voyage to Lake Superior, formerly called Lake Tracy, in honour of Mons. de Tracy, who was appointed viceroy of America by the French king in June, 1665. It is reckoned six hundred leagues in circumference, and on it are a great number of large and small islands. At the entrance of this lake is a high rock, somewhat in the shape of a man, which the Chippeway Indians call "Kitchee Manitoo," or the Master of Life. Here they all stop to make their offerings, which they do by throwing tobacco, and other things, into the water: by this they intend to make an acknowledgment to the rock, as the representative of the Supreme Being, for the blessings they enjoy, cheerfully sacrificing to {44} him their ornaments, and those things which they hold most dear.[1] An example worthy of imitation, so far as respects the good intention of the creature to the Creator, exhibiting an evident proof that man in his natural state, without any of the refinements of civilization, is sensible of his dependance on an invisible power, however ignorantly, or unworthily, he may express his belief. God alone knoweth the heart, and will judge every man by the knowledge he hath.
Superstition is a noxious plant, but it hath flourished in
every climate from the torrid to the frigid zone. If its
effects have proved so pernicious among civilized nations,
as we know they have, is it to be wondered that barbarians
have suffered by it? The poor untutored Indian will
not incur a great degree of censure for obeying the dictates
of his uninformed nature, and following implicitly the
custom of his ancestors. Revealed religion has not been
given to all, and it is a melancholy reflection that those
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- ↑ On the offering of tobacco to "Manitous," see Jesuits Relation, x, p. 324. See, also, caption "Manitou,” in index thereto.—Ed.
