594 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [bth. ass. a 



ignorant white and the savage, we feel bound to award preference 

 to the latter. In all their conversation, manners, government of 

 families, general deportment, bargaining, and ordinary occupations 

 they exhibit a manliness, shrewdness, earnestness, and ability far 

 superior to the mass of illiterate Europeans. Even their supersti- 

 tions and religion present a connected, grand chain of thought, 

 having for its conclusion the existence of a Supreme Power, much 

 more satisfactory and sublime in the aggregate than the mixture of 

 bigotry, infidelity, enthusiasm, and profanity observed in the actions 

 and language of the lower class of Christians. An excellent oppor- 

 tunity offers in this country to draw a comparison between the In- 

 dians and the engagees of the Fur Company, and what can never 

 fail to strike the mind of the observer is the superior manliness and 

 energy of the Indian in thought, word, and action, as evinced in 

 their patience, contempt of death and danger, reverses of fortune, in 

 their affection for their children, government of their families, their 

 freedom from petty vexations, and useless bursts of impotent passion. 



The Indian reverences his unknown God in his way. Though the 

 principle be fear and the object Creation, it leads to reliance and 

 resignation when his own resources fail, whereas the whites spoken 

 of vent their displeasure for most trifling grievances and accidents in 

 eternal curses on the Great Disposer, the Virgin Mary, and all other 

 holy persons and objects they deem worthy of their execration. 

 These Indians are capable of pursuing a logical train of reasoning 

 to a just conclusion. If the subject be one with which by experience 

 they have become acquainted, they can argue it point by point with 

 any person. Even the Assiniboin, who are the most ignorant of all 

 these tribes, can pursue a satisfactory mode of conversation. Clear 

 sightedness is more observable in matters touching their own per- 

 sonal or national welfare, the utility and expedience of war or peace, 

 camp regulations, or the advantage of trade. Not many years since 

 the Cree and Assiniboin combined against the Hudson Bay Co. at 

 Red River for the purpose of forcing that powerful house into more 

 reasonable prices for goods and a less distressful policy of trade or 

 to abandon the country. 



The case was as follows : It was then and still is in a measure the 

 custom of that company to make credits to those Indians in the fall 

 for nearly the entire amount of their winter hunts, taking advantage 

 of their necessities in putting exorbitant prices on the supplies thus 

 advanced, so that when an Indian came to pay he found himself 

 with nothing left to clothe his family or meet his wants; in fact, 

 as poor as before, and consequently obliged to contract other debts 

 on the ensuing year, being in this way kept always poor, more espe- 

 cially so if by some accident his hunt should fail. 



