Whatever indulgence may be allowed to those who wrote in times when the mind was vexed with their recent depredations and inhumanities, it ill becomes us to cherish an inveterate hatred of the unhappy natives. Religion teaches us a better temper, and providence has now put an end to the controversy, by their almost total extirpation. We should therefore proceed with calmness in recollecting their past injuries, and forming our judgment of their char

acter.

It must be acknowledged that human depravity appeared in these unhappy creatures in a most shocking view. The principles of education and the refinements of civilized life, either lay a check upon our vicious propensities, or disguise our crimes; but among them human wickedness was seen in its naked deformity. Yet, bad as they were, it will be difficult to find them guilty of any crime which cannot be paralleled among civilized nations.

They are always described as remarkably cruel; and it cannot be denied that this disposition, indulged to the greatest excess, strongly marks their character. We are struck with horror, when we hear of their binding the victim to the stake, biting off his nails, tearing out his hair by the roots, pulling out his tongue, boring out his eyes, sticking his skin full of lighted pitch-wood, half roasting him at the fire, and then making him run for their diversion, till he faints and dies under the blows which they give him on every part of his body. But is it not as dreadful to read of an unhappy wretch, sowed up in a sack full of serpents and thrown into the sea, or broiled in a red-hot iron chair; or mangled by lions and tigers, after having spent his strength to combat them for the diversion of the spectators in an amphitheatre ? And yet these were punishments among the Romans, in the politest ages of the empire. What greater cruelty is there in the American tortures, than in confining a man in a trough, and daubing him with honey, that he may be stung to death by wasps and other venomous insects; or flaying him alive, and stretching out his skin before his

THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ENGLAND. 363

eyes, which modes of punishment were not inconsistent with the softness and elegance of the ancient court of Persia? Or, to come down to modern times; what greater misery can there be in the Indian executions, than in racking a prisoner on a wheel, and breaking his bones one by one with an iron bar; or placing his legs in a boot and driving in wedges one after another; which tortures are still, or have till lately been used in some European kingdoms? I forbear to name the torments of the inquisition, because they seem to be beyond the stretch of human invention. If civilized nations, and those who profess the most merciful religion that ever blessed the world, have practiced these cruelties, what could be expected of men who were strangers to every degree of refinement, either civil or mental.

The Indians have been represented as revengeful. When any person was killed, the nearest relative thought himself bound to be the avenger of blood, and never left seeking, till he found an opportunity to execute his purpose. Whether in a state where government is confessedly so feeble as among them, such a conduct is not justifiable, and even countenanced by the Jewish law, may deserve our consideration.

The treachery with which these people are justly charged, is exactly the same disposition which operates in the breach of solemn treaties made between nations which call themselves christians. Can it be more criminal in an Indian, than in an European, not to think himself bound by promises and oaths extorted from him when under duress?

Their jealousy and hatred of their English neighbors may easily be accounted for, if we allow them to have the same feelings with ourselves. How natural is it for us to form a disagreeable idea of a whole nation, from the bad conduct of some individuals with whom we are acquainted? And though others of them may be of a different character, yet will not that prudence which is esteemed a virtue, lead us to suspect the fairest appearances, as used to cover the most fraudulent designs, especially if pains are taken by the most

politic among us, to ferment such jealousies to subserve their own ambitious purposes?

Though the greater part of the English settlers came hither with religious views, and fairly purchased their lands of the Indians, yet it cannot be denied that some, especially in the eastern parts of New England, had lucrative views only; and from the beginning used fraudulent methods in trade with them. Such things were indeed disallowed by the government, and would always have been punished, if the Indians had made complaint: but they knew only the law of retaliation, and when an injury was received, it was never forgotten till revenged. Encroachments made on their lands, and fraud committed in trade, afforded sufficient grounds for a quarrel, though at ever so great a length of time; and kept alive a perpetual jealousy of the like treatment again.

JACOB'S FUNERAL.

BY CHARLES W. UPHAM.

A TRAIN came forth from Egypt's land,
Mournful and slow their tread;

And sad the leader of that band,
The bearers of the dead.
His father's bones they bore away,
To lay them in the grave
Where Abraham and Isaac lay,
Macpelah's sacred cave.

A stately train, dark Egypt's pride,
Chariot and horse are there;

And silently, in sorrow ride
Old men of hoary hair.

For many days they passed along

To Atad's threshing floor,

And sang their last and saddest song

Upon the Jordan's shore.

And Atad saw the strangers mourn,

That silent, wo-clad band,

And wondered much whose bones were borne, Thus far from Pharaoh's land.

They saw the chieftain's grief was sore,

He wept with manly grace;

They called that spot forevermore

Misraim's mourning place.

They passed the wave that Jacob passed,
His good staff in his hands,*

They passed the wave that Jacob passed
With his returning bands.

'Twas when he met upon his path

His brother's wild array,

And fled, for fear his ancient wrath
Might fall on him that day.

Gen. xxxii. 10.

IMPORTANCE OF MORAL SCIENCE.

BY REV. WILLIAM D. WILSON.

THERE is no such thing as having no philosophy of morals and religion, though we often hear "practical men," as they like to be called, express their aversion, if not their contempt, for philosophy. It has been sneeringly asked in a public meeting, "if philosophy ever baked a single loaf of bread," and that too by one who is recognized as a public teacher of morals and religion. We would answer him no, my brother; but then "It is written, 'man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'"

There is no one that speaks or acts, who has not a philosophy of morals, of his actions, though he may be — unconscious of it. No one acts or speaks without motives and principles of some kind or other; and it can be shown what those motives and principles are; and when they are reduced to a system, they constitute the philosophy of that man's morals his moral philosophy. This philosophy he may have learned from his father and mother, though they never called their precepts and instructions by the name of philosophy; he may have learned it from the wants and necessities of his condition, or from the impulses of his warm and generous, or cold and selfish heart, as the case may be. It is most likely that he received some part of it from each of these sources. But a philosophy he has, though he may never have reflected upon the motives and principles of his actions enough to have given them a name, much less, to have reduced them to a system.