Читать книгу The Present State of Virginia - Hugh Jones - Страница 7

One main Cause, why the Gospel is not propagated with better Success among the Infidels, and why it is not more strictly followed by such Europeans as inhabit the American Plantations, is the little right Knowledge that Superintendants of the Church have of them, from imperfect Accounts and false Information; for before we can entertain any tolerable Idea of the Tenents, and Inclinations of any People; it is requisite we should know something of their Original, Temper, and Government; for want of which much Cost and Labour have been in vain expended, and many pious Designs and Projects frustrated.

And as the Progress of Religion, so for the same Causes, and in the same Manner, is the Improvement of Arts, Sciences, and Trade, much retarded.

I shall therefore exhibit a short View of the present Inhabitants of Virginia; which are Indians, English, and Negroes, with a Description of the Country: After which their Morals and Manners may more plainly and briefly be described; from whence may easily be inferred an Account of Maryland and North Carolina, nearly agreeing with Virginia in many Respects.

The Indians may be term'd Aborigines; for to pretend to determine their Pedigree exactly, with the Time and Manner of seating this unknown World, to me seems as morally impossible, as it is naturally to account for the Complexion of their Bodies, and the Temper of their Minds.

So that the best History of them till late Years is but meer Guess-work, of which my Sentiments are these:

We know that all Nations of the World are the Descendants of Noah's three Sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: From the youngest (from some promised Blessings) may we suppose the Europeans and Western Asiaticks to be descended. From Canaan the Son of the middlemost issued the Canaanites, and from some of his Sons might spring the Egyptians, Moors, Negroes, and other Inhabitants of Africa.

From Shem sprung Eber, and from Eber's eldest Son Peleg sprung the Hebrews, and from Eber's younger Son Joktan are derived the East, and (I suppose) their Cousins the West-Indians of America. For in Peleg's Days the Earth was divided, Gen. x. 25. and his Brother Jocktan's Dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a Mount of the East, v. 30. By these were the Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood, v. 32.

To me the Indians of America seem to be some of the Posterity of Shem, driven thither by Providence, for Causes unknown to us, which might easily be done (in large Boats or Canoes and Periaguas) from the Eastern Parts of Asia, their Grandfather Jocktan's Country; which is not improbable: Since a Storm might drive them off from the Shore, and the trade Winds, which blow constantly one Way half the Year, might carry them directly to America, over the vast South Sea Ocean; in which Passage their greatest Danger of Death might be Hunger and Thirst; but they, that know the Indians, know also, that they can bear Want a prodigious while; and what might they not bear, when the Divine Power was miraculously concerned in it, for Purposes known to the Almighty only?

Indeed for what we have yet discovered, we don't know, but the Continent of America may be join'd to Tartary; from whence (if so) they might have an easy, though tedious Conveyance. Be it how it will, I am of Opinion, that they are descended from Asia, and not Africa; because in their copper Colour, long black Hair, strait proper Shape, and haughty Carriage, they are somewhat like the East-Indians; whereas they seem to be of a different Breed from the Negroes, who are blacker, have uglier Faces and Bodies, and are of a more servile Carriage, and slavish Temper: Besides, the Africans circumcise, which with other Jewish Customs, I imagine, they may derive from Egypt; whereas the Indians use no such Practices: Moreover they hate, and despise the very Sight of a Negroe; but they seem to like an East-Indian, and fear and revere the Whites.

What some may object in Contradiction to the Universality of the Deluge; that the Communication between Asia and America was washed away by it; thence inferring that the Americans are of Antidiluvian Families, may (I presume) be exploded, when we remark, that in most Places, at a great Depth, and far distant from the Sea, are many great Beds of strange Shells, and Bones, and Teeth of Fish and Beasts vastly different from any Land or Water-Animals now found in those, or any other Parts of the World; so that notwithstanding all the curious Speculations of Philosophers to reconcile this with Reason, and ascribe for it natural Causes; yet to me it appears evidently to be a Token, and Relict of the general Flood of Noah. For these Shells and Bones might be easily preserved from Corruption, and mouldering so long a Time, whilst covered with a great Thickness of dry Earth, and kept from Air; to which when they are exposed they soon decay.

The best true Account that we have of the Primitive wild Inhabitants of the Earth, not civilized by Government, nor assisted by Learning, Arts and Communication with Strangers, is of the Canaanites; whose State of Nature the Indians still retain, resembling them in most Respects, who may be their Cousins descended from Joktan, and may be some cursed Generations, for Reasons hidden from us. For which Causes they might be separated from the rest of Mankind, and be debarred the Light of Grace, and kept in their barbarous Ignorance, for their obstinate Rebellion against God; till of his gracious Goodness and Mercy he be pleased in his appointed Time to compleat their Conversion, and be more favourable to them.

I have a much truer and clearer Notion of the Canaanites, Hebrews, &c. since I have seen the Indians, than I could have before, who afford living Examples of the primitive Savages, and Idolaters.

To confirm this, observe; that as the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan, who were vanquished by the Israelites, and were principally descended from Canaan the fourth Son of accursed Ham, being a Mixture of several remarkable Nations that were great and idolatrous, and in an especial Manner hateful to God, with frequent Wars and Barbarities among themselves; in like Manner are the American Indians, as savage, idolatrous, unbelieving, numerous, monstrous, idle and delighting in War and Cruelty as their antient Relations the Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan; and have as many different Nations, Languages, and strange Names and Customs as the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizites, and the Gergisites. The Indians being subdivided into as many Branches and Sovereignties as they, intermixt with as hideous Neighbours, as the Gigantick Philistines of the Race of Misraim; with the Moabites and Amorites, Descendants of Lot by his own Daughters; with the Midianites and Edomites, the Posterity of Midian and Esau.

The Senecaa Indians in their War Dress may appear as terrible as any of the Sons of Anak. The Usherees, Shuterees, and Cherackees are full as formidable as the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amalakites; and a Tuskaroodau is as savage and strange as any Canaanite, that dwelt by the Sea; and a Pomunkee, Sapony, or Sugarr is as fierce and frightful as any Amorite that dwelt upon or beyond the Mountains; and Powhatan, Oppechancanough and Wickmaunatauchee have fought many Battles not unlike Og, Sihon, and Chederlaomer.

In my mean Judgment it seems not improbable that when Noah had cursed the Posterity of Ham, and reserved different blessings for Shem and Japheth, God set a distinguishing Colour upon their Bodies, and ingrafted in their Nature various Tempers, and endowed them with separate Talents. From whence their Posterity are of three different Complexions and Countenances, as is apparent in White, Black, and Brown People, which by Mixtures, or from Climates or otherwise are subdivided: Particularly the brown Children of Shem have two peculiar Aspects different from each other, and distinct from all the rest; one proper to the Jews, the Sons of Peleg, and the other belonging to the East and West-Indies, the Sons of Joktan, Peleg's younger Brother.

To the white Posterity of Japheth, viz. to the Europeans in particular are Noah's Words (Gen. ix. 27.) very applicable, where he said, that God should enlarge Japheth, and he should dwell in the Tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his Servant; which seems fulfilled in our Possession of Lands in the East and West-Indies, the Tents of the Sons of Shem, where Canaan or the Negroe is our Servant and Slave; and as it is said of him in the 25^th Verse, a Servant of Servants is Canaan unto his Brethren.

For the Negroes seem evidently to be Descendants from some of the Sons of Canaan. For it is not to be supposed that the Jews destroyed them all, for the Families of the Canaanites were spread abroad, Gen. x. 18. so that probably in process of Time they possessed Africa. As for the Blessing upon Shem in the 26^th Verse, and Canaan being his Servant; this appears to be fulfilled in the Jews in Part, descended from Peleg, Heber's eldest Son; from whom sprung Abraham the Father of the Faithful, in whose Seed the Lord God of Shem may be said to be blessed according to Noah's Prophecy, who made Part of Canaan Slaves, and took them Captive. And as for the other Branches of Shem's Posterity by Joktan (which Sound is not quite lost in either of the Indies) I take them to be the East and West-Indians, Chinese, and Tartars; and it may be the Persians, for whom with their Cousins the Jews, none but God knows what Blessings may still be reserved in Store, it being to be hoped that they and all the Ends of the World may be converted, and see and partake of the Salvation of our God; so that by all may the Lord God of Shem at length be blessed.

Thus far, as to my Notions of the Original of the Indians, whom I imagine to be descended from some of the Sons of Joktan, second Son of Eber, sprung from Shem, Noah's eldest Son: With a Derivation of the Whites from Japheth the youngest, and the Negroes from some of the Sons of Canaan, Descendant of Ham, Noah's second Son.