CHAPTER X.

INTERESTING TRAITS IN THE INDIAN CHARACTER.

It has been too commonly believed, that there is nothing interesting or lovely in the Indian character. The manner in which they have been spoken of by some writers, and by others, has greatly conduced to this impression. But the truth is, there have been traits of character exhibited among the Indians, which should excite our admiration, and win our esteem. Among these may be noticed

MATERNAL AFFECTION.

Infanticide, so common in many heathen nations, was never practised, it is believed, by the aborigines of North America.

In 1621, a boy named John Billington, belonging to Plymouth, was lost in the woods, and after subsisting for five days on berries, fell into the hands of the Indians, who carried him to Nauset. Ten men, accompanied by two friendly Indians, were sent by the governor to recover him. An incident occurred on their arrival, which shows the strength of an Indian mother's love, and that no length of years can eradicate it from her bosom. An aged woman, whom they concluded to be not less than a hundred years old, came to see them. She had never before seen any of the English. When she saw them, she was deeply affected, and wept excessively. The men inquired the reason why she was so much grieved. The Indians told them, that when Hunt was in these parts, which was in 1614, three sons of this woman, going on board his vessel to trade, were secured, and carried captives to Spain, by which means she was deprived of the comfort of her children in her old age. The English told them that they were sorry that any Englishman should give them so much cause of offence, that Hunt was a bad man, that his conduct was condemned by all his countrymen, that they would do them no such injury. They gave the old woman a few small trifles, which somewhat allayed her grief.

"There dwelt near the river Saco, a sachem, whose squaw in passing along the river in a canoe, with her infant child, was met by some rude sailors, who, having heard that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of the brutal kind, in a thoughtless and unguarded humor, overset the canoe. The child sunk, and the mother instantly diving, fetched it up alive."

FILIAL LOVE.

"Some years ago," says Sullivan, "I was on the banks of the Kennebec, and saw a savage who, I supposed, was of the Norridgewock tribe. His name was Quenockross. He had in his family, his mother and his wife. He had been wounded in the war, and was lame in one of his feet. His mother was very aged; he had her in his canoe, with a blanket carefully spread over her, and when he came ashore, he kindled his fire, took her out in his arms, and laid her tenderly down by it. When he had cooked his mess, he gave it to her, and he and his wife waited until she had done eating. Upon seeing me notice it, he exultingly pointed to her, and said, she was his mother."

"When the French were in possession of New Orleans, a Choctaw, speaking very evil of them, said the Callapis sas were their slaves; one of the latter, vexed at such words, killed him with his gun. The nation of Choctaws, the greatest and most numerous on the continent, armed immediately, and sent deputies to New Orleans to ask for the head of the murderer, who had put himself under the protection of the French. They offered presents to make up the quarrel; but the cruel people would not accept any. They even threatened to destroy the village of the Callapissas. To prevent the effusion of blood, the unhappy Indian was delivered up to them; the Sieur Ferrand was charged with the commission. The Indian was called

Tichou; he stood upright in the midst of his own people, and of his enemies, and said, 'I am a true man, that is, I do not fear death; but I pity the fate of a wife and four children, whom I leave behind me very young, and of my father and mother, who are old, and for whom I got subsistence by hunting.' He had hardly spoken the last word

of this short speech, when his father, penetrated with his son's love, rose amidst the people, and spoke as follows:'It is through courage that my son dies; but, being young and full of vigor, he is more fit than myself to provide for his mother, wife, and four little children; it is therefore necessary he should stay on earth to take care of them. As to myself, I am near the end of my career; I am no longer fit for any thing: I cannot go like the roe-buck, whose course is like the winds, unseen; I cannot sleep like the hare, with my ears never shut; but I have lived as a man, and will die as such ; therefore I go to take his place.'

"At these words, his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and their little children, shed tears round the brave old man; he embraced them for the last time. The relations of the dead Choctaw accepted the offer; after that, he laid himself on the trunk of a tree, and his head was cut off with one stroke of a hatchet. The French who assisted at this event, were moved even to tears."

VENERATION AND KINDNESS SHOWN THE AGED.

"There is a practice in South America, by which the aged and incurably infirm are cut off from life, under a pretence of giving relief against the oppressions of age and disease; that this is practised in South America may be supposed true, but the practice never prevailed among the Northern Indians. The aged are treated with peculiar and great veneration, and the sick are attended to with as much tenderness as the rude state of savage life can admit of. An aged savage is now (1795) existing in the Penobscot tribe, who has numbered one hundred years since his birth, and who is treated with very great respect by his tribe.

"John Carver, the man whose curiosity led him to travel far among the Indian tribes, tells us, that there is a great veneration among the North American Indians for their aged men; that they regard them as prophets, and treat the grandfathers with more respect than they treat their immediate ancestors."

HOSPITALITY.

In July, 1621, the people of Plymouth deemed it expedient to send a friendly deputation to Massasoit, who lived at Pokanoket, forty miles distant, for the purpose of ascer taining his particular place of residence; to strengthen the treaty of peace lately entered into; to view the country; to learn his strength; and procure corn for seed. The deputation consisted of Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins, who, accompanied by Squanto as guide and interpreter, commenced their journey on the second of July, taking a horseman's coat of red cotton, laced with a slight lace, as a present to the king.

The narrator gives the following account of their journey and entertainment.

"We set forward," says he, " about nine o'clock in the morning, our guide resolving to lodge that night at Namasket. We arrived at that place about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Indians entertaining us with joy, in the best manner they could; giving us a kind of bread, called by them maizium, and the spawns of shad, and gave us spoons to eat them with. We ate heartily, and after one of our men had shot a crow, at the request and to the great admiration of the Indians, Squanto told us we should hardly in one day reach Pokanoket, and moved us to go some eight miles further that night.

Being willing to hasten our journey, we set out and came to the place at sunset. Here we found many of the Namasket Indians fishing upon a wear which they had made on a river, which belonged to them, where they caught abundance of bass. They welcomed us, and gave us of their fish, and we gave them of our victuals, not doubting but that we should have enough wherever we came. Here we lodged in the open fields; for houses they had none, though they spent most of the summer there. The next morning, after breakfast, we took our leave and departed, being accompanied by six savages. Having gone about six miles by the river-side, we waded through it over to the other side. Having here refreshed ourselves, we proceeded on our journey, the weather being very hot. When we came to a small brook, where no

bridge was, two of them offered, of their own accord, to carry us through, and fearing we were or should be weary, they offered to carry our guns. They also told us, if we would lay off our clothes, we should have them carried; and as one of them had received more special kindness from one of the messengers, and another from the other, so they showed their thankfulness accordingly, in affording us help and furtherance in the journey. At length we came to a town of Massasoit's, where we ate oysters and other fish. From thence we went to Pokanoket, but Massasoit was not at home. He was soon sent for, and we waited his return. When he arrived, we discharged our guns, and saluted him, who after their manner kindly welcomed us, and took us into his house, and set us down by him. Having delivered our message and presents, and having put the coat on him, and the chain about his neck, he was not a little proud to behold himself, and his men also were proud to see their king so bravely attired. He then told us we were welcome, and that he would gladly continue the peace and friendship which was between him and us; he said he would send to Paomet, and would help us to corn for seed, according to our request.

"After this, his men gathered near him, and he, turning himself, made a speech to them. This being ended, he lighted tobacco for us, and fell to discoursing about the English, and of their king. He talked also of the French, bidding us not to suffer them to come to Narraganset, for it was king James' country, and he was king James' man. Late it grew, but victuals he offered none; for indeed he had none, he having come so newly home. So we desired to go to rest. He laid us on the bed with himself and wife, they at the one end, and we at the other, the bed being only planks laid a foot from the ground, and a thin mat upon them. Two more of his chief men, for want of room, pressed by and upon us; so that we were worse weary with our lodging, than of our journey.

"The next day, many of their sachems came to see us, as did also many of their men. They desired to see one of us shoot at a mark. When we had shot, they wondered 'o see the mark so full of holes. About one o'clock, Massasuit brought two fishes he had shot. These being boiled,