waters of the lake, we seemed almost suspended in the air, so pellucid is the element upon which we floated. In gazing upon the towering battlements which impended over us, and from which the smallest fragments would have destroyed us, we felt, and felt intensely our own insignificance. No situation can be imagined more appalling to the courage, or more humbling to the pride of man. We appeared like a small speck upon the broad face of creation.

"Our whole party, Indians, voyagers, soldiers, officers, and servants, contemplated in mute astonishment the awful display of creative power, at whose base we hung; and no sound broke upon the ear to interrupt the careless roaring of the waters. No cathedral, no temple built with human hands, no pomp of worship could ever impress the spectator with such humility, and so strong a conviction of the immense distance between him and the Almighty Architect."

CHAPTER II.

THEIR ORIGIN, OR COURSE OF MIGRATION ACCORDING TO

THEIR TRADITIONS.

IN listening to the traditions of the Indians in their wigwams, the traveller will learn that the chiefs are the repositories of the history of their ancestors. With these traditions there are rules to follow by which to determine whether they are true or false. By these rules I have been governed in my researches.

The first is to inquire particularly into the leading points of every tradition narrated.

The second is to notice whether the traditions are approved by the oldest chiefs and wise men. Such are most likely to be true, and if places or persons are mentioned, additional clue is given to their origin and proof obtained of their truth or falsity.

The chiefs have generally been those who have at all times retained a general history of their nation. From the year 1834, to the present time, I have

been in communication with our nation, with every portion of it. All appear to adopt the belief that most of the Indians came from the west. The present Ojibways, or those now called Messamgans, settled in Canada West after the years 1634 and '35. They came over from St. Marie's River to Lake Huron, and relate in their traditions an account of those who came to the Falls of St. Mario from Pe-quab-qua-wav-ming, near the Avee Bay, on the south shore of Lake Superior. Others, no doubt, in the year 1642, came to this northern shore of the lake. I have heard that these came from La Point, or Shah-gah-wab-nick. In this place the Indians lived a long time. Still they trace their own trail to the waters of Red and Sandy Lakes, which places they all, or nearly all, look back to as the home of their forefathers. War came, and in their exercise of it against other nations, they moved eastward from La Point and towards the south against the Sioux.

When they moved from Red and Sandy Lakes, it was the fisheries of Lake Superior that attracted them from their old haunts and induced them to leave the scenes to which, for so many years, they had been accustomed.

The same attraction is supposed to have drawn the Sioux to the south-west end of Lake Superior and to the land bordering all along below Sha-gah-wab-nick. In a short time contentions arose between the Ojibways

and the Sioux about the right of occupancy. The game of the land and the fish of the waters was probably the first cause of hostility between the two powerful nations,-a hostility which has been marked by many acts of cruelty on both sides. War commenced for the retention of the hunting-lands, and a neutral ground having been between them ever since, the first cause of other wars has been forgotten, and the repeated ravages of death made upon each party have obliterated the remembrance of the cause of the early contention.

DISTRIBUTION OF LAND.

I HAVE heard a tradition related to the effect that a general council was once held at some point above the Falls of St. Anthony, and that when the Ojibways came to this general council they wore a peculiar shoe or moccasin, which was gathered on the top from the tip of the toe, and at the ancle. No other Indians wore this style of foot-gear, and it was on account of this peculiarity that they were called Ojibway, the signification of which, is gathering.

At this council the land was distributed. That part which fell to the lot of the Ojibways is said to have been the surrounding country of Red Lake, and afterwards Sandy and Leach Lakes, which statement coincides with that of the chiefs of the village of La Point, or the Shah-gah-wah-nick.

The Sauks were once a part of the Chippeway family, as also were the Menomenies and the Ottawas. About the year 1613 the latter began to leave the main body near Lake Superior. When the traders of Champlain began their operations with the Chippeways, the French called them "the trading Indians," (Ottawas.) The Sauks fought with the Sioux on the upper waters of those lakes which run down from the southern shores of Lake Superior. They also engaged in combat with the Shawnees of southern Illinois.

Though the Ojibways occupied but a small piece of territory at first, they soon extended their dominions to the very borders of the snow-clad hills of the north, and in the streams of that cold region watched for the beaver, whose furs were wrought by them into warm clothing.

It was at a date just prior to Pontiac's time, that the Ojibways met the Shawnees on the waters of Erie and united with them in a successful war against the Iroquois in Canada West, after which the two, Ojibways and Shawnees, settled down in the country of the Hurons.

The battle-grounds are yet to be seen, and many marks of the savage warfare are now visible.

1634 and 1635 were years of glorious triumph. The nation had sought intercourse with the French in Montreal, and their communication was carried on by journeys through the lands of an intermediate nation.