[The following article was communicated for our first edition by the venerable Col. John Johnston, of Upper Piqua, Ohio, who, for about half a century, had been an agent of the United States over the Indians of the West.  See page 519, Vol. II.
        The Wyandotts had resided on the soil of Ohio long before the French or English visited the country.  Forty-six years ago, I took a census of them, when they numbered 2300 souls.  In 1841 and 1842, I was, as the commissioner of the United States, negotiating with them a treaty of cession and emigration, when it was found, by actual and accurate county, that, in a little less than 50 years, they {pg 601} had been reduced to the number of 800; none had emigrated-all that was left were the subjects of my negotiation.  I had been their agent a great part of my life; and after being separated from them for 11 years by the power of the Executive, it fell to my lot, under the appointment of my honored and lamented friend and final removal from their cherished homes and graves of their  ancestors, to which, of all their race I had ever known, they were the most tenderly attached, to the country southwest of Missouri.
        The Shawanoese came into Ohio not long anterior to Braddock's campaign of 1754.  The occupied the country contiguous to the Wyandotts, on the Scioto, Mad river, the Great Miami, and the upper waters of the Maumee of the lake, being in the light of tenants at will under the Wyandotts.  They were their devoted friends and allies in all their wars with the white people-these two devoted friends tribes having been the last of the natives who have left us, for there is not an indian now in Ohio, nor an acre owned by one of their race within its limits.
        I have thought that a specimen of the respective languages of these tribes might form a proper item in the history of a state so lately owned and occupied by the primitive inhabitants.  The vocabulary, as far as it goes, is accurate, and may be relied upon.  the reader will at once observe the great dissimilarity in the two languages, not one word in the whole being common to both.  In all their large councils, composed of both tribes, interpreters were as necessary between the parties as it was between the Indians and the United States officers.  Not so with the Shawanoese, Delawares, Miamies, Putawatimies, Chippeways, Ottawas, Wee,as, Kickapoos and Piankeshawas-all of whom had many words in common, and tradition that their forefathers, at some remote period, came from the west; and this would seem to strengthen the commonly received opinion of Asiatic descent.  Many of the Indian customs, even at this day, are strictly Jewish: instance the purification of their women, the year of Jubilee, the purchase of wives, etc.
        All the Indians have some sort of religion, and allege that it was given to their forefathers, and that it would be offensive to the Great Spirit to throw it away and take up with any other.  They all believe that after this life is ended, they will exist in another state of being; but most of their sacrifices and petitions to their Maker are done with a view to the procuring of temporal benefits, and not for the health of the immortal part.
        Death has no terrors to an Indian; he meets it like a stoic.  The fate of the soul does not appear to give him the smallest uneasiness.  I have seen many die, and some in full confidence of happy immortality; such were not taught of the property to Indians, and never, in time of peace, was my confidence misplaced. I was, on one occasion, upwards of a week, in a time of high waters, alone, in the month of March, with a Delaware Indian in the woods, whom i ascertained afterwards to be a notorious murderer and robber; and having every thing about my person to tempt a man of his kind-a good horse, equipments, arms, clothing, etc.-and yet no one could be more provident, kind and tender over me than he was.  Wen the chiefs heard that I had taken this otherwise bad man for a guide, they were alarmed until informed of my safety.  I have had large sums of public money, and public dispatches of the greatest importance, conveyed by the Indians, without in any case suffering loss.