NEWFOUNDLAND.

In Carolina’s palmy bowers,Amid Kentucky’s wastes of flowers,Where even the way-side hedge displaysIts jasmines and magnolias;O’er the monarda’s vast expanseOf scarlet, where the bee-birds glanceTheir flickering wings, and breasts that gleamLike living fires;—that dart and scream—A million little knights that runWarring for wild-flowers in the sun;—His eye might rove through earth and sky,His soul was in the days gone by.

In Carolina’s palmy bowers,

Amid Kentucky’s wastes of flowers,

Where even the way-side hedge displays

Its jasmines and magnolias;

O’er the monarda’s vast expanse

Of scarlet, where the bee-birds glance

Their flickering wings, and breasts that gleam

Like living fires;—that dart and scream—

A million little knights that run

Warring for wild-flowers in the sun;—

His eye might rove through earth and sky,

His soul was in the days gone by.

Wemay pass rapidly over this space. The colonial principles of action were established regarding the Indians, and they went on destroying and demoralizing them till the reduction of Canada by the English. That removed one great source of Indian destruction; for while there was such an enemy to repulse, the Indians were perpetually called upon and urged forward in the business of slaughter and scalping. It was the same, indeed, on every frontier where there was an enemy, French or Spanish. We have thehistory of Adair, who was a resident in the south-western states for above forty years. This gentleman, who has given us a very minute account of the manners, customs, and opinions of the Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws, amongst whom he chiefly resided in the Carolinas, and who is firmly convinced that they are descended from the Ten Tribes of Israel, and, moreover, gives us many proofs of the excellence of their nature—yet, most inconsistently, is loud in praise of the French policy of setting the different Indian nations by the ears; and condemnation of anything like conciliation and forbearance. Speaking of some such attempts in 1736, he says—“Our rivals, the French, never neglect so favourable an opportunity of securing and promoting their interests. We have known more than one instance whereintheir wisdomhas not only found out proper means to disconcert the most dangerous plans of disaffected savages,but likewise to foment, and artfully to encourage, great animosities between the heads of ambitious rival families, till they fixed them in an implacable hatred against each other, and all of their respective tribes.”43

That he was in earnest in his admiration of such a policy, he goes on to relate to us, with the greatestnaivetéand in the most circumstantial manner, how he recommended to the Governor of South Carolina to employ the Choctaws to scalp and extirpate the French traders in Louisiana, who, no doubt, interfered with his own gains. He lets us know that he got such a commission; and informs us particularly of the presents and flatteries with which he plied a great Choctaw chief, called Red Shoes, to set him on thiswork; in which he was successful. “I supplied each of them with arms, ammunition, and presents in plenty; gave them a French scalping-knife, which had been used against us, and even vermilion, to be used in the flourishing way, with the dangerous French snakes, when they killed and scalped them.... They soon went to work—they killed the strolling French pedlars—turned out against the Mississippi Indians and Mobillians, and the flame raged very high. A Choctaw woman gave a French pedlar warning: he mounted his horse, but Red Shoes ran him down in about fifteen minutes, and had scalped him before the rest came up.... Soon after a great number of Red Shoes’ women came to me with the French scalps and other trophies of war.”... “In the next spring, 1747,” he tells us “a large body of Muskohges and Chickasaws embarked on the Mississippi, and went down it to attack the French settlements. Here they burned a large village, and their leader being wounded, they in revenge killed all their prisoners; and overspread the French settlements in their fury like a dreadful whirlwind, destroying all before them, to the astonishment and terror even of those that were far remote from the skirts of the direful storm.” This candid writer tells us that the French Louisianians were now in a lamentable state—but, says he, “they had no reason to complain; we were only retaliating innocent blood whichtheyhad caused to be shed bytheirred mercenaries!” He laments that some treacherous traders put a stop to his scheme, or they would soon have driven all the French out of Alabama.44

Who were the savages? and how did the English expect the Indians, under such a course of tuition, to become civilized? This was the state of things in the south. In the north, not a war broke out between England and France, but the same scenes were acting between the English American settlements and Canada. In 1692 we find Captain Ingoldsby haranguing the chiefs of the Five Nations at Albany, and exhorting them to “keep the enemy in perpetual alarm by the incursions of parties into their country.” And the Indian orator shrewdly replying—“Brother Corlear (their name for the governor of New York) is it not to secure your frontiers? Why, then, not one word of your people that are to join us? We will carry the war into the heart of the enemy’s country—but, brother Corlear, how comes it that none of our brethren, fastened in the same chain with us, offer their hand in this general war? Pray, Corlear, how come Maryland, Delaware River, and New England to be disengaged? Do they draw their arms out of the chain? or has the great king commanded that the few subjects he has in this place should make war against the French alone?”45

It was not always, however, that the Indians had to complain that the English urged them into slaughter of the French and did not accompany them. The object of England in America now became that of wresting Canada entirely from France. For this purpose, knowing how essential it was to the success of this enterprise that they should not only have the Indians well affected, so as to prevent any incursions of the French Indians into their own states while theBritish forces were all concentrated on Canada, and still more how absolutely necessary to have a large body of Indians to pioneer the way for them through the woods, without which their army would be sure to be cut off by the French Indians—great endeavours were now made to conclude treaties of peace and mutual aid with all the great tribes in the British American colonies. Such treaties had long existed with the Five Nations, now called the Six Nations, by the addition of the remainder of the Tuscarora Indians who had escaped from our exterminating arms in North Carolina, and fled to the Five Nations; and also with the Delaware and Susquehanna Indians. Conferences were held with the chiefs of these tribes and British Commissioners from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Virginia, and, ostensibly, a better spirit was manifested towards the Indian people. The most celebrated of these conferences were held at Philadelphia in 1742; at Lancaster in Pennsylvania in 1744; and at Albany, in the state of New York, in 1746. The details of the conferences developed many curious characteristics both of the white and the red men. Canassateego, an Onondaga chief, was the principal speaker for the Indians on all these occasions, and it would be difficult to point to the man in any country, however civilized and learned, who has conducted national negotiations with more ability, eloquence, and sounder perception of actual existing circumstances, amid all the sophistry employed on such occasions by European diplomatists—

That lead to bewilder, and dazzle to blind.—Beattie.

It had been originally agreed that a certain sum should be given to the Indians, or rather its value ingoods, to compensate them for their trouble and time in coming to these conferences; that their expenses should be paid during their stay; and that all their kettles, guns, and hatchets should be mended for them; and the speakers took good care to remind the colonists of these claims, and to have them duly discharged. As it may be interesting to many to see what sort of goods were given on these occasions, we may take the following as a specimen, which were delivered to them at the conference of 1742, in part payment for the cession of some territory.

In another list we find no less thanfour dozens of jew’s harps. Canassateego, on the delivery of the above goods, made a speech which lets us into the real notions and feelings of the Indians on what was going on in that day. “We received from the proprietor,” said he, “yesterday, some goods in consideration of our release of the lands on the west side of Susquehanna. It is true, we have the full quantity according to agreement; but, if the proprietor had been here in person, we think, in regard to our numbers andpoverty, he would have made an addition to them. If the goods were only to be divided amongst the Indians present, a single person would have but a small portion; but if you consider what numbers are left behind equally entitled with us to a share, there will be extremely little. We therefore desire, if you have the keys of the proprietor’s chest, you will open it and take out a little more for us.

“We know our lands are now become more valuable.The white people think we don’t know their value; but we are sensible that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it, are soon worn out and gone.For the future we will sell no lands but when Brother Onas is in the country; and we will know beforehand the quantity of goods we are to receive. Besides, we are not well used with respect to the lands still unsold by us. Your people daily settle on our lands, and spoil our hunting. We must insist on your removing them, as you know they have no right to settle to the north of the Kittochtinny Hills.”

As it was necessary to conciliate them, more goods were given and justice promised. On the other hand, the English complaining of the Delawares having sold some land without authority from the Six Nations, on whom they were dependent, Canassateego pronounced a very severe reprimand to the Delawares, and ordered them to do so no more.

At the conference of 1744, the Indians gave one of those shrewd turns for their own advantage to the boastings of the whites, which shew the peculiar humour that existed in the midst of their educational gravity. The governor of Maryland vaunting of a great sea-fight in which the English had beaten theFrench; Canassateego immediately observed: “In that great fight you must have taken a great quantity of rum, the Indians will therefore thank you for a glass. It was handed round to them invery smallglasses, called by the governorFrench glasses. The Indians drank it, and at the breaking up of the council that day, Canassateego said, “Having had the pleasure of drinking aFrench glassof the great quantity of rum taken, the Indians would now, before separating be glad to drink an English glass, to make us rejoice with you in the victory.” It was impossible to waive so ingenious a demand, and alarge glass, to indicate the superiority of English liberality, was now handed round.

In this conference, the Indians again complained of the daily encroachments upon them, and of the inadequate price given for the lands they sold. The Governor of Maryland boldly told them that the land was in fact acquired by the English by conquest, and that they had besides a claim of possession of 100 years. To this injudicious speech the Indians replied with indignation, “What is one hundred years in comparison of the time sinceour claimbegan?—since we came out of this ground? For we must tell you that long before one hundred yearsour ancestors came out of this very ground, and their children have remained here ever since.Youcame out of the ground in a country that lies beyond the seas;thereyou may have a just claim; buthereyou must allow us to be your elder brethren, and the lands to belong to us long before you knew anything of them.” They then reminded them of the manner in which they had received them into the country. In figurative language theyobserved, “When the Dutch came here, above a hundred years ago, we were so well pleased with them that we tied their ship to the bushes on the shore; and afterwards liking them better the longer they stayed with us, and thinking the bushes too slender, we removed the rope and tied it to the trees; and as the trees were liable to be blown down, or to decay of themselves, we, from the affection that we bore them, again removed the rope, and tied it to a strong and high rock (here the interpreter said they mean the Oneido country); and not content with this, for its further security, we removed the rope to the big mountain (here the interpreter said, they mean the Onondaga country), and there we tied it very fast, and rolled wampum about it, and to make it still more secure, we stood upon the wampum, and sat down upon it to defend it, and to prevent any hurt coming to it, and did our best endeavours that it might remain for ever. During all this time the Dutch acknowledged our right to the lands, and solicited us from time to time, to grant them parts of our country. When the English governor came to Albany, and we were told the Dutch and English were become one people, the governor looked at the rope which tied the ship to the big mountain, and seeing that it was only of wampum and liable to rot, break, and perish in a course of years, he gave us a silver chain, which he told us would be much stronger, and would last for ever.

“We had then,” said they pathetically, “room enough and plenty of deer, which was easily caught; and though we had not knives, hatchets, or guns, we had knives of stone, and hatchets of stone, and bows and arrows, which answered our purpose as well asthe English ones do now, for we are now straitened; we are often in want of deer; we have to go far to seek it, and are besides liable to many other inconveniences, and particularly from thatpen-and-ink work that is going on at the table!” pointing to the secretary. “You know,” they continued, “when the white people came here they were poor—they have got our lands, and nowtheyare become rich, andweare poor.What little we get for the land soon goes away, but the land lasts for ever!”

It was necessary to soothe them—the governor had raised a spirit which told him startling truths. It shewed that the Indians were not blind to the miserable fee for which they were compelled to sell their country. “Your great king,” said they, “might send you over to conquer the Indians; but it looks to us that God did not send you—if he had, he would not have placed the sea where he has, to keep you and us asunder.” The governor addressed them in flattering terms, and added, “We have a chest of new goods, and the key is in our pockets. You are our brethren: the Great King is our common Father, and we will live with you as children ought to do—in peace and love.”

The Indians were strenuously exhorted to use all means to bring the western natives into the league. At the Conference of 1746, held at Albany, it became sufficiently evident for what object all this conciliation and these endeavours to extend their alliance amongst the Indians were used. A great and decisive attack upon Canada was planning: and it is really awful to read the language addressed to the assembled Indians, to inflame them with the spirit of the most malignanthatred and revenge against the French. Mr. Cadwallader Colden, one of His Majesty’s Council and Surveyor-general of New York, and the historian of the Five Nations, on whose own authority these facts are stated, addressed the Indians, owing to the Governor’s illness, in the speech prepared for the occasion. He called upon them to remember all the French had done to them; what they did at Onondaga; how they invaded the Senekas; what mischiefs they did to the Mohawks; how many of their countrymen suffered at the fire at Montreal; how they had sent priests amongst them to lull them to sleep, when they intended to knock them on the head. “I hear,” then added he, “they are attempting to do the same now. I need not remind you what revenge your fathers took for these injuries, when they put all the isle of Montreal, and a great part of Canada, to fire and sword. Can you think the French forget this? No! they are watching secretly to destroy you. But if your fathers could now rise out of their graves, how would their hearts leap with joy to see this day, when so glorious an opportunity is put into your hands to revenge all the injuries of your country, etc. etc.” He called on them to accompany the English, to win glory, and promised them great reward.

But these horrible fire-brands of speech,—these truly “burning words” were not all the means used. English gentlemen were sent amongst the tribes to arouse them by every conceivable means. The celebrated Mr. William Johnson of Mohawk, who had dreamed himself into a vast estate in that country,46and who afterwards, as Sir William Johnson, was so distinguished as the leader of the Indians at the fall of Quebec, and the conquest of Canada, now went amongst the Mohawks, dressed like a Mohawk chief. He feasted them at his castle on the Mohawk river; he gave them dances in their own country style, and danced with them; and led the Mohawk band to this very conference.

This enterprise came to nothing; but for the successful one of 1759 the same stimulants were applied, and the natives, to the very Twightwees and Chickasaws, brought into the league, either to march against the French, or to secure quiet in the states during the time of the invasion of Canada. And what was their reward? Scarcely was Canada reduced, and the services of the Indians no longer needed, when they found themselves as much encroached upon and insulted as ever. Some of the bloodiest and most desolating wars which they ever waged against the English settlements, took place between our conquest of Canada and our war against the American colonies themselves. It was the long course of injuries and insultswhich the Indians had suffered from the settlers that made them so ready to take up the tomahawk and scalping-knife at the call, and induced by the blood-money, of the mother-country against her American children. The employment and instigation of the Indians to tomahawk the settlers brings down British treatment of the Indians to the very last moment of our power in that country. What were our notions of such enormities may be inferred from their being called in the British Parliament “means which God and nature have put into our hands,”—and from Lord Cornwallis, our general then employed against the Americans, expressing, in 1780, his “satisfactionthat the Indians had pursued andscalpedmany of the enemy!”

This was our conduct towards the Indians to the last hour of our dominion in their country. We drove them out of their lands, or cheated them out of them by making them drunk. We robbed them of their furs in the same manner; and on all occasions we inflamed their passions against their own enemies and ours. We made them ten times more cruel, perfidious, and depravedly savage than we found them, and then upbraided them as irreclaimable and merciless, and thereon founded our convenient plea that they must be destroyed, or driven onward as perishing shadows before the sun of civilization.

Before quitting the English in America, we need only, to complete our view of their treatment of the natives, to include in it a glance at that treatment in those colonies which we yet retain there; and that is furnished by the following Parliamentary Report, (1837.)

To take a review of our colonies, beginning with Newfoundland. There, as in other parts of North America, it seems to have been, for a length of time, accounted a “meritorious act” to kill an Indian.47On our first visit to that country, the natives were seen in every part of the coast. We occupied the stations where they used to hunt and fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trouble to indemnify them, so that, doubtless, many of them perished by famine; we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and “many were slain by our own people, as well as by the Micmac Indians,” who were allowed to harass them. They must, however, have been recently very numerous, since, in one place, Captain Buchan found they had “run up fences to the extent of 30 miles,” with a variety of ramifications, for the purpose of conducting the deer down to the water, a work which would have required the labour of a multitude of hands.It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a communication with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir. J. Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan, which proved ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers around their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 400 or 500. Under our treatment they continued rapidly to diminish; and it appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, a man and a woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1823. Three women had been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in captivity. In the colony of Newfoundland, it may therefore be stated that we have exterminated the natives.48

On our first visit to that country, the natives were seen in every part of the coast. We occupied the stations where they used to hunt and fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trouble to indemnify them, so that, doubtless, many of them perished by famine; we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and “many were slain by our own people, as well as by the Micmac Indians,” who were allowed to harass them. They must, however, have been recently very numerous, since, in one place, Captain Buchan found they had “run up fences to the extent of 30 miles,” with a variety of ramifications, for the purpose of conducting the deer down to the water, a work which would have required the labour of a multitude of hands.

It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a communication with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir. J. Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan, which proved ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers around their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 400 or 500. Under our treatment they continued rapidly to diminish; and it appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, a man and a woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1823. Three women had been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in captivity. In the colony of Newfoundland, it may therefore be stated that we have exterminated the natives.48

The general account of our intercourse with the North American Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the words of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich: “We were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and lived by hunting and fishing; but the white men who came to trade with us taught our fathers to drink the fire-waters, which has made our people poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till we have become very small.”49It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that, some years ago, the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to our settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving them back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely a wandering people, that they have very much lost any disposition which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian race have spoken of them, in their native barbarism, as a noble people; but those who live among civilised men, upon reservations in our own territory, are now represented as “reduced to a state which resembles that of gipsies in this country.” Those who live in villages among the whites “are a very degraded race, and look more like dram-drinkers than people it would be possible to get to do any work.”To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as “dwindled in numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.”Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, for rum.”50General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.51Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state ofthings is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the example in the conduct of his white father’s children practised, as he conceives, towards himself.”52The general also speaks of the “degeneracy” of the Iroquois, and of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the exception of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the Chippeway chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians on the boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivocally that previously to the introduction of Christianity they were rapidly wasting away; and he believed that if it had not been for the introduction of Christianity they would speedily have become extinct. As the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentions the decrease of the game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. The small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, “The information which I have derived from this chief has been confirmed by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed among the Indian tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries have led me to believe, that where Christianity has not been introduced among the aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Canada, they are melting away before the advance of the white population. This remark applies to the Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River; the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, as well as to all the other tribes on the borders of the province.” Of the ulterior tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable: he gives it as his opinion, that “the Northern Indians have decreased greatly, and decidedly from contact with the Europeans.”Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, “have now degenerated into a few families, congregated about the European establishments, while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.” He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within thirty or forty years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has no doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilization. It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not comprehended within the Hudson’s Bay Company’s prohibition, as to the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably show the effects of the privilege.The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance, and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one-half the number of what they were.The early quarrels between the Hudson’s Bay and the North West Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.53

It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that, some years ago, the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to our settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving them back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely a wandering people, that they have very much lost any disposition which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian race have spoken of them, in their native barbarism, as a noble people; but those who live among civilised men, upon reservations in our own territory, are now represented as “reduced to a state which resembles that of gipsies in this country.” Those who live in villages among the whites “are a very degraded race, and look more like dram-drinkers than people it would be possible to get to do any work.”

To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as “dwindled in numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.”

Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, for rum.”50

General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.51

Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state ofthings is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the example in the conduct of his white father’s children practised, as he conceives, towards himself.”52

The general also speaks of the “degeneracy” of the Iroquois, and of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the exception of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the Chippeway chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians on the boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivocally that previously to the introduction of Christianity they were rapidly wasting away; and he believed that if it had not been for the introduction of Christianity they would speedily have become extinct. As the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentions the decrease of the game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. The small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, “The information which I have derived from this chief has been confirmed by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed among the Indian tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries have led me to believe, that where Christianity has not been introduced among the aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Canada, they are melting away before the advance of the white population. This remark applies to the Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River; the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, as well as to all the other tribes on the borders of the province.” Of the ulterior tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable: he gives it as his opinion, that “the Northern Indians have decreased greatly, and decidedly from contact with the Europeans.”

Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, “have now degenerated into a few families, congregated about the European establishments, while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.” He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within thirty or forty years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has no doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilization. It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not comprehended within the Hudson’s Bay Company’s prohibition, as to the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably show the effects of the privilege.

The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance, and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one-half the number of what they were.

The early quarrels between the Hudson’s Bay and the North West Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.53

In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of country between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to numbers of tribes of aborigines who wander over the vast regions of the interior. The Indian population within the colony of Demerara and Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, Warrows, and Accaways.It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were computed at 5096; and it is stated “it is the opinion of old inhabitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge, that a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggregate number of the Indians of late years, and that the dimunition, although gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last eight or ten years.” The diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the increased use of rum amongst them.54There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of “Protectors of Indians,” whose office it is to superintend the tribes; andunder them are placed post-holders, a principal part of whose business it is to keep the negroes from resorting to the Indians, and also to attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the latter by the British government; of which, as was noticed with reprehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part.It does not appear55that anything has been done by government for their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, by Sir B. D’Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small establishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817; and it does not appear that any other Protestant Society has attended to these Indians.In 1831, Lord Goderich writes,56“I have not heard of any effort to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart to them the arts of social life.”It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either are given in the instructions for the “Protectors of Indians,” or in those for the post-holders; and two of the articles of the latter, (Art. 14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage immorality. All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been almost wholly neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision for their moral or civil advancement; and with due allowance for the extenuating remarks on the poor account to which they turned their lands, when they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some of them) which have been distributed, and on the advantage of living under British laws, we must still concur in the sentiment of Lord Goderich, as expressed in the same letter, upon a reference as to sentence of death passed upon a native Indian for the murder of another. “It is a serious consideration that we have subjected these tribes to the penalties of a code of which they unavoidably live in profound ignorance; they have not even that conjectural knowledge of its provisions which would be suggested by the precepts of religion, if they had even received the most elementary instruction in the Christian faith. They are brought into acquaintance with civilised life not to partake its blessings, but only to feel the severity of its penal sanctions.”“A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana of a very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christendom may, in a certain sense, be said to owe in general to other barbarous tribes. The whole territory which has been occupied byEuropeans, on the northern shores of the South American Continent, has been acquired by no other right than that of superior power; and I fear that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this day received no compensation for the loss of the lands on which they formerly subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in every branch of the public service, it is impossible to withhold from the natives of the country the inestimable benefit which they would derive from appropriating to their religious and moral instruction some moderate part of that income which results from the culture of the soil to which they or their fathers had an indisputable title.”57

It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were computed at 5096; and it is stated “it is the opinion of old inhabitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge, that a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggregate number of the Indians of late years, and that the dimunition, although gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last eight or ten years.” The diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the increased use of rum amongst them.54

There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of “Protectors of Indians,” whose office it is to superintend the tribes; andunder them are placed post-holders, a principal part of whose business it is to keep the negroes from resorting to the Indians, and also to attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the latter by the British government; of which, as was noticed with reprehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part.

It does not appear55that anything has been done by government for their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, by Sir B. D’Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small establishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817; and it does not appear that any other Protestant Society has attended to these Indians.

In 1831, Lord Goderich writes,56“I have not heard of any effort to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart to them the arts of social life.”

It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either are given in the instructions for the “Protectors of Indians,” or in those for the post-holders; and two of the articles of the latter, (Art. 14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage immorality. All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been almost wholly neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision for their moral or civil advancement; and with due allowance for the extenuating remarks on the poor account to which they turned their lands, when they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some of them) which have been distributed, and on the advantage of living under British laws, we must still concur in the sentiment of Lord Goderich, as expressed in the same letter, upon a reference as to sentence of death passed upon a native Indian for the murder of another. “It is a serious consideration that we have subjected these tribes to the penalties of a code of which they unavoidably live in profound ignorance; they have not even that conjectural knowledge of its provisions which would be suggested by the precepts of religion, if they had even received the most elementary instruction in the Christian faith. They are brought into acquaintance with civilised life not to partake its blessings, but only to feel the severity of its penal sanctions.”

“A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana of a very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christendom may, in a certain sense, be said to owe in general to other barbarous tribes. The whole territory which has been occupied byEuropeans, on the northern shores of the South American Continent, has been acquired by no other right than that of superior power; and I fear that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this day received no compensation for the loss of the lands on which they formerly subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in every branch of the public service, it is impossible to withhold from the natives of the country the inestimable benefit which they would derive from appropriating to their religious and moral instruction some moderate part of that income which results from the culture of the soil to which they or their fathers had an indisputable title.”57

Of the Caribs, the native inhabitants of the West Indies, we need not speak, as of them little more remains than the tradition that they once existed.

“We were born on this spot; our fathers lie buried in it. Shall we say to the bones of our fathers—‘Arise and come with us into a foreign land?’”—Speech of a Canadian Indian to the French invaders.

Itwas to be hoped that that great republic, the United States of North America, having given so splendid an example of resistance to the injustice of despotism, and of the achievement of freedom in a struggle against a mighty nation, calculated to call forth all the generous enthusiasm of brave men, would have given a practical demonstration of true liberty to the whole world: that they would have shewn that it was possible for a republic to exist, which was wise and noble enough to be entirely free: that the sarcasm of Milton should not at least be thrown at them—

License they mean when they cry liberty!

The world, however, was doomed to suffer another disappointment in this instance, and the enemies of freedom to enjoy another triumph. The Americans left that highest place in human legislation, the adoption of the divine precept of doing as they would be done by, as the basis of their constitution, still unoccupied. We had the mortification of seeing the old selfishness which had disgraced every ancient republic, and had furnished such destructive arguments to the foes of mankind, again unblushingly displayed. The Americans proclaimed themselves not noble, not generous, not high-minded enough to give that freedom to others which they had declared, by word and by deed, of the same price as life to themselves. They once more mixed up the old crumbling composition of iron and clay, slavery and freedom, and moulded them into an image of civil polity, which must inevitably fall asunder. They published a new libel on man—in the very moment of his most heroic and magnanimous enthusiasm—shewing him as mean and sordid. While he raised his hand to protest to admiring and huzzaing millions, that there was no value in life without liberty, the manacles prepared for the negroes protruded themselves from his pocket, his impassioned action at once took the air of theatrical rant, and the multitudes who were about to admire, laughed out, or groaned, as they were more or less virtuous. The pompous phrases of “Divine liberty! Glorious liberty! Liberty the birthright of every man that breathes!” became the most bitter and humbling mockery, and gave way to the merry sneer of Matthews—“What! d’ye call it liberty when a man may not larrup his own nigger?”

A more natural tone was assumed as regarded the Indians. They were declared to be free and independent nations; not citizens of the United States, but the original proprietors of the soil, and therefore as purely irresponsible to the laws of the United States as any neighbouring nations. They were treated with, as such, on every occasion; their territories and right of self-government were acknowledged by such treaties. “There is an abundance of authorities,” says Mr. Stuart, in his ‘Three Years in North America,’ “in opposition to the pretext, that the Indians are not now entitled to live under their own laws and constitutions; but it would be sufficient to refer to the treaties entered into, year after year, between the United States and them as separate nations.”

“There are two or three authorities, independent of state papers, which most unambiguously prove that it was never supposed that the state governments should have a right to impose their constitution or code of laws upon any of the Indian nations. Thus Mr. Jefferson, in an address to the Cherokees, says—“I wish sincerely you may succeed in your laudable endeavours to save the remnant of your nation by adopting industrious occupations. In this you may always rely on the counsel and assistance of the United States.” In the same way the American negotiators at Ghent, among whom were the most eminent American statesmen, Mr. John Quincy Adams and Mr. Henry Clay, in their note addressed to the British Commissioners, dated September 9, 1814, use the following language:—“The Indians residing within the United States are so far independent thatthey live under their own customs, and not under the laws of the United States.” Chancellor Kent, of New York state (the Lord Coke or Lord Stair of the United States), has expressly laid it down, that “it would seem idle to contend that the Indians were citizens or subjects of the United States, and not alien and sovereign tribes;” and the Supreme Court of the United States have expressly declared, that “the person who purchases land from the Indians within their territory incorporates himself with them; and, so far as respects the property purchased, holds his title under their protection,subject to their laws: if they annul the grant, we know of no tribunal which can revise and set aside the proceeding.” Mr. Clay’s language is quite decided:—“The Indians residing within the United States are so far independent that they live under their own customs, and not under the laws of the United States; that their rights, where they inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries defined in amicable treaties between the United States and themselves.” Mr. Wirt, the late Attorney-General of the United States, a man of great legal authority, has stated it to be his opinion, “that the territory of the Cherokees is not within the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia, but within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee nation; and that, consequently, the State of Georgia has no right to extend her laws over that territory.” General Washington in 1790, in a speech to one of the tribes of Indians, not only recognizes the same national independence, but adds many solemn assurances on behalf of the United States. “The general government only has the power to treat with the Indiannations, and any treaty formed and held without its authority will not be binding.

“Here, then, is the security for the remainder of your lands. No state nor person can purchase your lands, unless by some public treaty held under the authority of the United States.The general government will never consent to your being defrauded, but it will protect you in all your just rights.

“But your great object seems to be the security of your remaining lands, and I have, therefore, upon this point, meant to be sufficiently strong and clear.... That, in future, you cannot be defrauded of your lands. That you possess the right to sell, and the right of refusing to sell your lands.... That, therefore, the sale of your lands in future will depend entirely upon yourselves. But that, when you find it for your interest to sell any part of your lands, the United States must be present, by their agent, and will be your security that you shall not be defrauded in the bargain you make.... The United States will be true and faithful to their engagements.”

These are plain and just declarations; and, had they been faithfully maintained, would have conferred great honour on the United States. How they have been maintained, all the world knows. The American republicans have followed faithfully, not their own declarations, but the maxims and the practices of their English progenitors. The Indians have been declared savage and irreclaimable. They have been described as inveterately attached to hunting and a roving life, as a stumbling-block in the path of civilization. As perfectly incapable of settling down to the pursuits of agriculture, social arts, and domestic habits. It hasbeen declared necessary, on these grounds, to push them out of the settled territories, and every means has been used to compel them to abandon the lands of their ancestors, and to seek a fresh country in the wilds beyond the Mississippi. Even so respectable an author as Malte Brun has, in Europe, advanced a doctrine in defence of this sweeping system of Indian expatriation. “Even admitting that the use of ardent spirits has deteriorated their habits and thinned their numbers, we cannot suppose that the Indian population was ever more than twice as dense as at present, or that it exceeded one person for each square mile of surface. Now, in highly civilized countries, like France and England, the population is at the rate of 150 or 200 persons to the square mile. It may safely be affirmed, therefore, that the same extent of land from which one Indian family derives a precarious and wretched subsistence, would support 150 families of civilized men, in plenty and comfort. But most of the Indian tribes raise melons, beans, and maize; and were we to take the case of a people who lived entirely by hunting, the disproportion would be still greater.If God created the earth for the sustenance of mankind, this single consideration decides the questionas to the sacredness of the Indians’ title to the lands which they roam over, but do not, in any reasonable sense, occupy.”—v. 224.

A more abominable doctrine surely never was broached. It breathes the genuine spirit of the old Spaniard; and, if acted upon, would produce an everlasting confusion. Every nation which is more densely populated than another, may, on this principle, say to that less densely peopled state, you are not as thicklyplanted as God intended you to be; you amount only to 150 persons to the square mile, we are 200 to the same space; therefore, please to walk out, and give place to us, who are your superiors, and who more justly fulfil God’s intentions by the law of density. The Chinese might fairly lay claim to Europe on that ground; and our own swarming poor to every large park and thinly peopled district that they happened to see.

“This single consideration,” indeed, is a very good reason why the Indians should be advised to leave off a desultory life, and take to agriculture and the arts; or it is a very sufficient reason why the Europeans should ask leave to live amongst them, and thus more fully occupy the country, in what the French geographer calls a reasonable sense. And it remained for M. Malte Brun to show that they have ever refused to do either the one or the other. They have, on all occasions when the Europeans have gone amongst them, “in a reasonable sense,” received them with kindness, and even joy. They have been willing to listen to their instructions, and ready to sell them their lands to live upon. But it has been the “unreasonableness” of the whites that has everywhere soon turned the hearts, and made deaf the ears, of the natives. We have seen the lawless violence with which the early settlers seized on the Indians’ territories, the lawless violence and cruelty with which they rewarded them evil for good, and pursued them to death, or instigated them to the commission of all bloody and desperate deeds. These are the causes why the Indians have remained uncivilized wanderers; why they have refused to listen to the precepts ofChristianity; and why they roam over, rather than occupy, those lands on which they have been suffered to remain. From the days of Elliot, Mayhew, Brainard, and their zealous compeers, there have never wanted missionaries to endeavour to civilize and christianize; but they have found, for the most part, their efforts utterly defeated by the wicked and unprincipled acts, the wicked and unprincipled character of the Europeans. When the missionaries have preached to the shrewd Indians the genuine doctrines of Christianity, they have immediately been struck with the total discrepancy between these doctrines and the lives and practices of their European professors. “If these are the principles of your religion,” they have continually said, “go and preach them to your countrymen. If they have any efficacy in them, let us see it shewn upon them. Make them good, just, and full of this love you speak of. Let them regard the rights and property of Indians. You have also a people amongst you that you have torn from their own country, and hold in slavery. Go home and give them freedom; do as your book says,—as you would be done by. When you have done that, come again, and we will listen to you.”

This is the language which the missionaries have had everywhere in the American forests to contend with.58When they have made by their truly kind andchristian spirit and lives some impression, the spirit and lives of their countrymen have again destroyed their labours. The fire-waters, gin, rum, and brandy, have been introduced to intoxicate, and in intoxication to swindle the Indians out of their furs and lands. Numbers of claims to lands have been grounded on drunken bargains, which in their soberness the Indians would not recognize; and the consequences have been bloodshed and forcible expulsion. Before these causes the Indians have steadily melted away, or retired westwards before the advancing tide of white emigration. Malte Brun would have us believe that in the United States there never were many more than twice the present number. Let any one look at the list of the different tribes, and their numbers in 1822, quoted by himself from Dr. Morse, and then look at the numbers of all the tribes which inhabited the old States at the period of their settlement.

The slightest glance at this table shews instantly the fact, that where the white settlers have been the longest there the Indians have wofully decreased. The farther you go into the Western wilderness the greater the Indian population. Where are the populous tribes that once camped in the woods of New York, New England, and Pennsylvania? In those states there were twenty years ago about 8000 Indians; since then, a rapid diminution has taken place. In the middle of the seventeenth century, and after several of the tribes were exterminated, and after all had suffered severely, there could not be less, according to the historians of the times, than forty or fifty thousand Indians within the same limits. The traveller occasionally meets with a feeble remnant of these once numerous and powerful tribes, lingering amid the now usurped lands of their country, in the old settled states; but they have lost their ancient spirit and dignity, and more resemble troops of gypsies than the noble savages their ancestors were. A few of the Tuscaroras live near Lewistown, and are agriculturists: and the last of the Narragansets, the tribe of Miantinomo, are to be found at Charlestown, in Rhode Island, under the notice of the Boston missionaries. Fragments of the Six Nations yet linger in the State of New York. A few Oneidas live near the lake of that name, now christianized and habituated to the manners of the country. Some of the Senecas and Cornplanters remain about Buffalo, on the Niagara, and at the head-waters of the Alleghany river. Amongst these Senecas, lived till 1830, the famous orator Red-Jacket; one of the most extraordinary men which this singular race has produced.The effect of his eloquence may be imagined from the following passage, to be found in “Buckingham’s Miscellanies selected from the Public Journals.”

“More than thirty years (this was written about 1822) have rolled away since a treaty was held on the beautiful acclivity that overlooks the Canandaigua Lake. Two days had passed away in negotiation with the Indians for the cession of their lands. The contract was supposed to be nearly completed, when Red-Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity of a Roman senator he drew his blanket around him, and with a piercing eye surveyed the multitude. All was hushed. Nothing interposed to break the silence, save the gentle rustling of the tree-tops under whose shade they were gathered. After a long and solemn, but not unmeaning pause, he commenced his speech in a low voice and sententious style. Rising gradually with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from the usurpations of white men, with such a bold but faithful pencil, that every auditor was soon roused to vengeance, or melted into tears. The effect was inexpressible. But ere the emotions of admiration and sympathy had subsided, the white men became alarmed. They were in the heart of an Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number, who were inflamed by the remembrance of their injuries, and excited to indignation by the eloquence of a favourite chief. Appalled and terrified, the white men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around them. A nod from one of the chiefs might be the onset of destruction, but at this portentous momentFarmers-brotherinterposed.”

In the year 1805 a council was held at Buffalo, by the chiefs and warriors of the Senecas, at the request of Mr. Cram from Massachusets. The missionary first made a speech, in which he told the Indians that he was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston, to instruct them “how to worship the Great Spirit,” and not to get away their lands and money; that there was but one true religion, and they were living in darkness, etc. After consultation, Red-Jacket returned, on behalf of the Indians, the following speech, which is deservedly famous, and not only displays the strong intellect of the race, but how vain it was to expect to christianize them, without clear and patient reasoning, and in the face of the crimes and corruptions of the whites.

“Friend and brother, it was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day. He orders all things, and he has given us a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are opened that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped that we have been able to hear distinctly the words that you have spoken. For all these favours we thank the Great Spirit and him only.

“Brother, this council-fire was kindled by you. It was at your request that we came together at this time. We have listened with great attention to what you have said; you requested us to speak our minds freely: this gives us great joy, for we now consider that we stand upright before you, and can speak whatever we think. All have heard your voice, and all speak to you as one man; our minds are agreed.

“Brother, you say you want an answer to yourtalk before you leave this place. It is right you should have one, as you are at a great distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you; but we will first look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and what we have heard from the white people.

“Brother, listen to what we say.There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for food. He made the beaver and the bear, and their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for his red children, because he loved them. If we had any disputes about hunting-grounds, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood; but an evil day came upon us: your forefathers crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were small; they found friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and came here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them, granted their request, and they sate down among us. We gave them corn and meat, they gave us poison59in return. The white people had now found out our country, tidings were carried back, and more came amongst us; yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends: they called us brothers, we believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length their numbers hadgreatly increased, they wanted more land,—they wanted our country! Our eyes were opened, and our minds became uneasy. Wars took place;Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquors among us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands.

“Brother, our seats were once large, and yours were very small. You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets. You have got our country, but are not satisfied;—you want to force your religion upon us.

“Brother, continue to listen.You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right, and we are lost; how do you know this? We understand that your religion is written in a book; if it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it; how shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?

“Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? why not all agree, as you can all read the book?

“Brother, we do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down from father to son.We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. We worship that way.It teaches us to be thankful for all the favours we receive; to love each other, and to be united;—we never quarrel about religion.

“Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all; but he has made a great difference between his white and red children. He has given us a different complexion, and different customs. To you he has given the arts; to these he has not opened our eyes. We know these things to be true. Since he has made so great a difference between us in other things, why may we not conclude that he has given us a different religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right: he knows what is best for his children: we are satisfied.

“Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from you; we only want to enjoy our own.

“Brother, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your meetings, and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell what this money was intended for, but suppose it was your minister; and, if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want some from us.

“Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbours; we are acquainted with them: we will wait a little while, and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again what you have said.

“Brother, you have now heard our answer to your talk; and this is all we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on your journey, and return you safe to your friends.”

The Missionary, hastily rising from his seat, refused to shake hands with them, saying “there was no fellowship between the religion of God and the works of the devil.” The Indians smiled and retired in a peaceable manner.60Which of these parties best knew the real nature of religion? At all events the missionary was awfully deficient in the spirit of his own, and in the art of winning men to embrace it.

TheFriends have for many years had schools for the education of the children in different States, and persons employed to engage the Indians in agriculture and manual arts, but they, as well as the missionaries, complain that their efforts have been rendered abortive by the continual removals of the red people by the government.

Scarcely was the war over, and American independence proclaimed, when a great strife began betwixt the Republicans and the Indians, for the Indian lands—a strife which extended from the Canadian lakes to the gulph of Florida, and has continued more or less to this moment. Under the British government, the boundaries of the American states had never been well defined. The Americans appointed commissioners to determine them, and appear to have resolved that all Indian claims within the boundaries of the St. Lawrence, the great chain of lakes, and the Mississippi, should be extinguished. They certainly embraced a compact and most magnificent expanse of territory. It was true that the Indians, the ancient and rightful possessors of the soil, had yet large tracts within these lines of demarcation; but, then, what was the power of the Indians to that of the United States? Theycouldbe compelled to evacuate their lands, and it was resolved that theyshould. It is totally beyond the limits of my work to follow out the progress of this most unequal and iniquitous strife; whoever wishes to see it fully and very fairly portrayed may do so in a work by an American—“Drake’s Book of the North American Indians.” I can here only simply state, that a more painful and interesting struggle never went on between the overwhelming numbers of the white men, armed with all the powers of science, but unrestrained by the genuine sentiments of religion, and the sons of the forest in their native simplicity. The Americans tell us that this apparently hard and arbitrary measure will eventually prove the most merciful. That the Indians cannot live by the side of white men; they are always quarrelling with and murdering them; and that is but too true; and the Indians in strains of the most indignant and pathetic eloquence, tell us the reason why. It is because the white invaders are eternally encroaching on their bounds, destroying their deer and their fish, and murdering the Indians too without ceremony. It is this recklessness of law and conscience, and the ever-rolling tide of white population westward, which raised up Tecumseh, and his companions, to combine the northern tribes in resistance. Brant assured the American commissioners, that unless they made the Ohio and the Muskingum their boundaries, therecould be no peace with the Indians. These are the causes that called forth Black-Hauk from the Ouisconsin, with the Winnebagoes, the Sacs, and Foxes; that roused the Little-Turtle, with his Miamies, and many other chiefs and tribes, to inflict bloody retribution on their oppressors, but finally to be compelled themselves only the sooner to yield up their native lands. These are the causes that, operating to the most southern point of the United States, armed the great nations of the Seninoles, the Creeks, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees; and have made famous the exterminating campaigns of General Jackson, the bloody spots of Fort Mimms, Autossee, Tippecanoe, Talladega, Horse-shoe-bend, and other places of wholesale carnage. At Horse-shoe-bend, General Jackson says—“determined to exterminate them, I detached General Coffee with the mounted and nearly the whole of the Indian force, early in the morning (March 27, 1814), to cross the river about two miles below their encampment, and to surround the Bend, so that none of them should escape by crossing the river.”

“At this place,” says Drake, “the disconsolate tribes of the South had made a last great stand; and had a tolerably fortified camp. It was said they were 1000 strong.” They were attacked on all sides; the fighting was kept up five hours;five hundred and fifty-sevenwere left dead on the peninsula, and a great number killed by the horsemen, in crossing the river.It is believed that not more than twenty escaped!“We continued,” says thebrave General Jackson, “to destroy many of them who had concealed themselves under the banks of the river, until we were prevented by the night!”

And what had these unfortunate tribes done, that they should be exterminated? Simply this:—When the United States remodelled the southern states, reducing the Carolinas and Georgia, and creating the new states of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, they stipulated, in behalf of Georgia, to extinguish all the Indian titles to lands in that State, “as soon as it could be done on peaceable terms.” Georgia, impatient to seize on these lands, immediately employed all means to effect this object. When the Indians, in national council, would not sell their lands, they prevailed on a half-breed chief, M’Intosh, and a few others, of no character, to sell them; and, on this mock title, proceeded to expel the Indians. The Indians resisted; an alarm of rebellion was sounded through the States, and General Jackson sent to put it down. The Indians, as in all other quarters, were compelled to give way before the irresistible American power. We cannot go at length into this bloody history of oppression; but the character of the whole may be seen in that of a part.

But the most singular feature of the treatment of the Indians by the Americans is, that while they assign their irreclaimable nature as the necessary cause of their expelling or desiring to expel them from all the states east of the Mississippi, their most strenuous and most recent efforts have been directed against those numerous tribes, that were not only extensive but rapidly advancing in civilization. So far from refusing to adopt settled, orderly habits, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees, were fast conforming both to the religion and the habits of the Americans. The Creeks were numberedin 1814 at 20,000. The Choctaws had some years ago 4041 warriors, and could not therefore be estimated at less than four times that number in total population, or 16,000. In 1810, the Cherokees consisted of 12,400 persons; in 1824 they had increased to 15,000. The Chickasaws reckoned some years ago 1000 warriors, making the tribe probably 4000.

The Creeks had twenty years ago cultivated lands, flocks, cattle, gardens, and different kinds of domestic manufactures. They were betaking themselves to manual trades and farming. “The Choctaws,” Mr. Stuart says, “have both schools and churches. A few books have been published in the Choctaw language. In one part of their territory, where the population amounted to 5627 persons, there were above 11,000 cattle, about 4000 horses, 22,000 hogs, 530 spinning-wheels, 360 ploughs, etc.” The missionaries speak in the highest terms of their steadiness and sobriety; and one of their chiefs had actually offered himself as a candidate for Congress. All these tribes are described as rapidly progressing in education and civilization, but the Cherokees present a character which cannot be contemplated without the liveliest admiration. These were the tribes amongst whom Adair spent so many years, about the middle of the last century, and whose customs and ideas as delineated by him, exhibited them as such fine material for cultivation. Since then the missionaries, and especially the Moravians, have been labouring with the most signal success. A school was opened in this tribe by them in 1804, in which vast numbers of Cherokee children have been educated. Such, indeed, have been the effects of cultivation on this fine people, thatthey have assumed all the habits and pursuits of civilized life. Their progress may be noted by observing the amount of their possessions in 1810, and again, fourteen years afterwards, in 1824. In the former year they had 3 schools, in the latter 18; in the former year 13 grist-mills, in the latter 36; in the former year 3 saw-mills, in the latter 13; in the former year 467 looms, in the latter 762; in the former year 1,600 spinning-wheels, in the latter 2,486; in the former year 30 wagons, in the latter 172; in the former year 500 ploughs, in the latter 2,923; in the former year 6,100 horses, in the latter 7,683; in the former year 19,500 head of cattle, in the latter 22,531; in the former year 19,600 swine, in the latter 46,732; in the former year 1,037 sheep, in the latter 2,546, and 430 goats; in the former year 49 smiths, in the latter 62 smiths’ shops. Here is a steady and prosperous increase; testifying to no ordinary existence of industry, prudence, and good management amongst them, and bearing every promise of their becoming a most valuable portion of the community. They have, Mr. Stuart tells us, several public roads, fences, and turnpikes. The soil produces maize, cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and Irish potatoes. The natives carry on a considerable trade with the adjoining states, and some of them export cotton to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are common, and gardens well cultivated. Butter and cheese are the produce of their dairies. There are many houses of public entertainment kept by the natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen in every section of the country. Cotton and woollen cloths and blankets are everywhere. Almost everyfamily in the nation produces cotton for its own consumption. Nearly all the nation are native Cherokees.

A printing-press has been established for several years; and a newspaper, written partly in English, and partly in Cherokee, has been successfully carried on. This paper, called the Cherokee Phœnix, is written entirely by a Cherokee, a young man under thirty. It had been surmised that he was assisted by a white man, on which he put the following notice in the paper:—“No white has anything to do with the management of our paper. No other person, whether white or red, besides the ostensible editor, has written, from the commencement of the Phœnix, half a column of matter which has appeared under the editorial head.”61

The starting of this Indian newspaper by an Indian, is one of the most interesting facts in the history of civilization. In this language nothing had been written or printed. It had no written alphabet. This young Indian, already instructed by the missionaries in English literature, is inspired with a desire to open the world of knowledge to his countrymen in their vernacular tongue. There is no written character, no types. Those words familiar to all native ears, have no corresponding representation to the eye. These are gigantic difficulties to the young Indian, and as the Christian would call him,savageaspirant and patriot. But he determines to conquer them all. He travels into the eastern states. He invents letters which shall best express the sounds of his native tongue; he has types cut, and commences a newspaper. There is nothing like it in the history ofnations in their first awakening from the long fixedness of wild life. This mighty engine, the press, once put in motion by native genius in the western wilderness, books are printed suitable to the nascent intelligence of the country. The Gospel of St. Matthew is translated into Cherokee, and printed at the native press. Hymns are also translated and printed. Christianity makes rapid strides. The pupils in the schools advance with admirable rapidity. There is a new and wonderful spirit abroad. Not only do the Indians throng to the churches to listen to the truths of life and immortality, but Indians themselves become diligent ministers, and open places of worship in the more remote and wild parts of the country. Even temperance societies are formed. Political principles develop themselves far in philosophical advance of our proud and learned England. The constitution of the native state contains admirable stamina; trial by jury prevails; and universal suffrage—a right, to this moment distrustfully withheld from the English people, is there freely granted, and judiciously exercised; every male citizen of eighteen years old having a vote in all public elections.

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