Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1820-07-24
From, the Nsw. Fork, Statesman.

| FROM inc ItHW- F0rE, statesman.
| INDIANS.
Among the several letters which we
have received from our western cores
pondcnts concerning the celebration of
the 18th of July on tie borders Of the
Great Western Canal. we extract the
following interesting remarks from one
of them:
Xxx Among other things
which caught my attention, we're the
number of Indians who attended the &c.
Iteration. ! should think that there
were between one and two hundred pre-
scnt--some OF them dressed in the gau.
dy costume Of their tribes. They stood
gazing in mute admiration. at the new
scenes continually bursting upon their
astonished sight. Here they saw thou.
sands of people. crouding in like tor
rent from every quarter. The Great
Western Canal. or in other words, a
river of one hundred miles in length, o.
pened in few months by he hands Of
white men. and as far as their eyes
could reach, covered with boats and
ssiffs ; the standards and banners Of
the military waving in triumph and
E listening IN the sun; the music of se,e.
iai bands filling The fields with melody;
the great guns shaking the hills with
heir thunder; and the shouts and cheer.
ings of many thousands rending the
eavrns all hes things were indeed
C lculAted to astonisb the poor Indians,
and induce them to think that kind
of supernatural spirit was changing the
face of that country which was lately a
wilderness. | must confess, that the
ght of these poor Indians, cast cloud
over my mind, and for moment dark.
eied the splendid scenery thai impaired
so much pleasure. Here said to my.
self, are the remnants of powerful
ribes and nations, who once winged
the arrow, pursued the monsters of the
wilderness, and sung the songs of war,
over these very lands /! Here they once
met the foe, aod trampled on their enc.
mics, in the pride aud exultation of vic.
tory! Here they once heard the thur
dcrs Of the great spirit in bis wrath g.
shrunk from the lightnings of his eye |!
Here they once INDUCED in the hold and
rapid eloquence Of nature, as they met
in their councils Of war, and alone for
get the majesty Of their species as they
fell down to worship The God of their
fathers but here, alas! are all that re-
mains. What a comment On The
change Of the moral universe
whal picture Of human instability
Their power is withered, as God in his
anger withers the serdure OF the fields,
and their numbers are scattered as the
winds of heaven dissipate the seeds in
hars est time.
Here they come, poor, weak, hum.
blcd. and dsspised. to behold the re-
ioicngs of the white men, in the bosom
of their own country, where the mar
riase feast of their grandlaThers may
have b en- celebrated. All this may be
right. The tide of civilization rolls on
from the cast to the west with ceaselcss
power, aud civilized nations and savage
tribes. must stand in silence and help
ssness and behold lis progress. No
arm can be lifted to arrest ii !; MO bar.
ricr interposed to stop its course. y
few more years and even these vestiges
of former tribes will be extinct, as their
footsteps followed by the pressing pur
suit of civilization, to the rocky noun.
tains, and over the extended spine OF
the Andes, to the shore ct the great
western ocean. None will be left to
wall over the desoiations OF revolution
aud the very cabins in which they shar-
pened their hatchets, or smoke the call
amut, will be examined as the remains
of antiquity. by the searching eye OF
the philosopher.