MRS. KINZIE'S WAIT-MIN. *.

THE author of Wau-bun or Early Day in the North-West, was married upwards of a quarter of a century ago to an Indian agent. His duties very shortly took him to the Western side of Lake Michigan, which now forms the States of Wisconsin and Illinois, but was then an unsettled. wilderness. Of her journey thither, her adventures after her arrival, and her own observations on the Red Indians with whom her husband's avocations brought him continually in contact as a sort of patron, the most real and lifelike parts of Mrs. Kinvie's book consist. A good deal of matter connected with the Indian wars of 1812, and notices of stirring Indian story going back even to the last century, have been furnished by an older relation, at whose wish they were written down.

Notwithstanding its fault of too much writing, the best account that we have ever met with of social life in a new settlement,

was Mrs. Clavers's A New Home, Who'll Follow ! f That lady, however, went to Michigan when settlement had actually commenced, and the territory had roads, towns, and other beginnings of civilization, however rude and rough everything, including manners, might be. Mrs. 'Kinzie was first located at Fort Winnebago; the garrison and the employes of the American Fur Company forming the only residents, and the whole country West of Lake Michigan having few other White inhabitants than those connected with military service and the fur trade. As late as 1831,

the houses on the site of Chicago, then Fort Dearborn were individually described as curiosities, and the most frequented parts of the now great city were wood or swamp.

"There was no house on the Southern bank of the river between the fort and the Point,' as the forks of the river were then called. The land was a low wet prairie, scarcely affording good walking in the driest summer weather, while at other seasons it was absolutely impassable. A muddy strgainlet, or as it is called in this country a slew, after winding around froth about the present site of the Tremont House, fell into the river at the foot of State Street.

"A gentleman who visited Chicago at that day thus speaks of it—' I passed over the ground from the Fort to the Point on horseback. I was up to my stirrups in water the whole distance. I would not have given six pence an acre for the whole of it.' • Our only recreation was an occasional ride on horseback, when the weather would permit, through the woods on the North side of the river, or across the prairie, along the lake shore on the South. "When we went in the former direction, a little bridle-path took us along what is now Rush Street. The thick boughs of the trees arched over our heads, and we were often compelled, as we rode, to break away the projecting branches of the shrubs which impeded our path. The little prairie West of Wright's Woods was the usual termination of our ride in this direction."

The eye of the sagacious speculator could even then detect the future greatness of the city by its advantageous site;and, unless we misunderstand the text, Mr. Kinzie made a lucky hit as soon as land came into the market.

Since the day when Mrs. Kinzie was domiciled in the wilderness, with nothing besides the garrison around her,. but Indians, voyageurs, and half-breeds, the Red man has. been the object of closer observation than before by minds disabused Of the romance attaching to "the stoic of the woods." According to some, the heroism, fidelity, and loftiness attributed to the Indian character, are gross exaggeration : the men are described as dirty, lazy, vain beyond the vanity of the merest dandy, and domestic tyrants. Something must be allowed to their fallen circumstances : the diminished and degraded tribes,. pressed upon by the steady-advance of the White man, whose power they feel but cannot see, are very different from the chieftains whom the earlier colonists encountered. This also must be said, that those who know them best, and who from character and education are the best qualified to judge, form the highest opinion of them. Mrs. Kinzie speaks well of them, and perhaps thinks better thanshe speaks as regards their relations with the American Government. She has indeed some tales of massacre to tell at second-hand ; but that was in compliance with the usages of °Indian war : what they agreed to they-carried out, and ran great risks for the sake of individuals. She has a story or two to tell of American baseness in-reference to the Indians ; of their business or diplomatic skill she gives several instances. Here is one where a Philanthropic colonel wished them to set aside a portion of their annuity to aid in a school for Indian boys. The agent had opened 'the btisiness at a general assembly.

"-Day-kau-ray, the oldest and most venerable among the chiefs, rose and spike as follows.

4Father, the Great Spirit made the White man and the Indian. He did not make them alike. He gave the White man a heart to love peace,

and. the arts of a quiet life. He taught . live in towns, to build

• Woe-bun, or Early' ,Day in -the North-West, Bg Hrs. John H. Kinzie, of Chicago. Published by,Low.and Co , London ; Derby and Jackson, New York. + Spectator for 1839; page 1043. houses, to make books, to learn all things that would make him happy and prosperous in the way of life appointed him. To the Red man the Great Spirit gave a different character. He gave him a love of the woods, of a free life, of hunting and fishing, of making war with his enemies and taking scalps. The White man does not live like the Indian—it is not his nature. Neither does the Indian love to live like the White man, the Great Spirit did not make him so.

"'Father, we do not wish to do anything contrary to the will of the Great Spirit. If he had made us with white skins, and characters like the White men, then we would send our children to this school to be taught like the White children.

"'Father we think that if the Great Spirit had wished us to be like the Whites, he would have made us so. As he has not seen fit to do so, we believe he would be displeased with us to try and make ourselves different from what bethought good. " ' Father, I have nothing more to say. This is what we think If we change our minds, we will let you know.'

Although Although those frontier settlements are or were as far removed from the artificial conventionalities of life as well can be, still they have distinctions.

There is an aristocracy in the voyageur service which is quite amusing. The engagement is usually made for three years. The engage of the first year, who is called a mangeur-de-lard,' or pork-eater, is looked down upon with the most sovereign contempt ban hivernant,' or one who has already passed a winter in the country. He will not only not associate with him, but if invited by him to join him in a friendly glass he will make some excuse for declining. The most inveterate drunkard, while tortured by a longing to partake his favourite indulgence, will yet never suffer himself to be enticed into an infringement of this custom. "After the first winter, the mangeur-de-lard rises from his freshman class, and takes his place where he can in turn lord it over all new corners."

There was then at least a similar difference between the regular army, or West Point officers, and the militia, which showed itself in a stinging sarcasm from the second table.

"In some portions of this campaign [against the Stinks] there was another difficulty—the want of concert between the two branches of the service. The regular troops looked with some contempt upon the unprofessional movements of the militia the militia railed at the dilatory and useless formalities of the regulars. Each avowed the conviction that matters could be much better conducted without the other ; and the militia being prompt to act, sometimes took matters into their own hands, and brought on defeat and disgrace as in the affair of Stillman's Run.' "The feeling of contempt which some of the army officers entertained for the militia extended itself to their subordinates and dependents. After the visit of the Ranger officers to Fort Winnebago before the battle of the Wisconsin, the officer of the mess where they had been entertained called up his servant one day to inquire into the Butler's accounts. He was the same little Yellow David' who had formerly appertained to Captain Harney. " David,' said the young gentleman, I see three bottles of colognewater charged in the month's account of the mess at the sutler's. What does that mean ? '

" ' If you please, Lieutenant,' said David, respectfully, it was to sweeten up the diningroom and quarters, after them mill& officers were here visiting.'"

. Wan-bun contains a good deal of matter relating to the Indians and their frontier wars during the first thirty years of the century, and some interesting sketches of places now crowded towns or smiling under cultivation, but which were then in a state of wilderness, not to say of savagery. The personal narrative depends for its interest upon the adventures themselves for Mrs. Kinzie's style is somewhat literal ; and of these adventures the most stirring is a winter journey from Fort Winnebago. to Chicago, in which many hardships and some danger were incurred. The structure of the book is defective in respect of unity, and the matter has more attraction for American than for English readers.