In the year 1711, the missionary Chardon, who, it is said, "was full of zeal, and had a rare talent for acquiring languages," had his station on the St. Joseph of lake Michigan, at a point about sixty miles above the mouth of that river. In 1721, about half a century after the year in which Allouez and Dablon traversed the country lying on the southern shores of lake Michigan, Charlevoix, a distinguished missionary from France, visited a small fort, or trading post, on the river St. Joseph, where there was a missionary station. In a letter, dated "River St. Joseph, August 16, 1721," Charlevoix says:"It was eight days yesterday since I arrived at this post, where we have a mission, and where there is a commandant with a small garrison. The commandant's house, which is but a very sorry one, is called the fort, from its being surrounded with an indifferent palisado, which is pretty near the case in all the rest. We have here two villages of Indians, one of the Miamis, and the other of the Pottawattamies; both of them mostly christians; but, as they have been, for a long time, without any pastors, the missionary who has been lately sent to them will have no small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of their religion. The river St. Joseph comes from the southeast, and discharges itself into lake Michigan, the eastern shore of which is a hundred leagues in length, and which you are obliged to sail along before you come to the entry of this river. You afterward sail up twenty leagues in it before you reach the fort; which navigation requires great precaution. Several Indians of the two nations [Miamis and Pottawattamies] settled upon this river, are just returned from the English colonies, whither they have been to sell their furs, and whence they have brought back, in return, a great quantity of spiritous liquors. The distribution of it is made in the usual manner; that is to say, a certain number of persons have, daily, delivered to each of them a quantity sufficient to get drunk with; so that the whole has been drunk up in eight days. They began to drink in the villages as soon as the sun was down; and every night the fields echoed with the most hideous howling."

More than one hundred years passed away after Charlevoix wrote this letter; yet, spiritous liquors and riotous drunkenness, maintaining their power among the passing generations

of the aboriginal race of North America, were still opposing and baffling the labors of christian missionaries among the Miamis and Pottawattamies on the banks of the St. Joseph.

The missionary Sebastian Rasles, in a letter which is dated "12th October, 1723," says:-"It is a blessing to the Illinois that they are so far distant from Quebec; because it renders it impossible to transport to them the 'fire water' as it is carried to others. This drink, among the Indians, is the greatest obstacle to christianity. We know that they never purchase it but to plunge into the most furious intoxication; and the riots and sad deaths of which we were each day the witnesses, ought to outweigh the gain which can be made by the trade in a liquor so fatal."

The Indians who carried on a trade with the Hudson Bay Company, generally bartered their furs and peltries for brandy, tobacco, blankets, beads, etc. In an examination which took place before a committee of the British House of Commons, in 1749, it was stated, by a person who had been engaged in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, that "the trade of the Company might be enlarged if they would give to every Indian leader a gallon of brandy." The same witness said that he had "heard Indians speak in the French language, and pray in the French language-but never heard them pray in English." The missionary Vivier, in a letter, dated "Illinois, 17th of November, 1750," says:-"We have three stations in this part of the world; one of Indians, one of French, and a third composed partly of Indians and partly of French. The first contains more than six hundred Illinois, all baptized, with the exception of five or six; but the 'fire water' which is sold to them by the French, and especially by the soldiers, in spite of the reiterated prohibitions on the part of the king, and that which is sometimes distributed to them under pretext of maintaining them in our interest, has ruined that mission."

In the year 1765, the Miami nation, or confederacy, was composed of four tribes, whose total number of warriors was estimated at one thousand and fifty men. Of this number there were two hundred and fifty Twightwees, or Miamis proper; three hundred Weas, or Ouiatenons; three hundred Piankeshaws; and two hundred Shockeys. At this time the principal villages of the Twightwees were situated about the

head of the Maumee river, at, and near, the place where the town of Fort Wayne now stands. The larger Wea villages i were found near the banks of the Wabash river, in the vicinity> of post Ouiatenon; and the Shockeys and Piankeshaws dwelt e on the banks of the Vermillion rivers, and on the borders of the river Wabash, between Vincennes and Ouiatenon.

Branches of the Pottawattamie, Shawanee, Delaware, and Kickapoo tribes, were, at different periods of time, permitted to enter, and reside at various places, within the boundaries of the large territory which was claimed by the Miamis. In a letter which was written at Vincennes, on the 16th of June, 1793, the writer said: "There are parties of Indians continually coming to and going from this place, where they are furnished with liquors for their skins, in such quantities as they are able to pay for-which disturbs much the good order and peace of the village. They remain here eight or ten days, in one continual round of drunkenness and disorder."

In the summer of the year 1796, a distinguished French author and traveler, Mr. Volney, visited Vincennes, partly to observe, at his leisure, the manners and customs of the Indian tribes in that quarter. This traveler, in a work entitled "A View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of America," says:-"My stay at Vincennes afforded me some knowledge of the Indians who were assembled to barter away the produce of their red hunt. There were four or five hundred of them, men, women, and children, of various tribes, as the Weas, Peorias, Sawkies, Piankeshaws, and Miamis. The men and women roamed all day about the town, merely to get rum; for which they eagerly exchanged their peltry, their toys, their clothes; and, at length, when they had parted with their all, they offered their prayers, and entreaties-never ceasing to drink till they had lost their senses."

In 1805, Governor Harrison, who then resided at Vincennes, in a letter addressed to Governor Tiffin, of Ohio, said: "The dreadful effects which have been produced among our Indian neighbors, by the immense quantities of ardent spirits which have been poured in upon them by our citizens, have long been known and lamented by every friend of humanity.'

The national character and the condition of the Miami Indians, in the year 1817, were fairly described in a letter which

།

of

was written, in that year, by Benjamin F. Stickney, an Indian es Agent, in the service of the United States. The following pasty sages are copied from this letter, which was dated, "Fort lt Wayne, August 27, 1817," and addressed to Thos. L. McKinhey, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The agent, Mr. Stickney, said: "I shall pay every attention to the subject of your letter, developing the exalted views of philanthropy of the ed Kentucky Baptist Society for propagating the gospel among the heathen. The civilization of the Indians is not a new subject to me. I have been, between five and six years, in the habit of daily and hourly intercourse with the Indians northwest of the Ohio, and the great question of the practicability of civilizing them ever before me. That I might have an opportunity of casting in my mite to the bettering of the condition of these uncultivated human beings, and the pleasure of observing the change that might be produced on them, were the principal inducements to my surrendering the comforts of civilized society.

ne,

n

re

as

Her

ch

to

ian

A

a,"

of

of

en,

ias,

nen

ich

les;

hey

ink

nes,

The

lian

ich

ong

In

"Upon my entering on my duties, I soon found that my speculative opinions were not reducible to practice. What I had viewed, at a distance, as flying clouds, proved, upon my nearer approach, to be impassable mountains. Notwithstanding these discouraging circumstances, I am ready to aid your views by all proper means within my power; and, in so doing, believe I embrace the views of the government of which I am agent. *** It will be proper for me to be more particular, and give you something of my ideas of the nature and extent of the obstacles to be met.

"First. The great, and, I fear, insurmountable obstacle is, THE INSATIABLE THIRST FOR INTOXICATING LIQUORS that appears to be born with all the yellow-skin inhabitants of America; and the thirst for gain of [some of] the citizens of the United States appears to be capable of eluding all the vigilance of government to stop the distribution of liquor among them. When the Indians can not obtain the means of intoxication within their own limits, they will travel any distance to obtain it. There is no fatigue, risk, or expense, that is too great to obtain it. In some cases, it appears to be valued higher than life itself. If a change of habit in this can be effected, all other

obstacles may yield. But if the whites can not be restrained from furnishing them with spiritous liquors, nor they from the use of them, I fear all other efforts to extend to them the benefits of civilization will prove fruitless. The knowledge of letters serves as the medium of entering into secret arrangements with the whites, to supply the means of their own destruction, and, within the limits of my intercourse, the principal use of the knowledge of letters or civilized language has been to obtain liquor for themselves or others.

"Secondly. The general aversion to the habits, manners, customs, and dress of civilized people; and, in many cases, an Indian is an object of jealousy for being acquainted with a civilized language, and it is made use of as a subject of reproach against him.

"Thirdly.-General indolence, connected with a firm conviction that the life of a civilized man is that of slavery; and that savage life is manhood, ease, and independence.

"Fourthly.-The unfavorable light in which they view the character of the citizens of the United States-believing that their minds are so occupied in trade and speculation, that they never act from any other motives. * *Their opinion of

*

the government of the United States is, in some degree, more favorable; but, secretly, they view all white people as their enemies, and are extremely suspicious of every thing coming from them.

"All the Miamis, and Eel river Miamis, are under my charge, about one thousand four hundred in number; and there are something more than two thousand Pottawattamies who come within my agency. The proportion of children can not be ascertained, but it must be less than among the white inhabitants of the United States. They have had no schools nor missionaries among them since the time of the French Jesuits. They have places that are commonly called villages, but, perhaps, not correctly, as they have no uniform place of residence. During the fall, winter, and part of the spring, they are scattered in the woods, hunting. The respective bands assemble together in the spring at their several ordinary places of resort, where some have rude cabins, made of small logs, covered with bark; but, more commonly, some poles stuck in