[31] “The idea of retribution,” says Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 299, “as far as it has found its way among them, was derived from Europeans.” And the same remark may be made, of most of the other wonders, in which enthusiastic travellers have discovered coincidences with Christianity.
[32] James's “Expedition,” vol. i., p. 237.—Catlin's “American Indians,” vol. i., pp. 216-'18. The latter is a zealous apologist for Indian cruelties and barbarisms.
[33] “Conquest of Canada,” vol. i., pp. 194-'5.
[34] The following may serve to indicate the sort of impression of Christianity which even the most earnest and enlightened preaching has been able to make upon the Indian mind: “Here I saw a most singular union; one of the [Indian] graves was surmounted by a cross, while close to it a trunk of a tree was raised, covered with hieroglyphics, recording the number of enemies slain by the tenant of the tomb. Here presenting a hint to those who are fond of system-making on the religion of these people,” &c.—Beltrami's Pilgrimage, &c., vol. ii., p. 307. Bancroft's United States, vol. iii., pp. 303-'4. Flint's Geography, pp. 109, 126.
[35] Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 281.
[36] “To inflict blows that can not be returned,” says this historian (Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 282), “is a proof of full success, and the entire humiliation of the enemy. It is, moreover, an experiment of courage and patience.” But we think such things as much mere brutality, as triumph.
[37] The frequent change of tense in this article, refers to those circumstances in which the present differs from the past character of the Indian.
[38] “It is to be doubted, whether some part of this vaunted stoicism be not the result of a more than ordinary degree of physical insensibility.”—Flint's Geography, vol. i., p. 114.
[39] Many white men, however, have endured the utmost extremities of Indian cruelty. See cases of Brebeuf, and Lallemand, in Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 140.
[40] “It is intellectual culture which contributes most to diversify the features.”—Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. iii., p. 228.