o change, either his posture, or his steady, erect
countenance in the least."

Some stories as fine, but longer, follow. In reference to which Adair
says, "The intrepid behavior of these red stoics, their surprising
contempt of and indifference to life or death, instead of lessening,
helps to confirm our belief of that supernatural power, which supported
the great number of primitive martyrs, who sealed the Christian faith
with their blood. The Indians have as much belief and expectation of a
future state, as the greater part of the Israelites seem to have. But
the Christians of the first centuries, may justly be said to exceed even
the most heroic American Indians, for they bore the bitterest
persecution with steady patience, in imitation of their divine leader
Messiah, in full confidence of divine support and of a glorious
recompense of reward; and, instead of even wishing for revenge on their
cruel enemies and malicious tormentors, (which is the chief principle
that actuates the Indians,) they not only forgave them, but, in the
midst of their tortures, earnestly prayed for them, with composed
countenances, sincere love, and unabated fervor. And not only men of
different conditions, but the delicate women and children suffered with
constancy, and died praying for their tormentors: the Indian women and
children, and their young men untrained to war, are incapable of
displaying the like patience and magnanimity."

Thus impartially looks the old trader. I meant to have inserted other
passages, that of the encampment at Yowanne, and the horse race to which
he challenged them, to show how well he could convey in his garrulous
fashion the whole presence of Indian life. That of Yowanne, especially,
takes my fancy much, by its wild and subtle air, and the old-nurse
fashion in which every look and gesture is detailed. His enjoyment, too,
at outwitting the Indians in their own fashion is contagious. There is a
fine history of a young man driven by a presentiment to run upon his
death. But I find, to copy these stories, as they stand, would half fill
this little book, and compression would spoil them, so I must wait some
other occasion.

The story, later, of giving an Indian liquid fire to swallow, I give at
full length, to show how a kind-hearted man and one well disposed
towards them, can treat them, and view his barbarity as a joke. It is
not then so much wonder, if the trader, with this same feeling that they
may be treat