Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/268

258 permit them to contradict or deny the truth of what is aſſerted in their preſence. By this means they indeed avoid diſputes; but then it becomes difficult to know their minds, or what impreſſion you make upon them. The miſſionaries who have attempted to convert them to Chriſtianity, all complain of this as one of the great difficulties of their miſſion. The Indians hear with patience the truths of the goſpel explained to them, and give their uſual tokens of aſſent and approbation: you would think they were convinced. No ſuch matter. It is mere civility.

A Swediſh miniſter having aſſembled the chiefs of the Saſquehannah Indians, made a ſermon to them, acquainting them with the principal hiſtorical facts on which our religion is founded; ſuch as the fall of our firſt parents by eating an apple; the coming of Chriſt to repair the miſchief; his miracles and ſuffering, &c. When he had finiſhed, an Indian orator ſtood up to thank him. "What you have told us," ſays he, "is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cyder. We are much obliged by your kindneſs in coming ſo far, to tell us thoſe things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you ſome of thoſe we have heard from ours.

"In the beginning, our fathers had only the fleſh of animals to ſubſiſt on; and if their hunting was unſucceſsful, they were ſtarving. Two of our young hunters having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to broil ſome parts of it. When they were about to ſatisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman deſcend from the clouds, and ſeat herſelf on that hill which you ſee yonder among the Blue Mountains. They ſaid to each other, it is a