Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
From that day, Otsaquette was no longer the accomplished Indian, from
whom every wish of philanthropy was expected to be realized. He was no
longer the instrument by whose power the emancipation of his countrymen
from the thraldom of ignorance and superstition, was to be effected.
From that day, he was again an inmate with the forest; was once more
buried in his original obscurity, and his nation only viewed him as _an
equal_. Even a liberal grant from the State, failed of securing to
him that superior consideration among them which his civilization had
procured for him with the rest of mankind. The commanding preeminence
acquired from instruction, from which it was expected ambition would
have sprung up, and acted as a double stimulant, from either the
natural inferiority of the savage mind, or the predetermination of
his countrymen—became of no effect, and, in a little time, was wholly
annihilated. Otsaquette was lost! His moral perdition began from the
hour he left Fort Stanwix. Three short months had hardly transpired,
when Intemperance had marked him as her own, and soon hurried him to
the grave. And, as if the very transition had deadened all the finer
feelings of his nature, the picture given him by the Marquis—the very
portrait of his affectionate friend and benefactor himself—he parted
with!
Extraordinary and unnatural as the conduct of this educated savage may
appear, the anecdote is not of a kind altogether unique; which proves,
that little or nothing is to be expected from conferring a literary
education upon those children of the forest:—An Indian, named George
White-Eyes, was taken, while a boy, to the college at Princeton, where
he received a classical education. On returning to his nation, he made
some little stay in Philadelphia. He was amiable in his manners, and of
modest demeanour, without exhibiting any trait of the savage whatever;
but, no sooner had he rejoined his friends and former companions, in
the land of his nativity, than he dropped the garb and manners of
civilization, and resumed those of the savage, and, drinking deep of
their intoxicating cup, soon put a period to his existence.
Many other instances might be adduced, to show how ineffectual have
been the attempts to plant civilization on savage habits, by means of
_literary_ education—“Can the leopard change his spots?”
[Illustration]
THE CATASTROPHE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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