[45] Colden, i. 148.
[46] Mr. Johnson, who was originally a trader amongst the Mohawks, indulged them in all their whims. They were continually dreaming that he had given them this, that, and the other thing; and no greater insult can, according to their opinions, be offered to any man than to call in question the spiritual authenticity of his dream. At length the chief dreamed that Mr. Johnson had given him his uniform of scarlet and gold. Mr. Johnson immediately made him a present of it: but the next time he met him, he told him that he had now begun to dream, and that he had dreamed that the Mohawks had given him certain lands, describing one of the finest tracts in the country, and of great extent. The Indians were struck with consternation. They said: “He surely had not dreamed that, had he?” He replied that he certainly had. They therefore held a council, and came to inform him that they had confirmed his dream; but begged that he would not dream any more. He had no further occasion.
[47] Cotton Mather records that, amongst the early settlers, it was considered a “religious act to kill Indians.”
A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South Africa, with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow writes, “A farmer thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Reinet, being asked in the secretary’s office, a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ with as much composure and indifference as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed, with his own hands, near 300 of these unfortunate wretches.”
[48] See Evidence given by Capt. Buchan.
[49] Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, p. 135.
[50] Ibid. 147.
[51] Ibid. 22.
[52] Papers, Abor. Tribes, p. 24.
[53] See Papers relating to Red River Settlement, 1815, 1819: especially Mr. Coltman’s Report, pp. 115, 125.