Yet we ought, perhaps, to blame the system, rather than the magistrate whose duty it was to carry it into effect.
God gave James Stuart this, and James gave us.
The patents of the companies which settled in this country granted them lands without any reference to the rights of the natives. But the companies never availed themselves of these grants to that extent. Whatever may have been their opinions, they acted under them as if they had only invested them with the right of pre-emption. Cotton Mather is the only historian, that I recollect, who makes a merit of paying the Indians for their lands, and of not expelling them immediately from the soil in virtue of these patents.
CANTO NINTH.
Early that morn, beside the tranquil flood,
Where, ready trimmed, rode Waban’s frail canoe,
The banished man, his spouse and children stood,