152 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PAKT I. 



mention only one instance, the Creeks in less than forty years 

 disposed of a territory of about twenty-eight millions of acres ; 

 and though other lands were assigned to them, these belonged 

 to the whites as their creditors. The chiefs only, when they 

 assisted in cheating their own tribes, were on such occasions 

 well cared for. 1 The natives were frequently driven from their 

 fertile districts into marshy, unproductive spots. Since 1840 

 they were all assigned to the region beyond the Mississippi, on 

 the western boundary of the United States. Many of them 

 perished during these transmigrations, and in their new settle- 

 ments they either found other tribes already located, or were con- 

 fined to narrow districts. Want of space brought them into col- 

 lision with neighbouring tribes, as peoples living by the chase 

 require extensive districts. The whites also introduced the use 

 of brandy, and made them drunkards. Many perished in this 

 way, as they were not, like the Arabs of Algiers, restrained 

 from this vice by love of money. 2 Far from considering in- 

 toxication as hurtful or disgraceful, they considered it merely 

 as a means of enjoying a short period of bliss. It was only 

 when the dreadful consequences became generally manifest that 

 some chiefs (of the Kickapoos, Creeks, Cherokees, for instance) 

 tried to stem the current. Whenever the Indians received 

 ready money for lands, it was spent in spirituous liquors. 

 Though at a later period the sale of brandy to the Indians was 

 forbidden, it continued, and it was only since 1848 that a 

 complaint of an Indian chief against a brandy merchant was 

 attended to (Schoolcraft). Even the good intentions of the 

 whites proved injurious to the Indians. The Spanish mis- 

 sions in California had them captured for the purpose of con- 

 verting them. Many of them died in their new localities. 

 The missions having been abandoned, the Indians returned 

 to their forests. Yet, notwithstanding all these facts, the 

 white American is still surprised that the Redskins do not 

 become civilized, and consoles himself with the thought that 

 Providence has doomed them to destruction; and German 

 scholars have subscribed to that opinion. 



1 Featherstonhaugh, " Excursion through, the Slave States," ii, p. 306, 1844. 



2 M. Wagner, " Reise," ii, p. 32. 



