Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/135

 

CHAPTER VIII.

 

THE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR FIRST INTERCOURSE WITH THE WHITE RACE.

 

The Ojibways discard their primitive utensils and weapons—They learn the value of the furred animals—Yearly visits to Quebec for purposes of trade—They radiate in bands from the bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong—The fur trade the main cause of their future movements and conquests—Mode of carrying on their wars—Tradition of Bi-aus-wah—He dies for his son—A war party raised to revenge his death—Six Fox villages destroyed—Foxes retire to Wisconsin—Wa-we-gis-ug-o locates a village at Fond du Lac—Nature of their intercourse with the whites at this period—Great convocation of tribes at Sault Ste. Marie 1671—Object of the French in this movement—Words addressed to the Ojibway chief by the French envoy—Ojibways learn to love the French—Causes thereof—Remarks on the nature of their treatment and intercourse, as compared with that of the British and United States Governments.

 

We have now come to that period in their history, when the important consequences of their discovery and intercourse with the white race began to work their effects upon the former even, monotonous, and simple course of life, which the Ojibways had pursued for so many generation, Their clay kettles, pots, and dishes were exchanged for copper and brass utensils; their comparatively harmless bow and arrow, knives and spears of bones, were thrown aide, and in their place they procured the fire-arm, steel knife, and tomahawk of the whites. They early became aware of the value of furs to the white strangers, and that the skins of animals, which they before used only for garments, now procured them the coveted commodities of the pale-faced traders, and the consequence was, that an indiscriminate slaughter, from this period commenced, of the beaver and other fur animals, which had grown numerous because molested only on occasions when their warm fur