Beauties of the forest
Neither the pen nor the pencil can describe the feelings of those who sympathize with nature in her secret homes of grandeur.
When I first entered the forest, the effect of the sublimity of the scene was astonishment, in which the beauties were lost; but as surprise wore off, these beauties, one by one, stood out to view; and operating on the senses, produced pleasure in its highest state of enjoyment.
In scenes where bignonias, passifloras, and a thousand other flowers presented an unceasing display throughout the year, surrounded with birds and insects of surpassing beauty, who, possessed of sympathy of soul, or an ear for the sweet sounds of nature, would not for a time forget mortality and live in imaginary eternal bliss; for the charm of such scenes is only dispelled by awakening to the wants and necessities of the corporeal man.
My existence was of such a nature,—one of alternate enjoyment in communing with lonely and enchanting scenes, and of fears lest I should fall a sacrifice to the dangers that environed my everyday movements. Sometimes I sallied forth to face dangers, and again paused to breathe, and, for a time, escape them.
At length I reached a new scene, consisting of sand-hills, out of which issued springs of water, uniting at a short distance, where they formed a stream, which appeared to wind over an open country. In comparison with my solitude in the woods, this was a cheering change; and recollecting the geographical axiom in my school-books, that all springs and rivers ultimately find their way into the sea, I rejoiced at the chance I had of being extricated from the labyrinth in which I had been so long bewildered.
Following the stream
It is the fate of mortals to see the birth of pleasure only to witness her destruction. Her commencement is always very nearly connected with her end. The instant that gives her birth is generally the same in which she expires. I had not proceeded far before the waters spread themselves over the land, and were lost to the sight. In one or two places their course terminated as if they were cut off with a knife, one edge being visible and the other in obscurity, exhibiting the phenomenon of rivers which suddenly take a subterraneous course, to rise again at another point, leaving the space between perfectly dry. Being now in an open country, I ascertained that the course I had travelled was directly southward, or towards that part of the horizon which was cut by the sun's culminating, or meridian line; and this course I continued to pursue. A day and a half again brought me to the stream, for, as yet, it was not entitled to be called a river. It now, however, took a direction leading into the wood, among the foliage of which it was lost to the eye. The emancipation from the forest had given me the greatest possible delight, I therefore could not but hesitate before I again entered it; yet it was my only certain source of subsistence in the open country. I suffered both from hunger and thirst. I had, therefore, no alternative but to follow the stream; and on I went, its course winding so much that I began to fear I was traversing another circle. At length, after giving me much wearisome toil, it was lost in an impenetrable thicket of wood. I was now constrained to make a very considerable and extendeddétour, in the hope of again reaching its banks at some merging point. Three days I journeyed round an impervious mass of wood, so closely matted that I could at no point obtain an entrance. At the end of that time, I suddenly lighted upon the spot where I supposed the waters met in one broad reservoir. Various tributary streams flowed into this spot, and continued their meandering course for many miles. I hailed the sight of it with considerable delight, as I had begun to be fearful that I was about to lose sight of its course altogether.
"Look round and seeHow Providence bestows on all alikeSunshine and rain, to bless the fruitful yearOf different nations, all different faiths;And though by several names and titles worshipp'd,Heav'n takes the various tribute of their praise.Since all agree to own, at least to mean,One best, one greatest, and one Lord of all."
A useful hollow tree
When I arrived at the confluence, as I took it to be, of the streams, it was Saturday night,—that is, according to my new calendar. As I did not think it lawful to travel on the Sunday, I sought for an eligible place of security, where I might rest, and start thoroughly refreshed on the Monday, to solve the problem of the opposing currents. With this view I ascended an isolated blasted tree, where I might seat myself, and find protection from insidious enemies. I was delighted to find that the trunk was hollow, the only entrance being from the top. The tree leaned to the horizon at about an angle of 45 degrees. After carefully examining it, I thought I had satisfied myself that it was not pre-occupied by any obnoxious inhabitant; I then dropped into it, as it were, down a chimney. Crouching, I was out of sight, but when I stood erect I had a view of my own desolate situation.
A species of frogs had just commenced to send forth their peculiar noise, which resembles the sound from a stonemason's yard, when I was annoyed by a number of green frogs, such as dwell in trees; and endeavouring to brush these from my immediate locality, I discovered a number of thescolopendra, or centipedes, from five to eight inches in length. Perceiving a hole in the side of the tree, I proceeded to expel these formidable insects with my stick, by which means I disturbed, in the pulpy part of the decayed wood, a nest ofscorpions. Things in motion soon catch my eye, and in another second I had regained the earth. Indisposed, however, to give up such a comfortable apartment, I cleared out the whole of the interior, and then regained the top of the tree, where I sat for a considerable time in doubt whether I should retire to rest or keep watch through the night. It was a beautiful evening, and the air was strongly impregnated with the aromatic fragrance of the different species of therubiaceæ, theandiocera, andænothera. Moonlight is a thoughtful period in all climates. I had almost, while watching my own shadow, forgotten the process of time, when suddenly Cynthia extinguished her lamp. Wearied, both in a mental and physical sense, I again, reckless of consequences, dropped into my cylindrical apartment. How long I slept I cannot tell; I was, however, awaked to scenes as remarkable as they were terrible and rapid in succession. A flood of light was streaming into my skylight, and I became conscious of a rocking sensation. For a moment I concluded that I was again seized with the vertigo in my head. A violent sound of rushing waters soon roused me to a sense of my real danger, and, standing erect, I beheld all the firm earth, on which but a few hours previously I had stood, now covered with water. An immense number of aquatic birds were floating on its surface, while others were springing up to branches of the trees above, to escape from the enormous serpents, and other monsters of the deep, that infest temporary lakes caused by sudden inundations.
An inundation
As I surveyed the scene the waters were still rising, and the tree on which I sat rose with them in an upright position. Presently it became stationary, and the water began, gradually to cover its trunk. I have said that it was an isolated spot: it was a small area in the midst of the wood, which appeared to have been cleared by the blast of lightning, the nearest tree being fifty yards, or more, distant. Among other things struggling for life was a fawn, which swam beneath me, and was seized by a cayman; while as another monster of the same species, at least thirty feet long, paused to survey me, with my feet then nearly touching the water, I impulsively raised my stick in self-defence, and at this juncture the trunk of the tree suddenly swung round, and by its action nearly threw me off into the jaws of the cayman. The principal part of the roots were torn from the earth, but most providentially the only remaining branch on the tree remained uppermost, which presented me with the opportunity of climbing five or six feet higher. Still, as I could not now turn round with facility, I remained for a full hour, every moment expecting the monster would seize me from behind; for the cayman continued to show himself at intervals, as if certain, in the end, of his prey. At length the roots of the decayed tree parted entirely from the earth, and it was carried forward with the current. Fortunately the branch, which was my only chance of escape, still remained elevated. The cayman did not abandon his intended victim till my bark conveyed me among the standing trees, when I seized the opportunity of climbing up one of considerable height. Up to this period all other dangers had been merged in the immediate dread of the monster of the deep, but I was now at liberty to take a more extended view of the scene, from a fixed position, and I found myself in the midst of congregated wild beasts and powerful reptiles.
In the next tree to the one I occupied was an ant-bear, and a little farther off I could discern several others. Monkeys and apes were swinging and chattering over my head in large numbers; serpents, from five to thirty feet long, were crawling on the branches and round the trunks of trees, to escape from the flood; tiger-cats, beautifully striped, were springing from branch to branch of the green and purple-heart trees, which here grew to the height of seventy feet; lizards were seen in such numbers as in many places literally to cover the branches of the trees. All the birds were sending forth sounds of dissonance, as if stricken with terror; while the shrill voice of the bird called the pi-pi-yo roused me to the consciousness that the hour of noon had arrived.
The loftypanax,Bignonia,copaiva, rising to a hundred feet in height, were peopled with living things, all in apparent consternation at the sudden changes of the scene. It was a grand, though an awful sight for a human being to behold. Animals of various natures, habits, and antipathies, were all crowded together in one common place of refuge, shaken by the wind, and dreading contact with each other, as the violent rushing of the waters bore on their surface numberless proofs of the havoc made, and still threatening to sweep away and swallow up every vestige of animal and vegetable creation.
Hope in desolation
But let the soul be set on the highest mount of distress, and view the most spacious prospect of misery, if the eye be turned towards God comfort may be found beyond the horizon, when human strength is vain.
I lifted up my voice in the wilderness, and lo! God was there, and I took courage, exclaiming, "The Almighty is the architect of all I see, His power stretches over the whole earth and the empty space; He hangs the earth and all the ethereal globes upon nothing; and is He not able to save me?" "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness," saith the Lord. "The hand which fixes the stars and guides the planets in their courses is stretched out to preserve His children."
With these reflections did I trust in my position, and bid my soul to take courage and rely on divine succour. Fortunately, I had the remains of a cooked bird in my wallet, which always hung at my back; andmurucuja, fruit of one of the passion-flowers, was within my reach, which I gathered and ate. The fish also forsook their ordinary food, for I could plainly see them feeding on the fruit and berries of shrubs through which they swam.
At length night overtook me, and the moon, I thought, rose with a more speaking yet angry countenance than usual, frowning blood-coloured rays on the surface of the water and through the foliage of the wood, still rendering my fellow-lodgers immediately around me visible, while the vampire and other species of bats flitted wildly round, like spirits of the air; and occasional splashings beneath indicated that the larger tyrants of the flood were making prey of the weaker inhabitants, or the latter were exerting themselves to escape from the jaws of the former.
The terrestrial animals seemed, for the most part, in providing for their own safety, to have suspended all operations of warfare, the scene above the flood in the evening wearing much the same appearance as throughout the day, excepting that the reptiles were not so numerous, the serpents and lizards having found hiding-places in the holes of the trees or under thick foliage. After a few hours the moon went down and left me
"In the populous solitude of bees and birds,And fairy-form'd and many-colour'd things."
It was now that, like Job, I had to "gird up my loins like a man;" for, as darkness shrouded me, my thoughts naturally reverted to the bear in the next tree; I could not but speculate on his movements, and the probability of his descending and swimming to invade my territory. Impressed with this fear, the master one of the hour, I took up a position to command the trunk of the tree, where, armed with my stick, I might oppose him to an advantage.
A night on the water
It would be futile were I to attempt to describe my sensations during the night. Could words be found expressive enough for the purpose, they should have been penned at the instant they were felt; feelings under such extraordinary circumstances cannot be recalled, or appreciated only at the time they were excited. Words, in description, stand for general ideas in Nature's chart; ten thousand sensations and forms enter of themselves into the sanctuary of the mind. I can only say that I spent the night in prayer for the coming morn. It, however, passed without involving me in any encounter. "Now, men see not the bright light which is in the clouds; but the wind passeth and cleareth them away."
I thought it was an interminable night, and long before morning dawned, as the first glimmer of light tinged the eastern horizon, I strained my eyes to assure myself of its actual approach; yet what hope could it bring me?—none, in prospect; notwithstanding which, latent hope was not wholly extinct. A vague idea possessed me that I might find some floating tree to carry me to the nearest shore. At length, indolently, as I thought, the morning did appear, rendering surrounding objects visible. The bear was still in the tree, coiled up like a cat, in a forked branch, apparently asleep. His bearship had not even the politeness to pass the compliment of the day by noticing me; and noon again arrived, bringing with it utter despair. For some time I had been watching a log of timber, in the hope that it would float within my reach, when I distinctly heard the sound of human voices. My heart leaped up with joy; and the coincidence of the appearance of a rainbow at the same instant, operated like a reprieve to a malefactor in the hands of the executioner.
I was so much elated, that I actually should have neglected to have called out for assistance, had not the same voices again addressed my ear more distinctly, when I used my vocal powers with all my might; but I had no response, and my heart was again, sinking within me, when I observed a canoe approaching. It contained two Indians; one was using the paddle, the other directing his attention to the spot from whence my voice proceeded. A few seconds brought them under the tree, and an invitation, by signs, for me to descend, and accept of my emancipation from their hands.
The charms of solitude
Notwithstanding all the terrors and privations of my wild life, there was a charm in it which is inexplicable; and I paused ere I parted with it. Men whose whole life has been identified with civilization may not understand this feeling; but long association with nature in her own scenes of unlimited grandeur and profuse bounty, cannot be broken off without a struggle. In return for all the blessings nature bestows on her children of the woods, she requires no sacrifice of liberty; free and unconstrained she permits them to roam throughout her domains; to robe or unrobe, as their taste may dictate; to rest when fatigued, and to rise when refreshed. Nature does not mask misery with the face of happiness, nor dress misfortune in the guise of prosperity; free and uncontrolled, her children are invited to help themselves at her munificent board; while in the narrow paths of civilized life, even the boasted reason of man is incapable of conferring happiness on society. But with the green grass and soft moss for a carpet, umbrageous trees for a shade, the murmuring stream for the ear, together with the sound of the breeze amongst the leaves to woo reflection, the syrens of vicious pleasure may be avoided, and the disquietudes of life be forgotten. Like a true citizen of the world, I had become enamoured with liberty, and with the instinct of a denizen of the forest, I shrank from the presence of man. My situation was perilous, death being inevitable if I remained in the tree; for in a short time sleep must overcome me, and in that state, I must fall into the waters beneath. Reluctantly, therefore, I dropped into the canoe, with the feelings of a bird who darts into a cage to escape the talons of the hawk—an incident, by the way, which once brought both the fugitive and the hawk into my trap. No captured African slave could feel the loss of liberty more than I did when the Indians assigned me a seat in the canoe, which proceeded to join a company consisting of eleven persons. They were a fishing party that had left their wonted haunts to avail themselves of the flood, a period when their efforts were generally rewarded with great success. One canoe was nearly filled with the product of the first draught, and they were in the act of drawing another as I appeared amongst them.
They were all well-grown men, nearly naked, like myself, very placid in their demeanour, and showed great anxiety to relieve my distress, offering me food and drink. Indeed, their manners were so urbane and pleasing, that in a very short time I recovered from my depression of spirits, and congratulated myself on my good fortune in falling into their company. They wore large grass-platted hats to defend the head from the heat of the sun, and had each a hammock made of the same materials, which as night approached, they slung from the branches of trees, and calmly laid themselves down to survey the confusion of nature which the sudden inundation had occasioned.
With the party was a youth about my own age, who at once attached himself to me; he manifested his disappointment and concern that he could not make himself understood by words, and in a very short time intimated his intention of undertaking my education by showing me the implements in use and calling them by name, till I not only recollected them, but acquired accuracy of pronunciation.
The Indian village
Two days subsequently to my rescue from the tree, I was taken to the Indian village, about ten miles from the border of the forest. It consisted of fifteen huts on an elevated spot, distant a half-mile from a fine river, which ebbed and flowed with the tide. It was this circumstance that had occasioned my embarrassment when following the stream and suddenly meeting with a contrary current.
On my arrival at the village I was struck with the absence of curiosity or surprise which a stranger from another race generally excites, even in civilized localities. Neither men, women, or children appeared to bestow on me any peculiar notice, nor did they, as far as I could learn, express any desire to know how I came amongst them, or from whence I came. No overseer or other parish officer was called in to provide me with food and then dispute my right to eat. I was at once led to the hut of the father of my young friend, and received as one of the family, in which there were two wives and two families—one mother with three, and another with four children. Plurality of wives was the custom of this Indian community, and yet they lived in perfect harmony; there were no jealousies or bickerings; the progeny of each shared alike the affection and care of both mothers, who laboured with equal zeal in the culture of cassava or manioc, the roots of which they grated and made into bread.
There were numerous tribes of these Indians, but they all spoke the same language. The tribe I was with were called Galibis; they were remarkable alike for their humanity and intelligence. Indeed, they possessed all the moral qualities of civilized society, without its forms and most of its vices, especially the one of coveting their neighbours' goods.
Habits of the Indians
During the time I was with them, a period of eighteen months, I never heard of a charge of theft. Land was as plentiful as air and water; there could not, therefore, be any motive to steal, if we except idleness,—a vice which prevails more in cities than in the wilds of nature. Numerous families sometimes live in one common large hut; yet there are no quarrels to disturb their harmony; and such is their hospitality that he who is fatigued with hunting may always depend on repose in the nearest dwelling.
Their language is peculiarly harmonious, rich with synonyms, and is represented by those who have studied its grammatical construction, to be complicated and ingenious in syntax. Intelligent as they are, they have at all times rejected the arts and all instruction, from their great love of independence. The countenances of all are stereotyped with benevolence, and their conversation is fraught with maxims that inculcate the practice of charity to all the human race. They are not without a sense of pride, yet discourage it in practice. It requires no broker to make a written catalogue of their household furniture: their weapons are bows and arrows, and a short dart which they force through a reed with the breath, bringing down birds on the wing with surprising dexterity. A flat stone on which the women bake bread, and a rough one on which to grate the root of cassava; a hammock, a hatchet, a comb, and a broken piece of looking-glass in a rude frame, comprise the whole of their furniture. What few vessels they had were ill made,—not any improvement on those I formed from clay for the use of my aviary when in the woods.
They have no code of laws, nor have they a word in the language by which to convey the idea of laws; yet they have the same word as in Hebrew to express God, by which they understand supreme master. They have a magistrate or elder, to whom any matter of disputation is referred, and by him summarily and finally settled. Fire they obtain by rubbing two pieces of wood together; and for cooking, this is made on the ground, over which they suspend their vessels in the rudest manner. Although these people wear no clothes, properly so called, they are very fond of ornaments; as amulets and charms, those obtained from the ivory-billed woodpecker were most in vogue. No people in the world, perhaps, are more remarkable for acute observation. If you name any kind of bird, or other animal, to them, that is to be found in this part of the globe, instantly they imitate its action and tones of voice. The notes of birds they give with surprising accuracy. They are very expert swimmers, and some of the women and children spend the chief of their time in the water. The men fish, and hunt, and when not so employed, which happens three or four days in the week, they remain in their hammocks, and amuse themselves with their implements, in the repairs of which, and in conversation, all their leisure is spent. They possess all the qualities to form good sportsmen, and to take the command of others—having great presence of mind and promptitude of action. I know not which most to admire, their skill in discovering game, or their manner of taking it. They entertain the loftiest sentiments of chivalrous honour, and their courage always rises with increasing difficulty; it "smiles in danger stern and wild," and is superior to circumstances.
On the fourth day after my emancipation from the loneliness of the forest I accompanied a fishing party to the same spot from whence I had been taken. It was a favourite locality for hunting the ant-bear, and when the waters were out, for taking crabs and oysters, which were caught in large numbers among the trees and shrubs that were more or less covered by the flood.
The Great Spirit of the Indians
Under the assiduous tuition of my young friend, whose name wasPecoe, I rapidly progressed in a knowledge of his language, and could not refrain from making many reflections on his method of teaching as compared with my European schoolmaster's. Pecoe, I considered, had adopted a natural mode of instruction, while the system of the other was wholly artificial, and tedious in practice. My teacher was as anxious to be taught himself as to teach me, and when we were able to converse, asked ten thousand questions relative to my country and the state of society in it. Whether my long residence in the woods had disqualified me to be an advocate for the cause of civilization I know not, but at all my descriptions of it, Pecoe shook his head, and was evidently under an impression that my countrymen must be a very unhappy race of people. On one occasion, when conversing on our difference of colour, and on the human races generally, he said, "I will tell you how it happened: you know that there are three great spirits, all good, though each is greater than the other. The great spirit of all one day said to the lowest spirit, 'make a man, and let me see him.' The spirit took some clay and made a man; but when the Great Spirit saw him, he shook his head, and said he was too white. He then ordered the spirit next to himself in goodness to make a man, who tried his skill with charcoal—burnt wood; but the Great Spirit again shook his head, and said he was too black. The Great Spirit then determined to try himself, and taking some red earth, made the Indians, which pleased him very much." When I told him that the Great Spirit in his great goodness had so ordered it that every one should think his own colour the best, he replied, that it was not possible for either a black or a white man to be so stupid as to be satisfied with the colour of his skin, stigmatized as he, Pecoe, thought both races were, by barbarities. When I explained to him the various grades of civilized society, his quick apprehension broke out in the most indignant terms, denouncing the system as one dictated by a demon. Rich and poor! "What good," he asked, "could arise from allowing one to take all, and giving nothing to the other?"
Pecoe's ideas of society
I replied, that the wisdom of the Great Spirit (God) was recognised in his anticipation of the wisdom of man, by providing him with original principles of his own, which were given to regulate, not excite desires. Thus the sense of property is germinated in very early childhood, which sense I maintained generated a moral feeling, and a principle of justice and equity. My young friend, after a moment's thoughtful pause, stoutly gave the negative to my premises,—that the sense of property was developed in early life; he argued that the desire exhibited by children to handle things, and which we erroneously call a desire to possess them, is nothing more than a natural desire to exercise the physical senses on objects of the external world, through which only could they educate the powers of the body for healthful and manly purposes of life. Those things which some call children's playthings, he held to bebonâ fidetools, without which, whether they were wooden horses, paper boats, a doll's head, or a piece of stick, they could no more rise out of a state of childhood than a man could go to sea without a canoe. He therefore denied the inference, that because children manifest a disposition to snatch or handle everything they can reach, it is an indication of natural acquisitiveness. The mind, he said, was wholly disengaged from these matters at an early age; employment for the organs of the five senses, together with an instinctive desire to promote their development, were the true causes of children quarrelling for possessions. He instanced their having no abiding attachment for any one particular toy, however expensive or attractively constructed, always casting away one thing to handle another, the various forms of which gave exercise to different muscles, and imparted new sensations of pleasure.
The object I have in presenting my readers with a few of Pecoe's opinions is to illustrate the different ideas elicited in the minds of men by diverse circumstances of life and education. I scarcely need inform them that, in committing to paper my friend's notions, I have dressed them up in my own language.
On this occasion Pecoe closed the conversation by remarking that the nature of society, such as I had depicted in England, appeared to charge the Great Spirit with having at some early period thrown upon the earth all His gifts in a heap, for a general scramble, on the condition that the posterity of those who succeeded in first picking them up should for ever live in idleness, and become the masters of the posterity of those whose ancestors had been unsuccessful in snatching from their fellow-men more than their own share. He continued: "It was hard to believe such a state of society could exist, and thought the Evil Spirit must have put it into my head;" meaning that I had drawn upon my own imagination for the sketch. The incomprehensible part of the system to Pecoe was, that some could be luxuriating in plenty and others be starving at the same time in one country.
Warfare was unknown to his race, because the practice of good-will and the friendly offices of mutual assistance were universal among them, and annihilated every motive to aggrandisement, and consequently the disposition was never brought out. Bear in mind, reader, that I am describing no Utopia. When, therefore, I spoke of our numerous wars, and explained that it was those who had been unfortunate at the first general scramble, as he designated it, who risked their lives in battle, fighting for their wealthy masters, his incredulity rose so high as to doubt my veracity, and for some time subsequently I thought he seemed to shun my society, appearing very pensive and lonely in his habits.
Pecoe as a nurse
About a fortnight after the above conversation I was suddenly taken with violent symptoms of fever, when Pecoe was immediately by my side, assiduously attending to all my wants with the tenderness of a nurse. The physician, or pee-ay-man, was applied to, who offered up prayers to the Bad Spirit for my recovery;—for it is a part of their creed that the Good Spirit is too good to do any one harm, and therefore it is the Malicious Spirit that must be conciliated.
For this purpose a number of incantations were performed, after which the physician continued to parade from hut to hut, howling and performing another series of incantations throughout the night, at intervals calling to see if any improvement had taken place in the health of his patient. As it was the practice of every family to burn a fire through the night, I could from my hammock see this juggler stalking to and fro, looking more like a demon than a minister of comfort in sickness.
Pecoe proved the best physician. He never left me, continuing to administer comfort to me in every possible way and manner. Among other services he relieved me, at my request, from the mummeries of the pee-ay-man, aptly urging that, as the spirits of my country were not the same as theirs, he might by his interference make them angry instead of conciliating them. But the women, who really felt an interest in my fate, were not so easily satisfied, they placed implicit reliance on the skill of the pee-ay-man, and were angry with Pecoe for sending him away. "Never mind," said he, coolly, to some remarks that censured his conduct, "I am as good a doctor as he is; and if I am hot, don't the Great Spirit brush away the flies from the animal without a tail?"
My disease grew worse, and rapidly hastened to its crisis. Pecoe in every stage sought for new sources of comfort: he collected silk-grass, and daily made new pillows for my head, when they were wetted with the cold water he applied to my temples. He constantly moistened my lips with slices of pineapple, only occasionally leaving me, to go in search of the jelly cocoa-nut, which in an unripe state has but a thin skin, but contains more liquor. As the fever subsided, these grateful draughts contributed much towards my recovery, and without doubt hastened the period of final restoration to health, when I said to my friend, "You may now set up as physician to the tribe, and supersede the pee-ay-man." The remark brought a smile from his lips, as he replied, "I have not such a mean spirit as to endure to be laughed at by all the people. Do you, then, really believe that these pretenders to superior knowledge are esteemed, or that any in the place have faith in their arts?"
"If not," said I, "why tolerate them, and why not apply to the Great and Good Spirits themselves for help?"
Pecoe's prudence
"Why!" rejoined Pecoe, "because too many like deception more than honesty, and prefer listening to falsehood rather than to truth. My father and all his friends have secretly laughed at the impostor all their days, yet in public give him countenance, and also frown on the children who would doubt the efficacy of his tricks, or his ability to solve dreams and foretell events. I myself," he continued, "sometimes doubt my right to disregard the proffered services of these men. This arises, perhaps, from the general countenance they have from all the tribes, and the force of custom; for I seldom give myself the trouble to investigate their claim to respect; I endure their arts, because the majority patronise them, though I never open my lips in their defence. It is an ungracious task to make yourself more wise than your neighbours; even if you should be successful, you must inevitably make enemies without gaining new friends, people do not like to be told that they have been in error all their lives, or to believe that their forefathers were foolishly credulous."
"What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul,Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs,By Reason's light, or Resolution's wings,Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goesO'er Libya's deserts, and through Zembla's snows?She bids each slumb'ring energy awake,—Another touch, another temper take;Suspends th' inferior laws that rule o'er clay.The stubborn elements confess her sway;Man's little wants his low desires refine,And raise the mortal to a height divine."
Notwithstanding the darkness in which my friend Pecoe had been brought up, I was impressed with the notion that his soul was sufficiently alive to receive the great truths of Christianity. I therefore resolved again to introduce the subject, and make an effort to engross his attention. I commenced by impressing on his mind that my countrymen were a race acknowledged to be inferior to none other, and that they worshipped only One Great Spirit, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, together with all things visible and invisible. He surprised me by admitting that these things had engaged much of his attention, and that his mind was now made up on the question; his conviction being that the heavens and the earth had existed from eternity, and would continue the same to eternity.
I explained to him that nothing endured for ever but the power of God; that all things were constantly undergoing a process of change; that the globe we inhabited had a beginning, and, consequently, like inferior bodies, would have an end; that God permitted the dissolution of one body, and the birth of another, at periods appointed, to the end that the whole of his designs might arrive at perfection, and no absolute loss be sustained. Pecoe heard me out with great patience, then shook his head, and enquired how it came that my father should know better than his? When, however, I spoke of the existence of the soul in another and better world, and endeavoured to illustrate that certainty by saying, in the dissolution of bodies nothing perished but their forms, and that the soul when it abdicated its decaying vessel, the body, was translated to another, and a purer state of existence, he evidently looked on me as being insane.
Attempts at conversion
I was disappointed,—was vexed at my inability to awaken him to a sense of what all mankind, more or less, in some form, have acknowledged, namely, a future state of existence. I now urged that all human beings were sensible of relations not subject to the senses, and therefore possessed sensibilities distinct from the body. That they could compare, and therefore had judgment; that they retained, and therefore have memory; that they possessed freedom of choice, and therefore have will. I then said, if to these we add instinct, there are five faculties of the soul; adding, Reason compares those ideas immediately transmitted to the memory; imagination is the same faculty exercised on the same objects differently combined, having no similitude in nature.
"These," replied Pecoe, "are all your own thoughts."
Having from early infancy been accustomed, both morning and evening, to offer up my prayers to God, and having, when in the wilds of nature, found in this practice much solace, I did not fail while with the Indians to continue the custom; yet none of the people had hitherto taken any notice of my devotion. At length Pecoe inquired my motives, asking what I expected to gain by the practice.
I replied, that we had all daily wants, and that in the morning I petitioned the Great Spirit—my God—-to supply them, and that in the evening I returned thanks for the protection and supplies I had received. I further explained, that prayer was the voice of sin to Him who alone can pardon it; that it was the petition of poverty, the prostration of humility, the confidence of trust, the feeling of helplessness, and the compunctions of the soul. All this I put in the most simple form of language, and I have reason to think that he fully understood the feeling I endeavoured to convey.
Notwithstanding, he asked me whether I had not food enough to eat, and what it was the Evil Spirit had made me do that troubled me so much?
Conversation on prayer
In vain did I labour to impress his mind with a sense of the necessity there is for all to worship the Giver of life and all other blessings, and that by intreating the One God to protect us, the value of his gifts was enhanced, and that there was an inexpressible delight in committing ourselves to the care and guidance of one who is infinitely able to protect us in the right path.
"The Spirit," said he, "is good, and will do nothing wrong—he will not listen to what you tell him."
I replied by saying that we could not tell God of anything that he did not already know, and that prayer and thanksgiving were due from us all to one so beneficent. I then explained to him that his condition of darkness in religious matters was once the condition of all mankind, and that it was only by reflection, and the intercommunication of minds, that the little light our forefathers possessed was obtained, until at length God sent his only Son to reveal the truth to us. I then repeated the Lord's Prayer, and promised to teach it to him in his own language if he would use it.
He replied that he must have time to consider of it. A few days after he requested that I would not talk in that way any more to him, adding, that they were all my own sayings, meaning they were things of my own invention.
"You have consulted your father," said I. He acknowledged that he had, laughing at the same time, as if I had been a subject of their ridicule. Up to that moment I had flattered myself that I should have been spiritually of service to him, and perhaps through him, to more of his race. His father, however, was an enemy to civilized man, and inimical to innovations of every kind.
It appeared from a traditional story, which Pecoe subsequently related me, that at some former period these people had been visited by a party of missionaries, the particulars of which I an induced to give, as a caution to gentlemen who labour in such arduous undertakings as those of converting heathens to Christianity.
"Some white men," said Pecoe, "came here a long time since, and brought strange talk about the Great Spirit and his Son, (that is, about our blessed Saviour), to which our people agreed to listen, upon condition, that every time they attended they should receive a bottle of rum. They did attend," continued Pecoe, "but in a short time the white men wanted them to come and listen for nothing, and so broke their contract." Scrupulously punctual to their own engagements, the Indians, immediately on the withholding of the rum, took a prejudice against the missionaries, which no subsequent conduct on the part of the latter could remove, or perhaps will ever efface from the memory of the former. Thus has a stumblingblock been placed in the way of all future adventurers among them in the cause of Christianity. As soon as I was made acquainted with these particulars, I resolved to undertake the defence of the missionaries' conduct, and at least, lessen the prejudice against them. With this view, I availed myself of the first large assemblage of the natives, and opened the subject by inquiring how long it was since the white men had visited them, which way they came, and lastly, by what road they returned? suggesting, that perhaps the same road might lead me to a European colony, where I might have a chance of hearing from my friends.
Defence of the missionaries
An aged Indian replied to these inquiries, adding, that he had no great opinion of the white men who came there; and on asking how they had conducted themselves, he related the story in nearly the same words as I had heard it from Pecoe. I then explained the good intentions of the persons who subscribed money to spread the truths of the gospel, and the great sacrifices made by those who consented to give up the charms of civilized life for the good of the poor unenlightened heathen. I then went on to say, that with respect to the presents of rum, it was natural, after the missionaries had taken the trouble to study their language, and to travel so far, to adopt any means to secure a hearing, without which, no good could possibly accrue to the objects of their mission. Although, I continued, they might at first hold out some inducement to be heard, yet it was unreasonable to expect that persons so far away from home and their resources could continue to find the means of making repeated presents in order to tempt persons to their own good.
When I had finished, some of the Indians laughed, others shook their heads, indicating disapprobation, and a hint that I had better be silent. Upon the whole, though I pushed the matter somewhat strongly, I failed in making any impression on the auditors.
With regard to natural objects, I question if there be a more acute and observing people in the whole world; yet they are wholly a people of feelings, being evidently deficient in intellect. Their imagination and understanding are both at a low ebb, as I could never extend their ideas beyond their own path of life. At times I gave Pecoe credit for possessing a more lively imagination than others of his tribe; but as I knew more of him, this impression died away. In the highly cultivated walks of society, manhood is the period when the feelings are predominant. Imagination prevails in youth, and the understanding in old age. These people are in the middle stage of progress; and as they possess the purest moral notions of right and wrong, cannot be incapable of receiving the truths of revealed religion. The highest degree of moral elevation can only be attained by carefully cherishing the more benevolent and kindlier feelings of nature; that is, by cultivating the good passions, and throwing into disuse the bad ones. The Indians with whom I lived, effected these objects in a very high degree; for I never saw an instance of any violent exhibition of temper among them, and it was always a matter of astonishment to me to see how exceeding tractable their children were without severity on the part of the parents.
In the moral sense of the word, they were good; and if they had been Christians, would have been deemed examples for more refined nations.
"A good man, and an angel! these between,How thin the barrier? What divides their fate?Perhaps a moment, or perhaps a year;Or, if an age, it is a moment still."