may cultivate, is annually rented out to the Indian by an
overseer; and provisions are doled out to the tribe according
to the discretion of _"Guardians," "Trustees,"_ &c. Their
accounts are presented to the Governor and Council, who allow,
and the Treasurer of the Commonwealth pays them as a matter of
course. I dare not say whether those accounts are in all cases
correct, or not. If they are, we ought to be thankful to
the honesty of the Trustees, &c. not to the wisdom of the
Legislature in providing checks upon fraud.

But the effect upon the _Indians_ is the great question. This
is decidedly bad. They are treated more like dogs than men. A
state of tutelage, extending from the cradle to the grave; a
state of utter dependence, breaks down every manly attribute,
and makes of human creatures, designed to walk erect, creeping
things.

But there is another very great evil, if I am rightly
informed, which calls loudly for the interposition of the
Legislature. The Marshpee and other Indian communities in
this State, are not included within the jurisdiction of any
incorporated town. The consequence is, that they are without
police, except what the Trustees and other officers appointed
by them, exercise. These officers never live among them;
and the consequence is, that the Indian grounds are so
many _Alsatias_, where the vagrant, the dissipated, and the
felonious do congregate. Nor is this the fault of the native.
It is the fault of their State; which, while it has demolished
Indian customs, has set up no regular administration of
municipal laws in their stead. Thus I am informed, that at
Gayhead, spirituous liquors are retailed without license, and
that _it is considered_ that there is no power which can reach
the abuse. There are many industrious and worthy people among
these natives, who are anxious for improvement, and to promote
the education and improvement of their people, but a degrading
personal dependence on the one hand, and the absence of nearly
all incentives and all power to do good on the other, keeps
them down.

The _paupers_ among these natives, who are at some seasons of
the year a majority or nearly all of them, are supported
by the State, and there must be a great opportunity and
temptation to the agents of the government to wrong these poor