INDIANS WHO INHABITED TORONTO 
this name because here the Indians obtained goods 
“on credit ” from the whites) not far from Toronto, 
whence they moved in 1847. They have been largely 
successful in the assimilation of the culture of the 
whites and now compete with them in several ways on 
an equal basis. The Mississagas are practically all 
Christians, having been converted before the middle 
of the nineteenth century through the efforts of the 
Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, aided by 
Rev. Peter Jones, a half-blood Mississaga, chief and 
historian of his people, who translated in 1835 The 
First Book of Moses called Genesis into “ the idiom 
of the Mississaga form of the Chippewa,” as School- 
craft phrased it. 
In language, customs, habits, religious practices, 
ete., the Mississagas did not differ seriously from the 
Ojibwa or Chippewa,—Peter Jones described him- 
self, e.g., as belonging to “ the Messissauga or Eagle 
tribe of the Ojebway Nation,” this bird serving as 
the “totem” or ensign of his people. The Missis- 
sagas buried their dead in the ground and blackened 
their faces as a sign of mourning. They had the 
custom of keeping alive the memory of the dead by 
conferring his name on some one else or adopting 
some one of the same name,—a number of white men 
and women have been named for this purpose by 
them, from Dr. Ryerson, in 1826 by the Indians of 
the Credit, to the writer of these lines, in 1888 by 
those of Secugog. The Mississagas were a fishing and 
hunting people; the mouth of the River Credit was 
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