Colonization and Christianity: A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the; Europeans in all their coloniesHowitt, William
History
Colonization and Christianity: A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the; Europeans in all their colonies
Howitt, William
Indians, Treatment of; Indigenous peoples
But if such is the internal condition of Christian Europe, what
is the phasis that it presents to the rest of the world? With the
exception of our own tribes, now numerously scattered over almost
every region of the earth, all are in our estimation barbarians. We
pride ourselves on our superior knowledge, our superior refinement,
our higher virtues, our nobler character. We talk of the heathen, the
savage, and the cruel, and the wily tribes, that fill the rest of the
earth; but how is it that these tribes know _us_? Chiefly by the very
features that we attribute exclusively to them. They know us chiefly
by our crimes and our cruelty. It is we who are, and must appear to
them the savages. What, indeed, are civilization and Christianity?
The refinement and ennoblement of our nature! The habitual feeling
and the habitual practice of an enlightened justice, of delicacy and
decorum, of generosity and affection to our fellow men. There is not
one of these qualities that we have not violated for ever, and on
almost all occasions, towards every single tribe with which we have
come in contact. We have professed, indeed, to teach Christianity to
them; but we had it not to teach, and we have carried them instead, all
the curses and the horrors of a demon race. If the reign of Satan, in
fact, were come,—if he were let loose with all his legions, to plague
the earth for a thousand years, what would be the characteristics
of his prevalence? Terrors and crimes; one wide pestilence of vice
and obscenity; one fearful torrent of cruelty and wrath, deceit and
oppression, vengeance and malignity; the passions of the strong would
be inflamed—the weak would cry and implore in vain!
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