Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Civilization of the Indian Natives; Or, a Brief View of the Friendly Conduct of William Penn, Toward Them in the Early Settlement of Pennsylvania: The Subsequent Care of the Society of Friends in Endeavouring to Promote Peace and Friendship With Them by Pacific Measures; And a Concise Narrative of the Proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Parts Adjacent, Sinc
Believing that some account of the measures pursued by the Society of Friends, towards the Indian natives, may prove an auxiliary in the cause of humanity, and probably interest the serious and benevolent mind in behalf of the aborigines of our country, whom we consider as children of one universal parent, who is no respecter of persons, but re gards with equal care all nations, whether of a fair complexion or a tawny skin; I am. Therefore, induced to believe that every thing relating to their history may prove interesting to posterity, when they shall be told that such a race of men, who may then have passed away, once inhabited this populous country. And having acquired considerable knowledge of some of the Indian tribes, and of the progress some of them have made in the arts of civilized life, I am induced to offer a concise view of the friendly intercourse that has subsisted between the society of Friends and the aborigines of our country, from the time the illustrious William Penn, and some of his cotemporaries first landed on the American shores, and exhibited to the world, the singular spectacle of establishing a new model of government, amidst a mixture of persons of different nations, and different civil and religious opinions, surrounded by savage tribes of Indians, without recourse to any coercive measures - which has since been the wonder and admiration of mankind.
His great treaty, too, with the Indians, was also made without the solemnity of an oath, and has been immortalized as the only treaty, so made, that has never been broken.
In most of the histories, in which we can trace the character of the Indian nations, we find them to abound either with romantic tales, or scenes of cruelty and barbarity, calculated to excite prejudice in the mind of the reader; but in this will be found the conciliating language of peace and mutual friendship, and a disposition on the part of the Indians, to exchange the tomahawk and scalping knife, for the plough and the hoe, and peacefully betake themselves to the innocent employ ments of the pastoral and agricultural life.
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