they would even have great difficulty in
acquiring it. Men who have once abandoned themselves to the restless and
adventurous life of the hunter, feel an insurmountable disgust for the
constant and regular labor which tillage requires. We see this proved in
the bosom of our own society; but it is far more visible among peoples
whose partiality for the chase is a part of their national character.

[Footnote k: See the "Histoire de la Nouvelle France," by Charlevoix,
and the work entitled "Lettres edifiantes."]

Independently of this general difficulty, there is another, which
applies peculiarly to the Indians; they consider labor not merely as an
evil, but as a disgrace; so that their pride prevents them from becoming
civilized, as much as their indolence. *l

[Footnote l: "In all the tribes," says Volney, in his "Tableau des
Etats-Unis," p. 423, "there still exists a generation of old warriors,
who cannot forbear, when they see their countrymen using the hoe, from
exclaiming against the degradation of ancient manners, and asserting
that the savages owe their decline to these innovations; adding, that
they have only to return to their primitive habits in order to recover
their power and their glory."]

There is no Indian so wretched as not to retain under his hut of bark a
lofty idea of his personal worth; he considers the cares of industry
and labor as degrading occupations; he compares the husbandman to the ox
which traces the furrow; and even in our most ingenious handicraft,
he can see nothing but the labor of slaves. Not that he is devoid of
admiration for the power and intellectual greatness of the whites; but
although the result of our efforts surprises him, he contemns the means
by which we obtain it; and while he acknowledges our ascendancy, he
still believes in his superiority. War and hunting are the only pursuits
which appear to him worthy to be the occupations of a man. *m The
Indian, in the dreary solitude of his woods, cherishes the same ideas,
the same opinions as the noble of the Middle ages in his castle, and he
only requires to become a conqueror to complete the resemblance; thus,
however strange it may seem, it is in the forests of the New World,
and not amongst the Europeans who people its coasts, that the ancient
prejudices of Europe are still in existence.

[Footnote m: The following description occurs in an official document:
"Until a young man has been engaged with an enemy, and has perform