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LONDON: PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDLNBUR(iH ; A>D HUUST, nUUINSUN, AXD CO. 90, CHJiAPSlDK, AND C, I'ALL MALL. 1823. LONDON: PR1N>£D ny J. MOVtS, GRl- VILLL SinttT. 11 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. rAO£ fiENKRAL OUSKUVATIUNS ON THK CHAHACTEH OK THE NOIITII VMKniCAN I.VDIANS — 0!'IMON'S Ol' VAHIOl'S WHITKHS ON THIS •> I ilj Ki T CHAPTER II. EAIILY (ONDUCT OK THE KRENCH WITH RESI ;( T TO THE INDIANS — DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES EXPERIEN(\:n BY THE MISSIONARIES IN NEW FRANCE 27 CHAPTER III. INJUDICIOUS SYSTEM ADOPTED BY THE FP.ENCH IN IMITATING AND RETALIATING THE BARBARITIES OF THE INDIANS 50 CHAPTER IV. TREACHEROUS CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT WITH REGARD TO THE INDIAN NATIONS- ABSURD ACCOUNTS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES RELATIVE TO THEIR SUCCESS IN CONVERTING THE HEATHEN 71 CHAPTER V. FRIENDLY CONDUCT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS TO- WARDS THE EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLERS — KINDNESS SHEWN BY THEM TO THE DUTCH COLONISTS UPON THE HUDSON — SIMILAR CONDUCT TOWARDS THE ENGLISH SETTLERS IN VIR- «. IMA — STORY OF POCAHONTAS <« VI CON IK NTS. CHAPTER VI. PA or KINDNESS OF TIIK INDIANS TO THE KAIILV COLONISTS IN NKW KNGLAND — IMPRUDENT CONDUCT OK 1 IIK ENGLISH — llySTILI- TIES IN WHICH THE SETTLEHS WERE ENGAGED — WAR WITH THE PEyUOTS U» CllAPTEK VK. WAR WITH IMIILII' THE CELEHRATEI) CHIEF OF THE I'OKANO. KETS— DESTRUCTION OF THE NAIlRAliANSETS — HOSTILITIES WITH THE EASTERN INDIANS m CHAPTER VIII. UANEFUL EFFECTS ARISING FHOM THE PRACTICE OF SU:'PLVIN(i THE INDIANS WITH SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS KU CHAPTER IX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED Iii7 CHAPTER X. CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH IN THEIR ENDEAVOURS TO CONVERT THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS TO CHRISTIANITY Wi CHAPTER XI. ATTEMPTS OF THE ENGLISH, PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN NORTH AMERICA, TO CONVERT THE INDIANS.— SIMILAR MEASURES SUBSEQUENT TO THAT PERIOD — ATTEMPTS OF A LIKE NATURE BV THE AMERICANS OF THE UNITED STATES •• 2;tP CHAPTER XII. RITE OF BAPTISM PROMISCUOUSLY ADMINISTERED TO THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA BV THE EARLY FRENCH MLS- SIONARIES — QUESTION RESPECTING IT SUBMITTED TO THE DOCTORS OF THE SORBONNE —SENTIMENTS OF NATURAL RELIGION ENTERTAINED BV THE INDIANS— OBSTRUCTION TO THEIR CONVERSION ARISING FROM THE RELIGIOUS DIFFER- ENCES AND DISPUTES AMONG THE EUROPEANS 2'ir fONTKNTS. Vll CHAPTKR XI If. PA (IK INJUDICIOUS CONDUCT OF THE PROTESTANT SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH AMERK A WITH REOARI) TO THEIR (ONVERTEn IN- DIANS-OENERAI- RELUCTANCE OF THE INDIANS TO RECEIVE THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES l«)i CHAPTER XIV. niFFU ULTY OK RECONCILING THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS ro EUROPEAN HABITS AND EDUCATION— UNFOUNDED ASSER- TIONS OF SOME WRITERS AS TO THE ALLEGED NATURAL INCAPACITY OF THE INDIANS WITH REFERENCE TO THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO CIVILIZE THEM 31« CHAPTER XV. C.ENERAL REMiUlKS ON THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INDI/VNS ?*.» CHAPTER XVI. CJENERAL REMARKS ON THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO CONVERT THE INDIANS, AND ON THE CAUSES OF FAILURE— OBSTACLES ARISING FROM THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIVE JUGGLERS- BENEFITS WHICH WOULD JCOLLOW FROM THE AID OF MEDICAL SKILL EXTENDED TO THE INDIAN NATIONS — INJUDICIOUS VIEWS. AND INTOLERANT SPIRIT, TOO OFTEN ENTERTAINED BY SOME OF THE MISSIONARIES— CONCLUSION .Mi/ ERRATA. 36, Notef, line _ not |,„t 6 .Line 20 -leader leaders. ■ y«, Note vi'i! — 101, Note ;.:.:::::::: z T!:.::::::. ~r 134, Notef _ Narrative Hist, of New Eiiff. land, (>h. 51. HISTORICAL NOTES BESPECTINU THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. CHAP. I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS OPINIONS OF VARIOUS WRITERS ON THIS SUBJECT. The manners and customs of the Indians of North America have often furnished matter of curious and interesting inquiry. From the period when that portion of the Western hemisphere was first dis- covered, or rather from that in which the earliest European settlers established themselves upon its shores, the attention of various authors appears to have been drawn towards the delineation of those peculiar qualities which so strongly marked the native tribes by whom that continent was inhabited. Nor was the attention of those writers less directed, perhaps, to the discovery of the pro- bable root from whence the Amfiican population had origina i^ sprung. This question, indeed, has given rise to much discussion ; and history, both sacred and profane, has been ingeniously referred B I HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. I. to for the purpose of supporting the respective theories of those who have taken an active part in the controversy. The valuable researches, made of late years in North America, regarding the languages spoken by the Indian nations in that quarter of the globe, promise, if followed up, to throw more light upon this subject than is likely to arise from any other species of investigation. But, however much writers of eminence have differed respecting the source from which America may have been peopled, they will be found to have generally agreed with regard to the peculiar customs, disposition, and pursuits, of its aboriginal inhabitants. It is not proposed to enter into any minute delineation of the habits and manners of the North American Indians. These have been so often and so accurately described, by writers of different coun- tries and various periods, that any description of them now would contain little more than a repetition of details to which there is every where easy access and reference. The principal object of these Notes is to give a concise view of facts drawn mostly from the early authors who resided in North America ; by which it will probably be seen, that in every quarter a very erroneous system was pursued with regard to the Indian population. In addition to the observations upon the early proceedings respecting the Indians — and upon the results which flowed from them — it is also intended to submit such remarks and suggestions Ch. r. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. as appear more immediately applicable to the attempts made in *he present day to effect their civil and religious advancement. If, by pointing out the errors of former times, it can at all serve as a beacon in future attempts at Indian civilization or conversion, one important step towards success is likely to be attained. These errors are obvious from an examination of the works of the earliest writers, as well as those of later periods, who had much communication with the Indians. Travellers, who from curiosity — traders, who from views of commercial enterprise — military officers, who in the call of their professional duty — and the missionaries, who from religious motives, were led to explore the interior of thpt continent, have fur- nished ample materials for reflection on this sub- ject ; and by laying before the reader extracts from their works, it will no doubt enable him, by refer- ence to the most authentic sources, to judge of the real nature of those endeavours which were made during the course of two centuries — and made in vain — to ameliorate the condition of the Indians of North America. It may be satisfactory, in this place, to notice the recorded opinions of some of those writers, most of whom had long resided in that country ; and to describe, in their own words, the favourable sentiments which their experience had taught them to entertain respecting the Indian character. Tliese opinions, indeed, are directly opposite to what has HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.I. been so strenuously asserted by some celebrated authors, particularly by the Count de BufFon and Monsieur de Pauw ; both of whom laboured to paint the natives of the New World as despicable, vicious, and brutal ; pronouncing them far inferior to those of the Old, both in mental and corporeal qualities. But there cannot be required a more sa- tisfactory refutation of the assertion made by these writers, than what is conveyed in the numerous and concurring statements of those who, from a long residence among the Indians, had fully qualified themselves to judge of their real character and en- dowments.* The celebrated Lafitau, the Jesuit, who resided a considerable time as a missionary in North America about the beginning of the last century, and who states, that to his own experience he added that of Gamier, another Father of his order, who had lived sixty years among the Indians, has given the following description of them in his learned and curious work, " The Manners of the American Savages compared with thr Manners of Ancient Times." " They are possessed," says he, " of sound judg- ment, lively imagination, ready conception, and f'.'ji -I • Mr. Jefferson, the late President of the United States, in his Notes on Virginia, and the Abb6 Clavigero, in his History of Mexico, have ably combated the opinions main- tained by Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle, and of De Pauw in his Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains. Ch.I. Ch. I. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. slebrated ffon and to paint spicable, inferior lorporeal more sa- by these rous and 1 a long qualified and en- resided North century, le added order, ans, has in his of the mers of d judg- >n, and d States, }, in his as main- )e Pauw wonderful memory. All the tribes retain at least some trace of an ancient religion, handed down to them from their ancestors, and a form of govern- ment. They reflect justly upon their affairs, and better than the mass of the people among ourselves. They prosecute their ends by sure means; they evince a degree of coolness and composure which would exceed our patience; they never permit themselves to indulge in passion, but always, from a sense of honour and greatness of soul, appear mas- ters of themselves. They are high-minded and proud ; possess a courage equal to every trial, an intrepid valour, the most heroic constancy under torments, and an equanimity which neither misfor- tune nor reverses can shake. Towards each other they behave with a natural politeness and attention, entertaining a high respect for the aged, and a con- sideration for their equals which appears scarcely reconcileable with that freedom and independence of which they are so jealous. They make few professions of kindness, but yet are affable and generous. Towards strangers and the unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospitality and charity which might put the inhabitants of Europe to the blush."* Lafitau, indeed, qualifies the character he thus * Moeurs des Sauvages Am^ricains, cotnparees aux Moeurs (les Premiers Temps. Par Ic Pere Lafitau. Voi. i. chap. 3. Paris, 1724. 6 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. I. gives of the Indians, by contrasting with these praises their defects and vices. He describes them as idle, suspicious, vindictive — and the more dan- gerous, as they well know how to conceal their intentions of revenge. Cruel to their enemies, gross in their pleasures, vicious through ignorance : ** but," adds he, " their simplicity and penury give them one advantage over us, — that they remain unacquainted with those refinements of vice which have been introduced by luxury and abundance." P^re le Jeune, another of the celebrated Jesuit missionaries, who resided in Canada at a very early period, also remarks : " I think the savages, in point of intellect, may be placed in a high rank ; educa- tion and instruction alone are wanting. Being well formed in their persons, and having their organs well adapted and disposed, the powers of their mind operate with facility and effect. Their reasoning faculties resemble a soil naturally fertile, but which has continued choked up with evil weeds since the beginning of time. These Indians I can well compare to some of our own villagers who are left without instruction ; yet I have scarcely ever seen any person who has come from France to this country, who does not acknowledge that the sa- vages have more intellect or capacity than most of our own peasantry."* • RelcUion de ce qui s'est passe en la Nouvelle France en I'annee 1634. Par le P^re le Jeune, de la Compagnee de Jesus. Chap. 5. ParLs, 1635. Ch. I. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. h these es them )re dan- al their inemies, orance : jry give remain e which ice. I Jesuit ry early n point educa- ng well organs >f their Their fertile, weeds s I can ho are y ever to this he sa- most ince en inee de I ^' Si Mons. Boucher, who, about the middle of the seventeenth century, held the situation of governor of Three Rivers, in New France, makes a similar obser- vation. ** In general all the Indians possess a sound judgment; and it is seldom that you find among them any who have that stupid and heavy intellect which we perceive among some of our French peasantry. They stand more in awe of a simple reprimand from their parents or chiefs, than in Europe they do of wheels and gibbets." * P^re Jerome Lallemant, who about the same period resided long as a missionary among the Hurons, thus writes : " Many are disposed to despair of the conversion of this people, from their being prejudiced against them as barbarians; be- lieving them to be scarcely human, and incapable of becoming Christians. But it is very wrong to judge of them in this sort ; for I can truly say, that in point of intellect they are not at all inferior to the natives of Europe ; and, had I remained in France, I could not have believed that, without instruction, nature could have produced such ready and vigorous eloquence, or such a sound judgment in their affairs, as that which I have so much admired among the Hurons. I admit that their * Histoire Veritable des Mneurs et Productions de la Nouvelle France, &c. par Pierre Boucher, chap. 9- Paris, 1664. F 8 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. I. si habits and customs are barbarous, in a thousand instances ; but, after all, in matters which they con- sider as wrong, and which the public condemns, we observe among them less criminality than in France, although here the only punishment of crime is the shame of having committed it." * Vhre Vivier, another of the Jesuits, thus de- scribes the Illinois Indians, among whom he resided for a long period, about the middle of the last century. ** The Indians are of a character mild and sociable. They appear to have uiore intelli- gence than most of our French peasantry; which is probably owing to the liberty in which they are brought up. Respect never renders them timid ; and as they have no degrees of rank nor dignity among them, every man appears to be on an equal footing. An Illinois would speak as boldly to the king of France as to the meanest of his subjects." f Le Clercq, who belonged to one of the early Recollet or Franciscan missions, gives the following general description of those Indians with whom he had long resided near the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. " As I took great pains to become thoroughly acquainted with their manners, maxims, and reli- • Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1645, par le P^re Jerome Lallemant, p. 153. t Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, ecritec des Missions Etrang^res, vol.vii. p. 82. Ed. 1780-81. Ck.I. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 9 gion, I think I am able to give to the public a true and faithful idea of them ; and happy shall I be if the reading affords to them the same pleasure as the writing has given to me, of those details which I have selected as the most curious and agreeable, in the missions I had the honour of belonging to during the twelve years I resided in New France. There exists in Europe a very prevailing error which it is proper to remove from the mind of the public, who suppose that the natives of Ame- rica, in consequence of their never having been educated according to the rules of civilized society, possess nothing human but the name ; and that they have none of those good qualities, either corporeal or mental, which distinguish the human race from that of brutes : imagining that they arc covered with hair like bears, and more savage than tigers and leopards." — " Nature has endowed them with too much kindness towards each other, to- wards their children, and even towards strangers, to have ever given cause for comparing them to wild beasts. This fact it will not be difficult to establish in the course of the following History ; in which I shall exhibit, with fidelity, the Indian of this country in every view in which I can con- sider him."* • Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie, par le P^re le Clercq, Missionaire RecoUet, chap. 1. Paris, 1691. r 3 I 10 HISTORICAL NOTES IlESPECTING Cu. I. Lescarbot, who published liis History of New France in 1618, and who had visited that country from curiosity, makes the following remark respect- ing the Indians. " I cannot avoid confessing that the people whom I have to describe are possessed of many good qualities. They are valorous, faitii- ful, generous, and humane; and their hospitality so great, that they extend it to every one who is not their enemy. They speak with much judg- ment and reason, and when they have any im- portant enterprise to undertake, the chief is atten- tively listened to for two or three hours together, and he is answered, point to point, as the subject may require. If, therefore, we call them savages, it is an abusive appellation, which they do not de- serve, as will be proved in the course of this History."* In the Report transmitted in 1656 from the Jesuit mission among the Iroquois, that celebrated people are thus noticed. " Among many faults caused by their blindness and barbarous education, we meet with virtues enough to cause shame among the most of Christians. Hospitals for the poor would be useless among them, because there are no beggars; for those who have, are so liberal to those who are in want, that every thing is • Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Marc Lescarbot, Avocat en Parlement, liv. i. chap. 1. Paris, 1618. Ch. I. THE NORTH AMEUICAN INDIANS. 11 almost enjoyed in common ; the whole village must be in complete distress before any individual is left in necessity."* " When they talk in France of the Iroquois," writes La Potherie, who resided in Canada about the end of the seventeenth century, " they suppose them to be barbarians always thirsting for human blood. This is a great error. The character which I have to give of that nation is very dif- ferent from what these prejudices assign to it. The Iroquois are the proudest and most formidable people in North America, and, at the same time, the most politic and sagacious. This is evident from the important affairs which they conduct with the French, the English, and almost all the people of that vast continent." t The Indian confederacy, generally called the Iroquois, or Five Nations, is supposed to have existed from times of very remote antiquity. It was composed of the Mohawks, Oneydas, Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas. These were joined, about the beginning of the last century, by the Tuscaroras; but the confederacy still continued to be known by the name of the Five, although sometimes of the Siv Nations. Loskiel, in his History of the Missions among the Indians, notices • Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1656-57, chap, 12. t La Potherie, Histoire de I'Amerique Septentrionale, vol. iii. Preface. 12 HISTORICAL NOTES RF«>Pt;CTlNG Cu. I. I the political constitution of this l. galar people, as described by one of the Moravian missionaries about the middle of the last century. He states that it resembled a republic, each of the six nations being independent of the other^^or, as they expressed it, having their own^re, round which their chiefs and elders assembled to deliberate on the affairs of their nation. They had also at Onondago a large common firCy to which the great council of the confederacy resorted. None in general were admitted into the council house but the re- presentatives of the nations. All public business between the Iroquois and any other tribe, was brought before the great fire in Onondaga; at the same time they had agents among other nations to watch over their interests. * The writers of later times give similar accounts of the Indians among whom they resided. Hecke- welder, the celebrated Moravian missionary, who lived upwards of thirty years among them, makes the following observations. ** My long residence among these nations, in the constant habit of unrestrained familiarity, has enabled me to know them well, and made me intimately acquainted i * Loskiel's History of the Missions among the Indians, t&c, part i. chap. 2. An interesting and ample account of the Iroquois Confederacy is to be found in Governor CUnton's Discourse, delivered before the New York Historical Society at their Anniversary Meeting in 1811. New York, 1812. G Ch. I. people, as ssionaries He states X nations 5xpressed eir chiefs le affairs tndago a council general : the re- business be, was ; at the nations ccounts Hecke- y, who makes sidence ibit of know jainted ns, .:> JG Cii. I. Ch. I. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 17 J appeared ot how to an, I took it ; telling e imagined have occa- a sudden ild was so )port itself Br husband ion would she behold who not affection, e able to he ceased saw no child, on care and had only hich was d tender- e honour n on my to whom ounteract the prejudices I had hitherto entertained, in common with every other traveller, of Indian insensibility, and want of parental tenderness. " Her subsequent conduct confirmed the favour- able opinion I had just imbibed, and convinced me that, notwithstanding this apparent suspension of her grief, some particles of that reluctance to be separated from a beloved relation, which is implanted either by nature or custom in every human heart, still lurked in hers. I observed that she went almost every evening to the foot of the tree, on a branch of which the bodies of her husband and child were laid, and, after cutting off a lock of her hair and throwing it on the ground, in a plaintive melancholy song bemoaned its fate. A recapitulation of the actions he might have performed, had his life been spared, appeared to be her favourite theme ; and whilst she foretold the fame that would have attended an imitation of his father's virtues, her grief seemed to be suspended."* Le Clercq, the French missionary whose work has been already referred to, also records an instance of natural affection which he witnessed among a band of Indians, resembling, in some measure, the anecdote mentioned by Carver, as above nar- * Carver's Travels through the hiterior of North America, chap. 15. H ' 1 n H i!li 18 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. I rated. In the middle of the night a cabin took fire, in which two Indian women, each with an infant, were asleep. One of the two escaped with her child, the other was almost suffocated, and so scorched, that she became insensible, and dropped her infant among the flames. On the first alarm, Le Clercq, with some other persons, flew to the place; and found the woman among the burning ruins, in a state of utter despair. They were obliged to force her from the spot ; and Le Clercq, rushing through the smoke, brought away the child, but in so scorched a state that it imme- diately died. It was impossible, he adds, to de- scribe the grief and despair into which the mother was thrown, when informed of the death of her infant. Overwhelmed with anguish, she continued to refuse all consolation : and in her frantic agony, scraped among the ashes in search of her child. It was with difficulty they prevented her from putting an end to her miserable existence; every care was taken of her, but she died in a few weeks. Some hours after her interment, her husband, igno- rant of what had occurred, returned from a hunting excursion. Bitterly did the Indian lament the loss of his wife and his child. He often visited their graves; and, upon one of these occasions, he was heard, in the depth of his sorrow, to utter aloud : " O Great Spirit, who governest the Sun and the Moon, who created the elk, the otter, and the 4 G Cii. I. Ch. I, THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 19 :abin took li with an ) escaped juffocated, sible, and On the r persons, in among lir. They ipot; and ught away t it imme- Is, to de- le mother h of her continued ic agony, ler child, ler from ;e; every :w weeks, ind, igno- i hunting the loss ted their , he was r aloud : and the and the N 4 1 beaver, be appeased, and do not any longer con- tinue enraged against me. Be content with the misfortunes I have suffered. I had a wife — thou hast taken her from me. I had a child, whom I loved as myself— it is gone, for so was thy pleasure. Is that not enough ? Bestow on me henceforward as much good as I now experience evil ; or, if thou art not satisfied with what I now suffer, make me die, for in this state I can live no longer."* And yet does the Count de Buffon, among his other rash and unfounded assertions respecting the Indians of the American continent, declare that " they are but slightly attached to their parents and children ; and that among them the ties usually the strongest of any, those of family connexion, are always weak and feeble." But had Buffon con- sulted with impartiality the works of many of his own countrymen, and of others whose long resi- dence in North America enabled them to furnish authentic information, he would have discovered his error with respect to the alleged indifference of the Indians to their aged parents. " The Indians," says Lafitau, " entertain a high regard for the aged ;" and as to their offspring, Charlevoix observes, that " the care taken by the Indian mothers of their children is beyond expression, and shews very sen- sibly that we often spoil all by the refinements * Relation de la Gaspesie, ch. 12. 20 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.I. ifi which we add to what nature dictates. They never quit their children, carrying them always with them ; and when they appear to be sinking under the weight usually assigned to them, the cradle of their child counts for nothing, and one would even think that the additional burden is an alleviation to them."* In Captain Franklin's interesting narrative of his late journey to the shores of the Polar Sea, are to be found several affecting instances of parental regard among the Indians. He mentions the case of a poor Indian, who came (in January, 1 820,) to one of the most remote British trading posts, carrying his only child in his arms, and followed by his starving wife. They had separated from the rest of their band, and been unsuccessful in the chase. Whilst in this state of want, they were attacked by the measles and hooping cough, which raged at that time throughout the country. " An Indian," says Captain Franklin, "is accustomed to starve, and it is not easy to elicit from him an account of his sufferings. This poor man's story was very brief: As soon as the fever abated, he set out with his wife to Cumberland- house, having been previously reduced to feed on the bits of skin and offal which remained about their encampment. Even this miserable fare was exhausted, and they walked several days without P^re de Charlevoix, Journal Historique, Lett. 22. •ple still , one of threw an who hoose ; icaped. d, can This," ble to Ih."* '",» i. i: 'i Charlevoix records a circumstance in some de- gree similar ; and which is introduced in one of his works, with the following tribute of praise to the Indian character : " Most of the Indians possess a nobleness of soul and an equanimity which we seldom attain, with all the aid we draw from phi- losophy and religion. Always masters of them- selves, no alteration is perceptible in their coun- tenance, even when they meet with the most unex- pected insult. An Indian prisoner, who is well aware what will be the termination of his captivity, or who is perhaps under the still more trying in- certitude respecting his fate, never loses a (luarter of an hour of his sleep, nor does any sudden impulse ever lead him into error. — A Huron chief was one day insulted and struck by a youth. Those who witnessed this, were upon the point of instantly punishing the offender for his audacity : * Let him alone,' said the chief, * did you not perceive the earth tremble ? The youth is sufficiently conscious of his folly.' "* It is unnecessary, in this place, to lay before the reader any additional passages from writers who have noticed the general character of the North American Indians. Similar extracts, if thought requisite, might be selected in abundance, from • Charlevoix, Journal Historique, Lett. 21. ^P ^ 2G HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn.r. authors of the highest credit — English, French, and American. That the civilization of a numerous race, gifted with the qualities which these writers have so ascribed to them, should have been obstructed, rather than promoted, by their communication with Europeans, affords matter of melancholy reflection. The fact, however, is not to be doubted ; and the farther we inquire into the subject, the more shall we be convinced of the truth of what is observed by Lafitau, " that the Indians have lost more by imitating our vices, than they have gained by availing themselves of those arts which might have added to the comforts and con- veniences of life." i I I I ■■3(i c Cir. r. Cll. 11. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 27 I, French, 3a of a es which II, should noted, by 'ds matter ver, is not 3 into the ■ the truth 5 Indians than they those arts and con- i CHAPTER II. • EARLY CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH WITH RESPECT TO THE INDIANS DANGEU8 AND DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED BY THE MISSIONARIES IN NEW FRANCE. For many years after the. government of France had begun to establish a colony upon the St. Law- rence, very little interest seems to have been taken by the parent state, either in the success of the settlers, or the improvement of the Indians. The newly-ac(juired country, indeed, came to be digni- tied with the title of New France, and a prince of the blood royal was appointed by the crown to be viceroy over it. But neither the king nor his viceroy gave themselves much trouble concerning its government; and the entire control over Ca- nada was delegated by letters patent — for a valuable consideration, no doubt — to a company of mer- chants from Rouen, Saint Malo, and Rochelle. The Prince de Cond6, in the year 1 620, disposed of his viceroyship to his brother-in-law, the Mar6- chal de Montmorency, for eleven thousand crowns ; and the mar^chal, in his turn, sold it in 1622, to his own nephew, the Due de Ventadour. While the uncle seems thus to have had his own temporal fl^ 28 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. 11. interest in view, the chief concern of the nephew was the spiritual welfare of tliose heathen nations who resided within his newly purchased viceroyalty. " The Duke," says Charlevoix, *' had retired from the court, and had even entered into holy orders. It was not for the purpose of returning to the bustle and business of the world, but to procure the conversion of the savages, that he took upon himself the charge of the affairs of New France ; and, as the Jesuits had the direction of his con- science, he cast his eyes upon them for the execu- tion of his project. He submitted the proposal to the council of the king, and his majesty the more willingly assented to it, because the Recollet Fathers, so far from objecting to the measure, had themselves first recommended it to the duke." * Thus commenced those celebrated missions into the wilds of Canada, which were principally di- rected by th'3 society of the Jesuits — that powerful association, whose labours and perseverance were so conspicuous, in whatever quarter of the globe they endeavoured to extend their temporal influ- ence, or to convert the heathen to Christianity. They continued, year after year, to send their mis- sionaries into the savage regions of North America, in order to promote the great work in which they were engaged. The labour and constancy with * Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, liv. iv. Cn. 11. Cm. 11. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 29 J nephew 1 nations :eroyalty. ired from ly orders. g to the I procure ook upon France; his con- le execu- oposal to the more Recollet iure, had ke." * ions into Daily di- powerful ce were le globe al influ- istianity. leir mis- America, ich they cy with iv. iv. which these men pursued their projects have never been surpassed. In Canada, the French missionary entered upon his task with the fervour of a zealot, and often closed it by suffering the fate of a martyr. But, after all, what was the result .'' Did the mis- sionaries of New France, after a hundred and fifty years of zeal and exertion, leave behind them a single Indian tribe whom they had actually con- verted to ChrisUanity ? " In the interior at least where there were at one time about twenty missions of the Jesuits — there is little, if any, trace of such conversion. It is said, indeed, that silver crucifixes are still to be found hanging at the necks of distant Indians; and so would any thing else which their ancestors had received, and handed down to them as ornamental trinkets. In Father Hennepin's day, he lamented that " if one gives them some holy image, or crucifix, or beads, they will merely use them as ornaments to adorn their persons."* With the exception of a few straggling villages of Praying Indians, as they were called t,--and which * Voyages du R. Ptire Hennepin, ii. ch. 32. t " The French priests," says Dr. Colden, ♦♦ had from time to time persuaded several of the Five Nations to leave their own country, and to settle near Montreal, where the French are very industrious in encouraging them. Their numbers have been likewise increased by the prisoners the French have taken in war; and by others that have run from their own country, because of some mischief that they w iril ! '- 30 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. II. A 11 m * I were chiefly established upon the St. Lawrence, near Quebec and Montreal — what remains to mark the labours of the missionary in New France? The annals of that period, indeed, display every where to our view his exertions and sutFerings ; but we look in vain for any dawning of moral improve- ment, or the slightest trace of benefit obtained among those remote and uncivilized nations to which the missions extended. Throughout the barbarous history little is to be discerned but war, treachery, bloodshed, and extermination. As far as the improvement of the Indian race was con- cerned, the labour was thrown away ; and it is to be lamented that no experience proved sufficient to convince the government of France that the mode adopted with respect to the civilization of that people was not calculated to effect the object which was expecttd. Monsieur de Champlain, the founder of Quebec, who had been deputed to command in New France, as lieutenant to the viceroy, first carried over with had done, or debts they owed the Christians. These Indians are all professed papists, and for that reason are commonly called the Praying Indians by their countrymen ; and they are called Cahanagas by the people of Albany, from the plac» where they Uve. The French value them on account of the intelligence they give in time of war, and theii* know- ledge of the countries." — ColderHs History of the Five Nations of Canada, part i. ch. 3. G Ch. II. Ch, II. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, 31 Lawrence, aH ns to mark »^l V France? | play every 1 rings; but '' il improve- 1 b obtained 1 nations to ghout the d but war, 1. As far was con- ^% nd it is to ufficient to the mode n of that .> ■■,*■■ ject which )f Quebec, i jw France, over with tese Indians e commonly ; and they r, from the Ion ancount Itheii- know- ■Sr' Mf the Five '4- him (on his return to America in the year 16 15) several Fathers of the Recollet or Franciscan order. One of these, P^re le Caron, accompanied him that year to the country of the Hurons, but he shordy after returned to France, with the Superior of the mission to which he belonged ; leaving, however, another Father of that order in Canada. When the Due de Ventadour was appointed vice- roy, he continued Monsieur de Champlain in his situation of lieutenant. At this time Quebec, although fourteen years had elapsed since it had begun to be settled, could only boast a population of fifty persons, including men, women, and chil- dren ; * so true is it, as observed by Lord Bacon, that, *' Planting of countries is like planting of woods ; for you must make account to lose almost twenty years' profit, and expect your recompense in the end." In the years 1625 and 1626, the society of the Jesuits in France sent out eight missionaries to Canada. These, as well as several of the Recol- lets, laboured for a considerable period to convert the Indians in the more immediate neighbourhood of Quebec and Montreal ; but no regular mission was sent into the interior until the year 1634. In the mean while matters proceeded very unfa- vourably in Canada ; and the unpromising state of * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle Fvu.ice, liv. vi. ill Hi 32 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. II. that colony having been represented to the crown, it was determined to alter the syscem under which the charge of it had been hitherto conducted. The old mercantile company was abolished, and a new and powerful association established ; at the head of which was placed the Cardinal de Riche- lieu. To this body the whole care of the com- merce of Canada was delegated. The Due de Ventadour resigned his viceroyalty into the hands of the crown, and M. de Champlain was appointed governor of New France. Canada having been taken possession of by the English in 1629, Champlain returned to Europe; but after its re- storation in 1632, he again resumed in person the administration of that government. On his return to North America, he took with him some more of the Jesuit missionaries. The Recollet missions seem about this time to have been suspended, and were not restored to their functions for thirty years. An express prohibition, under the severest penalties, was likewise put to all emigration of protestants to New France. The three Jesuit missionaries, Pferes Brebeuf, Daniel, and Davost, proceeded to the interior country of the Hurons, in the year 1634; and after undergoing the greatest hardships and perils in their route, arrived at the remote station where they proposed to commence the regular duties of their mission- Exclusive' of the various hardships 8 € V h a V Ch. II. Ch.II. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 33 he crown, ler which onducted. ed, and a i; at the ie Riche- the corn- Due de he hands ppointed ing been n 1629, r its re- rson the is return more of missions ed, and thirty severest ion of rebeuf, nterior ; and perils where ties of dships which the missionaries suffered in the interior, they had to undergo all the rigours of a Canadian cli- mate, with scarcely any means of protecting them- selves from the inclemency of the seasons, and often destitute of food. It was necessary for them to accompany the natives throughout their long and wearisome hunting parties, in the course of which they experienced the greatest privation and distress. At one period the Huron mission continued three years without receiving any intelli- gence or communication from their countrymen at Quebec or Montreal; but their perseverance enabled them to overcome many of the difficulties with which they were surrounded. Their situation, however, seemed never to improve ; and, after almost a century and a half of labour and priva- tion, the missions of ihe Jesuits in New France were subjected to the same dangers and difficulties which they experienced at their commencement. Professor Kalm, who travelled into Canada about the middle of the last century, thus expresses himself with respect to them : " Their business here is to convert the heathens, and with that view their miisionaries are scattered over every part of the country. Near every town and village, peopled by converted Indians, are one or two Jesuits who take great care that they may not return to paga- nism, but live as Christians ought to do. Thus there are Jesuits with the converted Indians in ^'«' I u HISTOUICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. II. Tadusac, Lorette, Becancourt, Saint Francois, Sault St. Louis, and all over Canada. There are like- wise Jesuit missionaries with those who are not converted ; so that there is commonly a Jesuit in every village belonging to the Indians, whom he endeavours on all occasions to convert. In winter he accompanies them on their great hunts, where he is obliged to suflfer all imaginable inconveniences ; such as walking on the snow all day, lying in the open air all winter ; being Out both in good and bad weather, the Indians not regarding any kind of weather, and lying in the Indian huts, which often swarm with vermin. The Jesuits undergo all these hardships for the sake of converting the Indians, and likewise for political reasons. The Jesuits are of great use to their king ; for they are frequently able to persuade the Indians to break their treaties with the English, to make wars upon them, to bring their furs to the French, and not to permit the English to come amongst them." * There can be little doubt, indeed, but that the French religious missions were closely connected with the prosecution of the Canadian fur-trade. The Jesuits, in order to lessen the expense of their establishments, had obtained from the Pope a license to trade in all parts of the world with those heathen nations whom they attempted to convert * Kalm's Travels in North America, vol. ii. p. 290. Cii. II. Ch. II. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 35 ais, Sault are like- are not Jesuit in tvhom he In winter its, where eniences ; ng in the 1 and bad kind of lich often ) all these Indians, esuits are "requently r treaties Ithem, to to permit that the lonnected Ifur-trade. of their Pope a [ith those convert ). 290. to Christianity. When Monsieur de Champlain first sent some missionaries into the country of the Hurons, ** he thereby expected," says Charlevoix, " to pave the way for those establishments in their country, which was so well adapted for trade, and fi'om whence it would be so easy to push our dis- coveries to the utmostextremity of North America."* It would appear, however, that the French mer- chants had entertained serious objections to such interference, and this produced a form»il declara- tion on the part of the Associated Company of New France, (dated Paris, Dec. 1643,) that the Jesuits, neither directly nor indirectly, were at all engaged in the Canadian fur-trade, t Father Hennepin, the Recollet, however, some years later, observes, *' We may, to our shame, truly say, that as soon as the furs and beaver begin to grow scarce among the savages, the Europeans retire, and not one is to be found. The savages reproached us with it once in the presence of the Count de Fron- tenac, in full council, at Three Rivers, in Canada, saying, * While we have beaver and furs, he who prayed was with us ; he instructed our children, and taught them to pray ; he was inseparable from us, and sometimes honoured us at our feasts ; but * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. v. t Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1642-43. (The De^ claration is inserted at the end of that volume.) in ii'j # I '5i r " 36 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IL when our merchandise failed, these missionaries thought they could do no further service among us. ' "# Another and grievous vexation experienced by the missionaries, arose from the enmity of the native Sorcerers. These Jugglers, called by the English Powahs, a name adopted from the Indians in their neighbourhood, and also known, in the languages of the country, by the names of Medeu, Hitch Lalage, Loache^ &c., and by the French termed Jongleurs, every where opposed themselves to the Christian missions.f They generally officiate in the threefold capacity of physician, priest, and. prophet ; and their influence over their countrymen has been universal. Hakluyt, in the account he gives of Laudonnifere's early description of the Floridas (1560), says, ** They have their priests, to whom they give great credit, because they are 'i;' ■ ' * Hennepin, ii. ch. 30. t " The office and dutie of the Powah," says Purchas, " is to be exercised principally in caUing upon the Devill, and curing diseases of the sicke or wounded. The common people joyne with him in the exercise of Invocation, but doe not assent, or as we may say amen, to that he saith ; yet sometime breake out into a short musicall note with him. The Powah is eager and free in speech, fierce in countenance, and joyneth many antick and laborious gestures with the same, over the partie diseased." — Purchas his Pilgrimes, part iv. I'ook x. ch. 5. ii,!;]!;''' Ch. II. Ch.h. the north American Indians. 37 ■m onanes among ced by of the by the [ndians in the Medeuy French mselves officiate St, and. itrymen )unt he of the priests, ley are. urchas, Devill, sommoa 3Ut doe th; yet th him. ;enance, vith the IgrimeSy great magicians, great soothsayers, and callers of devils. These priests serve them instead of phi- sitions and chyrurgions."* Charlevoix, and the other missionaries of New France, lament deepl}', in their writings, the obstructions which the Jong- leurs every where opposed to their labours. These men considered the French priests as intruders upon their vocation ; and they accordingly seldom failed to exert their influence to the molestation and, frequently, the destruction of the missionaries. The Indians regarded their sorcerers as endowed with supern-itural powers, looking upon them with fearful and superstitious apprehension. They even ascribed to the Christian missionaries the perform- ance of miracles, and this created a rancour and jealousy among their own conjurors, which often caused much violence, and placed the missions in extreme danger. In the year 1636, the Jesuit missions among the Hurons received an addition to their numbers; but the situation of those who composed them became now more perilous than ever. In conse- quence of the hostilities which again broke out between the Hurons and the Iroquois, the mis- sionaries were doomed to share in all the terrors of Indian warfare. Under the circumstances in which they were placed, they could not avoid accom- * Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 301. m •5 ■^ m K.t I ililii'' i • ■:l; 38 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. II; panj'ing the Hurons in their war expeditions ; and although they probably did not often engage in active hostility, they were frequently present in their conflicts, and underwent great personal danger while performing their religious duties, baptizing the dying savages, and endeavouring to convert to Christianity the captured warriors before they were consigned alive to the flames by their enemies. Charlevoix has given an account of the cruelties practised upon an Iroquois prisoner, taken during the war ; and as this Indian was the first adult person belonging to that celebrated confederacy who had received the rite of baptism, the historian has been induced to present to his readers, at full length, the particulars of his fate. He takes his statement from Father Brebeuf, who, as well as another missionary, was present at the scene which occurred upon that occasion. It is not necessary to follow him through all his horrible details ; bv.t the proceedings with respect to this Iroquois captive may be noticed, as they exhibit the singular mix- ture of savage and of generous feelings, so con- spicuous among those North American tribes, whom the Jesuits endeavoured to convert to Chris- tianity. When the prisoner was brought to a village where the missionaries happened to reside, a council was held by the Huron sachems, or elders, to deliberate upon what should be done with their captive ; and iiilll; M Cii. II. Ch. II. THE NOllTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 39 s; and fage in sent in danger iptizing ivert to :;y were ;s. ruelties during t adult ederacy istorian , at fuU kes his well as which cessary ; bi'.t captive ir mix- o con- tribes, Chris- where cii was i berate and it was decided that he should be delivered to an old Huron chief, to replace, if he chose, one of his own nephews, whom he had lost in the war, or to deal with him in any other mode he might think proper. As soon as Brebeuf was informed of what was going on, he went to the Iroquois, in order to afford him every consolation, and to extend to him the benefit of religious instruction, and the rites of the church. He was permitted to communicate freely with the captive, whom he found dressed and ornamented in a superior manner, and perfectly tranquil and composed. Upon approaching him, however, Brebeuf observed that one of his hands had been crushed between two stones, and a finger pulled off; and that they had likewise cut off two fingers of the other hand with a hatchet : the joints of his arms were also dreadfully burnt, and a deep wound appeared in one of them. These injuries had been inflicted while led in triumph to the place where the sachems held their council to determine upon the ultimate fate of their prisoner. After he was brought to the village where the council was assembled, the captive was treated with the utmost kindness and attention, though well guarded to pre- vent his escape. The missionaries were permitted to attend him ; and Brebeuf states that he received religious instruction with satisfaction, and was thereupon baptized. The prisoner was now marched from village to V.' m 'if CI 40 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. II. 1 village, till they at length reached the residence of the Huron chief to whom he was to be presented, and who, as yet, had given no decision as to his future fate. When a captive was thus presented to an Indian, the latter sometimes adopted him, and sometimes doomed him to suilbr death. No other person had the slightest authority with respect to him, this right being deemed sacred and in- violable. The Iroquois prisoner appeared before the Huron with the countenance and demeanour of a man equally indifferent to life or death. He was not long kept in suspense. " My nephew," said the old Huron chief, " you cannot know the plea- sure which I received, when I heard you were to belong to me. I imagined that he whom I had lost had again risen in you, and that you would occupy his place. I had already spread a mat for you in my cabin, and looked forward in the hope of passing the rest of my days with you in tranquillity and peace ; but the state in which I find you com- pels me to change my resolution. The pains and inconveniences you suffer would only make life a burden to you, and in shortening your days you cannot but think I do you a service : it is they who have thus mutilated you that have caused this determination. Have courage, therefore, my ne- phew ; prepare for death this night. Shew that you are a man ; and be not cast down by the dread of torments." m m 1 Vitii> , I' ■ Cii.II. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 41 The prisoner heard this sentence with the utmost composure, and answered with a firm voice, " It is well." — The sister of the warrior whom he was to have replaced then approached him, presented him with food, and attended him with all the appear- ance of most sincere friendship. The old chief also caressed him with tenderness, put his pipe into his mouth, and displayed towards him the marks of the most unfeigned atfection. At mid-day, a feast was given by the uncle, where every one was assembled. " My brethren," said the captive, " I am going to die ; deal with me as it pleases you : know that I am a man. I nei- thc fear death, nor the torments that you can make me suffer." After the feast was concluded, he was led to the spot fixed upon for his execution. About eight o'clock in the evening, the fires were lighted, and the spectators collected. The elders addressed the younger part of the assembly, exhorting them to act properly in the important ceremony which was to take place : the address was received with the most dreadful yells and howling. The captive was now brought forth in the midst of the assembly, between two of the missionaries : his hands we e then bound, and at this sight the hideous shouts of his ex- pectant tormentors were redoubled. He then made a circuit, dancing, and singing the death-song. A chief took off the prisoner's robe, and exposed him naked to the assembly. The scene of horror now com- *.' w ,}■■ ±iy.\ N'. 42 HISTORICAL NOTKS KKSI'KCTING Cii. II. ¥\ nienced ; and Charlevoix states the description given of it by P^re Brebeuf, who was present during the whole of the dreadful ceremony, to be such as to make human nature shudder. The missionaries obtained for him a respit from time to time, in which Brebeuf persevered in his religious exhortations. During these, the greatest silence prevailed, Brebeuf being listened to with profound attention. The captive continued to answer him with most perfect composure, conversing sometimes about the affairs of his own nation, as if he had been surrounded by his family and friends. His sufferings were prolonged during the whole night, because the elders had declared it was important that the rising sun should find him yet alive : his torments were therefore protracted till the dawn of day, when at length he was put to death.* The reports transmitted from the French missions in the interior contain but too many accounts of barbarities similar to what was thus witnessed by P^re Brebeuf. While resident among the Indians, the missionaries were themselves in constant danger; and, indeed, they appear to have held their lives by a very slender tenure. On many occasions, we find that their persevering attempts to civilize the natives, or to convert them to Christianity, were repaid by the severest torture and the crudest deaths. '" * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. v. i I i s s f c a ii e o Si r( SI w I Ch.H. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 43 Brebeijf himself, after twenty years of zeal and labour in his vocation, having been taken prisoner by the Iroquois, in 1649, was put to death anridst the most cruel torments. P^re Gabriel Lallemant, another Jesuit missionary, made captive at the same tinie, was also burnt alive. P^re Daniel, who had accompanied Brebeuf in his first mission into the interior, was likewise taken prisoner and killed by them. Jogues, Charles Gamier, Buteux, La Ribourde, Goupil, Constantin, Garreau, Liegcouis, together with many of their European companions and attendants, were also put to death, chiefly by the Iroquois. A similar fate befe" many other missionaries who resided among tlie tribes inhabit- ing Louisiana and the countries of New France, situated upon the rivers which run into the Missi- sippi from the east. Numbers also who escaped from death were cruelly maimed and mutilated ; others entirely disappeared, whose fate was not ascertained, and who were never afterwards heard of. Upon the subject of these and numerous other instances of barbarity, the French writers naturally expatiated with the greatest horror. The military officers, also, who were employed in opposing the savages in the field, and who felt themselves sur- rounded by the extreme dangers attendant upon such sanguinary campaigns, confirmed, and every where circulated, the accounts of these barbarities. In war, nothing can exceed Indian ferocity ; every 4^3 V ■I I i|ii m I If ■ i ¥- 44 HISTORICAL NQTES RESPECTING Ch. II. term of reproach, every opprobrious epithet, has therefore been heaped upon the natives, by those who were witnesses of their fury, and who unwil- lingly experienced the accumulated dangers of Indian warfare. But let us not be too hastily led away by these indiscriminate charges against the North American Indians. No rational person can, in the slightest degree, approve of the uncon- trolled fury exhibited in their hostilities, nor con- sider with indifference the barbarity with which tha prisoners of war are put to death, in cold blood, by the most studied and refined cruelty. How that horrid custom came at first to be adopted among the aboriginal inhabitants, is a subject probably far beyond the reach of human inquiry. It had existed, no doubt, for ages before North America was dis- covered by the Europeans, and continued to 1 \ handed down from father to son with superstitious adherence. It may be said to have formed part of the fixed and admitted national code among all the Indians of North America. Particular tribes may have differed as to the adoption of particular rules and customs ; but the practice in question appears to have been always common to the whole of the Indian nations. It was universally and rigidly adhered to by their sachems, chiefs, and warriors, and carefully inculcated to their children, who were brought up to consider it equally imperative upon them to inflict the most cruel torments upon their may rules Ch.II. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 45 ■'if foes, when captured in war, as to bear with fortitude and contempt the tortures to which it might be their own fate to be sentenced. " The Indians," writes Lafitau, " seem to prepare themselves for this from the most tender age. Their children have been observed to press their naked arms against each other, and put burning cinders between them, defying each other's fortitude in bearing the pain which the fire occasioned. I myself saw a child of five or six years old, who, having been severely burnt by some boiling water accidentally thrown upon it, sang its death-song with the most extraordinary constancy every time they dressed the sores, although suffering the most severe pain!"* In short, to bear and to inflict torture formed a principal part of their education ; and the Indian was as much trained to consider it his duty to punish and torture his enemy, as the Christian is taught to forgive him. But, were the American Indians to be branded by the French, and other writers, as wild beasts, blood-hounds, cannibals, heathen demons, &c., &c., for adhering to customs which had been regularly and sacredly transmitted to them by their ancestors from the most remote ages? By all civilized nations these manners and customs are jusdy con- sidered barbarous, and calling for every rational * McEurs des Sauvages Americains, &c. vol. iv. ch. 1. "^f^' t II ^ -% W\- ■•i'\ 46 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. N. k exertion to have them completely abolished. Bar- barous, however, as they may be, are they more so than those which have been perpetrated, hundreds and thousands of times, among the European na- tions who have boasted of Christianity and civiliza- tion? The task, indeed, would not be a very agreeable one to balance the account of barbarity committed in the Old world, with that committed in the New ; or to contrast the cruelties perpetrated by the Indians of North America, with those which were practised, about the same periods, throughout the civilized and Christian nations of Europe. But it surely cannot be denied, that the bigotted and bloody persecutions so long carried on amongst the Europeans — the executions caused by the blind rage of fanaticism — the sanguinary mar- tyrdoms — the prisons, racks, and flames of the Inquisition — merited the title of barbarous fully as much as any of the customs follov,iid by the North American savages. In the latter case, these cus- toms were handed down by established usage from time immemorial, among a rude and uninstructed race ; in the former, the cruelties were sanctioned and directed by public authorities, and by the su- perior classes, by priests and crowned heads, who boasted the light of revealed religion, and whose education and knowledge ought to have taught them to prevent, rather than to permit, such unchristian barbarities. At the very period when the Indians Cii.ir. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 47 of Canada were so vilified for practising their ac- customed cruelties upon enemies employed against them— -employed by that mercantile association who, with the Cardinal de Richelieu at its head, vas directing the affairs of New France, — that minister was himself gravely presiding in the council of the King, upon the case of the celebrated curate of Laudun, whom they condemned and burnt alive, on the charge of raising legions of devils, and exer- cising other practices of the black art ! During one of the reigns also in which we find the American Indians so much reviled by the French Jesuits for their acts of savage ferocity, the widow of the Ma- reschal d'Ancre, after her husband had been bar- barously murdered by officers in the employment of the crown, -v?,«5 tried and condemned by a judicial tribunal in France, and burnt alive for being a sor- ceress. And not many years before, about six hundr jd persons, within the jurisdicU'on of the Par- lian^ent of Bordeaux, were tried, condemned, and most of them burnt alive, on like charges. — These, and the worse than Indian barbarities inflicted on the Huguenots, were committed in the reigns of Louis the Just^ ana of Louis the Great ! But, in comparing the barbarism of the native inhabitants of North America with that of people professing the mild doctrines of Christianity, we need not travel so far as Old France to exhibit instances in which the former were equalled by the vitll ^m ih y I i 48 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. 11. Europeans in their acts of ferocity. Some of the Indian tribes might almost, froui their own wigwams, and among their Christian neighbours, the settlers of the then British colonies of New England, have witnessed acts of cruelty scrace less savage than those which immemorial custom had sanctioned among themselves. Was it more barbarous for the Iroquois to burr alive, in the course of many years of warfare, some Vrench Jesuits and RecoUets, than for an English colony in North America, during the short period of a few months, (and under a regular legal commission of oyer and terminer,) to try, convict, and execute twenty persons — among whom was a much respected clergyman — all gravely charged with being witches and wizards ! And these were only scenes in miniature, compared to what were then acting in Europe, on a great scale, in the same sanguinary drama. Does the well-known persecu- tion of the New England Quakers, which raged about the same period in a colony professing Chris- tianity and pretending to civilization, appear less savage than many of those acts of barbarity for which the Indian has been so vilified by his op- pressors? By the laws of Massachusets, any man convicted of being a Quaker, was, for the first offence, to lose one ear, and for the second, the other. Several of them underwent these mutila- tions. If women were similarly convicted, they were, for the first and second offences, to be severely « w W' w be Sc in ha th w ne [)( cc ai « Ch. II. THK NORTH AMJiHICAN INDIANS. 49 ■■¥■ whipped ; and for the third — whether men or women — their tongues were to be bored through with a red-hot iron. Quakers returning from banishment, were to be punished with death. Several persons, both male and female, were hanged in consequence of tiiese enactments ; and persons harbouring, entertaining, or in any way assisting the Quakers, were fined, imprisoned, and publicly whipped ! In truth, the white Christian neighbours — whether French or Eng'ish — of the five Iroquois natioiiS, do not appear to have had much reason to bo'^jt of their own humanity or civilization, when com[)arcd to that of their red heathen brethren among the savages of North America. ♦ *2 % ■If.' w i ; '1 I I' 1^ ) ^ r>l ]'■■% •* ■ 1 r If ^h . 1 50 niSIOIlICAL NOlliS RESPECTING Cn. in. CHAPTER III. INJUDICIOUS SYSTEM ADOPTED BY THE FRENCH IN IMITATING AND RETALIATING THE BARBARITIES OF THE INDIANb. The system generally adopted by the French in their numerous wars with the North American Indians, appears to have been guided by extreme infatuation. To check the ferocity of the savage, they began by taking the extraordinary step of following his example, and retaliated, in practice, many of those barbarities which in principle they so loudly condemned. And yet, in the early periods of the history of Canada, the conduct of the French has been held up by various writers as having been the most gentle, and best adapted to conciliate and civilize the Indian nations with whom they came in contact — an assertion which will scarcely stand the test of inquiry. About the beginning of the seventeenth century, the French commenced their settlements in Canada by imprudently taking an active part in Indian quarrels. From the year ioo8, when Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec, we find him rashly embroiling himself with some of the neighbouring tribes. He entered headlong into offensive and cn. m. Ch. Ill, THE NORTH AMEUICAN INDIANS. 51 KNCH IN iARVriES encli in mericaii extreme savage, step of )ractiGe, )le tliey e early duct of writers idapted entury, anada Indian mplain rashly ouring 'c and defensive measures of alliance with the Algonquins and Hurons, against their ancient enemy the Iro- quois, or Five Confederated Nations. " Monsieur de Champlain," says La Potlicrie, " wishing to evince to his Indian allies the esteem he felt for them, and to give them proofs of the hravery of the French, placed himself at their head, and entering the river of the Iroquois, advanced as far as the lake which now bears his name." In this unjust aggression, he made a first experiment of the cftect of fire arms upon a people totally ignorant of the use of them. The first shot that was fired, from a French arque- buss loaded with four balls, and pointed by Cham- plain himself, killed three of the Iroquois chiefs, who had advanced in front of their fellow-warriors, *?nd whose plumes of feathers had enabled him to distinguish and mark them out for destruction.* Their followers, struck with consternation at the effect of those unknown engines, were speedily routed : but the death of their leaders was amply revenged by the Iroquois. This, and similar expe- ditions carried on by Champlain, cost France a hundred and fifty years of Indian warfare. Champlain had not long to wait until he wit- nessed the Indian treatment of prisoners taken in war — a treatment to which numbers of his own * Voyages dans la Nouvelle France par le Sieur de Champlain, liv. ii, ch. lo. Paris, 1613. w ".' ■■■I Ml ' '?,* El h- : if : T .A 52 Hlb*TOUrC AL NOTES ItKSIM-C I I N f. c'vi, m countrymen were afterwards subjected in New France. Upon this liis tirst victory, his Indian confederates selected an Iroquois captive, on whom, in their accustomed manner, they inflicted the most savage cruelties. The French were struck with horror at the sight, and prevailed upon the Indians, though with considerable difficulty, to allow their tortured prisoner to be put to death at an earlier stage of his torments than would otherwise have been permitted. They at first refused this request, but seeing that Champlain was extremely displeased with them, they told him, he might shoot their prisoner if he chose. Champlain accordingly levelled his arquebuss at the captive, and put an end to his misery. To such spectacles, however, the French soon became accustomed; and, in the course of the numerous and bloody campaigns which succeeded each other, year after year, the Iroquois on the one hand, and the French with their Indian allies on the other, perpetrated in every quarter the most barbarous excesses. The barbarities committed upon the Indians in Canada were particularly conspicuous during the long administration of the Count de Frontenac. The experience and zeal of that officer had induced the French government, after having recalled him to Europe, again to require his services in North America ; but however zealous the count appears to have been in promoting the views of his royal in New s Indian on whom, the most uck with ; Indians, low their an earlier mse have s request, lispieased loot their cordingly d put an however, 111, in the ampaigns ^ear, the [ich with trated in Indians during rontenac. 1 induced lied him in North appears lis royal Ch. III. THli NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. oS i master — whether these views were directed towards the increase of die temporal power of the crown, the extension of the Roman Catholic religion, or the promotion of the Canadian fur-trade — there can be little doubt that the means he resorted to for accomplishing his object, were not very con- sistent with the so much boasted humanity of the French towards the North American savages. Dr. Colden, in his History of the Five Nations, has given various instances in proof of this asser- tion. Among these it appears that, upon one oc- casion, wh(Mi the governor sent an officer with a hundred men to convoy some of their Ottowa allies back to their own country, he presented them, on their departure, witli two Iroquois captives, for the purpose of convincing their nation of the success of the French against the Iroquois. These prisoners, as might have been expected, were afterwards burnt alive by the Ottowas. The Iroquois, how- ever, continued to retaliate with great fury, and the injuries inflicted upon them by the French and their Indian confederates were never allowed long to pass with impunity. The war parties of the Five Nations, under their celebrated chief Black Kettle, made constant inroads upon the Canadian settlements, to the very suburbs of Montreal, leaving their traces every where marked with devastation and bloodshed. " The Count de Frontenac," says Colden, " was *:i m m )!' .ii. 54 HISTOrUCAL NOTK.s KESPKCTIX(i Ck. flf. I Cn. ii!ii| pierced to tluj heart, when ho found that lie coold not revenge these terrihle incursions of the i nvc Nations; and his anguish made hinj guilty of such u piece of monstrous cruelty, in burning a prisoner alive after the Indian manner, as though I have frequently mentioned to have hcen done hy the Intlians, yet I forhore giving the particulars of such barbarous acts, suspecting it might be too offensive to Christian ears, even in the hi.tory of savages. IJere, however, I think it useful to give a circumstantial account of this horrid act ; to shew, on one hand, what courage and resolution? virtue, the love of glory, and the love of one's country, can instil into men's minds, even where the know- ledge of true religion is wanting ; and, on tt»e other hand, how far a false policy, under a corrupt religion, can debase even great minds." He then proceeds to state, that the Count de Frontenac condemned two prisoners of the Five Nations to be burnt alive; that the Intendant's lady and the Jesuits entreated him to mitigate this sentence, but that the count declared there was a necessity of making such an example to frighten them from approaching the plantations, as the indulgence hitherto sliewn had encouraged them to advance to the very gates of the French towns ; and that the Indians having burnt alive so many French captives, justified this method of retaliating. " But, with submission to the politeness of the I /f (jK.nr. Cn.in. TH1£ NORTH AMKRICAM INDIANS .5A W ic could lie rive of such prisoner I liiive l)y the liars ot" 1)0 too •tory of I to give act ; to olution, :ountry, 3 know- le other corrupt Mint (le le Five t's lady itc this ire was lighten as tlie I tliem towns ; ^ many Hating, of the M fs French," adds Golden, ** may I not ask whether every or any horrid action of a barbarous enemy can justify a civilized nation in doing the like?" In order to prevent this execution, (^olden men- tions that the Jesuits applied to the Governor, but without success. The two Indians, after hear- ing their sentence, refused to listen to the instruc- tions of the priests, and began to sing their death- song. Some person threw a knife into the prison, with which one of them despatched himself. *' The other," says Golden, *' was carried out by the Ghristian Indians of Loretto to the place of exe- cution, to which he walked, seemingly with as much indifference as ever martyr did to tlie stake. While they were torturing him, he continued singing — that he was a warrior, brave, and without fear; that the most cruel death could not shake his courage j that the most cruel torment should not draw an indecent expression from him ; that his comrade was a coward, a scandal to the Five Nations, who had killed himself for fe&r of pain; and that he had the comfort to reflect that he had made many Frenchmen suffer as he did now. He fully verified his words, for the most violent torments would not force the least complaint from him, though his executioners tried their utmost skill to do it. They first broiled his feet between two red-hot stones, then they put his fingers into red-hot pipes, and though he had his arms at liberty, he would not i 'II m m '1^ »1* i 56 HISTOUICAL >UII.> UKSl'fcCriNO C 11.111. pull Ills fingers out ; tluy cut liis joints, and, taking hold of liis sinews, twisted them round small bars of iron. All this while he kept singing and re- counting his own brave actions against the French. At last they flayed his scalp from his skull, and poured scalding-hot sand upon it; at which time the Intendant's laily obtained leave of the (JovOrnor to have the coup- (It-(>; race given ; and, I believe, she thereby likewise obtained a favour to every reader in delivering him bom a farther continuance of this account of French cruelty."* The account thus given by Coldcn was probably taken from the more detailed narrative of the Baron de la Hontan. ( But it should be remarked that the French v\riters, and particularly some of the missionaries, endeavour to throw much discredit upon the statements of that author. The "great liberty," says Charlevoix, " which La Hontan gave to his pen, contributed much to the circulation of his work, and has made it to be read with avidity by all those who have not had the means of knowing that the true is so mixed with the false, that to separate them it is necessary to be well acquainted with the history of Canada. His book * Colden's History of the Five Nations, vol. i. part ii. chap. 7. t Voyages du Baron de la Hontan dans I'Amerique Sep- t«ntrionale, let. 23. til. i(r. Cll. HI. THU NOKTII AMtUICAN INDIAN'S. 57 , taking till bars and re- I'rencli. ill, and .'h time ovOrnor believe, > every inuiince robably of the marked Dme of i so red it " great \n gave uiation with eans of 2 false, )e well is book part ii. ue Sep- conscquently furnishes no information to the one, and only misleads the other. I'hc proper names throughout his work are eorru|)tcd ; facts are dis- torted, and entire episodes in.serted, whicii arc mere fictions; such, for instance, as his voyage up the Long Kivcr — as fabulous as the Island of liurataria, of which Sancho Panza was governor. Vet in France and elsewhere his Memoirs have Ijcen regarded as the travels of a cavalier who wrote ill, but with ease ; who was devoid of religion, but wlio, at tlie same time, reported witl> sufficient accuracy what he saw." Charlevoix, indeed, has not scrupled to avail himself of the information contained in La Hontan's work ; and it is from his own " List and Account of Authors " c(msulted l)y him (prefixed to his History of New France), that the above-cited passage is taken.* La Hontan appears to have been a person not well calculated to ingratiate himself with his supe- riors, whether of a civil, military, or religious order. His father died when La Hontan was very young, leaving his family affairs in great difficulty. The son wertt out to Canada as a private soldier at the age of sixteen, but soon received a commission, and was successively entrusted with the charge of some of the forts in the interior. He returned to France after a ten years* residence in Canada, * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvellp France, vol. i. Preface. f V i il I ■J* 58 IlISTCllilCAL XOTKS UESPECTrNG C.'n. Ill- ».c. 1 f; ■p and was appointed Lieutenant due Roi at Piacentia (in Newfoundland), where he arrived in 1693. Ke soon quarrelled with the governor of that place, and, finding he was likely to be put under arrest, made his escape from the island, and returned to Europe. He endeavoured in vain to have his conduct investigated in France, and was finally obliged to quit his native country. With respect to his Voyages and Memoirs, it is probable that they raised against him numerous enemies, — not, however, by distorting the truth, as Charlevoix asserts, but by exposing it. The government of Canada was not very willing, any more than were the mishionaries, to have the abuses committed by the French laid open to the public ; and the manner in which La Hontan appears to have dragged into light the folly and absurdity of the constituted authorities of that country, must have been ex- tremely grating both to the church and state. It has been asserted by some of the Jesuit missionaries and others, that the works ascribed to La Hontan were written by Gueudeville, whom they designate " an apostate and defrocked monk ;" but there appears no good foundation for this asser- tion, unless, indeed, the supposititious dialogues (not inserted in his first edition) between La Hontan and the Indian chief Adario^ be from Ciueudeville's pen. Nor can it be conceded to Charlevoix, tliQt the voyage up the Rivi^'re Longue 'M I'd JII. THE NORTH AMFRICAN INDIANS. 59 La from to il is a mere fable, No possible inducement cnn l)e imagined why La Hontan should fabricate that which is much the dullest part of his work ; and Charlevoix might have known how easily tlie early travellers, while employed in navigating the large American rivers, through forests of immense extent might be led even into great mistakes respecting distances and local situation. The Riviere Longue of La Hontan has been thought by some to be the same as the River St. Peters, although, by the baron's description, the former is made to join the Missisippi more to the southward. Be this as it may, it cannot be doubted that the narratives given by La Hontan of those military expeditions in which he was personally engaged, may fairly be depended upon for their accuracy ; nor is there any reason to doubt the truth of the accounts he has given of the Indians, and of the injudicious measures taken with respect to them. It should be farther observed, that on the subjeti; of the bar- barous execution above noticed, and ascribed to the Count de Frontenac, La Hontan has never been contradicted. He asserts that he was himself an eye-witness of the scene, (at least of the com- mencement of it, for he would not stay till its termination,) a scene stated to have occurred pub- licly in Quebec in 1692, and sanctioned by the governor himself, who was then at that place. At Montreal, also, executions appear to ijave 'il 11^ ■- 1 ■' 60 HISTOKICAL NOTKS ULSPF.CTINC; Cii.Jll. ■'i occurred similar to those wliich were exhibited at Quebec. In another of the instances related by Colden, he says, " This party (of the French) surprised, likewise, a cabin, where they took some men and women prisoners, and four of them were publicly burnt alive at Montreal. So far the Count de Frontenac thought it more proper to imitate the Indians in their most savage cruelties, than to instruct them by his example in the com- passion of the C/hristian doctrine." These bar- biirities were of course retaliated by the enemies of the French: '' A party of one hundred and fifty of the Five Nations fell upon the Ottowas in their way to Canada, and entirely routed them. Ten prisoners were taken, nine of whom were burnt alive in revenge of the same fate the men of the Five Nations had received at Montreal." * And in another case he relates, that " the Ottowas being then trading at Montreal, the Count de Fron- tenac invited them to a feast to be made of the prisoner, and caused him to be burnt alive." f Nor is it likely, while such savage proceedings were allowed to take place at head quarters in Quebec and Montreal, that the commanding offi- cers at distant stations in the interior, conducted * Colden's History of chap, '2. t Ibid. chap. 1<2. the Five Nations, part ii. (.H. III. THE XORTH -AMERICAN INDIANS. 61 the it I 11. themselves wich less rigour towards their Indian opponents. In one of the numerous campaigns in which it was the fate of La Hontan to be em- ployed, he mentions that the Hurons had captured a party of fourteen Iroquois, of whom they distri- buted twelve among their own band, and, of the remaining two, one was presented to Juchereau, the French commandant at Michillimakinac ; and the other to the Ottowa Indians. '" Which of these two prisoners," writes La Hontan to his corre- spondent, " do you suppose had the better lot? No doubt you would wager a hundred to one that it was he who was presented to Monsieur do Juche- reau. Your good sense would naturally pronounce that a French officer, and a Christian, would prove to be more humane than the savages : but you are mistaken. M. de Juchereau had no sooner received the captive who was thus presented to him, than he had him shot. The Ottowas gave their prisoner his life.* When Monsieur de Louvigny commanded at the same place, in 1695, the Iroquois and the Hurons attempted, by secret negotiation, to terminate their long and sanguinary wf^rfare. To this the French were extremely averse; it being their wish to destroy, if possible, the former, who were the allies of the English ; and they were apprehensive, if La Huiilaii, vul. i. lel. 14. ■^::l!j I I 62 HISTOttlCAL NOTES UESPtCTlNG Cii. III. a peace took place between the Iroquois and the Hurons, the latter would also become attached to that nation. The French discovered that these two rival Indian powers were carrying on this treaty, by their restoring to each other the prisoners respectively taken by them in war ; a measure contrary to their usual practice. Seven Iroquois captives having been brought in by the Hurons to Michillirnakinac, it was perceived that the prisoners were treated with that lenity wliich had recently been adopted, and some Frenchmen itnmediately stepped forward and killed two of them as they were landing from the boat. Upon this the Hurons indignantly seized their arms, in order to protect their remaining captives, and to avenge the insult offered to themselves. A third party of Indians then on the spot drew out their warriors to oppose the Hurons; upon which the latter, relying on the generosity of the French, whom they consi- dered incapable of injuring those who voluntarily put themselves in their power, sought refuge in the French fort, and gave up to the commandant the chief of the Iroquois captives, to be disposed of as he should see fit. ** Although," says La Potherie, " the character of the French is averse from inhumanity, they could not, in this instance, dispense with making a public example. The con- tinual lenity shewn to the Iroquois by our Indian allies (who, in fact, are at bottom as much our enemies Cu. HI. THF, XORTII AMERICAN INDIANS. 6^ as the Iroquois themselves,) could only have the effect of keeping up the mutual good-will they in secret entertained towards each other ; and there- fore, to embitter the minds of the Iroquois, it was judged proper, on the present occasion, to make a sacrifice of this chief." * The cold-blooded reasoning of La Potherie can only be equalled by the savage determination of De Louvigny, whom Charlevoix describes as " one of the most accomplished officers then in New France." The account given of the wanton exe- cution of this Iroquois warrior, whom his Huron captors intended to spare, and who was brought to the stake by an officer in the service of a Christian nation— celebrated, as La Potherie would have it, for its humanity — is scarcely to be credited ; and cannot be read without feelings of indignation. The details, indeed, are almost too horrid for perusal ; but discredit having been thrown by various writers upon similar accounts of French cruelty towards the Indians, as detailed by the Baron de La Hontan, the reader may peruse the description given by La Potherie, which shews that the French not only sanctioned, but aided in these barbarities. His account has never been questioned ; and it may be noticed, that his history containing the narrative alluded to, was published ■ ■ -f . \m '•'!*.'! I ■■:x;?lt guarantees my words." f * Charlevoix gives hitn the Indian name Uaaskouan ; the French icalled hitn La Grande Gueulc. Hence probably he got the more somuiing appellation of Garangula. t The belt, or collar, of wampum, is given on these occa- : '•')! i' jl B,y M ^^Bk' ' w 1 1 J=^ 74 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV- i J' \* After several other similar threats, the French governor thus concluded his speech : " This is what I have to say to Garangula, that he may carry back to the Five Nations the declaration which the king my master has commanded me to make. He will be concerned if they force him to send a great army to Cadarackui Fort, to begin a war which must prove fatal to them. He would also be sorry that this fort, which was the work of peace, should become the prison of your warriors. We must endeavour, on both sides, to prevent such misfor- tune. The French, who are the brethren and friends of the Five Nations, will never trouble their repose, provided the satisfaction which I demand be given, and the treaties of peace hereafter punc- tually observed. I shall be extremely sorry if my words do not produce the effect which I expect, for then I shall be obliged to join with the English governor of New York, who is commanded by the king his master to assist me in burning the forts of the Five Nations, and in destroying you.— This belt guarantees my words." Garangula was tco well aware of the real intentions of the French, and saw too clearly their inability, at that time, to execute them, not to hear with the utmost contempt the threats thus held out by sions, according to the Indian fashion, as a record or solemn remembrance of their speeches, treaties, promises, &c. The wampum belts are handed down from generation to genera- tion among the Indian nations. i Ch.IV. the north AMEPICAN INDIANS. 75 j'l M. de la Barre. During the governor's address, the Indian kept his eyes immoveably fixed upon the end of his pipe ; and, after the speech was con- cluded, he walked composedly several times round the circle, and then, placing himself directly oppo- site to the governor, thus addressed him : " Onnontio,* " I honour you, and all the warriors now uith me likewise honour you. Your interpreter has finished your speech : I now begin mine. My voice hastens to reach your ear : hearken to my words. " Onnontio, you must have imagined, when \rou left Quebec, that the heat of the sun had burnt up all the forests which make our country inaccessible to the French, or that the lake had so much over- flowed its banks, as to have surrounded our cabins, and made it impossible for us to escape. Yes, Onnontio, you surely must have believed this ; and the curiosity of seeing so great a country destroyed by fire or water, has brought you so far : but now you are undeceived, since I, and my warriors here, have come to assure you that the Five Nations are not yet destroyed. I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country the calumet of peace which your predecessor received from their hands. I also congratulate you that you left still *■ Onnontio means the Great Mountain, and was the usual appellation gi"( - by the Indians to the q;overnors-general of Canada. S I } ." 76 HlflVoaiCAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. buried uiidetground aiat hatchet which has been so often dyed in the blood of the French.* Listen, Onnontio : I ani not asleep ; my eyes are open, and the sun, which gives me light, discovers to me, at the head of a band of soldiers, a great captain who speaks in his sleep. He says that be only came to this lake to smoke the great calumet with the Onondagas : but Garangula se«s the contrary, and that it was to knock us on the head, if sickness had not prevented the French from doing so. I see Onnontio dreaming in a camp of sick men, whose lives the Great Spirit has saved by visiting them with this sickness : for, our women would have taken up their clubs, and our old men and children carried their bows and arrows into the heart of your camp, if our warriors had not disarmed them, when your ambassador came to my village. This is so ; I have spoken it." Garangula, after proceeding some time i,^ ihis strain, closed his lecture to the governor-geiieial of New France in the following words : " Listen, Onnontio — My voice is that of the Five Nations : hear what they answer : open your ears to what they say. When they buried the hatchet within the Fort of Cadarackui, in the pre- sence of your predecessor, they planted on the same * To burj/ the hatchet ''s the Indian expression for con- cluding a peace, as the unourying it means the preparing to go to war. Cfi.IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 77 spot the tree of peace, to be there careiully nourished : that tfie fort, instead of being a rendezvous for ^o\- diers, might become a retreat for traders ; and in place of being made a deposit for arms and ammu- nition of war, it should onl}' be used as a magazine for beaver skins and merchandise. Take care that in future so great a number of soldiers as appear now enclosed in that little fort do not choke the tree. It would be a great pity that, after taking foot so favourably, its growth should be checked, and prevent its covering with its branches both your country and ours. I assure you, in the name of the Five Nations, that our warriors will dance under its leaves the dance of the calumet, and remain quiet on their mats, and never dig up the hatchet to cut down the tree of peace : unless their great brothers Onnontio and Corlear* shall, either jointly or separately, endeavour to attack this country, which the Great Spirit gave to our ancestors. This belt guarantees my words, and this other one the authority which has been given to rne by the Five Nations." f Neither Charlevoix nor La Potherie take any particular notice, in their Histories, of this speech of the Iroquois chief; the former merely stating that one of the Indian deputies had addressed * Corlear was the name by which the Indians usually dis- tinguished the governors of the English colony of New \ork. t La Hontan, vol. i. let. 7, l.t 78 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. H r'^% Monsieur de la Barre with great arrogance. But La Hoiitan, who was in the expedition, adds that thfc governor-general was so much mortified, that after concluding the treaty, he lost no time in setting out on his return to Montreal: the Canadian militia dispersing themselves, without order or discipline, towards their respective homes. About three years after this expedition, a similar one was undertaken by the new governor-general, the Marquis de Denonville : who set out from Montreal, in ]687, with a force of two thousand men, upon the old and favouriie project of totally exterminating the Iroquois, with whom the French were then at peace. La Hontan, who served in the campaign, observe;:, in one of his letters, " As to myself, without pretending to the gift of pro- phecy, 1 look upon it as incontestable that we arc unable of ourselves to destroy the Iroquois ; be- sides, 'vhy should we attemj i: to destroy a people who leave us at rest ? Such, however, is the pleasure of certain turbulent spirits here ; who find their advantage in disorder, and in compromising the true interests of t'le k^ng, at the expense of public tranquillity. 'A e shal! soon see the fruits of these undertakings, which 1 expect will prove to be the mountain in labour,"* In his next letter, La Hontan states, that La Hontan, let. 12. J ■<} Ch.IV. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 79 Monsieur de Champigny, (the intendant of New France,) who liad preceded in his march the rest of the troops, arrived ten days before them at Fort Frontenac. Not to lose time, he commenced his operations by an act of the most treacherous hos- tility. He sent three hundred Canadians to sur- prise two Iroquois villages, situated a few leagues from the fort. They reached them in the evening, and having surrounded the unsuspecting inhabitants, destroyed many of them, and seized and bound several uf iheir chiefs, whom they brought to the fort, where the intendant ordered them to be tied to stakes by the neck, the hands, and the feet. When the main body of the French arrived, La Hontan was informed of what had occurred, and hastened to the fort ; where he found the Indians thus tied up, which struck him with great indigna- tion. They were all occupied in singing, and they loudly complained of the treacherous conduct they had met with: particularly lamenting the fate of their old men, who had been massacred when their two villages were surprised. " What ingratitude ! " they exclaimed, " what ingratitude! We have never ceased, since the peacej to assist in supporting this fort by our hunting and fishing— have supplied the garrison with abundance of beaver and other furs; and ii. return, they come treacherously into our villages while we are ut peace, murder our old men, and make slaves of us ! But the Five Na- V^'s I 80 HISTORICAL NOTES UESPECTING Cu. IV. lions will take care to avenjre us ; our countrymen will never forget this outrage." La Hontan recognised, in one of these captives, an Indian who had frequently received him in his cabin, when formerly quartered at Fort Frontenac. This prisoner being acquainted with the Algonquin language, La Hontan expressed his sorrow to see him in that distressing situation, but promised he would take care to have meat and drink con- veyed to him ; and would give him letters to his friends at Montreal, in order that, if carried thither, he might be favourably treated. The Indian re- plied, that he saw very well the horror with which most of the French were struck upon viewing the cruelties inflicted upon him and his comrades ; he thanked La Hontan for his offers, but did not wish to be more favourably treated than his fellow-pri- soners. He then ga' e an account of the manner in vihich they were surprised — how their old men were massacred ; and made many bitter reflections in recounting the services they had done to the iFrench. The honest indignation felt by the Baron de la Hontan at this treatment almost proved fatal to himself. At the moment he was thus contemplat- ing their unfortunate lot, some of the savages, the allies of the French, began to employ themselves in buining the hands of the captives with their lighted pipes. The baron lost all patience, and ati, i w Itp':- I: i ' ' I Cu.IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 81 I, '~i Struck their tormentors some smart blows with his cane; but his superior officers being informed of what he had done, called him before them ; and after severely reprimanding him, put him under arrest. In the meanwhile the Indians whom he had offended, demanded that he should be put to death, threatening all to return home if it was refused. *' The affair," says La Hontan, " began to be somewhat delicate, as their assistance was necessary. The worst part of the matter for nie was, that these savages wanted to be my accusers, Judges, and executioners. At length it was con- trived to appease them, by their being told I had been drunk ; and that there had existed a positive order never to allow me any strong liquor. Drunkenness is reckoned innocent among those people : they look upon it as an excess of mad- ness, and laugh at us for punishing that as a crime which is efliected neither under the influ- ence of reason nor will. The better to calm their fury, they were promised that, at my return, I should be put in prison. This they believed, and I was let off for an arrest of five days. The pri- soners were sent down to Quebec, from whence, it is said, they will be transported to France, in order to serve in the galleys."* * La Hontan, let. 13. Neither this author nor Charle- voix appears to have mentioned the number of Indian 82 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. Golden, in his History of the Five Nations, also gives an account of this disgraceful proceeding. '* These people were surprised," says he, " when they least expected it, and by those from whom they feared no harm, because they had settled there at the invitation, and on the faith of the French. They were carried to the fort, and tied to stakes, to be tormented by the French Indians — Christians as they call them — while they continued singing, in their country manner, and upbraiding the French with their perfidy and ingratitude." And he con- cludes his narrative of the unsuccessful expedition of which this shameful act of treachery was the commencement, with the following remark. " The French having got nothing but dry blows by this expedition, sent thirteen of the Indians, whom they surprised at Cadarackui, to France, as trophies of victory, where they were put into the galleys."* In order to entrap these Indians, Charlevoix mentions, that two of the missionaries, P^res Milet and Jean de Lamberville, had been made instrumental, though, as he states, without their knowledge. Whether they vere really guilty of any participation in this perfidious act, it is not very easy to ascertain. There can be little doubt warriors who were thus trepanned and brought to the French fort. La Potherie says, there were forty. Vol. iii. let 2. * Colden's History of the Five Nations, part i. ch. 5. VJ C». IV. THE NORTH AMKRICAN INDIANS. 83 but that the Jesuit missions among the Indians directed their operations as often to political, as to religious purposes; and if the account given by Chaiirvoix be carefully examined, it will be thought extremely probable that these two missionaries played the part of spies at thnt time among the Iroquois. Be this as it may, they narrowly escaped the fate to which Indian spies would have been consigned. Milet was sentenced to be put to death ; but when on the point of being burnt alive, his life was saved by his being adopted by an Indian matron. Lamberville, as soon as the Indians heard of the treachery which occurred at Fort Frontenac, was summoned before their sachems. He had every reason to suppose they were going immediately to put him to death with the most cruel torments ; but after reprobating, in the strongest and most indignant terms, the per- fidious conduct which had been pursued towards their countrymen by the French, they informed Lamberville that they had known him loo long, and esteemed him too much, to suppose he had been aware of the treachery employed against them; adding, however, that he must rempin no longer in their country, as they could not now answer for his safety. The missionary was then sent away, under the protection of safe guides ; the savages thus exhibiting a degree of considera- tion and generosity, which it would have been v^ ^^^< IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■ 30 ■^" lii m ^ ... I 2.2 us 140 ii I 2.0 1.8 L25 111 U IIIII16 Hi!!: 6" V] V) / '/ /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER. N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 ^.o*« «* ^l^ ^^' % 84 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. well had their European opponents known how to imitate. Charlevoix, on the subject of this act of perfidy, observes, that the king of France had commanded that some of his Indian enemies, when taken pri- soners of war, should be sent to Europe to assist in manning his galleys ; but he adds, that the governor of Canada, Monsieur Denonville, in cap- turing them, had imprudently exceeded the royal instructions. The courtly historian evidently la- bours, in this delicate matter, both to defend the king and the governor ; but his defence, at the best, is of a flimsy description. The king, in a letter written to Monsieur de la Barre (Denon- ville's predecessor), had declared, ** As it is of importance to the good of my service to diminish, as much as possible, the number of the Iroquois ; and that as these savages, who are strong and robust, will serve usefully in my galleys, I desire that you will do every thing in your power to make as many of them as possible prisoners of war, and send them over to France."* When Louis le Grand thus ordered Indian warriors to be sent to Europe for the purposo of being made useful in his galleys, it is not to be wondered at if his repre- sentative in Canada entertained little scruple as to the mode in which these galley-slaves were to be Chhrlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. xi. Ch.IV. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 85 procured; nor, amidst the triumphs obtained by his royal master, was it likely tc become an object of very rigid inquiry, whether a band of Iroquois heathens, captured on the shores of Lake Ontario, and consigned to France for the service of his Most Christian Majesty, had been taken prisoners in open war, or entrapped in time of profound peace, ■■n,. -^-i j>. .', . ;. : ,• But Denonville found, when it was too late, that this was not the right way either to gain the friendship, or to break the spirit, of his Iroquois enemies; and he accordingly, some time afterwards, wrote to have the Indians whom he had trans- ported to France returned to him. In the yeiit 1689, those of the Iroquois who had survived their transportation, were unchained from the oar and brought back to Canada, by the Count de Frontenac, at that time re-appointed to the govern- ment of New France. The history of one of these liberated captives fills rather a conspicuous place in the early Canadian annals, and furnishes not only a curious instance of the boasted humanity of the French towards the natives, but also of the vanity so often exhibited by the Jesuit missionaries as to their alleged success in converting the sa> iges to the truths of Christianity. This Iroquois, named Oureouhar6,* a ohief of the Oneydas, was * Called Taweraket in several of the histories of New France. 'fir- ..-'i' m ■M ' i' ^' Iff?' If 86 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. m ' '"I the principal of those who had been treacherously seized at Fort Frontenac. He had been there tied to the stake, tormented by the Indian confederates of the French, taken down in fetters to Quebec* from thence shipped off for Europe, and consigned to Marseilles, to work as a slave in the galleys of the Grand Monarque. • ; » r ' .-...! . -nu Returned to Canada, Oureouhar6 was feasted and flattered by the governor-general, treated as his confidential favourite, and employed by him in the important task of reconciling his countrymen to the French. He prevailed upon the Count de Frontenac to send back to the Five Nations some of those Indians who had been his fellow-captives in Europe ; but as to himself, he preferred remain- ing during the rest of his life with his new friends^ The principles of Oureouhar^, it must be confessed, do not appear to have been much improved, either by his voyage to Old France, or by his subsequent conversion to Christianity. Not being able to prevail upon the Iroquois to continue long in peace with the French, he sided with the latter in all their contests, taking up the hatchet against his own brethren. He became a most useful partisan ; and with the assistance of the praying Indians of the Canadian settlements of Loretto and La Montague, he made numerous incursions into his own canton, carrying fire and desolation among his native villages, and returning to Montreal, Cn. IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 87 of laden with the scalps of his countrymen. " He enjoyed," says La Potherie, ** a pension from the king; and he never failed to go to the public treasurer regularly once a month to get his pay, or, as he termed it, * to look for his moon.' " After having thus, for seven years, conducted him- self with activity and zeal in support of the French, and with marked treachery towards his own nation; and having escaped that fate which, according to Indian practice, he had well merited, Oureouhar6 died at Quebec in 1697, lamented by Count Fron^ tenac, and eulogized by the church. " He ex- pired," says Father Charlevoix, " as a true Chris- tian ; and was buried with the same honours as are usually paid to captains of companies." But Charlevoix had probably forgotten what he had himself already written on the subject of Indian conversion: — " In truth one must not suppose that a savage is convinced, because he appears to approve of what is < declared to him. They assume the appearance of being entirely persuaded of the truth of matters to which they have not paid the slightest attention, and which they had not been able to comprehend." Of this number probably was the dying Oureouhar6: who, no doubt, had been induced more by his temporal than his spi- ritual interests, to support the doctrines of the French, and join them in their wars against his own countrymen. 'H '. 1/ 1 ''■. r' *, .r- i. r I MM 88 HIbTOHICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. VH Nothing, indeed, seems to have been mor^ com- mon in Canada at that time, than for the French authorities, both civil and religious, to enlist the Christian Indians to fight against their own native tribes. Whenever a missionary was under the necessity of taking the field in hostility to the Five Nations, he was always anxious to have an Iroquois convert for his aide-de-camp. In one of those rash and useless expeditions conducted against the In- dians by Denonville, we find a celebrated Father of the Jesuits severely wounded, and his principal Indian convert killed. " In this action," says Charlevoix, " we had five or six hundred men killed, and about twenty wounded ; among whom was Pfere Aujelran, the Jesuit, who found himself among the Indians, when the enemy made their iirst attack. The only person of note . whom we lost upon this occasion was La Cendre Chaude, the Indian chief from the Sault St. Louis. He had been one of P^re Brebeuf 's executioners ; and indeed, attributed his own conversion to the prayers of that holy martyr. He afterwards made ample reparation for his crime ; and few even of the missionaries themselves have converted more Infidels to the true religion than he has done."* " This cliief," says La Potherie, " during his paganism caused Brebeuf to be burnt alive ; but. • Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. ii. Ch. IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 89 e. his )Ut, after his baptism, he preached the faith to the Iroquois : commencing with the Mohawks, and going through all the other confec^erated tribes. He preached on the Sabbath to the youth assembled in their village ; his influence converted some, and his eloquence overwhelmed the elders. When the war was declared against the Senecas, (another of the Iroquois confederacy,) he joined Monseigneur le Marquis de Denonville, and was killed gener- ously fighting against the enemy;"* viz. against his own countrymen. Charlevoix and La Potherie also unite in re- cording the praises of another Indian convert they had named Paul, who was killed fighting against the Iroquois. " Paul," says the former, " was killed exhorting, by his voice and example, his Indian followers to continue fighting, even unto death, the enemies of the faith." 'f To the praises of Paul, La Potherie adds those of his fair daugh- ter; and as the reader is no doubt by this time fatigued with battles and bloodshed, he ought to be refreshed with the soothing accounts given by some of the fathers of the church, and other writers, respecting their favourite female converts. *' Paul," says La Potheiie, " was a brave warrior, and a zealous convert. Heaven had recompensed him * La Potherie, Hist, de TAmerique Septentrionale, vol. iii. let. 1. t Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. xiv. ■'Ail 'iH\ t'i'i m •ft HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV. fii.i by giving him a daughter, who lived as a nun. At thirteen years of age she possessed the innocence of a child, and the wisdom of a person of thirty: she died a virgin. Her mother, seeing that she was very handsome, had trembled for her virtue. She therefore prevailed upon her husband to have a mass performed for the purpose of imploring Heaven to inflict some blemish upon their daugh- ter's beauty. One of her eyes, it is said, forthwith became disfigured. She afterwards fell into a con- sumption, and died exhorting her mother to hold stedfast in the faith ; and she bequeathed to the chapel her collars, bracelets, and other ornaments."* ' But who, among the female converts in Canada, holds so conspicuous a place as " la jeune Tegah- kouita, vierge Iroquoisef On the subject of this interedting neophyte, this holy catechumen, as they every where denominate her, the reverend Fathers Charlevoix and Cholenec, as well as the lay his- torian La Potherie, dwell with peculiar rapture. The first of these, in detailing the virtues of Tegah- kouita, devotes no less than fifteen ample quarto pages of his elaborate History of New France ; the second addresses to P^re Augustin Le filanc, procureur des missions de Canada, an epistle in her praise, occupying upwards of thirty octavo leaves of the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses ; and * La Potherie, Hist, de TAmer. Sept. vol. iii. let 1. Ch. IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 91 the third, to compensate his readers for having abbreviated the letter-press of his heroine's narra- tive, not only gratifies them with a duodecimo engraving of her person en taille-^douce, but he also presents some verses of his own composing, which he confesses he could not refrain from addressing to her revered memory.* '» * » a^*-. ^^t Tegahkouita was born in the country of the Mohawks: her father was a pagan Iroquois, her mother an Algonquin convert ; and she was left an orphan at a very early age, under the charge of an uncle and two aunts. As soon as she became marriageable, they naturally wkhed that their niece should have a husband. For tuis purpose ^hey cast their eyes upon a young man "whove alliancei seemed advantageous, and they accordingly pro^ posed the match to him and his family, although without the knowledge of Tegahkouita. " It is the business of the relations," says P^re Cholenec,' "to make up marriages, and not those who are to be united. When the relatives have agreed upon the affair, the young man goes into the cabin of his intended spouse, and seats himself down beside her." Tegahkouita, when the young Indian thus sat down, is stated to have been much discon- certed. She blushed, and then arising quickly, went out of the cabin in great indignation; nor * La Potherie, Hist, de I'Amer. Sept. vol. i. let. 12. ■^i tlj: mi -■..i5j,v ^m m 02 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IV m would she enter it again until the youth had de- parted. This conduct highly offended her relations ; who, by threats and persecution, did every thing in their power, but in vain, to make her change her resolution. She bore all theii cruel treatment with the most patient resignation; and at length they ceased, for a time, to give her further trouble on the subject. Two of the missionaries, during their short stay in the Indian village where Tegahkouita resided, had some time before commenced those religious instructions by means of which she afterwards became so celebrated in Canada ; and P^re Jacques de Lamberville the Jesuit, perceiving her increasing zeal, at length baptized her, giving her the Christian name of Catharine. The persecutions against her having been again renewed by her hostile relations, she contrived, although with much difficulty, to escape from her native village, and to take refuge with the mission at the Sault St. Louis, near Montreal. But here, though freed from the ill usage of her enemies, she was not exempted from the persecution of her friends. Marriage — hate- ful marriage— was again rung in the ears of this maiden convert. Every means of persuasion were used, but in vain, to induce her no longer to remain single; at length, in consequence of her anxious and continued entreaties, the church admitted her into its bosom as a nun. '* She was the first of Cll.IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 93 her nation," says Charlevoix, " who entered into vows of perpetual virginity." Tegalikouita now began to prescribe for herself the most rigid penance. She strewed her bed with thorns, rolled herself among briers and prickles, mixed up earth and ashes with her food, travelled amid ice and snow, with her feet naked, and then scorched them in the flames. Under this regimen, her health, as mighc naturally have been expected, rapidly declined, and she died at the early age of twenty- four, to the inexpressible sorrow of the college of Jesuits at Quebec. These, however, founn :ime consolation in knowing that the effects of her virtue survived her. ** It was the Mohawk tribe," says Charlevoix, ** which gave to New France this Genevieve of North America, the illustrious Catha- rine Tegahkouita, whom Heaven has continued, for almost seventy years, to render celebrated by the performance of miracles, the authenticity of which will stand the proof of the most rigid inquiry."* And Father Cholenec thus concludes the long epistle he addressed to his superior, P^re Augustin, on this interesting subject. " I confidently trust, my reverend father, that Heaven will not refuse to honour the memory of this virtuous young woman, by an infinity of mira- culous cures ; many of which indeed have already * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. ix. 1M mi 94 IIISTOIIICAL NOTES KF.SPECTING Cll. IV. been effected, and still continue to be performed, by her intercession. This is well known, not only among the Indians, but by the French at Quebec and Montreal, many of whom repair to her tomb in order to perform their vows, or to offer her their thanks for the favours which she has obtained for them from Heaven. I could detail to you a great number of these wonderful cures, attested by persons whose honour and judgment cannot be suspected ; but I shall content myself by giving you the testi- mony of two persons of great virtue and merit, who experienced, in their own persons, the influence of the intercession of this holy girl, and who, in con- sequence, thought it their duty to leave to posterity a public record of their piety and gratitude."* The first of these certificates is from one of the fathers of the Jesuits, whom Charlevoix desig- nates with a title of Persian-like length, Monsieur fAbb6 de la Colombiere^ Grand Archidiacre et Grand Vicaire de Qtiebec, et Conseiller Clerc au Conseil SupSrieur de la Nouvelle France. — Monsieur I'Abb^ thus deposes :—:.'! j ',. , ** Having been ill at Quebec last year, from January to June, of a slow fever, against which all the usual remedies proved ineffectual, and also attacked with a flux, which ipecacuanha itself could not cure ; it was thought advisable I should make * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 40. Cil. IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 95 a VOW, that in case it pleased Heaven to put a stop to my malady, I should go to the mission of St. Franpois Xavier, in order to ofier up my prayers at the tomb of Catherine Tegahkouita. From that day the fever ceased, and the flux being also much diminished, I embarked some days afterwards to acquit myself of my vow, and scarcely had I pro- ceeded a third part of the journey, when I found myself perfectly cured, w .* . « . . i j;: ,. . : ** I therefore feel that it would be unjust in me not to ascribe to the missions of Canada the glory which is their due ; and to testify, as I now do, that I am indebted for my cure to this Iroquois virgin. I accordingly make the present attestation, not only to evince the sentiments of gratitude which I en- tertain, but also to express, as much as in my power, the confidence to be reposed upon the inter- cession of my benefactress, and thus incite others to imitate her virtues, j ^.> i. ;.i»; n,. u, . , "DoneatVille Marie, this 14th day of Sep- tember, 1696. .* , , . • " J. DE LA COLOMBIERE, , . . " P. I. Chanoine de la Cath^drale de Quebec." The other certificate is presented to the faithful, by Capitaine de Luth, " one of the bravest officers," says Charlevoix, " whom the king has ever had in thir ^olony. " I, the undersigned, certify to all whom it may concern, that having, for three and twenty years, HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cir. IV. been tormented with the gout, and suffering such pain as to have been deprived of rest for three months together, I addressed myself to Catherine Tegahkouita, the Iroquois virgin who died in odour of sanctity at the Sault St. Louis, and I promised to visit her tomb, if Heaven should please to remove my malady through her intercession. At the end of a nine days' fasting and devotion, which I performed to her honour, 1 was so completely cured, that for the last fifteen months I have not had the slightest fit of the gout. ** Done at Fort Frontenac, this 15 th day of August, 1696. , v. ^, ,: , * " J. DE LUTH, •* Capitaine d'un detachement de la marine, J t(.ii T ^' •'■1 »r- »• I ,'UJ i'.t Commandant au Fort Frontenac."* Should any sceptical reader of the good Fathers Cholenec and Charlevoix suspect that the captain's gout was probably as much relieved by his own fasting, as by the good otHces of an Iroquois nun, let him take warning from the lesson that was given to the doubting curate of La Chine. " On every anniversary of the death of La Bonne Catherine — for that is the name by which, in deference to the Holy See, she is honoured in Canada — the neigh- bouring parishes were in the habit of repairing to I f. * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, and also Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. xiii. • • : vj/ • of Cii. IV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 07 the church, at the Sault St. Louis, noar Montreal, to perform a solemn mass. The o urate of La Chine, M. Remy, who had recently arrived from France, having been apprised of this custom, and that his predecessors had always conformed to it, declared that he did not think himself authorised to sanction, by his presence, a public religious so- lemnity not ordained by the church. Those of his parishioners who heard him make this remark, fore- told that it would not be long before their new curate would be punished for his refusal ; and, in fact, from that very day M. Remy fell dangerously sick." The historian, however, happily adds, that the worthy curate, *•' .perceiving at once the cause of his sudden malady, made a vow to follow the pious example of his predecessors, upon which he was immediately restored to health!"* But enough of the supernatural cures thus gravely recorded by these sturdy disciples of Loyola in New France ; to. be equalled only by the miraculous recoveries effected by the celebrated medccine dance of the savage, or the conjuring feats of the Indian Pm^ah, , if.: 4 I % 4- ^ih * Charlevoix, Hist de la Nouvelle France, liv. xii. . ^ » . J ( < m H i 98 niSTOUUAL NOTES UESPF.CTING Cii. V; I ' CHAPTER V. ; ' ' • t - ... • . i .t. 1 1 FRIENDLY CONDUCT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS TOWARDS THE EARLY EUROPEAN SET- TLERS KINDNESS SHEWN BY THEM TO THE. DUTCH COLONISTS UPON THE HUDSON SIMILAR CONDUCT TOWARDS THE ENGLISH SETTLERS IN VIRGINIA — STORY OF POCAHONTAS. Having noticed the injudicious system which appears to have been so generally pursued with respect to the Indians, by the civil, military, and religious authorities of New France, we may now turn our attention to the early settlers in other parts of the North American continent. In doirtg so, it will be found that the Europeans, on their first arrival, every where met with kindness and cordiality from the natives, and that the Indian good-will which had been shewn to Cartier, and others of the early French discoverers of the coun- tries situated upon St. Lawrence, vas in like man- ner experienced by the Dutch settlers upon the banks of the Hudson, and by the first British colonists in Virginia, and in New England. With regard to the reception whicn the Indians gave to the Dutch on their arrival, there cannot per- haps be a better delineation than what was conveyed m iR '- Cir. V. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 99 in the words of the Indian chief of whom Dr. Bou- dinot has related the following circumstance, as falling under his own observation. In the year 1789, the American General Knox gave an en- tertainment at New York, to a number of Indian chiefs, sachems, and warriors. Before dinner, several of these walked from the apartment where they were assembled to the balcony in front of the house, from which there was a commanding view of the city and its harbour, of the East and Nortli rivers, and of the island upon which New York now stands, and which, at the first settlement of the Dutch, got the name of Manhattan*. On returning into the room, the Indians seemed uejected, their principal chief more so than the rest. This was observed by General Knox, who kindly asked if any thing had happened to distress him. ^* Biother," replied the chief, " I will tell j^ou. I have been looking at your beautiful city, the great water, your fine country, and I see how happy you all ore. But then, I could not help thinking that this fine country, and this great water, were once ours. Our ancestors lived here; they enjoyed it as their own in peace ; it was the gift of the Great Spirit to them and their children. At length the White people came in a great canoe. They asked only to let them tie it to a tree, that the waters might not carry it away. They then said * Purchas, however, notices the Manhatta Indians in his account of Hudson's discovery of the.North (or Hudson) river. •f, V; •I* . f . 100 HISTORICAL NOTKS RESPECTING Cii. V. i^^ .■■■'^■- that some of their people were sick, and they asked permission to land them and put them under the shade of the trees. The ice afterwards came, and they could not go away. They then begged a piece of ground to build wigwams for the winter; this we granted. They then asked for some corn to keep them from starving : we furnished it to them, and they promised to depart when the ice was gone. When the ice was gone, we told them they must now depart; but they pointed to their big guns round their wigwams, and said they would stay; and we could not make them go uway. Afterwards more came. They brought with them intoxicating and destructive liquors, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us to sell them some land; and finally, they drove us back, from time to time, into the wilderness. They have destroyed the game; our people have wasted away ; and now we live miserable and wretched, while the White people are enjoying our fine and beautiful country. It is this, Brother, that makes me sorry."* In the colony of Virginia, also, the first British settlers were cordially and kindly received by the Indians of that country. Heckewelder has re- corded what lie heard the descendants of these Indians say on the subject of the English at their first arrival. " We look them by the hand, and bid them welcome to sit down by our side, and to • Boudinot, Star in the West, ch. 5. Trenton, New Jersey, 1816. Ch. V. THE NOUTll AMERICAN INDIANS. 10:f live with us as brothers; but how did they requite our kindness ? They at first only asked for a httle land on which to raise bread for themselves and their families, and pasture for their cattle. This we freely gave them. They soon wanted more, which we also gave. They saw the game in the woods which the Great Spirit had given us for our sub- sistence, and they wanted that too. They pene- trated into the forests, and discovered spots of land which pleased them ; that land they also wanted ; and, because we were loath to part with it — as we saw they had already more than they had need of — they took it from us by force, and drove us to a great distance from our ancient homes." * It was during the infancy of tiie colony in Vir- ginia, when that singular occurrence took place, to which the British settlers were so much indebted for their security ; and a brief sketch of the story of Pocahontas may not be deeined misplaced in these Notes, as it tends to exhibit a striking example of that native generosity for which the North American Indians have been so often, and so jnstly, distinguished. After the unhappy attempts made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to plant a colony in North Ame- rica, the small band of settlers under Captain Newport, sanctioned by letters patent of James I., <.;_.,,,..,;.. , . -^ ■ * Hcckewelder's Account of the Indian Nations, ch. 3. ''*f :>i^\i': '•■^t ■ii;g. •ffl 10f2 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii.V. S.J . i established themselves, in the year 1607, upon the shores of one of the great rivers in Virginia. On their arrival, they were kindly treated by the na- tives; but, according to custom, the Europeans soon embroiled themselves with their red brethren, who, probably from experience, were often led to look upon these white strangers in no other light than as hostile and treacherous invaders of their soil. Captain Newport returned almost immediately to England, leaving in Virginia (at the settlement which they named Jamestown) about a hundred colonists. Of that number, one half died in the course of a few months, and their survivors were placed in a state of the greatest distress. In the wretched circumstances to which they were reduced, with frequent dissensions among themselves, and constant alarm from the Indians, no hope was left of their being extricated from their difficulties, except by placing themselves under the command of one of their party. Captain Smith, a man of great bravery, talent, and enterprise ; but who had been treated, by the chief officers of the colony, with marked insult and injustice. By common consent, Smith was now placed at their head, and his conduct fully justified the confidence reposed in him. By his prudent treatment of the Indians when they were disposed .,0 be friendly, and by his skill and bravery when it was deemed necessary to adopt measures of hostility, he contrived to pre- Cn. V. THE NOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 1(^3 serve the infant colony in a state of comparative ease and security while he resided among them.* . It unfortunately happened that, while engaged in an expedition for the purpose of exploring the country, and examining some of its principal rivers, Captain Smith was attacked by a band of Indians. He had proceeded a considerable way in advance • " Captain John Smith," says Granger, " deserves to be ranked with the greatest travellers and adventurers of his age. He was some time in the service of the Emperor and the Prince oi I'ransylvania, against the Grand Seignor, when he distinguished himself by challenging three Turks of quality to single combat, and cutting off their heads; for which heroic exploit he wore a chevron betwixt three Turks' heads on his arms. He afterwards went to America, where he was taken by the savage Indians, from whom he found means to escape. He often hazarded his life in naval en- gagemeuts with pirates, Spanish men of war, and in other adventures, and had a considerable hand in reducing New England to the obedience of Great Britain, and in reclaiming the inhabitants from barbarism." — Granger's Biographical History, Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Vir- ^nia, observes, " Captain Smith, who, next to Sir Walter Raleigh, may be considered as the founder of our colony, has written its History, from the first adventures to it, till the year 1624. He was a member of the council, and afterwards president of the colony ; and to his efforts principally may be ascribed its support against the opposition of the natives. He was honest, sensible, and well informed : but his style is barbarous and uncouth. His History, however, is almost the only source from which we derive any knowledge of the in- fancy of our state." — Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. Query 22. ■w •Pi; ^ ' f « r 1^ 'd' ■^n ^1 1 ; ' faCT^ 104 HISTOKICAL NOTtS UhSPECTING Cn.V ,,■■»! of his party, accompanied only by two of his men, both of whom were killed. He afterwards made a most gallant defence with his fire-arms, killing three of his opponents ; but at length being disabled, he was taken prisoner. His enemies, having decided to put him to death, were fastening him to a tree, that they might shoot him with arrows, when Smith, with great presence of mind, pulled out a pocket mariners'-compass, and presented it to their chief. The astonishment felt by the Indians at seeing the movements of the needle — which they were unable to touch on account of its glass cover interposing an invisible obstruction, the cause of which they could not comprehend — and the extra- ordinary appearance of the instrument and its motions, induced the savages to postpone his exe- cution. They probably looked upon Smith as a magician, and determined to carry him to their king, Powhatan. He was accordingly led in triumph through many villages, among the nume- rous tribes governed by that prince. Smith was every where feasted on his march ; but he observed that non^ of the Indians would, upon any occasion, eat with him, although, after he had finished his meal, they sat down, and partook of the provisions. This he looked upon as a bad omen of the reception* he was likely afterwards to meet with. Powhatan was then supreme potentate over all the Indians in that part of the country, and w as ■fW" Ch. V. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 10^ supposed to have under his command a force of between two and three tliousand warriors. ** He lived," says Stith in his History of Virginia, " in great barbaric state and magnificence. He usually had about his person forty or fifty of the tallest men his country afforded, which guard was in- creased to two hundred on a :ount of the English; Every night, upon the four corners of his house, were placed four sentinels, each a flight-shot from the other ; and every half-hour one from the main guard hallowed out, shaking his finger between his lips, and every sentinel was obliged to answer from his stand. At all his ancient inheritances he had houses, some of them thirty or forty yards long, and at every house provisions for his entertainment, according to the season."* .'a .« ? ^ ; !f To the august presence of this aboriginal mo- narch. Captain Smith was led captive in triumphal procession; and he thus narrates, in the quaint style of that age, the appearance of Powhatans court : " Here were more than two hundred of these grim courtiers stood wondering as liee had been a monster, till Powhatan and his trayne had putt themselves in theyre greatest braveries. Be- fore a fire, upon a seate like a bedsteade, hee sat covered with a great robe of rarowcan (racoon) m * History of Virginia, by the Rev. William Stith, book ii. America, 1747. . r . . . .:, T',. .'Ill t 1 106 msTouicAr notes respisctino Cm. V. 1 , .M •' A ■ skinnes, and all the *p.yles hangii. y. On either hand did sit a young wench of about sixteen or eighteen yearcs, and along on each side the house as many women, with all theyre heades and shoulders painted red; manie of theyre heades bedecked with white down of birdes, buteverieone with something, and a great chayne of white beades about theyre necks. At his entrance before the king, all the people gave a great shout. The queen of Appa- matuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, insteade of a towel, to dry them."* After these and other Indian ceremonies, Captain Smith was again feasted ; and a council being now held, it was decided that he should be immediately put to death. He was accordingly dragged forward before the king, and his head placed upon a large stone on the ground, in order to have his brains beat out by two men armed with clubs. This sentence was on the point of being executed, when, to the astonishment of the whole assembly, the king's favourite daugh- ter, Pocahontas, then about twelve or thirteen years of age, rushed forward, and throwing herself down, folded her arms round the head of the captive, to save him from the blow of the executioner. Such was her generous and persevering resolution, that :^ The Generall Historic of Virginia, &c. &c., by Captaine John Smith, ch. 1. 1632. ... .<, i Cii.V. THE NOUTll AMERICAN INDIANS. 107 Powhatan at length ordered Smith to be released. From that time he was treated with distinguished regard by the king, as well as by his brave sons. He was soon afterwards sent back to the settlement at Jamestown, under an escort of twelve trusty Indians ; peace was established between Powhatan and the English; and the young Pocahontas, having become their avowed friend and protectress, was allowed to visit the colony with her attendants, and to carry provisions and presents to them when- ever they were in want.* ^ , > . Some time afterwards, however, hostilities were unfortunately renewed, and Powhatan became very anxious once more to get Captain Smith into his power. In order to save him, Pocahontas again exerted herself. In a dark and dreary night, she found her way alone through the woods, and having reached the spot where Smith and a party of his people were encamped near her father's residence, she informed him that Powhatan, under the cloak of friendship, intended immediately to send some of • ** Her true name," says Purchas, " vtaa MatoJceSy which they concealed from the English, in a superstitious feare of hurt by the English, if her name were knowne," — Pilgrimetf part v., book viii., ch. 5. The Indians had the notion that the Europeans were great magicians, but that they could not materially harm any one against whom their magic was exercised, when the object was only known to them under a fictitious name. < :. , ., /, ...: ;., . ; ., . .v..:; . ., m I li ■"'■'•j"! ^:.\^; \ 108 IIISTOUICAL NOTES RE«l'ECTI\C Cii. V. k «.^ Ij-.' h >9 his people with presents of provisions, but that tiieir real object was to surprise and carry him off ; adding, that if they failed in their object, her father meant immediately to come in person and attack the English. In gratitude for this information, which Pocahontas communicated with tears in her eyes, Captain Smith oftered her such presents as he knew she delighted in, but she refused them, being ap- prehensive that her father might thereby discover where she had been. She then returned as she came, afraid of being observed by any of her own people. The Indians, sent by Powhatan, arrived, as was expected ; but means were taken by Smith to prevent their treacherous scheme from being executed. ,!,.■>:// /,:,■:•:;/ , 1.4 •i-iM.'j ■■i .•w?.'!!*^ '.. In the year 1609, Captain Smith having been severely wounded by the accidental blowing up of some gunpowder, and " seeing there was neither chirurgian nor chirurgery in the fort to cure his hurt," returned to England. From that period, the colony was frequently reinforced from the mother country, but for several years it was torn to pieces by internal quarrels, and harassed with Indian hostility. From the early accounts of the state of Virginia, it would seem that Pocahontas never ceased interceding with Powhatan in favour of the English, when it was in her power to serve them; but that their conduct became so imprudent and treacherous, that she could no longer succeed in Cii. V. THE XOttlll AMKUICAN INDIANS. 10* •')■«'■ ■I'.:. .11 .,'-' J :^^n 122 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VI. ■■■$■ m ' conduct on the part of the settlers, was the inve- terate hostility of the natives ; and the EngHsh colonists found, when too late, that the Indians were not to be injured with impunity. The histories of the first British settlements in North America, and particularly those relating to the extensive colonies of New England, were com- piled principally by the resident ministers of the various churches which were early established in that country. These historians appear to have taken much pains in collecting the details of those contests with the Indians, in which they naturally felt a peculiar interest ; and although their writings display no small degree of rancour against the native population, yet enough may be gathered from them to satisfy every unprejudiced reader, that the Indians were treated by the Europeans with extreme injustice. To this treatment is chiefly to be ascribed the signal miseries which both parties experienced for a long period of time. Great allowance, indeed, ought to be made for the unfor- tunate circumstances in which most of the first New England settlers were placed. Driven from their native land by tyrannical bigotry and perse- cution, they had transported themselves across the Atlantic, taking refuge among the wilds and forests of an unexplored continent, where they were sur- rounded by savage tribes, and almost destitute of the necessaries of life. But, whatever sympathy \' Ch.VI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 123 the sufferings of the colonists in New England were calculated to excite, it will be found, even from their own accounts, that their conduct towards their Indian opponents savoured hut too much of that spirit of persecution which they had themselves so heavily experienced in Europe. The unprincipled conduct of a British trader, a few years before the landing of the settlers at New Plymouth, proved sufficient of itself to instil into the minds of the Indians in that part of North America, the strongest feeling of hostility towards their European visitants. Captain Smith (the same able and meritorious officer who had sup- ported the English colony in Virginia) having been sent out in 1614 for the purpose of establishing a settlement and trade in New England, left behind him, on returning to Europe, one of the ships he had commanded. Hunt, the captain of this vessel, after procuring a cargo of fish upon the American coast, set sail to dispose of it in the Mediterranean, having previously enticed on beard upwards of twenty Indians, whom he carried across the Atlantic to be sold at Malaga as slaves. " A most wicked shipmaster," writes Dr. Cotton Mather, " being on this coast a few years before, had wickedly spirited away more than twenty Indians, whom, having enticed them aboard, he presently stowed them under hatches, and carried them away to the Streights, where he sold as many s* 5>J i ■■iff 1 ' ■ I ' , ' ( \ } ' ,\ : ii •4 ■■M 124 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VI. ^i .1 1 i« 'I? 11 'I, 1^^ of them as he could for slaves. This avaricious and pernicious felony laid the foundation of grievous annoyances to all English endeavours of settlements, especially in the northern parts of the land, for several years ensuing. The Indians would never forget or forgive this injury, but when the English afterwards came upon this coast in their fishing voyages, they were still assaulted in an hostile manner, to the killing and wounding of many poor men by the angry natives, in revenge of the wrong that had been done them ; and some intended plantations here were entirely nipt in the bud."* According to the account given by Hubbard, it appears that the Spaniards would not purchase the Indians who had been thus trepanned ; and one of them found his way to England, from whence, after residing two years in London, he was sent back to his native country. The kindness he had experienced from the English induced him after- wards to prevail with many of his countrymen to assist the early New England settlers. In this he was aided by another Indian, who had in some measure become acquainted with the English language. These two men were of the greatest use to the * Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, or Ecclesiastical History of New England, b, i. ch. 2. Fol. ed. London, 1702. J Ch. Vr. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 125 new settlers : they taught them liow to plant Indian corn, and obtain such game r.nd other provisions as the country aftbrded. They also informed them of the state and number of the Indians in their neighbourhood, and were the means of bringing the celebrated Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, to give them a cordial welcome to his country.* - •■ * - "' ' The Europeans, however, soon quarrelled with some of the neighbouring Indian nations. '' Of these," says Dr. Mather, " there was none more fierce, more warlike, more potent, or of a greater terror unto their neighbours, than that of the Pequots."t And he then proceeds to point out, as forming a ground for the subsequent hostilities with that people, several successive aggressions alleged to have been committed by them : but the imputed murder of an English tmder, of the name of Oldham, appears to have been the immediate cause of this sanguinary war with the Pequots nation, ipi i. -■■■'yy m ,'. 't ■>■»! ' * Hubbard's General History of New England, ch. viii. Dr. Boudinot quotes a passage from a sermon that was preached, soon after the landing of the settlers in New England, by the Rev. Mr. Cushman ; " The Indians are said to be most cruel and trea/::herotts in these parts, even like lions ; but to us they have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive, and trusty, as a man may truly say many Chris- tians are not so kind or sincere." — Star in the West, ch. 5. t Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. j '• : -i, I I ij m 126 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VI, 'It and its unfortunate consequences. The following are the circumstances stated by Hubbard to have taken place upon that occasion. An Englishman, named Gallop, when sailing across the sound from Connecticut to Long Island, perceived a pinnace which had belonged to Old- ham, in the possession of some Indians, who were standing upon the deck armed. When hailed by the other vessel, they gave no answer ; upon which, says Hubbard, '* John Gallop, a man of stout courage, let fly among them, and so galled them that they got all down under hatches ; and then they stood off again, and returning with a good gale, they stemmed her upon the quarter, and almost overset her, which so afFrightened the In- dians, as six of them leaped overboard, and were drowned. Y^t they durst not board her, but stood off again, and fitted their anchor so, as stemming her the second time, they bored her through with their anchor, and sticking fast to her they made divers shot through the sides of her, and so raked her fore and aft (being but inch board) as they must needs kill or hurt some Oi the Indians ; but seeing none of them come forth, they got loose from her, and then stood off again. Then four or five more of the Indians leaped into the sea, and were likewise drowned. Whereupon there being but four left in her, they boarded her ; whereupon an Indian came up and yielded : him they bound. Ch. VI. THE NOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 127 ii! I n 1 and put him into the hold. Then another yielded : him they also bound ; but John Gallop, being well acquainted with their skill to unloose one another, if they lay near together, and having no place to keep them asunder, flung him bound into the sea."* The English then discovered the body of Oldham under one of the sails. Two of the Indians still remained in a cabin below resolved to defend themselves ; the vessel was then taken in tow ; but the wind freshening, she was turned off, and drifted to the Narraganset shore. It does not seem very clear why, or even by whom, Oldham was thus put to death ; nor is it, perhaps, material now to inquire whether he had imprudently given offence to the Indians, or if tiiey had killed him without cause. The Pequots said it was done by their enemies the Narragansets, and the Narragansets " by the Pequots. At all events it must be allowed, that upon this occasion, the " stout John Gallop" took enough of the law into his own hands; and as the lives of a dozen Indians had thus been sacrificed to avenge the death of one Englishman, the vengeance of New England might have been propitiated, and the account between the parties finally balanced. This, however, was not the case. The English wished that the two survivors of the Indian party should be delivered ■•i ..'1 ■*'"'' r ) Hubbard's History of New England, ch. 34. I ,■1 ,4' ^m 128 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VI. mm . <^ ^^ iVf, :i> up to them by the Pequots, with whom it was sup- posed they had taken shelter ; and this somewhat unreasonable demand the government of Massa- chussets resolved to insist upon. They sent Captain Endicot, with eighty men, to treat with the Pequots ; first, to oflfer terms of peace if they would surrender the two Indians, and forbear further acts of hos- tility ; or, if not, to attack them. " The captain aforesaid," says Hubbard, ** coming ashore with his company, by a message sent them by an inter- preter, obtained some little speech with a great number of them at a distance ; bui after they un- derstood what was propounded to them, first cun- ningly getting behind a hill, they presently ran away into the woods and swamps, where there was no pursuing of them : however, one discharg- ing a gun among them as they were taking their flight, stayed the course of one, which was all that could be done against them for that time."* After this rather undiplomatic mode of breaking off a negotiation, it was not likely that the Indians would long delay the commencement of hostilities. The war accordingly began, and was carried on with great fury. In the course of it much misery and bloodshed was caused in New England, par- ticularly in the western parts of Connecticut. Many * Hubbard's Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians, p. 118. London ed. 4to. 1677. Oil. VI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 129 of the best English officers and others fell in the field, entire villages were burnt to the ground, whole families destroyed in their houses, and many individuals, having been taken prisoners by the Indians, were put to death under the severest tor- tures. In their hostility the Indians every where added insult to their ferocity. '^ Sometimes they came with their canoes into the river in view of the soldiers within the fort ; and wlien they appre- hended themselves out of the re«ch of their guns, they would imitate the dying groans and invocations of the poor captive English, which the English soldiers were forced with silent patience to bear, not being then in a capacity to requite their insolent blasphemies. But they being by these horrible outrages justly provoked to indignation, unani- mously agreed to join their forces together to root them out of the earth, with God's assistance." * The sovereign, or chief sachem, of the Pequots at that time was Sassacus, a bold and celebrated warrior. At the commencement of the war he endeavoured to conclude a treaty with his ancient enemy the Narragansets, and did every thing in his power to induce them to join him against the English, *' using such arguments as to right reason seemed not only pregnant to the purpose, but also (if revenge, that bewitching and pleasing passion of * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 118. K " 'm '''•y.n '.; I. ' !, !; '. ■ :. 1 130 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VI. W man's mind, hath not blinded their eyes,) most cogent and invincible; but they were, by the good providence of God, withheld from embracing these counsels, which might otherwise have proved most pernicious to the design of the English."* The arguments used by the Pequots upon this occasion were — that the English were strangers, who had taken possession of their lands and were spreading themselves all over the country ; that the ancient inhabitants would soon be deprived of their rights by these intruders, if not speedily pre- vented ; that the Narragansets, by helping to de- stroy the Pequots, would be paving the way for their own destruction, because if the Pequots were subdued, the English would soon turn their arms against the Narragansets, who would be rooted out likewise : but if these two Indian nations would join against the English, the latter would easily be destroyed, or forced to leave the country ; that, in order to effect this, it would not be necessary to come to open battle, because they might destroy them by burning their houses, killing their cattle, and lying in wait for them as they went about their usual occupations ; so that their new and unwel- come neighbours could not long subsist, and must either be starved, or forced to abandon the country. " Machiavel himself," says Hubbard, " if he had * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 120. Ch. VI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 131 sat in counsel with them, could not have insinuated stronger reasons to have persuaded them to a peace."* i... . . . . ..,,,) • .; > >■., .,- ', Strong, however, as were these reasons — and the truth of them was fully verified in the result — the Narragansets did not assent to the request of the Pequots. With the former the English now entered into a regular treaty, offensive and defensive ; holding out to their Indian allies every inducement to make them assist in the war. That they did materially aid the settlers is sufficiently evident from Hubbard's Narrative, which, in detailing one of the campaigns, states, that " It was not long after Captain Stoughton's soldiers came up, before news was brought of a great number of the enemy that were discovered by the side of a river up the coun- try, being first trepanned by the Narragansets under pretence of protecting them; but tliey were truly hemmed in by them, though at a distance, yet so as they could not stir, or durst not stir, from the place, by which means our forces of the Massa- chusets had an easie conquest of some i^undreds of them, who were there couped up as in a pound ; not daring to fight, nor able to fly away, and so were all taken without any opposition." f The women and children upon this occasion were dis- tributed as prisoners among the Narragansets and it: lii-i ">^.ry .: ..v I > 1 : v.- •),' * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 121, tibid. p. 127. ■ •!•* ■M 132 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VI. •m Other Indians who had assisted in the war ; but the male prisoners were thrown into the sea. This account is confirmed by Dr. Mather, who observes : ** Heaven so smiled upon the English hunting after them, that here and there whole com- panies of them were, by the informations of other Indians, trepanned into the hunters' hands ; par- ticularly at one time some hundreds of them were seized by Captain Stoughton with little opposition, who, sending away the females and children as captives, put the men on board of one Skipper Gallop, (the ** stout John," no doubt,) which proved a Charon's ferry-boat unto them, for it was found the quickest way to feed the fishes with 'em."* Hubbard has given an account of the concluding fight — if fight it can be called— of this war. The English had driven the Indians into a swamp, which they surrounded : some of them broke through, and escaped into the woods ; the rest were left to the mercy of the conquerors. Many of them were killed in the swamp, " like sullen dogs, that would rather, in their se!f-willedness and madness, sit still to be shot through, or cut in pieces, than receive their lives for the asking, at the hand of those into whose power they were now fallen. Some that are yet living, and woilhy of credit, do Mather's Magiialia, book vii. ch. 6. Ch.VI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 133 !«!' I ( affirm, that in the morning en tering> into the swamp, they saw several heaps of them sitting close to- gether, upon whom they discharged their pieces laden with ten or twelve pistol bullets at a time, putting the muzzles of their pieces under the boughs, within a few yards of them; so as besides those that were found dead (near twenty), it was judged many more were killed and sunk into the mire, and never were minded more by friend or foe. Of those who were not so desperate or sullen as to sell their lives for nothing, but yielded in time, the male children were sent to the Bermudas. Of the females, some were distributed to the English towns ; some disposed of among the other Indians, to whom they were deadly enemies as well as to ourselves." * Dr. Trumbull says, that '* a number of the women and boys were sent to the West Indies and sold as slaves."f Sassacus, their chief sachem, made his escape ; but he was some time afterwards killed by the Mohawks, and his scalp sent as a present of high value to the English in Connecticut. The result of this war, which terminated in 1637, and of the mode in which the vanquished were treated in the course of it, was the almost total extinction of the Pequot Indians — a nation * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 130. i Triitnbuirs Hist, of Connecticut, book i. ch. 5. 1 i . Hf i i niP^ ■ ,\ W^'-'v '"' "■'■,' W'"' j'^ §•'■' 1' ' f ■U'li" 134 HISTORICAL NOTKS RtSPKCTlNG Ch. VI. li '^m in «r I' '>in which, in the time of its prosperity, is stated to have been able to bring four thousand warriors into the field.* The distribution of the Indian prisoners taken in the Pequot war, occasioned the rupture which subsequently took place between the English and their own allies the Narragansets ; who are stated to have been instigated to hostilities by their cele- brated chief Miantonimo. " This Miantonimo was a very goodly personage, of tall stature, subtle and cunning in his contrivements, as well as haughty in his designs. It was strongly suspected that he had contrived to draw all the Indians throughout the country into a general conspiracy against the English." t In consequence of these suspicions, the governor and magistrates ordered all the Indians within their jurisdiction to be disarmed ; but no proof was discovered of any intention having existed on their part to act with hostility. Mian- tonimo, however, was c6nt for ; who appeared with- out besi tuition before the general court of the province. He boldly demanded that he should be Joi , * The Pequots, and those tribes under their immediate protection, inhabited a large track of country, extending from the Hudson Riyer to Narraganset— including, as is generally stated, all Long Island. They are now reduced to a few miserable, drunken, idle Indians, chiefly to be found in the township of Stonington, in Connecticut. t Hubbard's Narrative. . - % !'j id Ch. VI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 136 confronted with his accusers ; and that if thev could not prove their charges, they should be punished. The English, however, upon this occasion at length contrived to satisfy him.* But hostilities soon afterwards broke out between the Narragansets and Mohegan Indians; in the course of which Mian- tonimo was taken prisoner; and soon after, " by the advice of the commissioners of the four colo- nies, his head was cut oft" by Uncas, (the chief of the latter tribe,) it being justly feared that there never would be any firm peace, either betwixt the English and the Narragansets, or the Narragansets and the Mohegans, while Miantonimo was left alive. However, the Narragansets have ever since that time bore an implacable malice against Uncas, and all the Mohegans, and for their sakes against the English, so far as they durst discover it : " t and no wonder. ' ■ • The same system, indeed, may be traced through a great proportion of the public acts which affected the Indian population at that period. In a de- claration, issued by the New England comriiis- sioners, we read, " Whereas also, it is the manner of the heathens that are now in hostility with us, contrary to the practice of all civ. > nations, to exe- cute their bloody insolencies by stealth, and skulking * Hubbard's History of New England, ch. 51. t Hubbard's Narrative, p. 6. ... If ji 'i Q :)* 1? t!l I J.I ' ■ i 11 «^l 1 ; ■I .•■I'U ,1 i\- •ll .1 ■' *''^ ■":'-'{ i--;:Kr ' ■ '!•'! n..-,F;,:|: • i^h^i m; ^ri'P? 13G HI8TUUICAL NOTES UkSFtCTlNG Cii. VI. ■# in siii'ill [)artie8, declining all open decision either by treaty or by the sword." And — as it an Indian had no ri^ht to fight his own battle in his own way — ** The council do therefore order ttiat it shall be lawful for any person, whether English or Indian, that shall find any Indians travelling or skulking in any of the towns or woods, contrary to the limits above named, to command them under their guard and examination, or to kill and destroy thetn as they best may or can." To this sweeping clause however, was added a salvo : '* The council hereby declaring, that it will be most acceptable to them that none be killed or wounded that are willing to surrender themselves into cus- tody."* This proviso, however, was probably of little use to the Indians, whose only alternative in many cases seems to have been death or slavery. ** Captain Moseley being there, and plying about, found eighty Indians, who surrendered themselves and were secured in a liouse provided for them near Plimouth. Thereupon Captain Moseley came to Boston to know the pleasure of the authorities about them, and in a day's time re- turned with their order, he should kill none that he took alive, but secure them in order to a transport- ation. Whereupon afterwards there was shipped on board Captain Sprague one hundred and seventy- * Present State of New England, p. 8. London, 1675. Cm. VI. THK NOUTH AMEKICAN INDIANS. 137 eight Indians, on the 28th of September, bound for Cales." • This Captain Moseley seems to have been a very active partisan, or, as Governor Hutchinson calls him, ** an old privatecrer from Jamaica, pro- bably of such as were called Biiccanniers.'t ^ne of his campaigns is thus recorded by Hubbard : — " The next day the inhabitants sent to demand their guns, (the guns of .some Indians then at peace with the English ;) Captain Moseley acquainted there- with, marched to the fort, and found much suspi- cion against eleven of them for singing and dancing, and having bullets and ski >, and much powder hid in their baskets ; in so much that eleven of them were sent down by him prisoners to Boston, upon suspicion that they had an hand in killing the four at Lancaster, and shooting at the Malberough shepherd. But upon tryal, the said prisoners were all of them quitted from the fact ; and were either released, or also were, with others of that sort, sent for better security, and for preventing future troublb in the like kind, to some of the islands below Boston towards Nantasket."J This was certainly exercising a rigour beyond the law — even as laid down by the "stout John Gallop" himself — for Gallop only executed his prisoners before they were tried, but the court of Massachussets punished * Present State of New England, p. 8. t Hutchinson's History of Massachussets, ch. 2. I Hubbard's Narrative, p. 30. I' I lit! I i''* 1 1 II ;■.•:!! M m 1 ^ F " k. ^'t* f> ■|i* 138 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VI. h <■•;' ti .. theirs after they were acquitted. This, however, was nothing when compared to the municipal code of the Westonians. A Mr. Weston having sent out a company of new colonists, they planted themselves in a part of Massachussets, where they soon contrived to make the neighbouring Indians their deadly foes. ** These beginners," says Dr. Mather, * '* being half refreshed at Plimouth, tra- velled more northward :nto a place known by the name of Weymouth ; wiiere these Westonians, who were church of England-men, did not approve themselves like the Plimoutheans, a pious, honest, and industrious people, but followed such bad courses as had like to have brought ruin upon their neighbours as well as themselves. Having by their idleness brought themselves to penury, they stole corn from the Indians, and many other wa}^ pro- voked them, although the governor of Plimouth writ them his very sharp disapprobation of their proceedings. To vSatisfie the exasperated salvages, divers of the thieves were stockt and whipt, and one of them at last put to death by this miserable company ; which did no other service than to afford an occasion for a fable to the roguish Hudibras."t It is not, however, quite so clear tlmt the story * Mather's Magnalia, book i. ch. 3. t " Though nice and dark the point appear, (Quoth Ralph) it may hold up and clear. That sinners may supply the place < » Of suffering saints, is a plain case. '^ Ch, Vr. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. J39 alluded to was di fable. " Certain it is," writes Mr. Hubbard, in his History of New England, Justice gives sentence many times . On one man for another's crimes. Our brethren of New England use Choice malefactors to excuse, And hang the guiltless in their stead, Of whom the churches have less need : As lately happened. In a town ' : There lived a cobbler, and but one, That out of doctrine could cut use. And mend men's lives as well as shoes : This precious brother having slain, In time of peace, an Indian, (Not out of malice, but mere zeal. Because he was an Infidel,) The mighty Tottipottimoy Sent to our elders an envoy, Complaining sorely of the breach Of league, held forth by brother Patch, ( Against the articles in force '. ; Between botli churches, his and ours ; For which he craved the Saints to render Into his hands, or hang the offender. But they maturely having weighed. They had no more but him o' the trade, (A man that served them in a double Capacity, to teach and cobble,) Resolved to spare him, : yet, to do The Indian Hoghan-Moghan too Impartial justice — in his stead did Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid." Hudibras. Part II. canto 2. J'* ::,:f1 ii '■■)*, 140 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VI. '* that the Indians were so provoked with iheir filch- ing and stealing, that they threatened them, as the Philistines did Sampson's father-in-law after the loss of their corn ; insomuch that Weston's com- pany, as some report, pretended in way of satis- faction to punish him that did the theft; but in his stead hanged a poor decrepit old man, that was unserviceable to the company, and burthensome to keen alive, which was the ground of the story with which the merry gentleman that wrote the poem called Hudibras did, in his poetical fancy, make so much sport. Yet the inhabitants of Plimouth tell the story much otherwise, as if the person hanged was really guilty of stealing, as may be were many of the rest ; and if they were driven by necessity to content the Indians at that time, to do justice, there being some of Mr. Weston's company then living, it is possible it might be executed, not on him who most deserved, but n him that could be best spared, or who was not like to live long if he had been let alone." * I- ■« :f- Hubbard's General History of New England, ch, 13. Cii.VII. THE NOilTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 141 CHAPTER VII. WAR WITH PHILIP THE CELEBRATED CHIEF OF THE POKANOKETS — DESTRUCTION OF THE NARRA- GANSETS — HOSTILITIES WITH THE EASTERN INDIANS. V. '" f'.U ' New England, after the termination of her hostilities with the Pequots and Narragansets, remained for many years at peace ; but at length *' those coals of discention which had a long time layn hid under the ashes of a secret envy, contracted by the hea- then against the English and Christian natives of that counlrey, brake out in June 1675."* It was then that tuc stiuguinary contest, commonly known by the name of King Philip's War, began. This renowned chieftain, whose Indian name was Me- tacom, generally had his head-quarters at a spot called Mount Hope, now within the state of Rhode Island. Philip was a son of the celebrated Mas- sasoit, and succeeded to the command after the death of liis elder brother Wamsutta, from whom he inherited a secret and deep-rooted enmity against the English colonists. f This heathen sovereign * News from New England, being a true and last Account of the present bloody Wars with the Infidels. London, 1676. t When Massasoit's two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom, 142 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VTI. 'i', seldom paid much attention to the treaties entered into with his Christian neighbours : he smoked the pipe of peace when he thought fit, and raised the hatchet when it suited his convenience. Philip of Mount Hope, like his royal brother of Macedon, appears to have been a politic but troublesome prince ; and perhaps he has found in the Reverend la . Hubbard as stern a composer of Philippics, as did the Macedonian monarch in the celebrated orator of Athens : " The devil, who was a mur- derer from the beginning, had so filled the heart of this salvage miscreant with envy and malice against the English, that he was ready to break out into open war against the inhabitants of Plimouth, pre- tending some petite injuries done to him in planting land," &c. And again : " Yet did this treacherous and perfidious caitiff still harbour the same, or more mischievous thoughts against them than ever before ; and hath been, since that time, plotting with all the Indians round about, to make a general insurrection against the English."* Dr. D wight, in his Travels through New En- gland, has presented us with a more favourable view of the character of this Indian sovereign. He states that Philip was sagacious and politic, pos- were at Plymouth, the o-overnor gave them the names of Alexander and Philip. — Hutchinson s Hist, of Massachussef s Bay, p. 276. * Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 11 and 13. Cii. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 143 sessing in an eminent degree that address in nego- tiation which enabled him to persuade tiiose who were hostile towards each other heartily to unite in a common cause ; that he saw the colonists in- creasing daily in power, and that their establishing themselves upon his native shores would eventually prove fatal to the independence of his countrymen. Under this conviction, he began to adopt such measures as he thought might prevent the evils which he dreaded. " With the peculiar secresy," says Dwight, " which characterizes this people, he dispatched his runners, first to the neighbouring tribes, and then to those which were more distant. To all he represented, in strong terms, the numbers, the power, the increase, and the unfriendly designs of the colonists, and the danger with which they threatened all the original inhabitants. In various instances, he pleaded the cause in person, and, by himself and his emissaries, made a deeper and more general impression than could easily have been believed, or than some discreet inhabitants of this country can even now be persuaded to admit."* Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massa- chussets, observes : " Philip was a man of high spirits, and could not bear to see the English of New Plymouth extending their settlements over the dominions of his ancestors ; and although his mm I "*-:■»•:' ■mi ^ . r ?r' Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. ii., lett. 50. '5 144 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VII. father had, at one time or other, conveyed to thetn all they were possessed of, yet he had sense enough to distinguish a free voluntary covenant from one made under a sort of duress, and he could never rest until he brought on the war which ended in his destruction." * Previous to the commencement of this war, it appears that Philip had been long preparing his extensive plans for asserting the independence, and restoring the power, of his countrymen. The more immediate occasion, however, of the rupture be- tween him and the English, ii, pointed out in a work, already referred to, which was written by a person who resided in that colony during the troubles in question. *' About five or six years since, there was brought up, amongst others, at the college at Cam- bridge (Massachussets), an Indian named Sosoman, who, after some time he had spent in preaching the Gospel to Uncas, a Sagamore Christian in his terri- tories, was, by the authority of New Plimouth, sent to preach in like manner to King Philip and his Indians. But King Philip (heathen-like), instead of receiving the Gospel, would immediately have killed this Sosoman ; but, by the persuasion of some about him, did not do it, but sent him by the hands of three men to prison, who, as he was going to prison, exhorted and taught them in the Christian religion. Hutchinson's Hist, of Massachussets, ch. 2. Cii. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 145 They, not liking his discourse, immediately mur- thered him after a most barharous manner. They returning to King Philip, acquainted him with what they had done. About two or three months after, this murther being discovered to the authority of New Plimouth, Josiah Winslow being then governor of that colony, care was taken to find out the mur- therers, who upon search were found and appre- hended, and, after a fair trial, were all hanged. This so exasperated King Philip, that from that day after, he studied to be revenged on the English, judging that the English authority had nothing to do to hang an Indian for killing another." * Hubbard also states, in his Narrative, that Soso- man was well acquainted with the English language, hau been confidentially employed by Philip, and had betrayed his master's secret plans to the enemy. He then went back to the English, by whom he was baptized, and employed to preach to the In- dians. But it appears that he again " had occasion to be much in the company of Philip's Indians, and of Philip himself, by which means he discovered, by several circumstances, that the Indians were plotting anew against us ; the which, out of faithful- ness to the English, the said Sausamon informed the governor of: adding also, that if it were known that * Present State of New England, p. 3. 1675. I ' . , llM ^ ;i ' ;t!i ' • 1 'if U 14G HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. VII. M (MR I)' •■■J he revealed it, lie knew they would presently kill him."* Philip was probably not fully prepared for the war he was going to undertake, nor had he yet attached to his cause all those separate tribes whom he expected to support him. His influence among the Indians, however, must have been very great ; and the simultaneous attacks made by various bands upon the distant and dispersed New England set- tlements, evidently shew — although the circum- stance is disputed by several of the American authors — that his plan of operations must have been ably directed. The Narragansets, however, not- withstanding all his persuasions, refused to join him ; and this determination only tended to hasten the ruin of that powerful nation, as shall be pre- sently noticed. The war against Philip and his numerous allies raged throughout New England with great fury, but with various success. The settlements were every where laid waste ; the cattle destroyed ; the farm-houses, villages, and towns reduced to ashes ; many of the inhabitants, English and Indian, put to death without mercy, and the whole country involved in one general desolation. In the spring of 1676, however, the fortunes of Philip began to assume an Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 14 and 15. Cn. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 147 unfavourable aspect, and the superior force and means possessed by his enemy induced many of the Indians to desert from him. In the course of that year he was driven from place to place, unable to make any regular stand against the colonists. *' The next news we heard of Philip," says Hubbard, *' was that he had gotten back to Mount Hope, now like to become Mount Misery to him and his vagabond crew :" and, soon after, " Philip, like a salvage wild beast, having been hunted by the English through the woods above one hundred miles backward and forward, at last was driven to his den upon Mount Hope, with a few of his best friends, into a swamp, which proved but a prison to keep him fast till the messenger of death came to execute vengeance upon him, which was thus ac- complished."* The account then states that, having been driven into the swamp, Philip was attacked by the English forces and their Indian allies, and when endeavouring to escape, he was shot by a renegado of his own nation, " the bullet passing directly through his heart, where Joab thrust his darts into rebellious Absalom :" t or, as Dr. Ma- ther describes it, " through his venomous and mur- derous heart ; and in that very place where he first contrived and commenced his mischief, was this Agag now cut into quarters, which were then hanged * Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 96 and 103. f Ibid. p. 105. ■ 1 r ; 'I I),-;* '^:i >> ■■■•» Vt» ■■■')■ ^il'^ii'' 148 HISTOUICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VII. up, while his head was carried in triumph to Ply- mouth, where it arrived on the very day that the church there was keeping a solemn thanksgiving to God. — God sent 'em in the head of a leviathen for a thanksgiving feast."* During this war, hostilities also broke out between the English and the Narragansets, their ancient allies. These had refused to join Philip in his opposition to the colonists. Had they supported him, "* it would, according to the eye of reason," says Hubbard, " have been very difficult, if pos- sible, for the English to have saved any of their inland plantations from being utterly destroyed." But, although the Narragansets were afraid openly to join him, they appear to have wished well to his cause; so little had a near inspection of the co- lonists, and an acquaintance with them of half a century, operated in raising any solid attach- ment from the natives. And it shodld not be forgotten that the Narragansets had, upon nu- merous occasions, performed the most friendly services towards the settlers. It was not however to be expected that they would soon forget the treatment which their chief sachem, Miantonimo, had received from the hands of the English. Their destruction, however, was now fast approaching ; aiid the New England commission appears to have * Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. » Cu. VII. THL NORTFI AMERICAN INDIANS. 149 determined, during the early part of Pliilip's war, to t.iect, if possible, tlie total extermination of the Narragansets. For this purpose, a strong armament of English and Indians was fitted out under the command of Governor Winslow ; and, in order to take the enemy by surprise, he commenced his march in the depth of winter, employing, as usual, a renegado Indian spy as a guide. The first gallant feat re- corded on the side of the English in this campaign was, that " five files of men, sent out under Sergeant Bennet, killed an Indian and his wife," — a debt, however, which the Indians soon repaid with interest. The whole English force was to have assembled at a general place of rendezvous called Bull's Garrison, but the enemy proved too quick for their opponents ; for, " next day, Captain Prentice, with his troop, returned with the sad news of burning Jerry Bull's garrison-house, and killing ten Englishmen and five women and chil- dren !" *' This," quaintly adds the narrator, " is the chance of war, which they who undertake^ must prepare to undergo :" * and Dr. Mather — not to be outdone at a joke — notices to his reader the "sur- prisal of a remote garrison, belonging to one Bully where fourteen persons were baited to death by these terrible dogs — the Narragansets."')' * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 50. t Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. '•■1 -: i ^' i; If"' u\ ml f.'A\ _,Sts ' I . W ill ! i , m "Hi I'' • >■'' I 150 HISTORICAL NOTES UESPECTING Cu. VII. The Indians occupied a stron<» position in the middle of a swamp of very difficult access, but the New England troops attacked their fort with great bravery, and carried it after a very severe action : eight English officers fell in the attack. ** No less than seven hundred fighting Indians," says IVlather, " were destroyed in this desperate action, besides three hundred which afterwards died of their wounds, and old men, women, children, sans num- ber."* The Narragansets, however, continued for some time to carry on their hostile proceedings; nor was it until the death of their chief, Canonchet, that the final blow appears to have been struck at the independence, or rather the existence, of that once powerful tribe, which, on the first arrival of the English settlers in that country, was stated to have been able to bring five thousand warriors into the field.f Canonchet had zealously exerted himself to revenge the death of his father Miantonimo, and to expel the English, through whose means that chief had been sacrificed. Having been taken prisoner by the English, his life was offered to him m * Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. t The Narragansets, in the day of their prosperity, were probably the most powerful of all the Indians in that quarter. They chiefly inhabited the country which now constitutes the state of Rhode Island. But, like the remnants of the Pe- quots at Stonington, there are only now to be seen a few miserable lemains of the Narraganset nation. Cii.VII. THE XOltTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 151 on condition of entire submission, and of his pre- vailing upon the Indians who adhered to him to follow his example. Canonchet disdained to accept his life upon these terms ; and, " continuing in the same his obstinate resolution, was carried to Sto- nington, where he was shot to death by some of his own quality, viz., the young sachem of the Mohe- gins, and two of the Pequods of like quality."* It was to these Mohegan allies of the English that the latter had also presented another brave Narraganset prisoner, in order to be put to death in the Indian manner. Having already stated how the French in Canada participated in, and encou- raged these horrible executions, it should be noticed that the English were sometimes in this respect equally unjustifiable. " Among the rest of the Narraganset prisoners then taken," says Hubbard, "' was a young sprightly fellow, seized by the Mo- hegins, who desired of the English commanders that he might be delivered into their hands, that they might put him to death more majorum ; sacri- fice him to their cruel genius of revenge, in which brutish and devilish passion they are most of all delighted. The English, though not delighted in blood, yet, at this time, were not unwilling to gra- tifie their humour, lest by a denyal they might disoblige their Indian friends, of whom they lately * Postscript to Hubbard'.s Narrative. Pi i I.I .it ;[ I i 5'*>'»& -(, 152 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ck. VIL ) , made so much use ; partly also, that they might have an ocular demonstration of the salvage bar- barous cruelty of the heathen. And, indeed, of all the enemies that have been the subject of the pre- cedent discourse, this villain did most deserve to become an object of justice and severity : for, he boldly told them that he had with his gun dis- patched nineteen English, and that he had charged it for the twentieth ; but not meeting with any of ours, and unwilling to lose a fair shot, he had let fly at a Mohegin, and killed him ; with which having made up his number, he told them he was fully satisfied. But, as is usually said. Justice Vindictive hath iron hands, though leaden feet. This cruel monster is fallen into their power that will repay him sevenfold." Hubbard then proceeds with the details of his execution, which, horrible as it was, the captive bore with Indian constancy.* But the New England ministers had no right to revile the Indians for the sanguinary executions which the English themselves had it thus in their power to have prevented ; nor to inveigh against their " cruel genius of revenge," and " brutish devilish passion," while the members of their own church, and almost under their own eyes, did not scruple sometimes to act with similar barbarity. " Sabbath day was se'enight, the women at Marble- * Postscript to Hubbard's Narrative. Ch. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 153 head, as they came out of the meeting-house, fell upon two Indians that were brought in as captives, and in a tumultuous way very barbariously murdered them."* Whatever allowance ought to be made for the resentment or revenge with which the English were often actuated in consequence of the aggression from the Indians, is it to be wondered at if the latter suspected the meekness of their Euro- pean teachers, when they saw such acts committed by Christians at the very moment of their having been employed in the holy offices of their religion? The " Memorial of the present deplorable State of New England," furnishes us with a striking con- trast to such savage proceedings. It states that, in one of the wars with the natives, a European " had valiantly killed an Indian or two before the salvages took him. He was next morning to undergoe an horrible death, whereof the manner and the torture was to be assigned by the widow squa of the dead Indian. The French priests told him they had endeavoured to divert the tygers from their bloody intention, but could not prevail with them ; he must prepare for the terrible execution. His cries to God were hard and heard. When the sentence of the squa was demanded, quite contrary to every ex- pectation and the revengeful indignation so usual ■ . ' f \ * ' ■:i'\?. ■■■■■■<■' ' ■!,'■,■.'■ I, ;- :'■;.:'* • ;..■'■■'' ' ;.;•■. V ^'t;.. ^.!i 'I ! • Letter from the Rev. Increase Mather to Dr. Cotton, May, 1677. 154 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cu. VII. among these creatures, sl\e only said, * His death won't fetch my husband to life : do nothing to him/ So nothing was done to him." * After the death of Philip, the peace which was concluded with the Indians proved to be of very short duration. Hostilities soon broke out again — particu- larly in the eastern parts of the country — which were in a great measure to be ascribed to the unrelenting severity shewn to their Indian enemies by the English, even after the conclusion of the war. A striking instance of this is furnished in the melan- choly story of Major Waldron. A party of about four hundred Indians, who had fought under Phi- lip's standard, voluntarily placed themselves undef Waldron's protection. In this situation they con- tinued, when two other English officers having received orders to seize all Indians who had been engaged in the late war, arrived with their com- panies at his station, in the year 1676. These were going at once to fall upon the unsuspecting Indians, but were dissuaded by Waldron, who thought it safest to resort to the following stratagem : He proposed to the Indians that there should be a sham light between them and the English for amusement; his own men, together with those of the two newly arrived companies, forming one * Memorial of the present deplorable State of New England. Boston, 1707. Ch. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 155 party, and the Indians the other. After thus amusing them for some time, he caused the Indians to fire the first volley, and contrived that they should be immediately surrounded by the English. The former, not suspecting any treachery, were immediately seized and disarmed. Two hundred of them were sent oft' to Boston, where seven or eight of them were hanged, and the rest transported as slaves. This shameful instance of treachery is but slightly noticed, either by Dr. Mather or Mr. Hubbard : who appear, in their remarks, rather to applaud, than to reprobate, thg transaction. " The stun- ningest wound of all," says the former, " given to the Indians was when, by a contrivance of the English, near four hundred of them were surprized at the house of Major Waldron, whereof one half, which were found accessories to the late rebellion, were sold for slaves."* Hubbard's account is similar. " It was mutually agreed betwixt those several commanders to seize upon all those Indians that were met together about Major Waldron's dwelling, at Quechecho. The contrivement suc- ceeded according to expectation, and all the said Indians were handsomely surprized, without the loss of any person's life, either Indian or English, to the number of near four hundred ; by which device, I i m Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. ^'■u sn \\\ 156 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VII. ,^M:' after our forces had them all in their hands, they separated the peaceable from the perfidious that had been our enemies during the late troubles. Finding about two hundred involved in the former rebellion, more or less, accordingly they sen^. down to the governor and council at Boston, who ad- judged seven or eight of them immediately to die ; such as were known to have had their hand in the blood of the English, or that had been shed by their means. The rest that were found only accessories to the late mischiefs, had their lives spared, but were sent into other parts of the world, to try the difference between the friendship of their neighbours here, and their service with other masters elsewhere." * And yet does Dr. D wight assert, that the English have been most improperly and wrongfully accused of cruelty and injustice towards the natives in that quarter. " The last charge," says he, " which I at present remember, and which has been frequently urged against these colonists, and, like several others, has been often reiterated on this side of the water, is their abuse of the aborigines. This charge is derived from ignorance or injustice. The annals of the world cannot furnish a single instance in which a nation, or any other body politic, has treated its allies or its subjects, either with more 1;^. * Hubbard (Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians from Peskataqua to Pemmaquid), page 28. Cii. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 157 justice, or more humanity, than the New England colonists treated these people." * .^^ The act of treachery thus committed against the Indians by Major Waldron, produced among them a deep-rooted indignation and insatiable thirst of revenge. The lamentable effect of it did not shew itself for several years, but it may he riientioned here as furnishing a signal instance or the danger of trifling with Indian feelings, and as a corroboration of Loskiel's remark, that "if the Indians cannot themselves satisfy their resentment, they will call upon their friends and posterity to do it : the longest space of time cannot cool their wrath, nor the most distant place of refuge afford security to their enemy." The lapse of thirteen years did not weaken the spirit of vengeance, nor shake the de- termination of retaliating upon Waldron for the treacherous aggression which a mistaken sense of duty had probably induced him to commit. Some of the unfortunate natives whom he had trepanned, and who had been subsequently sent into slavery, contrived to get back to their own country, and, having been joined by a considerable number of their comrades, they formed a plan for surprising the garrison-house occupied by Waldron, who was at that time living with his Indian neighbours in .1. KV .. h I'HtltH^ ''.l '"...■i t\ ■■*■, i >■■ ' ■ -'iv i. ■;■ 1' S.\Vi' * D wight's Travels through New England, &c., vol. i., lett. 12. ;^- hH i , L!«^' T 1- 1 •■ V-i ,'■' ' ^(i f- ; ,'j '1- ]<■• ■, 'ir, ■'■■ ' t ! 158 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VII. habits of friendship. The plan was arranged with great secrecy. Some hints of his danger were given to Waldron, but he paid no attention to them. In the middle of the night several Indian women, who had been imprudently allowed to remain within the fort, opened the gates, and admitted their country- men. After some resistance, they seized their vic- tim, then eighty years of age, and, seating him in an elbow-chair upon a table, asked him, " Who shall judge the Indian now?" They then stabbed and mangled him with their knives ; each of them, as he struck him, saying, " Thus I cross out my account." Having at length, with much cruelty, put him to death, they likewise killed twehty-three of his people, and carried off' twenty-nine captives. The Indians then set fire to the houses, mills, &c. and escaped without molestation.* While narrating this case of Indian revenge, we should not omit an instance recorded as having occurred, at the same time, of an opposite descrip- tion, and which has been attributed by some of the New England historians to Ii.dian good faith and gratitude. A Mrs. Heard, one of Major Wal- dron's neighbours, was returning home in the night time with her children, when some noise alarming her, she ran to Waldron's house for protection. * Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. i. chap. 5 and 10. Cii. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 159 While waiting at the door for admittance, the Indians were perceived in the inside, having just put Waldron to death. Mrs. Heard was struck with such terror that she was unable to move, but had presence of mind enough to desire her children to run away and take care of themselves. She recovered so far, as to be able to creep among some bushes to conceal herself. At break of day, and while the Indians were still occupied throughout the village in their work of destruction, one of them perceived her, and went up to her with a pistol in his hand. After looking at her earnestly, he went away ; he once more came back, looked at her, and again returned to the house. When the Indians were gone, she ventured from her place of concealment, and went to her house, where, amid the general destruction, she found her children safe, and her property untouched. " At the time when the four hundred Indians were seized in 1676," says Dr. Belknap, " a young Indian escaped, and took refuge in Mrs. Heard's house, where she con- cealed him ; in return for which kindness he pro- mised her that he should never kill her, nor any of her family, in any future war, and that he should use his influence with the other Indians to the same purpose." * 4, It is unnecessary to enter into the details of several Indian wars which took place with the -,>■':' Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. i. chap. 10. I ! 11 8f' SI;- F •'' if." ■! n 160 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VII. English subsequent to that with Philip. These hostihties were chiefly carried on towards the east- ward, and the causes of most of them will probably be found in the imprudence, the wantonness, or injustice of the Europeans. In the History of New Hampshire, v^?^* of a celebrated Indian chief, Squando, who ad nach influence over some of these eastern tribes. HtC wife one day passing along a river in a canoe with her infant child, attracted the notice of some English sailors, who resolved to see whether it was true, as they had heard, that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of brute animals. To try the experiment, they overset the canoe : the child sank, but the mother instantly diving, brought it up alive. It however died soon after, and its death was imputed to the treatment it had received from the seamen. " Squando," says the History, *' was so provoked, that he conceived a bitter antipathy to the English, and employed his great art and influence to excite the Indians against them. Some other injuries were alleged as the ground of the quarrel; and, considering the interested views and irregular lives of many of the eastern settlers, their distance from the seat of government, and the want of due subordination among them, it is not improbable that a great part of the blame of the eastern war belonged to them."* * Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. i. chap. 5. I Cm. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. l6l The hostilities which commenced in the eastern parts of the country in 1676 lasted about three years. They were renewed in 1688, and con- tinued till 1698. In tlie year 1702 they recom- menced; and ought to have terminated at the time of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, when Acadia (or Nova Scotia) was ceded to the English. But although peace then took place between France and England (and it was the hostility of these two nations that brought the North American Indian : in general to share in the contests), the war st'l continued between the English and their Indian neighbours who were under the ir.f.uence or insti- gation of the Canadian government. Hostil'*'es, however, ended in the year 1725, but broke out again in the year 1744, war having again com- menced between England and France, when the Indian allies of each of these powers came as usual to be employed in the conflict. Peace being at length restored in 1763, Canada was ceded to Great Britain, and no longer retained the name of New France. During all these sanguinary contests between the English and the Indians, the utmost barbarity appears to have prevailed on both sides. The latter were actuated by that strong spirit of revenge to which the conduct of the former so often gave rise. The settlers, in many cases, had defrauded them of their lands, circumscribed them in their u 5. '3' ■>,Miii if iG'i HISTORICAL NOTKS RFSPECTING Cir. VII. hunting grounds, neglected to pay them the regular quantity of corn stipulated by treaty; and, by the erection of mills and dams upon the great Indian rivers, had put a total stop to the supply, in the interior, of the (ish which had formerly contributed so materially to their subsistence. These, and many other vexations, together with the spirit of arrogance with which they were generally treated, made them always willing to rise up against their oppressors, who seemed determined upon the ex- tirpation of the Indian race. Can we wonder, therefore, at those cases of retaliation which the early New England authors have painted in terms of such rancour and intolerance? To these, how- ever, we may contrast tiie mild and charitable sentiments of a more modern writer of the same country : " Our historians," says Dr. Belknap, " have generally represented the Indians in a most odious light; especially when recounting the effects of their ferocity. Dogs, caitiffs, miscreants and hell-hounds, are the politest names which have been given them by some writers; who seem to be in a passion at the very mentioning of their cruelties, and at other times speak of them with contempt. "Whatever indulgence may be allowed to those who wrote in times when the mind was vexed with their recent depredations and inhumanities, it ill becomes tis to cherish an inveterate hatred of the unhappy natives." And in another part of the same Ch. VII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. l()3 valuable work : ** However fond we may have been of accusing the Indians of treachery and infidelity, it must be confessed that the example was first set them by the Europeans. Had we always treated them with that justice and humanity which our religion inculcates, and our true interest at all times required, we might have lived in as much har- mony with them, as with any other people in the globe."* * Belknap's Hist, of New Hampshire, vol. i. ch. i and 5. m •J j i ;j ir>4 IIISTOKICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii.VlH. *t ■ * . 1 1 ' 5 CHAPTER VIII. H n' '<'.'•' ti" i^i' ?(.'■■, "' i: « IH*, BANEFUL KFFECTS ARISING FROM THE PRACTICE OF SUPPLYING THE INDIANS WITH SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS. • ' Of the numerous vices imported from the Old World into the New, there is none whicii has proved so great a scourge to the Indians as the in- temperate use of spirituous Hquors. To the French, the Dutch, the Swedes, the British, and, in later times, to the Americans of the United States, have the North American Indians been indebted for the pernicious effects which intoxicating liquors have produced among them : and so far as Great Britain is implicated in the charge, the only excuse which can be reasonably advanced why her legislature seems never, at any early period, to have interfered in endeavouring to prevent the mischief in those trans-Atlantic colonies subject to her control, is, that the mother country was probably never fully aware of the extent and magnitude of the evil, which stood so much in need of legislative re- striction. TlK)t the baneful and destructive system of dis- posing of spirits to the Indians had always pre- i m Cm. VIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. lO.'J vailed in ful! f>. rcc, is not to be controverted ; and the practice not oiily tetided to increase their natural ferocity in time of war, hut to prevent their improvement in time of peace. Those who iiavc witnessed the effects of intoxication only upon Europeans, can scarcely form an adequate notion of the frenzy with which a North Auierican Indian is infuriated when under the influence of liquor. In thai state, every savage passion vhich nature or habit has implanted in him, is let loose, lie will then, with equal indifterence, shed the blood of friend or foe ; will sacrifice his nearest and dearest connexions, murdering without compunction, or the slightest cause of offence, his parents, his brethren, his wife, or his offspring. When the fit of insanity has passed, and the unfortunate wretch has re- covered his reason, he laments in vain the misery which his own fury has entailed upon him ; but while he justly ascribes to the European the blame of having supplied him with what caused such desolation, he will not scruple to seize the first opportunity of again obtaining it, and plunging with headlong infatuation into new scenes of riot and bloodshed. As the Indians, likewise, are but too wont to transmit to U oir posterity their deep-rooted feelings of revenge fo) murdered kinsmen, the extent of the evil may, in some degree, be appreciated. I '. m itil ,' i 1; ,j4,l i ii t Ml 1- •! 1G6 HISTORICAL NOTJ:s RESPECTING Ch. VIII. Indian intemperance has been often pioductive of wars, which have ended only in the total extirpa- tion of numerous tribeB, who took up the hatchet to avenge the blood of their rehitions or country- men M hose lives had been lost in a drunken feast or quarrel. It is true that in many cases these mur- ders are excused on the conveiiieot plea of their having been committed under the influence of in- toxication, or are expiated by the timely interven- tion of fiiendSj, and the atonement of presents — a custom termed by the Indians co'vering the (kad. In the early account given by Monsieur Denys of those Indians upon the river St. Lawrence,, among whom he resided for almost forty years, he observes, *' If any of the Indians happen to be killed in these drunken frays, the person who committed the offence is not only obliged to tntreat forgiveness on the score of intoxication, but he must make some present to the widow of the deceased."* Volncy mentions a celebrated chief, mear Fort Miami, who one day being drunk, met with another Indian against wl'jom lie had retained a hatred for t^vo-and- twenty years. Finding hirn alone, he availed liimself of the opportunity, and murdered ** Doscripdon (it! TAmerique Septonl;riona.!e, &ic. par M. D(in\!'. Gouvenjiour-Litiiiteiidrit poiir ic lloi, vol. ii. ch. 27. V-Axh, 167V2. i^ Cii. VIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. I67 him. The family of the deceased came in arms to revenge the murder. The chief went to the com- mandant of the fort (from whom Vohiey had the story), and thus addressed him : " Father, they want my death; that is just. My heart divulged its secret; the liquor made me a fool. But they wish to kill my son; that is not just. Try, Father, if this matter can be accommodated. I will give them all that I possess; my two horses, my gold and silver ornaments, my fire-arms — except one pair. If they will not receive these, let them fix the time and place: I shall be there alone, and they may take my life."* Dr. Robertson, in his History of America, ob- serves : " The people of North America, when first discovered, were not acquainted with any in- toj^ieating drink, but as the Europeans eariy found it their interest to supply them with spirituous liquors, drunkenness soon became as universal among them as among their countrymen to the south ; and the women having acquired this new taste, indulge in it with as little decency and moderation as the men."t Lafitau states, that the natives of Mexico (as well as of the southern M ( '• par * Volney's View of the United States of America, vol. iii. art. 5. ■ - ' t Rob^iiison's History of America, book iv. ■I uU fe :.i ll^ !^ 168 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VlU- continent of America^ had the art of making in- toxicating liquors from the fruits, grain, and roots which formed a principal part of their food.* But it no where appears that, in the more northern parts, the Indians made any beverage of that description, nor that they were at all acquainted with strong liquors until introduced by the Euro- peans. " The Mexicans," says Heckewelder, '' have their pulque^ and other indigenous bever- ages of an inebriating nature ; but the North American Indians, before their intercourse with us, had absolutely nothing of the kind."')' Of this fact there can be no doubt; and it is curious to observe, that, at more places than one of the then newly-discovered continent of North America, the very firzt article which was presented to the native Indian chiefs by the European strangers was spi- rituous liquors. Heckewelder, certainly no mean authority in Indian matters, relates the following tradition on this subject, as one currently handed down among the Delaware and Mohegan tribes, respecting the first arrival of the Dutch on that continent : — *' The Indians," says the tradition, ** observed a large object on the surface of the water approaching, * Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Americains, vol. iii. ch. a. t Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 36. Cii. VIII. THE NOETU AMEUICAN INDIANS. 169 from the great salt lake, and which they ( jncluded to be a huge cabin, in which their ManitOj or Supreme Being, was coming to visit them. The principal chiefs immediately assembled at the great island upon the river since named the Hudson. Their native sorcerers were employed without delay to ascertain, by means of their conjurations, what would be the result of this unexpected visit ; and whether the great Manito was coming to aid, or to destroy them. All was hurry, confusion, and alarm. The ship at length approached the shore ; and a boat full of men, but of a colour such as the Indians had never seen before, left her and reached the land. Among the strangers one appeared dressed in red clothf^s, glittering all over with gold. Him they supposed to be theii manito, but won- deied why his skin should be white. The chiefs and sachems assembled in council, forming a large circle, and the man in red advanced towards them, accompanied by two others. He saluted the In- dians as a friend, and his salutation was returned. He then ordered a bottle to be brought by one of his attendants, and a cup of some unknown liquor to be poured out and handed to him. After drink- ing its contents, he desired the cup again to be filled, and presented it to the chief who was next to him. The chief smelled at it, and passed the cup to the nearest Indian without tasting it. It 170 }UST0R1C iL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VIII. !■:■ '• ' 't'"- h J- ' '■*.;■ - i ' '' 'j l^. ■ •■■ ■ 4 ' ■ : 1- mi was thus handed round the circle, and upon the point of being returned untasted to the manito, when one of the Indians, a bold warrior, sprang up, and harangued on the impropriety of what they were doing: ' The cup,' said he, ' was pre- sented to them by the manito, in order that they should drink as he had done. To follow his example v.ould, no doubt, be pleasing to him, but to return untasted wha, he had thus given to them, might provoke his wrath, and bring destruction upon them all. Since, therefore, it might be for the good of the nation that the contents of the cup offered to them should be drunk, and as no one else would drink it, he would do so himself, let the consequence l>e what it might ; for it was better that one man should die, than that a whole people should be destroyed.' He then took the cup, and bidding the assembly a solemn farewell, at once drank off its contents. Every eye was now directed to see the effect of this unknown potioa upon the resolute chief. He soon began to stagger, and then fell prostrate on the ground. His companions, thinking he had expired, bem.oaned his fate. He had fallen asleep. He awoke, sprang up, and de- clared that he had enjoyed the most delicious sen- sations; and that he never felt so happy as after he had drunk the contents of the cup. He asked for Riorc, and his request was granted : the whole '•>i - VIII. Ch.VIII. the NORTU AMEIUCAN INDIANS. 171 r %. Iiey his but assembly followed his example, and all became intoxicated."* Not very dissimilar to this was the first meeting which took place l)etwcen the Nev/ England settlers (in 1620) and the celebrated Indian sove- reign Massasoit, when he came to welcome them to his country. " Then instantly came our gover- iiour," says Purchas, " with a drum and trumpet after him, and some few musketiers. After salu- tations, cur governour kissing his hand, the king kissed him, and so they sate downe. Then the governour called for a pot of strong water, and dranke to him, and he (Massasoit) dranke a great draught that made him sweate all the while after.^f It was probably upon this occasion that Massasoit acknowledged king James of England as his sove- reign : and when, in the following year, six Indian sachems also put their marks to a formal instru- ment containing a similar recognition, ii is not unlikely they did so when sweacing under the duress of " strong water." Has any more absurd t h * Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, eh. 2. — It is re- lated by Charlevoix, that an Ottawa Indian, a great drunkard, being asked by the governor of Canada what he thought the brandy which he hked so much was made of, ansv/ered, " Of hearts and tongues; for when I drink, I fear nothing, and I speak admirably." — Journal Historiqucy let. 21. t Purchas his Pilgrirnes, part iv. book .\. ch. 4. :. »,' 172 HISTORICAL NOTES RESrfiCTlNG Ch. MIL -■% pubiic document been recorded than the following acknowledgment of allegiance to the European Defender of the Faith by half a dozen American heathens? ''September 13th, A,D. 1621. Know all men by these presents, that we whose names ar<3 underwritten, do hereby acknowledge ourselves to be the loyal subjects of king James, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith. In witness whereof, and as a testimonial of the same, we have subscribed our names, or maiks, as fblloweth. Oquamahud. Conwacomet. Kattawahunt," kc. &c.* — This the Indians called viaking the paper talk. But the Iro(juois chief Gachradodow, who addressed a speech, irx j 744, to the Virginia commissioners, at a grand council held in Pennsylvania with the Five Nations, shewed somewhat more of the independent spirit of a sober Indian, " Brothers, the world at the first was made on the other side of the Great Water different from vvhat it is on this, as may be known from the different colour of our skins j and that which you call justice among you may not be so amongst us. You have your laws and customs ; so have we. Your great king might send you over to conquer t!v Ind?irs; but it seems to us that God did not approve :>f it . if he had, he would * Hutchinson's Hiotory of Massachussets, ch. 2. Cn. VIIT. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 173 : ,.: ^J or not have placed the sea where it is, as tlie limits between us and you. Although great things are well remembered by us, we do not remember that we were ever conquered by your great king. If it was so, it is beyond our memory."* But to return. The pernicious effects produced by the [)ractice of disposing of spirits to the Indians, may be traced to the earliest periods. The accounts transmitted by the missionaries, and by other writers who had resided in Canada, are full of complaints respecting the consequences of that baneful traffic, — complaints in which the In- dians themselves joined with their European well- wishers. The French missionary Le Jeune, in one of his early Reports from Canada to the su- perior of his order in France, observes, " Our interpreter told me that the Indians, belonging to a tribe of whom one is now in prison for killing a FVenchman, reproach us extremely ; saying it was the liquor, not the Indian^ that committed the murder. * Send your wine and brandy to prison,' they ex- claimed, * it is these, and not we, who do the mis- chief.' "t In the report for the subsequent year, the same missionary remarks : " Since the arrival of the * Colden's History of the Five Nations, vol. ii. p. 85. t Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1633, par le Pere le Jeu» e, p. 156. IirSTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ca. VIII. Europeans the Indians have hecomc such drunk- ards, that although tlicy perceive very clearly that the use of spirituous liquor is depopulating their country, and, although they themselves complain of this, yet they cannot abstain from drinking it. They die in great numbers in consequence ; and in- deed I am surprised that many of them resist its mor- tal effects so long as they do; because if you give to a couple of Indians two or three bottles of brandy, they will sit <^own, and without eating any thing, will drink, the one after the other, till they have emptied tlie contents of the whole." * At another place, he observes : — " There are many orphans among these people, for since they have addicted themselves to the use of spirituous liquors, there is great mortality among them ; and these poor chil- dren are dispersed among the cabins of their rela- tions, by whom they are taken care of as if they were their l vn offspring," t In a later Report of the Jesuits, the missionary who resided among the Mohawks observes : " To the many obstructions which exist among these people to the establishment of the Faith, may be added the intoxication which is caused by the use * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1634, !'«'' '« P^'ie 'c Jeune, cli. 6. f Ibid. ch. ,'i. Cii. Vm. THE NOlini AMKRICyVN INDIANS. 17^ of spirituous liquora sold to tliem by the Europeans. It produces such disorders here, that the village is often in one entire uproar. Tiiey tear our chapels to pieces, burn our. papers, and threaten our lives. These riotous orgies last frequently three or four days together, during which period vvc have to bear a thousand insults without complaint, without rest, and often without food. In their fury the savages destroy every thing, and frequently massacre one another, sparing neither relations, friends, nor strangers."* Le Clercq, the Franciscan missionary, bitterly regrets the effects of intoxication among those Indians with whom he resided : " Violence, mur- ders, parricides, are the fruits of this traffic ; and we see with grief Indians dying in a state of drunkenness; committing suicide; the brother cut- ting the throat of the sister; the husband putting to death his wife; the mother throwing her infant into the flames or into the river; and the fathers strangling their children, whom, when in their senses, they love as they do themselves." f Pere Rasles, the Jesuit missionary, (who resided about thirty years among the Wapenacki Indians on the eastern coast,) observes, on the subject of the Illinois nation : "It is fortunate that they arc * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1667-68, article G. t Nouvelle Ilelaliou de la Ga^pC-aie, &c., cli. i .',. '!! vHii ■■ V ^\ V ^ o^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 J l.,^l» Ml ill; 178 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VIII. Similar to this is tlie description given of the Iroquois by St. Valier, the bishop of Quebec, in liis account of his diocese of New France, in the year 1685. " Their natural haughtiness and fe- rocity, joined to the fury caused by drunkenness, renders them peculiarly averse to the virtues of Christianity. In the time of their intoxication, their cabins form a striking representation of hell. They tear one another to pieces with their teeth : they attack in their fury, and without distinction, all who come within their reach ; destroying friends, parents, wives, and children."* •! j ', . r rii , : Other writers also — unconnected with the re- ligious missions in New France — fully corroborate these early accounts of the baneful effects arising from spirituous liquors. The Baron de la Hontan re- marks, that " The excessive use of ardent spirits has made a dreadful havoc among the natives in New France, the number of those who are addicted to it far exceeding those who have the courage to abstain from it. This beverage, murderous in itself, is rendered worse by being adulterated before it is brought into this country ; and its destructive effects are so rapid that no one who has not wit- nessed them would believe it/'f Boucher, who • Etat present de I'Eglise, et de la Colonie de la Nou- velle France, par M. I'Ev^que de Quebec, p. 205. Paris, 1688. t La Hontan, vol ii p. 159. Cm. VIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 179 long held the situation of governor of Three Rivers, in Canada, makes similar remarks in his early His- tory of New France. " Those Indians," says he, " who have communication with the Europeans, almost always become drunkards; which causes much mischief amongst us, many of those who had been converted having again relapsed. The Jesuit fathers have done all in their power to check the evil. The savages drink for the sole purpose of becoming intoxicated ; and when once they begin, they would part with every thing they possess fcnr a bottle of brandy in order to get drunk."* Monsieur Denys, who was governor of a large district to-' wards the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, and Nova Scotia, thus expresses himself on the same subject:-—" In their drinking entertainments they are never satisfied unless they get completely and brutally intoxicated ; and they think they cannot have had enough without having beat and knocked each other to pieces. The women upon these occasions often take away the guns, hatchets, daggers, and knives. This they are allowed to do if the drink- ing has not begun, otherwise the women would not venture to go into their cabins. When they have thus taken away the weapons, the women sometli.ies go into the woods, where they conceal themselves "■• •' ■- •^■"i ^' - - - ■ ■ -J - -J - ---' ' - - ■ r * Hist, de la Nouvelle France, par Boucher, chap. 10. Paris, 1664. %4 1% »: Is' ' 180 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. VIII. lif :i. I with their cliildi until , not venturing to appear the effects of the debauch are past ; and in the course of which the men generally fight and beat each other with the poles that support their bark tents or lodges."* k. ** Of all the Algonquin nation," says Monsieur de la Potherie, " there remain only a few villages near Quebec, the inhabitants of which for the most part die from excess in drinking. Beaver skins were then extremely dear; but the savages would always part with them to the French for brandy." t And in a subsequent letter, he asks, '* Why should this practice be allowed, which every where causes such disorder and outrage, producing ruin and perdition to those whom such pains have been taken to educate in the true religion? To such a degree does drunken- ness brutalise them, that they do not scruple in that state to commit all sorts of crimes. Every thing is excusable among them when a man is drunk. Homicide and parricide are the ordinary consequences ; and they consider themselves as acquitted of the crime by their being able to say, * When I killed sucli a one, I was intoxicated.'" J • Description de rAmerique Septentrionale, par M. Denys, vol. ii. chap. 27. t La Potherie, Hist, de TAmer. Sept. vol. i. let. 11. X Ibid. vol. iv. let. 9. Cu.VIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 181 Professor Kalm, when in Canada, in the middle of the last century, made a similar observation : " The Indians, when in liquor, sometimes kill the mis- sionaries who live with them, calling them spies, or excusing themselves by saying that brandy had killed them."* Some of the governors-general in New France appear to have been particularly active in prevent- ing, a? much as they could, the disposal of spirits among the Indians ; but one of these, the Baron d'Avougour, finding himself unsupported in his pro- hibitions by those from whom he had a right to look for assistance, the evil was permitted to go on unpunished, until at length it spread to a most alarming degree. The circumstance is thus men- tioned by Charlevoix : — A woman of Quebec was found acting in express disobedience to the gover- nor s proclamation on this subject, and was in consequence sent to prison. Father Lallemant, the Jesuit, was prevailed on by her friends to inter- cede in her behalf; but he met with a cool recep- tion from the governor, who, although he granted the request, appears to have been offended at the application. He sharply answered the priest, that since the disposing of spirits to the Indians was not to be considered deserving of punishment in the case of this woman, it should thenceforward not 'XM 'k-'] i' U ''■4 ■'i:i \ M * Kalm's Travels in North America, vol. ii. p. 290. " i 182 IIISTOIllCAL NOTES llESPECTING Cu. Vlll. be punished in tiie case of others. The governor seems to have kept his word ; and the consequence was, that the disorder rapidly increased ; and, as Charlevoix expresses it, " baffled the bishop, priests, and confessors ; so that neither the me- naces of the Divine wrath, nor the thunders of the church, could stop the torrent which had thus broken down its banks."* When the Count de Frontenac was at the head of the government in Canada, he also was much blamed by the missionaries for the little discourage- ment given by him to the growth of this baneful evil. An order of council was in consequence issued in France (in 1678), directing twenty of the principal inhabitants of New France to assemble, and consider this subject, and after making every inquiry, to report their opinions respecting it. This was accordingly done ; and these opinions being referred to the Archbishop of Paris, and to P^re de la Chaise, the king s confessor, they decided that the introduction of spirituous liquors should be prohibited under the most severe penalties. This was followed up by a royal ordinance, which was transmitted by the Count de Fron- tensjc, with directions that it should be punctually obeyed.f ./;.;.. ■; < l * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. ix. t Ibid. liv. X. Cli. Vin. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 183 ■ Some years afterwards, however, the same excesses appear to have prevailed ; and application was again made to the crown on the sul ject. " It appears absolutely necessary," writes the Abb^ de Brisacier to the king's confessor, " that his majesty should be informed of the brutalities and murders which have been recently committed in the streets of Quebec by the Indians, male and female, when intoxicated^ with spirits. The Intendant, touched with these horrible excesses, but restrained by the orders he had received, — to write nothing to France except in concert with the governor- general, — states, that if they command him to ap- prize the court of the truth, he will do so ; but as the evil presses, and the statements are confirmed by various letters from persons worthy of belief, it will be necessary at once to stop the permission of disposing of spirits, — not only to prevent Heaven from being offended at the continuance of such crimes, but also to retain in our alliance the Indians, who are now quitting us, during the present war. It is only you, my very reverend Father, who are in the situation of speaking upon this subject. The cause of religion and the welfare of the public in New France, are in your hands. Your zeal will not fail to meet its recompense." * » ^ . , . . It does not appear, however, that any very ' * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. xv. .viTH' 4 11 .it,, ^. •, ■s ■'Vr! 4.1 184 HISTOUICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VIII. IS' ciTectual measures were taken on the spot to stop the evil complained of; and we again find Charlevoix lamenting its consequences, " An evident relaxation of morals," says he, " is now observable among our converts, which can only be ascribed to their drunkenness, now almost impos- sible to remedy. The repeated prohibitions ordered by the king have not proved sufficient, and we cannot now depend even upon our own Iroquois Indians at the Sault St. Louis and La Montagne."* . .^ -. .< ., i :.., ii > w. i In a letter written by the same author, (from Detroit, in June 1721,) he mentions that Monsieur de Tonti, the commandant, had then assembled several of the neighbouring chiefs in council at that place, for the purpose of communicating to them some orders he had received from the governor- general ; one of which related to a wish that the Indians would not permit any more brandy to be brought into their country. The chiefs heard M. de Tonti without interruption; and, when he had done speaking, the principal orr.toi' of the Hurons told him they would consult about his pro- posal, and give him their answer. .. ) :.ji i .• :*(... Two days afterwards they assembled in great numbers at the commandant's residence ; and Char- levoix was present at the counqil, together with all *• * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. xix. 1-vi.v Cii. VIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 185 the officers of llie garrison. The Huron chief, in his speech, stated, among other things, tliat on the subject of brandy the French might do as tliey pleased, and supply them or not as they thought fit ; but that they would have done well had they never furnished them with a drop of it. '* It was impos- sible," says Charlevoix, " to imagine any thing stronger than what was spoken by this Huron orator whilst exposing the disorders occasioned by that destructive beverage, and the mischiefs produced by it among all the Indian nations. The most zealous missionary could not have said more ; but he added, that unfortunately they were now :o accustomed to receive it that they could no longer dispense with the indulgence."* " The Indians well kno v," says the same writer, " that drunkenness is their ruin ; but when one attempts to persuade them that they ought, of themselves, to request that no more of that destructive poison should be sold to them, they answer you coolly, — * It is you who have taught us ; we can now no longer do without it ; and should you refuse to supply us, we shall cer- tainly go to the English for it. This liquor, we know, destroys us ; but you are the cause of the mischief, which is now past all remedy.' " " A disorder," continues Charlevoix, "which attacks the morals never goes alone. It is either *•' ',;■ •■ i. Charlevoix, Journal Historique, let. 17. ■ ^;,M^ ' t 18G HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. VIII. the cause or the effect of several others. The In- dians, before they fell into this vice, if we except war, which they have always carried on in a bar- barous manner, had nothing to trouble their happi- ness. Drunkenness has rendered them sordid, and has destroyed all the sweets and comforts of domestic life."* * Charlevoix, Journal Historique, let. 22. 14 '. > IJ *^ ■Ji- t J . ^ t : ■:?i 'i-. , I ' .r ! i;J Cu. IX. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 187 CHAPTER IX. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. I rr t During the wars which were formerly carried on in North America between the English and the French, the native tribes, who respectively attached themselves to the two rival powers, were profusely supplied with spirituous liquors ; and the ui<»tritu- tion of that article proved to be one of the strongts.* ties which attached the Indians to their European allies. After the cession of Canada to Great Britain (confirmed by the peace of 17^3), when there existed no longer any rivalship between the French and English in that country, it might have been expected that the practice of dis- posing of spirituous liquors to the Indians would have ceased ; but this was far from being the case ; and the evil was found to extend itself almost throughout the whole of the Indian country in North America. It may be noticed, however, that this fatal propen- sity does not appear to have originated from motives of selfish enjoyment or gratification to the palate of the Indian. Selfishness, indeed, of any description, is a feeling to which he is almost a total stranger. !.l < t i m H,C^:'- ¥m Sf': f m n* \ 188 HISTOniCAL NOTES KRSPECTINO Cm. IX. The American savage is not a solitary drunkard : his eagerness to become intoxicated generally arises from an uncontrolled wish to enjoy, in common with his comrades, those frantic and riotous orgies with which their drunken feasts are almost invari- ably accompanied. A feast which does not end in complete ebriety is insufficient ; and a present of spirits to a band of Indians, unless the quantity be enough to intoxicate and madden the whole party, is but a paltry gift. Successive days and nights must be consumed in the debauch; the women commonly join in it with avidity ; the youths partake of it ; the children are taught to share in it ; and the acts of intemperance and riot which ensue, often form throughout the tribe a subject of marked record for a long period to come. The season of the year, also, in which the Indians were generally supplied with the means of carrying on their drunken debauches, added materially to the extent of the mischief. It was usually during the rigour of the winter that they were in the habit of obtaining spirituous liquors. At that period of the year they ought to have been occupied in procuring a stock of provisions for their families, and obtaining the furs— most valuable in th<; winter ■' — which constitute the chief articles of their barter for European or American manufactures : but by the prolonged and enervating scenes of intern- Ch. IX. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 189 pcrancc which occurred during the winter months, they were rendered unable to hunt ; their pro- visions failed them ; the clothing which they had procured for themselves and families was often wantonly burnt and destroyed ; the women, from the effects of intoxication, in which they rivalled the men, were rendered incapable of protecting their children, or giving sustenance to their infants ; — hunger, cold, and disease, visited them with accumulated terrors; mutilations and murders every where prevailed ; and the accounts of those writers may well be credited, who state that, by the intem- perate use of spirituous liquors, and its attendant evils, whole nations of Indians have been swept from the face of the globe. It is not necessary to enter here into details, or to furnish melancholy examples connected with this subject; but if the reader wish to satisfy himself more fully with respect to the unjustifiable practices of those early periods, he may be referred (among other works) to the Journals of Mr. Adair, published in his History of the North American Indians, and to those of Mr. Long, in his Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter; — both of whom resided many years among the Indians, about the middle of the last century. It cannot be denied, indeed, that Great Britain seems r^ver — at any period, at least, of the more early history of her North American ■^i ''4 ■m, 190 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. IX. colonies — to have strenuously endeavoured to put an adequate stop to this evil. In some cases during the reigns of James I. and Charles I., proclamations had been issued for the purpose of regulating the trade between the English and the Indians, and " for prohibiting interloping and disor- derly trading in New England in America ;"* but these royal mandates seem to have been exclusively calculated for the benefit of the former, and con- tained no injunctions whatever against supplying the natives with spirituous liquors, the most de- structive article which they could have imported. Neither does it appear that any very effectual measures were ever adopted by the provincial governments to effect its prohibition. We find, indeed, some early restrictions in Pennsylvania, but these were ineffectual. In Connecticut, also, a fine was imposed upon the seller of spirits to the natives ; and every Indian who got drunk was like- wise fined five shillings, and sentenced to receive ten lashes.t But these, and similar enactments which were made in other provinces, proved of little or no effect. , ^ ? - . ; ■ . , I In stating, howevei, that the government of * See Rymer's Foedera, vol. xvii. p. 416, and vol. xix. p. 210. f Douglass's Summary of the Settlements in North America, part ii. sec. 11. Cii.IX. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 191 Great Britain seems not to have paid an early attention to the t;jhject of the disposal of spirits among the Indians within her Nortli American territories, it ought to be noticed, that instructions upon this subject were issued for the guidance of what is termed the Indian Department in Canada. That branch of the public service origi- nated about the year 1 764, when Canada was ceded to Great Britain. Its object, no doubt, was to gain over and secure the good-will of the Indians ; and its operation has been probably continued, in the hope of retaining in the British interest those tribes who principally reside towards the frontiers of the territory belonging to the United States. For this purpose that department, among its other duties, has every year to distribute gratuitously among the Indians a large quantity of clothing, ammunition, cutlery, and other articles of British manufacture ; but spirituous liquors are strictly prohibited from constituting a part of these dona- tions. • • ' ' • ' One of the powerful causes of the baneful traffic of spirits among the North American Indians, was the commercial rivalship of the European fur- traders. These unfortunately considered the prac- tice as very beneficial to them; and, while any individual trader, or class of traders, followed the pernicious custom, it could not be reasonably expected, perhaps, that others would be disposed to 1 IK*'^ t :' •5' ■'' W-^l. m. '■ . .J' ■»■■■.■■ -^." l•^;4i 'U 192 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. IX. Mi i.:i i- I- It" •??.. relinquish it. Thus the evil continued its rapid progress, and the Indian becanDe its victim. In the year 1821, in consequence of a junction which had been effected between the two principal rival com- panies by whom the fur-trade in British North America was chiefly carried on, an Act of Parlia- ment was passed (1st and 2d Geo. IV. ch. 66), which, among other proposed ameliorations, pointed to that of preventing the distribution of spirituous liquors among the Indians ; and the result of the measure, it is sincerely to be hoped, will ere long become perceptible, in the total abolition of that practice throughout the greater part of the extensive Indian countries belonging to Great Britain. It is true that in some parts of the interior, where the Indian tribes are more powerful and independent, and where, from the abundance of game and provisions, they stand in less need of assistance from the Europeans, the prohibition of spirits would require to be somewhat more cautious and gradual. But, even among these, the period of a few years ought to be sufficient for the termination of a system which has proved so destructive to the welfare of the Indians in British North America. To this, however, the^e may be urged one objection, as applicable to those parts of the British possessions more immediately adjoining the territory belonging to the United States. The same reasons which had naturally prevented one lif' Ch.IX. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 193 class of British subjects from voluntarily relinquish- ing this branch of trade while another class con- tinued it, would operate in preventing Great Britain from entirely suppressing it in the countries adjoin- ing those where the same system is followed by the Americans. This observation applies to those extensive regions which form the frontier countries of the two nations. Along the greater part of that line, the trader who has the largest stock of spiri- tuous liquors will always secure to himself the best share of Indian traffic. If the one government should prevent their own traders from vending spirits to the Indians, and the other should per- mit theirs to do so, the former will soon find that their commercial rivals will speedily engross the whole trade of the country. — This would be one of the inevitable consequences of those ill-fated lessons taught by the Europeans to their Indian brethren. With respect to the Americans of the United States, it may be observed, that an Act of Congress was passed in the year 1 802, enacting, among other things, " that the President be authorised to take such measures, from time to time, as to him may appear ex- pedient, to prevent, or restrain, the vending, or distri- buting of spirituous liquors among any of the said Indian tribes," &c. But it could not well be expected that this law, where no express punishment was fixed, nor any specific penalty appointed - — particularly in o '}i^i\ n >n'> /■■^iil ■' I ' 'I i'l Vi.H ■^)i .) 11 ■: ' I1 .-^Cj^, 194 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IX • • • » ' • I such a government as that of the United States — would produce the result that was looked for. The experiment totally failed. The licenses, in- deed, (granted by the government of the United States to individuals, permitting them an exclusive trade with the Indians,) forbid, under certain penal- ties, the sale or disposal of spirits; but the pro- visions contained in these are either secretly evaded or openly disobeyed — a fact fully admitted by the Americans themselves. Captains Lewis and Clarke, in their Travels to the Source of the Missouri, observe, that the Indian superintendent at St. Louis, could not, from the extent of the countryj and distance of the traders, discover whether the stipulations in the American licenses were adhered to. " They may, therefore, vend ardent spirits," say these travellers, " compromise the government, or the character of the whites in the estimation of the Indians, or practise any other crimes in relation to these people, without the least fear of detection or punishment."* Major Pike, in his Exploratory Travels through the Western Ter- ritories of the United States, also notices various in- stances where the traders violated the injunctions contained in the licenses with respect to the dis- posal of spirits to the Indians. Mr. James, like- • Lewis and Clarke's Travels to the Source of the Mis- souri, &c. (Appendix to the American edition.) Cu. IX. THE NORTrt AMERICAN INDIANS. 195 wise, in his late Expedition to the Rocliy Mountains, when remarking upon some of the Indian tribes resident on the banks of the Missouri, makes the following observation : — " Whiskey is furnished to them freely by the traders, and the existing law of the United States prohibiting the sale of it to the natives, is readily evaded by presenting it to them with a view of securing their custom, not in direct, though implied exchange for their peltries. Nor is this greatest of evils in the power of the agent to remedy ; and until traders are efiectually inter- dicted by law from taking any whiskey into the country, even for their own consumption, it must, in defiance of his authority, continue to exist."* Mr. Schoolcraft, in his Narrative Journal of Travels &c., (through the north-western regions of the United States, in which he accompanied Governor Cass's expedition in 1820,) observes, with respect to some of the Chippewa tribes resi- dent within the Union, " Nothing appeared to give them so much satisfaction as the whiskey they re- ceived ; and when it was drunk, they presented a request for more. We have since observed, that the passion for drinking spirits is as common to the tribes of this region, as it is to the remnants of the Iroquois inhabiting the western parts of New '>. U 'Hi ' « ^!'!'|-l 1:1 •■ ' ■•■' * James's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, &c. vol, i. Ch. 12. \'-'r'\ ,-AH'f iFi 196 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. IX. York. To procure it they will part with any thing at their disposal ; and if they have no furs or dried venison to exchange, they will sell their silver orna- ments, their guns, and even parts of their dress. They generally become intoxicated whenever oppor- tunity is presented ; and a trader, or traveller, can present nothing which is of half so much value in their estimation. We hav*. generally found it the Jirst and last thing inquired for."* * ' In Dr. Morse's recent Report on the subject of Indian affairs, he remarks, that the Act of Congress above alluded to, and the injunctions contained in the American licenses, have not. had the effect of putting a stop to the sale of spirituous liquors among the Indians. As whiskey is extremely cheap in the United States, there is, therefore, no scarcity of that destructive article for the purpose of barter in the interior; nor have the Indian agents any hesitation in avowing the fact. One of these officers, who communicated much useful informa- tion to Dr. Morse in compiling his Report, enu- merates the various evils which, in his opinion, were caused by the present mode of carrying on the American fur-trade ; and among these, he notices " the impossibility, on the nresent system, of pre- venting the introduction of spirituous liquors into * Schoolcraft'8 Narrative, &c. p. 100. Albany, New York, 1821. Cu. IX. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 197 the Indian country. The traders obtain their licenses at Macicinaw (Michillimakinac), and make their entries, and get their clearance. Their whiskey, of the highest proof, so as to take up little room, is privately conveyed to some spot on the shore of the island, where they are to pass under cover by night ; it is then taken on board their boats, and carried into the country."* Tho same agent, in noticing the effects of spirituous liquors upon the Indians, states, that " no quarrels, disturbances, or murders, have been known among the Menomenies during the four years of my resi- dence among them, except such as have had their origin in whiskey '''\ These remarks, it should be observed, are made by American writers who were employed at the time in the service of the United States, and by them officially communicated to the proper depart- ment of their own government. In the recent Memoirs of Mr. Hunter's Cap- tivity among the Indians, the author has furnished various and striking instances of the dreadful result of Indian intoxication. The first time he ever saw the effects of it he thus describes : " Here I first saw drunken Indians, and witnessed with indescrib- able astonishment its unsocial effects on the .':' i. ■ 1 I * Morse's Indian Report, p. 40. Newhaven, 1822. t Ibid. p. 42. 11 J* * ^ .1 CHAPTER X. CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH IN THEIR ENDEAVOURS TO CONVERT THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS TO CHRISTIANITY. It is recorded of Francis I., that wishing to rival Charles V. in the New World, as he had already rivalled him in the Old, he ohserved, " My brothers the kings of Spain and Portugal have divided America between them, but I should like to know what clause in the last will of Adam bequeaths it to them, and disinherits me." To support, therefore, his claim to a share in the heritage, and disregard- ing the papal bull of the Pontiff Alexander VI., who had granted in full right the whole continent of America, together with all its islands, to Fer- dinand and Isabella, Francis sent Giovanni Vera- zano, a Florentine captain, with four ships, across the Atlantic to make discoveries ; and, in his name, to take formal possession of as much of the Western hemisphere as his two brothers had not yet laid hold of. Verazano accordingly set out on his destination in the year 1524, making three suc- cessive voyages, and planting the arms of the king of France on various parts of the American coast. Ch. X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 207 from tlie mouth of the Mississippi to that of the St. Lawrence. It does not appear, however, that his labours, in any other respect, met with success. In his third voyage, Verazano, as stated by some Spanish writers, was seized at the Canaries by a band of Biscayans, and hanged as a pirate ; while some French authors, with still less probability, say that he and all his crew were caught and eaten by the American ravages. At all events, from the time of his third expedition, neither Verazano nor any of the companions of his voyage were ever heard of. About ten years after this period, the same monarch sent out Jacques Cartier, a captain from St. Malo, with three ships, on a similar errand. Cartier, after coasting along the shores of New- foundland, crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Baye des Chuleurs, and landed upon the American continent, where he took nominal possession of the country in that quarter for his royal master. In his second voyage, he pushed his discoveries up the St. Lawrence as far as the island where Montreal now stands, taking similar possession of the newly discovered countries on the shores of that river, then called the Grand River of Canada. In the year 1541, Monsieur de Roberval was appointed by the king to be his viceroy over a great extent of North America, and Francis gave him 4.5,000 livres to pay the expenses of his outfit. Cartier was com- < ! 'm''-''' ■■■ ''>:i h•'<: 41 r ' "1 It «1 212 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. X. of the Jesuits were sent to the small settlement commenced not long before by Monsieur de Pour- trincourt in Acadia. In the year 1615, Champlain took out with him, in one of his numerous voyage to Canada, four priests of the RecoUet order. In 1626, several fathers of the Jesuits were sent out to Quebec, who formed the first of those missions which, whatever may have been their success, were long and laboriously occupied in their endeavours to convert the heathen. It has been already noticed that the first mission of the Jesuits into the interior country was in the year 1634 ; and, with regard to the result of their early exertions, we cannot refer to a better authority than Charlevoix. " The Indians have been seen to attend our churches," says he, " for years together with an assiduity and solemnity which made it be supposed they entertained a sin- cere desire to learn and embrace the truths of Christianity : but they would suddenly refrain from coming to church, saying coolly to the missionary, * You had no one to pray with you ; I took com- passion upon you in your solitude, and kept you company. Others at present are willing to render you the same service, I therefore take my leave.* " This fact, Charlevoix says, he learned from a mis- sionary to whom the circumstance happened at Michillimakinac ; and that he also had read, in some of their accounts, that several of the Indians ■■'in . 'i: Cm.X. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 213 had even carried their complaisance so far as to request and receive the rites of baptism, performing for some time the Christian duties ; after which they declared they had done all this only to please the priest, who was pressing them to change their religion.* Hennepin observes, in his early account of the Iroquois, "The Indians have an extreme indif- ference for every thing : but they reckon it highly iiii proper in their councils to contradict any thing that is said ; and they will not dissent from you even if you make the most absurd assertions. They always answer, * Brother, you are right — it is well.* Yet in private they only believe what they please ; and shew the greatest indifference even for the great truths of the Christian religion. It is this which forms the principal obstacle to their con- version."'!' These observations, coming from two mission- aries so celebrated as Charlevoix and Hennepin — priests of different orders, which, according to La Hontan, were not very apt to agree — are well worthy the serious attention of those who listen in confidence to the pleasing tales of sudden con- version among untutored savages ; or who imagine that any adequate notions of revealed religion can * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. v. t Voyages de Hennepin, ch. 15. V'ii'L .J. . U 1 I! I ,.; »^ ill H 'i M H i:i^i. « 214 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cm. X. be justly expected to take root among them, unless inculcated by a slow, gradual, and cautious pro- gress. • - .... K Sir Alexander M'Kenzie, in noticing the early French missionaries in the interior, observes : "It is seriously to be lamented that their pious endea- vours did not meet the success which they deserved ; for there is hardly a trace to be found, beyond the cultivated parts, of their meritorious functions. The cause of this failure must be attributed to a want of due consideration in the mode employed by the missionaries to propagate the religion of which they were the zealous ministers. They ha- bituated themselves to the savage life, and natural- ized themselves to the savage manners ; and by thus becoming dependent, as it were, on the natives, they acquired their contempt rather than their veneration."* i ih. -;. t "' This account is corroborated by what the Jesuit missionaries themselves frequently reported from the interior. P^re Jerome Lallemant, in writing from the country of the Hurons, in 1 640, mentions how severely they felt the drudgery of travelling on foot during the rigours of winter, laden with their baggage, and the furniture for iheir chapels, and often losing their way in the snow : " But the * M'Kenzie's Voyages, &c. Preliminary Account of the Fur Trade. ..... , , ?>•■ • Cii. X. THE NOllTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 215 <;veatest misfortune," says lie, " is, that amidst these hardships, no accommodation or retreat is to be found, and we are obliged to search for the hut of some savage who may be prevailed upon to receive us ; and where the first salutation we meet with is a bitter reproach for the mortality which has this year taken place among them, and of which they consider us as the cause. For bed we have nothing but a piece of miserable bark of a tree laid upon the ground ; for nourishment, a handful or two of corn, roasted or soaked in water, which seldom satisfies our hunger ; and after all not venturing to perform even the ceremonies of our holy religion, without being considered as sorcerers." And in another part of the same report, he observes : "In short, many of them hold us in utter horror, driving us from their cabins, not suffering us to approach their sick, nor even to look upon their children — in a word, fearing us as the greatest sorcerers upon earth."* P^re Marest, upwards of half a century afterwards, does not appear to have met with a better reception. When writing from his mission in the Indian country, he remarks — ** Our life is spent in traversing immense forests, climbing over high mountains, navigating dangerous lakes and rivers, in pursuit of some poor savage who flies •* Relation de ce qui s'est passe dans le Pays des Hurons, 1640, ch. 3. i. ' ^« ', # t'.' I- / ■,;. H! Si 'iii i ■ '-.^ 21G HISTOIUCAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. X. from us, and whom we cannot civilize either by our discourses or entreaty."* And yet many have believed that the Indians actually felt the greatest gratitude for the exertions made by the missionaries to enlighten them. As a proof it has been stated, that the distant Indians, and even the Iroquois, who were in such constant hostility to the Frencli, had applied, upon the occa- sion of a truce, to the governor-general of Canada, to send missionaries into their country : which was accordingly done. But this appears to have been merely a stroke of policy on the part of that people, who wished to have some of the French among them, whom, if necessary, they might detain as hostages. This is even admitted to have been the case by La Potherie himself, who mentions in his History, that " the Iroquois having come for the purpose of asking a peace with us and our Algon- quin allies, they also requested that some of the priests might be sent to their country ; and the Jesuits were happy to embrace so favourable an opportunity of introducing the Gospel among that people. But the Iroquois rather looked upon these missionaries as hostages, than as persons who could be useful to them ; and this being a sort of hold over us, they in the meanwhile considered * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 321. I -if ,. -^ Cti.X. THK NOIlXa AMEHICAN INDIANS. 217 the means of more easily destroying the Algon- "# quins Upon the renewal of hostilities, liowever, the Iroquois were generally too prudent to allow the return of the missionaries to their countrymen ; and hence it was that P^re Milet was detained (a captive as the French said) for five years, in addi- tion to the long period he had voluntarily resided among them. But while the Iroquois thus thought they were outwitting the French in detaining ihe missionaries as hostages^ the French returned the compliment by employing these missionaries as spies during such detention. In the case of Milet, it is admitted by Charlevoix himself, that the go- vernor of New France did so employ him ; and the consequence was, that upon one occasion he was put to the torture ; and had he not been unexpect- edly adopted by an Oneida matron, he would have been burnt alive. P^re Jogues also, when detained among the same people, (by whom he was afterwards put to death,) acknowledged that he found means of informing the governor-general of the military movements of the Iroquois ; and that in order to avoid the risk of the contents of his letters being discovered, they were partly written in Latin, French, and Spanish.f ''\ 'J I., * La Potherie, Hist, de I'Amer. Sept. vol. i. let 11. t See Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1642-43, ch. 12. i II 218 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. X. In noticing the influence of the early French missions of Canada, La Potherie asserts, that " In ppportion as the Holy Spirit expanded itself in the hearts of the Indians, they repaired in crowds to the missionaries, and threw themselves at their feet, in order to be instructed in those truths, of which till now they had been kept in ignorance. Their principal chiefs came and demanded the rites of baptism for themselves and their children. This fervour increased from day to day, and entire villages adopted the pious ordinances so zealously prescrihed by the church."* The accounts, how- ever, of many of the most celebrated missionaries themselves do not warrant this statement; their want of success being admitted both by the Recol- lets and the Jesuits. " There are many obstacles," says Hennepin, the Recollet, " to the conversion of the savages ; but in general the difliculty proceeds from the indifference they have to every thing. When we speak to them of the creation of the world, and of the mysteries of the Christian re- ligion, they say we are right ; and they commonly assent to all that we advance on the subject of sal- vation. They would think themselves guilty of great incivility to shew the least appearance of in- credulity with respect to what is asserted. But, after having approved all our discourses on these La Potherie, vol. i. let. 10. '.. (.-■-( Cii. X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 219 matters, they require likewise that we should pay all possible deference to what is said on their part. And when we answer that what they tell us is false, they reply — * We have acquiesced in all that you stated, and it is from want of knowing what is right, to interrupt a man who speaks, and to tell him that he advances a falsehood. All that you have taught respecting those of your nation is as you say : but it is not the same as to us, who are of another country, and who inhabit the land on this side of the Great Lake.* "* Charlevoix, the organ of the Jesuits, not only admits the want of success of their missions in New France, but also of those in the extensive territory of Louisiana. He observes, in one of his letters from the Missisippi, that an ecclesiastic from Canada had remained for a considerable time with the celebrated Indian nation of the Natchez, but without gaining any proselytes. That missionary having been killed by some Lidians, " since then all Louisiana below the Illinois," says Charlevoix, " has remained without a missionary, except the Tonicas, among whom an ecclesiastic (named Da- vion) has resided for several years, so much beloved by them that they even wished to make him iheir chief — but he has not been able to gain a single convert."! ' ■ ' ' - ' * Hennepin, ii. eh. 30. t Chadevoi;c, Journal Historique, let. 31. IB m II ■I I ii'l i: \H I l^M -}i ■-■■ €i I I f v 220 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. X. These Tonicas were visited by Charlevoix, and — bating always their dislike to conversion — he found them a well-disposed and hospitable nation. In the year 1718, when Monsieur du Pratz travelled up the Missisippi, he also paid a visit to them, and found the missionary Davion then residing among them. " I asked him,' says Du Pratz, " if his great zeal for the salvation of the Indians was attended with success. He answered, with tears in his eyes, that notwithstanding the great respect they shewed him, it was with difBculty he could get leave to baptize a few children at the point of death; that those who were grown up excused themselves from em- bracing our holy religion, saying, they were too old to accustom themselves to rules so difficult to be observed ; that their grand chief, since he put to death the physician who had attended his only son in a distemper of which he died, had taken a reso- lution, in consequence of Davion's reproaches, to fast every Friday during his life ; that this old chief attended at church both morning and evening, the women and children likewise assisting; but as to the men, they did not come often, and when they did, they took more pleasure in ringing the church- bell."* When we consider the harassing and fatiguing duty which was generally imposed upon the yjung iisi^I * Du Pi-sitz, Hist, oi Louisiana, part. i. ch. 8. Cm.X. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 221 Indians by the French in their attempts to make them Christians, we may well doubt the reality of that zeal and fervour ascribed by La Potherie to their catechumens and converts. P^re Rasles, who was long a missionary among the Wapanacki In- dians — or the men from the rising sun — who then inhabited the eastern countries bordering upon New England and the Atlantic, gives the following account, in a letter to his nephew, of their church discipline : — " During the thirty years which I have spent in the forests and among the savages, I have been so occupied in teaching them the Christian virtues, that I have not had leisure to write many letters, even to those who are the most dear to me : but as you have requested it, I cannot refrain from transmitting to you a short account of my occupa- tions among them." After some other preliminary remarks, he then proceeds — " All my converts repair to the church regularly twice every day; first, vefy early in the morning to attend mass ; and again, in the evening to assist in the prayers at sun- set. As it is necessary to fix the imagination of savages, whose attention is easily distracted, I have composed prayers calculated to inspire them with just sentiments of the august sacrifice of our altars; they chant, or at least recite them aloud during the mass. Besides preaching to them on Sundays and Saints* days, I seldom let a working day pass ii)«'\/i» -r-t '\ #,'■* ■• ipj 222 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. X. without making a concise exhortation for the pur- pose of inspiring them with horror at those vices to which they are most addicted, or to confirm them in the practice of some particular virtue." * • . •■ P^re Marest, in writing from the country of the Illinois, says — "The following are the rules we follow in this mission : Very early in the morning we assemble the catechumens in the church, when they say prayers, listen to our instructions, and sing some canticles. When they have retired, we per- form mass, at which all the Christian Indians assist, the men being placed on the one hand, and the women on the other. Prayers are again said, and then another exhortation. After this every one follows his own occupation. We then employ our- selves in visiting the sick, giving them medicines, and consoling them op the subject of their afflic- tions. In the afternoon the catechism is said, when every one attends. Christians as well as catechu- mens, men and women, old and young; and every one, without distinction, answers to the questions put by the missionary. As these people have no books, and are naturally indolent, they would soon forget the principles of our religion, if they were not thus continually recalled to their recollection. In the evening they all again assemble in the church to hear another exhortation, to say prayers, * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 127. ; ■y ^ ■•.'■: /H. X. fthe we Ca. X. THE NORTH AMEKICAN INDIANS. 223 and to sing some more canticles. On Sundays and fast-days, we add to these exercises an exhort- atioir after evening prayers."* In general, however, it was only with the aged and the children that the missionaries succeeded in performing the rites of their religion. The Baron de la Hontan, in writing from the interior, observes, ** Almost all the conquests gained to Christianity by the Jesuits, are those infants who have received the rites of baptism, and those old men who, at the point of death, find no inconvenience in dying baptized.'f This corresponds with what was long before stated by P^re Lallemant, in the account of his early mission among the Hu- rons. " We have this year baptized more than a thousand, most of them afflicted with the small- pox ; of whom a large proportion have died, with every mark of having been received among the elect. Of these there are more than three hundred and sixty infants under seven years of age, without counting upwards of a hundred other little children, who, having been baptized before, were cut off by the same malady, and gathered by the angels as flowers in paradise. With respect to adult persons in good health, there is little apparent success : on * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 337. f La Hontan, let. 14. * ■ -,■ ,• 1 . I ( i 1 • f ■ « : ) - ! -i '4 'V :.! 1 .» Ch.X. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 225 says he, " who give us every satisfaction on these points ; but two of them have this year caused much scandal in this matter, and thereby troubled the peace of our little church. Of these apostates one was named Etienne Pigarowick, who before his baptism was a famous sorcerer in his nation, giving much trouble to those who laboured to convert him ; but after his scruples were removed, he pro- fessed much ardour in the faith, assembling the other converts in the Indian villages, and preaching in our churches with a fervour and eloquence which savoured nothing of the barbarian. His zeal con- tinued while he remained with the Christians at St. Joseph's; but having left them to go up to Three Rivers, where some of his Algonquin country- men and other dissolute and debauched Indians had assembled, he and his companion soon allowed themselves to be corrupted by bad company, so much so that they both quitted their lawful wives, and the exercise of the faith, taking each of them unto him a concubine." The Report then proceeds to state, that Pigaro- wick was severely admonished by Pfere Brebeuf, who succeeded in prevailing upon him to return to his Christian duties : but having again set off with some of his comrades for Sillery, all his good reso- lutions were forgotten. " In short, P^re Bressani, having proceeded some days afterwards on his way to Quebec, met the party, and was informed that Q •M i» ■ ' I .J 11 tl^ 5 V\ n;;l ! ' 'mi '< 't 226 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. X. h^-ii: ■■%i ';rl J1 I- ' t --ciPt Etienne had again associated with his concubine. The wickedness of this man, as well as that of some other bad Christians in the band — infidels and sorcerers, who had behaved insolently at Three Rivers — made the governor determine to give them a bad reception, in order to convince them of their faults, as well as of the horror we felt at their conduct." . r ' ,;. - * '.J * ; i Some time afterwards, famine, and the dread of their Iroquois enemies, compelled them to go down to Quebec, where they hoped to receive that pro- tection and charity they had hitherto experienced fi om the French. On their arrival, however, they found themselves treated with coldness and insult, the inhabitants shutting their doors against them as against persons excommunicated. " In this state," continues the Report, " they presented themselves at our house at Siller}^, but we reprimanded and drove them away. They then repaired to the Mothers of the Hospital, where they were dismissed without receiving assistance. They next applied to the establishment appropriated for the sick; but ad- mittance was refused them. They then begged at the houses of the inhabitants ; no aid was given to them. They attempted to enter the church, but were prevented. They resorted to the keepers of the public stores, who drove them off without relief. They exclaimed they were dying of hunger; no- thing was given them to eat. They presented their "•sj Ch. X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 227 beaver-skins, collars of wampum, and every thing of value they possessed, in order to procure a morsel of bread ; but their offerings were rejected. They began to build huts in the neighbourhood of the French ; the governor prevented their approach, and prohibited all communication with them, until they should have first driven away from them the two apostates, and given satisfaction for what was done at Three Rivers." The account then adds, that even the converted Indians at Sil- lery did not give them a better reception than the French had done ; nor would their own country- men admit them into their cabins. ** A Christian woman, who after a legitimate marriage had been abandoned by one of these apostates, having learned that her husband wished to visit her, retreated to a corner of her cabin, armed herself with a knife, and determined to kill him if he approached her." " This rigorous treatment," adds the Report, " had an excellent effect, and caused the two apostates to be abandoned by all the Indians, who made a public declaration of the wickedness of these two men." The two Indians were now doomed to wander about, shunned by every one. " What," excLimed Pigarowick to P^re Dequen, who had repulsed him, " what — is there no mercy for me? Do you wish me to roam about like a wild and solitary vagabond, abandoned by God and man ? I have ■i 14 ^, ,...) !; .1 ' ■ - \ ■ ■ :ii1 ' i! f 'i '' , f t , 4 . ¥' ' «' ,* • 228 HISTORICAL NOTES IlESPECTING Cii. X. sinned, it is true ; but am I therefore to be thrown into despair ? Do not the French themselves com- mit faults ? You preach to us that God is merciful to those who repent and confess their sins. Here am I ready to confess mine, and to expiate them by any penance you may require — why, therefore, do you refuse to me what you grant to others?'* What the subsequent fate of this Indian polygamist was, it is not very material to notice. He appears to have been handed over like a pauper from parish to parish, running the gauntlet of almost the whole Jesuit mission in Canada. From P^re Bressani he was turned over to P^re Dequen ; from Dequen to P^re Brebeuf: from Brebeuf to P^re Buteux — under whose paternal direction the unlucky Pigaro- wick made ample confession and lamentation, performing penance in the church at Montreal, and publicly scourging himself in the presence of the faithful.* This absurd mode of working out the conversion of an Indian, is scarcely credible ; and yet at least half a dozen of the Jesuit fathers were jointly and severally employed in the process ; and Vimont, the superior at that time of all the Canada missions, officially transmitted the account, as above related, to the head of his order in France. The missionaries must have known, that however much * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1643-44. Cii.X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 229 polygamy is inadmissible in advanced society and civilized life, the adoption of it among the North American tribes did not originate from profligate or debauched habits, — which alone could have sanc- tioned even the slightest of those acts of severity which the French priests, as well as the civil autho- rities, thus resorted to.* « « Marriages among the Indians,** says Heckewelder, ** are not, as with us, contracted for life. It is understood, on both sides, that the parties are not to live together any longer than they shall be pleased with each other." — Account of the Indians, Sfc. chap. 16. Dr. Morse observes, " Polygamy, limited principally to their chiefs, and to the wealthy, is allowed generally among the Indians." — Indian Report, p. 73. Mr. Hunter states, that " The Indians in general have but one wife ; though they, as well as the chiefs and distinguished warriors, may have more, according to their inclination and ability to support their different families." <• They construct lodges at a short distance one from another for the accommodation of their different wives, who fulfill their respective duties separately, occasionally visit each other, and generally Uve on the most friendly terms." On the subject of divorce, he observes : " An Indian, when about to leave his wife, conducts himself very distantly towards her; maintains a sullen silence towards his ovti connexions, but most generally hints his dissatisfaction to those of his wife. During this time, if a separation should be dis- agreeable to his companion, she appears exceedingly solicitous to atone for any misconduct of her own, and uses every possible means to conciliate her husband and regain his affections, which very frequently are attended with the sought-for result ; but should she fail in her endeavours, her ■'. I , I 'V 1 J 1 V 1' > 1 r ■|^ ; IP> 230 HISTORICAL NOTES UESPECTINO Cii. X. That it was the duty of the French missionaries to endeavour, as far as they could, to make the Indians relinquish polygamy, as well as every other error adopted by them, cannot be uoubted ; but for this purpose they could not have chosen more ineffectual instruments than penance and persecu- tion. And although the Indian Pigarowick was so hardly dealt with for recurring to a practice per- mitted by his nation, it does not appear why the French gave a dispensation to their own coun- tryman, the Baron de Castin, to hold, at one and the same time, a plurality of Wapanacki wives, besides the daughter of their principal chief Mado- kawando.* La Hontan, indeed, — if he be serious, — denies this ; observing that De Castin, " in order to make the Indians believe that Heaven was offended with men who were inconstant, never changed his wife."t Perhaps he meant, that with- out literally changing his helpmates, the baron ^i;.;:;' husband, after burying the pledge he received at their marriage, deserts her altogether, and never after is heard to mention her name." — " When a female is disposed to leave her husband, she burns or destroys the pledge she received at her wedding, deserts his lodge, and returns with her family and effects to her parents, or some of her near relations." These separations, however, very rarely occur. — Hunter's Memoirs of his Captivity, chap. 7. • Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. i. chap. 10. t La Hontan, Memoires de I'Amerique, p. 30. I! ■ ■" f,\ Cii. X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 231 only, as fancy prompted liim, added to their nun)bers during tlieir lifetime ; an ancient practice in the Indian country, which appears too often followed in more modern times. We read, in the account given by a missionary of the United States, that when reproving an Indian chief ibr taking a second wife, his first being still alive, " Look," replied the Indian, ** there is A IJ (naming a white trader who resided among them), a great man — he has five wives, why may not I have two ?" * And the Reverend Mr. Sergeant, another missionary of the same country, tells us, " that anoong the Indian Ir >es in the state of Indiana, there are white men who have Ijalf a dozen wives. ' The early suggestion, therefore, of M. de Champ- lain, " to induce the Indians, by holding good examples before their eyes, to alter their customs," appears to have been but little attended to : and it has been well observed by Sir Alexander M'Kenzie, in mentioning the early missions of New France, that, " The Canadian missionaries should have been content to improve the morals of their own countrymen, so that, by meliorating their character and conduct, they would have given a striking \ ■ . 11,1 * Hall's Brief History of the INIissisippi Territory. Ame- rica, 1801. t Morse's Indian Report. Appendix, p. 117. • 7| I 1 i'l * III ' ' ill > I 1 ^!'Ji iij ,iiit: 111 ll {fill i' i^ > i;^ ilJ;^ I'i^'fcl i1 232 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. X. example of the effect of religion in promoting the comforts of life, to the surrounding savages ; and might, by degrees, have extended its benign in- fluence to the remotest regions of that country which WS& the object, and intended to be the scene, of their evangelical labours."* Without entering into any comparison between the Romish missions cf the former and of the present day, or inquiring whether the latter have been more successful than were their predecessors of New France in their endeavours to convert the heathen, there is one point which cannot be dis- puted — that the Indians of British North America are treated by their present Roman Catholic in- structors with great kindness and consideration. So far as benevolence, charity, and paterne* -.are can afford comfort to the Indian, he receives it at their hands ; and to any one who feels an interest in the fate of that race, it must be satis- factory to observe the kindness of their Catholic teachers in Canada, and painful to contrast with it the barbarous conduct of the Spanish North Ame- rican missions, bordering upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It has not been thought necessary in these Notes to enter upon the subject of the treatment of the Indians by those early adventurers If, ' I; * M'Kenzie's Voyages. Preliminary Account of the Fur- trade. '*■: t~ Ch. X. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 233 from Old Spain who took possession of Louisiana, the Fioridas, and those countries situated upon the Missisippi and its tributary waters. The narrative of the early progress of the Spaniards in North Ame- rica may be very brief. Wherever they advanced, their steps were marked with blood and desolation. Their object was not to convert or civilize the Indian, but to exterminate or enslave him. Nor has the lapse of centuries materially improved their treatment of him. He was formerly compelled to march in chains to the south, and forced to dig in the bowels of the earth to satiate the avarice of his Christian masters ; in some parts of Spanish North America he has since been compelled to cultivate its surface, and for the exclusive benefit of similar employers: — a fact confirmed by the testimony of various travellers of different nations. When La Perouse visited California in 1785, there were then about tweniy-five Spanish missions in that country. The Indians were stated to be about fifty thousand, and of these, almost ten thousand to have embraced Christianity. The enumeration of both was probably extremely vague. In one of these missions, Perouse thus notices the usual occupation of the Indian converts : " Evei V day they have s ' ■h\': ■I^:i ■Jf • LangsdorfF'a Voyages, part ii. chap. 7. •f- Kotzebue's Voyages of Discovery, &c. vol. i. chap. 9. V WJ. 238 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. X. Jit' 4: I It':' ■>■ ' receives the food which is willingly offered him, and listens to their instructions. He is still free. But as soon as he is baptized, he belongs to the church, and hence he looks with pain and longing to his native mountains. The church has an unalienable right to her children, a right which she exercises with rigour."* . ' IS; r -^ * Kotzebue, vol. iii. p. 43. Ch. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 239 CHAPTER XI. ATTEMPTS OF THE ENGLISH, PRIOR TO THE REVOLU- TIONARY WAR IN NORTH AMERICA, TO CONVERT THE INDIANS — SIMILAR MEASURES SUBSEQUENT TO THAT PERIOD ATTEMPTS OF A LIKE NA- TURE BY THE AMERICANS OF THE UNITED STATES. From the observations contained in the preceding chapter, and from the authorities referred to on the subject of the general result of the early Roman Catholic missions in North America, the reader will probably be of opinion that the labours of their missionaries effected little towards the conversion of the Indians. We may now inquire how far the Protestants were more successful. Almost all the early royal charters and patents issued for British North America professed, among other things, the object of converting the Indians. King James I., in the Nova Scotia patent, (1621,) declared, in reference to those countries, "as are either inhabited or occupied by unbelievers, whom to convert to the Christian faith" is a duty of great importance to the glory of God." In the pre- amble to the Pennsylvania charter/during a subse- '•i-. ... f ( <• t ) i 1 I * ( !; ilr' li \ m 1 1 . I,' Y: I ill'' "^-^'^i til 1 1 :i ■'*' ;e '• .?'■ . ' 240 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XL quent reign, it is also stated to be a principal object " to reduce the savage natives by just and gentle manners to the love of civil society and Christian religion." And the first royal charter granted to the colony of Massachussets Bay (1628) declared, " And for the directing, ruling, and disposing of all other matters and things whereby our said people, inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and invite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith : which, in our royal intention, and the advan- turer's free profession, is the principal end of this plantation." The corporation which this charter established, bore, for its common seal, the figure of an Indian, erect, naked, a bow in one hand, an arrow in the other, and a scroll issuing from his mouth, with these words,— Cowe over and help us.^ It may be curious to trace what followed this sym- bolical invitation. Fourteen years after the date of this charter, a resolution passed the house of commons in England, which in its preamble — but in its preamble only — adverted to the subject of Indian conversion: " Whereas the plantations in New England have, Mi' t-"^' • Douglass's Summary, vol. i., part 2, sect. viii. i«^iS* 'it •I Cll.Xr. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 241 by the blessings of the Almighty, had good and prosperous success without any public charge to this State, and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts — ." The rest of this document related to thecolonial trade only ; and it is not easy to conjecture upon what ground tlie resolution declared that the plantations were so likely to succded at that time in the propaga- tion of the Gospel, for, in point of fact, they do not appear to have then attempted to pro[)agate it at all. In the instrument of union, executed in 1643, by which the separate colonies of Massa- chussets, Plymouth, Connecticut, and Newhaven, became joined in confederacy, it was declared, — ** That they all came into those parts of America with the same errand and aim, — to advance the Christian religion, and enjoy the liberty of their consciences with purity and peace;" but, until the year 1646, it does not appear that any step was taken by them, either separately or collectively, to advance that religion by extending it to the Indians. In that year, however, the general court of Massa- chussets recommended to the elders to see what could be done on this subject; and four persons were appointed, by whom the first visit was made for that purpose among the Indian wigwams, under the direction of a native chief, called Wauban or The Wind. There were four meetings of this sort in the course of that year. An account of their ^1 ■?^i \ \ '■ I ii ? .t »*! 242 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XI. proceedings was written by one of the resident ministers at the time ; and the first chapter of his work, under the head of " A true Relation of our Beginnings with the Indians," thus described the commencement of their visitation : — " Upon October 28, 1646, four of us (having sought God) went unto the Indians inhabiting within our bounds, with desire to make known the things of their peace to them." " They being ail of them assembled, wee began with prayer, which now was in English, being not so farre acquainted with the Indian language as to express our hearts herein before God and them, but wee hope it will bee done ere long, the Indians desiring it, that they also might know how to pray : but this wee began in an unknown tongue to them, partly to let them know that this dutiein hand was serious and sacred, partly also in regard of ourselves, that wee might agree together in the same request and heart-sor- rowes for them even in that place where God was never wont to be called upon. When prayer was ended, it was a glorious aftecting spectacle to see a company of perishing forlorn outcasts diligently attending to the blessed word of salvation then de- livered, professing they understood all that which was then taught them in their owne tongue. It much affected us that they should smell some things of the alablaster box broken open in that darke and gloomy habitation of filthiness and un- Ch. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 243 cleane spirits. For about an liour and a quarter the seru.on continued, wherein one of our company ran tlirough all the principall matter of religion, beginning first with a repetition of the Ten Com- mandments, and a briefe explication of them, the shewing the curse and dread fiill wrath of Cod against those who brake them, and so applied it unto the condition of the Indians present with much sweet affection," &c. After going on to detail the various points of doctrine which they inculcated to the Indians, they were proceeding " to propounde certaine questions" to them ; but "before wee did this, wee asked them if they understood all that which was ah'eady spoken, and whether all of them in the wigwam did under- stand, or onely some few ? And they answered to this question with multitude of voyces, that they all of them did understand all that which was spoken to them." The proceedings of this their first meeting concluded as follows : — *' Thus after three lioures' time thus -spent with them, wee asked them if they were not weary, and they answered, No. But wee resolved to leave them with an appetite. The chief of them seeing us conclude with prayer, desired to know when wee would come again ; so wee appointed the time, and having given the chil- dren some apples, and the men some tobacco, and what else wee then had in hand, they desired some more ground to build a town together, which wee . ! I'M ^i tMl I. t . » 244 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XI. m I did much like of, promising to speake for them to the gencrall court, that they might j)0ssesse all the compasse of that hill upon which their wigwams then stood, — so wee departed with many welcomes from them." Three similar meetings are stated to have taken place in the course of the same year, and the pro- ceedings of the whole were transmitted to England, and published in the work above alluded to under the title of ** The Day-breaking, if not the Sun- rising of the Gospel with the Indians of New Eng- land."* The sun indeed must have risen very rapidly ; because — if an act of parliament is to be credited — more progress was made by the English in this respect in the short space of about two years than was efiected by the French in one hundred and fifty. " Whereas the commons of England assembled in parliament," says the act (of 1649), '* have received certain intelligence from divers godly ministers in New England, that divers of the heathen natives, through the pious care of some godly English who preach the Gospel to them in their own language, not only of barbarous are become civil, but many of them forsake their accus- tomed charms, sorceries, and Satanical delusions, do now call upon the name of the Lord, and give great testimony of the power of God drawing them ♦ Published in London, 1647, 4to. Ch.XI. the NOKTII AMERICAN INDIANS. 245 from death and darkness to the light and life of the glorious Gos{)el of Jesus Clirist, which appeareth by their lamenting with tears their misspent lives; teaching their children what they are instructed themselves ; being careful to place them in godly families and English schools ; betaking themselves to one wife, putting away the rest ; and by their constant prayers to Almighty God, morning and evening, in their families, expressed in all appear- ance with much devotion and zeal of heart. All which considered, we cannot but, in behalf of the nation we represent, rejoice and give glory to God for the beginning of so glorious a propagation of the Gospel among those poor heathens; which cannot be prosecuted with that expedition as is de- sired, unless fit instruments be encouraged and maintained to pursue it, schools and cloathing be provided, and many other necessaries. — Be it there- fore enacted," &c.* By this act a corporation was established, con- sisting of a president and fifteen other members, who were authorised to make a general collection throughout England and Wales, for the furtherance of the object proposed ; and it was recommended that the clergy should exhort their respective con- gregations cheerfully to contribute to so pious a work. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge * Hutchinson's History of Massachiissets, cli. I. ,' 4,1 ■M ! 1; i II 246 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XL s ■■ . i i xy 248 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.XI. 1.41? I !. ? ' .* , I .< t ffji must have been great, having translated the whole Bible, besides other pious and useful works, into the Indian tongue.* v ? n *■ As Eliot was certainly the most eminent, and probably the most earlyf of the English Protestant ministers who laboured in endeavouring to convert the Indians, it would have been very desirable to have ascertained distinctly what the extent and real nature of the changes were, which he is stated to have effected in their religious sentiments and belief. The accounts given by himself and others of his success, have all the appearance of being extremely exaggerated : but admitting, for a moment, that these statements were accurate, how melan- choly is the reflection that not a vestige remains of the good effect arising from his labours ! The memory of this Indian evangelist may long conti- nue to be an object of veneration, but it cannot be justly asserted that any real or solid benefit has accrued to the savages from his zeal, or that he even laid the foundation for a permanent conversion of the native population. ** Mr. Eliot," says t 1 , / ' ^ii't ' * Eliot's translation of the Bible into the Indian language was printed at Cambridge (Massachussets) in the year 1664; and, after his death, it was republished by the Rev. Mr. Cotton of Plymouth, in that province. t It appears, however, from Hubbard's General History, that Mr. Mayhew began in the year 1645 to preach to the Indians at Martha's Vineyard. Ch. 76. Cn. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 249 Dr. Douglass, " with immense labour translated and printed our Bible into Indian. It was done with a good and pious design, but it must be reckoned among the otiosorum hominum negotia. It was done in the Natick language. Of the Naticks, at present, there are not twenty families subsisting, and scarce any of these can read. — Cui honoT* We ought not, in the present day, to be blinded by the flattering accounts, or sanguine views, of Eliot's biographers, many of which appear more calculated to afford amusement than information. It is in one of these eulogies, where Dr. Mather hit upon a novel mode of settling the knotty point which has puzzled so many theorists, with respect to the question of how America was originally peopled. Of these, some had ascribed it to the remnants of the antediluvian inhabitants who had escaped the general Deluge, or to a baud of emi- grants from the Old World, soon after the disper- sion of the grandsons of Noah. Some attributed it to the Japanese, by the way of the Pacific Ocean ; others to the Carthaginians, by the way of the Atlantic. Some say it was peopled by the Greeks, * Douglass's Summary, vol. i. part i. sect. 3. In a subse- quent part of his work, Dr. Douglass notices '^ tlie Indian plantation of Natick, with a minister and salary from the English Society for propagating the Gospel among the In- dians in New England; he othciates in English, and his con- gregation arc mostly English." 'ri IP K:». fl ^'1 '^:.i I m r-ig Uh 250 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XI. and some by the Jews. Some assert that its original inhabitants had moved from the north- eastern coasts of Asia ; others, that they had mi- grated from the north-western shores of Europe. A learned Dutchman conjectures, that during the three years' voyage made by the Tyrian fleet which King Solomon sent in search of elephants' teeth and peacocks' tails, the Phoenicians proved to be the fortunate discoverers of America. In short, Phoenicians, Scythians, Tartars, Chinese, Spaniards, Swedes, Norwegians — all lay their claim to the first discovery and peopling of that continent ; and last, though not least, " the most probable Historic in this kind is, in my minde, that of Madoc ap Orven Guyneth, who, by reason of civill conten- tions, left his countrey of Wales, seeking adventures by sea; and, leaving the coast of Ireland north, came to a land unknowne, where he saw manie strange thinges." * But the reverend biographer of Eliot cuts the Gordian knot at once. " The natives of the country," says he, " had been forlorn and wretched heathen ever since their first herding here ; and tho' we know not when or how the Indians first became inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet we may guess that probably the devil decoyed those miserable salvages hither, in hopes that the Gospel would never come here to It ;. * Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. v. book viii. ch. 2. 1 .^, • i I. XI. Ch. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 251 destroy or disturb his absolute empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill terms with the devil as to alarm him with sounding the silver trumpets of heaven in his territories, and make some noble and zealous attempts towards outing him of his ancient possessions here. There were, I think, twenty several nations of Indians upon that spot of ground, and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could from that old usurping landlord of America."* Whether the ancient landlord has, amidst revolutionary changes in that country, recovered possession of any part of his former dominions, need not at present be inquired into ; but with respect, at least, to " our Eliot," Dr. Mather himself acknowledges that " the Indian church at Natick, which was the first Indian church in America, is, since blessed Eliot's death, much diminished and dwindled away."')' The lapse of years, indeed, has completed its downfal ; and it is now a long time since there has been at Natick either an Indian church or an Indian to attend it. A few years before Eliot's death, a letter was addressed by Mr. Increase Mather, minister at Boston, to Professor Leusden of Utrecht, on the subject of Indian conversion, in which there is ■':i*i: y\\ ' \i •;'( ; 1 1 * Magnalia, book iii. part. iii. i^. iieiif:' iit I 254 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cll. XI. but there is sufficient to shew that, about that period at least, there was no want of zeal among them to promote the conversion and improvement of the Indians. In the year 1665, the commissioners appointed by the king to inqui. ;nt the state of the New England colonies, were, ..nonj:: their other duties, di- rected ** to make due enquiry what progress had been made towards the foundation and maintenance of any college or schools for the education of youth and conversion of Infidels ; the king having taken abundant satisfaction in the accounts received of the designs of the colony herein, which he hoped would draw a blessing upon all their other under- takings." The answer given by the general court of the colony to this interrogatory, as far as related to the Indians, was " that there was at Cambridge a small fabrick of brick for the use of the Indians, built by the corporation in England, in which there were then eight Indian scholars, one of which had been admitted into college ; that there were six towns of Indians in the jurisdiction, professing the Christian religion ; and they had schools to teach the youth to read and write, and persons appointed to instruct them in civility and religion, who had orders to wait upon the commissioners and shew them the towns, and manners of life of the Indians, if it should be desired."* If any reasonable doubts, • Hutchinson's History of Massachussets, chap. 2. that Cil. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 255 therefore, existed at that time as to the exertions made in New England for the conversion of the savages, the king's commissioners had full means of ascertaining the truth upon the spot. About the commencement of the last century, some additional public institutions were formed in Great Britain, which, among other objects, directed their view to the propagation of Chris- tianity abroad. A society was established in Eng- land, by royal charter, in the year 1701, for pro- pagating the Gospel in foreign parts; and. in 1709, a similar one was formed in Scotland : which, in its operation, was subsequently extended to the conver- sion of the Indians in several of those parts of Ame- rica to which it was supposed the act of 1649 did not locally apply. Dr. Douglass states, that under the patronage of this latter society a missionary was employed for the purpose of converting the Narra- gansets, but with what success does not appear. It was by the same society that the celebrated Brainerd was appointed a missionary among the Indians, and in zeal he equalled any one who ever engaged in their conversion. " Mr. Eliot, Mr. Mayhew, and others," says Douglass, " spared no fatigue, and were of great service in civilizing our intermixed Indians, though their faith was not strong enough to carry them out among the tribes of the adjPiCent wilderness :" but Brainerd, he adds, rode no kss than four thousand miles in the course ttl 'I 1 hi ^4: ^ 25G HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. XI. of one year among the Indians in the interior, clLiring which time it frequently liappened that he did not sec a white person for five or six weeks together.* ** Of all the missionaries," writes Mr. Smith, in his History of New York, " Mr. David Brainerd, who recovered these Indians (of New Jersey) from the darkness of Pacanism, was most successful. He died in Oc- tobcr 1747, a victim to his extreme mortification, and inextinguishable zeal for the prosperity of his mission." t But has Brainerd, any more than Eliot, or Mayhew, left behind him any permanent trace of the real conversion of the American Indian? We read, indeed, of " the excellent Brainerd, who at Crossweeksung converted by his preaching — so far as the hunian eye can judge — seventy-five Indians out of one hundred, to the faith and obedience of the Gospel, within twelve months :" J but it is to be feared that this "judging by the eye" too often misleads us with respect to Indian con- version ; and we may, therefore, fairly hesitate in giving credit to tiie same writer, who, adopting the accounts given by Gookin, says, '' we learn with certainty," that in his time there were in Massa- iLi.'- .f.^i. * Douglass's Summary, part ii. sect. 10. f Smith's Hist, of New York, part i. Dr. Douglass says, that Brainerd only preached to the Indians in EngUsh, which, of course, the latter did not understand. \ Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. iii. let. 9. Ck. XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 257 cliussets colony eleven hundred praying Indians in fourteen villages ; in Plymouth colony, nearly six thousand ; in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, perhaps fifteen hundred more ; and when to these were to be added those in Connecticut, he makes the total number " not far from ten thousand." But Gookin himself, in his account of the whole Indian population in New England at their most prosperous period, does not calculate them to exceed eighty thousand souls (a number which Dr. D wight even admits to be probably overrated by at least ten thousand); so that we are thus desired to believe, that at the time alluded to, one-sixth or one-seventh part of the Indians in that part of America was converted to Christianity ! The assertion is wholly incredible. In the time of Queen Anne, attempts were made to establish missionaries among the Iroquois. Go- vernor Hunter, at a grand council held at Albany with some of the Indians of that confederacy, after distributing presents among them, told them, " The queen had not only provided fine clothes for their bodies, but likewise intended to adorn their souls by the preaching of the Gospel, and that some ministers should be sent to instruct them. When the governor had finished his speech, the eldest chief rose up, and, in the name of all the Indians, thanked their good mother the queen for the fine clothes she had sent them ; but that, in regard tivl I % r' n "n i w 258 HrSTORTCAf. VOTES RKSPECTTKO Cii.XI. to the preachers, they Imd already \.jA some of them, who, instead of preaching the Gospel, taught them to drink to excess, and to cheat and quarrel among themselves ; and they entreated the governor to take from them the preachers, and a number of Europeans who came among them : for, before their arrival, the Indians were an honest, sober, innocent people, but now most of them were rogues ; that they formerly had the fear of the Great Spirit, but they hardly now believed in his existence." * The heavy charges thus made against these preachers must have applied to the native Indians who were employed by the Europeans as teachers of the Gospel among the tribes. This unfortunately was too common a practice both among the French and British settlers in North America. There were in New England, about the year 1687, (as already noticed,) not fewer than twenty-four of these native preachers ; and if we are to judge of them from the sample presented by Dr. Mather, in his Ecclesiastical History of that colony, we cannot be much surprised at the Indians of the Five Nations entreating their good Mother to remove them from their country, t '- !l * Long's Travels of an Indian Interpreter, page 32. f In the year 1694 an Indian was executed for a murder committc I by him when he was drunk. Dr. Mather states, that after his condemnation, the Indian said, " The thing that undid him was this. He had begun to come and hear I' ^ J : Mi',. ; ■ |ltf,!5fj,. \t, Ch. XL THE NOIITII AMERICAN INDIANS. 259 Dr. Coklen states, tl at a inissi&r.ary was sent over by Queen Anne, with an allowance from her privy purse, to reside among the Mohawks. " Tiic Common Prayer," says he, " or at least a consi- derable part of it, and some other pieces, were translated for the minister's use, viz. an Exposition of the Creed, Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, Church Catechism, and a discourse on the Sacraments ; but as that minister was never able to attain any tolerable knowledge of their language, and was naturally a heavy man, he had but little success, and, his allowance failing by the queen's death, he left them."* From that period a long time elapsed without any teacher going among the Mohawks. At length a young man voluntarily repaired to their country, and set up a school to teach the Indian children. He soon afterwards went to England, where he took orders, and returned as a missionary. Colden has inserted in his History a letter which the preaching of the Gospel among the Indians ; but he minded the Indian preacher how he lived, and he saw plainly that the preacher minded his bottle more than his Bible. He loved rhum too well, and when his rhum was in him, he would quarrel with other people, and with himself par- ticularly. This," b id he, " prejudiced him against the Gospel, so he lived a Pagan still, and would be drunk too ; and his drunkenness ha.d brought all this misery upon him." — Magnolia, book vi. Appendix. * Colden's History of the Five Nations. Introduction, p. 18. I . :;.yi, !*. Ml il 19 IB • ^^B 't : • ^'■'■1.' If, 260 HISTOilICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cm. XL he received frofu this missionary some time after- wards, in which he gives a very flattering account of his success in converting and improving tlie Indians ; but as he admits in his letter his own want of the Mohawk language, and that he could not procure an iinter prefer, one cannot help sus- pecting, in some degree, the accuracy of hie state- ments. in the year 173-1, an Indian mission (under the patronage, also, of the Scottish Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,) was commen-ied at Stock- biidge, in Massachussets. The first missionary was Mr. John Serjeant, a zealous and pious minister, who translated for the use of the Indians most of the New,, and parts of the Old Testament, into the Mohe- kanew language. He instituted a school for the Indian youth, and benefactions were procured botli in England and America for its support. Two masters were appointed, one to teach them in the school, the other to superintend their lessons of husbandry in the field ; there was also a matron to direct the female children in pursuits of a domestic nature. The d(2ath of Mr„ Serjeant appears, in a great measure, to have put a stop to . the benelits expected from this institution. His inmiediale successor was a minister who was obliged to preach to them tlirough the channel of an inter- preter. He was succeeded by the son of the original missionary, and, under his zealous ministry., Cn.XI. THK NORTH AftlERICAN INDIANS. 261 the Stockbridge Indians were invited by the Onei- das (one of the Five Nations) to reside with them in the Oneida Reservation, in the western part of the state of New York. This invitation was accepted, and they removed from New England to that quarter, where their few descendants now continue, under the government of the United States. A similar attempt to that at Stockbridge was made in the year 1754, when another Indian school wa!5 established in New England, and contributions for its support obtained in Great Britain and Aaierica. The funds collected in England were put in the hands of a board of trustees, at the head of whom was the Earl of Dartmouth : and those collected in Scotland were committed to the Society established in that country for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. From this institution arose Dartmouth College, which was established in 1760, in Haoover township in New Hampshire, and Dr. Wheelock, its founder, was made president. The school was united to the college, but the institution, as far as the Indians were concerned, did not succeed. " Experience had taught Dr. Wheelock," says Belknap, " that his Indian youths, however well educated, were not to be depended upon for instructors of their countrymen. Of forty who had been under his care, twenty had returiied to the vices of savage life ; and some, II 262 HISTOIIICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XI. Hi !- 'ii whom he esteemed subjects of Divine grace, had not kept their garments unspotted."* In British North America, there are at present — besides the Roman Catholic establishments appropriated to the use of the Indians— three Pro- testant missionaries among the Esquimaux on the coast of Labrador. In Canada there is only one regular Protestant Indian mission, but several of the missionaries of the British settlements in the Upper Province, act as occasional visitors for the religious instruction of the Indians ; and there are likewise schoolmasters appointed to teach them. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is taking steps to extend and improve these esta- blishments. The Church Missionary Society also nominated, a few years ago, the chaplain of the newly-formed British settlement on the Red River of Lake Winnipic, to be their missionary in that quarter; who, among his other duties, has to super- intend the religious and school education of the neighbouring Chippewa and other Indians, both of the pure and the mixed breed. A regular schoolmaster and schoolmistress have also been sent out by the same society, who have appro- priated a liberal allowance for these benevolent purposes. After the revolutionary contest which terminated Belknap's Hist, of New Hampshire, vol. ii. chap. 24. Cii.XI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 263 in the separation of Great Britain from those of lier North American colonies with which she had been at war, the Indian missions in that country con- tinued, and were extended under the management of the general government of the United States, as well as of individual states within the Union. It is unnecessary in these Notes to enter into detail as to their exertions in this respect. The subject has often occupied the attention of their executive government, and of Congress, and the difficulties attending it have been apparent. There has been no want of zeal in those who have been employed in this object; it appears to have received every reasonable encouragement on the part of the Ame- rican government; and has called forth the exer- tions and liberality of various societies, which have established themselves in different parts of the Union for the promotion of this important object. President Monroe, in his inaugural speech (March 1821), adverted to the subject of those Indians who are placed uncer the protection of the United States. He observed, that the care of them had long been an essential part of the American system, but that unfortunately it had not been executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it. That they had been treated as independent nations, without their having any substantial preten- sion to t. dt rank ; this distinction flattering their k\l 264 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. Xl. pride, retardliig their improvement, and, in many instances, paving the way to their destruction. That the progress of many of the American settle- ments had constantly driven the Indians back with al'iiost the total sacrifice of the land, which they have been compelled to abandon. " They have claim?," says he, " on the magnanimity, and, I may add, on the justice of the nation, which we must all feel. We should become their real benefactors ; we should perform the office of their Great Father, the endearing title which they em- phatically give to the chief magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to each individual and his pos- terity in competent portions ; and, for the territory thus ceded by each tribe, some reasonable equi- valent should be granted, to be vested in per- manent funds for the support of the civil govern- ment over them, and for the education of their children ; for their instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for them until they can provide it for themselves. My earnest hope is, that Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such improvements as their wisdom may suggest, and cany it into efl'ect as soon as it may be prac- ticable." Shortly before this period, the government of r4 Ch. XI. THE NORTH AMEUIC AN INDIANS. 265 the United States had appointed the Reverend Dr. Morse to make a visit of observation and inspection among various Indian tribes, and to report to the President upon their ciicumstances and condition. Dr. Morse was at that time acting in some degree in a similar situation under commissions from the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and from the Northern Missionary Society of the State of New York. His attention was now particularly directed to ascertain, as distinctly as possible, the actual state of the Indians in a moral, religious, and political view ; the nature and climate of the countries occupied by them ; and the cus- toms, manners, and institutions of the native in- habitants. His Report was laid before Congress in the spring of hS22, and was published in America in the course of the same year, with all its nume- rous accompanying documents. Dr. Morse states, that a great deal has been alrcp.cly done, and is now continuing to be effected, in several parts of the Union, for the benefit of the Indians ; and he recommends various measures as connected with their future civilization and improvement. The details contained in the Report are much too voluminous to be particularly remarked upon here : some parts of the work have already been ad- verted to, and a few others shall be afterwards 11^' ^ii ■ ■■■. *■'#> 260 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING €u. XI. noticed. Among other suggestions, Dr. Morse recommended the formation of a society on a very extended scale — a plan which appears to have been since adopted — under the name of the " American Society for promoting tlie Civi- lization and general Improvement of the Indian Tribes within the United States." m. ' 1? Ts^: lf..v m Cii.XII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 267 CHAPTER XII. KITE OF BAPTISM PROMISCUOUSLY ADMINISTERED TO THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA BY THE EARLY FRENCH MISSIONARIES QUESTION RESPECTiNG IT SUBMITTED TO THE DOCTORS OF THE SORBONNE SENTIMENTS OF NATURAL RELIGION ENTER- TAINED BY THE INDIANS OBSTRUCTION TO THEIR CONVERSION, ARISING FROM THE RELI- GIOUS DIFFERENCES AND DISPUTES AMONG THE EUROPEANS. In remarking upon the labours of the early Jesuit iiiisbionaries in the interior of North America, Cliarlevoix observes : " The fruits which they gathered in the first season were inconsiderable — five or six baptisms of grown persons — but they consoled themselves with the happiness of having secured the eternal salvation of a great many chil- dren, who received the rites of baptism immediately before their death." * The accounts from the early Recollet missions are similar. P^re le Caron, of that order, states, in 1624, " We continue to send to heaven a great number of infants, and some dying adults whose hearts God seems to touch at their end, and whom we baptize without * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvcllc France, liv. 5. . -A r ' . ( ' : k if]'f> 268 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING CiJ. XII. difficulty : but as to the others, there is little suc- cess."* This sacrament, however, was afterwards frequently extended to the savages, of all ages and descriptions ; the Roman Catholic missionaries appearing to have been more anxious about the number than the selection of those whom they bap- tized. What Dr. Robertson, in his History of America, remarks on the subject of baptizing the Indians of Mexico, applies, in a considerable de- gree, to the more northern countries of that con- tinent : " In the course of a few years after the reduction of the Mexican empire, the sacrament of baptism was administered to more than four mil- lions. Proselytes, adopted with such inconsiderate haste, and who were neither instructed in the nature of the tenets to which it was supposed they had given their assent, nor taught the absurdities of those which .\ey were required to relinquish, — retained their veneration for their ancient supersti- tions in full force, or mingled an attachment to its doctrines and rites with that slender knowledge of Christianity which they had acquired." f P^re Dablon, in one of the annual Reports transmitted by the Jesuit missions in Canada, ob- serves, " Thus we may say that the torch of the faith now lights up the four quarters of this New * Premier Etablissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France, vol. i. chap. 8. Paris, 1691. t Robertson's Hist, of America, book 8. Ch. XII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 2G9 World ; upwards of seven hundred barbarians have this year consecrated our forests ; more than twenty missions constantly occupy the fathers of our church, among at least twenty different nations ; and the chapels, erected in the most distant regions, are almost every where filled with these poor bar- barians ; in some of which they have ten, twenty, and thirty baptisms in a day." * It would appear that the Jesuits and the Recol- lets did not agree upon the propriety of these nu- merous baptisms. While the former set almost no limits to the administration of this sacrament, the latter entertained great doubts respecting it, con- ceiving that it ought not to have been so generally and promiscuously extended to the savages. Hen- nepin, the RecoUet, in describing the Illinois Indians, among whom he had resided, observes, " They will readily suffer us to baptize their children, and would not refuse it themselves ; but are incapable of any previous instruction concerning the truth of the Gospel, and the efficacy of the sacraments. Were I to have followed the example of some other missionaries, I could have boasted of many conver- sions ; for 1 might have easily baptized all these tribes, and have said, as 1 fear they do without any reason, that I had converted them.'' f * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1670-71, t Hennepin, vol. i. ch. 33. pi 11 hi 1 270 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPF.CTING Cli. XII. The RecoUet Le Clercq mentions that they de- puted one of their order to go from Canada to France, for the purpose of consulting the doctors of the university of Paris upon this subject. " For such," says he, *' is the disposition of these Indian nations, that they profess no reUgion, and appear incapable of that ordinary degree of reflection which would lead other men to the knowledge of a Divinity, either true or false. These poor blind creatures listen to what we say of our sacred mys- teries as they would to idle tales : they comprehend or assent to nothing that is not palpable or obvious to the senses. Their superstitions are unmeaning, their customs are savage, barbarous, and brutal ; and they would consent to be baptized ten times a day, for a glass of brandy or a pipe of tobacco. They willingly offer us their children to be b^^.ptized, but not from the slightest sentiment of religion ; and even those who have been instructed during the whole winter, do not evince any better know- ledge of the faith. The few adults who had been baptized, even after they had received instruction, again relapsed into their usual indifference to every thing that regards their salvation : and the children to whom baptism had been administered follow the example of their fathers, all of which is a profana- tion of this sacrament." " This case," continues Le Clercq, " was fully stated and discussed ; and it was even carried into ■J Cii. XII. THE NORTH AMEUICAN INDIANS. 271 KJk i T t nil tlie Sorbonne. The decision upon it was as fol- lows : — That, with respect to dying infants and adults, the missionaries might risk the sacrament of uuptism when asked for, — presuming that God would give to the adults some ray of light, such as it was believed had already occurred in several cases : that, as to the other savages, it ought not to be administered, unless where, by a long trial, it appeared that they were instructed, and detached from their own barbarous customs, or where they had habituated themselves to the manners of the French ; and the same with respect to their chil- dren. A formulary and species of canon was com- posed, for the regulation and guidance of our mis- sionaries on this subject." * Upon what grounds, however, Hennepin asserted the incapacity of the Indians to receive instruction concerning the truths of the Gospel, or upon what grounds Le Clercq pronounced them incapable of that degree of reflection which would lead to a knowledge of the Divinity, it is not easy to con- jecture : for there appears to be scarcely any writer who has carefully and impartially investigated this subject, who does not admit that the North Ame- rican tribes almost universally eniertain rational, although rude, notions of natural religion, accom- panied by the belief of a future state. There were, • Premier Etablissement de la Foy, &c., vol. i. ch. 5. ■*jV/ :'•• IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I us ^ ^ :^ ii£ 12.0 m; LL8. 1.25 III 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" ► V <^ /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ \ \\ ^* H * Relation dc- la Nouvelle France, 1G33, p. 76. T ■i, ■ A: r, M 274 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XII. life. He therefore believes it to be his duty to adore and worship his Creator and Benefactor ; to acknowledge with gratitude his past favours ; thank him for present blessings, and solicit the continuation of his good will." * Mr. Hunter states that, e^s far as his information extended, the Indians acknowledge one supreme, all-powerful, and intelligent Being, — the Great Spirit, who created and governs all things. That in general they believe that, after the hunting grounds had been formed and supplied with game, he created the first red man and woman, who were very large in their stature, and lived to a great age ; that he often held councils and smoked with them, taught them how to take game and cultivate corn, and gave them laws to be observed ; but that in consequence of their disobedience, he withdrew his favour, and abandoned them in some measure to the vexations of the Bad Spirit ; that, notwith- standing the offences of his red children, they believe he continues to shower down on them all the blessings they enjoy ; that, in consequence of this parental regard for them, they are truly filial and sincere in tlieir devotions, praying to him for such good things as they need, and returning thanks for those they receive, f * Hecke welder's Account of the Indians, ch. 6. t Memoirs of Hunter's Captivity, ch. 6. 1. i\ Ch. XII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 275 On the other hand, he states that, when in af- fliction from some great calamity, they pray with equal fervency to the Evil Spirit, whom they con- ceive to be directly the reverse of the Good Spirit, to whom he is inferior ; but who, at the same time, is'constantly employed in devising means to torment the human race. By the term Spirit, the Indians have an idea of a Being which can at pleasure be present and yet invisible ; they think the Great Spirit possessed, like themselves, of corporeal form, though endowed with a nature infinitely more ex- cellent than theirs, and which will endure for ever without change. " Although they believe in a future state of existence," says Hunter, " they associate it with natural things, having no idea of the soul, or of intellectual enjoyments ; but expect at some future time after death to become, in their proper persons, the perpetual inhabitants of a de- lightful country, where their employments, divested of pain and trouble, will resemble those here ; where game will be abundant, and where there is one continued spring and cloudless sky." * Similar to this, in some respects, is the remark of P^re le Jeune : " The Indians having never heard of any thing purely spiritual, they represent the soul of man as an obscure and sombre image like the human shadow, with head, hands, feet, and itM^^^ * Memoirs of Hunter's Captivity, ch. 6. ^1 276 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XII. a'-* <■*' all other parts of the human body. Hence they say that the souls eat and drink, and they therefore set apart provisions for them after death. I often conversed with them on this subject, asking them where their souls went to after death : * They go,' said they, * a far way off, to a great village in the region where the sun sets.' " * In Hunter's Memoirs, there are also various in- teresting traditions connected with the Indian belief of a future state. Having gone with some of his Indian companions upon an expedition of curiosity across the Rocky Mountains, they at length unex- pectedly reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean. " Here," says he, " the surprise and astonishment of our whole party was indescribably great. The unbounded view of waters, the incessant and tre- mendous dashing of the waves along the shore, ac- companied with a noise resembling the roar of loud and distant thunder, filled our minds with the most sublime and awful sensations ; and fixed on them, as immutable truths, the tradition we had received from our old men, that the great waters divide the residence of the Great Spirit from the temporary abodes of his red children. We here contemplated in silent dread the immense difficulties over which we should be obliged to triumph after death, before we could arrive at those delightful hunting grounds Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1634, p. 58. * Hunter's Memoirs, p. 69. t Charlevoix, Journal Historiquc, let. 24, Ch. XII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 277 which are unalterably destined for such only as do good, and love the Great Spirit. We looked in vain for the stranded and shattered canoes of those who had done wickedly : we could see none, and we were led to hope that they were few in number. We offered up our devotions ; or, I might rather say, our minds were serious, and our devotions continued all the time we were in this country ; for we had ever been taught to believe that the Great Spirit resided on the western side of the Rocky Mountains, and this idea continued throughout the journey, notwithstanding the more specific water boundary assigned by our traditionary dogmas."* This tradition, of the Indians being admitted after death into a delightful country in the west, cor- responds with what is said by Charlevoix : — " After death, the Indians believe, that the souls go into a region which is destined for their eternal dwelling, which they say is situated far in the west; that they take many months to reach it, having numerous difficulties to surmount in their journey, and par- ticularly a great river to pass, where many are cast away."t In Hakluyt's account of Jaques Cartier's discovery, in 1535, of the Island of Hochelago on the St. Lawrence; (now the Island of Montreal,) he relates of the Indians in that quarter : — " They '■'il B^w' 278 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XII. believe that, when they die, they gee into tiie stars, and thence by little and little descend down into the horizon, even as the stars doe : and that then they goe into certain greene fields full of goodly, fair, and precious trees, flowers, and fruits." * And the early Franciscan missionary Sagard, who resided among the Hurons, says of them : — " They believe in the immortality of the soul, and that when it leaves the body, it goes rejoicing along the road of the stars, (the milky way,) which they call the path of souls." t The Indians, according to Hunter, have no fixed days set apart for devotional purposes, but offer up their joint prayers upon particular occasions, such as the declaration of war, the restoration of peace, and upon extraordinary natural visitations. They have also rejoicings which assume a pious form, as the time of harvest, the return of the new moon, &c. " In general, however," says he, " a day sel- dom passes with an elderly Indian, or others who are esteemed wise and good, in which a blessing is not asked, or thanks returned to the Giver of Life ; sometimes audibly, but more generally in the de- votional language of the heart." J :-.. Was it therefore to be wondered at that numerous * Haklujt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 223. t Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, par Fr^re Sagard, ch. 18. Paris, 1632. J Hunter's Memoirs, ch, 6. Cll. XII. THE NOUTII AMERICAN INDIAN'S. 279 tribes, entertaining such views of religion, and car- rying into practice its simple but sincere precepts, as handed down to them from their ancestors, should have been perplexed by the modes in which new religious doctrines were attempted to be taught to them by the Europeans ? Little or no inquiry was made as to their existing notions of natural religion, or of the worship of a Deity. However much the early missionaries of the Romish and the Reformed Churches disputed about the right road by which the Indian was to be sent to heaven, they cordially joined in the cry of " infidel sal- vage," " impious heathen," &c. &c., unanimously pronouncing him — for the pre&cnt at least — to be under the sole and exclusive dominion of the devil. " These parts," says the Rev. Dr. Mather, " were then covered with nations of barbarous Indians and Infidels, in whom the prince of the power of the air did work as a spirit ; nor could it be expected that nations of wretches, whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil-worship, should not be acted by the devil to engage in some early and bloody acdon for the extinction of a plantation so contrary to his interests as that of New England was."* Again : " Satan," writes the superior- general of all the Jesuit Canadian missions to the head of his order in France, " Satan has made ■'M * Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6. ■''-■ I 280 HlSTOItlCAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XII. '. .1. mki every effort to recover the ground which Jesus Christ had gained from him, and to maintain pos- session of a country where he had reigned peaceably for so many ages." * By Roman Catholic and Protestant the Indian was called upon, with frightful denunciations, to relinquish the worship of the Great Spirit, as taught him by his forefathers, and to adopt in its place the religion of the Whites. But what did the shrewd Indian perceive in these his new religious instructors, that was calculated to incline him to listen to their exhortations ? Their morality he could not respect, and their conduct towards his countrymen had never been such as to merit his confidence and esteem. Besides, what was he to think of the dif- ferences and distinctions whicli appeared to exist among the Europeans themselves on the subject of the religious doctrines which they inculcated ? " The different methods," says Heni.epin, "that are used for the instruction of the Indians retard much their conversion. One begins by the animal part, another by the spiritual. There are diversity of beliefs among the Christians ; every one believes his own faith to be the purest, and his own method the best : there ought therefore to be a uniformity in belief and method, as there is but one Truth * Relation de la Nouvelie France, 1643-44, par Ic Perc Vimont, eh. 8. il^ ^1 Cii. XII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 281 and one Redeemer; otherwise these barbarians will not know what to resolve upon." * If, how- ever, the account given by Dr. Mather of the colony of Rhode Island be correct, its red abori«5ines must have been somewhat bewildered with the variety even of Protestant sectaries who had planted them- selves among them : " It has been," says the Doctor, " a colluvies of Antinomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Antisabbatarians, Arminians, Soci- nians, Quakers, Ranters — every thing in the world but Roman Catholics and real Christians, (though of the latter I hope there have been more tii: n the former among them,) so thai if a man had lost his religion, he might find it at that general muster of Opinionists." f But, intolerant as was Dr. Ma- ther in bis prose. Governor Dudley, of the same colony, was no less so in his poetry. When the governor died, there was found in his pocket a copy of verses of his own composing, the concluding lines of which shew that to the last gasp his Excel- lency denounced all freedom of opinion and liberty of conscience : — Farewell, Dear Wife, Children, and Friends, Hate Heresie ; make Blessed Ends : Let Men of God in Courts and Churches watch. O'er such as do a Toleration hatch, . y. .i. LI * Hennepin, ii. ch. 30. t Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. which I was obliged to read over again and again in order to comprehend its meaning; so obscure was his style, and so odd his Latinity. I gathered from it, however, that he complained of my attack- ing him without cause ; that zeal for the salvation of souls had led him to point out to the savages the road to heaven ; and, as to the rest, my arguments were ridiculous and childish. I sent a second letter to him, in which I pointed out the errors of his, and he replied, two years afterwards^ without at all entering into the subject, but merely saying that I possessed a captious and peevish turn of mind which marked a temperament inclined to the choleric. Thus ended our dispute, and ren- dered abortive the project this minister had formed to seduce my converts." * Rasles appears to have continued his system of endeavouring to drive the Indians into hostility against the English. The governor of Canada, Monsieur de Vaudreuil, was directly charged with a full knowledge of these proceedings, and when he denied it, his own letters, addressed to Rasles, were produced as a proof of his participation. Colonel Shute, the governor of the New England colonies, wrote to Rasles, stating, among other things, " We have found, by three score years' experience, that we had always lived in peace with * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vok vi. p. 136. :ii.xii. Cn. Xn. THE JTORTH AMEIllCAN INDIANS. 293 our neighbouring Indians, had it not been for the instigation, protection, supply, and even personal assistance of the French ; so that, in case any unjust war should happen with the natives (which God forbid), we shall look upon the French, and particularly the Popish mir ionaries among them, as the main cause thereof."* Hostilities, in fact, soon afterwards did break out, and, in one of the actions of that sanguinary war. Father Rasles was killed, and his scalp borne away in triumph by the Indian confederates of the English. It is very evident, therefore, that the religious rancour and mutual recrimination of the Europeans were often productive of open hostility and blood- shed. As far, also, as the native tribes were con- cerned, the disputations alluded to could not fail to create a most serious obstacle in every attempt to convert them. When they perceived their Chris- tian instructors, French and English, thus disputing among themselves, it was not to be expected that they could weigh the respective merits of the matters in dispute ; and while the Romish and the Protestant missionaries reviled each other, the Indian lent a deaf ear to both. Hence Fr^re Sagard, at a very early period, was led to observe, *' So the Catholics had their priest, and the Huguenots their minister, and while they occupied 'I\ * D wight's Travels in New England, vol. ii. let. 11. if 294 HISTORICAL NO'i 1ESPECTINO Ch. XII. themselves in disputes concerning different religions, the Indians were confirmed in their want of any. The latter perceived very clearly the violent wrangles produced by such discussions ; for the savages are not so blind as to be unable to see the distinction which exists between those who do, and those who do not, adopt the sign of the cross, — as they them- selves have sometimes informed me/' * * Histoirc du Canada par le Frfere Sagard, liv.^i. chap. 2. Paris, 1636. CHAPTER XIII. i >' In. XII. Ch.XIII. THENOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 205 INJUDICIOUS CONDUCT OF THE PROTESTANT SET- TLEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA WITH REGARD TO THEIR CONVERTED INDIANS GENERAL RELUCT- ANCE OF THE INDIANS TO RECEIVE THE MISSION- ARIES. There is, perhaps, no subject connected with the Indians of North America, which gives rise to more melancholy reflection than that of the fruitless endeavours which were made to effect their conver- sion. It is evident that many causes concurred to produce this failure; but in general it may be traced to the imprudence, the folly, and the arro- gance of the Europeans. In the course of the preceding chapters, the rash and injudicious conduct pursued towards the na- tives by the early adventurers in that continent, has frequently been noticed. From the first, the In- dians were disposed to shew them hospitality and friendship. Many of the tribes, indeed, were pro- bably induced to assist the settlers from the hope that, by their alliance with the Europeans, they would obtain the more certain means of reducing their own Indian enemies to submission. But the interference of the colonists in the wars among the natives eventually proved a great obstruction to < \ 1 VA 296 HISTORICAL NOTES RIlSPECTING Ch. XIII. their acquiring the general good will of the Indians. If they had studied tlie character of the inhabitants of the country to which they had migrated, they would soon have observed that the Indians, with all their native generosity of disposition, seldom forgave a serious injury ; and the early and un- favourable impressions given to them by the con- duct of the Europeans were such as could not easily be forgotten. In New England, the very first act almost of the settlers towards the natives seems to have been a robbery. Several of the English, while exploring the country in November 16S0, found the Indian houses deserted. Having examined these, " some of the best things wee tooke away with us, and left the houses standing still as they were."* The infamous conduct of the English captain who, a few years before, had trepanned on board his ship a party of friendly Indians, carrying them off as slaves to the Mediterranean, has already been noticed ; and this act in itself could not fail to raise the indignation of all the tribes in that part of the country. It may likewise be observed, that long before any attempts were made to persuade them to receive the religion of the Europeans, some of those sanguinary hostilities had taken place be- tween the English and the Indians, which caused • Parchas, part iv. book x. clmp. 4. < 'I i Ch.XIII. the NOKiH AMERICAN INDIANS. 297 the latter to look upon the colonists as their inve- terate, and often as their treacherous, enemies. In New France, also, the folly of interfering in Indian wars was evident from the earliest period. In order to ingratiate themselves with the Algonquin and Huron nations, tne French began their expe- ditions by carrying fire and sword into the heart of the country of the Iroquois — a people who had never injured them. This was sufficient to fix that powerful confederacy in almost unceasing hostility to the French ; and the consequence was, that they received with doubt and distrust every subsequent attempt of that nation to civilize or convert them. But, even among the Indian tribes with whom the French were in alliance, the Roman Catholic missions did not succeed in effecting any real and general change in the religious sentiments of the native population. The harsh discipline and restraint inflicted upon the Roman Catholic converts by the civil and religious authorities in New France, has been pointed out in a former chapter ; and unfortunately the same system appears to have been too often followed in the British Protestant coloni('S. Long before the end of the seventeenth century the European population had rapidly increased in New England. Even about the year 1673 it is stated to have exceeded 120,000 souls. Those who endeavoured in that country to convert the m 298 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIII. Indians, continued generally resident in their own townships, supported by their own people, and living among their own countrymen. Even the so much celebrated church of the Praying Indians, under the superintendence of Mr. Eliot, at Natick, was scarcely more than a dozen of miles from his own regular parish of Roxbury, near Boston ; and the other similar establishments, formed at a subse- quent period, were all surrounded by, or adjoining to, the English settlements. From their local situa- tion, therefore, and from other circumstances, these Indians were favourably situated for receiving every benefit which the Europeans could- impart to them. But the conduct pursued with respect to them by the constituted authorities of New England, and the services in which they were often employed — par- ticularly in being sent as spies among their own countrymen — were such as not only to prevent their receiving any real advantage in consequence of the endeavours to teach them Christianity, but entirely to prevent conversion from spreading among the general mass of the native population. The accounts given of these acts of treachery are every where to be met with among the details of the contemporary writers. In the war with Philip, it was already noticed that his chief counsellor, Sosoman, after betraying his master's secrets, was baptized by the English, and employed by them to preach among the Indians; after which he was V ***»$*; Ch. Xril. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 299 prevailed upon to go back as a spy among Philip's adherents. In the same war, Hubbard relates, that, " while our forces were out, a couple of Christian Indians were sent as spies into the Nipnet and Narraganset country, through the woods in the depth of winter, when the ways were impassable for other sort of people. These two, by name James and Job, ordered their business so prudently, as that they were admitted into those Indian habitations as friends."* It has been already observed that, in their wars, the English not only often engaged the Christian Indians thus to act as spies among their countrymen, but also to fight against them in the field, and for these services they received marked encouragement and rewards But every reflecting Indian — and of these there were many — must have perceived that his conver- sion to the religion of the Whites, and his treachery to his own countrymen, went hand in hand; and he could not comprehend why an Englishman should be hanged for the same sort of conduct for which a converted savage was remunerated. " The scouts brought in one Joshua Tift, a renegado Eng- lishman, who, upon some discontent among his neighbours, had turned Indian, married one of the Indian squaws, renounced his religion, nation, and natural parents, all at once, fighting against them. ( HI * Hubbard's Narrative, p. 76. 300 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIII. After examination, he was condemned to die the death of a traitor. As to his religion he was found as ignorant as a heathen, which no doubt caused the fewer tears to be shed at his funeral."* Nor can it be doubted, that in the English colonies the Indian proselytes were retained in their converted state more by fear than by attachment. In many cases, indeed, they were treated by their protectors as if they had been avowed enemies. Even Uncas himself, the chief Sachem of the Mohegan Indians, and the converted ally of the English, did not meet with that treatment which a Christian confederate might have reasonably ex- pected from the public authorities of New England. ** This Uncas and all his Mohegan subjects pro- fessing Christianity are called Praying Indians. The authority at Boston sent an express to him to come and surrender himself, men and arms, to the English. Whereupon he sent along with the mes- senger his three sons, and about sixty of his men, with his arms, to be thus disposed of; viz., his two youngest sons to remain as hostages (as now they do at Cambridge), and his eldest son to go captain of the men as assistants of the English against the heathens, which accordingly they did. And the English not yet thinking themselves secure enough, because they cannot know a heathen from a • Hubbard's Narrative, p. 59. Ch.XIII. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 301 Christian by his visage and apparel, the authority at Boston published the following Order," &c. &c.* By this order it was, atnongst other things, com- manded, that none of the Praying Indians, under pain of being treated as enemies, should, unless in company with an Englishman, go above one mile from their own dwellings, — a range, it must be admitted, somewhat contracted for an American Indian accustomed to roam at large through the forest, and who naturally looked upon himself as one of the lords of the soil. " This once great and renowned nation (says Heckewelder, alluding to the Mohegans,) has almost entirely disappeared, as well as the numerous tribes who had descended from them. They have been destroyed by wars, and carried off by the small-pox and other dis- orders; and great numbers have died in conse- quence of the introduction of spirituous linuors among them. The remainder have fled, an . re- moved in separate bodies to different parts, where they now are dispersed or mingled with other nations.''^ And Dr. Morse, in his Report, says of them : — " Those who remain have made few ad- vances in any thing which pertains to civilization, and are gradually wasting away, after the manner of other tribes now extinct."J • Present State of New England (1675), p. 7. + Heckewelder's Account of the Indian Nations, ch. 4. X Morse's Indian Report (Appendix L). 302 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.XIH. If we turn our eyes also to the early English settlements in Virginia, we shall find that the Indians received no better treatment from the colonists in that quarter. After the death of the Indian sovereign Powhatan, the father of Poca- hontas, the natives became much exasperated at the conduct of the English settlers ; and in the year 16^2 a sudden insurrection took place, when they put to death about three hundred and fifty English, or one half of the colony.* In retaliation, the English commenced hostilities : — " They hunted the Indians," says Dr. Robertson, " like wild beasts rather than enemies ; and as the pursuit of them to their places of retreat in the woods was both difficult and dangerous, they endeavoured to allure them from their inaccessible fastnesses by offers of peace and promises of oblivion, made with such an artful appearance of sincerity, as deceived the crafty Indian chief, and induced the Indians to return, in the year 1623, to their former settlements, and resume their usual peaceful occupations. The be- haviour of the two people seemed now to be perfectly reversed. The Indians, like men acquainted with the principles of integrity and good faith, on which the intercourse between nations is founded, confided in the reconciliation, and lived in absolute security, without suspicion of danger, while the English with "Douglass's Summary, vol. i. part i. sect. 3. # be- en. XIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 303 perfidious craft were preparing to imitate tlie savages in their revenge and cruelty. On tiie ap- proach of harvest, when a hostile attack would be most formidable and fatal, the English fell sud- denly on all the Indian plantations, murdered every person on whom they could lay hold, and drove the rest to the woods, where so many perished with hunger, that some of the tribes nearest to the Eng- lish were totally extirpated."* The neighbouring Indian tribes soon retaliated. The governor of the colony having encroached upon their lands, another massacre took plac^ in ]639, when about five hun- dred of the English were put to death.f From what has been thus stated on the subject of the general conduct of the early European colonists, whether Protestant or Catholic, towards the Indians, can it be considered surprising that the latter should seldom have been disposed to listen with confidence to those who were employed to convert them ? Many, indeed, of the most sanguine missionaries themselves, have fully admitted the reluctance which the Indians have generally felt to receive the religious doctrines of the Whites ; and that such re- luctance originated in a great measure from the aversion felt by the former to the conduct and ap- parent principles of the latter. Even Brainerd • .'kr ii< i t * Robertson's History of America, book ix, t Douglass's Summary, vol. i., part i, sect. 3. M 304 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIII. himself has admitted this in a striking instance, which occurred to him among a tribe of the Delaware Indians, as thus narrated in his Diary : — " With these Indians I spent some time, and first ad- dressed their king in a friendly manner ; and, after some discourse, I told him I had a desire to in- struct them in Christianity, at which he laughed, turning his back upon me, and went away. I then addressed another principal man in the same man- ner, who said he was willing to hear me. After some time I followed the king into his house, and renewed my discourse with him ; but he declined talking, and left the affair to another, who appeared to be a rational man. He talked very warmly, and inquired why I desired the Indians to become Christians, seeing that the Christians were so much worse than they. The Christians, he said, would lie, steal, and drink, worse than the Indians. It was they who first taught the Indians to be drunk, and they stole from one another to that degree that their rulers were obliged to hang them for it, but that was not sufficient to deter others from it ; and he supposed that if the Indians should become Chris- tians, they would then be as bad as these."* It cannot be doubted, indeed, but that the Indians, for successive generations, have looked upon the Whites as a fraudulent, unjust, and im- * Brainerd's Diary- 'Miff, 1 'i ^ Ch. Xlir, THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 305 moral race ; preaching what they did not practise, and overreaching their red brethren upon every occasion, and by all the means in tiieir power. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find that the Indians do not scruple, even at the present day, to express, through their chiefs, their decided reluctance to receive the instructions of the missionaries : and this fact ought to operate as an indispensable ground for using the utmost caution in every endea- vour to convert them. There is a passage in Dr. Morse's Indian Report to the American Government, which appears closely connected with this subject. The zealous and benevolent feelings of that writer have naturally made him very sanguine with regard to the mea- sures he has suggested for the improvement of the Indians ; but can it escape observation, that in the very first speech which he addressed to them in consequence of his mission, (in June 1820,) while he was holding out to that unfortunate race his cheering prospects of the future, most melancholy — may we not add most galling — were the truths told to them of the past ! " Brothers, your father, the president of the United States, with whom I have conversed on the present state of the Indians who live under his jurisdiction, and with many pious Christians also, far and near, are thinking of you for good ; and are now engaged in devising together the best means to X til :m 306 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIII. IB m m - promote your welfare. We perceive that your numbers and your strength are diminishing ; that, from being a numerous and powerful people, spread over a wide and fertile country, in which was plenty of game for your support, you have becomtj few and feeble ; that you possess but small tracts of land, compared with what your fathers possessed; and your game, on which you formerly depended for your support, is gone. We see that there is no place on earth where you and your brethren can go and dwell together, unmolested, in the state in which your fathers lived. We see that you cannot many years longer live in any part of the United States in the hunter-state. The white people will push their settlements in every direction, and de- stroy your game and take away your best lands. You have not strength to defend yourselves, were you disposed to make war with the white people : they have become too powerful to be resisted, or restrained in their course. " In rtiese circumstances, your father, the president, and the good white people, extensively feel for you. We perceive that you are cast down and discouraged, that you are perplexed, and know not what to do. Your situation, and that of your red brethren gene- i^blly, has lately excited an unusual interest. I am authorised to say to you, that the American nation, the civil ais welt as the religious part of it, are now ready to extend to yoa the hand of sincere friend- Ch. XIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 307 ship, to aid you in rising from your depressed state ; and ill the best ways which can be devised, to save you from that ruin which seems inevitable in your present course, and to cause you to share with us all the blessings, both civil and religious, which we ourselves enjoy. We fully believe, from the recent events of Providence, tiiat God has great blessings in store for you and the rest of your red brethren in our country, if you will accept them ; and that you may yet * see good days, according to the days in which you have seen evil/ This is our most ardent desire. Let not then your spirits sink within you. Hope in God, who is able to save and to bless you. Trust in him and he will not leave you, but will be the health of your countenance, a refuge from all your troubles, a present help in time of need."* The speech, of which this extract formed the principal part, wab formally read to a council of the Six Nations, Dr. Morse not being able per- sonally to attend. On his return, some time after- wards, he found the chiefs of these Indians assembled on some affairs of their own. They had no previous knowledge of his coming, but Dr. Morse thought it better to attend their council, and to learn if they were prepared to say any thing on the subject he had so submitted to them. " I found ■ H * Morse's Indian Report, Appendix, p. I. 308 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIII. them," says he, " convened in their council-house in very decent order, arranged in two parties, the Christian party on my right hand. Captain Pollard (a chief of the Senecas) at their head ; the pagan party on the left hand, with the celebrated lied Jacket (a chief of the same nation) at their head." Dr. Morse gives the substance of what was spoken by the tw o chiefs of these opposite parties. Pollard began first, and thus addressed him: — . . r " Father, we thank the Great Spirit for preserv- ing you during your journey. If we had had more notice of your coming, we should have been better prepared to answer the speech you left us to con- sider. We suppo-e our great father, the president, appointed you to come and see us, to inquire into our situation, because he had confidence in you. We readily give you all the information we can. " Father, we are convinced, such is our situation, that we must have the Gospel. Without it we shall fall to pieces, and come to ruin. The re- servation on which we live is small. We have no hunting grounds. We cannot live as we formerly did. It is grateful to our hearts, therefore, to hear the proposal of our father, the president, which you have made to us : we grasp it with eagerness. We have begun, and are now moderately advancing to the accomplishment of what he wishes, as you may see from a view of our fields and our cattle. As to dividing our lands into farms, and holding Ch. Xni. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 309 them as individual property, as among the white people, we think it will not do for us. Holding our lands in common, as we now do, keeps us together. As Indians want goods from white people, and buy them on credit, we fear difficulties would arise in collecting these debts according to your laws, and our lands would be taken to pay them. ' • • I ' , . . . «. " Father, as to the plan of removing to some other part of the country and leaving our present habitations, we have no idea of it, and are at present determined to remain here. In this determination we and our brethren on the other side are agreed. Houses for religious worship and for schools are built among us for our use ; and when once built, they remain. Now listen to the pagans on the other side." * •,•../ The pagan chief. Red Jacket, whose Indian name is Saguoaha, was not well, and, having upon this occasion been called upon suddenly, was not prepared as he intended to have been, which was probably the reason why he made so short and abrupt a speech. The following was almost the whole of what he addressed to Dr. Morse : — < " I will be short. I understood that the time of yoiir return would have been appointed, and that we should have had notice of it. But you have come unexpectedly. We have not yet^ made up our minds on the subject you proposed to us. We •'1 . 'il* .^v 310 HISTORICAL NOTES IIKSPECTING Cii. XIII. if % ' 'U ! !** intend to call a general council of our brethren from a distance, and to take up the subject sub- mitted to our consideration, which we think a great and serious one. We will send the result of our great council, when it is adopted, to the president. By this we mean no disrespect to you : we regard it as a favour that he has sent you to us."* What the result of the proposed council was, or whether it was transmitted to the president as in- tended, does not distinctly appear : but Red Jacket, only a few months after this meeting with Dr. Morse, seems to have been somewhat more explicit in a speech that he transmitted to the governor of the state of New York, in which, among other complaints, he detailed the following grievances : — " The first subject to which we would call the attention of the governor, is the depredation daily committed by the white people upon the most valuable timber on our reservations. This has been a subject of complaint for many years ; but now, and particularly at this season of the year, it has become an alarming evil, and calls for the immediate interposition of the governor in our behalf. " Our next subject of complaint is the frequent theft of our horses and cattle by the whites, and their habit of taking and using them when they Morse's Report, Appendix, p. 5. Ca.XIII. TU£ NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 311 if 1 II please, and without our leave. These are evils which seem to increase upon us, and call loudly for redress. " Another evil arising from the pressure of the whites upon us, and our unavoidable communica- tion with them, is the frequency with which our Indians are thrown into jail, and that too for the most trifling causes. This is very galling to our feelings, and should not be allowed to the extent to which our white neighbours, in order to grat'fy their bad passions, now carry this practice. " In our hunting and fishing, too, we are greatly interrupted : our venison is stolen from the trees where we have hung it to be reclaimed after the chase ; our hunting camps have been fired into, and we have been warned that we should no longer be permitted to pursue the deer in those forests which were so lately all our own. The fish which, in the Buffalo and Tonnewanto Creeks, used to supply us with food, are now, by the dams and other obstruc- tions of the white people, prevented from multiply- ing, and we are almost entirely deprived of that accustomed sustenance. " Our great father, the president, has recom- mended to our young men to be industrious, to plough, and to sow. This we have done, and we are thankful for the advice, and for the means he has afforded us of carrying it into effect : we are happier in consequence of it. ■•^; ill 312 HISTORICAL NOTES UESPECTING Cu. XIII. ;. *' But another thing recommended to us has created great confusion among us, and is making us a quarrelsome and divided people ; and that is the introduction of preachers into our nation. These Black-robes* contrive to get consent of some of the Indians to preach among us ; and whenever this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to follow, and the encroachment of the whites upon our land is the invariable consequence. The governor must not think hard of me for speaking thus of the preachers. I have observed their progress, and when 1 look back to see what has taken place of old, 1 perceive that whenever they came among the Indians, they were forerunners of their dispersion ; that they introduced the white people on their lands, by whom they were robbed and plundered of their property ; and that the Indians were sure to dwindle and decrease, and be driven back, in proportion to the number of preachers that came among them." After some other, and stronger, complaints on this subject, Red Jacket concludes by stating that " The great source of all our grievances is, that the white men are among us. Let them be removed, and we shall be happy and contented among our- selves. We now cry to the governor for help, and hope that he will attend to our complaints, and speedily give us redress." . ...'.' The psual Indian appellation for the missionaries. * Cu. Xlir. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 313 Of the authenticity of this address there can be no doubt. It was dictated by Red Jacket, in the presence of several of his principal Indians, and regularly transmitted in writing through the accre- dited interpreter, in January, 1821, to Governor De Witt Clinton, at Albany, by whom it was deemed of sufficient importance to be officially laid by him before the legislature of the state of New York. The objections urged by this celebrated Seneca chief against the Christian missions, are by no means confined to one party or band of Indians ; and the same sentiments will generally be found still to prevail among the tribes, which were felt at a very early period by the Narragansets. When Mr. Mahew, about the middle of the seventeenth century, requested permission of a Narraganset sachem to preach to his Indians, the chief re- plied — " Go and teach the English to be good first." It is but too probable that, throughout North America, the greater part of the Indian nations are little disposed to admit the religious inter- ference of the missionaries. A distrust actuates the Indian of the present day similar to that which was once expressed in so characteristic a style by the Delaware tribes, as recorded by Dr. Boudinot, a corresponding member of the Scot- tish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Two missionaries had been edu- m ■ J' I Ill' w ^1 •314 HISTORICAL NOTES U£SP£X:TINU Ch.XIII. cated and ordained for the purpose of being sent to convert that people: " When they were ready to depart," says Dr. Boudinot, " we wrote a letter in the Indian style to the Delaware nation, informing them that we had, by the good- ness of the Great Spirit, been favoured with a Jsnowledge of his will as to the worship he re- quired of his creatures, and the means he would bless to promote the happiness of man, both in this life and that which was to come. That, thus enjoy- ing so much happiness ourselves, we could not but think of our red brethren in the wilderness, and wished to communicate the glad tidings to them, that they might be partakers with us. We had, therefore, sent them two ministers of the Gospel, (who would teach them great things ; and we ear- Bcstiy recommended these missionaries to their careful attention." The two missionaries accordingly set out, and arrived in safety at the place of their destination in the Indian country. The Delaware chiefs imme- diately assembled, and said they would take the subject into considerauon ; that, in the meantime the missionaries might instruct the women, but were not to speak to the men. The chiefs spent fourteen days in council, and the result of their de- liberation was, that they very courteously dismissed the two strangers, with an answer to those by whom they had been sent. " This answer," continues Ck. XIII. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 315 ^ Dr. Boudinot, " made great acknowledgments for the favour we had done them. They rejoiced ex- ceedingly at our ha[)piness in thus being favoured by the Greait Spirit, and felt very grateful that .we had condescended to remember our red brethren in the wilderness ; but they could not help recollect- ing that we had a people among us who, because they differed from us in colour, we had made slaves of, causing them to suffer great hardships, and lead miserable lives. Now they could not see any rea- son, if a people being black entitled us thus to deal with them, why a red colour would not equally justify the same treatment. They, therefore, liad determined to wait and see whether all the black people amongst us were made thus happy and joy- ful, before they could put confidence in our pro- mises ; for they thought a people who had suffered 80 mudi and so long by our means, should be entitled to our first attention : that, therefore, they had sent 'back the two missionaries, with many thanks, promising that when they saw the black people among us restored to freedom and happi- ness, they would gladly receive our fnissionaries." '" This," adds the narrator, " is what in any other case would be called close reasoning, and is too mortifying a fact to make further observa- tions upon."* J, 'if * Boudinot's Star in the West, ch. 8. 316 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. CHAPTER XIV. DIFFICULTY OF RECONCILING THE NORTH AMERI- CAN INDIANS TO EUROPEAN HABITS AND EDU- CATION UNFOUNDED ASSERTIONS OF SOME WRITERS AS TO THE ALLEGED NATURAL INCA- PACITY OF THE INDIANS WITH REFERENCE TO THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO CIVILIZE THEM. The same sentiments which prevented the North American Indian from placing confidence iu the Europeans, made him extremely averse to entrust his children among them for their education. And it may also be observed, that whenever he was in- duced so to entrust them, the youths themselves took every opportunity of running away from the settlements, and joining their relations in the wil- derness. " Indian children," says Dr. Golden, " have been carefully educated among the English, clothed, and taught by them ; yet I think there is not one instance that any of these, after they had liberty to go among their own people and were come of age, would remain with the English, but returned to their own nations, and became as fond of the Indian manner of life as those who knew nothing of a civilized manner of living."* Charlevoix, when treating on this subject, states that one of the first objects of the Chevalier de Montmagny, (Champlain's successor in the go- * Colden's History of the Five Nations, vol. i. ch. 13. p.^ •u'fl Ch. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 317 vernment of New France,) was to carry into effect the projected seminary for Indian youth in the col- lege of the Jesuits at Quebec. It was thought advis- able to commence the experiment with the Hurons, whose children, it was also supposed, would serve as hostages for the fidelity of their relations: t^-y were therefore invited to send them, and to this they assented. The missionary Daniel was ap- pointed to convey these children to Quebec; but notwithstanding all his exertions, he could only succeed in collecting three or four, whose fathers were absent at the time. " Even these," says Charlevoix, " he could carry down no farther than Three Rivers, where their parents meeting them, they were taken back again, although they had already consented to their going to Quebec. This conduct, however, did not surprise the missionary, who was fully aware of the extreme attachment the Indians have for their children, and the in- vincible repugnance they feel in being separated from them."* The same writer, in another of his works, laments very strongly the difficulties which occurred ^n New France, in their endeavours lo assimilate the Indians to the habits of the French, and to make them educate their children in the European manner. " Many of the French," says he, '* have resided among the savages, and have been so well pleased t 'i I ''ill f'- Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. v. 318 HISTOniCAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIV. m 4: it P^ with their manner of life, that, although they lived much at their ease in the colony, they could not be prevailed upon to return to it. On the other hand, there has been no instance of an Indian conform- ing himself to our mod*^ of living."* It was like- wise observed by the Marquis de Denonville, when governor-general of Canada, in writing to the minister of France — " It has been long imagined that the Indians might be brought near us in order to Frenchify them, (pour les Fran^iser^ but there is every reason to believe that this is a mistake. Those of the savages who have been brought among OS have not become French, and the French who have resided among the Indians have become savages."t Dr. Golden also mentions, that after the peace of Ryswick, when all hostility had ceased between the English and the French, many of the European prisoners, who had long been captives among the Indians, would not be prevailed upon to return to their own country and friends. The commissioners did every thing in their power to prevail both upon the EngHsh and the French, who had been de- tained among the Indians, to leave them, but with little success; and " several of them who were persuaded by the caressings of their relations to come home, in a little time grew tired of our manner * Charlevoix, Journal Historique, let. 22. t Ibid., Hist, de la Nouvelle France, )iv. xi. ^1' Cm. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 319 of living, and ran away to the Indians, and ended their days with them."* These facts, among others, may be fairly pro- duced as forming a strong proof of the natural gentleness of the Indian character; because it cannot otherwise be supposed that the Europeans would have thus voluntarily passed their lives among them, unless they had known from experi- ence that — except perhaps in cases of intoxica^- tion — they had nothing to fear from Indian fe- rocity. While however they thus resided among them, although they met with a cordial treatment, the Indians shewed little desire to adopt their cus- toms, or have their children educated in the Euro* pean manner. But if we are to credit the works of various writers, and particularly the Recherches Philoso- phiques of Monsieur de Pauw, it is useless to at- tempt to civilize or educate the American Indian, *— who, according to that author, is " superior to animals only from having the use of lis hands and his tongue ; and inferior to the meanest of the Europeans. Void of intellect, and incapable of improvement, he is only led by instinct. No idea of glory can penetrate his soul : his unpardonable debasement retains him in the slavery in which he is plunged, or in that savage state which he has not had the courage to abandon. It is almost three V 'I * Colden's Hist, of the Five Nations, vol. i. ch. 13. r I 320 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. ml m I ■ centuries since America was discovered ; from which time they have not ceased to bring over to Europe American Indians, upon whom they have tried every sort of cultivation; but not one of them could ever be taught to distinguish himself in science, arts, or manufactures."* Who these In- dians were, at what time brought over, how culti- vated, by whom taught, and where educated, he has not noticed ; and yet the unfounded calumnies of De Pauw had, in their day, the effect of raising a general and unjust prejudice against the Indians of the Western World. " A Lie," says the American adage, " will travel from Maine to Georgia, while Truth is pulling on his boots ;" and so it was with the assertions of that writer, who seems, in the middle of the eighteenth century, to have been as ignorant of the true character and qualifications of the American Indian, as Francis the First was, two hundred years before. To these unfounded and illiberal charges brought against the uninstructed Indians, in the Recherches Philosophiques, the most appropriate answer may be found in the anecdote recorded by the celebrated American philosopher. At a grand council held in 1744, between the British Commissioners from Virginia and the In- dians, the former, after the principal business was finished, stated that there was a college at Williams- * Recherches Philosophiques sur les Am6ricains, par De Pauw, vol. ii. partie v. Ch. XIV. THK NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 321 burgh with a fund appropriated for the education of the Indian youth ; and that if the red chiefs would send some of their children to that place, they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the learning of the whites. One of the Indian orators answered by expressing the deep sense entertained of the kindness of this offer : " For we know," said he, " that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in these colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are con- vinced that you mean to do us good by your pro- posal, and we thank you heartily : but you, who are wise, must know that different nations have dif- ferent conceptions of things ; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of educa- tion happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young men were formerly brought up at the colleges in your northern provinces. They were instructed in all your sciences : but when they came back to us, they were bad runners ; ignorant of every means of living in the woods ; unable to bear either cold or hunger ; knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy; spoke our lang ;age imper- fectly; were neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor councillors : they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it ; and, to shew Y If "it It ! 322 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. Cii. mi III.' you our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." * It has been the common practice with many, in imitation of De Pauw, to stigmatize the Indians for their ignorance of arts and manufactures, and to conclude that, as they have remained so long without copying the improvements of the white population in their neighbourhood, there is little, if any, chance of their being now brought within the pale of civi- lization. This impression originates from the pre- judice so often entertained with respect to that ill- fated race. Had the conduct of the whites been more liberal and considerate towards the Indian, he would, no doubt, long ago have been led to adopt many of their improvements : but his simple habits and few wants in a great measure rendered unnecessary the exertion of his industry with re- gard to objects which are considered indispensable in more civilized life. To this, as well as to the conduct of the Europeans themselves, must be as- cribed the little advancement he has made in adopt- ing their manners and customs. At the same time, any person who will impartially notice the various articles which the Indians, both male and female, are in the habit of manufacturing for their own * Dr. Franklin's Essays. Remarks on tlie North American Savages. II \ ' Cii. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 323 ' ' I •I immediate use, will not feel disposed to pronounce them deficient in handicraft skill and ingenuity. Their instruments of war and of the chase, their bows and arrows and spears, are skilfully con- structed, and well adapted for what is required of them. The skins of various animals usea by them for their clothing and bedding are, in many cases, dressed and prepared for the purpose with more skill than has been attained by the European manufacturer. Several of the tribes (chiefly towards the Missisippi) seem, from the earliest periods, to have made a sort of coarse but warm clothing, woven from the wool and hair of the buftalo ; and, before the introduction, by the traders, of metal utensils for cooking and other purposes, the Indians were in the habit of making vessels of clay and pot- tery. Their baskets and various other articles manufactured from the bark of the birch tree, in- geniously contrived, and beautifully ornamented with porcupine quills stained with the finest colours, evidently shew their taste and skill in such em- ployments. The many ingenious devices followed by the Indian in pursuit of his game, and the ad- dress with which he takes the nunierous sorts of fish with which the American rivers abound, have for ages been copied by his white brethren. His sin- gular skill in traversing in a direct line his immense native forests, and his accuracy in delineating maps of the country, have often been the subject of sur- M- lltj. I ' ■ I- 324 IlISTOllICAL NOTES IlKSFECTING Cu. XIV. prise to the Europeans.* Tlie knowledge possessed by the Indian ot" the use ot' many valuable medi- cinal plants has been generally adniitted : he taught the Europeans also the art of extracting sugar from the maple-tree — a practice almost universally fol- lowed in many extensive regions of North America. Nor must it be forgotten, that without the Indian snow-shoe and the Indian canoe, the trader or the traveller, in the interior of that continent, would be totally unable to prosecute his voyages at the seasons during which it might be important for him to undertake them. The invention of the bark- canoe is of itself sufficient to redeem the Indian from the charge of want of handicraft skill and ingenuity. The superior mechanical knowledge of the Europeans has never induced them to reject that conveyance, or enabled them to improve it ; although, from its lightness and elegance, it has more the appearance of a toy for amusement than a vehicle for transporting weighty articles of com- merce. It can be conveyed without difficulty through almost impervious forests, over rugged portages, and along rapid and dangerous rivers, with expedition and safety : and, though liable to be broken by the slightest shock, it is constructed * I was informed by Mr. Hunter, that the Indians can march at night in a direct line through the forests, wheii, they cannot see even a star to guide them, merely by feeling the bark of the trees as they move along. of Ch.XIV. the NOUTII AMERICAN INDIANS. 325 m of such sinij)le materials, that tlic neighbouring forest seldom fails to furnish the bark, the gum, and the fibres necessary for its immediate repair. The extraordinary skill and boldness with which the Indian navigates his canoe can only be credited by those who have witnessed it, or whom lie has taught to follow his example. But tliere is no point in which the vanity of the w bite man is more conspiciiutis than in his lamenta- tion that the Indian cannot be induced to relinquish his hunter-state, and follow, like him, the pursuits of tmriculture. It is the common erv among us that the savage must now at length be taught to till the ground, to sow, and to reap; we all the while for- getting that it was this same savage who actually taught the European emigrant how to cultivate the American soil, to clear the stubborn forest by degrees, and to grow that valuable grain, the maize, or Indian corn ; and that the farmers even of the present day, throughout all the new settlements — in the wooded parts, at least, of North America — do little more than follow the agricultural lessons taught to their progenitors by the Indians. It is evident that, from the earliest periods, almost all the natives of those countries in North America, where the climate and soil permitted it, raised abundance of that species of corn ; and they pro- bably did not relinquish so beneficial a piacticc, until tiieir habits and modes jf life came to be i; II: ;i. S26 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIV. Ch. S* materially changed, and their manners corrupted by communication with Europeans. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, therefore, is mis- taken when he blames the French missionaries and other persons for not having taught the Indians how to cultivate the soil. " Agriculture," says he, " so formed to fix and combine society, and so preparatory to objects of superior consider- ation, should haye been the first thing introduced among a savage people. It attaches the wandering tribe to that spot where it adds so much to their comforts, while it gives them a sense of property, and of lasting possession, instead of the uncertain hopes of the chase, and the fugitive produce of un- cultivated wilds."* The benefits of agriculture cannot be too much extolled; but .. so happens that most of the North American Indians practised it long before even the earliest European mission- aries visited their country. In the account given by Hackluyt of Jaques Car- tier's voyage up the St. Lawrence in 1535, (when he first discovered the Island of Hochelago, now of Montreal,) he says : " The Indians brought us great store of fish, and of bread made of millet, casting them into our boates so thicke, that vou would have thought it to fall from heaven." " They have, on * Mackenzie's V^oyages, Preliminary Discourse on the Fuj- trade. ?! Cii.XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 327 the top of their houses, certain garrets wherein they keep their come to make their bread withall. They make also sundry sorts of pottage with the said corne, and also of pease and of beanes, whereof they have great store, as also with other fruits, as muske-miliions, and very great cowcumbers," &c.* Lescarbot, vvlio from curiosity accompanied Mon- sieur de Pourtrincourt to Canada in the year I6O6, mentions that " the Indians were then in the habit of cuUivating and clearing the ground, of manuring it with sea shells, raising the earth in small mounds, or heaps at equal intervals, and planting their Indian corn at regular distances, with beans sown between them."'|' Monsieur de Champlain also, in one of his earliest expeditions against the Iroquois, mentions that he at that time found the enemy all busily employed in gathering in their corn. And P^re le Caron, the first of the missionaries in New France who advanced into the interior, and who is stated to have travelled many hundred leagues up the coun- try in the year 16 15, found every where fields of corn, beans, squashes, and pumpkins.J When P^re AUouez likewise first proceeded to the upper extremity of Lake Superior, he discovered a large * Hackliiyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 219. + Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle Fiance, liv. vi. eh. 23. X Premier Etablissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle Franco, vol. i. i I r I •M f 'li •1 fi *u '•f •* !;• r 328 HISTORICAL NOTES UESPECTIN(; Ch. XIV. village of mixed Indians, chiefly Ottawas, living peaceably together, leading a sedentary life, and cultivating iields of corn. He also describes the Pottawatomies as " a warlike people, hunters, and fishers, and cultivating the ground with Indian corn."* When P^re Marquette undertook his adventurous journey into the interior in 1673, he found the Miami, Mascoutons, and Kickapoos, raising abundance of Indian corn. As he advanced into the country of the Illinois, they were similarly employed, in grovving corn, beans, melons, and pumpkins. Hennepin, who was in the interior, in the year 1680, mentions that the Senecas — the most numerous nation of the Iroquois confederacy — cultivated and carefully manured the soil, raising frequently sufficient in one season to serve them for two, and securing their stores in granaries.^ The Baron de la Hontan, ^" a letter written from Mi- chillimakinac in 1685, observes: "The country here is fine, and well adapted for agriculture. The savages accordingly do not allow it to remain un- productive ; they take great pains to sow Indian corn, pease, beans, pumpkins, and melons. The Hurons and Ottawas sell a great deal of Indian corn ; but they sometimes put so high a price upon it, particularly when their beaver hunts have been * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1666-67, ch. 3 et 9. t Ileiiiiepin, vol. i. cli. 5. Cn.XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 329 1 i Hi-' m unsuccessful, that they indemnify themselves abun- dantly for the excessive charges we make for our merchandise." * . • But one of the most satisfactory, as well as the most early, accounts transmitted on this subject, is that of Sagard, the Recollet missionary, who went out to Canada in 1623. In describing the Hurons, among whom he resided, he says they re- gularly cultivated the ground, although, from their want of proper instruments, the labour was great. Every individual was allowed as much land for the purpose of cultivation as he chose ; and, in that case, the ground belonged exclusively to him as long as he continued to cultivate it : if he entirely left his allotment, another person might occupy it, but not otiicrwise. Tn perusing the following early account, as given by Sagard, one would almost believe it to be that of a nodern American back- woodsman, or of a New-Englander, when he first begins the operations of bis farm in the wilderness. ** The Indians," sa^s Sagard, "cut down the trees about two or three feet from the ground, then lop all the b''anches and burn them at the roots of the tree, which kills it, and in time they take away the roots. Then the women carefully clean the ground among the stumps, and dig, step by step, a round liole, in each of which they sow nine or ten grains Hi La Ilontun, vol, i. let. 14. 330 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. of Indian corn, which they have first carefully se- lected and soaked some days in water. This cul- tivation they continue until they have laid up two or three years' provision ; either to secure food for themselves, should there occur any year of ro ircity, or to exchange it with other nations for peltries, or any other articles they may stand in need of. They every year plant their corn on the same spots, which they turn up afresh with their little wooden hoes ; the rest of the ground, in the intervals, being left uncultivated, and only cleared of weeds, so that they appear all like roads, so careful are they to keep them clean. This has often caused me to lose my way, more than in the plains and forests. " The corn being thus sown in the manner that we do beans, from each grain grows one stalk or cane, and each stalk bears two or three ears, each ear containing one, two, and sometimes four hun- dred grains, and some even more. The stalk grows to the height of a man, and is very thick. The corn is better and more productive among the Hu- rons than either in Canada or France. It ripens in four months, and in some places in three. They then gather it, tying back the leaves at the top, and put them in regular parcels, which they hang upon poles, in form of racks, all along their cabins from top to bottom. When the grain is thoroughly dry, it is separated by the women and children, who clean it, and put it in large tubs or tuns appropriated for l-l '. Cii. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ?31 f'\ I '• that purpose, and placed in the porch or some other part of their cabins."* Sagard concludes his account by describing their different modes of making bread, and how they cooked their Indian corn, mixing it with other ingredients. Before the arrival of the French, he says, the Hurons had no metal pots nor utensils, but made use of wooden ones of their own construction, boiling the meat in them by means of hot stones put in the water. The Huron women, he adds, made excellent vessels of eurthenware. We cannot therefore concur with Mackenzie in blaming the early French Canadians, any more than we can the British in New England, for not teaching agriculture to the Indians, however much they may both be pronounced culpable for their fre- quent and wanton destruction of the corn which the Indian had raised. Dr. Turnbull, in his History of Connecticut, says, ** The Indians, at the first settle^- ment of the English, performed may acts of kind- ness towards them : they instructed them in the manner of planting and dressing the Indian corn ;" — and " by selling them corn when pinched with famine, they relieved their distresses, and prevented them from perishing in a strange land and unculti- vated wilderness.*'t The same writer, noticing a sea- * Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons, &c,, par Fr^re Gabriel Sagard, Recollet, ch. viii. Paris, 1632. I TurnbuU'p Connecticut, vol. i. ch. 3. •hi lli ■ i 332 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. m '^1 hi i 'rf 1 Jji M ft m H^H son in which the English settlers suffered severely from a great scarcity, says, "In this distressful situation, a committee was sent to an Indian settlement called Pocomtock, where they pur- chased such quantities that the Indians came down to Windsor and Hartford, with fifty canoes at one time, laden with Indian corn."* Yet the English, in their useless expeditions against the natives, hegan at a very early period to shew their rancour against their enemies by the destruction of " those fields of stately corn" of which mention is every where made in the accounts of the Indian wars. When Captain Endicot was deputed to march against them in a campaign which has been already noticed, we read that '* There were two plantations on the island (Block Island), containing about sixty wigwams, some of them very large and fair. The Indians had also about two hundred acres of corn. After the English had spent two days on the island, burning the wigwams, staving their canoes, and destroying their corn, they sailed for the Pequot country," &c. &c. " Enough," adds Dr. TurnbuU, " had been done to exasperate, but nothing to subdue, a haughty and warlike enemy. "f Similar to this were many of the campaigns carried on by the French in Canada. La Hontan, when employed in the expedition undertaken in * TurnbuU's Connecticut, vol. i. ch. 6. t Ibid. ch. 5. •bill Ch. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 333 1687 by the Marquis de Denonville against the Senecas, observes — in noticing an Iroquois village which had been deserted by its inhabitants — '* We found there no living being to kill, except horses, cattle, poultry, and swine, but no men. Those of us who were most vexed at this disappointment, expended our ill humour upon the fields of grain. This we cut down by vigorous efforts of the sword, being employed five or six days in the gallant occupation. Animating each other in this our martial ardour, we advanced about three leagues, always carrying on the war against our enemy — the Indian corn."* Charlevoix likewise, in giving an account of this wanton devastation, says that the French encamped in one of the four large villages w ' ich principally composed the canton of the Sene- cas : they found nobody, and the village was burnt. They then penetrated farther into the country, and for ten days in which they overran it they found no one. This time was spent in ravaging the country, *' and, above all, in burning four hundred thousand minots of corn."t " They also killed a prodigious number of swine, which caused much sickness. This, joined to the fatigue of two days' march through frightful roads, and the fear the general had of being abandoned by our Indian allies, who con- * La Hontan, vol. i. let. 13. t Mimt, an old French measure containing three bushels. *i* II i;'ii I'u. I'M' '•«'■; > ni h: •';..J| 334 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. stantly threatened to leave him, obliged him to put a limit to his exploits. Thus, after having again taken possession of a country which be had conquered, the general marched towards the river Niagara," &c.* These are the accounts recorded of this military expedition, by a French officer and by a Jesuit mis- sionary ; let us see what the then bishop of New France says of the same campaign : — " The French then entered into the fine plain of Gazeroar^, the principal residence of the Senecas, that famous Babylon, where so many crimes have been com- mitted, so much blood spilt, and so many men burnt alive. It is situated on an agreeable rising ground, to which you ascend by two little eminences in the shape of an amphitheatre, surrounded by lofty hills, and a very fertile plain about a league square, at that time almost entirely covered with Indian corn nearly ripe, which the troops mowed down with their swords. This village they burnt, and three others, together with the fort ; and it was supposed they destroyed about six hundred thou- sand minots of new corn, and thirty thousand of old, in order to starve the country, so that it might be impossible for the savages to subsist themselves." " It was thought necessary," continues the bishop, " for many reasons, to remain contented for this * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Notivelle Franco, liv. xi. Cil. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 335 year with these advantages ; a great deal had been accomplished by securing the trade, humbling the Iroquois, and causing their scalps to be carried throughout all the land :" and the worthy prelate thus concludes his account, — " One sees by the success of the campaign what may be expected from the wisdom and co-operation of those who at present exercise the authority of the king in Canada ; and it only remains for me to say that, in returning to France, it was a great consolation to leave be- hind me two men whose good conduct promises us a long course of prosperity for religion and the state."* Leaving the bishop to the benefits of this conso- lation, we may notice another similar expedition, which was conducted by the Marquis de Tracy, against the Mohawks. The French had hoped to surprise the inhabitants, but they had fled ; and they only took some old men, women, and children, prisoners. " This canton," says Charlevoix, " was much richer at that time than it has been since. The cabins were well-built and neatly ornamented, each about twenty-six feet long, and of propor- tionate width, all boarded in the inside-t The ( f:?. i[..' ♦ Estat present de I'Eglise, et de la Colonie Fraiifoise dans la Nouvelle France, par M. I'Eveque de Quebec, p. 262. Paris, 1688. t There can be no doubt that the Indians, since their con- 336 HISTOKICAL NOTES KESPEv;viNG Cii. XIV. soldiers every where discovered iiiiigazines dug in the ground full of corn, sufficient to subsist the whole canton for two years. The first village we reduced to ashes ; the two others were at a consi- derable distance. At the last of these we found the enemy ; but he fled at our approach, and we could not follow him. The French avenged them- selves upon tlie cabins, not one of which esca[)ed beins; reduced to ashes throughout the whole canton." Thus ended the campaign, — " the nexion with the Europeans, and tlie corruption of manners with its consequent penury, have become much more slovenly and indifferent to their personal comfort, and to the cle anli- ness of their habitations, than they were two or three cen- turies ago. In Hackluyt's account of Cartier's discovcv of the Indian town of Hochelaga, upon the St. Lawrence, i^e says : " There are in the towne about fiftie houses, about fiftie paces long, and twelve or fifteene broad, built all of wood, covered over with the barke of the wood, as broad as any boord, very finely and cunningly joyned togither : within the said houses there are many roomes, lodgings, and cham- bers : in the middest of every one there is a great court, in the middle whereof they make their lire. They live in com- mon togither : then doe the husbahds, wives, and children, each one retire themselves to their chambers." — Hackluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 220. In New England, the Indian wig- wams are described to have been " very large and fair." And La Hontan states the cabins, in his day, as being eighty feet long, twenty-five or thirty feet wide, and twenty high; and that the Indians had also smaller cabins, with beds raised above the ground, &c. C». XIV. THE NOIITH AMERICAN INDIANS. 337 viceroy, on his return to Quebec, hanging three or four "»£ his prisoners, as an example to the rest."* In the expedition, also, which was formerly noticed as being conducted by Chevalier de Beauhar- nois, against several Indian tribes in the interior, Father Crespel, who was present, states, that not being able to find the inhabitants of a village they had taken possession of, they could " only burn their cabins to the ground, and destroy all their Indian corn, the food upon which they principally subsist." And, having advanced a little farther, for the purpose of attacking another village of the Win- nepagoes, they, in like manner, found it deserted ; " we therefore," says Crespel, " employed some lime in entirely ruining the crops, in order that the Indians might be starved. "f This kind intention to starve a whole nation did not succeed ; for when Carver visited that people, in 176(), he found them still raising " a great quantity of Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and water-melons, with some tobacco."J It is curious to observe that these same Winnepagoes have continued to the present day an agricultural and contented tribe, taking good care that the white j)opulation should come among them as little as possible. In Dr. Morse's III" * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. ix. t Voyage du P^re Crespel au Nouveau Monde, p. 21. J Carver's Travels, p. 37. 338 HISTORICAL NOTIS RESri:CTIN(J Cii. XIV. late Report, it is observed of tlicm, that " Ihcy will sufter no encroacl)incnt upon tlieir soil, nor any persons to pass througli it without givinjr a satisfactory explanation of their motives and inten- tions. In failing to comply with this preliminary step, their lives would be in danger. They cul- tivate corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, and beans ; and are remarkably provident. They pos- sess some horses. The Winnepagoes are indus- trious, frugal, and temperate." They appear also to be increasing in numbers. In the year 1812 they consisted of 3500 souls, and in 1 820 they had increased to 5800.* It is certainly a striking circumstance thus to observe a nation of Indians, concentrated among themselves, prospering in agriculture, living con- tented and temperate, and increasing in population; while so many of their fellow-tribes, in consequence of their communication with Europeans, or the descendants of Europeans, have abandoned the best habits of their ancestors, and dwindled away in laziness, intoxication, penury, and disease. n It is not necessary to enter farther into the sub- ject of the natural capacity of the North American Indian for science, arts, or manufactures. The experiment of teaching these to him has, in all pro- umr * Bforse's Indian Report, Appendix, pp. 48 and 59. Cll. XIV. THE NOUTII AMERICAN INDIANS. XVJ f m bability, never been fairly or judiciously tried. Nor sliould it be admitted that the obstacles wbicii have occurred, and still occur, to bis civilization, arise from any constitutional inferiority or deliciency of intellect. One other instance — and one only — shall be given of the ingenuity of the North Ame- rican Indian ; and, in noticing it. Monsieur I)c Pauvv shall have ample credit for his triumphant assertion, that " at the first arrival of the Euro- peans in the Western hemis{)here, there was not an Indian in America who could read or ztrite.'* Although the aborigines of that continent do not appear ever to have had an alphabet in use among them, nor even to have supposed that the words of their language might be composed of, or divisible into separate letters, of which they had no notion, they have generally, by means of hieroglyphical representations, been enabled to communicate or describe their most important affairs and transac- tions. This practice — distinct from the custom of delineating upon the collars of wampum their national treaties and records — is certainly marked with much ingenuity. By means of painting on the stems of trees, when stripped of their bark, they find the ready means of giving important informa- tion to their roaming war-parties and allies respect- ing their own operations and the movements of Recherches Philosophiques, vol. ii. partie 5. 340 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XIV. .ill theii enemies. When it is intended to represent events in a more permanent and portable form, they prepare the inner rind of the birch bark, and sometimes the skins of animals, upon which they paint, with charcoal or other colours mixed up with grease or oil, the objects they intend to delineate. The materials they use, and their mode of execu- tion, probably depend upon the importance of the subject, and the expected durability of the represent- ation. I have occasionally seen, at the portages in the interior, slight drawings of charcoal upon small slips of birch bark, fastened upon the bushos, or on sticks put in the ground, upon which were drawn particular beasts, birds, or fishes. This simple but convenient mode is adopted by the Indians (who generally assume the names of parti- cular animals), to let their friends know that they had passed in that direction. And at other places I have observed, deeply and distinctly chiselled on lofty rocks of granite, large hiero- glyphical representations of men fighting, of horses, serpents, birdS; &c.,and which are supposed to have remained there from the most remote antiquity. With respect to their common emblematical de- lineations upon the stems of trees, Carver has given an instance of one of them during his travels tov.ards Lake Superior from the Mississippi.* ■'% % * Carver's Travels, ch. 17. given ffk Cu. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 341 A chief of the Chippewas, who upon that oc- casion acted as his guide, was apprehensive that their small party might be perceived and followed by some straggling band of the Naudo- wessies (or Scioux Indians), with whom the Chip- pewas were constantly at war. The chief ac- cordingly stripped some of the bark from a tree at a conspicuous spot near the mouth of the Chip- pewa river, and having mixed up some charcoal with bear's grease, drew, in a rough style, on the stem of the tree, first, the town of the Otto- gamies, then a man dressed in skins, intended to represent a Scioux, with a line drawn from his mouth to that of a deer — the symbol of the Chip- pewas. He then painted a canoe as proceeding up the river, and a man sitting in it with his hat on : this was to represent an Englishman (Carver) ; and another man was described with a handker- chief tied round his head paddling the canoe ; viz. the French canoeman by whom Carver was accom- panied. He then added some other significant emblems, among which was the pipe of peace at the prow of the canoe. " The meaning," says Carver, " which he intended thus to convey to the Naudowessies — and which, I doubt not, appeared perfectly intelligible to them — was, that one of the Chippewa chiefs had received a speech from some Naudowessie chiefs at the town of the Ottogamies, desiring him to conduct the Englishman, who had m :i;i 342 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.XIV, lately been among them, up the river, and that they required that the Chippewa, notwithstanding he was an avowed enemy, should not be molested by them in his passage, as he had the care of a person whom they esteemed as one of their own nation. '# m ^'"v !•: i r'i'' m r * The Chippewa Indians and the Scioux appear to have been from time immemorial in almost constant rivalship ; and their hostility continues to the present day. When I was in the interior country of the Chippewas, in the year 1822, a gentleman who had resided a considerable time among the Red Lake Indians (of the Chippewa nation), related to me a circumstance that had occurred not long before in his neighbourhood, and which exhibits an instance of that respect with which the North American Indian often regards acts of bravery, even in an inveterate enemy. A band of the Scioux having killed two of the Red Lake Chippewas, the latter tribe determined to take ample re- venge. Sixteen of their warriors accordingly set out, and reached the Scioux village, where they found their enemy in great force. They stationed themselves in a small wood, near the village, from whence they fired upon the Scioux. The latter immediately assembled, and surrounded the wood. One of the Chippewas made his escape, but the remaining fifteen, after defending themselves gallantly, were all killed. Seventeen of the Scioux also fell; but their chief ordered that none of the Chippewas should be scalped, as they had fought bravely. He then caused a large and deep grave to be dug, in which those who had faller in battle on either side were all honourably interred ; the body of a Scioux and of a Chippewa being alternately deposited in tlie grave. Cii.XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 343 La Hontan, nearly a century and a half ago, inserted in his Travels a graphic illustration of an Indian hieroglyphic ; and his accuracy — so often and so unjustly called in question — has received a strong corroboration by the later statements of Car- ver, Heckewelder, Hunter, Schoolcraft, and others, upon this subject. The drawing alluded to is divided into several compartments. The first exhibits a tomohawke (the symbol of war), with the fleur-de-lis, the arms of France, underneath, meaning that the French had commenced war ; eighteen other marks shewing the number of their troops, each mark standing for ten soldiers. On the right of the second compart- ment is represented a mountain (the emblem of Montreal), from which a bird is directing its flight, meaning that the French had set out. A moon in its first quarter, placed on the back of a deer, tells the time of their departure — the beginning of the month of July, termed by the Indians " the Moon of the Deer." In another division, the picture of a canoe shews that they first advanced by water, and a group of cabins (as sleeping places) points out the number of days occupied in their voyage. The representation of a human foot shews that the French marched by land (a day's march being generally about five French leagues) as many days as there are cabins marked in that compartment; and, in the next, a hand pointing to three cabins ■■,1' »u 1 <;, * ■ iK I 344 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XIV- m signifies that they had approached within three days' inarch of the Seneca village, the emblem of which is a long cabin or lodge with a tree at each end of it. The sun is represented at the right hand of this emblem, shewing that the affair took place on the east side of the village. In the next division of the picture there are twelve marks, each mark meaning ten men, and the Seneca emblem accom- panying them shews that they are Indians of ihat nation. A person drawn lying as if asleep on the ground, means that they were taken by surprise : a war club and eleven human heads, that eleven Senecas were killed ; and five men, represented each witli a particular mark, imply that fifty of them were taken prisoners. In another compart- ment, nine heads within a bow, mean that nine of the attacking enemy were killed ; and twelve underneath it, that twelve of them were wounded. Arrov/s represented as flying in the air in different directions, shew that they fought well on both sides ; and, lastly, a number of arrows flying all one way, that the conquered party fled or retreated in disorder. " Thus," says the baron, in explaining his Itv- quois Gazette^ " the French soldiers, to the number of 180, having set out from Montreal about the beginning of July, proceeded twenty-one days in their canoes ; then advancing thirty-five leagues on foot, they surprised 120 Senecas on the east Is. ■ f I Ch. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 345 side of their village, of whom eleven were killed and fifty taken prisoners, with the loss, on the part of the French, of nine killed and twelve wounded— the battle having been well contested."* Although, therefore, the author of the Recher- ches Philosophiques may have triumphantly held the Indians in contempt, because, at the time when America was first discovered, iher^ was not to be found a native in that continent who could read or writCy yet enough has probably been inserted in these Notes to shew that, at all events, the Indian may fairly be reckoned not incapable of being taught. And to the charge which the same writer has gravely added, that " even in our days there is not one of the Indians who has the power to think" we may be permitted to close this part of the subject with the thoughts so eloquendy expressed by his own contemporary, the celebrated Indian, Logan — whose speech has been so much admired on both sides of the Atlantic. The authenticity of this specimen of Indian eloquence having been called in question, induced Mr. Jef- ferson, the late president of the United States, to ascertain it beyond the shadow of a doubt; and in an Appendix (published at Philadelphia in 1800) to his Notes on Virginia, he expressed his wish that in any subsequent edition of that work iiii iS i !i! ^.M * La Hontan, vol. ii. p. 210. 346 HISTORICAL NOTES llESPECTING Cii.XlV. iili the circumstance should be thus stated : — That in the year 1774, a robbery having been committed by some Indians upon the white settlers on the' Ohio, the latter undertook, in a summary way, to punish the outrage. They surprised, at different times, several of the Indian hunting parties, with their women and children, and murdered many of them. Among these was the family of Logan, a celebrated chief, who had always distinguished himself as the friend of the whites. This ungrateful return provoked his vengeance, and in the war which ensued he highly signalized himself. In the autumn of that year, the Indians were defeated in a decisive battle, and sued for peace. Logan, however, disdained to be seen among the sup- pliants. But, in order that no distrust might arise in the treaty on account of the absence of so celebrated a warrior, he sent, by the hands of General Gibson, the following speech, to be de- livered to Lord Dunmore, the governor of Vir- ginia " I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat : if he ever came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the vvhites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, * Logan is the Cii. XIV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, 347 ; 5 ^■i % hi I friend of white men.' I iiad even thought to have lived with 3'ou, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Crespal, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and childien. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge ; I have sought it ; I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejo'ce at the beams of peace: but do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? — Not one." But, in the Recherches Philosophiques, we are desired to believe, that " a stupid insensibility forms the foundation of the Indian character : no passion is sufficient to animate their soul, or raise them above their abject state." And yet, are not many of them animated, like the high-minded Logan, with feelings of indignation at European ingrati- tude? " Brothers," said the celebrated warrior Te- cum-seh, in a speech to the Osages in the year 1811, " when the white men first set foot on our grounds, they were hungry ; they had no place on which to spread their blankets, nor to kindle their fires. They were feeble ; they could do nothing for themselves. Our fathers pitied tlicir distress, and shared ficely with them whatever the Great Spirit i 348 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cic. XIV. had given his red children. They gave them food when hungry, medicine when sick, spread skins for them to sleep on, and gave them grounds that they might hunt and raise corn. Brothers, the white people are like poisonous serpents : when chilled they are feeble c ' hi'-'iless ; but invigorate them with warmth, anu. hey 3ting their benefactors to death."* * Hunter's Memoirs of a Captivity, &c. p. 4.5. mp: XIV. bod for :hey hite lied lem i to Cii.XV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 349 CHAPTER XV. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INDIANS. It may perhaps be said, on the subject of civilizing the North American Indians, that it is easier to state objections to the efforts which have hitherto been made for that purpose, than to suggest plan? not liable to similar animadversion. It may, be thought that no good can arise from attempting to shew the inefficiency of one system of proposed i' - provement, without substituting a better in its place. This, in some cases, may be true ; but, amidst the difficulties which are every where admitted to exist on this subject, benefit may arise from experience ; and, by shewing the errors of former periods, similar faults may in future be avoided, and ulti- mate success rendered more attainable. Yet, how- ever much the early systems which were pursued with respect to the Indians may be pronounced blaineable, it must be acknowledged, that to pro- pose in their stead any specific plan distinctly calculated at the present moment to effect the beneficial objects which all parties wish to pro- mote, is fraught with extreme difficulty. This very difficulty, however, ought to con- vince us that the object can only be attained l;;i!' ff»* M 350 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XV. r li \"ii\ by slow and gradual steps ; for it is evident that we have not only to combat the native prejudices of the Indians, but to effect the more difficult task of making them forget the impressions we had already given them. \Vere it possible for the Indian of North America happily to lose all knowledge or traditionary remembrance of the interference imprudently exerted in behalf of his race for two centuries — were it practicable to replace him at once in that state of total igno- rance with respect to the Christians in which he was situated vvhen first discovered by them, it would be far easier at the present time to teach him Chris- tianity, and to effect his civilization. Measures cannot now be adopted with regard to him as to an unbiassed stranger : on the contrary, his educa- tion and feelings strongly tend to make him repose little confidence in those Europeans who would be disposed to exert themselves for his benefit. Many of those writers in America who have of late years turned their attention to this subject, think there is little prospect of success when the Indians are mixed with the white population ; but that the result would probably be favourable if they were located in districts or reservations of their own, with the aid of such establishments among them as might tend to promote their general improve- ment. These writers complain bitterly of many of the white people who resort to the Indian countries « .^^J f Ch.XV. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 351 ■:l! *M within and alonLi the frontiers of tlie United States. Dr. Morse observes, that " The success of these efforts (to civiHze the Indians) has doubtless been much obstructed by the influence of depraved white people who have insinuated themselves among the Indians, and whose interest it is to keep ihein igno- rant, and whose exertions, of course, would be against all improvement." * Mr. Nnttall, in his Travels into the Arkansaw Country of Louisiana, in 1819, also remarks, that some of the white people settled there, " as well as the generality of those who till lately inhabited the banks of the Arkansaw, bear the worst moral character imaginable, being many of them renegadoes from justice, and such as have forfeited the esteem of civilized so- ciety."')' The natives readily follow the example of these lawless and dissolute rovers, as men- tioned by Mr. Hunter, in noticing the same Indian countries of the United States, while, unfortu- nately, they have no good examples put be- fore them which might tend to counteract the contagion. " I repeat," says he, ** that the bene- volent of our race trust their hopes of benefiting the Indians on a sandy foundation, so long as this kind of intercourse is tolerated. "J And again, Before any permanent good effects can result W ^ (( * Morse's Indian Report, p. 26. t Nuttall's Travels into the Arkansaw Territory, ch. 9. + Hunter's Memoirs, ch. 4. 352 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cil. XV. (; t ^'i '■ l"! m^ \m ^ r^,M to the Indians from the beneficept but mistaken effects of the numerous associations organized for their civilization in various parts of the world, all their intercourse with this class of people shoukl be broken off."* It is certainly extremely difficult, if not almost impracticable, for the law to reach these distant and detached violators of it ; but, unless means are taken to prevent the settling of such people among the Indians, it need not be expected that much pro- gress can be made in the improvement of the native population. It will be wiser to take every possible means to prevent them from going among the Indians at all, and to encourage the Indians them- selves to prohibit their approach, than to expect that any legal restraint will keep them from those lawless practices with which they are so constantly charged. It has been often observed, in considering the state of the North American Indians, that the endeavours to civilize and to convet^t them, should be carried on at the same time. " Civilization and religion," says the Reverend Mr. Sergeant, the missionary, " must go hand in hand ; as I have read with regard to Africa, the plough and the Bible must go together." But this is extremely questionable. It is much more probable that the attempt to convert the ac'vilt Indian to Christianity, should invariably * Hunter's Memoirs, ch. 15. Cm. XV. THE NOIITH AMF.HICW INDIAN'S. 353 be [H'ecedcd by an k^ndtavour to iinjd'ove his habits, and promoto his general advancement. It is more likely that his civilization has been obstructed by the steps taken to convert him, than that his own tardiness in bein^ converted should 1)0 aUri- buted to any want of docility in b( roming civi- lized. Mr. Tudor, in his interesting Letters on the Eastern States, observes, *' A strong reason against commencing the attempts at civilization exclusively with religious instruction, is the oppo- sition that will be oft'ered by Indian supersti- tion. The Indians, particularly the highest and least vitiated among them, are attached to their own notions, some of which are the soundest prin- ciples of natural religion. They are very apt to confound our religion with the evils our society has brought upon them ; and their prophets take every occasion to excite their distrust of our mission- aries."* A similar feeling appears to have influenced the Seneca chief, Red Jacket, in his address to the governor of New York, which has already been adverted to. After expressing his gratitude for the means which had been furnished to enable them to plou'^h and to sow, he added, that they had no vish to change their religion. " Each nation," says he, '* has its own cus- ■■'j Jj!'«. 'I I * Tudor's Letters on the Eastern States of North America, let. 12. A A ,^Jm M 354 HISTORICAL NOTES RKSPECTING Cn. XV toms and its ovvn religion,. The Indians nave theirs given to them by the Great Spirit, under which they were happy. It was not intended that they should eiribrace the religion of the whites, and be destroyed by the attempt to make them think differently on that subject from their fathers." There can, indeed, be little doubt that, among adult Indians, it will be found a far easier task to civilize thtui to con- vert them. If the European instructor succeed in the former, iie may, in process of time, effect the latter; but if he insist upon a simultaneous ad- vancement in both, it is extremely probable tliat he will obtain success in neither. The experiment of endeavouring to civilize the Indian before an attempt be made to convert him, appears to have been begun by the Quakers. Dr. Morse, in noticing the Shawanee Indians, says, " For several years past the Society of Friends, at a considerable expense, have supported an agricul- tural estabiiiihment among them. They have a grist mill, and saw mill, which are kept in complete order for the use of these Indians. The Friends are about to establish a school. This truly be- nevolent denoniination of Christians do not yet attempt to instruct these people in the principles of Christianity, believin,s; that they are not yet sufficiently acquainted with the arts of civilized life."* * Monse'SiReport, Appendix, p. 92. f ^r Ch. XV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 355 On the subject of the Quakers, Mr. Hunter has stated a circumstance which is worthy the most earnest attention of those societies, on both sides of the Atlantic, whicli interest themselves respecting the improvement of the North American Indians. He mentions that, along the frontier settlements of the United States, as also among many of the more distant tribes, tlie Quakers are, of all the white l)eople, the most acceptable to the Indians. " If these would undertake," says he, "to revolutionize the habits and opinions of the Indians, they would have the advantage of at least an entire generation of confidence and good will in their favour, over every other religious sect, — a circumstance that would operate as a miracle in arriving at the mea- sure in view."* But whatever may be the class who turn their minds to the improvement of the Indian popu- lation, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon them that, in attempting to introduce changes among that people, slowness and caution are indispensable ; and that it is necessary fully to understand their peculiar habits, before any endeavour be made to amend them. The custom, for instance, of employing the women in those works which, among civilized nations, are gene- rally performed by the men, has often been 1' * Hunter's Memoirs, ch. 1,5. 356 HISTORICAL NOTES llESPECTING Ch. XV. = {' u <1 'I 'i? I'' ^ ^r "I ^.,.. ill-. Stigmatized in the description of Indian man- ners. But if any sudden change in this respect is to be insisted upon, or attempted, it will probably have no other effect than to disgust both the men and the women. " The women," says Dr. Frnnklin, " till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve, and hand down to posterity, the njemory of the public transactions. These employments are accounted natural and honourable."* Heckevvelder also observes, " There are many persons who believe, from the labours they see the Indian women per- form, that they are in a manner treated as slaves. These labours, indeed, are hard, compared with the tasks imposed upon females in civilized society; but they are no more than their fair share, under every consideration and due allowance of the hard- ships attendant upon savage life ; therefore they are not only voluntarily but cheerfully submitted to : and as the women are not obliged to live with their husbands any longer than suits their pleasure or convenience, it cannot be supposed that they would submitto be loaded with unjust or unequal burdens. "f The same writer observes, that the women take upon themselves the chief labour of the field ; nor do ♦ Dr. Franklin's Remarks concerning the Savages of North America. t Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 16. I I Cm. XV. THE NORTH. AMERICAN INDIANS. 357 i "! they think it hard so to do, because this employs them only about six weeks in the twelve months, while the labours of the husband to maintain his family, by other means, last throughout the whole year. *' The tilling of the ground at home, getting in fire wood, and pounding corn in mortars, is fre- quently done by female parties much in the manner of those husking, quilting, and other /ro/ic*, as tliey are called, which are so common in some parts of the United States. The labour is thus quickly and easily performed. When it is over, and sometimes at intervals, they sit down to enjoy themselves, by feasting on good victuals prepared for them by the pCiSon or family for v»hom they work, and which the man has taken care to provide beforehand from the woods :" and he adds, " Even the chat which passes during their joint labours is highly diverting : and so they seek to be employed in this way as long as they can, by going round to all those in the village who have ground to till."* This is merely noticed as one of many customs where a hasty and inconsiderate attempt at altera- tion may prevent the attainment of those very benefits which are expected from the change. To set an Indian hunter or warrior at once to labour in the fields, and his squaw to resign the healthy and varied occupations she has been * Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 1 6. '.Ft' • 4' 3'>8 HISTOHTCAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XV. accustomed to follow in the open air with her chil- dren, and suddenly to fix her at the irksome task of a spinning wheel, will only have the effect of disgusting them with the beginnings of civilization, ard inevitably prevent its progress. Keeping con- stantly in view that, with regard to the Indian, the slower and more gradual the attempts at change, the more sure wil be the results that are ulti- mately looked for, it would be better to encourage the men gradually to share with the women in the labours of agriculture, than at once to separate them in their occupations, — as appears to be the case with respect to some of the recent establishments for Indian improvement. But those who look the most anxiously towards the civilization of the Indians, must direct their attention chiefly to the education of the native children. Kindness and regard "^-hewn to the Indian parents will make them much less reluctant than they formerly were to allow their children to be taken from them : and there is no doubt— however melancholy it may be to reflect upon the cause — that the dependent and feeble state to which many of the tribes have been now reduced, will render them more disposed to agree to a partial separa- tion from their offspring. It is at present much mure diflScnlt for an Indian, in most parts of the country, to maintain his family, than it was in earlier times : and this circujustance, together with his Cii.XV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 359 \'x personal observation of the benetit arising from the adoption of European arts and industry, will pro- bably induce him to part with his children for the purposes of their instruction. This, of late years, appears to have been the case ; and, from the ac- counts given of the Indian tribes, particularly within the territory of the United States, that feeling seems to be generally on the increase, and the re- quisite advantage is taken of it. A resolution having passed the house of represen- tatives at Washington two years ago, requesting in- formation from the President as to the condition of the several Indian tribes within the United States, and the progress of the measures hitherto adopted for their civilization, an official Report was drawn up by Mr. Calhoun, the secretary of war, by which it appeared that there were then throughout the Union fourteen schools, chiefly establ.'shed by the missionary societies, where about five hundred children, male and female, were tav'.ght ; and that it was thought advisable, at the commencement of the system, to proceed with caution, and to ex- tend their operations as experience or circumstances might dictate. " Whether the system," sayo Mr. Calhoun, " which has been adopted by the govern- ment, if persevered in, will ultimately bring the Indians within the pale of civilization, can only be determined by time. It has been in operation too short a period to pronounce with certainty on Ihe 360 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.XV '■■)■ ■■ ). result. The present generation, which cannot be greatly afibctcd by it, must pass away, and those who have been reared under the present system must succeed them, l)efore its effects can he fully tested. As far, however, as civilization may depend on education only, without taking into con- sideration the force of circumstances, it would seem that there is no insuperable difficulty in effecting the benevolent intention of the goveran^ent. It may be affirmed, almost without any qualification, that all the trilies within our settlements, and near our borders, are even solicitous for the education of their children."* It cannot be doubted that the Indian mav be in- duced, with cautious management, to permit his children to be instructed by tlie whites, although he at present appears but little disposed to ibllow their instructions himself. " I see,'* observed ati Osage chief, when urged at W^ashington upon the subject of Indian civilization — ''I see, and admire your manner of living, your good warm houses, your extensive fields of corn, your gardens, your cattle, your waggons, and a thousand machines that I know nol the uos of. I see that you are able to clothe yourselves even from weeds and grass : in short, you can do almost what you choose. You • Offir.al Report fiotn the SecrL'lary of War, to the Presi- dent r' the United States, Feb. 8, 1822. Ch. XV. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 361 whites have the power of subduing almost every ani- mal to your use. But you are surrounded by slaves; every thing about you is in chains, and you are j-laves yourselves. I fear if I should exchange my pursuits for yours, I too should become a slave. Talk to my sons ; perhaps they may be persuaded to adopt your fashions, or at least recommend them to their sons ; but for mvself I was born free, was reared free, and wish to die free."* Similar to these were the sentiments uttered by the chief of the Grand Pawnees, Sharitarouish, in a speech addressed to the President of the United States, at a grand council held at Washington, in the year 1 822.t The following are extracts from it : — " My great father : J — I have travelled far to see you. I have seen you, and my heart rejoices. I have heard your words : they have entered one ear, and shall not escape the other. I will carry them to my people as pure as they came from your mouth. The Great Spirit looks down upon us, and I will call him to vvitness all that may pass between us on this occasion. " The Great Spirit made us all : he made my skin red, and yours white, he placed us on this * Morse's Report, Appendix, p. 206. t The Indian speeches made at that council were trans- lated and given to the public, by Major O'Fallon, the Indian agent, with the assistance of the other interpreters. I The Indian appellation given to the President. 362 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cu. XV. ' > /^ '^ 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 ^A. 366 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XV. hend your discourse. But if you wish to do well, you will reside in this country, and bring your wives and children ; and when they come here, we shall see how you serve the God whom you wor- ship ; how you live with your wives and your chil- dren ; how you obey the laws ; how you cultivate and sow the ground ; how you raise up and feed animals ; and how you make all those things which we see of your invention. Seeing all this, we should learn more in one year than hearing dis- courses for twenty : and if we could not understand you, you would take our children, who would be as your own ; and thus judging of our rude mode of life by comparing it with yours, it is likely we should prefer the latter, and abandon our own."* * Voyages et des Descouvertures faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis I'ann^e 1615 jusques a la fin de Tann^e 1618, par le Sieur de Charaplain. p. 95. Paris, 1620. Ch.XVI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 367 CHAPTER XVI. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO CONVERT THE INDIANS, AND ON THE CAUSES OF FAILURE — OBSTACLES ARISING FROM THE IN- FLUENCE OF THE NATIVE JUGGLERS BENEFITS THAT WOULD FOLLOW FROM THE AID OF MEDICAL SKILL EXTENDED TO THE INDIAN NATIONS IN- JUDICIOUS VIEWS AND INTOLERANT SPIRIT TOO OFTEN ENTERTAINED BY SOME OF THE MISSION- ARIES CONCLUSION. It was justly observed of the Indians in the time of Sir Walter Raleigh's early settlement in Virgi- nia, — " Some religion theye have already, which, although it bee farre from the trueth, yet, being as it is, there is a hope it may bee the easier and sooner reformed ;"* a remark which might have served as a most appropriate text for the missionaries of every sect, nation, and period, throughout all the Indian countries of North America. Heckewelder states, that the Indian believes he is highly fa- voured by his Maker, not only in having been created with mental and bodily powers difFerent from other animals, but in his being able to master even the largest and most ferocious of the brute ^. . :J1 ■'}^ ir ' * Hackluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 276. ii. i''^ 368 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch.XVI. creation ; and that when he has performed any heroic act, he acknowledges it as an instance of divine favour, ascribing his success entirely to the boldness instilled in him by the Great Spirit. " Thus, habitual devotion to the Great First Cause," adds that writer, '* and a strong feeling of gratitude for the benefits which he confers, is one of the prominent traits which characterize the mind of the uninstructed Indian."* Conrad Weisar, well known in the early history of Virginia as a cele- brated Indian interpreter, when travelling with one of the natives in the year 1 737, has related an anec- dote descriptive of the pious gratitude of his fellow traveller. By some accident this Indian was on the point of falling down a dreadful precipice that lay in their route; and on perceiving the danger from which he had so narrowly escaped, he ex- claimed with great earnestness, and outstretched arms, — "I thank the Great Lord and Governor of this world that he has had mercy upon me, and that he has been willing I should live longer."t In fact, " There are no people more frequent than the Indians in their acknowledgments of gratitude to God : their belief in him is universal, and their confidence astonishingly strong."J * Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 6. t Boudinot's Star in the West, ch. 10. X Appendix (R.) to Dr. Morse'^s Indian Report. I >'l Ch. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 369 But in place of endeavouring to conciliate and encourage the Indians, it appears that their early teachers, both of the Roman and Reformed church, treated them with arrogance and presumption. " It is so obvious," writes the Jesuit Father Bre- beuf, when residing among the Hurons, " it is so obvious that there is a Divinity who made heaven and earth, that the Hurons cannot be entirely de- void of belief on that subject, although their eyes and minds are obscured by the darkness of a long ignorance, by their sins and their vices. They per- ceive something, but are so grossly in error, that they render to God no honour, no love, no proper worship ; for they have neither temples, nor priests, nor feasts, nor ceremonies."* In like manner, and with similar intolerance, did the early Protestant ministers denounce the whole Indian face as " a subtile brood" — " a generation of vipers" — " perishiiig forlorne outcasts" — ** for- lorne wretched heathen," &c. &c. Was it likely that the Indian, sincere in his own native devotion, and impressed with feelings of gratitude to the Great Spirit, by whom he considered himself to be highly favoured, could entertain cordiality or deference for those who thus avowedly looked upon him as a miserable abandoned outcast? Instead of cautiously engrafting the doctrines of Christianity I • Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1635. B B 370 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii.XVI. upon the sound, though rude, stock of natural re- ligion, which had evidently taken deep root among the Indian nations, the European generally exas- perated his red brethren by an arrogant claim of superior virtues, intellect, and acquirements. The preacher called upon the Indian to forget the lessons of his youth, to renounce the belief in which he had been brought up, thus at once setting Christianity in direct and hostile opposition to those sentiments of natural religion with which he was sincerely impressed. By imprudent abrupt- ness in denouncing to him that there is no salva- tion but in the name of Jesus Christ, the missionary may undermine his veneration and gratitude towards the Great Spirit whom he worships, without ad- vancing him a single step in conversion to Christi- anity. The savage may lose much, and gain nothing: for although his native sentiments of religion " bee farre from the trueth," they are evidently such as would form a solid foundation for his future reception of the Gospel. But by be- ginning the work of conversion with harsh or hasty attempts to pluck out by the root the opinions which have been implanted in him, it will only tend to that result which was lamented by the Mohawk chief already noticed, who declared that his Indians " had formerly the fear of the Great Spirit, but that now they hardly believed in his existence." Ch. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 371 In considering this important part of the subject, I fee! unwilling to touch upon points of discussion which might give offence to any sect of Christians whatever ; but it cannot, and should not be con- cealed, that one of the principal causes of failure in the attempts made to convert the North American Indians, is the manner in which Christianity has been preached to them. This observation will be found to apply both to Roman Catholic and Protestant. Witli respect to the former, it was not likely that the Indian, who possessed strong powers of reflection, and, as Mr. Tudor expresses it, " some of whose notions are the soundest principles of natural religion," could re- ceive any solid benefit from the abstruse doctrines, idle ceremonies, harassing ordinances, and vexa- tious penance approved of by the early Jesuits. It has been already noticed how indignant Father Charlevoix was at the Dutch Protestant ministers for questioning the creeds, ceremonies, and doc- trines taught to their female Roman Catholic con- verts. " They attacked them," said he, " on the subject of their devotions to the Mother of God, on the worship of the Saiti^s, on that of the Cross, and of the Images; but they found these female converts well instructed, and firm in the belief of what we had taught them on these articles." In like manner did P^re Rasles complain of the mi- nister from New England interfering vvith his 4 372 HISTOUICAL NOTES EESPECTING Ch. XVf. neophytes, and *' turning into ridicule all the pious observances of our Roman Catholic church, — our purgatory, invocation of saints, images, crosses, beads, and tapers." But it did not require tlie ridicule of any sect whatever to make the Indian entertain indifference towards these * pious obser- vances,' — observances which no liberal Roman Catholic would ever wish to see pressed upon the mind of the savage whom he calmly hoped to con- vert to Christianity. What then was the result? "They have a great complaisance for all that is said to them," writes Father Hennepin, " and in appearance do every thing seriously which you en- treat them to do. When we say to them, Pray to God with us, they do so ; answering, word for word, according to the prayers that have been taught them in their own language. Kneel down, they kneel ; take off your bonnet, they take it off; be silent, they are so. If one say to them. Hear me, they hearken directly ; and if one gives them some holy image, or crucifix, or beads, they will merely use them as ornaments to adorn their per- sons." * And yet the Jesuit missionaries wished to make the world believe that their young Indian pupils and catechumens comprehended fully the doctrines they inculcated to them. " I had last year two scholars," says one of these early mis- Hennepin, vol. ii. ch. 32. Cn.XVI. THE NORTH AMEIllCAN INDIANS. 373 sionaries ; " but now I have above twenty. After the departure of my master, (a native who was teaching him the Indian language) I collected and arranged a part of what he had taught me, and which I had written in detached pieces, according to his humour in dictating to me. Having there- fore mustered my treasures, 1 set about composing something upon the catechism, or the principles of the faith ; and, taking my paper in my hand, I began by calling some of the children to me by a little bell. I then explained to them, in a general way, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and of the Incarnation, and I repeatedly ?sked them if I spoke right, and if they understood me iT*^ll ; they all an- swered me, £oco, eoco, ninisitoutenan ; yes, yes, we understand."* These young Indian scholars were more polite than most of their masters. " The religion, or rather the superstition of the Indians," says another of the Jesuit missionaries, " also con- sists in praying ; but, O my God, what prayers ! In the morning, the little children, in coming out of their cabins, cry aloud, Cakouaki packais, amiscouaki packaisy mousouaki packais — Come porcupines, come elks, come beavers. This — this is all their prayers !"t And no bad prayer either for little Indian children to make, whose daily sub- * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1633, p. 110. + Ibid. 1634, p. 80. 374 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XVI. sistence often depended upon the produce of their father's chase. < ' What can be said also of the infliction of rehgious penance upon the Indian converts? The French missionaries must indeed have entered Httle into the sentiments and character of the North American Indian, if they thought that the prescription of such discipline could serve them in their work of conversion. Not that an Indian warrior, possessing such extreme self-command, and educated to bear with indifterence the most severe trials, would shrink at the infliction of any penance which it was likely the church would impose upon him. His own voluntary penances, or self-devotion for the commis- sion of what, according to Indian notions, amounted to crimes or offences, were far more severe than any thing ordained by even the rigorous bigotry of tlieir Jesuit instructors. The anecdote related by Volney of the Miami chief, who, havjng murdered another Indian, offered his own life as an atone- ment to the family of the deceased, has been already mentioned. '* If they will not receive thefie pre- sents," said he, " let them fi\ the time and place. I shall be there alone, and they may take my life." Heckewelder also relates a similar instance, which occurred in Canada in 1793. Two Indians met on the street of the village of La Chine, and one of them, a man of great personal strength, in- sulted the other, calling him a coward, and ad- i ? Ch.XVX, the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 375 dressing him in other opprohrious terms; upon which the latter drew out his knife, and stabbed him to the heart. A crowd immediately collected, calling out, ** Kill him, kill him !" The Indian sat down by the dead body, and placing himself in an attitude proper to receive the stroke of the tomo- hawke, coolly awaited his fate. This he expected from the hand of some relative of the deceased, but no person seemed inclined to strike the blow. After the body was removed, the Indian was left sitting alone on the spot. Not meeting the fate he expected, he rose and went to a more pub!'.c part of the village, and again lay down on the ground waiting the fatal stroke ; but no one attempted to touch him. He then went to the mother of the Indian whom he had killed, an aged widow, and thus addressed her : " Woman, I have slain thy son. He bad insulted me, it is true ; but still he was thine, and his life was valuable to thee. I therefore now surrender myself up to thy will." * * Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 6. The story proceeds thus :— " Thou hast indeed killed my son, who was dear to me," replied the woman, " and the only support of my old age. One life is already lost, and to take thine on that account can be of no service to me. Thou hast, how- ever, a son, whom, if thou wilt give me in the place of him thou hast slain, all shall be wiped away." The Indian then said, " Mother, my son is yet a child, only ten years old, and can be of no service to thee, but rather a trouble and charge : nl ■k 370 HISTORICAL NOTES llESPKCTING Cii. XVI, Indians who could thus, with a spirit of self- devotedness, offer their lives in atonement for their offences, must have looked with contempt u|X)n the penance inflicted by the church. Such an ordi- nance could not but tend to lower, rather than to raise, the moral feelings of the Indian ; to whom also it taught a system of petty tyranny and hard- ness of heart, evidently foreign to his natural cha- racter. The contemptible self-scourgings publicly exhibited by the Indian Pigarouick in the church of Montreal, by order of the Jesuits, has been already noticed ; and it is curious to observe, that this same neophyte had himself, under the sanction of these fathers, been instrumental to the infliction of penance upon a female convert of his own na- tion, charged with no heavier offence than availing herself of a custom allowed by the institutions of her country — that of quitting her husband when she wished no longer to remain united to him. The story is thus told in one of the early Jesuit mis- sionary Reports : " A young woman wishing to leave her husband without sufficient cause, the most zealous of the but here am I, capable of supporting anr^^ maintaining thee. If thou wilt receive me as thy son, nothing shall be wanting on my part to make thee comfortable whilst thou livest." — The woman accordingly adopted the Indian as her son, and took the whole family into her house.. r ■t thee. Cn.XVI. THE NORTH AMIlHICAN INDIANS. 377 converted savages begged the governor to permit them to make a little prison at Sillery, and confine her some time, in order to make her return to her duty. Pigarouick undertook the commission, and had her seized ; and wlien she was at the door of the prison he thus addressed her : — * My niece, pray to God all night : you will have leisure. Entreat him to make you wise, and that you may not continue obstinate, sutfer this imprisonment for your sins. Take courage ; if you will be obedi- ent, you will not remain long,* " She entered the prison very quietly, and re- mained there all night lying on the ground, without fire or any covering, although on the second of January, the most severe month of the year. Next morning P^re de Rinen visited her with Pigarouick, and gave her a little bread, and some straw to lie upon, and he wished that she should go out a short time into a neighbouring room to warm herself ; but the savage said she must suffer this for her faults, and encouraged her to bear this penance patiently.* At night, however, it was thought best to release her. It was enough thus to frighten this poor creature, as the commencement of discipline to these new Christians, joined to the HI •r 'f'he reader may recolkot that in Lower Canada, in the month of January, the mercury (of Fahrenheit's thermometer) will fall to 20, 30, oi 40 degrees below zero ! 378 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XVI. melancholy which it gives to the miml of the savages, soQietimes drives them to extremities, and even to a violent death ; and the chastisement was thought sufficient for this young woman, and for several others."* The natural result of all this might have been anticipated. The Jesuit missionaries continued labouring in the vineyard, but gathered no fruit : and even their favourite convert himself, Etienne Pigarouick, whom they lauded as " professing much ardour in the faith, and preaching in our churches with a fervour and eloquence which savoured nothing of the barbarian," after thus inflicting punishment on his countrywoman for leaving her husband, had — alas ! soon after to perform a more ignominious penance for leaving his own wife. The excess of zeal, also, which was so often evinced by the missionaries in their attempts to convert the Indians of North America, appears to have been one of the principal causes of their failure. If we reflect upon what has been generally understood as the attributes of a zealous missionary among the heathen, however laudable his intentions, and eminent his perseverance, yet it is extremely ques- tionable how far that very fervour which makes individuals eagerly to volunteer in so laborious. * Relation de la Nouveile France, 1642-43, ch. 5. Ch.XVI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 379 and often dangerous a service, is ( iculated to pro- mote the object which is looked for. In tracing the history of the missions, it will often be found that an over-sanguine hope of speedily effecting the conversion which was expected, caused the mission- ary to adopt those hasty and incautious pro- ceedings which irrecoverably prevented his ultimate success. These premature expectations did not escape the remark of some of the early ministers of reli- gion themselves, both Roman Catholic and Pro- testant. Fhe C. Lallemant, the Superior of the Jesuit missions in New France, observed, " I anxiously request that those who have any affection for this country will not become impatient if they have no speedy accounts of the results which they look for. The conversion of savages requires time. The first six or seven years will appear sterile to some persons ; and if I were to add ten or twelve years, I might, perhaps, be nearer the truth. But, must there not be a beginning to every thing ; and must we not make the necessary and gradual dis- positions to attain the object which is proposed ?"* Similar to this was the observation made by one of the early Protestant ministers in New England, when recounting the difficulties which arose in con- verting the Indians of that quarter, and regretting '■■;•'( i'. tv I ■ Mercure Franjois, 1626, vol. xiii. 380 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cu. XVI, how few the cases were which he stated to have occurred of their conversion. " And wonder not that wee mention no more instances at present ; but consider, first, their infinite distance from Chris- tianity, having never been prepared thereunto by any civility at all ; secondly, the difficulty of their language to us, and of ours to them, there being no rules to learne either by ; thirdly, the diversity of their own language to itselfe ; every part of that countrey having its own dialect, differing mucl. from the other ; — all which make their comming into the Gospel the more slow."* ■ To any one who will inspect the Reports which were annually transmitted to France for nearly half a century, from the Jesuit missionaries in Canada, it will appear evident that the unbridled zeal thus ad- verted to often hurried them into steps which rendered their labours abortive. Instead of gradually under- mining his errors, and gaining upon him by slow and secure approaches, the Jesuits seemed determined to take the heathen by storm. The consequence was, that they were foiled in their attem >ts, frequently con- firming those tribes as their enemies, whom it was their object to have conciliated as friends. In one of these Reports a feat is recorded as having been performed by two fathers of the church, which * New England's First Fruits in respect of the conversion of the Indians. 1643. Ch. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 381 may serve as an instance of the imprudent ardour above alluded to. . • P^res Allouez and Dablon — who seem to have held a sort of roving mission in the interior — when ascending the Fox river, in the year 1670, observed a rock which bore the resemblance of a gigantic human bust. This object was peculiarly regarded by the neighbouring Mascouton Indians, who were in the habit of painting it with their finest colours ; and in passing by, during their excursions, fre- quently left their little offerings of tobacco, arrows, &c., in gratitude for their having got through the adjoining dangerous rapids in safety. Our two crusaders, however, declared they were shocked at this sight; and, *' to remove this object of idolatry," said they, " we had it taken down by manual labour, and thrown into the bottom of ihe river, never to appear more."* Let us turn for a moment to another of these missionary Reports. A party of Hurons having come down from a great distance to Quebec, . ** We made them enter our chapel," says P^re Le Jeune, " where they were much astonished. We had placed the images of Saint Xavier and Saint Ignatius upon our altar. They regarded these with surprise, thinking them living per- sons, and asked if they were not divinities, and if they dressed themselves in the ornaments they saw * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1670-71, page 163. 382 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii, XVI. upon the altar. Father Brebeuf havingexplained what these images meant, they put their hands to their mouth — their usual sign of astonishment. There were also three other images of the Virgin in different places. The Indians successively de- manded what these were, one after the other. The father* informing them that it was the mother of Him who made every thing ; they laughed, asking how that could be, and how one person could have three mothers, for they supposed these representa- tions were of three different persons ; and it was explained to them that these only signified one and the same person. O, how good it would be," adds P^re Le Jeune, *' to have all the mysteries of our holy faith well represented!"* But, had this party of Hurons thought lit to have taken these three representations, together with the images of the saints Xavier and Ignatius, and tossed them all into the St. Lawrence, no doubt the whole body of the Jesuits would have been shocked and indig- nant at the fancied profanation. Would these savages, however, have been more faulty than P^res AUouez and Dablon, when they demolished an ancient fragment of rock immemorially prized by the Indians, and which, for aught these fathers knew, might have been as much a figurative and symbolical representation among the Mascoutons, * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1663, p. 183. \%\ Cii.XVI, THE NORTH AMERTCAN INDIANS. 383 as were the images of their own chapel to the Jesuits of the college at Quebec ? There is a judicious suggestion connected with this subject to be met with in one of the letters written from the interior, in 1 648, by P^re Rague- neau, who was at one time superior of all the Jesuit missions in New France. " Were I to give my advice to those who commence the conversion of the Indians, I would say, that we ought to be very cautious in condemning many things which we remark in their customs, and which clash with the ideas of those who have been educated in a different statfe of society. It is very easy to accuse of irreligion those who are only charge- able with folly, and to mistake for diabolical prac- tices that which has nothing in it supernatural. And we then feel ourselves obliged to forbid, as impious, many things which are innocent, or which, at most, are foolish customs, but not criminal ones. These might be got the better of more gently, and, I may say, more effectually, by gradually enlightening the savages, who at length would, of themselves, abandon those cus- toms, not for conscience sake as crimes, but from judgment and reflection as follies. It is difficult to learn every thing in a day. Time is the instructor most to be relied upon."* . . . Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1647-48, ch. 9. 384 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XVF. Of these Indian customs, so often and so un- justly attacked as sinful and diabolical, but which better deserved the name of foolish than criminal, was the practice or profession of the juggler. This custom has continued almost universal among the North American Indians to the present day, and has always formed a great obstruction to their conversion. These native conjurers — the Jongleurs of New France, and the Powahs of New England — have already been adverted to ; and are described by Hakluyt as '* great majicians, great soothsayers, callers of divils ; priests who serve instead of phisitions and chyrurgions." And Drn Mather obser^^es, " In most of their dangerous distempers it is a Powah that must be sent for, that is, a priest who has more familiarity with Satan than his. neighbours. This conjurer comes, and roars and howls and uses magical ceremonies over the sick man, and will be well paid for it when he has done. If this don't effect a cure, the man's time is come, and there's an end."* The influence and authority which the juggler enjoys among his countrymen, whether as priest, prophet, or physi- cian, is extensive and powerful. The superstitious and uninstructed Indians of North America are at present as much inclined to give credit to things supernatural, as the Christian nations of Europe were to believe in witchcraft not two hundred years * Mather's Magnalia, b. iii. (Life of Eliot). Ch»XVI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 385 \H »f <-r ago. In addition to his other impositions, the conjurer arrogates to himself a close communion with the Great Spirit, whose aid he affects to propitiate, and whose operations he pretends to foresee. Mr. Henry observes in his Travels, " In all parts of the country, and among all the nations I have seen, particular individuals arrogate to themselves the art of healing, but principally by means of pretended sorcery ; and operations of this sort are always paid for by a present made before they are begun.'** The conjurer, however, was sometimes rather roughly handled by his employers. If he prophesied falsely he lost his credit, and if he prescribed unskilfully he stood a chance of losing his life. We have already seen how the grand chief of the Tonicas killed the physician by whom his son was attended in an illness of which he died ; and Mr. Henry relates an instance which he witnessed of an Indian sorcerer being stabbed to death by a Chippewa, whose brother was supposed to have died in consequence of his spells or prescriptions.! In the early Reports transmitted from the mission- aries in Canada, the obstruction they met with from the jugglers is every where deeply complained of. The French priests were often looked upon by the Indians as sorcerers themselves ; and the * Henry's Travels, part i. ch. 14. c c t Ibid. 386 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XVI. native conjurers, of course, eyed them with jealousy and hatred. In one of these Reports they state that " the Indians raised horrible calumnies against us, calling us sorcerers, impostors, magicians, who caused the frost, destroyed the corn, poisoned the rivers, and inflicted mortal diseases ; '* and the hostility of these men was evidently one of the principal causes of the hardships suffered by the missions in the interior. The French, probably without much difficulty, detected and incautiously exposed their impostures ; and it was not to be expected that the jugglers would tamely submit to be deprived of the benefits and estimation which they had hitherto enjoyed among their countrymen. " I need not describe," says P^re Marest, ** how often I have been subjected to insults, and run the risk of being killed by them, if the Divine Pro- tector had not secured me from their fury. It happened that one of them would have split my head with his tomohawke, had I not suddenly turned away at the moment his arm was lifted to destroy me."t Notwithstanding the great influence which the jugglers possess among the tribes, they appear to be the most unprincipled of all the Indian popula- tion ; and, therefore, probably the most opposed to * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1657-58. (Preface.) t Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 320. lA Cii. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 387 every measure which might lead to the conversion of their countrymen. Mr. Hunter, in noticing the Indian sentiments respecting natural religion, and their belief in being accountable to the Great Spirit, observes, " It is a fact worthy of remark, that neither frigidity, indifference, nor hypocrisy in regard to sacred things L known to exist among them, excepting occasionally the young and incon- siderate, some of their prophets or priests, and all their conjurers."* It may be proper to mention, however, that besides the conjurers acting as priests and physi- cians, there are among many of the Indian tribes other individuals who practise the art of healing ; and there can be no doubt — if the accounts of travellers and others who have experienced their aid are to be credited — that in many cases the Indian treatment of the sick, and particularly of the wounded, is attended with a success not to be surpassed by the regular and graduated practi- tioner among the whites. But these cases, perhaps, were not of a difficult nature. It is very different, however, with regard to their jugglers, whose treat- ment of the sick is exclusively limited to pretended spells and magical operations. In travelling through the interior of the Indian country a few years ago, I had the opportunity of observing, near Lake Win- nipic, a Cree (or Knistinaux) woman, who had been 1 1 -I * Hunter's Memoirs, p. 219. 388 HISTORICAL NOTF RESPECTING C«. XVI. for several days watching over a sick daughter, about twelve years of age, apparently extremely ill. The anxious mother seemed to rest all hopes of recovery in unceasingly waving over her child the family conjuring-stickj which had probahly been consecrated by one of their jugglers. This holy instrument was ornamented with painted patches, feathers, porcupine quills, and rags of various colours. Upon inquiring into the symp- toms of the child's illness, the Reverend Mr. West, who was with me, undertook to select some of the medicines we happened to have with us ; and, having obtained a promise that they should be faith- fully administered, we proceeded on our jo'Tiiey, leaving the mother flourishing her enchanted rod over ihe patient with great solemnity. In the following week we returned by the same route, when, upon inquiring after the sick child, we found that the prescriptions had been regularly attended to by the mother, and that the patient was almost entirely recovered. With the consent of this Knistinaux matron, therefore, I brought away the magical wand in triumph ; and both my travelling companion and myself no doubt felt that we had taken a better mode of endeavouring to remove an object of Indian superstition, than what, in a similar case, would probably have been adopted by the more hasty zeal of fathers Allouez and Dablon. This incident may be thought a trivial one ; but it was well observed by P^re Cb. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 389 )\\ Ragueneau, that these, and similar customs, would be best got rid of " by gradually enlightening the savages, who would abandon them, not from conscience' sake as crimes, but from judgment and reflection as follies." i j • i There is no circumstance whatever that would prove of more solid and permanent use to the Indians of North America, than to introduce among them the advantages which flow from medical science. This is recommended both by Dr. Morse and Mr. Hunter ; but the benefits arising from it would, I conceive, prove much more extensive than even the cure or prevention of disease. Nothing would tend so rapidly to put a stop to the reign of sorcery and conjuration throughout^ all the Indian countries ; and that alone would remove one of the grand obstacles to their civilization and conversion. The reflecting Indian would gradually perceive the benefits he had obtained ; and instead of accusing the Chris- tian of injuring him by his supposed incantations, he would regard him as a successful protector from the mischievous impostures of his own conjuring priests. Gratitude and confidence would follow the exertions of true medical skill, and the result wouid be, that the Indians could not fail to become more inclined to be guided by the religious instruc- tions of a people from whom they were convinced they had procured such substantial advantages — whose judgment they had learned to respect, and ,1 > ! hii 390 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. XVF. whose benevolence they had experienced in the removal or alleviation of those diseases, which make such havock among the Indian race. The ravages of the small-pox alone — a disease introduced into America by the Europeans — have often depopulated whole Indian nations. Umfre- ville, in his account of the Northern tribes, has given a lamentable description of the pestilent visitation of this malady in his day. " Numbers began to die on every side ; the infection spread rapidly, and hundreds lay expiring together without assistance, without courage, or the least glimmering of hope of recovery. For when an Indian finds himself sick, he resigns himself up to a state of stupefaction, which hinders him from using even those means that may be in his power towards removing the cause of his malady." — " Without the least medicinal help, or that common aid which their case demanded, a prey to hunger and disease, these forlorn Indians lay in their tents expiring under the accumulated weight of every scourge which human nature can experience. Wolves and other wild beasts infested and entered their habita- tions, and dragged them out, while life yet remained, to devour their miserable morbid carcases: even their faithful dogs, worn out with hunger, joined in this unnatural depredation. Heads, legs, and arms lay indiscriminately scattered about, as food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the moun- tains ; and, as none were buried, the very air Cu.XVI. THE NOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 391 became infectious, and tended to waft about the baneful contagion."* At a later period, and in a difierent part of North America, we find a similar account in the Travels of Captains Lewis and Clarke. In noticing the ancient Maha village, they state that it once had consisted of three hundred cabins, but had been burnt a few years before, when the small-pox had destroyed four hundred men, and numbers of women and children. " The accounts we have had," say these travellers, " of the effects of the small'pox on that nation, are most distressing. It is not known in what way it was first communi- cated to them, though probably by some war- party. They had been a military and powerful people ; but when these warriors saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their phrensy was extreme. They burned their village, and many of them put to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an afflic- tion, and that they all might go together to some better country. "t These are melancholy pictures ; but they tend to shew how important it would be to introduce the advantages of medical science into countries where, from ignorance, and from the apathy of despair, disease is accompanied with such dreadful results. ■ I if i. I ii'^ * Umfreville's Hudson's Bay, p. 92. t Lewis and Clarke's Travels, vol. i. chap. 2. 392 HISTOUICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XVI The French missionaries, when they had it in their power, appear to have been extremely attentive and useful to the sick of the Indians among whom they resided ; and it is very probable that in those cases — not very numerous, perhaps — when they gained advantages over the conjuring priests, or medicine- merif it was chiefly in consequence of their medical assistance, limited as that must have been. " Thank God," says P^re Marest, in writing from tlie Illinois, " thank God, that our village is now purged of these conjurers. The care we have taken of the sick, the remedies we administer to them, most of which have cured their complaints, have caused these impostors to lose their credit, and compelled them to remove to other places.* And, in New England, Mr. Eliot mentions, in 1648, " I find by God's blessing on our means of physick and chyrurgery, the Indians are already convinced of the folly of pow-owingj and are easily persuaded to give it over as a sinful and diabolical practice." t i It would, therefore, be well worthy of the atten- tion of those numerous and benevolent societies, established both in the Old world and the New, who have evinced such anxiety for the improvement of the Indians of North America, to consider whether a portion of their funds, which have been * Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 320. t Hutchinson's History of Massachussets, ch. 6. Ch. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 393 m SO long appropriated exclusively to tlie use of the religious departments of the missions, might not, for the present, be usefully transferred to the sup- port of medical Indian establishments. It has been already noticed how the mortality which at one time raged among the Hurons, in consequence of the small-pox (introduced, as Char- levoix says, by the French *), was ascribed by the Indians to the diabolical sorceries of the Christians — a charge, no doubt, raised and circulated by the native conjurers. A similar accusation is men- tioned by Dr. Morse as operating upon Indians, even close to the American settlements, at the present day ; and nothing can shew more strongly the little benefit that accrued from the labours of the early missionaries, than the influence which the jugglers have still retained among their countrymen in those quarters where the missions had been established. " The medicine influence, if I may so designate it," says Dr. Morse, ** which is hostile to schools and Christianity, and to civilization gene- rally, is strongly felt by these Indians. They are afraid to have priests come among them, because it happened that immediately after one had visited them, about the year 1799, the small-pox was introduced among them from Canada, and carried off nearly half their number. They were made to believe, by their medicine-men, that the Great ■1 1 i' I * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle B'rance, liv.9. •tf 394 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XVI. Spirit was angry with them for receiving this priest and his instructions, and that the fatal disease was sent among them to punish them for this offence."* And yet L'Arbre Croche, the place where this tribe — a remnant of the once powerful nation of the Ottawas — now resides, was, for upwards of half a century, the seat of one of the principal missions of the Jesuits, from whom many of the ancestors of these Indians had received the rites of baptism. In the year 1799 there remained among them only one baptized Indian, an old man; and their jongleurs seemed then, as they seem now, resolved to exert their influence in pre- venting any progress towards the conversion of their brethren. For even when Dr. Morse held his official conference with some of their principal chiefs in the year 1820, he states that the same influence was manifest during his interview with them, and they believed, that if he paid a visit to their tribe for the purposes intended, it would be followed by the displeasure of the Great Spirit, by pestilence and death. ' The reader may, perhaps, imagine that this tribe, which — in the nineteenth century, two hundred years after Christianity had first been introduced into the country — thus declined to receive a Christian mission, must be the most rude and savage of the aborigines. " But," says Dr. Morse, " these Morse's Report, Appendix, p. 24. Ch.XVI. the north AMERICAN INDIANS. 395 Indians are much in advance, in point of improve- ment, appearance, and manners, of alL Indians whom I visited. Their dress was in the Indian style, neat, and highly ornamented with silver bands, plates, &c., in various forms, received prin- cipally as presents from Drummond's Island. The women and children, who are apart by themselves, had a cleanly appearance ; in countenance and manners intelligent and modest. Their warriors, who occupied a separate station, would appear well on any of our military parades— they are a tall, straight, and well-faced band of men. The chiefs are shrewd, sensible, well-behaved men, most of them advanced beyond middle age, and of venerable appearance."* He also states, that they have been long in the habit of cultivating their lands and raising corn, not only sufficient to supply their own wants, but to carry the surplus to market at Michil- limakinac, where they have sometimes sold hree thousand bushels in the season. . j m i?^ However advanced this tribe of Indians might be in point of improvement, *' it was evident," adds Dr. Morse, " that these people, from some source, were made to fear that my visit, should they listen to my proposal, would be followed by a similar calamity (the small-pox) ; and some effectual means, therefore, must be used to remove this influence before any thing can be done eflfectually for their m m I. 'I m Morse's Report, Appendix, p. 23. i M 396 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cn. XVI. improvement. An appeal to their good sense, and reference to what has been effected among some other of our Indian tribes, I think would accomplish the purpose." But let it be recollected, that in every such appeal, the good sense of the missionary must be exerted, as well as that of the Indian ; and while tlie former endeavours to root out the superstition which often leads that uninstructed race to ascribe natural occurrences to extraordinary interpositions of the Great Spirit, his instructor should, on his part, be cautious in believing that any supernatural interference of the Supreme Being is specially exhibited in his own behalf, or in the promotion of that work of conversion in which he is engaged. While the remnants of the Ottawa nation are called upon to forsake the superstitious impression that the Great Spirit will inflict upon them a fatal malady if they permit the introduction of Christian missionaries, the latter should avoid every super- stitious feeling of divine interposition, such as Char- levoix entertained when he recorded the destruction of a heathen village, and the massacre of its inhabitants. " Shortly after P^re Jogues was taken prisoner, an entire Huron village was de- stroyed. A band of Iroquois entered it at break of day, and, before the sun rose, not a single cabin remained that was not reduced to ashes, nor an inhabitant of any age or sex, except twenty that escaped through the flames, who were not mur- Cif. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 397 dered. This village had always declined to receive the Gospel, and had carried its impie'.^ so far as to defy the God of the Christians. Its destruction was regarded as a punishment from Heaven, and many profited by so signal a mark of the Divine vengeance."* The doctrine of a particular and superintending Providence is believed by the unconverted Indian as well as by the true Christian ; but, in the inter- pretation given to the Divine dispensations, every degree of caution is requisite ; and there has not been a more fatal error committed by missionaries, than rashly appealing to passing events as a proof of the special interposition of the Deity. While the mis- sionary, therefore, endeavours to eradicate the super- stitious notions of the North American Indian, let him guard his own mind against those seeds of incipient enthusiasm which often produce a similar supersti- tion in those who repair to the wilderness for the purpose of converting the heathen, and who, in pursuing their meritorious object, so frequently adopt those very measures which ultimately prevent their success. ' ' . , . ; ", It is true that, in general, the missionaries have not acknowledged such failure: on the contrary, they have been disposed to claim high merit for the numbers, as well as the zeal of their alleged con- verts. But in this both Roman Catholic and :| * Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. 6. 398 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cii. XVI. Protestant — each in their day — have deeply de- ceived themselves. The silence and attention shewn by a congregation of North American In- dians neither proves that they understand what is preached to them, nor, if understood, that they have given their assent to the doctrines of the preacher. " The Indians," writes the Baron de la Hontan, " listen to all that the Jesuits preach, without contradicting them. They are content with joking among themselves on the subject of the sermons delivered in the church by the fathers ; and, before any Indian will speak openly to a Frenchman on these subjects, he must be well satisfied, indeed, of his discretion and his friend- ship."* P^re Charlevoix himself admits, that " It must not be supposed a savage is convinced be- cause he seems to assent to what is expounded to him ; because, in general, they dislike nothing so much as disputation, and sometimes from pure complaisance, sometimes through particular views of interest, and still more frequently from indolence or indifference, they give the marks of full con- viction with respect to matters regarding which they have not paid the slightest attention, or which they have not been able to comprehend." f When Mr. Hunter, in modern times, was among the Grand Osage Indians, " I saw a number of white P * Memoires de la Hontan, p. 124. t Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France, liv. 5. Ch. XVI. THE NOR': H AMERICAN INDIANS. 399 t people,' says he, " who, from different mo- tives, resorted to this nation. Among them was a clergyman who preached several times to the Indians through an interpreter. He was the first Christian preacher I had ever heard or seen. The Indians treated him with great respect, and listened to his discourses with profound atten- tion, hut could not, as I heard them observe, com- prehend the doctrines he wished to inculcate. It may be appropriately mentioned here, that the Indians are accustomed in their own debates never to speak but one at a time, while all others, consti- tuting the audience, invariably listen with patience and attention till their turn to speak arrives. This respect is still more particularly observed towards strangers, and the slightest deviation from it would be regarded as rude, indecorous, and highly offen- sive. It is this trait in ttie Indian character which many of the missionaries mistake for a serious impression made on their minds, and which has led to many exaggerated accounts of their conversion to Christianity."* • Who the preacher was that is thus alluded to by Mr. Hunter, or to what sect he belonged, is not mentioned, nor is it material to inquire. His error, no doubt, consisted in not adapting his discourses to the capacity of his hearers; nor confining his instructions to the more simple and intelligible Hunter's Memoirs, p. 42. 400 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Ch. XVI. truths, leaving to the progress of time to mature and enlarge the conception of those to whom he addressed himself. Heckewelder, in praising the copiousness of the Indian languages, says : " We see our ministers, when once familiar vii.'h the language of the nation with whom they reside, preach to them, without the least difficulty, on the most abstruse subjects of the Christian Faiths * It is unwise in the missionaries among the Indians ever to touch upon such subjects, either in their own language, or in any other. All classes and descriptions of Christians must admit that there occur many theological points connected with, or arising from the sacred Scriptures, which are placed above the reach of human intellect. It is upon these that Christians have disagreed ; and in the heat of discussion to which the difference has often given rise, each party has been led to. assign a paramount degree of importance to conformity of opinion in those mystical points of controversy to which they respectively lean; Missionaries under such impressions cannot be expected easily to relinquish the peculiar doctrines which may have hitherto occupied so much of their zealous atten- tion : and although, when locally established in their several missions, there may be little call for controversial discussion, yet habit and education may naturally have the effect of inducing them * Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, ch. 10. Cil. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 401 to lay too much importance upon points lliab can only tend to perplex the judgment of tiie Indian, and make him the more unwilliii(»to adopt a i-eligion which, if so preached to him, he cannot be expected to comprehend. ■■' ' ' • . » Would it not be better that the Christian teachers, in endeavouring to instruct the Indian, should con- fine themselves to those simple truths upon wliich Christians of every denomination have agreed, und where there exists no subject of serious difference or dispute ? And, further than this, might he not he safely left to the operation of time, and to his own powers of reflection, which are certainly in no respect inferior to those of his white brethren ? . ' Hunter states, that the Indians are acute observersy and look much more deeply into these matters than people commonly believe; and that over-sanguine reformers go among them with very erroneous views of their character. '* I have myself known young missionaries, and others also," says he, " who were sent among them, and whose correct intentions I do not pretend to question, to deal out long lectures on morality, original sin, vicarious atonement, &c. The disposition of the Indians never to interrupt a talker by rising, nor even by yawning and other indications of uneasiness, often causes the philan- thropist to flatter himself that he has enlisted theic whole affections and judgment in the cause, when, perhaps, they feel themselves insulted. For when they are dismissed, and converse among themselves D D n '*■ 402 IIISTOIUCAL NOTES UE3I'KCTlNCi Cir. Wf. on these subjects, they say, * Tlie white men tell the Indians to be honest ! The Indians have no prison, no jail for unfortunate debtors; no locks on their doors.' And when tlie preachers make their dis- course more evangelical, they do not comprehend them ; which shews they should become mere acquainted with metaphysical disquisitions before any attempts are made to teach them the mysteries of Christianity." * This, from one so well acquainted with the Indian character, conveys a serious lesson to the missionary ; and if we calmly consider what the Board of Missions in America reported in September 1821, on the subject of those persons whom they had been preparing for that vocation, the lesson surely does not appear to be uncalled for. < " It should be mentioned, with devout ascriptions of pr«,ise," says the published Report of that Board, " that the great Head of the church has made provi- sion for a succession of ministers and missionaries in the extensive revivals of religion with which the churches of our land have been favoured for several years past. In the progress of those revivals, many young persons of both sexes have, in the judgment of enlightened charity, become the subjects of renewing grace ; and have had their minds enlarged to contemplate the wants of mankind, and their hearts filled with compassion for the millions remaining in all the darkness and misery of pagan- * Hunter's Memoirs, ch. 15. Cu. XVI. THE XORTll AMERICAN INDIANS. 403 ism. It is not extravagant to hope, that from among the numerous youths whose souls appear to be imbued with a disposition to labour for the sal- vation of men, a host will hereafter be marshalled to carry on the war against Satan, in many parts of the world where he has heretofore held an undis- puted empire. Never before were half so many young men in a course of education for the ministry among ourselves, as at the present time; and it may be safely asserted, that hundreds of these young men were first led to think of becoming preachers of the Gospel, by the interest which they felt in missions to the heathen., and by the effect of these missions in exposing the wants and miseries of the greater part of the world, dead in sin, without God, and without hope." * These, surely, are not the sentiments with which the missionary should go forth, in all reasonable humility, to convert the heathen. However sincere the faith, and good the intentions of the preacher, he may rest assured that, if influenced by such impressions, his preaching will be in vain, and that, as far, at least, as regards the North American Indian, his labours will prove fruitless. In deceiving him- self as to his supposed success, the missionary will only mislead the benevolence of his patrons. Let the Christian, thankful for the light of Revelation, .evince that consideration for the unenlightened * See Cluirch JMis.sionary Register. August, iScj. lO'l^ lllsrOHICAf. NOTKS UF.SPtCTING Cil. XVI. Indian to wliicli liic lutter is justly entitled, and which no one will prohubly withhold Ironi hiui, who reflects upon the following passage from those Memoirs which have been so oftin, and with such siitisfaction, referred to in these Notes. Hunter, when describing what occurred upon breaking up their winter encampment in tiie course of that long and dangerous expedition which he and an Indian party made across the American continent to the Pacific Ocean, thus observes : *' At the breaking up of the winter, having supplied ourselves with such things as were necessary, and the situa- tion aftbrded, all our party visited the spring from which we had procured our supplies of water, and there offered up our orisons to the Great Spirit for having preserved us in health and safety, and for having supplied all our wants. This is the constant practice of the Osages, Kanzas, and many other Indian nations, on breaking up their winter encamp- ments, and is by no means an unimportant cere- mony. On the contrary, the occasion calls forth all the devotional feelings of the soul ; and you there witness the silent but deeply impressive com^ munion which the unsophisticated native of the forest holds with his Creator." * • • "' ' And yet are we to be told that these people are " dead in sin, without God, and without hope !" l]ut the pleasing testimony above recorded by I llmiier's Mc'iuoii>., p. 77. Cii.XV'I. THK NOUTIl AMKUICAV INDIANS. 405 Mr. Hunter respecting tribes by whom he was adopted, and utnong whom he resided from his boyliood, may tor a moment be contrasted with an opposite account of the same Indians which was comnmnicated to Dr. Morse while compiUng his Indian lleport for the use of the American govern- ment. The passage will be found referred to in the index of that work, under the gloomy title oiMorai Dai'kness of the Osages. ** The moral darknfcss in which this people are involved, is greater than has yet been communicated to the Christian world. It has been Commonly reported that they worship God, and acknowledge him as the great First Cause of all things. This, however, will, I believe, be found to be a misrepre- sentation. From the best information I can ob- tain, it appears that they are an idolatrous race, and that they worship the sun, the earth, the moon, the thunder, and the stars. They worship those creatures of God as creators. If asked who made the sun, moon, earth, 5cc., they cannot tell. Hence it is evident that they have no knowledge of Him who made the heavens, and the earth, and all things that are therein. O how apt is the hainan mind to forsake and forget what is right, and to learn and remember what is wrong ! How apt to forget the God who made and governs all things, and to worship the creatures of God, or the work- manship of men's hands ! The Osages will rise in the morning before the day dawns, black their 406 HISTORICAL NOTES RESPECTING Cu. XVI. faces with earth, look towards the rising sun, and, with an affected air, pray sometimes until the sun has risen.* But their gods are not able to change their hearts, or put right spirits within them. It is no uncommon thing to see them start, immediately after their morning devotion, on some mischievous and atrocious expedition, perhaps to murder some of a neighbouring tribe, or steal their substance. I will mention the following as an instance of their readily learning that which is sinful, and their proneness to do evil." And what does the reader sup- pose this Indian proneness to do evil amounted to ? — " Many of them," adds their reformer, " are play- ing cards around me while I am writing ; and uttering in broken English, the oaths which are so commonly uttered at the card table ; both the card- playing and the profanity they have, doubtless, learned from the tradero who pass much of their time in the village." f ^ * Many Indian customs are reviled by those who are igno- rant of the meaning of them. The ceremony alluded to, as Mr. Hunter informed me, must have occurred in the course of some of their solemnities while mourning for their dead. Captain Franklin, in noticing a party of Northern Indians who were lamenting the loss of some of their relations who had been drowned, says: " They bewailed the melancholy accident every morning and evening, by repeating the names of the pernons in a loud singing tone, which was frequently interrupted by bursts of ieara."— Captain Franklin" '! Narrative^ ^c. ch. 3. p. 472. t See Appendix, (E e) to Dr. Morse's Indian Report. w Ch. XVI. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 40? This, it must be confessed, savours somewhat of the olden time, — of those times when Francis the First pronounced the Indians of America ta be " without the knowledge of God, and without the use of re