{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_58363/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_58363","id":"gutenberg_58363","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58363","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Indians of North America"],"text":"Produced by Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                               SKETCHES OF\n                            INDIAN CHARACTER:\n\n                       BEING A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE\n                     PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF CHARACTER\n                              EXHIBITED BY\n                       THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS;\n            ILLUSTRATING THE APHORISM OF THE SOCIALISTS, THAT\n                 \u201cMAN IS THE CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES.\u201d\n\n                    COMPILED BY JAMES NAPIER BAILEY.\n\n    \u201cIn order to complete the history of the human mind, and attain\n    to a perfect knowledge of its nature and operations, we must\n    contemplate man in all those various situations in which he\n    has been placed. We must follow him in his progress through\n    the different stages of society, as he gradually advances\n    from the infant state of civil life towards its maturity and\n    decline. We must observe at each period, how the faculties of\n    his understanding unfold; we must attend to the efforts of\n    his active powers, watch the various movements of desire and\n    affection as they rise in his breast, and mark whither they\n    tend, and with what ardour they are exerted.\u201d\n\n                                                   ROBERTSON.\n\n                                 Leeds:\n         PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA HOBSON, MARKET STREET,\n       BRIGGATE; SOLD BY ABEL HEYWOOD, OLDHAM STREET, MANCHESTER;\n     PATON AND LOVE, NELSON STREET, GLASGOW; JOHN CLEAVE, SHOE LANE,\n               FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.\n\n                                  1841.\n\n\n\n\nSKETCHES OF INDIAN CHARACTER.\n\n\nThe history of nations fully establishes the fact, that the character\nof man results from the operation of circumstances on his organism.\nThis great and important truth is written in such broad and legible\ncharacters on the face of human annals, as may easily be distinguished\nand can scarcely be mistaken. Among rude and savage tribes we discern\nfeatures of character, which are distinctly referable to the influence of\ncauses peculiar to the savage state; and among the members of civilized\ncommunities, we behold the manifestation of virtues, vices, and talents,\nwhich are also traceable to the operation of circumstances differing\nfrom those which determine the character of barbarous nations. There is\na marked dissimilarity between the barbarian of Labrador and the native\nof London or Paris; yet this difference is more the child of accident\nthan of nature, and would probably disappear in course of time were the\nparties to be subjected to the influence of similar institutions.\n\nAmong no people do we find more striking confirmations of the truth\nof the above doctrine than among the Aborigines of the North American\nContinent. In the character of that unhappy, but noble, race of men,\nwe find many striking peculiarities which can be ascribed only to\nthe influence of those circumstances in which the Indian tribes are\nplaced, and which mark them out as objects of peculiar interest to the\nphilosophic historian.\n\nThe European is polished, sagacious, and cunning; the Asiatic vainly\nproud and ostentatiously voluptuous; the African, patient, servile and\ndebased; and the North American Indian, haughty, warlike and independent.\nUndoubtedly there are causes for all these varied peculiarities of\nnational character, the developement of which, in relation to the Indians\nof America, shall form the subject of the present treatise.\n\nIn endeavouring to prove that man is the creature of circumstances by\nrapidly surveying the condition of the North American Indians, there are\ntwo methods which present themselves to our attention. The first and\nmost obvious, consists in selecting the principal features of Indian\ncharacter, and tracing them to the operation of causes peculiar to the\nIndian tribes. The second method consists in taking a view of the efforts\nmade by white men for the civilization of the Americans, and the good\nor ill success which has attended their exertions. In discussing the\nsubject, therefore, we shall adopt both these methods as far as our space\nand ability will allow.\n\nThe Indian character may be said to be a compound of the virtues and\nvices of savage life. Brave, generous, haughty and cruel, the North\nAmerican savage moves with a firmness of step and a dignity of bearing,\nwhich distinguish him as the monarch of the wilderness. The African\nsubmits to slavery; the North American Indian prefers banishment, and\neven death to it. We pity and oppress the former, because his patient\nendurance of labour renders him of importance, while we endeavour by\ncruel encroachments to exterminate the latter, because his lands are\nserviceable, and he scorns to become our servant. Such has ever been\nthe policy of professed Christians, and such the efforts of European\ncivilization with respect to this unhappy race of men.\n\nThe Red Indian is fast disappearing from his native forests. The Prairie\nwhich once echoed with his shrill warwhoop now resounds with the roar of\nthe Western rifle. His hunting grounds have become the prey of the pale\nfaces; the big knife has prevailed over the tomahawk; and the grave of a\nfreeman already yawns to receive the savage of the wilds.\n\nWhen Las Casas appeared before the Emperor Charles V. to dispute with\nQuevedo, Bishop of Darien, on the capacity of the South American Indians\nfor social improvement, \u201che rejected,\u201d says Robertson, \u201cwith indignation,\nthe idea that any race of men was born for servitude; and contended that\nthe faculties of the Americans were not despicable but unimproved; that\nthey were capable of receiving instruction in the principles of religion,\nas well as of acquiring the industry and arts which would qualify them\nfor the various offices of social life; and that the mildness and\ntimidity of their nature rendered them so docile and submissive that\nthey might be led and formed with a gentle hand.\u201d On the contrary, the\nBishop of Darien contended \u201cthat they were a race of men marked out\nby the inferiority of their talents for servitude; and whom it would\nbe impossible to instruct or improve, unless they were kept under the\ncontinual inspection of a master.\u201d[1] To the disgrace of the Spanish\nname, the sentiments of Quevedo obtained more general credence than the\ntruths uttered by the impassioned, and eloquent Las Casas. The Indians\nwere still kept in a state of servitude, by the discoverers and tyrants\nof the West; and under pretext of reclaiming them from idolatry, and\ninstructing them in the principles of the _Christian faith_ they were\nobliged to endure the most galling servitude, and compelled to perform a\nvariety of unwholesome labours which soon terminated their existence, and\nleft scarcely a remnant of their devoted race to tell the story of their\noppression and their sufferings!\n\nSuch has ever been the policy of those who, spurred on by an exorbitant\nand all grasping selfishness, desire to tyrannize over their fellow\nbeings, and trample on their rights, their liberties and their lives.\nNor is this policy wanting on the part of those who either are, or\ndesire to be, the oppressors of the North American Indians. The whites\nhave, with few exceptions, denounced the savages of America as a cruel,\nblood-thirsty, and treacherous race of men\u2014incapable of improvement,\nand therefore unworthy of that attention which has been devoted to the\ncivilization of other barbarians. That this is a mere pretext under\ncolour of which the most horrid crimes might be perpetrated,\u2014an opiate\nfor a guilty and accusing conscience,\u2014must be evident to all who have\nmade the Indian character the subject of their peculiar study. But\nbecause Europeans, blessed with all the lights of civilization, and all\nthe influence of a religion purporting to be from heaven, have not only\nendeavoured, but are continually endeavouring, to encroach on the hunting\nterritories of the Indians, some excuse must of course be invented to\npalliate their enormities, and screen their conduct from that general\nreprobation which it deserves. The Aborigines of America are therefore\nrepresented as false, cruel and blood-thirsty, as well as incapable of\nemerging from their present state of ignorance and barbarism.\n\nBefore the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, the opponents of\nthat measure were accustomed to represent the inhabitants of Ireland,\nas factious, discontented, and rebellious. Admitting, for the sake of\nargument, the truth of these allegations, we ask why did the inhabitants\nof Ireland evince these national characteristics? Simply because they had\nbeen galled and oppressed for a long course of time, by the enactments of\nan illiberal government. And if we admit that the Indians of America are\nstill in a state of barbarism, and that they exhibit most, if not all,\nthe vices incident to the savage state, may we not enquire the reason\nwhy they continue in this condition? The answer we think is obvious. The\nwhites have seldom attempted to raise them from their state of original\nwildness; for almost all the measures they have adopted, in relation to\nthe Indians, have been better adapted to oppress than to reclaim, to\ndestroy than to regenerate.\n\nIn attempting to lay before the reader a rough delineation of Indian\ncharacter, it is necessary that we should attend to all the elements\nwhich enter into its composition. We shall therefore treat in the first\nplace\u2014\n\n\n\n\n_Of the bodily constitution of the North American Indians, and of the\nmeasure of their intellectual faculties._\n\n\nRobertson, in his graphic representations of Indian character, affirms or\nrather insinuates, that the constitution of the American Indian labours\nunder some physical defect. But that this defect is an accident arising\nfrom the influence of peculiar institutions, and the mode of training\nprevalent among the Indian tribes, is evidenced by the facts which that\nhistorian himself relates. The American Indian may be indolent during\na season of peace. Extreme lassitude and an apparent want of physical\nenergy may form the more prominent traits in his character. But when war\ndemands his exertions in the field, or when pressed by the necessities\nof nature to go in quest of food, he displays a courage, an address, and\nan amount of bodily energy which prove him to be possessed of physical\nstrength equal to that which the natives of more polished and civilized\nclimes exhibit. It is during a season of hunting or of war that the most\nstrenuous exertions of courage, force, and activity are called forth.\nThe savage of America, at such a time, appears to shake off the native\nindolence of his disposition. He becomes patient, active, courageous and\nindefatigable. All the powers of his mind and of his body are roused into\nexertion; and he performs feats of agility and of strength, and exhibits\na degree of perseverance, which prove him to be in these respects equal\nto the natives of Europe.\n\nIt is true the exhibition of perseverance and strength, on the part of\nthe American savage, is not constant but casual. It is only when fierce\npassions stimulate him to exertion, that he puts forth all his powers.\nNevertheless the casual exhibition of this strength and perseverance\nproves, that the opposite qualities are not essential to his nature; and\nseemingly warrants the conclusion that the indolence and want of energy\nwhich mark his character, are the results of that peculiar system of\ntraining to which he has been subjected.\n\nOf the persevering speed of the Americans many instances are on record.\nAdair mentions a Chikkasah warrior who ran through woods and over\nmountains, three hundred computed miles in a day and a half and two\nnights. \u201cI have known the Indians,\u201d he observes in another place, \u201cto\ngo a thousand miles for the purpose of revenge, in pathless woods, over\nhills and mountains, through huge cane swamps, exposed to the extremities\nof heat and cold, the vicissitudes of seasons, to hunger and thirst.\nSuch is their over-boiling revengeful temper, that they utterly contemn\nall these things as imaginary trifles, if they are so happy as to get\nthe scalp of the murderer or enemy to satisfy the craving ghosts of\ntheir deceased relations.\u201d Robertson, in the notes to his History of\nAmerica, states that \u201cM. Godin le Jeune, who resided fifteen years among\nthe Indians of Puru and Quito, and twenty years in the French Colony of\nCayenne, in which there is a constant intercourse with the Galibis, and\nother tribes on the Orinoco, observes, that the vigour of constitution\namong the Americans is exactly in proportion to their habits of labour.\nThe Indians, in warm climates, such as those on the coasts of the South\nSea, on the river of Amazons, and the river Orinoco, are not to be\ncompared for strength with those in cold countries; and yet, says he,\nboats daily set out from Para, a Portugese settlement on the river of\nAmazons, to ascend that river against the rapidity of the stream; and\nwith the same crew they proceed to San Pablo, which is eight hundred\nleagues distant. No crew of white people or even of negroes, would be\nfound equal to a task of such persevering fatigue as the Portugese have\nexperienced; and yet the Indians, being accustomed to this labour from\ntheir infancy, perform it.\u201d[2]\n\nThese facts prove, that whatever may be the accidental indolence of the\nIndian tribes, they do not labour under any physical defect essential\nto them as men, and not peculiar to the natives of other climes. The\nfine gentleman of Europe, who has been nursed in the lap of luxury and\nrefinement, would, if compelled to labour, exhibit as great a want of\nphysical strength as the Indian of America. The difference in this\nrespect between the Aborigines of the Western world, and the inhabitants\nof more civilized regions, is purely accidental. Reared within the pale\nof a civilized community, and surrounded with innumerable objects adapted\nto awaken thought, stimulate curiosity, and call his mental and bodily\npowers into exertion, the European feels a variety of wants, and is\nsubject to a variety of influences to which the savage is a stranger.\nExperience gives him foresight and wisdom, and induces him to act with\na view to remote advantage, as well as to present gratification. The\nnumerous casualties and reverses of fortune which happen to individuals\nin civilised society, teach him to be provident for the future. The\nsimple necessities of nature, as well as the more numerous class of wants\nwhich follow in the train of civilization, stimulate him to engage in\nlong courses of action by which his mental faculties are enlarged, his\nbodily strength disciplined, and his power of persevering increased. But\nwith the Indian of America the case is in many respects reversed. His\nfood and drink are in most cases obtained with little trouble, and his\nnatural wants, which are few, are easily satisfied. The flesh of the wild\nanimals he ensnares or kills in the chase, the roots of native plants and\nvegetables, and a small proportion of maize or Indian corn, along with\nfruits and other things obtained with as little art, serve him for food;\nthe skins of beasts for clothing; and a week-wam, constructed with a\nsmall amount of skill and labour, affords him shelter from the inclemency\nof the weather. Surrounded with abundance of hunting territory, wherein\nthe (to him) staple commodities of life are plentiful, he is satisfied,\nand lives in a state of comparative independence. Believing that his own\nlot is the happiest, and accustomed to roam the forest from his infancy,\nhe feels not the force of those powerful motives which affect the bosoms\nof other men. The love of gain is in his case modified by the extent of\nhis information respecting it; and as the commodities, which to him are\narticles of wealth, are easily procured, he consequently becomes indolent\nwhen surrounded by abundance.\n\nWe do not attempt to insinuate that the North American Indian is equal\nto the European in address, wisdom, or even physical ability, at the\npresent time. We only contend that the lack of physical energy, which\nsome authors say the Aborigines of America exhibit, proceeds not from any\nconstitutional defect peculiar to them as a race, but from accidental\ncauses over which they have but little control. Let these causes be\nremoved\u2014let the Indians be subjected to a different mode of treatment\u2014let\nthem be placed under those influences which affect the inhabitants of\ncivilized communities, and we have reason to opine that they would\nexhibit a character as vigorous as that of Europeans.\n\nThe following general description of the physiological part of Indian\ncharacter we quote from a modern writer:\u2014\u201cthe natives of this part of the\nworld are in general of a robust frame, and a well proportioned figure.\nTheir complexion is of bronze, or reddish copper hue\u2014rusty coloured, as\nit were, and not unlike cinnamon. Their hair is black, long, coarse, and\nshining, but not thickly set on the head. Their beard is thin and grows\nin tufts. Their forehead is low, and their eyes are lengthened out, with\nthe outer angles turned up towards the temples; the eyebrows high, the\ncheekbone prominent; the nose a little flattened but well marked; the\nlips extended, and the teeth closely set and pointed. In their mouth\nthere is an expression of sweetness, which forms a contrast with the\nharsh character of their countenance. Their head is of a square shape,\nand their face is broad, without being flat, and tapers towards the chin.\nTheir features viewed in profile, are prominent and deeply sculptured.\nThey have a high chest, massy thighs, and arched legs: their feet are\ngenerally large, though some have been noticed to have small feet and\nhands; and their whole body is squat and thick-set. Though the shape of\nthe forehead and of the vertex frequently depends on artificial means,\nyet independently of the custom which prevails among them of disfiguring\nthe heads of infants, there is no other people in the world in whom the\nfrontal bone is so much flattened above; and generally speaking, the\nskull is light. Such are said to be the general characteristics of all\nthe natives of America, with the exception, perhaps, of those who occupy\nthe two extremities. The Northern Esquimaux, for instance, are below the\nmiddle stature; the Abipones, it is said, and still more the Patagonians,\nexceed the ordinary height. This muscular constitution, with a tall\nfigure, is in some degree met with among the natives of Chili, as well as\nthe Caribbeans, on the banks of the Caroni, a tributary of the Orinoco,\nand amongst the Arkansas, who are esteemed the handsomest natives of this\ncontinent.\n\n\u201cThe copper or bronze hue of the skin is, with some slight exceptions,\ncommon to all the natives of America, upon which the climate, the\nsituation, or the mode of living appear not to exercise the slightest\ninfluence. Some of the tribes in Guiana are described as nearly black,\nthough easily distinguished from the negro. The colour of the natives\nof Brazil and of California is deep, although the latter inhabit the\ntemperate zone, and the former live near the tropic. The natives of New\nSpain are darker than the Indians of Quito and New Granada, who inhabit\na precisely analogous climate. The nations dispersed to the North of the\nRio Gola are darker than those that border on the kingdom of Guatemala.\nThe Indians who, in the torrid zone, inhabit the most elevated table\nland of the Cordilleras of the Andes, have a complexion as much copper\ncoloured as those who cultivate the Banana under a burning sun in the\nnarrowest and deepest valleys of the equinoctial regions. The Indians who\ninhabit the mountains are clothed, and were so long before the conquest;\nwhile the Aborigines that wander on the plains of South America, are\nperfectly or nearly naked, and consequently are always exposed to the\nsun. These facts show that the colour of the American depends very little\non the local situation which he actually occupies; and never, in the same\nindividual, are those parts of the body that are constantly covered, of a\nfairer colour than those in contact with the air; the infants, moreover,\nare never white when they are born.\n\n\u201cIt was formerly supposed that the Americans were without beards, and\ncertainly there are many among them who have neither beard nor hair on\nany part of their person except the head. But the Indians who inhabit the\ntorrid zone and South America, have generally a small beard which becomes\nlonger by shaving; and among the Patagonians there are many who have\nbeards. A late traveller (Temple) asserts that the Chiriguano Indians of\nthe province of Tarija are beardless, without stating any opinion as to\nthis being natural or the effect of plucking out the hair. Almost all the\nIndians near Mexico, and some on the North West coast, wear moustachios.\nAn inference has been drawn that the Indians have a larger quantity of\nbeard in proportion to their distance from the equator. The deficiency\nof beard does not exclusively belong to the Americans, nor is it by any\nmeans a certain sign of degeneracy; for some beardless races, such as the\nnegroes of Congo, are very robust and of colossal size.\u201d[3]\n\nAnother description of Indian character we borrow from Adair\u2019s \u201cHistory\nof the Aborigines of North America.\u201d We quote it with great pleasure, as\nfully bearing out our own argument with respect to the physical capacity\nof the North American Indians, and as being the testimony of a man who\nresided long among them.\n\n\u201cAs the American Indians,\u201d he observes, \u201care of a reddish or copper\ncolour, so, in general, they are strong, well proportioned in body and\nlimbs, surprisingly active and nimble, and hardy in their own way of\nliving.\n\n\u201cThey are ingenious, witty, cunning and deceitful; very faithful indeed\nto their own tribes, but privately dishonourable and mischievous to the\nEuropeans and Christians. Their being honest and harmless to each other,\nmay be through fear of resentment and reprisal, which is unavoidable in\ncase of any injury. They are very close and retentive of their secrets;\nnever forget injuries; and are revengeful of blood to a degree of\ndistraction. They are timorous and consequently cautious; very jealous\nof encroachments from their Christian neighbours; and likewise content\nwith freedom in every turn of fortune. They are possessed of a strong\ncomprehensive judgement, can form surprisingly crafty schemes, and\nconduct them with equal caution, silence, and address; they admit none\nbut distinguished warriors and old beloved men, into their councils.\nThey are slow, but very persevering, in their undertakings; commonly\ntemperate in their eating, but excessively immoderate in drinking.\nThey often transform themselves by liquor, into the likeness of mad\nfoaming bears. The women, in general, are of a mild, amiable, and soft\ndisposition; exceedingly modest in their behaviour, and very seldom noisy\nin the single or married state.\n\n\u201cThe men are expert in the use of fire arms\u2014in shooting the bow and\nthrowing the feathered dart into the flying enemy. They resemble the\nlynx with their sharp penetrating black eye, and are exceedingly swift\nof foot, especially in a long chase. They will stretch away through\nthe rough woods, by the bare track, for two or three hundred miles, in\npursuit of a flying enemy, with the continued speed and eagerness of a\nstaunch pack of bloodhounds, till they shed blood. When they have allayed\nthis burning thirst, they return home at their leisure, unless they\nchance to be pursued, as is sometimes the case; whence the traders say,\n\u2018that an Indian is never in a hurry, but when the Devil is at his heels.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt is remarkable that there are no deformed Indians; however, they are\ngenerally weaker and smaller bodied, between the tropics, than in higher\nlatitudes; but not in an equal proportion: for though the Chikkasah and\nChoktah countries have not been long divided from each other, as appears\nby the similarity of their language, as well as other things; yet the\nChikkasah are exceedingly taller and stronger bodied than the latter,\nthough their country is only two degrees farther north. Such a small\ndifference of latitude, in so healthy a region, could not make so wide a\ndifference in the constitution of their bodies. The former are a comely,\npleasant looking people; their faces are tolerably round, contrary to the\nvisage of the others, which inclines much to flatness, as is the case\nwith most of the other Indian Americans. The lips of the Indians, in\ngeneral, are thin.\n\n\u201cTheir eyes are small, sharp, and black; and their hair is lank, coarse,\nand darkish. I never saw any with curled hair, but one, in the Choktah\ncountry, where was also another with red hair; probably, they were a\nmixture of the French and Indians. Both sexes pluck all the hair off\ntheir bodies with a kind of tweezers, made formerly of shells, now of\nmiddle-sized wire, in the shape of a gunworm; which being twisted round a\nsmall stick, and the ends thereof fastened therein, after being properly\ntempered, keeps its form: holding this Indian razor between their\nforefinger and thumb, they deplume themselves after the manner of the\nJewish novitiate priests and proselytes.\n\n\u201cTheir chief dress is very simple, like that of the patriarchal age;\nof choice, many of their old head men wear a long wide frock, made of\nthe skins of wild beasts. They seem quite easy and indifferent in every\nvarious scene of life, as if they were utterly divested of passions\nand of the sense of feeling. Martial virtue and not riches is their\ninvariable standard for preferment; for they neither esteem nor despise\nany of their people one jot more or less on account of riches or dress.\nThey compare both these to paint on a warrior\u2019s face; because it incites\nothers to a spirit of martial benevolence for their country, and pleases\nhis own fancy, and the eyes of spectators for a little time, but is\nsweated off, while he is performing his war dances, or is defaced by the\nchange of weather.\n\n\u201cThey formerly wore shirts made of dressed deer-skins for their summer\nvisiting dress; but their winter hunting clothes were long and shaggy,\nmade of the skins of panthers, bucks, bears, beavers, and otters; the\nfleshly side outwards, sometimes doubled, and always softened like\nvelvet cloth, though they retained their fur and hair. The needles and\nthread they used formerly, (and now at times) were fish bones, or the\nhorns and bones of deer, rubbed sharp, and deer\u2019s sinews, and a sort of\nhemp that grows among them spontaneously, in rich open lands. The women\u2019s\ndress consists only in a broad softened skin, or several small skins\nsewed together, which they wrap and tie round their waist, reaching a\nlittle below their knees: in cold weather they wrap themselves in the\nsoftened skins of buffalo calves, with the wintery shagged wool inward,\nnever forgetting to anoint and tie up their hair except in their time of\nmourning. The men wear for ornament and for the convenience of hunting,\nthin deer skin boots well smoked, that reach so high up their thighs, as\nwith their jackets to secure them from the brambles and braky thickets.\nThey sew them about five inches from the edges, which are formed into\ntassels, to which they fasten fawn\u2019s trotters and small pieces of\ntinkling metal, or wild turkey cock\u2019s spurs. The Braves used to fasten\nthe like to their warpipes, with the addition of a piece of an enemy\u2019s\nscalp, with a tuft of long hair hanging down from the middle of the stem,\neach of them painted red: and they still observe that old custom, only\nthey choose bell buttons to give a greater sound.\n\n\u201cThe young Indian men and women, through a fondness of their ancient\ndress, wrap a piece of cloth round them, that has a near resemblance to\nthe Roman toga, or pr\u00e6texta. It is about a fathom square, bordered seven\nor eight quarters deep, to make a shining cavalier of the _Beau Monde_,\nand to keep out both heat and cold. With this frantic apparel the red\nheroes swaddle themselves, when they are waddling whooping and prancing\nit away around the reputed holy fire. In a sweating condition they will\nthus incommode themselves frequently for a whole night, actuated by the\nsame principle of pride which actuates the Spaniard to wear his winter\ncloak in summer.\u2026\n\n\u201cThey make their shoes for common use, out of the skins of the bear\nand elk, well dressed and smoked to prevent hardening; and those for\nornament, out of deer-skins, done in the like manner: but they chiefly\ngo bare-footed, and always bare-headed. The men fasten several different\nsorts off beautiful feathers, frequently in tufts, or the wing of a red\nbird, or the skin of a small hawk, to a lock of hair on the crown of\ntheir heads. And every different nation when at war, trim their hair\nafter a different manner, through contempt of each other; thus they can\ndistinguish an enemy in the woods so far off as they can see him.\n\n\u201cThe Indians flatten their heads in divers forms; but it is chiefly the\ncrown of the head they depress, in order to beautify themselves, as their\nwild fancy terms it; for they call us long heads by way of contempt.\nThe Choktah Indians flatten their foreheads from the top of the head\nto the eyebrows with a small bag of sand; which gives them a hideous\nappearance; as the forehead naturally shoots upwards according as it\nis flattened: thus the rising of the nose instead of being equidistant\nfrom the beginning of the chin to that of the hair, is, by their wild\nmechanism, placed a great deal nearer to the one and further from the\nother. The Indian nations round South Carolina, and all the way to New\nMexico, to effect this, fix the tender infant on a kind of cradle, where\nhis feet are tilted, above a foot higher than a horizontal position,\nhis head bends back into a hole, made on purpose to receive it; where\nhe bears the chief part of his weight on the crown of the head, upon a\nsmall bag of sand without being in the least able to move himself. The\nskull, resembling a fine cartilaginous substance, in its infant state,\nis capable of taking any impression. By this pressure, and their thus\nflattening the crown of the head, they consequently make their heads\nthick and their faces broad. May we not to this custom and as a necessary\neffect of this cause attribute their fickle, wild, and cruel tempers?\nEspecially when we connect therewith, both a false education and great\nexercise to agitate their animal spirits. When the brain, in cooler\npeople, is disturbed, it neither reasons nor determines with proper\njudgment. The Indians thus look on every thing around them through their\nown false medium; and vilify our heads because they have given a wrong\nturn to their own.\u201d\n\nThe preceding description of Indian character is more deserving of\nattention on account of its simplicity, correctness, and the information\nit affords, than on account of the beauty of its style. Adair is indeed\na harsh writer; yet he narrates facts and occurrences which fell beneath\nhis own observation; and therefore his testimony is of considerable\nvalue. His history of the American Indians, whatever value we may attach\nto his theory respecting their origin affords many striking confirmations\nof the position we have assumed, namely, that the American Indians are\nnot naturally and essentially inferior in physical capacity to any other\nrace of men. Nor is Adair the only author who either adopts this opinion,\nor furnishes the facts from which it may be inferred. These facts may be\nfound in the narratives of missionaries, traders, and almost all writers\nwho have visited the Indian tribes.\n\nJames Buchanan, formerly his Britannic Majesty\u2019s Consul for the State of\nNew York, has some excellent observations on the evidences of general\ncapacity among the Indians, in the first volume of his Sketches of\ntheir History and Customs. After describing the hospitable and polite\nreception which he met with from the children of the celebrated Mohawk\nIndian Chief, Captain Brandt, he observes:\u2014\u201cMy thus becoming acquainted\nwith this young lady and her brother, fully establishes in my mind all I\nwas anxious to prove by the education of a young Indian: and many such\ninstances might be adduced which would evince that wisdom, science, and\nexaltation of character, are not the exclusive property of any colour,\ntribe, or nation. The bravery, political sagacity, and knowledge of\ngovernment, manifested by the negroes who now govern in St. Domingo,\n(not to mention other well known instances,) are calculated to allay\nthe doubts which used to prevail as to the capacity of the African.\nBut between the Indian of North America, and the African, there is a\nremarkable difference. The former never can be bowed to become the slave\nof man, to pay tribute, or to submit, by any hope of reward to live\nin vassalage. Free, like the son of Ishmael, he will die rather than\nyield his liberty; and he is, therefore, hunted down by the people who\n_boast of civilisation and christianity, and who, while they value their\nown freedom, do not hesitate to extend their lands and property by the\nmerciless destruction of the unoffending proprietor_. But let not those\nwho still claim the British name, nor the citizens of the United States\ndeceive themselves in the belief that because the poor Indians, whose\nlands they possess, and whose rivers they navigate, have no powerful\nvoice to blazon their wrongs, and hold them up to the abhorence of\nmankind, they will always rest unavenged; or that the civilization, which\nis pompously carried on, but which is in fact a slow consuming system of\nextinction, will avert the retributive justice which God will assuredly\nrender. The poor Indians confess that for their crimes they are now\nplaced by the Great Spirit under the feet of the white men, and in the\nmidst of their sufferings, they pathetically warn their cruel oppressors\nthat the time may come when the Lord will have pity on them, and in turn\npunish the Europeans. Truly the ways of the Almighty are wonderful!\nThe apparent prosperity of the wicked are among the most unaccountable\nfeatures of the will of our creator, and would be utterly without a\nsolution had we not the Bible to guide us into a right understanding\nof his designs. However the Deist may scoff, or the philosopher doubt,\nyet therein we see that, though the wrath of God may be long delayed,\nthe punishment of iniquity will assuredly come to pass. The reaction of\ncrime and punishment is to be seen in the history of all nations. Let the\nEuropean oppressors of the Indian savage, as he is called, look to it\nin time; and while the diffusion of the true principles of Christianity\nthroughout the British Empire, is followed by clemency and mercy to the\nAfrican, it is to be hoped the same benevolent spirit will extend itself\nto the noble-minded Aborigines of North America; and that instead of\nsupplying arms, ammunition, blankets and rum, we may lead them to the\narts and blessings of peace, and to the improvement of their admirable\nnative talent.\u201d[4]\n\nMr. Buchanan displays in this passage more of the piety of the saint,\nthan of the wisdom of the philosopher. In our opinion, _the Lord_ has but\nlittle to do with the oppression and gradual extirpation of the Indian\ntribes. These are the natural results of that peculiar system of policy\npursued by the white people towards the Aborigines of America. As the\ntide of white population rolls on and extends itself inwards, the native\ntribes must disappear before it by retiring into the inaccessible forests\nand waste territories of the transatlantic world. Nor can they hope to\nsuccessfully assert their rights until they become more highly civilized\nand more skillfully warlike than their oppressors. Then indeed, the Lord,\naided by the puissant arms of thousands of Indian warriors, might inflict\nthat retributive justice on Europeans, which Mr. Buchanan speaks of. The\nample possession of the munitions of war, the diffusion of intelligence,\nand the union of all the Indian tribes, would more effectually curb the\nrapacity of white Christians than all the aid which the Lord affords.\n\nNor is it to be expected, that religion, as it is found in the Old\nand New Testaments, will effect the melioration of their condition.\nThe chosen people of the Lord made slaves of some of the nations they\nconquered; and those they did not enslave they destroyed with a cruelty\nas relentless as it was atrocious. What more natural than for those who\nbelieve in the same God and draw their religion from the same source,\nto act in the same manner? The examples of murder, pillage, bloodshed,\nprofligacy, and abominations of all kinds to be found in the Old\nTestament, would rather tend to deteriorate the character of the Indians\nthan improve it, were the contents of that book made known to them. Bad\nas the Indians are, they have some nobility of mind among them. They\ndo not betray the person with whom they have smoked the _calumet_, or\npipe of peace, or the man to whom they have plighted their friendship.\nBut in the Old Testament we find this done, as in the case of Jael and\nSisera, and the action attributed to divine prompting. What good end\ncan be answered by teaching the North American Indians a religion which\nhas ever been followed by destruction, pillage, rapacity and bloodshed,\npersecution for opinion, and a long catalogue of evils? and which,\nhowever good it may be in some of its precepts, is nevertheless utterly\nunable to restrain the avarice and cruelty of its followers.\n\nThe celebrated French Essayist, Montaigne, between two or three hundred\nyears ago, wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n\u201cI find that there is nothing barbarous and savage in this nation, by\nanything I can gather, excepting that every one gives the title of\nbarbarity to every thing that is not in use in his own country: as indeed\nwe have no other level of truth and reason than the example and idea of\nthe opinions and customs of the place wherein we live. _There_ is always\nthe true religion; _there_ the perfect government, and the most exact\nand accomplished usance of things. They (the Indians) are savages at the\nsame rate that we say fruits are wild which nature produces of herself\nand by her own ordinary progress; whereas, in truth, _we ought rather\nto call those wild whose natures we have changed by our artifice_ and\ndiverted from the common order.\u2026 These nations, then, seem to me to be\nso far barbarous, as having received but very little form and fashion\nfrom art and human invention, and consequently not much remote from their\noriginal simplicity. The laws of nature, however, govern them still, not,\n_as yet_, much vitiated with any mixture of ours; but in such purity that\nI am sometimes troubled we were no sooner acquainted with these people,\nand that they were not discovered in those better times, when there\nwere men much more able to judge of them than we are. I am sorry that\nLycurgus and Plato had no knowledge of them; for to my apprehension, what\nwe now see in those natives, does not only surpass all the images with\nwhich the poets have adorned the golden age, and all their inventions\nin feigning a happy estate of man; but moreover the fancy and even the\nwish of philosophy itself. So native and so pure a simplicity, as we, by\nexperience, see to be in them, could never enter into the imagination\nof the ancient philosophers, nor could they ever believe that human\nsociety could have been maintained with so little artifice. Should I\ntell Plato that it is a nation wherein there is no manner of traffic,\nno knowledge of letters, no science of numbers, no name of magistrate\nnor political superiority, no use of service, no riches or poverty, no\ncontracts, no successions, no dividends, no proprieties, no employments\nbut those of leisure, no respect of kindred but of common, no clothing,\nno agriculture, no metal, no use of corn or wine, and where so much as\nthe very words which signify lying, treachery, dissimulation, avarice,\ndestruction, and pardon were never heard of,\u2014how much would he find his\nimaginary Republic short of this perfection.\u201d[5]\n\nThis description is too highly coloured, and is in many respects\nincorrect. The savages of America are not in such a blissful state as\nMontaigne would leave the reader to infer; neither can it be said with\ntruth that they are free from deceit, treachery, and avarice. It is true\nthey exhibit many noble traits of character which might be copied with\nprofit by their more civilized brethren; but these traits are generally\nassociated with the vices peculiar to the savage state. In conducting\nour researches respecting them, therefore, we should carefully ascertain\nwhat amount of credibility is due to the statements of those writers\nwho affirm their condition to be almost paradisiacal. Extremes ought\nto be avoided in most cases, especially with regard to the American\nIndians. Some authors have represented them as the vilest of men; cruel,\nblood-thirsty, and rapacious, and incapable of being civilized; while\nothers have depicted them as a noble, high-minded, virtuous race, with\nscarcely a single vice in their character, or evil in their physical\ncondition. If we adopt the mean of these extremes, we shall not be far\nfrom the truth.\n\nBefore we close this section of our treatise, a few remarks upon the\noratory of the Indians may not be deemed inappropriate or unimportant.\nEven the thunders of Demosthenes, and the eloquent harangues of the\nsweet-lipped and silver-tongued Cicero did not produce more wonderful\neffects on Athenian or Roman audiences, than are occasionally produced\nby the bold and pathetic discourses of an American warrior on the minds\nof his hearers. Governor De Witt Clinton, in his discourse to the New\nYork Society, speaking of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, informs us that\n\u201ctheir exterior relations, general interests, and national affairs were\nconducted and superintended by a great council, assembled annually in\nOnondaga, the central canton, composed of the chiefs of each Republic;\nand eighty Sachems were frequently convened at this national assembly. It\ntook cognizance of the great questions of war and peace; of the affairs\nof the tributary nations, and of their negociations with the French\nand English colonies. All their proceedings were conducted with great\ndeliberation, and were distinguished for order, decorum, and solemnity.\nIn eloquence, in dignity, and in all the characteristics of a profound\npolicy, they surpassed an assembly of feudal barons, and were perhaps\nnot far inferior to the great Amphyctionic Council of Greece.\u201d[6] In\nanother place he speaks of the sublime display of intellectual power\nin the address of Garangula, an Onondaga chief, to M. Delabarre, a\nFrench general, who in 1683, marched with an army against the Iroquois.\nThis rhetorical talent, however, is declared by the same authority to\nbe peculiar to the Five Nations. \u201cThe most remarkable difference,\u201d he\nstates, \u201cexisted between the confederates and the other Indian nations,\nwith respect to eloquence. You may search in vain in the records and\nwritings of the past, _or in events of the present times, for a single\nmodel of eloquence among the_ Algonkins, the Abenaquis, the Delawares,\nthe Shawanese, or any other nation of Indians except the Iroquois.\u201d[7]\nOn the other hand, the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder, who has spent the greater\nportion of a long life among the Lenni Lenap\u00e9, or Delawares, has\naffirmed, in his historical account of the Indian nations, (of which\nthe Lenni Lenap\u00e9 and the Iroquois form the two great divisions), that\nthe Delawares are also conspicuous for oratorical ability. He quotes\na speech of Captain Pipe, a chief of that nation, and has made use\nof the following words, in commenting on it. \u201cHere we see boldness,\nfrankness, dignity, and humanity happily blended together, and most\neloquently displayed. I am much mistaken if the component parts of this\ndiscourse are not put together much according to the rules of oratory\nwhich are taught in the schools, and which were certainly unknown to\nthis savage. The peroration is short, but truly pathetic, and I would\nsay, sublime; and then the admirable way in which it is prepared! I\nwish I could convey to the reader\u2019s mind only a small part of the\nimpression which this speech made on me and on all present when it was\ndelivered.\u201d[8] The assertion of Governor Clinton, seems to have resulted\nfrom his knowing more of the Five Nations than of any other tribe of\nIndians. The Shawanese no less than the Delawares, are among the list\nof exceptions; and yet, we find, in the book published by Mr. Hunter, a\nmost splendid example of eloquence in a speech of Te-cum-seh, a Shawanee\nwarrior.[9] The effect it had upon his hearers, one of whom was Mr.\nHunter himself, was electrical; and we will quote his account of it, in\norder to show that the high opinion of Indian oratory is not derived\nfrom any one authority which might be exaggerated, or through the medium\nof professed translators, who might be disposed to manufacture these\nharangues, after a given model, into the European tongues; but that it\noperates upon all alike, and shines with the same character through\nevery variety and accident of interpretation. The Indian orations have\nbeen rendered by illiterate persons sent among them to conciliate their\nfavour; by prisoners male and female, who learnt the language during\ntheir captivity; by learned missionaries; by traders, who will not\nperhaps be suspected of romantic enthusiasm; by Dutchmen, Frenchmen,\nEnglishmen, and Americans; and the result, in all cases, has been very\nsimilar. The doubts, therefore, which have been, and still continue to\nbe, entertained as to Indian eloquence, are, to say the least of them,\ninconsiderate. The probability is, that they are injured rather than\nimproved, by transmission into European languages. \u201cI wish it was in my\npower,\u201d says Mr. Hunter, speaking of Te-cum-seh, \u201cto do justice to the\neloquence of this distinguished man; but it is utterly impossible. The\nrichest colours, shaded with a master\u2019s pencil, would fall infinitely\nshort of the glowing finish of the original. The occasion and subject\nwere peculiarly adapted to call into action all the powers of genuine\npatriotism; and such language, such gestures, such feelings, and fulness\nof soul contending for utterance, were exhibited by this untutored,\nnative of the forest in the central wilds of America, as no audience, I\nam persuaded, either in ancient or modern times, ever before witnessed.\nHis discourse made an impression on my mind, which I think, will last as\nlong as I live.\u201d[10]\n\nThe occasion on which this oration was delivered, was as follows; it\nappears from Mr. Hunter\u2019s account, that \u201csome of the white people among\nthe Osages were traders, and others were reputed to be runners from their\ngreat Father beyond the waters, to invite the Indians to take up the\ntomahawk against the settlers. They made many long talks, and distributed\nmany valuable presents; but without being able to shake the resolution\nwhich the Osages had formed, to preserve peace with their Great Father,\nthe president. Their determinations were, however, to undergo a more\nsevere trial: Te-cum-seh now made his appearance among them.\n\n\u201cHe addressed them in long, eloquent, and pathetic strains; and an\nassembly more numerous than had ever been witnessed on any former\noccasion, listened to him with an intensely agitated, though profoundly\nrespectful, interest and attention. In fact so great was the effect\nproduced by Te-cum-seh\u2019s eloquence, that the chief adjourned the council\nshortly after he had closed his harangue, nor did they finally come to a\ndecision on the great question in debate for several days afterwards.[11]\nHis proposals were, however, in the end rejected.\u201d\n\n\nTHE ORATION OF TE-CUM-SEH.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014We all belong to one family; we are all children of the\nGreat Spirit; we walk in the same path; slake our thirst at the same\nspring; and now affairs of the greatest concern leads us to smoke the\npipe around the same council fire!\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014We are friends; we must assist each other to bear our\nburdens. The blood of many of our fathers and brothers has run like water\non the ground, to satisfy the avarice of the white men. We, ourselves,\nare threatened with a great evil; nothing will pacify them but the\ndestruction of all the red men.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014When the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were\nhungry; they had no place on which to spread their blankets, or to kindle\ntheir fires. They were feeble; they could do nothing for themselves.\nOur fathers commiserated their distress, and shared freely with them\nwhatever the Great Spirit had given his red children. They gave them\nfood when hungry, medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on,\nand gave them grounds, that they might hunt and raise corn. Brothers,\nthe white men are like poisonous serpents; when chilled, they are feeble\nand harmless; but invigorate them with warmth, and they sting their\nbenefactors to death.\n\n\u201cThe white people came among us feeble; and now we have made them strong\nthey wish to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014The white men are not friends to the Indians; at first, they\nonly asked for land sufficient for a wigwam, now nothing will satisfy\nthem but the whole of our hunting grounds, from the rising to the setting\nsun.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014The white men want more than our hunting grounds; they wish\nto kill our warriors; they would even kill our old men, women, and little\nones.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014Many winters ago, there was no land; the sun did not rise\nand set: all was darkness. The Great Spirit made all things. He gave\nthe white men a home beyond the great waters. He supplied these grounds\nwith game, and gave them to his red children; he gave them strength and\ncourage to defend them.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014My people wish for peace; the red men all wish for peace;\nbut where the white people are, there is no peace for them, except it is\non the bosom of our mother.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014The white men despise and cheat the Indians; they abuse and\ninsult them; they do not think the red men sufficiently good to live.\n\n\u201cThe red men have borne many and great injuries; they ought to suffer\nthem no longer. My people will not; they are determined on vengeance;\nthey have taken up the tomahawk; they will make it fat with blood; they\nwill drink the blood of the white people.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014My people are brave and numerous; but the white people are\ntoo strong for them alone. I wish you to take up the tomahawk with them.\nIf we all unite, we will cause the rivers to stain the great waters with\ntheir blood.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014If you do not unite with us, they will first destroy us, and\nthen you will fall an easy prey to them. They have destroyed many nations\nof red men because they were not friends to each other.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014The white people send runners among us; they wish to make us\nenemies, that they may sweep over and desolate our hunting grounds, like\ndevastating winds, or rushing waters.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014Our Great Father, over the great waters, is angry with the\nwhite people, our enemies. He will send his brave warriors against them:\nhe will send us rifles, and whatever else we want\u2014he is our friend, and\nwe are his children.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014Who are the white people that we should fear them? They\ncannot run fast and are good marks to shoot at; they are only men; our\nfathers have killed many of them; we are not squaws, and we will stain\nthe earth red with their blood.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014The Great Spirit is angry with our enemies; he speaks\nin thunder, and the earth swallows up villages, and drinks up the\nMississippi. The great waters will cover the lowlands; their corn cannot\ngrow; and the Great Spirit will sweep those who escape to the hills from\nthe earth with his breath.\n\n\u201c_Brothers_,\u2014We must be united, we must smoke the same pipe; we must\nfight each others\u2019 battles; and more than all, we must love the Great\nSpirit; he is for us; he will destroy our enemies, and make all his red\nchildren happy.\u201d\n\nIn Jefferson\u2019s notes on the state of Virginia, we find a speech reported\nto have been made by Logan, a Mingo chief to Lord Dunmore when governor\nof the State of Virginia. The circumstances under which it was made were\nthe following:\u2014\n\n\u201cIn the spring of the year 1774, a robbery was committed by some Indians\non certain land adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in that\nquarter, _according to their custom_, undertook to punish this outrage in\na summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel Greathouse,\nleading on these parties, surprised at different times travelling and\nhunting parties of the Indians having their women and children with\nthem, and murdered many. Among these were, unfortunately, the family of\nLogan; a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long distinguished as\nthe friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance.\nHe accordingly signalised himself in the war which ensued. In the autumn\nof the same year a decisive battle was fought at the mouth of the great\n_Kanhaway_, between the collected forces of the Shawanese, Mingoes, and\nDelawares, and a detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians were\ndefeated, and sued for peace.\n\n\u201cLogan, however, disdained to be seen among the suppliants. But lest the\nsincerity of a treaty should be disturbed, from which so distinguished a\nchief absented himself, he sent the following speech to be delivered to\nLord Dunmore.\n\n\u201c\u2018I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan\u2019s cabin\nhungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he\nclothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan\nremained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for\nthe whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, \u2018Logan\nis the friend of the white men.\u2019 I had even thought to have lived with\nyou but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in\ncold blood and unprovoked murdered all the relations of Logan, not even\nsparing my women and children. _There runs not a drop of my blood in the\nveins of any living creature._\n\n\u201c\u2018This called on me for revenge, I have sought it; I have killed many. I\nhave glutted my vengeance: for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace.\n\n\u201c\u2018But do not harbour a thought that mine is the _joy of fear_; Logan\nnever felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is\nthere to mourn for Logan? Not one.\u2019\u201d\n\nWho can blame Logan the Mingo warrior for his deeds when the provocation\nhe received is taken into consideration? \u201cNot one!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n_Of the Political state and Institutions of the American Indians._\n\n\nAmong savage nations there is generally a degree of individual\nindependence which is highly unfavourable to the establishment and\nconsolidation of regular government. Men accustomed to victory and the\nuse of arms, and inured to danger and fatigue, are not likely to submit\nto those restraints of law and jurisprudence which exist in civilized\ncommunities. The will of the savage is, in most cases, the only law which\nhe acknowledges or submits to. It is only when the tribe to which he\nbelongs is menaced by some foreign foe that he submits to follow a leader\nto the field and to be controuled by his mandates. Even then, his actions\nare not constrained, but voluntary. His natural ardour, and warlike\ndisposition, hurry him on to battle more than any compulsory edict issued\nby the council of his nation. But in a season of peace he is his own\nmaster. Scarcely any rule except that of custom does he deign to follow;\nhence his actions spring spontaneously from the impulses of his own mind.\n\nIn considering the political institutions of any people, our first\nenquiry should relate to their mode of subsistence. \u201cAccording as that\nvaries,\u201d to use the language of Robertson, \u201ctheir laws and policy must\nbe different. The institutions suited to the ideas and exigencies of\ntribes which subsist chiefly by fishing or hunting, and which have as yet\nacquired but an imperfect conception of any species of property, will\nbe much more simple than those which must take place when the earth is\ncultivated with regular industry, and a right of property, not only in\nits productions but in the soil itself, is completely ascertained.\u201d\n\nThe American nations live chiefly by hunting, fishing, and the\nspontaneous products of their bountiful soil. Agriculture is but little\npractised amongst them. A large tract of territory, therefore, is\nrequisite for the support of a tribe. \u201cThe chase,\u201d observes Robertson,\n\u201ceven where prey is abundant, and the dexterity of the hunter much\nimproved, affords but an uncertain maintenance; and at some seasons it\nmust be suspended altogether. If a savage trusts to his bow alone for\nfood, he and his family will be often reduced to extreme distress. Hardly\nany region of the earth furnishes man spontaneously with what his wants\nrequire. In the mildest climates and most fertile soils, his own industry\nand foresight must be exerted in some degree to secure a regular supply\nof food. Their experience of this surmounts the abhorence of labour\nnatural to savage nations, and compels them to have recourse to culture\nas subsidiary to hunting. In particular situations, some small tribes may\nsubsist by fishing, independent of any production of the earth raised by\ntheir own industry. But throughout all America we scarcely meet with any\nnation of hunters which does not practice some species of cultivation.\u201d\n\nThis is the condition of most of the American tribes at the present time.\nTheir agriculture, however, is neither extensive nor laborious. Among\nsome tribes as the Oneidas and Senecas, agriculture prevails more than\namong others. This is to be attributed to the benevolent efforts of the\nQuakers, which shall be described in a subsequent part of this work. The\nIndians in the interior of America, who are less exposed to the influence\nof the whites, subsist chiefly by hunting and fishing. Agriculture is\nonly accounted subsidiary to these. It is adopted as a resource against\nfamine, and to supply the deficiency of game. It is not pursued as\nthe chief mode of obtaining subsistence, and as a consequence has not\nrisen to that state of perfection among the Indians, as among civilized\nnations. Hunting and fishing may be said to be the staple business of\nlife among the more primitive tribes in North America. The character,\ntherefore, of their political institutions, may be deduced from their\npeculiar mode of obtaining subsistence.\n\nRobertson, in treating this subject has expressed himself with such\nclearness, and reasoned upon facts with such accuracy, that it would be\nimpossible for us to do better than to quote his remarks.\n\nHe observes, \u201cThey were divided into small independent communities. While\nhunting is the chief source of subsistence, a vast extent of territory\nis requisite for supporting a small number of people. In proportion\nas men multiply and unite, the wild animals, on which they depend for\nfood, diminish, or fly at a greater distance from the haunts of their\nenemy. The increase of a society in this state is limited by its own\nnature, and the members of it must either disperse, like the game which\nthey pursue, or fall upon some better method of procuring food, than by\nhunting. Beasts of prey are by nature solitary and unsocial; they go\nnot forth to the chase in herds, but delight in those recesses of the\nforest where they can roam and destroy undisturbed. A nation of hunters\nresembles them both in occupation and in genius. They cannot form into\nlarge communities, because it would be impossible to find subsistence;\nand they must drive to a distance every rival who may encroach on those\ndomains which they consider as their own. This was the state of all\nthe American tribes: the numbers in each were inconsiderable, though\nscattered over countries of great extent; they were far removed from\none another, and engaged in perpetual hostilities or rivalship. In\nAmerica, the word nation is not of the same import as in other parts\nof the globe. It is applied to small societies, not exceeding perhaps,\ntwo or three hundred persons, but occupying provinces greater than some\nkingdoms in Europe. The country of Guiana, though of larger extent than\nthe kingdom of France, and divided among a greater number of nations, did\nnot contain above twenty-five thousand inhabitants.[12] In the provinces\nwhich border on the Orinoco, one may travel several hundred miles in\ndifferent directions, without finding a single hut, or observing the\nfoot steps of a human creature.[13] In North America, where the climate\nis more vigorous, and the soil less fertile, the desolation is still\ngreater. There, journeys of some hundred leagues have been made through\nuninhabited plains and forests.[14] As long as hunting continues to be\nthe chief employment of man to which he trusts for subsistence, he can\nhardly be said to have occupied the earth.\n\n\u201cNations which depend upon hunting are, in a great measure, strangers\nto the idea of property. As the animals on which the hunter feeds are\nnot bred under his inspection, nor nourished by his care, he can claim\nno right to them, while they run wild in the forest. Where game is\nso plentiful that it may be catched\u201d\u2014[caught] \u201cwith little trouble,\nmen never dream of appropriating what is of small value, or of easy\nacquisition. Where it is so rare, that the labour or danger of the chase\nrequires the united efforts of a tribe, or village, what is killed is\na common stock, belonging equally to all, who, by their skill or their\ncourage, have contributed to the success of the excursion. The forest, or\nhunting grounds are deemed the property of the tribe, from which it has a\ntitle to exclude every rival nation. But no individual arrogates a right\nto any district of these, in preference to his fellow-citizens. They\nbelong alike to all; and thither, as to a general and undivided store,\nall repair in quest of sustenance. The same principle by which they\nregulate their chief occupation, extends to that which is subordinate.\nEven agriculture has not introduced among them a complete idea of\nproperty. As the men hunt, the women labour together; and after they have\nshared the toils of the seed time, they enjoy the harvest in common.[15]\nAmong some tribes, the increase of their cultivated lands is deposited\nin a public granary, and divided among them at stated times, according\nto their wants.[16] Among others, though they lay up separate stores,\nthey do not acquire such an exclusive right of property, that they can\nenjoy superfluity, while those around them suffer want.[17] Thus the\ndistinctions arising from the inequality of possessions are unknown. The\nterm rich or poor enter not into their language; and being strangers to\nproperty, they are unacquainted with what is the great object of laws and\npolicy, as well as the chief motive which induced mankind to establish\nthe various arrangements of regular government.[18]\n\n\u201cPeople in this state retain a high sense of equality and independence.\nWherever the idea of property is not established, there can be no\ndistinction among men, but what arises from personal qualities. These can\nbe conspicuous only on such occasions as call them forth into exertion.\nIn times of danger, or in affairs of intricacy, the wisdom and experience\nof age, are consulted, and prescribe the measure which ought to be\npursued. When a tribe of savages takes the field against the enemies\nof their country, the warrior of most approved courage leads the youth\nto the combat.[19] If they go forth in a body to the chase, the most\nexpert and adventurous hunter is foremost, and directs their motions. But\nduring seasons of tranquility and inaction, when there is no occasion\nto display those talents, all pre-eminence ceases. Every circumstance\nindicates that all the members of the community are on a level. They feed\non the same plain fare. Their houses and furniture are exactly similar.\nNo distinction can arise from the inequality of possessions. Whatever\nforms dependence on one part, or constitutes superiority on the other, is\nunknown. All are freemen; all feel themselves to be such, and assert with\nfirmness the rights which belong to that condition.[20] This sentiment of\nindependence is imprinted so deeply in their nature, that no change of\ncondition can eradicate it, and bend their minds to servitude. Accustomed\nto be absolute masters of their own conduct, they disdain to execute\nthe orders of another; and having never known control, they will not\nsubmit to correction. Many of the Americans, when they found that they\nwere treated as slaves by the Spaniards, died of grief; many destroyed\nthemselves in despair.[21]\n\n\u201cAmong people in this state, government can assume little authority,\nand the sense of civil subordination must remain very imperfect. While\nthe idea of property is unknown or incompletely conceived; while the\nspontaneous productions of the earth, as well as the fruits of industry,\nare considered as belonging to the public stock, there can hardly be any\nsuch subject of difference or discussion among the members of the same\ncommunity, as will require the hand of authority to interpose, in order\nto adjust it. Where the right of separate and exclusive possession is\nnot introduced, the great object of law and jurisdiction does not exist.\nWhen the members of a tribe are called into the field, either to invade\nthe territories of their enemies, or to repel their attacks; when they\nare engaged together in the toil and dangers of the chase, they then\nperceive that they are a political body. They are conscious of their\nown connexion with the companions in conjunction with whom they act;\nand they follow and reverence such as excel in conduct and valour. But,\nduring the intervals between such common efforts, they seem scarcely to\nfeel the ties of political union.[22] No visible form of government is\nestablished. The names of _magistrate_ and _subject_ are not in use.\nEvery one seems to enjoy his natural independence almost entire. If\na scheme of public utility be proposed, the members of the community\nare left at liberty to choose whether they will or will not assist in\ncarrying it into execution. No statute imposes any service as a duty,\nno compulsory laws oblige them to perform it. All their resolutions are\nvoluntary, and flow from the impulse of their own minds.[23] The first\nstep towards establishing a public jurisdiction has not been taken in\nthese rude societies. The right of revenge is left in private hands.[24]\nIf violence is committed, or blood is shed, the community does not assume\nthe power either of inflicting or of moderating the punishment. It\nbelongs to the family or friends of the person injured or slain to avenge\nthe wrong, or to accept of the reparation offered by the aggressor. If\nthe elders interpose, it is to advise, not to decide, and it is seldom\ntheir councils are listened to; for as it is deemed pusillanimous to\nsuffer an offender to escape with impunity, resentment is implacable\nand everlasting.[25] The object of government is rather foreign than\ndomestic. They do not aim at maintaining interior order and police by\npublic regulation, or the exertions of any permanent authority; but\nlabour to preserve such union among the members of their tribe, that they\nmay watch the motions of enemies, and act against them with concert and\nvigour.\n\n\u201cSuch was the form of political order established among the greater part\nof the American tribes. In this State were almost all the tribes spread\nover the provinces extending eastward of the Mississippi, from the mouth\nof the St. Lawrence to the confines of Florida. In a similar condition\nwere the people of Brazil, the inhabitants of Chili, several tribes in\nParaguay and Guiana, and in the countries which stretch from the mouth of\nthe Orinoco to the Peninsula of Yucatan. Among such an infinite number\nof petty associations, there may be peculiarities which constitute a\ndistinction, and mark the various degrees of their civilization and\nimprovement. But an attempt to trace and ennumerate these would be in\nvain, as they have not been observed by persons capable of discerning\nthe minute and delicate circumstances, which serve to discriminate\nnations resembling one another in their general character and features.\nThe description which I have given of the political institutions that\ntook place among those rude tribes in America, concerning which we have\nreceived most complete information, will apply, with little variation,\nto every people, both in its Northern and Southern division, who have\nadvanced no farther in civilization than to add some slender degree of\nagriculture to fishing and hunting.[26]\n\n\u201cBut these political institutions, however defective, did not exist among\nall the American tribes. The system of government adopted by some of\nthem approximated more closely the system which prevails in civilized\ncommunities. Thus, \u201camong the Natchez, a powerful tribe, (now extinct,)\nformerly situated on the banks of the Mississippi, a difference of rank\ntook place with which the Northern tribes were altogether unacquainted.\nSome families were reputed noble, and enjoyed hereditary dignity.\nThe body of the people was considered as vile, and formed only for\nsubjection. This distinction was marked by appellations which intimated\nthe high elevation of the one state, and the ignominious depression\nof the other. The former were called _respectable_; the latter the\n_stinkards_. The great chief, in whom the supreme authority was vested,\nwas reputed to be a being of a superior nature\u2014the brother of the sun,\nthe sole object of their worship. They approached this great chief with\nreligious veneration, and honoured him as the representative of their\ndeity. His will was law, to which all submitted with implicit obedience.\nThe lives of his subjects were so absolutely at his disposal, that if\nany one had incurred his displeasure, the offender came with profound\nhumility and offered him his head. Nor did the dominion of the Chiefs\nend with their lives: their principal officers, their favourite wives,\ntogether with many domestics of inferior rank, were sacrificed at their\ntombs, that they might be attended in the next world by the same persons\nwho served them in this; and such was the reverence in which they were\nheld, that those victims welcomed death with exultation, deeming it a\nrecompence of their fidelity and a mark of distinction, to be selected\nto accompany their deceased master. Thus a perfect despotism, with its\nfull train of superstition arrogance and cruelty, was established among\nthe Natchez; and by a singular fatality, that people tasted of the\nworst calamities incident to polished nations, though they themselves\nwere not far advanced beyond the tribes around them in civility and\nimprovement.\u201d[27]\n\nIn the political institutions of the Natchez, however despotic and\nimperfect they may be considered, we discover a bond of union which did\nnot exist among other tribes who trusted for subsistence to hunting and\nfishing without any species of cultivation. Their wants were few and\nsimple; they therefore formed into separate tribes, and acted together\nfrom instinct or habit rather than from any formal concert or contract.\nHence their political institutions were as simple as their wants; and\nhardly any appearance of regular government could be discerned among them.\n\nFrom the foregoing statements it may be inferred that the political\ninstitutions of the American Indians arise from the peculiarity of their\ncondition. Their military tactics, their form of government, their\npeculiar religious opinions, and their unconquerable spirit of revenge,\nall spring out of their peculiar state of semi-civilization. That the\ncircumstances around them determine the character of their political\nand other institutions will be fully proved by us when we come to speak\nof the efforts of the Quakers in civilizing the Oneidas and Senecas of\nthe Five Nations. The Socialist will readily perceive how the foregoing\nstatements, respecting the political institutions of the American\nAborigines confirm and illustrate the truth of his principles.\n\n\n\n\n_Of the Military Tactics of the North American Indians._\n\n\nThere are two motives which stimulate savage nations to war; these are\n_interest_ and _revenge_. The latter operates with a fierceness among\nrude nations, unknown among civilized people. The desire of vengeance is\nthe first and almost only principle which the savage instils into the\nmind of his children. This grows with his growth and strengthens with\nhis strength, and acquires a force and a preponderance over all other\npassions, which causes it to resemble the instinctive rage of a tiger or\nhy\u00e6na. \u201cWhen under the dominion of this passion,\u201d says Robertson, \u201cman\nbecomes the most cruel of all animals. He neither pities, nor forgives,\nnor spares. The force of this passion is so well understood by the\nAmericans themselves, that they always apply to it in order to excite\nthe people to take up arms. If the elders of any tribe attempt to rouse\ntheir youth from sloth, if a chief wishes to allure a band of warriors\nto follow him in invading an enemy\u2019s country, the most persuasive topics\nof their martial eloquence are drawn from revenge. \u2018The bones of our\ncountrymen,\u2019 say they, \u2018lie uncovered; their bloody bed has not been\nwashed clean. Their spirits cry against us; they must be appeased. Let us\ngo and devour the people by whom they were slain. Sit no longer inactive\nupon your mats; lift the hatchet, console the spirits of the dead, and\ntell them that they shall be avenged.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnimated with such exhortations, the youth snatch their arms in a\ntransport of fury, raise the song of war, and burn with impatience\nto embrue their hands in the blood of their enemies. Private chiefs\nassemble small parties, and invade a hostile tribe, without consulting\nthe rulers of the community. A single warrior, prompted by caprice or\nrevenge, will take the field alone, and march several hundred miles to\nsurprise and cut off a straggling enemy. The exploits of a noted warrior,\nin such solitary excursions, often form the chief part in the history\nof an American campaign; and their elders connive at such irregular\nsallies, as they tend to cherish a martial spirit, and accustom their\npeople to enterprise and danger.[28] But when a war is national, and\nundertaken by public authority, the deliberations are formal and slow.\nThe elders assemble; they deliver their opinions in solemn speeches;\nthey weigh with maturity the nature of the enterprise, and balance its\nbeneficial or disadvantageous consequences with no inconsiderable portion\nof political discernment or sagacity. Their priests and soothsayers are\nconsulted, and sometimes they ask even the advice of their women.[29] If\nthe determination be for war, they prepare for it with much ceremony. A\nleader offers to conduct the expedition, and is accepted. But no man is\nconstrained to follow him; the resolution of the community to commence\nhostilities, imposes no obligation upon any member to take part in\nthe war. Each individual is still master of his own conduct, and his\nengagement in the service is perfectly voluntary.[30]\n\nThe maxims, by which they regulate their military operations, though\nextremely different from those which take place in more civilized and\npopulous nations, are well suited to their own political state, and the\nnature of the country in which they act. They never take the field in\nnumerous bodies, as it would require a greater effort of foresight and\nindustry, than is usual among savages, to provide for their subsistence\nduring a march of some hundred miles through dreary forests, or during a\nlong voyage upon their lakes and rivers. Their armies are not encumbered\nwith baggage or military stores. Each warrior, besides his arms, carries\nhis mat and a small bag of pounded maize, and with these, is completely\nequipped for any service. While at a distance from the enemy\u2019s frontier,\nthey disperse through the woods, and support themselves with the game\nwhich they kill, or the fish which they catch. As they approach nearer\nthe territories of the nation which they intend to attack, they collect\ntheir troops, and advance with great caution. Even in their hottest\nand most active wars, they proceed wholly by stratagem and ambuscade.\nThey place not their glory in attacking their enemies with open force.\nTo surprize and destroy is the greatest merit of a commander, and\nthe highest pride of his followers. War and hunting are his only\noccupations, and they conduct both with the same spirit and the same\narts. They follow the track of their enemies through the forest. They\nendeavour to discover their haunts; they lurk in some thicket near to\nthese, and, with the patience of sportsmen lying in wait for game, will\ncontinue in their station day after day, until they can rush upon their\nprey when most secure, and least able to resist them. If they meet no\nstraggling party of the enemy, they advance towards their villages, but\nwith such solicitude to conceal their own approach, that they often creep\non their hands and feet through the woods, and paint their skins of the\nsame colour as the withered leaves, in order to avoid detection.[31] If\nso fortunate as to remain unobserved, they set on fire the enemy\u2019s huts\nin the dead of night, and massacre the inhabitants, as they fly naked and\ndefenceless from the flames. If they hope to effect a retreat without\nbeing pursued, they carry off some prisoners whom they reserve for a more\ndreadful fate. But if, notwithstanding all their address and precautions,\nthey find that their motions are discovered, that the enemy has taken the\nalarm, and is prepared to oppose them, they usually deem it most prudent\nto retire. They regard it as extreme folly to meet an enemy who is on his\nguard, upon equal terms, or to give battle in an open field. The most\ndistinguished success is a disgrace to a leader if it has been purchased\nwith any considerable loss of his followers; and they never boast of a\nvictory, if stained with the blood of their own countrymen.[32] To fall\nin battle, instead of being reckoned an honourable death, is a misfortune\nwhich subjects the memory of a warrior to the imputation of rashness or\nimprudence.[33]\n\nBuchanan in his Sketches of the North American Indians, speaking of the\nmilitary tactics of the Five Nations observes, \u201cPrevious to setting out\non any warlike expedition they have a feast, to which all the noted\nwarriors of the nation are invited; when they have their war-dance to the\nbeat of kettle drums. The warriors are seated on two rows; each rises in\nturn, and sings the deeds he has performed; so that they work up their\nspirits to a high degree of enthusiasm. They come to these dances with\nfaces painted in a frightful manner, to make themselves look terrible\nto their enemies. By these war-songs they preserve the history of their\ngreat achievements. The solemn reception of these warriors, and the\nacclamation of applause which they receive at their return, cannot but\nhave on the hearer the same effect in raising an emulation for glory,\nthat a triumph had on the old Romans. After their prisoners are secured\nthey never offer them the least bad treatment, but on the contrary,\nwill rather starve themselves than suffer them to want; and I have been\nalways assured that there is not one instance of their offering the\nleast violence to the chastity of any woman that was their captive. The\ncaptives are generally distributed among those who have lost a member\nof their family in battle: if they are accepted, they enjoy all the\nprivileges which the person had; but if otherwise, they die in torment to\nsatiate the revenge of those who refuse them.\n\n\u201cThey use neither drum nor trumpet, nor any kind of musical instruments\nin their wars; their throats serve them on all occasions. We find the\nsame was practised by Homer\u2019s heroes:\u2014\n\n    \u2018Thrice to its pitch, his lofty voice he rears,\n    O friend! Ulysses\u2019 shouts invades my ears\u2019\u201d!\n\nThe mode of torturing prisoners taken in battle, alluded to in the\npreceding extract, prevails among all the Indian tribes in North America.\n_Heckewelder_, a Moravian Missionary, who had acquired a great deal of\ninformation respecting Indian customs, during a residence of the greater\npart of his life among the Indians of Pennsylvania and the adjoining\nstates, thus speaks of this custom:\u2014\n\n\u201cMuch has been said on the subject of the preliminary cruelties inflicted\non prisoners, when they enter an Indian village with the conquering\nwarriors. It is certain that this treatment is very severe when a\nparticular revenge is to be exercised; but otherwise I can say with\ntruth, that in many instances, it is rather a scene of amusement than\nof punishment. Much depends on the courage and presence of mind of the\nprisoner. On entering the village, he is shown a painted post at the\ndistance of from twenty to forty yards, and told to run to it and catch\nhold of it as quickly as he can. On each side of him stand men, women\nand children, with axes, sticks, and other offensive weapons, ready to\nstrike him as he runs, in the same manner as is done in the European\narmies, when soldiers, as it is called run the gauntlet. If he should\nbe so unlucky as to fall in the way, he will probably be immediately\ndespatched by some person, longing to avenge the death of some relation\nor friend slain in battle; but the moment he reaches his goal, he is safe\nand protected from farther insult, until his fate is determined.\n\n\u201cIf a prisoner in such a situation shows a determined courage, and when\nbid to run for the painted post, starts at once with all his might,\nand exerts all his strength and agility until he reaches it, he will\nmost commonly escape without much harm, and sometimes without any\ninjury whatever, and on reaching the desired point, he will have the\nsatisfaction to hear his courage and his bravery applauded. But woe to\nthe coward who hesitates, or shows any symptoms of fear! He is treated\nwithout much mercy, and may consider himself happy, at last, if he escape\nwith his life.\n\n\u201cIn the month of April, 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at Lower\nSandusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a trader to Detroit,\nI witnessed a scene of this description, which fully exemplified what I\nhave above stated. Three American prisoners were one day brought in by\nfourteen warriors, from the garrison of Fort M\u2019Intosh. As soon as they\nhad crossed the Sandusky river to which the village lay adjacent, they\nwere told by the Captain of the party, to run as hard as they could\nto a painted post which was shown to them. The youngest of the three,\nwithout a moment\u2019s hesitation, immediately started for it, and reached\nit, fortunately, without receiving a single blow; the second hesitated\nfor a moment, but recollecting himself, he also ran as fast as he could,\nand likewise reached the post unhurt; but the third, frightened at seeing\nso many men, women, and children, with weapons in their hands, ready to\nstrike him, kept begging the Captain to spare his life, saying he was a\nmason, and he would build him a fine large stone house, or do any thing\nfor him that he should please. \u2018Run for your life,\u2019 cried the chief to\nhim, \u2018and don\u2019t talk now of building houses\u2019! But the poor fellow still\ninsisted, begging and praying to the Captain, who at last finding his\nexhortations vain, and fearing the consequences, turned his back upon\nhim, and would not hear him any longer. Our mason now began to run,\nbut received many a hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the\nground, which, if he had fallen, would at once have decided his fate.\nHe, however, reached the goal, not without being sadly bruised, and he\nwas besides, bitterly reproached and scoffed at all round as a vile\ncoward, while the others were hailed as brave men, and received tokens of\nuniversal approbation.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n_Of the Religion of the North American Indians._\n\n\nS. F. Jarvis, D. D., A. A. S., of New York, in his discourse on the\nreligion of the North American Indians, details many facts illustrating\nthe notions which they entertain respecting Deity and a future state.\nHis statements on this head exhibit both research and accuracy; though\nin the first part of his discourse he has digressed from the subject for\nthe purpose of discharging a clerical arrow at the memory of Volney and\nVoltaire. This however, is pardonable in an individual holding the title\nof Doctor of Divinity. After indulging in many speculations respecting\nthe true religion, and the modes in which it became corrupted, he\nobserves:\u2014\n\n\u201cHaving thus seen that all false religions are, in a greater or less\ndegree, departures from the true; that there is a tendency in the human\nmind to form low and limited views of the Supreme Being; and that,\nin fact, all nations have fallen into the corruptions of polytheism\nand idolatry, we should conclude, even in reasoning _\u00e0 priori_, that\nthe religion of the Indians would be found to partake of the general\ncharacter. Accordingly, the fact is amply attested, that while they\nacknowledge one Supreme Being, whom they denominate the _Great Spirit_,\nor the _Master of Life_, they also believe in subordinate divinities, who\nhave the chief regulation of the affairs of men.\n\n\u201cCharlevoix, who had all the opportunities of obtaining information which\npersonal observation, and the united testimony of the French missionaries\ncould give, is an unexceptionable witness with regard to the Hurons, the\nIroquois, and the Algonquins. Nothing, says he, is more certain, though\nat the same time obscure, than the conception which the American savages\nhave of a Supreme Being. All agree that he is the Great Spirit, and that\nhe is the master, creator, and governor of the world.[34] The Hurons call\nhim Areskoui; the Iroquois, by slight variation, Agreskooue. He is with\nthem the god of war. His name they invoke as they march. It is the signal\nto engage, and it is the war-cry in the hottest of the battle.[35]\n\n\u201cBut, beside the Supreme Being, they believe in an infinite number of\nsubaltern spirits, who are the objects of worship. These they divide into\ngood and bad. The good spirits are called by the Hurons, _Okkis_, by the\nAlgonquins, _Mannitous_. They suppose them to be the guardians of men,\nand that each has his own tutelary deity. In fact, every thing in nature\nhas its spirit, though all have not the same rank nor the same influence.\nThe animals they hunt have their spirits. If they do not understand any\nthing, they immediately say it is _a spirit_. If any man performs a\nremarkable exploit, or exhibits extraordinary talents, he is said to be\n_a spirit_, or in other words, his tutelary deity is supposed to be of\nmore than ordinary power.[36]\n\n\u201cIt is remarkable, however, that these tutelary deities are not supposed\nto take men under their protection till something has been done to merit\nthe favour. A parent who wishes to obtain a guardian spirit for his\nchild, first blackens his face, and then causes him to fast for several\ndays. During this time it is expected that the spirit will reveal himself\nin a dream; and on this account, the child is anxiously examined every\nmorning with regard to the visions of the preceding night. Whatever\nthe child happens to dream of the most frequently, even if it happen to\nbe the head of a bird, the foot of an animal, or any thing of the most\nworthless nature, becomes the symbol or figure under which the _Okki_\nreveals himself. With this figure, in the conceptions of his votary,\nthe spirit becomes identified; the image is preserved with the greatest\ncare\u2014is the constant companion on all great and important occasions, and\nthe constant object of consultation and worship.[37]\n\n\u201cAs soon as a child is informed what is the nature or form of his\nprotecting deity, he is carefully instructed in the obligations he is\nunder to do him homage, to follow his advice communicated in dreams, to\ndeserve his favours, to confide implicitly in his care, and to dread the\nconsequences of his displeasure. For this reason, when the Huron or the\nIroquois goes to battle or to the chase, the image of his _Okki_ is as\ncarefully carried with him as his arms. At night, each one places his\nguardian idol on the palisades surrounding the camp, with the face turned\nfrom the quarter to which the warriors, or hunters, are about to march.\nHe then prays to it for an hour, as he does also in the morning before he\ncontinues his course. This homage performed, he lies down to rest, and\nsleeps in tranquility, fully persuaded that his spirit will assume the\nwhole duty of keeping guard, and that he has nothing to fear.\n\n\u201cWith this account of Charlevoix, the relations which the Moravian\nmissionaries give, not only of the Iroquois, but also of the Lenap\u00e9s,\nor Delawares, and numerous tribes derived from them, perfectly accord.\n\u2018The prevailing opinion of all these nations is,\u2019 says Loskiel, \u2018that\nthere is one God, or as they call him, one great and good spirit, who\nhas created the heavens and the earth, and made man and every other\ncreature. But beside the Supreme Being, they believe in good and evil\nspirits, considering them as subordinate deities. Our missionaries have\nnot found rank polytheism, or gross idolatry, to exist among the Indians.\nThey have, however, something which may be called an idol. This is the\n_manitto_, representing in wood, the head of a man in miniature, which\nthey always carry about them, either on a string round their neck, or\nin a bag. They hang it also about their children, to preserve them\nfrom illness, and ensure to them success. When they perform a solemn\nsacrifice, a _manitto_, or a head as large as life, is put upon a pole\nin the middle of the house. But they understand by the word _manitto_,\nevery being to which an offering is made, especially all good spirits.\nThey also look upon the elements, almost all animals, and even some\nplants, as spirits; one exceeding the other in dignity and power. The\nmanittoes are also considered as tutelar spirits. Every Indian has one\nor more, which he conceives to be peculiarly given to him to assist\nhim and make him prosper. One has, in a dream, received the sun as his\ntutelar spirit, another the moon; a third, an owl; a fourth, a buffalo.\nAn Indian is dispirited, and considers himself as forsaken by God, till\nhe has received a tutelar spirit in a dream; but those who have been thus\nfavoured, are full of courage and proud of their powerful ally.\u201d[38]\n\nThis account is corroborated by Heckewelder, in his late interesting\nhistory of the Indian nations.\n\n\u201cIt is a part of their religious belief\u201d says he, \u201cthat there are\ninferior _manittoes_ to whom the great and good being has given the\nrule and command over the elements; that being so great, he, like their\nchiefs, must have his attendants to execute his supreme behests: these\nsubordinate spirits, (something in their nature between God and man) see\nand report to him what is doing upon earth; they look down particularly\nupon the Indians, to see whether they are in need of assistance, and\nare ready at their call to assist and protect them against danger. Thus\nI have frequently witnessed Indians, on the approach of a storm or\nthunder-gust, address the _manitto_ of the air to avert all danger from\nthem; I have also seen the Chippeways, on the lakes of Canada, pray to\nthe _manitto_ of the waters, that he might prevent the swells from rising\ntoo high, while they were passing over them. In both these instances they\nexpressed their willingness to be grateful, by throwing tobacco in the\nair or strewing it on the waters. \u2018But amidst all these superstitious\nnotions, the supreme _manitto_, the creator and preserver of heaven\nand earth, is the great object of their adoration. On him they rest\ntheir hopes; to him they address their prayers, and make their solemn\nsacrifices.\u2019[39]\n\n\u201cThe Knistineaux Indians who inhabit the country extending from Labrador,\nacross the continent, to the Highlands which divide the waters on\nLake Superior, from those of Hudson\u2019s Bay, appear, from Mackenzie\u2019s\naccount, to have the same system, of one great Supreme, and innumerable\nsubordinate deities. \u2018The great master of life,\u2019 to use their own\nexpression, is the sacred object of their devotion. But each man carries\nin his medicine bag a kind of household god, which is a small carved\nimage, about eight inches long. Its first covering is of down, over which\na piece of beech bark is closely tied, and the whole is enveloped in\nseveral folds of blue and red cloth. This little figure is an object of\nthe most pious regard.\n\n\u201cIt is remarkable, that the description given by Peter Martyr, who was\nthe companion of Columbus, of the worship of the inhabitants of Cuba,\nperfectly agrees with this account of the Northern Indians, by Mackenzie.\nThey believed in the existence of one supreme, invisible, immortal and\nomnipotent Creator, whom they named _Jocahuna_, but at the same time\nacknowledged a plurality of subordinate deities. They had little images\ncalled Zemes, whom they looked upon as only a kind of messengers between\nthem and the eternal omnipotent and invisible God. These images they\nconsider as bodies inhabited by spirits, and oracular responses were\ntherefore received from them as uttered by the divine command.\u201d[40]\n\n\u201cThe religion of Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Hispaniola, was the same as\nthat of Cuba; for the inhabitants were of the same race, and spoke the\nsame language. The Caribbean Islands, on the other hand, were inhabited\nby a very fierce and savage people who were continually at war with the\nmilder natives of Cuba and Hispaniola, and were regarded by them with the\nutmost terror and abhorence. Yet \u2018the Charaibeans,\u2019 to use the language\nof the elegant historian of the West Indies, \u2018while they entertained an\nawful sense of the one great Universal Cause, of a superior, wise, and\ninvisible Being of absolute and irresistible power, admitted also the\nagency of subordinate divinities. They supposed that each individual\nperson had his peculiar protector, or tutelar deity; and they had\ntheir laws and penalties, gods of their own creating.\u2019 Hughes, in his\nhistory of Barbadoes, mentions many fragments of Indian idols, dug up\nin that island, which were composed of the same materials as their\nearthen vessels. \u2018I saw the head of one,\u2019 says he, \u2018which alone weighed\nabove sixty pounds. This, before it was broken off, stood upon an oval\npedestal, about three feet in height. The heads of all the others were\nvery small. These lesser idols were, in all probability, made small for\nthe ease and conveniency of being carried with them in their several\njourneys, as the larger sort were perhaps designed for the stated places\nof worship.\u2019\u201d[41]\n\n\u201cThus, in this vast extent of country, from Hudson\u2019s Bay, to the West\nIndies, including nations whose languages are radically different,\nnations unconnected with, and unknown to, each other, the greatest\nuniformity of belief prevails, with regard to the supreme Being, and\nthe greatest harmony in their system of polytheism. After this view,\nit is impossible not to remark, that there is a similar departure from\nthe original religion among the Indians of America, as among the more\ncivilized nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The idea of the Divine\nUnity is much more perfectly preserved; the subordinate divinities\nare kept at a much more immeasurable distance from the Great Spirit;\nand, above all, there has been no attempt among them to degrade to\nthe likeness of men the invisible and incomprehensible Creator of the\nuniverse. In fact, theirs is exactly that milder form of idolatry which\n\u2018prevailed everywhere from the days of Abraham, his single family\nexcepted,\u2019 and which, after the death of that patriarch and of his son\nIsaac, infected, from time to time, even the chosen family itself.\u201d[42]\n\n\u201cThe belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, has been kept\nalive among all heathen nations, by its connection with the sensible\nenjoyments and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and terror of men.\n\n\u201cIts origin must have been in divine revelation;[43] for it is impossible\nto conceive that the mind can have attained to it by its own unassisted\npowers. But the thought, when once communicated, would in the shipwreck\nof dissolving nature, be clung to with the grasp of expiring hope. Hence\nno nation have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not\nagreed in the great and general principle of retributive immortality.\nWhen, however, we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar\nnotions with regard to this expected state, we find that their traditions\nare coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and the opinions\nthey thence entertained on the subject of good and evil.\n\n\u201cThis remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians.\n\u2018The belief most firmly established among the American Savages,\u2019 says\nCharlevoix, \u2018is that of the immortality of the soul. They suppose that\nwhen separated from the body, it preserves the same inclinations which\nit had when both were united. For this reason, they bury with the dead\nall that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have\ntwo souls, one of which never leaves the body, unless it be to inhabit\nanother. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to the souls of those\nwho die in infancy, and who therefore have the privilege of commencing a\nsecond life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. Hence children\nare buried along the highways, that the women as they pass may receive\ntheir souls. From this idea of their remaining with the body, arises the\nduty of placing food upon their graves;[44] and mothers have been seen\nto draw from their bosoms that nourishment which these little creatures\nloved when alive, and shed it upon the earth which covered their\nremains.\u2019\u201d[45]\n\n\u201cWhen the time has arrived for the departure of those spirits which leave\nthe body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal\nabode, and which is therefore called the country of souls. This country\nis at a great distance towards the West, and to go thither costs them\na journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and\nmany perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which many suffer\nshipwreck; of a dog from which they with difficulty defend themselves; of\na place of suffering where they expiate their faults; of another in which\nthe souls of those prisoners who have been tortured are again tormented,\nand who therefore linger on their course, to delay as long as possible\nthe moment of their arrival. From this idea it proceeds that after the\ndeath of these unhappy victims, for fear their souls may remain around\nthe huts of their tormentors from the thirst of vengeance, the latter are\ncareful to strike every place around them with a staff, and to utter such\nterrible cries as may oblige them to depart.\u201d[46]\n\n\u201cTo be put to death as a captive, is, therefore, an exclusion from the\nIndian paradise; and, indeed, the souls of all who have died a violent\ndeath, even in war, and in the service of their country, are supposed\nto have no intercourse in the future world with other souls. They,\ntherefore, burn the bodies of such persons, or bury them, sometimes\nbefore they have expired. They are never put into the common place of\ninterment, and they have no part in that solemn ceremony which the Hurons\nand the Iroquois observe every ten years, and other nations every eight,\nof depositing all who have died during that period in a common place of\nsepulture.\n\n\u201cTo have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortunate in every enterprise,\nand victorious over many enemies, are the only titles to enter their\nabode of bliss. The happiness of it consists in the never-failing supply\nof game and fish, an eternal spring, and an abundance of every thing\nwhich can delight the senses without the labour of procuring it. Such are\nthe pleasures which they anticipate, who often return weary and hungry\nfrom the chase, who are often exposed to the inclemencies of a winter\nsky, and who look upon all labour as an unmanly and degrading employment.\n\n\u201cThe Chippewayans live between the parallels of lat. 60 and 65 north, a\nregion of almost perpetual snows; where the ground never thaws, and is so\nbarren as to produce nothing but moss.[47]\n\n\u201cTo them, therefore, perpetual verdure and fertility, and waters\nunincumbered with ice, are voluptuous images. Hence they imagine that,\nafter death, they shall inhabit a most beautiful island in the centre of\na most extensive lake. On the surface of this lake they will embark in\na stone canoe, and if their actions have been generally good, will be\nborne by a gentle current to their delightful and eternal abode. But if,\non the contrary, their bad actions predominate, the stone canoe sinks,\nand leaves them up to their chins in the water to behold and regret the\nreward enjoyed by the good, and eternally struggling, but with unavailing\nendeavours, to reach the blissful island from which they are excluded for\never.[48]\n\n\u201cOn the other hand the Arrowauks, or natives of Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto\nRico, Jamaica, and Trinidad, would naturally place their enjoyments in\nevery thing that was opposite to the violence of a tropical climate. They\nsuppose, therefore, that the spirits of good men were conveyed to the\npleasant valley of _Coyaba_; a place of indolent tranquillity, abounding\nwith _Guavas_ and other delicious fruits, cool shades, and murmuring\nrivulets; in a country where drought never rages, and the hurricane is\nnever felt.[49]\n\n\u201cWhile these voluptuous people made the happiness of the future state\nto consist in these tranquil enjoyments, their fierce enemies, the\nCharaibes, looked forward to a paradise, in which the brave would\nbe attended by their wives and captives. The degenerate and the\ncowardly they doomed to everlasting banishment beyond the mountains;\nto unremitting labour in employments that disgrace manhood\u2014disgrace\nheightened by the greatest of all afflictions, captivity and servitude\namong the Arrowauks.\u201d[50]\n\n\u201cTo all the inferior deities, whether good or malevolent, the Hurons,\nthe Iroquois, and the Algonquins, make various kinds of offerings. To\npropitiate the God of the waters, says Charlevoix, \u2018they cast into the\nstreams and lakes, tobacco, and birds which they have put to death. In\nhonour of the sun, and also of inferior spirits, they consume in the\nfire a part of every thing they use, as an acknowledgement of the power\nfrom which they have derived these possessions. On some occasions they\nhave been observed to make libations, invoking at the same time, in a\nmysterious manner, the object of their worship. These invocations they\nhave never explained; whether it be, that they have in fact no meaning,\nor that the words have been transmitted by tradition, unaccompanied by\ntheir signification, or that the Indians themselves are unwilling to\nreveal the secret. Strings of wampum, tobacco, ears of corn, the skins,\nand often the whole carcases of animals, are seen along difficult or\ndangerous roads, on rocks, and on the shores of rapids, as so many\nofferings made to the presiding spirit of the place. In these cases, dogs\nare the most common victims; and are often suspended alive upon trees by\nthe hinder feet, where they are left to die in a state of madness.\u2019[51]\n\n\u201cWhat Charlevoix thus affirms with regard to the Hurons, Iroquois\nand Algonquins, is mentioned by Mackenzie, as practised among the\nKnisteneaux. \u2018There are stated periods\u2019 says he \u2018such as the spring\nand autumn, when they engage in very long and solemn ceremonies. On\nthese occasions dogs are offered as sacrifices: and those which are\nfat and milk-white are preferred. They also make large offerings of\ntheir property, whatever it may be. The scene of these ceremonies,\nis in an open enclosure, on the banks of a river or lake, and in the\nmost conspicuous situation, in order that such as are passing along,\nor travelling, may be induced to make their offerings. There is also\na particular custom among them, that on these occasions if any of the\ntribe, or even a stranger, should be passing by, and be in real want of\nany thing that is displayed as an offering, he has a right to take it,\nso that he replaces it with some article he can spare, though it be of\nfar inferior value; but to take or touch any thing wantonly is considered\nas a sacrilegious act, and highly insulting to the _great master of\nlife_, who is the sacred object of their devotion.\u2019 At the feasts made by\ntheir chiefs, he further observes, \u2018a small quantity of meat or drink is\nsacrificed before they begin to eat, by throwing it into the fire, or on\nthe earth.\u2019[52]\n\n\u201cA similar account is given by Adair of the practice among the Creeks,\nKat\u00e0bahs, Cherokees, Chocktaws, and other Southern Indians. \u2018The Indian\nwomen,\u2019 says he, \u2018always throw a small piece of the fattest of the meat\ninto the fire, when they are eating, and frequently before they begin to\neat. They pretend to draw omens from it, and firmly believe that it is\nthe mean of obtaining temporal blessings, and averting temporal evils.\nThe men, both in their summer and winter hunt, sacrifice in the woods a\nlarge fat piece of the first buck they kill, and frequently the whole\ncarcase. This they offer up, either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of\nhealth, and for their former success in hunting, or that the divine care\nand goodness may still be continued with them.\u2019[53]\n\n\u201cThe song of the Lenap\u00e9 warriors, as they go out to meet their enemy,\nconcludes with the promise of a victim if they return in safety.\n\n    O! Thou Great Spirit above!\n    \u2026\n    Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy;\n    Suffer me to return again to my children,\n    To my wife,\n    And to my relations!\n    Take pity on me and preserve my life.\n    And I will make to thee a sacrifice.\n\n\u201cAccordingly, \u2018after a successful war,\u2019 says Heckewelder, \u2018they never\nfail to offer up a sacrifice to the great Being, to return him thanks\nfor having given them courage and strength to destroy or conquer their\nenemies.\u2019\u201d[54]\n\n\u201cLoskiel, who has given a minute account of the sacrifices offered by\nthe Lenap\u00e9s or Delawares and who is said by Heckewelder to have almost\nexhausted the subject, affirms that they are offered on all occasions,\nthe most trivial as well as the most important. \u2018They sacrifice to a\nhare,\u2019 says he, \u2018because according to report, the first ancestors of\nthe Indian tribe had that name.\u2019 To Indian corn they sacrifice bear\u2019s\nflesh, but to deer and bears Indian corn; to the fishes, small pieces of\nbread in the shape of fishes; but they positively deny that they pay any\nadoration to these subordinate good spirits, and affirm that they only\nworship the true God through them: \u2018for God,\u2019 say they, \u2018does not require\nmen to pay offerings or adoration immediately to him.\u2019 He has, therefore,\nmade known his will in dreams, notifying to them what beings they have to\nconsider as _manittoes_, and what offerings to make to them.\u201d[55]\n\nWhen a boy dreams that he sees a large bird of prey, of the size of a\nman, flying towards him from the North, and saying to him \u2018roast some\nmeat for me,\u2019 the boy is then bound to sacrifice the first deer or bear\nhe shoots to this bird. This sacrifice is appointed by an old man, who\nfixes on the day and place in which it is to be performed. Three days\nprevious to it, messengers are sent to invite the guests. These assemble\nin some lonely place, in a house large enough to contain three fires.\nAt the middle fire, the old man performs the sacrifice. Having sent for\ntwelve straight and supple sticks, he fastens then into the ground, so as\nto enclose a circular spot, covering them with blankets. He then rolls\ntwelve red-hot stones in the enclosure, each of which is dedicated to one\ngod in particular. The largest belongs, as they say, to the great god in\nheaven; the second to the sun, or the god of the day; the third, to the\nsun or the moon; the fourth, to the earth; the fifth, to the fire; the\nsixth, to the water; the seventh, to the dwelling or house of God; the\neighth, to Indian corn; the ninth, to the West; the tenth, to the South;\nthe eleventh, to the East; the twelfth to the North. The old man then\ntakes a rattle, containing some grains of Indian corn, and leading the\nboy, for whom the sacrifice is made, into the enclosure, throws a handful\nof tobacco upon the red-hot stones, and as the smoke ascends, rattles his\ncalabash, calling each god by name, and saying:\u2014\u2018This boy (naming him)\noffers unto thee a fine fat deer, and a delicious dish of sapan! Have\nmercy on him, and grant good luck to him and his family.\u2019[56]\n\n\u201cAll the inhabitants of the West Indies offered sacrifices; and of these\nthe Charaibes were accustomed, at the funerals of their friends, to offer\nsome of the captives who had been taken in battle.[57] I scarcely need\nadvert to the well-known fact, that human sacrifices were offered by\nthe Mexicans. Of these, all the Spanish historians have given the most\nhorrible and disgusting account, and they are described more especially\nby Bernal Diaz, who was an eye-witness, with the most artless and\naffecting simplicity. Of this practice, however, there are no traces\namong the present Indian tribes, unless the tormenting of their captives,\nas Charlevoix seems to intimate, be considered as a sacrifice to the god\nof war.\n\n\u201cHaving seen that Sacrifice is practised among the Indians, we are\nnaturally led to consider the question, whether they have among them a\npriesthood: and on this point, the testimony of travellers is somewhat\ndiscordant. Mackenzie mentions that the Chipewyans have high-priests;[58]\nyet he describes the public sacrifices of the Knisteneaux, as offered by\ntheir chiefs, and the private, by every man in his own cabin, assisted\nby his most intimate friend.[59] Charlevoix says, that among the Indians\nof whom he writes, \u2018in public ceremonies, the chiefs are the priests;\nin private, the father of each family; or where there is none, the most\nconsiderable person in the cabin. An aged missionary,\u2019 he says, \u2018who\nlived among the Ott\u00e0was, stated that with them an old man performed the\noffice of priest.\u2019 Loskiel says of the Lenap\u00e9, or Delaware Indians,\nthat \u2018they have neither priests regularly appointed, nor temples. At\ngeneral and solemn sacrifices the oldest men perform the offices of\npriests; but in private parties, each man bringing a sacrifice is priest\nhimself. Instead of a temple, a large dwelling-house is fitted up for\nthe purpose.\u2019 He afterwards speaks of the place of offering under the\nname of \u2018the house of sacrifice,\u2019 and mentions it as being \u2018in a lonely\nplace.\u2019[60]\n\n\u201cOn the other hand, Bartram, in his account of the Southern tribes,\nsays, \u2018there is in every town, or tribe, a high-priest, with several\ninferior or junior priests, called by the white people jugglers, or\nconjurers.\u2019[61] To the same purpose, Adair asserts, that they \u2018have\ntheir high priests, and others of a religious order.\u2019 \u2018Ishtahoollo,\u2019 he\nobserves, \u2018is the name of all their priestly order, and their pontifical\noffice descends by inheritance to the eldest.\u2019[62]\n\n\u201cNotwithstanding this diversity, however, the difference is more in\nappearance than in reality. Various meanings attached to the same words,\nin consequence of arbitrary associations, may produce a diversity of\ndescription. If a priest be one whose exclusive duty it is to celebrate\nthe rites of religion, then it must be admitted that a priesthood exists\namong the Indians; for those who deny that they have priests, allow that\nin their public sacrifices the chiefs are the only persons authorized\nto officiate. The only difference, then, lies in this, whether the\npriesthood be, or be not, connected with the office of the magistrate.\n\n\u201cAmong Christians, as among the Jews, the priesthood is distinct from the\ncivil authority; but previous to the separation of the family of Aaron,\nthese two offices were generally united. Melchizedeck was both king of\nSalem and priest of the most High God. Jethro was, at the same time,\npriest and prince of Midian; and Abraham himself, who is called a prince,\nperformed the sacerdotal functions. We find this union of the regal and\nsacerdotal characters existing among heathen nations. Homer described the\naged Pylian king as performing religious rites;[63] and Virgil tells of\nthe monarch of Delos, who was both priest and king:\u2014\n\n    \u2018Rex Anius, rex idem, hominum Ph\u0153bique sacerdos.\u2019[64]\n\n\u201cAmong the Creeks and other Southern Indians, a monarchical form of\ngovernment seems to prevail; among the Northern Indians, a republican.\nIn both, the sacerdotal office may be united with civil authority; and\ntherefore partake of its peculiar character. Among the one, it may be\nhereditary; among the other elective. If this be not sufficient to\nreconcile the discordant accounts, we are bound, I think, to respect the\nunited testimony of Charlevoix and Loskiel, in preference to any other,\nas they do not appear to have had any system to serve which might give\na bias to their statements. And if this be so, it will be seen that\nthe religion of the Indians approaches much nearer to the patriarchal,\nthan to that of the Jews. Their public sacerdotal offices are performed\nby their chiefs, and in their private, the head of every family is its\npriest.\n\n\u201cBut there is another office which Carver, Bartram and others have\nconfounded with the priesthood, which exists among all the Indian\ntribes, and concerning which there is no diversity in the statements of\ntravellers. To this class of men the French missionaries gave the name\nof _Jongleurs_, whence the English have derived that of jugglers or\nconjurers. To use the definition of Charlevoix, they are those servants\nof their God, whose duty it is to announce their wishes, and to be their\ninterpreters to men: or, in the language of Volney, those \u2018whose trade\nit is, to expound dreams, and to negotiate between the _Manitto_ and\nthe votary.\u2019 \u2018The Jongleurs of Canada,\u2019 says Charlevoix, \u2018boast that by\nmeans of the good spirits whom they consult, they learn what is passing\nin most remote countries, and what is to come to pass at the most remote\nperiod of time; that they discover the origin and nature of the most\nsecret disorders, and obtain the hidden method of curing them; that they\ndiscern the course to be pursued in the most intricate affairs; that\nthey learn to explain the obscurest dreams, to give success to the most\ndifficult negociations, and to render the gods propitious to warriors and\nhunters.\u2019 \u2018I have heard,\u2019 he adds, \u2018from persons of the most undoubted\njudgment and veracity, that when these imposters shut themselves up in\ntheir sweating stones, which is one of their most common preparations\nfor the performance of their sleight of hand, they differ in no respect\nfrom the descriptions given by the poets, of the priestesses of Apollo,\nwhen seated on the Delphic Tripod. They have been seen to fall into\nconvulsions, to assume tones of voice, and to perform actions, which\nwere seemingly superior to human strength, and which inspired with\nan unconquerable terror even the most prejudiced spectators.\u2019 Their\npredictions were sometimes so surprisingly verified, that Charlevoix\nseems firmly to have believed that they had a real intercourse with the\nfather of lies.[65]\n\n\u201cThis account of the Jongleurs of Canada, is confirmed by Mr.\nHeckewelder, in his late work on the Indian tribes. \u2018They are a set,\u2019\nhe observes, \u2018of professional impostors, who availing themselves of the\nsuperstitious prejudices of the people, acquire the name and reputation\nof men of superior knowledge, and possessed of supernatural powers. As\nthe Indians in general believe in witchcraft, and ascribe to the arts\nof sorcerers many of the disorders with which they are afflicted in the\nregular course of nature, this class of men has arisen among them, who\npretend to be skilled in a certain occult science, by means of which they\nare able, not only to cure natural diseases, but to counteract or destroy\nthe enchantments of wizards or witches, and expel evil spirits.\u2019[66]\n\n\u201cThere are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and women, who\nget their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge, to bring down\nrain when wanted, and to impart good luck to bad hunters. In the summer\nof 1799, a most uncommon drought happened in the Muskingum country.\nAn old man was applied to by the women to bring down rain, and after\nvarious ceremonies, declared that they should have rain enough. The sky\nhad been clear for nearly five weeks, and was equally clear when the\nIndian made this declaration. But about four in the afternoon the horizon\nbecame overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and\ncontinued to do so till the ground became thoroughly soaked. Experience\nhad doubtless taught him to observe that certain signs in the sky or in\nthe water were forerunners of rain; yet the credulous multitude did not\nfail to ascribe it to his supernatural power.[67] It is incredible to\nwhat a degree the superstitious belief in witchcraft operates on the mind\nof the Indian. The moment his imagination is struck with the idea that\nhe is bewitched, he is no longer himself. Of this extraordinary power\nof their conjurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in\nwhich it is acquired, they have not a very definite idea. The sorcerer,\nthey think, makes use of some deadening substance, which he conveys\nto the person he means to strike, in a manner which they can neither\nunderstand or describe. The person thus stricken is immediately seized\nwith an unaccountable terror. His spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is\ndisturbed in his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sickness\nseizes him, and he dies at last, a miserable victim to the workings of\nhis own imagination.[68]\n\n\u201cA remarkable instance of this belief in the power of these sorcerers,\nand of the wonderful effects of imagination, is related by Hearne, as\nhaving occurred during his residence among the northern or Chepewyan\nIndians. Matonabbee, one of their chiefs, had requested him to kill one\nof his enemies, who was at that time several hundred miles distant. \u2018To\nplease this great man,\u2019 says he, \u2018and not expecting that any harm could\npossibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a\npiece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling; in the hand of one of them\nI drew the figure of a bayonet, pointing to the breast of the other.\nThis, said I, to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was holding the\nbayonet, is I, and the other is your enemy. Opposite to those two figures\nI drew a fine tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and out of\nthe tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee, with\ninstructions to make it as public as possible. The following year when he\ncame to trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Matonabbee assured\nme, that the man was in perfect health when he heard of my design against\nhim, but almost immediately afterwards became quite gloomy, and, refusing\nall kinds of sustenance, in a very few days died.\u2019[69]\n\n\u201cBartram, in his account of the manners and habits of the tribes which\ninhabit Florida and the south of the United States, relates, as their\ngeneral belief, that their seer has communion with powerful invisible\nspirits, who have a share in the government of human affairs, as well\nas of the elements. His influence is so great, as frequently to turn\nback an army when within a day\u2019s journey of their enemy, after a march\nof several hundred miles. \u2018Indeed,\u2019 he adds, \u2018the predictions of these\nmen have surprised many people. They foretell rain or drought, pretend\nto bring rain at pleasure, cure diseases, exercise witchcraft, invoke or\nexpel evil spirits, and even assume the power of directing thunder and\nlightening.\u2019[70]\n\n\u201cThe power, then, of these imposters, is supposed to consist in the\nmiraculous cure of diseases; the procuring of rain, and other temporal\nblessings, in the same supernatural manner; the miraculous infliction of\npunishment upon the subjects of their displeasure, and the foretelling\nof future events. It will immediately be seen, that these are, in fact,\nthe characteristics of the prophetic office; those I mean, which are\nexternal, which produce therefore, a lasting impression on the senses of\nmen, and from the force of ocular tradition, would naturally be pretended\nto, even after the power of God was withdrawn.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n_Of the mode in which the North American Indians educate their children._\n\n\nMany of the Asiatic nations and African tribes sell their children\nwithout compunction; but no emolument or hope of advantage can induce\na North American Indian to part with his child to strangers. Of the\ntenderness with which the American Indians regard their offspring,\nBuchanan witnessed the following manifestation:\u2014\n\n\u201cA mother with an infant at her breast, and two other children, one\nabout eleven and the other eight or nine years of age, were in a canoe\nnear a mile from land, during a violent squall. The wind came in sudden\ngusts, and the waves dashed in rapid succession over the frail vessel.\nThe poor woman, with a small oar in one hand and the other surrounding\nher babe, directed the two young ones, who each had a paddle, to get the\nhead of the canoe to the wind while the squall lasted; which, with much\nlabour on the part of these tender little mariners, aided by the mother,\nwas at length effected; but during the effort it was very touching to\nsee the strong emotions of maternal love, evidenced to the poor infant\nat her breast. She would clasp it tightly to her agitated bosom, then\ncast a momentary look at her other children, and with an anxious and\nsteady gaze, watch the coming wave. In this scene was exhibited such\nhigh degrees of fortitude, dexterity, and parental affection, that I\nwould have wished many of our civilized mothers, who look and think with\ncontempt on the poor Indian, had beheld her.\u201d\n\nIt might be expected that those who display such tenderness to their\noffspring, should be particularly careful of their subsequent education.\nAccordingly, we find that the Indians pay particular attention to this\nmatter. \u201cIt may be justly a subject of wonder,\u201d says Mr. Heckewelder,\n\u201chow a nation without a written code of laws or system of jurisprudence,\nwithout any form or constitution of government, and without even a single\nelective or hereditary magistrate, can subsist together in peace and\nharmony, and in the exercise of the moral virtues; how a people can be\nwell and effectually governed, without any external authority, by the\nmere force of the ascendency which men of superior minds have over those\nof a more ordinary stamp; by a tacit, yet universal submission to the\naristocracy of experience, talent, and virtue! Such, nevertheless, is\nthe spectacle which an Indian nation exhibits to the eye of a stranger.\nI have been a witness to it for a long series of years, and after much\nobservation and reflection to discover the cause of this phenomenon, I\nthink I have reason to be satisfied that it is in a great degree to be\nascribed _to the pains which the Indians take to instil at an early age\nhonest and virtuous principles into the minds of their children, and to\nthe method which they pursue in educating them_. This method I will not\ncall a system, for systems are unknown to these sons of nature, who,\nby following alone her dictates, have at once discovered, and followed\nwithout effort, that plain obvious path which the philosophers of Europe\nhave been so long in search of.\u201d[71]\n\nThe manner of this education is described by our good missionary as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n\u201cThe first step that parents take towards the education of their\nchildren, is to prepare them for future happiness, by impressing upon\ntheir tender minds, that they are indebted for their existence to a\ngreat, good, and benevolent spirit, who not only has given them life,\nbut has ordained them for certain great purposes. That he has given them\na fertile extensive country, well stocked with game of every kind for\ntheir subsistence; and that by one of his inferior spirits he has also\nsent down to them from above, corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans, and other\nvegetables for their nourishment; all which blessings their ancestors\nhave enjoyed for a great number of ages. That this great spirit looks\ndown upon the Indians, to see whether they are grateful to him and make\nhim a due return for the many benefits he has bestowed, and therefore,\nthat it is their duty to show their thankfulness by worshiping him, and\ndoing that which is pleasing in his sight.\n\n\u201cThis is in substance the first lesson taught, and from time to time\nrepeated to the Indian children, which naturally leads them to reflect\nand gradually to understand that a being which hath done such great\nthings for them, and all to make them happy, must be good indeed, and\nthat it is surely their duty to do something that will please him. They\nare then told that their ancestors, who received all this from the hands\nof the Great Spirit and lived in the enjoyment of it, must have been\ninformed of what would be most pleasing to this good being, and of the\nmanner in which his favour could most surely he obtained; and they are\ndirected to look up for instruction to those who know all this, learn\nfrom them, and revere them for their knowledge and the wisdom which they\npossess; this creates in the children a strong sentiment of respect for\ntheir elders, and a desire to follow their advice and example. Their\nyoung ambition is then excited by telling them that they were made the\nsuperiors of all other creatures, and are to have power over them; great\npains are taken to make this feeling take an early root, and it becomes,\nin fact, their ruling passion through life; for no pains are spared to\ninstil into them, that by following the advice of the most admired and\nextolled hunter, trapper, or warrior, they will at a future day acquire\na degree of fame and reputation equal to that which he possesses; that\nby submitting to the counsels of the aged, the chiefs, the men superior\nin wisdom, they may also rise to glory, and be called _wise men_, an\nhonorable title to which no Indian is indifferent. They are finally told\nthat if they respect the aged and infirm, and are kind and obliging to\nthem, they will be treated in the same manner when their turn comes to\nfeel the infirmities of old age.\u201d\n\nWhen this first and important lesson is thought to be sufficiently\nimpressed upon children\u2019s minds, the parents next proceed to make them\nsensible of the distinction between good and evil; they tell them that\nthere are good and bad actions, both equally open to them to do or\ncommit; that good acts are pleasing to the Good Spirit which gave them\ntheir existence; and that on the contrary, all that is bad proceeds from\nthe Bad Spirit who has given them nothing, and who cannot give them\nanything that is good, because he has it not, and therefore he envies\nthem that which they have received from the good spirit, who is far\nsuperior to the bad one.\n\n\u201cThis introductory lesson, if it may be so called, naturally makes them\nwish to know what is good and what is bad. This the parent teaches them\nin his own way, that is to say, in the way in which he was himself taught\nby his parents. It is not the lesson of an hour or of a day; it is\nrather a long course more of practical than of theoretical instruction;\na lesson, which is not repeated at stated times and seasons, but which\nis shown, pointed out, and demonstrated to the child, not only by those\nunder whose immediate guardianship he is, but by the whole community, who\nconsider themselves alike interested in the direction to be given to the\nrising generation.\n\n\u201cWhen this instruction is given in the form of precepts, it must not be\nsupposed that it is done in an authoritative or forbidding tone, but,\non the contrary, in the gentlest and most persuasive manner: nor is the\nparent\u2019s authority ever supported by harsh or compulsive means; no whips,\nno punishments, no threats are ever used to enforce commands or compel\nobedience. The child\u2019s _pride_ is the feeling to which an appeal is made,\nwhich proves successful in almost every instance. A father needs only\nto say in the presence of his children: \u2018I want such a thing done; I\nwant one of my children to go upon such an errand; let me see who is the\n_good_ child that will do it!\u2019 this word _good_ operates, as it were, by\nmagic, and the children immediately vie with each other to comply with\nthe wishes of their parent. If the father sees an old decrepit man or\nwoman pass by, led along by a child, he will draw the attention of his\nown children to the object by saying: \u2018what a good child that must be,\nwhich pays such attention to the aged! That child, indeed, looks forward\nto the time when it shall be old!\u2019 or he will say: \u2018may the Great Spirit,\nwho looks upon him, grant this _good_ child a long life!\u2019\n\n\u201cIn this manner of bringing up children, the parents, as I have already\nsaid, are seconded by the whole community. If a child is sent from his\nfather\u2019s dwelling to carry a dish of victuals to an aged person, all in\nthe house will join in calling him a _good_ child. They will ask whose\nchild he is; and on being told, will exclaim, what! \u2018has the _Tortoise_,\nor the _Little Bear_ (as the father\u2019s name may be) got such a _good_\nchild?\u2019 If a child is seen passing through the streets leading an old\ndecrepit person, the villagers will in his hearing, and to encourage all\nthe other children who may be present to take example from him, call on\none another to look on and see what a _good_ child that must be. And\nso, in most instances, this method is resorted to, for the purpose of\ninstructing children in things that are good, proper, or honorable in\nthemselves; while, on the other hand, when a child has committed a _bad_\nact, the parent will say to him, \u2018O! how grieved I am that my child has\ndone this bad act! I hope he will never do so again.\u2019 This is generally\neffectual, particularly if said in the presence of others. The whole of\nthe Indian plan of education tends to elevate rather than depress the\nmind, and by that means to make determined hunters and fearless warriors.\n\n\u201cThus, when a lad has killed his first game, such as a deer or a bear,\nparents who have boys growing up will not fail to say to some person\nin the presence of their own children: \u2018that boy must have listened\nattentively to the aged hunters, for, though so young, he has already\ngiven a proof that he will become a good hunter himself.\u2019 If, on the\nother hand, a young man should fail of giving such a proof, it will be\nsaid of him: \u2018that he did not pay attention to discourses of the aged.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn this indirect manner is instruction on all subjects given to the\nyoung people. They are to learn the arts of hunting, trapping, and making\nwar, by listening to the aged when conversing together on those subjects;\neach in his turn relating how he acted; and opportunities are afforded to\nthem for that purpose. By this mode of instructing youth, their respect\nfor the aged is kept alive, and it is increased by the reflection that\nthe same respect will be paid to them at a future day, when young persons\nwill be attentive to what they shall relate.\n\n\u201cThis method of conveying instruction is, I believe, common to most\nIndian nations; it is so, at least, amongst all those that I have become\nacquainted with, and lays the foundation for that voluntary submission\nto their chiefs, for which they are so remarkable. Thus has been\nmaintained for ages, without convulsions and without civil discords,\nthis traditional government, of which the world perhaps does not offer\nanother example; a government in which there are no positive laws, but\nonly long established habits and customs; no code of jurisprudence, but\nthe experience of former times; no magistrates, but advisers, to whom the\npeople nevertheless pay a willing and implicit obedience; in which age\nconfers rank, wisdom gives power, and moral goodness secures a title to\nuniversal respect. All this seems to be effected by the simple means of\nan excellent mode of education, by which a strong attachment to ancient\ncustoms, respect for age, and the love of virtue are indelibly impressed\nupon the minds of youth, so that these impressions acquire strength as\ntime pursues its course, and as they pass through successive generations.\u201d\n\nWhat can afford stronger proof of the Socialist\u2019s doctrine, that the\ncharacter of man results from the peculiar mode of training to which\nhe may be subjected, than the forgoing statements of the missionary\nHeckewelder? Robert Owen and his disciples assert that man is the\ncreature of circumstances; that the quality of his character corresponds\nto the quality of the associations under the influence of which he has\nbeen trained. And in the statements of a minister of the Gospel, we\nfind ample proof of the truth of these assertions. O! that men were\nwise enough to perceive the benefits that would result from the proper\napplication of a principle, the truth of which is thus warranted by the\ncondition, character, and training of the Aborigines of America!\n\n\n\n\n_Further particulars respecting the Cruelty of the Indians, their\nHospitality, their sense of Justice, and the mode in which the Whites\nhave acted towards them._\n\n\nA great deal has been said respecting the cruelty of the North-American\nIndians. That they are in some instances cruel, may be admitted; but\nthis need not be wondered at, when we consider the atrocities which the\nwhites have perpetrated upon them. \u201cCruelty and eager desire for revenge\u201d\nsays Buchanan, \u201care the chief, if not the only deformities of their\nnature; and these are scarcely ever manifested, except in their open\nhostilities, the causes of which are precisely similar to those which\nactuate civilized nations. Then indeed their ferocity breaks out with\nalmost demoniacal fury; their captives are generally doomed to death;\nbut it is not until they have undergone the most exquisite tortures,\nthe most ingenious, unutterable and protracted agony, that the final\nblow is given. These atrocious practices are not however peculiar to\nour unlettered Indians. The metal boot and wedge; the thumb screw; the\nrack; the gradual burnings of Smithfield; the religious butchery of the\nbloody Piedmontese who rolled Mother with Infant down the rocks; the\ndismemberment by horses; Luke\u2019s iron crown; Damien\u2019s bed of steel;\u201d and\nthe kiss of the virgin; \u201csufficiently attest the claims of enlightened\nman to distinction in the art of torture.\u201d[72]\n\nGovernor Clinton in his discourse to the New York Society, says that \u201cthe\nfive nations, notwithstanding their horrible cruelty, are in one respect,\nentitled to singular commendation for the exercise of humanity; those\nenemies they spared in battle they made free; whereas, with all other\nbarbarous nations slavery was the commutation of death. But it becomes\nnot us, if we value the character of our forefathers; it becomes not the\ncivilized nations of Europe who have had American possessions, to inveigh\nagainst the merciless conduct of the savage. His appetite for blood\nwas sharpened and whetted by European instigation and his cupidity was\nenlisted on the side of cruelty by every temptation.\u201d[73]\n\nOn the cruelty of the Indians, and the provocation they have received\nfrom the Whites, Mr. Heckewelder in his 44th chapter, has the following\nobservations\u2014\n\n\u201cThe Indians are cruel to their enemies!\u2014In some cases they are, but\nperhaps not more so than white men have sometimes shown themselves.\nThere have been instances of white men flaying or taking off the skins\nof Indians who had fallen into their hands, then tanning those skins\nor cutting them up in pieces, making them up into razor-straps, and\nexporting them for sale, as was done at or near Pittsburg sometime during\nthe revolutionary war. Those things are abominations in the eyes of the\nIndians, who indeed, when strongly excited, inflict torments on their\nprisoners and put them to death by cruel tortures, but never are guilty\nof acts of barbarity in cold blood. Neither do the Delawares and some\nother Indian nations, ever on any account disturb the ashes of the dead.\n\n\u201cThe custom of torturing prisoners is of ancient date, and was first\nintroduced as a trial of courage. I have been told, however, that among\nsome tribes it has never been in use; but it must be added that those\ntribes give no quarter. The Delawares accuse the Iroquois of having been\nthe inventors of this piece of cruelty, and charge them further with\neating the flesh of their prisoners after the torture was over. Be this\nas it may, there are now but few instances of prisoners being put to\ndeath in this manner.\n\n\u201cRare as these barbarous executions now are, I have reason to believe\nthat they would be still less frequent, if proper pains were taken to\nturn the Indians away from this heathenish custom. Instead of this, it is\nbut too true that they have been excited to cruelty by unprincipled white\nmen, who have joined in their war-feasts and even added to the barbarity\nof the scene. Can there be a more brutal act than, after furnishing those\nsavages, as they are called, with implements of war and destruction, to\ngive them an ox to kill and to roast whole, to dance the war dance with\nthem round the slaughtered animal, strike at him, stab him, telling the\nIndians at the same time, \u2018Strike, stab! thus you must do to your enemy!\u2019\nThen taking a piece of the meat and tearing it with their teeth, \u2018So you\nmust eat his flesh!\u2019 and sucking up the juices, \u2018Thus you must drink his\nblood;\u2019 and at last devour the whole as wolves do a carcass. This is what\nis known to have been done by some of those Indian agents that I have\nmentioned.\n\n\u201cIs this possible? the reader will naturally exclaim. Yes! it is\npossible! and every Indian warrior will tell you that it is true. It has\ncome to me from so many credible sources that I _am forced_ to believe\nit. How can the Indians now be reproached with acts of cruelty to which\nthey have been excited by those who pretended to be Christians and\ncivilized men, but who were worse savages than those whom, no doubt, they\nwere ready to brand with that name.\n\n\u201cWhen hostile governments give directions to employ the Indians against\ntheir enemies, they surely do not know that such is the manner in which\ntheir orders are to be executed; but let me tell them and every other\ngovernment who will descend to employ these auxiliaries, that is the\nonly way in which their subaltern agents will and can proceed to make\ntheir aid effectual. The Indians are not fond of interfering in quarrels\nnot their own, and will not fight with spirit for the mere sake of a\nlivelihood which they can obtain in a more agreeable manner by hunting\nand their other ordinary occupations. Their passions must be excited;\nand that is not easily done when they themselves have not received any\ninjury from those against whom they are desired to fight. Behold then,\nthe abominable course which must unavoidably be resorted to\u2014to induce\nthem to do what?\u2014to lay waste the dwelling of the peaceable cultivator of\nthe land, and to murder his innocent wife and helpless children! I cannot\npursue this subject farther, although I am far from having exhausted it.\nI have said enough to enable the impartial reader to decide which of\nthe two classes of men, the Indians or the Whites, are the most justly\nentitled to the epithets of brutes, barbarians, and savages. It is not\nfor me to anticipate his decision.\u201d\n\nThe cruelty of the Indians need not be wondered at, when the provocations\nthey have received are taken into account. The white settlers usually\ntreat them as inferiors, as lawful prey, as beings only fit to be\ntrampled on and oppressed. Of the truth of this statement, the following\nextracts will afford abundant proof. We quote them from Buchanan\u2019s\nSketches of the Manners and Customs of the North-American Indians;\nHeckewelder\u2019s Historical Account, and the Report on the Condition of the\nIndians of Upper-Canada, published recently by the Aborigines Protection\nSociety. These extracts, it will be seen, contain a narration of events,\nmore creditable to the character of the Indians, than to the character of\ntheir white oppressors.\n\nMr. Buchanan says: \u201cIn passing down the St. Lawrence in the summer of\n1819, I stopped my batteaux at a tavern, where I proposed to remain all\nnight. Two squaws were there with a basket of wild strawberries for\nsale, and I directed the mistress of the tavern to purchase some, that\nI might have them with cream for my supper. It was soon, however, to be\nperceived by the conversation in bargaining, that my landlady and the\nIndian women could not come to terms. There seemed to be much harshness\nin the manner of the former; but the replies of the latter were so\nmeek, and their demeanour so submissive, that had I been making the\nbargain under the impression of my feelings, few words would have been\nnecessary. The Christian purchaser, however, continued so extortionate\nin her demands, that the poor disappointed heathens turned away from\nher. Truly unreasonable indeed must the lady have been; for there was\nneither village, nor other house near likely to afford a market for the\npoor Indian hawkers, who it seemed had come to this very tavern with\nthe hope of selling their fruit. Under this impression I followed the\npoor women, put a small sum into the hands of one of them, and hastily\npassed on, while they gazed at me with astonishment at so unexpected _a\nlargess_, for so it appeared to them. On my return from a walk along the\nriver, I was surprised to see the two squaws standing at the corner of\nthe house patiently waiting for me; when, eyes sparkling with emotions\nwhich I could not misunderstand, but which I am incapable of portraying,\nthey presented me with a bowl top-full of picked strawberries, which I\nrejected at first, being desirous of convincing them there were some, if\nnot many, white men who felt kindly towards them. But their expression\nof entreaty was so vehement, their importunity so great, that I felt it\nnecessary to their happiness to accept their present; for they had no\nother way of showing their gratitude. This humble offering furnished my\nsupper, and sweet indeed would my meal have been, had not commiseration\nfor the wrongs of these sorely abused, persecuted, forlorn, abandoned\npeople, mingled with my enjoyment. I am so fully impressed with their\nundeserved misery, and with the nobleness of their character, that I\nshould esteem the devotion of my life in their cause the most honourable\nway in which it could be employed; but alas, years and circumstances\nprevent my doing more than making this feeble effort to rouse the\nenergies of youthful talent in their behalf; and as benevolence pervades\nthe youthful mind more powerfully than that of the aged, I am not without\na hope that thousands will yet start up to advocate the cause of the Red\nIndians, and prosecute measures for the amelioration of their state.\n\n\u201cThe above instance of want of charity, nay, of common decency on the\npart of white people in their intercourse with the Indians, is not by any\nmeans of rare occurrence. My reader will already have seen the complaints\nand pathetic appeals of justice which the poor children of the wilderness\nare so frequently compelled, by the treachery of their civilized\nneighbours, to make; and I am sorry to add another specimen to the long\nlist of these atrocious outrages, which, in large and petty aggressions,\nis daily swelling and becoming more and more enormous. In passing, on\nthe very day I have just adverted to through the Thousand Islands, one\nof the boatmen who were rowing me, hallooed to a canoe in which some\nIndians were fishing, who immediately came towards us, and a barter\ncommenced between them and the boatmen. The boatmen held up a piece of\ncold pork and a loaf, for which they were to receive fish. The poor young\nIndians, (for the eldest was not above fourteen, and there were two\nlittle girls younger) showed what fish they would give; yet warily kept\nat a distance, fearing what, in spite of their precaution, actually took\nplace. The boatmen struck suddenly at the canoe with their oars, and in\nthe confusion which this attack caused, grasped the fish; the bread and\nthe pork they at first offered were, I need hardly say, withheld. Having\nachieved this noble enterprise they shouted and assailed the unresisting\nand defenceless children (who paddled off evidently fearful of further\noutrage,) with taunts and mockery. These men were Canadians; there were\nfour of them; and I had no other means of punishing them on this occasion\nthan by withholding the usual pecuniary fee. I was in some measure at\ntheir mercy; but though compelled to be a calm spectator of so dastardly\na theft, I confess I was still more incensed at seeing how heartily some\ninhabitants of Canada, who were my fellow passengers, seemed to enjoy\nthe joke. The fact is, the Indians are esteemed lawful prey. Such is the\nfeeling of thousands of men called Christians, who boast of civilization,\nbut who derive their subsistence by intercourse with the Indians; and\nhowever just many in the United States are, and however careful the\nBritish government is to guard the rights of the red men, yet as this\nguardianship is chiefly committed to those who are partakers in the\nspoils of the Indians, the care, instead of being wise and benign, is\nrather to debauch their untutored mind by the introduction of spirits\namong them. Every cup to them is indeed \u2018unblessed, and the ingredient\nis a devil!\u2019 Gradually, therefore, are they diminishing, and receding\nfrom the haunts of what we term _civilization_! That this charge does not\napply to all, and rarely to the _heads_ of these departments, I rejoice\nto admit; but still those heads of departments are responsible for all\nthe acts of their subordinate agents, and should exercise a vigilant\nsuperintendence, impartially punishing any, the least, infringement of\ntheir regulations. No man should be connected with the Indian department\nwho is directly or indirectly interested in trade with the Indians.\u201d\n\nThe following facts derived from Heckewelder\u2019s historical account speak\nvolumes. Eternal God can white men be so cruel! Can the professors of\nreligion be so depraved!!\n\n\u201cIn the summer of the year 1763, some friendly Indians from a distant\nplace, came to Bethlehem to dispose of their peltry for manufactured\ngoods and necessary implements of husbandry. Returning home well\nsatisfied, they put up the first night at a tavern, eight miles\ndistant.[74] The landlord not being at home, his wife took the liberty of\nencouraging the people who frequented her house for the sake of drinking,\nto abuse the Indians, adding, that she would freely give a gallon of rum\nto any one of them that should kill one of the black devils. Other white\npeople from the neighbourhood came in during the night, who also drank\nfreely, made a great deal of noise, and increased the fear of the poor\nIndians who, for the greatest part, understanding English, could not\nbut suspect that something bad was intended against their persons. They\nwere not, however, otherwise disturbed; but in the morning, when after\na restless night they were preparing to set off, they found themselves\nrobbed of some of the most valuable articles they had purchased, and on\nmentioning this to a man who appeared to be the bar-keeper, they were\nordered to leave the house. Not being willing to lose so much property,\nthey retired to some distance into the woods, where, some of them\nremaining with what was left them, the others returned to Bethlehem and\nlodged their complaint with a justice of the peace. The magistrate gave\nthem a letter to the landlord pressing him without delay to restore to\nthe Indians the goods that had been taken from them. But behold! when\nthey delivered that letter to the people at the inn they were told in\nanswer, \u2018that if they set any value on their lives, they must make off\nwith themselves immediately.\u2019 They well understood that they had no other\nalternative, and prudently departed without having received back any of\ntheir goods. Arrived at Nescopeck on the Susquehannah, they fell in with\nsome other Delawares, who had been treated much in the same manner, one\nof them having had his rifle stolen from him. Here the two parties agreed\nto take revenge in their own way, for those insults and robberies for\nwhich they could obtain no redress; and that they determined to do as\nsoon as war should be again declared by their nation against the English.\n\n\u201cScarcely had these Indians retired, when in another place, about\nfourteen miles distant from the former, one man, two women and a child,\nall quiet Indians, were murdered in a most wicked and barbarous manner,\nby drunken militia officers and their men, for the purpose of getting\ntheir horses and the goods they had just purchased.[75] One of the women,\nfalling on her knees, begged in vain for the life of herself and her\nchild, while the other woman seeing what was doing, made her escape to\nthe barn, where she endeavoured to hide herself on the top of the grain.\nShe however was discovered, and inhumanly thrown down on the thrashing\nfloor with such force that her brains flew out.\n\n\u201cHere, then, were insults, robberies and murders, all committed within\nthe short space of three months, unatoned for and unrevenged. There was\nno prospect of obtaining redress; the survivors were therefore obliged\nto seek some other means to obtain revenge. They did so; the Indians,\nalready exasperated against the English in consequence of repeated\noutrages, and considering the nation as responsible for the injuries\nwhich it did neither prevent nor punish, and for which it did not even\noffer to make any kind of reparation, at last declared war; and then the\ninjured parties were at liberty to redress themselves for the wrongs\nthey had suffered. They immediately started against the objects of their\nhatred, and finding their way unseen and undiscovered to the inn which\nhad been the scene of the first outrage, they attacked it at day-break,\nfired into it on the people within who were lying on their beds. Strange\nto relate! the murderers of the man, two women, and child, were among\nthem. They were mortally wounded, and died of their wounds shortly\nafterwards. The Indians, after leaving this house, murdered by accident\nan innocent family, having mistaken the house that they meant to attack,\nafter which they returned to their homes.\n\n\u201cNow a violent hue and cry was raised against the Indians; no language\nwas too bad, no crimes too black to brand them with. No faith was to\nbe placed in those savages; treaties with them were of no effect; they\nought to be cut off from the face of the earth! Such was the language\nin everybody\u2019s mouth; the newspapers were filled with accounts of the\ncruelties of the Indians; a variety of false reports were circulated in\norder to rouse the people against them; while they, the really injured\nparty, _having no printing presses among them, could not make known the\nstory of their grievances_.\n\n\u201c\u2018No faith can be placed in what the Indians promise at treaties; for\nscarcely is a treaty concluded than they are murdering us.\u2019 Such is our\ncomplaint against these unfortunate people; but they will tell you that\nit is the white men in whom no faith is to be placed. They will tell\nyou that there is not a single instance in which the whites have not\nviolated the engagements that they have made at treaties. They say that\nwhen they had ceded lands to the white people, and boundary lines had\nbeen established, \u2018firmly established,\u2019 beyond which no whites were to\nsettle; scarcely was the treaty signed when white intruders again were\nsettling and hunting on their lands! It is true that when they preferred\ntheir complaints to the government, the government gave them many fair\npromises, and assured them that men would be sent to remove the intruders\nby force from the usurped lands. The men, indeed, came, but with chain\nand compass in their hands, taking surveys of the tracts of good land,\nwhich the intruders, from their knowledge of the country, had pointed out\nto them!\n\n\u201cWhat was then to be done, when those intruders would not go off from\nthe land, but, on the contrary increased in numbers! \u2018Oh!\u2019 said these\npeople, (and I have myself frequently heard this language in the Western\ncountry,) \u2018a new treaty will soon give us all this land; nothing is now\nwanting but a pretence to pick a quarrel with them!\u2019 Well, but in what\nmanner is this quarrel to be brought about? A David Owen, a Walker, and\nmany others, might, if they were alive, easily answer this question. A\nprecedent however, may be found, on perusing Mr. Jefferson\u2019s appendix to\nhis notes on Virginia. On all occasions, when the object is to murder\nIndians, strong liquor is the main article required; for when you have\nthem dead drunk, you may do to them as you please, without running the\nrisk of losing your life. And should you find that the laws of your\ncountry may reach you where you are, you have only to escape or conceal\nyourself for a while until the storm has blown over! I well recollect the\ntime when thieves and murderers of Indians fled from impending punishment\nacross the Susquehannah, where they considered themselves safe; on which\naccount this river had the name given to it of \u2018_the rogues\u2019 river_.\u2019 I\nhave heard other rivers called by similar names.\n\n\u201cIn the year 1742, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield offered the Nazareth Manor,\n(as it was then called) for sale to the United Brethren. He had already\nbegun to build upon it a spacious stone house, intended as a school-house\nfor the education of Indian children. The Indians, in the meanwhile,\nloudly exclaimed against the white people for settling in this part of\nthe country, which had not been legally purchased of them, but, as they\nsaid, had been obtained by fraud.[76] The Brethren declined purchasing\nany lands on which the Indian title had not been properly extinguished,\nwishing to live in peace with all the Indians around them. Count\nZinzendorff happened at that time to arrive in the country; he found that\nthe agents of the proprietors would not pay to the Indians the price\nwhich they asked for that tract of land; he paid them out of his private\npurse, the whole of the demand which they made in the height of their ill\ntemper; and moreover, gave them permission to abide on the land, at their\nvillage, (where, by the by, they had a fine large peach orchard,) as long\nas they should think proper. But among those white men, who afterwards\ncame and settled in the neighbourhood of their tract, there were some who\nwere enemies to the Indians; and a young Irishman, without any cause or\nprovocation, murdered their good and highly respected chief, _Tademi_, a\nman of such an easy and friendly address, that he could not but be loved\nby all who knew him. This, together with the threats of other persons ill\ndisposed towards them, was the cause of their leaving the settlement on\nthis manor, and removing to places of greater safety.\n\n\u201cIt is true, that when flagrant cases of this description occurred, the\ngovernment, before the revolution, issued proclamations offering rewards\nfor apprehending the offenders; and in later times, since the country has\nbecome more thickly settled, those who had been guilty of such offences,\nwere brought before the tribunals to take their trials. But these\nformalities have proved of little avail. In the first case, the criminals\nwere seldom, if ever, apprehended; in the second, no jury could be found\nto convict them; for it was no uncommon saying among many of the men of\nwhom juries in the frontier counties were commonly composed, that no man\nshould be put to death for killing an Indian; for it was the same thing\nas killing a wild beast!\n\n\u201cIn the course of the revolutionary war, in which (as in all civil\ncommotions) brother was seen fighting against brother, and friend against\nfriend; a party of Indian warriors, with whom one of those white men,\nwho under colour of attachment to their king, indulged in every sort of\ncrimes, was giving out against the settlers on the Ohio, to kill and\ndestroy as they had been ordered. The chief of the expedition had given\nstrict orders not to molest any of the white men who lived with their\nfriends the Christian Indians; yet as they passed near a settlement of\nthese converts, the white man, unmindful of the orders he had received,\nattempted to shoot two of the missionaries who were planting potatoes\nin their field, and though the captain warned him to desist, he still\nobstinately persisted in his attempt. The chief, in anger, immediately\ntook his gun from him, and kept him under guard until they had reached a\nconsiderable distance from the place. I have received this account from\nthe chief himself, who on his return sent word to the missionaries that\nthey would do well not to go far from home as they were in too great\ndanger from the _white people_.\n\n\u201cAnother white man of the same description, whom I well knew, related,\nwith a kind of barbarous exultation, on his return to Detroit from a war\nexcursion with the Indians, in which he had been engaged, that the party\nwith which he was, having taken a woman prisoner who had a sucking babe\nat her breast, he tried to persuade the Indians to kill the child, lest\nits cries should discover the place where they were; the Indians were\nunwilling to commit the deed, on which the white man at once jumped up,\ntore the child from its mother\u2019s arms, and taking it by the legs dashed\nits head against the tree, so that the brains flew out all around! The\nmonster in relating this story said: \u2018the little dog all the time was\nmaking _wee_!\u2019 He added, that if he were sure that his old father, who\nsome time before had died in Old Virginia, would, if he had lived longer,\nhave turned rebel, he would go all the way into Virginia, raise the body,\nand take off his scalp!\n\n\u201cLet us now contrast with this the conduct of the Indians. Carver tells\nus in his travels with what moderation, humanity, and delicacy they treat\nfemale prisoners, and particularly pregnant women.[77] I refer the reader\nto the following fact, as an instance of their conduct in such cases.\nIf his admiration is excited by the behaviour of the Indians, I doubt\nnot that his indignation will be raised in an equal degree by that of a\nwhite man who unfortunately acts a part in the story.\n\n\u201cA party of Delawares, in one of their excursions, during the\nrevolutionary war, took a white female prisoner. The Indian Chief, after\na march of several days, observed that she was ailing, and was soon\nconvinced (for she was far advanced in her pregnancy) that the time of\nher delivery was near. He immediately made a halt on the banks of a\nstream, where, _at a proper distance from the encampment_, he built for\nher a close hut of peeled barks, gathered dry grass and fern to make\nher a bed, and placed a blanket at the opening of the dwelling as a\nsubstitute for a door. He then kindled a fire, placed a pile of wood near\nit to feed it occasionally, and placed a kettle of water at hand where\nshe might easily use it. He then took her into her little infirmary,\ngave her Indian medicines, with directions how to use them, and told her\nto rest easy, and she might be sure that nothing should disturb her.\nHaving done this, he returned to his men, forbade them from making any\nnoise, or disturbing the sick woman in any manner, and told them that he\nhimself should guard her during the night. He did so; and the whole night\nkept watch before her door, walking backward and forward, to be ready at\nher call at any moment, in case of extreme necessity. The night passed\nquietly; but in the morning, as he was walking by on the bank of the\nstream, seeing him through the crevices she called to him and presented\nher babe. The good chief, with tears in his eyes, rejoiced at her safe\ndelivery; he told her not to be uneasy, that he should lay by for a few\ndays, and would soon bring her some nourishing food, and some medicines\nto take. Then going to his encampment he ordered all his men to go out a\nhunting, and remained himself to guard the camp.\u201d\n\nAfter citing this account a modern writer observes: \u201cforgive me, reader,\nif, for a moment, I disturb the order of my extract. There is nothing\nthat I know within the whole scope of anecdotal history more affecting\nthan the present narration. How exalted was the humanity of this Indian\nChief! how refined his delicacy! how watchful and tender his care! The\npathos, though deep, is sweet; and Mr. Heckewelder has communicated the\nstory in a style of feeling and simplicity worthy of it. He has made us\nwitnesses of the transaction. We see through the darkness of the night,\nthe swarthy warrior walking anxiously backward and forward before the hut\nof bark\u2014the \u2018little infirmary\u2019 of the labouring woman. The morning comes;\nand in the pale dawn, behold! the poor creature, pointing, in a state of\nutter exhaustion to her babe, delivered in the wilderness\u2014in night and\nsolitude! Yet was she not entirely without support; for, over and above\nthe secret aid which came to her pangs from high, see! she meets with\nsympathy in a wild man, a stranger, a warrior, who melts into tears at\nthe sight! My heart, too, swells as I read. Bear with me\u2014\u2014we will resume\nour extract.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow for the reverse of the picture. Among the men whom this chief had\nunder his command, was one of those white vagabonds whom I have before\ndescribed. The captain was much afraid of him, knowing him to be a bad\nman; and as he had expressed a great desire to go a hunting with the\nrest, he believed him gone, and entertained no fears for the woman\u2019s\nsafety. But it was not long before he was undeceived. While he was gone\nto a small distance to dig roots for his poor patient, he heard her\ncries, and running with speed to her hut, he was informed by her that the\nwhite man had threatened to take away her life if she did not immediately\nthrow her child into the river. The captain, enraged at the cruelty of\nthis man, and the liberty he had taken with his prisoners, hailed him as\nhe was running off, and told him, \u2018that the moment he should miss the\nchild, the tomahawk should be in his head.\u2019 After a few days this humane\nchief placed the woman carefully on a horse, and they went together to\nthe place of their destination, the mother and the child doing well. I\nhave heard him relate this story, to which he added, that whenever he\nshould go on an excursion, he never would suffer a white man to be of his\nparty.\n\n\u201cYet I must acknowledge that I have known an Indian Chief who had been\nguilty of the crime of killing the child of a female prisoner. His name\nwas Glikhican. In the year 1770, he joined the congregation of the\nChristian Indians; the details of his conversion are related at large\nby Loskiel, in his \u2018History of the Missions\u2019.[78] Before that time he\nhad been conspicuous as a warrior and a counsellor, and in oratory it is\nsaid he never was surpassed. This man having joined the French in the\nyear 1754 or 1755, in their war against the English, and being at that\ntime out with a party of Frenchmen, took, among other prisoners, a young\nwoman, named Rachel Abbott, from the Conegocheague settlement, who had at\nher breast a sucking babe. The incessant cries of the child, the hurry\nto get off, but above all, the persuasions of his _white_ companions,\ninduced him much against his inclination to kill the innocent creature;\nwhile the mother in an agony of grief, and her face suffused with tears,\nbegged that its life might be spared. The woman, however, was brought\nsafe to the Ohio, where she was kindly treated and adopted, and some\nyears afterwards was married to a Delaware Chief of respectability, by\nwhom she had several children, who are now living with the Christian\nIndians in Upper Canada.\n\n\u201cGlikhican never forgave himself for having committed this crime,\nalthough many times, and long before his becoming a Christian, he had\nbegged the woman\u2019s pardon with tears in his eyes, and received her\nfree and full forgiveness. In vain she pointed out to him all the\ncircumstances that he could have all edged to excuse the deed; in vain\nshe reminded him of his unwillingness at the time, and his having been in\na manner compelled to do it by his French associates; nothing that she\ndid say could assuage his sorrow or quiet the perturbation of his mind;\nhe called himself a wretch, a monster, a _coward_, (the proud feelings\nof an Indian must be well understood to judge of the force of this\nself-accusation,) and to the moment of his death the remembrance of this\nfatal act preyed like a canker worm upon his spirits. I ought to add,\nthat from the time of his conversion he lived the life of a Christian,\nand died as such.\u201d\n\nIn the \u201cReport on the condition of the Indians of Upper Canada,\u201d\npublished by the Aborigines Protection Society, we find the following\nstatements respecting the attempts which have been made to civilize them:\u2014\n\n\u201cIt is an important additional fact in regard to the light in which\nthe Indians of North America were once looked upon, that their rights\nare stipulated for in the treaty of Utrecht. But on the other hand,\nmodern writers on the laws of nations seem inclined to exclude them from\nits benefits. And modern statesmen carry this theory further, so as\nto sacrifice them by positive injustice in practice. Sir Francis Bond\nHead recommended the discontinuance of payment due by treaty to certain\ntribes, on the ground of those tribes being at war with our present\nallies, the people of the United States; a matter undoubtedly deserving\ngrave consideration, in reference to the point especially raised, namely,\nthe supply of arms; but which also involves a question of international\nrights, on this occasion much too summarily disposed of by the Canadian\ngovernor. Lord Glenelg hesitated to adopt his recommendation, but his\nlordship does not seem to have taken entirely a just view of the case.[79]\n\n\u201cIt is strictly within the limits of truth to say, that neither the Home\ngovernment, nor the Colonial authorities have acted up to the injunctions\nof those two documents of 1670, and 1763, which are unquestionably\nbinding to this day; and the extent to which these injunctions have been\nneglected, fully accounts to us for the ruin of the Indians. That extent\nis proved,\n\n\u201cFirst,\u2014By the unjust and improvident manner in which the land of the\nIndians has been dealt with by us, their insecurity of title, and their\nactual removal from it in late remarkable cases under an oppressive and\nfraudulent treaty, and by unjust contracts.\n\n\u201cSecond,\u2014By the neglect of obvious means of securing justice to Indians\nin courts of law, in their participation of civil rights; and in just\nregulations of trading with them. And\n\n\u201cThird,\u2014By the small provision of direct means of improving the Indians,\nin missions, in schools, and other institutions.\n\n\u201cUnquestionably the various benefits contemplated by the royal\ninstructions of 1670, have not been conferred: and the frauds and abuses\nmentioned in the proclamation of 1760, have been repeated down to a very\nlate period by the government itself, instead of being repressed.\n\n\u201cWe shall prove the unworthiness of this course of neglect and injustice,\nby producing incontrovertible evidence of the capacity of the Indians\nto become civilized, and of their desire to accept the elements of\ncivilization at our hands, as well to be gradually incorporated with the\nColonists.\n\n\u201cWe shall also show, that numerous Colonists are anxious to promote the\ncivilization of the Indians.\u201d\n\nThe undue acquisition of the Indians\u2019 land, and encroachments upon it,\nare not new; and the personal appeals of their delegates to the crown,\nhave been frequent. More than thirty years ago such a delegate, John\nNorton, had the countenance of the late Mr. Wilberforce.[80] In 1822, the\nyounger Brant, and Colonel Kerr, came to London on such a mission for the\nsix nations. Subsequently, the Rev. Peter Jones has come over more than\nonce for the Mississaguas, of the river Credit, on the like errand. And\nthe visit of Heshtona-quet, has shewn the Indians of the river St. Clair\nto be in the same danger.\n\nOther examples might be cited, and it is believed that none have produced\nproper results. The case however of the river Credit Indians, has some\nfavourable aspects; and it will be mentioned fully.\n\nBut these visits have exhibited Indians to the impartial English public\nmost favourably; and they in that respect, as well as in some others to\nbe mentioned hereafter, deserve particular attention.\n\nWe pass by the earlier cases of alienation of land from the Indians of\nUpper Canada, amounting for example in the years 1818, 1819, and 1820, to\n4,680,000 acres acquired by the government for annuities of \u00a3512.[81]\n\nThe sum due annually to these Indians from the crown for lands acquired\nfrom them; was stated in the \u201cParliamentary Papers\u201d of 1834, at \u00a35106\ncurrency, or \u00a34426 sterling.[82]\n\nThose earlier cases, appear to be more remarkable for general neglect\nof a proper system of treatment of the Indians, than for any extreme\noppression and injustice in the bargains made. They did not involve the\nREMOVAL of the Indians from the unimproved land sold, and still less the\nalienation of their improvements and forms. On the contrary, in the year\n1823, a general reform of the old system was very seriously contemplated\nby the Secretary of State of that time, Earl Bathurst. One of the\nSub-Committee was in fact employed by the Secretary of State in 1823, to\ndraw up a general plan for that reform, which had the approbation of the\nlate Bishop of Quebec, the Honourable Dr. Stuart. But it was not acted\nupon.\n\nBefore 1828, however, a reform was begun by the government, in addition\nto what had been long doing usefully by the Moravians, the New England\nCompany, and other societies. It was pursued during eight or nine years\nwith great success, although the plan was defective in several material\npoints.\n\nThe character of what was accomplished may be inferred from the following\nextracts from the Parliamentary papers of 1834, No. 617.\n\nIn 1828, General Darling reported to Earl Dalhousie as follows on the\nsubject:\u2014\n\nThe Mississaquas of Rice Lake, consisting of 317 souls, and the Mohawks\nof Bay of Quinti, and the Rice Lake have recently been converted to\nChristianity by the Methodist society, who have introduced missionaries\namong the Indians here, and in every part of Upper Canada, where they\nhave been able to obtain a footing. These missionaries come chiefly\nfrom the United States, and belong to the \u201cCanada Conference Missionary\nSociety,\u201d auxiliary to the \u201cMissionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal\nChurch of the State of New York,\u201d from which they receive a small salary,\nseldom exceeding \u00a340 a year. It is undoubted that they have done some\ngood, by influencing the Indians to embrace Christianity, and have\ninculcated the first principles of civilization, particularly in the\ntribes now under consideration, which shows itself in the desire which\nthey have expressed to be collected in a village, and have lands allotted\nthem for cultivation.\n\nThe Mohawks of the Bay of Quinti were separated from the Mohawk nation\nabout the year 1784, and settled in the Bay of Quinti; amongst these are\nsome becoming tolerable farmers. They have in many instances assumed the\ndress of the European, which is sometimes mixed with their native attire,\npresenting a curious compound of barbarism and civilization.\n\n_Chippawas under the Chief Yellow head._\u2014These Indians amount, upon an\naverage, to 550 souls; they occupy the lands about Lake Simcoe, Holland\nRiver, and the unsettled county in the rear of York. They have expressed\na strong desire to be admitted to Christianity, and to adopt the habits\nof civilized life; in these respects they may be classed with the\nMississaquas of the Bay of Quinti, and Rice Lake, but are at present in a\nmore savage state.\n\n_Mississaquas of the Credit._\u2014The present state of this tribe, amounting\nto 180 souls, who were lately notorious for drunkenness and debauchery,\naffords, in my humble opinion, the strongest encouragement to extend\nto the other tribes now disposed to Christianity and civilization, the\nexperiment that has been tried by his Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland,\nwith every promise of success with these Mississaquas.\n\nThey are now settled in a delightful spot on the banks of the Credit,\nabout sixteen miles from York, in a village consisting of twenty\nsubstantial log huts, eighteen feet by twenty-four, having an upper story\nor garret to each. They have a school-house for the boys (in which is\ncombined decent arrangement for the performance of divine service, which\nis regularly attended,) and another for the girls.\n\nThe progress made in the former is highly creditable to the\nsuperintendent, considering the short time it has been established. I\nfound it attended by thirty-one boys, mostly very young, who spelt and\nread fluently in English; they also answered several questions which I\nput to them promiscuously from the church catechism, and sung a hymn,\nremarkable for the loyalty of its sentiments. Finding the houses built\nfor them too few for their numbers, they have added some of their own\nconstruction similar to those first erected.\n\nThey have two enclosures of about seven acres of wheat, and a field on\nthe banks of the river, containing about thirty-five acres of Indian\ncorn, in a promising state of cultivation. A small plot is attached to\neach house for their potatoes or other garden stuff.\n\nThe expense of these buildings has not exceeded, I believe, \u00a314 currency\neach, say \u00a3250 sterling on the whole. A respectable Englishman, now a\nMethodist missionary, who receives a pension from the British government\nfor the loss of an arm in the late war, when he served in the provincial\nmarine of Upper Canada, resides amongst these Indians, and as his\nfeelings towards Great Britain have been well tried, there is every\nreason to hope that his exertions for the perfect civilization of his\nflock will be crowned with success.\n\n_Mohawks and the Six Nations._\u2014Under 2000 souls are settled on the banks\nof the Ouse, or Grand River, a fine and fertile tract of country, which\nwas purchased from the Chippawas (the Aborigines) exclusively from them\nwhen they were brought to this country from the Mohawk River, in the\nState of New York, at the termination of the revolutionary American war.\n\nThe proclamation of Sir F. Haldimand, which constitutes, I believe, their\nonly title, allots them \u201csix miles deep from each side of the river,\nbeginning at Lake Erie, and extending in that proportion to the head of\nthe river.\u201d\n\nThey are now considered as having retained about 260,000 acres of\nland, mostly of the best quality. Their possessions were formerly more\nextensive, but large tracts of land have been sold by them, with the\npermission of his majesty\u2019s government; the monies arising from which\nsales were either founded in England, or lent on interest in this\ncountry. The proceeds amount to about \u00a31500 per annum.\n\nThe principal village, or Mohawk Castle, as it is called, consists now of\nhalf a dozen miserable huts, scattered without any order, and a paltry\nchurch.\n\nThe town was formerly more respectable; but the increasing scarcity of\nfuel in its neighbourhood, and the fine quality of the soil, induced\nthem by degrees to separate and settle on the bank of the river, where\nthey cultivate the ground in companies or bands, a certain number of\nfamilies divided amongst them the produce of certain numbers of acres.\nTheir knowledge of farming is exceedingly limited, being chiefly confined\nto the cultivation of Indian corn, beans and potatoes; but those of more\nindustrious habits follow the example of their white neighbours, and have\nseparate farms, on which they raise most kind of English grain.\n\nWere I to offer to your lordship all the observations which appear to\nme worthy of attention respecting these ancient allies of his majesty,\nthis report would assume the character of a history and far exceed the\nexpected limits. I hasten, therefore, to submit a statement, which has\nbeen compiled with great attention, showing their present possessions in\nhouses, horses, cattle, &c.; viz.\n\n    Dwelling-houses                                        416\n    Computed number of acres of land in cultivation       6872\n    Horses                                                 738\n    Cows                                                   869\n    Oxen                                                   613\n    Sheep                                                  192\n    Swine                                                 1630\n\nI have already adverted to the introduction of Methodist Missionaries and\nteachers amongst the Indians of Upper Canada, several of whom are found\nin this neighbourhood.\n\nThere is also an English Protestant Missionary, lately sent out from\nLondon by the New England Corporation, a young man whose zeal and\ndevotion to the cause in which he has embarked promise the best results,\nthe Indians giving in all cases the preference to whatever is given or\nrecommended by their great father, to whatever comes from any other\nquarter. In earnest of their disposition to profit by and assist the\nlabours of this minister, they have readily agreed, on my recommendation,\nto allot one hundred acres of land to each school that may be established\non the Grand River, under his direction.\n\nI submit, with all deference, whether it is not worthy the liberality of\nthe British government to encourage the disposition now shown generally\namongst the resident Indians of the province, to shake off the rude\nhabits of savage life, and to embrace Christianity and civilization.\n\nIt appears to me that this would not be attended with much expence. A\nsmall sum, by way of salary, to a schoolmaster wherever a school may be\nformed, say four or five in the whole, a trifling addition to the salary\nof the present missionary, who is paid by a society, and of a second if\nappointed, which I believe is contemplated by the Lord Bishop of the\ndiocese; and some aid in building school houses.\n\nThere are Chippawas who have prayed urgently for a missionary and\nschoolmaster to be sent amongst them.\n\n\n\n\n_Of the attempts which have been made to civilize the American Indians._\n\n\nThe Indians of America owe very few obligations to the white people that\nhave settled among them. The latter have endeavoured to exterminate the\nformer, and by violence or fraud, to get possession of their territories.\nThey have slaughtered a great part of the American Aborigines in open\nwar, endeavoured to enslave the rest, and multiplied so rapidly, and\nspread themselves so regularly over the face of the transatlantic world,\nas to render the Indian mode of procuring subsistence exceedingly\nprecarious. \u201cWhile the diminution of their supplies\u201d observes a writer\nin the _Edinburgh Review_ \u201cwas thus sowing the seeds of decay, the\nlessons which they learnt from their new neighbours, drunkenness and\nother excesses, with several diseases which they imported, tended to\naccelerate their utter extinction. It appeared indeed quite obvious, that\nif the Indians did not, by imitating the whites learn new habits and\noccupations, their race in a few years would be completely destroyed.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom these considerations a duty devolved upon the European settlers,\nwhich several bodies of men in the United States, seem to have felt\nextremely urgent. They were called upon to contribute as much as lay\nin their power towards the alleviation of the sufferings which their\nown increased prosperity was daily entailing upon the original and\nrightful proprietors of the country. They were called upon to prevent,\nif possible, the utter extinction of a race, which their own progress\nin wealth and in numbers, was constantly depriving of the means of\nsubsistence. Accordingly, various plans were adopted with this view,\nsometimes by the government, sometimes by individuals, and public bodies.\nPensions were granted to certain tribes, whose hunting had been destroyed\nby the clearing of the forests. Such a relief, unaccompanied by any\nchange in their character and habits, was at best but temporary, and,\nin the end, rather did evil than good; for the same people who bestowed\nthe annuity, had taught the Indians to drink, and continued to supply\nthem with spirituous liquors: the temptations of which, those savages\nhad not fortitude to resist. Another means adopted, with somewhat more\nwisdom, was the employment of missionaries among them, for the purpose\nof converting and instructing them. But this plan was involved in one\nradical mistake, and was also injudiciously pursued. The Indians had a\nreligion of their own, to which, as the inheritance of their ancestors,\nthey were strongly attached. The evils of their situation lay not in the\nerrors of their faith, but of their practice. They might be converted\nto Christianity, without leaving off the habits of the hunting state;\nand it by no means followed, that their growth in grace must be attended\nwith a proportionate improvement in the arts of common life. Yet the\nmissionary scheme hinged entirely on religious points. Its object was to\nsend a multitude of preachers among the Indians; to preach them, not out\nof their ignorance and idleness, but out of their theological errors; to\nconvert them, not to the life of husbandmen and shepherds, but to the\nknowledge of the life to come. Add to this, that the missionaries who\ncould be found, in a country so little prone to any but commercial and\nagricultural labours as America, were necessarily zealots; persons of\nnarrow views; ignorant and superstitious, and ill natured; and, in the\naffairs of this world, idle. They had no success at all. They preached\nthe gospel to men already satisfied with their spiritual condition, and\nonly anxious for food and raiment; they despised and intolerantly cried\ndown all the notions held sacred by a people as prejudiced and bigoted\nas themselves; they recommended sobriety as a religious duty, to men\nwhose former faith did not prohibit the use of strong liquors, and whose\ntastes all point to bodily intoxication as a greater blessing than the\nholy raptures of their new instructors. Thus the missionaries always\nquarrelled with their flocks, and made but few converts; nor among these\nproduced any real improvement.\n\n\u201cThe instruction of the Indians in schools, among the Europeans settled\nat the great towns, was another method which was adopted with the same\nview, and with no better success. After receiving in part the education,\nand in whole the vices of civilized life, those pupils returned to their\nnaked and hunting brethren, from corruption the most profligate, and from\nnecessity the most idle, members of the Indian community. They found a\nsociety in the woods, to which they originally belonged by blood, but for\nthe manners and pursuits of which they had been altogether incapacitated\nby education. We need go no further, to illustrate the absurdity of this\nplan of inoculating the Indian tribes with civilization, than the remarks\nof a person in this predicament. He had been educated at Prince town; and\nupon being asked by an American commandant in the neighbourhood of his\ntribe, why his countrymen continued so perversely addicted to a savage\nlife, he replied: \u2018it is natural that we should follow the footsteps of\nour forefathers; and when you white people undertake to divert us from\nthis path, you teach us to eat, drink, dress, and write like yourselves,\nand then turn us loose, to beg, starve, or seek our native forests,\nwithout alternative; and, outlawed from your society, we curse you for\nthe feelings you have taught us, and resort to excess, that we may forget\nyou.\u2019\n\n\u201cSuch having been the necessary consequence of the feeble and ill-planned\nattempts, both of government and other societies, to civilize the\nIndians, we had begun to despair of ever seeing this laudable undertaking\nprosper. Men seemed resolved (as appears from the foregoing statement,\nwhich we have prefixed to the present article, as a proper introduction)\nto begin at the wrong end, and to neglect the only plain and simple\nmethod by which these savage tribes ever can be reclaimed from their\nbarbarism, or made the partakers, and not the victims of the civilization\nthat surrounds them. Happily our fears have proved groundless. The people\ncalled Quakers, a society in many respects by far the most meritorious\nand amiable among our religious sects, seems to have solved the problem;\nand, by a close attention to the principles above sketched out, they\nappear to have laid a very solid foundation for the rapid civilization of\nthose unhappy natives. The little tract now before us, contains a plain\nunvarnished detail of their benevolent and most judicious proceedings. It\nwas printed originally at Philadelphia, and is now reprinted in London.\nWe trust it will meet with due attention, as it is, in fact, one of the\nmost interesting publications which has appeared of late years. We shall\nnow present our readers with a short account of what the Quakers have\ndone. The scene of their operations was among the Indians of the Five\nNations, who inhabit a tract of country about three hundred miles North\nWest, from Philadelphia; and of these nations, the experiments now to be\ndescribed, were performed on the Oneidas and Senecas.\n\n\u201cThe Quakers appear to have proceeded upon the fundamental assumption\nthat the only means of civilizing those tribes, and indeed of preserving\ntheir existence, must be sought in a well planned attempt to reclaim\nthem from the precarious and idle life of hunters. For this purpose,\nthey conceived that the settlement of a few missionaries among them was\nabsolutely necessary. But the missionaries, whom they choose, were not\npreachers; they were artizans, carpenters, blacksmiths, and ploughmen.\nThey likewise imagined that a very small number of such persons, chosen\nfor their quiet conduct and industrious regular habits, and sent to\nsettle among the Indians without parade or pomp, would do more good than\nthe most splendid scheme of colonization, by means of the greatest and\nwealthiest body of settlers. Example was to be their great engine\u2014and\nexample, they well knew, works slowly, gradually, and quietly.\n\n\u201cProceeding upon these principles, they waved, for the present, every\nidea of converting the Indians to Christianity. The remarks of the\ncommittee, to whose care we owe this publication, are particularly\njudicious and enlightened on this point. \u2018It is probable,\u2019 they observe,\n\u2018that some readers may think every scheme of civilization defective, that\ndoes not immediately attempt to plant Christianity. Of the infinite value\nof Christianity, our Pensylvanians are doubtless aware; but here, though\nnot directly acting the part of missionaries, they are preaching religion\nby example; and are probably preparing the Indians, by more means than\none, for the reception and acknowledgment of the gospel.\u2019\n\n\u201cTheir first step was to address circular letters to the different tribes\nin 1796, accompanied by one from the executive government of the United\nStates, expressive of its approbation. The letters merely contained an\noffer to instruct such as should apply to them, in husbandry. The Oneidas\nwere the only tribe that at first made the application; and accordingly\nthree Quakers repaired to their country, and settled there. At first, the\nnatives were quite averse to labour of every kind; and the Quakers only\ncultivated their own ground, and worked a saw-mill for themselves. By\ndegrees their example had its effect, and the use of the saw-mill became\nfamiliar to the tribe. In winter they opened a school for the children;\nand in summer they found the Indians beginning to assist their wives in\ncultivating little pieces of ground; a labour which had formerly devolved\nentirely on the latter. The want of a blacksmith being very greatly felt,\na Quaker of that profession volunteered his services to settle there;\nand his wife accompanied him, to instruct the Indian girls. A number\nof the young men were hired and boarded by the Quakers, to assist them\nin working. The spirit of labour and taste for husbandry became more\nprevalent; the blacksmith\u2019s work was generally attended to; the women\nlearned to sew and spin. Implements of husbandry were judiciously and\nsparingly distributed. The use of these was acquired, and, in 1799, the\nnatives began to clear lands for themselves, and sow wheat.\n\n\u201cHaving proceeded thus far in reclaiming the tribe from the hunting\nstate, and its attendant misery and idleness, an incident occurred, which\ndisplays in a remarkable manner, the happy mixture of judgment with which\nthe promoters of this admirable plan tempered their zeal. The whites\nof other sects had not failed to spread abroad stories unfavourable to\nthe scheme of the Quakers; and the Indians, naturally mistrustful, like\nall savages, began to entertain suspicions that these surmises were\nwell founded. They knew that the labours of the Quakers must have cost\nmoney; and, as they never before saw any example of Europeans working for\nnothing, they suspected that the new settlers had a design of making a\npermanent establishment, and then laying claim to their lands. As soon as\nthis notion came to the ears of the Quakers, they resolved to withdraw\ninstantly, and leave the natives in the natural course of improvement,\nto benefit by the civilization which they had already planted among\nthem. After a residence of three years, therefore, they disclosed\ntheir intentions in a council of the nation, and they left the place,\naccompanied by the unanimous thanks and good wishes of those rude tribes.\nA similar instance of suspicion afterwards occurred, and it was allayed\nwith equal judgment. The Indians of another tribe having received many\nbenefits from them, were afraid lest repayment should be demanded at some\nfuture time. A speedy and frank explanation from men whose honesty they\nnever had even reason to doubt, at once allayed these apprehensions.\n\n\u201cThe observations of what had been done among the Oneidas, induced the\nSenecas to send an invitation, requesting a similar assistance from the\nsociety. Three Quakers immediately repaired thither: they were welcomed\nwith great joy; and thanks were given by the nation to the Great Spirit,\nfor their safe arrival among them. Here, as in every other hunting tribe,\nthe women and girls are left to the labour of rearing such vegetables as\ntheir husbandry affords, and in hewing timber for fuel. The chase, and\namusements of different sorts, occupied the men and boys. The Quakers\nexhorted them constantly to give up such practices; and never failed to\nset before them, in the strongest light, the necessity both of general\nindustry and temperance; a virtue almost unknown among the Indians at\nthe commencement of the Quaker missions. The progress of improvement in\nthe arts and comforts of life, uniformly kept pace with the disuse of\nspirituous liquors; and the speeches and other communications of thanks\nfrom the chiefs of the tribe, to the society and its emissaries, never\nfail to mark the state of morals, and especially of sobriety among the\nnatives. The sketch of improvement given above, relative to the Oneidas,\nis also applicable to its history among the Senecas. But we shall be\nexcused for extracting the following discourse, delivered by the Quakers\nto those Indians, in a council. It is, in our apprehension, the right\nmodel of a right missionary sermon. We shall also subjoin the answer of\nthe chief:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Brothers,\u2014It has afforded us satisfaction, in passing through your\ntown, to notice marks of industry taking place; that you are building\nbetter and warmer houses to live in; and that so much of your cleared\nland is planted with corn, beans, potatoes, &c.; and to see these\narticles kept in good order.\n\n\u201c\u2018Brothers,\u2014We observe, where your new houses are building, that the\ntimber is very much cut off a rich flat, which we wish you encouraged to\nclear and make fit for ploughing. We hope more of your men will assist in\nclearing and fencing land, and planting it with corn; also sowing it with\nwheat; you will then have a supply of provision, more certain to depend\nupon than hunting.\n\n\u201c\u2018Brothers,\u2014We are pleased to see your stock of cattle increased. The\nrich bottoms on the river will be plenty for them to live on in the\nsummer season; but, as your winters are long and cold, it will require\nsomething for them to live on in the winter. The white people keep their\ncattle on hay, on straw, and on corn fodder. Straw you cannot get, until\nyou have raised wheat or other grain; the rich bottoms, if put in order,\nwould produce a great deal of hay. But, for an immediate supply, we\nthink, that, as soon as you gather the corn, if you would cut the stalks\nclose at the ground, bind them up in small bundles, and put them in\nstacks, as our young men do, they would keep your cattle part of the cold\nweather.\n\n\u201c\u2018Brothers,\u2014We are pleased to see a quantity of fence made this summer,\nand we would not have you discouraged at the labour it takes; for, if you\nwill clear a little more land every year, and fence it, you will soon get\nenough to raise what bread you want, as well as some for grass, to make\nhay for your cattle in winter.\n\n\u201c\u2018Brothers,\u2014We understand you are desirous to discourage whiskey from\nbeing brought among you, with which we are much pleased, and should be\nglad you could entirely keep it away. To get it, you give your money,\nwith which you should buy clothing, oxen, &c.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Indians were also informed that one of the young men, who had been\nthere since the settlement was first formed, (about sixteen months)\nappeared most uneasy to leave them, and return to his friends before\nwinter. They hoped another would supply his place.\n\n\u201cCornplanter, on behalf of the nation, made a reply, in substance as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018That, when our young friends first settled among them, many of his\nchiefs were averse to it; but they had this summer several councils among\nthemselves respecting the young men, and all the chiefs seeing their good\nconduct and readiness to assist Indians, were now well satisfied. He\nhoped, several of his young men would do more at farming than heretofore;\nand friends must not be discouraged because so little was done; but\nexercise patience towards them, as it was hard for them to make much\nchange from their ancient customs. He regretted the loss of the friend\nwho expected to leave them soon; he said he had been useful to him in\nkeeping whisky, and other strong liquors, out of the town; that they now\ndrank much less than formerly; but feared, when the friend was gone, he\nshould keep it away so well as he had lately done.\u2019 p.p. 18, 21.\n\n\u201cWe add the following passage, as an interesting account of the progress,\nin one of the grand circumstances which distinguishes the civilized from\nthe barbarous state of society.\n\n\u201c\u2018In the ninth month of this year, (Sept. 1801), three of the committee\nvisited the settlement, being accompanied by a young friend, a\nblacksmith, who went to instruct some of the Indians in that useful\nand necessary occupation. Two of the visitors had been there before.\nThe preceding spring, the Indians first began to use a plough; and the\nmen performed the labour with a little instruction and assistance from\nfriends. They took a very cautious method of determining whether it was\nlikely to be an advantageous change for them or not. Several parts of a\nvery large field were ploughed; and the intermediate spaces prepared by\ntheir women with the hoe, according to ancient custom. It was all planted\nwith corn; and the parts ploughed besides the great saving of labour,\nproduced much the heaviest crop; the stalks being more than a foot\nhigher, and proportionably stouter, than those on the hoed ground. The\ncorn was now ripe and gathering in; and as their stock of cattle was much\nincreased, instead of letting the stalks and leaves perish on the ground\nas heretofore, they preserved them for winter fodder. Several of them\nhad mown grass, and made small stacks of hay; and they had made a fence\nabout two miles long, which encloses the lower town, and a large body of\nadjacent land fronting on the river; also several other fences within it,\nto separate the corn ground from the pasture, &c.\n\n\u201c\u2018The cabins which they used to live in, were generally either gone to\ndecay, or pulled down. Most of them had built good log houses, with\nshingled roofs, and some of them with stone chimneys.\n\n\u201c\u2018With the exception of houses and fences, the improvements at\nJeneshadago did not bear a comparison with the upper settlements, where\nthe Indians lived more scattered. Their thus settling separate and\ndetached from each other, was already manifestly more to their advantage\nthan living together in villages. A chief, who is not ashamed to be seen\nat work by the women of his own family, would be probably much mortified,\nwere he discovered by a number of females, who, on such occasions, do\nnot always refrain from ridicule. Yet this false shame on the part of\nthe men, and ridicule of the women, is wearing away, in proportion as\nthey become familiarized to each other\u2019s assistance in their little\nagricultural labours.\n\n\u201c\u2018Friends requested a council with the chief women of the Jeneshadago\ntown, which was readily granted, when they were favoured to make some\ncommunications pertinent to their situation. The women expressed their\nthankfulness to the Great Spirit for affording them this council; the\nwords, they said, had sunk deep into their hearts, and they hoped would\nnever be forgotten by them. Cornplanter and his brother Conedieu were\npresent.\n\n\u201c\u2018The Indians were become very sober, generally refraining from the use\nof strong drink, both at home and when abroad among the white people. One\nof them observed to our committee, \u201cno more bark cabin, but good houses;\nno more get drunk now this two year.\u201d\u2019\u2014p.p. 24, 25, 26.\n\n\u201cWe shall only add one proof more of the progress which industry had\nmade among these tribes, by the laborious and judicious example of the\nQuakers. A single tribe had formed a road of twenty-two miles in length;\nand a few families, in one place, had cleared and fenced sixty acres of\ngood land.\n\n\u201cIt is impossible to contemplate the signal success which has attended\nthese experiments, without remarking that it was owing in part to the\ncharacter of the Quakers, as well as to the wisdom of the plans which\nthey here adopted. The general reputation of that sect for peacefulness\nand honesty, and the quiet manner of those whom they sent to reside\namong the Indians, could not fail to disarm any repugnance of the savage\nnatives towards strangers, and to conciliate their confidence and esteem.\nEven their taciturnity was favourable to the end in view. \u2018Your young\nmen,\u2019 said a chief in one of their councils, \u2018do not talk much to us,\nbut when they do, they speak what is good, and have been very helpful in\nkeeping us from using spirituous liquors.\u2019 Their punctual performance of\nengagements, and the regularity of all their habits had the same good\neffects in gaining the respect of the Indians. \u2018Brothers,\u2019 said they,\nin a conference which had been held for the purpose of explaining some\ndifferences, \u2018Brothers, we are well satisfied with your conduct towards\nus. You have always done what you promised.\u2019 We subjoin the following\nanecdote as illustrative of the influence which the character of the sect\nhas had on the success of their experiment and as interesting in itself.\n\u2018In the evening, when friends were sitting with the chief warrior, he\nsaid he wished to ask them a question, but was almost afraid. They\ndesired him to speak, and they would give him such information as they\nwere able. It was, Do the Quakers keep any slaves? He was told they did\nnot. He said he was very glad to hear it; for if they had kept any, he\ncould not think so well of them as he now did. That he had been at the\ncity of Washington last winter, on business of the nation, and found many\nwhite people kept blacks in slavery, and used them no better than horses.\u2019\n\n\u201cFrom these causes, as well as from the admirable discretion and sound\nsense which directed the formation of these plans, this small society\nof Quakers have, at an expence inconceiveably trifling, secured the\ncivilization of the Indian tribes, and laid the foundation of their\nentire conversion to the state of peaceful and industrious husbandmen,\nfrom that of wandering and turbulent and idle hunters. The missionaries\nleft those children of their care mutually satisfied with the progress\nand result of their labours. For the first time Europeans had resided\namongst them with no interested ends in view; for the first time they had\nlearnt no bad lesson, and received no injury from intercourse with more\npolished communities; for the first time since the voyage of Columbus,\na stranger and a friend became compatible appellations\u2014the natural\nantipathy to new faces vanished in the course of further acquaintance\u2014and\nhe who had been welcomed with distrust, was only suffered to depart with\ntears. The Indian tribes view the departure of the Quaker missionaries as\na national calamity, and are not afraid to consult with their society on\nall matters of general import.\u201d[83]\n\nThe success which attended the benevolent exertions of the Quakers,\naffords demonstrable proof of the possibility of reclaiming the American\nAborigines from the savage state. It must not, however, be supposed\nthat the efforts of other missionaries have been equally successful;\nnor ought the reader to conclude that even the efforts of the Quakers\nwere productive of any considerable and abiding change in the condition\nof the red men. However anxious we may be for the civilization of the\nAmerican Savages, there is no historic fact more certain than that\nthey are not yet civilized. Missionaries and preachers are not the men\nlikely to produce any great change in the condition of these children of\nnature. That the efforts of the missionaries have, in most cases, proved\nineffectual, the following letter from an Indian Chief will abundantly\nshow:\u2014\n\n\nLETTER FROM RED JACKET.\n\n                                       Canandaigua, 18th. Jan., 1821.\n\n    \u201cBrother Parrish,\n\n    \u201cI address myself to you, and through you to the governor.\n\n    \u201cThe chiefs of Onondaga have accompanied you to Albany, to\n    do business with the governor; I also was to have been with\n    you, but I am sorry to say that bad health has put it out of\n    my power. For this you must not think hard of me. I am not to\n    blame for it. It is the will of the Great Spirit that it should\n    be so.\n\n    \u201cThe object of the Onondagas is to purchase our lands at\n    Tonnewanta. This, and all other business that they may have\n    to do at Albany, must be transacted in the presence of the\n    governor. He will see that the bargain is fairly made, so that\n    all parties may have reason to be satisfied with what shall be\n    done, and when our sanction shall be wanted to the transaction,\n    it shall be freely given.\n\n    \u201cI much regret that at this time the state of my health should\n    have prevented me from accompanying you to Albany, as it was\n    the wish of the nation that I should state to the governor some\n    circumstances, which show that the chain of friendship between\n    us and the white people is wearing out and wants brightening.\n\n    \u201cI proceed now, however, to lay them before you by letter, that\n    you may mention them to the governor, and solicit redress.\n    He is appointed to do justice to all, and the Indians fully\n    confide that he will not suffer them to be wronged with\n    impunity.\n\n    \u201cThe first subject to which we would call the attention of the\n    governor, is the depredations that are daily committed by the\n    white people upon the most valuable timber on our reservations.\n    This has been a subject of complaint with us for many years;\n    but now, and particularly at this season of the year, it\n    has become an alarming evil, and calls for the immediate\n    interposition of the governor in our behalf.\n\n    \u201cOur next subject of complaint is, the frequent thefts of our\n    horses and cattle by the white people, and their habit of\n    taking and using them whenever they please, and without our\n    leave. These are evils which seem to increase upon us with the\n    increase of our white neighbours, and they call loudly for\n    redress.\n\n    \u201cAnother evil arising from the pressure of the whites upon us,\n    and our unavoidable communication with them, is the frequency\n    with which our Chiefs, and Warriors, and Indians, are thrown\n    into jail, and that too for the most trifling causes. This is\n    very galling to our feelings, and ought not to be permitted to\n    the extent to which, to gratify their bad passions, our white\n    neighbours now carry this practice.\n\n    \u201cIn our hunting and fishing too, we are greatly interrupted\n    by the whites. Our venison is stolen from the trees, where we\n    have hung it to be reclaimed after the chase. Our hunting camps\n    have been fired into; and we have been warned that we shall no\n    longer be permitted to pursue the deer in those forests which\n    were so lately all our own. The fish, which in the Buffalo and\n    Tonnewante Creeks, used to supply us with food, are now by the\n    dams and other obstructions of the white people, prevented\n    from multiplying, and we are almost entirely deprived of that\n    accustomed sustenance.\n\n    \u201cOur Great Father, the President, has recommended to our young\n    men to be industrious, to plough and to sow. This we have\n    done; and we are thankful for the advice, and for the means\n    he has afforded us of carrying it into effect. We are happier\n    in consequence of it; but another thing recommended to us,\n    has _created great confusion among us, and is making us a\n    quarrelsome and divided people; and that is the introduction\n    of preachers into our nation_. These black-coats continue to\n    get the consent of some of the Indians to preach among us, and\n    wherever this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to\n    follow, and the encroachments of the whites upon the lands, are\n    the invariable consequence. The governor must not think hard of\n    me for speaking thus of the preachers; I have observed their\n    progress, and when I look back to see what has taken place of\n    old, I perceive that whenever they came among the Indians, they\n    were the forerunners of their dispersion; that they always\n    excited enmities and quarrels among them; that they introduced\n    the white people on their lands, by whom they were robbed and\n    plundered of their property; and that the Indians were sure to\n    dwindle and decrease, and be driven back in proportion to the\n    number of preachers that came among them.\n\n    \u201cEach nation has its own customs and its own religions. The\n    Indians have theirs, given to them by the Great Spirit, under\n    which they were happy. It was not intended that they should\n    embrace the religion of the whites, and be destroyed by the\n    attempt to make them think differently on that subject from\n    their fathers.\n\n    \u201cIt is true these preachers have got the consent of some of the\n    chiefs to stay and preach among us, but I and my friends know\n    this to be wrong, and that they ought to be removed; besides\n    we have been threatened by Mr. Hyde, who came among us as a\n    school master and a teacher of our children, but has now become\n    a black-coat, and refused to teach them any more, that unless\n    we listen to his preaching and become Christians, we shall be\n    turned off our lands. We wish to know from the governor if this\n    is to be so, we think _he_ ought to be turned off our lands,\n    and not allowed to plague us any more. We shall never be at\n    peace while he is among us.\n\n    \u201cWe are afraid too that these preachers, by and by, will\n    become poor, _and force us to pay them for living among us and\n    disturbing us_.\n\n    \u201cSome of our chiefs have got lazy, and instead of cultivating\n    their lands themselves, employ white people to do so. There\n    are now eleven white families living on our reservations at\n    Buffalo; this is wrong, and ought not to be permitted. The\n    great source of all our grievances is that the white men\n    are among us. Let them be removed, and we will be happy and\n    contented among ourselves. We now cry to the governor for help,\n    and hope that he will attend to our complaints, and speedily\n    give us redress.\n\n                                                        \u201cRED JACKET.\u201d\n\nThis letter was dictated by Red Jacket, and interpreted by Henry Obeal,\nin the presence of the following Indians:\u2014\n\n    \u201cRED JACKET\u2019S SON, CORN PLANTER,\n    JOHN COBB,\n    PETER, YOUNG KING\u2019S BROTHER,\n    TOM THE INFANT,\n    BLUE SKY,\n    JOHN SKY,\n    JEMMY JOHNSON,\n    MARCUS,\n    BIG FIRE,\n    CAPTAIN JEMMY.\u201d[84]\n\nTo this may be added the testimony of Timothy Flint, who had ample\nopportunities of judging of the effects of the proselyting scheme on the\ncharacter of the Indians.\n\n\u201cDuring my long residence,\u201d he observes, \u201cin the Mississippi valley,\nI have seen them [the Indians] in every point of view, when hunting,\nwhen residing in their cabins, in their permanent stations, wild and\nunsophisticated in the woods, in their councils and deputations, when\nmaking treaties in our towns. I have seen their wisest, bravest, and\nmost considered; and I have seen the wretched families that hang round\nthe large towns, to trade and to beg, intoxicated subdued, filthy, and\nmiserable, the very outcasts of nature. I have seen much of the Creeks\nand Cherokees, whose civilization and improvement are so much vaunted. I\nhave seen the wretched remains of the tribes on the lower Mississippi,\nthat stroll about New Orleans. I have taken observations at Alexandria\nand Nachitoches of the Indians of those regions, and from the adjoining\ncountry of New Spain. I have resided on the Arkansas, and have been\nconversant with its savages. While I was at St. Charles, savages came\ndown from the rocky mountains, so untamed, so unbroken to the ways of the\nwhites, that they were said never to have eaten bread until on that trip.\nWhile I was at St. Louis, a grand deputation from the northern points of\nthe Missouri, the Mississippi, and the Lakes, comprising a selection of\ntheir principal warriors and chiefs, to the number of 1800, was there\nfor a length of time. They were there to make treaties and settle the\nrelations which had been broken during the war, in which most of them\nhad taken a part hostile to the United States. Thus I have inspected the\nNorthern, the Middle, and Southern Indians for a length of ten years, and\nI mention it only to prove that my opportunities of observation have been\nconsiderable, and that I do not undertake to form a judgment of their\ncharacter, without at least having seen much of it.\u201d\n\nAfter thus stating the circumstances which qualified him to give an\nopinion on the subject of Indian civilization, he asserts that the\nefforts of religious missionaries have not met, in the long run, with\nany apparent success. Nor does he seem to think very differently of the\nresult of two Romanist Missions, of which glowing and animated accounts\nwere published some years ago.\n\n\u201cThe Catholics,\u201d he observes, \u201chave caused many to hang a crucifix around\ntheir necks, which they show as they do their medals and other ornaments;\nbut this too often is all that they have to mark them as Christians.\nI have conversed with many travellers that have been over the stony\nmountains into the Great Missionary Settlements of St. Peter and St.\nPaul. These travellers,\u2014and some of them were professed Catholics,\u2014unite\nin affirming that the converts will escape from their mission whenever\nit is in their power, fly into their native deserts, and resume at once\ntheir old modes of life. The vast empire of the Jesuits, in Paraguay,\nhas all passed away, and, we are told, the descendants of their convert\nIndians are no way distinguished from the other savages. It strikes me\nthat Christianity is the religion of civilized man, that the savages must\nfirst be civilized, and that as there is little hope that the present\ngeneration of Indians can be civilized, there is but little more that\nthey will be Christianized.\u201d[85]\n\nTo the foregoing I will add the testimony of Sir Francis Bond Head, who,\nin one of his despatches to Lord Glenelg, thus depicts the effects which\nhave resulted from the efforts of the missionaries.\n\n\u201cWhenever and wherever the two races come in contact it is sure to prove\nfatal to the red man. However bravely for a short time he may resist\nour bayonets and fire arms, sooner or later he is called upon by death\nto submit to his decree. If we stretch forth the hand of friendship,\nthe liquid fire it offers him to drink proves still more destructive\nthan our wrath; and lastly if we attempt to Christianize the Indians,\nand for that sacred object congregate them in villages of substantial\nlog houses, lovely and beautiful as such a theory appears, it is an\nundeniable fact, to which I unhesitatingly add my humble testimony, that\nas soon as the hunting season commences, the men (from warm clothes and\nwarm houses having lost their hardihood) perish, or rather rot in numbers\nby consumption; _whilst, as regards their women, it is impossible for\nany accurate observer to refrain from remarking that civilization, in\nspite of the pure, honest, and unremitting zeal of our missionaries, by\nsome accursed process has blanched their babies faces; in short, our\nphilanthropy, like our friendship, has failed in its professions_.\u2026\nI believe that every person of sound mind in this country, who is\ndisinterested in their conversion, and who is acquainted with the Indian\ncharacter will agree\n\n\u201cFirst,\u2014That the attempt to make farmers of the red men has been,\ngenerally speaking, _a complete failure_.\n\n\u201cSecond,\u2014That congregating them for the purpose of civilization, has\nimplanted many more vices than it has eradicated; and consequently,\n\n\u201cThird,\u2014The greatest kindness we can perform towards this intelligent and\nsimple minded people, is to remove and fortify them as much as possible\nfrom any communication with the whites.\u201d[86]\n\nIn reply to these statements, many articles have appeared in the\nnewspapers, chiefly written by missionaries and divines who are\ninterested in the missionary scheme, and who, we may be sure, would\nsay nothing on the subject likely to prevent the religious from coming\nforward with their subscriptions. Their statements, however should\nbe received with caution, and considered with impartiality. Men of\ncomparatively weak intellect (it is not often that any other description\nof missionaries are sent out) and who are interested in the success of\ntheir schemes, ought not to be trusted implicitly, unless their evidence\nbe confirmed by other authorities. In the present case the statements\nof the Methodist and other missionaries are in direct opposition to the\nstatements of more impartial persons, who have enjoyed equal facilities\nfor forming an accurate judgement. Though the evidence given by both\nsides is flatly contradictory, yet for my own part I adopt that which\nhas the sanction of the church, _inasmuch as I cannot find in all the\nrecords of history, an example of lying or forgery on the part of\nreligious men_!(?) From time immemorial they have _told the truth_ when\nthe interest of their religion required it, and it would indeed be an\nanomaly if they were in the present age to depart from the course they\nhave pursued for the last eighteen centuries.\n\nI have now taken a survey of the principal features of character\nexhibited by the Aborigines of America, as far as my information and as\nwell as my ability would permit. If I could have procured Mr. Catlins\u2019s\nTravels or work on the Indians, which is now in the press, while I was\ncompiling these sketches, I should have been able to have said a great\ndeal more respecting the manners, customs, religion, and civilization\nof the unhappy and oppressed red men. As that work however has not yet\nbeen published, I must endeavour to conclude this treatise with a few\nreflections suggested by the preceding narrative.\n\nIt must be obvious to the reader, that the character of the Indians\nis proportionate to the associations under the influence of which\nthey are trained. \u201cThe Aborigines of America,\u201d to use the language of\nTimothy Flint, \u201care a moody and musing race, whose familiarity with the\nwilderness renders them sullen and grave. How could they be otherwise?\nThey are more accustomed to behold the rocks and forests and mighty\nrivers of the transatlantic world than those objects which excite the\nloquacity of mankind.\u201d Whatever some individuals may say about the inward\npower of \u201cmind\u201d and \u201cwill\u201d and \u201cvolition\u201d in forming the human character,\nit will be admitted by all who have travelled through scenes of physical\nmajesty and grandeur, that scenery exercises an extensive influence over\nhuman beings. The sight of the mighty Maranon or St Lawrence rolling\ntheir immense volumes of water towards the ocean, tends to excite a\nfeeling of sublimity, rather than that light-heartedness of spirit which\nvents itself in loud peals of laughter, and which is generally connected\nwith a keen perception of the ridiculous. The North American Indian is\nforced to associate with rocks and rivers and almost boundless forests\nfrom his infancy; he hears the tempest roll, and fancies that his Manitto\nspeaks in thunder from the clouds; and the natural consequence of this\nconstant familiarity with the wilderness is a certain degree of gravity\nand sullenness in his deportment. The mode in which he is educated or\ntrained fosters this habit, and all the circumstances around him, whether\nof a physical, mental, or moral description, tend to render it an element\nin his character. Indeed if the circumstances which surround these\nchildren of the wilds, their mode of procuring a subsistence, the manner\nin which they are educated, the nature of their religion, and their\nmethod of waging war, be taken into account and duly considered, it will\nnot appear surprising that they should exhibit a degree of gravity and\nsullenness which is seldom found among polished nations.\n\nIt is a mournful and painful truth that the whites have acted towards\nthe savages of America in such a way as to prejudice them against\nthe benefits and arts of civilization. The white people have robbed,\nplundered, and murdered the Indians, thrown their chiefs into jail, and\ntreated them as if they were made to be trampled on; and then raised the\nhue and cry whenever the Indians attempted to retaliate. Nor have the\nChristian Missionaries acted towards the unfortunate red men as became\ntheir professions of peace and philanthropy. This is evident from the\nletter written by Red Jacket, an Indian chief, who was well acquainted\nwith the conduct of the missionaries, and whose evidence is more worthy\nof credit than the _ex parte_ statements of these propagators of the\ngospel. The conduct of the whites towards the Indians, the rapacity with\nwhich they have treated them, and the manner in which they have broken\nall their promises, presents a powerful barrier to the progress of Indian\ncivilization. The experiments of the Pensylvanian Quakers prove, however,\nthat this barrier is not impassable. The same thing is evidenced by the\npartial success which has attended the efforts of some of the Wesleyan\nMissionaries in Canada. Though we ought not to give implicit credence\nto all that these holy men say respecting the success of their efforts,\nthere is nevertheless good reason to believe that they have some ground\nfor their exaggerated statements. Some of the Indian tribes, for a time\nat least, have been partially civilized; and this fact proves that their\nentire civilization is not impossible. But the \u201c_black-coats_,\u201d to use\nthe language of Red Jacket, are not the men likely to accomplish such an\nundertaking. They may indeed convert the Indians to Christianity, and\nby this means inflict on them all the evils resulting from the spread\nof a dogmatic sectarianism; but as it regards the civilization of these\nsavages the efforts of Christian Missionaries are sure to prove abortive,\nunless they alter their plan of operation. Artizans and mechanics of\nupright character, faithful to their promises, and fully imbued with\nthe \u201cmilk of human kindness,\u201d would be the best missionaries that could\nbe sent among the Indian tribes. The example of such persons would, in\na short time work wonders among the Indians. The success of the Quaker\nexperiment warrants this supposition.\n\nIt may seem strange that the good people who tell such _melting stories_\nabout the love of Christ, as exhibited in the conduct of the converted\nheathen, and who publish such marvellous accounts of the unprecedented\nsuccess which attends missionary exertions, _ad captandum vulgus_, should\nhave met with so little success among the Indians. This phenomenon,\nhowever, is not at all surprising to any one who has studied the Indian\ncharacter. It is agreed on all hands that whatever vices may deform the\ncharacter of the Indian warrior, he is in some respects characterized by\na nobility of soul which is rarely met with in civilized nations. This\nvery nobility causes him to look down upon the whites as a deceiving and\ntreacherous race. He keeps his word sacred; if he pledges himself he\nperforms his promise. The whites have broken almost every treaty they\nhave made with the Indians. With them political expediency obtains the\nmastery over justice, honour, and truth. The missionaries, too, have in\nmany cases endeavoured to wriggle into office and to lead an idle life\ninstead of \u201clearning and labouring truly to get their own living, and\ndoing their duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to\ncall them.\u201d It is natural for men who hate injustice and detest lying, to\ndespise the ministrations of such teachers. This appears to be one among\nthe many causes which have prevented the efforts of the missionaries from\nbeing successful.\n\nAnd truly if the Indians had wisdom enough to anticipate the consequences\nlikely to result from the success of missionary schemes, they would not\nonly reject the ministrations of such teachers, but expel them from their\nterritories. The \u201cpale faces\u201d are always dangerous to the man of America.\nWherever the sound of the Asiatic gospel has been heard, the roar of the\nEuropean cannon has speedily followed. _Brandy_, _Small Pox_, and the\n_Gospel_, are the three principal blessings we have given to the red men.\nThe consequences resulting from the two former, have been more extensive\nthan those resulting from the latter. The whites must abandon their own\nvices before they can expect to civilize the Aborigines of America.\n\n    [Joshua Hobson, Printer, 5, Market Street, Briggate, Leeds.]\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1] Robertson\u2019s History of America, vol. 1. b. 3.\n\n[2] Robertson\u2019s History of America, Note 46.\n\n[3] Penny Cyclop\u00e6dia, Art. America.\n\n[4] Buchanan\u2019s Sketches of Indian History, vol. 1, p. 37.\n\n[5] Montaigne\u2019s Essay\u2019s, Book, 1, Chap. 30, Cotton\u2019s Translation.\n\n[6] Discourse to the New York Society, p.p. 49, 50.\n\n[7] Discourse to the New York Society, p. 71.\n\n[8] Heckewelder\u2019s Historical account of the Indian Nations, p. 124.\n\n[9] Hunter\u2019s Memoirs of a Captivity among the North American Indians, p.\n43, &c.\n\n[10] Buchanan\u2019s Sketches, North American Indians, Introduction, p. 14.\n\n[11] Hunter\u2019s Memoirs, p. 48.\n\n[12] Voyages de Marchais, iv. 353.\n\n[13] Gumilla, ii. 101.\n\n[14] M. Fabry, quoted by Buffon, iii. 488.\n\n[15] Dr. Fergusson\u2019s Essay, 125.\n\n[16] Gumilla, i. 265. Brickell\u2019s Hist, of N. Carol. 327.\n\n[17] Deny\u2019s Hist. Natur. ii. 392, 393.\n\n[18] P. Martyr. Decad. p. 45. Veneg. Hist. of Californ. i. 66, Lery,\nNavig. in Brasil, c. 17.\n\n[19] Acosta, Hist. lib. vi. c. 19. Stadius, Hist. Brazil, lib. ii. c. 13.\nDe Bry, iii. p. 110. Biet 361.\n\n[20] Labat. vi. 124. Brickell. Hist, of Carol. 310.\n\n[21] Oviedo, lib. iii. c. 6, p. 97. Vega. Conquist. de la Florida, i. 30,\nii. 416. Labat. ii. 138. Benzo, Hist. Nov. Orb. lib. iv. c. 25.\n\n[22] Lozana, Descr. del Gran. Chaco, 93. Melendez Teforos Verdaderos, ii.\n23.\n\n[23] Charlev. Hist. N. France, iii. p.p. 266, 268.\n\n[24] Herrera, Dec. 8 lib. 4. c. 8.\n\n[25] Charlev. Hist. N. France, iii. 271, 272. Lafit. i. 486. Cassani,\nHist. de Nuevo. Reyno de Granada, 226.\n\n[26] Robertson\u2019s History of America, vol. 2, b. 4.\n\n[27] Robertson\u2019s History of America, vol. 2, b. 4, p. 23.\n\n[28] Bossu, i. 140. Lery ap de bry, 215. Hennepin, M\u0153urs des Sauv. 41.\nLafitau, ii. 169.\n\n[29] Charlev. Hist. N. Fr. 215, 268. Biet. 367, 380.\n\n[30] Charlev. Hist. N. Fr. 217, 218.\n\n[31] Charlev. Hist. N. Fr. iii. 237, 238. Hennep. M\u0153urs des sauv. p. 59.\n\n[32] Charlev. Hist. N. Fr. iii. 238, 307. Biet. 381. Lafitau, M\u0153urs des\nSauv. ii. 248.\n\n[33] Charlev. iii. 376. Robertson Hist. Amer. &c.\n\n[34] Charlevoix, Journal, &c. let. xxiv, p. 343.\n\n[35] Charlevoix, Journal, &c. let. xxiv, p. 344.\n\n[36] Charlevoix, Journal, &c. let. xxiv, p. 345-6.\n\n[37] Charlevoix, ut supr. p. 346.\n\n[38] Loskiel, Part 1, Chap. 3, p.p. 34, 35, 39, 40. London, 1794.\n\n[39] Heckewelder, p. 205-6.\n\n[40] Pet. Mart. Decad i. lib. ix. apud Stillingfleet\u2019s Origines Sacr\u00e6,\nvol. i. p. 3. Edward\u2019s West Indies, vol. i. p. 883.\n\n[41] Edwards, vol. i. p. 48-9, and Hughes, p. 7. apud Edwards ut sup.\n\n[42] Horsley\u2019s Dissertation, supr. ut. p. 47.\n\n[43] We leave national theologians to reply to this.\n\n[44] Journal Historique, p. 351.\n\n[45] Charlev. Journal, ut supr. p. 372-3.\n\n[46] Journal Historique, ut supr. p. 352.\n\n[47] Mackenzie 8vo. vol. 1, p. 155-7.\n\n[48] Mackenzie\u2019s Gen. Hist. Fur Trade, vol. 1, p. 145-6.\n\n[49] Edwards, West Indies, vol. 1, p. 73.\n\n[50] ibid. vol. 1, p. 47.\n\n[51] Charlev. Journal, p. 347-8.\n\n[52] Gen. Hist of Fur Trade, 4to. p. c. ci. cii. civ. 8vo. vol. 1, p.p.\n123, 124, 128.\n\n[53] Adair\u2019s History of North American Indians, p.p. 115, 117.\n\n[54] Heckewelder\u2019s Historical Account of India, p.p. 204, 207.\n\n[55] Loskiel, p. 40.\n\n[56] Loskiel, Part 1, cap. iii. p.p. 42, 43.\n\n[57] Edwards\u2019 West Indies, p.p. 47, 51.\n\n[58] Mackenzie, 8vo. vol. 1, p. 153.\n\n[59] Ibid, p.p. 124, 128, 129.\n\n[60] Loskiel, p.p. 39, 40, 42, ad calc.\n\n[61] Bartram\u2019s Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East\nand West Florida, &c. London, 1792, 8vo. p. 495.\n\n[62] Adair\u2019s History of North American Indians, p.p. 80, 81.\n\n[63] Odyss, lib. iii, c. 418, 460.\n\n[64] \u00c6neid. lib. iii, 1. 80.\n\n[65] Charlevoix Journal, p.p. 361, 362.\n\n[66] Heckewelder\u2019s Hist. Account, ut supr, p. 224.\n\n[67] Heckewelder\u2019s Historical Account of Indians, ut supr. p.p. 229, 234.\n\n[68] Heckewelder\u2019s Hist. Account of Indians, p.p. 232, 233.\n\n[69] Hearne\u2019s Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dublin, 1796, p. 221.\u2014Note.\n\n[70] Bartram\u2019s Travels, ut supr. p. 415.\n\n[71] Heckewelder\u2019s Historical Account, p. 93.\n\n[72] Sketches of Indian Char. vol. 1, p. 18.\n\n[73] De Witt. Clinton\u2019s Discourse, p. 56.\n\n[74] This relation is authentic; I have received it, says Mr.\nHeckewelder, from the mouth of the chief of the injured party, and\nhis statement was confirmed by communications made at the time by two\nrespectable magistrates of the county.\n\n[75] Justice Geiger\u2019s Letter to Justice Horsfield, proves this fact.\n\n[76] Alluding to what was at that time known by the name of the _long\nday\u2019s walk_.\n\n[77] Carver\u2019s Travels, chap. 9, p. 196.\n\n[78] Loskiel, chap. 3 p. 3.\n\n[79] Message of Sir Francis Bond Head, to the Legislature of Upper\nCanada, 29 January, 1838.\n\n[80] Life of Wilberforce, vol. iii.\n\n[81] Martin\u2019s North America, Vol. iii, p. 261.\n\n[82] House of Commons Papers, 1834, No. 617, p. 54.\n\n[83] Edinb. Rev. vol. 8, p. 442, et seq. Article on Civilization of\nAmerican Savages, by Pensylvanian Quakers.\n\n[84] Buchanan\u2019s Sketches, vol. 1, p. 97.\n\n[85] Flint\u2019s Ten Years Resid. Mississ. vid Quarterly Review, No. XCV. p.\n214.\n\n[86] Letter of Sir Francis Bond Head to Lord Glenelg, Nov. 20th, 1836.","title":"Sketches of Indian Character: Being a Brief Survey of the Principal Features of Character Exhibited by the North American Indians; Illustrating the Aphorism of the Socialists, that \"Man is the creature of circumstances\"","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":38812}