46 ARCIIvEOLOGY OP THE UNITED STATES. 



the Indians ; and when both narrator and hearer believed all that was told, and 

 frequently in an inverse proportion to its probability." 1 



If the fact is admitted, as intimated above, that the tales communicated to 

 Heckewelder were " traditionary stories, orally repeated from generation to genera- 

 tion by the old men to the boys," they would seem to be entitled to all the faith 

 that is ever due to merely traditionary evidence. But it has been generally denied 

 that the Indians possessed any such system of transmission. Major Long, to whose 

 observations Governor Cass refers, as according entirely with his own, says : " The 

 knowledge they have of their ancestry is very limited; so much so that they can 

 seldom trace back their pedigree more than a few generations ; and then know so 

 little of the place whence their fathers came, that they can only express their ideas 

 upon the subject in general terms, stating that they came from beyond the lakes, 

 from the rising or setting sun, from the north or south," &c. 2 



Governor Cass's experience of savage life, as viewed by him, if it might " point 

 a moral" would hardly '■' adorn a tale." He says : " The effect of Mr. Heckewelder's 

 work, upon the prevailing notions respecting Indian history, is every day more and 

 more visible. It has furnished materials for the writers of periodical works and 

 even of history ; and in one of those beautiful delineations of American scenery, 

 incidents, and manners, for which we are indebted to the taste and talent of our 

 eminent novelist (Cooper), 'the last of the Mohegans' is an Indian of the school 

 of Mr. Heckewelder, and not of the school of nature." 



We may reply that, romance is seldom a positive attribute of circumstances or 

 things, but rather a quality in the mind of the observer. The very time and people 

 from whence the term was derived, the age of chivalry itself, and the characters 

 and habits of knights and troubadours, would hardly bear the test of a literal and 

 unpicturesque delineation. 



With regard to the possession of hereditary information by the Indians, respect- 

 ing the origin or migrations of their ancestors, it is probably true, that their legends 

 are too indefinite, and often too contradictory, to serve any useful purpose in the 

 solution of archa)ological questions. They seldom relate to very remote periods of 



1 Governor Cass's estimate of the capacity and information of Heckewelder does not accord with 

 that of other persons who cannot be regarded as incompetent judges. The Ilistorical and Literary 

 Committee of the American rhilosophical Society, in their Report of 9th January, 1818, say: "The 

 intimate knowledge which this respectable missionary (Heckewelder), is known to possess of the lan- 

 guages and manners of various Indian nations, among whom he resided more than forty years, pointed 

 him out to us as a person from whom much information could be obtained ; nor were our hopes deceived. 

 In answer to the inquiries of your committee, he laid open the stores of his knowledge, and his corre- 

 spondence gives us a clear insight into that wonderful organization which distinguishes the languages of 

 the aborigines of this country from all the other idioms of the known world. Mr. Pickering, in his pre- 

 face to Eliot's Indian Grammar, describes him as "the venerable Mr. Heckewelder, whose fidelity, and 

 intelligence, and skill (in the Delaware dialect in particular), are beyond all question." A reviewer of 

 his Indian History in the " Portfolio" of September, 1819, calls him " a learned and inquiring man, 

 doing good among this people, and possessing their confidence. His opportunities have been better than 

 those of any person living to give the views which he has now presented to the public ; and his cha- 

 racter is a sure pledge for the fidelity of his work." 



3 Expedition from Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, II, 311. 



