eelings and affections, and of a sense of justice, and, although
destitute of an inductive mind, is led to appreciate truth and virtue as
he apprehends them. But he is subject to be swayed by every breath of
opinion, has little fixity of purpose, and, from a defect of business
capacity, is often led to pursue just those means which are least
calculated to advance his permanent interests, and his mind is driven to
and fro like a feather in the winds. _This_ man, and _that_ man, are
continually bringing up Indians to speak for some selfish object, which,
being a little out of sight, he does not perceive in its true light, but
which he nevertheless is soon made to comprehend, if a public agent
sets it plainly before him. But there is a perpetual watch necessary to
protect him from deception, and this necessity becomes stringent in the
exact proportion that a tribe has _funds_ or _treaty rights_ of any
kind. If these attempts to make the Indian a stalking-horse for masked
or misstated objects be independently met, and with just sentiments of
dissent, the agent of the government is liable to calumniation, and it
becomes the policy of unscrupulous men to get their affairs placed in
hands having less well-defined notions of moral right, or more easily
swayed in their opinions.

_7th_. The season of New-year has been as usual a holiday, that is to
say, a time of hilarity and good wishes, with the Indians in this
vicinity, numbers of which have visited the office.

_20th_. Some of the superstitions of the Indians are explicable only on
the ground of their belief in magic. An old blind man of Grand Traverse
Bay, called Ogimauwish (literally bad chief), referring to the early
period of the visits of Europeans to the continent, related the
following:--

When the whites first came to this country, wars and atrocious cruelties
existed between the new race of men and the Indians. When this animosity
began to abate, a treaty was held, which was attended by the Indians far
and wide. They were told by an interpreter, one of the white men who had
already learned their language, that the Indian tribes appeared, in the
eyes of white men, while in action, like the beasts of the forests and
the birds of prey, changing from one form to the other, and that the
bullets of the foreigners had no effect on them. The reason for this
exemption from harm was this:--

In those times the Indians made use of the Pazhikewash, or buffalo-weed,
which is