onviction, that they are by
nature a shrewd and intelligent race of men, in no wise, as regards
combination of thought or quickness of apprehension, inferior to
uneducated white men. This inference I deduce from having instructed
Indian children.[244] I draw it from having seen the men and women in
all situations calculated to try and call forth their capacities. When
they examine any of our inventions, steamboats, steam-mills, and cotton
factories, for instance; when they contemplate any of our institutions
in operation, by some quick analysis or process of reasoning, they seem
immediately to comprehend the principle or the object. No spectacle
affords them more delight than a large and orderly school. They scorn
instinctively to comprehend, at least they explained to me that they
felt, the advantages which this order of things gave our children over
theirs."--Flint's _Ten Years in the Valley of the Mississippi_, 1831.

Mr. Flint, an experienced and intelligent observer, takes so dark a view
of the moral character of the Red Indian that his favorable opinion of
their mental faculties may be looked upon as probably accurate, though
differing strongly from that more generally held. On the other side of
the question, among the early writers may be cited M. Bouguer, _Voyage
au Perou_, p. 102; _Voyage d'Ulloa_, tom. i., p. 335-337. "They seem to
live in a perpetual infancy," is the striking expression of De la
Condamine, _Voyage de la Riv. Amazon_, p. 52, 53. Chauvelon, _Voyage a
la Martinique_, p. 44, 50. P. Venegas, _Hist. de la Californie_.]

[Footnote 244: All those who have expressed an opinion on the subject
seem to agree that _children_ of most native races are fully, or more
than a match, for those of Europeans, in aptitude for intellectual
acquirement. Indeed, it appears to be a singular law of Nature, that
there is less precocity in the European race than almost any other. In
those races in which we seem to have reason for believing that the
intellectual organization is lower, perception is quicker, and maturity
earlier.--Merivale _On Colonization_, vol. ii., p. 197.]

[Footnote 245: "Thus, on the whole, it may be said that the virtues of
the savages are reducible to intrepid courage in danger, unshaken
firmness amid tortures, contempt of pain and death, and patience under
all the anxieties and distresses of life. No doubt these are useful
qualities, but they are all confined to the individual, all selfish, and