196 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



traders used craft of this kind to ascend the rivers in 

 search of their Indian customers. The latter transferred 

 the name of the boat to its crew, and called them Yankis, 

 or Yankees, just as Londoners speak of bargees. All 

 Indians invariably speak of the English as Ingleese. 

 There is no y in the Red Man's languages — not in any 

 of them that I have ever heard. If they use the sylla- 

 bles ya, ye, yi, yo or yii, or any similar, you may be 

 sure that the words in which they occur are of foreign 

 origin, not the pure language of the Indian. He would 

 not therefore use a 3/ in an attempt to pronounce the 

 word "English." The Dutch word "yanki" is, I believe, now 

 obsolete. It is used by many old writers. Its latest use 

 by an English writer, so far as I have been able to dis- 

 cover, occurs in a little-known novel by Tobias Smollett, 

 " The Modern Don Quixote." 



Whence the Yankee inherited one of his most pro- 

 minent characteristics, his excitability, it is difficult to 

 imagine. He certainly did not derive it from his 

 English ancestors. There is a great deal of French 

 blood in the land, but not enough to account for the 

 almost mad restlessness of the Yankee who can trace 

 his ancestry, as a citizen, back for three or four or more 

 generations. There is as much Dutch and German 

 stock in the country as French ; and it would seem that 

 a great mixture of races is accountable for the peculiarity. 

 Be it as it may, it is certain there is not so much that 

 is purely English left in the American character as is 

 generally supposed on this side of the herring-pond ; and 

 though I expect to raise a hornet's-nest by saying it, I 

 have satisfied myself that there are very few American 

 families who can trace their descent from a purely 

 English source. 



There are not a more restless and hasty people on 

 earth than the Americans. I soon got at loggerheads with 

 them on the point of " grubbing," to put it straight, I 

 decline to shovel the food into my stomach like coals into a 



