A M ERIC A. 
having their canoes ready, they all embarked, and reach¬ 
ed the Ihoals before-mentioned, except one poor old man, 
who, being too attentive in tying up his things, had not 
time to reach his canoe, but fell a facrifice to their fury. 
After the Indians had plundered thefe tents of what they 
thought worth their notice, they threw their tent-poles 
into the river, broke their done-kettles, and did all they 
could to didrefs the poor furvivors. We found an aged 
woman at a fmall didance up the river, fnaringof falmon, 
whom they butchered in the fame manner, every man 
having a thruft at her with his fpear.” 
The other extraft is as foliows : “ This day, January 
the nth, 1772, as the Indians were hunting, fome of them 
law a flrange fnow-fhoe track, which they followed, and at 
a conliderable diltance came to a little hut, where they 
found a young woman fitting alone. They brought her 
to the tents, and or. examining her found that die was one 
Of the weftern dog-ribbed Indians, and had been taken 
prifoner by the Arathapefcow Indians, in the fummer of 
1 770 ; and when the Indians, who took her prifoner, were 
near this place in 1771, fhe eloped from them, with an 
intent to return to her own country. But it being fo far 
off, and when (he was taken prifoner having come all the 
way in canoes, with the windings of rivers and lakes, (lie 
had forgot the way, and had been in this little hut ever 
lince the beginning of fall. By her account of the moons 
paffed fince her elopement, it appears to have been the 
middle of lad July when fhe left the Arathapefcow In¬ 
dians, and flie had not feen a human face lince. She had 
fupported herfelf by fnaring rabbits, partridges, and 
fquirrels, and was now in good health, and I think as fine 
a woman, of a real Indian, as I have feen in any part of 
North America. She had nothing to make fnares of but 
the finews of rabbits legs and feet, which (lie twidea to¬ 
gether for that purpofe; and of the rabbits-fkins had 
made a neat and warm winter’s clothing. The flock of 
materials (lie took with her when fhe eloped, confided of 
about five incites of an iron hoop fora knife, a done deel, 
and other hard dones for flints, together with fire-tackle, 
as tinder, &c. about an inch and an half of the fhank of 
the fhoeing of an arrow, of iron, of which fhe made an 
awl. She had not been long at the tents, before half a 
fcore of men wreflled to fee who fhould have her for a 
wife. She fays, that when the Arathapefcow Indians 
took her prifoner they dole upon the tents in the night, 
when all the inhabitants were afleep, and murdered every 
foul except herfelf and three other young women. Her 
father, mother, and hitfband, were in the fame tent with 
her, and they were all killed. Her child, of about five 
months old, die took with her, wrapt in a bundle of her 
own clothing, undifeovered, in the night. But when die 
arrived at the place where the Arathapefcows had left 
their wives, which was not far off, it being then day-break, 
thefe Indian women immediately began to examine her 
bundle, and, having there found the child, took it from 
her and killed it immediately. The relation of this Block¬ 
ing feene only ferv-ed the favages of my gang for laugh¬ 
ter. Her country is fo far to the weftward, that fhe fays 
fhe never faw any iron or other metal till (lie was taken 
■prifoner; thofe of her tribe making their hatchets and 
■chiffels of deer’s horns, and knives of done and bone ; 
their arrows are fliod with a kind of (late, bone, and deer’s 
horns, and their indruments to make their wood-work are 
•nothing but beaver’s teeth. They have frequently heard 
■of the ufeful materials that the nations to the ead of them 
are fupplied with from the Englifh, but inffead of draw¬ 
ing nearer to be in the way of trading for iron-work, &c. 
are obliged to remove farther back to avoid the Aratha¬ 
pefcow Indians, as they make furprifing (laughter among 
them every year, both winter and fummer.” 
The Efquimaux, according to Mr. Pennant, aredidin- 
guidied from the tribps fouth -of them, chiefly by their 
drefs, their canoes, and their indruments of chace. He 
divides them into two varieties. About Prince William’s 
427 
Sound they are of the larged fize. As we advance north¬ 
ward they decreafe in height, till they dwindle into the 
-•chvarfifli tribes, which occupy Come of the coads of the 
Icy fea, and the maritime parts of Hudfon’s Bay, of 
Greenland, and Labrador. Their dwarfiflinefs is doubt- 
lefs occafioned by the fcantinefs of their provifions, and 
the feverity of their climate. Beyond the 67th degree of 
north latitude, according to Capt. Ellis’s account, tiiere 
are no inhabitants. The Arctic countries in America, 
Afia, and Greenland, if inhabited at all, have very few 
inhabitants; and thole are of a dwarfifh kind, fcattered 
on the banks of rivers, lakes, and feas, and fublid rnife- 
rably upon fifli, and the flefh of the animals which inha¬ 
bit thofe frozen regions, with the (kins of which they clothe 
themfelves. 
Mr. Crantz gives it as his opinion, that the Efquimaux 
came originally from the north-ead regions of Great Tar¬ 
tary, between the Icy fea and Mungalia; becanfe he ob- 
ferves a greater affinity between them and the Calmucs, 
Tungufes, and Kam'kadales, who inhabit thofe regions, 
than between them and the Laplanders, the Sair.oiedes, 
and Odiaeks, who inhabit the north-wed parts of Europe, 
whence, it has generally been conjectured, the Efquimaux 
migrated. It is his opinion alfo, that Greenland was fet¬ 
tled in the 14th century, from the north-eadern parts oi 
America; for, till that period, Greenland appears not to 
have had any inhabitants. The route which the fird mi¬ 
grants took, he fttppofes was fird into Tartary, after the 
difperfion of the nations, thence into Kamtfchatka, thence 
acrofs the drait which feparates the two continents, whence 
they fpread themfelves unmoleded, into the then uninha¬ 
bited country round Hudfon’s Bay, and down as far fouth 
as Canada ; and here they were found in the nth century 
by the Norwegians, in their Wineland. Afterwards thefe 
more foutherly regions were conquered by the more nu¬ 
merous and powerful tribes fouth of the lakes, and the 
Efquimaux were forced to retire as far north as the 60th 
degree of north latitude. Here Capt. Eilis found the 
Efquimaux in his voyage to Hudfon’s Bay, and dilco- 
vered that they had the fame afpeft, drefs, boats, hunting 
arid (idling implements, habitations, manners, and ufages, 
as the Greenlanders. They are often purfued and hunted 
by the other Indians, who live about the fouth and wed 
diores of Hiuifon’s Bay, and who appear to be quite a 
different people. 
The newly-difeovered American Indians about Nootka 
Sound difguife themfelves.after the manner of the ancient 
Scythians, in dreffes made of the (kins of wolves and 
other wild beads, and even wear the heads fitted to their 
own. Thefe habits they ufe in the chafe to circumvent 
the animals of the field. 
Concerning the religion of the Indians much has been 
faid, and much that has no foundation. In general it may 
be faid, that they all have an idea of a Supreme Being, 
whom they wordiip under different names, and with .a 
great variety of fuperditious rites and ceremonies. Some, 
particularly the nations of the Algonquin language, call 
their Supreme God, the Great Hare-, fome Michabou, and 
others Atakocan. The Being oppofed to t\\\$firjljpirit, 
whom they confidered as the creator and governor of the 
world, they dyle the Great Tyger. The name of the Hu¬ 
ron s’ fupreme god, or more properly their god of war, is 
Arejkoui-, of the Iroquois, AgrrjkoiiJ'e ; but mod of the 
nations fouth of the lakes, as far as Louifiana, denominate 
their fupreme god, tiie Great, the Good, or the Grand , Spi¬ 
rit, to whom they aferibe a kind of omniprefence, and 
whom they invoke as their guardian. To their evil genii 
they never addrefs themfelves, except to entreat them not 
to do them any injury; and to appeafe their wrath they 
often facrifice to them. Mr. Kirkland mentions a final! 
lake, which he vifited, fituatedat the foot of a precipice, 
nearly dfty feet perpendicular height, in the territory of 
the Six Nations, in which, the old Indians affirm, redded 
formerly a demon in the diape of a dragon, and that - he 
