allowed to say it, the spirit with which any christian should be able to
consider the character and deeds of his foe. I would not detract from the
virtues of your forefathers. They were at that time unrivalled, but
bigotry and superstition of the dark ages still lingered among them, and
their own perils blinded them to the wickedness and cruelty of the means
they took for defence.

Four, and perhaps two centuries hence, I doubt not, some of your dogmas
will seem unchristian, as the Indians seem to you, and I truly hope, ere
then, all wars will seem as barbarous, and the fantastic dress of the
soldiers as ridiculous, as you have been in the habit of representing the
wars and the wild drapery of the Indians of the forest.

How long were the Saxon and Celt in becoming a civilized and Christian
people? How long since the helmet, the coat of mail, and the battle axe,
were laid aside?

To make himself more terrific, the Briton of the days of Henry II drew
the skin of a wild beast over his armor with the head and ears standing
upright, and mounted his war-horse to go forth crying, "To arms! Death to
the invader!" The paint and the Eagle plume of the Indian warrior were
scarcely a more barbarous invention, nor his war-cry more terrible.

It is not just to compare the Indian of the fifteenth, with the christian
of the fifteenth century. But compare them with the barbarian of Britain,
of Russia, of Lapland, and Tartary, and represent them as truly as these
nations have been represented, and they will not suffer by the
comparison.

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