"To glean the details of these movements would be to acquire the modern history of the tribe, which induced me to direct my inquiries to the subject but the lapse of even forty or fifty years, had shorn traditions of most of these details, and often left the memory of results only. The Chippeways told me that this chief had led them seven times to successful battle against the Sioux and Outagamies, and that he had been wounded thrice--once in the thigh, once in the right shoulder, and a third time in the side and breast, being a glancing shot. His war party consisted either of volunteers, who had joined his standard at the war dance, or of auxiliaries, who had accepted his messages of wampum and tobacco, and came forward in a body to the appointed place of rendezvous. These parties varied greatly in number. His first party consisted of but forty men; his greatest and most renowned of three hundred, who were mustered from the villages on the shores of the lake, as Far East as St. Mary's Falls."

This last party is the one, which Waub-o-jeeg led in the battle of the St. Croix, an account of which Mr. Schoolcraft proceeded to give. Respecting the details of this important occurrence, however, it appears that he has received but meager information, as he finishes it in a single paragraph.

He does not mention the sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who decided the fate of the battle, and which swelled the ranks of Waub-o-jeeg to three hundred and sixty warriors. The tradition of this event is still clearly related by the Ojibways of the Mississippi, they having learned it from the lips of their fathers who were present at the battle.
After giving in verse the plaintive lament of Waub-o-jeeg for the warriors who fell at St. Croix Falls, Mr. Schoolcraft, who, through his long official connection with the Ojibways, obtained an accurate knowledge of their general customs and mode of passing the different seasons of the year, continues in his forcible and lucid style to give a faithful picture of Indian life:
"It is the custom of these tribes to go to war in the spring and summer, which are not only comparatively seasons of leisure with them, but it is at these seasons that they are concealed and protected by the foliage of the forest, and can approach the enemy unseen. At these annual returns of warmth and vegetation, they also engage in festivities and dances, during which the events and exploits of past years are sung and recited: and while they derive fresh courage and stimulus to renewed exertion, the young, who are listeners, learn to emulate their fathers, and take their earliest lessons in the art of war.

"Nothing is done in the summer months in the way of hunting. The small furred animals are changing their pelt, which is out of season. The doe retires with her fawns from the plains and open grounds, into thick woods. It is the general season of reproduction, and the red man, for a time, intermits his war on the animal creation, to resume it against man. As the autumn approaches, he prepares for his fall hunts, by retiring from the outskirts of the settlements and from the open lakes, shores, and streams, which have been the scenes of his summer festivities, and proceeds, after a short preparatory hunt, to his wintering grounds. This round of hunting, festivity, and war, fills up the year; all the tribes conform in these general customs. There are no war parties raised in the winter. This season is exclusively devoted to procuring the means of their subsistence and clothing, by seeking the valuable skins, which are to purchase their clothing and their ammunition, traps, and arms.

"The hunting grounds of the chief, whose life we are considering, extended along the southern shores of Lake Superior, from the Montreal River, to the inlet of the Wis-a-co-da, or Burnt Wood River of Fond du Lac. If he ascended the one, he usually made the wide circuit indicated, and came out at the other. He often penetrated by a central route up the Mas-ki-go, or Bad River. This is region still abounding, but less so than formerly, in the bear, moose, beaver, otter, marten, and muskrat. Among the smaller animals are also to be noticed the mink, lynx, hare, porcupine, and partridge, and towards its southern and western limit, the Virginia deer.

"In this ample area, the La Pointe, or Chagoimegon, Indians hunted. It is a rule of the chase, that each hunter has a portion of the country assigned to him, on which he alone may hunt; and there are conventional laws which decide all questions of right and priority in starting and killing game. In these questions, the chief exercises a proper authority, and it is thus in the power of one of these forest governors and magistrates, when they happen to be men of sound sense, judgment, and manly independence, to make themselves felt and known, and to become true benefactors to their tribes. And such chiefs create an impression upon their followers, and leave a reputation behind them, which is of more value than their achievements in war.

"Waub-o-jeeg excelled in both characters; he was equally popular as a civil ruler and war-chief; and while he administered justice to his people, he was an expert hunter, and made due and ample provision for his family. He usually gleaned, in a season, by his traps and carbine, four packs of mixed furs, the avails of which were ample to provide clothing for all the members of his lodge circle, as well as to renew his supply of ammunition and other essential articles.

"On one occasion he had a singular contest with a moose. He had gone out one morning early, to set his traps. He had set about forty, and was returning to his lodge, when he unexpectedly encountered a large moose in his path, which manifested a disposition to attack him. Being unarmed, and having nothing but a knife and small hatchet, which he carried to make his traps, he tried to avoid it, but the animal came towards him in a furious manner. He took shelter behind a tree, shifting his position from tree to tree retreating. At length, as he fled, he picked up a pole, and quickly untying his moccasin strings, he bound his knife to the end of the pole. He then placed himself in a favorable position behind a tree, and when the moose came up, stabbed him several times in the throat and breast. At last the animal, exhausted with the loss of blood, fell. He then dispatched him, and cut out his tongue to carry home to his lodge, as a trophy of victory. When they went back to the spot for the carcass, they found the snow trampled down in a wide circle, and copiously sprinkled with blood, which gave it the appearance of a battlefield. It proved to be a male of uncommon size.

"The domestic history of a native chief can seldom be obtained. In the present instance, the facts that follow may be regarded with interest, as having been obtained from residents of Chagoi-me-gon, or from his descendants. He did not take a wife until about the age of thirty, and he then married a widow, by whom he had one son. He had obtained early notoriety as a warrior, which perhaps absorbed his attention. What causes there were to render this union unsatisfactory, or whether there were any, is not known; but after the lapse of two years, he married a girl of fourteen, of the Totem of the Bear, by whom he had a family of six Children. He is represented as of a temper and manners affectionate and forbearing. He evinced thoughtfulness and diligence in the management of his affairs, and the order and disposition of his lodge. When the hunting season was over, he employed his leisure moments in adding to the comforts of his lodge. His lodge was of an oblong shape, ten fathoms long, and made by setting two rows of posts firmly in the ground, and sheathing the sides and roof with the smooth bark of the birch. From the center rose a post crowned with the carved figure of an owl, which he had probably selected as a bird of good omen, for it was neither his own nor his wife's totem. The figure was so placed that it turned with the wind, and answered the purpose of a weathercock.

"In person, Waub-o-jeeg was tall, being six feet six inches, erect in carriage, and of slender make. He possessed a commanding countenance, united to ease and dignity of manners. He was a ready and fluent speaker, and conducted personally the negotiations with the Fox and Sioux nations. It was perhaps twenty years after the battle on the St. Croix, which established the Chippeway boundary in that quarter, and while his children were still young, that there came to his village in the capacity of a trader, a young gentleman of a respectable family in the north of Ireland, who formed an exalted notion of his character, bearing, and war-like exploits; This visit, and his consequent residence on the lake during the winter, became an important era to the chief, and has linked his name and memory with numerous persons in civilized life. Mr. Johnston asked the northern chief for his youngest daughter.

'Englishman,' he replied, 'my daughter is yet young, and you cannot take her, as white men have too often taken our daughters. It will be time enough to think of complying with your request when you return again to this lake in the summer. My daughter is my favorite child, and I cannot part with her, unless you will promise to acknowledge her by such ceremonies as white men use. You must ever keep her, and never forsake her.' On this basis a union was formed, it may be said, between the Erse and Algonquin races, and it was faithfully adhered to till his death, a period of thirty-seven years.

"Waub-o-jeeg had impaired his health in the numerous war parties which he conducted across the wide summit which separated his hunting grounds from the Mississippi Valley. A slender frame under a life of incessant exertion, brought on a premature decay. Consumption revealed itself at a comparatively early age, and he fell before this insidious disease in a few years, at the early age of about forty-five. He died in 1793, at his native village of Chagoimegon."

Waub-o-jeeg will long live in the traditions of the annals of his tribe. His descendants of mixed blood, by his youngest daughter, who married Mr. Johnston, are now numerous and widespread, being connected with some of the first families in the northwest. Mr. Schoolcraft himself, who is so well known by his numerous valuable works on the red race, married a daughter of this union, who was educated in Ireland. She proved, during the comparatively short period that her life was spared to him, an amiable and loving wife.

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