SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEJIN UNITED STATES 237 



do harm, and that if they had no fear they would kill a man in 

 order to get his knife." (St. Cosme, in Gosselin, 1907, vol. 1, pp. 45- 

 46; Swanton, 1911, p. 49.) Advocates for these Indians are found in 

 the missionary De la Vente and in the historian Le Page du Pratz. 

 The former says: 



< It seems to me that there remains yet among these barbarous people excel- 

 lent remnants of that beautiful natural law that God engraved on the heart 

 of men in the state of innocence. 



Union reigns to such an extent among them that not only does one see 

 no lawsuit among them, but they even receive in common the outrages perpe- 

 trated upon a single person and the village, even if it perishes entirely, will 

 perish rather than abandon the quarrels of one of their brothers, however 

 unjust they may be. 



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. (De la Vente, in 

 Gosselin, 1907, p. 45.) 



Du Pratz: 



It is very wrong to call men savages who know how to make such very 

 good use of their reason, who think justly, who have prudence, good faith, and 

 generosity much more than certain civilized nations who will not suffer them- 

 selves to be placed in comparison with them for want of knowing or wishing 

 to give things the values they deserve. (Le Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 1, p. 88; 

 Swanton, 1911, p. 50.) 



Caddo mental and moral characteristics have been discussed in 

 another bulletin. The general impression made by them upon the 

 Spaniards may perhaps best be indicated by the following quota- 

 tion from Morfi : 



The Texas are lively by nature, clear-sighted, sociable, proud and high 

 minded. ... of great heart, and very quick in military activities. With their 

 friends they keep unchangeable peace, and with their enemies they never, or 

 very seldom, make peace . . . With all these good qualities [particularly 

 hospitality which he has just enlarged upon] the Texas are still not lacking 

 in defects. In the market at Natchitoches they provide themselves with skins, 

 tallow, and cattle, with munitions and guns, for which they have such a love 

 that they never go out without an escopeta on their shoulder. They also 

 acquire an abundance of strong liquors, and with this facility, they give them- 

 selves much to intoxication. They are lascivious and too strongly attached 

 to their customs ; but their love for the Spaniards is very peculiar, as shall be 

 seen by some examples given in this history. (Morfi, 1932, pp. 40, 54; Swanton, 

 1942, p. 123.) 



It is evident, of course, that virtue from the Spanish point of view 

 was closely bound up with Spanish interest. 



My own observation of the southern Indians living under vary- 

 ing conditions has strongly impressed me with the effect of environ- 

 ment on both tribal and personal character. The level of both has 

 been seriously lowered by white contact where either less or more 



