"It would be hard to say what is the religion of our savages; it consists only in some superstitions by which their credulity is amused. As all their knowledge is confined to that of beasts, and the wants of life, so too is their worship bounded by these objects. Some charlatans who have a little more mind than the rest, procure their respect by their capacity for deceiving them. They persuade them to honor a sort of genius to which they give the name of Manitou; and, acccording to them, it is this genius which governs all things, and which is the master of life and death. A bird, an ox, a bear, or rather the plumage of birds, or the skin of a beast, is their Manitou; they exhibit it in their huts, and they offer to it sacrifices of dogs or of other animals.

"The warriors carry their Manitous in mats, and they perpetually invoke them to obtain victory over their enemies; the charlatans have likewise recourse to their Manitous, when they compound their medicine, or that they may heal their patients. They accompany their invocations with chaunts, dances, and frightful contortions, to create the belief that they are agitated by their Manitous; and they at the same time so shake the patient as frequently to cause his death. In those various contortions, the charlatan names sometimes one beast, sometimes another; then proceeds to suck that part of the patient's body in which he feels most pain; after having sucked for some time, he runs on a sudden and casts out the tooth of a bear or of some other animal, which he had concealed in his mouth. My dear friend,' he cries, 'you have life, behold what was killing you.' After which, applauding himself, he cries out, Who can resist my Manitou? Is he not the master of life and death? Should the patient die, some pretext is ready to cast the blame of death upon some other cause which occurred after his departure from the patient; but if the sick person recovers, then the juggler is held in esteem, is himself considered as a Manitou, and after having been well paid for his trouble, the best things in the village are brought to regale him."

6

Another passage in the letter exhibits to us the grounds upon which we are fully warranted in calling their worship idolatrous. Idolatry is the giving to any created being the worship of adoration, which is due to God alone. The person who acknowledged the existence of only one God, and paid to him adoration under any name by which he might be designated, would not be an idolater, because the object of his adoration was the supreme and only God. The person who believed the divinity to reside in a statue or image, and therefore made that statue or image the object of his adoration, would be an idolater: but if he viewed that image as it really was, not divine, nor partaking of the divinity, nor having any inherent sanctity, but a mere memorial by which his attention was awakened, his imagination fixed, and his religious feeling excited, and that in its presence he adored the eternal and spiritual God, and him alone, clearly he was not an idolater, for though by occasion of the creature he was brought

to the adoration of the creator, he adored God, and him alone. Thus he who, filled with the piety which nature excites, raises himself from the contemplation of a flower, or the consideration of the solar system, to the adoration of Him who gave to the one its delicate tints, and to the other its admirable order and wondrous harmony, is not the adorer of nature, but of nature's God. He who pays the homage of adoration to created beings, however intelligent and superior they may be, whether they be holy or wicked, gives to the creature that which is due to the creator alone, and is thus an idolater: thus, the worshippers of Mars, of Juno, of Ceres, and the other deities of Greece and Rome, gave to created beings the homage of adoration, and were idolaters; and though they should never have represented by statues or painting, those objects of their homage, the crime would have been fully committed; the adoration of those demons by occasion and in presence of the image, was still the undue worship of creatures, and they who were so far besotted as to adore the statue itself, were, if possible, more criminal. The adhering to this idolatry so far as to withdraw its votaries from the adoration of the only and true God, would have been the consummation of this apostacy, and such was the state of the Indians of whom we treat. The Manitou is not considered as an intercessor with God, as a fellow-worshipper with man of the Deity, but is the object of adoration, the lord of life and of death. Father Marest informs us

"The French having established a fort on the river Wabash, demanded a missionary, and Father Mermet was sent to them. This father thought it to be his duty to labour also for the conversion of the Mascoutens, who had constructed a village on the bank of the same river. This nation understands the Illinois language, but was so devoted to the superstitions of its jugglers, as to have no disposition to hear the instructions of the missionary.

"Father Mermet resolved to confound in their presence one of the charlatans who used to adore the ox as his Manitou. Having insensibly brought him to acknowledge that the ox itself was not the object of his adoration, but a Manitou of the ox which was under ground, and which animated all oxen, and gave life to the sick; the father asked him whether other beasts, such for instance as the bear, which some of his brethren used to adore, were not likewise animated by Manitous which were under ground. 'Doubtless,' replied the juggler. But if so,' said the missionary, men also ought to have their Manitou by which they are animated.' 'Nothing more certain,' said the juggler. I want no more,' replied the missionary, 'to shew you how unreasonable is your conduct; for if man who is upon the earth, is the master of all animals; if he slays them, if he eats them, the Manitou that animates man must be the master of all other Manitous. Where then is your sense not to

invoke him who is the master of the rest?' This reasoning disconcerted the juggler, but produced no other effect; for they continued no less attached than before to their ridiculous superstition."

After these extracts no doubt remains upon our mind of the idolatrous character of the Indian religious practices. We are accustomed indeed to hear and to read of the Great Spirit, and attempts have been made to prove that the red wanderer in our deserts was a pure Theist, and one who, if he worshipped at all, adored God, who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth. We have here adduced but a few particular facts; were they all that we possessed, our conclusion would be too extensive for our premises, and our deduction would be of course unwarranted because unsustained; but these few are only a specimen of many analogous accounts which make the foundation sufficiently large to uphold our superstructure. They exhibit adoration paid to created beings, whether the plumage or skin, or the genius which animated the creature whose spoils were thus held sacred, matters little, and they who paid this homage, were thereby withdrawn from the adoration of the true and only God, the creator of angels, of men and of beasts, and this was perfect idolatry. If each Manitou was the giver of life and death, each had the attribute which is essentially that of the divinity, and we discover not only idolatry but polytheism to be fairly chargeable upon the aborigines of our states.

rence.

This position is confirmed by the relation of another occurAn epidemic having broken out amongst the Indiaus, their jugglers zealously endeavoured to appease their deity.

"Meantime the jugglers removed to a short distance from the fort to offer a grand sacrifice to their Manitou. They immolated as many as forty dogs, which they placed on the ends of poles, singing and dancing, and making a thousand extravagant postures. Notwithstanding this the mortality did not cease. The principal juggler took up the notion that their Manitou being more feeble than the Manitou of the French, was obliged to yield to him. Under this impression, he made several circuits round the fort, crying with all his might, 'We are dead: sweetly, Manitou of the French strike us lightly, do not kill us all.' Then addressing the missionary, Stop, good Manitou, permit us to live, you have life and death in your chest, let death remain there, give out life.'"

6

The best evidence of adoration is the offering of sacrifice, which is the highest act of religion. The best evidence of polytheism is the undetermined contest between deities, or the victory of one over the other. They who believe in such a contest or such a victory must be polytheists.

Amongst the letters which enter most into detail upon the subject of the belief and ceremonial of the Indians, we may place one written at New-Orleans on the 12th of July, 1730, by Father Petit, one of the missionaries, to Father d'Avangour, Procurator of the Missions of North-America. He states that the tribe of the Natchez, though at that period considerably reduced, was one of the most powerful on the banks of the Mississippi. We shall give in another place, a description of their temple and ceremonial; we desire at present only to remark his testimony of their adoration of the sun, and of a great number of idols which they had in temples; together with their preservation of a perpetual fire, and their carrying the idols with them to war, together with several superstitious rites upon various occasions.

One remark as to the probable origin of this people: Father Du Poisson, a Jesuit Missionary amongst the Akensas, now Arkansas, Indians on the banks of the river which we denominate Arkansas, who writes from a town of that name on the 3d of October, 1727, gives a most amusing description of his voyage up the Mississippi: he embarked on board a pirogue on the 25th of May, accompauied by two other missionaries, Father Souel for the Yatous or Yazoos, and Father Dumas for the Illinois: they were to be followed immediately by Father de Guienne for the Alibamons, and Father Petit for the hunting grounds. Though we have already made several digressions, we hope to be excused for giving a few stages of the progress of the letter writer, that a comparison might be thus made between what is now done upon that river with what was a grand effort a century ago. Soon after losing sight of NewOrleans, they were nearly wrecked by a snag, and had to remain at Chapitulas with M. Dubriel, a Parisian, who had taken up a concession on the father of rivers; this delayed them till the 29th, on which day they advanced two leagues, and partook of a carp which weighed over thirty pounds; heavy and reiterated charges are made against mosquitoes, gallinippers, and every other species of fly; the good father doubts whether Pharaoh was more afflicted by omne genus muscarum. Gad-flies and wasps appear to have been more formidable to the voyagers than Don Cossacks and Kalmuc Tartars were to the good people of Paris in 1815. On the night of June 2d, they got beds at the concession of the Messrs. Paris at Bayagoulas: on the 4th, they lodged at Baton-Rouge, so called from a post painted red, which divided the hunting grounds of the upper and lower Indians: on the 7th, at Point Coupee: on the 13th, they arrived at Natchez, and were entertained by Father Philibert, a Capuchin Friar, who was the

Parish Priest. It was in this place Father Du Poisson learned the fact to which we desire to draw the attention of our readers, namely, the custom amongst the Natchez, which has been also testified by several other missionaries, that upon the death of their chief a considerable number of male and female attendants are willingly immolated for the purpose of attending him in the next world. The French settlers vainly endeavoured to put a stop to the practice. The Natchez state that their great ancestors came over the seas to this continent; and Father du Poisson informs us that persons better acquainted than he was with their customs and usages give them a Chinese origin, We have to repeat our regret that the special grounds of these opinions have not reached us.

Leaving Natchez on the 17th of June, our travellers arrived at the mouth of the Yazoo river on the 23d, which was nearly a month from the day of their departure; here Father Souel remained, and on the 26th, Father du Poisson departed for his station and arrived at the lower branch of the Arkansas river on the 7th of July.

As it is very probable that the aboriginal inhabitants of both our continents had a common ancestry, it will be as well that we should now extend our view to the south, as we have gone over a portion of the north. Our object shall be in the first instance to examine the nature and number of deities worshipped, next the rites used in that worship, especially on public occasions, and then the other practices of superstition. Before entering upon our examination we cannot avoid remarking a singular discovery which was made about the year 1731, near the mouth of the river Ouyapoc in French Guiana; in digging for the foundations of the first church which was to be built in that place and which was erected and dedicated in 1733, there was found in the soil at the depth of four or five feet, a small medal greatly rusted, which when cleaned exhibited an image of St. Peter the Apostle. Father Lombard the superior of the Jesuit missions amongst the Indians of Guiana mentions the fact in a letter from Kourou in that province, on the 11th of April 1733, to Father Neuville of the same society, procurator of those missions in France, and offers to send the medal if it should be considered worth inspection by any of the learned antiquarians of that country; he also remarks upon the extraordinary character of the fact, since the Indians had neither money nor medals, and the piece appeared to him to be of the earliest ages of Christianity, nor was it known that any Christian had ever lived in that country.— Another statement in a letter of Father Jerom Herran a Spanish Jesuit and procurator of the missions of Paraguay might