CHARACTER OF AN INDIAN. 



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inflictions are most exquisite. We should not 

 be astonished at this character, so repugnant to 

 the sympathies of our nature, nor should we 

 conclude too hastily against him, — he also has 

 his sympathies, and those of no common order. 

 He also loves his parent that begat him, and 

 his child whom he has begotten, with intense 

 affection ; he is not without affection from na- 

 ture ; but perverted principle has perverted 

 nature ; and as his principle is, so is his prac- 

 tice. Our surprise ceases when we learn 

 that he is trained up in blood, that he is 

 catechized in cruelty, and that he is instructed 

 not in slaughter only, but in torment. Nothing 

 that has life without the pale of his own imme- 

 diate circle not only does not escape destruction, 

 but is visited with torment also inflicted by his 

 infant hand. If his eye in passing by the 

 lake observes the frog moving in the rushes he 

 instantly seizes his victim, and does not merely 

 destroy it, but often ingeniously torments it by 

 pulling limb from limb. If the duck be but 

 wounded with the gun, his prey is not instantly 

 despatched to spare all future pain, but feather 

 is plucked out after feather, and the hapless 

 creature is tormented on principle. I have fre- 

 quently witnessed the cruelty with which 

 parents will sometimes amuse their children, 



