upon a portion of them to dispose of their lands to the crown, and to remove to the British Manitoulin Islands in Lake Huron.

When first I heard of this project, I felt much averse to it, and, by repeated personal inspections of the territories in which they were located, took a great deal of pains to ascertain what was the real condition of the Indians in Canada, and whether their proposed removal would be advantageous to them, as well as to the province; and the result of my inquiries induced me, without any hesitation, to take the necessary steps for recommending to them. to carry this arrangement into effect.

Whosoever, by the sweat of his brow, cultivates the ground, creates, out of a very small area, food and raiment sufficient not only for himself, but for others; whereas the man who subsists solely on game requires even for his own family a large huntingground. Now, so long as Canada was very thinly peopled with whites, an Indian preserve, as large as one of our counties in England, only formed part and parcel of the great forest which was common to all, and thus, for a considerable time, the white men and the red men, without inconvenience to each other, followed their respective avocations; the latter hunted, while the former were employing themselves in cutting down trees or in laboriously following the plough. In process of time, however, the Indian preserves became surrounded by small patches of cleared land; and so soon as this was effected, the truth began to appear that the occupations of each race were not only dissimilar, but hostile to the interests of each other. For, while the great huntingground of the red man only inconvenienced the white settler, the little clearances of the latter, as if they had been so many chained-up barking dogs, had the effect of first scaring and then gradually cutting off the supplies of wild animals on whose flesh and skins the red race had been subsisting; besides which, every trader that came to visit the dwellings of the white man, finding it profitable to sell whiskey to the Indians, and the fatal results of drunkenness, of small-pox, and other disorders combined, produced, as may be imagined, the most unfortunate results.

The remedy which naturally would first suggest itself to most men, and which actually did suggest itself to the minds of Sir Peregrine Maitland, Sir John Colborne, and other administrators

of the government who paid parental attention to the Indians, was to induce them to give up their hunting propensities, and tether themselves to the laborious occupations of their white brethren. In a few cases, where the Indians, circumscribed by temptations such as I have described, had become a race of half-castes, the project to a certain degree succeeded; but one might as well attempt to decoy a flight of wild fowl to the ponds of Hampstead Heath-one might as well endeavor to persuade the eagle to descend from the lofty regions in which he has existed, to live with the fowls in our court-yards, as to prevail upon the red men of North America to become what we call civilized; in short, it is against their nature, and they cannot do it.

Having ascertained that in one or two parts of Upper Canada there existed a few Indians in the unfortunate state I have described, and having found them in a condition highly demoralized, and almost starving on a large block of rich, valuable land, which in their possession was remaining roadless and stagnant, I determined to carry into effect the project of my predecessors by endeavoring to prevail on these people to remove to the British islands in Lake Huron, in which there was some game, and which were abundantly supplied with fish; and with a view to introduce them to the spot, I caused it to be made known to the various tribes of Indians resident throughout the immense wilderness of Canada, that on a certain day of a certain moon I would meet them in council, on a certain uninhabited island in Lake Huron, where they should receive their annual presents.

In the beginning of August, 1836, I accordingly left Toronto, and with a small party crossed that most beautiful piece of water, Lake Simcoe, and then rode to Penetanguishene Bay, from whence we were to start the next morning in bark canoes.

It was proposed that we should take tents; but, as I had had some little experience of the healthy enjoyment of an out-of-doors' life, as well as of the discomfort of a mongrel state of existence, and as, to use the words of Baillie Nicol Jarvie, "a man canna aye carry at his tail the luxuries o' the Saut-market o' Glasgow," I determined that, in our visit to our red brethren, we would adopt Indian habits, and sleep under blankets on the ground.

As soon as our wants were supplied, we embarked in two

canoes, each manned by eight Lower Canadian Indians; and, when we got about a mile from the shore, nothing could be more beautiful than the sudden chorus of their voices, as, with their faces towards the prow, and with a paddle in their hands, keeping time with their song, they joyfully pushed us along.

For some hours we steered directly from the land, until, excepting the shore on our right, we could see nothing but the segment of a circle of blue water; and as the wind became strong, as our canoes were heavily laden with provisions, portmanteaus, powder, shot, &c., I certainly for some time looked with very respectful attention to each wave, as one after another was seen rapidly and almost angrily advancing towards us; but the Indian at the helm was doing exactly the same thing, and accordingly, whenever it arrived, the canoe was always precisely in the proper position to meet it; and thus, sometimes to one tune, and sometimes to another, we proceeded under a splendid sky, through pure, exhilarating air, and over the surface of one of the most. noble of those inland seas which in the western hemisphere diversify the interminable dominions of the British crown.

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It was a heavenly morning; and I never remember to have beheld a homely picture of what is called "savage life" which gave me more pleasure than that which, shortly after I landed, appeared immediately before me.

On a smooth table-rock, surrounded by trees and shrubs, every leaf of which had been washed by the night's rain as clean as it could have appeared on the day of its birth, there were seated in front of their wigwam, and close to a fire, the white smoke from which was gracefully meandering upwards through the trees, an Indian's family, composed of a very old man, two or three young ones, about as many wives, and a most liberal allowance of joyouslooking children of all ages.

The distinguishing characteristic of the group was robust, ruddy, healthy. More happy or more honest countenances could not exist; and as the morning sun with its full force beamed on their shiny jet-black hair and red countenances, it appeared as if it had imparted to the latter that description of color which it itself assumes in England when beheld through one of our dense fogs.

The family, wives, grandfather and all, did great credit to the young men by whose rifles and fishing-tackle they had been fed. They were all what is called full in flesh; and the Bacchus-like outlines of two or three little naked children, who with frightened faces stood looking at us, very clearly exclaimed in the name and on behalf of each of them, "Haven't I had a good breakfast this morning?" In short, without entering into particulars, the little urchins were evidently as full of bear's flesh, berries, soup, or something or other, as they could possibly hold.

On our approaching the party, the old man rose to receive us; and, though we could only communicate with him through one of our crew, he lost no time in treating his white brethren with hospitality and kindness. Like ourselves, they had only stopped at the island to feed; and we had scarcely departed when we saw the paddles of their canoes in motion, following us.

Whatever may be said in favor of the "blessings of civilization," yet certainly in the life of a red Indian there is much for which he is fully justified in the daily thanksgivings he is in the habit of offering to the "Great Spirit." He breathes pure air, beholds splendid scenery, traverses unsullied water, and subsists on food which, generally speaking, forms not only his sustenance, but the manly amusement, as well as occupation, of his life.

In the course of the day we saw several Indian families cheerily paddling in their canoes towards the point to which we were proceeding. The weather was intensely hot; and, though our crew continued occasionally to sing to us, yet by the time of sunset they were very nearly exhausted.

During the night it again rained for seven or eight hours; however, as is always the case, the wetter our blankets became, the better they excluded the storm.

As we were now within eight or ten miles of our destination, and had therefore to pay a little extra attention to our toilette, we did not start next morning until the sun had climbed many degrees into the clear blue sky; however, at about eight o'clock, we once again got into our canoes, and had proceeded about an hour, when our crew, whose faces, as they propelled us, were always towards the prow, pointed out to us a canoe ahead, which had been lying still, but which was now evidently paddling from

us with unusual force, to announce our approach to the Indians, who, from the most remote districts had, according to appoint. ment, congregated to meet us.

In about half an hour, on rounding a point of land, we saw im mediately before us the great Manitoulin Island; and, compared with the other uninhabited islands through we had so long been wandering, it bore the appearance of a populous city; indeed, from the innumerable threads of white smoke which in all directions, curling through the bright green folige, were seen slowly escaping into the pure blue air, this place of rendezvous was evidently swarming alive with inhabitants, who, as we approached, were seen hurrying from all points towards the shore; and, by the time we arrived within one hundred and fifty yards of the island, the beach for about half a mile was thronged with Indians of all tribes, dressed in their various costumes: some displayed a good deal of the red garment which nature had given to them; some were partially covered with the skins of wild animals they had slain; others were enveloped in the folds of an English white blanket, and some in cloth and cottons of the gaudiest colors.

The scene altogether was highly picturesque, and I stood up in the canoe to enjoy it, when all of a sudden, on a signal given by one of the principal chiefs, every Indian present levelled his rifle towards me; and from the centre to both extremities of the line there immediately irregularly rolled a feu-de-joie, which echoed and re-echoed among the wild uninhabited islands behind us.

As soon as I landed I was accosted by some of the principal chiefs; but, from that native good breeding which in every situ ation in which they can be placed invariably distinguishes the Indian tribes, I was neither hustled nor hunted by a crowd; on the contrary, during the three days I remained on the island, and after I was personally known to every individual upon it, I was enabled without any difficulty or inconvenience, or without a single person following or even stopping to stare at me, to wander completely by myself among all their wigwams.

Occasionally the head of the family would rise and salute me, but, generally speaking, I received from the whole group what I