woman may boil her maize, her beans, and above

all her maple sugar.

Here are silver broaches, and

here are pistols for the youths.

Indian. them.

-The skins I can spare will not purchase

Trader. Your will determines, brother; but next year you will want nothing but powder and shot, having already purchased your gun and ornaments. If you will purchase from me a blanket to wrap round you, a shirt and blue stroud for under garments to yourself and your woman; and the same for leggings, this will pass the time, and save you the great labor of dressing the skins, making the thread, etc., for your clothing; which will give you more fishing and shooting time, in the sturgeon and bear months.

Indian.

But the custom of my fathers!

Trader. You will not break the custom of your fathers, by being thus clad for a single year. They did not refuse those things which were never offered to them.

Indian. For this year, brother, I will exchange my skins; in the next I shall provide apparel more befitting a warrior. One pack alone I will reserve

to dress for a future occasion. The summer must not find a warrior idle.

The terms being adjusted and the bargain concluded, the trader thus shows his gratitude for liberal dealing.

Trader.-Corlaer has forbid bringing scaura to

steal away the wisdom of the warriors; but we white men are weak and cold; we bring kegs for ourselves, lest death arise from the swamps. We will not sell scaura; but you shall taste some of ours in return for the venison with which you have feasted us.

Indian.- Brother, we will drink moderately.

A bottle was then given to the warrior by way of present, which he was advised to keep long; but found it irresistible. He soon returned with the reserved pack of skins, earnestly urging the trader to give him beads, silver broaches, and above all scaura, to their full amount. This, with much affected reluctance at parting with the private stock, was at last yielded. The warriors now, after giving loose for a while to frantic mirth, began the war-whoop, made the woods resound with infuriate howlings; and having exhausted their dear bought draught, probably determined, in contempt of that probity which at all other times they rigidly observed, to plunder the instrument of their pernicious gratification. He, well aware of the consequences, took care to remove himself and his goods to some other place; and a renewal of the same scene ensued. Where, all this time, were the women, whose gentle counsels might have prevented these excesses? Alas! unrestrained by that delicacy which is certainly one of the best fruits of refinement, they shared in them, and sunk sooner under them. A long and deep sleep generally succeeded; from which they awoke in a state of dejec

tion and chagrin, such as no Indian had ever experienced under any other circumstance. They felt as Milton describes Adam and Eve to have done after their transgression. Exhausted and forlorn, and stung with the consciousness of error and dependence, they had neither the means nor the desire of exercising their wonted summer occupations with spirit. Vacancy produced languor, and languor made them again wish for the potion which gave temporary cheerfulness. They carried their fish to the next fort or habitation to barter for rum. This brought on days of frenzy, succeeded by torpor. When again roused by want to exertion, they saw the season passing without the usual provision; and by an effort of persevering industry, tried to make up for past negligence; and then, worn out by exertion, sunk into supine indolence, till the approach of winter called them to hunt the bear; and the arrival of that (their busy season), urged on their distant excursions in pursuit of deer. Then they resumed their wonted character, and became what they used to be; but conscious that acquired tastes and wants, which they had lost the habit of supplying themselves, would throw them again on the traders for clothing, etc., they were themselves out-straining every sinew to procure enough of peltry to answer their purpose, and to gratify their newly acquired appetites. Thus the energy, both

1 From Peter Schuyler, brother to the colonel, I have heard many such details. Mrs. Grant.

of their characters and constitutions, was gradually undermined; and their numbers as effectually diminished, as if they had been wasted by war.

The small-pox was also so fatal to them, that whole tribes on the upper lakes have been entirely extinguished by it. Those people being in the habit of using all possible means of closing the pores of the skin, by painting and anointing themselves with bears' grease, to defend them against the extremity of cold, to which their manner of life exposed them; and not being habitually subject to any cutaneous disease, the small-pox rarely rises upon them; from which it may be understood how little chance they had of recovering. All this I heard Aunt Schuyler relate, whose observations and reflections I merely detail.

IN

ACCOUNT OF A SETTLER AMONG THEM

N this wild liberty, habits of probity, mutual confidence, and constant variety, there was an undefinable charm, that, while they preserved their primitive manners, wrought in every one who dwelt any time amongst them.

for

I have often heard my friend speak of an old man, who, being carried away in his infancy by some hostile tribe who had slain his parents, was rescued very soon after by a tribe of friendly Indians, who, from motives of humanity, resolved to bring him up among themselves, that he might, in their phrase, "learn to bend the bow, and speak truth." When it was discovered, some years after, that he was still living, his relations claimed him; and the community wished him to return and inherit his father's lands, now become more considerable. The Indians were unwilling to part with their protégé; and he was still more reluctant to return. This was considered as a bad precedent; the early settlers having found it convenient in several things regarding hunting, food, etc., to assimilate, in some degree, with the Indians; and the young men occa