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to an excruciating, but immediate death to satisfy the manes of the departed indians; & he proceeded im-
mediately to the Camp; killed the remaining 2 old men, scoffing & taunting them at the same
time. Immediately after this he ordered such of the indian women as had had their hus-
bands killed, or were taken by the H. B. to seperate from the other women & inflict the same
punishment upon them & their children as had been done to their friends. "Thus were
"the Hairy Breasts entirely exterpated, merely by their own folly & wickedness. Had they lived
"peaceably, & allowed the indians to partake of the blessings of this world without envy,
"as well as themselves, & to which they had an undoubted right, they might still have
"been in existence. However there are still 2 nations of them, one of which is on Your"Lands, the others, I believe beyond the Seas: but they are an insignificant & most
"despicable people. They pretend to antiquity & would fain extort respect from the
"moderns (i.e. themselves, or the indians, principally) but their very countenance, appearance,
"every thing about them denotes folly & seems more to demand contempt than to call for
"respect. I saw one many years back, who was bro't by the Traders from somewheres
"on your Lands: he face was venerable, but still there was a meanness in the whole of
"him that I could not account for: I respected him, & wanted to treat him according-
"ly—this is as from the Stories I had heard related of them; but the Traders laughed
"at us & asked one if I was inclined to respect folly, insignificance, & nothing"!!!—
I have been a long time in writing these Pages & have been frequently disturbed—I have been
often obliged to put by my paper after seating myself 5 or 6 times to write only one word: from such
long & frequent interruptions much method & correctness cannot be expected—I therefore send
them to you in the form of Notes. My motives for thus employing my time & paper were
first to amuse & instruct myself, but principally for your own amusement & such few
friends as you may think worthy of the communication. Lend them not of the house, nor
let too many see them; for I have some notion please God I live to digest them into
form & regularity & have them published, besides a vast many others I purpose with
Gods help, collecting: but this is merely between ourselves & immediately after perusal
blot out all this Paragraph. Journals, voyages &c. &c. of these people have been fre-
quently published: but I have met with none that gives so circumstantial a
detail of their private life (if I may so say) as is necessary to give that insight to
their ideas & notions (& this latter term too, I think, critically speaking cannot be appli-
cable to them) that is required & so much wanted to form a proper estimate of
man in his natural state. We all see them, hear them & relate of them; but where is
there one who can give the why's & wherefore's that these people do so, & so? I beg you will
blot this last paragraph entirely out, at least the first part; & do not be premature in
your condemnation or judgement of me, for I trust my motives are entirely destitute of
vanity & only the desire of truth urges me, or at least true & just information &c. &c. G N.
april 16th 1823—

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Such are the notions & ideas of these people. They acknowledge a superior Power, not Wee-Suck-a-
-jock, as I was erroneously informed "but the same one you adore in the Christmas holidays". This
one they have a great respect & veneration for but seldom it is as far as I can learn) that they sa-
crifice or pray to him i.e. make speeches, which tho' extempore, I consider as much prayers as tho'
they were composed after the most deliberate & mature reflection; & many parts of them so simple,
plain, natural, & withal so sublime that I frequently felt great pleasure in attending to them.
But these sentiments are so few comparitively speaking, & the absurdities so great & frequent that
few men can hear them without lamenting their ignorance. They have often seemed to me
as desirous in a hi degree of becoming acquainted with the true mode of worshipping, from
the frequent changes, even during my time, they have made in their worshippings. As a proof of this
is the avidity with which they seize any new system introduced from their Southern neigh-
bors: the short time they hold it; & how completely it is abandoned, if not entirely forgotten
for another, equally if not more absurd than the former. To introduce a new system
among them it is only necessary to report an extravagant tale of some wonderful character,
—the cures by this means that have been performed & such like miraculous & fantastic
nonsense. But in their fundamental points I perceive no visible alteration. The prin-
cipal of these is what they call the Mee-tay-wee. A ceremony I shall compare
to Free-masonry; but the initiations are public—every one that chuses comes to see
them & many are invited. Here, in the course of initiation are ceremonies or deviltries
performed that no man of his own mere dexterity or Power can do. The next
principal one is conjuring. This is a principle I believe as natural to man as the air he
breathes (tho' not so necessary). Every one wishes to peep into futurity & there are few but
who would not inquire into causes could they do it, or were it not forbidden them. Thes two
of course are consequences or consequents of their mythology. There are many in the
civilized or Christian world who absolutely & positively deny this power of theirs as being
absolutely impossible & at best but absurd & idle stories. Many of the things related of
these Conjurings I acknowledge to be so; but at the same time I am as positive & as
firmly persuaded of the truth of the assertion "that they have dealings with some supernatural
spirit," as I am convinced that I live & breathe in air; unless, indeed, we chuse to acknow-
ledge & believe a certain sect of Philosophers (of the last century I beleive) who wish to tell
us that we only imagine ourselves alive. And I am by no means inclined to acknowledge
myself as superstitious: I am convinced of this from reason, argument, comparison; in-
-short from analysis. Let any one man, unless he be a headstrong brute who is de-
termined before hand not to be convinced, analyse their discourses &c. &c. and I am confi-
dent he will beleive as much as many, or have great doubts at least. To absolutely
deny this, we must first deny that there is a Devil, & afterwards deny his pernicious power

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and if we deny these points, we must descend to a third, & more fit for an atheistical wretch
& a beast than a Christian, or even rational creature. I have heard some sensible & well informed
Gentleman deny it on the plea of their ignorance; but this again is a basis & very
solid one. These people are still in a complete state of nature: their ideas of the true
God are far from clear or correct: they acknowledge him indeed as the Supreme & absolute Master of
all, but more or rather as a passive Deity than as he really is; but their notions of their other
Deities come far more near the truth. Their wants indeed are also few, but they are arbitrary
& cannot be dispensed with, at least for any time; it is therefore very natural that they should em-
ploy their whole thoughts & most of their time in procuring these means to warding off or averting their dangers.
And I do not know of any method more adapted to this than the one they pursue, i. e.
Fasting & Sleeping to dream; & they do dream too: & many of these dreams are so complicated,
or compounded of so many different things that it is absolutely beyond the power of their in-
vention to fabricate them. Surely a man man beleive his senses. A man tied, wound up in
a blanket, or skin equally soft: here he is held by one, two, or 3 men—he slips out of the
blanket & presents himself before you free, leaving the cords &c. untied in the blanket: you
hear him Speak, & perhaps 20 other voices besides, all at the same: again he is bound as a
criminal, rather indeed as a Pig, crumpled into a heap & thrust in to his hut—at the
very instant of his entrance the hut shakes as if ten thousand devils were for pulling it
to pieces: you enter this, find the man absent, hear a fluttering about your ears, or see
a vast number of small lights resting on the hoops that hold the poles together:
immediately after you are out you hear the man speake within again; you look again & feel
for him, but hear him talking at a distance; What can this be but supernatural
agency?—I have never seen feats of this kind, but others I have, not so strong, but equally con-
vincing. I have been informed that a young half-breed, abandoned with the indians almost
from his childhood, a few years back entered one of these conjuring huts at the solicitation
of one of the N. W. Gentlemen to see what retarded the people so long. Previous to his entering a great
deal of conversation on the subject had been: matters were settled between them & the con-
juror. Some time after his entrance he began to cry (not weep) as a person uneasy,
at first the voice was within, but it appeared as rising in the air, & at last was lost.
"Well!" said one of the indians addressing one of the half-breeds, living with the white "Well! enter
"now, & see if he be there: thou art always doubting & denying what we say of these things:
"enter then & see if he be there, then indeed are our assertions false." He raised the bottom
of the casement & entered, but as he was not below, he rose on his feet & felt for him, but
not to be found. However he was paid for his curiosity: there was a dreadful flutter-
ing within, but especially about his head, his hair flying about in his face as if in
a tempest & frequent appearances of small lights before his eyes which ever way he turned: he
bawled out & asked those without what was the matter with him: he became afraid & walkd

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