ntil broken
from their old anchorage by intercourse with the whites,--who offer
them, instead, a religion of which they furnish neither interpretation
nor example,--were singularly virtuous, if virtue be allowed to
consist in a man's acting up to his own ideas of right.

My friend, who joined me at Mackinaw, happened, on the homeward
journey, to see a little Chinese girl, who had been sent over by one
of the missionaries, and observed that, in features, complexion, and
gesture, she was a counterpart to the little Indian girls she had just
seen playing about on the lake shore.

The parentage of these tribes is still an interesting subject of
speculation, though, if they be not created for this region, they have
become so assimilated to it as to retain little trace of any other. To
me it seems most probable, that a peculiar race was bestowed on each
region,[A] as the lion on one latitude and the white bear on another.
As man has two natures,--one, like that of the plants and animals,
adapted to the uses and enjoyments of this planet, another which
presages and demands a higher sphere,--he is constantly breaking
bounds, in proportion as the mental gets the better of the mere
instinctive existence. As yet, he loses in harmony of being what he
gains in height and extension; the civilized man is a larger mind, but
a more imperfect nature, than the savage.

[Footnote A: Professor Agassiz has recently published some able
scientific papers tending to enforce this theory.--ED.]

We hope there will be a national institute, containing all the remains
of the Indians, all that has been preserved by official intercourse at
Washington, Catlin's collection, and a picture-gallery as complete
as can be made, with a collection of skulls from all parts of the
country. To this should be joined the scanty library that exists on
the subject.

A little pamphlet, giving an account of the massacre at Chicago, has
lately; been published, which I wish much I had seen while there, as
it would have imparted an interest to spots otherwise barren. It is
written with animation, and in an excellent style, telling just what
we want to hear, and no more. The traits given of Indian generosity
are as characteristic as those of Indian cruelty. A lady, who was
saved by a friendly chief holding her under the waters of the lake, at
the moment the balls endangered her, received also, in the heat of the
conflict, a reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she