s, and in the defence of their chosen frontier they have
distinguished themselves as brave and active warriors. Many acts of
intrepidity are related of them which would be recorded with admiration
had white men been the actors. Perfectly versed in the arts of the
forest they have gained many victories over that powerful assemblage of
tribes known as the Sioux. With fewer numbers the Chippewas have never
hesitated to fall upon their enemies, and have defeated and routed them
with a valor and resolution which in any period of written warfare would
have been stamped as heroic.

"It is not easy on the part of the government to repress the feelings of
hostility which have so long existed between the respective tribes, and
to convince them that they have lived into an age when milder maxims
furnish the basis of wise action....

"The domestic manners and habits of a people whose position is so
adverse to improvement could hardly be expected to present anything
strikingly different from other erratic bands of the Northwest. There is
indeed a remarkable conformity in the external habits of all our
Northern Indians. The necessity of changing their camps often to procure
game or fish, the want of domestic animals, the general dependence on
wild rice, and the custom of journeying in canoes has produced a general
uniformity of life, and it is emphatically a life of want and
vicissitude. There is a perpetual change between action and inanity in
the mind which is a striking peculiarity of the savage state, and there
is such a general want of forecast that most of their misfortunes and
hardships, in war and peace, come unexpectedly."...

Our explorers were agreeably surprised one day during their stay at
Leech Lake by an invitation from Flat Mouth, the present ruler of the
Pillagers, to take dinner with him. Captain Glazier accepted the
invitation with pleasure, for it so happened that although he had for
many years been much among the natives of the forest he had never before
had an opportunity to dine with Indian royalty.

Flat Mouth is a descendant of Aish-ki-bug-e-koszh, the most famous of
all the Chippewa chiefs. He is stalwart in appearance and endowed with
marked talents, and well deserves the title of "chief." At the appointed
time for the dinner, Captain Glazier, accompanied by his brother and Mr.
Paine, went to his residence. They found him living in a comfortable
log-house of two rooms, well floored and roofed, with two s