THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

So much has already been written on the manners and customs of the aboriginal inhabitants of North America, that it will probably be deemed quite superfluous for me to enter on a subject repeatedly discussed: I shall therefore confine myself at present to a brief sketch of the present condition of the Canadian Indians. The domiciliated Indians, as well as those who pursue an erratic life in Canada, are rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth. Perhaps before the close of the pre

* On this subject Miss Wright makes the following remarks, which though in part correct, are on the whole worthy of her patriotic pen. She would willingly give to the United States the merit of having ever treated the Indians in the most humane and benevolent manner, while she would, on this as on every other occasion, attribute to the government of her native country, the most unworthy motives and the most fatal consequences as unavoidable results of their policy.

"The falling greatness of this people, disappearing from the face of their native soil, at first strikes mournfully on the imagination; but such regrets are scarcely rational. The savage, with all his virtues, and he has some virtues, is still a savage, nobler, doubtless, than many who boast themselves civilized beings; nobler far than any race of slaves who hug their chains while they sit in proud contemplation of days of glory that have set in

sent t century, the various tribes, which, a little more than 300 years ago, were scattered, in countless

night; but still holding a lower place in creation than men who night; to the proud spirit of independence, unite the softer feelings that spring only within the pale of civilized life. The increase and spread of the white population at the expence of the red, is, as it were, the triumph of peace over violence; it is Minerva's olive bearing the palm from Neptune's steed.

Not that the aborigines of this fine country have never had to complain of wrong and violence, offered by the invaders of the soil. The Indian, as he looks mournfully upon the scattered remnant of his once powerful tribe, recounts a long list of injuries, received by his ancestors from those strangers whom they were at first willing to receive as friends and brothers. Though he should acknowledge, that the right by which the early settlers were willing to hold a portion of their territory, was that of purchase, he may justly complain, that the sale had little in it of fair reciprocity, which was often rather compelled than proposed. The first contracts, indeed, were peaceful; entered into with tolerable fairness on the one side, and with willingness on the other; but it was not in human nature, that the native inhabitants should long view without jealousy the growing strength of new comers, whose knowledge and cultivation of the peaceful arts, secured a ratio of increase to their population so far beyond that of the wild aborigines; and whose hardihood, scarce inferior to that of the savage, marked them as such dangerous antagonists. Actuated by this jealousy, the massacre of the various colonies, thinly scattered along the shores of the Atlantic, was often attempted; and, had these savage measures been taken in concert by the different tribes and nations, the extermination of the ob noxious intruders must have been effected. Hostile feelings, so naturally aroused on the one side, were soon as naturally aroused on the other. In these earlier acts of aggression, were we to allow nothing to the jealous passions, common to the Indians as men, and to the wild passions peculiar to them as savages, we

multitudes, over the vast continent of America, will have ceased not merely to inherit the soil of

might, perhaps, find more cause to charge the natives with cruelty and treachery, than the European settlers with injustice.

"In considering the sufferings of those hardy adventurers, we are filled with astonishment, as well as pity and admiration. How powerful the charm of independence to reconcile man to such a course of hardship; to lead him forth from the pale of civilized life, to seek his subsistence among wolves, and bears, and savages; now exposed to Siberian rigours, and then to African heats; enduring famine, and breathing unwholesome exhalations; lighting his nightly fire to ward off the attack of the wild beast, and ap prehending from every thicket the winged arrow of the Indian, Well may we look to find a proud and vigorous nation in the de-, scendants of such hardy progenitors.

+

781

The attacks of the Indians usually ended to their disadvantage; weakened their numbers, and forced them to make concessions. By each succeeding treaty, the boundaries receded; and, as the new people gained in strength what the natives lost, the latter became as much exposed to European rapacity, as the former had ever been to Indian cruelty. The contention for mastery between the French and English, which, had the natives been united in their councils, might possibly have afforded them the opportunity of crushing both, only hurried forward their own ruin. The subsequent policy of the British Government, so magnificently denounced by the generous Chatham, which, during her struggle with the revolted colonies, raised the war-whoop of their savage neighbours, was the cause of additional ruin to the native tribes; whose numbers were always thinned, whatever might be the issue of their incursions.

"After the establishment of American independence, the Indians soon felt the effect of the wise and humane system of policy, adopted by the federal government. The treaties entered into with the natives, have never been violated by her sanction or connivance, while she has frequently exerted her influence to preserve, or to make peace between contending tribes. She has