Category: Travel Writing
THE means by which America received its first Inhabitants, have, since the time of its discovery by the Europeans, been the subject of numberless disquisitions. Was I to endeavour to collect the different opinions and reasonings of the various writers that have taken up the pe...
I SHALL here observe the same method that I have pursued in the preceding chapter, and having given a list of the trees, &c. which are natives of the interior parts of North Ame...
9. CHAPTER IX.THE Indians begin to bear arms at the age of fifteen, and lay them aside when they arrive at the age of sixty. Some nations to the southward, I have been informed, do not contin...
17. CHAPTER XVIII.OF these I shall, in the first place, give a catalogue, and afterwards a description of such only as are either peculiar to this country, or which differ in some material point...
1. CHAPTER I.THE means by which America received its first Inhabitants, have, since the time of its discovery by the Europeans, been the subject of numberless disquisitions. Was I to endeavo...
7. CHAPTER VII.DANCING is a favourite exercise among the Indians; they never meet on any public occasion, but this makes a part of the entertainment. And when they are not engaged in war or hu...
2. CHAPTER II.FROM the first settlement of the French in Canada, to the conquest of it by the English in 1760, several of that nation, who had travelled into the interior parts of North Ameri...
16. CHAPTER XVI.THE character of the Indians, like that of other uncivilized nations, is composed of a mixture of ferocity and gentleness. They are at once guided by passions and appetites, whi...
3. CHAPTER III.WHEN the Indian women sit down, they place themselves in a decent attitude, with their knees close together; but from being accustomed to this posture, they walk badly, and appe...
12. CHAPTER XII.THE Indians allow of polygamy, and persons of every rank indulge themselves in this point. The chiefs in particular have a seraglio, which consists of an uncertain number, usual...
10. CHAPTER X.THE wars that are carried on between the Indian nations are in general hereditary, and continue from age to age with a few interruptions. If a peace becomes necessary, the princ...
8. CHAPTER VIII.HUNTING is the principal occupation of the Indians; they are trained to it from their earliest youth, and it is an exercise which is esteemed no less honourable than necessary t...
15. CHAPTER XV.AN Indian meets death when it approaches him in his hut, with the same resolution he has often faced him in the field. His indifference relative to this important article, which...
13. CHAPTER XIII.IT is very difficult to attain a perfect knowledge of the religious principles of the Indians. Their ceremonies and doctrines have been so often ridiculed by the Europeans, that...
14. CHAPTER XIV.THE Indians in general are healthy, and subject but to few diseases, many of those that afflict civilized nations, and are the immediate consequences of luxury or sloth, being n...
5. CHAPTER V.EVERY separate body of Indians is divided into bands or tribes; which band or tribe forms a little community with the nation to which it belongs. As the nation has some particul...
4. CHAPTER IV.CONSIDERING their ignorance of astronomy, time is very rationally divided by the Indians. Those in the interior parts (and of those I would generally be understood to speak) cou...
6. CHAPTER VI.MANY of the Indian nations neither make use of bread, salt, or spices; and some of them have never seen or tasted of either. The Naudowessies in particular have no bread, nor an...
11. CHAPTER XI.AS I have before observed, the Indians are greatly addicted to gaming, and will even stake, and lose with composure, all the valuables they are possessed of. They amuse themselv...