stepw odi gnitoojasa atafqulolev IT to anbrigo and dedT ftd-wolves otai baviseer book out. Its w god ART. V. 1. Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains. By S. PARKER, A. M. London: Wiley and Putnam. 1838. 2. Life of Joseph Brant. By W. L. STOWE. London: Wiley and Putnam. 1838.7 Q3 86 THE establishment of the firm of Wiley and Putnam as agents in this country for certain American publishers, has this month enabled us to supply our readers with reviews of a greater variety and a richer class of books, than, considering the dull season in England, in respect of the caterers for our literary fare, we could otherwise have done. The two works at the head of this paper are good specimens ; for they convey to the reader a number of able and clear sketches of the North American Indians, notices of their past history, and speculations regarding their prospects of the future, besides many other particulars relative to the North American continent. The Rev. Mr. Parker's Tour was performed in 1835, 1836, and 1837, at the instance of the American Board of Foreign Missions, with a view to ascertain the practicability of penetrating with safety to "any and every portion of the vast interior," and the disposition of the natives for receiving missionary instruction. The learned gentleman also has very properly availed himself of saying a good deal concerning the geography, geology, climate, and productions of the regions which he traversed, as well as of hunters employed by the great Fur Companies, with whom he often came in contact. It is, however, to the Red men as a race, and of some of them individually, that we are about particularly to call attention; for it appears to us, that as a people, their past history-materials for writing which must exist, at least, since the European colonization of their country-as well as their present condition, and their prospects as to the time to come, are subjects which have not awakened an adequate interest in this country. The future, indeed, with regard to the American Indians, is a matter of immense and affecting importance; for whether it is to be by the aggressions and contaminations of a physical as well as moral kind on the part of the Whites, or by that amalgamation which will assuredly take place with the people who encroach upon them, if they become civilized and Christians, as a distinct race they are doomed to be extinguished. Then think of the immense responsibility of those who overcome them; and it will become manifest that around the Red man's bistory a multitude of solemn considerations and associations congregate of surpassing magnitude and interest. We think, that from the works before us and other sources of information, we shall be able to show that certain vague impressions are generally cherished in this country respecting the aboriginal inhabitants of America; some of these impressions having been derived from accounts of savage butcheries, but still more of them, especially of late years, being the offspring of certain romances written by the Irvings and others, which have led to the idea that the Red Indians are a nation of heroes and orators who illustrate in the most noble manner the sentimentalities of untutored unperverted nature; and to this last mentioned mistaken apprehension and romantic imagination, so different from reality, we first of all address ourselves. To poets, novelists, and the readiness with which the imagination pursues and magnifies any picturesque circumstance, is to be ascribed the attractive but false pictures of the Indians; for on actual examination by plain, serious, and matter-of-fact persons, like Mr. Parker, that which on reflection is far more probable comes out; and much that is forbidding and even revolting stands in the stead of poetic illusion. There is nothing pleasing to the imagination in the dirty and smoky cabin of the Indian chief; there is nothing romantic in his custom of sleeping away the days of leisure from the perils of war the adventures of the chase; there is not a particle of chivalry in the contempt with which he regards his squaw, and the unmanly cruelty by which he binds upon her burdens grievous to be borne. His whole life is surrounded by the dismal combination of poverty, sensuality, and ignorance. In the arts he has never learned to do more than supply his coarsest animal wants. His taste even as regards ornaments is base and despicable. He rings his nose; he daubs his body with hideous colours; he sticks his head all over with feathers, and then he is a specimen of the Indian fine gentleman. There is nothing picturesque in his costume. Then as to his amusements, such as his dances, they are mere contortions; while his music is worse than the growling and barking of wild beasts. His warfare is a compound of cruelty and cowardice. His point of honour is to entrap his enemy unawares, and with no danger to himself; his glory, on returning to his native village, he places in exhibiting the greatest possible number of scalps, torn from the heads of his bleeding murdered victims. In treating his captive it is his study and boast to taunt him amid the fiercest death-agonies, which his diabolical skill can devise. His sagacity is bounded to the discovery of a trail or track; his wisdom consists in a few sententious saws handed down from his ancestors; and when in council these are repeated with a touch or two of forest rhetoric, which, in fact, is all that he can appeal to; and though he believes in a Supreme Being, the Great Spirit, that belief is neither so distinct nor apprehensive of grand and pure attributes as to influence his life. in W We have said that the circle of Indian knowledge is necessarily extremely narrow, and the materials of his eloquence scanty. Still, in the moment of excitement, he sometimes gives utterance to a 00 noble sentiment. Living in the midst of primeval forests, familiar 6 with the most majestic scenes, and accustomed to the greatest vicissitudes, his soul must sometimes be filled with beautiful and sublime emotions; he must at times stumble upon a bold and felicitous metaphor, such as Pushmataha uttered a little before his death. This chief was a famous Choctaw warrior, and was on a visit to Washington relative to some treaty between the United States and his tribe; and thus addressed his Indian friends: "When you shall come home, they will ask you, Where is Pushmataha?" and will you say to them, He is no more.' They will hear the tidings, like the fall of a mighty oak in the stillness of the woods.” In fact the Indian's eloquence is a succession of tropes; his reasoning a number of proverbial or established phrases brilliant in the estimation of his countrymen; while, as to his practical philosophy, its summit is to bear torture unmoved, and to affect an insensibility to the beauty and uses of the arts of civilized man. Many passages in Mr. Parker's work might be adduced in support of several of the strong statements now made in opposition to the romantic ideas which have been very generally adopted regarding the Red men. We have already stated in very general terms what were the objects of Mr. Parker's tour, and to what matters his Journal relates; and now, before quoting a few passages from his book, will hastily trace the route he took. From the interior border of the settlements belonging to the United States to the Pacific, is a stretch of between 1500 and 2000 miles. First, there is the prairie region, consisting of vast plains watered by many tributaries, which fall into the Mississippi, or the Northern Lakes, and sometimes studded with forests. Then come the Rocky Mountains, which form a mighty barrier, as if to confine the Union to the northern territories of the continent. And lastly, having crossed this chain the country descends towards the Pacific, the vast region with its Columbia and feeders, balancing, as it were, that which is on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, and constituting the principal field for the fur-trade adventurers, the American and the Hudson's Bay Companies being the principal establishments of the kind; while throughout and over the several still uncolonized territories now mentioned tribes of Indians roam and hunt. Mr. Parker at first attached himself to the American Fur Company's caravan which periodically travels to the Rocky Mountains with supplies for the trappers, and to bring home the produce of the hunter's harvest. After quitting the caravan, he joined a party of Indians that manifested an amicable spirit, and a willingness to listen to his sacred message. Having reached the Columbia, he descended that magnificent river to Fort Vancouver, the head quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, where he remained for a considerable time, from this point taking many journeys in all directions round about. At last he took his passage in one of the vessels of the last named Fur-Company, to the Sandwich Islands. Here he continued till he sailed directly homewards. Our author's journey was something different in regard to its length, the dangers and privations inseparable from it, from those which our summer tourists undertake when they visit parts of the continent of Europe. He seems, however, not only to have laid his account with rough scenes, but to have carried himself throughout the whole affair with exemplary prudence and firmness. One thing is certain, his Journal is sensible, interesting, and in several respects satisfactory. Relative, however, to the most important object of Mr. Parker's tour, viz. to ascertain whether the Indians offer an encouraging prospect to missionary enterprise,-we do not think that the facts and scenes he describes warrant altogether the conclusions at which he arrives. It is in perfect consonance with human nature that a missionary when breaking new ground should be hopeful and inclined to interpret every promising or seemingly promising circumstance in a sanguine manner. But the unlikelihood that a perfect mutual understanding takes place where interpreters have to be employed; the cunning of the Indians; their hopes of bettering their condition, and being more able to maintain their station before or among the Whites, we fear must be placed alongside of some of the most encouraging pictures. We do not, for example, see much that is tangible in regard to religious anxiety or feeling in the following particulars : "After spending a few days in collecting and digesting information in regard to this country and the condition of the people, we had an interesting interview with the chiefs of the Nez Perces and Flatheads, and laid before them the object of our appointment, and explained to them the benevolent desires of Christians concerning them. We then inquired whether they wished to have teachers come among them and instruct them in the knowledge of God, his worship, and the way to be saved; and what they would do to aid them in their labours? The oldest chief of the Flatheads arose, and said he was old, and did not expect to know much more; he was deaf and could not hear, but his heart was made glad, very glad, to see what he had never seen before, a man near to God, (meaning a minister of the gospel). Next arose Insala, the most influential chief among the Flathead nation, and said, he had heard a man near to God was coming to visit them and he, with some of his people joined with some White men, went out three days' journey to meet him, but missed us. A war party of Crow Indians came upon them, and took away some of their horses, and one from him which he greatly loved; but now he forgets all, his heart is made so glad to see a man near to God. There was a short battle, but no lives lost. "The first chief of the Nez Perces, Tai-quin-watish, arose and said, he had heard from White men a little about God, which had only gone into his ears; There can be as little doubt of Mr. Parker's candour and fidelity as a narrator of facts, as there can be that so long as religion only requires a profession of faith, without any real sacrifice or practical self-denial, no sure test can exist of sincerity. The effects of the true touchstone were plainly enough brought out, in the following "During my continuance in this place, (Walla Walla,) I preached on the Sabbath, to the White people belonging to the fort in the morning, and in the afternoon to the Indians of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Nez Percé tribes; and also improved other opportunities with the Indian besides on the Sabbath. They always gave good attention, and some appear to be much interested. An instance of opposition to the truths of the Gospel, however, occurred here, proving the truth of the Scriptures, that the Saviour is set for the fall and rising of those who hear. A chief of the Cayuses, who several times came to hear, disliked what was said about a plurality of wives. He said he would not part with any of his; for he had always lived in sin, and was going to the place of burning, and it was too late for him, now he was getting old, to repent and be saved; and, as he must go to that place, he would go in all his sins, and would not alter his life. Those who are familiar with the various methods to which sinners resort to avoid the convictions of truth and conscience, may see in his deep-rooted hatred to holiness, that the operation of sin is the same in every unsanctified heart." Taking the past history of the Indians as a race, and not looking at present to the exceptions, we have no authority for thinking that even the beauties and advantages of civilization, much less those arising from a belief in the Christian Creed, and obedience to its laws, find much favour in their eyes. In spite of the labours of many zealous missionaries and proximity to places at which the acts of civilization have flourished, where are the numbers that have shown themselves willing to change their modes of life? There seems to be among them an inherent antipathy to the very forms of civilization,-to be a stern boundary over which they will not or cannot pass, strengthened no doubt by other circumstances, afterwards to be glanced at, for which the Whites are answerable. Such men as Eliot and Brainerd, to be sure, have caused a change, to a limited extent, in the aspect of Indian life. But where are now the villages they formed, the churches they gathered, the schools they opened for the Redeemer? It seems to be as if they were born to be hunters, and as hunters determined to die. The Christian religion has made a temporary progress among some of the tribes, but time has with hardly an exception removed at length its slightest traces. Some Indians have been educated by the Whites, VOL. III. (1838.) no. 111. B B |