himself, the Indian will not tolerate, but is sufficiently warm in his
disapprobation, of any unmanly surrender to weakness or vacillation on
the part of whites set in authority over him.

He imbibes freely (I fear the notion of a certain physiological process
is embraced by some minds, and that these words will be taken as curtly
enunciating the Indian's besetting weakness; but pray be not too eager
to dissever them from what is yet to come, as I protest that I am not
now wishing to revert to this sad failing). He imbibes freely--the
current fashions of the hour amongst whites. If raffling, for instance,
be held in honour as a method for expediting the sale of personal effects,
the Indian will adapt the practice to the disposal of every conceivable
chattel that he desires to get off his hands.




HIS PRONENESS TO DRINK.


The Indian Law, it is well known, puts a restraint, not only upon
the purchase of liquor by the Indian, but upon its sale to him by the
liquor-seller, or its supply, indeed, in any way, by any one. It forbids,
as well, the introducing or harboring of it, in any shape, under any
plea, on the Reserve. The law, in this respect, frequently proves a dead
letter, since, where the Indian has not the assurance and hardihood to
boldly demand the liquor from the hotel-keeper, or where the latter,
imbued with a wholesome fear of the penalty for contravening the law,
refrains from giving it, the agency of degraded whites is readily
secured by the Indian, and, with their connivance, the unlawful object