1839.] CHARACTER. 249 



and red ochre, black paint, or soot. Sometimes, also, they 

 scarify their breasts and shoulders, which gives them an ex- 

 tremely unpleasant appearance. Their voices sound like the 

 cackling of geese ; and they jabber away so rapidly, and in 

 such a confused lurry, that it is almost impossible to distin- 

 guish words, or articulations, so as to comprehend their 

 meaning. They have various dialects among them, which 

 differ from any other language in the world, though approx- 

 imating the most nearly to that of the Indians of South 

 America. 



In regard to character, they are said to be treacherous and 

 deceitful, though naturally proud and independent. They 

 are timid, and silent and reserved in disposition. Being al- 

 most entirely ignorant of the distinction between meum and 

 tuum, they are consequently arrant thieves. Of agriculture, 

 or arts, or manufactures, except the construction of rude huts, 

 and a few arms and implements, they are utterly ignorant. 

 Placed by their Creator in an inhospitable climate, and on an 

 unfriendly soil, they seem to have no desire to better their con- 

 dition. To care they are strangers, and their wants are but 

 few. If the necessities of to-day are supplied, they are con- 

 tent, and leave to-morrow to take care of itself. Since the 

 settlement of the country by the English colonists, great pains 

 have been taken to ameliorate their situation ; missionaries 

 have been sent among them, and other means liberally em- 

 ployed, but the results have not been very flattering. Some 

 of their habits have been changed, and, perhaps, they are not 

 as ferocious and murderously inclined as they once were ; yet 

 their minds do not seem to be susceptible of improvement ; 

 and no excitement can remove the natural sluggishness of 

 their temperaments, and the inertness of their faculties. Lat- 

 terly, too, they have contracted many o? the pernicious hab- 

 its and appetites of the whites, and have become much ad- 

 dicted to the use of intoxicating drinks. It is not strange, 

 therefore, that they are dwindling away as a people ; for, like 

 the North American Indian, it seems to be their destiny, to 



11* 



