SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHE ASTERN" UNITED STATES 235 



easy and discontented in it. All their misfortunes and losses end in laughter; 

 for if their cabins take fire, and all their goods are burnt therein (indeed, all 

 will strive to prevent farther damage whilst there is any possibility) yet such a 

 misfortune ends in a hearty fitt of laughter, unless some of their kinsfolks 

 and friends have lost their lives; but then the case is altered, and they be- 

 come very pensive, and go into deep mourning, which is continued for a 

 considerable time; sometimes longer or shorter, according to the dignity of 

 the person, and the number of relation^ he had near him. . . . 



On a fair scheme, we must first allow these savages what really belongs 

 to them, that is, what good qualities and natural endowments they possess, 

 whereby they being in their proper colors, the event may be better guessed 

 at and fathomed. 



First, they are as apt to learn any handicraft, as any people that the 

 world affords; I will except none, as is seen by their canoes and stalking 

 heads, which they make of themselves; but to my purpose, the Indian slaves 

 in South Carolina and elsewhere, make my argument good. 



Secondly, we have no disciplined men in Europe but what have, at one 

 time or other been branded with mutining and murmuring against their chiefs. 

 These savages are never found guilty of that great crime in a soldier. I chal- 

 lenge all mankind to tell me of one instance of it; besides, they never prove 

 traitors to their native country, but rather chuse death than partake and 

 side with the enemy. 



They naturally possess the righteous man's gift; they are patient under 

 all afflictions, and have a great many other natural vertues, which I have slightly 

 touched throughout the account of these savages. 



They are really better to us than we are to them, they always give us vic- 

 tuals at their quarters, and take care we are armed against hunger and 

 thirst: we do not do so by them, (generally speaking) but let them walk 

 by our doors hungry and do not often relieve them. We look upon them 

 with scorn and disdain, and think them little better than beasts in human 

 shape, though if well examined, we shall find that, for all our religion and 

 education, we possess more moral deformities and evils than these savages 

 do, or are acquainted withal. 



We reckon them slaves in comparison to us, and intruders, as oft as they 

 enter our houses, or hunt near our dwellings, but if we will admit reason 

 to be our guide, she will inform us that these Indians are the freest peo- 

 ple in the world, and so far from being intruders upon us that we have aban- 

 doned our own native soil, to drive them out, and possess theirs, neither 

 have we any true balance in judging of these poor heathens, because we 

 neither give allowance for their natural disposition, nor the sylvan educa- 

 tion, and strange customs (uncouth to us) they lie under and have ever been 

 trained up to. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 292-293, 384-386.) 



Thus, like Bar tram, Lawson plays the part of a kind of eighteenth 

 century Tacitus. Already, early in this same century, Cates- 

 by brought up a practical objection to the education of Indians in 

 white ways of living, which has frequently been harped upon since, 

 but he does not, like so many, infer from it any necessary inferiority 

 in Indian intelligence in general : 



The Indians are generally allowed to have a good capacity, which seems 

 adapted and even confined to their savage way of life. Reading and writ- 

 ing is the highest erudition that I have known or heard any of them attain 



