“Brethren!  We hear that you have another Great Chief who rules over you, to whom even our great trading Chief must bow; we hear that this great and good Chief desires the welfare of all his children; we hear that to him the white man and the red are alike, and, wonderful to be told! that he asks neither furs nor game in return for his bounty.  Brethren! we feel that we can no longer exist as once we did; we implore your Great Chief to shield us in our present distress; we desire to be placed under his immediate care, and to be delivered from the rule of the trading Chief who only wants our furs, and cares nothing for our welfare.

“Brethren!  Some of your kinsmen visited us lately; they asked neither our furs nor our flesh; their sojourn was short; but we could see they were good men; they advised us for our good, and we listened to them.  Brethren!  We humbly beseech your Great Chief that he would send some of those good men to live amongst us:  we desire to be taught to worship the Great Spirit in the way most pleasing to him:  without teachers among us we cannot learn.  We wish to be taught to till the ground, to sow and plant, and to perform whatever the good white people counsel us to do to preserve the lives of our children.

“Brethren!  We could say much more, but we have said enough,—­we wish not to weary you.

“Brethren!  We are all the children of the Great Spirit; the red man and the white man were formed by him.  And although we are still in darkness and misery, we know that all good flows from him.  May he turn your hearts to pity the distress of your Red Brethren!  Thus have we spoken to you.”

Such are the groans of the Indians.  Would to Heaven they were heard by my countrymen as I have heard them!  Would to Heaven that the misery I have witnessed were seen by them!  The poor Indians then would not appeal to them in vain.  I can scarcely hope that the voice of a humble, unknown individual, can reach the ears, or make any impression on the minds of those who have the supreme rule in Britain; but if there are there men of rank, and fortune, and influence, whose hearts sympathise with the misery and distress of their fellow-men, whatever be their country or hue—­and, thank God! there are not a few—­it is to those true Britons that I would appeal in behalf of the much-wronged Indians; the true and rightful owners of the American soil.

If I am asked what I would suggest as the most effective means for saving the Indians, I answer:  Let the Company’s charter be abolished, and the portals of the territory be thrown wide open to every individual of capital and enterprise, under certain restrictions; let the British Government take into its hands the executive power of the territory, and appoint a governor, judges, and magistrates; let Missionaries be sent forth among the Indians;—­already the whole of the Chippewayan tribes, from English River to New Caledonia, are disposed to adopt our religion as well