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178 the payment was very uncertain, depending on the agent’s ability to get everything in readiness. We now heard for certain that the payment would not take place for some days at least, and the captain gave notice that he should return in the evening. So we landed with the intention of procuring what accommodation we could at the Agency for a few days, and of getting back to St. Paul in the best way we could. The Agency is situated on the right bank of the Minnesota, at a height of perhaps two hundred feet above the landing, overlooking on one side the beautiful valley of the river, and on the other three one vast green field of rolling prairie stretching away to the horizon. What few houses there are are of the simplest kind, and belong chiefly to the Indian traders, who buy skins and furs of the Indians, and sell them flour, blankets, or anything they require, frequently taking, in default of money, from those who are hard up, even pipes and personal ornaments, which they make a profit of, either by reselling to their former owners when flush of cash, or to any stray traveller curious in such matters, who, like ourselves, might chance to visit the Reservation. These traders’ stores are served by half-breeds who speak both languages. Scattered thinly about the neighbourhood are the bark huts of those Indians who, though absent for a great portion of the year, yet regard the place as central quarters, and return to it at sowing and harvesting seasons, while here and there are a few clapboard cottages, built by the government for those who can be induced to settle and farm a grant of land. There were comparatively few tents to be seen at this time, though the Indians about the place were in greater numbers than usual, owing to the near approach of the payment. They consist of two classes—the “civilised,” or farmer Indians, and the “blanket,” or wild Indians. The so-called “civilised” are those who have consented to discard their wild dress in favour of that of the whites, and have thus made themselves eligible to receive a government grant of land, to which are generally added a cottage, the fencing of the soil, a yoke of oxen, and a few agricultural implements. The exchange of blankets and leggings for coat and trowsers is insisted on as the one essential qualification for the receipt of this bounty; but it was decided in one of the Minnesota courts about this time, that, to render himself capable of voting in the elections, the Indian must go a step farther and be conversant with one of the languages of civilisation. The “civilised” class are greatly in the minority, and, indeed, it must require no slight moral courage in the Indian to enter it, for those who do so are regarded with some contempt by the remainder as playing false to their tribe, and with not a little jealousy into the bargain, as, owing to a considerable portion of the annual payment being set aside as an agricultural fund to meet the wants of those who farm, they have a larger proportionate share of the money expended on them; and, in case of any discontent arising amongst the wild class on the subject of the payment, trouble is sure first to show itself in a series of depredations on the property of the “white Indians,” as the farmers are nicknamed by the rest. The Indian, accustomed to wear no kind of head-covering himself, considers the hat the most distinctive feature of the white man’s dress, and several, who had made up their minds to become “civilised,” were at this time waiting only till some hats could be procured, there being none at that time to be got in the place. Nothing would induce them to adopt pro tem, the remainder of the dress without the hat. On the other hand, they will not part with their moccasins, the easy freedom of which they are naturally loath to exchange for the confinement of a boot. In this point the exchange is the other way, for moccasins are worn generally by the whites. The Indians, whether wild or civilised, associate mostly with members of their own class, and a civilised Indian is obliged to give up whatever authority he may have held in his band. But the line which divides the two classes is, in reality, a very narrow one—a mere burlesque on civilisation. The interior of the civilised Indian’s cottage is fully as wild as that of his wild neighbour’s hut or tent, the more so in appearance from being out of keeping with the more pretentious outside. The women appear to be regarded as civilised ipso facto by the civilisation of their lords and masters, and without the form of a change of dress.

The Indian agent is appointed by the President on his taking office, for the term of his presidency, and quits office with the President at the end of that time, like every other government officer, down to a country postmaster with a salary of 20l. a-year, to make way for an adherent of the party in power. He has a house at the Agency to which he is appointed, and out of a salary of but 1500 dols. (300l.) a-year, contrives in nine cases out of ten to solve the problem of retiring with a fortune at the end of his four years’ term. Though the salary is small, the “stealings” are large, and are carried on at the expense of the unfortunate Indian, and the “stealings” are alone thought to render the appointment worth the having by such men as possess influence enough to get it.

“Is it likely,” an American on the Reservation put it to me, “that what d’ye call him,” (naming the agent recently appointed by Lincoln), “would throw up a good lawyer’s business at St. Paul, that brought him an income of five thousand dollars, a year, for the sake of a four years’ salary of fifteen hundred dollars, unless he expected to make something more out of it?”

The agent exercises a sort of arbitrary power on the Reservation under his charge. Strictly speaking no stranger is allowed to set foot on it without his permit, but the rule is not enforced without special cause. If an Indian commits any offence demanding notice, the agent summarily sentences him to imprisonment with ball and chain at the nearest fort. Nor is there usually any difficulty in enforcing the sentence. The Indians appreciate their own interests too well to throw any obstacle in the way. I saw, myself, one who had been caught shooting his neighbour’s ox with an arrow, driven off to Fort Ridgeley without the slightest disturbance. And the agent, being authorised by government to do everything in his power to keep the Indians on the Reservation, and induce them to farm, is able to stop the payment of any who