Notwithstanding these deficiencies, the language admits of many fine turns of expression, and pointed terms of irony, and in its general simplicity, and nervous brevity, will admit of a comparison with some terms of scripture phraseology. Among its grammatical forms, there are several, which exhibit beautiful and succinct modes of conveying thought. All its active verbs can be multiplied as often as there are distinct objects of their action, and they are conjugated both negatively, as well as positively. Substantives admit of adjective terminations, and adjectives of substantive terminations. Both can be turned into verbs, and both are endowed with number. Pronouns are inflected for time, and in this shape, supply the want of our auxiliary verbs. The verb, to be, may be said to characterize this language, as differing from some of the Indian languages, although its use is restricted, and there is no declarative existence indicated in the ordinary conjugation of verbs. As all nouns assume verbal terminations, they undergo all the modifications of other verbs. Possession is indicated by an inflection analogous to, but differing from case. Locality, diminution, and derogation, may be, either separately, or all together, denoted by inflections of the noun. Particles, are very copiously used. And this part of speech is very important, making the use of words definite or exact, which without these adjuncts, would often lack both coherence and exactitude. Adverbs are liberally employed, and by their help, the degrees of comparison are formed. There is but one degree of comparison formed by an inflection of the substantive. There is a numerous list of prepositions, which are not, however, disjunctively used, but always as the prefixed syllable or syllables, to substantives. Conjunctions, of which the language has a number, are not thus restricted, and cannot thus be used. The most important distinction, however, which belongs to the language, and that which most rigidly pervades its forms, is the separation of words into two classes, distinguished as animate and inanimate, or personal and impersonal, carrying also, the idea of noble and ignoble. This principle, merges the ordinary distinctions of gender, and imparts a two-fold character to the verb, substantive, and adjective, and consequently creates the necessity of double conjugations and declensions. This results from the transitive character of the whole language, and its habitual application to material objects. The verb which would be used to imply vision, is made to indicate the presence or absence of vitality, creating the distinction of the animate and inanimate forms. The same principle interdicts the promiscuous use of adjectives. A strong man and a strong house, require different modifications of the word strong. All its concords are directed to the upholding of this rule. This novel and curious principle, appears to lie at the foundation of the syntax, and imparts to the language its most marked characteristic feature. Whatever modifications other rules require, they all coincide in this. It is a point which every good speaker pays attention to. And as the rule may be arbitrarily employed, it enables him to invest the whole inanimate creation with life, and thus to throw a charm over the most barren waste; an advantage which is very freely resorted to, in their oral tales and mythological fables.
In contemplating such a language, it is impossible to avoid the observation of many beauties and many defects. But its beauties do not appear to be of a character to entitle them to the enthusiastic encomiums which have been bestowed upon some of our Indian languages; nor do its defects and barbarisms merit the depreciating terms which have been applied to others. Truth, in this, as in many other metaphysical investigations, will be found to lie in a mean. If there are forms and expressions suited to call forth the applause of the speculative philologist, there are also many features for him to rectify or condemn. Like the character of the people by whom it is spoken, its principles are perpetually verging to extremes. There is either a redundancy of forms creating distinctions, not, in all cases, of very obvious utility, or an absolute want of them. And the inquirer is often led to wonder, how a people who require the nice distinctions in the one case, should be able to dispense with distinctions altogether in the other.
From this vacillation between barbarism and refinement, poverty and redundance, a method strictly philosophical or purely accidental, there might be reason to infer that the people themselves, by whom the language is spoken, were formerly in a more advanced and cultivated state. And that a language once copious and exact, partaking of the fortunes of the people, degenerated further and further into barbarism and confusion, as one tribe after another separated from the parent stock. Change of accent would alone produce a great diversity of sound. Accident would give some generic peculiarities: and that permutation of the consonants, which we see among the Algonquin bands, would, in the end, leave little besides the vowel sounds, and the interchangeable consonants, to identify tribes long separated by time and by distance, without means of intercommunication, without letters, and without arts. If compared by these principles there is reason to believe, philologists would find the primitive languages of America extremely few, and their grammatical principles, either identical or partaking largely of the same features. And to this result, the tendency of inquiry on this side the Atlantic is slowly verging, however it may contravene the theories of learned and ingenious philologists in Europe. The inquiry is fraught with deep interest to the philosophical mind; and it offers a field for intellectual achievement, which it may be hoped will not be left uncultivated by the pens of piety, philosophy, or genius.
CHAPTER XI.
Encampment on a peninsula in Leech Lake.—Departure for the portage to the source of the De Corbeau river.—Traverse a bay.—Commencement of the portage.—The mode of passing it.—First portage to Warpool Lake.—Pass successively Little Long Lake, the Four Lakes, Lake of the Mountain, Lake of the Island, and encamp at the Kagi Nogumaug or Longwater, the source of the De Corbeau.—Are visited by the Chief of the Pillagers, who performs a journey for that purpose.—Recognize in his attendant the murderer of Gov. Semple.—Narrative of facts leading to this event.—Commence the descent of the river De Corbeau, passing successively the Longwater, Little Vermillion, Birch Ple, Boutwell’s Vieu, Desert, Summit, Long-rice, Allen’s, Johnston’s, and Leelina Lakes.—Junction of the Shell River fork.—Encamp in a storm.
On leaving the Gueule Plat’s village, the Surgeon and Interpreter, with Lieut. Allen’s command, were left behind to complete the vaccination of the Indians, while the rest of the party went forward a couple of leagues, to form the night’s encampment. It was after seven o’clock before they came up, and we waited some time after supper, which is generally a late meal in voyaging, for the arrival of the Indian guides, who had been promised to conduct us next day, to the landing of the portage to the river De Corbeau. Morning, however, came without them, and we embarked, (18th,) and proceeded towards the southern shore of the lake, under the hope of being able to find the portage, from the descriptions which had been given of it. Our course lay, for a distance, along the peninsula, on which we had encamped. Its trending too far to the east, induced us to hold a southerly course across a spacious bay. On gaining its centre, doubts arose, as to the proper course. A separation of the party was made. Part of the canoes took a south, and part, a south-east course, having agreed to concentrate on the firing of a gun, a signal which was eventually given, by the southern canoes under Mr. Johnston and Lieut. Allen. They had discovered a path, having every appearance of a portage, being in the required direction. Examination served to confirm this opinion. The baggage was immediately landed, the loose articles put in a portable shape, and the order of march on a portage, taken up. For this purpose, every article of the outfit, is originally put up in the most compact and convenient form, not exceeding ninety pounds weight. Pork is packed in kegs, flour in sail cloth bags, groceries in wooden or tin canisters, goods in corded bales. These are carried on the back, by a strong strap of leather passed around the forehead, and tied by its tapering ends, to the bag, or other article, forming the first, or lower piece. This is swung over the shoulders, and other pieces laid on, to the number of two, or sometimes three, according to the carrier’s strength. He then bends strongly forward, and proceeds at a half trot. He goes on the length of a pause, say half a mile, where the burden is put down, the strap untied, and the carrier, after a few moments rest, briskly returns, for another load. This process is continued till all the goods, are brought up to the first pause. The canoe and its apparatus, are then brought up, when the men commence making the second pause, and this order is repeated at every pause. This is a severe labor, and requires able bodied men, well practiced. And where the ground is low or swampy and often travelled, it soon becomes a perfect bed of mire.
The present portage, however, was found to lie across a pine plain, offering a clean beach of sand to debark on, and a dry smooth path to travel. A portage of 1,078 yards, brought us to the banks of a small lake, after crossing which we came to the entrance of a small clear brook, having not over two or three inches depth of water, spread over a bed of yellow sand. It seemed impossible to ascend it, especially with the larger canoe, but by the men’s first carrying the lading, by widening the channel in cutting down the banks with paddles, and then by walking in the stream and lifting the canoe by its gunnels, they succeeded in getting it up to another lake, called Little Long Lake. We were twenty-four minutes in crossing this latter lake, and found its inlet to be connected with four other small lakes of a pondy character, redolent with nymphæ odorata, through which we successively passed, and debarked at the head of the last lake on a shaking bog, being the commencement of portage Ple. This portage is quite short and dry, lies over a hill-prairie, and terminates on the banks of a transparent, bowl-shaped lake, with elevated shores, where we made our breakfast, at twelve o’clock. This lake, which we may refer to as the Lake of the Mountains, notwithstanding the liveliness and purity of its waters, has no visible outlet, a characteristic of which it partakes in common with a very great number of the small lakes of this quarter, which may be supposed to lie in aluminous strata. Next, in the order of travelling south of it, is the Mountain Portage, appropriately so called. Its extent is nine hundred and ten yards. The elevation is considerable, but no rock strata appear in situ. The soil is diluvial, with boulders. The growth, yellow pine, with small maples and underbrush. It terminates on the Lake of the Island. There is then a portage of two pauses, or 1,960 yards into another lake, quite pond-like, where it is first entered, but assuming a clear and bright surface after turning a prominent point. There is then a further portage of one pause, a part of it, through a morass, but terminating on highlands, surrounding the head and shores of a handsome and comparatively extensive sheet of water called Kagi Nogumaug, or The Long Water, where we encamped for the night. This day’s journey was a hard and fatiguing one, to the men. The Gueule Plat, who with one of the minor chiefs from Leech Lake, overtook us on the banks of the Lake of the Island, expressed his surprise that, with all our baggage and heavy canoes, we had pushed on so far. It was, however, a definite point in the journey. We were now on the source of the Kagági, or De Corbeau river. To have stopped short of it, would have seriously broken in on the labors of the following day; and the knowledge that the series of portages terminated there, and the downward passage commenced, buoyed up the men to make exertions. The day was particularly severe upon the soldiers, who were less accustomed to this species of fatigue. Never were the shadows of night more grateful to men, who had employed the morning, and the noon, and the evening of the day, in hard labor. We had now reached the fourth source of the primary rivers of the Mississippi, and all heading on the elevation of the Hauteur des Terres, within a circle of perhaps seventy miles. These sources are Itasca Lake, its primary, Ossowa, east fork, Shiba Lake and river, source of Leech Lake, and the present source, The Long Water, being the source of the De Corbeau, or Crow-wing river.
Gueule Plat, with his Indian secretary, so to call him, or Mishinowa, and their families, came and encamped with us. The chief said that he had many things to speak of, for which he had found no time during my visit. I invited him to sup with the party. Conversation on various topics ensued, and the hour of midnight imperceptibly arrived, before he thought of retiring to his own lodge. I was rather confirmed in the favorable opinions I have before expressed of him, and particularly in the ordinary, sober routine of his reflections, and the habitual, easy manner, which he evinced of arriving at correct conclusions. I could not say as much for his companion and pipe-lighter, Maji Gabowi, a very tall, gaunt, and savage looking warrior, who appeared to be made up, body and mind, of sensualities. And although he appeared to be quiet and passive, and uttered not a single expression that implied passion or vindiction, I could not divest my mind of the recollection that I was in company with the murderer of Gov. Semple. Whoever has given much attention to north-western affairs, will recollect that this event occurred in the fierce strife carried on between the North West and Hudson’s Bay Company. And that, in the desperate struggles which these corporations made for the possession of the fur trade, the Indians often became the dupes of whichever party appeared, at the moment, to possess the power of influencing them. The event referred to, took place near the close of a long struggle in which the spirit of opposition had reached its acme, in which company was furiously arrayed against company, charter against charter, and agent against agent. A period, at which, like the increasing energies of two powerful bodies moving towards each other, they were destined to come into violent contact, and the destruction of one, or both, seemed inevitable. The dispute respecting territory which imbittered the strife, appeared to be carried on, not so much from political ambition or the intrinsic value of the soil, as to decide which party should have the exclusive right of gleaning from the lodges of the unfortunate natives, the only commodity worth disputing for—their furs and peltries. A question, in which the Indians, in reality, had no other interest, but that which a serf may be supposed to feel on an exchange of masters, in which he has neither the right to choose nor the power to reject. Whichever party prevailed, they were sure to loose or gain nothing, if they kept aloof from the contest, or if they had any hopes from its effects upon their condition, they arose more from a prolongation, than a termination of the rivalry, as they were sure to fare better, both “in script and store,” so long as they possessed the option of rival markets.
Semple had accepted a governorship, which the late John Johnston, Esq. had the forecast to refuse. He appeared to be a man zealously devoted to the objects of the company (the Hudson’s Bay) whose interests were committed to him. But he does not appear clearly to have perceived the great difference which circumstances had interposed between a magistracy in an English or Scottish county, and the naked solitudes of Red River. He sallied forth himself, with a considerable retinue, to read the riot act, to a disorderly and threatening assembly of all kinds of a northwest population, on the plains. The agents and factors of the North West Fur Company, were accused of being at the bottom of this uproar, and it is certain that some of their servants were engaged, either as actors or abettors. It is among the facts recorded in a court of justice, that when certain of the clerks or partners of the North West Company heard of the tragic result of this sally, they shouted for joy.[17]