On my arrival at Montreal, I was placed under the care of a very respectable merchant to learn the Indian trade, which is the chief support of the town. I soon acquired the names of every article of commerce in the Iroquois and French languages, and being at once prepossessed in favour of the savages, improved daily in their tongue, to the satisfaction of my employer, who approving my assiduity, and wishing me to be completely qualified in the Mohawk language to enable me to traffic with the Indians in his absence, sent me to a village called {5} Cahnuaga, or Cocknawaga, situated about nine miles from Montreal, on the south side of the River St. Laurence,[18] where I lived with a chief whose name was _Assenegethter_, until I was sufficiently instructed in the language, and then returned to my master’s store, to improve myself in French, which is not only universally spoken in Canada, but is absolutely necessary in the commercial intercourse with the natives, and without which it would be impossible to enjoy the society of the most respectable families, who are in general ignorant of the English language. {6} _A Description of the Village and Inhabitants of_ CAHNUAGA, _or_ COCKNAWAGA, _who some years since separated from the_ MOHAWKS. The Savages of this nation, who are called the praying Indians, from the circumstance of their chiefs wearing crucifixes, and going through the streets of Montreal with their beads, begging alms, separated long since from the Mohawk and River Indians, and for a considerable time after their separation, carried on an illicit trade between Albany and Montreal. The village contains about two hundred houses, which, though they are chiefly built of stone, have a mean and dirty appearance. The inhabitants amount to about eight hundred, and (what is contrary to the general observation on the population of the Indians) are continually increasing. It is considered as the most respectable of all the Indian villages, and the people are in a great degree civilized and industrious. They sow corn, and do not depend like other nations solely upon hunting for support; but at the same time, they are not fond of laborious work, conceiving it only suited to those who are less free, and retaining so much of their primeval valour and independence as to annex the idea of slavery to every domestic employment. Their hunting grounds are within the United States, at a considerable distance from the village, round Fort George, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point, where they kill beaver and deer, but not in such great abundance at present as they did formerly, the country being better inhabited, and the wild animals, from the present state of population, being obliged to seek a more distant {7} and secure retreat. The skins they obtain are generally brought down to Montreal, and either sold for money, or bartered for goods. It is not improbable, that in a few years there will not be many