cuAP. XXXI. HABITS OP THE MONTAGNAIS. 169 



well with the Catholics as with the Protestants, was at its 

 height, the Jesuits in Canada urged the expediency of 

 giving to the Huron Indians lands in the neighbourhood 

 of Quebec, where they might hve together in the European 

 manner, and receive religious instruction. ' Entire com- 

 munities in Paris and in the provinces imposed upon 

 themselves penances, and offered up pubhc prayers, for 

 the success of this enterprise. Persons of the highest 

 rank at the French Court, the princesses of the blood, 

 and the Queen herself, entered into and promoted the 

 views of the missionaries.' * 



The Montagnais have shown themselves equally incapable 

 of resigning the wild freedom of their forests, and living a 

 settled hfe in villages. It may be urged in defence of 

 the Indian character, that they ought to have been taught 

 the common and useful mechanical trades, and also how 

 to till the earth. Many have been so taught, but they liave 

 gone back to their old forest life, for which they seem to 

 have an innate love incapable of being rooted out. 



' No Indian woidd bear the restraint and confinement 

 necessary to Jearn a trade,' f is the testimony of the 

 Secretary of Indian Affairs in Canada — a sweeping gene- 

 ralisation, which is controverted by the condition of the 

 Abenakis in Maine, the settled tribes in Michigan, and 

 elsewhere. Particular tribes are more difficult to civilise 

 than others. The nomadic Montagnais, wanderers in a 

 mountainous and rocky wilderness, have acquired a 

 nature distinct from other Algonquin tribes whose hunt- 



* Appendix to Rep. of the Leg. Ass. Lower Canada, 1824. 

 t E\ddence of the Secretaiy of Indian Affairs, respecting the Iroquois or 

 Mohawks of Caughnawaga. 



