that his great grandfather "was inspired by a belief
that at the end of four years, he should see a white man, who would be
to him a father." Under the direction of this vision he travelled
eastward to a certain spot, and there, as he was forewarned, met a
Frenchman, through whom the nation was brought into alliance with
France.[269-1] No one at all versed in the Indian character will doubt
the implicit faith with which this legend was told and heard. But we may
be pardoned our scepticism, seeing there are so many chances of error.
It is not so with an anecdote related by Captain Jonathan Carver, a
cool-headed English trader, whose little book of travels is an
unquestioned authority. In 1767, he was among the Killistenoes at a time
when they were in great straits for food, and depending upon the arrival
of the traders to rescue them from starvation. They persuaded the chief
priest to consult the divinities as to when the relief would arrive.
After the usual preliminaries, this magnate announced that next day,
precisely when the sun reached the zenith, a canoe would arrive with
further tidings. At the appointed hour the whole village, together with
the incredulous Englishman, was on the beach, and sure enough, at the
minute specified, a canoe swung round a distant point of land, and
rapidly approaching the shore brought the expected news.[270-1]

Charlevoix is nearly as trustworthy a writer as Carver. Yet he
deliberately relates an equally singular instance.[270-2]

But these examples are surpassed by one described in the _Atlantic
Monthly_ of July, 1866, the author of which, John Mason Brown, Esq., has
assured me of its accuracy in every particular. Some years since, at the
head of a party of voyageurs, he set forth in search of a band of
Indians somewhere on the vast plains along the tributaries of the
Copper-mine and Mackenzie rivers. Danger, disappointment, and the
fatigues of the road, induced one after another to turn back, until of
the original ten only three remained. They also were on the point of
giving up the apparently hopeless quest, when they were met by some
warriors of the very band they were seeking. These had been sent out by
one of their medicine men to find three whites, whose horses, arms,
attire, and personal appearance he minutely described, which description
was repeated to Mr. Brown by the warriors before they saw his two
companions. When afterwards, the priest, a frank and simple-minded man,
wa