Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers Part 33

ISH-KO-DA-WAU-BO.--I had a pleasant pa.s.sage up the Lakes in the steamer "Sheldon Thompson." Among the pa.s.sengers were James B. Gardiner, of Ohio; charged, with duties from Was.h.i.+ngton, and John T. Mason, Commissioner for treating with the Indians at Green Bay. In a letter of the 13th August, written on his return at Mackinac, Mr. Gardiner, who is quite a philanthropist and a gentleman of most liberal opinions, says: "I conceive it my duty to inform you that I have obtained information from the contractor himself (Mr. Stanard, who is a fourth owner of the Sheldon Thompson), that under the head of 'provisions,' he has contracted to deliver, and has actually delivered, two hundred barrels of whisky, and two hundred barrels of high wines, at the place for the American Fur Company, which, no doubt, is designed to be sent into the Indian country the ensuing fall."

ROTARY SAILS.--John B. Perrault, whose name has been before mentioned, invented a novel boat, to be propelled by the force of rotary sails acting on machinery, which turns paddle-wheels; a very ingenious thing.

The result of experiments is, however, unfavorable to its practical adoption.

HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS.--These hostilities have reached such a point, that the department has deemed it necessary to interpose its friendly offices in a more formidable manner, by dispatching an expedition into the princ.i.p.al seat of the war. The instructions, however (of Aug. 9th), by which I was designated for that purpose, reached me so late in that month, that it was not deemed practicable to carry them into effect until the next year. I reported the facts, which are deemed necessary to be known at head-quarters, in order to give efficacy to this necessary and proper measure, recommending that the expedition be deferred, and that, in the meantime, suitable means be provided for making it, to the greatest extent, effectual.

FRIENDs.h.i.+P AND BADINAGE.--A friend writes from Detroit (Aug. 14th): "For a brief s.p.a.ce, that is, about a quarter of an hour, I can borrow a little use of my own soul, though I cannot call it exactly my own. You will not fail to note, I trust, how eminently judicious is the appropriation.

"A few days since, the letter containing the notice of your appointment to the Lake Superior destination, was mailed for you. The purpose of this is to suggest the memory of your doubtful promise, to come down in the fall for the winter session. The Gov. thinks it too late in the season to attempt your expedition this fall; and I presume, that it is, I hope, your papers will not reach you in time to leave this summer, an opinion of questionable correctness.

"You can have your table placed in the corner, and amuse yourself with preparing an article for the _N.A._, Thus you will discharge a double duty to your country; one to its political interests, and another to its department of letters. Whatever preparations are necessary at your place, can be made in the winter, under directions left there when you come down, and such as could be more conveniently made here, you shall have every aid in forwarding. The fact is, I see not a single objection, I _cannot_ see one, and more than that, I won't. This I conceive to be the only rational view to be taken of the subject, and, of course, it follows like the consequence to the minor of a syllogism; the only one you take. So don't say any more about it, but come along down, and then you shall, with more pleasure, satisfaction, and comfort, _go along up_.

It is, in fact, just as clear, as that one and one, you and me, will make two."

SOCIAL INTERCOURSE,--Maj. W. writes (21st Aug.): "I was sorry, on my return, to find you gone, for we have left undone that which I hoped to have done, with your a.s.sistance, that is, the arrangement of our museum.

But circ.u.mstances were unlucky. Cases were made wrong, or not made in due time, and absences took _some_ folks away (an allusion to the trip to Niagara), and the council _would_ adjourn, &c. You are, however, I understand, to be down here New Year's day, to which time, for the special accommodation of the up-country members, I presume the council, as it is said, has adjourned. An appropriation for snow shoes ought to have been made."

SANILLAC.--"I made an arrangement in Boston for the printing of my MSS.

As I found I was to bear the brunt of the expense, I determined to make it as small as I consistently could, and have, therefore, made the volume somewhat smaller than was in my original plan.

"Mr. Ward showed me a hasty note from you relative to the address (before the Historical Society). I have examined it as published, and I told him your suggestions were out of the question. There is not an error that I could detect that is not clearly typographical; and your fears, that either yourself or the society will be discredited, are all idle. I do not recollect any of your books which, I think, do you more credit."

GOSSIP.--Mr. Ward writes: "We have but little news. The governor and Elizabeth are off to Utica and Troy, and we hope the springs. Mr. Ca.s.s, Lewis, and Isabel to the Maumee. Major and Mrs. Kearsley to New York and Philadelphia, with Miss Colt in keeping. For all persons else, one note will answer. They eat drink, and sleep as they did, and are 'partly as usual.'"

EXPEDITION INTO LAKE SUPERIOR.--"I do not answer you officially," says Gov. C. "concerning the expedition into Lake Superior, because I shall expect you will be here in the last vessel, to attend the meeting of the council, and Mr. Brush speaks with certainty-upon the subject. As Mr.

Irwin has resigned, and there is no provision for ordering a new election, your district will be wholly unrepresented unless you attend.

In the mean time I have received the sum allowed for this service, which you can draw for whenever you please. There is no doubt but the matter will go on. After you arrive here, and We have conversed together, I will restate the project of a more extended expedition, agreeably to your suggestions, and submit it to the department. I agree with you fully, that the thing should be enlarged, to embrace the persons and objects you suggest. It would be an important expedition, and not a little honorable to you, to have the direction of it, as it will be the first authorized by the administration."

WINTER SESSION OF THE COUNCIL.--On the 16th of November, I embarked in a large boat at St. Mary's with a view of reaching Mackinack in season to take the last vessel returning down the lakes. The weather was hazy, warm, and calm, and we could not descry objects at any considerable distance. If we were not in "Sleepy Hollow" while descending the broad valley and stretched out waters of the St. Mary's, we were, at least, in such a hazy atmosphere, that our eyes might almost as well have been shut. It seemed an interlude in the weather, between the boisterous winds of autumn and the severe cold of December. In this maze I came down the river safely, and proceeded to Mackinack, where I remained several days before I found a vessel. These were days of pleasing moral intercourse at the mission. I do not recollect how many days the voyage lasted, but it was late in the evening of a day in December, dark and very muddy when the schooner dropped anchor off the city, and I plodded my way from the sh.o.r.e to the _Old Stone Mansion House_ in Detroit.

HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.--Mr. Madison, the Ex-president, transmits a very neat and terse note of acknowledgment for a copy of my address, in the following words, which are quite a compensation for the time devoted to its composition:--

"J. Madison, with his respects to Mr. Schoolcraft, thanks him for the copy of his valuable discourse before 'the Historical Society of Michigan.' To the seasonable exhortation it gives to others, it adds an example which may be advantageously followed." (_Oct. 23d_.)

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF RHODE ISLAND.--I received a copy of a circular issued by this inst.i.tution (Nov. 1), asking Congress for aid in the transcription of foreign historical ma.n.u.scripts. "We alone, (almost,)"

say the committee, "among nations, have it in our power to trace clearly, certainly, and satisfactorily, at a very trifling expense, the whole of our career, from its very outset, throughout its progress, down to the present moment--and shall we manifest a supineness, a perfect listlessness and complete indifference respecting a subject, that by every other people has been, and is still esteemed of so vast magnitude, and deep interest, as to have induced, and still to induce them to pour forth funds from their treasuries unsparingly, to aid the historians in removing, if possible, the veil that conceals in dark obscurity their origin?"

DOMESTIC.--Mrs. Schoolcraft writes from _Elmwood,_ St. Mary's (Dec.

6th): "I continue to instruct our dear little girl every day, and I trust you will find her improved on your return, should it please Heaven to restore you in peace and safety. Johnston has quite recovered, and can now stand alone, and could walk, _if he would._ I have called on Mrs. Baxley, and find her a very agreeable woman. She said she saw you several times at Prairie du Chien. (1825.) I also went to see the mission farm, and was much pleased with the teacher, Miss McComber. The weather has remained very fine, till within two days, when we have had, for the first time, a _sprinkling_ of snow. Such a season has never been heard of in this country--not a particle of ice has, as yet, formed anywhere."

FRENCH REVOLUTION.--This political revolution has come like an avalanche, and the citizens have determined to celebrate it, and have a public address, for which Major Whiting has been designated.

Thirty-seven years ago the French cut off the head of the reigning Bourbon, Louis XVI., and now they have called another branch of the same house, of whom Bonaparte said: "They never learn anything, and they never forget anything." As the French please, however. We are all joy and rejoicing at the event. It seems the consummation of a long struggle.

Mr. Ward (Ed. Jour.) writes 25th Dec.: "Will you send me, by the bearer, the lines you showed me in Brush's office. They will be quite _apropos_ next week. Should like to close our form this evening."

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

Lecture before the Lyceum--Temperature in the North--Rum and taxes--A mild winter adverse to Indians--Death of a friend--Christian atonement--Threats of a Caliban, or an Indianized white man--Indian emporium--Bringing up children--Youth gone astray--Mount Hope Inst.i.tution--Expedition into the Indian country--Natural History of the United States--A reminiscence--Voyage inland.

1831. LECTURE BEFORE THE LYCEUM.--The executive committee of this popular inst.i.tution asks me by a note (Jan. 14th), to lecture before them a short time ahead. Public duty is an excuse, which on such occasions is very generally made by men in office, who in nine cases out of ten seek to conceal the onerousness of literary labor under that ample cloak. To me there is no duty more important than that which diverts a town from idle gratifications, and fixes its attention on moral or intellectual themes. Although the notice was short, I determined to sit up a few nights and comply with it. I selected the natural history of Michigan, as a subject very tangible, and one about which a good deal of interest could be thrown. I had devoted much interest to it for years--understood it, perhaps, better than any one in the territory, and could lecture upon it _con amore_.

When the appointed evening arrived, I found a highly respectable and very crowded audience, in the upper chamber of the old Indian council house. It was certainly a better use of the building than paying the price of blood for white men's and women's scalps, during the fierce seven years' struggle of the American Revolution, and the succeeding Indian wars. My lights were badly placed for reading, and I got on indifferently in that respect, for I could not see well, but my facts and matter altogether were well and approvingly received; and the address was immediately published.

TEMPERATURE AT THE FOOT OF LAKE SUPERIOR.--Mr. F. Andrain writes to me from St. Mary's (Jan. 26th): "The weather has been very mild indeed, here, until within a few days: there has not been sufficient snow, as yet, to cover the stubble in the fields. The severe weather commenced on the 23d instant. The thermometer stood as follows:--"

On the 23d, at 9 o'clock A.M., 11 degrees below zero.

24th, " " 13 " "

25th, " " 2 " "

26th, " " 1 " "

RUM AND TAXES.--A trader at St. Mary's writes (26th Jan.) as follows: "It is the wish of several individuals, who keep stores in the village, to be informed whether the sutler in Fort Brady is not obliged to pay taxes as well as we. For he has almost the exclusive trade of the Canadians. It is tempting to purchase liquor at 2_s_. 6_d_. per gallon, when they have to pay 4_s_. in the village. The temperance society is of no use, when any of its members can dispose of liquor _at so low a rate_." I put the last words in italics.

A MILD WINTER ADVERSE TO THE INDIANS.--Mr. George Johnston observes (8th March): "The weather on Lake Superior has been uncommonly mild the whole winter. The southern sh.o.r.e of the lake from White Fish Point to Ance Kewywenon presents a scene of open lake, not any ice forming to enable the poor Indians to spear fish."

DEATH OF A FRIEND.--Mrs. Schoolcraft says (Feb. 3d): "Mrs. Bingham pa.s.sed the day with me a short time since, and brought me some Vermont religious papers, which I read yesterday, and found an account of the death of our poor friend Mr. Conant, which took place in November last in Brandon, Vermont, leaving his disconsolate widow and five children.

He suffered greatly for five years, but I am happy to find he was resigned in suffering to the will of the Almighty with patience; and I trust he is now a happy member of the souls made perfect in the precious blood of the Lamb." Thus ended the career of a man of high moral worth, mental vigor, and exalted benevolence of feeling and purpose. This is the man, and the family, who showed us such marked kindness and attentions in the city of New York, in the winter of 1825--kindness and attentions never to be forgotten. _Feb. 7th_. This day is very memorable in my private history, for my having a.s.sumed, after long delay, the moral intrepidity to acknowledge, _publicly_, a truth which has never been lost sight of since my intercourse with the Rev. Mr.

Laird, in the, to me, memorable winter of 1824--when it first flashed, as it were, on my mind. That truth was the divine atonement for human sin made by the long foretold, the rejected, the persecuted, the crucified Messiah.

Threat of an Indianized White Man.--A friend at St. Mary's writes: "Tanner has again made bold threats, agreeably to Jack Hotley's statement, and in Doctor James' presence, saying, that had you still been here, he would have killed you; and as the Johnstons were acting in concert with you, he kept himself constantly armed." This being, in his strange manners and opinions, at least, appears to offer a realization of Shakspeare's idea of Caliban.

Indian Emporium.--Col. T. McKenney, who has been superseded in the Indian Bureau at Was.h.i.+ngton, announces, by a circular, that he is about to establish a commercial house, or agency, on a general plan, for supplying articles designed for the Indian trade and the sale of furs and peltries. This appears to me a striking mistake of judgment. The colonel, of all things, is not suited for a merchant.

Bringing up of Children.--Mrs. Schoolcraft writes: "I find the time pa.s.ses more swiftly than I thought it would; indeed, my friends have been unwearied in striving to make my solitary situation as pleasant as possible, and they have favored me with their company often. I strive to be as friendly as I possibly can to every one, and I find I am no loser by so doing. I wish it was in your power to bring along with you a good little girl who can speak English, for I do not see how I can manage during the summer (if my life is spared) without some a.s.sistance in the care of the children. I feel anxious, more particularly on Jane's account, for she is now at that age when children are apt to be biased by the habits of those they a.s.sociate with, and as I cannot be with her _all the time_, the greater will be the necessity of the person to whom she is entrusted (let it be ever so short a time) to be one who has been brought up by pious, and, of course, conscientious parents, where no bad example can be apprehended. I feel daily the importance of bringing up children, not merely to pa.s.s with advantage through the world, but with advantage to their souls to all eternity."

I find great pleasure in sister Anna Maria's company. She is to stay with me till you return. Little Jan_ee_ improves rapidly under her tuition. Janee (she was now three and a half years of age) has commenced saying by heart two pieces out of the little book you sent her. One is 'My Mother,' and the other is 'How doth the little busy Bee.' It is pleasant to see her smooth down her ap.r.o.n and hear her say, "So I shall stand by my father, and say my lessons, and he will call me his dear little _Tee-gee,_ and say I am a good girl." She will do this with so much gravity, and then skip about in an instant after and repeat, half singing, "My father will come home again in the spring, when the birds sing and the gra.s.s and flowers come out of the ground; he will call me his _wild Irish girl_."

"Janee has just come into the room, and insists on my telling you that she can spell her name very prettily, 'Schoolcraft and all.' She seems anxious to gain your approbation for her acquirements, and I encourage the feeling in order to excite attention to her lessons, as she is so full of life and spirits that it is hard to get her to keep still long enough to recite them properly. Johnston has improved more than you can imagine, and has such endearing ways that one cannot help loving the dear child. Oh, that they would both grow up wise unto salvation, and I should be happy."

Youthful Blood.--James --- was a young man of promise--bright mentally and physically, lively and witty, and of a figure and manners pleasing to all. In a moment of pa.s.sion he dirked a man at a French ball. The victim of this scene of revelry lingered a few months and recovered.

This recovery is announced in a letter of Mrs. Schoolcraft's (Feb.

16th), in which she says:--

"Dr. James sent a certificate of the young man's returning health by the last express, and an Indian was also sent to accompany James back to this place; but how great was our astonishment at the arrival of the Indian _alone_, on the 3d ultimo, and bringing news of James' escape from Mackinack. We felt a good deal alarmed for his safety on the way, and an Indian was sent down the river in quest of him; but we were relieved of our fears by the arrival of James himself on the following day, very much exhausted. I immediately sent to Dechaume to ask how he did, and learnt that his fatigue, &c., had not in the least abated his natural _vivacity and gayety_.

"Three days after his arrival (being Sunday) I was at dinner at my mother's, when he came in, and could not refrain from tears. He seemed much affected at what I said, and I felt encouraged to hope some little change in his conduct. The next day, on mature reflection, I thought no time was to be lost in striving by all _human_ means to reclaim him, and my promise to co-operate with you all I could for that desirable object, induced me to write a note inviting him to come and spend a quiet social evening with sister Anna Maria and myself, and I sent the sleigh to bring him down, so that he could have no excuse to decline coming, and I was pleased that he came without hesitation.

"I conversed a long time with him, pointing out, in the most gentle and affectionate manner I could, where he had erred, and in what way he might have become not only respected and esteemed, but independent, whereas his excesses had brought him to embarra.s.sment and disgrace; and conjured him, as he valued his temporal and spiritual welfare, to abandon some, at least (to begin with) of his evil courses, and to strive with all his might to avert the wrath of that Holy Being whom he had hitherto so despised, and whose just laws he had, in more than _one_ instance, violated, and a great deal more that I cannot now mention. I got him at last to promise to strive to become better.

"We pa.s.sed the rest of the evening in a rational and pleasant manner by reading chiefly in the _Literary Voyager_, thinking it might help to call forth former occupations, which were comparatively innocent, and reading some of his own pieces, _renew_ a taste of what was virtuous and praiseworthy. I inwardly prayed that by such means, feeble as they were, they might tend to draw him off insensibly from his former haunts and habits. I have been enabled to pursue this course of conduct towards him ever since that evening, and I am pleased to find that he comes oftener to Elmwood than I at first expected; but I perceive that there is some _other_ attraction besides my _sage discourses_ that draws him so often to the now leafless shades of Elmwood. And he may fancy that either a _rose_ or a _lily_ has taken shelter within its walls. Be that as it may, I shall not say a word; most of my thoughts are more occupied with the best method I can take to do him good to all eternity, and I do not forget to ask aid of ONE that never errs.

"Some evenings since, Mr. Agnew and some of the officers gave a ball at one of the French houses, and not doubting but that James was invited to join in the amus.e.m.e.nt, I instantly addressed a long letter to him, encouraging him in his recent resolution of amendment, and told him _now_ was the time to put those wise resolves to the test by practice, and that he ought to know, by sad experience, that attending such low scenes of dissipation was the source of almost all the iniquity in the place. I had afterwards the satisfaction to find that he did not attend; but my fears for him are still very great, and will be justly so as long as he is so taken up by that disgraceful connection where he spends a great deal of his precious time. My ambition is not only to _civilize_ him (if I may be allowed that expression, which is not out of the way, after all, as he has despised the forms and restraints of refined society), but my ardent wish is to _Christianize_ him in every sense of the word--he is, at present, skeptical. But let us only do our duty as Christians, and leave the rest in the hands of the Almighty."

Mount Hope, Baltimore.--My old instructor and friend, Prof. Frederick Hall, sends me a programme of his collegiate inst.i.tution, at this place, and writes me (April 6th) a most friendly letter, renewing old acquaintances.h.i.+p and scientific reminiscences. Death makes such heavy inroads on our friends, that we ought to cherish the more those that are left.

Legislation proceeded quietly while these events occurred, and the winter wore away almost imperceptibly till the session closed. I embraced the first opportunity of ascending the Lakes to the entrance of the. St. Mary's, and from thence up the river, and reached home about the 25th of April, making altogether about five months absence. But at home I am not destined long to remain, as the expedition into the Lake, for which I was designated in August, was only deferred till spring.

I had now served four years in the legislature; but, understanding that the President had expressed an opinion that official officers should not engage in the business of legislation, I declined a reelection by a public notice to the electors of my district.