The boys' book of Indian battles and adventures, with anecdotes about them
History
The boys' book of Indian battles and adventures, with anecdotes about them
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
I left the house with the Doctor; and, as soon as we had passed the
door, I expressed my surprise to him, at the manner they treated the man
who brought the news, as it was so different from any treatment I had
before seen, when visited by strangers; and that I would thank him to
inform me of the cause of it:—when he, without any hesitation, and with
considerable emphasis, answered, “HE ONCE TOLD A LIE”—and continued:
“What that man said, may be so true; may be so not. We always listen
to what a newsman has to say,—even when we know him to be a liar. But,
whether we believe him or not, it is not our custom to let him know; or
to say any thing on the subject: for, if we had asked him any questions
about the fight, it would have been a great gratification to him; as he
would have concluded some of the company did believe him: which is a
thing we do not indulge any person in, who has been guilty of telling a
lie.” He concluded, by saying, “_He all one as dead._”
PETER OTSAQUETTE, THE ONEIDAN
Peter Otsaquette was the son of a man of consideration among the Oneida
Indians of New York. At the close of the Revolutionary war, he was
noticed by the Marquis de La Fayette, who, to a noble zeal for liberty,
united the most philanthropic feelings. Viewing, therefore, this young
savage with peculiar interest, and anticipating the happy results to be
derived from his moral regeneration, he took him, though scarcely twelve
years old, to France. Peter arrived at that period when Louis XVI. and
Maria Antoinette were in the zenith of their glory. There he was taught
the accomplishments of a gentleman;—music, drawing, and fencing, were
made familiar to him, and he danced with a grace that a Vestris could not
but admire. At about eighteen, his separation from a country in which
he had spent his time so agreeably and so profitably, became necessary.
Laden with favours from the Marquis, and the miniatures of those friends
he had left behind. Peter departed for America—inflated, perhaps, with
the idea, that the deep ignorance of his nation, with that of the Indians
of the whole continent, might be dispelled by his efforts, and he become
the proud instrument of the civilization of thousands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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