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CHARACTERISTICS.

Of the Choctaws, Bertram observes, "They were a hardy, subtle, brave, intrepid, ingenuous, and virtuous race. They erect a scaffold twenty feet high in a grave, upon which they lay their dead, and after a sufficient time the bones are placed in a coffin fabricated of bones and splints and deposited in the bone-house. The relations and a multitude follow with united voices, and alternate Hal-le-lu-yahs and lamentations."--Bertram's Travels. Page 514

The same writer adds, "The women are seldom above five feet; they are well formed, have round features, fine dark eyes, and are modest, subtle, and affectionate. The men are a full size larger than European; they are warlike, merciful, and haughty. They have had furious wars with the Spaniards."

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Those of the other confederate tribes are tall, finely formed perfect figures; their countenance dignified, open, and placid; the eyes rather small, dark, and full of fire; the nose inclining to aquiline; the brow and forehead strike you with heroism, and their air and action exhibit magnimity and independence; their complexion is reddish brown."-ibid. p. 481.

Brackenridge says,

'the government of Natchez1 is so strictly civilized, that it seems impossible for them to act out of the common high road of virtue."

1 This tribe was exterminated by the French.

The Rev. Mr. Cushman, in a discourse preached at Plymouth, New England, in 1620, intended to contradict the slanders which were prevalent against the primitive inhabitants, observes, "The Indians are said to be the most cruel and treacherous people-like lions; but to us they have been like lambs, so kind, and helpful, and trusty, that a man may truly say there be few Christians so sincere and kind. When there were not six able persons among us, and the Indians came daily to us by hundreds, with their sachemes or princes, and might in one hour have made despatch of us, yet they never offered to us the least wrong in word or deed these many years."

"The history of the Brazillians, from the first incursions of the Spaniards to the year 1776, furnishes a long list of battles, evincive of a valor which no fatigue could weary, no danger dismay."

"The Brazil Indians are very numerous, and divided into clans; the degree of their independence depends on their distance from the Portuguese settlements. They are generally of the middle size, muscular, and active, of a light brown complexion, black uncurling hair, and dark eyes, which discover no mark of imbecility of intellect. Nor does the turn of their countenance convey the least idea of meanness or vulgarity; on the contrary, their looks and expressions are intelligent. None except the Auracanians, have been so difficult to subdue; none have discovered a more invincible attachment to liberty."

A literary traveller thus writes of the Chyans on Upper Missouri in 1825: "Most of the Chyans never saw a white man before; they are the finest and wildest looking Indians we have yet seen; they are the genuine children of nature; they have all the virtues nature gave, without the vices of civilization. These must be the men described by

Rousseau, when he gained the medal from the Royal Academy of France. They are artless, fearless, and live in the constant exercise of moral and Christian virtuesthough they know it not." "Some parts of the country

are beautiful in the extreme."

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M. de Lapoterie, speaking of the Cherokees, and other southern Indians, says, "These Indians look upon the end of life to be living happily; and for this purpose their whole customs are calculated to prevent avarice, which, they think, embitters life. Nothing is a more severe reflection among them than to say that a man loves his own. To prevent the existence and propagation of such a vice, they, upon the death of an Indian, burn all that belonged to the deceased, that there might be no temptation for the parent to hoard up a superfluity of domestic conveniences, &c. for his children." "They cultivate no more land than is necessary for their subsistence and hospitality to strangers. At the Feast of Expiation they burn all that is left of last year's crop, &c."

Colden says, History cannot give an instance of a Christian king observing a treaty so strictly, or for so long a period, as these barbarians (as they are called) have done." -Vol. I. p. 34.

Clavegero says, "The Mexicans had, as the other tribes a scrupulous regard for truth."

Bertram says of the Creek nation, "Joy, contentment, love, and friendship, without guile or affectation, seem inherent in them or predominates in their vital principle— for it leaves them but with their breath." Bertram had lost his way among the woods. He saw an Indian at his door beckoning to him to approach and come in. Of himself and horse the best care was taken. When he wished to go, the Indian led him on the right track. He adds,

"They are just, honest, liberal, hospitable to strangers, affectionate to their wives, their children, and relations ; frugal, persevering, charitable, forbearing.' It must be recollected this testimony is given of Indians in their unsophisticated state, before the corrupting influence of the lower class of European emigrants had reached them.”

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"They are," writes Major Long, "of opinion that the WAHcondAH has been more profuse of his gifts, especially the knowledge of letters, to the white people than to themselves. They consider the result of experience, thus easily transmitted, like the operation of some mystic medicine." 66 But they claim a superiority in natural intelligence," &c.

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"They esteem themselves more generous, brave, and hospitable to strangers than the white people, and these beneficent virtues with them, mark "the perfect man." If a white man or stranger enters the habitation of an Indian, he is not asked if he has dined, or if he is hungry, but independently of the time of the day or night, the pot is put on the fire, and if there is a single pound of venison in the possession of the family, that pound is cooked and set before him."

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Every Indian warrior holds his honour and the love of his country in such high esteem as to prefer it to life, and they will suffer the most exquisite tortures rather than renounce it. There is no such thing among them as desertion in war, because they do not fight for hire, but for wreaths of swan feathers. The just awards which they always bestow on merit, are the great and leading-the only motives that warm their hearts with a strong and permenent love of their rights; governed by simple and honest laws founded on right reason; their whole constitution breathes perfect freedom, by which means there glows such

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a cheerful warmth of courage and constancy in each of their breasts as cannot be described. They believe that their readiness to serve their country should not be subservient to their own wishes and knowledge, but always under divine controul. I have seen a large company set out for war, return in parties, and be applauded by the united voice of the chiefs because they acted in obedience to their Nana Ishtahoola, (guardian angels) who impressed them."-Adair.

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"Beltrami thus writes to the Countess Compagnoni, Every Indian is at liberty to speak to the agent; but as presumption and gossipping are vices unknown among the red people, it rarely happens that the agent has to reply to any but chiefs, civil and military, the orators, or the prophets. Every individual may also lay their complaints before him against the traders; but the privilege is rarely used, for the Indians will revenge themselves, but will not descend to the office of accusers. There is great dignity and magnanimity in the silence they observe with regard to the traders, who are not ashamed to cheat them in every possible way. This is one powerful cause of their constant and increasing hostility to the civilized. The red men, who are most in contact with the white, are uniformly the worst." Of a council which he attended beyond the Mississippi, he thus writes: "I heard morceaux of eloquence worthy of Athens or of Rome. Peskawé descended from the throne with Spartan dignity,' and Koudous-wa extended his hand to him as he ascended it, with the noble air of a truly generous spirit. I am sometimes astonished at finding the grand incidents of

1 "The calm repose of person and feature; the self-possession under all circumstances, the incapability of surprise or dereglement, and that decision about the slightest circumstance, and the apparent certainty that he is acting absolutely comme il faut, is equally "gentleman-like and Indian-like."-New York Mirror in London Weekly Journal, Oct. 3, 1835.