DRUNKENNESS.
In treating of this subject, I cannot resist the impression of a
melancholy feeling, arising from the comparison which forces itself
upon my mind of what the Indians were before the Europeans came into
this country, and what they have become since, by a participation in
our vices. By their intercourse with us, they have lost much of that
original character by which they were once distinguished, and which
it is the object of this work to delineate, and the change which has
taken place is by no means for the better. I am not one of those wild
enthusiasts who would endeavour to persuade mankind that savage life
is preferable to a state of civilisation; but I leave it to every
impartial person to decide, whether the condition of the healthy
sober Indian, pursuing his game through forests and plains, is not
far superior to that of the gangrened drunken white man, rioting in
debauchery and vice?
I have already before taken notice[210] of the assertion which our
aborigines do not hesitate to make, that before the Europeans landed
in those parts of the American continent, they were unacquainted
with that shameful disorder which attacks generation in its sources.
I am well aware that this complaint is generally believed to have
been communicated by the new world to the old. I do not know upon
what proofs this opinion rests, but I am disposed to give credit to
the uniform assertion of our northern Indians, that this contagion
was first introduced among them by emigrants from Europe. However
it may be, it is a lamentable fact that they are now very generally
infected with it, and that their population cannot long resist its
destructive operation upon their once strong and healthy constitutions,
particularly as it is associated with the abuse of strong liquors, now
so prevalent among them.
Of the manner in which they have acquired this latter vice, I presume
there can be no doubt. They charge us in the most positive manner
with being the first who made them acquainted with ardent spirits,
and what is worse, with having exerted all the means in our power to
induce them to drink to excess. It is very certain that the processes
of distillation and fermentation are entirely unknown to the Indians,
and that they have among them no intoxicating liquors but such as they
receive from us. The Mexicans have their _Pulque_, and other indigenous
beverages of an inebriating nature, but the North American Indians,
before their intercourse with us commenced, had absolutely nothing of
the kind. The smoke of the American weed, tobacco, was the only means
that they at that time had in use to produce a temporary exhilaration
of their spirits.
I have related in a former chapter,[211] the curious account given by
the Delawares and Mohicans of the scene which took place when they
were first made to taste spirituous liquors by the Dutch who landed on
New York Island. I have no doubt that this tradition is substantially
founded on fact. Indeed, it is strongly corroborated by the name which,
in consequence of this adventure, those people gave at the time to
that island, and which it has retained to this day. They called it
_Manahachtanienk_, which in the Delaware language, means “_the island
where we all became intoxicated_.” We have corrupted this name into
_Manhattan_, but not so as to destroy its meaning, or conceal its
origin. The last syllable which we have left out is only a termination,
implying locality, and in this word signifies as much as _where we_.
There are few Indian traditions so well supported as this.
How far from that time the dreadful vice of intoxication has increased
among those poor Indians, is well known to many Christian people among
us. We may safely calculate on thousands who have perished by the
baneful effect of spirituous liquors. The dreadful war which took place
in 1774 between the Shawanese, some of the Mingoes, and the people
of Virginia, in which so many lives were lost, was brought on by the
consequences of drunkenness. It produced murders, which were followed
by private revenge, and ended in a most cruel and destructive war.
The general prevalence of this vice among the Indians is in a great
degree owing to unprincipled white traders, who persuade them to become
intoxicated that they may cheat them the more easily, and obtain their
lands or[212] peltries for a mere trifle. Within the last fifty years,
some instances have even come to my knowledge of white men having
enticed Indians to drink, and when drunk, murdered them. The effects
which intoxication produces upon the Indians are dreadful. It has been
the cause of an infinite number of murders among them, besides biting
off noses and otherwise disfiguring each other, which are the least
consequences of the quarrels which inebriation produces between them.
I cannot say how many have died of colds and other disorders, which
they have caught by lying upon the cold ground, and remaining exposed
to the elements when drunk; others have lingered out their lives, in
excruciating rheumatic pains and in wasting consumptions, until death
came to relieve them from their sufferings.
Reflecting Indians have keenly remarked, “that it was strange that
a people who professed themselves believers in a religion revealed
to them by the great Spirit himself; who say that they have in their
houses the WORD of God, and his laws and commandments textually
written, could think of making a _beson_,[213] calculated to bewitch
people and make them destroy one another.” I once asked an Indian at
Pittsburgh, whom I had not before seen, who he was? He answered in
broken English: “My name is _Black-fish_; when at home with my nation,
I am a clever fellow, and when here, a _hog_.” He meant that by means
of the liquor which the white people gave him, he was sunk down to the
level of that beast.
An Indian who had been born and brought up at Minisink, near the
Delaware Water Gap, and to whom the German inhabitants of that
neighbourhood had given the name of _Cornelius Rosenbaum_, told me near
fifty years ago, that he had once, when under the influence of strong
liquor, killed the best Indian friend he had, fancying him to be his
worst avowed enemy. He said that the deception was complete, and that
while intoxicated, the face of his friend presented to his eyes all
the features of the man with whom he was in a state of hostility. It
is impossible to express the horror with which he was struck when he
awoke from that delusion; he was so shocked, that he from that moment
resolved never more to taste of the maddening poison, of which he was
convinced that the devil was the inventor; for it could only be the
evil spirit who made him see his enemy when his friend was before him,
and produced so strong a delusion on his bewildered senses, that he
actually killed him. From that time until his death, which happened
thirty years afterwards, he never drank a drop of ardent spirits, which
he always called “the Devil’s blood,” and was firmly persuaded that the
Devil, or some of his inferior spirits had a hand in preparing it.
Once in my travels, I fell in with an Indian and his son; the former,
though not addicted to drinking, had this time drank some liquor with
one of his acquaintances, of which he now felt the effects. As he was
walking before me, along the path, he at once flew back and aside,
calling out, “O! what a monstrous snake!” On my asking him where the
snake lay, he pointed to something and said, “Why, there, across the
path!” “A snake!” said I, “it is nothing but a black-burnt sapling,
which has fallen on the ground.” He however would not be persuaded; he
insisted that it was a snake, and could be nothing else; therefore, to
avoid it, he went round the path, and entered it again at some distance
further. After we had travelled together for about two hours, during
which time he spoke but little, we encamped for the night. Awaking
about midnight, I saw him sitting up smoking his pipe, and appearing
to be in deep thought. I asked him why he did not lay down and sleep?
To which he replied, “O! my friend! many things have crowded on my
mind; I am quite lost in thought!”
HECKEW. “And what are you thinking about?”
INDIAN. “Did you say it was not a snake of which I was afraid, and
which lay across the path?”
HECKEW. “I did say so; and, indeed, it was nothing else but a sapling
burnt black by the firing of the woods.”
INDIAN. “Are you sure it was that?”
HECKEW. “Yes; and I called to you at the time to look, how I was
standing on it; and if you have yet a doubt, ask your son, and the two
Indians with me, and they will tell you the same.”
INDIAN. “O strange! and I took it for an uncommonly large snake, moving
as if it intended to bite me!--I cannot get over my surprise, that the
liquor I drank, and, indeed, that was not much, should have so deceived
me! but I think I have now discovered how it happens that Indians so
often kill one another when drunk, almost without knowing what they
are doing; and when afterwards they are told of what they have done,
they ascribe it to the liquor which was in them at the time, and say
the liquor did it. I thought that as I saw this time a living snake
in a dead piece of wood, so I might, at another time, take a human
being, perhaps one of my own family, for a bear or some other ferocious
beast and kill him. Can you, my friend, tell me what is in the _beson_
that confuses one so, and transforms things in that manner? Is it an
invisible spirit? It must be something alive; or have the white people
sorcerers among them, who put something in the liquor to deceive those
who drink it? Do the white people drink of the same liquor that they
give to the Indians? Do they also, when drunk, kill people, and bite
noses off, as the Indians do? Who taught the white people to make so
pernicious a _beson_?”
I answered all these questions, and several others that he put to
me, in the best manner that I could, to which he replied, and our
conversation continued as follows:
INDIAN. “Well, if, as you say, the bad spirit cannot be the inventor
of this liquor; if, in some cases it is moderately used among you as a
medicine, and if your doctors can prepare from it, or with the help of
a little of it, some salutary _besons_, still, I must believe that when
it operates as you have seen, the bad spirit must have some hand in it,
either by putting some bad thing into it, unknown to those who prepare
it, or you have conjurers who understand how to bewitch it.--Perhaps
they only do so to that which is for the Indians; for the devil is not
the Indians’ friend, because they will not worship him, as they do
the good spirit, and therefore I believe he puts something into the
_beson_, for the purpose of destroying them.”
HECKEW. “What the devil may do with the liquor, I cannot tell; but I
believe that he has a hand in everything that is bad. When the Indians
kill one another, bite off each other’s noses, or commit such wicked
acts, he is undoubtedly well satisfied; for, as God himself has said,
he is a destroyer and a murderer.”
INDIAN. “Well, now, we think alike, and henceforth he shall never again
deceive me, or entice me to drink his _beson_!”
It is a common saying with those white traders who find it their
interest to make the Indians drunk, in order to obtain their peltry
at a cheaper rate, that they _will_ have strong liquors, and will not
enter upon a bargain unless they are sure of getting it. I acknowledge
that I have seen some such cases; but I could also state many from my
own knowledge, where the Indians not only refused liquor, but resisted
during several days all the attempts that were made to induce them even
to taste it, being well aware, as well as those who offered it to them,
that if they once should put it to their lips, such was their weakness
on that score, that intoxication would inevitably follow.
I can, perhaps, offer a plausible reason why the Indians are so fond of
spirituous drinks. The cause is, I believe, to be found in their living
almost entirely upon fresh meats and green vegetables, such as corn,
pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans, &c., which
causes a longing in their stomachs for some seasoning, particularly
(as is often the case) when they have been a long time without salt.
They are, on those occasions, equally eager for any acid substances;
vinegar, if they can get it, they will drink in considerable
quantities, and think nothing of going thirty or forty miles in search
of cranberries whether in season or not. They also gather crab-apples,
wild-grapes, and other acid, and even bitter-tasted fruits, as
substitutes for salt, and in the spring they will peel such trees as
have a sourish sap, which they lick with great avidity. When for a long
time they have been without salt, and are fortunate enough to get some,
they will swallow at a time a table-spoonful of that mineral substance,
for which they say that they and their horses are equally hungry.
The Indians are very sensible of the state of degradation to which they
have been brought by the abuse of strong liquors, and whenever they
speak of it, never fail to reproach the whites, for having enticed them
into that vicious habit. I could easily prove how guilty the whites
are in this respect, if I were to relate a number of anecdotes, which
I rather wish to consign to oblivion. The following will be sufficient
to confute those disingenuous traders, who would endeavour to shift the
blame from themselves, in order to fix it upon the poor deluded Indians.
In the year 1769, an Indian from Susquehannah having come to Bethlehem
with his sons to dispose of his peltry, was accosted by a trader from
a neighbouring town, who addressed him thus: “Well! Thomas, I really
believe you have turned Moravian.” “Moravian!” answered the Indian,
“what makes you think so?” “Because,” replied the other, “you used to
come to us to sell your skins and peltry, and now you trade them away
to the Moravians.” “So!” rejoined the Indian, “now I understand you
well, and I know what you mean to say. Now hear me. See! my friend!
when I come to this place with my skins and peltry to trade, the people
are kind, they give me plenty of good victuals to eat, and pay me in
money or whatever I want, and no one says a word to me about drinking
rum--neither do I ask for it! When I come to your place with my peltry,
all call to me: ‘Come, Thomas! here’s rum, drink heartily, drink! it
will not hurt you.’ All this is done for the purpose of cheating me.
When you have obtained from me all you want, you call me a drunken dog,
and kick me out of the room. See! this is the manner in which you cheat
the Indians when they come to trade with you. So now you know when you
see me coming to your town again, you may say to one another: ‘Ah!
there is Thomas coming again! he is no longer a Moravian, for he is
coming to us to be made drunk--to be cheated--to be kicked out of the
house, and be called a _drunken dog_!’”