The Law-giver, when he had firmly established the two extensive empires of Mexico and Peru, had it in his mind to found another kingdom in the north of Mexico, which should include King George’s Sound, in the Pacific Ocean, and stretch across the continent of North America till it reached the Atlantic Ocean.
This immense tract of country was inhabited by savages, living like the wild animals by whom they were surrounded. They knew not God, nor had they any idea of religion, having no greater intelligence than that possessed by the brute creation. It was, however, the intention of Moses to visit these people, to teach them the knowledge of civilised life, and to impart to them the blessings of religion and industry.
This, indeed, was the mission on which Moses was sent over the different quarters of the habitable globe by his God, who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and who took him away from the camp of the children of Israel at the ford of the river Jordan, viz. that he (Moses) might carry the glorious tidings of salvation to nations that were living in ignorance and superstition. He obeyed the sacred behest, and there are ample proofs which attest the success of his mission and labour of love.
The route he took is marked by signs of flourishing empires, with religion, learning, and laws, as far as the spot where the servant of God was killed by savages—the very people whom he came to reclaim. He visited the coast of North America in a boat made of copper, everything on board of which was made of that metal. Of this the Indians are passionately fond, and for the sake of it they killed the inspired missionary.
But the sequel proves that they repented of their wicked deed—when it was too late. In the hope of obtaining forgiveness from the murdered old man, they paid him divine worship, and carved an image to represent the visitant whom they so cruelly deprived of life. The memory of this remarkable event was handed down to posterity from generation to generation, even to the time when Captain Meares visited that coast in his ship; and the story was related to him by one of the descendants of those who committed the horrid crime. Captain Meares gives the following narrative of what he heard:—[[76]]
“For a long time the English thought the inhabitants had no religious belief whatever. To the huge mis-shapen images seen in their houses they addressed no homage; they had neither priests nor temples, nor did they offer any sacrifices; but an accidental circumstance led to the discovery that, though devoid of all superstitious observances, and wholly ignorant of the true God, they were not without a certain species of mythology, including a belief of an existence after death. This discovery arose from our inquiries on a very different subject.
“On expressing our wish to be informed by what means they became acquainted with copper, and why it was such a peculiar object of their admiration, a son of Hannapa, one of the Nootkan chiefs, a youth of uncommon sagacity, informed us of all he knew on the subject; and we found, to our surprise, that his story involved a little sketch of their religion. When words were wanting he supplied the deficiency by those expressive actions which nature or necessity seems to communicate to people whose language is imperfect; and the young Nootkan conveyed his ideas by signs so skilfully as to render them perfectly intelligible. He related his story in the following manner:—
“He first placed a certain number of sticks on the ground, at small distances from each other, to which he gave separate names. Thus, he called the first his father, and the next his grandfather: he then took what remained and threw them all into confusion together, as much as to say that they were the general heap of his ancestors, whom he could not individually reckon.
“He then, pointing to this bundle, said, when they lived an old man entered the sound[[77]] in a copper canoe, with copper paddles, and everything else in his possession of the same metal; that he paddled along the shore, on which all the people were assembled to contemplate so strange a sight, and that, having thrown one of his copper paddles on shore, he himself landed. The extraordinary stranger then told the natives that he came from the sky, to which the boy pointed with his hand; that their country would one day be destroyed, when they would all be killed, and rise again to live in the place from whence he came.
“Our young interpreter explained this circumstance of his narrative by lying down as if he were dead, and then, rising up suddenly, he imitated the action as if he were soaring through the air. He continued to inform us that the people killed the old man, and took his canoe, from which event they derived their fondness for copper; and he added that the images in their houses were intended to represent the form, and perpetuate the mission, of this supernatural person who came from the sky.”