

LOUISIANA. 119 



" I acknowledge my fault ; and I beg thee to 

 ^"^ excufe it. I agree that I had delerved the 

 "' treatment I received, being turned out of thy 

 " hut ♦, thou haft done well to let me come in 

 again, becaule, if the other Indians had heard 

 of it, they would at the leaft difpute reproach 

 " me with having been turned out of the hut of 

 " the chief Great Nofe ^^" 



Many Europeans make no difference between 

 the Indians and brutes, imagining that they 

 have neither realbn nor common fenfe. How- 

 ever, the circumftance which I have now rela- 

 ted, and a great many more, fufHciently fhew, 

 that thefe people are fufceptible of- fentiments 

 of honour \ they know how to do themfelves ju- 

 ftice when they are wronged, and know very 

 well when they do ill. There are nations among 

 the Europeans, of whom one may remark as 

 ridiculous and barbarous cuftom^ as among 

 the American Indians, 



To return to my hunter: you know very 



well, that drunkennefs debafcs men to xht rank 



I 4 of 



"■■ An epithet the Indians gave me to diftinguiih me from 

 the other officers, to each of whom they gave fuch denomi- 

 nations, relative to the good or bad Qualities they obferv'ed 

 in them. 



