"nationality." 293 



1 do not know that I can add anything to the paper, which has 

 interested me profoundly ; but perhaps it may interest some of 

 the members of the Institute if I mention a few facts in reference 

 to the North American Indians with whom I have been somewhat 

 closely connected for the last forty years, as Bishop of the Diocese 

 of Minnesota. These Indians are to be found in all pai*ts of the 

 United States. All the Indians, from the Atlantic to the western 

 part of Minnesota beyond Lake Superior, with one exception, 

 belong to one great family {Algonquins) , and it was for them that 

 Elliot published his Bible. It has always been a great pleasure 

 to me that the Indians amongst whom we have had missions 

 which have been marvellously blessed are the same Indians for 

 whom Elliot laboured. The Rev. Dr. Hale, a clergyman of Boston, 

 sent me a little while ago two chapters of Elliot's Bible, without 

 indicating the source from -which he took them. I sent them (o 

 our chief missionary and he sent back the translation showing that 

 these Indians speak the same language. There is, however, a 

 slight difference. His language is a marvel. There are more than 

 twenty times the inflections in the verb than are to be found in the 

 Greek. If an Indian said to you " I love," and stopped, yoa could 

 tell, by the inflection of the verb, whether he loved aii animate or 

 inanimate thing, and whether he loved the thing or the quality of 

 the thing. 



He has some remarkable customs that would point back to a 

 higher state of civilization and a greater knowledge of God. He 

 has not the slightest doubt of the existence of a Great Spirit. 

 In one respect his theology is a very good theology, viz. — that the 

 Great Spirit never harmed anybody, and that when one is harmed 

 it is because one has fallen into the hands of the devil. Every- 

 thing that he cannot understand he attributes to a spiritual 

 influence. When he first saw the telegraph he said a spirit 

 ran on the wire and carried the message. He has a passion- 

 ate love for his people — he would lay down his life without the 

 trembling of a nerve for those he loves. He is always truthful. 

 I have never known, during the forty years that I have been 

 .amongst them, an Indian to tell me a lie. I heard an officer of the 

 United States Army say in a public address, " I have lived with 

 the worst and most warlike Indians in this country for twenty-one 

 years. Half the time I have been hunting them ; and the other 

 half they have been hunting me, and I never knew an Indian to tell 

 .a lie, unless under the influence of drink. I have now charge of 



