uitless search, and with
this attempt ends all efforts that have been made to open a
communication with the Red Indians.

And now what opinion may be reasonably formed after a careful
consideration of all the foregoing facts? Shall it be concluded as
many, nay, as most people have done, that the Red Indians are wholly
extinct? The mind is slow to entertain so painful a conclusion, and
more especially as there is some reason to hope that the tribe, to
some extent at least, yet survives.

If indeed Shaw-na-dith-it's statement is to be taken as of
unquestionable authority, and is not to be subjected to any scrutiny,
then indeed but slight hopes can be entertained of the existence of
any of her race; but if the information she supplied be compared with
that conveyed to us through various other sources, then a very
different conclusion may be most legitimately reached.

And first let Shaw-na-dith-it's recital of the circumstances connected
with Captain Buchan's visit to the Great Lake in the winter of 1810
and 1811 be contrasted with that gentleman's own statement of the same
facts.

Shaw-na-dith-it when entering into the particulars of the condition of
her tribe at the period just referred to, said it consisted of no more
than seventy two persons, and whom she thus further described: In the
principal encampment, that which Captain Buchan surprised, there were
in one mamaseek or wigwam four men, five women and six children--in a
second mamaseek there were four men, two women and six children--in a
third mamaseek there were three men, five woman, and seven
children--in the whole forty-two persons. In the second encampment
there were thirteen persons, and in the third seventeen persons,
making in the whole seventy-two; the two smaller encampments being
several miles distant from the larger one. Now, compare this account
with what Captain Buchan saw, bearing in mind that it was only the
larger encampment he surprised,--of the two smaller ones, it does not
appear that he was at all aware, Shaw-na-dith-it states the encampment
contained forty-two persons, of whom nineteen were children. Captain
Buchan asserts in his official Report, that it contained seventy-five
persons, and it is by no means clear that in this number he included
any of the women or children, as in another part of his report, he
estimates the number of the Red Indians as consisting at least of
three hundred persons--an opinion formed solely from the appeara