DIFFICULTY OF IMPROVEMENT. 129 



to do so if he could obtain tools, seed wheat 

 and potatoes to plant. Though it is the char- 

 acter of the savage to tell you what he will do 

 in future at your suggestion, to prevent the 

 calamity which he may be suffering from want 

 of food or the inclemency of the weather, and as 

 soon as the season becomes mild, and the rivers 

 yield him fish, or the woods and plains provi- 

 sions, to forget all his sufferings, and to be as 

 thoughtless and improvident as ever as to 

 futurity ; yet, I think that a successful attempt 

 might be made by a proper superintendance, 

 and a due encouragement to induce some of 

 the Indians of this quarter to settle in villages, 

 and to cultivate the soil. The voice of hu 

 manity claims this attention to them, under 

 their almost incredible privations at times : but 

 prejudices may exist in the country which pre- 

 vent this desirable object being carried into 

 effect. There was a time when the Indians 

 themselves had begun to collect into a kind of 

 village towards the mouth of the Red River, 

 had cultivated spots of ground, and had even 

 erected something of a lodge for the purpose 

 of performing some of their unmeaning cere- 

 monies of ignorance and heathenism, and to 

 which the Indians of all the surrounding 

 country were accustomed at certain seasons to 



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