Occasionally the head of the family would rise and salute me, but, generally speaking, I received from the whole group what I valued infinitely more -a smile of happiness and contentment. When I beheld their healthy countenances and their robust, active frames, I could not help feeling how astonished people in England would be if they could but behold and study a state of human existence in which every item in the long list of artificial luxuries which they have been taught to venerate is utterly unknown, and, if described, would be listened to with calm indifference, or with a smile of contempt.

At noon I proceeded to a point at which it had been arranged that I should hold a council with the chiefs of all the tribes, who, according to appointment, had congregated to meet me. On my arrival there I found them all assembled, standing in groups, dressed in their finest costumes, with feathers waving on their heads, with their faces painted, according to the customs of their respective tribes, while on the breast and arms of most of the oldest of them there shone resplendent the silver gorgets and armlets which in former years had been given to them by their ally, the British sovereign.

After a few salutations, it was proposed that our council should commence; and accordingly, while I took possession of a chair which the chief superintendent of Indian affairs had been good enough to bring for me, the chiefs sat down opposite to me in about eighteen or twenty lines parallel to each other.

For a considerable time we gazed at each other in

absolutely dead silence. Passions of all sorts had time to subside, and the judgment was thus enabled calmly to consider and prepare the subjects of the approaching discourse. As if still further to facilitate this arrangement, "the pipe of peace" was introduced, slowly lighted, slowly smoked by one chief after another, and then sedately handed me to smoke it too.

The whole assemblage having, in this simple manner, been solemnly linked together in a chain of friendship, one of the oldest chiefs arose, and after standing for some seconds erect, yet in a position in which he was evidently perfectly at his ease, he commenced his speech-translated to me by an interpreter at my side-by a slow, calm expression of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for having safely conducted so many of his race to the point on which they had been requested to assemble.

He then, in very appropriate terms, expressed the feelings of attachment which had so long connected the red man with his "Great Parent” across the Salt Lake; and after this exordium he proceeded, with great calmness, by very beautiful metaphors, and by a narration of facts it was impossible to deny, to explain to me how gradually and how continuously the race of red men had melted, and were still melting away, before the white men like snow before the sun.

The calm, high-bred dignity of the demeanour of the Indian speakers, the scientific manner in which they construct the framework of their speech, the

sound arguments by which they connect as well as support it, and the beautiful wild flowers of eloquence with which they adorn every portion, form altogether an exhibition of grave interest. Yet is it not astonishing to reflect that the orators in these councils are men who have never heard of education-never seen a town-but who, born in the secluded recesses of an almost interminable forest, have spent their lives in either following the game on which they subsist, or in paddling their canoes across lakes, and among a congregation of such islands as I have described ?

They hear more distinctly, see farther, smell clearer, can bear more fatigue, can subsist on less food, and have altogether fewer wants than their white brethren; and yet, while from morning till night we stand gazing at ourselves in the looking-glass of selfadmiration, we consider the red Indians of America as "outside barbarians.”

My own speech at the council was an attempt to explain to the tribes assembled the reasons which had induced their late 66 Great Father" to recommend some of them to sell their lands to the Provincial Government, and to remove to the innumerable islands in the waters before us. I assured them that their titles to their present hunting-grounds remained, and ever would remain, respected and undisputed; but that, inasmuch as their white brethren had an equal right to occupy and cultivate the forest that surrounded them, the consequence inevitably would be to cut off their supply of wild game.

I stated the case as fairly as I could, and, after a

long debate, succeeded in prevailing upon the tribe to whom I had particularly been addressing myself to dispose of their lands on the terms I had proposed; and whether the bargain was for their weal or woe, it was, and so long as I live will be, a great satisfaction to me to feel that it was openly discussed and agreed to in presence of every Indian tribe with whom her Majesty is allied: for be it always kept in mind that, while the white inhabitants of our North American colonies are the Queen's subjects, the red Indian is by solemn treaty her Majesty's ally.

SIR F. B. HEAD.

72. THANATOPSIS.

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language: for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild

And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart,—
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around-
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air-
Comes a still voice: Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more

In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,