agent of the Government, an advocate, a protector, and the best of fathers. This, Madam, leads me to hope that God has very particular designs of mercy over them, and that he will never forsake them. In the moment of danger, you, I am confident, will not forget them in your charitable prayers.
Be so kind as to recall me to the kind remembrances of Mr. and Mrs. Bayer, and of Miss Rosine, and believe me, with the most profound respect and esteem, Madam.
Your most humble and most obedient servant, etc.,
The aborigines,' or first inhabitants of the soil, are forced (nolens volens) to sell and cede their lands, with the ashes of their ancestors, so dear to their hearts and to all their recollections, in order to make room for the strangers who come in to settle the new States and Territories, and to go and occupy some new reserve, unknown and limited, which in turn they must abandon later; and so on from one reserve to another, until there remain only arid, sterile lands, uninhabitable for white men, and without game, where they drag out a miserable existence, dwindle away and disappear. The payment of their annuities, for the millions of acres of land that they have ceded to the Government, are often overlooked or deferred, though they are the Indians' only means of support; and often, too, when these annuities get through to their destination, there are rascals following or accompanying them who extort the pittance from the Indians, exchanging it for barrels of " fire-water," or useless trinkets. The terms of the treaties are often transgressed, and the Indians overwhelmed with injuries and insults. Woe to them, if they resist the unjust and wicked aggressors, for then they are driven out or massacred like
$ Extract from a letter in French, dated On Board the Steamer Ontario, Fort Benton, Montana, June io, 1866. See page 856.