United States

And now, before entering upon the very curious subject of Indian social and tribal organization, it may be well briefly to observe the position and prominent distinctive features of the various communities speaking dialects of the generic tongue of the Iroquois. In this remarkable family of tribes occur the fullest developments of Indian character, and the most conspicuous examples of Indian intelligence. If the higher traits popularly ascribed to the race are not to be found here, they are to be found nowhere.

 A CHANGE OF PLAN. - SAINTE MARIE. - MISSION OF THE TOBACCO NATION. - 
 WINTER JOURNEYING. - RECEPTION OF THE MISSIONARIES. - 
 SUPERSTITIOUS TERRORS. - PERIL OF GARNIER AND JOGUES. - 
 MISSION OF THE NEUTRALS. - HURON INTRIGUES. - MIRACLES. - 
 FURY OF THE INDIANS. - INTERVENTION OF SAINT MICHAEL. - 

 THE RUINS OF ST. IGNACE. - THE RELICS FOUND. - BREBEUF AT THE STAKE. - 
 HIS UNCONQUERABLE FORTITUDE. - LALEMANT. - RENEGADE HURONS. - 
 IROQUOIS ATROCITIES. - DEATH OF BREBEUF. - HIS CHARACTER. - 
 DEATH OF LALEMANT.

In Indian social organization, a problem at once suggests itself. In these communities, comparatively populous, how could spirits so fierce, and in many respects so ungoverned, live together in peace, without law and without enforced authority? Yet there were towns where savages lived together in thousands with a harmony which civilization might envy. This was in good measure due to peculiarities of Indian character and habits. This intractable race were, in certain external respects, the most pliant and complaisant of mankind.

 THE NEW GOVERNOR. - EDIFYING EXAMPLES. - LE JEUNE'S CORRESPONDENTS. - 
 RANK AND DEVOTION. - NUNS. - PRIESTLY AUTHORITY. - CONDITION OF QUEBEC. - 
 THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. - CHURCH DISCIPLINE. - PLAYS. - FIREWORKS. - 
 PROCESSIONS. - CATECHIZING. - TERRORISM. - PICTURES. - THE CONVERTS. - 
 THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. - THE FORESTERS.

 DISPERSION OF THE HURONS. - SAINTE MARIE ABANDONED. - ISLE ST. JOSEPH. - 
 REMOVAL OF THE MISSION. - THE NEW FORT. - MISERY OF THE HURONS. - FAMINE. - 
 EPIDEMIC. - EMPLOYMENTS OF THE JESUITS.

While English, Dutch, and Swedes were settling on the Atlantic seaboard of North America, the French took possession of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi. Though the attempt of Cartier to plant a colony on the St. Lawrence failed (p. 30), the French never lost interest in that part of the world, and new attempts were made to plant colonies.

TYLER AND THE WHIGS QUARREL. - When Congress (in May, 1841) first met in Tyler's term, Clay led the Whigs in proposing measures to carry out their party principles. But Tyler vetoed their bill establishing a new national bank. The Whigs then made some changes to suit, as they supposed, his objections, and sent him a bill to charter a Fiscal Corporation; but this also came back with a veto; whereupon his Cabinet officers (all save Daniel Webster, Secretary of State) resigned, and the Whig members of Congress, in an address to the people, read him out of the party.

KING WILLIAM'S WAR. - When James II was driven from his throne (p. 93), he fled to France. His quarrel with King William was taken up by Louis XIV, and in 1689 war began between France and England. The strife thus started in the Old World soon spread to the New, and during eight years the frontier of New England and New York was the scene of French and Indian raids, massacres, and burning towns.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1852. - The Compromise of 1850 was thought to be a final settlement of all the troubles that had grown out of slavery. The great leaders of the Whig and Democratic parties solemnly pledged themselves to stand by the compromise, and when the national conventions met in 1852, the two parties in their platforms made equally solemn promises.