I shall now advert to some of the charges touching the character of the Indians.  It is said, that they are debauched and insincere.  This charge has been particularly made against the Creeks, and I believe is not altogether unfounded.  Yet, if this be now the character of the once warlike and noble Creek, let the white man ask himself who has made him so?  Who makes the “firewater,” and who supplies the untutored savage with the means of intoxication?  The white-man, when he wishes to trade profitably with the Indian, fills the cup, and holds it forth—­he says, ’drink, my brother, it is good’—­the red-man drinks, and the wily white points at his condition, says he is uncivilized, and should go forth from the land, for his presence is contamination!

As to the charge of hypocrisy—­this too has been taught or forced upon the Indians by the conduct of the whites.  Missionaries have been constantly going among them, teaching dogmas and doctrines, far beyond the comprehension of some learned white-men, and to the savage totally unintelligible.  These gentlemen have told long stories; and when posed by some quaint saying, or answered by some piece of traditional information, handed down from generation to generation, by the fathers and mothers of the tribe, have found it necessary to purchase the acquiescence of a few Indians by bribes, in order that their labours might not seem to have been altogether unsuccessful.  This conduct of the Missionaries was soon understood by the Indians, and the temptation held out was too great to be resisted.  Blankets and gowns converted, when inspiration and gospel truths had failed.

Mr. Houston of Tennessee, after having attained the honour of being governor of his state, and having enjoyed all the consideration necessarily attached to that office, at length became tired of civilized life, and retired among the Creeks to end his days.  He has resided long among them, and knows their character well; yet, in one of his statements made to the Indian board at New York, he says, that the attempts to Christianize the Indians in their present state, he was of opinion, much as he honoured the zeal that had prompted them, were fruitless, or worse. The supposed conversions had produced no change of habits.  So degraded had become the character of this once independent people, that professions of religious belief had been made, and the ordinances of religion submitted to, “when an Indian wanted a new blanket, or a squaw a new gown."[19] Thus, according to governor Houston, the only fruits produced by the boasted labours of the missionaries, have been dissimulation and deceit; and demoralization has been the result of teaching doctrinal Christianity to the children of the forest.  Yet we must, in candour, acknowledge that Mr. Houston is not singular in that opinion, since we find, so far back as the year 1755, Cadwallader Calden express himself much to the same effect.  “The Five Nations,”