ht be the result of a mistake easily made; the wrongs of which this
chief was the victim, might render even a savage eloquent; and the
mixture of bloody vaunting with profound grief, is scarcely to be
expected in any _but_ a savage. "Logan never knew fear," he says; "he
would not turn on his heel to save his life." This species of boasting
is perfectly in keeping with the Indian character; but the pathetic
reason for this carelessness, which follows--"There is no one to mourn
for Logan"--is one not likely to have occurred to an Indian, even in his
circumstances. And, granting that the expression _was_ used by the
orator, and not (as it seems probable it was) added by Jefferson, it is,
I believe, the only example on record of poetical feeling in any Indian
speech.

The _religion_ of the Indian has given as much troublesome material to
the builders of systems, as has been furnished by all his other
characteristics combined. The first explorers of America supposed that
they had found a people, quite destitute of any religious belief. But
faith in a higher power than that of man, is a necessity of the human
mind; and its organization, more or less enlightened, is as natural,
even to the most degraded savage, as the formation of his language. Both
depend upon general laws, common to the intellect of all races of men;
both are affected by the external circumstances of climate, situation,
and mode of life; and the state of one may always be determined by that
of the other. "No savage horde has been caught with its language in a
state of chaos, or as if just emerging from the rudeness of
indistinguishable sounds. Each appears, not as a slow formation by
painful processes of invention, but as a perfect whole, springing
directly from the powers of man."[22] And though this rigor of
expression is not equally applicable to the Indian's religion, the fact
is attributable solely to the difference in nature of the subjects. As
the "primary sounds of a language are essentially the same everywhere,"
the impulses and instincts of piety are common to all minds. But, as the
written language of the Indian was but the pictorial representation of
visible objects, having no metaphysical signification, so the symbols of
his religion, the objects of his adoration, were drawn from external
nature.[23] Even his faith in the Great Spirit is a graft upon his
system, derived from the first missionaries;[24] and, eagerly as he
adopted it, it is prob