A large portion of the back settlers, living upon the Indian frontiers, are, according to the best of my information, far greater savages than the Indians themselves. It is nothing uncommon, I am told, to see hung up in their chimney corners, or nailed against the door of their habitations, similarly to the ears or brush of a fox, the scalps which they have themselves torn from the heads of the Indians whom they have shot; and in numberless publications in the United States I have read accounts of their having flayed the Indians, and employed their skins as they would have done those of a wild beast, for whatever purpose they could be applied to. An Indian is considered by them as nothing better than a destructive ravenous wild beast, without reason, without a soul, that ought to be hunted down like a wolf wherever it makes its appearance; and indeed, even amongst the bettermost sort of the inhabitants of the western country, the most illiberal notions are entertained respecting these unfortunate people, and arguments for their banishment, or rather extirpation, are adopted, equally contrary to justice and to humanity. “The Indian,” say they, “who has no idea, or at least is unwilling to apply himself to agriculture, requires a thousand acres of land for the support of his family; an hundred acres will be enough for one of us and our children; why then should these heathens, who have no notion of arts and manufactures, who never have made any improvement in science, and have never been the inventors of any thing new or useful to the human species, be suffered to encumber the soil?” “The settlements making in the upper parts of Georgia, upon the fine lands of the Oconec and Okemulgee rivers, will,” says Mr. Imlay, speaking of the probable destination of the Indians of the south western territory, “bid defiance to them in that quarter. The settlements of French Broad, aided by Holston, have nothing to fear from them; and the Cumberland is too puissant to apprehend any danger. The Spaniards are in possession of the Floridas (how long they will remain so must depend upon their moderation and good manners) and of the settlements at the Natchez and above, which will soon extend to the southern boundaries of Cumberland, so that they (the Indians) will be completely enveloped in a few years. Our people (alluding to those of the United States) will continue to encroach upon them on three sides, and compel them to live more domestic lives, and assimilate them to our mode of living, or cross to the western side of the Mississippi.”
REMARKS.
O Americans! shall we praise your justice and your love of liberty, when thus you talk of encroachments and compulsion? Shall we commend your moderation, when we see ye eager to gain fresh possessions, whilst ye have yet millions of acres within your own territories unoccupied? Shall we reverence your regard for the rights of human nature, when we see ye bent upon banishing the poor Indian from the land where rest the bones of his ancestors, to him more precious than your cold hearts can imagine, and when we see ye tyrannizing over the hapless African, because nature has stamped upon him a complexion different from your own?
The conduct of the people of the States towards the Indians appears the more unreasonable and the more iniquitous, when it is considered that they are dwindling fast away of themselves; and that in the natural order of things there will not probably be a single tribe of them found in existence in the western territory by the time that the numbers of the white inhabitants of the country become so numerous as to render land one half as valuable there as it is at present within ten miles of Philadelphia or New York. Even in Canada, where the Indians are treated with so much kindness, they are disappearing faster, perhaps, than any people were ever known to do before them, and are making room every year for the whites; and it is by no means improbable, but that at the end of fifty years there will not be a single Indian to be met with between Quebec and Detroit, except the few perhaps that may be induced to lead quiet domestic lives, as a small number now does in the village of Lorette near Quebec, and at some other places in the lower province.
REMARKS.
It is well known, that before Europeans got any footing in North America, the increase of population amongst the Indian nations was very slow, as it is at this day amongst those who remain still unconnected with the whites. Various reasons have been assigned for this. It has been asserted, in the first place, that the Indian is of a much cooler temperament than the white man, has less ardour in pursuit of the female, and is furnished with less noble organs of generation. This assertion is perhaps true in part: they are chaste to a proverb when they come to Philadelphia, or any other of the large towns, though they have a predilection in general for white women, and might there readily indulge their inclination; and there has never been an instance that I can recollect, of their offering violence to a female prisoner, though oftentimes they have carried off from the settlements very beautiful women; that, however, they should not have been gifted by the Creator with ample powers to propagate their species would be contrary to every thing we see either in the animal or the vegetable world; it seems to be with more justice that their slow increase is ascribed to the conduct of the women. The dreadful practice amongst them, of prostituting themselves at a very early age, cannot fail, I should imagine, to vitiate the humours, and must have a tendency to occasion sterility. Added to this, they suckle the few children they have for several years, during which time, at least amongst many of the tribes, they avoid all connection with their husbands; moreover, finding great inconveniency attendant upon a state of pregnancy, when they are following their husbands, in the hunting season, from one camp to another, they have been accused of making use of certain herbs, the specific virtues of which they are well acquainted with, in order to procure abortion.
If one or more of these causes operated against the rapid increase of their numbers before the arrival of Europeans on the continent, the subsequent introduction of spirituous liquors amongst them, of which both men and women drink to the greatest excess whenever an opportunity offers, was sufficient in itself not only to retard this slow increase, but even to occasion a diminution of their numbers. Intermittent fevers and various other disorders, whether arising from an alteration in the climate, owing to the clearing of the woods, or from the use of the poisonous beverages introduced amongst them by the whites, it is hard to say, have likewise contributed much of late years to diminish their numbers. The Shawnese, one of the most warlike tribes, has been lessened nearly one half by sickness. Many other reasons could be adduced for their decrease, but it is needless to enumerate them. That their numbers have gradually lessened, as those of the whites have increased, for two centuries past, is incontrovertible; and they are too much attached to old habits to leave any room to imagine that they will vary their line of conduct, in any material degree, during years to come, so that they must of consequence still continue to decrease.
REMARKS.
In my next letter I intend to communicate to you a few observations that I have made upon the character, manners, customs, and personal and mental qualifications, &c. of the Indians. So much has already been written on these subjects, that I fear I shall have little to offer to your perusal but what you may have read before. I am induced to think, however, that it will not be wholly unpleasing to you to hear the observations of others confirmed by me, and if you should meet with any thing new in what I have to say, it will have the charm of novelty at least to recommend it to your notice. I am not going to give you a regular detail of Indian manners, &c.; it would be absurd in me, who have only been with them for a few weeks, to attempt to do so. If you wish to have an account of Indian affairs at large, you must read Le P. Charlevoix, Le P. Hennipin, Le Hontan, Carver, &c. &c. who have each written volumes on the subject.