17th.  Polygamy.—­This practice appears to be less common among the Chippewas than the more westerly tribes.  An instance of it came to my notice to-day, in a complaint made by an Indian named Me-ta-koos-se-ga, i.e.  Smoking-Weed, or Pure Tobacco, who was living with two wives, a mother and her daughter.  He complained that a young woman whom he had brought up had left his lodge, and taken shelter with the family of the widow of a Canadian.  It appears that the old fellow had been making advances to this girl to become his third wife, and that she had fled from his lodge to avoid his importunities.

18th.  Historical Reminiscences.—­This day sixty-three years ago, General Wolf took Quebec, an event upon which hinged the fall of Canada.  That was a great historical era, and it is from this date, 1759, that we may begin to date a change in the Indian policy of the country.  Before that time, the French, who had discovered this region of country and established trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, were acknowledged supreme by the natives.  Since this event, the English rule has been growing, and the allegiance of the tribes has been gradually strengthened and fixed.  It is not a light task to change habits of political affiance, cemented by so many years.  The object which is only sought so far as the tribes fall within the American lines, may, however, be attained by a mild, consistent, and persevering course of policy.  Time is a slow but sure innovator.  A few years will carry the more aged men, whose prejudices are strongest, to their graves.  The young are more pliant, and will see their interests in strengthening their intercourse with the Americans, who can do so much to advance them, and probably long before half another period of sixty-three years is repeated, the Indians of the region will be as firmly attached to us as they ever were to the French or the English.

     Never to doubt, and never to despair,
     Is to make acts what once but wishes were.  ALGON.

26th.  Allegorical and Mythological Tales.—­“I shall be rejoiced,” observed Governor C., in a letter of this day, in reply to my announcement of having detected fanciful traditionary stories among the Chippewas, “to receive any mythological stories to which you allude, even if they are enough to rival old Tooke in his Pantheon.”  He had put into my hands, at Detroit, a list of printed queries respecting the Indians, and calls me to remember them, during my winter seclusion here, with the knowledge of the advantages I possess in the well-informed circle of the Johnston family.