no service to thee, but rather a trouble and charge; but here am I, truly capable of supporting and maintaining thee: if thou wilt receive me as thy son, nothing shall be wanting on my part to make thee comfortable while thou livest." The woman, approving of the proposal, forthwith adopted him as her son, and took the whole family to her house. HECKEWELDER. FORBEARANCE OF TEMPER IN ACCIDENTAL MISFORTUNES. They judge with calmness on all occasions, and decide with precision, or endeavour to do so, between an accident and a wilful act;—the first (they say) they are all liable to commit, and therefore it ought not to be noticed, or punished ;-the second being a wilful or premeditated act committed with a bad design, ought on the contrary to receive due punishment. To illustrate this subject, I shall relate à few of the cases of this description which have come within my knowledge. One morning early, an Indian came into the house of another who was yet a-bed, asking for the loan of his gun for a morning hunt, his own being out of repair. The owner readily consented, and said : “ As my gun is not loaded, you will have " to take a few balls out of your pouch !". In taking the gun down, it, however, by some accident went off, and lodged the contents in the owner's head, who was still lying on the bed, and now expired. The gun, it appeared, was loaded, though unknown to him, and the lock left in such condition that by a touch it went off. A cry was heard from all sides in the house : “O! the accident !” for such it was always considered to have been, and was treated as sach. A hunter went out to kill a bear, some of those animals having been seen in the neighbourhood. In an obscure part of a wood, he saw at a distance sometbing black moving, which he took for a bear, the whole of the animal not being visible to him; he fired, and found he had shot a black horse. Having discovered the mistake, he informed the owner of what had happened, expressing at the same time his regret that he was not possessed of a single horse, with which he could replace the one he had shot. What! replied the Indian whose horse had been killed, do you think I would accept a horse from you, though you had one to give, after you have satisfied me that you killed mine by accident? No, indeed! for the same misfortune might also happen to me. An aged Indian who had gone out to shoot a turkey, mistook a black hog in the bushes for one of those birds, and shot him; finding out by inquiry to whom the hog belonged, he informed the owner of the mistake he had made, offering to pay for the hog; which the other, however, not only would not accept of, but having brought the meat in, gave him a leg of the animal, because he thought that the unfortunate man, as well on account of his disappointment, in not feasting on turkey as he expected soon to do when he shot the hog, as for his honesty in informing of what he had done, was entitled to a share of what he had killed. Two Indians with a large canoe, going down the Muskingum river to a certain distance, were accosted by others going by land to the same place, who requested them to take their heavy articles, as kettles, axes, hoes, &c., into their canoe, which they freely did, but unfortunately were shipwrecked at the rocks of White Eyes's falls (as the place is called,) where the whole cargo was lost, and the men saved themselves by swimming to the shore. The question being put and fully discussed, whether those men with the canoe, who had taken charge of the property of the others, and by this neglect lost the whole; were not liable to pay for the loss? It was decided in the negative, on the following grounds : 1. That the canoe men had taken the articles on board, with the pleasing hope that they thereby would oblige their fellow men, and did not expect any recompense for that service. 2. That although they might have avoided the danger and the loss, by unloading the canoe at the head of the fall, and carrying the cargo by land below it, (which was but a short distance,) as was customary, when the river was not in a proper state to run through, yet tbat, had those who travelled by land been in the place of those in the canoe, they might, like them, have attempted to have run through, as is sometimes done with success, and been equally unfortunate. 3. That the canoe men having had all their own property 'on board, which was all lost at the same time, and was equally valuable to them, it was clear that they had expected to run safely through, and could not have intentionally or designedly brought on themselves and others the misfortune which had happened, and therefore the circumstance must be ascribed entirely to accident.--HECKEWELDER. MATRIMONY AND Divorce. Had the following anecdote been in existence in the time of our great poet Milton, would he not have translated it into his high style, and given it a place in his treatise on the “Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce?" One can easily conceive how he would have chuckled over such a thing in the midst of the bitterness (caused by his wife's misconduct,) with which he sat down to compose his “ Tetrachordon,” and other tracts on the subject. B. An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much of his time among the white people both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one day about the year 1770 observed, that the Indians had not only a much easier way of getting a wife than the whites, but were also more certain of getting a good one; "For," said he in his broken English, “ White man court,-court,-may be one whole year !-may be two years before he marry !-well!-may be then got very good wise—but may be not !-may be very cross !--Well now, suppose cross! scold so get awake in the morning! scold all day! scold until sleep !-all one; he must keep him* ! White people have law forbidding throwing away wife, be he ever so cross ! must keep him always ! Well ! how does Indian do?-Indian when he see industrious Squaw, which he like, he go to him, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one-look Squaw in the face--see him smile-which is all one he says, Yes! so he take him home--no danger he be cross ! no! no! Squaw know too well what Indian do if he cross !-throw him away and take another ! Squaw love to eat meat ! no husband ! no meat! Squaw do every thing to please husband ! Jie do the same to please Squaw ! live happy!” HECKEWELDER. PRIDE. This passion of the Indians, which I have called pride, but which might, perhaps, be better denominated high-mindedness, is generally combined with a great sense of honour, and not seldom produces actions of the most heroic kind. I am now going to relate an instance of this honourable pride, which I have also witnessed. An Indian of the Lenape nation, who was considered as a very dangerous person, and was much dreaded on that account, had publicly declared that as soon as another Indian, who was then gone to Sandusky, should return from thence, he would certainly kill him. This danger * The pronouns in the Indian language have no femenine gender 1 a a ous Indinn called in one day at my house on the Muskingum to ask me for some tobacco. While this unwelcome guest was smoking his pipe by my fire, behold! the other Indian whom he had threat.ened to kill, and who at that moment had just arrived, also entered the house. I was much frightened, as I feared the bad Indian would take that opportunity to carry his threat into execution, and that my house would be made the scene of a horrid murder.' I walked to the door, in order not to witness a crime that I could not prevent, when to my great astonishment I heard the Indian whom I thought in danger, address the other in these words : "Uncle, you have threatened to kill me--you have declared that you would do it the first time we should meet. Now I am here, and we are together. Am I to take it for granted that you are in earnest, and that you are really determined to take my life as you have declared ? Am I now to consider you as my avowed enemy, and in order to secure my own life against your murderous designs, to be the first to strike you and imbrue my hands in your blood ?-I will not, I cannot do it. Your heart is bad, it is true, but still you appear to be a generous foe, for you gave me notice of what you intended to do; you have put me on my guard, and did not attempt to assassinate me by surprise; I, therefore, will spare you until you lift up your arm to strike, and then, uncle, it will be seen which of us shall fall !” The murderer was thunderstruck, and without replying a word, slunk off and left the house. The next anecdote will display an act of heroism produced by this elevation of mind which I have called pride, which perhaps, may have been equalled, but, I dare say, was hardly ever surpassed. In the spring of the year 1782, the war chief of the Wyandots of Lower Sandusky sent a white prisoner (a young man whom he had taken at Fort M'Intosh) as a present to another chief, who was called the W |