Amount and value of Annuities to Indians 2,542,916 Expense of Surveys and Agency 1,700,716 By Cash received on Sale of Lands Ditto still due on ditto DOLLARS. 22,229,180 22,000,657 Balance brought down Lands unsold, viz., 173,176,606 acres at the lowest estimate, one dollar per acre* Balance of gain on the part of the United 39,986,205 173,176,606 States in dealing with the Indians 213,162,811 **The price fixed by Congress is two dollars per acre. How irresistibly, to say nothing of natural rights, do these transactions establish the claim of the Indians to protection and kindness from the United States! The purchases of land from the Indians by the British Government do not exceed ten millions of acres; for 7,491,190 of which the Indians receive goods annually amounting in value to £4155 Halifax currency, or 16,620 dollars. The British Government has not sold its lands, but, with the exception of a few hundred acres lately disposed of near York in Upper Canada, has made gratuitous grants of them. Besides which, about 20,000 Indians annually receive from the British government, blankets, and presents of various kinds-so that while the Americans have gained so largely by their intercourse with the natives within their territories, the British are annually losers. But both are awfully deficient in using means to improve the condition of the Indians. 138 CHAPTER XII. NAMES OF THE DIFFERENT INDIAN NATIONS HITHERTO DISCOVERED IN NORTH AMERICA, THE SITUATION OF THEIR COUNTRIES, WITH THE NUMBER OF THEIR FIGHTING MEN. THE Choctaws or Flatheads, on the Molect 4,500 The Natches The Chukesws, Mississippi The Cherokees, South Carolina The Chatabas, between North and S. Carolina 150 750 2,500 150 The Peantias, a wandering tribe, both sides of The Caocutas, on the East of the River Aliba 3,000 1,800 2,500 1,500 The Missouri, upon the River Missouri The Assiniboils, farther North near the Lakes 1,500 The Orusconsins, on the river of the same name, falling into the Mississippi 3,000 500 The Mascordins 500 The Missisagues, or River Indians, being wan dering tribes on lakes Huron and Superior 2,000 The Abenaques, ditto The Conaway Crunas, near the Falls of St. Lewis 200 350 40 NAMES OF THE DIFFERENT INDIAN NATIONS. 58,730 warriors, one-third old men, makes 78,306. Multiplying by six gives 469,886 souls, men, women, and children.* * The foregoing list I received from old Mr. Heckewelder, the Missionary, to whom I paid a visit a short time ago at Bethlehem, where he resides. His active and constant exertions, in the cause of benevolence, seem to have been rewarded with health and long life. He is now in his eighty-eighth year, and his faculties are vigorous and alert. From him I learnt that it is not in the power of man to come at any thing demonstrative as to the numbers of the Indians. The list now before the reader, refers to what was known between the years 1770 and 1780, and I have no reason whatever to doubt its accuracy. I find in the records of 1794, that a treaty was arranged at Philadelphia with the President of the United States, which comprehended upwards of fifty-seven thousand Indian warriors. This statement, therefore, could not have included the inhabitants of the immense regions from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, and North to Hudson's Bay. But travellers have in all places found numbers, so that having reference to extent of territory, I do not overrate the population of the Indian nations at two millions; taking in from the Isthmus of Panama, and consequently including Mexico. It should be borne in mind that the great body of any Indian tribe never appear to strangers: only the scouts are seeu. The publishers think it necessary to state that the M. S. of the above Indian names was in an almost illegible hand; and the author being in America, they had no means of correcting it. |