Like The Other
Squaws, She Must Cook For Us The Nasaump, The Ninchicke, And Such
Other Preparations Of Corn As Are Customary Among These People.
She
must learn to bake squashes and pumpkins under the ashes; to slice
and smoke the meat of our own killing, in order to preserve it; she
must cheerfully adopt the manners and customs of her neighbours, in
their dress, deportment, conduct, and internal economy, in all
respects.
Surely if we can have fortitude enough to quit all we
have, to remove so far, and to associate with people so different
from us; these necessary compliances are but part of the scheme. The
change of garments, when those they carry with them are worn out,
will not be the least of my wife's and daughter's concerns: though I
am in hopes that self-love will invent some sort of reparation.
Perhaps you would not believe that there are in the woods looking-
glasses, and paint of every colour; and that the inhabitants take as
much pains to adorn their faces and their bodies, to fix their
bracelets of silver, and plait their hair, as our forefathers the
Picts used to do in the time of the Romans. Not that I would wish to
see either my wife or daughter adopt those savage customs; we can
live in great peace and harmony with them without descending to
every article; the interruption of trade hath, I hope, suspended
this mode of dress. My wife understands inoculation perfectly well,
she inoculated all our children one after another, and has
successfully performed the operation on several scores of people,
who, scattered here and there through our woods, were too far
removed from all medical assistance. If we can persuade but one
family to submit to it, and it succeeds, we shall then be as happy
as our situation will admit of; it will raise her into some degree
of consideration, for whoever is useful in any society will always
be respected. If we are so fortunate as to carry one family through
a disorder, which is the plague among these people, I trust to the
force of example, we shall then become truly necessary, valued, and
beloved; we indeed owe every kind office to a society of men who so
readily offer to assist us into their social partnership, and to
extend to my family the shelter of their village, the strength of
their adoption, and even the dignity of their names. God grant us a
prosperous beginning, we may then hope to be of more service to them
than even missionaries who have been sent to preach to them a Gospel
they cannot understand.
As to religion, our mode of worship will not suffer much by this
removal from a cultivated country, into the bosom of the woods; for
it cannot be much simpler than that which we have followed here
these many years: and I will with as much care as I can, redouble my
attention, and twice a week, retrace to them the great outlines of
their duty to God and to man.
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