There never was a people more sensible of kindness, or more grateful for
any little act of benevolence exercised towards them. We met them with
confidence; our dealings with them were conducted with the strictest
integrity; and they became attached to our persons, and in no single
instance ever destroyed the good opinion we entertained of them.

The tribes that occupy the shores of all these inland waters back of the
great lakes, belong to the Chippewa or Missasagua Indians, perhaps the
least attractive of all these wild people, both with regard to their
physical and mental endowments. The men of this tribe are generally small
of stature, with very coarse and repulsive features. The forehead is low
and retreating, the observing faculties large, the intellectual ones
scarcely developed; the ears large, and standing off from the face; the
eyes looking towards the temples, keen, snake-like, and far apart; the
cheek-bones prominent; the nose long and flat, the nostrils very round;
the jaw-bone projecting, massy, and brutal; the mouth expressing ferocity
and sullen determination; the teeth large, even, and dazzilngly white. The
mouth of the female differs widely in expression from that of the male;
the lips are fuller, the jaw less projecting, and the smile is simple and
agreeable. The women are a merry, light-hearted set, and their constant
laugh and incessant prattle form a strange contrast to the iron
taciturnity of their grim lords.

Now I am upon the subject, I will recapitulate a few traits and sketches
of these people, as they came under my own immediate observation.

A dry cedar swamp, not far from the house, by the lake shore, had been
their usual place of encampment for many years. The whole block of land
was almost entirely covered with maple-trees, and had originally been an