The Chippewas of Alnwick were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quintè; they resided on Grape Island, in the Bay of Quintè, six miles from Belleville. They resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker’s shop and joiner’s. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians.
The chiefs are—Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary interpreter.
Rice Lake Chippewas.—In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940l. These Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years. [FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,—In the year 1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson’s Point was built and cultivated.] The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, subdivided in 50-acre lots.
Chiefs—Pondash, Copway, Crow.
Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites.
APPENDIX L.
Page 282.—“... that an outward manifestation of surprise.”
A young friend, who was familiar with Indian character from frequent intercourse with them in his hunting expeditions, speaking of their apparent absence of curiosity, told me that, with a view to test it, he wound up a musical snuff-box, and placed it on a table in a room where several Indian hunters and their squaws were standing together, and narrowly watched their countenances, but they evinced no sort of surprise by look or gesture, remaining apathetically unmoved. He retired to an adjoining room, where, unseen, he could notice what passed, and was amused at perceiving, that the instant they imagined themselves free from his surveillance, the whole party mustered round the mysterious toy like a parcel of bees, and appeared to be full of conjecture and amazement, but they did not choose to be entrapped into showing surprise. This perfect command over the muscles of the face, and the glance of the eye, is one of the remarkable traits in the Indian character. The expression of the Indian face, if I may use so paradoxical a term, consists in a want of expression—like the stillness of dark deep water, beneath which no object is visible.