an interpretor.  We held a protracted and agreeable conversation on Indian matters.  He invited me to dine with him, and nothing but want of time prevented my accepting his polite invitation.  He was very neatly dressed, and is quite prepossessing in his appearance.  He is younger than I supposed before seeing him.  I judge him to be about thirty-four.  He is a man of strong sense, of great sagacity, and considerable ambition.

There is no reason why the Indians should not speedily become civilized.  Those who have longest lived amongst them, and who best understand their character, tell me so.  I fully believe it.  The Indian follows his wild habits because he has been educated to do so.  The education of habit, familiar from infancy, and the influence of tradition, lead him to the hunt, and as much to despise manual labor.  He does what he has been taught to consider as noble and honorable, and that is what the most enlightened do.  Certainly his course of life is the most severe and exposed; it is not for comfort that he adheres to his wild habits.  He regards it as noble to slay his hereditary foe.  Hence the troubles which occasionally break out between the Chippewas and the Sioux.  To gain the applause of their tribe they will incur almost any danger, and undergo almost any privation.  Thus, we see that for those objects which their education has taught them to regard as first and best, they will sacrifice all their comforts.  They have sense enough, and ambition enough, and fortitude enough.  To those they love they are affectionate almost to excess.  Only direct their ambition in the proper way, and they will at once rise.  Teach them that it is noble to produce something useful by their labor, and to unite with the great family of man to expand arts and to improve the immortal mind—­ teach them that it is noble, that there is more applause to be gained by it, as well as comfort, and they will change in a generation.  They will then apply themselves to civilization with Spartan zeal and with Spartan virtues.

In a communication to the secretary of war by Gen. Cass in 1821, relative to his expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, he makes the following interesting extract from the journal of Mr. Doty, a gentleman who accompanied the expedition:—­ “The Indians of the upper country consider those of the Fond-du-Lac as very stupid and dull, being but little given to war.  They count the Sioux their enemies, but have heretofore made few war excursions.

“Having been frequently reprimanded by some of the more vigilant Indians of the north, and charged with cowardice, and an utter disregard for the event of the war, thirteen men of this tribe, last season, determined to retrieve the character of their nation, by making an excursion against the Sioux.  Accordingly, without consulting the other Indians, they secretly departed and penetrated far into the Sioux country.  Unexpectedly, at night, they came upon a party of the