savage, than the whites do that of heathen, because they have still
lingering among them heathen superstitions, and many opinions and
practices which deserves no better name.

The cannibals of some of the west Indies Islands, and the Islands of the
Pacific, may with justice be termed savage, but a people like the
Iroquois who had a goverment, established offices, a system of religion
eminently pure and Spiritual, a code of honor and laws of hospitality,
excelling those of all other nations, should be considered something
better than savage, or utterly barbarous.

The terrible torture they inflicted upon their enemies, have made their
name a terror, and yet there were not so many burnt, hung, and starved by
them, as perished among Christian nations by these means. The miseries
they inflicted were light, in comparison, with those they suffered. If
individuals should have come among you to expose the barbarities of
savage white men, the deeds they relate would quite equal anything known
of Indian cruelty. The picture an Indian gives of civilized barbarism
leaves the revolting custom of the wilderness quite in the back-ground.
You experienced their revenge when you had put their souls and bodies at
a stake, with your fire-water that maddened their brains. There was a
pure and beautiful spirituality in their faith, and their conduct was
much more influenced by it, as are any people, Christian or Pagan.

Is there anything more barbaric in the annals of Indian warfare, than the
narrative of the Pequod Indians? In one place we read of the surprise of
an Indian fort by night, when the inmates were slumbering, unconscious of
any danger. When they awoke they were wrapped in flames, and when they
Attempted to flee, were shot down like beasts. From village to village,
from wigwam to wigwam, the murderers proceeded, "being resolved," as your