busy in tilling the earth, there is no fear of any
of us becoming wild; it is the chase and the food
it procures, that have this strange effect. Excuse
a simile—those hogs which range in the
woods, and to whom grain is given once a week, preserve
their former degree of tameness; but if, on the contrary,
they are reduced to live on ground nuts, and on what
they can get, they soon become wild and fierce.
For my part, I can plough, sow, and hunt, as occasion
may require; but my wife, deprived of wool and flax,
will have no room for industry; what is she then to
do? like the other squaws, she must cook for us the
nasaump, the ninchicke, and such other preparations
of corn as are customary among these people. She
must learn to bake squashes and pumpkins under the
ashes; to slice and smoke the meat of our own killing,
in order to preserve it; she must cheerfully adopt
the manners and customs of her neighbours, in their
dress, deportment, conduct, and internal economy, in
all respects. Surely if we can have fortitude
enough to quit all we have, to remove so far, and
to associate with people so different from us; these
necessary compliances are but part of the scheme.
The change of garments, when those they carry with
them are worn out, will not be the least of my wife’s
and daughter’s concerns: though I am in
hopes that self-love will invent some sort of reparation.
Perhaps you would not believe that there are in the
woods looking-glasses, and paint of every colour;
and that the inhabitants take as much pains to adorn
their faces and their bodies, to fix their bracelets
of silver, and plait their hair, as our forefathers
the Picts used to do in the time of the Romans.
Not that I would wish to see either my wife or daughter
adopt those savage customs; we can live in great peace
and harmony with them without descending to every
article; the interruption of trade hath, I hope, suspended
this mode of dress. My wife understands inoculation
perfectly well, she inoculated all our children one
after another, and has successfully performed the
operation on several scores of people, who, scattered
here and there through our woods, were too far removed
from all medical assistance. If we can persuade
but one family to submit to it, and it succeeds, we
shall then be as happy as our situation will admit
of; it will raise her into some degree of consideration,
for whoever is useful in any society will always be
respected. If we are so fortunate as to carry
one family through a disorder, which is the plague
among these people, I trust to the force of example,
we shall then become truly necessary, valued, and
beloved; we indeed owe every kind office to a society
of men who so readily offer to assist us into their
social partnership, and to extend to my family the
shelter of their village, the strength of their adoption,
and even the dignity of their names. God grant
us a prosperous beginning, we may then hope to be
of more service to them than even missionaries who
have been sent to preach to them a Gospel they cannot
understand.