gouges, and gimlets of stone. Their knives, points of arrows, spears, &c. were frequently made of jasper, agate, and hornstone. The instruments employed in warfare were also those of the chace, and upon them they bestowed much labour.

Those relics are found in the graves of these people, with whom it was a custom to bury with the deceased all the goods he possessed at the time of his death. Notwithstanding their passionate love of ornament, the Indians often bestowed their beads, rings, bracelets, and other showy appendages to decorate the dead, whose remains are now found in the earth covered with the gaudy trinkets of their survivors.

The social condition of these people was like that of the Canadian tribes. The independence of every individual to do whatever he pleased was maintained as a right, and that principle has not been weakened by their intercourse with European communities. They will enter the dwellings of the rich and sit at the tables of persons of rank with an air of dignity and self-possession, and their powers of imitation remove every kind of awkwardness. Their attachment to their tribe, and their patriotism for its honour and welfare, were not exceeded by the Greeks or Romans. They still maintain that the "Great Spirit" has permitted the "pale faces" to come upon their grounds to kill their game, catch their fish, and cut down their trees; but they are the lords of the soil, and the rightful owners of the water, the land, and the sky.

Every political circumstance calls forth the powers of oratory, and every important act of diplomacy is accompanied by a speech, or "great talk." On every emergency a council of the tribe is called, when the aged and wise hold long deliberations for the public weal. In their diplomatic discourses, each proposition is prefaced by the delivery of a wampum belt, which is made to represent the different parts of the treaty, and preserved as a record of the conference. The proposals of

the orator are accompanied by appropriate actions. "If he threatens war, he wildly brandishes the tomahawk; if he solicits alliance, he twines his arms closely with the chiefs he addresses; and if he invites friendly intercourse, he assumes all the attitudes of one who is forming a road in the Indian manner, by cutting down the trees, clearing them away, and carefully removing the leaves and branches."*

Historical Account of British America, by Hugh Murray, vol. i. p. 68, 69.

The acuteness of the Indian is almost supernatural; he can follow an animal by indications imperceptible even to an American backwoodsman. His powers of observation are so perfect, that he can trace on a piece of bark, with a bit of charcoal, the geography of the country he has traversed; and he will take a direct course to a place hundreds of miles distant, without the aid of a compass.

It has been supposed by some writers that the savage tribes of North America had no means of recording events. The wampum belt was generally applied to the different parts of a speech, or the different articles of a treaty; and on great occasions, when these belts were brought forth, individuals were found who, from memory or tradition, could explain each section of the precious girdle: but, besides this mode of record, the Micmacs and Melicetes had pictorial representations of certain events, and communicated information through the medium of hieroglyphics. Rocks and trees in conspicuous situations have had figures cut or engraved upon them, which convey to the Indian traveller in concise terms the knowledge necessary for his safety and comfort. During his geological survey of the Province, the Writer, with two companions and three Indians, were much embarrassed in not being able to discover in the wilderness an old Indian portage be tween the head waters of the St. Croix and Eel River Lake. From this difficulty they were relieved by observing some rude hieroglyphics marked upon an old cedar-tree. The representations were that of an Indian carrying a canoe, and the direction of the figures corresponding exactly with that of the portage path, which had been obscured by grass and fallen leaves. A hunter with his gun levelled at two deer, indicated that those animals were plentiful: this, and other information conveyed in a similar manner, was found to be correct. In another instance, when the same party was descending Eel River, and their lives were in jeopardy on the brink of a fall, a large drawing of two Indians, with their heels uppermost and their canoes capsized, was seen executed in durable black ink upon a broad piece of cedar secured to a post: this warning was immediately understood, and a landing was effected before the canoes and the whole party were plunged down the cataract.

Before the country was discovered, these tribes had been at war, and desperate conflicts had taken place between rival powers. The Etche

mins and Iroquois had each struggled for supremacy, and the tortures they inflicted upon their captives forms a dark page in the traditional history of those people. At Meductic Point, eight miles below the town of Woodstock, on the east bank of the St. John, a great battle was fought between the Melicetes and Penobscots. In making a new road at the spot a few years ago, a number of skeletons and instruments of war were discovered; and songs are still chaunted by the natives commemorative of the event.-The relics found at the mouth of the Oromucto River are evidently those of a public cemetery, as the skeletons at that place were ornamented and enveloped in beaver skins. In 1639, the Mohawks of Canada were at war with the Micmacs of Acadia, and a bloody battle is said to have been fought between them near the mouth of the Restigouche. The former were victorious, and the warlike character of the tribe was such that the war-whoop of the Mohawk was to their enemies the signal for flight. Even at the present day, the Indians of New Brunswick have a superstitious dread of the spirit that led the "hungry wolves of Canada" to battle.

The early French Colonists soon discovered that they could never carry on a successful war against so brave a people; they therefore endeavoured to make them their allies. They adopted their mode of living, and even some of their barbarous customs. Their Government offered rewards to any who would marry a native, until the two races were so blended together that they could not be separated. The priests of the Jesuits lived with the savages, and all became the avowed enemies of the English, who claimed the country by discovery and possession. The Indians readily laid hold of the firearms, axes, and knives of the French, which were employed in the awful massacres of the infant settlements in the Colony. Their dress was also made to imitate the garments of their visitors, and has since become a mixture of English, French, and Indian fashions; but although their outward appearance has undergone alteration, and necessity has compelled them to conform more or less to the present condition of the country, in their social state they remain unchanged, and every effort to bring them to a perfect state of civilisation has proved abortive. As a people, they are ever ready to attach themselves to almost any kind of religion, according to expected gain. Wherever there is any show of pomp or