20 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



It is interesting to observe the dawning of the gospel at a spot, 

 which has been long noted as the scene of Indian trade, and 

 the rallying point of Indian war parties. It is at this place, the 

 Chegoimegon of early writers, that tradition places the ancient 

 council fire of the Chippewa nation. And here resided the pre- 

 siding chief, called Mudjikiwis, or Waishki, who exercised the 

 sovereign power over a rude confederation of local tribes, whose 

 dissolution, or separation into independent fragments, may be 

 traced to the right of each chieftain of declaring a negative to 

 any decision, and silently withdrawing his aid, for the time be- 

 ing. Personal influence and authority may be supposed to have 

 counteracted this defect, while the tribe was small, as tradition 

 represents it to have been when it first migrated from the east, 

 to this lake ; but its increase and spread over the adjacent coun- 

 try, would naturally destroy so feeble a tie of political power, 

 and must soon have left each local band as it now remains, in- 

 dependent and sovereign in its acts. Yet the voice of tradition 

 refers to this era of the reign of the Mudjikiwis as one of 

 comparative splendor. Although republican in all that is left of 

 their institutions, the succession of the Mudjikiwis is said to have 

 been hereditary among the Chippewas, and the descendants of 

 this magistrate, who yet exist at Chegoimegon, evince a pride 

 of ancestry which we should only look for, among feudal or des- 

 potic nations. The last person who may be said to have exercised 

 this office was Mongazid, (or Mamongazida.) who was in high fa- 

 vor with the French. He is represented to have visited Quebec 

 in the time of Montcalm, and to have been an actor in the final 

 battle in which:that distinguished commander fell. His son Wah- 

 bojeeg, or the White Fisher, succeeded him as the ruling chieftain 

 of the band, and eminently distinguished himself as a war leader. 

 He died in 1793, after having been greatly instrumental in dri- 

 ving his cousins-german, the Foxes, from the Chippewa country. 

 The present chieftain, Chi Waishki, alias Pizhickee, or the Buf- 

 falo, is the representative of this line. He said to the Indian 

 •tt-gent, who, by direction of the commissioners at the treaty of 



