Before I take leave of the Montreal department, it may be well to
allude more particularly to the manners and customs of the natives.
The mode of life the Algonquins lead, while at their village, has been
already touched upon; within these few years a great change has taken
place, not in their morals, but in their circumstances. The southern
and western parts of their hunting-grounds are now nearly all
possessed by the white man, whose encroachments extend farther and
farther every year. Beaver meadows are now to be found in place of
beaver dams; and rivers are crossed on bridges formed by the hand of
man, where the labours of the beaver afforded a passage for the roving
Indian and hunter only a few years before.

Happy change, it may be said; but so say not the Indians; the days
of happiness are gone for them, at least for those of the present
generation; though I have no doubt that their posterity may, in course
of time, become reconciled to, and adopt those habits of life which
their altered circumstances may require. A few have done so already,
but many of them still remain on the most remote parts of their lauds,
having no longer the means of enjoying themselves at their village, or
of satisfying the avarice of priests and traders. Here they pursue,
without restraint or interruption, the mode of life most congenial to
their habits.

I have already observed, that I could discover but little difference
between the (so called) Christian Indians, and their unbaptized
countrymen, when beyond the surveillance of their priests. They
practise all the superstitious rites of their forefathers, and place
implicit confidence in the power of magic, although they admit that
the same results cannot be obtained now, as formerly, in consequence,
as they say, "of the Cross having come in contact with the Medicine."