merciless course of conduct towards the in his civilized and uncivilized (or, as we 'Indians,' which must sooner or later term the latter), his 'savage' state; and, bring upon us a day of retribution, the great as the contrast is, and self-interestjustice of which we shall not be able to ing as it undoubtedly ought to be, it is, deny. But even dismissing from our nevertheless, most strange how small a minds the flagrant immorality of such proportion of our curiosity has been atconduct, as well as its possible results, it tracted by it. The scientific world has certainly appears unaccountable that we waged civil war in its theological discusshould have interested ourselves so little sions on the Huttonian and Wernerian in the philosophical consideration of the theories. In exploring the source of the condition of man in that unlettered simple Nile-in seeking for the course of the state, in which only a few centuries ago Niger-in making voyages of discovery, we found him on the two continents of in order triumphantly 'to plant the British America. flag on the North Pole of the earth,' man If a flock of wild grey geese following has not been wanting in enterprise. In their leader in the form of the letter, his endeavours to obtain the most accu and flying high over our heads at the rate rate knowledge of every ocean, sea or of 1000 miles a day, be compared with river-of every country-of every great the string of birds of the same species range of mountains-of every cataract which at the same moment are seen in or even volcano-and of every extraorsingle file waddling across their short dinary feature of the globe;-in the procommons' to their parish puddle;-if a secution of these and of similar inquiries flight of widgeon, hundreds of miles from he has not been wanting in curiosity or land, and skimming like the shadow of a courage. Into the natural history of almost small cloud over the glassy surface of the every animal, and even of insects, he has boundless ocean, be compared with a microscopically inquired. To every plant brood of lily-white ducks' luxuriously and little flower he has prescribed a name. dabbling in a horse-pond;-if the wild He has dissected the rays of light, and boars, which with their progeny are roam- has analysed and weighed even the air he ing through the forests of Europe and Asia breathes and yet, with volumes of inin quest of food, be compared to our formation on all these subjects, it is sty-fed domestic animals which, with astonishing to reflect how little correct every want supplied, lie with twinkling philosophical knowledge we possess of eyes grunting in idle ecstasy as the florid the real condition of man in a state of bacon-fed attendant scratches their hides nature. with the prongs of his pitchfork ;—if a herd of buffalo with extended tails, retreating across their plains at their utmost speed from that malignant speck on the horizon which proclaims to them the fearful outline of the human form, be compared with a Devonshire cow chewing the cud before a baru-door, while at every stroke of John's flail honest Susan, leaning her blooming cheek against her favourite's side, with her bright tin milkpail at her feet, pulls, pulls, pulls, so long as she can say, as John Bunyan said of his book, still as I pull'd it came ;'-if the foregoing, as well as many similar comparisons which might be brought be fore the mind, were duly considered, it would probably be declared that there does not exist in the moral world, and that there can scarcely exist in the phy. sical, a more striking contrast than that which distinguishes the condition and character of birds and animals in a wild and in an artificial condition.

But there is a contrast in nature even stronger than any we have mentioned we mean that which exists between man

The rich mine which contained this knowledge has always been before us, but, because its wealth was not absolutely lying on the surface, we have been too indolent to dig for it. In short, between the civilized and uncivilized world a barrier exists, which neither party is very desirous to cross; for the wild man is as much oppressed by the warm houses, by the short tether, and by the minute regulations of civilized men, as they suffer from sleeping with him under the canopy of heaven, or from following him over the surface of his trackless and townless territory; besides which, if we reflect for a moment how grotesque the powdered hair, pig-tails, and whole costume of our fathers and forefathers now appear to our eyes, and how soon the dress we wear will, by our own children, be alike con. demned; we need not be surprised at the fact, which all travellers have experienced, namely, that on the first introduction to uncivilized tribes, the judgment is too apt to set down as utterly and merely ridiculous, garments, habits, and customs, which on a longer acquaintance it often

cannot be denied, are not more contempt-in savage tribes. However inferior the ible than many of our own; in fact, in stranger may be to him in stature or in the great cause of 'civilisation versus the physical strength, he at once treats him savage' we are but bad judges in our as a superior being. He is proud to serve

own cause.

him it is his highest pleasure to conBut even supposing that our travellers duct him-to protect him and to afford had been determined to suspend their him, without expecting the slightest reopinions and to prosecute their inquiries, compense, all that his country can offerin spite of hardships and unsavoury food, all that his humble wigwam may contain. yet when the barrier has apparently been If his object in visiting the Indian councrossed, the evidence which first presents try be unsuspected, the stranger's life and itself bears false witness in the case; property are perfectly secure; under for just as the richest lodes are covered such circumstances, we believe, there has at their surface with a glittering substance scarcely ever been an instance of a white (termed by miners mundic'), resembling man having been murdered or robbed. metal, but which on being smelted flies Mr. Catlin, who has had, perhaps, more away in poisonous fumes of arsenic--so experience of these simple people than is that portion of the uncivilized world any other white inhabitant of the globe, which borders upon civilisation always unhesitatingly adds his testimony to this found to be contaminated, or, in other general remark. From the particular words, to have lost its own good qualities without having received in return any thing but the vices of the neighbouring

race.

perty.

objects of his visit to the Indians, he had more baggage than any individual would usually carry. At no time, however, was his life in greater danger than theirs, and It is from the operation of these two in no instance was he pilfered of a single causes, that so many of our travellers in article-on the contrary, it was not until both continents of America, mistaking the he reached the contaminated barrier that mundic for the metal, have overlooked he found it even necessary to watch over the real Indian character, first, from a dis- his baggage; and, indeed, it was not uninclination to encounter the question; til he returned to people of his own coland, secondly, having attempted to en- our, that he found it almost impossible counter it, from having been at once, and to protect the various items of his proat the outset, disgusted with the task. In order, therefore, to take a fair view of the Indian, it is evidently necessary that we should overleap the barrier we have described, and thus visit him either in the vast interminable plains-in the lofty and almost inaccessible mountains,-or in the lonely interior of the immense wilderness in which he resides.-In each of these three situations we have had a very transient opportunity of viewing him, but it will be on the more ample experience of others that we shall mainly rely in the fol. lowing sketches and observations.

The Indians talk but little; and though their knowledge is of course limited, yet they have at least the wisdom never to speak when they have nothing to say; and it is a remarkable fact, which has repeatedly been observed, that they neither curse nor swear.

When an Indian arrives with a message of the greatest importance to his tribe even with intelligence of the most imminent danger, he never tells it at his first approach, but sits down for a minute or two in silence, to recollect himself before It is a singular fact, that while in Europe, he speaks, that he may not evince fear or Asia, and Africa, there exist races of men excitement; for though these people adwhose complexion and countenances are mit, that when individual talks to individalmost as strongly contrasted with each ual, any licence may be permitted, they other as are animals of different species, consider that in all dealings between nathe aborigines of both continents of tion and nation the utmost dignity should America everywhere appear like children be preserved. The public speakers are of the same race; indeed the ocean itself accordingly selected from the most elounder all latitudes does scarcely preserve a more equable colour than the red man of America in every situation in which he is found

quent of their tribes; and it is impossible for any one who has not repeatedly listened to them, to describe the effects of the graceful attitude, the calm argument, Wherever he has been unruffled by in- and the manly sense with which they exjustice, his reception of his white brother press themselves. Indeed, it seems peris an affecting example of that genuine fectly unaccountable how men-who have hospitality which is only to be met with never read a line, who have never seen a

VOL LXV.

28

town, who have never heard of a school, | hind him. Not the slightest perspiration and who have passed their whole exist appeared on his deep red body; but with ence either among rugged mountains, on the gad or chisel in his left hand, he unboundless plains, or closely environed by remittingly continued at his work, until trees, can manage, all of a sudden, to we suddenly arrested his lean sinewy express themselves without hesitation, in right arm; and as soon as he had recovbeautiful language, and afterwards listen ered from his astonishment, we induced to the reply as calmly and as patiently. him to surrender to us the hammer he It has often been said ex cathedra that was using, which is now in our posses the Indians are inferior to ourselves in sion. Its weight is no less than eighteen their powers of body and mind. With pounds, exactly twice as much as a blackrespect to their physical strength, it smith's double-handed hammer; and we should on the outset be remembered that can confidently assert that no miner or lamen, like animals, are strong in propor- bourer in this country could possibly tion to the sustenance they receive. In wield it for five minutes, and that among many parts of America, where the coun- all the sturdy philosophers who congretry, according to the season of the year, gate at Lord Northampton's soirée or Mr. is either verdant or parched, it is well Babbage's conversazione, hardly one beknown that not only the horses and cattle sides Professor Whewell could use it for are infinitely stronger at the former sea- a tenth of that time. son than at the latter, but that the human Mr. Catlin states, that in another very inhabitants who feed on them are sympa. distant part of America, a short thick set thetically fat and powerful at the one pe- warrior, known by the appellation of the riod, and lean and weak at the other. Brave,' amicably agreed, before a large Even in our own country, a horse or a party of spectators, to wrestle with some man in condition* can effect infinitely of the most powerful troopers in a regimore than when they are taken either ment of United States' dragoons; and from a meadow or a gaol; and accord- that the Indian, grappling with one after ingly a sturdy well-fed Englishman may another, dashed them successively to the with truth declare, that he has been able ground with a violence which they did to surpass in bodily strength his red not at all appear to enjoy, but with about brother but let him subsist for a couple as much ease seemingly to himself as if of months on the same food, or on only they had been so many maids of honour. twice or thrice the same quantity of food, With respect to the moral power of and he will soon cease to despise the phy- the red aborigines, in addition to the few sical powers of his companion. The short specimens of their speeches and weights which Indian carriers can con- replies which we mean by and by to novey, the surprising distances which their tice, we must observe, that the tortures runners can perform, the number of hours which these beardless men can smilingly they can remain on horseback, and the and exultingly endure, must surely be ad. length of time they can subsist without mitted as proofs of a commanding fibre food, are facts which unanswerably dis- of mind, of a self possession-in short, of prove the alleged inferiority of their strength.

a moral prowess which few among us could evince, and which we therefore In one of the most remote and moun- ought to blush to deny to them as their tainous districts of their country, when it due. In justice, however, to the Indian was completely enveloped in snow, we character, we deem it a painful duty to happened, at the bottom of a deep mine, quote a single authenticated instance to see a native Indian in an adit, or galle- of the triumph of the red man's mind ry, in which he could only kneel. We over the anguish of his body. We hope had been attracted towards him by the that 'the better-half' of our readers will loud and constant reverberation of the pass it over unread, as revolting to the heavy blows he was striking; and so soft feelings of their nature; but the great was the noise he was making that we crawled towards him unobserved, and for a minute or two knelt close be

*The Indians train themselves for war by extra food, and by sweating themselves in a vapour bath, which they ingeniously form by covering themselves over with a skin, under which they have placed hot stones, kept wet by a small stream of water.

question is too important for us to shrink from the production of real evidence ; and, having undertaken their defence, we feel we should not be justified in suddenly abandoning it, from the apprehension lest any man should call it unmannerly to bring a slovenly unhandsome corse betwixt the wind and his nobility.'

people, no censure was passed upon his vices and virtues ought not to be thus extraordinary conduct-it was allowed to considered. In designating the human pass unnoticed. character, there should be no compromise On the publication of this glorious of principle; no blending of colours; and love-story at Washington, the boarding- accordingly we confess, without hesitaschool girls of Miss White's seminary tion, that nothing can be more barbarous were so sensibly touched by it, that they than the manner in which the Indians very prettily subscribed among each occasionally treat their prisoners of war; other to purchase a silver medal, bearing yet in this also they have two most rea suitable inscription, which they pre-markable extremes of conduct; for on sented to the young Red-skin, as a token presenting their captives to those who of the admiration of white-skins at the have lost relations in battle, if they are chivalrous act he had performed in having accepted, they immediately become free, rescued one of their sex from so unnatu- and enjoy all the privileges of the persons ral a fate. Their address closed as fol- in lieu of whom they have been received. lows:In fact, they are adopted; and in one moment suddenly find themselves surrounded by people who address them, and who act towards them as brothers, sisters, parents, and even as wives! On the other hand, if they are rejected by the families of the slain, then their doom is fixed, their torture is prepared, and when the fatal moment arrives, there again appear before the observer of the Indian character two extremes, in both of which they infinitely surpass us. For the noblest resignation, the purest courage, the most powerful self-possession are contrasted in the same red race with the basest vengeance, the most barbarous that it is possible even for poetry to concruelty, and the most unrelenting malice ceive,

'Brother! accept this token of our esteem; always wear it for our sakes; and when again you have the power to save a poor woman from death, think of this, and of us, and fly to her relief.'

The young Pawnee had been unconscious of his merit, but he was not ungrateful:

'Brothers and sisters he exclaimed, extending towards them the medal which had been hanging on his red naked breast, this will give me ease more than I ever had, and I will listen more than

I ever did to white men.

I am glad that my brothers and sisters have heard of the good act I have done. My brothers and sisters think that I did it in ignorance; but I

now know what I have done.

I did it in ignorance, and did not know that I did good; but by giving me this medal I KNOW IT!'

The tranquillity and serenity which characterise an Indian in time of peace are strangely contrasted with the furious passions which convulse him in war. The moral thermometer, which, in the English character, is generally somewhere about 'temperate,' is with the Indians either many degrees below zero or high above the point at which it is declared that 'spirits boil.' The range of the red man's emotions is infinitely greater than that of his white brother; and to all who have witnessed only the calmness, the patience, the endurance, and the silence of the Indians, it seems almost incredible that the most furious passions should be lying dormant in a heart that seems filled with benevolence; and that under the sweet countenance which blossoms like the rose, there should be reposing in a coil a venomous serpent, which is only waiting to spring upon its enemy!

Although, therefore, it might perhaps be said, that if the two extremes of the Indian character were allowed to compensate each other, they would not be far distant from the mean of our own, yet

About the time,' says Cadwallader Colden, of the conclusion of the peace at Reswick, the noted The French gave Theronet died at Montreal. him Christian burial in a pompous manner; the priest that attended him at his death having declared that he died a true Christian; for, said the priest, while I explained to him the passion of our Saviour, whom the Jews crucified, he cried out, death, and brought away their scalps !” ' "Oh, had I been there I would have revenged his

We have no desire to attempt to wash out the damned spot' which we have just described. Its stain upon the Indian character is indelible: at the same time we must offer a few observations on the subject.

The feelings which actuate the great armies of Europe are altogether different from those under which two tribes of Indians meet each other in battle. In the former case the soldiers but imperfectly understand the political question in dispute, and they come into action very much in the same state of mind in which an individual would take his ground to fight a duel for his friend with a person he had never before seen, in defence of some unknown lady, who had received some