“This is all a mistake, Peter—­a great and dangerous mistake.  The bee-hunter has heard the Jews spoken of by those who do not sufficiently read the good book.  They have been, and are still, the chosen people of the Great Spirit, and will one day be received back to his favor.  Would that I were one of them, only enlightened by the words of the New Testament!  No real Christian ever can, or does now despise a son of Israel, whatever has been done in times past.  It is an honor, and not a disgrace, to be what I have said my friends are.”

“If this be so, why do not the pale-faces let us keep out hunting-grounds to ourselves?  We are content.  We do not wish to be Jews.  Our canoes are too small to cross the great salt lake.  They are hardly large enough to cross the great lakes of sweet water.  We should be tired of paddling so far.  My brother says there is a rich land under the rising sun, which the Manitou gave to the red men.  Is this so?”

“Beyond all doubt.  It was given to the children of Israel, for a possession forever; and though you have been carried away from it for a time, there the land still is, open to receive you, and waiting the return of its ancient masters.  In good season that return must come; for we have the word of God for it, in our Christian Bible.”

“Let my brother open his ears very wide, and hear what I have to say.  We thank him for letting us know that we are Jews.  We believe that he thinks what he says.  Still, we think we are red men, and Injins, and not Jews.  We never saw the place where the sun rises.  We do not wish to see it.  Our hunting-grounds are nearer to the place where he sets.  If the pale-faces believe we have a right to that distant land, which is so rich in good things, we will give it to them, and keep these openings, and prairies, and woods.  We know the game of this country, and have found out how to kill it.  We do not know the game under the rising sun, which may kill us.  Go to your friends and say, ’The Injins will give you that land near the rising sun, if you will let them alone on their hunting-grounds, where they have so long been.  They say that your canoes are larger than their canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe.  They have seen some of your big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured them.  Fill all you have got with your squaws and pappooses, put your property in them, and go back by the long path through which you came.  Then will the red man thank the pale-face and be his friend.  The white man is welcome to that far-off land.  Let him take it, and build his villages on it, and cut down its trees.  This is all the Injins ask.  If the pale-faces can take away with them the small-pox and the fire-water, it will be better still.  They brought both into this country, it is right that they should take them away.’  Will my brother tell this to his people?”