INDIANS. 



243 



numerous, and are fast diminishing in numbers, 

 as they wander, like those of New Brunswick, 

 in extreme wretchedness, and detached parties, 

 throughout the Province. Many of them are 

 found along the Annapolis River, who encamp 

 at the entrance of the bay, for the purpose of 

 shooting porpoises, during the season in sum- 

 mer. They are very expert in killing this ani- 

 mal, as it rises upon the water, which is a great 

 source of amusement as well as of profit. It 

 supplies them with food, and were they not 

 altogether regardless of to-morrow, the oil 

 which they obtain in boiling the fish, might be 

 the means of furnishing them with many neces- 

 saries in barter, for the winter. I reached the 

 camp soon after this season was over, and the 

 Indians had returned from a successful excur- 

 sion, in hunting the moose-deer in the neigh- 

 bouring woods. Their chief, Adelah, is a person 

 of very sober habits, and naturally of a pene- 

 trating, sagacious mind. He had visited Eng- 

 land, and expressed much regret that he did 

 not see his great father, with the four Canadian 

 chiefs, who were in London, and introduced to 

 the king, in the spring of 1825. 



The conscious independence of an Indian, 

 will sometimes lead him to speak of monarchs 

 as his equal : and though he acknowledges, 



R 2 



