Part 18 (2/2)

The period at which these events are said to have occurred was some sixty or eighty years ago, according to the imperfect chronology of my informant. At first, I hesitated to believe that such horrible deeds as those recorded could have taken place almost within the memory of men.

My Indian narrator replied--”Indians, no Christians in those days, do worse than that very few years ago,--do as bad now in far-west.”

The conversion of the Rice Lake Indians, and the gathering them together in villages, took place, I think, in the year 1825, or thereabouts.

The conversion was effected by the preaching of missionaries from the Wesleyan Methodist Church; the village was under the patronage of Captain Anderson, whose descendants inherit much land on the north sh.o.r.e on and about Anderson's Point, the renowned site of the great battle.

The war-weapon and bones of the enemies the Ojebwas are still to be found in this vicinity.

APPENDIX H.

Page 232.--_”This place she called Spooke Island”_

Spooke Island. A singular and barren island in the Rice Lake, seventh from the head of the lake, on which the Indians used formerly to bury their dead, for many years held as a sacred spot, and only approached with reverence. Now famous for two things, _picnics_ and _poison ivy, rhus toxicodendron,_--many persons having suffered for their temerity in landing upon it and making it the scene of their rural festivities.

APPENDIX I.

Page 253.--_”and nothing but fire.”_

The Indians call the Rice Lake, in allusion to the rapidity with which fires run over the dry herbage, the Lake of the Burning Plains.

Certainly, there is much poetical fitness and beauty in many of the Indian names, approximating very closely to the figurative imagery of the language of the East; such is ”Mad-wa-osh,” the music of the winds.

APPENDIX K.

Page 272.--_”but it was not so in the days whereof I have spoken.”_

_From George Copway's Life._

Converted Indians are thus described in the ”Life” of their literary countryman, George Copway:--

_Chippewas of the River Credit._--These Indians are the remnant of a tribe which formerly possessed a considerable portion of the Elome and Gore Districts, of which, in 1818, they surrendered the greater part for an annuity of 532_l._ 10_s._ reserving only certain small tracts at the River Credit; and at sixteen and twelve miles creeks they were the first tribe converted to Christianity. Previous to the year 1823 they were wandering pagans. In that year Peter Jones, and John his brother, the sons of a white by a Mississaga woman, having been converted to Christianity, and admitted as members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, became anxious to redeem their countrymen from their degraded state of heathenism and spiritual dest.i.tution. They collected a considerable number together, and by rote and frequent repet.i.tions, taught the first principles of Christianity to such as were too old to learn to read, and with the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and Commandments, were thus committed to memory. As soon as the tribes were converted they perceived the evils attendant on their former state of ignorance and vagrancy. They began to work, which they had never done before; they recognised the advantage of cultivating the soil; they gave up drinking, to which they had been greatly addicted, and became sober, consistent, industrious Christians.

J. Sawyer, P. Jones, Chiefs; J. Jones, War-chief.

The _Chippewas of Alnwick_ were converted in 1826-7 They were wandering pagans, in the neighbourhood of Belleville, Kingston, and Gannoyne, commonly known as Mississagas of the Bay of Quinte; they resided on Grape Island, in the Bay of Quinte, six miles from Belleville.

They resided eleven years on the island, subsisting by hunting and agriculture. Their houses were erected partly by their own labour and by the Wesleyan Missionary funds; these consist of twenty-three houses, a commodious chapel and school, an infant school, hospital, smithy, shoemaker's shop and joiner's. There are upwards of 300 of these Indians.

The chiefs are--Sunday; Simpson; G. Corrego, chief and missionary interpreter.

_Rice Lake Chippewas_.--In 1818 the greater part of the Newcastle and Colburn districts were surrendered, for an annuity of 940_l_. These Indians have all been reclaimed from their wandering life, and settled in their present locations, within the last ten or twelve years.

_[FN: I think G. Copway is incorrect as to the date of the settling of the village, as it was pointed out to me in 1832. Note,--In the year 1822 the larger part of the Indian village on Anderson's Point was built and cultivated.]_ The settlement is on the north side of the lake, twelve miles from Peterborough. Number of Indians, 114; possessing 1,550 acres, subdivided in 50-acre lots.

Chiefs--Pondash, Copway, Crow.

Deer were plenty a few years ago, but now only few can be found. The Ojebwas are at present employed in farming instead of hunting; many of them have good and well-cultivated farms; they not only raise grain, enough, for their own use, but often sell much to the whites.

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