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the Indians were furnished by the traders; and as I have reason to believe, that you who are now presentare wise men, who have eyes in your heads, and areable to see things as they really are, I have felt adesire in my heart to know your opinions, and whatis your judgment concerning this thing—the usingspirituous liquors to excess; believing, brothers, thatif you have seen things in the same light in which Ihave seen them, that you would be desirous that astop might be put to the evils, that arise from the useof so destructive a liquor. I may tell you, brothers,who are now present, as well as the Indians in general, that I have believed that there is not anything that stands more in your way to improvementthan this, the too frequent use of spirituous liquors:and I have thought, that if you are of the same mind with us, who are your friends, and have your goodat heart, that it would be right for us to take thesubject into our serious consideration, to endeavourto discover, whether there may not be some steptaken, that would put a check upon this perniciousthing. Now, brothers, as a hint of this sort was omittedwhen we were together last evening, some of us didnot find our minds easy: we thought it ought to have come under consideration, hoping that you, who,as I have already said, have eyes in your heads, andcan see for yourselves, have had this subject underyour consideration. We now hope, brothers, thatyou will express yourselves freely to us on this sub-ject, and let us know how it has happened to you.After which, perhaps, it will open a way for some further observations from us. After a short pause, the Little Turtle, on his seat, said, I will now make some reply, if none of mybrothers have one to offer. He was desired to proceed—when, rising on hisfeet, he said,