PREFACE
The reader will naturally expect some account of this work.
With regard to the historical part, I have endeavoured to explain the situation of the Posts, which, by Mr. Oswald’s Treaty, were stipulated to be surrendered to the Americans; and pointed out their convenience to Great Britain in a political and commercial point of view:[11] I have also given a description of the Five and Six Nation Indians; and endeavoured to shew the usefulness, as well as necessity, of a strict alliance with them as long as we retain any possessions in Canada.
With respect to the descriptions of lakes, rivers, &c. which lie beyond Lake Superior, from Lake Nipegon to Lake Arbitibis, I have given them as accurately as possible, either from my own knowledge, or the most authentic Indian accounts; and when it is considered that interpreters in the commercial line seldom have occasion for any geographical knowledge, the want of better information will be excused.
The Vocabulary which is subjoined, and on which I have bestowed some pains, it is hoped will not only afford information to such as may be desirous of attaining a knowledge of the Chippeway language, but prove useful to those who are already engaged in traffic with the Indians.
{viii} As the mode of spelling a language which has never been reduced to a grammatical system, must be arbitrary, and principally depend on the ear, I have endeavoured to use such letters as best agree with the English pronunciation; avoiding a multiplicity of consonants, which only perplex: and to enable the reader to speak so as to be understood by the natives, it is necessary to observe that a is generally sounded broad; and e final never pronounced but in monosyllables.
The following are the motives which induced me to make the Vocabulary in the Chippeway language so copious.
In the first place it is, strictly speaking, one of the mother tongues of North America, and universally spoken in council by the chiefs who reside about the great lakes, to the westward of the banks of the Mississippi, as far south as the Ohio, and as far north as Hudson’s Bay; notwithstanding many of the tribes, within the space of territory I have described, speak in common a different language.—This observation is confirmed by authors of established repute, and further proved by the concurrent testimony of the Indian interpreters.
Baron de Lahontan[12] asserts that the Algonkin is a mother tongue, and that it is in as much estimation in North America, as Greek and Latin in Europe: this being admitted, I am persuaded the Chippeway language possesses as much, if not greater merit, as it is in every respect better understood by the northwest Indians. But as the knowledge of both {ix} may not only be useful, but necessary, I have given a comparative table of about two hundred and sixty words in both tongues, that the reader may use either as he shall find it best understood by the tribes with whom he may have occasion to trade; though he will find, in a variety of instances, a perfect accordance.
The table of words in the Muhhekaneew, or Mohegan, and Shawanee tongues, are extracted from the Rev. Mr. Edwards’s publication, and are inserted to shew their analogy with the Chippeway language;[13] and, as he observes that the language of the Delawares in Pennsylvania, of the Penobscots on the borders of Nova Scotia, of the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada, of the Shawanees on the Ohio, and many other tribes of Savages radically agree, I judged the tables of analogy would not be unacceptable.
In the course of the historical part, several speeches in the Chippeway language are introduced: and at the end of the Vocabulary, a number of familiar phrases, which not only serve to shew the mode of speech, but give a better idea of the language than single words.
The numeral payshik, or one, is frequently used to express the articles a and the; and woke is the general word for the plural number, though not always used.
Mr. Carver’s Vocabulary will, in many instances, be found to differ from the Chippeway;[14] but when it is considered that though he calls it the Chippeway Vocabulary, in p. 414 of his work, he says “The Chippeway, or Algonkin,” which {x} evidently proves that he believes them the same language:—but with regard to the usefulness of the tongue, there is a perfect corroboration of sentiment; for he remarks that the Chippeway tongue appears to be the most prevailing of all the Indian languages.
It may not be amiss to observe, that the Chippeway tongue, as spoken by the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is somewhat different, though not essentially so, and is called by them the Home-Guard Language.
With regard to the Iroquois, or Mohawk tongue, which is peculiar to the Five and Six Nation Indians, it is not necessary in the fur-trade beyond Michillimakinac; and if it were, there are not wanting printed authorities sufficient to instruct:—this consideration has induced me to give only the numerals, and a few words in the language.
I have not any thing further to add, but a sincere wish that my labours may prove useful to the world; and that whatever defects may be found in the following work, the Public will look on them with candour; and will recollect that they are perusing, not the pages of a professed Tourist, but such observations as a commercial man flatters himself may be found acceptable to the merchant and the philosopher.