yet high in general admiration and sympathy, in the voluntary surrender of himself, and in the manner of the act. No individual act was ever more imposing than that act of self-devotion. His white dress of beautiful deer-skin, fitting his elegantly proportioned frame, as if to show the beauty and perfection of his finish. His war-pipe made fast to his breast, as if to indicate the attachment of his heart to the Indian's glory; his white flag, the emblem of peace, in one hand, and his calumet, or pipe of peace, in the other; and then the long line of one hundred and fourteen unarmed warriors, attending this self-devoted victim; and to crown all, his death-song. All this was highly impressive; but it was overmatched by the calm though commanding spirit that gave grace and firmness to his steps, life to his eye, majesty to every movement of the man, and grandeur to the ceremony. As he entered

the portal of death, stepping firmly up, he said, by a manner as forcible as language, "I give away myself -my life." There is nothing more dreaded by the Indian than our protracted forms of law; confinement in a prison is to them only a lingering death, far more terrible than even the tortures to which they sometimes subject their chiefs of high rank, who appear regardless of their sufferings when they are enabled to defy their foes and dwell with exultation on their deeds of glory. Their sufferings last but a few hours, and they thus testify the triumph of the soul over bodily pain.

Although the crime, for which this wonderful man suffered, was not specified in the paper from which we have extracted the above account, we have met with an article in the Quarterly Review, which explains the

cause. The writer, after commenting on the manner in which our treaties are carried on, where every artifice is used to engage the assent of the chiefs to part with their lands, says :-'In the boasted treaty at Prairie du Chien, 1825, the Winnebagoes among others had received the most solemn assurances, that the boundaries, then established, would on the part of the United States be carefully respected; that neither whites nor Indians would be suffered to hunt or settle on these lands, acknowledged to belong to them, between the Ouisconsin and Rock rivers; yet, almost immediately on returning to their villages, they found the finest portions of their land overrun with white men searching for lead mines. Need we wonder then that the Winnebagoes, exasperated by repeated insults, and palpable violation of the treaty, should have reminded us, by the murder of an entire family of these intruders, that professions of friendship and protection did not compensate them for the evils they were compelled to suffer ?"

Yet it appears, from the closing remarks of this writer, that the self-immolation of the devoted chief did not preserve his people from the ravages of war :—

We speak not of the alarm and distress, the starvation and despair introduced into their villages. These are less serious evils than the loss of the amplest and best part of their territory between the Ouisconsin and Rock rivers; which, it is understood, the agents of the government in that quarter have been directed to seize and hold, apparently as a kind of memento to the Indians, that they may henceforth beware of exciting the impatience of a power so abundantly able to crush

them. The result is easily foreseen; their valuable lands and rich lead mines will invite the enterprise of our restless western population, and the miserable remnant of the Winnebagoes will be compelled to seek westward of the Mississippi, amid hostile bands and in a desolate region, a precarious subsistence.'

This most interesting detail has been as much condensed as possible; albeit, as the whole transaction was a counterpart to so many outrages the Indians were doomed to sustain, previous to the inhuman measures which forced the whole body of the Cherokees into exile, it is well to remind our citizens of what has been called Indian outrage, with a view to excuse or palliate our own usurpations and barbarities. is painful to perceive how easily we have been moved to hostility by the lust of conquest, and how merciless and exterminating has been our warfare.'Neither would we willingly omit to exhibit the truly extraordinary character of the Winnebago chieftain, which, in our estimation, has no parallel.

• It

This distinctive nobleness of soul is not confined to the male sex; women have appeared among our Aborigines of nature's sterling coinage. Pocahontas was but the prototype of others, who, by their disinterested generosity and romantic heroism, perilled their own lives to save even their foes. The constancy and strength of affection, which characterize our native females, has furnished a theme for eulogy even in these days of degeneracy.

Their presiding care is found also in the common walks of life. We learn from Schoolcraft's Travels, that, when the men determine upon a carouse, the

women with studious care remove all their hostile weapons; thus to prevent any outrage which might be committed in the heat of intoxication. Another instance has of late been noticed of that intuitive though unobtrusive vigilance peculiar to females; that when the husband, overcome with inebriating draughts, urged upon him by traders and others, with a view to obtain a title to the little portion of land the Indian had been allowed to retain,—the women, conscious of what is passing, will watch by her husband, to prevent, if possible, the intended fraud, and to guard him from being deprived of his blanket, &c.

It is well, that, comparatively, so few females allow themselves to commit vices, but too common among the other sex; and hence the care and example of mothers often preserves their families from ruin, when the father becomes abandoned. This would oftener occur had women the means of supporting their families. Yet so jealous are our lawmakers of their prerogative, that no provision is made to restrain men from spending all their property in criminal excesses, by securing, at least, some portion to the wife for maintaining the children; hence women are often discouraged, and, having no power to provide for them after making the most strenuous exertions, contend no longer with their fate, and too often seek to forget their sorrows by becoming partakers of the guilt of their husbands, and whole families are thus abandoned and dispersed.

Indian laws are more favorable to females, whose husbands have no control over the property of their wives; and of course they have often the power to

indulge those maternal propensities so interwoven with their hearts.

Stone, in his Life of Brant, relates that the female inhabitants of a settlement in Canada met in council,. and petitioned the government, in forcible language, not to allow any spirituous liquors to pass into their towns, in consequence of the calamities to which they were subjected by intemperance and all its concomitant evils. The native delicacy of these women forbad them in direct terms to complain of their husbands; yet it is well known that the men, exasperated by wrong and insults, seize with avidity the temporary relief afforded by inebriation, whilst the magnanimity and passive endurance of women, in most instances, enable them to persevere in the duties which devolve on them as wives and mothers.*

Women indeed, among our Aborigines, appear to have been endowed with a high sense of their equality;. and of course their responsibility and their eligibility to the highest offices would inculcate this self-respect. Many queens were found on the first discovery of this country who exercised regal sway; and although their laws of succession cannot now be traced, it appears that women did not succeed on the failure of male heirs only. Four queens are mentioned by the first.

*Heckewelder states that although he spent so many years among the Indians, he never knew but two instances of suicide. One was a man whose wife had determined to leave him, and the other an Indian who was disappointed in love. Heckewelder's Narrative.