with then in the freest intimacy, and this is his verdict as to their native traits, when uncontaminated by white men and whiskey

As long ago as 1721, the Jesuit father Lafitau wroto of the Indians, and stated that to his own experience he addod that of Father Garnier, wlio had lived sixty yeurs among them: "They are possessed," says he, of sound judgnent, lively inagination, ready conception, and wonderful memory. All the tribes retain at least some trace of an ancient religion, handed down to them from their ancestors, and a form of government, They reflect justly upon their affairs, and better than the mass of the people among ourselves. They prosceute their ends by sure means; they evince a degree of coolucss and composure wieh would exceed our patience; they never permit themselves to indulge in passion, bat always, from a sense of honor and greatness of soul, appear nasters of themsclves. They are high-minded and proud; posscss a courage cqual to every trial, aa intrepid valor, and an cquanimity which neither misfortuncs nor reverses can shake. Toward euch heroic constancy under other they behave with a natural politeness and attention, enter- taining a high respect for the aged, and a consideration for their equals which appears scarcely reconcilable with that freedom and independence of which they are so jealous. They ake few pro fessions of kindness, but yet are afable and generous. Toward strangcrs and the unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospi tality and charity which might put the inhabitauts of Europe to the blush,"

Father Lafitau does not disguiso the fact that the Indians have great faults. IHe says they are " suspicious and vindietive, cruel to thcir encmies."

Pire Lallemant, a missionary among the Hurons, says: "In point of intcllect they are not at all inferior to the natives of Europe; I could not have belicved that, without instruction, nat ure could lave produced such ready and vigorous eloquence, or such a sound judgment in their affairs as that which I have so much admired among the IIurons. I admit that their habits and customs are barbarous in a thousand ways; but, after all, in mat ters which they consider as wrong, and which their public con demns, we obscrve among them less criminality than in France, although here the only punishmont of a crime ia the shame of having committed it."

In a history of New France, published in 1618, it is stated of the Indians that "they are valorous, faitlıful, generous, and hu-