16 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



sors of Christianitij among them, for many years !^ viz. sucli of the lowest 

 i*ank, and least informed, of mankind, who have flowed in from Germany, 

 Ireland^ and the jails of Great Britain^ and settled next them, as well as 

 those who flee from justice in the settled, or better inhabited parts of the 

 country, and retire among them, that the}- might be out of the reach of 

 the laws, &c., the least qualified to exhibit favorable ideas of this kind; 

 but it is most certain they have done the contrary; insomuch that, it 

 Avere to be wished the cause of the late unhappy Indian war Avithin the 

 limits of these provinces, did not take its rise, in no small degree, from 

 the want of common justice, in the conduct of too many of these people 

 towards them ; for notwithstanding the general ignorance of the Indiani< 

 in many things, especially of European arts and inventions, yet in things 

 of this kind they rely more on experience than theory ; and they mostly 

 formed their judgment of the English., or Europeans., and of their religion 

 and customs, not from the Avords, but from the actions and manners of 

 those Avith AA^hom thev most conversed and transacted business,^ 



1 The trade between the Engliuli and the Indians, in later years especially, has been 

 mostly carried on by the vilest, and most abandoned part of the community: the Indiani* 

 have long had but very little opi>ortunity to converse with any other kind of Christians, 

 Ix^&ides these, who go most among them: from the lives and conduct of these they judge 

 of GJiristianity. and European manners, &c. This is mentioned in a treatise, printed 

 in London, in 17o9, as one cause, among others, of the first war, that commenced with 

 them in Pennsylvania, about the year 1754; wherein is likewise expressed — "It would 

 l>e too shocking to describe the conduct and behaviour of the traders, when among the 

 Ifvdians, and endless to enumerate the abuses the Indians had received and borne from 

 them, for a serie.s of years. Suffice it to say, that several of the tribes were, at last, 

 wearv of bearing. And as these traders were the persons, who were, in some part, tht^ 

 representatives of the English among the Indians; and by Avhom they were to judge of 

 our manners and religion, they conceived such invincible prejudices against both, par- 

 ticularly against our holy religion, that when Mr. Serjeant, a gentleman in Neic England, 

 took a journey, in 1741, to the Shawanese, and some other tribes living on Susquehanna. 

 and offered to instruct them in the Christian religion, they rejected his offer with 

 disdain. They reproached Christianity. They told him the traders would lie, cheat, 

 and debauch their women, and even their wives, if their husbands were not at home. 

 They said further, that the Senecas had given them their country, but charged them 

 witlial, never to receive Christianity from the English,^' &c. 



2The following has been printed in Pennsylvania, as a genuine speech of an Indian 

 Chief in that province ; but whether it be really .so. or not, it certainly contains argu- 

 ments, which have l>een used by some of these people, and, in this place, may serve, in 

 part, to give some idea of their sentiments on the subject : it is thus first introduced. 



viz : 



"In, or alK)ut the year of our Lord 1710, a Sicedish Missionary preached a sennou 

 HI an Indian treaty, held at Conestogoe in Pennsylvania ; in which sennon he set forth 

 original sin, the necessity of a Mediator; and endeavored, by certain arguments, to 

 induce the Indians to embrace the Christian religion. After he had ended his discom-se, 

 one of the Indian chiefs made a speech in reply to the sermon; and the discourses, on 

 both side.s were made known by interpreters. The Missionary, upon his return to 

 Sir-fiUu, pul'-lisheii hi'; st-mion, and the Indian's answer. Having writteii tlu-m in Latin, 



