heartily recommend union and a good agreement between you our brethren; never disagree, but preserve a strict friendship for one another, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. Our wise fore-fathers established union and amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable, this has given us great weight and authority with our neighbouring nations. We are a powerful confederacy; and by your observing the same methods our wise fore-fathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power; and, therefore, what ever befalls you, never fall out one with the other.

The GOVERNOR replied,

We return you thanks for the many proofs of your zeal and for the English, and for your having so early engaged in a neutrality the several tribes of Indians in the French alliance. As to your presents we estimate them, not for their real worth but by the disposition of the giver, and put a high value on them. We are obliged by your recommending peace and good agreement among ourselves. We are all, as well as you, subjects of the great King beyond the water, and we will always be inclined to live in friendship, as it is our interest and duty.

Then the commissioners from Virginia presented the three hundred pounds in gold, which was received with yo-ha; and promised the Coney Indians should have passes to the northward. The commissioners from Maryland presented three hundred pounds in gold, which was likewise received with yo-ha.

CANASSATIEGO said,

We mentioned to you yesterday the booty you had taken from the French, and asked you for some of the rum, which we supposed to be part of it, and you gave us some; but it turned out unfortunately that you gave

it in French glasses; we now desire you will give us some in English glasses.

The GOVERNOR made answer,

We are glad to hear you have such a dislike for what is French; they cheat you in your glasses as well as in every thing else; you must consider we are at a distance from Williamsburgh, Arnocopolis, and Philadelphia, where our rum stores are; and although we brought a good quantity, you have almost drank it all out: but we have enough left to fill our English glasses, and will shew the difference between the narrow ways of the French and the generosity of your brethren the English towards you. The Indians gave in their order five yo-hahs; and the Governor, calling for rum, drank health to the great King of England and the Six Nations, and put an end to the treaty by three loud huzzas.

The commissioners of Virginia gave Canassatiego a scarlet camblet coat, and took leave in form; those of Maryland presented Gachradodow with a broad goldlaced hat, and took leave in like manner.

PLAN

145

FOR THE

MELIORATION AND CIVILIZATION

OF THE

BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

To H

ho

is Excellency Lieut. General, the Earl of Dalusie, G. C. B. Governor General, &c. &c. &c. f all His Majesty's possessions in North America.

MY LORD,

YOUR Lordship having allowed me the honour of dedicating to you my "Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the North American Indians," in which a plan for the civilization and melioration of these Aborigines was intended to have been inserted, but which, from circumstances caused by my being so far removed from the printer, has been omitted, I am induced to submit the following suggestions to your Lordship's consideration; assured that by so doing, I shall adapt the best and most proper method of promoting the object which I am most anxious to accomplish, and which I am happy to find has become a subject of general interest.

I avail myself of this opportunity to disclaim all intention of expressing any sentiment hostile to education in general-a charge to which I may perhaps be liable through misapprehension of my observations, under the head of "Hints to Missionaries."* Those observations were merely intended to refer to education as at

* Page 111, "Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Indians, &c." published by Black, Young & Young, Tavistock-street, London, in 1824.

present disseminated in civilized society, which I do not think adapted to the Savage state. A literary education I do not deem essential for some generations. Instruction by sensible signs, the active exercise of the mind and body, I consider indispensible. To bind down a child under the dread of punishment six hours a day, his limbs in a state of irksome inactivity, that he may commit to memory words, the utility of which he cannot comprehend, is galling to the child of Civilization: but to the child of the forest, it would be the height of barbarity.

*

The transition of nations from one state of society to another must be a work of time; and if we do not keep this in view, with reference to the rising generation, all our efforts will inevitably fail. I have already observed* that the Indians are fond of trinkets as ornaments, music, fishing, and hunting, as sources of amusement that they are by no means insensible of the bodily ad vantages arising from a store of food and clothing against the time of want; that they are fond of their children is also proved; and that my plan for their me lioration and civilization is founded upon these their desires.

Two modes present themselves for consideration: the one to be effected under the superintendance of his Majesty's Government, the other to be directed by a Society under the immediate patronage of the King, and subject to the controul of his Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

The first appears the more efficient; and having been in part acted upon under the superintendence of officers long connected with the Indians, and consequently acquainted with their character; the setting of whom aside might excite their hostility, and convey an indirect censure upon the heads of the Indian department in Canada, which would neither be just nor prudent.

It must nevertheless be admitted that nothing effec tive has yet been done to improve the hitherto neglected

Sketches, &c. page 114.