and bear fruit equal to the best
that can be found in France. They are often so loaded in the gardens of
the Indians that they have to prop up the branches. There are whole
forests of mulberries, whose ripened fruit we begin to eat in the month
of May. Plums are found in great variety, many of which are not known in
Europe. Grape-vines and pomegranates are common. Three or four crops of
corn can be raised in a year."

From all this it appears that the good Father was very observant, though
his observation, or the information he obtained from the Indians, was
not always to be trusted. He goes on to speak of the tribes, whose
people and customs he found very different from the Indians of Canada.
"They have large public squares, games, and assemblies. They seem
mirthful and full of vivacity. Their chiefs have absolute authority. No
one would dare to pass between the chief and the cane torch which burns
in his cabin and is carried before him when he goes out. All make a
circuit around it with some ceremony."

_THE FRENCH OF LOUISIANA AND THE NATCHEZ INDIANS._

The story of the American Indian is one of the darkest blots on the page
of the history of civilization. Of the three principal peoples of Europe
who settled the New World,--the Spanish, the British, and the
French,--the Spanish made slaves of them and dealt with them with
shocking cruelty, and the British were, in a different way, as unjust,
and at times little less cruel. As for the French, while they showed
more sympathy with the natives, and treated them in a more friendly and
considerate spirit, their dealings with them were by no means free from
the charge of injustice and cruelty. This we shall seek to show in the
following story.

When we talk of the Indians of the United States we are very apt to get
wrong ideas about them. The word Indian means to us a member of the
savage hunting tribes of the North; a fierce, treacherous, implacable
foe, though he could be loyal and generous as a friend; a being who made
war a trade and cruelty a pastime, and was incapable of civilization.
But this is only one type of the native inhabitants of the land. Those
of the South were very different. Instead of being rude savages, like
their Northern brethren, they had made some approach to civilization;
instead of being roving hunters, they were settled agriculturists;
instead of being morose and taciturn, they were genial and
light-hearted; and instead of possessing