OF THE RED INDIAN RACE. 441 



the census of 1871 is noticeable for its statement on tlie special 

 statistics of the mixed race, that of Half-breeds there are only two in 

 Ontario, and not one in Quebec or either of the Maritime Provinces : 

 so little does the curioiis element of ethnical transfomiation going on 

 in our midst attract the attention of ordinary observers. 



That the Indian population, gathered on their own reserved lands 

 under the care of Government superintendents, is not diminishing in 

 numbers, appears to be universally admitted. But as, at the same 

 time, the pure race is being largely replaced by younger generations of 

 mixed blood, the results cannot be looked upon as encouraging the 

 hope of pei-petuating the native race under such exceptional condi- 

 tions ; nor can it be overlooked that the increase is partly begot by 

 the addition of a foreign element. At best the results point rather 

 to such a process of absorption as appears to be the inevitable result 

 wherever a race, alike inferior in numbers and in progressive energy, 

 escapes extirpation at the hands of the intruders. 



In the boyhood of the older generation of Toronto, hundreds of 

 Indians, including those of the old Mississaga tribe, were to be seen 

 about the streets. Now, at rare intervals, two or three squaws, in 

 round hats, blue blankets, and Indian leggings, attract attention less 

 by their features than their dress : for in complexion they are nearly 

 as white as those of pure European descent. The same is the case 

 on all the oldest Indian reserves. The Hurons of Lorette, whose 

 forefathers were brought to Lower Canada after the massacre of their 

 nation by the Iroquois in 1649, are reported to have considerably 

 increased in mimbers in the interval between 1844 and the last 

 censiis. But while the Commissioners refer to them as a "band of 

 Indians "the most advanced in civilization in the whole of Canada," 

 they add that " they have, by the intermixture of white blood, so far 

 lost the original purity of race as scarcely to be considered as Indians." 

 In their case this admixture with the European race has been pro- 

 tracted through a period of upwards of two centuries, till they have 

 lost their Indian language, and substituted for it a French patois. 

 Were it not for their hereditary right to a share in certain Indian 

 funds, which furnishes an inducement to perpetuate their descent 

 from the Huron nation, they would long since have merged in the 

 common stock. Yet the results, would not thereby have been 

 eradicated, but only lost sight of. Their baptismal registers and 

 genealogical traditions supply the record of a practical, though 



