an average of over two children per female.  Mr. Sheldon thought the causes of their depopulation, since we have been their neighbors, were rather seated in their extraordinary attachment to the use of ardent spirits, than in the effects of wars, internal or external.  Mr. Clark believed the Indian youth were capable of being brought under the power of moral and religious instruction.  Mr. Schoolcraft depicted the adverse circumstances under which the masses had heretofore labored, in coming under plans of instruction and Christianity, owing to their poverty; their dispersion over large areas of country for large parts of the year; the impracticability of their finding subsistence in large bodies at one place; and the deleterious influence of the commerce in furs and peltries, on their moral and mental character.  He submitted a report of the proceedings of the St. Mary’s committee, showing, in detail, operations within the year.  With the limited sum of $151 10, they had been able to furnish elder John Sunday an outfit for Keweena Bay in Lake Superior, and given two other native converts, namely, John Otanchey and John Cabeach, the means of pursuing their labors amongst the Chippewas during the winter of 1833.  They had sent an express, during the month of February, to the mission of the American Board at La Pointe, in Lake Superior.  Their minutes of monthly meetings denoted that a valuable body of information had been collected, respecting the population and statistics of the Chippewa nation, and the grammatical structure of their language, &c.

The occasion being coincident with the meeting of the Synod of the Western Reserve, at Detroit, many gentlemen of learning, benevolence, and piety, were brought together, and a high degree of interest excited respecting the condition and prospects of the tribes.

In accordance with a resolution passed the year previous, I recited a poetic address on the character of the race, which was received with approbation, and directed to be printed.  This had been, in fact, sketched in a time of leisure in the wilderness some years before.

I returned to Mackinack near the close of October, when I resumed my traditionary inquiries.  It was sought, as a mere matter of tradition, to obtain from the Indians a recognition of the cession of this island, &c. made by them to the United States through the instrumentality of Gen. Wayne, at Greenville, in Ohio, in 1793.

Chusco [67] (muskrat), the old prophet or jossakeed of the Ottawa nation, had told me of his presence at Greenville, at the treaty, while a young man, al[67]with others of his tribe.  He was a man who would attract attention, naturally, from the peculiarities of his person and character.  He had been a man of small stature, not over five feet four inches, when young, and of very light make.  But he was now bent by age, and walked with a staff.  His hazel eyes still sparkled in a head of no striking development, and with a peculiarity of expression of his lips,