50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



perisli rather (liaii aljiUHloii the (luarrcls of one of fhoir Itrotliors, howevtn' unjust 

 they may be. 



Envy, anger, oaths and pride are iniknown among the greater part of them, 

 and to put everything in a word, they have nothing savage but the name, 

 since good sense, which is of all places, has -been willing to live among them. 

 * * * Here is a part of what they have preserved without writings or 

 reading, without any other thing than what their fathers have left them by 

 tradition as a heritage of the natural law. * * * a 



Their honesty regarding that which one sells to them is inviolable on their 

 part, and it would be desirable that the French had as much good faith in their 

 trading as they use themselves in what they trade to us.^ 



Dumoiit nowhere takes the trouble to make an estimate of the 

 character of the Indians, contenting himself with scattered expres- 

 sions to the effect that all of the Indian tribes, even those supposed 

 to be on terms of friendship, are utterly perfidious, and that '' per- 

 haps not one of the nations of Louisiana can be said to have any 

 religion or worship.'' '" Du Pratz, wdio seems to have appreciated the 

 Indian character best, even to the extent of overestimating it, assures 

 us that his opinion of Indians when he first came to Louisiana w^as 

 that they were like brute beasts. Llaving expressed this idea to Bien- 

 ville one day " the governor answered that I did not yet know those 

 people, and that Avhen I did know them I would do them more justice."' 

 And he then remarks : 



He told the exact truth. I have had time to undeceive myself, and I am con- 

 vinced that those who would see the true portrait of them which I will make 

 piesently will be convinced with me that it is very wrong to call men savages 

 who know how to make such very good use of their reason, who think justly, 

 wlio have prudence, good faith, generosity mucli more than certain civilized 

 nations who will not suffer themselves to be placed in comparison with them 

 for want of knowing or wishing to give things the value they deserve.'* 



It shoidd be noticed that Du Pratz never calls the Indians " sau- 

 vages " but always " naturels." 

 Farther on he says : 



The Natchez nation was one of tlie most estimable in the colony in the first 

 times, not only according to their own tradition, but also according to those of 

 other peoples, to whom their greatness and the beauty of their customs gave as 

 much jealousy as admiration.® 



And in another place he remarks of the same tribe, after noting 

 that the characters of the various nations of Louisiana were different: 



Their manners were besides gentler, tlieir way of thinking truer and fuller of 

 feeling, their customs more rational, and their ceremonies more natural and 

 more serious, which made this nation more brilliant and distinguished it from 

 all others. It was indeed easy to i-ecognize that it was much more civilized.^ 



"Letter of De la Vente, .Tuly 4, 1708, in Compte Rendu Cong. Internat. des Am6r., 

 15th sess., I, 46. 



" Letter of .Tuly 8, 1708, ibid., 4.5. 



'" Dumonl, M(5m. Hist, sur La liOuisiane, i, 1.'!.5, 157, 1753. 



'' Dii T'ratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, i, 88. 



>■ II>id.. 11. 2121. 



' Ibid., 308. 



