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L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Indian Lands and Indians of Quebec (Lower Canada)

Indiands and Indians of Quebec ( Lower Canada )

[This text was written in 1832 by Joseph Bouchette. For the full citation, see the end of the text.]

INDIAN LANDS and INDIANS. Adjoining Godmanchester on the west is a space reserved for the use of the domiciliated Indians of St. Regis and commonly known by the name of the Indian Lands: it forms a triangle bounded by Lake St. Francis, Godmanchester and the line of 45 0 : its side on the lake is about 10 miles and that on the line 12 ½ miles. The land is, generally, of superior quality and well furnished with fine timber. Of the 17,320 acres of leased lands in this settlement, there are upwards of 4000 low and unfit for cultivation, except at a great expense; on these grow black ash, elm, cedar, pine and tamarack. There are besides about two thousand acres of open marsh, not leased, which grow nothing but coarse grass, bushes of various kinds, willows and alders. - These open marshes were of considerable use to the settlers on their first arrival in furnishing winter food for neat cattle, but now that the inhabitants have all got part of their farms sown with tame grass, these marshes are comparatively of little value and are likely to remain so for generations to come, as nothing but the lowering of the Côteau du Lac rapid can make them fit for cultivation. This, if not done by the hand of man, but left to the gradual operations of the stream of the St. Lawrence, will take a longer time than is easy to be calculated. - The remaining part of the leased land consists of rising grounds of no great elevation, which, if cleared, would look like so many islands in the midst of those swales. Where the ridges are highest the land is rather stony, but taking the dry lands on an average the soil is good and fit to raise any sort of crops, with respect either to quality or quantity, that will grow on any other part of Lower Canada . The timber growing on these ridges consists of maple, birch, beech, basswood and occasionally some hemlock; and these ridges once produced considerable quantities of white pine and oak. The only stream of consequence in the settlement is Salmon River, which, from its mouth to the province line, a distance of four miles and upwards, is navigable for vessels not drawing more than four feet of water this R. is a great thoroughfare for the admission of American produce. - Among the various obstacles to the improvement of the settlement, the want of roads is not the least. The difficulty and expense attending the bringing of the Grand Voyer to such a distance has, no doubt, been one of the causes of the want of roads in this place; and now that part of the difficulty has been surmounted and a road laid out, there remains a still greater, viz. the doing the necessary work. Owing to a great proportion of the St. Regis Indian reservation being low and swampy marshes, it is necessary to pave the way over which the line of road runs with logs, which makes the labour necessarily so heavy, that unless some legislative aid is obtained, it must be a long time before any road can be in such a state as to render traveling comfortable. Although the marshes in this tract are neither few nor small, there is not the slightest vestige of any of the diseases which usually attend such places. In fact there is not a more healthy people on the whole continent of America .

Statistics, including the Dundee Settlement on part of the Indian Lands.

The Indians, who were the aboriginal inhabitants of the province of Lower Canada , have not been nearly exterminated without leaving materials for melancholy reflection. Even tribes of savages cannot be swept away from the earth without creating a sentiment of regret and a moral derived from the mutability of every thing human. Their extinction having been principally effected by the thirst of dominion and the hunger of avarice, assisted by superstition, leaves no enviable trace of the milder virtues of the christians. The few remains of these persecuted tribes are scattered about the province and peaceably submit to the slow and gradual amelioration of more civilized habits. Their rude principles of unenlightened faith are already supplanted by the doctrines of the Roman Catholic creed, to which they universally subscribe; and if a greater number of schools were established among them, it is probable that in a few years their origin would be only known by their colour. - The names of the existing tribes and their places of residence in this province are as follow :

Tribes                                       Places of Residence

Iroquois or Mohawks                   St. Regis at the head of L. St. Francis; Coghnawaga                                                     in Sault St. Louis; and Lac des Deux Montagnes.

Algonquins and Nipissingues       Lac des Deux Montagnes

Abenakis                                   Village of St. François; the S. of Bécancour; from the                                                  R. St. Francis to the Chaudière; and at the mouths                                                       of the Ristigouche and the Madawaska.

Hurons                                      Village of Jeune Lorette

Micmacs, Malécites

or Amalécites                            Towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Montagnais                               Lake St. John and the Saguenay country.

Indians of the Algonquin and Tête de Boule nations hunt along the R. St. Maurice. The families that occupied the hunting-grounds between the rivers Ste. Anne and St. Maurice are entirely extinct.

The Abenaki Tribe reside in the Indian Village in the east side of the R. St. Francis , in the S. of St. Francois. The village consists of about 40 cabins or houses of wood indifferently built. These converted Indians subsist upon their own lands in that seigniory by raising, in their peculiarly careless manner, some Indian corn and potatoes, and by rearing poultry and pigs: they sometimes increase these means by fishing and sometimes by hunting parties : the latter is but a precarious resource, as they are compelled to go to an immense distance before they can meet with game to repay their labour; for as the habitations of civilized men have spread over the province, the animals that were the prior occupants have fled for protection to the recesses of more distant forests. This v. contains a church and a parsonage-house, at which the missionary who superintends the religious concerns of the tribe always resides. An interpreter also has a permanent residence among them. Some of this tribe inhabit an Indian v. in the S. of Bécancour, which is a little below the v. of Bécancour and consists of some houses of wood, ill-built, or rather cabins. The manners and occupations of these Indians are precisely the same as those of the v. of St. Francois . They have also a village in the co. of Rimouski, at the confluence of the rivers Madawaska and St. John ; and another at the mouth of the R.   Ristigouche, in the co. of Bonaventure, called the Indian Village Mission. - The Abenaki Indians of the v. of St. Francois hold, by letters patent, 8150 acres in the T. of Durham.

The Algonquins and Iroquois Tribes inhabit an Indian village in the S. of the Lake of Two Mountains, which is agreeably seated on a point of land projecting into the lake and consists of about 60 houses, a church and a parsonage-house, where a missionary always resides. The Indians of this village are the descendants of a tribe that inhabited or frequented the lands bordering upon Lake Huron [1]; the few who survived the massacre of that race by the treachery of their enemies effected their escape, and their progeny now occupy 2 or 3 small villages in different parts of the province. Those of the village of the Two Mountains are become civilized and have adopted many of the manners and customs of the Canadians and acquired a knowledge of the French language, which they use fluently : they are quiet and inoffensive and preserve the greatest harmony among themselves and civility towards the other inhabitants. They place an implicit confidence in the resident minister, whose influence over them is unbounded. Some lands are assigned to them near their village, which they cultivate with wheat, Indian corn and other grain; of late years they have also planted potatoes in considerable quantities : from these sources, increased by the pro­duce of the chase, which a part of the men follow during the winter season, a subsistence is derived which, apparently, they enjoy with some of the comforts of civilization.

The Montagnais or mountaineer nation, called in the Cree language Papinashuah, which means "laughers or sneerers," are descended from the Algonquins and frequent the immense tract of country lying from the mouth of the St. Lawrence northward to the Hudson's Bay territory; they are generally a harmless people without any fixed habitations, wandering in the limits assigned among themselves as hunting-grounds, their only means of living being by hunting and fishing. In 1804 there were about 1000 of these Indians, women and children included, between the River St. Maurice, King's Posts, Mingan Seigniory and coast of Labrador . In 1809 their number had diminished to about 800 and in 1824 it amounted to only 700 at most, owing to starvation, small-pox, fevers and the inordinate use of spirituous liquors. When they go on board of vessels rum is their principal object, by which they get so much intoxicated that often in getting ashore they upset and many are drowned. When in a state of intoxication they often sleep in damp places, by which they get their death. During summer they subsist on fish, fowl and eggs, of which they have great plenty; and in winter on beaver, deer, partridges and porcupines; and, when they are near lakes, by cutting holes in the ice, they get trout and white fish the former they take with hooks, the latter with nets; but as this is a kind of laborious work, the ice being from 3 to 4 feet thick, they seldom try it except when in a state of starvation. They have a great repugnance to agricultural labour and have no traditions among them besides a faint idea of the order of the Jesuits, who taught them the first principles of religious worship, and, having the greatest influence over them, converted almost all of them to Christianity. When the Jesuits first settled among them, in the reign of Louis XIV, on the borders of Lake St. John, the Montagnais nation was in its greatest prosperity. The number of Indians in the vicinity of L. St. John is now very inconsiderable; there are only 10 families on the border of the lake, about the same number in the Chicoutimi country, and about 15 families on Lake Chuamouchouan, which is 50 1. w. of Lake St. John and the last post in the Saguenay country. Their numbers have also greatly diminished in the wretched country round Lake Mistassinni, which abounds with peltries of various kinds, since the time when the North­West Company held the King's Post, and more particularly of late years, since ardent spirits have been introduced among them. Their number has also been reduced by the small-pox, brought from Europe in the apparel and blankets given to them in exchange for their furs : with this disease from 50 to 100 have died in a day. There are now only 50 or 60 families who trade at the posts of the company : without these causes of mortality the number would have been at least 500. Their number has also been decreased by starvation, from the want of those animals which were once used for their sustenance and which they first began to destroy in too great profusion many ages ago. The Company of the Indies, which had an exclusive right to the trade, having greatly enhanced the value of elk-skins, which then abounded in this country, induced the natives to destroy that animal merely for the sake of its skin; thus that improvident people destroyed almost totally the species of animal which supplied their chief subsistence. From that time their numbers gradually decreased. Whenever one of the members of a Montagnais family dies, a victim to want, he is buried on the spot by the others, who immediately afterwards remove their camp to another place and so on until only one remains, when he abandons the place altogether and rushes heedless through the woods till he himself drops, the last victim of despair and starvation. - The dress of the females of this tribe is singularly varied in colours, and it usually consists in a loose piece of blue cloth trimmed with scarlet for their lower garment and a mantle of printed calico. Their hair is rolled up on each side of the head and twisted round with red tape, or with ribbon, to which they are very partial; a cap of a conical shape made of red, blue, green and white cloth, is generally worn, from beneath which a long queue of hair, twisted round with red tape, hangs down their back. The women smoke and drink spirits like the men. The usual dress of the men is very slovenly; it consists, generally, in an old blue coat or frock, or calico shirt, with linen trousers. The whole native population now does not much exceed 300; in a few years the race will be extinct, for the chase is continually diminishing. - Mr. Peter Chasseur, a mineralogist of Quebec, in his communication to a committee of the House of Assembly, speaks of the present condition of these destitute human creatures in the following affecting terms: "In mentioning White Birch Point I should add, that the tract is of no value to the Company of the Northern Posts, because it can in fact be useful only to those whose intention it is to render the productions of the soil profitable, instead of speculating upon the imbecility and ignorance of a tribe which is kept in a state of dependence probably as revolting to humanity as the slave-trade in another hemisphere. The visitant of that wilderness, which is in our immediate vicinity, cannot fail to experience the most afflicting sentiments on observing the natives of the soil, whom the weight of years prevents from gratifying the excessive avidity of a foreign master, contesting for the remains of the most worthless animal which I had stripped of its skin. The slave knows that laws exist which at least protect his existence, but of that our Indian has not the slightest idea. The number of those unfortunate persons who die of hunger and want would be yet more considerable if the humanity of the servants of the Company of the Posts did not frequently supply their wants."

The Iroquois or Mohawks live in the villages of St. Regis, at the head of Lake St. Francis, and Coghnawaga, in the S. of Sault St. Louis, of which seigniory they are the proprietors, as well as of a tract in the neighbourhood of St. Regis called Indian Lands. - Coghnawaga is on the banks of the St. Lawrence and consists of a church, a house for the missionary and about 140 other houses, principally built of stone, formed into 2 or 3 rows, something resembling streets, but not remarkable for cleanliness or regularity : their occupants may be about 900, who chiefly derive a subsistence from the produce of their corn-fields and the rearing of some poultry and hogs, some times assisted by fishing and hunting, which however they do not, as in an uncivilized state, consider their principal employment. This tribe, the most numerous of any brought within the pale of Christianity in Canada , has long been settled within a few miles of their present village. That the fierce and restless spirit of the wandering savage can be, in a great degree, civilized, these Indians are a proof : some of the men of this village and of the village of the Two Mountains were em­ployed in the British army, and no difficulty was found in bringing them under strict discipline, or in confining their operations within the laws of modern warfare. - The Village of St. Regis , also inhabited by the Iroquois tribe, is in a rich and beautiful country and well situated at the western extremity of the Indian Lands. The boundary line between Canada and the United States passes through it. About 50 houses or rather hovels, a church, a chapel and a house for the catholic minister, who is a missionary from the seminary of Quebec, compose the village. The habitations are poor, ill-built and more than commonly dirty; attached to them are small gardens or rather enclosures, where Indian corn and potatoes are planted, which, with what they raise on the Petite Isle St. Regis and some other isles in the St. Lawrence near the village, all of which are their own property, added to the produce of their fishing and sometimes hunting parties, constitute nearly their whole means of subsistence; for indolence, mistaken for the spirit of independence, destroys every idea of improving their condition by the profits of agriculture. - A reservation of land has been made for them by the American government similar to the tract called Indian Lands.

Statistics of the Village of St. Regis .

British Indians       352       Churches, R. C.               1 American Indians   369       Shopkeepers               1    Houses                  110       Artisans               4

Annual Agricultural Produce.

                                                 

Bushels.                Bushels.

                Peas      1,220        Indian corn       800

                Rye       1,000        Potatoes          4,800

The Hurons, or Yendat Tribe, in industry and a genius fruitful of resources, in bravery and eloquence, always surpassed all the other tribes of this part of the North American continent. Charlevoix accuses them of consummate treachery, and says that they united higher virtues with greater vices than any of the Indian tribes; his testimony, however, should be viewed with suspicion, for the historian of an invading and exterminating enemy is not the best evidence to prove a want of good faith in a cheated and ruined race. When the French first settled in Canada, the Yendat nation comprised 40,000 souls [2] and occupied the fairest portion of the North American continent. This once powerful tribe were treacherously destroyed by the Iroquois, who, under the specious pretence of alliance, obtained the confidence of their opponents, and by an indiscriminate massacre nearly extirpated the whole race the few who escaped fled towards the habitations of civilized man and established themselves in the rear of Quebec, many hundreds of miles from their native country on the borders of Lake Huron. In the year 1642 their celebrated chief, Ahatsistari, was baptized and the Yendat warriors soon followed the example of their favourite chieftain. The melancholy remains of this war­like race are chiefly living in a village in the S. of St. Gabriel called La Jeune Lorette, where they live by the chase and by fishing, drawing no part of their subsistence from the regular pursuits of agriculture. The Indians of this village are the descendants of the Huron Indians formerly domiciliated at Sillery. They are a quiet, peaceable, honest, industrious people and loyal subjects; have always been very faithful and devoted to his majesty's service when required, although on one occasion their answer to the governor was misrepresented. They are extremely useful both in peace and war, being always ready to go on public duty. Their number has been so much reduced that it is now become quite inconsiderable; in 1821 the population of La Jeune Lorette was 137, including only 32 heads of families, 3 unmarried young men above 21 years of age and 2 unmarried young women above 18; in the preceding 10 years there were 45 baptisms, 8 marriages and 29 burials. In 1824, the priest says, there were 28 or 29 families and about 70 communicants; by another account it appears the families amounted to about 35 and 20 persons were absent. - March 13, 1651, a grant of 2 ½ l. in the S. of St. Gabriel was made to these Indians, and the settlement at La Jeune Lorette was made in 1697; this Indian village is between 8 and 9 m. from the city of Quebec and is seated on the E. side of the r. St. Charles, on an eminence commanding a charming view of the river tumbling and foaming over the rocks and ledges to a great depth; the prospect is also in other respects most interesting, varied and extensive, comprising the beautiful city and environs of Quebec and extending wide and far over the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, terminated by the softened forms of the distant southern mountains. The number of houses in the v. is between 40 and 50, with something like the appearance of neatness in their exterior; they are chiefly built with wood and a few of them with stone. The church was built in 1730 at the expense of the Jesuits, the Indians working at the building and defraying part of the cost in furs : in 1824 the church and parsonage-house were much in decay, but, since the extinction of the order of Jesuits, the Indians have been no longer able, on account of their poverty, to make the necessary repairs. A Huron schoolmaster is supported partly by the government, but chiefly at the expense of the poor inhabitants. The mill was built in 1731 by the Jesuits out of the revenues, as the Indians suppose, of the estates, belonging to the Huron nation. When the mill was first erected the Jesuits allowed the Indians a bushel of wheat annually to each family, but this allowance did not continue long; it was soon reduced to one-half, that is, the Indians paid half-price for it : for the last 46 years they have had none of this allowance; the schoolmaster however had, till the death of the last of the Jesuits, an allowance of one bushel of wheat per month; the commissioners now allow him 5s. a month in commutation. The Indians know not on what account the Jesuits discontinued the allowance of wheat, but when it ceased they began to ask the Père Giroux for their lands at Sillery. The allowances at present made to the Lorette Indians by the military government consist in annual presents in clothes for the warriors, women and children and eight days' rations; they are also allowed arms and ammunition as warriors always ready for military service : these allowances were formerly made by the French to the Indian tribes. Mr. Berthelot, agent to the Jesuits' estates, demanded rents of the Indians, but they refused; he threatened to prosecute, they wished him to do so, but no prosecutions have taken place. The articles manufactured in the village of Lorette and carried to market, or out of the village for sale, are mocassins, snow-shoes, sashes, baskets, Indian sleighs, fur caps and mittens, collars of porcupine quills, purses, reticules, bows, arrows, paddles, small canoes and little figures of Indians. The bows and arrows and mocassins are very neatly finished by the squaws. For these articles they occasionally find a sale, but at half the price they formerly obtained, and are often obliged to barter them for merchandise. Some of these Indians are joiners and house-carpenters and others are obliged to work as day labourers, there being much poverty; and four families, consisting of about 20 persons, are reduced to absolute want. The greater number have no land, but merely an emplacement ; 40 arpents, however, are allotted to them in common, and some plant a few potatoes and sow a little Indian corn and a few oats on some little pieces of land, which they have received from their parents or purchased. Hunting and fishing, by which they support themselves, are very precarious modes of living. The Huron nation had, formerly, for their hunting and fishing limits the country extending from the R. Chicoutimi as far as the mouth of the R.   St. Maurice ; they used also to hunt and fish on the south shore of the St. Lawrence as far as the river St. John . Before that time the Hurons had no limits for hunting and fishing, and were masters of the country as far as the great lakes; their ancestors permitted no one to hunt or fish on their lands, and in former times if a nation came to hunt upon the lands of another nation, their so doing became a cause of war. Nearly 200 years ago the Seven Nations made an alliance with each other, to live in peace and in common, that is to say, that they were to eat with the same spoon, micoine, out of the same porringer; which signified that they were all to hunt together on the same lands to avoid all disputes with each other. For the last 50 years the Abenakis of the river St. John , the Micmacs and the Malécites have hunted over the lands of the Hurons and destroyed all their chase. When the Hurons had their chase entirely to themselves, it was a law among them to kill full-grown animals only, and to spare the young ones. Beaver they did not kill from June to August, because neither the fur nor the flesh was good for any thing at that season; the infringement of this law was considered murder; nor did they kill partridges during that season, because they were sitting. The other nations, who came to hunt on their lands, were not so considerate; those foreign Indians killed both the full-grown, animals and the young, and especially the beaver which always re­sides in the same place. In consequence of this lawless conduct the chase has been destroyed and the Hurons reduced to want; for they cannot, as their ancestors did, kill the strangers who intrude on their lands. The Hurons complain that even the Canadian peasantry take upon themselves to hunt and fish and destroy every thing, spreading snares for wild pigeons. The Indians frequently complain of want of means to suppress the disorders frequently occasioned by white people resorting to their village, and say, that they can easily keep their own people in order, but that they have no authority over the whites. The Lorette Indians now hunt as far as the sources of the Ste. Anne and the Batiscan. They take beaver, otter and martin, though these animals are less numerous than formerly. Their hunting season begins about the 25th March and towards the end of May they return. Some hunters begin about Michaelmas and return when the rivers are frozen. When the Indians meet with ravines, if they are not too wide, they cross them by means of a tree which they fell for the purpose; when they are too wide to be passed in that manner, they use small rafts. The moose-deer or elk, formerly very common round Quebec, is now very scarce; it was once one of the chief sources of the wealth of the numerous savage tribes. It is only in the fine days of spring, when the snow-shoes are easily borne up, or when in the early part of the day, after the usual frost of the night, large tracts of the country can be visited on the hard even substance without this encumbrance; and when the open rapids are the resort of water­fowl, and the lakes afford an ample supply of fish; that the vast solitudes, in which the moose-deer is found, can be advantageously visited : these solitudes are diversified by scenes of the wildest grandeur. The moose is the largest quadruped of the continent, often standing seven feet high; its immense palmated horns, its downcast head and short body give it a savage aspect, but it is of a timid character. It weighs as much as 10 and 12 cwt. and its flesh is of the most delicate flavour and considered very nutritious. It is not gregarious like the other species of the deer, but generally the male, female and one or two fawns accompany each other. In summer its swiftness makes its pursuit almost hopeless, and it is only in deep snows that it becomes a prey to the hunter. Its hoofs, unlike those of the rein-deer, are much sharper and more stiff, and during the whole season at each step it sinks to the ground. It cannot therefore travel far in the winter, and it early selects with its mates a spot for its beat where the bark and tender shoots of the hard wood abound; the formation of its teeth and its huge powerful upper lip, are well calculated to strip the bark from the trees, which in summer it does to the height of 40 or 50 feet. At each new fall of snow the party tread it carefully down throughout their beat. If surprised by the hunter they will sometimes not flee, but with the stupid defiance of the sheep paw the snow and threaten resistance; if a dog approach them, the male, with a blow from his foreleg which he uses very dexterously, will lay it dead at his feet : in this case they easily fall a victim to the gun. Generally, however, their acute senses of hearing and smelling apprise them of the approach of the hunter, and they run off at great speed, until overpowered by their own timorous efforts they sink. When the hunter appears on his snow-shoes he finds them out of breath, floundering in the snow and turning a very piteous look towards him, claiming his kindness. They however often again suddenly take new life, and turning round several times on the same spot, beat a solid place to give combat; the gun soon dispatches them. If they continue to run the hunter pursues, and coming up cuts with his tomahawk the tendons of the hind legs and soon secures the prize. The skin is made into shoes, and the hair of the mane is dyed and employed in the elegant ornaments of bark work, shoes, &c.: the hair is now so highly prized that as much as can be held in the hand sells for a dollar. The extension of the settlements and the incursions of other Indian tribes upon the hunting grounds of the Lorette Indians, to prevent which all their applications have failed, have so completely destroyed their chase that it is with the greatest difficulty they contrive to get a bare subsistence. These reasons induced them, in 1824, to subscribe a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of some of their chiefs, who undertook to cross the Atlantic in order to petition the king to redress their grievances. The object of their petition was principally to obtain the possession of the seigniory of Sillery, near Quebec, which was granted to their ancestors in 1651 and to which they believe they have a just right. The grand chief, the second chief, the chief of their council and the chief of the warriors arrived in England and were introduced to his majesty George IV and had the honour of a long conversation with him, each wearing a gold medal which had been presented by the king. They appeared in their grand national dress : their faces were painted and their hair, long and flowing, was decorated with feathers and with the tails of various animals. To their ears were appended large silver rings of rude and fantastical workmanship; their noses were decorated with similar ornaments and they wore silver plates on their arms. They were armed with tomahawks and scalping knives, which they wore in ornamental belts. The kind reception, condescension and gracious manners of the king tended much to alleviate the severity of their dis­appointment by being referred to the Canadian government, whose duty it was to examine into their claims. The Notes of Mr. Neilson on the attorney-general's opinion on these claims, a copy of which is in the hands of the author, seem to prove much in their favour; but these Christian Indians are poor and friendless; it appears that Providence alone can help theme.

[1] [ Note from the editor : Bouchette is incorrect on this point; the majority of the Indians of this site were descendants of christianized Iroquoians. Their geographical origin was from the territory of the Five Nations, i.e. south of lake Ontario , in upper New York state.]

[2] [This figure is likely far too high. The noted anthropologist Bruce Trigger estimates the population to have more likely been in the neighborhood of 24,000 at the time of the first contact with Europeans.]

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Source: Joseph BOUCHETTE, A Topographical Dictionary of the Province of Lower Canada, London , Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1832, unpaginated. Document transcribed by Soo Hyun Myong. Revision by Claude Bélanger The document has been reformatted for the web edition. Minor typographical errors have been corrected throughout the text.