Indian in opinion and prejudice, but German in instinct and
thought. A little liquor only mellowed him--it thawed away the
last remnant of Indian reticence. He talked with his associates
upon all the knotty questions of law, art, and religion. Indian
Theism and Pantheism were measured against the Gospel as taught by
the land-seeking, fur-buying adventurers. A good class of
missionaries had, indeed, entered the Cherokee Nation; but the
shrewd Se-quo-yah, and the disciples this stoic taught among his
mountains, had just sense enough to weigh the good and the bad
together, and strike an impartial balance as the footing up for
this new proselyting race.

It has been erroneously alleged that Se-quo-yah was a believer in,
or practiced, the old Indian religious rites. Christianity had,
indeed, done little more for him than to unsettle the pagan idea,
but it had done that.

It was some years after Se-quo-yah had learned to present the
bottle to his friends before he degenerated into a toper. His
natural industry shielded him, and would have saved him altogether
but for the vicious hospitality by which he was surrounded. With
the acuteness that came of his foreign stock, he learned to buy
his liquor by the keg. This species of economy is as dangerous to
the red as to the white race. The auditors who flocked to see and
hear him were not likely to diminish while the philosopher
furnished both the dogmas and the whisky. Long and deep debauches
were often the consequence. Still it was not in the nature of
George Gist to be a wild, shouting drunkard. His mild, philosophic
face was kindled to deeper thought and warmer enthusiasm as they
talked about the problem of their race. All the great social