314 Notice of the Peninsula of Michigan. 
of corn, in exchange for furs, skins, sugar, and honey. They 
frequently after harvest part with the corn not immediately 
wanted, which they are subsequently compelled to repurchase 
at an extravagant advance. They manufacture considerable 
maple sugar for sale, using little themselves. ‘The sugar is 
of good colour and grain, but sometimes has a taste derived, 
from a characteristic practice of cooking fish in boiling sap. 
Some have cattle, and many have horses of a small breed. 
They exhibit little evidence of religious impressions. The 
idolatrous worship of an image elevated on a pole, is said to 
be practised on the Saganaw. Large mounds, and stone 
dams, the result of much Indian toil, are seen in the route to 
Chicago. 
During my visit to Detroit, there was a considerable body 
of Indians assembled in that city, to receive their annuities. 
Several of the chiefs and their wives were well dressed, and 
wore ornaments of silver. Among the chiefs, Kiskaco, a no- 
ted warrior, and man of blood in peace and war, was conspi- 
cuous for height, muscular frame, and magnitude of head. 
He is by birth a Huron, but was early in life adopted by tribes 
near tie Saganaw, over whom he acquired an ascendancy, 
by stzength, courage, and address, usurping the place of a 
chief ci mild, and very intelligent aspect, who at the council 
held with ihe agents of the United States at Detroit, was cho- 
sen orator. ‘The debates were conducted with much deco- 
rum. Several of the chiefs spoke with fluency and good sense. 
Indian groups of all ranks and ages, males and females, were 
daily seated, or reclining on the ground, in the streets of 
Detroit. 
In the afternoon a part daily retired in bark canoes paddled 
by females, to their encamping ground, near the river Detroit. 
In these frail barks they had crossed Lake Huron and St. 
Clair, and navigated three hundred miles. 
On the eastern or Canadian side of the Detroit, there is a 
remnant of the aborigines, occupying a reservation, who are 
much superior in character to the Indians of Michigan. Some 
of them cultivate the ground with skill ; have orchards, good 
frame houses, good furniture, and live in the style of wealthy 
farmers. 
‘The white population of the territorial government, which 
extends to theriver Mississippi, is estimated at rising of 25,000. 
Of these about twenty-three thousand are located in the Pe- 
ninsula of Michigan and the isle of Mackinac. The inhabit- 
La 
