The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tour of the American Lakes, and Among the Indians of the North-West Territory, in 1, by Calvin Colton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: Tour of the American Lakes, and Among the Indians of the North-West Territory, in 1830, Volume 1 (of 2) Disclosing the Character and Prospects of the Indian Race Author: Calvin Colton Release Date: June 24, 2017 [EBook #54974] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOUR OF THE AMERICAN LAKES *** Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Wayne Hammond and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) i TOUR OF THE AMERICAN LAKES, AND AMONG THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY, IN 1830: DISCLOSING THE CHARACTER AND PROSPECTS OF THE INDIAN RACE. BY C. COLTON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: FREDERICK WESTLEY AND A. H. DAVIS, MDCCCXXXIII. LONDON R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL. ii iii CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Page Advertisement ix Introduction xi CHAP. I. The Falls of Niagara 1 CHAP. II. Niagara Whirlpool 12 CHAP. III. Geographical description of the Great Lakes of North America 21 CHAP. IV. The Author’s motives for undertaking the Tour; character of wild Indians 28 CHAP. V. Romantic expectations; impressions of nursery tales respecting Indians; the savage proper; embarkation from Buffalo; beauties of Lake Erie; arrival at Detroit 33 CHAP. VI. History of Detroit:—early trading posts; Pontiac’s conspiracy; Detroit saved; Pontiac’s death; description and beauties of the Territory of Michigan 40 CHAP. VII. Remarkable instance of capital crime 48 CHAP. VIII. Embarkation from Detroit; Captain Symmes’s theory of the earth; sail over Lake St. Clair; interest of the scene; delta of the River St. Clair; relics of French population; a picture of French and Indians 54 CHAP. IX. River St. Clair; visit to Fort Gratiot; memoranda of Lake Huron:—wild and picturesque scenery of its northern regions; meeting with a canoe, manned by eight Indians with the paddle; their dexterity and the celerity of their movement; an Indian encampment; their lodges; the Indian paddle quicker than steam; the Indian’s love of money and whiskey; an Indian salute; and several interesting incidents of the passage among the islands of the north margin of Huron 63 CHAP. X. Arrival at the Saut de St. Marie; origin of this name; the Falls; an interesting young lady, whose mother was an Indian and her father a Scotchman; peculiar and moral power of Indian languages 80 CHAP. XI. Voyage from the Saut de St. Marie to Green Bay; the thirty-two thousand islands; the scenery they create; description of Michillimackinack; the sugar-loaf and arched rock; arrival at Green Bay in the North-West Territory 88 CHAP. XII. Political relations of the American Indian tribes; their rights ostensibly, but not really respected; the pre-emption right and its operation; the original claims of Europeans a precedent; late juridical decision of the American Supreme Court; Great Britain and the United States both responsible in the treatment and for the fate of the Indians 96 CHAP. XIII. Vindication of the American Indians from the charge of being Savages; their domestic affections kind and amiable; their savage passions artificial, kindled by the war-dance, and only for war; the Indian in war is frantic, and never the aggressor, without a sense of injury; Indian character essentially modified by contact with the European race 109 CHAP. XIV. Gradual extinction of the Eastern tribes; the New York tribes advised to remove to the North-West Territory; concurrence of the General Government in the plan; parts of the Indians agree to it; the nature of the understanding; their purchase of land and removal; their expectations; their disappointment; supposed scheme for breaking up this new arrangement, and the result of it; the reasons for this narrative; extracts from the Rev. Dr. Morse’s Report to Congress, evincing the views then entertained in regard to this removal of the New York Indians 122 CHAP. XV. The design of the Commission of 1830 to Green Bay; ignorance of Government of the state of the case; history of the title in dispute and the measures employed to invalidate it 144 CHAP. XVI. iv v vi Burning and massacre of Deerfield in Massachusetts; the infant daughter of the Rev. Mr. Williams snatched from the cradle, and carried into captivity; is retained, and marries an Indian Chief; her descendants; the Rev. Eleazer Williams, formerly of the St. Regis, now of the Oneida tribe, one of them; was brought to New England in childhood, and there educated; Mr. Williams and the Author school-fellows; Mr. Williams engaged in the American army during the late war; afterwards ordained to the Christian ministry by Bishop Hobart, and established among the Oneidas, near Utica 154 CHAP. XVII. The Rev. Mr. Williams takes the lead in the removal of the New York Indians to Green Bay; after a long separation, the Author meets him there in 1830; the importance of his public duties in that infant settlement of his people; ascent of Fox River; deceitfulness of the Indian canoe; incidents; arrival at Mr. Williams’s house; Mr. Williams’s developement of his plans; his disappointment 167 CHAP. XVIII. An account of the Stockbridge tribe, and their settlement on Fox River; the Rev. John Sergeant, the first Christian Missionary to the tribe, from England; the Oxford Bible (1717) presented by the Rev. Dr. Francis Ayscouth, in 1745; the improvement of these Indians in civilization and the Christian religion; a Sabbath among them; their exemplary religious order; their attachment to their religious teachers; Sunday school; their church music and psalmody; the parish beadle; their dress and manners; an impromptu-Indian speech; Indian politeness; reflections 185 CHAP. XIX. The Oneida settlement at Duck Creek, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Williams; its flourishing condition; discouraging prospects of these tribes, and the disturbance of their relations with the ancient and wilder tribes of the territory 203 CHAP. XX. The manner in which the Commission from Government summoned the Council; instructions imposed on the Commission, and difficulties created by them; assembling of the Indians, and the setting up of their encampments; modes of dress; a city of Indian lodges; demoralizing influence of these public councils; drunkenness; the ruin of a young Indian female 212 CHAP. XXI. Organization and opening of the Council; the Council-house; singular formalities; smoking of the pipe; grotesque appearance of the assemblage; the New York Indians compared with the wild tribes;1 the different tribes represented in Council; modes of interpretation; the chastened oratory of the New York Indians; John Metoxen (a Stockbridge chief); his last Speech in Council; Indian shrewdness; oratory of the wild Indians, itself wild, but often powerful; piety of the Indians 226 CHAP. XXII. Charge of Indian affairs in the War Department; the course pursued by the New York Indians at the Council, in the vindication of their rights; the object of the Commission defeated 245 CHAP. XXIII. Specimens of Indian speeches 252 CHAP. XXIV. Freemasonry among the Indians; Medicine-dance; the faith of the Indians in its miraculous efficacy; the manner of it; it often kills the patient; the war-dance; account of one witnessed by the Author; the preparations; the instruments of music for the occasion; the horrible manner in which they dress and paint themselves; the exciting influence of the exercises; description of them; the motives acting upon the mind, and working the passions into frenzy; the war-whoop; its shrill voice, and piercing, startling effect; an unexpected and alarming incident;—a second war-dance among the Osages, west of the Mississippi 271 CHAP. XXV. Specimens of Indian speeches of former times, with anecdotes:—the vision of an Indian chief, narrated by himself; speech of an Indian captain to his warriors; murder of the family of Logan, and his speech to Lord Dunmore; the Indian chief’s answer to General Knox’s inquiry—“What is the matter, brother? You look sorry;” speech of Cornplanter to General Washington; of a Pawnee chief to President Monroe; anecdote of a Pawnee Brave 301 vii viii ix ADVERTISEMENT. Prefaces and Introductions are commonly esteemed the last words of the Author, put in the first place, as his right rather than the reader’s privilege, to vex and impede the inclination to get at the main design; and for this reason are very often passed over. But the Author begs leave to say—that in this instance, the Introduction is the Key. It will be found, that the minor part of the Title indicates the major of the subject in respect to importance, though not perhaps in matter for amusement. xxi INTRODUCTION. Why should this book be written? To give information. But was it proper to come through such hands, and to be communicated in such circumstances? As to the first of these questions, the Author happened to have in his possession a portfolio of incidents and observations, recorded by his own hand, during a tour through the wild and romantic regions of the American Lakes, and a visit among several tribes of Indians in the North-West Territory, in 1830. It happened also, that this visit in the North-West gave him an opportunity of being present at a great and eventful Council, composed of representatives of the chiefs of several Indian nations and a Commission from the Government of the United States, the developements of which were somewhat extraordinary and extremely interesting. The second ACT of this Council and its concluding scenes, viewed dramatically, were opened at the city of Washington, in the following winter; of which also the Author was a spectator, and in which were exhibited the entire scope of Indian affairs in America, displaying very conspicuously and impressively their more recent enactments. The interest of these events chained the Author’s attention, excited his sympathies for the ancient race of American Aborigines, and induced him to avail himself of all possible means of becoming acquainted with the history of their wrongs. His opportunities were abundant. He had never meditated, however, any public use of the observations he had made and of the information he had been able to collect, until a year after his arrival in England; when it was suggested to him, in conversation with some friends, that the materials in his possession were in many respects novel and interesting; and some motives were presented for embodying them in a form to be submitted to the public eye. But the difficult question was:—What the form should be? The maxim of Byron: “Truth is strange, stranger than fiction”—was perhaps never more applicable, than to the principal subject of these pages. The history of the American Indians is the Romance of Fact. It needs not a single dash of the pencil—not a single ingredient of the sentimentality of poetry, to give it life and power over the feelings. The naked truth has in it more of poetry and a more energetic challenge on the affections, than any possible embellishment, or fictitious garniture, that could be thrown around it—more than any creations of fancy, with which it could be charged. Show that race, as they are and have been, and none of human kind can fail to be interested in them. But there were many reasons, notwithstanding, why, if the Author consented to make any public use of the facts in his possession, he should embody them under a mixed garb of romance and history. And he actually proceeded so far, as to execute one volume under this plan. But after submitting it to other minds, a grave discussion arose, and it was earnestly insisted: —that it should be properly fiction, or sober history;—and it was agreed, that the facts were abundantly sufficient to demand the last, and that no fictitious dress could equal the interest of the exact truth. Having resolved upon the historical course exclusively, the delicate situation of the Author, as an American, came next to be considered. It was impossible for him to do justice to this subject, as it stood before his mind and rested upon his own feelings, without entering somewhat largely into the discussion of the recent policy of his own Government towards the Indians. To suppress the detail, would dilute the whole into insipidity; to give it, would necessarily involve more or less of disclosure. The principal considerations, which settled the Author’s purpose, in regard to the course he has pursued, are here submitted:— 1. The fate of the American Indians, whether they shall exist or be annihilated, has come to a crisis. 2. Their rights are properly the cause of humanity, and though well defined in the conscience of the world, are yet undefined and unsettled in the fact and operation of their social and political relations; and these rights can only be fixed by a thorough public discussion before the world, which will claim to be arbiter in the case, and which alone, as a community of nations, is likely to be a fair court of appeal. The question of their rights is so prominent and interesting, that the world will sit in judgment upon it; and the sooner their opinion is formed and expressed, the better. That judgment can hardly be wrong; and it must also be respected and influential, if it comes in season. Indeed, the very anticipation of it, may possibly answer all the purpose. 3. The challenge of the attention of the British community to this subject is especially proper, as they are involved in the same responsibility with the United States, by having an equal number of Indians, more or less, upon their hands, in their North American colonies; over whom their Colonial Governments are compelled to legislate, and whose existence and future amelioration depend upon the treatment they shall receive from those authorities. The Indians of the Canadas have no formal guarantee of their distinct rights, which they can assert against being removed at the pleasure of the Colonial Governments; and whenever the white population crowds upon them, they are subject to the same train of injuries, which have been suffered in the adjoining States. The Author ventures upon this statement rather on the presumption afforded by the actual course of events, than by his knowledge, that formal stipulations, defining a different treatment, are actually wanting. If such stipulations exist, the course pursued is doubly aggravating, and no better, so far as can be seen, than in the United States, except that the actual progress of events has not attained so complete a developement. The Author has endeavoured to show, that the salvation of the Indians, as a race, depends jointly upon Great Britain and the United States; and inasmuch as the crisis of their destiny has evidently arrived, it is deemed proper and obligatory, that their case, with the history and nature of their wrongs, should be laid without disguise before the two communities—unless their doom must be considered as unavoidably forestalled, and themselves abandoned to annihilation. While the sympathies of the British nation are being roused—nay, are actually alive and thoroughly challenged in behalf of the black slave, it is perhaps the fittest moment to incorporate with the same feelings the congenial sentiments of compassion for the red man of America, whose unfortunate destiny hitherto has actually been controlled as much by British influence in former ages, as that of the African slave. If Great Britain is responsible for the redemption of 800,000 degraded and enslaved blacks, she is also responsible for a kind treatment and for the social and political elevation of perhaps half that number of a people, whose condition, though nominally more independent, is scarcely less unfortunate; and whose misfortunes have been induced by the xii xiii xiv xv xvi encroachments and political measures of their white neighbours. If the slaves of the British colonies have dwindled in numbers, and the increase of nature been stifled in the womb, by direct and positive oppression, the American Indians have also dwindled most fearfully by influences, more indirect perhaps, but scarcely less cruel and involving no less of responsibility; and a responsibility, which attaches alike and equally to the Government of Great Britain, as to that of America. As the original sin of African slavery in the west confessedly fastens on the British crown, so the original institution of Indian relations to civilized society in North America was organized and fashioned by the same authority. And as for this reason, it was not unbefitting, that the British crown should be first in the work of redeeming the slave, the door is equally open for British virtue to lend its sympathies and display its energies in behalf of the American Aborigines. It is time at least that an expression of public sentiment should be given on this great question of philanthropy. If it is true, that now is the time to redeem the slave; it is no less true, that now is the time to save the American Indian. And inasmuch, as the British public have a duty incumbent upon them in this matter, in common with the Americans, it has been thought pertinent by the Author to lay this subject before them; although from the necessity of his task, his strictures on the unjust treatment of the Indians have been principally confined to the Government of his own country. 4. Inasmuch as the recent measures of the American Government, in relation to the Indians, are before the world, and must necessarily make their impression, the Author has considered that a substantial history of the case in its principal details, and an exposure of the great moral causes, which have induced this state of things, would rather be a relief, than a cloud over the reputation of his country in this particular. Nothing could possibly be more unfavourable, than the impression of the GRAND FACT unexplained; and that could never be repressed, or in any way concealed. The reader, who shall be sufficiently interested to go over these pages, will find here and there the historical and moral rationale of this great question and its results; by which it will appear, that the denouement stands related to influences, most of them remote and controlling, which do not at all affect the character of the institutions of the country, and which no more determine the disposition of the people. A sentiment is indeed expressed in a document of the Appendix from the Governor of Georgia, that the recent election of the officers of the General Government has not only approved the policy of removing the Indians, but sanctioned the course of Georgia towards the Cherokees. That justification, however, is to be regarded merely as convenient in the circumstances, and not as containing valid reasons. It might be and no doubt is true, that in the recent election, the dominant party of the Union were blinded by their leaders on the Indian question; but it is not true, that the sober voice of the nation, enlightened by the facts and merits of the case, has ever been expressed. There has neither been opportunity for them to be informed, nor time for them to act, upon it. The result of the election was owing entirely to other and great questions. If the Indian question were the only one to influence the public mind in a general election, and the people could have opportunity to be fairly and fully enlightened, the Author does not believe that one voice in ten thousand would sustain the more violent measures, which have recently been pursued, and which he in conscience has been obliged to disapprove. The Author has considered it suitable and due to the cause of truth, that the world should understand, that the American people, as a body, would never sanction this course of treatment of the Indians, which is here assumed as injurious; that, being taken by surprise, it was impossible for a whole people, embarrassed by other and all-absorbing questions, to apply an immediate remedy; that so far as they have been informed, they have already expressed their strongest sympathy; that nothing could remonstrate more loudly, or speak more eloquently, than the demonstrations of public feeling, already made; that the people have been compelled to wait for a decision of the Supreme Judiciary of the nation, and for the operation of that decision; and that the general election was controlled by other questions, before the people could possibly be enlightened on this. And now that that decision has been obtained, it is producing its proper influence, as the standard of public opinion. While the Author has wished and tried to declare himself prudently, he has deemed it proper to do it decidedly. The injuries done to the Indians he has considered of a nature not to be parleyed with, and for which no apology can be made. He has considered, that a frank exposure and a full confession of the wrong would be more honourable to his country, than any attempts at concealment; that the wound inflicted on the nation’s reputation cannot be aggravated by such a course; that the proofs of the susceptibilities of the people to sympathize in these wrongs and to repair them, so far as possible, are shewn partly in their readiness to confess them; that the public opinion of the world, seasonably expressed, or anticipated, must necessarily be no unimportant ingredient in the measure of redeeming influences; and that the best friends of the nation and of the Indians ought not to be identified with the few, who have happened, in the course of events, to obtain a controlling influence, though it is believed transiently, over the whole affair. The decision of the Supreme Court may fairly be taken, as an expression of the will of the people, when it can be legitimately developed. For these and such reasons the Author has considered it proper to exhibit enough of detail to lay open the general subject historically, and to express his own opinion without reserve. The Author thinks it due to himself to observe, that he has never been connected, nor in any way personally interested, in either of the great political parties of his country; nor is he conscious of being influenced by party feeling in the production of this work. He sympathizes generally with the principles, on which his own Government is administered, and cherishes a respect for the men at its head. But on the Indian question he is conscientiously and toto cœlo at variance with their views. And it is because he loves the institutions of his country and wishes to see the national constitution and public treaties preserved inviolate; and because, from personal observation and knowledge, he has been obliged to feel a deep sympathy for the Indians, in view of what he esteems encroachment on their rights—that he has undertaken the task embodied in these pages, and endeavoured to separate between Indian wrongs and the legitimate operation of the Government. And so long as he finds himself in company with the Supreme Court of the nation, he will at least feel himself well sustained. It is not improbable, that the reader may feel, that too much of the second volume is occupied in discussion, and in the refutation of certain doctrines and statements there encountered from the North American Review. The Author, wishing to avoid xvii xviii xix xx xxi xxii personality as much as possible, has omitted to bring out the authority of that article. It may be proper, however, here to mention, that it originated from a high source in the Government—a source now at the head of Indian affairs—and may fairly be taken as the creed of principles, by which those affairs are at present governed. This fact may perhaps be a sufficient apology for giving the argument so extended a consideration. And while the Author has felt obliged to treat some of the doctrines there advanced with severity, he most cheerfully expresses his high consideration for the personal character of his adversary, and for his public official career, in all that does not respect the use and application of the principles here contested. In that matter the Author must stand at variance, from a full conviction, not only of the Indian’s susceptibility of being raised, in intellectual, moral, and civil improvements, to command an equal respect with any other race of men—but also from a no less decided conviction of the Indian’s unqualified and just demand to be admitted to an equality of social and political rights;—and more especially, that the Indian should realize the full benefit of all the public engagements, that have been made in his favour and for the attainment of these objects. As one of the moral causes, which have operated in the United States to the detriment of Indian rights, the Author has felt obliged, from his own convictions, to specify the paramount influence of slavery. It is well known, that ancient impulses of a vicious tendency, in the constitution of human society, will often continue to operate disastrously, even after they have been checked by the incipient stages of reformation. Such is emphatically the case with slavery. It is undoubtedly true, that the American Colonization Society has begun to shed a most benign influence on the slavery of that country. It has forced into public and universal discussion a question, which the National Legislature, by the constitution of the Government, could never touch— inasmuch as every several State is left by that instrument, as sovereign and independent, in regard to all State prerogatives, not surrendered in the Federal compact, as any foreign nations are in relation to each other. But the Colonization Society has commenced a career of extended and rapidly increasing influence, which has already affected essentially and radically the moral elements of society in the Southern and Slave States, in relation to slavery. And notwithstanding, that the influence of ancient impulses of this vicious character has doubtless operated to the violation of Indian rights—it is no less true, that a slavery reformation has already commenced and extensively infused its leaven throughout the mass of the Slave States, by the instrumentality of the above-named institution. While, therefore, the one agency is stated, as the result of remote influences, for the time being uncontrolled in this, as well as in other directions, it is not to be considered as impossible with the contemporaneous existence and increasing influence of the other. The former may have and doubtless has produced the effect ascribed to it, while the latter is gaining an ascendency, which at a later period would entirely have prevented this deplorable issue. The Author has been aware, that these volumes will afford some additional elements for those strictures and censures on the American Republic, which have been so liberally and customarily rendered by a portion of the British press. And while much has often been made of little and much out of nothing, these, it must be confessed, are not altogether unsubstantial materials for the gratification of such feelings. While the Author has undertaken in another place, as may possibly be known to some extent, to rebuke a disposition to find fault where there was no reason for it, he will perhaps have proved in this instance, that he would not cover a real sin even in his own house, when the rights of communities and the cause of humanity demand a developement. Those whom these disclosures may gratify, are freely offered all which they afford; while the discriminating and the fair will doubtless view and present the case, as it is, if they shall be disposed to notice it at all:—they will not tax the institutions of the country, nor the disposition of the people, as a body, with the iniquity—while it may still be fairly maintained, that the nation is responsible and bound before the world and heaven to make atonement. It does not well become one nation to be accusing another of oppressions and violence, merely for the sake of elevating itself by comparison, when both, in the present imperfect state and imperfect operation of their institutions, have their faults of this description. Better, that the common cause of freedom and humanity should be made a common interest among the advocates of right throughout the world, that any case of the violation of right might be widely and freely exposed, and universally reprobated. Certainly, in the matter constituting a prominent subject of these pages, Great Britain and America are too deeply involved to furnish a warrant for crimination on either side. The community of nations is rapidly assuming a character like a community of individuals; and for the same reasons, that the latter have a common right in determining the social relations and defining the modes of intercourse, the former should openly and freely discuss and socially determine their relations. As every member of a community of individuals may rightfully have a voice in all the regulations enacted for the common good—so every member of the community of nations is interested in the code of international law, and may fairly claim its right in the discussion and settlement of fundamental principles;—and since, when any member of the minor community is injured, it is a proper subject of public alarm and investigation, so when the rights of any nation, or tribe, are violated, it makes a legitimate ground for a common adjudication, at least for the interchange and expression of opinion, and the employment of influence. We have high authority for the saying: “When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;” they ought certainly to sympathize. It will be observed, that the scene of the first volume is laid on the American Lakes and in the North-West Territory. The latter is a civil division of the American jurisdiction, lying on the upper waters of the Mississippi river and the shores of Lakes Superior and Michigan, and not on the Pacific Ocean, as is sometimes, and in foreign parts perhaps more commonly, understood by this name. The Author feels obliged to say, that, not having anticipated the execution of this task, before he came to England, he has found xxiii xxiv xxv xxvi xxvii xxviii himself wanting in many important documents, which would have been a material improvement of the work, and rendered it far more complete. The Indian speeches delivered at the council of Green Bay, once in his possession and taken down by his own hand, were left behind. To supply this defect, he has taken the liberty of constructing a few specimens, as nearly after the manner of the Indians, as his impressions and recollections would enable him to do. And while it is due to historical verity to make this acknowledgment, the Author may perhaps be permitted to say, without a breach of modesty, that having once made a copy of all those transactions at the time and as they occurred, together with the speeches that were delivered by the Indians, and having been long in habits of intimate intercourse with them, in public and private, he ought to be qualified to do them something like justice in such a trifling attempt. He may also add, that having on various occasions complied with the requests of the Indians to assist them in their communications with the official agents of Government, he necessarily became acquainted with their peculiarities of thought, and feeling, and modes of speech. One of their chiefs paid the Author the following compliment to the point in question, at the city of Washington, on the occasion of soliciting him to draw up an address to the Senate of the United States in their behalf: “You talk our talk better than we can talk it for ourselves.” This, however, merely to shew, that the author has had some custom in speaking for them. The examples given in the chapter above alluded to, are offered, as things like what they stand for; and the Author is confident, that the likeness would be acknowledged even by the Indians themselves. At the same time, that they support the Indian argument, (the one ascribed to the Winnebago-Chief only excepted, which is a pure invention to exemplify the wild incoherency, which sometimes characterizes savage oratory,) they are also intended as specimens of that simplicity of thought and reasoning, which the Indians are accustomed to demonstrate. The civilized Indians of the New York tribes at Green Bay reason quite as well, as the Author has represented. The other specimens of Indian speeches, the Author is not responsible for. They are extracts from authorities, to which they are ascribed. As the Rev. Mr. Williams, of the Oneida tribe, occupies a conspicuous place in this work, the Author begs leave to say, that some very trivial errors may possibly occur in the notices taken of him,—but not material. The conversations and remarks ascribed to Mr. Williams, and in one place an extended part of a colloquy with the Author, in which he appears as the principal speaker, are a compressed and comprehensive statement of the substance of numerous communications, reduced principally from recollection. The Author would not, therefore, make Mr. Williams responsible for every expression, that may be found in these conversations, as coming from him. All the Author can pretend is, that he has endeavoured faithfully to transcribe the copy afforded by his memory, in the selections made. The exact original forms of communication could not of course be expected. It is possible also, that some other of the historical and narrative portions of the first volume may not have made exactly the same impressions on the minds of other witnesses, as are recorded by the Author. He does not think, however, that these differences could be numerous, or in any degree important. It will doubtless seem remarkable, that Indian wrongs in America could have proceeded so far without more public remonstrance and without the application of a remedy. But it may easily be seen, that a civilized and powerful government, having come in contact and formed permanent relations with barbarous, or semi-barbarous, and consequently inferior, and in some respects, dependent tribes, may have practised, or suffered to be practised, long continued and petty oppressions, necessarily vexatious and destructive to the subjects, before they have come to the notice of the world, so as to shock essentially the moral sense of mankind. Where have such relations existed without these results? Suppose the book of history, detailing things of this kind, that have occurred in the East Indies for ages past, were open to the world? The little that has transpired may be enough to suggest what remains untold. It is only when acts of injustice, or of cruelty, more atrocious, occur, that the attention and sympathies of mankind are roused. Besides, injustice is more apparent when the temper of the age is mild, and the state of the world comparatively quiet. The better part of mankind can see it more distinctly, and a better opportunity is given to expose it. Injustice, when estimated by the proper rule, is always the same. But it is not always the same thing in men’s minds. That which would have been a trifle in one age, or in one part of the world, may be an enormity in another. It was not till recently, within four to six years—more especially within four—that the more flagrant acts of injustice toward the American Indians, have challenged public attention. And, as has been before remarked, it has not been possible, within this period and in existing circumstances, to bring in a remedy. The current of mischief was too wide and deep and strong to be arrested, or turned in a day. London, June, 1833. xxix xxx xxxi xxxii 1 A TOUR, &c. CHAPTER I. THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. Who has not heard of Niagara Falls? And he who has been there, if he possesses ought of a relish for the grand and awful, if he can admire the way and love the voice of God, will never lose the impressions of the scene. The mountain has its majestic forms. But its eloquence, though impressive, is silent, except when the storm begins to move upon its head, and roar along its sides, and brush its everlasting crags, and bellow over the mouths of its caverns; or when the avalanche comes thundering from its brow to worship at its feet; and he who happens to be there perchance shall never come away. The wilderness has its romantic and unexplored solitudes, and the desert its interminable wastes, or its burning sirocco; but there is no comfort to exempt the mind from external annoyances. The ocean, tempest-tossed, prepares in the deep a watery shroud for the body by the same hand, with which it proffers a festival of sublimity to the soul. With him who has gone safely through, the very contingencies of his passage may indeed augment the power and add intensity to the character of his emotions, while hanging in retrospect over the recollections of his peril. Still there was peril—and with peril there is pain. But not so in the peaceful retreat of Niagara’s eternal cataract. There the mind may rest from anxiety. The spectator may sit, and see, and hear, and never grow weary of the scene. He may change his position. He may walk along the banks of the majestic current, from the entrance of Chippewa’s dark waters, following its course, and witnessing how the flood begins to make haste. He may see the glassy surface beginning to be disturbed by the increased rapidity; and now the vast volume leaping a shelf, and showing the form of an ocean wave; and now leaping another shelf, and another, and yet another, until the mighty torrent, descending a steep declivity, bounds over its broken and craggy bed, itself as yet unbroken, so deep and measureless the flood. Then he marks the earnestness, the very passion of its career, as if it were glad to burst at once from its confinements above, and eager to plunge into the abyss below. He who has seen the troubled ocean after a storm, has only to imagine those heaving billows descending a mountain side, himself looking up from below on their downward course, and it is the very picture presented from the table rock of Niagara, as the spectator, turning his back on the chasm, with the cataract immediately on his left, faces the descending torrent, and lifts his eye on the mountain declivity of waters, which comes leaping, and rolling, and tumbling, as if from the clouds, or the azure heavens which peer above the tops of the waves. And this only a preparation for the fall—a collection and multiplication of forces for the stupendous leap. Next the enrapt beholder turns his eye upon the curvilinear margin of the awful shelf; he bends to look downward from his giddy elevation, and there an ocean of waters, which he had just seen rushing with most alarming impetuosity from above, now plunges into the abyss, as if to drive asunder the base of the hills. The firm rock, on which he stands, shudders—himself shudders, while the roar, and tumult, and tempest of the chasm send up their thunders to his ear, and drive the currents of their watery mist like the whirlwind in their windings and fitful moods, and with all the force of the tornado. He may descend, if he will, (and he must be alike wanting in courage and taste if he declines) to the level which these waters have formed by their daring leap. There, housed beneath the impending and lofty crag, itself jutting far out over the bosom of the deep, as if curious to witness more and all of the scene, himself may look up on that which just now, bending from above, he had looked down upon. And now he has before him nought but the mighty cataract, like an ocean, spilling itself in one vast sheet from those regions of the heavens, where the highest stars are seen at night, and where the summer’s sun walks in his strength at mid-day. And let him not fear the whirling eddies of the suspended waters, thrown out from the thickest of the tumult, and dashing upon him now their softer mists, and now their sheets of a driving storm. He should brave all this, and more, if he would see what every brave man should see. He must take the hand of a competent guide, and make his circuit over the broken fragments of the rocks, far round and underneath the projecting and awful shelf, over which the mighty tide takes its final plunge. And when perchance an eddying blast shall burst upon him, he must hug the rock till its transient fury is exhausted, and then push on, still resorting to the same expedient on the recurrence of a like exigency, until he has gone as far as man may dare to go, and turns and sits him down to face the inner face of this strange vision. Then, indeed, he will find himself in the midst of an awful tempest, menaced and assaulted on all sides by whirlwind blasts, and enlightened only with the light which the whitened foam reflects on that dark cavern; but still in safe condition, except the rare chance of the fall of some fragment of the rocks above, for ever oppressed and shaken as they are by the superincumbent and rushing flood. Of that, however, he must not think; in such predicament it were unpleasant. The last fall of the kind, a few years since, which brought ten thousand tons, or more, in a single mass, happened in the night,—and so may the next; and the next may be centuries to come. Let him rather make the best of his daring; and not only be able to say that he has been there, but feel that it was a rare and enviable privilege. Who can well imagine the wild commotion and deafening uproar of the scene? The loudest piping of the ocean blast, and the fiercest march of its mountain wave, are a mere lullaby song to the thunder of this encounter. The visitor will not fail to cross to the American side, as it is called,—as though Canada were not in America. And this vice is well enough understood here, where it originated—or rather the compliment done to the United States and her citizens, by making them the representatives of the entire continent, and alluding to them, as if they were its sole lords and occupants. Are the United States so important, as to be entitled to this high distinction of standing for America, and that Americans should every where be the synonyme of citizens of that republic? What accident has given so small a portion of that world such a prominence? 2 3 4 5 6 The notices we have already taken of Niagara Falls have been from the Canada side, which are altogether most interesting, and the views most sublime. For a relief of the almost painful emotions, by which the mind of the beholder has been exercised,—at one time excited in admiration, now rapt in ecstacy, and now overwhelmed by the mingled effect of grandeur and tumult and fury,—let him throw himself into a small boat on the bosom of Niagara, directly under the Falls, where, conscious of safety, though tossed like a feather in the fitful wind by the boilings of that unfathomable linn, or basin, where the waters, which a moment before sprung in such mighty volume from the brow of yonder precipice, now heave and roll and break in eddies of fearful aspect, as if to give expression to their pain and agony, or vent to the joy of their escape;—on such a sea of foam, where the last breath of the conflict is evidently spent, and the agitated element labouring to be composed, he may rest and float secure, and look at the base, and look midway, and lift his eye to the summit of that unceasing, never-dying cataract. He may estimate its superficial dimensions, he may imagine its depth, and wonder still at its roar and tumult. From the same position he may turn his eye to the left of Goat Island, on the American side, and witness a still more lofty cataract, but more modest, not yet presuming to assert such profound pretensions, descending in a silvery sheet, as if from an artificial shelf, connecting the island with the shore; and dashing on the rocks below, displays a vast bed of fleecy whiteness, like a storm of the thickest and purest snow, reflected by the sun. At the head of the rapids, about one mile from the Falls in direct line, but from two to three miles by the line of the Canada shore, the river is divided by the island above named, turning, perhaps, one-tenth of the current to the American side. This smaller portion would be a great river by itself—and the channel through which it descends, and the final plunge of its waters, are in many respects more romantic, though less grand and awful, than the course and fall of the principal torrent. The shelf of the cataract on the American side is to the eye and in fact higher than the point of the Horse Shoe, as it is called, where is the greatest depth and force of the river, as it leaps from the precipice. This single feature of superior elevation gives advantage to the American side, and in this particular it stands invested in a more majestic form. But the deep, and comparatively unperturbed current descending from the Horse Shoe, suggests the vastness of its volume, imparts to it the highest consideration, and chains the mind with the intensest interest. By the noble enterprise of a wealthy individual, Judge Porter, a bridge has been thrown across from the American shore to Goat Island, directly over the most impetuous current of the rapids, and but a few rods above the fall—an almost incredible achievement of human art, and of human power over natural obstacles. To facilitate the undertaking, there happened to be the natural abutment of an islet midway the channel, saving the necessity of more than two or three additional ones, which were sunk and secured at great expense and difficulty. By this means, this heretofore inaccessible island, covered with wood, a most beautiful and romantic retreat, has been opened to free and easy access; and one of the most advantageous views of the Falls is to be gained from its brow, hanging between the two cataracts. The passage across this bridge is somewhat frightful, from the rapidity of the current, and the startling thought of hanging suspended over a torrent, so fiercely dashing onward, to leap the next moment from such a giddy height. The mind at once begins to calculate the chances of some accident to the bridge. The bare possibility of the sudden slide of a pier, over which you stand, from the face of the rock, on which it rests, and the inevitable consequence, shocks the feelings with the shuddering sensation of horror; and the hastened step of the passenger will sufficiently indicate the involuntary impulse by which he has been overtaken. No one, however, should deny himself the gratification of visiting the island. It is like as if a bridge had been made to the moon, once as unexpected, and deemed alike impossible. The views and aspects of this great wonder of nature are susceptible of almost infinite change by the change of position: and there it is, the same great work of God for ever and for ever, in constant life and motion. There is no curtain to hide the exhibition —there is no machinery in it, the wires of which are subject to human control. Its fountains are never dried, its torrents are never, like other floods, increased or diminished. There it is, the same for ever and for ever. Notwithstanding a world of waters have fallen this hour, a world of waters shall fall the next hour. To-morrow shall be as this day, and a century to come as a century past. The lover of nature’s magnificence and nature’s beauties may wander there without fear of satiety—with ever growing and yet a keener appetite. He may choose his bed on the brow of the chasm, and near the fearful plunge, so that the walls of his habitation, and the couch on which he reposes, shall sympathise with the ceaseless vibrations of the earth and rocks, and himself literally be rocked to sleep by the hand and music of the mighty waters. In his half-waking moments he shall know, because he will feel, that he is there. In the visions of his deepest slumbers, still shaken by the concussions of all nature around, he shall be admonished, that he is there. Of that which he saw by day he shall dream by night—and he shall see it even then in forms of as much greater magnificence, and of as much more attractive beauties, or dressed in a wildness as much more amazing, as dreams are more remarkable, than the sober thoughts of a wakeful hour. He may rise in the morning, and visit the scene with ever fresh delight; and at noon, and when the sun declines, and by the light of the moon, or under the stars alone, or when the tempest scowls at midnight hour, and mingles its thunders with the thunders of the abyss in rival effort, and lays the broad sheets of its fire on the foam of the waters: and he will never say—it is enough. 7 8 9 10 11 12 CHAPTER II. THE WHIRLPOOL. From Niagara Falls, long familiar with their various features, as above described, the author of these pages took it in his head to make a distant excursion, in the summer of 1830, into the wild regions of the North West, tenanted principally by savages, as they are commonly called, but more reverently by the aboriginal inhabitants of North America. The method selected of getting there was by the Lakes, and the point of embarkation, Buffalo. I...