Tomochichi, chief of the Chickasaws, said to Wesley, "I will go up and
speak to the wise men of the nation, and I hope they will hear. But we
would not be made Christians as the Spaniards make Christians; we would
be taught before we are baptised." He felt the want unconsciously
acknowledged by the King of Siam, spoken of by John Locke in his chapter
on Probability. A Dutch ambassador, when entertaining the king with the
peculiarities of Holland, amongst other things told the sovereign that
the water in Holland would sometimes in cold weather be so hard that men
walked upon it, and that it would bear an elephant if he were there. To
which the king replied, "Hitherto I have believed the strange things you
have told me, because I looked upon you as a sober, fair man, but now I
am sure you lie." But Tomochichi had an eye that saw the faults of the
colonists, if he did not understand their religion. When urged to listen
to the doctrines of Christianity he keenly replied, "Why, these are
Christians at Savannah! these are Christians at Frederica! Christian
much drunk! Christian beat men! Christian tell lies! Devil Christian! Me
no Christian!" This recalls the pathetic story of the West Indian
cazique, who, at the stake, refused life, temporal or eternal, at the
price of conversion, asking where he should go to live so happily. He
was told--in heaven; and then he at once refused, on the ground that the
whites would be there; and he had rather live anywhere, or nowhere, than
dwell with such people as he had found the white Christians to be.
Almost the first word, says Dr. Medhurst, uttered by a Chinese, when
anything is said concerning the excellence of Christianity, is, "Why do
Christians bring us opium, and bring it directly in defiance of our
laws? The vile drug has destroyed my son, has ruined my brother, and
well-nigh led me to beggar my wife and children. Surely those who
import such a deleterious substance, and injure me for the sake of gain,
cannot wish me well, or be in possession of a religion better than my
own. Go first and persuade your own countrymen to relinquish their
nefarious traffic; and give me a prescription to correct this vile
habit, and then I will listen to your exhortations on the subject of
Christianity!" Dr. Livingstone says he found a tribe of men in the
interior of Africa so pure and simple that they seemed to have no idea
of untruthfulness and dishonesty until they were brought into contact
with Asiatics and Europeans. Some of Dr. Kane's men, "while resting at
Kalutunah's tent, had appropriated certain fox-skins, boots, and
sledges, which their condition seemed to require. The Esquimaux
complained of the theft, and Dr. Kane, after a careful inquiry into the
case, decided in their favor. He gave each five needles, a file, and a
stick of wood, and knives and other extras to Kalutunah and Shanghu, and
after regaling them with a hearty supper, he returned the stolen goods,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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