The Algonquins, or Algonkins, appear to have originally possessed the whole tract of country along the north shore of the St Lawrence, from Tadoussac to lake Nippissing, and had no rivals in North America, as warriors and hunters ; hut having afforded refuge and assistance to the Hurons, a deadly war arose between them and the conquering Iroquois, who at length suc ceeded in driving them from their country. They seem then to have taken a westerly progress, and may be said to have peopled the country from the Atlantic, in a direct line along the St Lawrence, and the Uttawas, along the high lands which divide the waters that fall into lake Superior, from those that fall into Hudson's Bay, or to lake Winipic, along the Saskatchiwine and Elk rivers to the lake of the I tills. The great proportion of the Indian tribes which are scattered over the cultivated parts of Canada, are of this nation ; and the others, especially those in the neighbourhood of the lakes and the St Lawrence, are chiefly branches of the Iroquois, and the wretched remains of the iIutron3. But the main body of the Algonkin nation is found far to the nortI west, and they arc considered as the same people with those called Knisteneaux, Christineaux, or Killistinocs. They reduced the natives as they passed along, with most of whom they are now in alliance ; but they arc daily losing their superiority by their fondness for spirit ous liquors, which are rapidly diminishing their strength and numbers. They are of a middle stature, well formed, swift footed, and chiefly employed in hunting. They are just in their dealings, and affable in their ad dress. They possess an open and agreeable counte nance, and a generous and hospitable disposition.
The Chepewyans or Chipawas, called also Sarsees, and rocky mountain Indians, arc a numerous people, who consider as their territories all the land between 60° and 65° north latitude, and 100° and 110° longitude. Their progress is easterly ; and, according to their own tradi tion, they came originally from Siberia ; which is partly confirmed by the strong resemblance, which they are said to bear to the people now found on the nearest coast of Asia. Their country is very barren, and they are frequently obliged to subsist upon a kind of rock moss, which is the principal vegetable substance that their soil produces. They are submissive to the Knistincaux, but hostile to the Esquimaux, to whom they give no quarter, and never indeed make prisoners in any of their wars. They are sober, timorous, vagrant, selfish, considerate, querulous, and superstitious in the ex treme ; more attentive to the comfort than to the ap pearance of their dress ; not active hunters, but dex terous in snaring deer and spearing fish ; uniform in their temper ; not at all addicted to spiritous liquors, and by far the most peaceable of the North American Indians.
The Naudowcssies, or Nadowasis, called by the French the Sioux, who inhabit the western side of the Missis sippi, and the lower part of the Missouri, are a power ful nation, and consist of a number of bands, who carry their excursions a great way to the north, and arc the constant enemies of the Knistineaux, or Algonquins, in those regions. The Assiniboins, or Assinipoils, or
Stone Indians, are of the Nadowasis nation ; but they separated from the other tribes, and formed an alliance with the Knistineaux.
The principal languages spoken among the various tribes of North American Indian are the Chepewyan, which is copious, but difficult to be atttained ; and which furnishes dialects to the various tribes from Churchill fort up the Mississippi ; through Buffalo Lake to the Lake of the Hills ; along the Peace river to the source of the Columba, and thence due west to the sea coast. —The .,Vadowasis, which is a kind of hissing rather than articulate speech, and is chiefly used on the western banks of the Mississippi,—the Mohawk, Iroquois, or Huron, which is said to excel in energy and pathos, and in these respects to bear a comparison with the Greek. But the most celebrated and prevailing of all the native languages, is what Long calls the Chipeway, Carver the Chipcway or Algonquin, and McKenzie the Algonquin or Knistincaux ; but which, as their several vocabularies chew, are only different names for one and the same tongue. This is said to surpass all the rest in smooth ness, elegance, and copiousness ; is spoken by all the other tribes in their councils, negotiations, and trading interviews, though they use a distinct dialect of their own in ordinary cases, and extends from the Gulf of St Lawrence over a space of 3000 miles.
These different Indian nations arc din ided into an immense number of tribes and IMIldS, which are all dis tinguished by particular marks nn their bodies, by their mode of pitching their tents, &c. ; but they are scattered over a great extent of territory, and arc daily decreasing hi their numbers. About the year 1780, the small-pox was introduced among them by a war party, as has been conjectured, from the MisAssoaic. This malignant dis order " destroyed, with its pestilential breath, whole families and tribes; and the horrid scene presented to those, who had the melancholy and afflicting opportunity Of beholding it, a combination of the dead and the dying , and such, as to avoid the horrid fate of their friends around them, prepared to disappoint the plague of its prey by terminating their own existen•e."—" It was not uncommon for the father of a family, whom the infec tion had not reached, to call them around him ; to repre sent the cruel sufferings and horrid fate of their relations, from the influence of some evil spirit, who was prepar ing to extirpate their race ; and to incite them to baffle death, with all its horrors, by their own poniards. At the same time, if their hearts failed them in this neces sa•y act, he was himself ready to perform the deed of mercy with his own hand, as the last act of his affection, and instantly to follow them to the common place of rest and refuge from human evil." (M‘Kenzie's Travels, harod. p. xv.) The prevalence of other European disorders, and the pernicious effects of spiritous liquors, are rapidly completing the destruction of the native tribes; and the traveller may pass through districts of of many hundred miles, without meeting one human inhabitant.