The Indians, as I have already remarked, are for the most part very slightly made, and from a survey of their persons one would imagine that they were much better qualified for any pursuits that required great agility than great bodily strength. This has been the general opinion of most of those who have written on this subject. I am induced, however, from what I have myself been witness to, and from what I have collected from others, to think that the Indians are much more remarkable for their muscular strength than for their agility. At different military posts on the frontiers, where this subject has been agitated, races, for the sake of experiment, have frequently been made between soldiers and Indians, and provided the distance was not great, the Indians have almost always been beaten; but in a long race, where strength of muscle was required, they have without exception been victorious; in leaping also the Indians have been infallibly beaten by such of the soldiers as possessed common activity: but the strength of the Indians is most conspicuous in the carrying of burthens on their backs; they esteem it nothing to walk thirty miles a day for several days together under a load of eight stone, and they will walk an entire day under a load without taking any refreshment. In carrying burdens they make use of a sort of frame, somewhat similar to what is commonly used by a glazier to carry glass; this is fastened by cords, or strips of tough bark or leather, round their shoulders, and when the load is fixed upon the broad ledge at the bottom of the frame, two bands are thrown round the whole, one of which is brought across the forehead, and the other across the breast, and thus the load is supported. The length of way an Indian will travel in the course of the day, when unencumbered with a load, is astonishing. A young Wyandot, who, when peace was about to be made between the Indians and General Wayne, was employed to carry a message from his nation to the American officer, travelled but little short of eighty miles on foot in one day; and I was informed by one of the general’s aids-de-camp, who saw him when he arrived at the camp, that he did not appear in the least degree fatigued. [Sidenote: MEMORY OF THE INDIANS.] Le P. Charlevoix observes, that the Indians seem to him to possess many personal advantages over us; their senses, in particular, he thinks much finer than ours; their sight is, indeed, quick and penetrating, and it does not fail them till they are far advanced in years, notwithstanding that their eyes are exposed so many months each winter to the dazzling whiteness of the snow, and to the sharp irritating smoke of wood fires. Disorders in the eyes are almost wholly unknown to them; nor is the slightest blemish ever seen in their eyes, excepting it be a result from some accident. Their hearing is very acute, and their sense of smelling so nice, that they can tell when they are approaching a fire long before it is in sight.