"1668
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
1\1ississippi and for sonic of them, in the immediate vicinity of Texas-Stipulated annuities in money and in arms and ammunition are allowed them in consideration of the lands they have relinquished and ceded to the United SbJ.tes, that Government continuing to exer- cise its wonted national sovereignty over them and to guarantee to them its national protection. 'The very terms of these compacts import that the Government of the United States possess a right of supervisorship and control ,over these Indians, and every principle of national comity that ought, and it is hoped does exist between the Government of .Mexico, and that of the United States, would dictate that that right should be so exercised as to prevent these barbarian protejees from becom- ing troublesome or inconvenient to their neighboring sister Re- public-And we conceive it to be perfectly competent and reasonable for Mexico to protest against the settlement of these Savage Tribes in her immediate vicinity, inasmuch as it must subject that part of her territory bordering on such settlements to an absolute dereliction or render it fit only £or the habitation of other Nations of Savages-- The removal in part of several Tribes has already been effected, and although but a small proportion of the whole number contem- plated to be removed have as yet appeared in the Country designated for their future location, the injurious consequences flowing from this forced and unnatural ·accumulation of Savages in a territory obviously incapable of sustaining them, to the adjacent territories of Mexico is too apparent to escape the most cursory observer- It is a fact sufficiently notorious, that a great proportion of the Coun- try alottecl for the settlement of these discordant nations is [in] a sterile, unproductive wilderness and situated in an inclement and unfriendly climate-Such a country can present but few induce- ments to a permanent agricultural occupation by a people who have made just enough progress in civilization to have acquired many of its most mischievious arts and all its vices, but not enough to endow them with sufficient fortitude and patience to so.bdue a stubborn wilderness to cultivation, or to sustain themselves from again relaps- ing into their primitive state of barbarism-Hunting and predation are the favorite pursuits of Savages-the chase possesses a fascina- tion that is altogether irresistible to the untutored mind and derives its principal charm from the resemblance it has to War, to which all unenlightened nations are passionately addicted- It requires but a superficial acquaintance with the character of these aborigines of the north who are about to be transposed to our borders to·predict that in a very few years after their ejection from the pale of that power w~i_ch has her~tofore surrounde~ them ·_and curbed their wild propensities, they will abandon all their acquired
Powered by FlippingBook