Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers Part 51

_11th_. Major Whiting, of Detroit, writes a letter of introduction in the following terms:--

"Captain Tchehachoff, of the Russian Imperial Guards, is traveling through our country with a view to see its extent and null--its geographical and scenic varieties. As he proposes to visit Michilimackinack, I wish him to become acquainted with you, who can give him so much information relative to those portions of it which he may not be able to visit. I have put into his hands some of your works, which may have antic.i.p.ated something you will have to say.

"He is, probably, the first Russian who has been on our N.W. interior since the enterprising gentlemen who thought to speculate on the 'copper rock.' But Capt. Tchehachoff has no other views than those of an enlightened and disinterested observer. I am sure that it will give you pleasure to show him all kindly attentions."

Capt. Tchehachoff visited the island during the month, and accepted an invitation to spend a few days with me. He repaid me for this attention with much agreeable conversation and many anecdotes of Russia, Germany (where he was educated), and Poland. He possesses a character of extreme interest to me, as being a Circa.s.sian, or descendant of that people, who are the local representatives of the Circa.s.sian race. He was very fair in complexion, and possessed a fine, manly, tall, and well-proportioned figure, and a beautiful red and white countenance, with dark hair and eyes. He spoke English very well, but with a broad Scottish, or rather provincial accent, on some words, which he had evidently got from his early teacher--whom he told me was a female--such as _ouwn_, for own, &c.

He told me that, on Mr. Randolph's first presentation to the Russian Empress, he kneeled, although he had been notified that such a ceremony would not be expected of him. He told some very characteristic anecdotes of the wild pranks of the German students at the university. He was, I think, in some way related to descendants of Count Orloff, who was so remarkably strong and compact of muscle that he could push an iron spike, with his thumb, to its head in the sides or planking of a vessel.

Capt. Tchehachoff was certainly strong himself; he had a powerful strength of hands and arms. He used great politeness, and was very punctilious on entering the dining-room, &c. He interested himself in the apparently tidal phenomena of strong currents setting through the harbor and straits, which were in fine view from the piazza of my house, and made some notes upon them. He asked me why I had not concentrated and published my travels, and various works respecting the geology of the Western country, and the history and philology of the aboriginal tribes--subjects of such deep and general interest to the philosopher of Europe. One morning early in October (9th), he bade us an affectionate adieu, and embarked in a schooner for Chicago.

_Oct. 10th_. Chicago is now the centre of an intense and everyday growing commercial excitement, and however the value of every foot of ground and _water_ of its site is over-estimated, and its prospects inflated, it is evidently the nucleus of a permanent city, destined to be one of the great lake capitals.

The Rev. Jer. Porter, our former pastor at St. Mary's, who was the first of his church order, I believe, to carry the Gospel there in 1833, writes me, under this date, detailing his labors and prospects. These are flattering, and go to prove that the religious element, if means be used, is everywhere destined to attend the tread of the commercial and political elements of power into the great area of the Valley of the Mississippi. Chicago is, in fact, the first and great city of the prairies, where the abundance of its products are destined to be embarked to find a northern market by the way of the lakes, without the risks of entering southern lat.i.tudes. This is an advantage which it will ever possess. Nature has opened the way for a heavy tonnage by the lake seas. Other modes of transportation may divert pa.s.sengers and light goods, but the staples must ever go in ships, propelled by wind or steam, through the Straits of Mackinack.

CHAPTER LII.

Philology--Structure of the Indian languages--Letter from Mr.

Duponceau--Question of the philosophy of the Chippewa syntax--Letter from a Russian officer on his travels in the West--Queries on the physical history of the North--Leslie Duncan, a maniac--Arwin on the force of dissipation--Missionary life on the sources of the Mississippi--Letter from Mr. Boutwell--Theological Review--The Territory of Michigan, tired of a long delay, determines to organize a State Government.

1834. _Oct. 11th_. Mr. Peter S. Duponceau, of Philadelphia, addresses me on the structure of the Indian languages, in terms which are very complimentary, coming, as they do, as a voluntary tribute from a person whom I never saw, and who has taken the lead in investigations on this abtruse topic in America. "I have read," he remarks, "with very great pleasure, your interesting narrative of the expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, and particularly your lectures on the Chippewa language, and the vocabulary which follows it. It is one of the most philosophical works on the Indian languages I have ever read; it gives a true view of their structure, without exaggeration or censure, and must satisfy the mind of every rational man. It is a matter of sincere regret that you have proceeded in your lectures no farther than the noun, and your vocabulary no farther than the letter B. It is much to be hoped that the work will be completed. I should hope that our government could have no objection to printing it at its expense, as a national work,[75]

indispensably necessary for the instruction of our agents and interpreters, and even the military officers employed among the Indians."

[Footnote 75: This was begun thirteen years afterwards, when a general investigation into the subject of the Indians generally, was directed by Congress, and placed in my hands. _Vide_ Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Part I. Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1851.]

"The Chippewa, like the Algonquin of old,[76] is the common language of business among the Indians, and is as necessary among them as the French is in the courts of Europe. The object of this letter, sir, is to be informed whether the remainder of the work is to be published. If government will not do it, some of our learned societies might. At any rate, sir, if my services can be of use to you for this object, I shall be happy to do everything in my power to aid it."

[Footnote 76: The languages are, in fact, identical in structure; the word Chippewa being a comparatively modern term, which was not used by the old French writers of the missionary era.]

This testimony, from the first and most learned philologist in America, gratified and agreeably surprised me. I had studied the Chippewa language alone in the forest, without the aid of learned men, or books to aid me. I addressed myself to it with ardor, it is true, and with the very best oral helps, precisely as I would to investigate any moral or physical truth. I found that nouns and verbs had a ground form, or root; that this root carried its general and primary meaning into all words or phrases of which it was a compound; and that every syllable or sound of a letter, put before or behind it, conveyed a new and distinct meaning.

By keeping the purposes of a strict philological a.n.a.lysis before me, and by preserving a record of my work, the language soon revealed its principles. When I had attained a clear idea of these principles myself, and had verified them by reference to, and discussion with, the best native speakers, I could as clearly state them to another. This is what Mr. Duponceau means by the term "most philosophical." The philosophy of the syntax I did not in any respect overstate, but merely recognized or discovered.

In one respect it seemed to me a far more simple language than this eminent writer had represented the Indian languages generally. And this was in this very philosophy of its syntax. By synthesis I understand the opposite of a.n.a.lysis--the one resolving into its elements what the other compounds. If so, the synthesis of the Chippewa language is clearly, to my mind, h.o.m.ogeneous and of a piece--a perfect unity, in fact It seems to be, all along, the result of one kind of reasoning, or thinking, or philosophizing. If, therefore, by the term "polysynthetic," which Mr.

Duponceau, in 1819, introduced for the cla.s.s of Indian languages, it be meant that its grammar consists of many syntheses, or plans of thought, it did not appear to me that the Chippewa was polysynthetic. But this I could not state to a man of his learning and standing with the literary public, without incurring the imputation of rashness or a.s.sumption.

_15th_. P. de Tchehachoff, the Russian gentleman before named, writes to me in the idiom of a foreigner, from Peoria, on his progress through the western country. "I am anxious," he remarks, "to take advantage of the first opportunity of writing to you from this remote western world, where since seven days I did not meet with any other beings but wolves and money-getting Yankees. I must acknowledge that one must have a large lot of curiosity to visit these one-fourth civilized regions (that are by far worse than any real wilderness), for, although they are getting settled at an incredible speed, they don't offer to the mere lover of the beauties of nature, or improvement of human civilization, any great charm. Here nature is rich, but, _farmerly_ or _businessly_ speaking, killingly prosaic--no romance--no Lake Superior water--no scenery--nothing, finally, that could captivate a poetical glance.

"I am now writing these poor lines under a regular storm of smoke-clouds, and chewing tobacco expectorations. I never experienced so much the benefit of being brought up as a warlike soldier, to stand all that. However, my courage is sinking down, and, therefore, I shoot ahead to-morrow at day-break, as fast as possible, either by water or by land.

The coaches here are rather comfortable, but extremely slow.

"As I intend to make but a very short stay in St. Louis and Ohio, I'll not be able to have the pleasure of writing to you again before reaching New York or Havana; but, if you continue always to be, for me, as kind as formerly, I hope you'll grant me the particular favor of writing to me once in a while. This will be an impudent theft, on my part, of time so usefully consecrated to scientific pursuits. Still I flatter myself you'll pardon it, consequently founded on that (perhaps gratuitous) supposition. I'll ask you to direct your letter to Charleston, South Carolina (until called for), towards the middle of the next month, and, if possible, answer me on the following queries: 1. What are the inducements to imagine that any volcanic action exists in the Porcupine Mountains, and mentioning, approximately, their distance from the Ontonagon River; and their probable influence on the diffusion of the copper ores and copper boulders on its sh.o.r.es? 2. What are the most accurate or probable limits (by degrees) of the primitive region of North America; and whether it forms any chain, or has any probable communication with all its different branches, or the main ridges of the Cordilleras or Andes? 3. Is there any remarkable evaporation, or any other hygrometric phenomenon, or influence of currents that sustains the level of Lakes Superior and Michigan, so diametrically opposite in their geographical situation? 4. What const.i.tutes, mainly, the predominating geognostic features of Lake Superior, the Upper Mississippi, and the Missouri? I shall be extremely happy to see these problems solved."

_17th_. This day terminated, at St. Mary's, the melancholy fate of poor Leslie Duncan. Insanity is dreadful in all its phases. This man wrote to me early in the spring for some favor, which I granted. He was a dealer in merchandise, in a small way, at St. Mary's, where he was known as a reputable, modest, and temperate man, who had been honorably discharged, with some small means, from the army. He visited Detroit in May to renew his stock. Symptoms of aberration there showed themselves, which became very decided after his return. Utter madness supervened. It was necessary to confine him in a separate building, and to chain him to a post, where he pa.s.sed five months as an appalling spectacle of a human being, without memory, affection, or judgment, and perpetually goaded by the most raving pa.s.sion. It appeared that the piles--a disease under which he had suffered for many years--had been cured by exsection or scarifying, which healed the issue, but threw the blood upon his brain.

_23d_. A functionary of the general government at Washington writes me, to bespeak my favorable interest for the wayward son of a friend. Arwin, for I will call him by this name, was the son of a kind, intelligent, and indulgent father, dwelling in the District of Columbia, who had spared nothing to fit him for a useful and honorable life. The young man also possessed a handsome person, and agreeable and engaging manners and accomplishments. But his love for the coa.r.s.er amus.e.m.e.nts of the world and its dissipations, absorbed faculties that were suited for higher objects. As a last, resort, he was commended to some adventurous gentleman engaged in the fur trade on the higher Missouri; where, it was hoped, the stern realities of life would arrest his mind, and fix it on n.o.bler pursuits. But a winter or two in those lat.i.tudes appeared to have wrought little change. He came to Mackinack, on his way back to civilized life, late in the fall of 1834, exhausted in means, poor and shabby in his wardrobe, and evidently not a pilgrim from the "land of steady habits."

I invited him to my house, in the hope of winning him over to the side of morals, gave him a bed and plate, and treated him with courteous and respectful attention. He was placed under restraint by these attentions, but it was found to be restraint only. He was secretly engaged in dissipations, which finally became so low, that I was compelled to leave him to pursue his course, and thus to witness another example of the application of that striking remark of Dr. Johnson, "that negligence and irregularity, if long continued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible."

_Nov. 29th_. The rough scenes required by a missionary life on the sources of the Mississippi, are depicted in a letter from the Rev. W.S.

Boutwell, who has just planted himself among the Pillagers at Leech Lake. This is the same gentleman who accompanied me to Itasca Lake in 1835. "Your favors," he says, "of April 28th and July 26th, are before me; and would that I could command time to compensate you for at least half! But look at a man whose head and hands are full of cares and duties. The only time I get to write is stolen, if I may so say, from the hours of repose. October the ninth I arrived here. There was not a sack of corn nor rice to be bought or sold. I had but two men, and with these a house must be built and a winter's stock of fish laid up. What must be done? I will briefly tell you what I did. Four days after my arrival I sent my fisherman to Pelican Island, and pulled off my coat and shouldered my axe, and led the other into the bush to make a house.

In about ten days, with the help of one man, I had the timber cut and on the spot for a log-cottage twenty-two by twenty-four. Some part of this I not only cut, but a.s.sisted in carrying on my own back. But for every inch of over-exertion I got my pay at night, when I was sure to be 'double and twisted' with the rheumatism. I have located about two miles east of the old fort, where you counseled with the Indians at this place. As you cross the point of land upon which the old fort is built, you fall on a beautiful bay, a mile and a half broad, on the east side of which I have located, in the midst of a delightful grove of maples.

South-west, three-fourths of a mile, is the present trading house.

"When I arrived I had not sufficient corn to feed my men three days.

There was also at that time a great scarcity of fish. But the G.o.d of Elijah did not forsake us. We soon were in the midst of plenty. On the 11th of the present instant my fisherman returned, having been absent not quite four weeks, and with but four nets, yet I had nearly 6000 tulibees (this is a small species of whitefish) on my scaffold. My house, in the meantime, was going forward, though rather tardily, with but one man. In two days more I hope to quit my bark lodge for my log and mud-walled cottage, though it has neither chair nor three-legged stool, table nor bedstead. But all this does not frighten me. No, it is good for a man sometimes to stand in need, that he may the better know how to feel for his fellow-man.

"You mention the receipt of a letter from Mr. Greene, relative to the field at Fond du Lac. I am happy to hear so full an expression of your views in relation to that post. As the Board were unable to supply a teacher, Mr. Hall, on visiting them in September, with myself and Mr.

Ely--we were all of the same opinion, that it must be occupied--and finally, with the advice of Mr. Aitkin, concluded that it was best for Mr. Ely to pa.s.s the winter there. Mr. Cote was also very desirous of a school being opened. Sandy Lake, of course, is without a teacher this winter. I was not a little disappointed, after the repeated a.s.surances and encouragements of the Board to expect aid, and after the provision I had made for a fellow-laborer, to be directed to return and pa.s.s another winter as I did the past. Suffice it to say, I have learned more of Indian habits, customs, prejudices, &c., than I knew two years, or even one year before.

"To pa.s.s my time in the family of the trader, I could not avoid giving the impression that I was more interested in the trade than in their temporal and spiritual welfare. To live alone I could not, and live above their suspicion from the habits of single men who are engaged in the trade. To live in the family with my hired man, would be quite as bad. I, therefore, concluded that the time had now come when duty was too imperious not to receive a hearing. A sense of duty, duty to G.o.d, the cause of Christianity, myself and this people, therefore, led me to change my condition.

"I am giving you no news (I presume), only the reasons which satisfy myself, and that for an enlightened moral being is enough, at least it is all I need or wish to meet friend or foe.

"The Indians now are all at their wintering grounds, and on good terms with the Sioux, as I, this evening, learn from Mr. D., who has just returned from an excursion among them. They have appeared quite as friendly, and by far more civil, this fall than last."

_Dec. 8th_. Mr. Leonard Woods, and Dr. A.W. Ives, of New York, press me to write for the pages of the _Theological Review_, a periodical of great spirit and judgment in its department.

_31st_. The people of this territory have evinced, in various ways, great uneasiness in not being admitted, by a preparatory act of Congress, to the right of forming a state const.i.tution, and admission into the Union, agreeably to the Ordinance of 1787. The population has, for some time, been more than sufficient to authorize one representative. In some respects, the term of territorial probation and privilege has been extraordinary, and bears a striking a.n.a.logy to that of a plant, thrice plucked up by the roots, and watered, and nourished, and set out again. It has been _twenty-nine_ years a territory, having been first organized, I believe, in 1805, For the first seven years it was under the government of Gen. Hull, by whom it was lost, and fell under foreign conquest. It then had about a year of military government under Gen. Brock, and, after being re-conquered in 1814, lived on, awhile, under the rule of our own commanding generals. Gen. Ca.s.s was, I think, appointed by Mr. Monroe, late in 1814, and governed it for the long period of eighteen years. Geo. B. Porter succeeded, and, since his death, there has been a confused interregnum of secretaries.

"Thrice plucked up" was it, by the total destruction of Detroit (which was in fact the territory) by fire in 1806, by the terrible Indian and British war in 1812, and by the Indian war of the Black Hawk of 1832. It has suffered in blood and toil more than any, or all the other north-western territories together. It has been the entering point for all hostilities from Canada; and, to symbolize its position, it has been the anvil on which all the grand weapons of our Indian scath have been hammered. Its old French and American families have been threshed by the flail of war, like grain on a floor. And it is no wonder that the people are tired of waiting for sovereignty, and think of taking the remedy into their own hands. On the 9th of September, the Legislative Council pa.s.sed an act for taking the census. The result shows a population of 85,856, in the fourteen lower counties, and the first steps for a self-called convention are in progress.

CHAPTER LIIII.

Indications of a moral revolution in the place--Political movements at Detroit--Review of the state of society at Michilimackinack, arising from its being the great central power of the north-west fur trade--A letter from Dr. Greene--Prerequisites of the missionary function--Discouragements--The state of the Mackinack Mission--Problem of employing native teachers and evangelists--Letter of Mr.

Duponceau--Ethnological gossip--Translation of the Bible into Algonquin--Don M. Najera--Premium offered by the French Inst.i.tute--Persistent Satanic influence among the Indian tribes--Boundary dispute with Ohio--Character of the State Convention.

1835. _Jan. 10th._ The year opened with some bright moral gleams. The members of the church had, early in the autumn, felt the necessity of a close union. Left by their esteemed pastor, who had been their "guide, philosopher, and friend" for twelve years, and by some of its leading members, they rested with more directness and simplicity of faith on G.o.d. They ordained a fast. Evening and lecture meetings were observed to be full of eager listeners. A marked attention was paid on the Sabbath when Mr. J.D. Stevens, who had come into the harbor late in the fall, bound westward, agreed to pa.s.s the winter and occupied Mr. Ferry's empty desk. The Sabbath schools in the village and at the mission were observed to be well attended. Indeed, it was not long in being noticed that we were in the midst of a quiet and deeply-spread revival. Never, it would seem, was there a truer exemplification of the maxim that "the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong," for we had supposed ourselves to be shorn of all strength by the loss of our pastor, by the failure of help from the Home Missionary Society, and by the withdrawal from the island of some of our most efficient members.

This feeling of weakness and desertion was, in fact, the secret of our strength, which laid in the church's humility. Ere we were aware of it, a spirit of profound seriousness stole over the community like a soft and gentle wind.

_28th_. Maj. Whiting writes, from Detroit: "There is nothing new in the political world, excepting that Michigan has no governor yet, and that the council has authorized a convention to form a State Government next April. Some think the step premature; others that it is all a matter of course. The cold has been excessive on the Atlantic seaboard--down to about 40 below zero in New England, and even 22 below at Washington.

Here we have had it hardly down to 0."

_Feb. 3d_. Mr. Robert Stuart writes, from Brooklyn, in relation to the revival in a portion of the inhabitants of this island, among whom he has so long lived, in terms of Christian sympathy. Mackinack is a point where, to ama.s.s "silver and gold," has been the great struggle of men from the earliest days of our history. Few places on the continent have been so celebrated a locality, for so long a period, of wild and unlicensed enjoyment, for both _burgeois_ and _voyageur_ engaged in the perilous and adventuresome business of the fur trade. Those who speak of its history during the last half of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, depict the periods of the annual return of the traders from their wintering stations in the great panorama of the wilderness, east, west, north, and south, as a perfect carnival, in which eating and drinking and wild carousals prevailed. The earnings of a year were often spent in a week or a day. As to practical morality, it was regarded by the higher order of "merchant-voyageurs" as something spoken of in books, but not worth the while of a _bon vivant_. The common hands, who paddled canoes and underwent the drudgery of the trade (who were exclusively of the lower order of Canadian peasantry), squared their moral accounts once a year with a well-conducted confessional interview and a crown, and felt as happy as the "Christian Pilgrim" when he had been relieved of his burden. It would, probably, be wrong to say that the lordly Highlander, the impetuous son of Erin, or the proud and independent Englishman, who vied with each other in feats of sumptuous hospitality during these periods of relaxation, did much better on the score of moral responsibilities. They broke, generally, nine out of the ten commandments without a wince, but kept the other very scrupulously, and would flash up and call their companions to a duel who doubted them on that point. But of the practical things of religion, as they are depicted by Paul and the Apostles, they lived in utter disregard; these things were laid aside, like the heavier parts of Dr. Drowsy's sermon, for "some more fitting opportunity," that is to say, till a fortune was secured from the avails of "skins and peltries," and they returned triumphantly to the precincts of civilized and Christian society. Of the wild and picturesque Indian, who was ever a man most scrupulous of rites and ceremonies, it was hardly deemed worth inquiry whether he had a soul, or whether the deity of the elements, whom he worshiped under the name of the Great Spirit, was not, in the language of the Universalist Poet, "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

A society which, like that of Michilimackinack, was based on such a state of affairs but a few years back, could hardly be regarded without strong solicitude, for my correspondent had been a witness, in the first revival under Mr. Ferry, in 1828, of which he was himself a subject, that there is a "POWER that breaketh the flinty heart in pieces, who also giveth freely and upbraideth not." Most, of the subjects of hope at this time were, however, of a younger growth and a more recent type of migration. "May the spirit of Lord Jesus Christ," is his pious remark, "be with, and direct you all in the great work of leading souls into the kingdom of his grace! It is a fearful responsibility, but if you look to him, and him alone, for guidance, he will bless and prosper your efforts."

_19th_. Rev. David Greene, Missionary Rooms, Boston, discusses in a letter of this date, some questions respecting the policy and high function of missionary labor--the present state of the Mackinack mission; and the character and fitness of educated persons of the native stocks for evangelists, which are of high importance. He remarks:--

"All you write respecting the impropriety of being disheartened--the demand of the Indians on our church, and candidates for missionary service--the necessity of withdrawing our dependence for success and the work of converting men, from any particular human instruments, and placing them on G.o.d alone; and the propriety of having missionaries released from secular cares and labors, as far as practicable, accords perfectly with my own views, and, so far as I know, with those entertained by our committee.

"But the difficulty, after all, remains, of obtaining suitable persons to carry forward our plans--of making our young men feel that they ought to turn away from the millions, in the populous nations of Asia, and go among our scattered tribes. Here is our whole ground of discouragement.

So far as conversions are concerned (and these are the great objects of a missionary's labor), none of our missions have been more successful than those among the Indians; and if we had a hundred men of the spirit and activity of David Brainerd, or Eliot, I should have the strongest expectations that all our Indian tribes would be converted without great delay. But we have no prospect of obtaining them. I fear there are few such in our churches.

"I think that the mission of Mackinack has been a very successful one, especially in exerting an extensive religious influence, and being, as you justly remark, 'the nucleus of Christianity in the north-west.' How far the recent changes in the arrangements of the American Fur Company are going to affect its importance in these respects and others, I cannot say, but our Committee are by no means disposed to relinquish it, while there is a hope of doing sufficient good there to justify the keeping up of the requisite establishment. The farm we do not wish to retain, if we can sell it at a reasonable price. All the secular affairs we would be glad to reduce, and intend to do it as soon as it can be done without too great sacrifice of property. The family, we know, is too large, and we hope it may be reduced; but there are some impediments in the way of doing it at once, especially as the females there have been worn out in the service, and possess a genuine missionary spirit.

We desire to obtain a missionary, and have made many inquiries for one, but hear of none with whom the church and other residents, together with the visitors at Mackinack, would be satisfied.