Читать книгу A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner. U.S. Interpreter at the Saut de Ste. Marie онлайн

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That there exists, in the moral or physical constitution of the Indians any insuperable obstacle to their civilization, no one will now seriously assert. That they will ever be generally civilized, those who know them intimately, and who have observed the prevailing tone of feeling of both races towards each other, will consider so extremely improbable that they will deem it scarce worth while to inquire what system of measures would be best calculated to effect this desirable object. Of what advantage could any degree of civilization have been to those unfortunate Seminoles, who were a few years since removed from their beautiful and fertile lands in Florida, to those deep and almost impassable swamps in the rear of Tampa Bay, where it has been found not only necessary to confine them by a military force, but to subsist them, from day to day, and from year to year, by regular issues of provisions? Need we give them education that they may be the better able to estimate our munificence and generosity in suffering them to roam at large, in cypress swamps, in sandy deserts, or wherever else we may think the soil of no value to us?