Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/224

220 their charms and uttering loud moans and wild invocations, but no one gave him medicine or cordial. In this situation the Sachem must soon have died, had not Mr. Winslow taken upon himself to administer medicine and cordials, and such food as the sick man required, by which treatment he soon recovered.

From this, it appears very evident that this tribe had no knowledge of medicinal remedies, for, if they had had, they would have used them for the relief of their Sachem. Soon after this continent began to be settled by the whites, it was found that a mortal epidemic was spreading among the Indians, by which they died in heaps—the young and the old together. Whole families and whole tribes perished, and yet they employed no rational means either as prophylactics or curatives. But believing that the Great Spirit had become angry with them, they resorted to charms and incantations, by which they hoped to appease his wrath. Such has always been the practice with savage nations everywhere, and many of the half civilized have done little more.