Part 5

See Bancroft, Hunter, Catlin, Flint, Jefferson, &c.--passim--all supporters of Indian eloquence, but all informing us, that "combinations of material objects were his only means of expressing abstract ideas."

Vide Bancroft's United States, vol. iii., pp. 257, 266, etc.

E. G. "They style themselves the 'beloved of the Great Spirit.'"--Warburton, vol. i., p. 186. "In the Iroquois language, the Indians gave themselves the appellation of 'Angoueonoue', or 'Men of Always.'"--Chateaubriand's Travels in America, vol. ii., p. 92. Note, also, their exaggerated boastfulness, even in their best speeches: "Logan never knew fear," &c.

"The absence of all reflective consciousness, and of all logical analysis of ideas, is the great peculiarity of American speech."--Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 257.

Warburton's Conquest of Canada, vol. i., p. 180.

I have seen it hinted, though I have forgotten where, that Jefferson, and not Logan, was the author of this speech; but the extravagant manner in which Jefferson himself praises it, seems to exclude the suspicion. "I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero," he says, "and of any other more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan!" Praise certainly quite high enough, for a mixture of lamentation and boastfulness.

The evidence in this matter has long ago been thoroughly sifted; and it is now certain that, so far from being present aiding at the massacre of Logan's family, Colonel Cresap earnestly endeavored to dissuade the party from its purpose. And yet the falsehood is perpetuated even in the common school-books of the country, while its object has been mouldering in his grave for a quarter of a century.--Western Annals, p. 147. American Pioneer, vol. i., p. 7, et seq.

Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 254.

Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 285.--"The God of the savage was what the metaphysician endeavors to express by the word substance." But the Indian's idea of substance was altogether concrete.

The best authority upon this subject is found in the Jesuit "Relaciones:" but it is at least probable, that the preconceptions of the good Fathers colored, and, perhaps, shaped, many of the religious wonders there related.

"Lettres Edifiantes," vol. vi., p. 200, et seq. Warburton, vol. i., p. 187.

The extravagant stories told of the Natchez Indians (among whom there was said to be a remarkable temple for worship) are quite incredible, even if they had not been disproved.

When the manitou of the Indian has failed to give him success in the chase, or protection from danger, "he upbraids it with bitterness and contempt, and threatens to seek a more effectual protector. If the manitou continues useless, this threat is fulfilled." Warb. ut supra. Vide, also, Catlin's "American Indians," vol. i., p. 36, et seq.

Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 258.

"He calls it [the soul] the shadow or image of his body, but its acts and enjoyments are all the same as those of its earthly existence. He only pictures to himself a continuation of present pleasures." Warb. vol. i., p. 190. Vide, also, Catlin's "American Indians," vol. i., p. 158, et seq.

The Indian never believed in the resurrection of the body; but even corn and venison were supposed to possess a spirit, which the spirit of the dead warrior might eat.--Jesuit "Relacion," 1633, p. 54.

"The idea of retribution," says Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 299, "as far as it has found its way among them, was derived from Europeans." And the same remark may be made, of most of the other wonders, in which enthusiastic travellers have discovered coincidences with Christianity.

James's "Expedition," vol. i., p. 237.--Catlin's "American Indians," vol. i., pp. 216-'18. The latter is a zealous apologist for Indian cruelties and barbarisms.

"Conquest of Canada," vol. i., pp. 194-'5.

The following may serve to indicate the sort of impression of Christianity which even the most earnest and enlightened preaching has been able to make upon the Indian mind: "Here I saw a most singular union; one of the [Indian] graves was surmounted by a cross, while close to it a trunk of a tree was raised, covered with hieroglyphics, recording the number of enemies slain by the tenant of the tomb. Here presenting a hint to those who are fond of system-making on the religion of these people," &c.--Beltrami's Pilgrimage, &c., vol. ii., p. 307. Bancroft's United States, vol. iii., pp. 303-'4. Flint's Geography, pp. 109, 126.

Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 281.

"To inflict blows that can not be returned," says this historian (Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 282), "is a proof of full success, and the entire humiliation of the enemy. It is, moreover, an experiment of courage and patience." But we think such things as much mere brutality, as triumph.

The frequent change of tense in this article, refers to those circumstances in which the present differs from the past character of the Indian.

"It is to be doubted, whether some part of this vaunted stoicism be not the result of a more than ordinary degree of physical insensibility."--Flint's Geography, vol. i., p. 114.

Many white men, however, have endured the utmost extremities of Indian cruelty. See cases of Brebeuf, and Lallemand, in Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 140.

"It is intellectual culture which contributes most to diversify the features."--Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. iii., p. 228.

"They have probably as much curiosity [as the white], but a more stern perseverance in repressing it."--Flint's Geography, vol. i., p. 124.

"The enemy is assailed with treachery, and, if conquered, treated with revolting cruelty." * * "A fiendish ferocity assumes full sway."--Conquest of Canada, vol. i., p. 206.