4M 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[OcT. 



England, Quakers, when born, all come little Qua- 

 kers, so Indians, all come little Catholics." 



This 4 ' intelligent" chief often took Mr. 

 West in his canoe, during 1 his visit to the 

 tribe j and in the course of conversation, 

 frequently surprised him with his perti- 

 nent and striking remarks on the subject 

 of religion : 



He expressed much surprise and difficulty at Hie 

 many different denominations among Protestant 

 Christians, which he had heard of. " There," said 

 lie, pointing to a small cove in the bay, as he was 

 paddling his canoe along shore one morning, " I 

 saw live or six persons plunged for baptism a short 

 time ago." Then holding up the paddle, he added, 

 as the water dripped from it, "I think the great 

 spirit can as easily bless that small quantity for the 

 purpose, as he can all the water in the basin 

 around us.'' 



Now here is this poor man's brains 

 stuffed with the conflicting doctrines of 

 baptism 5 and what good does Mr. West 

 suppose will be done by Protestant mis- 

 sionaries among these Catholic Indians? 

 One sect will interfere with another, and 

 the bitterness of party and the hatreds of 

 theologians be substituted for the prompt- 

 ings of philanthropy. At the best, you 

 must expect to confound rather than en- 

 lighten. 



Many of the North American Indians, 

 however, are much too intelligent for vul- 

 gar missionaries. 



When a society in Scotland sent two 

 missionaries for propagating the gospel 

 to the Delaware nation of Indians, the 

 chiefs assembled in council, and after de- 

 liberating for fourteen days, sent back the 

 missionaries very courteously, with the 

 following answer: They rejoiced ex- 

 ceedingly at our happiness in being thus 

 favoured by the great spirit, and felt very 

 grateful that we had condescended to re- 

 member our brethren in the wilderness. 

 But they could not help recollecting that 

 we had a people among us, who, because 

 they differed from us in colour, we had 

 made slaves of, and made them suffer 

 great hardships, and lead miserable lives. 

 Now they could not see any reason, if a 

 people being black entitled us thus to deal 

 W'ith them, why a red colour would not 

 equally justify the same treatment. They 

 therefore had determined to wait, to see 

 whether all the black people amongst us 

 were made thus happy and joyful, before 

 they could put confidence in our pro- 

 mises ; for Ihey thought a people who had 

 suffered so mucb, and so long, by our 

 means, should be entitled to our first at- 

 tention j that, therefore, they had sent 

 back the two missionaries, with many 

 thanks, promising, that when they saw the 

 black people among us restored to free- 

 dom and happiness, they would gladly 

 receive our missionaries. 



Here is too much plain practical sense 



to be worked upon by any thing but supe- 

 rior example. 



At New York, where Mr. West first 

 landed, he was surprised to hear from a 

 slave owner of Carolina, in plain terms, 

 that negro slaves had not souls like the 

 whites ; and arguing with an American 

 against the slavery of the negroes, on the 

 ground that by the constitution of Ame- 

 rica, " all men are by nature free, equal, 

 and independent j" he was told that ne- 

 groes were not of course included in the 

 expression of "all men." No doubt this 

 is the prevailing sentiment among all who 

 deal with slaves, and the actual condition 

 of the black race is perhaps proof enough 

 of mental inferiority. Among the whites 

 while they are among them they must be 

 the hewers of wood and drawers of water. 

 In America there is a society for re-trans- 

 ferring negroes to their own country; and 

 really we can imagine nothing better cal- 

 culated to promote the happiness of the 

 negro, and remove temptation from the 

 white, than to withdraw them from the 

 community of the whites. Their very pre- 

 sence corrupts the heads and hearts of the 

 whites ; and their return to their own 

 country, with the little knowledge they 

 have acquired, may tend to accelerate the 

 course of civilization, if civilization, in 

 our sense of the 'term, be practicable 

 among them. The sources of improve- 

 ment must evolve, we take it, among 

 themselves. 



To return to the Indians. Among the 

 Micmacs of Nova Scotia, Mr. West found 

 a custom of exposing an adultrcss to 

 shame and punishment by the whole 

 tribe. This offence rarely occurs j but, 

 formerly, he was told, they stoned the 

 offender to death. This mounts Mr. West 

 at once upon his hobby ; for this penalty 

 was instituted by Moses. What then ? 

 Why then the North Americans are Jews. 

 Jpws? Yes had not the Hebrews tribes, 

 and have not the Indians also? Had not 

 the Jewish tribes animal emblems Dan, 

 a serpent Issachar, an ass Benjamin, a 

 wolf and Judah, a lion ; and have not the 

 Indians, also, their wolf- tribe, bear-tribe, 

 buffalo-tribe? Aye, and turtle-tribe, from 

 which it may be concluded also, by the 

 way, that they are or have been aldermen. 

 But more than all this even. Among 

 pome of them, the usage of some parts of 

 the ceremonial law has been detected a 

 separation of three moons, at the birth of 

 a female child, and of forty for that of a 

 male. To Mr. W.'s mind, these are all 

 proofs as strong as holy writ. The con- 

 clusion is irresistible. The question may 

 be attended with difficulties, but it is im- 

 possible to account for these coincidences, 

 these practices, on any other principle 

 than tbeir descent from the " ancient 

 people of God." "They came," it seems, 



