4H A M E R I C • A. 
in a fummary way. Col. Crefap, a man infamous for the 
many murders lie had committed on thofe much-injure.d 
people, collected a party, and proceeded down the Kan- 
baway in qued of vengeance. Unfortunately a canoe of 
women and children, with one man only, was fecn coming 
from the oppofite (bore, unarmed, and unfupeCting an 
hodile attack from the whites. Crefap and his party con¬ 
cealed themfelves on the bank of the river, and, the mo¬ 
ment the canoe reached the fliore, lingled out their ob¬ 
jects, and, at one fire, killed every perfon in it. This 
happened to be the family of Logan, who had long been 
didinguifhed as a friend to tire whites. This unworthy 
return provoked his vengeance: he accordingly fignalized 
bimfelf in the war which enfued. In the autumn of the 
lame year, a decifive battle was fought at the mouth of 
the Great Kanhaway, between the collected forces of the 
Shawanees, Mingoes, and Delawares, and a detachment 
of the Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated, and 
fued for peace. Logan, however, difdained to be fecn 
among the fuppliunts. But, left the fincerity of a treaty 
fhould be didruded from which fo didinguifhed a chief 
abfented Jiimfelf, he fent by a mefienger the following 
fipeech to be delivered to lord Dun more : 
“ I appeal to any white man to fay, if ever he entered 
Logan’s cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if lie 
ever came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. Du¬ 
ring the courfe of the lad long and bloody war, Logan 
-remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such 
was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed 
as they palled, and find, ‘ Logan is the friend of white 
men.’ I had even thought to have lived with you, but 
for the injuries of one man. Col. Crefap, the lull fpring, 
in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the rela¬ 
tions of Logan, not fparing even my women and children. 
There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any liv¬ 
ing creature. This called on me for revenge. I have fought 
it : I have killed many : I have fully glutted my vengeance. 
For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not 
harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan ne¬ 
ver felt fear. lie will not turn on his heel to fave his life. 
Who is there to mourn for Logan?—Not one.” 
Before we condemn the Indians of this continent as 
wanting genius, we muft confider that letters have not yet 
been introduced among them. W r ere we to compare them 
in their prefent Hate wfith the Europeans north of the 
Alps, when the Roman arms and arts firlt crolfed thofe 
mountains, the comparifon would be unequal, becatife at 
-that time, thofe parts of Europe were fwarming with 
numbers ; becaufe numbers produce emulation, and mul¬ 
tiply the chances of improvement, and one improvement 
begets another. Yet I may fafely a(k, how many good 
poets, how many able mathematicians, how many great 
inventors in arts or fciences, had Europe, north of the 
Alps, then produced > And it was fixteen centuries after 
this before a Newton could be formed. 1 do not mean 
to deny, that there are varieties in the race of man, diftin¬ 
guifhed by their powers both of body and mind. I be¬ 
lieve there are, as I fee to be the cafe in the races of other 
animals. I only mean to fugged a doubt, whether the 
bulk and faculties of animals .depend on the fide of the 
Atlantic on which their food happens to grow, or which 
furni flies the elements of which they are compounded ? 
Whether nature has enlided herfelf as a Cis or Trans- 
Atlantic partifan ? 
No people in the world have higher notions of military 
honour than the American Indians. The fortitude, the 
calmriefs, and even exultation, which they manifeft while 
under the extremeft torture, is owing to their education, 
to their exalted ideas of military glory, and their rude 
options of future happinefs, which they believe they fhall 
forfeit by the lead manifedation of fear, or uneafinefs, 
under their fufferings. They are as bitter and deter¬ 
mined in their refentments as they are fincere in their 
friendftiips, and often purfue their enemies feveral hun¬ 
dred miles through the woods, furmounting every diffi¬ 
culty, in order to be revenged. 
The following faCt of an Algonquin woman, is a re¬ 
markable proof of their innate third of blood. That na¬ 
tion being at war with the Iroquois, flic happened .to be 
taken prifoner, and was carried to one of the villages be¬ 
longing to them. Here fhe was dripped naked, and Iter 
hands and feet bound with ropes in one of their cabins. 
In this condition die remained ten days, the favages deep¬ 
ing round her every night. The eleventh night, while 
they were afleep, die found means to difengage one of 
her hands, with which fhe immediately freed herfelf from 
the ropes, and went to the door. Though die had now 
an opportunity of efcaping ur.perceived, her revengeful 
temper could not let (lip fo favourable an opportunity of 
killing one of her enemies. The attempt was manifedly 
at the hazard of her own life; yet, fnatching up a hatchet, 
die killed the favage that lay next her; and, fpringingour 
of the cabin, concealed herfelf in a hollow tree, which 
fhe had obferved the day before. The'groans of the dy¬ 
ing perfon foon alarmed the other.favages, and the young 
ones immediately fet out in purfuit of her. Perceiving, 
from her tree, that they all took their courfe one way, and 
that no favage was near her, flic left her fanctuary, and, 
flying by an oppofite direction, ran into a fored without 
being perceived. The fecond day after this happened, her 
footdeps were difeovered ; and they purfued her with fuch 
expedition, that the third day die difeovered her enemies 
at her heels. LTpon this die threw herfelf into a pond of 
water ; and, diving among fome weeds and bulrudies, fhe 
could jud breathe above water without being perceived. 
Her purfuers, after making the mod diligent feared, were 
forced to return. For thirty-five days this woman held 
on her courfe through woods and deferts, without any 
ether fudenance than roots and wild berries. When die 
came to the river St. Lawrence, die made with her own 
hands a kind of wicker raft, on which die eroded it. As 
die went by the French for Trois Rivieres, without well 
knowing where die was, flic perceived a canoe full of fa¬ 
vages ; and, fearing they might be Iroquois, ran again 
into the woods, where fhe remained till fun-fet. Conti¬ 
nuing her courfe foon after, fhe fir.v Trois Rivieres ; and 
was then difeovered by a party whom fhe knew to be Hu- 
rons, a nation in alliance with the Algonquins. She then 
fquatted down behind a budi, called out to them that die 
was not in a condition to be feen, becaufe fhe was naked. 
They immediately threw her a blanket, and then conduc¬ 
ted her to the fort, where die recounted her dory. 
In their public councils, the Indians obferve thegreaUd 
decorum. In the foremod rank fit the old men, who are 
the counfellors ; then the warriors; and next the women and 
children. As they keep no records, it is the bufmefs of 
the 'women to notice every thing that pafles, to imprint it 
on their memories, and tell it to their children. They 
are, in diort, the records of the council ; and, with fur- 
prifing exaCtnefs, preferve the dipulations of treaties en¬ 
tered into a hundred years back. Their kindnefs and hof- 
pitality are fcarcely equalled by any civilized nation. Their 
politenefs in converfation is even carried to excefs, fince it 
does not allow them to contradict any thing, that-is afferted 
in their prefence. In fhort, there appears to be much 
truth in Dr. Franklin’s obfervation : “ We call them fa¬ 
vages, becaufe their manners dider from our’s, which we 
think the perfection of civility; they think the fame of 
their’s.” Society among the American Indians, we are 
forry to fay, has not been improved, but in mod indances 
corrupted, by their intercourfe with Europeans. It is be¬ 
lieved by many, that the wars with them generally origi¬ 
nate in the injudice, avarice, and pride, of their oppofers 
and vanquifhers. None, however, can jiidify their favage 
mode of carrying on a war, when once it lias commenced. 
If the guilty, or thofe who fhould conceal and defend the 
guilty, were the foie objects of their vengeance, we could 
not condemn them. But when thofe who never did or 
meant 
