ging to be forgiven, and promised that he would never so offend again.

Mr. Crane assured Thomas, that neither Mrs. Crane nor he felt the slightest degree of resentment for his upsetting the waggon, as they were convinced that he had no intention of doing so; but said that he could not but be displeased with him for indulging in spirituous liquors, after having been so frequently warned of their pernicious effects. He reminded him that the hair on his head was gray, and that in a few short years, at most, he must appear before the Great Spirit, who had said that drunkards should not enter into the kingdom of heaven. He counselled him to abstain for the future from wicked associates, and to listen to the instruction which the word of God contained.

Thomas received the admonition with silent attention, and promised to abstain henceforth from rum and bad company. Mr. Crane assured him of his forgiveness, and poor Thomas was received again into favour,

Kusick the interpreter I found to be a shrewd and intelligent man. He had fought in the revolutionary war, with a lieutenant's commission from the United States; and a lame knee, the consequence of ague and excessive fatigue, bore testimony to the hardships which he had undergone. He showed me a copy of the gospel by John in the Mohawk language, translated by Captain Brandt, a chief whom Campbell has consigned to no honourable

fame in his Gertrude of Wyoming. While his evil deeds are so lastingly recorded, let not his more deserving ones be passed over in silence. Kusick was also possessed of a copy of the gospel by Luke, translated into the same language by Captain Norton, an Indian chief who is living in upper Canada. The Mohawk language he told me though different from the Tuscarora, was so far allied to it that they could without much difficulty make use of these translations, which were indeed all that they possessed.

Evening was now advancing, and I was under the necessity of taking leave. Mr. and Mrs. Crane strongly urged me to remain with them till the following day, but this I could not with propriety do. I shook hands with my kind entertainers, with William and Nancy, Kusick and the other Indians, including poor Thomas, and with feelings of a very peculiar kind, I left Mr. Crane's house to see this interesting group no more. Many kind invitations. were showered upon me, by white and red, to repeat my visit, but in all probability we shall never meet again in this world. My acquaintance with them has been that of a day, but years will not efface its traces from my memory; and often as I remember the Tuscarora Indians, it will be with warmest wishes for their happiness, and that of all who take an interest in them.

'I am, after all, not certain whether this translation is the work of the elder Brandt, who is now dead, or of his son who is still living.

TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY EUROPEANS. 83

What I have seen and heard among the Tuscarora Indians, confirms to the utmost what I have long believed, that it is folly and worse than folly, to talk of the impossibility of civilizing the North American aborigines. It is a matter of shame to intelligent men, that such assertions should ever have been made. That it may be difficult to carry it into full effect I readily grant, but the principal obstacles which exist, have arisen from the unprincipled conduct of the white traders; many of whom, if morality were the standard of our determination, are much better entitled to the appellation of savages than the poor despised Indians.

Since the period when Europeans first set foot in the western continent, their conduct towards the Indians has been with few exceptions, for there have been a few, a combination of deceit, rapacity, and cruelty, too atrocious to be characterized by any ordinary epithet of aggravation. They found a few thousands of naked men in peaceful possession of

$ Penn's conduct towards the Indians was as remarkable for kindness, honour, and good faith, as that of others had been the re.. verse; Brother Miquon, as they translated Penn, and his friendly quækels, were long spoken of by the remains of the Delawares, in terms of enthusiastic regard. When war between the Indians and whites was raging in Pennsylvania, the quaker habit was a protection in every Indian camp, and the unarmed wearer experienced a friendly welcome in every wigwam. The history of this settlement, and some others, completely proves that the Indians were not insensible to kindness on the part of the whites; but on the contrary, that whenever they were honourably treated they made as honourable a

return.

immense tracts of fertile ground, watered by vast lakes and navigable rivers; they cast their covetous eyes upon the immense continent, and at last, by fraud and intrigue, succeeded in acquiring possession of nearly the whole, and in almost entirely extirpating the race by which it had been peopled.

It would be a long and a heart rending tale, to recount the various circumstances under which this has been accomplished; but features of general resemblance pervade them all. The white men were strong-the red men were weak; the white men were crafty and designing-the red men open and unsuspicious; the white men wanted the land-the red men were obliged to let them have it. Rum, powder, and the bayonet, were the efficient agents in completing the change. The Indians were instigated to mutual havoc and massacre, and the whites completed what they began. The dispirited remnants of the scattered tribes became the slaves of drunkenness and sloth; and the land which was yet left them, they were easily persuaded to exchange for intoxicating liquors, or whatever else their spoilers chose to give. "Finally," said the Indian chief, "they drove us back from time to time into the wilderness, far from the water, and the fish, and the oysters. They have destroyed the game; our people have wasted away; and now we live miserable and wretched, while they are enjoying our fine and beautiful country."

THEIR TREATMENT BY EUROPEANS.

85

After Europeans had thus plundered them of their territory-debased, and almost exterminated their race- -to fill up the measure of their cruelty, they slandered their character with every possible misrepresentation, till the Indians of North America are regarded, by most European nations, as the very abstraction and condensation of all that is hateful in human nature;-men whom it is perfectly impossible to reclaim from barbarism, and who may therefore be consigned to destruction, without the slighest injustice, and without any cause for remorse, completely blotted from the catalogue of living creatures.9

• I regret most sincerely to observe, that an American journal of the first respectability, has adopted and defended this most revolting, I must add, most audacious doctrine; respect for the general character of the publication prompts me to suppress its title. In an article contained in the number for July 1820, after rapidly glancing at the past and present condition of the Indians, and after discussing the question as to the right of Europeans to dispossess them of their land, the writer boldly advances as corollaries to his reasonings, that the Indians cannot be civilized, and that it is folly to attempt it. "It is tolerably well ascertained," says he, "that they cannot support the neighbourhood of civilization. Foreign and ignorant judges may sneer at this, but it is a simple fact ascertained by experience. To take measures to preserve the Indians, is to take measures to preserve so much barbarity, helplessness, and want, to the exclusion of so much industry and thriftiness.- -The object of true humanity is, not blindly to better the condition of a given individual, whether he will be bettered or not, but to put a happier individual in the place of a less happy one. If it can be done by changing the nature of the latter, it is well; if it cannot, leave him to the operation of his character and habits; do not resist the order of providence which is carrying him away, and when he