2

acknowledged that he was their best friend. They were not trustworthy bearers of letters, as they could not be taught the importance of despatch and punctuality in public affairs, and suppressed papers which, they feared, related to themselves. They acquired much cunning in bargaining with the English,3 but were slow in comprehending the first laws of trade. Williams found it difficult to teach them the cause of fluctuations in prices-why it was, that since by excessive exports of furs from this country, beaver had fallen in London, therefore they must pay more skins and wampum for the English goods which they desired.*

On the whole, in the difficulty of collecting the money due him at his trading house, Williams found no marked difference between the Narragansett Indians, and the orthodox Puritans whom he had left behind him at Salem. The Indians were ready to repudiate their obligations when not closely pursued by the merchant, and his former townsmen, when they had driven their creditor into a convenient banishment, paid their debts at their leisure."

Under their unfavorable sanitary conditions, it would seem that not many of the New England Indians attained to old age. Probably the feeble perished early, from the exposure to which they were subjected. Williams observed that they died easily from many diseases, and Gookin, that consumptions were very frequent and fatal among them. They had no medicines, and perhaps were little the worse for the privation. But they practised sweating in a vapour bath heated.

(1)See also Savage's Winthrop, ed. 1853, I. 103, as to thievishness of Indians. (2) Williams to Winthrop, April 16, 1638, Narr. Club Pub. VI. 93.

(3) See Wood's "New England's Prospect," p. 88.

(4) Key, p. 129.

(5) Compare Key, p. 139, with Williams's letters, (Narr. Club Pub., VI. 65, 69, 81). 4th series Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. Vol. 6, (Winthrop Papers), pp. 211, 212. Letter to Mason, A. D. 1670, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 336-37.

Their practice was somewhat violent, but by red hot stones, often, it seems, effective. They had few of the diseases of civilisation,' and of such as they had, there was little complexity in the treatment. The priests, as in early times, claimed the possession of all knowledge, of medicine, as of other things. It was Williams's knowledge of physic, as much as anything else, which first secured him the good will of the Narragansetts.2 They were carefully trained for war and hunting by athletic exercises, were proud of their physical hardihood, and their old men disdained the support of staffs.

3

In the midst of evils which they could not escape or alleviate, the Narragansetts cultivated an indifference to suffering, or a sullen endurance of it. Men of abler races have done the same. Ancient stoicism had a like origin. The man of modern culture spares no labors or experiments to increase his comforts. Thus, there met here, face to face, two distant ages which had no common ground of harmony or cooperation. The Englishman looked with contempt upon the barbarians which, (if they had ever known it), his ancestors had left so many centuries behind them. A race which would learn nothing, even of the simplest arts which make life comfortable, he regarded with neither hope nor patience. The Indian had the usual savage despite for the enjoyments and resources of civilisation. Physical hardihood was better than moral or intellectual traits which were above his level. He saw that Englishmen shrank from the endurance of evils, which the Narragansett taught his children to despise-that he could not live without solidly framed houses, stone chimneys, and woolen clothes, and laboured unceasingly to get through life with the smallest amount of suffering. The Indian soon learned to contemn civilisation, as on the whole, effeminate. He rejected its arts and its religion, but could never divest himself of awe, at a

(1) Key, p. 59.

(2) Key, pp. 156, 157, 158, 159.

(3) Key, p. 146.

(4) Key, p. 76.

power which he recognised, but could not comprehend. During all his intercourse with the settlers, he acquired no taste for their modes of life by which he might have gained some degree of the comfort which is the effect, and in turn, the cause of an advancing civilisation. The Indian was eager for luxuries and stimulants, and for the firearms which aided him in war and hunting. The airy costume of the native required but slender purchases of English cloth. His native deerskin was far more durable, for the pursuit of his game or his enemies, through woods and swamps. He adopted the fishing lines and steel hooks of the English and a few implements which he acknowledged to be superior to his own. But he refused everything which involved the least change in his manner of life. His industry could never be stimulated to anything beyond the providing of present support, and he avoided difficult questions of capital and labour by forcing the women to do all the hard work of the community.

The moral elevation of the Narragansetts corresponded with their manner of life. Their religion was one of the earlier forms of nature worship, which did not prove a more effectual restraint upon their passions, than it has proved in other parts of the world. They adored the sun and moon and stars,2 and had, says Williams, "plenty of gods or divine powers"—"water, snow," "the earth, bear, deer," &c., the forces or gifts of Nature, to which they owed the greatest obligations. There were also numerous local deities, besides the creator and governor of all. As with all other races, the religion of the Narragansetts found expression in public solemnities and festivals. In time of sickness and draught, war or famine, they assembled, not with national songs, but with violent gesture and outcry, and discourses by their priests, old men, and sages. Once a year,

when the harvest was ended, they had a thanksgiving for their hunting-peace, health, plenty or prosperity-with feasting and gifts. Their ritual, Williams learned only from their own

(1) Key pp. 79, 80, 109,110, 111, 112, 113.

(2) See Williams to Winthrop, Feb. 28, 1637-8. Narr. Club's ed. of Williams's letters, Narr. Club Pub. VI. 88.

relation of it, "For after once being in their houses and beholding what their worship was, I durst never be an eyewitnesse, spectatour or looker on, lest I should have been partaker of Sathan's inventions and worships, contrary to Ephesians v. 14." These orgies must have been sufficiently repulsive, for sometimes a thousand Narragansetts crowded to the festival.

The Southwest was the pleasant land whence their fathers had come, and there was the abode of their gods. Thence too, came the cheering and pleasant winds and all other gifts of the spring time. Thither too, go the good souls departed, while the bad souls-murderers, thieves and liars-wander restlessly abroad.3

Such were some of the chief traits of the Narragansett character, as they appeared to the earliest and most favourable observation of Williams. He sought eagerly for good qualities which might be developed and cultivated, and gladly acknowledged that, however their vision was obscured by barbarous superstitions, they had not lost all the primitive light. All the early New England writers agree in ascribing to the Narragansetts, a character more praiseworthy than that of the other tribes. Hubbard says that they were more civil and courteous to the English, than any other Indians. Gookin that they were "an active, laborious, and ingenious people"-Williams-that the Narragansetts and Mohawks, were friendly to the English, more civilised, and not murderous, like the Pequots and the Mohegans. They never stained "their hands with any English blood, neither open hostilities nor secret murders."

in

If his earlier view were not too favourable, deriving its colour from his early enthusiasm, Williams was compelled to paint the Narragansett character, in darker colours, as years (1) Probably v. 11th.

(2) Key, p. 83.

(3) Key, p. 113,

(4) He was Superintendent of the Massachusetts Indians. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 1st Series, I. 210.

(5) See Williams's letter to the Gen. Court of Mass. (Narr. Club's ed., p. 274) Oct. 5, 1654.

went on. Even in his most friendly descriptions, we see evidence of mental & moral degradation. In later days he acknowledged that he had never known the Indians, until after he had lived among them. The process of debasement went on unchecked under the influence of English trade. In the letter just quoted (October 5, 1654), he says of the Narragansetts : "their greatest offences" have been matters of money." Englishmen' travelled alone among them, "with safety and loving kindness." But he adds, "all Indians are extremely treacherous," and would leave the English at their first defeat, or "for the trade of killing English cattle." While recognising the better qualities of the more worthy, he describes the lower Indians as pagans and beasts, wallowing in idleness, stealing, lying, whoring, treacherie, witchcrafts, blasphemies and idolatries. Not all of these had been learned from English teachers.

The political institutions of the native race, were the natural outgrowth of their moral habits. Over the Continent of North America they were everywhere wonderfully alike. There was in Rhode Island a monarchy, and a royal race of unknown origin and antiquity. It first comes to view in 1620, fully formed, and, after fifty-seven years of contact with Englishmen, disappears in 1677 from the history of mankind. It was absolute as the governments of such races usually are. Having no system of law, or standing army, the authority of the Sachem had no check, save his own want of popularity, or his feebleness of will. Perhaps, if we knew more of it, it would appear as the government of Russia was said to be-"a despotism tempered by assassination." The chief Sachems were aware of the precari"The Sachims, although they

ous nature of their authority.

(1) Narr. Club Pub., VI. 274, 276.

(2) Key,p. 120, 121, 122.

(3) See Williams to General Court of Massachusetts, May 12, 1656. Narr. Club Pub., VI. 300-1. The law of the Natives "in all New England and America, viz. that the inferior Sachems and subjects shall plant and remove at the pleasure of the highest and supreme Sachems,"-&c. (4) Key, p. 121.