Three Indians, the chief, the counsellor, and the warrior of the Osage nation,[126] on their way for the city of Washington, halted here for a day. At the request of an hospitable gentleman in town, they dined at his house. I had there an opportunity of having some conversation with them, through the medium of their interpreter. Two of them are men of large stature, and possess an unaffected dignity of deportment, which, perhaps, might not be improved by any thing like the adulation of European courtiers. They are cleanly in their persons, and their skin is of a light copper colour. At table they acquitted themselves with much ease and propriety. After dinner they severally sat to an artist, who drew their portraits. During {222} this process, they kept themselves immovable as statues, and were highly pleased with the imitative art. The terrestrial globe was exhibited to them, and briefly explained; as was also the hypothesis of a hollow sphere, lately suggested by Captain Symmes of this place.[127] After a short deliberation, the chief replied: “We are willing to believe all that you have told us, but white men know these things best.” Their answers to questions were always direct, concise, and calculated to avoid giving offence. The principal peculiarity of their conduct was an eagerness to examine the interior of the house. In this they were even indulged without attendance. Their business at the seat of government, is to effect an arrangement for obtaining the means of improvement in the arts of civilized life; and to represent a grievance occasioned by the government of the United States, having purchased the lands of a neighbouring tribe, which now encroach on the hunting grounds of the Osage nation. The chiefs say, that they have 1800 warriors, and are able to destroy the tribes which have come into their country; but that they are unwilling to go to war.
Despotic governments, wherever they are, might stand reproved by the humanity of the aboriginal chiefs of America; and every people who are oppressed by the rapacity of privileged orders, may derive valuable instruction from the independent men of the forests, whose high spirit does not submit to be enslaved or taxed. Wars against people of this character present few allurements to the ambitious, and still fewer to avaricious men. The pacific policy of the Indians may, perhaps, be discredited, on account of the sanguinary wars that have thinned the ranks of numerous tribes, and annihilated many others. But it must be admitted, that this depopulation {223} has been accelerated, if not entirely produced, by Europeans, who took possession of the country by force, driving tribes into the territories of other nations. A migration cannot be tolerated to any great extent, where the people depend on hunting and fishing for their subsistence. Hence, the object of Indian warfare has been extirpation. The practice of leaguing with one tribe in fighting against another, has been a powerful cause of mutual destruction. The presents given by Europeans in these cases, and the promises made, could never have been inducements to wars purely Indian. Add to this, the havock introduced by the small-pox, and the use of spiritous liquors. We are almost totally unacquainted with the remote history of the American tribes. The great magnitude of their remaining works, prove that the population has once been comparatively numerous. This fact is in some measure corroborated by the great number of nations existing at the time of the first invasion of white people. It follows, that the wars that occurred during the accumulation of these people, have probably been less frequent, or less destructive than those which have latterly exterminated a large portion of the race.
FOOTNOTES:
[121] Constantin François Chasseboeuf Volney, View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America, translated from the French (London, 1804). Volney (1759-1820) was a journalist, scholar, and statesman, who wrote on a great variety of subjects. He spent four years in America (1795-1799), and intended to publish a criticism of American institutions, but was dissuaded, it is said, by his friendship for Franklin. After his return to France, he was made a member of the Academy in 1813, and a peer by Louis XVIII in 1814.—Ed.
[122] Dr. Drake has shown that the mean number of cloudy days in the year, was 104.33 for a space of six years; and that the mean term of variable days for the same period, was 82.16 days. Consequently, nearly half the time must have been clear weather.—Picture of Cincinnati, p. 103.—Flint.
[123] See Dr. Drake’s Picture of Cincinnati.—Flint.
[124] Ibid.—Flint.
[125] For the early history of New Madrid, see Cuming’s Tour, volume iv of our series, note 185.—Ed.
[126] For the Osage Indians, see Bradbury’s Travels, volume v of our series, note 22.—Ed.
[127] John Cleves Symmes (1780-1829), soldier and scientific speculator, was a nephew of the pioneer promoter of the same name. His much-ridiculed theory of the earth as a hollow sphere, was elaborated in his volume, Theory of Concentric Spheres, demonstrating that the Earth is Hollow (Cincinnati, 1826).—Ed.