difficulty; and, instead of quietly yielding to a better
order of things, prefer to dwell, from sire to son, the willing slaves
of customs derived from the obsolete decrees of a despotic monarchy.

Whether they individually are gainers or losers by thus adhering to the
rules which guided their ancestors, is another question, too difficult
for discussion to grapple with here. As far as worldly happiness and
simple contentment are concerned, I believe they would lose by the
change, which, however, must take place. The restless and enterprising
American is too close a neighbour to let them slumber long in contented
ignorance.

The Frenchman was, however, adapted, by his nature, to win his way,
either by friendship or by force, among the warlike and untutored sons
of the forest. Accommodating himself with ease to the nomadic life of
the tribes; contrasting his gay and lively temperament with the solemn
taciturnity and immoveable phlegm of the savage; dazzling him with the
splendour of his religious ceremonies; abstemious in his diet, and
coinciding in his recklessness of life; equally a warrior and equally a
hunter; unmoved by the dangers of canoe navigation, for which he seemed
as well adapted as the Red Man himself; the enterprising Gaul was
everywhere feared and everywhere welcome.

The Briton, on the contrary, cold as the Indian, but not so cunning;
accustomed to comparative luxury and ease; despising the child of the
woods as an inferior caste; accompanied in his wars or wanderings by no
outward and visible sign of the religion he would fain implant;
unaccustomed to yield even to his equals in opinion; unprepared for
alternate seasons of severe fasting or riotous plenty; and wholly
without that sanguine temper which causes mirth and song to break forth
spontaneously amidst the most painful toil and privations; was not the
best of pioneers in the wilderness, and was, therefore, not received
with open arms by the American aboriginal nations, until experience had
taught the sterling value of his character, or, rather, until it became
thoroughly apparent.

To this day, where, in the interminable wilderness, all trace of French
influence is buried, the Indian reveres the recollections of his
forefathers respecting that gallant race; and, wherever the canoe now
penetrates, the solemn and silent shades of the vast West, the Bois
Brule, or mixed offspring of the Indian and the Frenchman, may be heard
awakening the slumber