ash
and leggins, with a scarf of brighter red than the rest, tied around his
head, its ends falling gracefully on one shoulder. They thought it,
apparently, fine amusement to be attending two white women; they carried
us into the path of the steamboat, which was going out, and paddled with
all their force,--rather too fast, indeed, for there was something of a
swell on the lake, and they sometimes threw water into the canoe.
However, it flew over the waves, light as a sea-gull. They would say,
"Pull away," and "Ver' warm," and, after these words, would laugh gaily.
They enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we.

The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an
Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country. She spoke French
fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners. She is a great character
among them. They were all the time coming to pay her homage, or to get
her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of business.
My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and the Indians
were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though less so than
about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to borrow the
sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to show to the
_savages_," she said.

Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given
by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and
acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained
dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She seemed to have a thorough love
of intrigue for its own sake, and much dramatic talent. Like the chiefs
of her nation, when on an expedition among the foe, whether for revenge
or profit, no impulses of vanity or wayside seductions had power to turn
her aside from carrying out her plan as she had originally projected it.

Although I have little to tell, I feel that I have learnt a great deal
of the Indians, from observing them even in this broken and degraded
condition. There is a language of eye and motion which cannot be put
into words, and which teaches what words never can. I feel acquainted
with the soul of this race; I read its nobler thought in their defaced
figures. There _was_ a greatness, unique and precious, which he who does
not feel will never duly appreciate the majesty of nature in this
American continent.

I have mentioned that the Indian orator, who addressed the agents on
this occasion, said, the dif