GOOD QUALITIES OF THE RED INDIANS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1313, 29 April 1897, Page 10

GOOD QUALITIES OF THE RED INDIANS.

The following is from the book entitled “The Red Indians: Pagan and Christian,” by James Wells, D.D., in the Sunday Magazine : Of all the pagan races whose record history bas preserved, the Red Indians of North |America seem to have been the most religious and ths most moral. When freed from the contagion of the*white man’s vices, they have displayed a large stock of natural virtues. Pere le Jeune, the famous Jesuit missionary, places them, in respect of morals, above the French peasants j while others have declared that they are not inferior to any cf the nations of Europe. An eminent Canadian Judge told mo that to-day there is a smaller proportion of crimes among the Indians than among the whites, and that they are easily managed when not provoked. I heard an Indian trader say that all who have traded with them have a high appreciation of their many excellent°quahties. Many of the missionaries now labouring among them have stated that they never locked a door or chest, nor had an article stolen, till the white men came among them. The Indians have no prisons or locks ; happy people ! Bishop Whipple writes, “ In thirty six years’ experience with the Indians, I never knew one to tell me a lie, and I never had a thing stolen by one. I asked an Indian once if it was safe to leave my property in my wigwam while I made a distant journey. He laughed and said, “Quite safe ; there isn’t a white man within a hundred miles ef you.” In 1872, Sitting Bull, the chief of the Sioux, annihilated a company of seven hundred and nine fully-armed American cavalry, led by General Custer. Not one American soldier lived to tell the tale. Sitting Boh like Crrnnr, was bo h the general and the historian of the battle. He protests that he was compelled to fight against his will. He began the battle by committing himself and his tribe to the Great Spirit. “ The Great Spirit," he said, “ will look on, and the side that is in the wrong will be defeated." Strangely enough, two or three soldiers were then unhorsed by lightning. “ The Great Spirit,” he exclaimed, “ i 3 on our side ; look how he is striking the soldiers down.” Only twenty-six Indians lost their lives in this encounter. Lord Lome says that the Indians used the heliograph and signalling by flashes before these methods were used by our army ; and that the movements of th,- mounted police were signalled by the Indians in this way. Mr Meacham says that the victories of the Modocs over the k'oited States soldiers in 1873 were unparalleled in histoiy ; and that it cost £oo,ooo to kill a Modoc. The unevaugalised Indians of to-day are weak as children, and cannot stand before the temptations of the white man. They are idle, and have no idea of providing for the morrow. They are passionately fond of whisky, horseracing, and gambling. In these accomplishments they are not one whit behind tens of thousands of our betteroff classes. The Indians understand all the shrewd tricks of the tnrf, with one exception : they have not discovered the trick of sacrificing their

honour. In gambling they will - sLame their living wives and daughters, as the ancient Egyptian gamblers used to stake their ancestral mummies.- The xndian woman is bought and sold, and is used as a drudge The worst, charges brought against the Indian are his cruelty and treachery in wevr. But the instinct of revenge the only shield against wrong in such a sosiety ; and often it is the only way in which justice can assert itself. In the early wars, the French and English employed the Indians, and gave I them a premium for every scalp of the enemy they could produce. In recent wars the Indiana have usually had justice on their side. Mr Mcacham, who was nearly killed by the ludians in revenge, makes an awful indictment against his Government. They have never, he says, treated the Indian as a man. Not more than one dollar in ten that were promised reached the Indians. They were treacherous in the Modoc war of 1873 ; but it was on the very spec where a United States general had killed some of their tribe while under a flag of truce. Josh

Billings says that “ the best way to civilise an ‘ Injun ’ is with a rifle at three hundred yards." His countrymen have largely adopted that policy and also the proveib that “ a good Indian is a dead Indian.” It is admitted by all that the Canadian Government has been strictly faithful to its compacts with the Indians ; and they have had their reward. The Red Man is melting away, like snow before the sun. The chief reason is—if the truth must be told—that they are dying of diseases that afflict only evil livers, and which have been given them by white men. No darker page than this can be found in the history of our race.