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Show JSS TRAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: and putting them each into a fort of little hammock, faftened them betw en two tre s, and th n.: fuffcred them to [w;ng about. As foon as th y arc flrong enough to crawl about on their hands and feet they are liberated from all confinement, and fuffcrcd, like young puppies, to rnn about, ftark naked, into water, into m d, into (now, and, in fhort, to go wherefo v r their choice lead them; hence they derive that vigour of conftitution which enables them to fupport the grcatell fatigue, and that inditfcrcnce to the change of the weather which th y pufkfs in common with the brute creation. The girls an.: covered with a loo(e garment as foon :l.S they have attained four or five ye..trs of age, but the boys go naked till they arc conGderably older. The Indians, as I h:lVe already remark d, are for the moft part very flightly made, and from a furvcy of th ir perfons nc wuultl imagine that they were much better qualified for any purfuits that required great agility than great boLlily firength. This has been the g ·neral opinion of moO: of thofe \vho have written on this fubjcet. I am induced, however, from what I have myfclf been witnefs to, and from what I have colleCted from others, to think that the Indians are mu h more remarkable for their mufcular firength than for their agility. At different military pofl:s on the frontiers, where this fubjeCt has been agitated, ra es, for the fake of experiment, have frequently been made between foldiers and Indians, and provided the difl:ance was not great, the Indians have almo£1: always been beaten; bnt in a long race, wh re firength of mufclc was required, they have without exception been viCtorious; in l a ping alfo the In lians have b 'en infallibly beaten by fuch of the foldiers as polfdfed ommon activity: but the firength of the Indians is moO: confpicuuus in the arrying of burthens on their backs; they efieem. it nothing to walk thirty miles a day for feveral days together under a load of vight flonc, and they will walk an entire day und ·r a load without taking any rcfr ·fhment. In carrvirw burd ns they make ufc of a . 0 fort of frame, £ mcwhat fimilar to what is commonly ufcd by a glazier to carry glafs; this is faflencd by cords, or firips of tough bark or kathcr, round their fl1ouldcrs, and when the load is fixed upon the broad lcrlgc at the bottom of the frame, two bands arc thrown round the whole, MENTAL QUALIFICATIONS OF THE INDIANS. whole, one of which is brought aero(<; the forch ad, and th other acrofs the breaft, and tbu the load is fupported. The length of way an Indian will travel in the courfe of the day, when une1\ umbered with a load, is afl:onin1ing. A young Wyandot, who, when peace was abou.t to be made bctw~en the Indians and General Wayne, was employed to carry a rne1E1ge from his nation to the 1\mcrican ollicer, travelled but little fl1ort of eighty mil<.: , on foot in one day; and I \vas informed by one of the general's aids-de-camp, who 1i1w him when he arr;ved at the camp, that he did not app ·ar in the lea!l degree filtigued. Le P. Charlevoix obfervcs, that he Indians fccm to him to pollefs many perfoml advantages over us; their fenf~ , in particular, he thinks much fi nn than ours; their fight is, indeed, quick and penetrating, and it docs not fail them till they are far adva1 ccd in years, nutwithfl:anding that their yes are rxpofed fo many months each \.\'inter to the dazzling whiteners of the fnow, and to the fl1arp irritating fmoke of wood fires . Di order in the eyes are almofl: wholly unknown to th~rn; nor is the !lightcit blemilh ever fcen in their eyes, excepting it be a rcfult from fame accident. Their be· ring is very acute, and their fenfe of finclling fo nice, that they can tell when they nrc appro.1ching a fire long before it is in fight. The Indians have mo11 retentive memories; they will prefcrve to their deaths a reeollcelion of any plac they have one pa£fcd through; they never forget a face that they have attentively obferved but for a.fcw fc onds; at th end of many years th.:y will r peat every fentencc of the fpeeches that have been delivered by difrcrent individuals in a public affembly; and has any fpec~.:h been made in the council houfe of the nation, particularly cJeferving of n.::nemhran c, it will be handed down with the utmoft accur ,,cy ii-orn one gcn ration to another, though 1 crfcCl:ly ignorant of tht: uil: of hicroglyphi 1-s and letter ~ the only memorial of which they avail thcrn cl ve arc fmall pieces of wood, fuch as I told you were brought by them to Captain E , preparatory to the delivery of the preiCJ•t:>, and belt of wampum; the former arc only u~ d on trifling oc .t ton s, the latter never but on very gmnd and folcmn ones. Whenever a conference, or a talk, as· |