Archives of Science, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Archives of Science, Vol. 1 But with our own people a much larger interest seems to be felt in the barbarous nations of the old world, than in their not less barbarous neighbors on this side of the water. There are many more travellers from France among the western Indians than from the United States. The French language is used more in the Indian country than English. If you would obtain an interpreter in the Indian Territory, it is always necessary to get one from the French. The customs and habits of most of the tribes have undoubtedly been much modified by their intercourse with the French people, who have been among them both as traders and travelers. I am convinced that their religious views are in some measure shaped by the superstition of the French Roman Catholic population, with which they have become acquainted. But to all, whether French or English, they present many interesting topics of enquiry. Those who are farthest removed from the borders of civilization, are living the simplest life in which it seems possible for man to subsist. If the sentiment of the poet expressed with so much beauty "Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long, " be true any where, it is emphatically so of the native inhabitants of our western prairies. It requires but a very little to meet all the wants of a barbarous people, and it may well be doubted whether a great proportion of the wants of man in civilized life, are not rather imaginary than real. Many of those things we call luxuries and perhaps some we call necessaries, are but passports to hasten our journey to the tomb. Civilized man, with all his boasts of improvement in his mode of living, is not capable of enduring fatigue like one he calls savage, and who is content to dress in the skin of the buffalo, to live in a rude wigwam, and to cook his food by the offal of the wild beasts. The woman of civilized life would instantly break down under a tithe of the hardships of her sister in a barbarous state. After all we cannot recommend the life of a savage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.