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  TOUR

  OF

  THE AMERICAN LAKES,

  AND AMONG

  THE INDIANS

  OF THE

  NORTH-WEST TERRITORY,

  IN 1830:


  DISCLOSING THE CHARACTER AND PROSPECTS OF THE
  INDIAN RACE.


  BY C. COLTON.


  IN TWO VOLUMES.
  VOL. I.


  LONDON:
  FREDERICK WESTLEY AND A. H. DAVIS,

  MDCCCXXXIII.




  LONDON

  R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL.




CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


                                                                  Page

  ADVERTISEMENT                                                     ix

  INTRODUCTION                                                      xi


  CHAP. I.

  The Falls of Niagara                                               1


  CHAP. II.

  Niagara Whirlpool                                                 12


  CHAP. III.

  Geographical description of the Great Lakes of North
  America                                                           21


  CHAP. IV.

  The Author’s motives for undertaking the _Tour_; character
  of wild Indians                                                   28


  CHAP. V.

  Romantic expectations; impressions of nursery tales
  respecting Indians; the savage proper; embarkation
  from Buffalo; beauties of Lake Erie; arrival
  at Detroit                                                        33


  CHAP. VI.

  History of Detroit:--early trading posts; Pontiac’s
  conspiracy; Detroit saved; Pontiac’s death; description
  and beauties of the Territory of Michigan                         40


  CHAP. VII.

  Remarkable instance of capital crime                              48


  CHAP. VIII.

  Embarkation from Detroit; Captain Symmes’s theory
  of the earth; sail over Lake St. Clair; interest of
  the scene; delta of the River St. Clair; relics of
  French population; a picture of French and Indians                54


  CHAP. IX.

  River St. Clair; visit to Fort Gratiot; memoranda of
  Lake Huron:--wild and picturesque scenery of its
  northern regions; meeting with a canoe, manned by
  eight Indians with the paddle; their dexterity and
  the celerity of their movement; an Indian encampment;
  their lodges; the Indian paddle quicker than
  steam; the Indian’s love of money and whiskey;
  an Indian salute; and several interesting incidents
  of the passage among the islands of the north
  margin of Huron                                                   63


  CHAP. X.

  Arrival at the _Saut de St. Marie_; origin of this name;
  the Falls; an interesting young lady, whose mother
  was an Indian and her father a Scotchman; peculiar
  and moral power of Indian languages                               80


  CHAP. XI.

  Voyage from the Saut de St. Marie to Green Bay;
  the thirty-two thousand islands; the scenery they
  create; description of Michillimackinack; the sugar-loaf
  and arched rock; arrival at Green Bay in the
  North-West Territory                                              88


  CHAP. XII.

  Political relations of the American Indian tribes; their
  rights ostensibly, but not really respected; the pre-emption
  right and its operation; the original claims
  of Europeans a precedent; late juridical decision
  of the American Supreme Court; Great Britain
  and the United States both responsible in the treatment
  and for the fate of the Indians                                   96


  CHAP. XIII.

  Vindication of the American Indians from the charge
  of being Savages; their domestic affections kind and
  amiable; their savage passions artificial, kindled by
  the war-dance, and only for war; the Indian in war
  is frantic, and never the aggressor, without a sense
  of injury; Indian character essentially modified by
  contact with the European race                                   109


  CHAP. XIV.

  Gradual extinction of the Eastern tribes; the New
  York tribes advised to remove to the North-West
  Territory; concurrence of the General Government
  in the plan; parts of the Indians agree to it; the
  nature of the understanding; their purchase of land
  and removal; their expectations; their disappointment;
  supposed scheme for breaking up this new
  arrangement, and the result of it; the reasons for
  this narrative; extracts from the Rev. Dr. Morse’s
  Report to Congress, evincing the views then entertained
  in regard to this removal of the New York
  Indians                                                          122


  CHAP. XV.

  The design of the Commission of 1830 to Green Bay;
  ignorance of Government of the state of the case;
  history of the title in dispute and the measures
  employed