# View of the Hebrews/Chapter 3 (pages 85-104)

page 85 out a bird, which remained eating dead bodies. He then sent out a little bird, which returned with a small branch."
Doctor Beatty says that an Indian in Ohio informed, that one of their traditions was; "Once the waters had overflowed all the land, and drowned all people then living, except a few, who made a great canoe and were saved."
This Indian added, to Dr. Beatty, that "a long time ago the people went to build a high place; that while they were building, they lost their language, and could not understand each other." Doctor Boudinot assures us that two ministers of his acquaintance informed him, that they being among the Indians away toward the Mississippi, the Indians there (who never before saw a white man,) informed him that one of their traditions was,—a great while ago they had a common father, who had the other people under him; that he had twelve sons by whom he administered his government; but the sons behaving illy, lost this government over the other people. This the two ministers conceived to be a pretty evident traditionary notion concerning Jacob and his twelve sons.
Mr. Adair informs that the southern Indians have a tradition that their ancestors once had a "sanctified rod, which budded in one night's time;" which seems a tradition of Aaron's rod.
Various traditions of the Indians strikingly denote their Hebrew extraction. Dr. Beatty informs of their feast, called the hunter's feast; answering, he thinks, to the Pentecost in ancient Israel. He describes it as follows;—
They choose twelve men, who provide twelve deer. Each of the twelve men cuts a saplin; with these they form a tent, covered with blankets. They then choose twelve stones for an altar of sacrifice. Some tribes, he observes, choose but ten men, ten poles, and ten stones. Here seems an evident allusion to the twelve tribes; and also to some idea of the ten separate tribes of Israel. Upon the stones of their altar they suffered no tool to pass. No tool might pass upon a certain altar in Israel.
The middle joint of the thigh of their game, Dr. Beatty informs, the Indians refuse to eat. Thus did ancient Israel, after the angel had touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank: Gen. xxxii. 25, 31, 32. "In short, (says Dr. Beatty,) I was astonished to find so many of the Jewish customs prevailing among them; and began to conclude there was some affinity between them and the Jews."
page 86 Col. Smith, in his history of New-Jersey, says of another region of Indians, "They never eat of the hollow of the thigh of any thing they kill." Charlevoix, speaking of the Indians still further to the north, says, he met with people who could not help thinking that the Indians were descended from the Hebrews, and found in every thing some affinity between them. Some things he states; as on certain meals, neglecting the use of knives; not breaking a bone of the animal they eat; never eating the part under the lower joint of the thigh; but throwing it away. Such are their traditions from their ancient fathers. Other travellers among them speak of their peculiar evening feast, in which no bone of their sacrifice may be broken. No bone might be broken of the ancient paschal lamb in Israel, which was eaten in the evening.
Different men who had been eye witnesses, speak of this, and other feasts, resembling the feasts in Israel; and tell us relative to this peculiar evening feast, that if one family cannot eat all they have prepared, a neighbouring family is invited to partake with them; and if any of it be still left, it must be burned before the next rising sun. None who read the law of the passover can doubt the origin of this.
A Christian friend of mine informs me, that he some time since read in a book which he now cannot name, the account of a man taken at Quebec, in Montgomery's defeat; of his being carried far to the north west by Indians; and of a feast which they kept, in which each had his portion in a bowl; that he was charged to be very careful not to injure a bone of it; that each must eat all his bowl full, or must burn what was left on a fire, burning in the midst for this purpose. The object of the feast he knew not.
The Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in a letter to the writer of this View, says; "An officer of the British army, stationed at Halifax, has been at Boston this season; (1823;) and I am informed he has expressed a strong opinion that the Indians are of Israelitish descent. He derives this opinion from what he has seen and known of the Indians themselves."
The Rev. Mr. Frey, the celebrated Jewish preacher, and Agent for the American Meliorating Society, upon reading the View of the Hebrews, and warmly approving of this sentiment in it, with the others; that the American Indians are the ten tribes, informed the writer of these sheets, that he owned a pamphlet, written by the earl of Crawford and Linsey, (England,) entitled "The Ten Tribes."
page 87 In this the author gives a variety of reasons why he is convinced that the American Indians are the descendants of the ten tribes. The earl was a British officer in America during the Revolutionary war; and was much conversant with the Indians. And his arguments in favor of their being the very Israel, are from what he himself observed and learned while among them. The pamphlet was where Mr. Frey could not at present obtain it. The writer regrets that he could not have access to this document before this edition went to the press.
The Indians have their feasts of first ripe fruits, or of green corn; and will eat none of their corn till a part is thus given to God. The celebrated Penn, Mr. Adair, and Col. Smith, with others, unite in these testimonies. In these Indian feasts they have their sacred songs and dances; singing Halleluyah, Yohewah, in the syllables which compose the words. What other nation, besides the Hebrews and Indians ever in this manner attempted the worship of Jehovah? The author of the "Star in the West" says; "May we not suppose that these Indians formerly understood the psalms and divine hymns? Otherwise, how came it to pass that some of all the inhabitants of the extensive regions of North and South America have, and retain, these very expressive Hebrew words, and repeat them so distinctly; using them after the manner of the Hebrews, in their religious acclamations?"
The Indian feast of harvest, and annual expiation of sin, is described by these writers; and in a way which enforces the conviction that they derived them from ancient Israel. Details are given in the Star in the West. My limits will permit only to hint at them. The detailed accounts are worth perusing.
An Indian daily sacrifice is described. They throw a small piece of the fattest of their meat into the fire, before they eat. They draw their newly killed venison through the fire. The blood they often burn. It is with them a horrid abomination to eat the blood of their game. This was a Hebrew law.
A particular or two of their feasts shall be noted. Doctor Beatty gives an account of what he saw among the Indians north west of the Ohio. He says; "Before they make use of any of the first fruits of the ground, twelve of their old men meet; when a deer and some of the first fruits are provided. The deer is divided into twelve parts; and the corn beaten in a mortar, and prepared for use by boiling or baking under the ashes, and of course unleavened. This also is divided into twelve parts. Then these (twelve) men hold up the venison and fruits,
page 88 and pray, with their faces to the east, acknowledging (as is supposed) the bounty of God to them. It is then eaten. After this they freely enjoy the fruits of the earth. On the evening of the same day, (the Doctor adds) they have another public feast which looks like the passover. A great quantity of venison is provided, with other things dressed in their usual way, and distributed to all the guests; of which they eat freely that evening. But that which is left is thrown into the fire and burned; as none of it must remain till sun rise the next day; nor must a bone of the venison be broken."
Mr. Boudinot says, "It is fresh in the memory of the old traders, (among the Indians) as we are assured by those who have long lived among them, that formerly none of the numerous nations of Indians would eat, or even handle any part of the new harvest, till some of it had been offered up at the yearly festival by the beloved man (high priest) or those of his appointment at the plantation; even though the light harvest of the past year should almost have forced them to give their women and children of the ripening fruits to sustain life." Who that reads the laws of Moses, can doubt the origin of these Indian traditions?
The Hebrews were commanded to eat their passover with bitter herbs; Exod. xii. 8. The Indians have a notable custom of purifying themselves with bitter herbs and roots. Describing one of their feasts, the writer says, "At the end of the notable dance, the old beloved women return home to hasten the feast. In the mean time every one at the temple drinks plentifully of the Cussena, and other bitter liquids, to cleanse their sinful bodies, as they suppose."
The Indians have their traditionary notion clearly alluding to the death of Abel, by the murderous hand of Cain; as well as one alluding to the longevity of the ancients.
More full accounts are given by some of these authors, of the Archi-magus of the Indians—their high priest. As the high priest in Israel was inducted into office by various ceremonies, and by anointing; so is the Indian high priest by purification, and by anointing. When the holy garments are put upon him, bear's oil is poured on his head. And it is stated that the high priests have their resemblances of the various ornaments worn by the ancient high priests; and even a resemblance of the breast plate. These men have been called by the white people, ignorant of Indian customs, jugglers. But they are now ascertained by good witnesses, as a manifest though corrupt succession of the high priesthood in ancient Israel. Bartram says, those, with
page 89 inferior priests and prophets, have been maintained in most if not all the tribes.
The Indian high priest makes his yearly atonement for sin. He appears at their temple, (such as it is) arrayed in his white deer skin garments, seeming to answer to the ancient ephod. Entering on his duty, the waiter spreads a white seat with a white dressed buckskin, close by the holiest apartment of their temple; and puts on his white beads offered by the people. A variety of curious things are described in this dress, by Mr. Adair, as pretty evidently designed imitations of the parts of ancient pontifical dress. This dress is left in the holy place of their temple, till the high priest comes to officiate again. His breast-plate is made of a white conch shell, through which two straps of otter skin pass in two perforations; while white buttons of buck's horn are superadded, as though in imitation of the precious stones on the ancient breast-plate. A swan skin wreath adorns his head, instead of the ancient plate of gold, and for the ancient tiara, the Archi-magus has his tuft of white feathers. His holy fire he obtains by rubbing two sticks together; and his golden bells and pomegranates are formed of the dried spurs of wild turkies, strung so as to rattle on his fine mocasins.
Mr. Adair assures us, when the Indian Archi-magus (high priest) is addressing his people, and enforcing "the divine speech," that he calls them "the beloved and holy people," according to the language concerning ancient Israel. He urges them "to imitate their virtuous ancestors," and "flourishes upon their beloved land, flowing with milk and honey."
Mr. Adair describes the Indian feasts, and speaks of them as bearing a very near resemblance of the stated feasts in ancient Israel. He gives accounts that when the Indians are about to engage in war, they have their preparatory sacrifices, purifications, and fastings. He speaks of their daily sacrifice, their ablutions, marriages, divorces, burials, mournings for the dead, separations of women, and punishment of various crimes, as being in his opinion manifestly of Hebrew origin.
The purifications, fasting, abstinences, and prayers, to prepare for war, appear to be Hebrew. Adair says; "Before the Indians go to war, they have many preparatory ceremonies of purification and fasting, like what is recorded of the Israelites. When the leader begins to beat up for volunteers, he goes three times round his dark winter house, contrary to the course of the sun, sounding the war-whoop,
page 90 singing the war song, and beating a drum.* He addresses the crowd, who come about him, and after much ceremony, he proceeds to whoop again for the warriors to come and join him, and sanctify themselves for success against the common enemy, according to their ancient religious law. A number soon join him in his winter house, where they live separate from all others, and purify themselves for the space of three days and three nights, exclusive of the first broken day. On each day they observe a strict fast till sunset, watching the young men very narrowly (who have not been initiated in war titles) lest unusual hunger should tempt them to violate it, to the supposed danger of all their lives in the war, by destroying the power of their purifying, beloved physic, which they drink plentifully during that time. They are such strict observers of their law of purification, and think it so essential in obtaining health and success in war, as not to allow the best beloved trader that ever lived among them, knowingly, to enter the beloved ground appropriated to the duty of being sanctified for war, much less to associate with the camp in the woods, at such a time, though he is united with them in the same war design. They oblige him to walk and encamp separately by himself, as an impure, dangerous animal, till the leader hath purified him, according to the usual time and method, with the consecrated things of the ark."
Rev. Mr. Chapman, missionary in the west, informs us that when the Osages (with whom he was going in company to Fort Smith) had just before they arrived purified themselves, to be able to form their treaty with the Cherokees aright, and had moved on, he was about to proceed with them; but the chief forbid him on pain of death. He must for a season be separate from them, as impure. How exactly like the treatment of the stranger in the economy of Israel!
Boudinot assures us that the Indians abstain from all matrimonial intercourse three days before going to war, while purifying themselves;—also during their being out at war; and for three days after they return. The Israelites were commanded before they marched out against an enemy to wash their clothes, to avoid all impurities, and to abstain from matrimonial intercourse. These Indian customs fully appear to have originated in those ancient divine orders; as do many of their rites and customs.
* The Indians have something in imitation of a drum, made of a wet deer skin drawn over a large gourd or frame of wood.
page 91 Their reckonings of time, Mr. Adair viewed as evidently Hebrew. They begin their year, as did Israel, at the first appearance of new moon after the vernal equinox. They reckon by the four seasons, and by the sub-divisions of the moons.
Bartram says, the Indians believe their high priests have intimate communion with the world of spirits; and that no great design is formed by the Indians without his counsel.
The Assinipoils, far to the west, we learn in Capt. Carver's travels among the western Indians, have their high priest, who pretends to great intimacy with the Great Spirit, and to be able to foretel future events; as is the case with the Killistinoes, at the Grand Portage. Certain things he thus found among different Indians, which show them to have been of the same origin.
Within about eighty years, men inform, that these rites of the high priests have been more neglected. The Indians inform, that in 1747, the high priest in the Natchez was struck dead by lightning, while using his invocation for rain. They suppose the Great Spirit to have been angry with him for some impurity; and with the "darting fire and threatening voice," took him away; and forbid them to renew the like attempt.
Bartram gives a description of a southern Indian temple. It is a square of small buildings in the centre of their Indian town. The small buildings of one story cover perhaps half an acre, more or less, according to the strength of the tribe. In one of these buildings they hold their councils. A part of this building is shut up as a holy of holies; and it is inadmissible for any but the high priest to enter it. Here they deposit their most sacred things; as the physic-pot, rattles, chaplets, eagle's tail, and pipe of peace.
To this temple "the males (as in ancient Israel) are obliged to assemble three times a year: viz. at the feast of the first ripe fruits; at the feast for the success of hunting, about the time of the ancient pentecost; and the great feast for the expiation of sins, about the time of ripe corn." No account could be given of these things, without a complicated miracle, unless the Indians have descended from the tribes of Israel.
Mr. Boudinot informs, that "when any of their beloved people die, they soften the thought of death by saying, "he is gone to sleep with his beloved fathers." The ancient pious Hebrew dying, "fell asleep, and was gathered to his people."
page 92 The Indians, when one dies, wash and anoint the body. The Hebrews did the same.
Some of the southern Indians hire mourners to bewail and magnify the merits of the dead. Thus did the Hebrews: Jer. ix. 17. And the Indians, as had the Hebrews, have their solemn songs on such occasions. A religious procession moves round the corpse, singing Yah, (Jah.) Ho, is then sung by the procession. The leader then says, He;—all follow. Then Wah is sung by all. Thus they sing the syllables which compose Jah, Jehovah. The corpse is then buried with the face to the east.
Lewis and Clark, in their tour to the Pacific, inform that they found among the natives, in those remote regions, receptacles for the dead, always lying east and west; the door of the tomb to the east, and the bodies in the tombs lying with the face to the east.
The Indians often bury with the corpse a variety of furniture; and their best things, if the dead be a first character. The Hebrews did the same. Josephus informs that Hyrcanus, a Maccabee, when Jerusalem was besieged by the Syrian tyrant, and money was wanted, took from King David's sepulchre 3000 talents which had 1300 years before been buried with him.
Another noted Hebrew custom the Indians have, Doctor Boudinot informs, that a worthy minister informed him, that as he was preaching with some Indians, between the exercises, tidings were brought to an Indian woman present, that her son was suddenly drowned. In deep distress she retired to a little distance, and sat on the ground. Female friends followed, and sat around her. After sitting a season in solemn silence, the mourning mother put her hand upon her mouth, and then fell forward with her face in the dust. The rest all followed the example. The men went by themselves, and did the same. It is well known that laying the hand on the mouth, and the mouth in the dust, is a distinguished Hebraism. See Micah vii. 16; Lam iii. 29; Prov xxx. 32.
In the Mosaic law it was provided that the surviving brother of one deceased and childless, should marry his widow, to raise up seed to his brother. Mr. Adair informs that the Indians have a custom which appears to have originated in this law. A widow among them is bound by a strict Indian custom, to mourn the death of her husband for three years or more, unless the brother of her deceased husband wishes to take her. In that case, she is released from this law, as soon as it is known that the brother makes love to her. She may then throw off her
page 93 mourning habits, and dress and paint like others. Certainly this appears to have originated in that Mosaic law.
The ceremonial law for the separation of women, the Indians appear to keep with great care. Dr. Boudinot says; "The southern Indians oblige their women in their lunar retreats to build small huts at a considerable distance from their dwelling houses—where they are obliged to stay at the risk of their lives. Should they be known to violate this ancient law, they must answer for every misfortune that the people should meet with."
"Among the Indians on the north west of the Ohio, the conduct of the women (continues the Doctor) seems perfectly agreeable (as far as circumstances will permit) to the law of Moses. A young woman, at the first change in her circumstances, immediately separates herself from the rest in a hut made at some distance from the dwelling houses, and remains there seven days. The female that brings her food, is careful not to touch her; and so cautious is she herself of touching her own food, that she makes use of a sharpened stick to take up her meat, and of a spoon for her other food. When the seven days are ended, she bathes herself in water, washes all her clothes, and changes the vessels she has made use of. She then returns to her father's house."
Dr. Boudinot further says; "A Muskagee woman delivered of a child is separated in like manner for three moons, or eighty four days." In the ceremonial law the mother of a female child was to be separated eighty days; of a male forty days. Some of the Indian nations, Dr. Boudinot assures us, maintain a similar distinction between male and female children. Can a serious doubt remain of the origin of these Indian customs? What nation on earth beside the Jews and Israel ever maintained customs of separations and purifications like these?
Rev. Dr. Morse and Captain Carver speak of this custom among Indian women, among distant tribes where they travelled, as will appear. And many other testimonies have been borne to the same Indian rite.
Col. Smith informs that "the young women, when our people first came among them, were very modest and shame-faced; and both young and old women would be highly offended at indecent expressions."
Major Vose, at Fort Armstrong, in a letter to the secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. says; "I have been informed that in places where
page 94 the Indians have had the least intercourse with the whites, there the men are the most temperate, and the women most chaste."
The traditional religion, the kind and degree of piety maintained among the Indians, are unaccountable on any other principle than that they came down by tradition from ancient Israel. Some things shall be stated from good authority, which illustrate this particular.
Rev. Dr. Mather and Rev. E. Mayhew both testify to the following fact. Japhet Hannet was an Indian preacher on Martha's Vineyard. He was born A. D. 1638. His parents had lost, before he was born, five infant children. Japhet was the sixth. The writer says; "The mother of this child being greatly distressed with fear lest she should lose it, as she had the former, and utterly despairing of any help from such means as had been formerly tried without any success; as soon as she was able, she took him up with a sorrowful heart, and went into a retired place, that she might there give full vent to her grief. While she was there reflecting on the insufficiency of human help, she found it powerfully suggested to her mind, that there is one Almighty God, who is to be prayed to; that this God has created all things; and that the God who had created all things, who had given being to herself and all other people, and had given her child to her, was able to preserve and continue his life. On this, she resolved that she would seek to God for that mercy; and did accordingly. The issue was, that her child lived. And her faith in him, who had thus answered her prayer, was wonderfully strengthened. And the consideration of the divine goodness herein manifested to her, caused her to dedicate this son to the service of that God who had thus preserved his life.
She early informed her son of this her religious act; and did as far as she could educate him accordingly." Both Dr. Mather and Mr. Mayhew inform that this took place before ever the parents of Japhet were taught to know any thing of the Christian religion;—and that this mother was thus prepared to embrace the Christian religion, as soon as she heard of it from the missionary that went to the island. And when she joined the church, she gave this relation. This youth became converted; joined the church of converted Indians on the island; became a very pious and useful man; was a captain of the island, and a great friend to the English in the war with Philip; finally became a pastor of the Indian church there; and died in old age in the triumphs of faith.
page 95 How different was the religion of this native of Martha's Vineyard from that of the eastern heathen world! The knowledge she had, it seems, must have been from Hebrew tradition, and the entail of the covenant with Abraham.
In the third report of the United Foreign Missionary Society, in a letter detailing the happy things which the writer saw at Brainerd mission, he states the effects which the knowledge and conversation of the Indian children in that school had on their heathen parents, when the children visited the parents at home. The aged Indians, on hearing the children repeat the instructions given them, were pleased, and said; "Now this is good talk. It resembles the talk which the old people used to make to us when we were small children. But alas, the wicked white people (meaning the unprincipled traders among the Indians) who have come among us have rooted it out of our nation. We are glad the Great Spirit has sent these good missionaries to bring it back to us again."
It is stated on all hands that within about eighty years, the connexion of the Indians near the English with the white people has much corrupted the Indians, and extinguished much of their traditional religion. Here we find a new testimony to the fact, from the confession of those aged Cherokees. And they discover what seems to them a resemblance between our religious instructions, and the traditional instructions given by their old people, meaning probably their old beloved wise men (the keepers of their ancient traditions) or their high priests, or both, before they knew any thing of the white people. This agrees with the other information we receive relative to the religion of the best informed natives.
In the same report of the United Foreign Missionary Society from their missionaries among the Indians at the west, they inform as follows; "It was very interesting to hear them (the natives) at the garrison joining in a kind of sacred singing. Every morning on the first appearance of light, we heard them on all sides around us, for a great distance from the camp, engaged in very earnest prayer to God, their Creator. This they did likewise on all extraordinary occasions, as when they received any distinguishing favour." This was before any mission was established among them; but while the missionaries were exploring the country to select a suitable place for a mission. They were Indians untaught by any thing but their own traditions. The missionaries add; "They are very sincere, temperate, and considerate;
page 96 and appear to regard the particular providence of God with as much attention and reverence as any Christian people."
Such evidence as this hardly needs a comment.—What possible account can be given for such traditional religion among a people destitute of the word of God, and of letters, who for thousands of years have been secluded from the knowledge of the civilized world;— only, that they derived it from ancient Hebrew revelation; and that they are of the tribes of Israel?
In other accounts the missionaries at the west inform as follows; "The men are generally of a lofty stature, a fine form, and a frank and open countenance. In council they are dignified; and in their speeches eloquent. Their children are numerous, and remarkably submissive to parental authority. As a people they are punctual, and apparently fervent in their morning and evening devotions. But like the ancient Athenians they address their worship to the unknown God."
Rev. Mr. Pixley, at the great Osage mission, in a tour among the wild natives says; "I asked White Hair (a chief) why he blacked his face this morning? He informed that it was that he might call upon God as we do when we sit down to eat. And I must confess (adds Mr. Pixley) their early rising, and their constancy in attending to their devotions, made me sometimes inquire, What is the power of my religion? and whether it ought not to make me, and all Christians, rise to pray, at least as early as these Indians?"
Mr. Pixley in a subsequent journal says; "The Indians, although extremely singular in their way of worship, might certainly in some respects be imitated with profit by Christians. I allude particularly to their early and persevering attention to it before day, or as soon as the day dawns. Under the force of this habit, if their hearts were ever led to feel and pray aright, they will undoubtedly make most eminent Christians; especially as the heaping up of treasures, and in this sense, the love of the world, seems not to have taken possession of their minds. Let objectors inform, where these Indians learned from the heathen world such religion as they possess?
It has been stated that the Indians have a tradition that as they once, away in another country, had the old divine speech, the book of God; they shall at some time have it again, and shall then be happy. Did not the Indian deputation (noted in the sixth report of the United Foreign Missionary Society, as having come from a wild region beyond the Council Bluffs of the west) in their talk with the Board of
page 97 Managers in New-York, probably allude to such tradition? One of them says; "Brothers, we have long since been told, that the red men would, one day, live like white men, and have houses and food like them. These things are long coming to pass. I wish it was so. I have now grown old, and have not seen it."
In the journals of Rev. Mr. Butrick among the Cherokees, making an excursion among the Indians, he says of a certain chief; "Few men in any nation understand the art of pleasing, and of rendering their conversation agreeable, better than he. We made known to him the object of our journey. He appeared very thankful, and told us he would lay the subject before the other chiefs, and let us know the result of their consultation. After some conversation, his wife, an old woman, told us, that when she was a small child, the old people used to say that good people would come to instruct the Cherokees at some future period; and that perhaps she and others of her age would live to see the day. And now she thought that, perhaps, we and the other missionaries had come to give them that instruction."
This traditionary opinion, among the different tribes, (noted also by Mr. Adair, Dr. Boudinot, and others,) it seems, must have been handed down from ancient prophecy of their restoration. They had indeed been seeking the word of God, (according to a prophecy in Amos, of their famine of the word,) but had not found it. God in mercy grant they may now speedily find it.
Dr. Boudinot gives an account of a speech of Cornplant, a chief in the six nations of Indians, expostulating with the head of department of our states, on account of lands taken from his people.
This chief had told his people we should not treat them thus; and they were now ready to tear him in pieces, because we had done it. After various affecting remarks, he proceeds; "Father, we will not conceal from you that the Great Spirit, and not man, has preserved Cornplant (his own name) from the hands of his own nation. For they asked continually, where is the land on which our children are to lie down?—You told us (say they) that a line drawn from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, would mark forever our bounds on the east; and a line from Beaver Creek to Pennsylvania, would mark it on the west. But we see that it is not so. For first one, and then another comes, and takes it away by order of that people, who you told us promised to secure it to us forever. Cornplant is silent; for he has nothing to answer. When the sun goes down, Cornplant opens his heart before
page 98 the Great Spirit. And earlier than the sun appears again upon the hills, he gives thanks for his protection during the night. For he feels that among men become desperate by the injuries they sustain, it is God only that can preserve him. Cornplant loves peace. All that he had in store, he has given to those who have been robbed by your people, lest they should plunder the innocent to repay themselves."
The original peaceable and hospitable character of the Indians testifies much relative to their traditional religion as having come down from a divine origin. I might here multiply quotations; but shall content myself with two. These I shall preface with a remark, that the Indian cruelties to our people have been manifestly occasioned by the injuries they have received from various of our people, and by their own traditionary notions, which they think accord with these injuries, that the white people are out of the covenant of the Great Spirit once made with their fathers, are the accursed people, and may well be exterminated.
But let us hear the testimony of Christopher Columbus, as given in Edwards' West Indies, relative to the peaceable and hospitable temper of the natives of our land when he first discovered this continent. Writing to his royal Master and Mistress in Spain, he says; "I swear to your majesties, that there is not a better people in the world than these (natives of America;) more affectionate, affable, or mild. They love their neighbors as themselves. Their language is the sweetest, the softest, and most cheerful; for they always speak smiling." An old native approaching him with a basket of summer fruit, said, (as he seemed to have some fear of the designs of these strangers.) "If you are men subject to mortality like ourselves, you cannot be unapprized that after this life, there is another, in which a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If therefore you expect to die, and believe with us that every one is to be rewarded in a future state according to his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you."
My other quotation is from Dr. Boudinot. He assures us he was present when Gen. Knox gave a dinner, in the city of New-York, to a deputation of Indians, sachems and a chief, from Indian nations at the west, who came with a message to our President. He says; "A little before dinner, two or three of the sachems, with their chief, went into the balcony at the front of the house; the drawing room being up stairs. From this they had a view of the city, the harbour, Long Island, &c. &c. After remaining there a short time, they returned into the room,
page 99 apparently dejected;—the chief more than the rest. Gen. Knox took notice of it, and said to him; Brother; what has happened to you? You look sorry! Is there any thing to distress you? He answered; I'll tell you brother. I have been looking at your beautiful city—the great water—your fine country—and see how happy you all are. But then I could not help thinking that this fine country, and this great water were once ours.—Our ancestors lived here. They enjoyed it as their own in peace. It was the gift of the Great Spirit to them and their children. At last the white people came here in a great canoe. They asked only to let them tie it to a tree, lest the water should carry it away. We consented. They then said some of their people were sick; and they asked permission to land them and put them under the shade of the trees. The ice then came, and they could not go away. They then begged a piece of land to build wigwams for the winter. We granted it to them. They then asked for some corn to keep them from starving. We kindly furnished it to them. They promised to go away when the ice was gone. When this happened, we told them they must now go away with their big canoe. But they pointed to their big guns, round their wigwams, and said they would stay there, and we could not make them go away. Afterwards more came.—They brought spirituous and intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us to sell them some land. Finally, they drove us back, from time to time, into the wilderness far from the water, the fish and the oysters. They have destroyed our game. Our people are wasted away. And we live miserable and wretched; while you are enjoying our fine and beautiful country. This makes me sorry, brother; and I cannot help it."
Dr. Boudinot informs of the Indians at Yazous and Washtulu, at the south;—of their destructions by the governor of New Orleans, early the last century. The unprovoked cruelties against them are enough to break a heart of stone. They were pursued, burned, and destroyed, and their men sold at St. Domingo for slaves. Of these natives he says; "Of all the Indians they were the most polished and civilized. They had an established religion among them in many particulars rational and consistent; as likewise regular orders of priesthood. They had a temple dedicated to the Great Spirit, in which they preserved the eternal fire. Their civil polity partook of the refinement of a people apparently in some degree learned and scientific. They had kings, or chiefs,—a kind of subordinate nobility,—and the usual distinctions created by rank were well understood and
page 100 preserved among them. They were just, generous, humane, and never failed to extend relief to the objects of distress and misery. They were remarkable for not deeming it glorious to destroy the human species; and therefore seldom waged any other than offensive war."
Col. Smith, in his history of New Jersey, gives information of the original inhabitants, which have a striking bearing on our subject. He gives an extract from the noted Indian interpreter, Conrad Wiser.—He says; "I write this to give an account of what I have observed among the Indians, in relation to their belief and confidence in a divine Being, according to the observations I made from the year 1714, the time of my youth, to this day. If by religion we mean an attraction of the soul to God, whence proceed a confidence in, and a hunger after the knowledge of him; then this people must be allowed to have some religion among them. We find among them some traits of a confidence in God alone—notwithstanding their savage deportment."
This interpreter gives an account of his being sent, in 1737, by the governor of Virginia on a message to Indians five hundred miles distant, through a pathless dreary desert. Three Indians and a Dutchman accompanied him. Climbing a steep and high mountain on the crust, one of the Indians slipped, and slid off with rapid flight down the mountain. He came to within several paces of a perpendicular precipice over the rocks of a hundred feet; and the strings of his sack caught upon something that held him. He crawled away, and saved his life. Upon this, the writer says; that "with outstretched arms, and great earnestness, he said; I thank the Great Lord and Governor of this world, that he has had mercy upon me, and has been willing that I should live a little longer."
Mr. Wiser gives an account that he himself was so fatigued and discouraged, before he got through this tour, that he sat down, unobserved by the Indians, under a tree, with a determination to die. They soon missed him, and returned. He told them his determination. After remaining silent a while, an old Indian said; "My dear companion; thou hast hitherto encouraged us. Wilt thou now quite give up? Remember that evil days are better than good days. For when we suffer much, we do not sin; and sin will be driven out of us by suffering. But good days cause men to sin; and God cannot extend his mercy to such. But when it goes evil with us, God has compassion on us." These words, Mr. Wiser assures us, made him ashamed; and he got up and went as well as he could.
page 101 The Indians murdered a Mr. Armstrong. This Mr. Wiser was sent by Gov. Shamoken to make peace by the punishment of the murderer. After the peace was established, he informs that the chief addressed his people, and "exhorted them to thankfulness to God." Again he said; "Thanks, thanks be to thee, thou Great Lord of the world, in that thou hast again caused the sun to shine, and has dispersed the dark cloud. The Indians are thine."
Col. Smith gives account of an old Indian king, Ockanickon, who died 1681. To a proprietor of New Jersey, then with him, he said, as he was about to die; "There are two ways; a broad, and a straight way. The worst and the greatest number go in the broad way; the best and the fewest in the straight way."
It is fully evident from many sources of information that the Indians' views of the Great Spirit, and their religion, were from their own ancient tradition; and not from any thing they ever learned from the white people after the latter came to this continent. Rev. Mr. Brainerd, the noted missionary to the Indians, informs of his meeting an Indian one hundred and thirty miles from our settlements, who had a house consecrated to religious purposes. Mr. Brainerd laboured to teach him Christianity; but some of it he utterly rejected, saying, "God had taught him his religion, and he would never turn from it." He lamented that the Indians had grown so corrupt. He related that about five years before he (having before lived at ease as the Indians did) became greatly distressed, and thought he could not live among the Indians; and for some months he lived retired from them in the woods. At length, he said, the Great Spirit had comforted him. That since that time he had known the Great Spirit, and tried to serve him. That he loved all men, be they who they may, as he never did before. He treated Mr. Brainerd with great courtesy; and seemed hearty and affectionate in his religion; but so tenacious of his own traditional views, that he would not receive the peculiarities of Christianity.
Col. Smith, on a hunting tour among the Indians, informs of an aged Indian who seemed very devout, who praying to the Great Spirit would preface every petition with, Oh, oh, oh—" He would prepare himself for prayer by entering a sweat-house, and for fifteen minutes putting himself into a violent perspiration. He would then burn tobacco, and pray to the Great Spirit. Col. Smith undertook to teach him something of the way of access to God revealed in the gospel. He said "he thought he was now too old to begin to learn a new religion. He should therefore continue to worship God in the way he
page 102 had been taught;" evidently meaning taught from Indian tradition. This old Indian had been informed something of the religion of the Roman Catholics; but he said, he did not believe the great and good Spirit ever taught them any such nonsense. He therefore concluded that the Indians' old way of worshipping God was better.
The exploring commissioners of the United Foreign Missionary Society reported in favour of a mission being founded among the Pawnees, high up the Missouri. They gave the following account of this tribe. "The Pawnees feel and acknowledge their dependance on God. A man who has often witnessed it informed us that in their public feasts, before they eat, a man venerable for age asks a blessing, and thanks God for success in hunting, for the meat they are about to eat, for the drink, and for the wood which makes a fire to cook their provisions." These Pawnees had never learned their religion from the whites. They were effectually out of their reach. And no straggling white traders among the western Indians were disposed to teach the Indians religion; nor would the Indians receive any instruction from them, as appears from the following. These exploring commissioners state, as one reason why a mission should be soon established among them, thus; "They are much better prepared to receive a mission than those nations who have more intercourse with the white people. Their circumstances call on you to send the gospel among them, before the wretched hordes who are ever flying from the abodes of civilization reach their vicinity, and prejudice them against our holy religion." Their worshipping the one Great Spirit then was never learned from us. The past contiguities of the Indians to our frontiers have ever tended to subvert the religion of these natives, such as it was, and to give them a deadly prejudice against ours. No! Their religious notions (in so many respects different from all the religions of the eastern heathen world, and apparently nearly allied to the old Hebrew system) must have descended, as we have reason to apprehend, from Israel.
Listen to the religious views of the chiefs, who came to New-York from beyond the Council Bluffs, in their reply to a talk with the secretary of the society, as given in the same report of the United Foreign Missionary Society which contained the reports just given. "We thank you for praying that the Great Spirit may preserve us in our long journey home." They repeat it. "Brothers; we thank you once more for praying to the Great Spirit that we may be preserved and carried home in safety to our wives and children." Such numerous instances of Indian traditions form a whole, which most powerfully
page 103 evinces that the religion of our American natives is altogether of a brighter and different cast from the religion of the rest of the heathen world. What account can be given of this?
Those commissioners to the Pawnees further inform, that they invited the Pawnees to a Sabbath meeting. The commissioners prayed for those Pawnees (about to take a tour, either hunting, or for some other object) that they might go and return in safety. Two of their men were now at home sick. After the Pawnees retired, "they expressed their apprehensions (say the commissioners) that the sick men would never return (from their proposed tour,) because they were not present to have these ministers pray for them."
Dr. Boudinot informs that a chief of the Creek nation was some time since at Philadelphia on his way to New-York, with his retinue, and in company with Col. Butler, on a commission of peace with the United States. He was a chief of great note and dignity in his nation, and "of much better demeanour in his whole conduct (the Doctor remarks) than any Indian he had ever seen." A female limner had, unobserved by the chief, taken his likeness, which she presented to him. He was astonished, and much pleased; and assured her, by his interpreter, "that he often spake to the Great Spirit; and the next time he did so, he would remember her." This chief and Col. Butler passing on, they were overset in the stage, and both wounded. After the surgeons had dressed their wounds, the chief addressed the colonel, through his interpreter, as follows. "Never mind this, brother. It will soon be well. This is the work of the evil spirit. He knows we are going to effect a work of peace. He hates peace; and loves war. Never mind it. Let us go on, and accomplish our business; we will disappoint him." He had some reason to say it was the work of the evil spirit; for the stupid stage-driver just stopped at a tavern to run in and get a glass of rum, leaving his horses loose at the door; upon which they started, ran, and upset the stage.
In the younger days of Dr. Boudinot, the following incident occurred. Two fine young missionaries were sent by the Society of Scotland (some members of which society were in our land, and the Doctor was one of them) to the natives west of Ohio. The chiefs were called to consult whether they would receive them. After some days in council, they dismissed them, most courteously, with the following answer;—that "they exceedingly rejoiced at the happiness of the whites, in being thus favoured by the Great Spirit; and felt very grateful that they had condescended to remember their red brethren
page 104 in the wilderness. But they could not help recollecting that the whites here had a people among them, who because they differed in colour, the whites had made them slaves, made them suffer great hardships, and lead miserable lives; (alluding to the black slaves then in our colonies.) Now we cannot see any reason, (said they) if a people being black will entitle the whites to deal thus with them, why a red colour would not equally justify the same treatment. We therefore determine to wait to see whether all the black people among you are made thus joyful and happy, (as you tell us your religion will make us,) before we can put confidence in your promises. We think a people who have suffered so much, and so long, by your means, would be entitled to your first attention. We therefore send back the two missionaries, with many thanks; promising that when we see the black people among you restored to freedom and happiness, we will gladly receive your missionaries." Here was reasoning well worthy of the descendants of Abraham, and even of Solomon!
Mr. Herman, in his residence in the western regions of our continent, giving an account of the Chippeways, informs that in point of numbers, strength, and also attention to religious rites, they have greatly degenerated since their acquaintance with the white people. He speaks of them as having many tutelary gods. But they at the same time believe in one supreme God who governs all others, allowing the inferior gods considerable power and influence over mortals.
From various authors the following facts appear, that the better informed Indians hold to one God; and to spirits that he has made, good and bad. The bad have a leader over them worse than all the rest. Some of the tribes, it appears, have come to call these subordinate spirits (which seem but a traditionary notion of angels) gods; while yet the Great Spirit is the Creator, and is over all. This degeneracy is a most natural event among savages. Even among the ancient Hebrews, both angels and civil rulers were called gods.
Mr. Herman relates several customs, which appear like having a Hebrew origin. Among the Chippeways, each lad at the age of twelve or fifteen years, must keep a penitential fast alone in the woods for thirty or forty days; his friends carrying him, from time to time, a kind of unpalatable food, just enough to sustain life. We recollect no such rite as this in heathen mythology; but the scriptures of Israel inform of Elijah's fast of forty days.
These Indians, Mr. Herman informs, observe their solemn fasts when going to war. And each warrior has his religious symbol, which