278 APPENDIX. 



found the village at Lake Chetac, which in 1824 was 217 strong, 

 almost totally deserted, and the trading-house burnt. Scattering 

 Indians were found along the river. The mutual fear of interrup- 

 tion was such that Mr. B. Cadotte, sen., the trader at Ottowa 

 Lake, thought it advisable to follow in our train for the purpose 

 of collecting his credits at Rice Lake. 



While at breakfast on the banks of Sapin Lake, a returning war- 

 party entered the opposite side of it: they were evidently surprised, 

 and they stopped. After reconnoitring us, they were encouraged 

 to advance, at first warily, and afterward with confidence. There 

 were eight canoes, with two men in each ; each man had a gun, 

 war-club, knife, and ammunition bag : there was nothing else ex- 

 cept the apparatus for managing the canoe. They were all young 

 men, and belonged to the vicinity of Ottowa Lake. Their unex- 

 pected appearance at this place gave me the first information that 

 the war-party at Neenaba had been broken up. They reported 

 that some of their number had been near the mill, and that they 

 had discovered signs of the Sioux being out in the moose having 

 been driven up, &c. In a short conference, I recited to them the 

 purpose of the council at Ottowa Lake, and referred them to their 

 chiefs for particulars, enjoining their acquiescence in the proposed 

 measures. 



I found at Rice Lake a band of Chippewas, most of them young 

 men, having a prompt and martial air, encamped in a very com- 

 pact form, and prepared, at a moment's notice, for action. They 

 saluted our advance with a smartness and precision of firing that 

 would have done honour to drilled troops. Neenaba was absent 

 on a hunting-party; but one of the elder men pointed out a suitable 

 place for my encampment, as I intended here to put new bottoms 

 to my bark canoes. He arrived in the evening, and visited my 

 camp with forty-two men. This visit was one of ceremony 

 merely ; as it was late, I deferred any thing further until the fol- 

 lowing day. I remained at this place part of the 7th, the 8th, 

 and until 3 o'clock on the 9th of August. And the following facts 

 present the result of several conferences with this distinguished 

 young man, whose influence is entirely of his own creation, and 

 whose endowments, personal and mental, had not been misrepre- 

 sented by the Indians on my route, who uniformly spoke of him 



