forest If we look to those feeble remnants of the aborigines, who, here and there, have settled down in the states, under protection of their laws, and marvel to see them dwindling away from the face of the soil, a prey to the pestilence of intemperance and sloth, in spite of all the efforts to reclaim them, we may, perhaps, without calling in doubt the judiciousness of these efforts, perceive that they are counteracted by circumstances beyond the control either of the legislature, or of individuals. It is invariably seen that the savage, when removed into the centre of a civilized world, acquires a taste for the coarser indulgences that he finds within his reach, before he can be taught to engage in irksome employments that promise only moderate and future good. Industry and temperance are virtues of calculation, and the savage is unused to calculate. When removed from the fortes, the Indian has lost his accustomed incentives to exertion, those more hidden ones that surround him he does not see, or, if pointed out to him, does not feel. His old virtues are no longer in demand, and a length of years were requisite to lead him to adopt new ones. Ere this season comes, his slender and decreasing numbers will probably be reduced to a cypher. In passing lately through the Oneida settlement, we saw many cabins deserted, and the inhabitants, who still haunted the remainder, dragging on a drowsy existence, painfully contrasted with the life and vigor of the white population that is flowing past them. In many parts of the old states, such settlements have totally disappeared, so gradually and silently, that none can tell when or how. I cannot help remarking, however, upon a cir, cumstance, which may be supposed to have considerably impeded the exertions of the humanizers of the Indian. Religion has been too generally employed as the first agent. A practical philosopher were the best tutor in this case. The more beautiful, not to say the more abstruse the religion, the more should the mind be prepared to receive it. The untutored ears of the Indians are assailed by teachers of all kinds. The Friends and Moravians are undoubtedly the best, and their exertions are sometimes partially repaid, and even when unsuccessful, humanity is still their debtor. But there are sects which this world shares in common with the old, who, considered by themselves, are harmless, and so far as intention goes, virtuous, but attending to the effect they work upon others, the weak and the ignorant, are as mischievous members as a community can well be troubled with. It is strange, in this nation of practical philo. sophers, to find, here and there, a society of the wildest fanatics, and a perambulating teacher, compared to whom the wildest followers of Wesley or Whitfield were rational. These strange expounders of the simple lessons of Christ are ever most zea lously employed in doubly confounding understandings already bewildered; in making the ignorant foolish, and the foolish insane. Their more frequent victims are the poor blacks, who are sometimes seen assembled in crowds round one of these teachers, groaning and gesticulating like Pythia on the tripod. Their success on the whole is but indifferent among the Indians; where they fail to persuade, they probably disgust, or perhaps only astonish; and though these last are the best of the three consequences, it were doubtless as well that they were secured from all. I suspect that the doctrines, or, more properly, absurdities of these wild fanatics, are what chiefly arrest the mental advance of the negro in these northern states, and form one of the minor causes which prevent that of the savage. Among the ignorant, one fool can work more harm than twenty wise men can work good; though indeed with the Indian, it is doubtful whether the wise men, if left to themselves, could work much. It seems that the fate of the aborigines of this magnificent country is governed by immutable laws, which no efforts of man can turn aside. They appear destined to dwindle away with the forests that shelter them, and soon to exist only in traditionary lore, or in the wild tale of some wild genius. Though it is of necessity singularly difficult to obtain any accurate knowledge of a people wholly unacquainted with the arts, and possessed of no other means of retailing the most important national revolutions than that of oral tradition, yet the persevering labors of some American citizens and literary societies, as well as of some eminent European travellers, have done much towards elucidating the past as well as present condition of the native tribes. The philosophical society of Philadelphia has more particularly collected much valuable information. * It is certainly greatly desirable that some just knowledge of the aborignes, so fast disappearing from the earth, should rapidly be obtained. Europeans in general, may peruse with little curiosity the legends of a people with whom they or their ancestors were never placed in contact; but with Americans they must ever possess a national interest, the romance of which will gradually increase with their increasing antiquity. I hope I do not send you in this letter too serious a dissertation. I sometimes fear lest I an * The observations of the amiable missionary John Heckewelder upon the history, manners, and customs of the six nations, Delawares, Mohicans, &c., lately published at the request of that society, are peculiarly interesting. Perhaps he may be accounted somewhat partial to his wild associates, but his statements are made with so much simplicity, that it is impossible not to receive them as accurate. This distinguished missionary is attached to the Moravian establishment of Bethlehem in Pensylvania. The Moravians have peculiarly distinguished themselves, not merely by their zeal in the religious conversion of the savages, but by their patient and judicious exertions to lead them to the cultivation of the peaceful arts, |