It is interesting to follow his footsteps in these localities, though
they be not bold footsteps.

He mentions the town of the Sacs, on the Wisconsin, as the largest and
best built he saw, "composed of ninety houses, each large enough for
several families. These are built of hewn plank, neatly jointed, and
covered with bark so compactly as to keep out the most penetrating
rains. Before the doors are placed comfortable sheds, in which the
inhabitants sit, when the weather will permit, and smoke their pipes.
The streets are regular and spacious. In their plantations, which lie
adjacent to their houses, and which are neatly laid out, they raise
great quantities of Indian corn, beans and melons."

Such settlements compare very well with those which were found on the
Mohawk. It was of such that the poor Indian was thinking, whom our host
saw gazing on the shore of Nomabbin lake.

He mentions the rise and fall of the lake-waters, by a tide of three
feet, once in seven years,--a phenomenon not yet accounted for.

His view of the Indian character is truly impartial. He did not see it
so fully drawn out by circumstances as Henry did, (of whose narrative we
shall presently speak,) but we come to similar results from the two
witnesses. They are in every feature Romans, as described by Carver, and
patriotism their leading impulse. He deserves the more credit for the
justice he is able to do them, that he had undergone the terrors of
death at their hands, when present at the surrender of one of the forts,
and had seen them in that mood which they express by drinking the blood
and eating the hearts of their enemies, yet is able to understand the
position of their minds, and allow for their notions of duty.

No selfish views, says he, influence their advice, or obstruct their
consultations.

Let me mention here the use they make of their vapor baths. "When about
to decide on some important measure, they go into them, thus cleansing
the skin and carrying off any peccant humors, so that the body may, as
little as possible, impede the mind by any ill conditions."

They prepare the bath for one another when any arrangement is to be
made between families, on the opposite principle to the whites, who make
them drunk before bargaining with them. The bath serves them instead of
a cup of coffee, to stimulate the thinking powers.

He mentions other instances of their kind of delicacy, which, if
different from ours, was, perhaps, more