In person the Chippewas are not remarkable; they are generally robust,
their complexion swarthy, their features broad, and their hair straight
and black, which is the case in most of the Indian tribes. But they have
not that piercing eye, which so generally animates the Indian
countenance.

The aspect of the women is more agreeable than that of the men; they wear
their hair of a great length, and pay much attention to its arrangement,
greasing it with considerable taste.

They appear to be more attentive to the comforts of dress, and less
anxious about its exterior than of their red brethren. Deer and fawn
skins, dressed with the hair on, so skilfully that they are perfectly
supple, compose their shirt or coat, which is girt round the waist with a
belt, and reaches half way down the thigh. Their moccasins and leggins are
generally sewn together, and the latter meet the belt to which they are
fastened. A ruff or tippet surrounds the neck, and the skin of the deer's
head is formed into a curious sort of cap.

A robe of several deer skins sewn together is throw over the whole; this
dress is sometimes worn single, but in winter it is always made double,
the hair forming both the lining and the outside.

Thus attired, a Chippewa will lay himself down on the snow and repose in
comfort; and if in his wanderings across the numerous lakes with which his
country abounds, he should fall short of provisions, he has only to cut a
hole in the ice, when he seldom fails of taking a blackfish, or a bass,
which he broils over his little wood fire with as much skill as a French
cook.

At the time of the French and Indian wars, the American army was encamped
on the Plains of Chippewa. Colonel St. Clair, the commander, was a brave
and meritorious officer, but his bravery sometimes amounted to rashness,
and his enemies have accused him of indiscretion. In the present instance
perhaps he may have merited the accusation, for the plain on which he had
encamped was bordered by a dense forest, from which the Indian scouts
could easily pick off his sentinels without in the least exposing
themselves to danger.

[Illustration: CHIPPEWA INDIANS FISHING ON THE ICE.]

Five nights had passed, and every night the sentinel, who stood at a
lonely out-post in the vicinity of the forest, had been shot; and these
repeated disasters struck such dread among the remaining soldiers, that no
one would come forward to offer to take the post, and the comman