rior, all give themselves up to the most brutal intoxication, whenever the noxious fire broth can by any means be procured. At every trading station, the supply of intoxicating liquors is limited and regulated solely by the quantity and value of peltries the Indians can produce. Direct purchases are, we know, rarely made with whiskey; that is, the Indian rarely exchanges his peltries for that article nominally but he expects, and custom has rendered him confident, that he is to be treated, or to receive a bonus in whiskey in proportion to the value of his peltries, and the profits he allows the trader. Many, we have no doubt, of our traders, would gladly free themselves from compliance with this burdensome custom, seeing it is one which exerts a deleterious indirect influence on their business; but so universal has this appetite for intoxicating drinks become among the Indians, and so entire its influence over them, that the trader who should refuse it to them, would soon be compelled to yield to his competitors. We speak the result of some observation, both at our military posts and Indian agencies, and "out of sight of the flag staffs" of either, when we say, that wherever the white man comes in contact with the Indian, there the latter is sure to obtain the means of ruinous, and long-continued, and frequent indulgence in drunkenness. Much good advice has been offered them on this subject, and instances have occurred where gallons, and perhaps barrels of whiskey, have been spilled on the ground, at treaties, on purpose to show them how they ought to despise this pernicious drug; but the temptation of a fat buck, or a portion of goodly territory, has, if we mistake not, sometimes enticed their careful and politic political Fathers, to forget their own instructions and advice.

It sometimes happens, as at the treaty of Prairie du Chien, that the Indians, in the heat of summer and the commencement of autumn, are called from their own elevated and healthful regions; and, after long and toilsome journeys, are exposed for many days to a noxious and pestilential atmosphere, which cause, aided by irregularities and change of aliment, fails not to occasion fevers, and mortal distempers. These the Indians often attribute—as our positive knowledge enables us to say, did many of those who sickened and died, at or soon after the treaty of Prairie du Chiento poison administered in the food issued to them.

Among the minor evils of these meetings, may be enumerated the exciting and keeping alive quarrels between individuals and bands, who perhaps would rarely or never meet, but for these occasions. The commissioners, and others who have attended these treaties, can doubtless recall instances of murders committed and defiances given at these places, where the Indians have assembled, as they are told, "to brighten the chain of peace." Thus have we enumerated a few of the instances in which se

rious evils, and severe sufferings, result to the Indians from these idle and mischievous convocations. To all the admirers of these treaties, we would recommend the perusal of a chapter on the subject, in the last edition of that unostentatious, but in many instances well informed treatise, entitled, "Modern Chivalry." But we have no disposition to magnify this business of Indian treaty-making into an affair of very serious importance. That these meetings ever have, or ever will result in any important benefits to the Indians themselves, will not be expected by those at least who have ever reflected on the subject; and to all the people of the United States, it is, or should be well known, that the causes which are hurrying to ruin the Indian tribes, are less easily counteracted or removed, than any limited abuse of public confidence or misapplication of public means, on the part of any of the subordinate officers of government.

The sufferings of these people, and their apparent rapid decline, have excited of late years the commiseration of the humane, and called forth the exertions of the benevolent. The voice of the people of the United States, could it be heard, would speak peace to these long harassed tribes. Public sentiment has been, and is strongly in favour of efforts for the amelioration of their condition, by conveying to them the lights of civilization, and the consolations of a pure religion. The attention of the national legislature has been repeatedly called to the subject. Laws have been enacted, multiplied, modified, amended-any thing but enforced. A department of the general government has been organized for the purpose of superintending the concerns, watching over the interests, and promoting the welfare of these people. It is not, however, supposed by any, that these desirable objects are fully attained. The offices of the Indian Department are considered, under the existing laws, means of providing for importunate applicants, or of extending executive patronage. To the majority of the people it is well known, that the existing system of Indian agencies is exerting no salutary or elevating influence upon either white men or Indians; and many would rather be convinced, that the liberal expenditures already made on account of the Indian Department, have been generally and extensively beneficial, than to see those expenditures increased to the extent recommended.

In this case, which appears to us nearly identified with that of humane and Christian feeling, something may yet be done by legislation;-something by the exertions of those, who, if there be any such, having a knowledge of the existing defects and abuses in our laws or their execution, will, without prejudice or partiality, hold them forth to the view of the public.

But if any effort on our part could check or arrest the downward career of this race, if any extensive or valuable benefits

could be extended to them, we might hope they would accrue from the benevolent exertions of that class of men, who go among them to teach the elements of the useful arts, and the principles of the Christian religion. At several points along our extended frontier, may these disciples of a benevolent religion be met with, labouring from day to day, and from year to year, in the slow and difficult attempt to give the Indians such a knowledge of letters, and such an enlargement of ideas, as may enable them to receive and comprehend the important doctrines of Revealed Religion. Without any sanguine expectation of extensive general improvement in the condition of the Indians, to be derived from the adoption among them of the Christian religion, we are confident, that much good must spring from pure example, and industrious habits, as well as from the cultivation of the mind, imparted to the children about our mission stations. Here it is, that the most earnest efforts are made to apply the remedy to the seat itself of the disease, to form the habits, to discipline and elevate the minds of these children of the forest, to inure them to the practice of patient application-of connected and persevering exercises of thought, and thus by degrees eradicate that brand, deeper than the colour of the skin, which seems to have marked the Indian for degradation. From the examples of these schools, the Indians have, perhaps, deduced the conclusion, that numbers of white men can be moved by other motives than the thirst for gain. Our race have thus gained something in the estimation of those they would instruct, but it will be long before they can look upon us with that kind of respect and partiality, which would make them eager to adopt our religion. The example of past times, and of tribes formerly numerous and powerful, but now extinct, forbids us to hope for great or rapid changes for the better. This is not, as we believe, peculiarly the age of missionary exertions among the Indians. The work now before us, the Delaware Spelling Book of the same author, the version of the Bible by Mr. Eliot, the Book of Common Prayer in the Mohawk, and many other elaborate translations of religious books into the Indian languages, are memorials more considerable, it is to be feared, than the present generation will leave of similar labours. When will this country again exhibit a spectacle so gratifying, as that of the seven churches of native Indians, under the care of Mr. Eliot?

But though experience exhibits a gloomy picture of the past, and admonishes us to hope humbly for the future, as far as the extension of the Christian religion among the Indians is concerned, it is evident, that exertion should not be spared. Every branch of useful industry, above all husbandry and the ruder and more common arts of life, are what their situation now calls for. Before they can become a religious, a moral, or a happy people, they must renounce

their hunter state, and wandering habits, and to do this, they must become, most of them, agricultural. Portions of our continent are adapted to a nomade population, and such will, in due time, spring up there; but in all the forest country, to the north and east of the Mississippi, planting must take the place of hunting. The people of the large Ottawa settlement of Wawqunukkezie, or L'Arbre Croche, in the Peninsula of Michigan, are now on the point of abandoning their hunter habits, and betaking themselves exclusively to the cultivation of the soil. Even with the rude and inadequate methods of culture now in use, they are able every spring to spare to the white settlers at Mackinac and other places, considerable quantities of corn and potatoes, from the remains of their winter stock. Now is the time when a little judicious assistance and instruction in the method of rearing and employing in the labours of the field, horses and oxen, in the construction and use of ploughs, and the making and repairing of the ordinary implements of husbandry, would do more for this people, than hundreds of treaties, or thousands of dollars given them in annuities.

It is to be regretted, that exertions for the good of mankind, originating in such disinterested motives as must prompt the missionary labours of all classes and denominations of Christians, should meet obstructions from the prejudices or the invidious feelings of rival sects. Yet we are credibly informed, that this is the case in several of those instances where Protestant missionaries are brought into contact with the Catholics of Louisiana and Canada. In many of these districts are no resident Catholic clergy, and their direct influence where they are found, has not, we think, been inimical to the Protestant missions. But it is to be remembered, that habits of close intimacy have, from the earliest settlement of the country, subsisted between the Indians and the lower portion of the Canadian Catholics. Particular instances are well known, in which large bands of Indians, have, from the frequent representations of the Canadians, who live much amongst them, adopted the belief that the religion of the people of the United States, which is, in general, identified with that of the Protestant Missionaries, is not the true religion of the God of white men, but a poor attempt to copy after the Catholic church, to whom alone the genuine religion had been given. To this impression, confirmed in many instances in its influence, by the more imposing ceremonies, and captivating emblems of that worship, may be attributed some share of the reluctance, on the part of Indian parents, to commit their children to the care of the mission families in the north-west. At some of the largest, best endowed, and most ably conducted mission establishments, scarce one of a hundred of the pupils are of an unmixed Indian blood, or the children of those so unconnected with the whites as to be considered a part of the nation or tribe to which the mother only

commonly bears any relationship. Hence, in the present condition of the mission schools, they benefit most directly, and principally, the children of white traders, and others residing for purposes of business in the Indian country, many of whom are not only abundantly able, but willing to send their children to the best schools of Canada and the United States, were it not for the superior advantages which the mission schools afford.

Another impediment to the extensive utility of the Protestant Missions, may be found in the reluctance on the part of their members, to conform, as the Canadian French have always done, to the habits and manner of life of the people they would instruct. We would not wish to see them becoming as careless of personal comfort and cleanliness, nor above all so compliant in moral habits, as the Canadians have commonly been, but something we think might be gained by descending to meet the Indians on their own ground. In our mission establishments, as at present conducted, a large and costly house is commonly erected, which, placing ourselves in the situation of the Indians, we may call elegant and imposing. It is erected at a distance of many miles, or many days' journey, from the encamping places or villages of the nearest bands of Indians; the people of the mission families are dressed in the fine cloths and fashionable garments of the whites. With such external appearances, in person and dwelling, we may easily believe the Indians have too generally learned to associate ideas of haughtiness and insolence. They approach such dwellings and such people with timidity; and if they escape without encountering insult, or suffering injustice, they are ready to consider themselves fortunate. If they are induced to enter such a building, the extent, the neatness, the good order of the rooms, so unlike what they have been accustomed to see, produce a painful impression, and they go away imagining their children could not be otherwise than unhappy in such a place, and under the practice of habits so dissimilar to those of their own homes. The well-known improvidence of these people, their utter aversion to the labour of tracing the operation of causes to their remote ef fects, combining with their habitual distrust of the character and motives of white men, render them totally indifferent to the prospective advantages of educating their children in the mode offered them at the mission schools. But were they in some measure aware of the importance of these opportunities, such is commonly the want of discipline in families, and of self-denial on the part of parents, that they would never think of foregoing the pleasure of seeing and watching over their children, for the sake of sending them to distant places of education.

The effect of a system, in some measure the reverse of this, has been tried, and though not found entirely to meet the wishes and hopes of the friends of humanity, has nevertheless, been con