Sketches of Indian Character: Being a Brief Survey of the Principal Features of Character Exhibited by the North American Indians; Illustrating the Aphorism of the Socialists, that "Man is the creature of circumstances"Bailey, James Napier
Philosophy
Sketches of Indian Character: Being a Brief Survey of the Principal Features of Character Exhibited by the North American Indians; Illustrating the Aphorism of the Socialists, that "Man is the creature of circumstances"
Bailey, James Napier
Indians of North America
their regulations. No man should be connected with the Indian department
who is directly or indirectly interested in trade with the Indians.”
The following facts derived from Heckewelder’s historical account speak
volumes. Eternal God can white men be so cruel! Can the professors of
religion be so depraved!!
“In the summer of the year 1763, some friendly Indians from a distant
place, came to Bethlehem to dispose of their peltry for manufactured
goods and necessary implements of husbandry. Returning home well
satisfied, they put up the first night at a tavern, eight miles
distant.[74] The landlord not being at home, his wife took the liberty of
encouraging the people who frequented her house for the sake of drinking,
to abuse the Indians, adding, that she would freely give a gallon of rum
to any one of them that should kill one of the black devils. Other white
people from the neighbourhood came in during the night, who also drank
freely, made a great deal of noise, and increased the fear of the poor
Indians who, for the greatest part, understanding English, could not
but suspect that something bad was intended against their persons. They
were not, however, otherwise disturbed; but in the morning, when after
a restless night they were preparing to set off, they found themselves
robbed of some of the most valuable articles they had purchased, and on
mentioning this to a man who appeared to be the bar-keeper, they were
ordered to leave the house. Not being willing to lose so much property,
they retired to some distance into the woods, where, some of them
remaining with what was left them, the others returned to Bethlehem and
lodged their complaint with a justice of the peace. The magistrate gave
them a letter to the landlord pressing him without delay to restore to
the Indians the goods that had been taken from them. But behold! when
they delivered that letter to the people at the inn they were told in
answer, ‘that if they set any value on their lives, they must make off
with themselves immediately.’ They well understood that they had no other
alternative, and prudently departed without having received back any of
their goods. Arrived at Nescopeck on the Susquehannah, they fell in with
some other Delawares, who had been treated much in the same manner, one
of them having had his rifle stolen from him. Here the two parties agreed
to take revenge in their own way, for those insults and robberies for
which they could obtain no redress; and that they determined to do as
soon as war should be again declared by their nation against the English.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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