whose manners and habits are too well known to need comment here. They are a nation of hunters and warriors, skilful in the chase, bold in battle, eloquent in council, and, in a word, possessing all the half-formed virtues, all the vices, all the ignorance and all the barbarism already ascribed to the Dahcotahs. Those of them who live in high northern latitudes, are more needy, and consequently more industrious, than those who dwell in more favored climes. Between this great nation and the Dahcotahs, a war has been waged so long that tradition itself conveys no knowledge of its cause or the date of its commencement. The deadly feud has been transmitted from father to son with such inveteracy, that all efforts to staunch it have proved abortive. A great deal of inherited hatred, and the strong thirst for martial renown, which is an inherent part of Indian character, have co-operated to perpetuate this state of things.

'The language of these two great races are like no forms of speech known in the old world. They are wonderfully expressive, both defective and redundant, and said to be difficult of acquisition. The verbs of the Dahcotah language appear to have no roots, and to be entirely irregular in their modifications. The nominative case neither precedes nor follows the verb, as in the languages of the old world, but is incorporated with it, sometimes at the end of the word, sometimes in the middle, sometimes abbreviated, and sometimes entire. We have known traders to fail to acquire it during a trial of thirty years. From the little acquaintance we were able to gain, we thought it a collection of phrases, with scarce the resemblance of rule or order, and conclude that, to be learned at all, it must be learned by rote.

'We can give but brief notices of other tribes.. The Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws are known to us by their wrongs, and by the advances they have made in civilization. The measures taken to remove them beyond the Mississippi, already partially successful, will probally ere long be fully so. It would be an ungrateful as well as a useless task to enter into a discussion of a subject so generally understood; nevertheless, it may not be impertinent to offer a few remarks on the probable future fate of these unfortunate tribes.

'We have already expressed our views respecting what we think the only sure mode of civilizing Indians. That mode, or, in other words, the necessity of a change of manners, was in successful operation upon the four southern nations. By transferring them to an unlimited range of ter ritory, that necessity has been removed, and if they do not relapse into their primitive barbarism, they are radically unlike any other Indians with whom we are acquainted, or farther advanced in civilization than we are prepared to believe. The influences which make and continue the hunter state of the Indians, operate on the whites also. For every Indian who has voluntarily relinquished the life of his fathers, ten whites may be found who have become hunters.

'It is proposed, by placing these tribes west of the Mississippi, to protect them from the encroachments of the whites, an intention which is certainly not founded on precedent or analogy. If the most solemn treaties, if repeated retrocessions have not hitherto been adequate to protect the savage from the overpowering tide of white population, how can it be supposed that his new abode in Arkansas will be respected when he shall have made it valuable, if indeed, he ever should make it valuable? There, he is thrown

m contact with other tribes, as warlike, and more barbarous than his own, and much misery and bloodshed has already been the consequence.

Moreover, it is proposed, by casting the lot of several distinct tribes together, to amalgamate them, and thereby preserve them from decay. If the experience of past times is to be trusted, this measure is much more likely to produce division than to prevent it. Who ever saw two Indian tribes amalgamate, unless when one, reduced to a mere handful, sought the protection of the other? Thus the remnant of the Saques sought protection of the Foxes, the Stockbridge Indians of the Six Nations. On the other hand, we have only to refer to the Dahcotah and Algonquin races, severally derived from two great roots, but now divided into an almost infinite number of petty hordes. If people, thus connected by the bonds of common origin and language, have so divided, what is to be expected from others, who have no basis of union, and who, in some instances, entertain hostile feelings toward each other? We hope the best; but to us the future prospect of the expatriated tribes appears overshadowed with clouds and darkness.

'Beside the two great divisions already noticed, there are many other tribes, of whose origin and languages little is known, save that they are wholly distinct from each other. Such are the natives of the Columbia river, for an account of whom we must refer the reader to the travels of Lewis and Clarke, and of Roos Coxe. M'Kenzie and Franklin tell all that is known of the Dog-rib and Coppermine Indians, two feeble and miserable tribes which inhabit the frozen regions north of the Great Slave lake. The Flat-heads, who live on the upper waters of the Columbia, muster five hundred determined warriors, and derive their name from their custom of compressing the head, in infancy, into a hideously unseemly shape; a practice common to most of the tribes of Oregon, and formerly in use among the Caraibs. They war upon their eastern neighbors, the buffalofollowing Blackfeet, a desperate and ferocious tribe, who are friendly to the English, and abhor the very name of an American. This animosity arose from the fact that one or two of them were killed, more than thirty years ago, by Lewis and Clarke. The Mandans and Minnetarees dwell in permanent villages on the Missouri, speak distinct languages from each other, and from all other tribes, and claim consanguinity with none. Crows are a separate and powerful race of vagrant horsemen, and so are the Shiannes, who were formerly expelled by the Dahcotahs from the lands which the latter now occupy. The Pawnees and Arikarees compose three tribes who speak one language; the Pawnee Wolves are in no wise connected with them. The Shoshonees live and starve among the Rocky mountains. Among other distinct races may be numbered the Wyandots, or Hurons, the Comanches, the Appaches, and many others. these tribes, excepting the Wyandots, are more or less in the vagabond state, and ride over the boundless prairies, chasing the buffalo, and warring upon all whom they dare attack. All are bold warriors, skilful hunters, and inveterate horse-stealers, in all of which characters they glory. The manners of all are nearly alike; all practise the same indiscriminate hospitality; all have the same code of morals, religion, and policy; almost all detest the people of the United States, for what reasons it is unnecessary here to inquire. By classing all these hordes together, we do not mean o imply that there is no difference whatever in their habits, ideas, and

The

All of

characters; but that there is a very strong general resemblance between them all.

"The Caraibs and the original inhabitants of the West Indies have passed away, thanks to the cruelties of their Spanish invaders. Nothing can be said of them which is, probably, not already known to the mass of our readers. For an account of the Mexicans, and the Indians of South America, we must refer to the pages of Humboldt, Robertson, and other writers. Nor can it be expected that we should enter into such details as may have come to our knowledge, respecting the tribes already mentioned. Many volumes larger than this would be requisite for such purpose. It is our duty, however, to caution our readers against trusting the statements of such travellers as Carver, who have galloped over the countries they describe with the speed of race-horses, without understanding a syllable of the languages of the Indians with whom they sojourned, and relying for information on the hearsay testimony of ignorant trappers and boatmen. There are but too many of this stamp. If we may say what authorities we consider unquestionable, we will mention M'Kenzie, Henry, Franklin, Tanner, and the English Long. These all sojourned long among the people they pretend to describe, and enjoyed the best opportunities for personal observation.

'One topic connected with the aborigines only remains, which we must discuss briefly. It relates to their ultimate destiny, and the prospect of christianizing and civilizing them. Many obstacles to this desideratum exist, and we are sorry to add that they appear to us insuperable. To convert the adults must be excessively difficult, if not impossible. Firstly, their languages are so difficult of acquisition, and so barren of words ex pressing abstract ideas, that the greater part of a life is spent in learning them, and when acquired, they are scarcely adequate to convey the doc trines of Christianity. Secondly, the Indians are so constantly roaming about, and so scattered, that, to instruct them, a missionary would be needed for every family, who should accompany them in their peregrinations, avail himself of such opportunities as their caprice might allow, and above all, maintain himself; for, though no Indian would tell him so, the burthen of his support would, at times, be severely felt. He must then overcome that apathy and laziness which is the characteristic of savage life, break up the whole of his pupil's long-revered rules of thought and action, and substitute others in their stead. A new ambition must be awakened, and the whole frame of Indian society must be changed entirely, for the ethics of our Savior will not apply to the present one. For example, it will be difficult to persuade the savage to meekness and longsuffering, while all his arts and exertions will scarce protect his wives and children from the knives of his neighbors, while all his companions tell him that revenge on the enemies of his tribe is a sacred duty, and that martial renown ought to be to him as the breath of his nostrils.

"The missionary should not too much rely on the apparent impression he may have produced on his auditors. Indians seldom contradict, and, by an intuitive politeness, always receive what is addressed to them by one whom they respect, with approbation and assent. Therefore, when an Indian auditory may have listened to a discourse with marked attention and expressed approbation, the speaker is not to suppose that they believe a word of it. They only mean that he is entitled to respect. An Indian

once agreed that man's first disobedience was improper, and, being farther questioned, gave his reasons. "It was very foolish," he said, " to eat apples it was much better to make cider of them all."

'Some few adults have, indeed, become Christians; but where such conversions have taken place, the converts have either made some previous progress in civilization, or the change has been nominal. We never yet

saw a savage hunter who had a rational idea of Christianity. The example of the Cherokees alone shows that the ground must be prepared to receive the seed. The missionaries have undoubtedly done them great good; but they made little or no progress before the tribe had turned to agriculture, framed laws and a regular government, and acknowledged a distinction of property. They are now fitted to receive the Word.

'Indians taken from their tribe young, educated, and sent back, do not appear better qualified to teach than white missionaries. They are, in every thing but complexion, as much aliens among their people as the whites, and command no more sympathy, and rather less respect.

'We believe there is no example on record of a tribe who have changed from hunters to farmers on any other consideration than compulsion of some kind or other. We constantly see them recede rather than labor. But when prevented from receding, they learn the value of time and labor, and a distinction of property necessarily takes place. Laws are then necessary to guard this distinction. Prodigality is no longer a principal virtue; war is no longer the chief pursuit of life; the mind acquires new ideas and new habits of exercise, and thus the way to entire civilization and Christianity is prepared. Could we see the coast of the Pacific settled by white men, who should advance into the interior, driving the western Indians before them as we have done the eastern, till the entire race should be hemmed within limits too narrow for their existence as hunters, we should entertain a hope of seeing a remnant of them saved and civilized. The same result must be brought about by driving them to the Pacific; bnt the operation will be so tardy, that most of the expatriated tribes will probably be destroyed by their intercourse with the whites, or by the tribes on whom they will be forced to intrude. How small a remnant remains of the millions who once dwelt in peace between the Atlantic and the Mississippi!

The children of Indians may be christianized, but only when they can be separated from their parents. The missionaries of Michilimacinac seem aware of this fact; for they have chiefly confined their instructions to the half-breed children of white men, who are at the disposal of their fathers. It was a wise policy, and their ministry has produced the most blessed results.

'Consider this subject in what light we may, so many difficulties present themselves, that it is almost impossible to hope that any considerable portion of the aboriginal race will be in existence three centuries hence. The fate of individual tribes is beyond the reach of conjecture, and we have only to pray that the God alike of white and red men will preserve them from utter extermination.'

CHAPTER XI.-AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.*

INDIAN MOUNDS. The old Mexican villages, it is said, were built of unbaked bricks, fourteen inches square, and covered with limbs of trees and turf, which, when they mouldered away, formed a mound, similar in shape to those which meet the traveller's eye from the Red river of Hudson's bay to the state of Missouri, and probably to the gulf of Mexico. The number of these barrows has, however, been greatly exaggerated. We have seen it stated, on grave authority, that for a length of five hundred miles, and a breadth of from eighty to two hundred, the mounds are seldom an acre apart, and on this enormous blunder was founded a conclusion that the population was once immense. We, who speak from knowledge, affirm that, judging from such data, the former population was not so great as the present. We have seen mounds on the tributaries of Hudson's bay, and on the waters of the Mississippi, and their numbers warrant no such speculations. They are common enough, indeed, but by no means so common, or of such magnitude, as to ma e it certain that the ancestors of the present race of aborigines were very numerous. We draw this inference from several facts.

Travelling some years ago near the St. Peter's river, we saw, at a distance of about a mile, an erection which looked like one of the conical tents of the Indians. A distinguished individual had lately died, and our guide informed us that the object above mentioned was an earthen lodge which his relatives had raised over him. Being pressed for time, we did not approach it nigher. Supposing it to have been, which we see no reason to doubt, what the guide stated, it must, when the top crumbled down, have assumed the shape of a mound.

The Indians of those regions do, to this day, bury at least half of their dead. They respect the dead highly, and to protect their remains from wolves and dogs, erect over them an edifice of stakes, which, as they possess axes, they can easily cut. Now is it not probable, that before they had the means to cut stakes without excessive toil, they raised a mound of earth in its stead? What corroborates this supposition is, that many, and indeed the greater number, of the mounds are not larger than would be required for such purpose. That they were ever intended for dwellings is out of the question; for we are to learn that any traces of bricks, timbers, or masonry, have ever been found in any of them. We have already said that the fragments of pottery found in them are precisely similar to the earthen pots still in use among the modern Assinneboins. Again, fragments of bone are found in most of them; but could bones have remained any great length of time in damp earth undecayed? We think not-at least, we have known instances where the human frame has been utterly resolved into its native elements within the lapse of a century. But some

*This article has been furnished by the intelligent writer to whom we have been indebted for a portion of the chapter on the Indians.