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.
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.] | |
| 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 |
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.