Chapter 26

by Herman Melville

　　CONTAINING THE METAPHYSICS OF INDIAN-HATING, ACCORDING TO THE VIEWS OFONE EVIDENTLY NOT SO PREPOSSESSED AS ROUSSEAU IN FAVOR OF SAVAGES."The judge always began in these words: 'The backwoodsman's hatred ofthe Indian has been a topic for some remark. In the earlier times of thefrontier the passion was thought to be readily accounted for. But Indianrapine having mostly ceased through regions where it once prevailed, thephilanthropist is surprised that Indian-hating has not in like degreeceased with it. He wonders why the backwoodsman still regards the redman in much the same spirit that a jury does a murderer, or a trapper awild cat--a creature, in whose behalf mercy were not wisdom; truce isvain; he must be executed."'A curious point,' the judge would continue, 'which perhaps noteverybody, even upon explanation, may fully understand; while, in orderfor any one to approach to an understanding, it is necessary for him tolearn, or if he already know, to bear in mind, what manner of man thebackwoodsman is; as for what manner of man the Indian is, many know,either from history or experience."'The backwoodsman is a lonely man. He is a thoughtful man. He is a manstrong and unsophisticated. Impulsive, he is what some might callunprincipled. At any rate, he is self-willed; being one who lesshearkens to what others may say about things, than looks for himself, tosee what are things themselves. If in straits, there are few to help; hemust depend upon himself; he must continually look to himself. Henceself-reliance, to the degree of standing by his own judgment, though itstand alone. Not that he deems himself infallible; too many mistakes infollowing trails prove the contrary; but he thinks that nature destinessuch sagacity as she has given him, as she destines it to the 'possum.To these fellow-beings of the wilds their untutored sagacity is theirbest dependence. If with either it prove faulty, if the 'possum's betrayit to the trap, or the backwoodsman's mislead him into ambuscade, thereare consequences to be undergone, but no self-blame. As with the'possum, instincts prevail with the backwoodsman over precepts. Like the'possum, the backwoodsman presents the spectacle of a creature dwellingexclusively among the works of God, yet these, truth must confess, breedlittle in him of a godly mind. Small bowing and scraping is his, furtherthan when with bent knee he points his rifle, or picks its flint. Withfew companions, solitude by necessity his lengthened lot, he stands thetrial--no slight one, since, next to dying, solitude, rightly borne, isperhaps of fortitude the most rigorous test. But not merely is thebackwoodsman content to be alone, but in no few cases is anxious to beso. The sight of smoke ten miles off is provocation to one more removefrom man, one step deeper into nature. Is it that he feels that whateverman may be, man is not the universe? that glory, beauty, kindness, arenot all engrossed by him? that as the presence of man frights birdsaway, so, many bird-like thoughts? Be that how it will, the backwoodsmanis not without some fineness to his nature. Hairy Orson as he looks, itmay be with him as with the Shetland seal--beneath the bristles lurksthe fur."'Though held in a sort a barbarian, the backwoodsman would seem toAmerica what Alexander was to Asia--captain in the vanguard ofconquering civilization. Whatever the nation's growing opulence orpower, does it not lackey his heels? Pathfinder, provider of security tothose who come after him, for himself he asks nothing but hardship.Worthy to be compared with Moses in the Exodus, or the Emperor Julian inGaul, who on foot, and bare-browed, at the head of covered or mountedlegions, marched so through the elements, day after day. The tide ofemigration, let it roll as it will, never overwhelms the backwoodsmaninto itself; he rides upon advance, as the Polynesian upon the comb ofthe surf."'Thus, though he keep moving on through life, he maintains with respectto nature much the same unaltered relation throughout; with hercreatures, too, including panthers and Indians. Hence, it is notunlikely that, accurate as the theory of the Peace Congress may be withrespect to those two varieties of beings, among others, yet thebackwoodsman might be qualified to throw out some practical suggestions."'As the child born to a backwoodsman must in turn lead his father'slife--a life which, as related to humanity, is related mainly toIndians--it is thought best not to mince matters, out of delicacy; butto tell the boy pretty plainly what an Indian is, and what he mustexpect from him. For however charitable it may be to view Indians asmembers of the Society of Friends, yet to affirm them such to oneignorant of Indians, whose lonely path lies a long way through theirlands, this, in the event, might prove not only injudicious but cruel.At least something of this kind would seem the maxim upon whichbackwoods' education is based. Accordingly, if in youth the backwoodsmanincline to knowledge, as is generally the case, he hears little from hisschoolmasters, the old chroniclers of the forest, but histories ofIndian lying, Indian theft, Indian double-dealing, Indian fraud andperfidy, Indian want of conscience, Indian blood-thirstiness, Indiandiabolism--histories which, though of wild woods, are almost as full ofthings unangelic as the Newgate Calendar or the Annals of Europe. Inthese Indian narratives and traditions the lad is thoroughly grounded."As the twig is bent the tree's inclined." The instinct of antipathyagainst an Indian grows in the backwoodsman with the sense of good andbad, right and wrong. In one breath he learns that a brother is to beloved, and an Indian to be hated."'Such are the facts,' the judge would say, 'upon which, if one seek tomoralize, he must do so with an eye to them. It is terrible that onecreature should so regard another, should make it conscience to abhor anentire race. It is terrible; but is it surprising? Surprising, that oneshould hate a race which he believes to be red from a cause akin to thatwhich makes some tribes of garden insects green? A race whose name isupon the frontier a memento mori; painted to him in every evil light;now a horse-thief like those in Moyamensing; now an assassin like a NewYork rowdy; now a treaty-breaker like an Austrian; now a Palmer withpoisoned arrows; now a judicial murderer and Jeffries, after a fiercefarce of trial condemning his victim to bloody death; or a Jew withhospitable speeches cozening some fainting stranger into ambuscade,there to burk him, and account it a deed grateful to Manitou, his god."'Still, all this is less advanced as truths of the Indians than asexamples of the backwoodsman's impression of them--in which thecharitable may think he does them some injustice. Certain it is, theIndians themselves think so; quite unanimously, too. The Indians, indeed, protest against the backwoodsman's view of them; and some thinkthat one cause of their returning his antipathy so sincerely as they do,is their moral indignation at being so libeled by him, as they reallybelieve and say. But whether, on this or any point, the Indians shouldbe permitted to testify for themselves, to the exclusion of othertestimony, is a question that may be left to the Supreme Court. At anyrate, it has been observed that when an Indian becomes a genuineproselyte to Christianity (such cases, however, not being very many;though, indeed, entire tribes are sometimes nominally brought to thetrue light,) he will not in that case conceal his enlightenedconviction, that his race's portion by nature is total depravity; and,in that way, as much as admits that the backwoodsman's worst idea of itis not very far from true; while, on the other hand, those red men whoare the greatest sticklers for the theory of Indian virtue, and Indianloving-kindness, are sometimes the arrantest horse-thieves andtomahawkers among them. So, at least, avers the backwoodsman. Andthough, knowing the Indian nature, as he thinks he does, he fancies heis not ignorant that an Indian may in some points deceive himself almostas effectually as in bush-tactics he can another, yet his theory and hispractice as above contrasted seem to involve an inconsistency soextreme, that the backwoodsman only accounts for it on the suppositionthat when a tomahawking red-man advances the notion of the benignity ofthe red race, it is but part and parcel with that subtle strategy whichhe finds so useful in war, in hunting, and the general conduct of life.'"In further explanation of that deep abhorrence with which thebackwoodsman regards the savage, the judge used to think it mightperhaps a little help, to consider what kind of stimulus to it isfurnished in those forest histories and traditions before spoken of. Inwhich behalf, he would tell the story of the little colony of Wrightsand Weavers, originally seven cousins from Virginia, who, aftersuccessive removals with their families, at last established themselvesnear the southern frontier of the Bloody Ground, Kentucky: 'They werestrong, brave men; but, unlike many of the pioneers in those days,theirs was no love of conflict for conflict's sake. Step by step theyhad been lured to their lonely resting-place by the ever-beckoningseductions of a fertile and virgin land, with a singular exemption,during the march, from Indian molestation. But clearings made and housesbuilt, the bright shield was soon to turn its other side. After repeatedpersecutions and eventual hostilities, forced on them by a dwindledtribe in their neighborhood--persecutions resulting in loss of crops andcattle; hostilities in which they lost two of their number, illy to bespared, besides others getting painful wounds--the five remainingcousins made, with some serious concessions, a kind of treaty withMocmohoc, the chief--being to this induced by the harryings of theenemy, leaving them no peace. But they were further prompted, indeed,first incited, by the suddenly changed ways of Mocmohoc, who, thoughhitherto deemed a savage almost perfidious as Caesar Borgia, yet now puton a seeming the reverse of this, engaging to bury the hatchet, smokethe pipe, and be friends forever; not friends in the mere sense ofrenouncing enmity, but in the sense of kindliness, active and familiar."'But what the chief now seemed, did not wholly blind them to what thechief had been; so that, though in no small degree influenced by hischange of bearing, they still distrusted him enough to covenant withhim, among other articles on their side, that though friendly visitsshould be exchanged between the wigwams and the cabins, yet the fivecousins should never, on any account, be expected to enter the chief'slodge together. The intention was, though they reserved it, that ifever, under the guise of amity, the chief should mean them mischief, andeffect it, it should be but partially; so that some of the five mightsurvive, not only for their families' sake, but also for retribution's.Nevertheless, Mocmohoc did, upon a time, with such fine art and pleasingcarriage win their confidence, that he brought them all together to afeast of bear's meat, and there, by stratagem, ended them. Years after,over their calcined bones and those of all their families, the chief,reproached for his treachery by a proud hunter whom he had made captive,jeered out, "Treachery? pale face! 'Twas they who broke their covenantfirst, in coming all together; they that broke it first, in trustingMocmohoc."'"At this point the judge would pause, and lifting his hand, and rollinghis eyes, exclaim in a solemn enough voice, 'Circling wiles and bloodylusts. The acuteness and genius of the chief but make him the moreatrocious.'"After another pause, he would begin an imaginary kind of dialoguebetween a backwoodsman and a questioner:"'But are all Indians like Mocmohoc?--Not all have proved such; but inthe least harmful may lie his germ. There is an Indian nature. "Indianblood is in me," is the half-breed's threat.--But are not some Indianskind?--Yes, but kind Indians are mostly lazy, and reputed simple--atall events, are seldom chiefs; chiefs among the red men being taken fromthe active, and those accounted wise. Hence, with small promotion, kindIndians have but proportionate influence. And kind Indians may be forcedto do unkind biddings. So "beware the Indian, kind or unkind," saidDaniel Boone, who lost his sons by them.--But, have all you backwoodsmenbeen some way victimized by Indians?--No.--Well, and in certain casesmay not at least some few of you be favored by them?--Yes, but scarceone among us so self-important, or so selfish-minded, as to hold hispersonal exemption from Indian outrage such a set-off against thecontrary experience of so many others, as that he must needs, in ageneral way, think well of Indians; or, if he do, an arrow in his flankmight suggest a pertinent doubt."'In short,' according to the judge, 'if we at all credit thebackwoodsman, his feeling against Indians, to be taken aright, must beconsidered as being not so much on his own account as on others', orjointly on both accounts. True it is, scarce a family he knows but somemember of it, or connection, has been by Indians maimed or scalped. Whatavails, then, that some one Indian, or some two or three, treat abackwoodsman friendly-like? He fears me, he thinks. Take my rifle fromme, give him motive, and what will come? Or if not so, how know I whatinvoluntary preparations may be going on in him for things as unbeknownin present time to him as me--a sort of chemical preparation in thesoul for malice, as chemical preparation in the body for malady.'"Not that the backwoodsman ever used those words, you see, but the judgefound him expression for his meaning. And this point he would concludewith saying, that, 'what is called a "friendly Indian" is a very raresort of creature; and well it was so, for no ruthlessness exceeds thatof a "friendly Indian" turned enemy. A coward friend, he makes a valiantfoe."'But, thus far the passion in question has been viewed in a general wayas that of a community. When to his due share of this the backwoodsmanadds his private passion, we have then the stock out of which is formed,if formed at all, the Indian-hater par excellence.'"The Indian-hater par excellence the judge defined to be one 'who,having with his mother's milk drank in small love for red men, in youthor early manhood, ere the sensibilities become osseous, receives attheir hand some signal outrage, or, which in effect is much the same,some of his kin have, or some friend. Now, nature all around him by hersolitudes wooing or bidding him muse upon this matter, he accordinglydoes so, till the thought develops such attraction, that much asstraggling vapors troop from all sides to a storm-cloud, so stragglingthoughts of other outrages troop to the nucleus thought, assimilate withit, and swell it. At last, taking counsel with the elements, he comes tohis resolution. An intenser Hannibal, he makes a vow, the hate of whichis a vortex from whose suction scarce the remotest chip of the guiltyrace may reasonably feel secure. Next, he declares himself and settleshis temporal affairs. With the solemnity of a Spaniard turned monk, hetakes leave of his kin; or rather, these leave-takings have something ofthe still more impressive finality of death-bed adieus. Last, he commitshimself to the forest primeval; there, so long as life shall be his, toact upon a calm, cloistered scheme of strategical, implacable, andlonesome vengeance. Ever on the noiseless trail; cool, collected,patient; less seen than felt; snuffing, smelling--a Leather-stockingNemesis. In the settlements he will not be seen again; in eyes of oldcompanions tears may start at some chance thing that speaks of him; butthey never look for him, nor call; they know he will not come. Suns andseasons fleet; the tiger-lily blows and falls; babes are born and leapin their mothers' arms; but, the Indian-hater is good as gone to hislong home, and "Terror" is his epitaph.'"Here the judge, not unaffected, would pause again, but presentlyresume: 'How evident that in strict speech there can be no biography ofan Indian-hater par excellence, any more than one of a sword-fish, orother deep-sea denizen; or, which is still less imaginable, one of adead man. The career of the Indian-hater par excellence has theimpenetrability of the fate of a lost steamer. Doubtless, events,terrible ones, have happened, must have happened; but the powers that bein nature have taken order that they shall never become news."'But, luckily for the curious, there is a species of dilutedIndian-hater, one whose heart proves not so steely as his brain. Softenticements of domestic life too, often draw him from the ascetic trail;a monk who apostatizes to the world at times. Like a mariner, too,though much abroad, he may have a wife and family in some green harborwhich he does not forget. It is with him as with the Papist converts inSenegal; fasting and mortification prove hard to bear.'"The judge, with his usual judgment, always thought that the intensesolitude to which the Indian-hater consigns himself, has, by itsoverawing influence, no little to do with relaxing his vow. He wouldrelate instances where, after some months' lonely scoutings, theIndian-hater is suddenly seized with a sort of calenture; hurries openlytowards the first smoke, though he knows it is an Indian's, announceshimself as a lost hunter, gives the savage his rifle, throws himselfupon his charity, embraces him with much affection, imploring theprivilege of living a while in his sweet companionship. What is toooften the sequel of so distempered a procedure may be best known bythose who best know the Indian. Upon the whole, the judge, by two andthirty good and sufficient reasons, would maintain that there was noknown vocation whose consistent following calls for suchself-containings as that of the Indian-hater par excellence. In thehighest view, he considered such a soul one peeping out but once an age."For the diluted Indian-hater, although the vacations he permits himselfimpair the keeping of the character, yet, it should not be overlookedthat this is the man who, by his very infirmity, enables us to formsurmises, however inadequate, of what Indian-hating in its perfectionis.""One moment," gently interrupted the cosmopolitan here, "and let merefill my calumet."Which being done, the other proceeded:--