The tin of the Island of Banka, and the Peninsula of Siam in Asia, and the copper of Japan, find their way to Europe, and are articles of commerce in the United States. The cobalt of Saxony is sent to Pekin, and the platina of Choco, to all parts of the world. In all these instances, the fertility of the mines compensates for every disadvantage of situation. But this principle is not alone confined to mines of tin, copper, &c.; it even holds true of the heavy and bulky articles of iron, lead, and salt. The lead of Missouri finds a market at New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, and will be carried to Europe. It is no objection that it must be conveyed in wagons forty miles from the interior, and sent a voyage of 3,000 miles in steamboats and merchant ships. The great fertility of the mines counterbalances the disadvantages of its remote position from the market, and it is the price of the metal in the market which always regulates its price at the mines. The malleable iron of Sweden is consumed on the summits of the Alleghany, although its strata are replete with iron ore, which is worked at numerous forges along the rivers which proceed from each side of it. It is believed that the salt springs of Onondaga, from their copiousness alone, would supply a vast portion of the interior and seaboard of the United States with salt, even if the facilities of water carriage had not been presented by the Erie Canal. The value of such mines and minerals ever depends as much upon the abundance as upon the favorable position of them. It is far otherwise with quarries of stone, gypsum, marl, fossil coal, &c., whose contiguity to a good market establishes their value. No abundance of these articles would justify a land carriage of one hundred miles. They constitute a species of mining, the profits and value of which increases in the ratio of the surrounding population, and as the country advances in improvements. But this advantage is far less sensibly felt, and cannot be considered essential to the successful working of mines of silver, copper, &c. Neither the remote position, therefore, of the Lake Superior copper mines, nor the want of a surrounding population, present objections of that force which would at first seem to exist; and it is confidently believed that, if their fertility is such as facts indicate, they may be opened and wrought with eminent advantage to the Republic. But let us examine their situation with respect to a market, and compare it with that of other mines of the same metal, and of some of the coarser metals, which bear a considerable land, and the most distant water carriage. To favor the inquiry, let it be granted for the moment that proximity of situation to a market, or free water carriage, are indispensable to the success and value of the most fertile mines.

Assuming the confluence of the Ontonagon River with Lake Superior (which is apparently the centre of the mine district) as the place where the metal is first to be embarked for market, it must be carried down the lake 300 miles to the Sault or rapids of St. Mary's. Here, if it is in barges, it may descend the rapids in perfect safety, as is the invariable practice of the traders on arriving with their annual returns of furs and skins from the north. If in vessels, it must be transferred either into boats or carts, and carried half a mile to the foot of the rapids, where it will again be embarked in vessels, and transported through the Lakes Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, and their connecting straits, to Buffalo, a distance of 650 miles. The progress made in the construction of the great canal which is to connect the lakes and Atlantic, is such as to leave no doubt upon any reasonable mind of the full completion of that work with the close of the year 1824. Through this channel, the transportation is to be continued in boats or barges, by a voyage of 353 miles, to the Hudson at Albany; thence a sloop navigation of 144 miles, which, for speed and freedom from risk, is perhaps unequalled in all America, takes it into the harbor of New York, making the entire distance, from the mouth of the Ontonagon, 1,447 miles. From New York it is distributed to our naval depots, and to the markets of Europe. It is exchanged for the lead of Missouri, the iron of Sweden, or the silver of Mexico; and the same ready communication transports the return cargo to Buffalo, from whence the commerce is extended, by means of the lakes, throughout western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and the interminable regions of the north. Thus it is seen that, when the Erie Canal is completed, a free and direct water communication, from the mines to one of the best markets in America, will exist, in which the rapids of St. Mary's are the only interruption, and this is only an interruption to large vessels. Not only so, but the Ontonagon River may be ascended many miles with vessels of light burden, and thus the copper of Lake Superior, wafted from the heart of the interior, and from the base of the Porcupine Mountains, into the harbors of New York, Philadelphia, &c. Of this whole distance, 1,047 miles are now navigated by the largest class of river craft and lake schooners; the balance of the distance is the length of the Erie Canal. (See [Note D.])

Let it be recollected that there are no mines of copper situated upon the margin of the sea, and that every quintal of sheet copper, bolts, nails, &c., which we receive from Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, or Japan, is transported a greater or less distance on turnpikes or canals, before it reaches the place of shipment. The richest copper mines of the Russian empire are seated on the summits of the Uralian Mountains; those of Fahlun, in Sweden, and Cornwall, in England, are scarcely more favored as to position; and, owing to a want of coal, all the ores raised at the latter are transported into Wales to be smelted.[ [240] But we need not resort to Europe for instances. All the lead raised at the fertile mines in Missouri is transported an average distance of forty miles in carts and wagons before it reaches the banks of the Mississippi. Steamboats take it to New Orleans, a distance, by the shortest computation, of 1,000 miles. But it must still pass through the Gulf of Mexico, and encounter the perils of the Capes of Florida, and a voyage of 2,000 miles along the coast of the United States, before it reaches its principal marts. The average cost of transporting a hundredweight of lead from Mine au Breton and Potosi to the banks of the Mississippi, during the year 1818, was seventy-five cents. The distance is thirty-six miles. The price of conveying the same quantity from the storehouses at Herculaneum and St. Genevieve to New Orleans, by steamboats, was seventy cents. The distance exceeds 1,000 miles. Hence, it costs more to transport a given quantity thirty-six miles by land than to convey it 1,000 by water. These rates have probably varied since, but the proportionate expense of land carriage, compared to that of water, will remain the same. A quintal of copper may, therefore, be transported from the mines of Superior to Buffalo or Lockport, in New York, for the same sum required to convey an equal quantity of lead from Potosi to St. Genevieve. If we consider the city of New York as the market of both, no hesitancy or doubt can be experienced as to the decided and palpable advantages possessed by the northern mines. It is only necessary to adduce these facts; the conclusions are inevitable. In every point of view, the distance of these mines from the market presents no solid objection to their being explored with profit to the nation.

Pig copper, which is the least valuable form in which this metal is carried to market, is now quoted in the Atlantic cities at 19 cents per pound; sheathing, at 27; brazier's, at 32. I have no data at hand to show the amount of these articles consumed in the United States, and for which we are annually transmitting immense sums to enrich foreign States. But those who best appreciate the advantages of commerce will readily supply the estimate. It would be an interesting inquiry to ascertain how much of the sums yearly paid for sheathing copper, bolts, nails, engravers' plates, &c., is contributed to the wealth of the respective foreign States who possess mines of this metal. We can look back to a period in the history of Great Britain, when that power did not contribute one pound of copper to the commerce of Europe. During a period of nine years, closing with the memorable year (in American history) of 1775, the produce of the copper mines of Cornwall was 2,650 tons of fine copper. (See [Note E.]) Since that time, the yearly returns of those mines exhibit a constant increase; and the copper mines of Great Britain are now the most valuable in the world. The amount produced by the mines of Cornwall and Devon, after deducting the charges of smelting, for the single year of 1810, was 969,376 pounds sterling. (See [Note F.]) The clear profits of the Dolgoath mine, one of the richest in Cornwall, for a period of five months, during the year 1805, was £18,000, which is at the rate of £43,200, or $192,000, per annum. Next to Great Britain, the most considerable mines of Europe are those of Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Westphalia, as it was in 1808. Of less importance are those of Denmark, France, Saxony, Prussia, and Spain. The proportion in which the British mines exceed those of the most favored European nation is as 200,000 x 67,000. (See [Note G.])

There is another consideration connected with this subject which is worthy of remark. Should it be inquired what would be the effects of the purchase of these mines upon the condition of the Indian tribes, the reply is obvious. It would have the most beneficial tendency. They would not only profit by an exchange of their waste lands for goods, implements of husbandry, the stipulated services of blacksmiths, teachers, &c., but the intercourse would have a happy tendency to allay those bitter feelings which, through the instigation of the British authorities in the Canadas, they have manifested, and still continue to feel, in degree, towards the United States. The measures which the President has recently directed to be pursued to assuage these feelings of hostility, and to induce them to cherish proper sentiments of friendship and respect, are already in a train of execution that bids fair for success. Continued exertions, and the necessary and proper means, are all that seem necessary to confirm and complete the effect; and whatever measures have a tendency to increase the intercourse of American citizens with these "remote tribes," and to give them a true conception of the power and justice, and the pacific and benevolent policy of our Government, must favor and hasten such a result.

I have the honor to be, sir,
With the highest respect,
Your most obedient servant,
HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT,
U. S. Indian Agent at the Sault Ste. Marie.

Hon John C. Calhoun,
Secretary of War, Washington.

Notes.
(B.)

Among the numerous superstitions which the Indian tribes entertain, that respecting mines is not the least remarkable. They are firmly impressed with a belief that any information communicated to the whites, disclosing the position of mines or metallic treasures situated upon their grounds, is displeasing to their manitos, and even to the Great Spirit himself, from whom they profess to derive every good and valuable gift; and that this offence never fails to be visited upon them in the loss of property, in the want of success in their customary pursuits or pastimes, in untimely death, or some other singular disaster or untoward event. This opinion, although certainly not a strange one to be cherished by a barbarous people, is, nevertheless, believed to have had its origin in the transactions of an era which is not only very well defined, but must ever remain conspicuous in the history of the discovery and settlement of America. It is very well known that the precious metals were the principal objects which led the Spanish invaders to penetrate into the interior of Mexico and Peru, and ultimately to devastate and conquer the country, to plunder and destroy its temples, and to tax and enslave its ill-fated inhabitants. It is equally certain that, to escape these scenes of cruelty and oppression, many tribes and fragments of tribes, when further resistance became hopeless, fled towards the north, preferring the enjoyment of liberty and tranquillity upon the chilly borders of the northern lakes, to the pains of servitude in the mild and delightful valleys of Mexico, and the golden plains of the Incas. In this way, many tribes who originally migrated from the north, along the Pacific Ocean, to the Gulf of California, and thence over all New Spain, were returned towards the north over the plains of Texas and the valley of the Mississippi; those tribes nearest the scenes of the greatest atrocities always pressing upon the remoter and less civilized, who, in turn, pressed upon the nations less enlightened than themselves, and finally drove them into the unfrequented forests of the north. Among these terrified tribes, the traditions of the Ojibwais affirm that their ancestors came, and that they originally dwelt in a country destitute of snows. Many tribes who now speak idioms of their language were left upon the way, and have since taken distinctive names. Among these, are the Pottawatamies, the Ottoways, &c. The latter formerly were, as they still remain, the agriculturists. The Miamis and Shawnees, whose languages bear some affinity, preceded them in their flight. The Winnebagoes, speaking a separate and original tongue, came later, and preserve more distinct traditions of their migration. All these tribes carried with them the strong prejudices and fixed hatred excited by the cruelty, rapacity, and cupidity of their European conquerors; and, above all, of that insatiable thirst for gold and silver which led the Spaniards to sack their towns, burn their temples, and torture their people. Cruelty and injustice of so glaring a character must have made upon their minds too deep an impression ever to be forgotten, or completely erased from their traditions. To that memorable epoch we must, therefore, look for the origin of that cautious and distrustful disposition which these tribes have since manifested with regard to the mines and minerals situated upon their lands; and the circumstance seems to offer an abundant excuse, if not a justification, for those prevarications and evasions which present a continual series of embarrassment to every person who seeks through their aid to develop the mineral resources, or describe the natural productions, of their territories. Hence, too, the cause why they are prone to imagine that all mineral or metallic substances obtained or sought upon their lands, are susceptible of being converted or transmuted into the precious metals.