101 EXPEDITION TO THE 



selves, and if all these should be found to concur with the 

 observations recorded in the histories of the first travellers 

 in America, (who, whatever may have been their errors, 

 must be considered as having adhered more closely to truth 

 than is generally supposed,) then with all this circumstan- 

 tial evidence, strongly and uniformly bearing on one side 

 of the question, is it possible for thejnost skeptical to refuse 

 his belief to this fact, whatever may be the horrour which 

 attends it. We are far however from asserting, that this 

 practice has prevailed universally among the Indians ; the 

 evidences on the subject of the cannibalism of the Dacota 

 or Sioux Indians, (Naudowessies of Carver,) are too few and 

 too suspicious ; they are refuted by too many contradictory 

 facts to permit us to place any confidence in them; but the 

 case is otherwise with the Chippewas, the Miamis, the 

 Potawatomis, and all the other Indian nations which are 

 known to be of Algonquin origin. 



The motives which impel them to cannibalism are va- 

 rious : in some cases it is produced by a famine over the 

 country, and of this we shall be able to cite a number of 

 well attested instances, some of which carry with them 

 very horrible features, when we treat of the Chippewa 

 tribes west of Lake Superior. Another, and a more fre- 

 quent cause, is the desire of venting their rage upon a de- 

 feated enemy, or a belief that by so doing, they acquire a 

 charm that will make them irresistible. It is a common su- 

 perstition with them, that he that tastes of the body of a 

 brave man acquires a part of his valour, and that if he can 

 eat of his heart, which by them is considered as the seat of 

 all courage, the share of bravery which he derives from it is 

 still greater. It matters not whether the foe be a white man 

 or an Indian, provided he be an enemy, it is all that is re- 



