confined in any manner, and as soon as they can crawl upon their hands and feet, they let them go where they will, quite naked into the water, into the woods, into the dirt and into the snow, the Adrondacks brought the French to our castles to carry on a trade which the English say is their's. We are born free; we neither depend on "Yonnondio nor Corlear. We may go where we please, and carry with us whom we please, and buy and sell what we please: If your allies be your slaves, use them as such; command them to receive no other but your people. This beit preserves my words. "We knocked the Twicktwies and Chict aghicks on the head, because they had cut down the trees of peace, which were the limits of our country. They have hunted beavers on our land. They have acted contrary to the customs of all Indians, for they took none of the beavers alive; they killed both male and female. They brought the Satauas into their country to take part with them after they had conceived ill designs against us. We have done less than either the English or French; they have usurped the lands of so many Indian nations and chased them from their own coun try. This belt preserves my words. Hear, Yonnondio, what I say is the voice of all the Five Nations. Hear what they answer; open your ears to what they speak. The Senekas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks say, that when they buried the hatchet at Cadarckui (in the presence of your predecessor) in the middle of the fort, they planted the tree of peace in the same place, to be there carefully preserved; that in case of retreat for soldiers that fort might be a rendezvous for merchants; that in place of arms and ammunition of war, beavers and merchandize should only enter there. "Hear, Yonnondio; take care for the future that so great a number of soldiers as appear there do not choak the tree of peace planted in so small a fort. It would be a great loss if after it had so easily taken root, you should stop its growth and prevent its covering your country and our's with its branches. I assure you in the name of the Five Nations, that our warriors shall dance to the calumet of peace under its leaves, and shall remain quiet on their mats, and shall never dig up the hatchet till their brethren, Yonnondio or Indian names for the governors of Canada and N. England. CHAP. I. CHAP. which makes their bodies strong, their limbs supple, and hardens them against the effects of the air." The treatment of the young Spartan, as given by Anacharsis, would equally stand for the Indian. "His delicate limbs," says he, "are not confined with bands which prevent their motions; no care is taken to stop his tears, but they are never excited by menaces or blows. He is accustomed by degrees to solitude, darkness and the greatest indi ference in the choice of eatables. He is alike stranger to the impressions of terror, uscless restraints and unjust reproaches. Continually occupied in innocent sports, he enjoys all tie sweets of life, and his happiness hastens the expansion of the powers of his body and the faculties of his mind." Their miliDo not their military habits and customs pretary habits cisely correspond? War with both is a season of festivity. For then were immediately suspended those manual labours, which were looked upon as beneath the dignity of freemen. and customs. 66 "IT is not in this mournful way," says Raynal," that the savages meet victory. They march out in the midst of festivity, singing and dancing; the young married women follow their tors. Corlear, shall either jointly or separately endeavour to attack "Take courage, Ohguese, you have spirit; speak, explain my words; forget nothing; tell all that your brethren and friend say to Younondio, your governor, by the mouth of Garangula, who loves you and desires you to accept of this present of beaver, and take part with me in my feast to which I invite you. This present is sent to Yon:endio on the part of the Five Nations." I. husbands for a day or two; but without shewing CHAP. any signs of grief or sorrow. These women, who never once cry out in the pangs of childbed, would scorn to soften the minds of the defenders and avengers of their country by their tears or even by their endearments." Anacharsis thus describes the preparations for battle among the Spartans: "On the day of battle, the king, in imitation of Hercules, sacrifices a she goat, while the flute-players play the air of Castor: He then sings the hymn of battle, which all the soldiers with their brows girt with crowns, repeat in con cert." ВоTH the Spartans and Indians in their wars Both prefer prefer art and stratagem to force. Nor does this stratagem proceed, as has been insinuated, from any want to force. of courage: But because the life of a citizen was valued at a high rate, and their communities being small, it would be impossible in the midst of incessant wars, to preserve them, without such a maxim, from extermination. "It is true," says Charlevoix speaking of Indians, "that in their wars they expose themselves as little as may be, because they make it their chief glory never to buy the victory at a dear rate; and because of their nations not being numerous they have made it a maxim not to weaken them: But when they must fight, they encrease their strength and courage. They have been in many actions with our brave men, who have seen them perform things almost incredible." WITH the Spartans too," the success which has been obtained by prudence is preferred to that which is gained by bravery only." STILL more striking is their coincidence in Their ties the manner of forming and preserving the ties of friendof friendship. Then it is," says Anacharsis, ship. F CHAP. "that they (the Spartans) begin to contract those intimate connexions, which are little known in other countries, and more pure in Lacedemon than in the other cities of Grecce. It is permitted to each of them to receive the assiduous attentions of a virtuous young man, attracted by the charms of beauty and the still more powerful charms of virtue, of which beauty is the emblem. The youth of Sparta is thus as it were divided into two classes, the one consisting of those who love, and the other of those who are beloved. The first, destined to serve as models to the second, carry even to enthusiasm a sentiment, which produces the most noble emulation, and which with the transports of love, is in reality only the passionate tenderness of a father for his child, or the ardent friendship of a brother for his brother." "THE ties of friendship," says Raynal, among the savages are almost as strong as those of nature, and more lasting. These are never broken by that variety of clashing interests which in our societies weaken even the tenderest and most sacred connexion. There the heart of one man chooses another in which he deposits his inmost thoughts, his sentiments, his projects, his sorrows and his joys. Every thing becomes common between two friends; their union is for life. They fight side by side, and if one fall, the other constantly dies upon his friend's body. If they are separated in some imminent danger, each calls upon the name of his friend; each invokes his spirit. This is his tutelar deity." WITH both, war was a season of rest and pleasure. The contempt of cowardice and the pe * The intervals of the day are past in different amusements; for they are then subjected to fewer labours than I. nalties attached to it, were the same with both. CHAP. Their equality; their disinterestedness; their refusal to portion their daughters; their respect for the laws and their ancient manners; their custom of destroying their deformed children, were precisely the same. serve for Virginia. THE general portrait of American manners General will serve for the Indian of Virginia. In every portrait will lineament the resemblance is complete. To review, therefore, each step on the scale would be a vain and useless repetition. Suffice it to say that the character of their faces, their persons and manners, is the same. There are, notwithstanding, several incidents in the history of Virginia, which having passed immediately under the observation of the whites, will tend to confirm the correctness of the portrait, and have the effect perhaps of removing all scepticism on this subject. IT will be certainly granted that the official acts of our state governments during their colonial and independent existences, and their talks and treaties with this people, afford a proof of a nature the least suspicious and unquestionable. It will be conceded at the same time, that no governments on earth have an equal opportunity of observation and intercourse with them. The Indians subject to the Spanish governments in North and South America are, it is true, beyond comparison more numerous: They live moreover in the midst of their conquerors: But these Indians have lost almost all distinct traces of their origi nal manners; they have in general abandoned the hunter state: They are workers in the mines; they are cultivators, merchants or artisans: But they were before they took the field: It may be said that war is to them a time of leisure and rest. |