submitted to the lordly Spaniards almost without a murmur.
Their civilization, if such we may call it, had long ago seen its
best days. The period of energy and progress had passed, and a time of
inertia and decay had set in. A century after the Spaniards had
overcome the aborigines of Mexico, other Europeans--French, English,
and Dutch--came into contact with a sturdier type of red man, best
represented by the Iroquois or Five Nations of central New York.
This more active type dwelt in a physical environment notable for two
features--the abundance of cyclonic storms bringing rain or snow at all
seasons and the deciduous forest which thickly covered the whole
region. Unlike the Mexican, the civilization of the Iroquois was young,
vigorous, and growing. It had not learned to express itself in durable
architectural forms like those of Mexico, nor could it rival the older
type in social and religious organization. In political organization,
however, the Five Nations had surpassed the other aboriginal peoples of
North America. When the white man became acquainted with the Iroquois in
the seventeenth century, he found five of their tribes organized into
a remarkable confederation whose avowed object was to abolish war among
themselves and to secure to all the members the peaceful exercise of
their rights and privileges. So well was the confederation organized
that, in spite of war with its enemies, it persisted for at least two
hundred years. One of the chief characteristics of the Iroquois was
their tremendous energy. They were so energetic that they pursued
their enemies with an implacable relentlessness similar to the restless
eagerness with which the people of the region from New York to Chicago
now pursue their business enterprises. This led the Iroquois to torture
their prisoners with the utmost ingenuity and cruelty. Not only did the
savages burn and mutilate their captives, but they sometimes added the
last refinement of torture by compelling the suffering wretches to
eat pieces of flesh cut from their own bodies. Energy may lead to
high civilization, but it may also lead to excesses of evil. The third
prominent aboriginal type was that of the fishermen of the coast of
British Columbia, especially the Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands.
The most important features of their environment were the submerged
coast with its easy navigation, the mild oceanic climate, and the dense
pine forests. The Haidas, like the Iroquo