“On the 6th, I rode out with Captain Hunter to the Kickapoo village, which is about five miles from the fort. The Kickapoos are a branch of the great northern nation of Indians, which includes the Potawatomies, the Chippewas, and other numerous tribes. Their former territory has been bought by the United States, and this tract of country, along the southern bank of the Missouri, allotted in its stead; beside which, the United States engaged to supply them, for a certain time, with a stipulated quantity of provisions, clothes, &c. Living so near the settlements, they have lost most of the traits of their original character, and are a reduced, debased race; nevertheless, they are now interesting in a religious point of view. A miniature Mahomet has arisen among them, and the tribe is divided into two sects, the religious and irreligious; these are pretty equal in number, and the former acknowledge and obey, as secular chief, the prophet who teaches the new creed. This man preaches very good and enlightened morality. He pretends to have seen the Great Spirit in a vision, and to have received his command to proclaim his truths and precepts to the Indians. I should have been astonished at the excellence of his doctrine, and the soundness of his religious views, if I had not learned from a gentleman, long resident among them, the fountain from which he drew his knowledge. It appears, that, when very young, he learned the English language thoroughly, and, in remote parts of the State of Illinois, attended many Christian meetings. He thus became acquainted with the outlines of the Christian scheme, and with the morality which the Bible inculcates; and afterward grafting the knowledge thus acquired upon his Indian prejudices and superstitions, he has used it as an engine of personal aggrandizement, and become priest, prophet, and chief of half his nation. “I attended a preaching, which was held under a large, open, reed-thatched shed. The meeting was conducted with the greatest decorum; all the men under or near the shed stood uncovered; but in this, as in all the Christian churches that I have seen in any country, the greater part of the assembly were females. Each was supplied with a flat board, on which were carved symbols, which answered the purpose of letters, and enabled them to chime in with the prayer or hymn of the preacher.