The experiences of Judge Williams, with respect to the subject of the higher education of those tribes of North American Indians, whose territories were in the upper part of the valley of the Mississippi, corresponded with what I was told by the French Missionaries placed in charge of the Indian convents in the valley of the St. Lawrence. More than two centuries had elapsed since the work of converting, educating and civilising the Iroquois, Chippewa and Algonquin tribes was undertaken. During that long time there had been no good result. The earnest labours and devotion of their lives to these duties had been unavailing, and the attempts to overcome the wild instincts of Indians were thoroughly unsuccessful. The Judge was of opinion, that, with all Indians, the desire for a free and savage life, became irrepressible upon reaching manhood. On the plains near the river, there were numerous vestiges of native encampments. At Nauvoo, I was told by a farmer that he opened a great number of low mounds which were on his land, and had found in them nothing but broken pottery and charcoal, but in ploughing his fields he had discovered quantities of arrow heads, and several grooved stone hammers.[33] Higher up the Mississippi we entered the country once occupied by the Dakotas, who in the seventeenth century were considered to be a most brave and powerful tribe, having superstitious customs and tribal regulations of an unusual nature. One of their minor methods of warfare was noticed by the early explorers on the prairies through which we were passing. It was the custom with wandering bands of this race, if surprised by a larger body of enemies and thus unable to make an open resistance, to dig wide, shallow pits, in which they placed the women and children, and obtained a certain amount of protection for themselves. These excavations were scooped out with great rapidity, the men and their families using for this purpose knives, tomahawks and wooden ladles. This method of digging the ground, may probably have been similar to that adopted by the Mound Builders in raising their ramparts. War pits were also made by the Hurons when retreating from the Iroquois. When coasting the north shore of Lake Superior, I was shown on the map the positions where several of these places of refuge and defence had been observed.