VI 
PREFACE. 
remained some time, and whose habits I had a good 
opportunity to study. I have also incidentally spoken 
of the tribes through whose countries I passed, without 
entering into any detail. This subject is so extensive, 
and requires so much study, that it can be done justice 
to only by being treated as a whole. I was so fortunate 
as to obtain vocabularies of more than twenty aborigi- 
nal languages, many of which had never been taken 
down before, and none so fully, as by me. These valu- 
able testimonials of the now fast disappearing red race 
who preceded us in the possession of our country, I 
consider among the most important of my collections, 
and as such, I believe they will be esteemed by the 
learned. They each embrace two hundred words, and, 
with but two or three exceptions, were all taken down 
by myself, with great care, and according to one system. 
My further ethnological collections embrace por- 
traits of many of these tribes, both male and female, 
showing the characteristic features of each. Sketches 
were also taken which exhibit their manners and cus- 
toms, their arts, husbandry, etc. It is my desire to 
prepare a report on the ethnology of the Indian tribes 
of the extensive region explored by the Boundary 
Commission, should the government feel sufficient 
interest in the subject to authorize it. Without the 
aid of government, I shall be compelled to limit my- 
self to a brief memoir, embracing merely my philologi- 
cal collections. 
