The Indians, who yet remain ignorant of divine revelation, seem almost universally to believe in the exigence of one supreme, beneficent, all wise, and all powerful spirit, and likewise in the existence of subordinate spirits, both good and bad. The former, having the good of mankind at heart, they think it needless to pay homage to them, and it is only to the evil ones, of whom they have an innate dread, that they pay their devotions, in order to avert their ill intentions. Some distant tribes, it is said, have priests amongst them, but it does not appear that they have any regular forms of worship. Each individual repeats a prayer, or makes an offering to the evil spirit, when his fear and apprehensions suggest the necessity of his so doing. The belief of a future state, in which they are to enjoy the same pleasures as they do in this world, but to be exempted from pain, and from the trouble of procuring food, seems to be very general amongst them. Some of the tribes have much less devotion than others; the Shawnese, a warlike daring nation, have but very little fear of evil spirits, and consequently have scarcely any religion amongst them. None of this nation, that I could learn, have ever been converted to Christianity. [Sidenote: LANGUAGE.] It is a very singular and remarkable circumstance, that notwithstanding the striking similarity which we find in the persons, manners, customs, dispositions, and religion of the different tribes of Indians from one end of the continent of North America to the other, a similarity so great as hardly to leave a doubt on the mind but that they must all have had the same origin, the languages of the different tribes should yet be so materially different. No two tribes speak exactly the same language; and the languages of many of those, who live at no great distance asunder, vary so much, that they cannot make themselves at all understood to each other. I was informed that the Chippeway language was by far the most general, and that a person intimately acquainted with it would soon be able to acquire a tolerable knowledge of any other language spoken between the Ohio and Lake Superior. Some persons, who have made the Indian languages their study, assert, that all the different languages spoken by those tribes, with which we have any connection, are but dialects of three primitive tongues, viz. the Huron, the Algonquin, and the Sioux; the two former of which, being well understood, will enable a person to converse, at least slightly, with the Indians of any tribe in Canada or the United States. All the nations that speak a language derived from the Sioux, have, it is said, a hissing pronunciation; those who speak one derived from the Huron, have a guttural pronunciation; and such as speak any one derived from the Algonquin, pronounce their words with greater softness and ease than any of the others. Whether this be a just distinction or not I cannot