Commodore
Perry on Lake Eric, in 1813. The next eldest is engaged in commerce. The
eldest daughter was educated in Ireland, and the two next at Sandwich,
near Detroit. These constituted the adults; there are two sons and a
daughter, still in their school-days. All possess agreeable, easy
manners and refinement. Mrs. Johnston is a woman of excellent judgment
and good sense; she is referred to on abstruse points of the Indian
ceremonies and usages, so that I have in fact stumbled, as it were, on
the only family in North West America who could, in Indian lore, have
acted as my "guide, philosopher and friend."
_30th_. I received yesterday a second visit from Ka-ta-wa-be-da, or the
Broken Tooth chief of Sandy Lake, on the Upper Mississippi, who is
generally known by his French name of Breshieu, and at the close of the
interview gave him a requisition on the commissary for some provisions
to enable him to return to his home. The Indians must be led by a very
plain path and a friendly hand. Feeling and preference are subsequent
manifestations. I took this occasion to state to him the objects and
policy of the government by the establishment at these falls of a post
and agency, placing it upon its true basis, namely, the preservation of
peace upon the frontiers, and the due observance, by all parties, of the
laws respecting trade and intercourse with the tribes, and securing
justice both to them and to our citizens, particularly by the act for
the exclusion of ardent spirits from the Indian country. By the agency,
a door was opened through which they could communicate their wishes to
the President, and he was also enabled to state his mind to them. All
who opened their ears truly to the voice of their American father would
be included among the recipients of his favors. He felt kindly to all,
but those only who hearkened to his council would be allowed, as _he_
had been, to share in the usual privileges which the agency at this
place secured to them. Having drawn his provisions, and duly reflected
on what was said by me, he returned to-day to bid me adieu, on his
setting out to go home, and to express his thanks for my kindness and
advice. The old chief, who has long exercised his sway in the region of
Sandy Lake, made a well-considered speech in reply to mine of yesterday,
in which he took the ground of neutrality as between the United States
and Great Britain, and averred that he had ever been the friend of the
white race an
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