d shrink. His very form indicates at once, an
aptitude for that species of exercise which war and hunting call into
action, and an unfitness for the laborious drudgery of husbandry and
many of the mechanic arts. Could they have been converted into
profitable slaves, it is more than probable we should never have been
told, that "the hand of providence was visible in the surprising
instances of mortality among the Indians, to make room for the
whites."

In their moral character many things appear of a nature, either so
monstrous as to shock humanity, or so absurd as to excite derision;
yet they have some redeeming qualities which must elicit commendation.
And while we view with satisfaction those bright spots, shining more
brilliantly from the gloom which surrounds them, their want of
learning and the absence of every opportunity for refinement, should
plead in extenuation of their failings and their vices. Some of the
most flagrant of these, if not encouraged, have at least been
sanctioned by the whites. In the war between the New England colonies
and the Narragansetts, it was the misfortune of the brave Philip,
after having witnessed the destruction of the [29] greater part of
his nation, to be himself slain by a Mohican. After his head had been
taken off, Oneco, chief of the Mohicans, then in alliance with the
colonists, claimed that he had a right to feast himself on the body of
his fallen adversary. The whites did not object to this, but
composedly looked on Oneco, broiling and eating the flesh of
Philip--and yet cannibalism was one of their most savage traits of
character.

This was a general, if not an universal custom among the Indians, when
America became known to the whites. Whether it has yet entirely ceased
is really to be doubted: some of those who have been long intimate
with them, affirm that it has not; though it is far from being
prevalent.

The Indians are now said to be irritable; but when Europeans first
settled among them, they were not more irascible than their new
neighbors. In their anger however, they differ very much from the
whites. They are not talkative and boisterous as these are, but
silent, sullen and revengeful. If an injury be done them, they never
forget, they never forgive it. Nothing can be more implacable than
their resentment--no time can allay it--no change of circumstances
unfix its purpose. Revenge is to them as exhilarating, as the cool
draught from the fountain, to the parc