-lengthening the vowels, and softening the aspirates. Chippewa is properly O.jib,wày; ab,bin,no,jee is a little child. The accent of the women is particularly soft, with a sort of plaintive modulation, reminding me of recitative. Their low laugh is quite musical, and has something infantine in it. I sometimes hear them sing, and the strain is generally in a minor key; but I cannot succeed in detecting or retain. ing an entire or distinct tune. I am, however, bent on bringing you an Indian song, if I can catch

one.

There was a mission established on this island in 1823, for the conversion of the Indians, and the education of the Indian and half-breed children.* A large

mission and school house was erected, and a neat little church. Those who were interested about the Indians entertained the most sanguine expectations of the success of the undertaking. But at present the extensive buildings of the mission-house are used merely as storehouses, or as lodgings; and if Mackinaw should become a place of resort, they will probably be converted into a fashionable hotel.† The mission

* In 1828, Major Anderson, our Indian agent, computed the number of Canadians and mixed breed married to Indian women, and residing on the north shores of Lake Huron, and in the neighbourhood of Michilimackinac, at nine hundred. This he called the lowest estimate.

+ I have before me a copy of certain queries proposed by Bishop M'Donell (of Upper Canada) in 1828, with the answers

itself is established farther west, somewhere near Green Bay, on Lake Michigan; and when overtaken by the advancing stream of white civilization, and the contagion which it carries with it, no doubt it must retire yet farther.

As for the little missionary church, it has been for some time disused, the French Canadians and half. breeds on the island being mostly Roman Catholics. To-day, however, divine service was performed in it by the Bishop of Michigan, to a congregation of about twenty persons. Around the open doors of the church, a crowd of Indians, principally women, had assembled, and a few came in, and stood leaning against the pews, with their blankets folded round them, mute and still, and respectfully atten

tive.

Immediately before me sat a man who at once at

of our Indian agent, Major Anderson, who has been employed in the Indian department for many years, and passed the last thirty years of his life in communication with the tribes round Lake Huron. Speaking of this missionary establishment at Mackinaw, he says, that “it has caused great excitement in the minds of the Indians; that one hundred and twenty half-breeds and Indians are actually receiving instruction; and that if a similar establishment were promoted at Drummond's Island," (then in possession of the English,) "he believes the Indians would swarm to it." He adds," that the mission-house built at Mackinaw was supposed to be of sufficient space to contain all that would present themselves for instruction for many years to come; but such is the thirst for knowledge that the house is full, and at least fifty from Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, and Lake Superior, have prayed for admittance this season, without being able to obtain it from want of room." The house thus described is now empty.

tracted my attention. He was an Indian, evidently of unmixed blood, though wearing a long blanket coat and a decent but worn hat. His eyes, during the whole service, were fixed on those of the Bishop with a passionate, eager gaze; not for a moment were they withdrawn: he seemed to devour every word both of the office and the sermon, and, by the working of his features, I supposed him to be strongly impressed-it was the very enthusias n of devotion: and yet, strange to say, not one word did he under. stand. When I inquired how it was that his attention was so fixed, and that he seemed thus moved by what he could not possibly comprehend, I was told, "it was by the power of faith." I have the story of this man (whom I see frequently) from Mr. Schoolcraft. His name is Chusco. He was formerly a distinguished man in his tribe as professor of the Meta and the Wabeno,-that is, physician and conjuror; and no less as a professor of whiskey-drinking. His wife, who had been converted by one of the missionaries, converted her husband. He had long resisted her preaching and persuasion, but at last one day, as they were making maple sugar together on an island, "he was suddenly thrown into an agony as if an evil spirit haunted him, and from that moment had no peace till he had been baptized and received into the Christian church." From this time he avoided drunkenness, and surrendered his medicine bag, manitos, and implements of sorcery, into the hands of Mr. Schoolcraft. Sub. sequently he showed no indisposition to speak of the power and arts he had exercised. He would not al.

low that it was all mere trick and deception, but insisted that he had been enabled to perform certain cures, or extraordinary magical operations, by the direct agency of the evil spirit, i. e. the devil, who, now that he was become a Christian, had forsaken him, and left him in peace. I was a little surprised to find, in the course of this explanation, that there were educated and intelligent people who had no more doubt of this direct satanic agency than the poor Indian himself.

Chusco has not touched ardent spirits for the last seven years, and, ever since his conversion in the sugar-camp, he has firmly adhered to his Christian profession. He is now between sixty and seventy years old, with a countenance indicating more of mildness and simplicity than intellect. Generally speaking, the men who practise medicine among the Indians make a great mystery of their art, and of the herbs and nostrums they are in the habit of using ; and it were to be wished that one of these converted medicine-men could be prevailed on to disclose some of their medical arcana; for of the efficacy of some of their prescriptions, apart from the mummery with which they are accompanied, there can be no doubt.

We have taken several delicious drives over this lovely little island, and traversed it in different direc. tions. It is not more than three miles in length, and wonderfully beautiful. There is no large or

lofty timber upon it, but a perpetual succession of low, rich groves, "alleys green, dingles, and bosky dells." There is on the eastern coast a natural arch or bridge, where the waters of the Lake have undermined the rock, and left a fragment thrown across a chasm two hundred feet high. Strawberries, raspberries, whortleberries, and cherries, were growing everywhere wild, and in abundance. The whole island, when seen from a distance, has the form of a turtle sleeping on the water: hence its Indian ap. pellation, Michilimackinac, which signifies the great turtle. The same name is given to a spirit of great power and might, a spirit who never lies," whom the Indians invoke and consult before undertaking any important or dangerous enterprise ;* and this island, as I apprehend, has been peculiarly dedicated to him; at all events, it has been from time imme. morial a place of note and sanctity among the Indians. Its history, as far as the Europeans are connected with it, may be told in few words.

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After the destruction of the fort at Michilimackinac, and the massacre of the garrison in 1763, the English removed the fort and the trading post to this island, and it continued for a long time a station of great importance. In 1796 it was ceded, with the whole of the Michigan territory, to the United States. The fort was then strengthened, and garrisoned by a detachment of General Wayne's army.

In the war of 1813 it was taken and garrisoned by the British, who added to the strength of the for

VOL. II.

* See Henry's Travels, p. 117.

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