proceeds to evolve out of the canoe a more approved see-saw action than
_a priori_ and inherently attaches to that order of craft. On that
really "Grand" river, which was his sometime heritage, the Indian can
well improve his skill in this modest branch of nautical science.




HIS TRADING RELATIONS WITH WHITES.


The consciousness of unsatisfied pecuniary obligation does not, as a
rule, weigh heavily on the Indian mind, nor does it usually awaken,
or offer food for, burdensome reflection.

The Indian Act, which decrees his minority, disables him from entering
into a contract of any kind, though it scarcely needs any statement
from me to assure my hearers that the law does not secure, nor does the
majestic arm of that law exact, from him, the most rigid compliance.

The Indian will make and tender to a white creditor his promissory note
with a gleeful complacency. There are usually two elements contributing,
in perhaps equal degree, to produce in him this complacent frame of mind:
The first, that, for removing from his immediate consideration a debt,
he is adopting a temporizing expedient, which in no way vouches for,
and in no sense bespeaks, the ultimate payment of the debt; the other,
that his act records his sense of rebellion against a restrictive law,
ever welling up in his breast, and seeking such-like opportune vent for
its relief.