the workmanship of the whites; but in return for their productions
the savage had nothing to offer except the rich furs which still
abounded in his woods. Hence the chase became necessary, not merely to
provide for his subsistence, but in order to procure the only objects
of barter which he could furnish to Europe. *c Whilst the wants of the
natives were thus increasing, their resources continued to diminish.

[Footnote c: Messrs. Clarke and Cass, in their Report to Congress on
February 4, 1829, p. 23, expressed themselves thus:--"The time when
the Indians generally could supply themselves with food and clothing,
without any of the articles of civilized life, has long since passed
away. The more remote tribes, beyond the Mississippi, who live where
immense herds of buffalo are yet to be found and who follow those
animals in their periodical migrations, could more easily than any
others recur to the habits of their ancestors, and live without the
white man or any of his manufactures. But the buffalo is constantly
receding. The smaller animals, the bear, the deer, the beaver, the
otter, the muskrat, etc., principally minister to the comfort and
support of the Indians; and these cannot be taken without guns,
ammunition, and traps. Among the Northwestern Indians particularly, the
labor of supplying a family with food is excessive. Day after day is
spent by the hunter without success, and during this interval his family
must subsist upon bark or roots, or perish. Want and misery are around
them and among them. Many die every winter from actual starvation."

The Indians will not live as Europeans live, and yet they can neither
subsist without them, nor exactly after the fashion of their fathers.
This is demonstrated by a fact which I likewise give upon official
authority. Some Indians of a tribe on the banks of Lake Superior had
killed a European; the American government interdicted all traffic
with the tribe to which the guilty parties belonged, until they were
delivered up to justice. This measure had the desired effect.]

From the moment when a European settlement is formed in the neighborhood
of the territory occupied by the Indians, the beasts of chase take the
alarm. *d Thousands of savages, wandering in the forests and destitute
of any fixed dwelling, did not disturb them; but as soon as the
continuous sounds of European labor are heard in their neighborhood,
they begin to flee away, and retire to the West, where thei