874 APPENDIX. 



Notes. 



(B.) 



Among tlie numerous superstitions whicli the Indian tribes 

 entertain, that respecting mines is not the least remarkable. They 

 are firmly impressed with a belief that any information commu- 

 nicated to the whites, disclosing the position of mines or metallic 

 treasures situated upon their grounds, is displeasing to their 

 manitos, and even to the Great Spirit himself, from whom they 

 l^rofess to derive every good and valuable gift; and that this 

 offence never fails to be visited upon them in the loss of property, 

 in the want of success in their customary pursuits or pastimes, 

 in untimely death, or some other singular disaster or untoward 

 event. This opinion, although certainly not a strange one to be 

 cherished by a barbarous people, is, nevertheless, believed to have 

 had its origin in the transactions of an era which is not only very 

 well defined, but must ever remain conspicuous in the history of 

 the discovery and settlement of America. It is very well known 

 that the precious metals were the principal objects which led the 

 Spanish invaders to penetrate into the interior of Mexico and 

 Peru, and ultimately to devastate and conquer the country, to 

 plunder and destroy its temples, and to tax and enslave its ill- 

 fated inhabitants. It is equally certain that, to escape these scenes 

 of cruelty and oppression, many tribes and fragments of tribes, 

 when further resistance became hopeless, fled towards the north, 

 preferring the enjoyment of liberty and tranquillity upon the chilly 

 borders of the northern lakes, to the pains of servitude in the 

 mild and delightful valleys of Mexico, and the golden plains of 

 the Incas. In this way, many tribes who originally migrated 

 from the north, along the Pacific Ocean, to the Gulf of California, 

 and thence over all New Spain, were returned towards the north 

 over the plains of Texas and the valley of the Mississippi ; those 

 tribes nearest the scenes of the greatest atrocities always pressing 

 upon the remoter and less civilized, who, in turn, pressed upon 

 the nations less enlightened than themselves, and finally drove 

 them into the unfrequented forests of the north. Among these 

 terrified tribes, the traditions of the Ojibwais afl&rm that their 

 ancestors came, and that they originally dwelt in a country des- 



