A Star in the West; or, a Humble attempt to discover the long lost ten tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city, Jerusalem

Front matter

STAR IN THE WEST ; OR, A HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE XONG LOST TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL, PREPARATORY TO THEIR RETURN TO THEIR BELOVED CITY, JERUSALEM. BY EUAS BOUDINOT, L L. D. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things ? Prudent, and he shall know them ? For all the ways ofthe Lord are right, and the just shall walk ia them; but the transgressors shall fall therein. — Hosea. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, and make it plain, upon a (writing) table, that he may run who readeth it : for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. — Habbak. TRENTON, N. J. PUBLISHED BY D. FENTON, S. HUTCHINSON, AND J. DUNHAM. George Sherman, Printer. 1816. District qf New- Jersey, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the thirteenth day of January, in the fortieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Daniel Fenton, Sylvester Hutchinson, and Johnson Dunham, of the said District, have deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as proprictors,inthe words following, to wit: " .\ Star in the West; or, a humble attempt to discover the long lost Ten Tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city, Jerusalem. By Elias Boudinot, L L. D." In conformity to tlie act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." And also, to the act entitled "An act supplementary to the act entitled An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the au thors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engrav ing a,nd etching historical and other prints." ROBERT BOGGS, Clerk of the District of New-Jersey CONTENTS. WVVWVW Page Preface, - - ... 1 Introduction, - - - - 23

Chapter I

Of the state of tho Jews, - - 33 CHAPTER n. An enquiry into the question, on what part of the globe is it most likely, that these descendants of Israel may be now found, arising from late discoveries and facts, that have not come to the knowledge of the civilized world, till of late years, 81

Chapter IX

The testimony of those who had an opportunity of judging, from the appearance and conduct of the Indians at the first discovery of America, as well as of some who have seen them since, in a state of nature, 245

Chapter X

The Indians have a system of morality among them that is very striking. — They have teachers to instruct them in it — of which they have thought very highly, till of late years, they begin to doubt its efficacy, 259

Preface

. JK. VERY bright and portentous Star having arisen in the East, making glad the hearts of God's people and urging the friends of Zion to unusual and almost miraculous exertions in spreading the glad tidings of salvation among the distant nations of the earth ; the compiler of the following sheets, animated by this blessed eastern prospect, can no longer withhold the small discovery that has been made of a rising Star in the West, from the knowledge of those who are zealous and anxious to behold the returning Messiah coming " in his own glory and the glory of the Father," attended by all the saints ; which star may in the issue, turn out to be the star qf Jacob, and become a guide to the long suffering and despised descendants of that eminent patriarch, to find the once humble babe of Bethlehem ; as the wise men of the east were of old directed in their distant course, to discover in the stable and the manger, the great object of their adoration, joy and hope, even him who " was born king of the Jews."

For more than two centuries, have the aborigines of Ameri ca engaged the avarice and contempt of those who are com monly called the enlightened nations of the old world. These natives of this wilderness have been always considered by them as savages and barbarians, and therefore have given B FREFACE. them little concern, further than to defraud them of tlieir lands, drive them from the fertile countries on the sea shores, engage them in their wars, and indeed destroy them by thou sands with ardent spirits and fatal disorders unknown to them before. But these enlightened nations have seldom troubled themselves to enquire into their origin, their real circumstances or their future hopes. Great pains have been taken by traders and others to promote among them every Europe an vice, which has been enforced both by precept and ex ample.

Some exertions indeed, have been made of late years by private societies and individuals, to counteract these unchris tian practices, by endeavouring to teach them the things that belong to tlieir everlasting peace ; but this was not attempted till they were disgusted and soured with the general characT ter and conduct of white men, by which they concluded, that no one bearing tlieir name or appearance, could be actuated by any other principles, than those of misleading, deceiving and betraying them, for the sake of their lands and peltry. Wherever honest and upright intentions have prevailed to convince their judgments and engage their confidence, though these have, comparatively, been few and feeble, they have generally succeeded, notwithstanding the opposition they often met with from those, who from the worst motives, have thought themselves greatly benefited by their ignorance, humiliation and misery, and who feared that by their reformation, these opposers might be despoiled of their unjust gain.

Blessed be God, that there is yet hope that the day of their visitation is near — .that the day-star from on high, begins to appear, giving joyful hopes that the sun of righteousness will

PREFACE.

. soon arise upon them, with healing under his wings. — There is a possibility, that these unhappy children of misfortune, may yet be proved to he the descendants of Jacob and the long lost tribes of Israel. And if so, that though cast off for their heinous transgressions, they have not been altogether forsaken $ and will hereafter appear to have been, in all their dispersions and wanderings, the subjects of God's divine pro tection and gracious care. The following pages are an humble attempt to investigate this important subject, which has been the object of the wri ter's attention for a long time. If he has cast but a mite into the common treasury, he hopes it will not be despised. If it shall lead abler hands and wiser heads to engage as labourers in the master's vineyard, though it should be at the eleventh hour, he will rejoice, so that God alone may at last receive all the glory.— He claims no merit in this labour, but that of integrity, attention and industry, in searching after the truth, and preserving the facts which have come to his knowledge, that others may have all the aid he can afford them in the further pursuit of this interesting investigation.

Yet though he is not entitled to any credit, but as a regis ter of facts, yet he has been much gratified since the comple tion of this work, to find that he is not alone in his sentiments on this unpopular subject. The following publication taken out of the Analectic Maga zine for February last, is written so much in the style and on the same principles of the following compilation, that the writer of it could not withstand the advantage that might be derived from inserting a copy of the publication in this little

PREFACE.

. tract.*— He was rejoiced to know that such despised sufferers, however degraded, had found compassion in other breasts besides his own. Had these unfortunate out-casts from society, been favoured from the first discovery of their country by Europeans, with inquisitive, learned and disinterested historians, who would have represented them and their cause fully and fairly to posterity, they would have been considered in a very different point of light, from that in which they now appear. That sonic of their established customs and especially their manner of carrying on war, must appear exceedingly barbarous, and even brutal at the present day, to civilized people, the writer cannot doubt, yet if compared with the conduct of the civilized nations of Europe, Asia aud Africa, in ten thousand instances, the balance would be greatly in their favour.f Indeed it is an extraordinary fact, that in all the wars in this country between the English and French Spaniards and Americans, every one in their turn, have uni formly exerted every nerve to engage the Indians to take part with them, and to fight in their own way, on their side.

And those who make the greatest cry against their barbari- * This is done by express permission of the editor of that work, who very po litely consented thereto. + Plutarch in his Morals, 1 vol. 9si, says that the Lacedemonians murdered their children who were deformed or had a bad constitution. The Romans were allowed by Romulus to destroy all their female children, ex cept the eldest. Human sacrifices were offered up in almost all the eastern coun tries. Children were burnt alive by their own parents, and offered to Baal, Moloch and other pretended deities. Mr. Hume says in his Essay on Political Science] "the most illustrious period ofthe Roman history considered, in a pohtical view is that between the beginning ofthe firstand the end ofthe lastpunic war; yet at this very time, tbe horrid practice of poisoning was so common, that during part of a season, a pnetor punished capitally, for this crime, above three thousand persons in a part of (enlightened) Italy, and found informations of this nature still multiplying

PREFACE.

. V ty and inhumanity in carrying on war, are the most forward to furnish them with tomahawks, scalping knives, muskets, powder and ball, to increase their detestable mode of warfare. Nay, they have employed every mean in their power, by rum, feasts, harangues, and every provocative, to rouse tlieir un bridled passions, increase their thirst for blood, and force them on to the destruction of their fellow men. They have forgotten the conclusive adage, " qui facit per alium facit per se."* Must not such people be answerable to the great judge of all the earth for this conduct. I shall not further detain the reader, hut give him the pub-. lication in the writer's own words. TRAITS OF INDI.VN. CHARACTER. " In the present times, when popular feeling is gradually be coming hardened by war, and selfish by the frequent jeopar dy of life or property, it is certainly an inauspicious moment to speak in behalf of a race of beings, whose very existence has been pronounced detrimental to public security.

But it is good at all times to raise the voice of truth, however feeble; to endeavor if possible to mitigate the fury of passion and prejudice, and to turn aside the bloody hand of violence. Lit tle interest, however, can probably be awakened at present, in favor of the misguided tribes of Indians that have been drawn into the present war. The rights of the savage have seldom been deeply appreciated by the white man — in peace he is the dupe of mercenary rapacity ; in war he is regarded as a ferocious animal, whose death is a question of mere pre caution and convenience. Man is cruelly wasteful of life when » He who does a thing by another, does it by himself. VI

PREFACE.

. his own safety is endangered and he is sheltered by impunity — and little mercy is to be expected from him who feels the sting of the reptile, and is conscious of the power to destroy. " It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of this country, to be doubly wronged by the white men — first, driven from tlieir native soil by the sword of the invader, and then darkly slandered by the pen of the historian. The former has treated them like beasts of the forest ; the latter has written volumes to justify him in his outrages. The former found it easier to exterminate than to civilize; the latter to abuse than to discriminate. The hideous appellations of savage and pagan, were sufficient to sanction the deadly hostilities of both : and the poor wanderers of the forest were persecuted and dishonored, not because they were guilty, but because they were ignorant.

" The same prejudices seem to exist, in common circula tion, at the present day. We form our opinions of the Indian character from the miserable hordes that infest our frontiers. These, however, are degenerate beings, enfeebled by the vices of society, without being benefited by its arts of living. The independence of thought and action, that formed the main pillar of their character, has been completely prostrated, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are debased by conscious inferiority, and their native courage completely daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their en lightened neighbours. Society has advanced upon them like a many-headed monster, breathing every variety of misery. Before it, went forth pestilence, famine and the sword ; and in its train came the slow, but exterminating curse of trade. What the former did not sweep away, the latter has gradually

PREFACE.

. blighted. It has increased their wants, without increasing the means of gratification. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their diseases, blasted the powers of their minds, and superinduced on their original barbarity the low vices of civilization. Poverty, repining and hopeless poverty — a cank er of the mind unknown to sylvan life — corrodes their very hearts. — They loiter like vagrants through the settlements, among spacious habitations replete with artificial comforts, which only render them sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes, but they are expelled from the ban quet. The forest which once furnished them with ample means of subsistence has been levelled'to the ground — waving fields of grain have sprung up in its place ; but they have no participation in the harvest; plenty revels around them, but they are starving amidst its stores; the whole wilderness blossoms like a garden, but they feel like the reptiles that in fest it.

" How different was their case while yet the undisputed lords of the soil. Their wants were few, and the means of gratifying them within their reach. They saw every one around them sharing the same lot, enduring the same hard ships, living in the same cabins, feeding on the same aliments, arrayed in the same rude garments. No roof then rose, but what was open to the houseless stranger ; no smoke curled among the trees, but he was welcome to sit down by its fire, and join the hunter in his repast. " For," says an old his torian of New-England, " their life is so void of care, and they are so loving also, that they make use of those things they enjoy as common goods, and are therein so compassionate that FREFACE. rather than one should starve through want, they would starve all : thus do they pass their time merrily, not regarding our pomp, but are better content with their own, which some men esteem so meanly of."

Such were the Indians while in the pride and energy of primitive simplicity : they resemble those wild plants that thrive best in the shades of the sorest, but wliich shrink from the hand of cultivation, and perish beneath the influence of the sun. " In the general mode of estimating the savage character, we may perceive a vast degree of vulgar prejudice, and pas sionate exaggeration, without any of the temperate discussion of true philosophy. No allowance is made for the difference of circumstances, and the operations of principles under which they have been educated. Virtue and viee, though radically the same, yet differ widely in their influence on human con duct, according to the habits and maxims of the society in which the individual is reared. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian.

His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws that govern him, to be sure, are but few, but then he conforms to them all. The white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners ; but how many does he violate ? " A common cause of accusation against the Indians is, tlie faithlessness of their friendships, and their sudden provoca tions to hostility. But we do not make allowance for their peculiar modes of thinking and seeling, and the principles by which they are governed. Besides, the friendship of the whites towards the poor Indians, was ever cold, distrustful, oppressive, and insulting. In the intercourse with our fron-

PREFACE.

. IX tiers they are seldom treated with confidence, and are frequently subject to injury and encroachment. The solitary savage feels silently but acutely ; his sensibilities are not dif fused over so wide a surface as those of the white man, but they run in steadier and deeper channels. His pride, his af fections, his superstitions, are all directed towards fewer ob jects, but the wounds inflicted on them are proportionably se vere, and furnish motives of hostility which we cannot suf ficiently appreciate. Where a community is also limited in number, and forms, as in an Indian tribe, one great patri archal family, the injury ofthe individual is the injury ofthe whole; and as their body politic is small, the sentiment of vengeance is almost instantaneously diffused. One council fire is sufficient to decide the measure.

Eloquence and su perstition combine to inflame their minds. The orator awak ens all their martial ardour, and they are wrought up to a kind of religious desperation, by the visions of the prophet and the dreamer. * An instanceof one of these sudden exasperations, arising from a motive peculiar to the Indian character, is extant in an old record of the early settlement of Massachusetts. The planters of Plymouth had defaced the monuments of the dead at Passonagessit, and had plundered the grave of the sachem's mother of some skins with which it had been piously decorated. Every one knows the hallowed reverence which the Indians entertain for the sepulchres of their kindred. Even now, tribes that have passed generations, exiled from the abodes of their ancestors, when by chance they have been travelling, on some mission, to our seat of government, have been known to turn aside from the highway for many miles distance, and C X TREFACS. guided by wonderful accurate tradition, have sought some tumulus, buried perhaps in woods, where the bones of their tribe were anciently deposited ; and there have passed some time in silent lamentation over the ashes of their forefathers.

Influenced by this sublime and holy seeling, the sachem, whose mother's tomb had been violated, in the moment of indignation, gathered his men together, and addressed them in the following beautifully simple and pathetic harangue — an harangue which has remained unquoted for nearly two hundred years — a pure specimen of Indian eloquence, and an affecting monu ment of filial piety in a savage. " When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath this globe, and birds grew silent, I began to settle, as my custom is, to take repose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, methought I saw a vision, at which my spirit was much troubled, and, trembling at that doleful sight, a spirit cried aloud — behold my son, whom I have cherished ; see the breasts that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm and fed thee oft! canst thou forget to take revenge of those wild people, who have defaced my monument in a despiteful manner, disdaining our antiquities and honorable customs.

See now, the sachem's grave lies like the common people, defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother doth complain, and implores thy aid against this thievish people, who have newly intruded in our land. If this be suffered I shall not rest quiet in my everlasting habitation — This said, the spirit vanished, and I, all in a sweat, not able scarce to speak, began to get some strength and recollect my spirits that were fled, and deter mined to demand your counsel, and solicit your assistance."'

PREFACE.

. XI * Another cause of violent outcry against the Indians, is their inhumanity to the vanquished. This originally arose partly from political and partly from superstitious motives. Where hostile tribes are scanty in their numbers, the death of several warriors completely paralyzes their power; and many an in- ■ stance occurs in Indian history, where a hostile tribe, that had long been formidable to its neighbour, has been broken up and driven away, by the capture and massacre of its principal fighting men. This is a strong temptation to the victor to be merciless, not so much to gratify any cruelty of revenge, as to provide for future security. But they had other motives, originating in a superstitious idea, common to barbarous nations, and even prevalent among the Greeks and Romans— that the manes of their deceased friends, slain in battle, were soothed by the blood ofthe captives.

But those that are not thus sacrificed are adopted into their families, and treated with the confidence and affection of relatives and friends ; nay, so hospitable and tender is their entertainment, that they will often prefer to remain with their adopted brethren, rather than return to the home and the friends of their youth. " The inhumanity of the Iudians towards their prisoners has beftn heightened since the intrusion of the whites. We have exasperated what was formerly a compliance with policy and superstition into a gratification of vengeance. They cannot but be sensible that we are the usurpers of their ancient dominion, the cause of their degradation, and the gradual de stroyers of their race. They go forth to battle, smarting with injuries and indignities whicli they have individually suffered from the injustice and the arrogance of white men, and they are driven to madness and despair, by the wide-spreading

PREFACE.

. desolation and the overwhelming ruin of our warfare. We set them an example of violence, by burning their villages and laying waste their slender means of subsistence; and then wonder that savages will not show moderation and magna nimity towards men, who have left them nothing but mere ex istence and wretchedness. " It is a common thing to exclaim against new forms of cruelty, while, reconciled by custom, we wink at long established atrocities. What right does the generosity of our con duct give us to rail exclusively at Indian warfare. With all the doctrines of Christianity, and the advantages of cultivated morals, to govern and direct us, what horrid crimes disgrace the victories of christian armies. Towns laid in ashes ; cities given up to the sword; enormities perpetrated, at which man hood blushes, and history drops the pen.

Well may we ex claim at the outrages of the scalping knife ; but where, in the records of Indian barbarity, can we point to a violated female ? " We stigmatize the Indians also as cowardly and treacherous, because they use stratagem in w arfare, in preference to open force ; but in this they are fully authorized by their rude code of honor. They are early taught that stratagem is praiseworthy; the bravest warrior thinks it no disgrace to lurk in silence and take every advantage of his foe. He tri umphs in the superior craft and sagacity by which he has been enabled to surprise and massacre an enemy. Indeed, man is naturally more prone to subtlety than open valor, owing to his physical weakness in comparison with other animals. They are endowed with natural weapons of defence; with horns, with tusks, with hoofs and talons; but man has to depend on his superior sagacity. In all his encounters, therefore, with

PREFACE.

. XIII these, his proper enemies, he has to resort to stratagem ; and when he perversely turns his hostility against his fellow man, he continues the same subtle mode of warfare. " The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy, with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected hy cunning. That chivalric kind of courage wliich teaches us to despise the suggestions of prudence, and to rush in the face of certain danger, is the off spring of society, and produced by education. It is honorable, because in fact it is the triumph of lofty sentiment over an in stinctive repugnance to pain, and over those selfish yearn ings after personal ease and security which society has con demned as ignoble. It is an emotion kept up by pride, and the fear of shame ; and thus the dread of real evils is over come by the superior dread of an evil that exists but in the mind.

This may be instanced in the case of a young British officer of great pride, but delicate nerves, who was going for the first time into battle. Being agitated by the novelty and awful peril of the scene, he was accosted hy another officer of a rough and boisterous character — " What, sir," cried he, " do you tremble 1" " Yes sir," replied the other, " and if you were half as much afraid as I am you would run away." This young officer signalized himself on many occasions by his gallantry, though, had he been brought up in savage life, or even in a humbler and less responsible situation, it is more than probable he could never have ventured into open action. « Besides we must consider how much the quality of open and desperate courage is cherished and stimulated by society. It has been the theme of many a spirit-stirring song, and chival ric story. The minstrel has sung of it to the loftiest strain

PREFACE.

. XIV of his lyre— the poet has delighted to shed around it all the splendours of fiction — and even the historian has forgotten the sober gravity of narration, and burst forth into enthusiasm and rltapsody in its praise. Triumphs and gorgeous pageants have been its reward — monuments, where art has exhausted its skill, and opulence its treasures, have been erected to per petuate a nation's gratitude and admiration. Thus artificial ly excited, courage has arisen to an extraordinary and facti tious degree of heroism ; and, arrayed in all the glorious ■** pomp and circumstance" of war, this turbulent quality has even been able to eclipse many of those quiet, but invaluable virtues, which silently ennoble tlie human character, and swell the tide of human happiness. " But if courage intrinsically consist in the defiance of dan ger and pain, the life of the Indian is a continual exhibition of it.

He lives in a perpetual state of hostility and risk. — Peril and adventure are congenial to his nature, or, rather, seem necessary to arouse his faculties and give an interest to existence. Surrounded by hostile tribes, he is always equip ped for fight, with his weapons in his hands. He traverses vast wildernesses, exposed to the hazards of lonely sickness, of lurking enemies, or pining famine. Stormy lakes present no obstacle to his wanderings ; in his light canoe of bark, he sports like a feather on their waves, and darts with the swift ness of an arrow down the roaring rapids of the rivers. — Trackless wastes of snow, rugged mountains, the glooms of swamps and morasses, where poisonous reptiles curl among the rank vegetation, are fearlessly encountered by this wan derer of the wilderness.

He gains his food by the hardships and dangers of the chase ; he wraps himself in the spoils of TREFACE. XV the bear, the panther, and the buffalo, and sleeps among the thunders of thii cataract. " No hero of ancient or modern days can surpass the In dian in his lofty contempt of death, and the fortitude with which-ke sustains all the varied torments with wliich it is frequently inflicted. Indeed we here behold him rising superior to the white man, merely in consequence of his peculiar education. The latter rushes to glorious death at the cannon's mouth ; the former coolly contemplates its approach, and tri umphantly endures it, arriid the torments of the knife and the protracted agonies of fire. He even takes a savage delight in taunting his persecutors, and provoking their ingenuity of tor ture ; and as the devouring flames prey on his very vitals, and the flesh shrinks from the sinews, he raises his last song of triumph, breathing the defiance of an uneonquered heart, and invoking the spirits of his fathers to witness that he dies without a groan.

" Notwithstanding all the obloquy with which the early his torians of the colonies have overshadowed the characters of the unfortunate natives, some bright*gleams will occasionally break through, that throw a degree of melancholy lustre on their memories. Facts are occasionally to be met with, in their rude annals, which, though recorded with all the colouring of prejudice and bigotry, yet speak for themselves ; and will bo dwelt on with applause and sympathy, when prejudice shall have passed away. « In one of the homely narratives of the Indian wars in New-England, there is a touching account of the desolation carried into the tribe of the Pequod Indians. Humanity shud ders at the cold-blooded accounts given, of indiscriminate