American fiction -- 19th century; Historical fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction
“This is all a mistake, Peter--a great and dangerous mistake. The
bee-hunter has heard the Jews spoken of by those who do not sufficiently
read the good book. They have been, and are still, the chosen people of
the Great Spirit, and will one day be received back to his favor.
Would that I were one of them, only enlightened by the words of the
New Testament! No real Christian ever can, or does now despise a son of
Israel, whatever has been done in times past. It is an honor, and not a
disgrace, to be what I have said my friends are.”
“If this be so, why do not the pale-faces let us keep out
hunting-grounds to ourselves? We are content. We do not wish to be Jews.
Our canoes are too small to cross the great salt lake. They are hardly
large enough to cross the great lakes of sweet water. We should be
tired of paddling so far. My brother says there is a rich land under the
rising sun, which the Manitou gave to the red men. Is this so?”
“Beyond all doubt. It was given to the children of Israel, for a
possession forever; and though you have been carried away from it for
a time, there the land still is, open to receive you, and waiting the
return of its ancient masters. In good season that return must come; for
we have the word of God for it, in our Christian Bible.”
“Let my brother open his ears very wide, and hear what I have to say.
We thank him for letting us know that we are Jews. We believe that he
thinks what he says. Still, we think we are red men, and Injins, and not
Jews. We never saw the place where the sun rises. We do not wish to see
it. Our hunting-grounds are nearer to the place where he sets. If the
pale-faces believe we have a right to that distant land, which is so
rich in good things, we will give it to them, and keep these openings,
and prairies, and woods. We know the game of this country, and have
found out how to kill it. We do not know the game under the rising sun,
which may kill us. Go to your friends and say, 'The Injins will give
you that land near the rising sun, if you will let them alone on their
hunting-grounds, where they have so long been. They say that your canoes
are larger than their canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe. They
have seen some of your big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured
them. Fill all you have got with your squaws and pappooses, put your
property in them, and go back by the long path through which you came.
Then will the red man thank the pale-face and be his friend. The white
man is welcome to that far-off land. Let him take it, and build his
villages on it, and cut down its trees. This is all the Injins ask. If
the pale-faces can take away with them the small-pox and the fire-water,
it will be better still. They brought both into this country, it is
right that they should take them away.' Will my brother tell this to his
people?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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