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feel the force of an invisible and superior Power, which evinces its influence by undefined terrors, and the consequent belief and worship of evil spirits; they also make offerings to the shades of departed ancestors, and to figures temporarily prepared to represent the controlling spirit of some planet which they believe to exercise an influence over their fate.

"During the Kandian dynasty, the Veddahs paid tribute in wax and elephants' tusks, and obeyed headmen from the adjacent districts; afterwards, by the influence of these persons, they were led, in 1817, to join the rebellion raised against the British government. The weapons they use are clubs, and bows with arrows, the blades of which vary in length from four to fifteen inches: it is with these long-bladed arrows and wretched bows that Veddahs kill elephants, not by striking in the foot, as was commonly believed, but by creeping close up to the animal and shooting to the heart. Should the elephant have escaped receiving a mortal wound, the hunters follow his track, and persevere until he falls exhausted, or by a fresh attack; when, in addition to the ivory, they recover their arrows. Activity saves them from danger in this pursuit; and so cautious and stealthy is their pace, that they seldom startle any game which it is their object to approach from this cause the Cingalese have obtained the belief that no wild animal will fly from a forest Veddah."

"In January, 1834, after a continued residence of nearly six years in the Kandian country, I revisited Colombo, on my way to examine the ruins of Mágam, and other remains of antiquity in the maritime provinces of the south and south-west parts of the island. On again entering the fort, the first impressions excited by its appearance on my landing from Europe were vividly recalledparticularly the delight I felt on seeing its lines of Suriya trees. Ever green, and always in flower, they produce a cheering effect and pleasing shade, with which I was the more charmed as I had suffered several months of sea-sickness; and the only other tropical country I had seen was that glowing heap of sand and cinders, St. Jago, in the Cape de Verd Islands.

"From long residence amongst the Kandians, and from being accustomed to their complexions, I was led to contrast their uniformity of colour, features, and dress, with the endless variety of hue, countenance, and clothing of the people of the maritime provinces near Colombo. They are seen of every shade, from deadly white to burnished black those who are of Cingalese blood, free from exotic mixture, have the most pleasing colour; while the slightest mixture of native blood with European can never be eradicated, and in some cases seems to go on darkening in each succeeding generation, until-as in many of the Portuguese descendants-we find European features with jet black complexions. The Dutch descendants, with native blood, are now undergoing the blackening process, although in general they have only reached as far as a dark and dingy yellow. At the same time, it may be doubtful whether the sickly white of long-resident Europeans is not more disagreeable to the eye than any of the various shades of black or brown. To avoid the inroads of white ants, chests, cabinets, every kind of furniture which in cold climates have their station on the floor, are here seen mounted upon stilts; these, being formed of yellow jackwood, occasionally produce a ludicrous resemblance between the inanimate articles and the easily discomposed, thoroughly unsettled, thin-legged, long-bodied, dingy-coloured, climate-worn European.

"The harbour of Colombo is only capable of receiving very small vessels; and the road where the large ships cast anchor, at upwards of a mile from the shore, is exposed to the south-west monsoon. The fort of Colombo was commenced in 1518 by the Portuguese; but its present extent and strength have been gradually accomplished by them and their successors the Dutch, whose predilection for fortifications causes the principal towns on the sea-coast of Ceylon to be uncomfortable places of residence, from their being surrounded with walls that exclude the sea-breeze. While carrying on some repairs near the Battenburgh bastion, the labourers discovered a large stone, on which was an inscription, signifying that beneath it were deposited the mortal remains of Juaz Monteiro, of Setwelo, the first confirmed vicar and primate of Ceylon, who died A.D. 1536.

"Those persons, particularly Europeans of temperate habits, who reside in the maritime provinces of the south-west of the island, the towns of Colombo and Galle inclusive, are probably less liable to sickness than in any other part of the world; but it has too high a temperature and too moist a climate for longevity; and I believe there are more instances of extreme old age to be found in the vicissitudes of the Kandian climate than in the monotonous languor of the maritime provinces.

"The cinnamon gardens near Colombo are merely plantations of that valuable shrub, extending over several thousand acres of sandy soil, resting in some places on black moss. Although the roads by which these plantations are intersected afford pleasant and retired drives, from which in some places there are distant views of Adam's Peak and the Kandian mountains, yet the grounds have no great pretensions to beauty; and neither from the manner in which they are laid out, nor the condition in which they are kept, is the appellation of gardens applicable to these plantations. Their general appearance is that of a copse, with laurel leaves and stems about the thickness of hazel; occasionally a plant may be seen, which, having been allowed to grow'for seed, has attained a height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk of eighteen inches in diameter. There are also jambu, cashew-nut, bread-fruit, and other trees interspersed; and these, with the cocoa-nut trees that rise beyond the limits, in some measure relieve the sameness of an extended copse-wood."

"From Colombo I returned to Kandy by the mail-coach, and remarked the immense improvement that had taken place in the face of the country near the great_road which was opened under the government of Sir Edward Barnes. When I first visited Kandy, in 1828, this line was unfinished; and the numerous obstacles which had been overcome, or were in progress of removal, could not be overlooked: the rock which had been blasted, the embankments that had been raised, were then bare; and the forests through which we passed showed how much of energy and perseverance was required to trace the road which was then forming. Now these obstacles would hardly be credited by any one who had not previously seen the country; for the shattered rocks and huge embankments were overgrown with vegetation, and the dense forest had almost disappeared from the vicinity of the road." "The religion of Ceylon is properly that of Gautama Buddha; but his moral system is there found to be conjoined with the ancient superstitions of the aboriginal inhabitants, who never entirely abandoned the adoration of gods, demi-gods, devils, ancestors, and planets. Although demon-worship is repugnant to the doctrine of Buddha, yet its unhallowed rites were always maintained either openly or in secret: it is probably in consequence of the decline of Buddhism that the devils' priests have become more audacious, and that of late their ceremonies have increased in favour with the Kandian people."

Here we conclude at present, but shall return to Major Forbes' book again, and make some selections from his adventures with large" deer, which may prove more inteelephants, and other " resting to some of our readers than what we have given.

EARLY AND IMPROVIDENT MARRIAGES.

We

It is not improbable that Swift's objection to early and improvident marriages originated in the consciousness that his dependent and miserable childhood was the fruit of such an alliance; his habits of strict economy, too, may have contributed to strengthen his resolution. It is recorded of him that in after-life he once inculcated this precept in a manner worthy of remark. transcribe the anecdote as we find it." A young clergyman, the son of a bishop in Ireland, having married without the knowledge of his friends, it gave umbrage to his family, and his father refused to see him. The dean, being in company with him some time after, said he would tell him a story: When I was a schoolboy at Kilkenny, and in the lower form, I longed very much to have a horse of my own to ride on. One day I saw a poor man leading a very mangy lean horse out of the town, to kill him for the skin. I asked the man if he would sell him, which he readily consented to, upon my offering him somewhat more than the price of the hide, which was all the money I had in the world. I immediately got on him, to the great envy of some of my schoolfellows, and to the ridicule of others, and rode him about the town. The horse soon tired and laid down. As I had no stable to put him into, nor any money to pay for his sustenance, I began to find out what a foolish bargain I had made, and cried heartily at the loss of my cash; but the horse dying soon after upon the spot gave me some relief.' To this the young clergyman answered, Sir, your story is very good, and applicable to my case; I own I deserve such a rebuke: and then burst into a flood of tears. The dean made no reply, but went the next day to the lord lieutenant, and prevailed on him to give the young gentleman a small living then vacant, for his immediate support; and not long after brought about a reconciliation between the father and him."-Dublin University Magazine.

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THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

NO. I.ARE THE INDIANS CAPABLE OF CIVILISATION?

Ir is received almost as an axiom by far too many of those who enjoy the blessings of civilisation, that the red man cannot exist

with the white man-that it is useless to seek to alter his wild

condition, for attempts at civilisation only serve to degrade instead of elevating his character. Therefore it is argued the Indians must of necessity be driven beyond the pale of civilisation; for it is impossible to permit a wild country to be surrounded with cultivated settlements, and stand as it were an impediment to the convenience and improvement of all its neighbours. Assuming the fact that the Indians are incapable of civilisation, both the American and English governments have, whenever it has become necessary to assign new locations within their own boundary to Indians, clogged the lands with a condition that the proprietors should not dispose of any portion of it (except among themselves, and this has not always been permitted), without the sanction of the government. In other cases the right of pre-emption is claimed, and (by the Americans) very frequently inforced; the reason assigned for this line of conduct is, that it would be dangerous for a savage race of hunters to be confined within too small a space, which would probably be the case if they were permitted to dispose of their lands, and, accordingly, their masters take very good care they shall not. This effectually deprives the Indians of any incentive to change their mode of life, and as settlers press on their confines, it becomes necessary for the security and prosperity of the whites, to push the Indians further "west;" constant collisions are taking place between the contending parties, and the Indians perish by detail. There is enough in the history of their misfortunes, to make those who have intercourse with the whites feel themselves degraded, without the aid of whiskey, which, however, is actively employed to sink them lower still. Nor is an appeal to arms at all uncommon when the savages are restive, and unreasonably reluctant to leave their native homes. At the moment we write the United States are at war with the tribe of Seminoles. The republican general refused to march unless he was allowed to employ bloodhounds to hunt them down; and a supply of these ferocious beasts had just arrived at the date of the last American despatches.

Salado. Not only have whole tribes been totally exterminated, but the remaining Indians have become more barbarous : instead of living in large villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing, as well as of the chase, they now wander about the open plains, without home or fixed occupation."

They fare better in Canada; they are not so much in the way, but they are kept as it were in a state of pupilage, and the operation of the system we have described causes them to continue a burden to the government, by whom a considerable sum is annually devoted to presents and pensions to Indians, who, under a different system, might have enriched instead of impoverishing the state. It may be objected that no other system could be adopted, and that whites and Indians could not be mixed up together on the same lands, unless the latter submitted themselves entirely to the laws and government of England. There is but little force in the objection; for, were the Indians encouraged to become an agricultural people, they would, we believe, be eager to seek the protection of the laws.

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It is melancholy to consider, that the war which gave independ ence to the United States was one of the chief causes of the ruin of the Indian tribes. Previous to that period, many of them had cultivated their lands to a great extent, and had thus laid a foundation for their ultimate civilisation. To show the extent to which they had carried their improvements, we will describe the condition in which the Americans, on different occasions, found the Indian lands and villages they went to ravage. Alas! how different were they when the spoiler left them! In 1779, it was determined by the Americans to make a serious attack upon the Indians. An expedition was accordingly despatched, under General Sullivan, against the Senecas and Cayugas, members of the Six Nations," who were particularly distinguished among all their brethren for advancement in the social relations of life. After a well-fought battle, which took place at Newtown, now Elmira, near the Chemung river, the Indians were obliged to make a precipitate retreat, and the enemy marched forward to the work of destruction. "I apprehend," says Mr. Stone, in his Life of Brant, a book we have before had occasion to notice *, " that but few of the present generation are thoroughly aware of the advances which the Indians, in the wide and beautiful country of the Cayugas and Senecas, had made in the march of civilisation. They had several towns, and many large villages, laid out with a considerable degree of regularity. They had framed houses, some of them well finished, having chimneys, and painted; they had broad and productive fields ; and, in addition to abundance of apples, were in the enjoyment of the pear, and the still more delicious peach t. But after the battle of Newtown, terror led the van of the invader, whose approach was heralded by watchmen stationed upon every height, and desolation followed weeping in his train. The Indians everywhere fled as Sullivan advanced, and the whole country was swept as with the besom of destruction." After destroying "a small settlement of eight houses,"" the more considerable town of Kendaia, containing about twenty houses, neatly built, and well finished,"-" the Seneca capital, Kanadaseagea, containing about sixty houses, with gardens and numerous orchards of apple and peach-trees,"—" Kanandaigua," where they "found twentythree very elegant houses, mostly framed, and in general large ‡," and several smaller places; and every corn-field and fruit-tree in the country, they moved forward towards the towns upon the in 1535, when Buenos Ayres was founded, there were villages Genesee. The Indians made an ineffectual attempt to stop them containing two and three thousand inhabitants. Even in on their march, but were forced again to retire, and the work of Falkner's time (1750) the Indians made inroads as far as Lucan, destruction went on. "The valley of the Genesee," says Mr. Arecoo, and Arrecife; but now they are driven beyond the

The same course is pursued against the Indians in South America. When Mr. Darwin, the accomplished naturalist who accompanied Capt. Fitzroy in the Beagle, was in Buenos Ayres in August 1833, some Indians, who had been taken prisoners, gave informa- | tion of a tribe living north of the Colorado. Two hundred soldiers were sent. The Indians, men, women, and children, were about one hundred and ten in number, and they were nearly all taken or killed, for the soldiers sabre every man. All the women above twenty are massacred in cold blood, and the children are sold or given away as servants. "These Indians," says Mr. Darwin, "came from Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly a thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the immense territory over which the Indians roam. Yet, great as it is, I think there will not, in another half century, be a wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The warfare is too bloody to last; the Christians killing every Indian, and the Indians doing the same by the Christians. It is melancholy to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spanish invaders. Scherdel* says, that

* Purchas's Collection of Voyages.

* In No. 63, " Adventures of Joseph Sammons."

+ The fruit-trees were all destroyed by special orders.

1 General Sulliyan's official account.

Stone, "for its beauty and fertility, was beheld by the army of Sullivan with astonishment and delight. Though an Indian country, and peopled only by the wild men of the woods, its rich intervals presented the appearance of long cultivation, and were then smiling on their harvests of ripening corn. Indeed, the Indians themselves professed not to know when or by whom the lands upon that stream were first brought into cultivation. Nearly half a century before, Mary Jemison (a white woman who had been taken captive, in 1755, by the Indians, and was bred up and married amongst them) had observed a quantity of human bones washed down from one of the banks of the river, which the Indians held were not the remains of their own people, but of a different race of men who had once possessed that country. The Indians, they contended, had never buried their dead in such a situation. Be all this, however, as it may, instead of a howling wilderness, Sullivan and his troops found the Genesee flats and many other districts of the country resembling much more the orchards and farms and gardens of civilised life. But all was now doomed to speedy devastation. The Genesee castle was destroyed. The troops scoured the whole region round about, and burned and destroyed everything that came in their way. The town was burned to the ground; and large quantities of corn, which the people had laid up in store, were destroyed by being burned or thrown into the river. The town of Genesee,' said General Sullivan, in his account of the expedition, 'contained one hundred and twentyeight houses, mostly large, and very elegant t. It was beautifully situated, almost encircled with a clear flat, extending a number of miles; over which extensive fields of corn were waving, together with every kind of vegetable that could be conceived. But the entire army was immediately engaged in destroying it; and the axe and the torch soon transformed the whole of that beautiful region from the character of a garden to a scene of drear and sickening desolation. Forty Indian towns, the largest containing one hundred and twenty-eight houses, were destroyed. Corn, gathered and ungathered, to the amount of one hundred and sixty thousand bushels, shared the same fate; their fruit-trees were cut down; and the Indians were hunted like wild beasts, till neither house, nor fruit-tree, nor field of corn, nor inhabitant, remained in the whole country.' The gardens were enriched with great quantities of useful vegetables of different kinds. The size of the corn-fields, as well as the high degree of cultivation in which they were kept, excited wonder; and the ears of corn were so remarkably large, that many of them measured twenty-two inches in length. So numerous were the fruit-trees, that in one orchard they cut down fifteen hundred."

·

One of the blackest transactions that took place during the whole contest was the slaughter of the Moravian Indians settled on the banks of the Muskingum. The Moravians had made many converts, and among others a celebrated Delaware chief, who had formerly been a noted warrior; they had several towns, and cultivated a large extent of country. Their religious principles forbidding them to take up arms, they professed a strict neutrality, and were consequently suspected by both parties; especially as their settlements lay about half-way between the frontier whites and the hostile Indians on the lakes. At length, the British governor forced them to remove to Sandusky, on lake Erie, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles, leaving behind them valuable standing crops, and considerable stores of corn and provision. They passed a wretched winter at Sandusky, being almost famished. In the spring, they obtained permission to return

for the purpose of collecting their property, when, the very day they had completed the task and were preparing to return, they were surprised by a party of Americans, who were out in pursuit of some hostile Indians who had been hovering in the neighbourhood. These scoundrels, fearing to make an open attack lest

* We shall have occasion to refer to this curious fact when we come to consider the various accounts of the peopling of America.

It is not easy to understand what meaning General Sullivan attached to the word elegant, which seems to have been a favourite of his. At the battle of Newtown he declared the cannonading to be " elegant."

their prey, who were scattered over the fields, should escape them, professed the greatest friendship, and pretended they were sent to convey them to Pittsburgh, where they would receive effectual aid from their brethren at Bethlehem. So speciously did the murderers talk, even going the length of affecting the greatest piety, that their victims were completely deceived. Their arms and instruments of labour were all delivered up to be conveyed with the other baggage -the whole population was gathered together in one house, and when there was no longer any possibility of resistance, these unoffending victims were butchered in cold blood, only two boys (one of whom was scalped, but saved himself by counterfeiting death) escaping. "Ninety Indians," says Mr. Stone, "Christians, and unarmed-unoffending in every respect-were murdered in cold blood. Among them were old men and matrons—young men and maidens, and infants at their mothers' breasts. Sixty-two of the number were grown persons, of whom one-third were women, and the remaining thirty-four were children. Five of the slain were assistant teachers, two of whom had been exemplary members of the pious Brainard's congregation in New Jersey. The convert chief, Isaac Glickhickan, was also among the slain."

Few acts of atrocity can parallel this enormity, yet, as the sufferers were "only Indians," the perpetrators obtained exceeding honour and glory.

Many other settlements of the Indians, distinguished by every appearance of successful industry, were destroyed during the war; but the peace between Britain and the United States brought no peace to them.

After the conclusion of the war of Independence, a dispute arose between the United States and the Indians respecting the claim of the former to territory beyond the Ohio. This the States at first attempted to enforce by arms, but after encountering a signal defeat in the Miami country, which they had invaded with the view of destroying the villages, they had recourse to diplomacy. The territory in dispute at this time* had confessedly never been sold to the British, and although many settlers had "squatted" upon it, and had received titles from the States, they were not yet justified in laying claim to it under their treaty with Great Britain as a British possession. They seemed well aware of this when, at a grand council of all the nations concerned in the question, they remarked the impracticability of breaking up the settlements on the disputed territory, and offered a large sum of money for a confirmation of their claim. The answer of the Indians was singularly shrewd; part of it ran thus. "BROTHERS-Money to us is of no value, and to most of us unknown; and as no consideration whatever can induce us to sell our lands, on which we get sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and a peace thereby obtained.-BROTHERS-We know that these settlers are poor, or they never would have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you have offered to us among these people; give to each also a proportion of what you say you would give us annually, over and above readily accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold to them. If you this large sum of money; and we are persuaded they would most add also the great sums you must expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purposes of repaying these settlers for all their labour and improvements." And then they proceed in a strain of noble indignation. "BROTHERS-You have talked to us about concessions. It appears strange that you expect any from us, who have only been defending our just rights against your invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies no longer. BROTHERS-You make one concession to us by offering to us your money, and another by having agreed to do us justice, after having long and injuriously withheld it; we mean, in the acknowledgment you have now made that the king of England never did, nor ever had a right to give you our country by the treaty of peace. And you want to make this act of common justice a great part of your concession,

* Its extent is marked on Cary's maps of 1807, as the boundary line of General Waynes' treaty of 1795.

and seem to expect that, because you have at last acknowledged our independence, we should, for such a favour, surrender to you our country."

After various attempts at negotiation, during which the Indians pertinaciously adhered to their determination of admitting no boundary but the Ohio, General Wayne was dispatched into the devoted Miami country, and, after defeating the Indians in a regular action, proceeded to lay everything waste. "The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens showed the work of many hands. The margins of those beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the lakes, and the Au Glaise," wrote General Wayne, "appeared like one continued village for many miles; nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America, from Canada to Florida." All were laid waste for twenty miles on each side of the river, and forts erected to prevent the return of the Indians. This event ended the Indian war. A satisfactory treaty was negotiated between the United States and the British Court, and the latter had no longer any motive to give the covert support they had hitherto afforded the Indians in their contest. The consequence was, that a peace was concluded with the Indians, by which the Americans gained a vast accession of territory.

If we wanted further proof of the extent to which the Indians are-perhaps we should now say, have been-inclined to carry civilisation among themselves, we have only to recall the condition of Mexico at the period of the Spanish invasion. Inhabited by a race without doubt closely allied to the North American Indians of the present day, it possessed a regular government, laws, and even more, a literature. "What an immense treasure," remarked the celebrated historian Niebuhr, "for the history of civilisation, has been lost for ever by the order of the first bishop in Mexico, to burn the whole native literature! Perhaps a greater one than by Omar's conflagration. No greater loss has ever happened." These instances are sufficient to prove that the Indians are perfectly capable of civilisation, and we cannot help believing that even yet they may, by proper means, be brought within the pale of society. But the great barrier which, ever since the arrival of the pale faces, has checked the progress of their red brethren, has been the reluctance of the former to acknowledge the relationship. Very pious well-meaning men have entertained the opinion that all "savages" are of a distinct and inferior race to whites, and that it would be absurd to treat them as upon an equal footing. Thus they have been used as tools, or tutored as children, but never trusted and confided in as men and equals. This opinion has of course been carried to excess by many; and even at the present day the life of an Indian is rated as little better than that of a dog. After the close of the War of Independence, and that with the Indians, the celebrated Indian leader Captain Brant*, who had taken an active part in both, paid a friendly visit to New York, where he was known and respected by many of the most distinguished citizens. He had received information that a German named Dygert, who had lost several relations in a battle in which Brant had been engaged, had sworn to take his life, and had followed him to New York. "Brant's lodgings were in Broadway, where he was visited, among others, by Col. Willet and Col. Morgan Lewis, both of whom he had met in the field of battle in years gone by. While in conversation with these gentlemen, he mentioned the circumstance of Dygert's pursuit, and expressed some apprehensions at the result, should he be attacked unawares. Before his remarks were concluded, glancing his quick eye to the window, he exclaimed, 'There is Dygert now!' True enough; the fellow was then standing in the street, watching the motions of his intended victim. Col. Willet immediately descended into the street, and entered into a conversation with Dygert, charging his real business upon him, which he did not deny. 'Do you know,' asked Willet, that if you kill that savage you will be hanged? 'Who,' replied the astonished German, will hang me for killing an Indian ?'"' When, however, it was made clear to him that such would really be the case, he thought it best to forego his purpose. Mr. Stone relates several other similar anecdotes.

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The same feeling unfortunately exists with us in regard to the unhappy people of Africa, and the consequence is, that the Caffres, an untutored race certainly, but a people possessed of many very noble and excellent qualities, are, instead of being taken by the hand as friends, and encouraged to participate in the advantages of a settled government (not as pupils, children, or dependants, but as equals), being driven to destruction at the point of the bayonet.

The feelings of the whites towards the Indians have probably been rendered more bitter, and their fears more highly excited, in consequence of the system of blood revenge common to all warlike

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and uncivilised nations being in full force with them. Yet on many occasions ingenious devices are practised to mitigate its ferocity. It is common for the victim to be saved by adoption into the family who has sustained the loss, fulfilling in his person the duties of the slain. Instances have occurred where the devoted has been carried off from the stake; and such actions being looked upon as of divine inspiration, pursuit is never attempted. We cannot help transcribing a most singular anecdote relating to this subject, given by Mr. Stone. Mr. Dean, a white man, well known as an Indian missionary and interpreter, was residing with the Oneidas, who had adopted him into their tribe, and granted him a tract of land, when it happened that an Indian was murdered by some unknown white man, who escaped. Thereupon, the chiefs held council, and, after much deliberation, came to the determination that Dean should be sacrificed to atone for the murder. One night eighteen of the chiefs came down to his house, and awoke him with the death-whoop. Dean, who had been forwarned of their consultations, and would have fled before, but for the difficulty of conveying his wife and children, rose, and bidding them remain quiet in the inner room, went out to meet the Indians. The senior chief informed him that they had come to take his life, as a sacrifice for the murder of their brother. Dean rejoined, and pleaded his adoption. The whole party debated the matter with great gravity, and for a long period. "At length," says Mr. Stone, "he had nearly abandoned himself to the doom they had resolved upon, when he heard the pattering of a footstep without the door. All eyes were fixed upon the door. It opened, and a squaw entered. She was the wife of the senior chief; and at the time of Mr. Dean's adoption into the tribe in his boyhood, she had taken him as her son. The entrance of a woman into a solemn council was, by Indian etiquette, at war with all propriety. She, however, took her place near the door, and all looked on in silence. A moment after, another footstep was heard, and another Indian woman entered the council. This was a sister of the former, and she, too, was the wife of a chief then present. Another pause ensued, and a third entered. Each of the three stood wrapped closely in her blanket, but said nothing. At length the presiding chief addressed them, telling them to begone, and leave the chiefs to go on with their business. The wife replied, that the council must change their determination, and let the good white man-their friend-her own adopted son-alone. The command to begone was repeated; when each of the Indian women threw off her blanket, and showed a knife in her extended hand, and declared that if one hair of the white man's head was touched, they would bury their knives in their own hearts. The strangeness of the whole scene overwhelmed with amazement each member of the council, and regarding the unheard-of resolution of the women to interfere in the matter as a sort of manifestation of the will of the Great Spirit that the white man's life should not be taken, their previous decree was reversed on the spot, and the life of their intended victim preserved."

While we cannot doubt that white men are destined to carry civilisation into the countries at present occupied by the wild inhabitants of the prairie or the forest, yet no reasoning Christian can believe that God created Indians and negroes merely to be persecuted and exterminated by the white men. It follows then, that a wrong course has been pursued in the intercourse between the two, and the root of the evil we believe to exist in the repugnance the white man entertains to admit for a moment that his coloured brother can ever be his equal. He drives him away, instead of pressing him to his bosom. Remove this crying evil. Let the whites banish their disgraceful antipathy to the coloured races; place them in society, and under the protection of the law as equals, not dependants, and they will, in real civilisation, forget blood revenge, and cease to be savages.

This subject is of vast political importance, especially to us in the present state of our colonies. If, for instance, by any such mismanagement as produces war with Indians and Caffres, a war should arise between the Whites and New Zealanders, a conflict within such comparatively narrow limits must be attended with most disastrous results. We do not pretend to enter into any extended argument or detail; such would be unsuited to our columns. We have only attempted to lay down a broad principle, which we believe to be well founded. To carry it into practice may probably be very difficult. But the opposite course is proved to be attended both by difficulty and crime.

In an early number we shall return to the subject of the North American Indians, touching upon their peculiarities, supposed origin, customs, &c.

THE GHOST-BOOK.

BY MISS LESLIE.

"What yonder rings-what yonder sings?

It is the owlet gray."-ScorT.

ONE Saturday afternoon, on a cool pleasant day, such as sometimes chances to occur even in an American August, a country boy named Caleb Rowan came to the fence that separated his father's farm from that of Barzillai Brooks, whose two sons were sitting under the magnolias that shaded a running stream, and were hard at work with knives and sticks, making traps for the musk-rats that burrowed in the bank.

“Come here, Harman," said Caleb; "come here, Stacey. I've something to show you, such as you never saw before in all your born days."

"As you are but one, and we are two," replied Harman, "I guess it will be quite as easy for you to get over the fence and come But what have you got-a double plum, or some gingerbread of a new pattern?"

to us.

"Neither one nor t'other," answered Caleb, jumping over the fence, "but something pretty near as good, I can tell you. Think of my having a written book in my pocket! Maybe you don't know that books must always be writ before they're printed."

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Yes we do," exclaimed both the brothers, "we've known that all our lives."

"Possible!" ejaculated Caleb, looking somewhat surprised, "now that must be nateral smartness! For my part, when I was a little fellow, I remember supposing that the printers made all the books as they went along; that is, they thought of a word and printed it down, and then they thought of another word and printed that down, and so on till they got a whole book-full. To be sure, there's no doubt that of all men, printers must be the sensiblest; seeing how much learning they put out."

"I don't know," said Stacey "the last time I attended market with father, we put up at the Black Bear, and there was a printing-office right back of the tavern. I looked across at the windows, and saw the men at work; and they seemed to print it off so fast that I can't see how any of the sense could stick by them."

"But about this written book of Caleb's," said Harman, "let me see it in my own hands."

Caleb Rowan then slowly drew from his pocket a manuscript volume in a reddish paste-board cover. Some of its pages were torn out, and those that remained were much disfigured with blots and interlineations. "Where did you get this book?" inquired Harman, turning over the leaves.

"I was rummaging about in the kitchen loft, as I often do," replied Caleb, “ among the old boxes, and things that are of no manner of use, only mother thinks it a shame to throw them away.'

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"I know the place," said Stacey, "I've been there with you in the dark low corner, among the tea-pots without spouts, and the coffee-pots without handles, and the split cullenders, and the ragged sieves."

"Well, no matter," pursued Caleb, "I took a notion to scramble among the old papers that were heaped up in the broken churn that Peggy Poundage thumped the bottom out of, one cold day when the butter would not come. So I plunged my hand in among them, as far down as it would go, thinking I might fish up an old almanack that would have some good reading in it, (such as new ways of making huckleberry puddin' or punkin pie,) and there I found this book; and though it's wrote so bad that I could only make out a few words here and there, I had wit enough to see that it's mostly about ghosts, and sperits, and apparations."

"Well, now, to me," said Harman, "the writing is not bad at all-it's a'most as plain as print. So let's go to the old stable, where we can be to ourselves, and I'll read it out loud to you. And there's David Gleason, just getting over the fence. He has come to spend his Saturday afternoon with us-so we'll take him along and let him hear the ghost-book. David's the scariest boy I know, so it will just suit him. I've seen his face turn as white as his hair, when we've been talking of such things."

David Gleason now joined the three other boys, and gladly assented to the proposed pleasure · so towards the old stable they

proceeded, and Caleb Rowan said on the way :-"To be sure I never was a good hand at reading books I a'n't used to; 'specially them that's in writing-but I want very bad to hear what's in this'n, and father and mother and cousin Polly mus'n't.know nothing about it, or they will take it away, and say it will make me as much afraid to go to bed as David Gleason is."

At this innuendo poor David "looked more in sorrow than in anger."

I guess I know who writ this book," said Harman. "I'm a judge of writing, and it looks just like the hand of Master Orrin Loomis, that kept school here the year the painter came."

"What painter?" asked David,-" I didn't know there was any in these parts now-a-days. I never saw a wild beast that was bigger than a fox."

of painters, four-legged and two-legged? Them that are wild "Pho!" said Harman, "don't you know there are two sorts things with four legs, spell their names panther. Can't you re

member the limner-man that came out here from town, and went all through the country taking likenesses at two dollars a-head, and found? He could touch off one and a half a week; and grandmother said he must be coining money, considering he was only a painter; and that a stout hand in the harvest-field gets no more. But father thought he worked pretty hard for his pay, 'specially when he in the picture with; though to be sure he charged more when he painted the women, who always put on so many fandangles to go took them with anything in their hand-sixpence for a peach, and ninepence for a rose."

"There were some that thought the painter persuaded Orrin Loomis away," said Caleb, "for they seemed to suit mighty well, and got to be great friends; and they went off the very day that the master was paid his last quarter-money. Ours was the last house he stayed at. You ha'n't forgot Master Loomis-have you,

David?"

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"To be sure I ha'n't," replied David, summoning a little confidence, everybody always talks to me as if I was simple. I an't quite such a fool as to disremember any of my schoolmasters though Orrin Loomis did not take a very long turn at our house. I'm sure I've heard mother and the neighbour-women talk enough about him-he was not a bit like other people."

"Orrin's the very man that writ this book," said Caleb Rowan. "Haven't I known him write poetry verses; and didn't he sit at the table one evening a-doing something he called a cross-stitch for cousin Polly, and when it was done it spelt her name all down one side in big letters. David's made a good observation for once-Master Loomis was not a bit like other people."

"No more was the painter-man," said Harman, "but still I liked them both; and when they were talking together I used to think I could sit and listen to them all night, and never get sleepy."

"As to Master Loomis," pursued David, emboldened by the praise awarded to his observation, "I've heard the neighbourwomen say that wherever he boarded it seemed as if they could not help giving him the best bed-room, and using him like a gentleman, and not expecting him to wash at the pump. I heard mother telling Susan Wonderly, that, after our best room, that nobody ever sleeps in, was fixed for Master Loomis, she warned him that strange noises had been heard there at night in the dark closet by the head of the bed, and that she couldn't answer for it, that something frightful wouldn't come out of the closet-door. And he laughed, and said he liked the room the better for being haunted, and that he would promise when the ghost came to take it peaceably, and make no noise to disturb the family. But mother made him give his word that if he did see anything, he was never to mention it to anybody breathing. And so after that, there was no getting out of him whether he had seen anything or not, for he But there were always said he had given his word not to tell. them that thought he did see something, and more than once too."

"Well," replied Harman, "my father seems to think there a'n't no such persons as ghosts, and he won't allow nobody to talk about them; though, to be sure, they are what everybody likes to hear of. For my part, I think I could stand a spirit as well as anything else, (even if I was to see one,) for it's not easy to frighten me anyway-nor never was.'

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Now, Harman," said Stacey, "don't brag too much. You know when we were little fellows, and Dutch Teeny lived with us, and you and I used to slip out to her of evenings, and sit on the steps at the back door, and hear her tell about things that had been seen in Germany-nobody could creep closer or hold faster to her than you did; and often when it was quite dark, and I went

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