26 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA : 
Little Algonquins, near Trois Rivieres; one of 
the Aberachies, near Trois Rivieres, at the op¬ 
posite side of the river ; and one of the Ku- 
ronsj near Quebec ; but none of these villages 
are as large as that of the Cachenonagas. The 
numbers .of the Indians in the lower province 
have diminished very fast of late years,, as they 
have done in every other part of the continent, 
where those of the white inhabitants have in¬ 
creased ; in the whole lower province, at pre¬ 
sent, it is thought that there are not more than 
twelve hundred of them. Many of these In¬ 
dians are continually loitering about the large 
towns, in expectation of getting spirits or bread, 
which they are extremely fond of, from the 
inhabitants. No less than two hundred, that 
had come a great distance in canoes, from the 
lower parts of the River St. Lawrence, were 
encamped on Point Levi when we visited 
Quebec. These Indians, squalid and filthy in 
the extreme, and going about the streets every 
day in large parties, begging, presented a most 
melancholy picture of human nature; and in¬ 
deed, if a traveller never saw any^ of the North 
American Indians, but the most decent of 
those who are in the habit of frequenting the 
large towns of Lower Canada, he would not be 
led to entertain an opinion greatly in their fa¬ 
vour. The farther you ascend up the coun¬ 
try, and consequently the nearer you see th$ 
