail, which led to a renewed discussion, and it was not until the 28th that the treaty was signed. It did not occur to me, till afterwards, that this was my birth-day. The Senate who, at the same time, had the important Cherokee treaty of New Echota before them, did not give it their assent till the 20th of May, and then ratified it with some essential modifications, which have not had a wholly propitious tendency.

Liberal provisions were made for their education and instruction in agriculture and the arts. Their outstanding debts to the merchants were provided for, and such aid given them in the initial labor of subsisting themselves, as were required by a gradual change from the life of hunters to that of husbandmen. About twelve and a half cents per acre was given for the entire area, which includes some secondary lands and portions of muskeegs and waste grounds about the lakes—which it was, however, thought ought, in justice to the Indians, to be included in the cession. The whole area could not be certainly told, but was estimated at about sixteen millions of acres.

About the beginning of May a delegation of Saginaws arrived, for the purpose of ceding to the government the reservations in Michigan, made under the treaty of 1819. This delegation was referred to me, with instructions to form a treaty with them. The terms of it were agreed on in several interviews, and the treaty was signed on the 20th of May, 1836.

A third delegation of Chippewas, from Michigan, having separate interest in the regions of Swan Creek and Black River, presented themselves, with the view of ceding the reservations made to them by a treaty concluded by Gen. Hull, Nov. 17th, 1807. They were also referred to me to adjust the terms of a sale of these reservations. The treaty was signed by their chiefs on the 9th of May, 1836.

As soon as these several treaties were acted on by the Senate, I left the city on my return. It was one of the last days of May when I left Washington. A new era had now dawned in the upper lake country, and joy and gladness sat in every face I met. The Indians rejoiced, because they had accomplished their end and provided for their wants. The class of merchants and inland traders rejoiced, because they would now be paid the amount of their credits to the Indians. The class of metifs and half-breeds were glad, because they had been remembered by the chiefs, who set apart a fund for their benefit. The citizens generally participated in these feelings, because the effect of the treaties would be to elicit new means and sources of prosperity.

I reached Mackinack on the 15th of June, in the steamer "Columbia." I found all my family well and ready to welcome me home, but one—Charlotte, the daughter of Songageezhig, who had been brought up from a child as one of my family. Her father, a Chippewa, had been killed in an affray at the Sault St. Marie in 1822, leaving a wife and three children. She had been adopted and carefully instructed in every moral and religious duty. She could read her Bible well, and was a member of the Church, in good standing at the time of her death. A rapid consumption developed itself during the winter of my absence, which no medical skill could arrest. She had attained about her fifteenth year, and died leaving behind her a consecrated memory of pleasing piety and gentle manners.

A forest flower, but few so well could claim A daughter's, sister's, and a Christian's name.



CHAPTER LVII.

Home matters—Massachusetts Historical Society—Question of the U.S. Senate's action on certain treaties of the Lake Indians—Hugh L. White—Dr. Morton's Crania Americana—Letter from Mozojeed—State of the pillagers—Visit of Dr. Follen and Miss Martineau—Treaty movements—Young Lord Selkirk—Character and value of Upper Michigan—Hon. John Norvell's letter—Literary Items—Execution of the treaty of March 28th—Amount of money paid—Effects of the treaty—Baron de Behr—Ornithology.

1836. June 16th. My winter in Washington had thrown my correspondence sadly in the rear. Most of my letters had been addressed to me directly at Mackinack, and they were first read several months after date. Whilst at the seat of government my duties had been of an arduous character, and left me but little time on my hands. And now, that I had got back to my post in the interior, the duties growing out of the recent treaties had been in no small degree multiplied. While preparing for the latter, the former were not, however, to be wholly neglected, or left unnoticed. I will revert to them.

April 28th. The Massachusetts Historical Society this day approved a report from a committee charged with the subject—"That, in their opinion, the dissertation on the Odjibwa language with a vocabulary of the same, contemplated by Mr. Schoolcraft, would be a suitable and valuable contribution to our collections, and that he be requested to proceed and complete the work, and transmit it to the society for publication." This was communicated to me by Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, their president, on the 2d of May, and opened an eligible way for my bringing forward my investigations of this language, without expense to myself. The difficulty now was, that the offer had come, at a time when it was impossible to complete the paper. I was compelled to defer it till the pressure of business, which now began to thicken on my hands, should abate. It was in this manner, and in the hope that the next season would afford me leisure, that the matter was put off, from time to time, till it was in a measure cast behind and out of sight, and not from a due appreciation of the offer.

May 17th In the letter of appointment to me, of this date, from the Secretary of War, to treat with the Saginaws, it is stated: "You are authorized to offer them the proceeds which their lands may bring, deducting such expenses as may be necessary for its survey, sale, &c. You will take care that a sufficient fund is reserved to provide for their removal, and such arrangements made for the security and application of the residue as will be most beneficial to them." These instructions were carried out, in articles of a compact, in which the government furthermore agreed, in view of the lands not being immediately brought into market, to make a reasonable advance to these Indians. Yet the Senate rejected it, not, it would seem, for the liberality of the offer of the nett proceeds of the lands, but for the almost per necessitate offer of a moderate advance, to enable the people to turn themselves in straitened circumstances, which had been the prime motive for selling.

The advance was, in fact, as I have reason to believe, a mere bagatelle, but the chairman of the Indian Committee in the Senate was rather on the lookout for something, or anything, to embarrass or disoblige General Jackson and his agents, having fallen out with him, and being then, indeed, a candidate for President of the U.S. himself, at the coming election. If I had not heard the pointed expressions of Hon. Hugh L. White, on more than one occasion, in which my three treaties were before him, in relation to this matter of not affording the presidential incumbent new sources of patronage, &c., I should not deem it just to add the latter remark. He was a man of strong will and feelings, which often betrayed themselves when subjects of public policy were the topics. And, so far as he interfered with the principles of the treaties which I had negotiated with the Lake Indians in 1836, he evinced an utter ignorance of their history, character, and best interests. He violated, in some respects, the very principle on which alone two of the original cessions, namely, those of the Ottawas and Chippewas and of the Saginaws, were obtained; and introduced features of discord, which disturb the tribes, and some of which will long continue to be felt. And the result is a severe caution against the Senate's ever putting private reasons in the place of public, and interfering with matters which they necessarily know but little about.

16th. Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia, makes an appeal to gentlemen interested in the philosophical and historical questions connected with the Indians, to aid him in the collection of crania—to be used in the comprehensive work which he is preparing on the subject.

26th. Hon. J. B. Sutherland expresses the wish to see an Indian lexicography prepared under the auspices of the Indian Department, and urges me to undertake it.

30th. Mozojeed, or the Moose's Tail, an Ojibwa chief of Ottawa Lake, in the region at the source of Chippewa River of the Upper Mississippi, dictates a letter to me. The following is an extract:—

"My Father—I have a few remarks to make. Every morning of the year I wish to come and see you. As soon as I take up my paddle I fall sick. It is now two years since I began to be sick. Sometimes I am better—sometimes worse. I am pained in mind that I am not to see you this summer.

"Since you gave me the shonea nahbekawahgun (silver medal) I think I have walked in your commands. I have done all I could to have the Indians sit still. Those that are far off I could not sway, but those that are near have listened to me."

His influence to keep the Indians at peace, and the reasons which have hindered the influence in part, are thus, partly by symbolic figures, as well expressed as could be done by an educated mind. I have italicised two sentences for their peculiarity of thought.

31st. Mr. Featherstonehaugh expresses a wish to have me point out the best map extant of the eastern borders of the Upper Mississippi, above the point visited by him in his recent reconnoissance, in order "to avoid gross blunders—all I do not expect to avoid!" Why undertake to make a map of a part of the country which he did not see?

31st. Rev. Alvan Coe, of Vernon, O., expresses his interest in the provisions of the late treaty with the Ottawas and Chippewas, which regards their instruction.

June 1st. Mr. W. T. Boutwell, from Leech Lake, depicts the present condition of the Odjibwas on the extreme sources of the Mississippi.

"There has been nothing, so far as I have discovered, or been informed, like a disposition to go to war this spring. There is, evidently, a growing desire on the part of not a few, to cultivate their gardens more extensively and better. These are making gardens by the side of me. I have furnished them with seed and lent them hoes, on condition that they do not work on the Sabbath. From fifteen to twenty bushels of potatoes I have given to one and another to plant.

"The Big Cloud has required his two children to attend regularly to instruction; others occasionally. The Elder Brother has procured him a comfortable log house to be built—bought a horse and cow. I have bought a calf of Mr. A. for him.

"I am making the experiment whether I can keep cattle here. They have wintered and passed the spring, and we are now favored with milk, which is a rarity and luxury here.

"Mr. Aitkin is establishing a permanent post at Otter Tail Lake. G. Bonga had gone with a small assortment of goods to build and pass the summer there. The Indians are divided in opinion and feeling with regard to the measure. Those who belong to this lake, or who make gardens in this vicinity, are opposed to the measure. Those who pass the summer in the deer country and make rice towards the height of land, are in its favor. It is on the line dividing us and our enemies—some say, where we do not wish to go. Whether he has consulted the agent on the subject, I know not.

"The past winter has been severe—the depth of snow greater, by far, than has fallen for several years. Feb. 1 the mercury fell to 40 deg. below zero. This is the extreme. Graduated on the scale I have—it fell nearly into the ball."

9th. The Secretary of War writes me a private letter, suggesting the employment of Mr. Ryly, of Schenectady, in carrying out the large deliveries of goods ($150,000) required by the late treaty, and speaking most favorably of him, as a former resident of Michigan, and a patriotic man in days when patriotism meant something.

14th. My brother James writes in his usual frank and above-board manner: "If the Indians are to audit accounts against the Indians (agreeably to the Senate's alteration of the treaty), there will be a pretty humbug made of it; then he that has most whisky will get most money."

July 5th. Dr. Follen and lady, of Cambridge, Mass., accompanied by Miss Martineau, of England, visited me in the morning, having landed in the ship Milwaukee. They had, previously, visited the chief curiosities and sights on the island. Miss Martineau expressed her gratification in having visited the upper lakes and the island. She said she had, from early childhood, felt an interest in them. I remarked, that I supposed she had seen enough of America and the Americans, to have formed a definite opinion, and asked her what she thought of them? She said she had not asked herself that question. She had hardly made up an opinion, and did not know what it might be, on getting back to England. She thought society hardly formed here, that it was rather early to express opinions; but she thought favorably of the elements of such a mixed society, as suited to lead to the most liberal traits. She spoke highly of Cincinnati, and some other places, and expressed an enthusiastic admiration for the natural beauties of Michilimackinack. She said she had been nearly two years in America, and was now going to the seaboard to embark on her return to England.

9th. Instructions were issued at Washington for the execution of the treaty, which had been ratified, with amendments, by the Senate.

10th. The admission of Michigan as one of the States, had left the office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, for the region, vacant. An Act of Congress, passed near the close of the session, had devolved the duties of this office on the agent at Michilimackinack. Instructions were, this day, issued to carry this act into effect.

12th. The chiefs in general council assembled by special messengers at the Agency at Mackinack, this day assented to the Senate's alterations of the treaty. Its principles were freely and fully discussed.

13th and 14th. Signatures continue to be affixed to the articles of assent.

15th. I notified the various bands of Indians to attend in mass, the payments, which were appointed to commence on the 1st of September.

27th. A friend writes from Detroit: "Lord Selkirk, from Scotland, is on his route to Lake Superior, and, as he passes through Mackinack, I write to introduce him to you, as a gentleman with whom you would be pleased to have more than a transient association. The name of his father is connected with many north-western events of much interest and notoriety, and a most agreeable recollection of his mother, Lady Selkirk, has recommended him strongly to our kindness. I feel assured you will befriend him, in the way of information, as to the best means of getting on to the Sault St. Marie."