the hasty ire of the sportsman if, in guilelessness of soul, I call this
hunting. This very circumscribing of the occasions, and inefficacy of
the motive powers, for engaging in hunting, will tend, it is hoped, to
correct the indolent habits that the Indian nurses, and the inveteracy
of which I have just dwelt upon, and emphasized; for it will not,
I think, be denied that his former full-hearted pursuit of the chase
(in submission, largely though it was, to imperious calls of nature), is
responsible, mainly, for the inherence of this unpleasing trait. Though,
of course, hunting in its very nature, enforces a certain activity, it
is an activity, so far as any beneficent impressing of the character is
concerned, void of wholesomeness, and barren of solid, lasting results;
and, viewed in this way, an activity really akin to indolence. With
the craving for hunting subdued, the Indian may take up, with less
distraction, and devote himself, to good advantage, to his farming,
and to industrial callings.

Want of energy and of steadiness of purpose are with the Indian
conspicuous weaknesses, and their bearing upon his farming operations
may be briefly noticed. He will not devote himself to his work in the
fields with that full-intentioned mind to put in an honest day's toil,
that the white man brings to his work, often being beguiled, by some
outside pleasure or amusement, into permitting his day's work to sustain
a break, which he laments afterwards in a melancholy refrain, of farming
operations behind, and domestic matters unhinged, generally. Though the
white has endeavored (and I the more gladly bear my witness to these
attempts at the redemption of the Indian from some of his weaknesses,
since the white has been so freely charged with ministering to his
appetite for drink, and to the evil side of his nature generally)
to infuse these qualities of energy and resolution into the Indian,
my observation has not yet discerned them in him. Though irresolute