nd that,
in order to ascertain the original stock of any tribe or nation by
comparing languages, we must descend to the groundwork of the languages
and search, not so much for similarity of sound as for the arrangement
and essential and peculiar principles of the languages.

"A principle that prevails in the American languages, as far as my
information extends, is, that the verb, with its nominative and
objective cases, be inseparably connected. The Delaware, the Chippewa
(under whatever name), and the Cree, &c., make the change in person,
number, &c., by a change in the prefix or suffix. But the Mohawk and
Chippewyan [96] make the change, in some cases, in the middle of the word,
when the Chippewa and others always remain unchanged."

[Footnote 96: It must be remembered that the Chippewas and Chippewyans,
are diverse tribes. The two words are both Chippewa; but the tribes are
of different groups. The one is ALGONQUIN; the other ATHAPASCA. The
Mohawk belongs to a third group of languages, namely, the IROQUOIS.]

CHAPTER LXIX.

Popular error respecting the Indian character and history--Remarkable
superstition--Theodoric--A missionary choosing a wild flower--Piety
and money--A fiscal collapse in Michigan--Mission of Grand
Traverse--Simplicity of the school-girl's hopes--Singular theory of the
Indians respecting story-telling--Oldest allegory on record--Political
aspects--Seneca treaty--Mineralogy--Farming and mission station on
Lake Michigan.

1840. _Jan. 1st_. Having determined to pass another winter (some ten
weeks of which are past) at Mackinack, I have found my best and
pleasantest employment in my old resource, the investigation of the
Indian character and history. The subject is exhaustless in every branch
of inquiry, but the more it is turned over and sifted, the more cause
there is to see that there is error to be encountered at almost every
step. Travelers have been chiefly intent on the picturesque, and have
given themselves but little trouble to investigate. The historian has
had his mind full of prepossessions derived from ancient reading, and
has, generally, been seated three thousand miles across the water, where
the work of personal comparison was impossible. Left to the repose of
himself, mentally and physically, without being placed in the crucible
of war, without being made the tool of selfishness, or driven to a state
of half idiocy by the use of liquor, the Indian is a man of naturally
good f