52 The Book of Woodcraft 



torments, and an equanimity which neither misfortunes nor 

 reverses can shake. Toward each other they behave with a 

 natural pohteness and attention, entertaining a high respect 

 for the aged, and a consideration for their equals which appears 

 scarcely reconciliable with that freedom and independence of 

 which they are so jealous." (Moeurs des Sauv. Amer., 1724, 

 quoted in "Century of Dishonor" p. 378.) 



Long afterward the judicial Morgan in his League of the 

 Iroquois, says, (p. 55): 



"In legislation, in eloquence, in fortitude, and in military 

 sagacity, they had no equals. 



"Crimes and offences were so infrequent, under their social 

 system, that the Iroquois can scarcely be said to have had a 

 criminal code." 



Captain John H. Bourke, who spent most of his active 

 life as an Indian fighter, and who, by training, was an 

 Indian hater, was at last, even in the horror of an Indian- 

 crushing campaign, compelled to admit: 



"The American Indian, born free as the eagle, would not 

 tolerate restraint, would not brook injustice; therefore, the 

 restraint imposed must be manifestly for his benefit, and the 

 government to which he was subjected must be eminently one 

 of kindness, mercy and absolute justice, without necessarily 

 degenerating into weakness. The American Indian despises a 

 liar. The American Indian is the most generous of mortals ; at 

 all his dances and feasts, the widow and the orphan are the first 

 to be remembered." (Bourke's "On the Border with Crook," 

 p. 226.) 



"Bad as the Indians often are, " says this same frontier veteran, 

 "I have never yet seen one so demoralized that he was not an 

 example in honor and nobility to the wretches who enrich them- 

 selves by plundering him of the little our Government appor- 

 tions for him." (Bourke's "On the Border with Crook," p. 



445-) 



