Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/267

Rh hundred warriors. In 1882, Mr. Schoolcraft estimates their total number of souls at eight hundred. In 1836 Mr. Nicollet estimates them as numbering one thousand, and in 1861, according to their payment census list, they number twelve hundred and fifty souls, and their chief estimates the men who are capable of bearing arms at about three hundred. These, it will be remembered, include only the band who make Leech Lake their home, or summer residence; and it is only these that are known by the distinctive name of Pillagers. The large bands residing at the present day at Red, Cass, and Winnepeg lakes, and on Pembina River, are known by the general term of Northern Ojibways.

Notwithstanding the never failing yearly drain which their warfare with the Dakotas have made in their ranks, yet still, from a natural increase, the healthfulness of the country they occupy, and gradual accessions from other villages, this band have increased in numbers and strength, till they now form a most respectable section of the Ojibway tribe. The manner in which they obtained the significant name by which they are now generally known, is told by their old men as follows:—

During the summer of the year which we have designated, the Leech Lake band had moved down towards the well stocked hunting grounds of the Dakotas, and encamped at the entry of a small creek which empties into the Crow Wing River, about ten miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. While making the usual preparations for the performance of their grand medawe rite, a large canoe arrived from the Lower Mississippi, manned by white men, and laden with merchandise. The trader who had, for the first time, come to this far off point of the great river, had started from a great distance below on its waters, for the purpose of trading with the Ojibways. He arrived at their camp very sick, and was not able to enter