Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/71

1768-1782] people nicknames. A dull stalking fellow, they call a turkey buzzard; an ill tempered man, a wasp; a talkative person, a grasshopper; a hoarse voice, they say resembles a bull; and an interpreter whose manners and conversation are obscene, they call a smock interpreter.

The disposition of the Indians is naturally proud and self-sufficient: they think themselves the wisest of the sons of men, and are extremely offended when their advice is rejected. The feats of valour of their ancestors, continually repeated and impressed upon their minds, inspire them with the most exalted notions of their own prowess and bravery; hence arises the firmest reliance on their own courage and power; and though but a handful of men, comparatively speaking, they are vain enough to think they can overthrow both French and English whenever they please. They say, the latter are fools, for they hold their guns half man high, and let them snap; but that they themselves take sight, and seldom fail of doing execution, which, they add, is the true intention of going to war.

These exalted notions of self-consequence are more peculiar to the Five Nations, and for which they are more eminently distinguished than other tribes of Savages, although none of them are deficient in this respect. Such sentiments as these have made the Iroquois dreaded and revered by others, for their superior understanding and valour, and likewise has a tendency to increase their fame. Although they {30} decrease in numbers daily, the thirst of glory will never be extinguished among them, whilst there is a breast to nourish it: they will never shrink from danger when honour is at stake.

The Iroquois laugh when you talk to them of obedience to kings; for they cannot reconcile the idea of submission with the dignity of man. Each individual is a sovereign