120 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



women indulged in their ordinary dances. Although rum and Ma- 

 deira wine were supplied for the refreshment of the dancers, only one 

 of the young Indians drank to excess, and he was reprimanded by 

 Brant for so doing. 



Mr. Campbell writes in enthusiastic terms of the country on 

 the Grand River: the plains on the Indian reserve were extensive, 

 and so free of trees as not to require clearing; the soil was a rich and 

 deep clay mould; the river was a hundred yards broad and navigable 

 for large batteaux down to Lake Erie, a distance of sixty miles, except 

 for about two miles where there were shallows or rapids, through 

 which the boats had to be poled; there was an abundance of fish in 

 the water, such as sturgeon, pike, pickerel, and maskinonge, and plenty 

 of game in the woods. The habitations of the Indians were close to 

 the river on both sides, and a few whites who had married squaws, 

 or half-bloods, lived among them. Every year the government 

 distributed presents among the inhabitants — provisions, stores, 

 ammunition, tomahawks, saddles, bridles, blankets, and innumerable 

 trinkets. On his way back to Niagara, Mr. Campbell had an oppor- 

 tunity of visiting other settlements in the reservation for some miles 

 down the river. He noticed as he passed along that the villages of 

 the Indians and whites alternated, and discovered that the Indians 

 belonged to different nations — Mohawks, Cherokees, Tuscarawas, 

 and Mississauguas. Stopping at various houses along the way, 

 he remarked the large quantities of Indian corn suspended from the 

 rafters, whether merely for the sake of storage or as a means of pro- 

 tecting the supply from the destructive rodents of the woods and fields 

 he does not explain. Mr. Campbell and his companions had spent 

 two nights in Brant's village. They spent two more on the reserve 

 before returning to Niagara, one at the house of "Mr. Ellis" (probably 

 Hendrick Nelles) and the other with Mr. (Adam) Young, several 

 miles farther down the river bank, both of these men being white 

 settlers among the Indians. The travellers now turned to the north- 

 east, and made their exit from the Indian country through a long 

 stretch of forest "without settlements." 



The presence of at least some of the whites among their red 

 brethren had received the sanction of Chief Brant, whose policy 

 had been to sell or lease portions of the Indian land to them in order 

 to produce an income for his people. He also believed that husbandry 

 would be improved and some of the mechanic arts would be intro- 

 duced through the agency of the whites. This policy, however, had 

 called out objections on the part of the provincial government, especi- 

 ally after the survey of the reservation, which occupied the period 

 from the close of December, 1790, to the close of April, 1791. When 



